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)

this is a great book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

yes, to enlighten others about food

Any additional comments?

is it just me or is half of the book missing?

Everyone should read this

Barbara Kingsolver's book about her family's year of eating locally is fun, inspiring and written in a manner that informs without feeling preachy. While many of us may not be in a position to raise our own poultry or grow the majority of our own vegetables, this book is full of ideas that allow us to shop and eat more attentively. Thank you, Ms. Kingsolver!

how I *LOVE* this book!

I have read many beautiful books by Barbara Kingsolver, and always thought she was a gifted writer of fiction. (Poisonwood Bible and Flight Behavior are two cherished works that I have read more than once.) I passed over this book several times and I am so glad I finally listened to it.

I adore Kingsolver’s writing style as well as her indomitable wit and wisdom. This book has changed the way I think, the way I shop, and the way I nourish myself and my family. Thank you for this and enlightening and entertaining read!

I felt like I was there!

Loved this story. Very relatable. I'm a gardener and I love to read, or listen about others experiences.

 The educational journal I couldn’t put down! 

Kingsolver is so earnest, clearly expressed, and maternal, and yet also funny and sometimes irreverent. I am now armed with so many reasons to change my lifestyle, and need only to muster the energy and figure out how to implement her lessons. Now, when I go to the grocery store, I am eager at first and frustrated by the end. it is clear that she has touched on the absolute fabric of our lives’ needing fundamental change. It’s hard to start, but probably equally important to do so! Great read

Really Good Book

Totally enjoyable and informative! Wasn't sure I wanted to read another book about food and organics, but I'm very glad my friends encouraged that I do so. I didn't particularly enjoy the author's personal narration. As a gardener, food preserver and one who cares greatly about nutrition and good eating, it was very good. As one who owns and loves animals, the chicken and turkey tales were great. Don't miss this book if you care about food sources and learning how easy it is to prepare good food - and how this family did it.

Hard to get through

I read In Defense of Food in about a day, but this is really hard to get through. There is so much detail- about everything. I'm not a hard-core farmer, just a gardener looking for some gems of information for my little yard. She goes into such detail about every little thing that it makes me wonder if it would go quicker as a 'read' rather than a listen, or if I should have looked for an abridged version first.

Read it now!

This is really a very fun and informative book, largely because Barbara Kingsolver is such a good writer. I believe everyone should read this and start thinking seriously about our food and how what we eat affects the rest of our world. I'm getting the Omnivore's Dilemma next....

Laudable project.

a perfect story for people who have a life of ease and might like to tune up their privilege

second time to listen this year and still GREAT !!

I just finished listening to this book again this year. I cant believe how much more I got from this book the second time around. I have 10 acres in central Texas, we have a flock of chickens and a small heard of goats and of chourse cats and dogs and some other animals. We are by no means a realy Real farm. We are however working towards being a realy real farm, the kind that is self sufficient for the most part. I have looked and looked for guides on the audible web sight for helping me get started with being a real (small scale) farmer, to no avail. This book was the closest thing to having a friend and neighbor who knows the ins and outs of running a small farm as you can get. One of the reasons that I chose this book was its length, I want to have a good long book. I will likely read it again this spring, the insights are Excellent, the explinations of gardens,plantings,flock care,culling,harvesting,cooking,etc,etc are second too none. I very highly recomend this book!