|
Loading... Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)by Barbara Kingsolver
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendations
Loading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  whymaggiemay | Dec 29, 2009 |  2009 (  ) katiemertz | Nov 21, 2009 | A fabulous book that will bring you closer to the origins of your food. It was empowering to discover just how self-sufficient we can all be. Even just changing a few things that we buy or the way in which we choose our foods can have a big difference on our neighbors, our environment and most directly-our families. ( ) igjoe | Nov 16, 2009 | A highly informative and interesting book, even for those who consider themselves fairly well versed in environmental issues. And the fact that it's written by Kingsolver (I'm a huge fan of her fiction) makes it a delight to read -- I'm not otherwise an avid non-fiction reader. ( ) evaberry | Nov 10, 2009 | I'll admit that I'm a sucker for Kingsolver's writing, so take the whole review with that as your grain of salt. I loved this book and found it really timely, as I'd signed up for a share in my local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and was discovering the benefits of local, seasonal cooking. My only gripe with the book is that at times I found myself extraordinarily jealous of Kingsolver and her family -- lots of land, lots of time, lots of love. Overall, I was thrilled to have been invited to the Kingsolver family's garden and kitchen through this book. ( ) wunderhund | Nov 1, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
References to this work on external resources.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Book description |
|
Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.
"As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain.
"Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . ."
Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.
"This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:18 -0400)
The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.
Quick Links |
Wikipedia in English (2)
Having read several books by this author in the past, though none of them non-fiction, I certainly anticipated good writing. However, I didn't realize that this book would also be written in part by Steven Hopp, her husband, and Camille Kingsolver, her daughter. They, too, write very well.
Reading this book was like being invited into the family. You were given a real sense of what each person was like and how they reacted to the circumstances of growing and eating what they grew for a year. My initial reaction was that I couldn't eat the way they did, but in reading the tale of their gastronomic adventure, I seriously revised my thoughts on the subject. The food sounded delicious and so different from my usual fare that it would have been an adventure for me, too. I couldn't ever, however, have participated in the killing of the chickens and turkeys. It's not that I don't know how it works or why it's necessary, I just can't handle the blood and guts part of it.
There were many things I loved about this book. Not only was I educated about modern farming and organic gardening, but I also got excellent cooking suggestions. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Lily working with her chickens and eggs in her quest for a horse. Lily was a joy to observe from afar. This book also made me yearn to visit Appalachia, a wish I've had for some time.
Having been enchanted by this book, I ordered another non-fiction book by Kingsolver from the libary, and expect to be equally well educated, if not as enchanted, by it. (