The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science
By Natalie Angier
HighBridge Audio, unabridged nonfiction, 11 CDs, 13 hours and 15 minutes, $39.95, read by Nike Doukas; also available as a download from www.audible.com for $27.97.
About Alice
By Calvin Trillin
Random House Audio, unabridged nonfiction, one CD, 78 minutes, $19.95, read by the author; also available as a download from www.audible.com for $27.99.
Sometimes learning can be fun. Enough fun that you really should consider plunking Barbara Kingsolver's newest audiobook, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life," into your stereo and gathering the family around for a nightly 30 minutes of group listening. Her eye-opening story about eating properly is very much a family tale. In fact, her whole family helped to write it.
Kingsolver, along with her husband, teenage daughter Camille, and younger daughter Lily, left Arizona for a family farm in Virginia, where they embarked on a yearlong experiment of eating mostly local food. They grew or raised as much meat and produce as possible and bought the rest from local farmers.
Not only does this audio raise awareness, but it's also very enjoyable. Kingsolver has a dry sense of humor and doesn't mind making fun of herself. She is also a relaxed and convincing narrator. Her husband, Steven L. Hopp, a polished reader, pops in every so often with useful information, such as website addresses, and her daughter Camille, sounding young and earnest, reads essays about nutrition and the family's unified efforts to eat healthy food. After hearing from the bunch of them, it is clear that bringing the family together in the garden and at the table really can solidify it.
