Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

A Year of Food Life

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

Narrado por: Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp

“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

Good for a city slicker

Barbara Kingsolver does know how to tell a good story. She manages to turn what can be a very boring topic and makes it relatively interesting. For anyone who hasn't grown a large garden, eaten their own food, or know why asparagus isn't available in August, then this is a good book. She talks about why, when and how food is grown.

In the vein of making a good story she also anthromorphize all animals and plants. For example, the end story turns a large part on turkeys she is raising. Having raised the exact breed of turkeys she does perhaps gave me a little more insight. Her story is cute, but they aren't people. Applying human attributes to turkeys, or any animal, is annoying and not very helpful. They will squat or want to mate with a towel on a stick.

You also have to be careful. She wants to return her turkeys to a more "natural" animal that can raise their young and help the breed survive. This desire may kill the breed. Bourbon Red Turkeys have never lived on their own, they are a commercial breed developed in the 1900 and raised for meat. If you want to save the breed you need people to buy the meat, which then encourages people to raise the breed to meet the demand. This means it has to be affordable. Having birds sit on their own eggs and raise the breed means a female may raise 6 or 7 birds a year. They can produce up to 50 eggs/year, artificially incubated that's 50 turkeys. Heritage turkeys are already expensive enough to raise and sell, you don't need to increase costs more. Over the last 100 years they almost died out since they have little economic value and are raised as a hobby. If we're not careful they will be lost forever.

Her parts of the book are mixed with commentary from her partner and daughter. She's pretty lose with the facts in the first place, but in these asides lack total balance or realism. They really do detract from the book.

Moan, moan, moan.

Yes, the world will soon have no more to give to mankind. Yes, it's wonderful that the author was able to live a year of sustainability. Thanks for alerting the rest of us to options to reduce our ever-destructive impact on the world. I am so glad that your turkeys now know how to mate. I am so sad that petroleum based transportation systems hold us all in their ghastly grip. Oh, for another era . . .

Great book, with a caveat

I really enjoyed listening to this book. As an avid gardener and a supporter of local farms for all of our meat and eggs, I related strongly with a lot of the narrative. Barbara Kingsolver has a beautiful turn of phrase, and it was lovely to hear her husband and daughter adding their perspectives, too. The only reservation I have in recommending this book is that there are elements which we would recognize today as fatphobic as well as scientifically inaccurate as we have learned more about discrepancies about how thin people and fat people are treated by doctors and how that impacts health. A good listen if you can get past that, but if you have a history of disordered eating I wouldn’t recommend it.

If you think her fiction is great...

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

I have already reccomended this to quite a few friends and hosted a book group to discuss it. I will continue bringing it to the attention of the many readers at my Library.

What did you like best about this story?

Barbara not only writes with wit and charm but narrates with soothing clarity and is incredibly easy on one's ears. The additional sections from her husband and eldest daughter are very well done, and have been bookmarked to refer to their statistics and wonderful recipes. If this book doesn't make you think about how you are living and what you are putting in your mouth, I don't believe you are really listening. If you have the slightest interest in food or gardening this is a must-listen. Non-fiction that reads like fiction is hard to find and their farm life and travels take me to a beautiful place full of sun and tomato leaves. It's realism does not leave me despondent. It is clear that if we try to eat seasonally and locally each of us can make a difference even if we don't aspire to do it perfectly. Contains very practical ideas and educates without lecturing.

Hopefully there will be a revised and updated edition or a sequel in five to ten years.

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

no

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I have never written a review before but this title demands it. If I could buy a copy for everyone I would. Thank you Ms. Kingsolver for doing such wonderful work with the book and the narration. It is such a joy.

Interesting

This book provided an opportunity for me to explore my interest in gardening, while creating very necessary discussions with friends and family about the food we eat.