Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life - Hardcover

Kingsolver, Barbara; Hopp, Steven L.; Kingsolver, Camille

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060852550 ISBN 13: 9780060852559

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2007

Synopsis

Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.

"As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain.

"Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . ."

Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.

"This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."

About this title

Review

"Homespun, unassuming, informed, positive, inspiring. . . . Unstinting in its concerns about this imperiled planet."--Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"A lovely book. "--Los Angeles Times

"Kingsolver...adds enough texture and zest to stir wistful yearnings in all of us...[A] vicarious taste of domesticity."--Christian Science Monitor

"I defy anyone to read this book and walk away from it without gaining at least the desire to change."--Bookreporter.com

"Provocative . . . Kingsolver . . . evokes the sheer joy of producing one's own food."--People

"Lessons learned in sustainability are worth feasting on-and taking to heart."--Self

"ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE makes an important contribution to the chorus of voices calling for change.""--Chicago Tribune

"Kingsolver elegantly chronicles a year of back-to-the-land living...Readers...will take heart and inspiration here."--Kirkus Reviews

"Full...of zest and sometimes ribald humor... Reading this book will make you hungry."--Raleigh News & Observer

"A terrific effort. The delight for readers...is the chance to experience the rediscovery of community through food."--The Oregonian (Portland)

Book Description

A year in the life of bestselling novelist ,Barbara Kingsolver, and her family as they try to eat local produce, grow their own, and reduce their ecological footprint

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0060852550
• ISBN 13: 9780060852559
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 370