Memorable Monday #4

Welcome to Memorable Monday! The purpose of Memorable Monday is to showcase an influential book read in the past that still sticks with you today. This fun Monday morning post is hosted by the lovely Becca at The Becca Files.

This week, I am featuring:

The Bean Trees

by: Barbara Kingsolver

Amazon

In the 12th grade, my AP Lit and Comp teacher, Mrs. Achiani, made my class read The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. This book is SO phenomenal that after I read it for Mrs. Achiani’s class I actually read every single book that Mrs. Kingsolver had ever written, including her non-fiction, to that point. Kingsolver’s writing is pure poetry. It is flawless! The imagery she creates through her words is beautiful, poignant, and haunting.

My parents divorced when I was 11 years old. My family never looked the same ever again after their divorce. I had to quickly adjust to “family” meaning something different than what I had grown up with. When my step-dad married my mom, I had to learn what it meant to be part of a “blended” family. As I got older, I learned that family could really mean anything — a collective group of people who came together to have each other’s backs. Family could mean friends from church, or a lady from work who really got me. The Bean Trees is about a family formed from very unusual circumstances — some truly awful, and some just ordinary. It’s about friendships, it’s about being abandoned and then being found, it’s about what it means to truly love.

The Bean Trees is one of those books that impacts the reader for forever. I absolutely adore this book so much, and I highly recommend it.

About the Book

Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!

Share a book you’ve read in the past and explain briefly why it’s so memorable to you in the comments below.

If you would like to join Memorable Mondays, check out Becca’s blog site by clicking here. Scroll to a Memorable Monday post for info.