Slow Family Living: 75 Simple Ways To Slow Down, Connect, and Create More Joy

If you feel burned out, overtaxed, disconnected, or otherwise just stressed out and bitchy, here are 75 tips for slowing down and rediscovering joy on the homefront. Written in a leisurely, crunchy-Buddhist style befitting the topic, Noll's manifesto was "born out of the belief that family life is being hijacked by societal messages that more is better and faster is greater and that you and your children are at risk of being left behind, unless you buy in now." To counteract that message, she co-founded slowfamilyliving.com. Each numbered entry in the book is about two pages long, and she addresses topics such as listening with an open heart, practicing family life, and endorsing screen-free hours at home. While the manifesto rings true, her advice both hits and misses. Using your alarm clock as a morning reminder to breathe deeply and calmly before rising is pretty solid stuff, but "dropping love bombs" by circling a loved one and chanting, "Applesauce!" seems exceedingly bizarre.