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Epicurus.com - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $8.97
Your Save: $ 5.98 ( 40% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.0973
EAN: 9780060852566
ISBN: 0060852569
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2008-05-01
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: 2008-04-29
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Editorial Reviews:
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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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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: So Sad I Bought This Book
Comment: I should have read reviews of this book before buying it. I've been a member of a local, organic, community supported farm for 2 summers BEFORE I read this book. The first couple of chapters were very hard to get through, and I kept thinking, OK she's going to get into the specifics soon... But they never came. I assumed that she'd be writing to an audience that already knew of the importance of eating locally, and was going to give good advice on how to apply it practically for a whole year. WRONG. I'm a little more than halfway through and I can't wait to be done with it. There are no details about the variety in her garden, pest control, planting times for different produce. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the fact that they didn't really only eat local food! Rice, olives, sugar, sardines! What a ripoff. The tone is preachy, she hits you over the head with themes again and again, and there are only a handful of recipes, most of which have one or more nonlocal ingredient. Just. Disappointing. And a total waste of money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Inspiring!
Comment: I found this story fascinating and inspiring! I originally listened to this book as a download but had to buy a hard copy to loan out because I keep recommending it. If you are interested in learning more about the local food movement, sustainable farming/gardening, seasonal eating, etc... this book is for you. I have always been a city girl but six months after I read this book I was blessed with the opportunity to move to a nearby organic family farm and I love it!
Reading this book also caused me to check out Kingsolver's novels and I have really enjoyed those as well, especially The Bean Trees.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good message. Writing style gets in the way.
Comment: I love the message of this book but found the stream of consciousness writing style was a bit distracting. It was hard with all the side tracks to read this for more then short sessions although I was really pulling for the turkeys at the end. Barbara was also a bit heavy handed in her promotion of her friends who so happen to be offering this book on their web sites. I would have loved to found the reference for the source of the statement that is take 1.2 acres to grow food for one person today and in the year 2050 we will only have .6. That is a startling fact that I have found nothing to back it up. Barbara is pretty good for the most part in providing back up for statements. The other major puzzle was why the heck did she not buy her husband a flour mill so they could grind their own flour. They are not that expensive and fresh ground flour is so much more nutritious. Once milled wheat starts to break down as soon as oxygen and light to the expose kernel, plus all the driving around to find flour seems to be a serous waste of time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Eat me!
Comment: Barbara Kingsolver's lyric prose is so fun to read, and it's good for you too! It's heartening to see the locavore movement get such attention on a national scale. Maybe American food culture isn't doomed after all. The inserts from her family are entertaining, but sometimes awkwardly placed. I can't wait to lend this out to my friends.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good annecdotes, light on facts
Comment: I enjoyed reading this book as a story about a family and how they chose to eat for a year. It certainly inspired me to cook more often, and to head to the farmer's market up the street a little more often. The sections I didn't like were those by Kingsolver and her husband broached bigger societal issues like subsidies for big agriculture companies, problems with feed lot animals, etc. These are all very real problems, but I wish the book had given more details, some statistics, references and footnotes from where her info came from, etc. Also, as a well-informed vegetarian of 17 years, I found the section about how vegetarians are all delusional to be very demeaning and her arguments weak.
Anyhow, read it for the family and farming story. But also pick up "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan for a much better explanation of the bigger issues.
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