Green Home Book Club: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

It's official! The first book read by the AT: Green Home Book Club will be Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

To get everyone excited, here's the very favorable NY Times review. FYI: Reviewer Janet Maslin calls the book "both folksy and smart."

If you didn't vote for AVM, we hope you'll join in anyway. And, remember, we'll try to get to your first choice as soon as possible.

Now, your assignment for the weekend:

Get your hands on a copy of the book.

A few green ways to do that:

• Borrow from a friend.
• Pick up (or reserve) a copy at your local library.
• Try using a book swapping service like BookMooch (we never have, but we're intrigued).
• Or buy it from a local bookstore. Is it green to support local business? We think so.

Then, start reading. We'll check in on everyone's progress sometime next week!

Comments (17)

Eep - now I have to find a way to work this into my reading schedule :O

Ouch! Some book club around here is apparently reading this book, making library copies somewhat of a challenge to get. I hate to buy a book I'm not going to keep.

This is weird: I was reading this post and happened to turn on the tv, and NOW is on my PBS station. Kingsolver and her book are being profiled! I'm looking forward to reading along with the rest of the club.

I am 131 of 131 on the NYPL reserve list. I only do library for non-refence/cookbooks (and even then sometimes I do library first as a trial!) so I probably won't get to read this in time for the book club unless I can find someone to lend it to me.

wow. i was kind of hoping we'd wait a few weeks on this... both my life schedule and my reading schedule are too busy to run out and get this within the next couple days. Which is dissapointing because this was my top choice, mainly because I've been intending to read it and this would give me an excuse.

And I've just finished The Omnivore's Dilemma, too! Had we picked that, I would be prime to discuss it and able to lend my copy to someone in the NY area...

Given the comments so far... is it possible to declare this a fantastic idea and start the actual reading group in early January?

That seems a long way off, but most Americans do something with Thanksgiving, which is right at the end of Opoponax's "a few weeks" and about when Jess and I finally get off wait lists. And rounding people up between Thanksgiving and New Years is usually impossible.

Admittedly, you may have 70 people raring to go, compared to a handful expressing dismay -- but a poll could determine that.

Well, if it's January I'll have to be out (depending how early we do it), as I'm taking a HUGE trip right around then.

But I think it's a great idea for everyone else. And obviously I wouldn't ask the whole blogosphere to put it off because of my 2 month backpacking adventure.

Perhaps I'll just have to sit this one out, and read the book on my own time.

I missed the first post about the book club...how will it be discussed? How often will it be discussed? About how many pages per week are we shooting for?

I'm excited!

I'm not getting the book until I know this is starting for sure.

This book is so new, it's only out in hardcover! The libraries in DC suck and brand new books are quite a bit harder to get in my used bookstores. This presents serious obstacles!

I am lucky enough to have read & returned my library copy, but actually am thinking about purchasing once it's out in paperback because it's really a great touchstone. Will stay tuned to see what happens with a group read; anyone know when the paperback is slated for release?

I put a copy on hold at the DC Public Library this past weekend. As Pixie mentioned, the DC libraries suck, so it could be a while before I get my hands on a copy... (I spent quite a bit of time at the library trying to track down the copies that were supposed to be there, they were not.)

J-fer Rose - thanks for confirmation with recent experience on the DC library suckage. I don't even bother checking at the DC libraries anymore, because I've been so disappointed for so long (esp. after living in such great library cities in the past). The city has a huge project beginning to redo the entire DC library system, but that's going to take a while. Won't be in time to get this book.

They have two copies at my school library but both are on reserve. Must be a part of some course curriculum.

My local stores also have waiting lists for this book; however, I was able to borrow from my aunt. My aunt initially read a library copy, but loved it so much she bought the book, so that she could re-read it at her leisure. The book includes recipes and reference info on eating green and buying locally, so I imagine a few readers may want their own copies.

My local book club usually swaps books among members, so only a few of us have to buy a book. Those of us that do buy usually get used books through a local store or Amazon. I checked the moochers site listed above and their are currently not any copies available. Perhaps we could instead arrange our own book swap, just asking the borrower to pay priority mail shipping via paypal or whatever our individual agreements might be...