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~ Articles & Essays ~
Thoughts on Voluntary Simplicity by Clay and Judy Woods offers this couple's personal reflections on their journey of voluntary simplicity.
Unconventional Ideas: A philosophical toolkit to help people free themselves from the mainstream American Dream. This site contains dozens of short articles written by simplicity study participant John O. Andersen on a variety of topics having to do with work, deliberate living, learning, and family togetherness.
~ Book Summaries ~
Carrying Water as a Way of Life: A Homesteader's History by Linda Tatelbaum (Appleton, ME: About Time Press, 1997). Memoir of a homesteading lifestyle in rural Maine.
Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World by Linda Breen Pierce (Carmel, CA: Gallagher Press, 2000). Features wide range of real life stories of people who have simplified their lives. Offers guidance on how to integrate lessons derived from these diversified life examples.
Epicurean Simplicity by Stephanie Mills (Washington, D.C.: Island Press/Shearwater Books, 2002). Memoir/essay about author's experience living simply on 35 acres in the Upper Midwest. The author, a writer and speaker on the issues of ecology and social change, describes simple pleasures, especially delight in the natural world, and shares her reflections on deep ecology and voluntary simplicity.
Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (New York: Pantheon Books, Reissued 1991). Classic memoir of voluntary simplicity. Rumination of author's life and the values of simplicity written during author's stay at the seashore. Originally written in 1955, still relevant today.
The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing's Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living by Scott Nearing and Helen Nearing (New York: Schocken Books, Reprinted 1990). Classic text of homesteading lifestyle. Detailed description of authors' experience living in rural Vermont, complete with specific information on food and shelter. Authors promote value of substantial leisure time engaged in reading, music, and conversation.
A Place Called Simplicity by Claire Cloninger (Harvest House, 1993). The author is a lyricist, public speaker and writer who writes this inspirational book from a strong, Christian perspective. She describes her own story of moving from Mobile, Alabama to a log cabin in a rural area overlooking the Alabama river (Juniper Landing) and also provides many, thoughtful ideas for traveling on the path to a place called simplicity.
Simple Living: One Couple's Search for a Better Life by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska (New York: Viking Penguin, 1992). Memoir of a couple's journey to simplify their lives-from a life as struggling writers in Los Angeles to working partners in an family-owned orchard business in Virginia.
Walden and Other Writings by Henry David Thoreau (New York: Modern Library, 2000). Classic simplicity tome by the "father" of voluntary simplicity. Reveals author's experience of living on Walden Pond for two years in the nineteenth century. Inspirational, providing a depth of meaning to the quest for simplicity.
To order any of these books from The Simple Living Network, click here
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