From Publishers Weekly
Novelist Kingsolver (Pigs in Heaven) is not one to let her miscellany stagnate; she has revised or expanded many of the 25 essays included here, most of which have previously been published, and yes, there are thematic links in her view of family, writing, politics and places. The strongest link is Kingsolver's wise and spirited voice, animated by poetic and precise language. A Kentucky transplant to Arizona, Kingsolver recounts the triumph and pathos of her return home as a novelist; she also delights in recollecting her role in the notorious Rock Bottom Remainders, the band of writers famous for their ABA performances. "Raising children is a patient alchemy," she declares; indeed, her self-imposed exile during the Gulf War led her to Spain's Canary Islands and an atmosphere of much greater affection for kids. Reports from Benin and Hawaii, even her aquarium, show the author to be a curious and sensitive observer. Most telling perhaps are Kingsolver's reflections on her mission: because it aims to convey truths we know but can't feel, "[g]ood art is political, whether it means to be or not." Illustrations. Literary Guild alternate.-ood art is political, whether it means to be or not." Illustrations. Literary Guild alternate. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA?Displaying a diverse background and multiple interests, Kingsolver has written about subjects as varied as the biological clock of hermit crabs, tourist wanderings in Benin, and visiting an obsolete Titan missile site. The recurring themes here are the wonder and excitement of parenting; the respect for all creatures, religions, and points of view; and the importance of the natural world in our lives. She weaves these themes throughout her essays and presents readers with a vision of beliefs too often undervalued in our modern world. The author, a skilled observer of both people and nature, claims "to want to know and to write, about the places where disparate points of view rub together?the spaces between." These essays are her attempts to open the doors for her readers to see into those spaces.?Penny Stevens, Fairfax County Public Library, VACopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Twenty-five essays from the author of Pigs in Heaven (LJ 6/15/93) grace this collection; some have been previously published, and all have been revised for this book. The title essay uses the metaphor of a hermit crab displaced from the Bahamas to Tucson to express an analogous situation in the author's life; this creature reappears in the final essay, "Reprise," representing the cyclic and rhythmic nature of life. In between, there are musings on life in the desert, feral pigs, libraries, fidelity, childrearing, and the like, all written with a keen sensitivity to Kingsolver's surroundings and often bringing an unusual perspective on seemingly mundane subjects. One can skip around or read the pieces consecutively. Essential for humanities collections in public and academic libraries.Janice Braun, Mills Coll., Oakland, Cal.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


--New York Times Book Review
"Kingsolver's essays should be savored like quiet afternoons with a friend.... [She] speaks in a language rich with music and replete with good sense."


Excerpted from the book
"But today the air above the clouds was clear as glass, and I felt some electric liquor replacing the blood of my veins. The last time I looked at that long, pink curving flank of Africa, I was seven years old. I'd sat up all night, thrilled and tightly strung in a Pan Am jet, traveling with my family toward the village in central Congo that would be our home for a time. My father pointed at the cloudbank and told me it was Africa. I couldn't begin to imagine the life that was rolling out ahead of me. But I did understand it would pass over me with the force of a river, and that I needed to pin the water to its banks and hold it still, somehow, to find myself time to know it. I could think of only one way to do it, and I've thought of no better way since. I cracked the spine of the diary I'd received as a Christmas present and began the self-conscious record of my life with this block-lettered sentence. " 'When I first saw Africa, I thought it was a cloud.' ...I am still trying to pin the river to its banks."


Entertainment Weekly
"The acclaimed novelist's extraordinary powers of observations and understanding of character serve her beautifully in this collection of essays."


