Mark really knows his stuff - so if you have been wondering how to turn your community, city or region into a more liveable, sustainable community, this is a great place to start. Pedestrian traffic calming ? Cycling routes ? Recycling facilities ? Greenways ? Local creek restoration ? Thriving neighbourhood centers ? This book would make a great gift for any new councillor, or any would-be community activist.

Although I believe Lynne Franks has good insight for people who want to start their own business, I found it annoying the way that she would name drop and take credit for the success of others. If you are looking for an uplifting book that will help you take the next step toward running your own business, I would recommend, "Building a Business the Buddhist Way : A Practitioner's Guidebook" by Geri Larkin. This book provides the inspiration to take the next step and more practical advise on how to write a business plan and get started.

If you are thinking about starting your own business, and need encouragement and motivation to take the plunge, and if you are very visual, than this book could be helpful for you. It offers inspirational advice and is extremely well-designed and fun to look at (one of the reasons I bought the book was to put some of the illustrations on my bulletin board). If you are looking for hard-core information about the steps you will need to take to start your own business (i.e. legal and accounting information) this is not the book for you. Other than a list of organizations at the back, this book contains almost no practical information about the logistics of starting a business. Because the author's previous career was in public relations, there is a bit more information in that part of the book. Having said that however, if you get a headache every time you pick up one of those traditional business "how to" books filled with IRS type forms, this might be the book you need to ease you into the process. I find that it gets me in the mood and gives me the courage to tackle the dry practical books. Just be advised that you will need to purchase another book for the technical information. I would have given the book a higher rating, but I found the frequent mentions of the author's personal achievements to be quite irritating.

The book tells you that it is ok to shoot for the stars when every one else tells you other wise. If you want to start you own business and your a women PLEASE BUY THIS BOOK TODAY!

Having been a farmer for a large part of my life, I find this book extremely interesting. Just reading the table of contents is a Save The Earth hoot!

I found out from this book that there was a nation-wide meeting of alternative agriculture in Bloomington, Illinois (my neighborhood), twice around 1950. I bet those people are still here.

I look at trees being bull-dozed and farmland being given over to houses, & wonder... where is Mildred when we need her.

She did her best, I'm sure, and this book is a historical key to every American (US) alternative land use movement and organization there ever was up to about 1980.

Keys to the future. Read it.

In her latest respected work, futurist Hazel Henderson calls for a win-win world founded on cooperation, not domination. She provides a rich, fascinating, detailed, and thoroughly researched and cited look at the waning days of our current dysfunctional global paradigm. Then she looks ahead for a peek at the possible future of a new, healthier paradigm. Though it was justly well-reviewed, this book is not light reading. It is written in conversational language, but it has a scholarly depth and reach. It is a book to study, not flip through. Henderson calls for a complete redesign of every societal system imaginable - from economic and political to social and ethical - all with an eye toward sustaining a global economy and a more humane world view. We at getAbstract highly recommend this book to readers interested in economic, global, environmental, social, political, and ethical issues.