Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The Tao of Pooh (end)

I am now finished reading The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (I am also completely finished with readers workshop).  In my previous post, I discussed the issues I had with the book.  However, after reading the second half of the book, I can say that many issues were resolved.  I think that the latter portion of the book was much more interesting and moved along more.  One thing I really liked about the book was the example stories that were told.  This is the story here: http://www.thejourneynet.org/tabid/702/Default.aspx
I really like that story, along with many others that Hoff incorporates in this novel.  Another amazing thing that Hoff does is quote directly from Winnie-the-Pooh books.  After he quotes them, he explains how the relate back to Taoism, and it seems as though Winnie-the-Pooh was made specifically for the purpose of explaining Taoism.  That is where I think the reader understands how great of a job Hoff has done with this book.
One odd thing I noticed throughout the book was the capitalization of nouns that normally would not be capitalized.  I mean, it does not interfere with the meaning, but it is weird.  For example, Hoff writes, "In the morning sunshine, in the evening twilight, a small Bear travels through a Forest" (Hoff 153).  It is very abnormal that "Bear" and "Forest" are capitalized.  Just something to point out, I guess.
Another thing that was a bit confusing about this book was the blurring of fiction and nonfiction.  I think this is the perfect example of blurred line between the two genres.  I think that there are definitely characteristics of nonfiction and fiction in this text.  The fiction is pretty easy to identify.  The characters of Winnie-the-Pooh are fictional and any interactions among them is obviously made up.  However, the teachings of the Tao are all considered nonfiction.  There are quotes directly from Laozi which is considered nonfiction.  I truly do not know how to classify this book as either a fiction or nonfiction novel.  With the help of a quick Google search, I know that most websites classify it as  a Philosophy or Religious text, which is under nonfiction.  However, this is one of the books that could really go either way.
I leave you with my favorite quote from the novel, "Tao does not do, but nothing is not done"

Monday, March 31, 2014

The Tao of Pooh (middle)

I am halfway through the book The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff.  So far, it has been an interesting read, but nothing really stands out.  I am a little disappointing, I must say.  I thought that the book would be more engaging and creative, but it is not.  Incorporating Winnie-the-Pooh into Taoism is no easy feat, and Hoff does a nice job of it, but it is still not that great of a book.  My main concern is that it is repetitive.  I think that may partially be because of the nature of Taoism, but it is also because of how every time Hoff quotes directly from Winnie-the-Pooh he has to explain it and all the explanations sound the same.  The main information I am learning from the story, though, is fascinating.  I love the concept of Taoism and the theories behind the philosophy.  One of the most interesting things about Taoism I have learned is the concept of Wei Wu Wei, or do without doing.  This is very engaging because the concept is so simple, yet we never think about it in real life.  Basically, it is saying that you cannot try to force things to happen, you have to let things develop on their own and they will always work out. One of my favorite quotes from the story so far is:
“Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."
"And he has Brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything.”
This reinforces the idea that we over think things too often.  We need to start to accept what is happening, and trust in the fact that things will always work out the way that they were intended to.
For some reason, I really enjoy reading Taoist quotes and sayings.  If you are interested, this is a link to a bunch of them, some of which are very cool: http://gj56.hubpages.com/hub/Taoist-Quotes-and-Sayings

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Tao of Pooh (beginning)

For my second free-choice novel and last book overall, I have decided to read the book The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff.  I decided to read this for a couple of reasons.  First of all, I know a couple friends who have read this book and said that it was very interesting and a fun book to read.  For that reason alone I am excited to read it.  But I have another reason to read it.  You see, I am not really religious.  I never attend church, synagogue, or any other religious temple.  However, I do celebrate the biggest Christian holidays because my mom is was raised Christian, but she does not really practice it anymore.  With that said, I would consider myself a spiritual person.  I definitely believe that there is a God, but I do not really believe in a Christian God.  There are some more intricacies to my "religion" that I will not get into at the moment, but you get the idea.  When I learned about Taoism in a social studies class, I was intrigued.  I love the theory of "the natural way" and I try to live my life like that as much as I can.  I think that this book, and introduction in Taoism, can show me what true Taoism is like and maybe inspire me to go deeper into that philosophy.  I am extremely excited to read this book and cannot wait to get started.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Pigs in Heaven (end)

