Milk!

A 10,000-Year Food Fracas

By: Mark Kurlansky

Narrated by: Brian Sutherland

Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Mark Kurlansky's first global food history since the best-selling Cod and Salt; the fascinating cultural, economic and culinary story of milk and all things dairy - with recipes throughout. 

According to the Greek creation myth, we are so much spilt milk; a splatter of the goddess Hera's breast milk became our galaxy, the Milky Way. But while mother's milk may be the essence of nourishment, it is the milk of other mammals that humans have cultivated ever since the domestication of animals more than 10,000 years ago, originally as a source of cheese, yogurt, kefir, and all manner of edible innovations that rendered lactose digestible, and then, when genetic mutation made some of us lactose-tolerant, milk itself. 

Before the industrial revolution, it was common for families to keep dairy cows and produce their own milk. But during the 19th century mass production and urbanization made milk safety a leading issue of the day, with milk-borne illnesses a common cause of death. Pasteurization slowly became a legislative matter. And today milk is a test case in the most pressing issues in food politics, from industrial farming and animal rights to GMOs, the locavore movement and advocates for raw milk, who controversially reject pasteurization. 

Profoundly intertwined with human civilization, milk has a compelling and a surprisingly global story to tell, and historian Mark Kurlansky is the perfect person to tell it. Tracing the liquid's diverse history from antiquity to the present, he details its curious and crucial role in cultural evolution, religion, nutrition, politics and economics. 

©2018 Mark Kurlansky (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"Milk! A 10,000-Year Food Fracas is a feat of investigation, compilation and organization.... Altogether a complex and rich survey, Milk! is a book well worth nursing." (Wall Street Journal)

Horrible narration nearly kills Kurlansky

I have been a fan of Mark Kurlansky for many years but this is the first audio book I've experienced. Brian Sutherland's narration is a colorless monotone which leads me to believe that he was thoroughly bored by the topic. With a different narrator, Milk! would have been a thrilling history but Sutherland makes it as interesting as reading a telephone directory. What a shame!

Great writing, horrible narration

Kurlansky is a genius researcher and writer, the only reason I was able to endure the atrociously bland narrator. (Lots of mispronunciations of foreign words, too.)

I'm generally a Krulansky fan, but...

I'm only on Chapter 5, but I've got to say, I'm disappointed. So far, way too many recipes, too little interesting information.
And the narrator... Not just the style, but I'm really worried about the pronunciation. I've read many times that, Boston Celtics notwithstanding, Celt is pronounced "Kelt", not "Selt". And that's just one of several questionable pronunciations I've encountered. Where are the editors here? I expect more of professional narration.

more a recipe book then exploration. boring

his previous work was really interesting. but this book is half recipe listings. an audio book of recipes is just silly. I dumped the book.

Narration is TERRIBLE

It feels like a computer is automatically pronouncing a list of comma separated words, couldn't make it through the first chapter.

This Milk has gone off..

Not Kurlansky’s best but still interesting. What totally spoiled it for me was the narrator - if Siri had a sex change and read a book out loud it would sound like this! Oddly paced and weirdly emphasized, it was hard to get through. I finished it but not a keeper.

Robot Narrator

Is Audible testing AI narrators to make more profit? Enjoyed the book, hated the narration.

Good book, terrible narration

Worst narrating I have ever heard. He literally sounds like a computer. Inflections in the wrong places, odd pronunciations, flat affect. Well written book with lots of good information though.

Lacking a fact check

I was excited after listening to Salt by Mark but I was not impressed at all by Milk!. The beginning is interesting with a history of the various milk types and their uses. There were a few too many recipes included in the text for me however. It might not be as bad in a written book, but listening to a recipe being read out is not enjoyable for me. My real issue is the later half of the book, which discusses modern dairying. There are multiply strawman arguments, half facts, contradictions, and outright lies. He discusses things like GMO crops, animal health, and organics with only the most superficial understanding. Discussing alfalfa he will mention GMO's, although there are no GMO alfalfa varieties in use. He alludes to organic being the best, only to mention it is more expensive and less efficient. He talks about farmers grazing cow in upstate New York, but doesn't mention what they do for the 4 month of winter when pastures are covered in snow. He mentions how there are buyers in NYC that will pay a premium for X milk because Y farm does Z. Sure, everyone can find a niche and 40 people who will buy there item at a premium. That doesnt mean that it is sustainable or better. Ultimately, I am disappointed that a book that promised to discuss the history of Milk, ends with anecdotes and un-researched claims about modern practices.

Good book undermined by robotic voice performance

This is my fourth book from Mark Kurlansky, and unfortunately it's the worst. I love his books, so it's still pretty decent, although it's not his best in terms of pure content. What knocks it further is the awful narration. The oddly placed and distracting pauses, in addition to some of the pronunciation issues, had me thinking the narrator's name was a stage name for a computerized translation bot. A bit of searching indicates the narrator is an actual flesh and blood human, although I wouldn't have suspected that from the performance.

If you want to see a great Kurlansky book made even better by a phenomenal voice performance, check out "Salt".

Terrible narration ruins the book

Extremely robotic narration made this horrible to listen to.
The book itself had some interesting elements but felt like it jumped about between topics, so it was hard to follow and take things in