New E-ssential | Simple Pleasures
Thoughts on Food, Friendship, and Life
Praise for Epicurean Simplicity:
“…there is clear and simple language, along with much beautifully phrased wisdom, in Epicurean Simplicity….The core of Stephanie Mills’s book is a quiet truth that may not raise a ruckus but is well worth heeding.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“In an age obsessed with a time-is-money ethos, Epicurean Simplicity is a welcome antidote, an eloquent tale of one woman’s quest for a simple existence.”
—Sierra
Washington, DC (November 2012) — In the hustle and bustle of everyday life in the 21st century, it can be hard to remember to look up from running errands and enjoy a sunset, to listen to conversations with friends instead of chirping smart phones, and to savor meals rather than settling for fast food. That’s why to celebrate the holiday season, we are offering Simple Pleasures: Thoughts on Food, Friendship, and Life.
In this Island Press E-ssential, we have highlighted two chapters from Stephanie Mills’s highly praised Epicurean Simplicity, in which she reflects on the pleasures, as well as the virtues and difficulties, of a perhaps simpler than average North American life.
Recounting stories of cooking for San Francisco eco-salons, governing a food cooperative, and celebrating birthdays in nature, Mills touches on the mundane and poignant experiences that shape all of our lives. In an era of upheaval, she reminds us of the comfort we can draw from life’s simple pleasures.
Mills’s writing is beautifully crafted, fluid, inspiring, and enlightening, and these chapters encourage you to take a moment to reflect on your own life. They celebrate the pleasures, beauty, and fulfillment of a simple life, a goal well worth striving for.
Stephanie Mills has been engaged in the ecology movement for more than thirty years, and in 1996 was named by Utne Reader as one of the world's leading visionaries. Her books include Whatever Happened to Ecology? (Sierra Club Books, 1989), In Service of the Wild (Beacon Press, 1995), and Turning Away from Technology (Sierra Club Books, 1997). A prolific writer and speaker on issues of ecology and social change, Mills lives in the Great Lakes Bioregion in the Upper Midwest.
