by Margaret Hathaway
A couple decides to embark on a year of hands-on, cross-country goat research. Yes, it’s a classic “My Year Of” book – it’s been a while, hasn’t it!
Margaret and Karl decide they want to produce goat cheese. Or something. They know they like cheese and they think they like goats. So let’s do some research – and maybe get a book deal out of it. They visit a lot of farms and auctions; discover, to some relief, that yes! they like goats. And decide, definitely dairy. Not meat.
So there’s my main beef (ha ha). Despite the fact that there is a cashmere goat on the cover; “Angora goats rounded up for shearing” in the photo section plus a photo of someone’s angora goat mailbox… fiber goats practically don’t exist in this book. It’s dairy or meat with no Choice C.
My second complaint is the 30,000-foot view of everything that we get. Example: a buckling sold at auction for $16,000. The buckling is shown in the photos; and the sale is mentioned in the text. What breed of goat is he? Who knows? I guess the authors knew – this is all allegedly part of a research project with dutiful note taking. But the detail somehow missed getting into the book. Who is this book for?
I bought it and read it because I just wanted to be around goats. But I can’t give it more than two stars.
Tytania 