I have just finished reading Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver.  As I stated halfway through the book, I was disappointed in the novel, and that holds true throughout the story.  I think that Kingsolver's first book was much better.  However, Pigs in Heaven was still a good read, just not up to the standards of her first novel.  This book was about how the Cherokee Tribe tries to bring Turtle back into Native American life.  Obviously, Taylor objects, but there is nothing that she can do about it.  I think that the oddest thing about this book that the climax was not really apparent until the very end of the book, the second to last page in fact. If this book were a spiritual journey, or a conflict within a person, it would have made sense.  However, this book's main conflict was external, so it is abnormal that the climax is so late in the book.  I think that the rising action was overdone.  Kingsolver made it too long- to the point where it was tedious to read.  There were 354 pages in this book, but I think if it were only 300 pages it would have been much better.  Let's take a look at what I think the story structure is:
If I were to describe this story how Kurt Vonnegut would, I would say it is a mix between "From Bad to Worse" and "Which Way is Up".  I say this because the main character, Taylor, is in a normal situation, but gets thrown into bad situation.  This situation does not get better, however, and it probably gets worse.  This is where it gets tricky.  Many events in the story have an effect on Taylor that is unclear.  For example, she gets shared custody with Turtle.  This could be a good thing because Turtle gets to know her Cherokee culture, or a bad thing be  cause Turtle gets less time with Taylor.  Obviously, things get confusing.

All of this said, Pigs in Heaven was still a fun book to read.  It was engaging and another example of how Kingsolver writes effectively.  One of the main motifs in this novel was luck.  The reason that Taylor and Turtle got into this whole mess was because they were put on national television for saving a man named Lucky Buster.  The book states, "Lucky and Turtle are asleep in the backseat" (Kingsolver 30).  The concept of luck and chance are tied with Turtle throughout the novel.  Another more examples are when Taylor and Turtle are in Las Vegas (obviously luck is apparent here) and they find $50 on their car. 

One thing that I love about how Kingsolver writes is the way she ends chapters.  There is almost always and interesting, thought-provoking quote that can be applied in many different ways.  Some examples of great ending sentences are: "Something like that is as bad or as good as a telephone ringing in the night: either way, you're not as alone as you think" (Kingsolver 9), "One by one the birds emerge from the desert and come back to claim their tree" (Kingsolver 81), "This man in ordinary jean, whose thoughts she believed she knew, opens his mouth and becomes a foreigner.  It occurs to her that this one thing about people you can never understand well enough: how entirely inside themselves they are" (Kingsolver 180).  There are many other great quotes throughout the novel.  I'd bet you could make a book with just those quotes. 

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Pigs in Heaven (middle)

I have now finished half of Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver.  This book is about the story of a girl named Taylor Greer and her adopted daughter Turtle.  Many of you probably know their story because you have been reading my blog.  The Bean Trees was the prequel to this book and I loved it.  In the story, Turtle saves a man's life and becomes a national hero.  Because of this publicity, a Cherokee lawyer finds out that Turtle is not legally adopted by Taylor.  Taylor freaks out and does not want to give up Turtle so she takes Turtle and her Mother on an adventure throughout the country.
So far, it has been decent, but not spectacular.  As I said in my previous post, I thought that since there is more adventure (than the Bean Trees) I would enjoy it more, but I must say that is incorrect.  I do not find Pigs in Heaven bad, but it is not nearly as good as the Bean Trees, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I think the main reason is because the character development is not as good.  In this case, the amount of action and and adventure actually hurts the novel because there is not enough time to really get to know the characters and have them be part of your life.  I think that character development was the best quality of the Bean Trees and without it, the book is not that great.  I do not think the plot is unbelievable entertaining, and really all other aspects of the book are average.  The character development made Kingsolver's writing great and when she lacks it, the books are only okay.  An example of this sub par character development is the introduction of a character named Gabe.  Granted, this is not a very important character, but it still displays the development.  A woman named Annie states, " 'Dellon hates when I bring up Gabe'... 'He hates when you bring up Gabe, because he's the oldest and he thinks he should have done something to keep the family from getting torn up' "(Kingsolver 59).  That is the only instance of Gabe being mentioned early in the book, but he is brought back up again later and no more knowledge is given.  Somehow, Kingsolver expects the reader to put the puzzle together, but we only have half of the pieces. 

