Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

Book 1: Novella Carpenter turns a vacant lot in the ghetto of Oakland into an urban farm and lives to tell the tale of trials, errors, and homegrown feasts. Divided into three sections, she narrates the evolution of her urban farm, from poultry to large mammals (with mishaps with her veggies and bees as well). Her story is speckled with characters who inhabit the neighborhood and help or hinder her along her journey.
Warning: this book heavily focuses on the raising, slaughtering, and butchering of one's own meat. As a carnivore, I admire her lack of hypocrisy and her desire to be close to her meat; meat is sacred to her; she knows where it came from and respects the animal she worked to raise. However, a person who opposes the slaughter of animals for meat under any circumstance (even organic, free range, etc) may find this book difficult.