A review by skyring
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp, Barbara Kingsolver
5.0
This is one of those life changing books. Or lifestyle changing books.
Barbara Kingsolver brings us into the family home for a year as she, her husband and their daughters eat and drink local produce for a year. Only a few luxuries (such as coffee) that wasn't produced either on their farm, at the local farmers markt, or by local suppliers.
The message - to say no to food trucked or flown in from far places at enormous carbon and financial cost. To say no to foods that are designed by marketing nabobs at the expense of taste and goodness. To say no to the destructive forces that are tearing our world and society apart.
I have enormous admiration for Barbara Kingsolver through her novels. They are cleverly written with warmth and humanity, richness of plot and thoughtfulness in setting. She doesn't use cheap Da Vinci Code tricks. She puts hard work into writing and makes it look easy and I love her for it.
This book sends my respect for her into the stars. She makes a great case for thinking and acting about something that affects every one of us. Our food. We are what we eat, and our planet is home to an incredibly diverse and rich ecosystem. We need to take care of ourselves and our home.
The way things are going, we'll be living in cardboard mansions amongst the soybeans and corn fields pushing out bland protein and high fructose syrup. With the odd chemical flavour additive, all wrapped up in plastic and costing the earth.
Her story, month by fruitful month is informative on so many levels. The story of vegetables and fruits. The inside insights into the modern food industry. The counterculture of farmers markts and heirloom produce. The stories and the people of her year of living organically.
Her husband writes sidebars on various more technical aspects of the story. Resource links are provided for further study.
And her teenage daughter writes of food and recipes.
This book is redolent of the farm and the kitchen. You can, I swear, smell the tomatoes cooking down and the turkey roasting. The taste of fresh asparagus and the crisp bite of apples.
Side trips to Ohio and Italy for alternative farmstyles and more rich and delicious cooking contrast the Appalachian life of the family farm.
This is a book to savour. To think about. To buy extra copies and fore them on friends.
This is a book that will change the way you think about food. It will make you taste life.
Barbara Kingsolver brings us into the family home for a year as she, her husband and their daughters eat and drink local produce for a year. Only a few luxuries (such as coffee) that wasn't produced either on their farm, at the local farmers markt, or by local suppliers.
The message - to say no to food trucked or flown in from far places at enormous carbon and financial cost. To say no to foods that are designed by marketing nabobs at the expense of taste and goodness. To say no to the destructive forces that are tearing our world and society apart.
I have enormous admiration for Barbara Kingsolver through her novels. They are cleverly written with warmth and humanity, richness of plot and thoughtfulness in setting. She doesn't use cheap Da Vinci Code tricks. She puts hard work into writing and makes it look easy and I love her for it.
This book sends my respect for her into the stars. She makes a great case for thinking and acting about something that affects every one of us. Our food. We are what we eat, and our planet is home to an incredibly diverse and rich ecosystem. We need to take care of ourselves and our home.
The way things are going, we'll be living in cardboard mansions amongst the soybeans and corn fields pushing out bland protein and high fructose syrup. With the odd chemical flavour additive, all wrapped up in plastic and costing the earth.
Her story, month by fruitful month is informative on so many levels. The story of vegetables and fruits. The inside insights into the modern food industry. The counterculture of farmers markts and heirloom produce. The stories and the people of her year of living organically.
Her husband writes sidebars on various more technical aspects of the story. Resource links are provided for further study.
And her teenage daughter writes of food and recipes.
This book is redolent of the farm and the kitchen. You can, I swear, smell the tomatoes cooking down and the turkey roasting. The taste of fresh asparagus and the crisp bite of apples.
Side trips to Ohio and Italy for alternative farmstyles and more rich and delicious cooking contrast the Appalachian life of the family farm.
This is a book to savour. To think about. To buy extra copies and fore them on friends.
This is a book that will change the way you think about food. It will make you taste life.