Monday, March 17, 2014

Pig in Heaven (beginning)

The next book I have chosen to read for my free choice is Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver.  For those of you who read my previous posts, you will know that I read my first Kingsolver novel as my fiction choice.  This book is the sequel to the book I originally read (The Bean Trees).  From what I have read about this novel, it figures to be a little more exciting, with more action and adventure rather than a slow, internal conflict.  You see, the first book was about the journey that Taylor Greer takes emotionally.  However in the second novel, there seems to be a true adventure and external conflict.  I think this will make the book more enjoyable to read.  While I appreciate the depth and symbolic nature of The Bean Trees, I think that more conflict on a physical side will make for a more exciting read.  I am very happy I am able to read this novel and look forward to it greatly.  The main conflict that is going to happen is that Taylor may lose custody of Turtle so she goes on an adventure in order to escape the people trying to take Turtle away.  It will probably be a fantastic book.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Animal Farm (end)

I have just finished reading Animal Farm by George Orwell.  This was a good book throughout, but the ending was absolutely phenomenal.  It was one of the best endings to a book I have ever read, no exaggerations.  The main theme I saw throughout the book is how easily a government can become corrupt.  In the beginning, the animals hated the corrupt government which was the humans.  So, they overthrew their leaders and became their own government.  They lived in prosperity for a few years, but then the leader's of the animal's government became corrupt and turned into the same corrupt government that was there before.  One of the best parts about this novel is how the reader can see the transformation from the good government to a bad one in a short span.  It is truly marvelous how Orwell paves this change and makes it seem natural, almost to the point where it surprises the reader when he/she actually realizes how bad the government now is.  Now, back to this terrific ending I was talking about.  When the animal government was first created, they never wanted to be like the humans.  Their motto: "Four legs good, two legs bad".  When the government is fully corrupted, however, they change their motto to "four legs good, two legs better".  At the very end, the animals in power (who are corrupted) have humans over to their farm to eat dinner.  They are playing cards, but then it is realized that at least one person is cheating.  They start a huge fight, and, for the animals looking in through the window, " [they] looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which" (Orwell 141).  Talk about a good ending, right?  For some reason, that ending sentence really stuck with me, and I think that is the biggest take away from this novel.  Basically, it is the danger of corruption and the power of money.  It is saying that greed, wealth, and power will turn someone of goodwill into someone selfish and dangerous.  There are many real world examples, but this book was especially meant for Stalin of communist Russia.
This is a few letters between Orwell and Peter Davison talking about the moral of Animal Farm: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jul/11/animal-farm-what-orwell-really-meant/
I think that this article is very interesting, especially that Orwell says that violent conspiratorial revolutions always only end up with change in masters.  Fascinating.  Anyway, check it out, it is pretty neat.
If you are thinking about reading Animal Farm, I definitely recommend it. 
I will leave you with a quote from the novel:
“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself."

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Animal Farm (middle)

