Making Your Move to One of America's Best Small Towns: How to Find a Great Little Place as Your Next Home Base

For those looking to raise a family in a storybook American town, or a change of pace from hectic city life, this book is the answer.

This is a pleasant little book to help you find a pleasant little place to live. Crampton (From the Airport to the City), who defines the essential institutions of a small town as a high school and a hospital, warns against living in towns that have allowed big-box stores to suck the vital juices out of the downtown area and instead advises choosing places that have figured out how to renew resources and provide a sense of community. He offers one page of information for each of the 120 towns listed, including geography, climate, schools, recreation facilities, sales tax rates, per capita income, the cost of electricity, and the average cost of a home. Sections such as "Finding a Job" and "Paying Your Dues" are interesting from a sociological standpoint and will prove helpful to a reader weighing the benefits of small-town living. Though not as data-intensive as comparable books, including Places Rated and America's Top-Rated Smaller Cities, this work is adequate considering the affordable price. Recommended for libraries in towns listed in the book as well as some public libraries.
Sylvia Andrews, Indiana State Lib., Indianapolis
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