Filed under: books, entertainment, lifestyle | Tags: "eat, book reviews, elizabeth gilbert, love", paulo coelho, pray, the alchemist
So I passed the 100 post mark with my post yesterday. Since the post wasn’t necessary the most celebratory kind (but it was monumental in it’s own regard), today I bring you this: Post #101! Woohoo!
Friday night I finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s, “Eat, Pray, Love“. The book tells the author’s story of self discovery following a difficult divorce at the age of 35.
The book is equally divided into three segments – each describes a leg of a international journey. She travels to three countries – Italy, India & Indonesia. In Italy she endulges in food, wine, friends and all the beauty around her. Hours upon hours of meditation at an ashram in India teaches Liz how to live on very little and how to quiet her mind. In Indonesia she befriends an old medicine man, a young medicine woman, and a Brazillian gentleman who all show her how to balance the extremes she experienced in Italy & India.
It’s easy to identify with Liz’s tale, regardless of whether you’ve been through a tough divorce or break-up. Everyone has had an identity crisis at some point in their lives, right? The book doesn’t dwell on the reasons why Liz takes the trip, but how she takes the trip & what she aims to learn from each. Her writing style is comfortable and easy – it’s very easy to feel as though her thoughts are your own.
Overall a good read, and I would recommend it to friends. I felt that the message was comparable to Paulo Coehlo’s “The Alchemist” . My only complaint was with the India section. Italy and Indonesia were characteristic of her experience – full of life, joy and energy. But in India, when much of her time was spent in quiet solitude, it was difficult to keep reading.
According to the internet (and the NY Times), a movie based on the book is due to be released in 2011.
Filed under: Austin, books, food, Heath + Beauty, lifestyle, politics | Tags: austin book clubs, book clubs, food & politics book club, food + politics, food culture, Johnson's Backyard Garden
Thought I’d pass this on –
http://www.meetup.com/Food-and-Politics-Book-Club/?a=wm1_gn
Tyler & I are doing a workshare day on the farm next weekend(http://www.johnsonsbackyardgarden.com/) and I just happened to find out about the book club through the farm newsletter. They just finished reading a book called “Banana – the fate of the fruit that changed the world”. Even if you don’t want to join a book club, this could be a good resource for finding good food/politics related books… which lately, I can’t seem to get enough of. On the docket for this weekend: “Honey spinner - On the Trail of Ancient Honey, Vanishing Bees and the Politics of Liquid Gold ‘ by Grace Pundyk.
Filed under: books, food, go green, lifestyle | Tags: animal vegetable miracle, barbara kingsolver, boggy creek farm, book review, eating locally, food economics, food in the us, localvore, locavore
I don’t know how else to say this: you need to read this book.
The book was written by Barbara Kingsolver, with supplemental sections by her hubby Stephen Hopp & her 18 year old daughter Camille. The story follows the Kingsolver-Hopp family from Arizona to Virginia, where they aim to fulfill a year-long vow to eat only locally grown or raised foods.
Unlike most non-fiction books, this book was so hard to put down that at times that I found myself staying up all hours of the night to finish a chapter. As Barbara weaves the chronological story of the family’s farming and shopping efforts by season, Camille and Stephen add delicate threads of recipes and factoids that make for a book rich with emotion, information & inspiration. The story of this family’s journey is imbibed with so much reasoning and guidance that it’s hard for a reader to comprehend why they haven’t made the change to local eating habits in their own lives.
Since I began reading the book my own shopping habits have changed dramatically. I’ve talked on the blog about my weekly visits to Boggy Creek Farm - lately my shopping trips to Boggy Creek have become far more involved. I now buy my meat, cheeses, eggs, produce & bread at Boggy Creek. Generally speaking, if Boggy Creek isn’t selling it, I don’t eat it.
The book has also inspired me to get more committed to starting the garden I’ve dreamed of since buying my house. I won’t be raising turkeys or chickens, but I’m empowered by a greater knowledge of meat & poultry operations in the US. Knowing what I know now, I will NOT be buying meat or poutry at my local grocery store unless it’s certified free-range & organic. That may sound a little crunchy for some of you (and I would have been right there with you a year ago). But I’m telling you – read the book. You’ll never approach grocery shopping the same way again!