I am halfway through Animal Farm by George Orwell.  And it only took me one day!  But on a more serious note, this book is actually very good.  Before I started reading the book, I thought it would be boring, but it is not in the slightest.  While there is not a ton of action, it is very interesting to see the way the characters develop and continue to try to make the correlation between the farm and Stalinist Russia.  I am constantly trying to see the relationship and I can see it very clearly.  I am also making the connection between the farm and events that have happened more recently, namely Syria and Egypt.  While these comparisons are not as direct and accurate as the one with Russia, they still provide an interesting perspective on the events that are occurring in the novel.
My favorite character in the novel so far has been Snowball, an obvious choice. What basically happened in the first half of the book is that animals on a farm revolted against their owners and created a new society of only animals.  Snowball became the natural leader and instituted good policies through mainly communism.  All of the animals enjoyed it and the societal improvements made by Snowball were huge.  However, Snowball was kicked out of his kingdom by Napoleon, who is the obvious antagonist.  He provides the reasoning behind the fall of communism and the prosperity of the animals. 
One thing that I think this book shows perfectly is how, if done right and in small groups, communism can be the best hing for a society.  During the "golden age" of the farm, communism is soaring and leading to a great life for all of the animals.  However, later in the story, the novel explains why communism is terrible in practice (although great in theory) and the reasoning behind the fall of communism.  This all starts with the danger of a naive working class.  Besides the pigs (Snowball, Napoleon, the smartest of the animals), no animal is educated.  They simply do what the leader tells them to.  Now, this works in communism when there is a great leader because then he has a loyal, reliable workforce, but when there is a bad leader, the animals cannot rebel and they now have to suffer.  Even when the animals feel like something is wrong with the leadership, they still do not do anything about it. At one point in the novel, Squealer (Napoleon's assistant) has clearly lied, but "[Squealer] repeated a number of times, 'Tactics, comrades, tactics!" skipping around and whisking his tail with a merry laugh.  The animals were not certain what the word meant, but  Squealer spoke so persuasively, and the three dogs who happened to be with him growled so threateningly, that they accepted his explanation without further questions" (Orwell 58).  Since the animals were so gullible and loyal, they just accepted a flawed explanation.  This leads to the destruction of the farm (or so I predict).

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Animal Farm (beginning)

For my classic novel, I have chosen to read Animal Farm by George Orwell.  I have never read this book before, but I know many people who have, and they all said it was pretty good.  Now, I have tempered my expectations because it is an old book (although I thoroughly enjoyed the Catcher in the Rye even though I expected to be bored with it) and they are generally not appealing to me.  My mom told me that she does remember details about reading Animal Farm, but she remembers enjoying it.  She mentioned something about the book being a metaphor for communism.  On the back cover of the book, it states, "When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target" so I think that communism is definitely going to be a theme in the novel.  I truly do not know what to expect from the book in terms of the literal meaning.  Obviously it is placed on a farm, but besides that I am not entirely sure.  I do not know if the animals actually come to life and talk to humans, or if they only do it at night (a la Toy Story).  Hopefully there is some action involved to keep my attention, but then again, the major themes seem to be interesting enough.  I am expecting this book to be include very deep meanings with pointless literal meanings. I think my opinion of the book will correspond with how interesting Orwell makes the writing.  I hope it will be a fun book to read.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Blink (end)

Sadly, I am finished reading the novel Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.  I say sadly because this was such an amazing and fascinating book that I am very sorry to be finished with it.  The main reason I loved this book was because Gladwell took very advanced and sophisticated ideas and transformed them into something that I could easily understand and relate to.  I am aware that some people criticize Gladwell because of that very fact.  They say that he over-simplifies scientific work and it is not a good thing.  I disagree.  Gladwell intended this book for a general audience so that they could understand some complex ideas.  If his audience was supposed to be people highly-educated in the science department, then it is a different story, but his simplification was a strong point of this novel.
After reading, I am very tempted to read another one of his books (either The Tipping Point or Outliers) and there is a good chance that I will for one of my free choice novels.  Like I said before I started reading this book, I have read The Sports Gene by David Epstein which is a similar genre.  However, Blink was a lot better by my standards.  The Sports Gene was harder to understand, but that is to be expected.  Let me explain, The Sports Gene has a lot more to do with science and complex things like heredity.  I have absolutely no background in heredity so that made the book a thousand times more difficult to read.  Blink, on the other hand, is about the snap judgments that we make all the time.  In a way, it is common sense because we do it constantly.  Gladwell does not explore the science aspect of this (thank God), but rather he looks into the social parts of this phenomenon.
I found a Q and A with Gladwell about the novel.  Take a look at it: http://gladwell.com/blink/blink-q-and-a-with-malcolm/
The answer that I found most surprising and intriguing was what gave him the idea for Blink.  I thought it was crazy, but logical, that the reason he thought of this idea was because he was a victim of thin-slicing gone wrong.  It brought me to a new perspective, and made me think about how I personally got thin-sliced.  I am still trying to think about examples, but nothing stands out to me.  I do know, however, that it happens all the time, but we are not always aware of it.
This is a podcast by NPR with Malcolm Gladwell and Allison Keyes: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4280562
This podcast did not really teach me anything new that he did not go over in his book, but it reinforced the amazing ideas that he discovered and put into a great novel.  If you have not read the book, I definitely recommend listening to this podcast, and then reading the book!

