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)

I want to live on a farm

I love this book - one of my favorites of all time in the non-fiction, food genre. Makes me want to get out into the garden no matter the time of year, and I really want to raise chickens (for the eggs). I feel like I am part of the family.

Life goals

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book, I felt a connection to the author and as though I was with her on her journey to a year of food. I hope to one day be able to grow as much food as my family needs. The information linked through the story was very interesting and I kept telling my husband all the things I learned throughout the book.

Positive and enjoyable

This book presents a hopeful perspective on how we can live quality lives while building a better food system.

We burn a gas for every miles we we move our food.

This was a life-changing book for my wife and I. we were going to be growing a lot of our food anyway. Now we're going to be buying as much of the rest of it as possible at the farmers market as well.

Naration disappointing

These voices were not meant for naration. I had a hard time focusing on the story and mental imagery simply because I could not ignore this fact.

The perfect winter book

I have been moving in the direction of more sustainability. It started out with buying a pellet stove because we were mad at the wars for oil. LED lights came out energy saver appliances we switched everything we got a hybrid car. We became organic then vegetarians and were able to get solar panels and insulate our house more through a generous gift we received. I was on a path. My passion during spring and summer was my deck garden.always Then I saw this title and I knew I had to read it. This this book is making me so much more aware of local food gathering besides my gardening. I have a new appreciation for meat eaters and for how a family can come together through something that feels insurmountable to start out with. This book fulfilled my greatest expectations in the narration story references and composition. It is assisting me in developing new dreams as I choose new seeds to start for the late spring plantings. I am also going to make my first attempt today I'm making cheese because it sounds wonderful.

Great Discussion of Food and All Its Complexity

Would you consider the audio edition of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to be better than the print version?

I have only listened to the audio edition, so I cannot make a comparison to the print edition. I did enjoy hearing the authors reading what they wrote. It makes the story that much more compelling.

What did you like best about this story?

It provided new information as well as the emotional aspect of why people choose to eat local. It also contained the only discussion about eating meat that I've ever encountered that matches my own philosophy. People are meant to eat meat - however, factory farmed, antibiotic filled meat is wrong. It's not ethical to treat the animals that way and it puts unhealthy elements into the food we consume.

Which scene was your favorite?

The turkey mating and birth scenes were my favorite. First, I didn't realize how all that worked. Second, it was funny and poignant to hear about the range of emotions the author experienced while waiting for the eggs to hatch.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Farming, Food, and Fun

Any additional comments?

This book has challenged me to try and eat more locally. While I don't have the space or patience for growing a large garden, I can shop at farmers markets. We can can make sauces, dehydrate food, and so forth. I also really enjoy cooking. It will be nice to know where the food came from. It's also a great way to support local families and businesses.

It's good but I wanted more daily details

Any additional comments?

I really thought that this would be a book that I would love. It seemed right up my alley. I love food documentaries and Michael Pollan and I thought that this would interest me in a very similar way. I was so excited to start it too. I downloaded it and started it the same day. But much to my surprise I had a really hard time with this book. I even stopped listening about half way through it and listened to another book for a break.

To be fair, this book is very well written and Kingsolver is easy to listen to in her reading of the book. I think my disappointment stems from the fact that the book isn't what I was expecting. I was expecting to hear all about their year of growing their own food and all the ups and downs of that process. And those parts of the book where she talks about exactly that in detail are my favorite parts. For example, I loved hearing all about her exploits with her turkeys. I also really enjoyed when they visited other locavores and hearing about how they live. But most of this book doesn't focus on the details of what it was like for them. I could have done with less talk about why eating local is so great, even though I don't disagree. Some of it just felt too preachy.

I wonder if I would feel differently about the book if I had read it instead of listening to it but I'm not sure. I may have just decided to skim through some parts. I really was looking forward to hearing more of the details from that first year and those were the parts that I enjoyed the most. This book was really good, it just wasn't great for me.

Not a fan of Kingsolver as a narrator

I'm clearly in the minority but while I love Barbara Kingsolver as a writer, I do not enjoy her as a narrator.. This was very hard for me to listen to although through my discomfort I could recognize her beautiful writing style. I have a friend who shares my opinion but looking at the reviews, we are decidedly in the minority. I will not be purchasing her future audio books if she narrates. Those considering purchase should listen to the preview.

Great, inspiring Listen

I have been a fan of Barbara Kingsolver since I read The Poisonwood Bible, and reaffirmed my admiration in this book. Her writing is poetic m, sincere, and clear.