This is a very shallow book by the new generation of writers that find fault with everything done in the twenty years before they were born,Its very shallow, big type and very preachy.If you are interested in gardening, try Giaas garden, a much more serious study of permiculture.In this rambling book, the aurthor boasts of not making over 8 k a year, but inherited the money to buy her farm!I liked camping living until I was thirty, now I am 45 and really like my freezer and new stove.( yes, I have my own three hens and belong to a CSA)I know a number of the original flower/farm people, and as they got older they liked having a few more comforts.So this is one of the new gen X books, shallow to a fault. Nothing but sound bites.the aurthor sems all hyped about third world living, but I am not sure she has ever been to a third world and seen how hard that style of life is,,it is easy to glamorius the distant!!!