I just finished The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition by Michael Shuman. This is a great read for those of us interested in creating stronger local economies and avoiding the planned obsolescence of big box crap-ola.

Shuman takes what could be a dry sleeping-inducing material and organizes it into informative and enjoyable sections on an important topic. The book is broken down into two sections: the first on the problem and the second on the solution. Thankfully for those of us who are all too aware of the problems at hand, the problem part is cogent and to the point. The solution part is broken down into Consumers, Investors, Entrepreneurs, Policymakers, Community Builders and Globalizers. Each chapter has a checklist of steps we can take to create change.

Highly recommended! -Jen