Buffalo Rising Online

Oct 19th 2007, 11:17am By Christa Glennie Seychew

Here on YUM we find ourselves dipping into discussions about celebrity chefs, food-related television programs, cookbooks and food industry-themed novels. We've discovered that many of our readers are regulars in the ever-expanding world of the food blog, some even have their own. As foodies it seems that it is not only our palates that connect us (and sometimes define us), but also our passion for the culture that currently celebrates food on every possible stage, in every imaginable forum.

Here at YUM headquarters, we've decided that a book club is really what we need, especially in light of all the talk that Barbara Kingsolver's latest release stirred up on our site and elsewhere on the web.

We've set aside approximately six weeks for each book in our winter series. At the end of each session, we'll host an in office podcast featuring six readers, BR staffers and special guests with their own distinct experiences that relate to the topic of the book. The podcast will then run on the site the following week, opening an online discussion for anyone interested. We hope that you'll participate. The schedule for the next few books follows this article, we think you'll enjoy our choices as much as we have. Whether you choose to read one or all three is up to you. Halfway through each 'session” we'll remind readers of the upcoming podcast and call for folks interested in participating in the conversation that will be podcast through Buffalo Rising.

We've set aside approximately six weeks for each book in our winter series. At the end of each session, we'll host an in-office podcast featuring six readers, BR staffers and special guests with their own distinct experiences that relate to the topic of the book. The podcast will then run on the site the following week, opening an online discussion for anyone interested. We hope that you'll participate.

The first book in the series is in fact Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life which examines a year in which Kingsolver, a best-selling author with a dozen popular books in her repertoire, and family fed themselves solely with food raised in their immediate area.

This way of looking at how we feed ourselves, where our food comes from and the impact of those decisions, has taken the country by storm. This concept known as localvorism has become the talk of the trade, a trend seized with enthusiasm by proponents of the environment, local agriculture and fair trade, as well as those simply looking for food that tastes better.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an easy read, Kingsolver's voice has lead her fiction work to the top of the bestseller list, and it's no surprise. Though the book's first few chapters are fueled by the statistics and science that reveal Kingsolver's motivation for her move to the country and foray into serious farming, the rest of the book is a memoir full of humor, reflection and triumphs.

Copies of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle can be found at either of Talking Leaves' locations and at the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library system.


Buffalo Rising's Foodie Book Club Schedule


Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver
October-November

Heat, by Bill Buford
January-February

The United States of arugula, by David Kamp
March-April