OVERVIEW
This is a really hard audiobook to review. I really wanted to love it, but I liked it instead.
Barbara's writing was fantastic, but a bit overbearing and preachy. The asides from her husband, Steven, and daughter, Camille, were even more preachy.
I expected more of a how-to book on how to be a better locavore. It had some of that but also included gardening, canning, animal raising, freezing, and farmer's market forays for a year. They live on a farm in a rural area in SW Virginia - we cannot do the same type of locavore eating. But there were limited suggestions for city dwellers.
OVERALL REVIEW: 4.0 stars
Writing: 4.0 stars
The writing by Barbara was strong, as always, because she is a fantastic author! She was very aware of her wording when discussing animal reproduction or harvesting. I appreciated that!
Her husband and daughter's asides were not written as well as Barbara's and broke up the book's rhythm. Plus, do I really want to know what they ate for dinner with sample menus?
Narration: 4.0 stars
The narration by Barbara was good - I didn't realize what a lovely Kentucky accent she has.
But, the other narrators and chicken noises throughout the book grated on me.
Another issue for me is that the audiobook had no chapters or breaks in the book audio stream. There was no table of contents like other audiobooks. It was hard to find appropriate places to stop; however, the author did highlight the chapter title when narrating. Weird.
Character Arc: 4.0 stars
The audiobook is chronological and aligns with their journey to only eat locally. The book starts in April and ends the following April.
There are no real characters and the book is more of a memoir, per se.
This book is also about eighteen years old so it is a bit dated.
Memorable: 3.5 stars
The book was rather preachy overall. If an individual, who didn't believe in global warming, read this book, they may be put off. It is like anything, you win more bees with honey than vinegar. I wanted suggestions and help to navigate eating more locally rather than telling me how awful it is to buy bananas.
I totally support eating in-season produce to avoid the increased carbon footprint. But what do city folks do? We cannot only buy from expensive farmer's markets even though Barbara's were not costly. We also have limited space to garden as most urban dwellers do.
Since so much produce is grown in the San Joaquin Valley or Oxnard Plain about 100 miles from me, we attempt to buy local produce.
So what is the solution? What else can we do?
Entertaining: 4.0 stars
The book was funny at times, but it was more educational.
Book cover: 5.0 stars
Perfect.
Book title: 5.0 stars
On point!
DEFINITE recommend
STATISTICS
Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) borrow: audiobook
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver
Harper Audio
14 hours, 35 minutes
Release date of 5/1/2007
INFORMATIONAL LINKS
TRIGGER WARNINGS
Animal mating, animal death
Happy reading,
Dorothea 💜
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