Monday, March 10, 2014

Blink (middle)

I have now read half of the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.  I am going to be honest.  Before I started reading the book, I thought it would be somewhat interesting, but very dull, boring, and a long read.  I was almost completely wrong.  Blink is a masterpiece!  It is the most fascinating book I have read and was extremely fun to read.  It was absolutely insane to learn about the studies done and information available about the human brain.  The main concept of the book is about something called "thin-slicing".  Think about this as snap judgments.  It is when we take a tiny sliver of information about someone, or something, and make assumptions and decision based on those observations.  Surprisingly, a human's thin slicing ability is extremely accurate, and, in many cases, more accurate than learning all about something and gathering as much information as possible.  This entire book is basically an account of unbelievable studies with crazy implications.  One of my favorite examples is about Millennium Challenge, a "war game" that was supposed to become the way war would be fought in the future.  It was a simulation war with real commanders, leaders, and generals (if you've read Ender's Game it is like the battle room).  There are two teams: red and blue.  The blue team was "given greater intellectual resources than perhaps any army in history" (Gladwell 105).  Basically, it new everything it needed to about the red army, besides what they are thinking.  The blue team also had far superior weapons, personnel, and resources.  The red team had basically nothing, however, their commander was someone by the name Paul Van Riper. Van Riper had a reputation as being on of the best generals in the military because he acted on instinct and thin-sliced every opportunity he got.  During the Millennium Challenge, Van Riper launched a surprise attack because he thin-sliced the situation and acted on instinct.  This surprise attack destroyed half of the blue team's ships, biggest cruisers, 5 of 6 amphibious ships and, most importantly, showed that superior knowledge does not necessarily correlate with success.  This proved the point that it is sometimes better to act on instinct and thin-slicing rather than well thought out decisions.
I really enjoy this book not only because of the interesting topics, but also because Gladwell writes in a way that is easy to understand while still conveying a complex idea.  It is the perfect balance between slang and jargon that no average person would understand.  It is truly a wonderful book.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Blink (beginning)

My choice for my non-fiction novel is Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.  Gladwell may be best known for his book Outliers, but I have not read that book or any other books by him.  According to many sources, he is a fantastic author with fantastic research and his books are extremely interesting to read.  I have only read one other novel truly in this category of literature.  That book was The Sports Gene by David Epstein.  That novel is expands upon the 10,000 hours rule that Gladwell explains in Outliers but focuses only on sports aspects.  It was a very cool book to read and I learned a ton of new information.  I expect great things from Blink. A couple of friends told me to read it and they said it was amazing.  The subtitle of the book is "The Power of Thinking Without Thinking".  I assume that this book  is about snap judgments and what goes on subconsciously in the human brain.  With a bit of quick research, I am in fact correct.  I think I will learn a ton of new information about the human brain, as well as have an enjoyable time reading it.  I am very excited to finally read the book that I have been told is so fascinating.

The Bean Trees (end)

