Share <Embed>

Buy New

$16.43

List Price: $23.99
Save: $7.56 (32%)

FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.

Only 2 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Buy Used

$4.14

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Used: Acceptable | Details

Sold by Clean Earth Books

Fulfilled by Amazon

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

The Butcher and the Vegetarian: One Woman's Romp Through a World of Men, Meat, and Moral Crisis Hardcover – February 2, 2010

by Tara Austen Weaver (Author)

35 customer reviews

See all 7 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$18.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$16.43

$2.98

$0.01

Audible, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$9.99

$5.22

$51.97

Growing up in a family that kept jars of bean sprouts on its windowsill before such things were desirable or hip, Tara Austen Weaver never thought she'd stray from vegetarianism. But as an adult, she found herself in poor health, and, having tried cures of every kind, a doctor finally ordered her to eat meat. Warily, she ventured into the butcher shop, and as the man behind the counter wrapped up her first-ever chicken, she found herself charmed. Eventually, he dared her to cook her way through his meat counter. As Tara navigates through this new world―grass-fed beef vs. grain-fed beef; finding chickens that are truly free-range― she's tempted to give up and go back to eating tempeh. The more she learns about meat and how it's produced, and the effects eating it has on the human body and the planet, the less she feels she knows. She embarks upon a sometimes hilarious, sometimes frightening whirlwind tour that takes her from slaughterhouse to chef's table, from urban farm to the hearthside of cow wranglers. Along the way, she meets an unforgettable cast of characters who all seem to take a vested interest in whether she opts for turnips or T-bones. The Butcher and the Vegetarian is the rollicking and relevant story of one woman's quest to reconcile a nontraditional upbringing with carnal desires.

The Butcher and the Vegetarian: One Woman's Romp Through a World of Men, Meat, and Moral Crisis

$16.43 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. Only 2 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Tara Austen Weaver

52

Hardcover
Fuchsia Dunlop

155

Hardcover
$26.44

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Raised a vegetarian, writer and editor Weaver was always diet-conscious, so it was a bit of a surprise when, in her 30s, her physician recommend meat-eating for her suffering health; Weaver's consequent foray into the world of meat is a toothsome take on the learning-to-eat-better memoir. Weaver jumps into the flesh flood with both feet, sampling all things savory, up to and including roasted bone marrow, in a game effort to understand the appeal. She finds some dishes, like flank steak with chimichurri sauce and Syrian kebabs, life-changing, but turns a critical eye on herself and her endeavor that proves honest and endearing, whether voicing her disappointment in the classic steak house, mulling the ethics of eating dead animals, considering the joys of grilling, chronicling the evolution of USDA dietary recommendations, or detailing the butchering process. Her narrative maintains a funny, personable tone throughout, more like a knowledgeable friend than a professional reporter. Though eventually settling on a raw food diet, Weaver avoids prescriptive finger-shaking, encouraging readers to find the diet that's right for them by incorporating a wide range of perspectives.

From Booklist

Food-writer Weaver grew up in a Northern California vegetarian household, but later developed health issues—overwhelming fatigue and weight gain—that prompted her doctor to recommend she eat meat. She started out slowly with chicken stock and worked her way through chimichurri, chateaubriand, blood sausage, Martha Stewart’s crown roast, and barbecued meat of all sorts. The year-long experience changed her life as she encountered appealing butchers, meat clubs for girls only, and cowboys on eco-friendly ranches. Struggling with the guilt of eating flesh, she plunged into a deep examination of food as nutrition and sustenance versus the object of lust and gratification. She explores the different types and motivations of vegetarians, recalling childhood memories of wanting to be accepted among the meat-eaters and cheating outside her mother’s home. Weaver touches on the emotional, ethical, economic, nutritional, ecological, and gustatory issues involving meat and food in general that have been highlighted by Michael Pollan and others. This is a mouthwatering excursion through environmental and food issues with what may be a surprising denouement for most readers. --Vanessa Bush

See all Editorial Reviews

If you buy a new print edition of this book (or purchased one in the past), you can buy the Kindle edition for only $2.99 (Save 84%). Print edition purchase must be sold by Amazon. .

