Book Review | Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp, and Camille Kingsolver

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is a story about a family who chooses to eat local foods (many of them grown and raised by themselves) for one year, for the purpose of minimizing their petroleum foot print. Their story is told from three different perspectives: mother, father, and teenage child. Each perspective focuses on a different aspect of their journey. Kingsolver is a great writer, and I found myself deeply engrossed in the stories about their adventures on the farm and in the kitchen.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was a book that my book group selected to read. I’m so glad they did because under normal circumstances, I would not have chosen to pick it up. Now that I practically want to be a farmer and slaughter my own animals for consumption, it’s safe to say I liked the book. I was totally inspired by the primary message of the book that by making small changes to the foods we buy and eat, we can make a difference in our health, environment, and local economy.

I consider myself a political conservative, and I can’t deny jumping on the bandwagon at one point of not believing in climate change, but I’ve shifted my perspective a bit in the last year and jumped off the bandwagon. I honestly don’t know what to believe as it relates to climate change. It seems that you can find a study to support whatever you want to believe.

What I do know though, is there are a lot of things that I absolutely love about our planet. It’s impossible to avoid seeing the ugly haze and inversion that fills the Salt Lake Valley and it makes me sad, because I love where I live. I choose to look at the planet from a spiritual perspective, as a gift from God that I should do my best to treat kindly and preserve for my children. I’ve also recently become more aware about the food I’m putting into my body and that of my family. I’m sickened by all the products that contain sugar for no apparent reason than to just contain it.

There were some messages from the book that were presented in a hit you over the head manner, which was somewhat obnoxious, but all in all I thought the overall message was so beautiful that I was willing to overlook that aspect of the book. After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I feel inspired to grow more of my own vegetables and fruits, seek out more locally produced products, and eat more organic foods.

I listened to the audio version of this book and thought it was fantastic. It was read by the authors themselves and they did a great job.

Overall Rating: 1/2

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Title: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Author: Barbara Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp, and Camille Kingsolver
Genre: non-fiction
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: April 29, 2008 (Reprint)
Format: Audio
Pages: 400

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