THE DIRTY LIFE On Farming, Food, and Love

Kristen Kimball makes it clear that a family farm, especially an unsubsidized organic one in a northern climate, is unending hard work. And yet, this is a love story—a double romance of Kimball meeting her husband, Mark, and learning to be a farmer. Tavia Gilbert’s performance raises the memoir a notch. She translates Kimball’s wonder at the path of her life, which took her from Manhattan, where she was a journalist with designer clothes and a disdain for physical work, to upstate New York, where she embraced the life of a farmer, wife, cook, and horse driver—a meaningful life with muscles. In addition, Gilbert’s enthusiastic delivery, impeccable timing, and lovely voice make the author completely relatable even though you will have no interest in becoming a small farmer when you’ve finished listening—although you may want a small garden. A.B. 2012 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2011]