by Frank Levering, Wanda Urbanska
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Product Description
Originally published in 1992, long before "simple living" became a hot marketing trend, this groundbreaking work eloquently makes the case for a simpler, less stressful life. Told by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska, a literary couple who met as students at Harvard and moved from the fast lane in Los Angeles to take over a family orchard in southwestern Virginia, Simple Living is the story of their decision to put more meaning into their lives while eliminating unnecessary debt and superfluous consumption, as well as lessening their environmental footprint. Levering and Urbanska have written what many have hailed as a classic in the field: a personal yet grittily realistic memoir about their quest for more meaningful values in a consumer-driven society. Theirs is an honest account of what it means to live not outside the system but within it while at the same time claiming one's own values. While simple living has many definitions, Levering and Urbanska identify its focus as environmental stewardship, thoughtful consumption, community activism, and financial responsibility. Drawing on case studies of others throughout the country who are choosing to simplify, Simple Living suggests ways that you can simplify your life, not by any 10-step plan but by taking measures that make sense for you. As relevant today as when it was first published, Simple Living is reprinted here with a new preface by the authors and a foreword by Millard and Linda Fuller, founders of Habitat for Humanity International.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 I give this book as a gift, 2005-08-09
It was surprising to read lukewarm reviews of this book, because I love it, and I like to think I'm a fairly discriminating reader. The story of Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska's odyssey from Los Angeles, where they were trying to live as writers, back home to the family apple orchard, with its rich but suffocating mix of family and religious and rural values, is a story that many will warmly relate to. It will appeal especially to those who have made livings in the creative arts, have wearied of the rat race and commercialism, and have decided to seek something simpler, more authentic, more affordable...it is a special kind of American story, for we habitually celebrate upward mobility, but only rarely focus on what the Shakers called our quest for "the place just right." I have a number of friends who have enjoyed a few years in large cities, but have become intrigued by the simplicity movement (if it is that) and the possibilities of making a rewarding life in a more remote location. I should also like to say that this isn't a book by Yuppies, about Yuppies...clearly, the locals are valued as highly as the ex-pats. and the attitude is respectful and refreshing. I give this book as a gift and congratulate the authors on writing a story I've enjoyed reading more than once. I don't know what financial rewards, if any, they achieved from writing the book, but I really believe they've done something more meaningful than the LA screenplays would have been. A closing thought...though home schooling is far from my particular world, I think this might be a great selection for the home schooling community, because it gives a glimpse of modern urban life, but affirms in a fresh and interesting way the values of family and community right under one's nose...
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
 Simple living for yuppies., 2005-06-20
If you want to read the experiences of a couple of yuppies "simplifying" their lives, I suppose this is the book for you. I guess there is a place for that. However, they apparently had so far to go that simplifying for them is anything but for some of the rest of us.
I found the writing style very irritating. Referring to themselves sometimes in the first person, other times second, over to third, then back to first, it really got on my last nerve.
Some of the stories were interesting, but only as stories, not as inspiration or information on simplifying. The best parts of the book were when they were talking about the simple living solutions of other people, almost all of whom had more interesting stories than the authors'.
The snide shot they took at the Nearings was completely uncalled for and unnecessary, as was the equally mean comments about the couple who were former nuns, although not for the reason you may think but because they had simplified too much, in the eyses of the authors. I think this is revealing, and underscores my impression that they only think people should simplify so far.
And the fact that they see Sam Levering as being only of modest income even during the heyday of his orchard indicates they really have no clue about economic reality for most Americans.
Lastly, to have a chapter on frgual living only to turn around in the next chapter and describe a completely unnecessary upgrade of a kitchen was the last straw. Do they even know what frugal IS???
I second some of the other recommendations for alternative books. Read the Nearings THE GOOD LIFE, which combines their two classics on back to earth living, and YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE, by Dominguez and Robbin. You also might go to the Simple Living website, based on the latter book, and get some good info. It's at simpliving.net.
This one? As I said, if you are a yuppie or are otherwise wealthy and don't want to stray too far into the land of simplicity, you might actually find some use for this book.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
i'm afraid i didn't like the writing either, 2004-09-21
maybe couples shouldn't write books together. i don't know if they were complimenting themselves, or more likely each other, but it got very tiresome. we all have to build up a certain degree of belief in ourselves, but it is not fun to read other people doing this. i thought the Goldstone's books (a couple who write about book-collecting) suffered from this, but this book really got on my nerves. i like the life they describe in the book, i just don't like all the ego that came with the description, it greatly distracted from the information. they also go on about how great their friends are, but they manage to make this annoying as well. i recommend your money or your life by dominguez & robin, or living the good life: how to live sanely & simply by the nearings instead of this book.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
An inspirational guide to taking charge of one's life, 2003-09-11
Simple Living is the true story of Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska, a couple whose constant craving for more of the trappings of materialism while living life in the fast lane encroached upon their sanity and well-being -- until they chose to revert to a simpler life running a family orchard on the Blue Ridge mountains. An inspirational guide to taking charge of one's life and prioritizing what truly matters, Simple Living is thoughtful and occasionally inspiring reading which is heartily commended to the attention of anyone feeling that there contemporary lifestyle is disadvantageous to their truly livingk and are looking for something better -- something simpler.
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
 A Better Life, 2001-10-09
i don't know if i'm more thankful to wanda and frank for writing this book or to my friend kurt for passing it along to me. either way, it helped change my life.the book tells the story of how wanda and frank transformed their LA lives. mixed in with their narrative are vignettes of other peoples' searches for simplicity in their lives. maybe the word "simplicity" has become overused and its definition washed out. for me, the book showed how different folks found peace of mind on a daily basis. how they realigned their goals and actions with their values. how they stopped competing and started living. after i read it, i took a trip to Levering Orchard with my friend kurt. we wanted to meet the authors, to let them know that their book had touched us. so we took some time off from work, drove to virginia and found the orchard. when we arrived, frank was working at the pack house. we bought some apples and told him why we were there. frank called wanda, who was up at the house, and told her that some "fans" had arrived at the pack house and wanted to meet her. and over time, kurt and i became friends with frank and wanda. we visited them on several occasions and kurt even helped them pick apples during the last week of the season that year. i saw how they lived ten years after the move from california. i understood what they were writing about in Simple Living, and i began changing my own life. i wouldn't say that life has become "simple", but it sure is more peaceful than it used to be. my daily actions reflect my personal values and i have learned to live well with less stuff. i even moved from california to north carolina, in the blue ridge mountains, not too far from Levering Orchard. so thanks, wanda and frank, for writing this book. and thanks, kurt, for letting me know about it.
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