Start reading The Butcher and the Vegetarian on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Product Details

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Rodale Books (February 2, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1605299960
ISBN-13: 978-1605299969
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.9 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,199,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2172 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Culinary
- #3383 in Books > Science & Math > Agricultural Sciences > Food Science
- #9728 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking Education & Reference

Customer Reviews

3.5 out of 5 stars

5 star		20%
4 star		43%
3 star		23%
2 star		8%
1 star		6%

Write a customer review

See all verified purchase reviews

Top Customer Reviews

not quite what it claims on the cover

BySileaVINE VOICEon February 12, 2010

Format: HardcoverVine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

So this is a book about our protagonist, a lifelong vegetarian ordered by her doctor to start eating meat. Right? Well... no. Despite her genuine health issues, it was her accupuncturist, not a medical doctor, who told her to start eating meat. And he didn't tell her to start eating meat so much as he gave her herbs that needed to be steeped in chicken broth. And she's not a lifelong vegetarian so much as person with habitual vegetarian tendencies. Though raised in a strictly vegetarian household, even as a child she regularly ate meat when visiting friends, and as an adult admits to ordering meat dishes at restaurants. So, really, she's only a strict vegetarian when her own kitchen is involved.

Aside from being measurably different in substance than in summary, the writing also makes it glaringly clear that the author is a blogger. There's a style to blog-writing, a familiar tone and a parcelized accounting of events, that is strongly evident in this book. It's hard to sit and read for more than ten minutes because in that ten minutes you've completed one blog-entry-unit, and it takes a little push to roll yourself into the next one.

As a vegetarian by choice (my parents did not support that decision ten years ago in my teens, and they're still not happy with it now), my main interest in this book was reading, well, what the book claimed to be. I wanted to read the story of a true, lifelong vegetarian exploring meat somewhat against her will. What i got instead was more of a culinary exploration than a cultural or personal one. The author has never cooked meat, so it's mostly the cooking that's novel. Interesting, but not what i'd expected.

0Comment 34 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Surprisingly Good Book

ByR PRIUSTOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICEon January 25, 2010

Format: HardcoverVine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

As a committed carnivore who is coincidentally married to a vegeterian, I wasn't sure I would be able to get into this book. However, it was surprisingly well-written as well as entertaining. The premise of this book is that the life-long vegetarian author had been experiencing a grinding fatigue and weight problem since her early teens. The problem persists through years of doctors visits and tests. In a 'what the heck' moment, the author turns to asian medicine and her doctor hands her a bag of herbs to be cooked with chicken to create a wonder broth. An encounter at the butcher counter starts her on a journey to sample/cook a wide array of meat with varying levels of results. Throughout this journey of carnivore discovery, the author interfaces with a wide variety of people/characters who all seem to have an opinion regarding meat/no meat. She also picks up quite an education re: how animals are raised for eventual slaughter and the options that are available for we committed carnivores. Add to this recipe romance and you have this book.
What I particularly found amusing was the culture clash when the author threw herself into meat eating. Since I have always enjoyed meat in moderation, the concept of someone being born into vegetarianism in our culture was pretty interesting and made me look at things a bit differently as I progressed through this memoir. In another respect, this book reminded me of JULIE AND JULIA in regard to the author's journey into the world of meat.

