Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, and Miracle

Want some food for thought in a book that is a pleasure to read? Consider checking out Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver’s newest book Animal, Vegetable, and Miracle:A Year of Food Life. This nonfiction title cleverly blends an engaging memoir of her family's year of living on home grown and locally produced foods in southwestern Virginia, with thoughts on rural life, the global food industry, health and local farmers' economics.

Writing in a manner both folksy and witty, she describes how her family lived on the land like our ancestors in the days prior to refrigeration and worldwide food distribution. Peppered within this entertaining and informative adventure in home grown eating are useful tidbits of information like recipes, food facts, and how to advice from family members. These additions give the book an enjoyable family scrapbook feel.

Opting for back-to-the-land living, was not always easy. Cultivating their land and living on local foods for a full year leads to eye opening family adjustments for the Kingsolver's resulting in some comical "fish out of water" situations.

In the age of globalization in which we live, foods often travel around the world before arriving at our supermarket. In dramatizing her own family’s story, Kingsolver suggests rethinking the process of how food gets to your table and brings to life the rewards of buying food that is locally grown.