Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.) | 
| Authors: Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  227 reviews
Sales Rank: 112
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0060852569
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.0973
EAN: 9780060852566
ASIN: 0060852569
Publication Date: May 1, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
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| Also Available In:
| • | Hardcover - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life | | • | Audio CD - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle CD: A Year of Food Life | | • | Paperback - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle LP | | • | Audio Cassette - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Library Edition | | • | Audio Download - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (Unabridged) | | • | Hardcover - ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE: A YEAR OF FOOD LIFE | | • | Audio CD - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Library Edition | | • | Kindle Edition - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle |
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Product Description
Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they'd only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 222 more reviews...
 Could have been a magazine article May 12, 2008
I like the message of this book and I consider myself an environmentalist. I eat mostly organic and natural foods. However, I find Kingsolver's tone to be overly preachy for most of the book. I agree that we all need to take actions to change the cultural norms of our country but I don't think it's always as easy as she makes it sound. We don't all have the luxury of owning a large plot of land in a favorable growing climate. Also, her logic is failed at several points in the book. In her defense of eating meat, Kingsolver uses goats in marginal parts of Africa to justify the need for non-vegetable food sources. Okay, if you live in Africa I'll buy that explanation. But, that's not a good argument for somebody living where growing plants is not a problem. She seems unwilling to admit that raising livestock can be a drain on energy and a major source of pollution. Her defense of tobacco farming also seems a little stretched. Yes, it provides jobs, but what are the costs? I find it annoying when somebody thinks that they have all of the answers. Even more annoying is when they try to convince you that there is one silver bullet for fixing all problems. The isolationism that Kingsolver advocates can lead to more issues. Trading with other countries in a responsible manner (labor laws, environmental regulations, etc.) can give the people in those countries a chance at a better life that they would not otherwise get. Kingsolver should open an economics book and read about the concept of comparative advantage. You don't have to do everything for yourself. And it doesn't kill the U.S. to have economic ties to other countries. We may just build some friendships that way. In the end we're all tied together on this planet. The basic ideas of this book are worthwhile and I'm glad that they're getting some attention. But, an article in a magazine could have gotten across the same point without beating the reader over the head so many times. Finally, I enjoyed Camille's sections the most because she seemed more down to earth and in touch with reality.
 I really wanted to like this, but... May 12, 2008
...it just didn't keep my interest. I've enjoyed some of Kingsolver's fiction, though it bothers me when characters get preachy. The messages should be clear throughout the story without a long monologue or didactic dialog. The writing in this was sort of flat and not very engaging. Since it's set up like a sort of "family scrapbook"-- excerpts from each family member, such as a more scientific point of view [Kingsolver's husband] and a younger generation's perspective [her daughter]-- perhaps that's too many voices or too jarring. Other similar writers such as Michael Pollan or Eric Schlosser have some more interesting ways of writing about the same subject with more poetry and action. One plus that it has going for it-- it's a neat idea, and certainly has me wondering why I can't actually get more local foods in a state that has plenty of agricultural offerings.
 Great memoir, great information April 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I cannot get enough of this book. It has completely changed the way that I look at food. I work in food policy, but this book taught me a lot of things I didn't know and inspired me to shop locally more often. I've even started a small vegetable garden!
Many of the reviewers seem not to have gotten the point of this book. We are slowly killing ourselves and our culture with our reliance on industrialized foods. Current skyrocketing prices are one proof. We use up so many resources to get our food from point A to point B when we should be eating within our environment as much as possible. Food travels from country to country, and losing the depth and variety we could be having locally.
Barbara Kingsolver is a gifted writer and this memoir about HER experience is beautiful. It's not a treatise on "live my exact life;" it's about making changes that can have worldwide implications.
A fabulous book: but not her typical April 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you expect a typical Kingsolver book, you will be disappointed. But if you put that aside, this is a fabulous book! She catches the current movement towards sustainable living and shows us the practicalities as well as what it means for farmers around the country. I love the familial collaboration with her husband providing more scientific information and her eldest daughter providing recipes (which are delicious, by the way). I really think this is an important book because it makes this lifestyle accessible for people who are not environmental extremists (or who grew up on farms where this information would be 'old hat') but who want to do what they can to make a difference: not only to the environment but also for the nation's farmers, who lead a very difficult life. And as a bonus, the food is fresher (=tastier).
Big Disappointment April 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Let me start off with full disclosure: I am a huge Barbara Kingsolver fan. I've read most of what she's written and loved all of that. Except this.
She just can't quit lecturing throughout the entire thing. She can't even finish a small story without interspersing it intolerable amounts of pedagogy. It's really just one lecture after another. Perhaps if I were interested in, but not knowledgeable about, the subject matter I would be more forgiving. But I have to think that folks who are reading this book are already at least baseline knowledgeable. So why is she lecturing us all? We're the good guys. We already agree. Enough, already. We really want to hear how you did it, what you thought about it, the ups, the downs, the turkeys.
So, those looking for another tremendous Kingsolver story: Be Warned.
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