Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Audiobook By Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp cover art

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

A Year of Food Life

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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

By: Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp
Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp
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“A profound, graceful, and literary work of philosophy and economics, well tempered for our times, and yet timeless. . . . It will change the way you look at the food you put into your body. Which is to say, it can change who you are.” — Boston Globe

Barbara Kingsolver's New York Times bestselling book describing her family's adventure as they move to a farm in southern Appalachia and realign their lives with the local food chain

Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, 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. It's a modern classic that will endure for years to come.

©2007 Barbara Kingsolver; (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers Art & Literature Authors Biographies & Memoirs Conservation Environment Gardening & Horticulture Memoir Essentials Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Sustainable & Green Living Inspiring

Featured Article: The top 100 memoirs of all time


All genres considered, the memoir is among the most difficult and complex for a writer to pull off. After all, giving voice to your own lived experience and recounting deeply painful or uncomfortable memories in a way that still engages and entertains is a remarkable feat. These autobiographies, often narrated by the authors themselves, shine with raw, unfiltered emotion sure to resonate with any listener. But don't just take our word for it—queue up any one of these listens, and you'll hear exactly what we mean.

Featured Article The top 100 memoirs of all time
Inspiring Journey • Sustainable Lifestyle • Soothing Narration • Educational Content • Personal Transformation

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There's an old church joke that's been told for years that goes something like this: A man dies and goes to heaven and is receiving a welcoming tour on his first day. He's shown a variety of rooms, each of which belongs to a particular denomination and in which those particular people are doing whatever is common to their little sect of Christianity. The denomination at the butt of the joke changes with who's telling it, but the last room is always occupied by that denomination and the angel says "Shhh, that's the So-and-so's. They think they're the only ones here." And the angel and the man tip-toe by.

Kingsolver writes a good book of course, but she's like the denomination that thinks they're the only ones present on the issue. Left wing types have bought into their own hype that they're the only ones trying to save the planet and the right wing types are all at Walmart buying Roundup.

A little less smugness and a more generous spirit would help her influence a greater number of people. Joel Salatin is on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum and he's arguably one of the most influential people on the scene today for making a real difference. Kingsolver is a great writer but maybe she should hire Salatin to edit her next book if she decides to produce a sequel.

Good, but too long

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I've read, or listened to, quite a few books this past year. I would rank this one at the top of the list. I enjoyed listening to Barbara's voice and laughed out loud at many places throughout the book. Camille's recipes made me hungry and wishing I knew how to make my own mozzarella. The book does come with a more serious side than simply teaching us how to "grow our own food". There is a downside to this particular Audible selection. I don't have access now to the many facts given to me by her husband Steven. I think this is an oversight on Audible's part and hope to find the supporting footnotes on her website.

Best of the Year

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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes and no. It was my first experience with the "back to the earth" genre, and I loved the discussions about our disconnect with the real world. However, it kind of wore me down with breathless descriptions of bucolic living.I also felt the different voices in this narrative were superfluous, like they were just "tacked on".

Would you be willing to try another book from Barbara Kingsolver? Why or why not?

Yes. I've not ready anything else of hers yet but I'd like to see how she does fiction.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Yes. I'm not sure this should've been performed by the author and her family members. They seem like sincere people who really believe in what they are doing but their performance removed me from the narrative.

Thoughtful, but lapses into a bit of sanctimony

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I've been a Barbara Kingsolver fan for decades so I was thrilled when I found this treasure. It's so inspiring to someone wanting to unplug from the global food system and be more self sustainable. Fantastic!

Wonderful!

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I love this story.
I found myself looking forward to discovering with this family. well told,
funny and informative😆

great story!

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A must read for everyone. We all have to make a change. Very informative and motivating.

Loved it

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The family in the book is atypical and it's an interesting story but not relatable to most folks. As someone who works in industrial food systems I felt that the critiques were often very judgey. I loved her writing style though. She has a nice voice as well.

Storybook

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Was a great story that I learned a lot from. my family is going to try the 100 mile diet and see how it turns out...

loved everything about this book

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A very pleasant all-out-from-every-angle warm bath of why to eat well and how--complete with clever, realistic humor. One practically needs a doctorate in grocery shopping to fill their fridge with guilt-free food these days!!! This book helps beginners as well as seasoned vets find the middle way of a healthy diet boot camp. More than anything, the constant break-down of such a complicated subject as the modern diet leaves a very strong echo of conviction that is sure to make even the staunchest "unbeliever" of eating well think twice about every bite--in the most pleasant of ways. If you care about the future of food (a.k.a. are a human being) you owe it to yourself to listen to this pleasant meditation on the most ancient and most basic connection that we have to one another and the earth: Food.

Phenomenal primer on eating well

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If you could sum up Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in three words, what would they be?

Educational, Enlightning, funny

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no

Any additional comments?

It's a little over the top in some area. its good information to have. She definetely has an agenda. its inspiring as well.

Really interesting

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