Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
A Year of Food Life

The author weaves her own family's experience living off what they can grow or buy locally with the impact that mass farming and industry has on our environment. I'm not a vegetarian nor an organic nut....but I found this book fascinating. Well worth the time!

I am a conservative Christian and as such, many liberals don't think that we care about conservation and ecology, but we do. Granted, I think the whole climate change or global warming thing is a load of bunk since the climate changes constantly. Even so, I've always felt its just plain common sense to live as close to the earth as possible and take care of it. Its good for us, its good for our neighbors and its good for everyone in general. Back to the book - this audiobook held me enthralled. I've never heard of Barbara Kingsolver before but I love the stories and the wisdom about eating locally. I admire her for spending countless hours gardening, canning, cooking, preserving. I wish I had the time. But I do have chickens and will enlarge my flock and, partially from listening to this book, will add a flock of heritage breed turkeys next year. I can't do a big garden with my schedule, but I will try once again - this time a small one of tomatoes and peppers. And I have already started to look locally for my food, considering organic and local over just anything in the store. No, I won't give up McDonalds just now, but I might just try making local cheese or whipping together something homemade rather than running off to the fast food place. BTW - loved this book so much I bought the hardcopy - something I haven't done in the 4 years of listening to books on CD.

I really enjoyed Kingsolvers novels but found I was being preached at by this book. Nice of you to live off the land, not everyone can do that.

Barbara Kingsolver has long been one of my favorite writers, but this most recent book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The book covers the year she and her family spent eating only food they had either grown themselves or purchased from local farmers personally known to them. Kingsolver’s skill as......more

Well...normally I am a Kingsolver fan. I like the way she writes--simple and straight forward. Her stories, both long an short are well done. But this book just really pissed me off. It's a non-fiction account of her back to the land movement with her family. The book starts off well and good. She d......more

This book gave me desires. Deep dark desires for...gardening. And making my own cheese. And doing more things from scratch. And doing them now. The thing is, these are all things I have aspirations to do anyway, but my way is rather slower than the way Barbara Kingsolver and her family approached try......more

You have to read this book. Not just because it conveys an important message about the sustainability and environmental impact of our foodways. Not just because its "Year in Provence"-style charm makes Appalachia sound as alluring as the French or Italian countryside (no euros required). But mostly......more

I have to admit that I have a real love/hate relationship with this book. On one hand, when the author sticks to the actual practicalities and stories of what it took to live on local food only for a year such as the hilarity of turkey sex, the pets vs food dilemma or the aggravation that a zucchini......more