Miracle

There are some books that are not only great reads, but can also change the way you live. One such book is “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” by Barbara Kingsolver, which I finished last weekend.

Kingsolver and her family decided to spend a year eating only food that they grew themselves or was grown/produced locally. They had many reasons to try this experiment, chiefly their horror at realizing the “carbon footprint” of the food that most Americans eat: We consume 400 gallons of oil a year per citizen for agricultural use, and each item in a typical American meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles from farm to plate.

Another reason for going local? Food simply tastes better when it is fresh and in season, Kingsolver says, and I couldn’t agree more. There is nothing worse than the mealy tomatoes currently available in Boston supermarkets, and I would never dare to buy peaches or strawberries in February – who knows how long it has taken them to get to my neighborhood grocery store?

The experiment turned out well for Kingsolver – she and her family were able to grow most of the vegetables they needed, raised chickens and turkeys, made bread and cheese, and obtained most of their other food from other farmers in their Virginia county. By canning and otherwise preserving food, they had plenty to eat when winter rolled around. No one broke down and went to the grocery store for Twinkies and Jello (at least not that they admitted).

Reading about this “locavore” experiment, which has now become a minor movement, has inspired me to try to adopt some of Kingsolver’s ideas. Of course I live in an apartment in an urban area, so I will not be growing my own food, though I do want to try growing some basil in my window :) However, I did just sign up for a program that delivers fresh produce from local farms to drop off points in Boston and Cambridge. It starts in June, and I can’t wait!

Meanwhile, my friends Catherine and Andrew, who live in California, are doing their own local food experiment. They buy local produce and other foods, make their own bread and pasta, and have even learned how to can vegetables. I am completely inspired by them. They are keeping a blog to document their efforts, check it out!

Beach reading

While packing for my recent trip to St. Thomas (destination wedding, woo hoo!), I decided I needed a good beach book. For me, a good beach book is not a trashy Danielle Steele, rather something that is light and engrossing but also requires a little bit of intellectual engagement. I decided on “In the Company of the Courtesan,” by Sarah Dunant, which ended up being a very good beach (and poolside) read.

Part of the reason I liked this book so much is that it is set in one of my favorite cities, Venice. It’s one of those places that you hear so much about it, you think it can’t possibly be as beautiful as everyone says. Then you get there and realize it really is. The book is set during the 1520s, and focuses on the life of a courtesan (basically a high-class prostitute) and her companion dwarf.

At the time, Venice was one of the most powerful cities in Europe, a leader in commerce and art. It was also known for its beautiful courtesans, whose clients included leaders of government and religion. Dunant paints a vivid portrait of the lives of Venetians: the intrigue and scandal, set against the beautiful backdrop of the watery city. The book is full of interesting characters, from high-class nobles to a famous artist and a mysterious healer/witch.

This is probably one of the best historical novels I have read, along with one of Dunant’s earlier novels, “The Birth of Venus,” which is also set in Italy (Florence).

More disaster

There is no way I could resist a book with this blurb from the NY Times on the cover: "A classic disaster tale." The book is "The Worst Hard Time," by Timothy Egan, which won the National Book Award for nonfiction last year. The disaster in question is the Dust Bowl, which transformed the American prairie from fertile farmland into a living nightmare during the 1930s.

I had heard of the Dust Bowl, of course, but until I read this book I really didn't know quite what it was. I thought it was just a really bad drought. Well, it was much, much worse. Egan relates the long history leading up to the natural disaster:

The prairies of Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle were originally populated by tall grasses, bison and Native Americans. The land was perfect for growing grasses, but not much else. Then, after the U.S. government decided to remove both bison and Native Americans, settlers were encouraged to rip up the grass, build homesteads and plant wheat. This worked out pretty well for a few years, until wheat prices bottomed out during the Depression, and more and more grassland was dug up by farmers desperate to break even. Well, it turns out the soil is not so fertile once you take away the grass that is literally holding it in place. Wind storms, which had always been common in the prairie, started picking up the dirt and carrying it in massive storms that could blot out the sun for hours at a time.



For years, people who lived in the Dust Bowl endured these dust storms, several per month. Livestock died from swallowing so much dirt, and it wasn't very healthy for humans either. The worst of the storms traveled all the way to the East Coast, coating New York and Washington DC in prairie dirt.

Naturally many people decided to leave the plains, but it was hard to find another place where they would be welcome. Many others decided to stick it out, either because they loved the land too much or had no other place to go. Egan follows several families through their Dust Bowl experiences, which really makes the story come to life. I highly recommend this book—it illuminates a part of American history that most people probably don't know very much about.

I know I have not posted in a while, but I HAVE been reading :) I just finished a novel that I will blog about soon...