Name: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
ISBN: 9780060852559

Barbara Kingsolver

Camille Kingsolver

Steven L. Hopp

Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they’d only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.

A Year of Food Life

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

"We wanted to live in a place that could feed us: where rain falls, crops grow, and drinking water bubbles up right out of the ground." Barbara Kingsolver opens her home to us, as she and her family attempt a year of eating only local food, much of it from their own garden. Inspired by the flavours and culinary arts of a local food culture, they explore many a farmers market and diversified organic farms at home and across the country. With characteristic warmth, Kingsolver shows us how to put food back at the centre of the political and family agenda. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is part memoir, part journalistic investigation, and is full of original recipes that celebrate healthy eating, sustainability and the pleasures of good food.

Our Year of Seasonal Eating

This is a very niche book and I really tried to plow through but it was a DNF at about 48%.  The author and her family have a goal to be self sustaining for a year.  This is insight into their journey.

Pro:  it gave some good insight into the production of our food in America.  It also helped put me to sleep at bedtime. 

Cons:  the writing was all over the place.  She would tell about their journey and then go off on a tangent.  Many times completely irrelevant to the topic.  She also had inserts from another author’s work in every chapter.  She did have a personal agenda and anyone who didn’t live her way of life was mocked or had condescending comments made about them.  For example, people who buy food from the store are harming the environment because of the fossil fuels used to deliver yet every plant and animal she grew and produced was 

 shipped to their farm.  There’s A LOT of double standards preached in the book.  It’s okay for the author because they are “self sustaining” but for others it’s shameful and are mocked.  Hard to continue reading that nonsense.  Then, off the subject agendas are thrown in. I regret spending money on this book.  Good thing it was a ebooks and not shipped to a storefront. 

Barbara Williford

This is a very niche book and I really tried to plow through but it was a DNF at about 48%.  The author and her family have a goal to be self sustaining for a year.  This is insight into their journey.

Pro:  it gave some good insight into the production of our food in America.  It also helped put me to sleep at bedtime. 

Cons:  the writing was all over the place.  She would tell about their journey and then go off on a tangent.  Many times completely irrelevant to the topic.  She also had inserts from another author’s work in every chapter.  She did have a personal agenda and anyone who didn’t live her way of life was mocked or had condescending comments made about them.  For example, people who buy food from the store are harming the environment because of the fossil fuels used to deliver yet every plant and animal she grew and produced was gasp shipped to their farm.  There’s A LOT of double standards preached in the book.  It’s okay for the author because they are “self sustaining” but for others it’s shameful and are mocked.  Hard to continue reading that nonsense.  Then, off the subject agendas are thrown in. I regret spending money on this book.  Good thing it was a ebooks and not shipped to a storefront. 

Great story and insightful re the benefits of eating locally. A bit too opinionated at times, but overall a good read. 

Omar

Laura Mauler

This book came into my hand at a time when I was thinking gardening and farmers markets and "what is so great about organic, anyway?" - that is to say, at a time when I was very receptive to the book's message. Fortunately Nick picked up this book (while I was in the middle of it, oh well), which opened his eyes to food issues as well. In fact, some of our best conversations about how we want to actually live in this world started out as conversations about this book. So what I got out of this book was a new resolve to pay attention to seasonality in my fruits and veggies; a willingness to buy the more expensive local and organic foods, because that is not an area of life to be chintzy about; and new adventures in cooking, making food, and gardening on a teeny tiny Manhattan balcony. 

I agree with people who say this book is preachy. It is absolutely intended to make you feel depressed about how you live and eat, and realize that her family is better than yours. The upside is that she gives really practical advice about how to change, and you can either hate and envy her or take the advice and make things better - I think people either love or hate this book depending on which of these they choose. The sections written by Camille Kingsolver are the worst, just insufferably holier-than-thou, so I simply stopped reading those parts. Much better that way.

Kat A

This book really inspired me. It's getting some criticism for being too "preachy"; yes, the author isn't afraid to state her opinion on a a few different subject areas, but after all it's her book and I respect her opinions! This book was really funny, easy to read, interesting, and thought-provoking.. recommend to anyone interested in organic or local food or gardening.

Nadine 

Ambiguous about this one. I love Kingsolvers writing and this was a fascinating year of being closer to nature and food - a little smug. Very interesting view on Appalachian life / could be paired with hill-billy elegy. Does leave one feeling pretty guilty by the end.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle A Year of Food Life