The New Better Off, Courtney E. Martin
The New Better Off, Courtney E. Martin
List: $29.98 | Sale: $20.99
Club: $14.99

The New Better Off
Reinventing the American Dream

Author: Courtney E. Martin

Narrator: Marguerite Gavin

Unabridged: 8 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 10/01/2016


Synopsis

Are we living the good life—and what defines 'good', anyway? Americans today are constructing a completely different framework for success than their parents' generation, using new metrics that TEDWomen speaker and columnist Courtney Martin has termed collectively the "New Better Off". The New Better Off puts a name to the American phenomenon of rejecting the traditional dream of a 9-to-5 job, home ownership, and a nuclear family structure—illuminating the alternate ways Americans are seeking happiness and success.

Including commentary on recent changes in how we view work, customs and community, marriage, rituals, money, living arrangements, and spirituality, The New Better Off uses personal stories and social analysis to explore the trends shaping our country today. Martin covers growing topics such as freelancing, collaborative consumption, communal living, and the breaking down of gender roles.

The New Better Off is about the creative choices individuals are making in their vocational and personal lives, but it’s also about the movements, formal and informal, that are coalescing around the New Better Off idea—people who are reinventing the social safety net and figuring out how to truly better their own communities.

About Courtney E. Martin

Courtney E. Martin is the author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters and Do It Anyway, and coauthor of The Naked Truth and Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists. A 2002 recipient of the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics, her writing has appeared in Mother Jones, Newsday, and the Christian Science Monitor, among other publications. She lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Shirley on November 29, 2016

Why would a grandmother read a book that clearly is targeted to the millennial generation? First, I have children and grandchildren and want to understand the world they live in. Second, I'm a teacher at heart and a life-long learner, so I love a good idea when I see one. Third, the two new stages i......more

Goodreads review by David on December 28, 2016

Disclosure: I know Courtney, I admire Courtney, and I think you should buy her book. Hopefully, this is still honest critique that doesn’t shy away from criticism. Living in America, at this unequal, messy moment, can break your heart—but it doesn’t have to break your spirit. Living in America is so......more

Goodreads review by Jacquelyn on July 21, 2017

I wanted to like this book so much but...meh. I feel if you have Courtney's life (free lancer, live in California, live amongst a community of similarly minded people) then great. But as someone who has a "regular job" and a home, I felt like after reading this book I was somehow contributing to the......more

Goodreads review by Abbi on July 18, 2017

One of the most fascinating works of cultural criticism I've read in a long time. In our age of distraction, quick and loud and shiny, this is more meditative approach to living in the modern world -- and a beautifully optimistic one, which is why I bought the book. I was perusing the shelves for so......more