The Bean Trees

As I mentioned the other day, I finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees as an eBook the other day. Wow, what a great read! It's the story of Taylor, a tough cookie from rural Kentucky, who finds herself stranded in Arizona with a toddler girl, Turtle, who was
handed to Taylor to save her from an abusive home on an Indian Reservation. Turtle has a mysterious fascination with seeds, which is finally explained when she and Taylor return to the Reservation. The subplots all revolve around characters caring in different ways for others, and I enjoyed it as a feel-good book.

I've only read two other books by Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible, which I thought was quite different, and her "year in the life of" autobiography/ food revolutionary Animal Vegetable Miracle, which mentioned enough of Kingsolver's life history and passions that I could spot many of her own experiences being woven into The Bean Trees. I'm keen to move on to the sequel, Pigs in Heaven- I loved Taylor, Turtle and the characters so much that I need to find out what happens next.