Oprah Fall Book Pick:
“…This poignant memoir of love, labor, and dangerous pesticides reveals the terrible true price."
Oprah.com
Featured Review in Entertainment Weekly:
“...equal parts moving love story and environmental warning.”
Entertainment Weekly
Number 2 on the October Indie Next List:
IndieBound
BJ's Book Club Spotlight:
"Don’t miss this haunting, true saga of an American farm family."
BJ's Book Club
The Next Chapter Fall 2011 Top 20 Best Books List
"...moving and surprising..."
The Next Chapter
Librarians' Best Books of 2011
"While reading this extraordinarily moving memoir, I kept remembering the last two lines of Muriel Rukeyser’s poem “Kathe Kollwitz” (“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?/ The world would split open”), for Weir proffers a worldview that is at once eloquent, sincere, and searing."
"Eerie and atmospheric, this is an indie movie in print. You’ll read and read to see where it is going, although it’s clear early on that the future is not going to be kind to anyone involved. Weir’s story is more proof that only love can break your heart."
Library Journal
Boston Globe Pick of the Week:
“…searing…the past is artfully juxtaposed with the present in this finely wrought work. Its haunting passages will linger long after the last page is turned.”
Boston Sunday Globe
TreeHugger's : 5 Memoir Books We Want to Read Now
TreeHugger
San Diego Union Tribune – Recommended Reads:
“...If a writing instructor wanted an excellent example of voice in a piece of writing, this would be a five-star choice!"
San Diego Union Tribune
Columbus Dispatch – Vendors Picks:
Columbus Dispatch
City Book Review
"Mesmeric."
San Francisco Book Review
Zomppa's Review: Hungry For More:
“...Her subtle exposure of our antiquated notions of 'family farming' in America will leave you disquieted..."
Zomppa
Lesa's Book Critiques:
“...The Orchard is a tragedy, followed by a glimpse of hope and the future. But, it’s the memory of the pain, the loss, and the curse of pesticide that lingered with me..."
Lesa's Book Critiques
Winnipeg Free Press Review:
“...Unique characters seem like old friends."
Winnipeg Free Press
This Dish is Vegetarian Review:
“...Weir is an artist. She blends form and composition with language and vivid, visceral imagery."
This Dish is Veg
Wake Book-A-Day Staff Pick:
“... a book with many scenes with vivid images that linger in your memory."
Wake County Book-A-Day
Book End Babes Review:
“In her dark and deeply feeling memoir, Weir shares her story with candid, unflinching prose, leaving the reader grieving for the Theresa that once was and craving a sweet, clean after-the-last-page for us all. I can honestly say that The Orchard is one of the most pivotal books I’ve ever read, irrevocably changing my view of the world."
Book End Babes
Book Club Classics October Indie Pick:
Book Club Classics
Wisconsin State Journal:
"Few books have made the case for shopping organic as eloquently…Her story is a thought-provoking argument against the pesticides used to grow food, but more than that, it's the story of the growth of an unlikely union. ‘Love doesn't happen overnight,’ Weir writes, and when she concludes the story of her marriage, she leaves readers marveling at the complexities of love.”
Wisconsin State Journal
The Cleveland Plain Dealer:
“Weir knows how to move a story along, and her memoir is a page turner…”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
BookPage:
“finely wrought story…[Weir’s] journey, at times lonely and sad, is ultimately triumphant. Readers will be glad Weir found a home for this brave book…”
BookPage
Macleans.ca:
“...a gripping account of divided loyalties, the real cost of farming and the shattered people on the front lines. Not since Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres has there been so enrapturing a family drama percolating out from the back forty."
Macleans.ca
Cleveland.com:
“...Weir has created a compelling portrait of large-scale, inorganic, chemical-based agriculture and the people caught in its maw."
Cleveland.com
Dear Author:
“...There is a great deal of sadness here, but it’s rendered with such care and such sensitivity that it becomes beautiful in its own way, sublime in the reader’s experience of every mundane and profound tragedy. And, for me, a perfect A read."
Dear Author
The Globe and Mail:
“...It's a small, unquiet book that reverberates queerly, like a slow-release bomb.."
The Globe and Mail
Examiner.com:
“...a stunning memoir, ripe with victory and defeat."
Raleigh Examiner
Minneapolis Star Tribune:
“...Weir's memoir is both riveting and disturbing..."
Startribune.com
St. Paul Pioneer Press:
“...One of the joys of Weir's memoir is her lovely evocation of the land, from the songs of redwing blackbirds to the flowers growing in ditches. Yet, poisons were everywhere."
twincities.com
Marion Roach Smith Pick for September:
“...breathtaking in its observation of life and change, marriage, family and, well, what more is there? Throw in an apple orchard that has been owned by a family for generations, the threat of pesticides, and one fine writer and you have yourself a book that everyone should be reading."
Marion Roach Smith
Conversation with Theresa Weir:
“... riveting, brutally honest, and mesmerizing memoir. The Orchard contains the elements of life that so many of us deal with—desperation, dark secrets, the cruelty not only of strangers but of family, forces of nature, the destruction of the environment, and finally love, death, life, and hope."
A View From the Loft
Veggie Grettie Book Review:
“Please read this book. The Orchard was so intoxicating that I could not put it down…I read this book so quickly that it was as if I drank it."
Veggie Grettie
BookPage's "What We're Reading":
"...a sad and remarkable journey that’s also a page-turner."
The Book Case
Story Circle Book Reviews
The Orchard illustrates the inherent importance of women directing their own lives, not only for themselves, but for the sake of their loved ones.
Ms. Weir reveals some deeply painful moments in her life as she moves back and forth between her peripatetic childhood and her married life, but she doesn't dwell in them. Yes there is pain but there is also self-discovery and growth and underlying it all is the love she comes to feel for Adrian. And the truths she lays bare about the life of a farm and the farmers who work it are both simple and, dare I say it, profound.
This story of hardship and suffering, and love and hope pretty much stole my heart. An unforgettable story.
Rhapsody in Books
Book Fortune, Recommended Memoirs of "Not-Famous People".
The Book Case, the BookPage Blog
"Beautiful prose..." A Book Train Staff PIck
Aspen Daily News
Kent District Library Book of the Day
Kent District Library
"The Orchard is a perfect read, a life story so well written and told that you will succumb to its brilliance and beauty."
.Grace: A Magazine for Women
"I highly recommend The Orchard to anyone who loves beautiful writing and especially to those who love memoirs."
Bermuda Onion's Weblog
