Animal, Vegetable, Miracle : : a Year of Food Life

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	641.09 Ki	4-week checkout	Due 05-02-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Literary / Kingsolver, Barbara	4-week checkout	Due 05-22-2024

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

More Passionate than Preachy submitted by Sara W on June 21, 2011, 2:04am My book club had a great discussion about this book, we were all hooked by the premise and interested in the progression of the family's experiment and in the facts that Kingsolver presented about local food production.

As someone who has never had a garden, canned a tomato or, um, slaughtered a turkey - I was interested in this book as a glimpse into agriculture self-sufficiency. I enjoyed Kingsolver's worshipful prose about her seed catalogs and the glories of fresh, seasonal vegetables.

I found that her tone moved from passionate to preachy with some frequency. Her family life does seem rather idyllic, with everyone pitching in and never complaining - except for Camille's single, heartfelt plea for her one true love: fruit. This was a little annoying.

The whole exercise felt a little miscast - that the family was going to make this grand year-long bid and try growing all their own food. Except it kind of felt that they normally pretty much did this anyway, they had raised chickens before and regularly kept a large garden and canned vegetables and sauces annually.

I found their endeavor interesting and admirable, but when I realized they were already experts at family farming that I began to take this book more as a sermon to local eating and sufficiency than as an experience intended to resonate with readers.

I enjoyed reading it and even more than that, I enjoyed discussing it with my book club members. One member has plans for a big garden come spring and others mentioned that the book inspired them to simplify. There's no doubt that this book has a real effect on the reader.

Inspiring but possibly unrealistic submitted by manyan on June 28, 2011, 12:02pm After reading this book I wanted to run out, plant enough vegetables to have to can and preserve and dry bushels and bushels of everything. Sadly, as a family with 2 adults who work full time and live in a house with a tiny amount of land, this will probably never come true.

I found the 3 different voices jarring and ended up reading the book with each one singly (First Kingsolver, then her husband, then her daughter).

Enjoyable and well written, not overly preachy, but not realistic for most people

Inspirational submitted by emelcher on July 5, 2011, 7:37pm I enjoyed reading this book. I am realistic enough to know I will never can my own food or even have a big garden, but the book did inspire my family to plant tomatoes, peppers and herbs. I am going to attempt to make cheese with the help of a kit from Zingerman's Creamery. It did cause me to think about all the food we buy out of season and the low quality it often is. I am going to make an effort to buy more locally and less out of season food.

A/V/M submitted by hcf on July 30, 2014, 8:42pm great book for a book club discussion

Grounding submitted by Family_Coffman on June 29, 2016, 9:47am When I need a little push to remind me why I feed my family the way I do, I pick up and re-read sections of this book. Barbara Kingsolver welcomes us into her world and shares her rationale for why cooking from scratch is worth it. Her way of life is inspiring, and even if it's not achievable all the time, even a little bit of effort has gone a long way toward helping me order my priorities to reflect practices that are healthier for me, and for my family. She does a good job of not being pushy or evoking guilt, and presents some nuanced perspectives that I really appreciated, such as the plight of tobacco farmers, and social considerations like making exceptions in what you serve so that your kids can feel like they can have friends over without having to eat "weird" food. Nice memoir of what sound like a nice family. :)

read and rereading it! submitted by 21621031390949 on July 20, 2018, 2:13pm Currently rereading this wonderful book. So inspiring, and getting me back on track. Time to make cheese!

One of the books that has truly influenced me! submitted by mickplu on July 23, 2019, 2:33pm I not only was impressed with this book, but it also changed the way that I eat, what I buy to eat, and my thinking of local vs. far from local foods.

Life submitted by smr on July 5, 2020, 10:56am Life food

little changes make a big difference submitted by nemiller on July 27, 2022, 9:27am I read this book because I love Kingsolver's writing so much, and it ended up really changing how I think about food, and food justice. I think she is realistic about how her lifestyle is not feasible for most people, but even little changes can still make a difference. I loved the sections with suggestions of what you can do, both as an individual/family (such as where you get your own food from), and as a community (like getting involved in linking farmers to schools to benefit both).

It's been a few years since I've read this, and I'd be interested to read an updated edition if she ever writes one!