Book Price Comparisons
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 Great memoir, great information I cannot get enough of this book. It has completely changed the way that I look at food. I work in food policy, but this book taught me a lot of things I didn't know and inspired me to shop locally more often. I've even started a small vegetable garden! Many of the reviewers seem not to have gotten the point of this book. We are slowly killing ourselves and our culture with our reliance on industrialized foods. Current skyrocketing prices are one proof. We use up so many resources to get our food from point A to point B when we should be eating within our environment as much as possible. Food travels from country to country, and losing the depth and variety we could be having locally. Barbara Kingsolver is a gifted writer and this memoir about HER experience is beautiful. It's not a treatise on "live my exact life;" it's about making changes that can have worldwide implications. A fabulous book: but not her typical If you expect a typical Kingsolver book, you will be disappointed. But if you put that aside, this is a fabulous book! She catches the current movement towards sustainable living and shows us the practicalities as well as what it means for farmers around the country. I love the familial collaboration with her husband providing more scientific information and her eldest daughter providing recipes (which are delicious, by the way). I really think this is an important book because it makes this lifestyle accessible for people who are not environmental extremists (or who grew up on farms where this information would be 'old hat') but who want to do what they can to make a difference: not only to the environment but also for the nation's farmers, who lead a very difficult life. And as a bonus, the food is fresher (=tastier).  Big Disappointment Let me start off with full disclosure: I am a huge Barbara Kingsolver fan. I've read most of what she's written and loved all of that. Except this. She just can't quit lecturing throughout the entire thing. She can't even finish a small story without interspersing it intolerable amounts of pedagogy. It's really just one lecture after another. Perhaps if I were interested in, but not knowledgeable about, the subject matter I would be more forgiving. But I have to think that folks who are reading this book are already at least baseline knowledgeable. So why is she lecturing us all? We're the good guys. We already agree. Enough, already. We really want to hear how you did it, what you thought about it, the ups, the downs, the turkeys. So, those looking for another tremendous Kingsolver story: Be Warned. Wanted to like this book, but... This book starts out sooooo pedentic... then picks up some. I loved many of her other books, but this one is almost a chore to finish. In this genre, I highly recommend 'The Omnivore's Dilemma', which traces meals from the farm to the table. | |||||||||||||
