Customer Reviews

Moving To A Small Town: A Guidebook To Moving From Urban To Rural America

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a native San Franciscan & lifelong Californian - until I moved to a rural farm town in Kansas. My town boasts 800 people - which is a TRUE small town (anything over 1,000 pop. is not really a 'small' town, by rural folks' standards). I agree w/the criticisms of this book, and there's a lot she covers which I totally agree with. BUT - I've been in Kansas 8 years now, and I'm lonely, bored and broke as hell, even though I'm happily married with a large chunk of land, no neighbors and plenty of critters around. Most rural areas are BELOW the poverty level average for the country, and finding a decent job offering more than 8.50 an hour here is extremely difficult. And it's best if you are a christian and extremist republican, too (at least in this part of the Midwest).

PLEASE do not romanticize moving to the country, but take a good hard look at your emotional/socialogical needs first. This is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. It's been proven that people do best living in an area of 'like-minded' people. We don't live in one, and we're paying the price now. I never considered this until hubby and I moved here, and now we are considered in the 'minority' and we pretty much don't speak of certain topics except with with each other. While we love our house and the quietness, the isolation and lack of good friends is taking its toll on us. Read this book at least 1 year before you actually commit to a new area.

I

The authors are a couple who lived in Los Angeles and moved to a town in North Carolina that has a population of around 7,000. They are both career writers, but also bought an apple orchard. They discuss issues like: Are you right for small-town life? Scouting a new location; calculating the costs; making the move; recasting your career; and making a place for yourself in your new community.

MOVING TO A SMALL TOWN has been a godsend for my husband and me, as we are planning on moving from Santa Barbara, California, in the next year. (We'd like to buy a home, and it's not going to happen here!) For people who have lived in medium to large cities their whole lives, this book gives a serious introduction to what's different in small towns, like decreased anonymity and increased expectations for community involvement. We learned some helpful ideas for choosing where to live and some new ways to think about making a living. Much of this information can be used by someone thinking of moving to a larger city, as well--one still has to scout locations, think about work, and move. This book is a must for anyone thinking about relocating.

(and now that we finally have moved to a town of 8,500 -- a town very unlike Southern California towns, thank goodness! -- we love it even more than expected)

Kimberly Borrowdale - Under the Covers Book Reviews

I was looking for a thoughtful guidebook on migrating back to small town life--but this wasn't it. The authors spend too much time smugly congratulating themselves just for having done what many do daily without trumpeting it about (returning home to help aging parents), and not enough on the issues the title would lead the reader to believe would be covered. In addition, I was surprised at the strong negative reaction I had to the authors themselves.

Do you have the temperament to live in a small town? Are your needs and wants compatible with what is available in a small town? This book requires you to take off your rose-colored glasses and be honest with yourself. It also gives you the tools with which to answer these (and other) questions honestly. Once you have read this book, you will be able to conduct the comparisons and analyses that are so important in making the decision to move from an urban to a small-town environment. Or...the decision not to. Highly recommend this book!

As urbanites who returned to the man's family orchard, this writing team is fully aware of the pleasures and pitfalls of moving to a small town. Written with sensitivity, humor, and many examples and interviews with others who have done the same, this is a full-bodied book that MUST be read by anyone thinking of moving to a small town!

I do wish I'd paid more attention to the details when I ordered this book. Once I got it and NOTICED that it was published in and around 1996, I knew that the information in it was going to be dated, somewhat.

Once I read through the preface, I began to get a little concerned that the overall tone of the book was leaning more toward the anecdotal and non-specific advice side of things. I hoped that the content would go up from there.

Other than the sections which detailed some practical ways of narrowing down your small towns of interest and evaluating each one, the rest of the book reads more like a motivational/self-help book (not that it was a CHORE to read, mind you). Throughout, there's a LOT of page-space devoted ideology that I feel someone who's interested in this book is already familiar with (the pros & cons of city versus small town living). I was expecting more practical advice, I suppose. Instead, this book gives more pats on your back than anything else. Not a bad read, but not necessarily worth purchasing.

I purchased this book, hoping to get some guidance on what it is like to move from a city to a small town. I was so disappointed! It just didn't contain enough 'meat'! It just waffled along with no specific information, except perhaps a few tips on how to actually organise moving house. I wanted more info on moving towards voluntary simplicity, but didn't get it from this book. The whole book kind of reminded me of when I was at school and had to flesh out an essay with lots of waffle, because I didn't really know what facts to put into it.

Move to a small town and help turn it into the place you moved from! Yes! Yet another book that seeks out unique places to live, encourages people to move there, which in turn helps to destroy what made them special in the first place. What happens when every place like this has been ruined?