What do you think?
Rate this book
A Good Place to Live: America's Last Migration
An exploration of place and community--in a nation where people are constantly moving and creating them--traces the author's journey to his favorite places and his thoughts on creating a good place to live. 10,000 first printing. $10,000 ad/promo.
432 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1995
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 13, 2022
Yes, this book is dated, but there are still interesting things here. One is that many of these good places are still likely candidates. Another is the quaintness of the author's astonishment at non-smoking businesses, along with the low prices he paid for meals, beer, and ferry trips. And then there's the topic of homeless people: many of whom admit to migrating to these good places on purpose.
But as an introvert, I found the book exhausting. There must be a way to have a good place without spending all my non-working hours in public settings. Restaurants, pubs, parks, coffee shops, public hot tubs, bookstore porches, hotel lobbies, pedestrian malls -- just reading about all that human interaction wore me out.
But as an introvert, I found the book exhausting. There must be a way to have a good place without spending all my non-working hours in public settings. Restaurants, pubs, parks, coffee shops, public hot tubs, bookstore porches, hotel lobbies, pedestrian malls -- just reading about all that human interaction wore me out.
August 2, 2015
An important, enlightening survey of various American cities and places, and aspects of livability, in the author's search for a place he could evaluate with some objectivity as desirable and livable.
The work reveals many significant aspects of American life. For instance, one of the author's interviewees expresses a sentiment that "the loss of cultural identity is the great tragedy in the otherwise magnificent American adventure." The myth of the melting pot is burst in the loss of roots, of traditions of the past, and escapism, into materialism and accumulation of wealth and power. As the interviewee asserts, "When you have no basis for your pride, you do terrible things."
The author reveals the distinct importance of third spaces in communal life, spaces set apart from the home and the workplace, and illustrates the devastating consequences of treating land as a commodity, to such desirable spaces, throughout his work.
He argues convincingly that the automobile has furthered our national antisocial habit of individualism (I'd argue that the automobile is perhaps only an expressed symptom of this cultivated behavior that springs from roots far deeper than a national habit; Ben Stein calls the modern cellphone, or smartphone, an extreme extension of watercooler activity, an addiction to stimulation that contributes little to productivity, for example), and goes even further to say that the damage done extends to the disruption of American places caused by pavement. He makes a convincing case that a high-level observation of urban American life will present a picture of, as he puts it succinctly, "a network of pavement linking shopping malls, commercial strips, interstate highways, suburban housing tracts to the parking lots where the beasts (autos) come to rest."
His views of land as a backdrop to community, and the community's relationship to the countryside and surrounding land, are clearly reminiscent of the ways of life practiced for centuries in thriving villages all over the world. Hence it comes as a surprise that the author fails to discuss villages, and village quadrangles and communal gathering places as essential third spaces, and also that he does not investigate the modern college town in any depth.
A good read overall, albeit wordy in places (with minor word errors: "dunner," "Btus," "Hewlitt-...," "motherland" instead of motherhood in the old saying, etc.) that distracted at times, this book is a revealing body of sentiment about American cities and life.
The work reveals many significant aspects of American life. For instance, one of the author's interviewees expresses a sentiment that "the loss of cultural identity is the great tragedy in the otherwise magnificent American adventure." The myth of the melting pot is burst in the loss of roots, of traditions of the past, and escapism, into materialism and accumulation of wealth and power. As the interviewee asserts, "When you have no basis for your pride, you do terrible things."
The author reveals the distinct importance of third spaces in communal life, spaces set apart from the home and the workplace, and illustrates the devastating consequences of treating land as a commodity, to such desirable spaces, throughout his work.
He argues convincingly that the automobile has furthered our national antisocial habit of individualism (I'd argue that the automobile is perhaps only an expressed symptom of this cultivated behavior that springs from roots far deeper than a national habit; Ben Stein calls the modern cellphone, or smartphone, an extreme extension of watercooler activity, an addiction to stimulation that contributes little to productivity, for example), and goes even further to say that the damage done extends to the disruption of American places caused by pavement. He makes a convincing case that a high-level observation of urban American life will present a picture of, as he puts it succinctly, "a network of pavement linking shopping malls, commercial strips, interstate highways, suburban housing tracts to the parking lots where the beasts (autos) come to rest."
His views of land as a backdrop to community, and the community's relationship to the countryside and surrounding land, are clearly reminiscent of the ways of life practiced for centuries in thriving villages all over the world. Hence it comes as a surprise that the author fails to discuss villages, and village quadrangles and communal gathering places as essential third spaces, and also that he does not investigate the modern college town in any depth.
A good read overall, albeit wordy in places (with minor word errors: "dunner," "Btus," "Hewlitt-...," "motherland" instead of motherhood in the old saying, etc.) that distracted at times, this book is a revealing body of sentiment about American cities and life.
February 1, 2016
I loved this book. Ever since reading <Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith in July 2013, I've been checking out books the author cited. I think our move to a city from a village not only as a family but also ministry leaders has piqued my interest in urban planning and design.
In my dream life, I'd get to drive around the country like Terry Pindell spending a few weeks in each of America's favorite small cities, learning the culture, enjoying the natural beauties and amenities, interviewing the key figures and joining in the traditions and festivities.
Also, it was fun to read about Ithaca, New York in the book. Ithaca is 45 minutes from our hometown and our favorite vacation spot in New York.
This book is a bit dated (1997) and I'm hoping to discover an updated version.
In my dream life, I'd get to drive around the country like Terry Pindell spending a few weeks in each of America's favorite small cities, learning the culture, enjoying the natural beauties and amenities, interviewing the key figures and joining in the traditions and festivities.
Also, it was fun to read about Ithaca, New York in the book. Ithaca is 45 minutes from our hometown and our favorite vacation spot in New York.
This book is a bit dated (1997) and I'm hoping to discover an updated version.
October 23, 2007
This is the book that I was going to write... until I found it on the sale shelf at a bookstore. Disappointed that someone had beat me to the punch, yet eager to see how 'my' idea had turned out, I took it home. The author's evaluation criteria for determining whether different aspects of each city qualified it as a good place to live was unique and interesting. The narrative style of writing, including the stories and observations of the author's experiences in each city, makes it more than just an instructional book on 'how to find a good place to live'. If you are interested in finding a new city to move to and trying to figure out how to decide, or even just feeling a little bit of wanderlust, I recommend this book.
June 27, 2008
A little out of date to be an effective guide in judging these small to mid-sized cities(the Rodney King riots are discussed throughout the book as contemporaneous with the author's travels). It would be an interesting follow-up if the author revisted these towns 15 years later to evaluate whether they still remain good places to live.
March 13, 2011
This is just not a book with longevity. I learned about interesting places I might like to live-BC, Canada, San Luis Obispo, CA or Corvallis, OR-but the author's journeys took place 20 years ago. A place can change a lot in two decades.
October 16, 2012
Careful. If you read this book, you are likely to want to move to another town.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews