Huge thank you to @netgalley and @byjeffchu for the ARC of Good Soil, which comes out March 25th.

I’ve never read a memoir (of sorts) like this one. Jeff brings us on his journey of growing up, working on a farm, and learning from the crops, the land, the animals, and our faith. While the books does spend a lot of time drawing comparisons between the land and spirituality, I believe even non-spiritual/non-religious people will enjoy this story.

Each chapter is broken into a different aspect of farming. It helps you not only understand how the farm grown, but how Jeff also grows along with and through it.

Good Soil
The Education of an Accidental Farmhand
By Jeff Chu
Genre: Science & Technology, Philosophy, Biography & Memoir
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Pub date: Mar 25, 2025
Publisher: Convergent Books
ISBN: 9780593727362

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for an e-copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

Good Soil is a spiritual memoir covering Chu’s time at the Farminary, a working farm and part of Princeton Theological Seminary. It’s also about growing up Chinese American in a conservative Baptist family, theology, food, and hospitality. Chu also writes with gentle sense of humor.
Good Soil is also a book of discovery. Discovering what it means to be an urban farmer when history has proven you have a black thumb. The different challenges of a non-traditional student, especially when your course of study isn’t what you expected. Discovering how to navigate family relationships when what you chose goes against your family’s deepest held beliefs. Of learning what it means to live in community.
I enjoyed reading Good Soil. The book is divided by seasons, covering the two years at the Farminary. Within those seasons are essays on topics that cover a lot of ground. This book resonated with me in many ways, as well as taught me new things. But what it really made me do was think about theology, belief, and how those intersect in my own life.
4/5 stars.

I loved Good Soil.. Jeff Chu is an amazing writer. I love how book was split up into seasons, taking the reader through all of the changes on the farm. While reading this book I cried, I learned a lot, and gained new perspectives. I believe there is something special for everyone in this book.

A beautifully told story of life, family, faith, heritage, and grief. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

Jeff’s Chu’s first full-length publishing venture is a wise and beautiful book that treats tragedy with gentleness and finds joy in the everyday details of life. GOOD SOIL mixes memoir, theological musings, food culture, and sustainable agriculture to create a highly engaging read. Citing writers as wide-ranging as Kate Bowler and Julian of Norwich, the book also offers a lovely tribute to Jeff Chu's friendship with Rachel Held Evans. It’s been a long time since I’ve talked about a book so much with friends, sharing GOOD SOIL anecdotes and information about raising chickens, wrestling with loneliness, improving compost, and repairing broken friendships.

I received this book as an Advance Readers Copy and am ordering a hardcover for re-reading and savoring.

Jeff Chu has left me with so many thoughts and feelings. This memoir touches all of the emotional buttons for me.......love, Christianity, faith, understanding our food, family, searching for understanding of self, love of animals.........I could go on and on. I mean this in a good way - a way that leaves me thinking, questioning, and looking for more information on various things mentioned in the text.

The memoir is focused mainly on Chu's decision to attend seminary at, what he considers, to be a late stage in his life, and on his time at the "Farminary" (what started as an early class choice of his at seminary). Chu's explorations and discoveries during this time are mainly attributable to his time spent at the farm. Chu's writing and reflections focusing on our connection to Mother Earth and what she provides reminds me very much of Robin Wall Kimmerer's writings, with a bit of a theological spin.

I appreciate Chu's consistent recognition of the indigenous people of the area, and I especially enjoyed his discussion of Prince Max.

Thank you so much to Convergent Books publishing for providing me with an advanced reader copy on NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Good Soil by Jeff Chu--this memoir releases on 3/25. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance digital copy. I liked this one a lot. It is a collection of interconnected essays revolving around Chu's time at Princeton Theological Seminary's Farminary. The farm is run by seminary students and serves as an additional way of learning about God and their creation. Chu writes about his Chinese heritage, food, faith, his difficult relationship with his parents due to their rejection of his being gay & married, friendship, and more. The book is thoughtful and vulnerable. This book will probably make you feel things and that's a good thing.

Jeff Chu wove story and theology in a way unlike what I have read before. I looked forward to waking to these pages and letting them accompany me to sleep. His time on the Faminary, wrestling with his faith, and speaking candidly about his experiences allowed me to reflect on my own faith. I am grateful for the opportunity to read this book, and believe I am better because of it.

This book was STUNNING.

From his detailed history growing up, coming out, to his call to seminary, to all the glorious talk of food, I devoured every sentence.

The through allegory of the compost heap (and many other garden metaphors) you really came to understand the inseparable unHoly Trinity that is Life, Death, & Decay.

While it broke my heart, I loved how he wrestled with parental relationships. Stuck between people who reject his husband and those unsettled with his continued contact.

Love is hard. And beautiful. And messy. And holy.

If you haven’t read his other works, including Does Jesus Really Love Me? And Wholehearted Faith (with friend Rachel, mentioned in Good Soil), go. Now. Immediately. Bring tissue.

