Tacoma Reads Together 2009

About the book | Community events | About Tacoma Reads | conversation starters

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

By Barbara Kingsolver

 The Tacoma Public Library is delighted to announce that Mayor Bill Baarsma has selected Barbara Kingsolver's critically acclaimed book - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life - as the 2009 selection for Tacoma Reads Together, Tacoma's community reading initiative. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, this book tells the story of how one family was changed by one year of deliberately eating food produced in and around the place where they live.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet. This is the 8^th book to be selected for the Tacoma Reads Together project, which began following the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

Copies of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle are available at your local library and independennt booksellers.

Pat Erwin, Chair of the Tacoma Reads committee: Not only is this book enjoyable to read, it is critical that we read it - Kingsolvers's book will help us become more aware of our food choices and assist us in making good decisions.

Tacoma Reads Together's community sponsors include

About Tacoma Reads Together
In the aftermath of the tragic event of September 11, 2001, Tacoma educator Patrick Erwin sought a way to bring the Tacoma community together to talk about the issues which appeared to keep the community apart. Remembering What if all Seattle read the same book?, a project begun by Seattle’s Nancy Pearl, Erwin met with Mayor Brian Ebersole and others to suggest that perhaps Tacomans should be encouraged to come together to read, reflect upon, and then respond to the ideas and issues raised by one good book – one book which the entire community would be encouraged to read and discuss. In short order, Tacoma Reads Together was born.

This citywide community initiative, now in its 8th year and sponsored by a host of community groups, chose Harper Lee’s classic To Kill A Mockingbird for its first book. In the following years, the community was encouraged to read and discuss Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus and Arthur Miller's powerful play, The Crucible. Program sponsors include the Mayor’s Office, the Tacoma Public Library, Associated Ministries of Pierce County, the Tacoma Public Library Foundation, the News Tribune, Starbucks Coffee, the University Book Store, University of Puget Sound,  King's Books and the Tacoma School District.

Each book is selected by the Mayor for the opportunities it presents to the Tacoma community to discuss critical community issues. These issues included racism and discrimination, the balance between the needs of the individual versus the rights of the State, immigration and cultural assimilation, and the ever-increasing role of science in our lives. The book selection (and the variety of programs that are scheduled for the first three months of each year) offers city residents an opportunity to come together with their friends and neighbors and talk. And listen. To learn. And to grow.

Tacoma Reads Together selections

2009   Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Yaer of Food Live by Barbara Kingsolver
2008 - The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
2007 - The Pact by Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt
2006 - The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller
2005 - Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
2004 - How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents by Julia Alvarez
2003 - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
2002 - To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Each title links to information about that year’s programs, promotional materials, discussion guides and more.