I'm sorry some of you didn't like the book, but if you ever find yourself needing something good to read, I suggest you try it again. I admit that the appeal may be stronger for us farmers at heart, but Kingsolver's talent as a writer comes through in this book as strongly as it did in Poisonwood Bible. Who else could make turkey slaughtering inspirational???
By the way, Angela, the book also makes me think of my father and his love of the land. I once read some letters he wrote to my grandparents as he traveled across country by train to his assigned army post during World War II. You'd think a young man in that situation would be worrying about his future or trying to reassure an anxious family, but his letters were filled with detailed descriptions of the farms he observed out of the train windows. He was clearly fascinated by the farming methods that differed from the ones he had grown up seeing and by the regional changes signaled by the color and quality of the soils in the tilled fields.
But back to the book. I've been an organic gardener since I started growing vegetables in a home garden about eight years ago, but I intend to be much more adventuresome from now on. If the Kingsolvers can stick by the vow to eat only local foods for a year, I can certainly branch out from the safe selections of tomatos, peppers, and squash that I've limited myself to so far. As a matter of fact, I have some Kingsolver-inspired broccoli and collards in the garden right now!
