Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

A Year of Food Life

By Barbara Kingsolver; Camille Kingsolver; Steven L. Hopp
(Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780060852566, 400pp.)

Publication Date: April 29, 2008

Categories: Literary, Personal Memoirs

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the Spring/Summer '09 Reading Group List

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of seven works of fiction, including the novels The Poisonwood Bible, Animal Dreams, and The Bean Trees, as well as books of poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction. Her most recent book is the enormously influential bestseller Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver's work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has earned literary awards and a devoted readership at home and abroad. In 2000 she was awarded the National Humanities Medal, our country's highest honor for service through the arts. She lives with her family on a farm in southern Appalachia.

1. What was your perception of America's food industry prior to reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? What did you learn from this book? How has it altered your views on the way food is acquired and consumed?

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

"ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE is a chronicle of food feats.I'm inclined to agree with most points Kingsolver makes."
-Chicago Sun-Times

"A lovely book. "
-Los Angeles Times

"If you're interested in learning more about healthful eating, you'll want to read.ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE."
-Charlotte Observer

"Charming . . . Literary magic . . . If you love the narrative voice of Barbara Kingsolver, you will be thrilled."
-Houston Chronicle

"Kingsolver beautifully describes this experience."
-More Magazine

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

"[This] is a book that, without being preachy, makes a solid case for eating locally instead of globally."
-Richmond Times-Dispatch

"A profound, graceful, and literary work . . . Timeless. . . . It can change who you are."
-Rick Bass, Boston Globe

"An impassioned, sensual, smart and witty narrative.Kinsolver is a master at leavening a serious message with humor."
-St. Petersburg Times

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

"Anyone who read and appreciated THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA by Michael Pollan will want to read Barbara Kingsolver's book."
-Roanoke Times

"Kingsolver carries us along in her distinct and breezy prose."
-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"[Written] with passion and hope.This novelist paints a compelling big picture-broad and ambitious, with nary an extraneous stroke."
-Rocky Mountain News

"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

"Delectable . . . steeped in elegant prose and seasoned with smart morsels about the food industry."
-Chicago Tribune

"Highly digestible.Engaging."
-Ellen Goodman, Boston Globe

"Wry, insightful and inspiring to anyone who yearns to work with the earth."
-Chicago Tribune (on the audiobook)

"Every bit as transporting as-and more ecologically relevant than-any "Year In Provence"-style escapism...Earthy...informative....[and] englightened."
-Washington Post

"Loaded with terrific information about everything from growth hormones to farm subsidies."
-Entertainment Weekly

"Classy and disarming, substantive and entertaining, earnest and funny....Kingsolver takes the genre to a new literary level."
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"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

"Kingsolver dresses down the American food complex.These down-on-the-farm sections are inspiring and.compelling."
-Outside magazine

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

"Faithful, funny, and thought-provoking...Readers-whether vegetarian or carnivore-will not go hungry, literally or literarily."
-BookPage

"Equal parts folk wisdom and political activism . . . This family effort instructs as much as it entertains."
-St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"[Kingsolver is] a master storyteller, and even those who've heard this tale before will be captivated."
-Daily News

"Charming, zestful, funny and poetic.a serious book about important problems."
-Washington Post Book World

"Other notable writers have addressed this topic, but Kingsolver claims it as her own....Self-deprecating instead of self-righteous."
-Charlotte Observer

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

"If you...buy...one book this summer, make it this one...As satisfying and complete as a down home supper."
-Tucson Citizen

"Kingsolver, who writes evocatively about our connection to place, does so here with characteristic glowing prose. She provides the rapture."
-Miami Herald

"Engaging.Absorbing.Lovely food writing.[Kingsolver] succeeds at adopting the warm tone of a confiding friend."
-Corby Kummer, New York Times Book Review

"Charming...and persuasive...Each season-and chapter-unfolds with a natural rhythm and mouth-watering appeal."
-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel