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| Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $7.99
You Save: $6.96 (47%)
New (66) Used (33) from $7.21
Avg. Customer Rating:  338 reviews
Sales Rank: 257
Media: Paperback
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: NEW: NEVER READ...!!!!.(may have faint shelf wear from bookstore)..ALL ORDERS SHIP SAME OR NEXT BUSINESS DAY, FREE POSTAL DELIVERY CONFIRMATION FOR U.S. ORDERS, TOP CUSTOMER SERVICE !!!!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Pretentious, condescending and should have been interesting September 26, 2008
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I picked up this book with no history of Ms. Kingsolver as an author, simply thinking the premise behind the book, trying to purchase local foods and understanding the history of food and agriculture would prove interesting. As a typical homeowner with a small vegetable garden, I also thought it might prove to have some good tips. Sadly, any positives out of the book gets lost and weighed down by a superior and condescending writing style.
Ms. Kingsolver suffers from the same problems that afflict so many "advocate" authors, whether they be on the right,left, conservative, liberal side of a position. Instead of presenting an interesting and positive position based on a combination of facts and beliefs, she starts from the assumption that her viewpoint is simply a superior one and then continues to mock, insult, judge any other viewpoint or process.
A reader knows right away that when the first chapter extols the virtues of a European lifestyle without critically pointing out the flaws or the negative consequences of that culture and then proceeds to make silly conclusions that Europeans must be healthier because they have nude beaches, you know exactly what is coming next, a trashing of all things American. Instead of sticking to critical analysis of what is wrong with the American process of agriculture and food culture, the book is a romp in trashing any innovation, an assumption that all advances in food "technology" was part of the usual corporate conspiracy, and a self-righteous tome about how she is living her life.
The sad part is that many of her arguments are valid: There is a vast amount of energy wasted in current shipping of agricultural goods, the use of excessive pesticides and chemicals has not significantly decreased crop disease, the failure of a majority of not just Americans, but most citizens of developed nations to understand the food chain, the importance of local farmers to a society and to a community. There should have been an interesting story here without the pretentiousness, or moral/agricultural superiority. The book provides good sources for anyone interested in understanding local farming, in how and when vegetables grow and when they really should be purchased and eaten.
However, by the time I was able to even make it through the fifth chapter, as a reader I could not take any more preaching. WE GET IT, you are better then the rest of us. Even as someone sympathetic to much of what she was saying, I still could not digest anymore, nor did I care and that is the worst sin of any author; making your reader not care.
 Kingsolver's books are always tasty! May 19, 2007
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
I've read every book of hers to date & she never disappoints. This book is MUCH easier to digest (ha-ha) than Omnivore's Dilemma. She salts each chapter with words of wisdom without ever preaching. My family has been inching toward `kinder living' in general & she gave us the push we needed to finally locate a farmers market that's close enough to shop each week & the incentive to enlarge our spring vegetable garden. Her words paint beautiful pictures and are as savory to read as biting into the 1st tomato of the season. Thank you Barbara!
 Three Books in One June 8, 2007
10 out of 14 found this review helpful
This book is part college course, part how to manual and part family scrapbook. Kingsolver and her family moved across the country from Tucson to Appalachia to get back to her roots and to the farm that her husband had bought years before with the purpose of living off the land and the products of surrounding county farmers all in an effort of making as little impact on environmental resources as possible.
I don't know what exactly I was looking for in this book, but it just didn't hit the mark. I think that my problem with the book is that it is 3 books jammed into one. It was like she couldn't decide what audience she wanted to appeal to. Each of the three would have made a great book. She also tends to veer off into tangents which left me with a bit of whiplash.
I do have to say that there are many laugh out loud moments. Many moments of insight and an eye opening into the true cost of food in both natural resources and the bottom line. Oh and the story about the roosters is just hysterical.
Good info but prepare for a lecture January 13, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
I think that Kingsolver's main point - that we should focus on eating locally instead of using fossil fuel to bring us all kinds of food at all times of year - is a valid one.
But the author's tone just drove me nuts. She seemed so self-satisfied and preachy that I ended up rooting for some minor farming mishap to shrink her ego a bit. We read this as a book group and all 6 of us got the same feeling about the tone.
So if you end up reading this - and it's probably worthy of a read despite the tone - just be warned that you might feel like you're getting a big old lecture.
 Incredibly Disappointing August 5, 2008
10 out of 18 found this review helpful
I was a fan of Kingsolver until reading this book. I loved her insight about pesticides in The Poisonwood Bible, and I've read all of her other novels. A, V, M was terrible - describes a year of eating locally. But, this was no challenge to Kingsolver. She easily has the means to do this, and had apparently been doing this anyway for years. It would have been great to read a memoir on this theme by people who actually are like the rest of us - now that would have been a hoot. This is also is not a feel-good book. Although there are some things in there I'd like to do (I like the Friday night homemade pizza tradition), after reading it, I feel bad that I'm not baking my own bread, making my own cheese (yes, really!), raising my own chickens, etc. Reading this is way, way worse than watching or reading anything by Martha Stewart. Moreover, Kingsolver just comes across as a nerd, sorry to be so crass. I am sorry I wasted money on this - wish I spent it at the farmers' market.
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