Kingsolver's finely-drawn characters and her ability to evoke a place and time sing through these dozen short stories. Each one catches its characters at a specific place and time and asks them to make decisions great and small.

From the title story, in which a young girl travels with her family to her aged grandmother's hometown, to the final piece dealing with an outspoken woman caught up in a bitter mining strike, the characters move through living, breathing landscapes as they deal with the conundrums life has dealt them.

This collection is well worth tracking down. Highly recommended. ( )

A collection of short stories, some of which are set in the southern United States, some in Arizona, a couple elsewhere. There is no denying that Kingsolver is a masterful writer, but like many a modern writer, she leaves me empty in these stories. In the normal run of things, I would have given this a two star rating. That I give it three and a half stars is a tip of the hat to the quality of her writing craft.

The settings and characters are compelling; for anyone who enjoys dwelling on the tawdry, mundane, dreary nature of life, these stories will not disappoint. Here is a run-down of my reactions to each story.

"Homeland" - Short, sweet, no answers, and yet it felt complete somehow.
"Blueprint" - Hmmm, so is this the way of all the stories? Rather depressing and up in the air? One, yes. Two, maybe. A pattern, no.
"Covered Bridges" - Ok, a respite from despondency. She is very good at describing places.
"Quality Time" - Eh, meh, Kinda boring.
"Stone Dreams" - Such beautiful scenery descriptions, and no moral depth at all in the characters.
"Survival Zones" - Now this one is interesting. I like it, although it isn't exactly uplifting or complete, there is much to be said between the lines.
"Islands on the Moon" - Painful character.
"Bereaved Apartments" - Good story. Why are they all such downers?
"Extinctions" - Whatever. Dreary.
"Jump-up-Day" - These stories all seem to want me to feel that they have resolved well, but they leave me empty, not full.
"Rose-Johnny" - More sad.
"Why I am a Danger to the Public" Meh. Skimmed, but couldn't handle one more downer. ( )

It's always difficult to rate a collection like this. I feel like four stars is an insult to the awesomeness of the several stories I loved, stories that I will return to again and again--both as a writer and a teacher of writing. Still, I can't in good conscience give the whole book five stars--it wouldn't be fair to my favorite stories to imply that the less-great stories could hang with them.

Regardless of ratings, Kingsolver is a gifted short story writer. I'm surprised this is her only short story collection given her prolificness since it was published in 1989. I hope she has another short story collection in the works. ( )

This collection of stories made for interesting reading but I don't think they will stick with me at all. I seem to prefer Kingsolver's novels. I read these stories one at a time over the course of several weeks. They are rather gloomy or something like that and one at a time was manageable. Several stories underwhelmed me, and several I thought were very good, like the one about the woman and the mine strike. ( )

Mixed bag. I think Kingsolver is a better novelist than a short story writer. A number of these stories are brief glimpses of ordinary people's lives, with no great insight, tales of how much we love someone despite disagreements.
"Homeland" was great: told by a young girl, remembering her Indian grandma, learning the right way to act. GranMam's reaction to the trip to Cherokee is telling.
"Bereaved Apartments" is a good study of what dishonesties we are willing to close our eyes to, and a sympathetic portrait of an ex-con young woman.
"Jump-Up Day" is an interesting story about an orphan in the Caribbean who meets up with an obeah man.u
"Why I Am A Danger To The Public" tells of a woman strike leader, and how the corporation treats the workers with contempt. ( )