A SPIRITED BOOK CLUB DISCUSSion of Jeff Chu’s Memoir ‘Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand’
In this beautifully written memoir, an accomplished journalist leaves New York City to work as an amateur farmhand at Princeton Seminary, while harvesting spiritual lessons that change his life.
Book Overview
Jeff Chu had a seemingly successful life. As a writer at a fast-paced magazine company, he penned glossy profiles of business leaders while living with his husband in a New York City brownstone. Yet he struggled, as many of us do, with feelings of loneliness and disillusionment, all while trying to reconcile his identity as a first-generation Chinese American. Seeking a remedy, he left his job and enrolled at Princeton Seminary’s “Farminary,” a 21-acre farm where students learn to work the soil while asking the big questions of life.
As the seasons turn, Chu introduces us to a cast of characters, human and not, each with their own lesson to teach. From the cranes that visit the pond, to the worms that turn waste into fertile soil, to the Chinese long beans that get passed over in the farm’s CSA, Chu gently interrogates his relationship with the food on his plate and his own heritage, discovering what the earth is trying to teach us–if we’ll stop and listen.
In gorgeous, moving prose, Good Soil helps readers connect to the land and to each other at a time when we are drawn most to the phones in our hands. For nature lovers, foodies, and anyone who has daydreamed about a more meaningful life, this book is a tribute to friendship, acceptance, spirituality, and how love can grow from the unlikeliest of places.
Reviews for Good Soil
“This is one of those rare, precious books that filled my soul with a glimpse of how, on this muddy planet full of wrongdoing and death, God or love or grace might still be near to us. But it is a grace tinged with sadness, a love marked by loss, a faith that hopes rather than one that knows. I’ve already recommended GOOD SOIL to more people in real life than any book in recent memory. It has me whispering to my discouraged friends, my queer friends, my one-foot-out-the-door friends, Jesus-loving-but-anti-Christian-nationalism friends, ‘Have you heard of Jeff Chu?’” —Kristin, Goodreads
“I am so excited for this eARC! Trying very hard to read it slowly and savor each gorgeous image. The writing is exactly what you would expect from Jeff Chu – it is hard not to stop everything to speed through the book in one sitting. Which would do a disservice to the beauty of the prose and the thoughtfulness of the words.” —Edie, Goodreads
“Jeff Chu made me cry, and I’m mad about it. Yes, I have been looking forward to his next book since I read his first one, and yes, I know Jeff has a way of telling stories that you feel deeply in your soul. Though I also do not like letting my emotions out, I cried. Multiple times.” —Jackie McGinnis, Goodreads
“Soil, theology, food; love, death, and the breathtaking reality of being a human in this messy world. What’s not to love?” —Cara Meredith, Goodreads
CLUB DISCUSSION dates
BOOK CLUB meets Thursdays, July 10 & 24 @ 12:00 – 1:00 pm AZ (PDT)
For July 10: The first set of Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer essays (to page 193 in the hardcover edition)
For July 24: The remainder of the book
++Book discussion facilitated by Sheri Brown
About the author
Jeff Chu is an award-winning journalist, essayist, preacher, and speaker.
He serves as an editor-at-large at Travel+Leisure magazine, teacher in residence at Crosspointe Church in Cary, N.C., and parish associate for storytelling and witness at the First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, Calif. Formerly a writer at Time and an editor at Fast Company, his work has also appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and in numerous other outlets.
Jeff is an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America. For several years, he served as co-curator of Evolving Faith.
He lives in Grand Rapids, Mich., with his husband, Tristan.
Read more about Jeff Chu. To access his work, go to byjeffchu.com/writing.
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