I have just finished reading the novel The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and I found it to be amazing.  In the midway review of the book, I said that the story was slow and it was only an average book.  The second half of the book turned out to be great, however.  The plot developed a lot more and there was action involved.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel.  The book was incredibly satisfying to read because the novel goes full circle.  In the beginning, Taylor moves out of Kentucky and has to drive all the way to Tucson, Arizona.  Along the way, she picks up her now daughter, Turtle.  In her initial journey to Arizona, she is constantly complaining about how the road is very flat and it is a terrible time.  However, at the end of the book, she goes back to Oklahoma (where she received Turtle) in order to gain legal custody of Turtle.  She achieves this goal and then has to go back to Tucson, obviously.  This time on the road to Arizona, Taylor is happy and enjoys being on the road.  The book states, "We had cleared Oklahoma City and were out on the plain before sundown.  It felt like old times, heading into the low western horizon" (Kingsolver 232).  In gained much satisfaction in knowing that everything was going to be alright with this family that the reader truly understands.  At the end of the reading, I couldn't help but have a smile on my face and genuinely felt like I fulfilled a goal.
I want to talk a little bit about the story structure.  Like I said earlier, the beginning of the book was very slow and a little bit tedious to read.  However, the end of the book was really interesting and I could not stop reading.  I think the exposition was a little bit too long and the inciting moment does not really occur until around the midpoint of the novel.  The rising action was very good, but it was cut a little bit short because of the length of the exposition.  The climax occurred towards the very end of the story, with maybe 15 pages afterwards.  The falling action was very satisfying because it achieved the goal of unraveling the story without being boring.  I think the story structure looks something like this:
If I were to talk about the story structure as Kurt Vonnegut would describe it, I think it would be something along the lines of this:
The story starts off with Taylor in a poor, poverty-stricken Kentucky neighborhood where she hates it.  Then, things get worse when she decides to leave Kentucky and hates the road even more.  She starts to think she may regret leaving.  But things get better, quickly.  She then receives Turtle, her joy in life, and finds her six best friends.  She is living happily in Tucson, until two of her friends, illegal immigrants, must go to Oklahoma in order to not be captured by border patrol.  She drives then there, and feels extremely sad and depressed.  But, this trip was not all bad.  She legally adopts turtle and returns to Tucson with a heart of happiness and fulfillment.
 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

The Bean Trees (middle)

I am now officially halfway through The Bean Trees! Hooray! This book has been decent, so far.  I don't know if I would call it great, but it is enjoyable enough to read.  It is probably a 6 or 7 out of 10.  One main thing I noticed throughout the first half of the novel was the way in which Barbara Kingsolver writes.  It seems so elegant and fluid, although it is still easy to comprehend.  It mixes poetry with the common tongue and makes for a delightful read.  An example of this nice language is in the chapter How the Eat in Heaven.  Kingsolver writes, "Mrs. Parsons had on a churchy-looking dress and a small, flat white hat with a dusty velveteen bow" (Kingsolver 103).  I think it is very cool how Kingsolver uses the words "churchy-looking" while still maintaining a professional dialogue.  She engages me with her use of adjectives and sentence structure.  The main trouble I have with this book is the lack of action.  The plot so far is of a country girl name Taylor that moves to Tucson, Arizona and adopts a native-american girl named Turtle.  She rooms with a woman named Lou Ann.  Lou Ann also has a small child and they befriend a delightful woman named Mattie.  It is a story about friendship and growth, but it is not particularly exciting.  One theme that I believed to be common throughout the novel was gender equality.  This story takes place in the late 1980's, so women supposedly have equal rights, but this story sheds light on the true information in American culture.  In the beginning of the novel, Kingsolver makes it clear that being a woman is much harder than being a man.  The book states, "The Indian child was a girl.  A girl, poor thing.  That fact had already burdened her short life with a kind of misery that I could not imagine" (Kingsolver 23).  Being a woman is very tough in this society, as made clear by the narrator, Taylor.  Kingsolver is making the statement that the girl is symbolic of women in general and how much harder being is woman is than a man.

The Bean Trees (beginning)

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver is my first book.  It is a fiction book and is considered an adult novel.  I believe this book will be a "just-right" read for me.  I was recommended this book by my mother.  She said that she loved it and read it in college.  I decided to give it a try.  It is set in the late 1980's.  The main character, Taylor, grew up in a town in Kentucky.  It is a very poor town and not a nice place to live.  In her late teens, she moves to Tuscon, Arizona.  On her way to her destination, she inherits an Native American baby named Turtle.  This story is about her life in Arizona.  I predict that there will be many struggles raising this Native American girl, but Taylor will get through it because she seems to be a strong character.  Barbara Kingsolver is an author that many people love, although I have never read anything by her before.  I hope I will enjoy what seems to be a beloved book by many.