Hope that everyone is going into Memorial Day weekend (US BL) with a pile of books at the ready. 

 

It's pouring cats and dogs here and it looks like it will do so through the weekend. I plan on socially distancing throughout the rest of this month and June no matter that states are re-opening.

 

Stay safe you guys.

 

Friday Reads are these two books:

 

 

 

 

 

I liked the feel of the book, a strong DIY ethic is something I always appreciate. There were points when she got a bit braggy about her family (who doesn't or wouldn't?) where I had to roll my eyes a bit, but overall I enjoyed it.

One year without supermarkets. One year of planting, watering, weeding, harvesting. One year without sugary cereals, Chinese food, delivery pizza. No processed foods. Everything local, hand-picked. It sounds like quite a daunting challenge: to give up mass-produced edibles and adopt a new food culture eating only what is in season and harvested by your own two hands, or by those of your neighbor. This is exactly what challenge Barbara Kingsolver and her family of four put themselves up to for an entire year, with all the struggles, joys, and recipes recounted in the entertaining and engaging Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Reading Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle really encourages you to look at the food you eat, where it comes from, how it is made, and how you can change these factors to enjoy a diet more healthy for you but especially for the environment. The benefits, both personal and environmental, of growing your own food and eating locally are endless – savoring foods when they’re at their peak, reveling in the flavor of produce grown at your own hands, reducing the incidence of cruelty to animals in food production, lowering the number of miles each item of food must travel to reach your plate, supporting local business- and farm-owners, enjoying a more healthy, whole-food lifestyle. And the detriments of the alternative are shocking – to get to your dinner table, the items in a typical American meal have traveled an average of 1,500 miles, through transportation, packaging, warehousing, refrigeration, and other forms of processing. Isn’t is so much more satisfying, healthy, environmentally-concious, inexpensive, and delicious to eat a tomato plucked from your own backyard than one from a pile in the grocery store?

Reviewed for Readers' Favorite.

 

Though she studied to be a theologian, trusting that it would offer her something deeply meaningful, poor Adie cannot figure out her life mission. Ivinela Smuilova has created a sympathetic character in Adie, one with whom many will likely identify, in Life Can Be a Miracle. Like so many, Adie struggles because, although bright and talented, surrounded by those who care for her and with a satisfying job that she is good at, Adie is lost. She is lost in a world in which she knows she has a calling, but knows not what that calling is. In her journey, she joins a group of other like-minded people who find that traditional therapy and counseling just causes more confusion. With their help and the use of some interesting exercises, Adie determines that she is not searching, she is finding. Once done, she is open to the clues revealed and discovers her calling.

 

At times, Adie’s was pessimistic, yet she repeatedly grasped those bits that life handed to her and found their greater meaning. In Life Can be a Miracle, many will discover the miracle of thinking your way out of a situation, changing the behavior of others through your own thoughts, reducing the impact of a problem by removing the seriousness of it, and how a higher power may be speaking through life’s smallest and seemingly most insignificant events. Ivinela Smuilova has created a story that will challenge readers to look at life from new angles and perhaps to try new ways. 

 

Also posted at www.Oathtaker.com and on Goodreads, linked with review groups on Google+, Tweeted and cover pinned.

I picked this book from the Refer A Book Friday contest. Amy of The Sleepy Reader recommend it; you can see her review here. I have always been interested in growing things and farming because some of the earlier generations of my family were farmers. I learned much from this book about potatoes and how they grow a green leafy plant when they are ready to pull. I also learned that pineapples don't grow on trees... I didn't know this, they look like tree-fruit to me. A lot of this book was interesting, and I had much to learn from it. Then there were times where you would get to much farming detail and it got a little boring. Lastly, there were times when they would beat you over the head with how Americans don't eat healthy. Yes ... Yes I raise my hand. I am one of those, but you don't have to keep repeating it. I also picked this book hoping it would give me that kick in the butt to eat healthier, and it didn't really because it's too late for me to start growing my own food, so I just felt bad throughout the book. I have thought about buying locally, but no I haven't don't that either. I had a hard time getting through this book mostly I think because of feeling bad about myself part and because you can only read or listen to a person talk about a certain subject for so long before you have to take a break. I needed lots of breaks.