Elizabeth R. (esjro) - , reviewed on 8/5/2008 + 955 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 6

This book is part Omnivore's Dilemma, part travel memoir, and part Cadillac Desert. The authors, in alternating chapters based on alternate months, describe the experiences and meals of a year spent eating food from within 100 miles from their home in Vancouver. I enjoyed Alisa's chapters more than J.B.'s, who tends to ramble a lot about the history of the Northwest.

I did find myself thinking that their experience would be hard to duplicate for the average person. Both authors are writers, which allows them the time needed to pickle, cure, preserve, and separate wheat from the chaff. Also, the authors do travel fairly frequently for work. While they try to eat from within a hundred miles of where they are, I am sure the trip to Mexico spent enjoying the local 100-mile delicacies made the month of potatoes after coming home a little easier to bear!

Ultimately, this book is a memoir which documents an experiment designed to make the participants (and the readers) think about what they are eating and where that food is from. In that sense the book succeeds. I just wish the authors had focused more on the food aspects rather than getting so frequently sidetracked with other topics.

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