The Dirty Life

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. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine