Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, or, I had a farmshare before it was cool

[snugglekitty]

Friends, this is what a one-star book looks like. I had been eagerly awaiting the chance to read this book once the library had it for me, but I only got up to page 63. Ms. Kingsolver's extended carping on how dumb it is to eat out-of-season food from far away, how tasteless it is, and how little most people know about where their food comes from and how it was made, might only be tedious to someone who had no clue when they started the book. However, to someone who already knows about corn monoculture, food miles, uncontainable GMOs, and the importance of heirloom varietals, it was nearly intolerable. In general I really like Kingsolver's work, but she seems so smug, entitled, and self-congratulatory in this book that I couldn't stand it. I support local sustainable farming in my area, and I think more people should do the same. But not everyone has the economic resources or knowledge to do so, and not everyone lives in an area where this is even possible, and that doesn't mean they deserve to be mocked. I liked the parts where she was writing about how exciting it is to eat your own vegetables, and details of the life cycle of various plants, but the carping on and on was just too much. It's going back to the library, unfinished.