My book, "The Bean Trees"

I wrote a book about the hardest part of my life called "The Bean Trees" under my pen name, Barbara Kingsolver, and surprisingly a lot of people have read it. When ever I feel like I just can't get through a tough part of life I go back and read a part of my book. My daughter Turtle loves to hear stories from it now and then too and shouts out "Bean!" when ever she agrees with the story or likes something. I thought I might include a bit of my writing on this blog, and perhaps even Analise it for you. One of my favorite memories from the book happens to be on pages 304 and 305.

When Turtle and I went to the library together one day, we found a book on beans which was Turtle's favorite subject at the time. here is a quote that sums up our experience.

" 'there's a whole invisible system for helping out the plant that you'd never guess was there.' I loved this idea. 'It's just the same as with people. The way Edna has Virgie, and Virgie has Edna, and Sandi has Kid Centeral Station, and everybody has Mattie, and on and on.' " (305) This was when we discovered little helpful bugs on bean trees, and I compared them to all the helpful people in our life. I guess this is a sort of simile, comparing our friends to the helpful bean tree bugs.

If you haven't read my book yet, you might want to pick it up. I think it could really impact you.

Estevan & Esperanza

In the midst of all the changes and stuggles I underwent in my new life as an adult, I met two wonderful friends, who I discovered later on, had a deep hidden secret. At first they were only people who my friend Mattie knew because they the lived in the upstairs of her house, but as events unfolded, and as our lives changed, we happened to meet and become very close friends. Their names were Estavan and Esperanza, two refugees from Guatamala who had recently lost a tender little daughter. As I got to know them it seemed that we had a lot in common: We both has left our homes to come to Arizona, we both were refugees of some sort, They were in danger of losing their lives , and I came to realize I was in danger of losing Turtle, my native American "daughter". My friends Esteven and Esperanza are such strong people ; they have been through everything and try to regain their old normal life. People from all different cultures could learn how to handle everyday struggles by watching them live their lives after they lost so much. I sure have and my culture was 100% opposite of theirs.

Everyday Struggles

When I was younger I lived with my mother and didn't really have a lot to worry about in terms of taking initiative in my life . However , when Turtle came into my life I was forced to fend for myself as a young woman and get a job and support her. That is how I met my very good friend Mattie. Mattie has helped me tremendously in the past year of my life. She has provided me with a very good job at her tire repair shop, and in doing so she has also helped me with my fear of tires. A lot of things change in life and you just have to tough it out and push through. Everyone goes through hard times , and what you really need in hard times is reliable friends.

Turtle and I

This Blog is about my daughter and I and our days we spend together in Tucson Arizona. I have a three year old daughter named Turtle who is native American and we live together with a woman named Lou Ann who happens to also be a single mother like me. This blog is about all the challenges I went through in my early twenties when I left my home for Arizona. Turtle came into my life when a woman dropped her off in the front seat of my car, and I was forced to take her in when the woman abruptly drove away before I could protest. At first I didn't want to take care of Turtle, because I was just a 19 year old girl, who had left her mother to start a new child and husband free life. What did I know about taking care of young children? But after about half a year of struggling through life, I started to realize that Turtle was so important to me. I can't imagine what my life would be without my dearest companion.