As for me and my house? We will make jerk chicken fried rice.

eff Chu’s Good Soil is a beautifully written and deeply reflective work that blends storytelling, theology, and personal experience to explore the meaning of faith, doubt, and spiritual growth. Drawing from biblical parables, particularly the parable of the sower, Chu invites readers on a journey that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is Chu’s ability to weave together narratives from diverse voices—farmers, theologians, and everyday believers—creating a rich tapestry of perspectives. His background as a journalist is evident in his compelling storytelling, while his personal vulnerability adds emotional depth. Chu does not shy away from wrestling with difficult questions, including the role of suffering, the challenges of institutional religion, and the ways faith can both wound and heal.

What makes Good Soil stand out is its organic approach to spiritual growth. Rather than offering rigid answers, Chu encourages readers to embrace uncertainty and cultivate faith with patience, much like tending to a garden. His writing is tender yet thought-provoking, challenging yet full of grace.

Very much enjoyed this lates offering by Jeff Chu, Good Soil. The perfect collection of reflections for life in 2025. I appreciated the exploration of the connections between our lives and the land and nature. I received this as an Advanced Reader copy via NetGalley. I look forward to purchasing a physical copy, so I can highlight passages.

Jeff opens this book up by explaining that storytelling in other cultures is less linear and interconnected than Westerners like to imagine. What follows is a memoir of his experience at Princeton Theological Seminary, particularly with The Farminary Project where theology and farming meet. The book includes loosely connected essays about the author’s lessons learned about himself, the earth, God, and culture. I appreciated his exploration of his Chinese-American upbringing, his wrestling with maintaining relationships with his conservative parents after coming out, his experiences of faith, and his journey leading up to and throughout his time as a seminarian. Themes of community, friendship through difference, and actual farming abound. This isn’t my typical choice of a memoir or spiritual nonfiction, but I was pleasantly surprised by the combination and walked away enriched.

I was interested in this book because I saw Jeff Chu speak about compost at the Why Christian conference in 2018 and I was assuming that would be part of the book (and indeed it was)! I had also heard or read the story about his mother cooking for him and some snippets of other things from having followed him on social media over the years. Chu shares a deeply personal story about family, heritage, and grief with strong connections to faith and farming. Fans of Rachel Held Evans will also enjoy seeing her in the pages.

This book was a pretty good nature focused memoir. It is unique because of the author's experience at a farm that also delved into the metaphysical. While most books under the nature memoir sub-genre use observations in nature to reach conclusions of a metaphysical nature, this one records a method by which others may follow in an intentional way.

Chu's writing is vulnerable and generous, a memoir that is both spiritual and educational. It was special to have been at one of the conferences he describes in the book and know that my "hopes and fears" have now added to the good soil of the Farminary. I have spent years in the Princeton area for grad school and work, so most places mentioned are known to me and make the book come even more alive for me. In a world where so much of "spiritual writing" is wishy-washy/self-improvement/too heady/too heavy, Chu hits a beautiful balance of sharing in a way that is both personal and educational, challenging and comforting. To end on a personal note, as an immigrant and the child of immigrants, this is one of the best descriptions of an experience that is so hard to put into words, yet was done masterfully by Chu. Thank you for this book.

I have been interested in the crop of books lately (pun intended) that compare life to gardening. In this case, the reality and metaphor of good soil adds to Jeff Chu's memoir. This memoir benefits from the author's time and knowledge gained from the experience of working in the soil, as if you're a fan of Rachel Held Evans, you will appreciate his mentioning of her. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Pub Date: March 25, 2025.

#GoodSoil

I enjoyed reading Chu’s memoir and how he seamlessly included commentary on religion and life. The parts about Rachel Held Evans had me tearing up.

This midlife memoir is about creating good soil, both literally and metaphorically. (No surprise it feels very meditative and grounded.)
Reading this feels like a coffee date with a thoughtful and reflective friend.

Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand by Jeff Chu is a memoir presented in a collection of essays written while/about working in Princeton Theological Seminary's Farminary.

Chu engages readers as he learns from the land and struggles with life's big questions including faith, purpose, identity, and belonging. His writing is fluid, picturesque, honest and vulnerable.

My thanks to Convergent Books for allowing me to access a DRC of the book via NetGalley. Publication is 3/25/25. All opinions stated in this review are my own and are freely given.

Before we begin, I'd like to thank NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I adored this book. I appreciated Jeff's vulnerability with his story and everything he learned during his time at the Farminary. He broke down his cultural background and connections to the farm in an accessible way, but what I appreciated the most was the way he openly wrestled with his faith, and that there weren't easy answers to his questions, especially when it came to trying to find a home in the world, and himself. Some of the questions were an answered in a new light, but others were left unanswered...just like real life. We truly learn so much about God when we work with his very good creation.

I look forward to a reread of this once it's officially published! Thank you Jeff for sharing your heart with us.