A review by cheriekg
Adventures in Opting Out: A Field Guide to Leading an Intentional Life by Cait Flanders

2.0

I enjoy Flanders. I don't find her writing to be earth-shaking, but she always reminds me of friend who is very grounded, sincere, and full of practical wisdom and for that reason I am predisposed to liking her. That said, this book was not her best work. I thought it would straddle the line between self-help and memoir, but in fact it is 95% self-help. But it's not even researched, evidenced-based self-help. Instead, it's Flanders giving gentle guidance and tips on "opting out" (a phrase she beats into the ground). The hiking metaphor she uses to structure her thoughts is overworked and there is simply not enough to say in the amount of space she takes up. It's not a long book, but it would have been a better blog post or blog series.

I still enjoy Flanders and have started listening to this book's accompanying podcast. I'm three episodes in and it's already better than this book.