This is a great book and it's an important book. By defining so succinctly The Good Life, Sherry Ackerman blazes a trail through a very dense forest. She weaves history, philosophy, and her own life story into a narrative that feels effortless despite the gravity of the subject matter. Every chapter is packed with both inspiration and education and at the end of each chapter Ackerman provides a list of practical suggestions which ground the reader in the reality of their own choices. Without malice or arrogance, she characterizes the status quo, explains how we got here, and posits a future well within any individual's grasp.
Rich with references that both educate and illuminate, The Good Life includes a bibliography that will keep curious readers busy for years and from an academic perspective this work is a masterpiece. You would think Ackerman would need more than 190 pages to explain how to create a sustainable and fulfilling lifestyle but she manages that and so much more.
Thankfully for all of us there are people like Sherry Ackerman who have always been ahead of their time. And considering the dire state of affairs at hand, we should all thank her for sharing her Good Life.
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A blog about SIMPLE, SUSTAINABLE LIVING and a vision for a POST-CONSUMER SOCIETY
This blog is about my own journey to sustainability—getting outside of the box and being more authentically human. It’s about not viewing 'wealth' as money, but as something much more holistic and broad. The ideas presented here come from my book How to Create a Sustainable and Fulfilling Lifestyle
The Good Life: How to Create a Sustainable and Fulfilling Lifestyle
"Dr. Sherry Ackerman’s The Good Life is a skillfully woven narrative about what we value at the core, and how our choices can honor and celebrate these values. She chose a static-free, rural lifestyle, rich in connections with loved ones, nature, and ideas, which gave her the space and time to develop her own unique strengths. In this very readable book she generously shares some of her wisdom. In down-to-earth tales of remarkable people she’s known as well as discourse with great thinkers from Socrates to Sartre, this gem of a book reflects on the central issue of our time: how can our obsessive civilization get back on track"
David Wann, coauthor of Affluenza, author of Simple Prosperity and the forthcoming New Normal: Creating an Affordable Civilization
David Wann, coauthor of Affluenza, author of Simple Prosperity and the forthcoming New Normal: Creating an Affordable Civilization
“In The Good Life, Dr. Sherry Ackerman brings together her experiences with living more simply and her philosophical background to reveal a road hopefully ever-more-traveled towards social sanity. The seed of soul, as it sprouts in each of us, will be strong enough to push back the paving stones of the consumer culture. Her stories invite us to water this soul seed.”
- Vicki Robin, author of Your Money or Your Life
- Vicki Robin, author of Your Money or Your Life
“There are lots of books out there now about living simpler, less consumptive lifestyles. Many of them, however good they may be, are stories of short experiments—a year without “impact,” or without buying things. Sherry Ackerman offers us 35 years of life lived close to the earth, simple and sustainable, yet smart, cosmopolitan, erudite. This book is a rich stew of down-to-earth wisdom and practice, and rigorous philosophical, social, economic and ecological thought. Ackerman has learned a lot from the land, from books and from people, and she offers a vision that is far more sustainable and truly wealthy than our crumbling consumer society. If you’re as old as I am, you’ve probably wondered what happened to all those folks who went “back to the land” in the sixties and seventies. Their experiences, so beautifully captured in this book, have much to teach us now and should inspire the next counterculture.”
–John de Graaf, co-author, AFFLUENZA: THE ALL-CONSUMING EPIDEMIC and Executive Director of Take Back Your Time.
–John de Graaf, co-author, AFFLUENZA: THE ALL-CONSUMING EPIDEMIC and Executive Director of Take Back Your Time.
“No asceticism here, not in this celebration of a sensual and fun-filled life that happens to be sustainable in other ways as well!”
- Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
- Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
"In her latest book, Dr. Sherry L. Ackerman has illuminated a path heretofore unrevealed in the treasure trove of manuscripts leading us from the edge of oblivion to a sustainable life. Most fundamentally, she has identified concepts that can transform our dead consumer culture into a living post-consumer society. The Good Life: How to Create a Sustainable and Fulfilling Lifestyle shines a streak of light on moving beyond addictive consumerism forever."
- Carol Holst, director of Postconsumers.com and editor of Get Satisfied: How Twenty People Like You Found the Satisfaction of Enough
- Carol Holst, director of Postconsumers.com and editor of Get Satisfied: How Twenty People Like You Found the Satisfaction of Enough
"Anyone serious about sustainability will enjoy The Good Life, for its engrossing personal story of a woman who walks the talk, for its perceptive reflections on the insanities of the industrial/consumer society in which we live, and for the information it provides on emerging alternatives, such as co-housing, slow money, vegetarian and raw foods, permaculture and organic gardening, voluntary simplicity, green building, and much more. This is truly an inspiring and informative book."
- Molly Young Brown, ecopsychologist, author of several books, including Growing Whole: Self-realization for the Great Turning
- Molly Young Brown, ecopsychologist, author of several books, including Growing Whole: Self-realization for the Great Turning
About Me
- Sherry L. Ackerman
- I am a socially engaged philosopher who believes in "doing philosophy on the streets". I am fervent about sustainable, integrated lifestyles and voluntary simplicity. Homesteading through an Old School approach to living is what lights my fires! I live in Stockbridge, Vermont. I enjoy making studio art and playing early music in a quiet, slow lifestyle.