From Booklist
Admirers of Kingsolver's novels, such as Pigs in Heaven (1993) and Animal Dreams (1990), will relish the vibrant self-portrait these frank, bright, funny, and generous essays present. An ecologist as well as a writer, Kingsolver is deeply enamored of the world. Her empathy extends to plants and animals of all kinds, including a hermit crab who stowed away in her luggage when she returned from a trip to the Bahamas. The curious behavior of her unusual houseguest inspires Kingsolver to ponder the mystery of internal rhythms, just as her accommodation of the rapacious appetite of the javelinas (wild, woolly pigs) who devour her desert garden leads her to consider the concept of personal property and the hoarding of "more stuff than we need." Wry and to-the-point, Kingsolver recounts some traumatic times, including her "rocky school years" in Kentucky and the gratifying experience of her triumphant return to her hometown to celebrate the publication of her first novel. The place of honor that books and writing have always held in Kingsolver's life is the theme of "How Mr. Dewey Decimal Saved My Life," which is based on her address at the ALA Annual Convention in New Orleans in 1993. Kingsolver also writes with great verve, honesty, and humor about motherhood, housework, fashion, sports, and travel to Africa, Hawaii, and the Canary Islands. Donna Seaman



"A delightful, challenging, and wonderfully informative book."


--Cleveland Plain Dealer
"A book full of discoveries."


Milwaukee Sentinel
"Clever...magical...beautifully crafted. Kingsolver spins you around the philosophic world a dozen times."


Kansas City Star
"Brilliant...lucid, well thought-out, and remarkably sensitive. Kingsolver's power will linger long after you've finished High Tide in Tucson.


Seattle Times
"Whether cultural, personal, or theoretical, Kingsolver's nonfiction is a delight."


Cleveland Plain Dealer
"A book full of discoveries."



"Ms. Kingsolver possesses the rare ability to see the natural world with the keenness of both the poet and the naturalist."



"The acclaimed novelist's extraordinary powers of observations and understanding of character serve her beautifully in this collection of essays."


--Seattle Times
"Whether cultural, personal, or theoretical, Kingsolver's nonfiction is a delight."


Book Description
"There is no one quite like Barbara Kingsolver in contemporary literature," raves the Washington Post Book World, and it is right. She has been nominated three times for the ABBY award, and her critically acclaimed writings consistently enjoy spectacular commercial success as they entertain and touch her legions of loyal fans. In High Tide in Tucson, she returns to her familiar themes of family, community, the common good and the natural world. The title essay considers Buster, a hermit crab that accidentally stows away on Kingsolver's return trip from the Bahamas to her desert home, and turns out to have manic-depressive tendencies. Buster is running around for all he's worth -- one can only presume it's high tide in Tucson. Kingsolver brings a moral vision and refreshing sense of humor to subjects ranging from modern motherhood to the history of private property to the suspended citizenship of human beings in the Animal Kingdom. Beautifully packaged, with original illustrations by well-known illustrator Paul Mirocha, these wise lessons on the urgent business of being alive make it a perfect gift for Kingsolver's many fans.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Barbara Kingsolver has entertained and touched the lives of legions of readers with her critically acclaimed and bestselling novels The Bean Trees, Animal Dreams, and Pigs in Heaven. In these twenty-five newly conceived essays, she returns once again to her favored literary terrain to explore the themes of family, community, and the natural world. With the eyes of a scientist and the vision of a poet, Barbara Kingsolver writes about notions as diverse as modern motherhood, the history of private property, and the suspended citizenship of humans in the animal kingdom. Kingsolver's canny pursuit of meaning from an inscrutable world compels us to find instructions for life in surprising places: a museum of atomic bomb relics, a West African voodoo love charm, an iconographic family of paper dolls, the ethics of a wild pig who persistently invades a garden, a battle of wills with a two-year-old, or a troop of oysters who observe high tide in the middle of Illinois.

FROM THE CRITICS

Entertainment Weekly

The acclaimed novelist's extraordinary powers of observations and understanding of character serve her beautifully in this collection of essays.

Kansas City Star

Brilliant...lucid, well thought-out, and remarkably sensitive. Kingsolver's power will linger long after you've finished High Tide in Tucson.

San Francisco Chronicle

A delightful, challenging, and wonderfully informative book.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

A book full of discoveries.

New York Times Book Review