Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

A Year of Food Life

By: Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp

Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp

Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

When Barbara Kingsolver and her family move from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they take on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally-produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle follows the family through the first year of their experiment. They find themselves eager to move away from the typical food scenario of American families: a refrigerator packed with processed, factory-farmed foods transported long distances using nonrenewable fuels. In their search for another way to eat and live, they begin to recover what Kingsolver considers our nation's lost appreciation for farms and the natural processes of food production. Americans spend less of their income on food than has any culture in the history of the world, but they pay dearly in other ways: losing the flavors, diversity, and creative food cultures of earlier times. The environmental costs are also high, and the nutritional sacrifice is undeniable: on our modern industrial food supply, Americans are now raising the first generation of children to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

Part memoir and 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.

©2007 Barbara Kingsolver (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Kingsolver has the ear of a journalist and the accuracy of a naturalist." (Publishers Weekly)

Wonderful

Wonderful book, gifted by a friend. Changed the way I think about food and shop for groceries. Beautifully written and narrated. Highly recommend.

I’ve listen to this five times. Amazing!

I absolutely love this book, one of my favorites of all time. Barbara Kingsolver’s writing and voice are so beautiful, I listen to it again every few years and always learn something new. I recommend this book to everyone!

Thought Provoking

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a wonderfully told story, written in an informative, uplifting manner. While my family and I are already on the same page with the theme of this book—eating local/quality foods, growing what we can, lowering our impact on the environment, etc., this book still has motivated us to do more and be brave enough to try the next new—to us—thing in our kitchen. Perhaps homemade yogurt will be our next project!

Beautiful

Absolutely beautiful book. What an honor to be read to by Barbara Kingsolver herself (and her kinfolk). Having listened to “Lacuna” for the 5th time, and having finished this, I’m on to repeat “Prodigal Summer.” Kingsolver is a master of language and of taking me on journeys that are beautiful, meaningful & transcendent.

Loved this book on every level!

The quality of the writing is exceptional, the author's voice and manner of narrating is delightful, and the content is entertaining as well as informative. I don't know why it took me so long to get around to reading this. A must-read for anyone who cares about food, eating, gardening, farming, caring for our environment, social justice, community, family... There are so many layers to be found here.

A must listen / read

This is a very important book. A story about how it is possible for basic changes in food and attitude to have a profound positive affect on individuals, communities, countries, and the environment. Besides it's a fun listen. Very tasteful and well done, throughout, and the part about turkey sex is a hoot.

This book goes along perfectly with two other excellent audio books that everyone should listen to: Folks This Ain't Normal and The Omnivore's Dilemma.

A Must-Read!!! 💚🌏🌱

This amazing book has become my new bible! It very eloquently illustrates a tangible focus towards what we can each do to truly have a positive impact on the environment and society. I am so happy to have found this book!! 🤗

Worthwhile information in a somewhat sappy format

While the content of the book was important, a more vigorous read would have improved it. An avid lifetime gardener, I finally gained understanding of the local food movement, somewhat. It seems the author did not recommend this except in a minimal way...stating even limited use of local foods would have a big impact on fuel used to transport it from afar. I wonder where she got those numbers?

Captivating story

Loved this book. Very thought provoking and gives you plenty of suggestions on how to make small changes in our lives to reduce the distance to which food travels, how to find it locally all while telling this compelling story.
I think there was some misconception of farming cattle- but im going to let it slide because the rest of the book was absolutely fantastic.

Wonderful

I live in Northern New Hampshire on a working farm where we raise all our own meat..some of our vegetables and all of our eggs and milk. I could indentify with many of the tasks and experiences of the Kingsolver/Hoppe family. I enjoyed every minute of the book and re-listened several times while weeding, cleaning etc. I have recommended it to many of my friends...two of whom (In CT and NM) had purchased the print copy in early May and enjoyed it as well.