22 comments 16 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Not quite what I was looking for

ByOlyNomadTOP 1000 REVIEWERon February 23, 2010

Format: HardcoverVine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

When I saw this book I was really excited to read it because from the description, it dealt with what I am going through right now (Vegetarian 10 years questioning my choice for medical reasons). I was curious to learn more about what medical issues she was facing and the advice from the doctor. Things you learn while reading it is that while she was raised by a vegetarian mother, she wasn't always vegetarian and would eat meat when at restaurants and at friends. Also, it wasn't an actual doctor that first said eat meat, it was an acupuncturist, which is worlds away. It started to slip away from the described premise of the book there for me. The bulk of the book is about meat exploration, too much focus on that for me. Long bits about how to cook the meat, different kinds of meat. That wasn't what I was looking for, they have books for that, it's called a cookbook.
What this really felt like was an identity crisis and her feeling lost as a person because she didn't know what group to identify with. She wants to fit in and be one of the guys, one of mainstream America on one hand, yet she likes the feeling of being unique and the label of vegetarian. She kind of wants to be in both worlds and it felt like she was using the disguise of my doctor said to do it to explore both worlds. The way she wraps up the book really leads you to believe that is what was going on with the book also. You won't find any answers in the book if you are on a similar search. She is all over the place on the issue in the book and on one page she'll be describing her love of meat and the very next her dislike of it. Her dislike of it felt really forced. She wasn't an actual vegetarian, so the meat is so alien to me approach didn't feel authentic to me.
She does cover the different kinds of farming well and there were some interesting takes on that.
There was not a conclusion on if her body did better on a meat diet or without it and in the end she's headed in a different direction all together which makes you question the whole purpose of the book in the first place.
If you are searching for answers on health, meat vs. vegetarian, you will not find them here. It's a chick lit kind of take on one person's decision on what to eat. But really do be prepared for a lot of talk on meat, cooking it, selecting it, preparing it.

77 comments 31 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Loved the Orchard House by same author

Thinking this book. Loved the Orchard House by same author.

Published 6 months ago by Katie Kinsey

Four Stars

It's a quick read

Published 9 months ago by POL

Informative and Entertaining Read

I read this from the library and enjoyed the writing and information so much that I ordered 2, one for a gift and the other so I can have a copy on my bookshelf at home.

Published on January 22, 2015 by J. Ritchey

Couldn't Finish

Reads like a travel guide only the destination is a slab of meat.If you live in a world where eating or not eating meat is a "moral dilemma" then by all means dive right in.Read more

Published on November 16, 2012 by Aalea1

Writing a book in the style of multiple personality disorder.

This book is perfect example of 'Don't judge a book by its cover'. What is said on the cover does not synchronize with the content.Read more

Published on December 14, 2011 by mnespresso

Good writing, no storyline, not chick lit, perpetuates dietary stereotypes.

I'm not really sure what the point of this book was supposed to be. The author, a self-described life-long vegetarian (who has eaten meat in restaurants most of her life...Read more

Published on September 5, 2011 by JC

Very interesting

The cover doesn't really match the insides of this book. It looks like it's a book about a vegetarian girl who falls in love with a butcher, but that's not the case :) It's billed...Read more

Published on August 13, 2011 by tealjoye

Not what I expected, but a pleasant read

This book is more a memoir and moral exploration than anything else. Weaver is witty and charming, and I often had a hard time putting this book down.Read more

Published on January 3, 2011 by KitchenNette

The writing is good but the tale gets boring rather quickly

The author was raised vegetarian, so her meat-eating journey is not as balanced as I would have liked, and it quickly seems to become a justification for eating meat and being...Read more

Published on July 22, 2010 by J. Fuchs

A charming, thought-provoking read

"The Butcher and the Vegetarian" reads like a letter from a good friend and kept me engaged from cover to cover.Read more

Published on April 29, 2010 by Laurie Gauguin

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: The Butcher and the Vegetarian: One Woman's Romp Through a World of Men, Meat, and Moral Crisis

Set up a giveaway

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

Orchard House: How a Neglected Garden Taught One Family to Grow Hardcover

Tara Austen Weaver

52

Buy New $16.43

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Buy Used $4.14

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

The Butcher and the Vegetarian: One Woman's Romp Through a World of Men, Meat, and Moral Crisis Hardcover – February 2, 2010

Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From Booklist

Product Details

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

Buy New

$16.43

Buy Used

$4.14