Sunday, June 1, 2008

June Book Club Selection: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

For our book club selection this month, I chose Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover. I've seen tons of great reviews about this book so I really wanted to read it. I know some of you have already read it, but I figured you wouldn't mind since it meant not having to add one more book to your TBR list for this month. I'll be sure to link to any reviews of it at the book club discussion on June 30, but also please feel free to stop by and give your two cents about what you thought of the book.

For those of you who haven't read this book, here's a short description from the publisher (sorry, I'm being lazy today):

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."

5 comments:

LisaMM said...

I have been wanting to read this with my book club but so far have been unsuccessful in convincing them! So I'm glad you picked it here.

Journalista said...

I'm so excited you're reading this in your book club. I just finished reading it and I'm totally ready to trade in Hostess cupcakes and Diet Dr. Pepper for barrels of sun-ripened tomatoes and homemade asparagus quiche. The book is interesting, though there were several areas where, I admit, I just skipped ahead a couple of pages (and didn't miss a thing). I hope you guys enjoy it.

Anonymous said...

I keep seeing this one around the book blogsphere and really think I'll have to pick it up one day.

beastmomma said...

I am hoping to read this book before the end of the month. We shall see what happens though :)

Kim L said...

This sounds like a great book. I've been hearing really good things about it. I really liked The Poisonwood Bible, so I had to double check that she was in actuality the same person who wrote this book!