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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
Four stars for the parts about how she grew her garden and raised poultry; 2 stars for the rants about GMOs, organic methods, climate change, etc. Those topics are important too, but it wasn’t really done in any new, compelling way. If you weren’t under a rock from 2007-2011, you could skim these portions. I understand some greater context for why subsisting on local food and what you grow yourself was needed, but it didn’t have to be dragged out as long as it was in some parts.
I connected more to the parts about the joy & wonder one experiences when growing one’s own food. I, too, recently moved to a farm and have been learning to garden & raise poultry. If I haven’t been in this position, I probably would have found the tone more self-satisfied than I did. I’ll admit there were certainly some sections that came off that way, but once one experiences the feeling of awe and pride from serving a meal grown 30 feet from the house, it’s easier to hear this pride more as, “Holy cow, I can’t believe I grew that!” and less, “Thank goodness I don’t have to eat food from the grocery store, like those plebes...”
I’d recommend this if you’re starting out vegetable gardening. (If you’re not, this may not be for you.) If you somehow missed it, I’d suggest you read Omnivore’s Dilemma and then just skim over the rant-portions of this book.
I connected more to the parts about the joy & wonder one experiences when growing one’s own food. I, too, recently moved to a farm and have been learning to garden & raise poultry. If I haven’t been in this position, I probably would have found the tone more self-satisfied than I did. I’ll admit there were certainly some sections that came off that way, but once one experiences the feeling of awe and pride from serving a meal grown 30 feet from the house, it’s easier to hear this pride more as, “Holy cow, I can’t believe I grew that!” and less, “Thank goodness I don’t have to eat food from the grocery store, like those plebes...”
I’d recommend this if you’re starting out vegetable gardening. (If you’re not, this may not be for you.) If you somehow missed it, I’d suggest you read Omnivore’s Dilemma and then just skim over the rant-portions of this book.
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
We're listening to this book; and although I'm sure it takes longer than reading it silently, there is something amazing about hearing her read it. Her gentle, slow, Kentucky voice has beautiful tone and quality. I love listening. Also, there is an added sense of voice because her husband and oldest daughter (who both collaborate in elements of the writing) read their contributions too. She makes the difficult seem possible and the extraordinary feel attainable. We're on cd 7 out of 12. I'll write more when I'm done.
If you ever were curious about turkey sex...read the entire book! It's hilarious.
I am so glad I read this -- she is encouraging, warm, intelligent, reasonable...and somehow on someone's list of 100 most dangerous Americans. (She's 74.) That alone should be worth the read!
If you ever were curious about turkey sex...read the entire book! It's hilarious.
I am so glad I read this -- she is encouraging, warm, intelligent, reasonable...and somehow on someone's list of 100 most dangerous Americans. (She's 74.) That alone should be worth the read!
A great book about a family's journey with growing all of their own food for a year // only buying food if it came from a local source. The sections about growing the food and raising the farm animals taught me a lot, but the sections about the political, social, and environmental importance of these activities fell a little flat for me because they felt a bit repetitive. Well worth the read!
I just skimmed this book - wish I would have read the whole thing. But there is a killer strawberry rhubarb crisp recipe in here that I make all summer long. This is definitely a book I want to read again.
Occasionally preachy, anecdotal look at how to live off local produce, assuming that you have a 40-acre farm in Appalachia.
2nd read and liked it much better the 2nd time. Wowza! and Shazam!
I thought I'd be so into this book, especially after spending the day weeding my new raised garden beds. Kingsolver is still the amazing writer I remember from my teenage years (The Bean Trees was one of the first adult books I read when I was about 13) but unfortunately she shares the book with her plucky teenage daughter and her husband. I don't care what Camille thinks or if she eats only free range meat (that part particularly irritated me). The book felt so smug and self-important that I didn't want to keep reading it.
When she asked for fresh fruit and was given rhubarb, I waited for at least a frustrated "what the hell, mom?" But none came. Apparently she just cheerfully made do and wrote up a recipe.
When she asked for fresh fruit and was given rhubarb, I waited for at least a frustrated "what the hell, mom?" But none came. Apparently she just cheerfully made do and wrote up a recipe.
Kingsolver has a tendency to over emphasize a sincere religious motif that often becomes tiresome to someone who believes buying into an entire mantra is fairly impossible for every individual to abide. That said, this novel was a fun look at what it's like to farm and live a live that revolves around producing, processing, and consuming your food.
Four stars for Kingsolver's writing and optimism. Two stars for the fact that I still walked away from this book depressed.
I would say that Kingsolver comes across as more gung-ho and hopeful than many other food writers I've read in recent years. She really believes in the locavore movement and the improvement in public health on a deeper and more personal level. Unfortunately that enthusiasm doesn't seem to overcome many of the dire statistics and realities about the world that she also discusses. Difficult to tell if this is a failing in her writing (i.e. -- that she's not translating her hope well enough into words) or a weakness in her personality (i.e. -- that she's SO optimistic that she simply cannot see how much of a challenge what she's suggesting really is).
It is a good book, no doubt. Very informative and alternately light-hearted and deeply fascinating. But I can't help but walk away from it feeling a bit depressed. I don't share her optimism that American food culture can really change as fundamentally as it needs to.
I would say that Kingsolver comes across as more gung-ho and hopeful than many other food writers I've read in recent years. She really believes in the locavore movement and the improvement in public health on a deeper and more personal level. Unfortunately that enthusiasm doesn't seem to overcome many of the dire statistics and realities about the world that she also discusses. Difficult to tell if this is a failing in her writing (i.e. -- that she's not translating her hope well enough into words) or a weakness in her personality (i.e. -- that she's SO optimistic that she simply cannot see how much of a challenge what she's suggesting really is).
It is a good book, no doubt. Very informative and alternately light-hearted and deeply fascinating. But I can't help but walk away from it feeling a bit depressed. I don't share her optimism that American food culture can really change as fundamentally as it needs to.