Life 2.0: How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness: Rich Karlgaard, Rick Warren
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
As the publisher of Forbes and with an extensive background in Silicon Valley, Karlgaard might be expected to have particular insight into how Americans rattled by the bursting of the dot-com bubble are coming to grips with their tightened circumstances and creating their own minirecoveries. His book’s problem is lack of focus—is it a personal account of his learning to fly a small aircraft so he can fly state-to-state to meet local success stories, or is it a more detached observation of the economic forces driving folks out of the coastal metropolises to find “larger lives in smaller places”? The two halves never really gel, and though the economic aspects of the story generally hold sway, his own stories overshadow the perspectives of those he’s reporting. The compelling story of a woman who retires from the State Department to do freelance foreign political consulting out of Bismarck, N.D., for example, is interrupted by Karlgaard’s telling of his high school crush. A tail-end list of “150 Cheap Places to Live” creates further fragmentation, but it is one of the book’s most valuable sections. There’s definitely a thought-provoking story to be told here, but it’s debatable whether Karlgaard has succeeded in putting the pieces together.
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Do You Know Where Your Happiness Lies?
In The Purpose Driven Life, I consider the question “What on earth am I here for?” This book considers another important question: “Where on earth should I be living?” Is where you live worth the stress? No one is forcing you to stay where you are. It’s your choice. —From the foreword by Dr. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life
Would you be happier if you lived somewhere else? A place where the quality of life is greater than the cost of living? Such places do exist—you just have to look a little harder to find them. The answer probably doesn’t lie in the big coastal cities: the cost-of-living gap between those urban areas and the heartland is an immense chasm. And yet the “sophistication gap” between these regions is steadily shrinking—cable tv, computers, fax machines, cell phones, and broadband Internet access are making it possible to work almost anywhere.
Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard wanted to explore the new appeal of “flyover” country, and he decided to sky-hop around America in a single-engine Cessna, talking to people—those with a nose for entrepreneurship, a faith in technology, and the willingness to take a chance—who found their bliss in places like Green Bay, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Iowa; and Bozeman, Montana.
America offers up scores of these gems—cities and towns with a winning combination of low cost of living and high quality of life—and Karlgaard provides an in-depth look at the country’s 150 cheapest (and greatest) places to live.
Life 2.0 is the story of those who are living larger lives in smaller places, and a road map for those who want to follow their lead.
Where is your happiness? Check out Life 2.0’s “150 Cheapest Places to Live” section, featuring dozens of cities and towns that offer the good life at a great price.