Reviews

Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet by J.B. MacKinnon, Alisa Smith

lanica's review against another edition

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4.0

I enjoyed this book; although, it was written at the beginning of the 'movement' and now reads a little bit like a history. :)

I liked that it was easy and incredibly difficult. I liked that they made their own rules. I liked that they cheated. It all read like a 'If they can do it...I can do it' sort of how-to book.

psyckers's review against another edition

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5.0

An inspiring book that challenges you to think differently to where your next meal comes from.
Why is most of the produce in the supermarket come from other countries?
It's an intriguing read about the authors journey to finding these answers and learn what is around them.
So inspired by this book, we took the challenge of the 100 mile diet and found that we can do this easily in New Zealand, if you look what is around you. Though I still miss coffee.

wrentheblurry's review against another edition

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The February selection for my Food for Thought Book Club. I got to page 20-something before giving it up. Too many details, it didn't grab me, the alternating points of view didn't help things for me either. Not rating it since I didn't read much of it.

thukpa's review against another edition

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4.0

I liked this book. It was interesting, readable, didn't make you feel like a looser for not trying hard enough (although the lengths they went/what they came up with to eat were quite heroic at times.) It was inspiring, if not practical to attempt with as many mouths to feed as I've got, gives a person a lot to think about and any small steps toward complete 100-mile dieting are worth taking. Makes me feel very proud every time I walk out my door and pick veggies fresh off the garden plants to go straight into dinner, like, even if some of our family's food comes from 2000 miles away, some other foods are from 100 feet away. Balance....

amibunk's review against another edition

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3.0

This book is similar (in topic) to Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." While I enjoyed Kingsolver's book more (she is a great writer and chronicles fascinating gardening and raising livestock stories), I did like "Plenty." The authors of "Plenty" presented a more practical and urban approach to eating locally.

I did find much to think about while reading this book, though at times the extreme opinions and ecological philosophies of the authors rubbed me a little wrong. I have a feeling more books discussing eating locally are going to find their way into my hands.

lavoiture's review against another edition

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3.0

Meh. About what you'd expect, although I wanted to hear more about their actual diet than all the other boring crap.

mwtedeschi's review against another edition

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2.0

You know when you meet a really cool guy, and then you meet his really annoying girlfriend who just brings everyone down? And you wonder, how did that happen? That's kind of what reading this book was like. Wish the dude would have just dumped the girlfriend and written the book by himself. Sometimes I was just so distracted by Alisa's constant complaining I forgot about the purpose of this book. That being said, I really enjoyed the parts that James wrote and loved hearing about local food in the PNW, both history and culture.

brfmckay's review against another edition

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4.0

this book made me want to start a 100-mile diet of my own and start buying from local venues again.

ashedryden's review against another edition

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4.0

This book is written with the narrative style that I love: truthful and full of vivid experiences. I was sad to see it come to an end.

mamajaime's review against another edition

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5.0

This book was amazing! Such an inspiration and very informative!