I like the idea that is being presented here. It promotes a lot of things that I think are important and that I think are missing from society, like having strong, local social networks and learning to break away from a consumerist mentality to start appreciating and finding satisfaction in what we already have.

The one thing that could be improved is the structure of the book. The long lists in each chapter become a bit tedious. I believe it was presented that way to be as direct and understandable as possible to as wide an audience as possible, but it made it sort of a slog to get through.

I really enjoyed the first-hand accounts that broke up the monotony. I wonder if it was less interesting to me because I'd heard most of this before from a variety of other sources.

Regardless, it was an interesting book to read. I wonder how this would work in communities that aren't already close-knit? I suppose I'd have to go looking on Facebook for more information in their groups, but I don't really care for Facebook. ( )