I don’t review a lot of prepping books these days because so many of them are wash, rinse, repeat of other books on the topic. Some recent exceptions have been this book by Jim Cobb and this one by Brian Duff. Today I have something to add to the list that is just incredible.
The next non-fiction book on your TBR list (to be read) has to be Common Sense Preparedness: Building Resilience for Uncertain Times.
The author really walks the walk.
It’s by Laurie Neverman, a longtime blogger over at Commonsense Home, one of the very best websites out there for real, down-to-earth information. Laurie has been writing about preparedness and resilience for even longer than I have and she is a veteran of the genre. This book was a long time in the making and it was worth the wait.
Laurie learned how to garden, bake, cook, and preserve food from her mother, growing up on the family dairy farm. They also ran a family catering business. She later studied mechanical engineering with an emphasis in renewable energy and worked in the solar industry until she and her husband started a family.
About ten years ago, I had the immense privilege of being hosted by Laurie and her family when I was on a road trip across the country with my daughter. Not only was it the first time I got to try Wisconsin squeaky cheese (soooo good), but I got to tour Laurie’s homestead.
She and her family have been working on this marvelous piece of land for many years now, since the early 2000s. The house is a certified Greenbuilt home, with an attached greenhouse, root cellar and canning pantry. They raise chickens and the most adorable runner ducks you’ve ever seen. The gardens are a fantastic example of permaculture, and they’ve added ponds to the property. They even produce their own energy with a variety of solar strategies. Their home uses passive heating and cooling, along with an incredible masonry stove.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Trying to figure out how to stock up while prices keep climbing? We can help with our free guide and newsletter!
The place is warm and cozy and a resilient person’s dream in every possible way. Not only that, Laurie herself is an absolutely delightful person, and meeting her family was so lovely.
About the book
I shared everything above for a reason: this woman doesn’t just talk about being resilient. She lives it every single day. Her advice is incredibly solid and she knows this because she’s done all the things about which she writes.
There are several things about the book I want to note.
The ideas are applicable in a variety of settings.
While Laurie does live in the country on a beautiful piece of land, the ideas in the book aren’t only for folks who have acreage out in the boondocks. Many, many of the ideas can be used on a suburban quarter-acre lot, and quite a number are applicable even in urban environments. It certainly has me inspired to do more here in the city where I live.
While there are plenty of DIYs and how-tos, there is also a lot of philosophy. Laurie talks about making resilience your lifestyle, not just something you do to survive the zombie apocalypse.
The book is absolutely flippin’ BEAUTIFUL.
I’m not kidding. This book is gorgeous. It’s a weighty tome, feeling exactly like a book full of delicous knowledge should feel. The pages are of high-quality paper, and this book will last and last.
But more than that, there are the illustrations. It’s filled with beautiful, full-color photographs, many (if not all) of them taken right there at Laurie’s homestead. Look at these pics I snapped. RIGHT?
This is just a glimpse at all the inspiration you will find inside.
It covers so many topics, and several I haven’t seen in prepping books before.
I’m going to upload pics of the entire table of contents so you can see the vast variety of self-reliant content the book contains. Each segment contains a specific project to work on at your own home.
But first, there are some topics that particularly caught my eye.
- Permaculture in a survival context
- Wildcrafting
- Purifying stagnant water
- Making your home disaster-resistant
- Hygiene – lots and lots of hygiene info
- Extensive waste management content
- Preparedness and resilience as philosophies
Here’s the Table of Contents. Read this and tell me you aren’t dying to dive in.
This is a book you will turn to again and again while creating (or ramping up) your own safe haven.
It’s not “scaring” you into prepping.
What I love about this – and about Laurie’s whole approach – is that it isn’t about scaring folks into being prepped. It’s about the peace that comes with having your ducks (and chickens and jars) in a row. Her home feels positively idyllic when you visit, and this book gave me exactly the same vibe.
This book is authentic, just like its author.
If you have a list of prepper books to buy, take my advice and move this one to the very top. Take the fall and winter to read it, note down the ideas you want to incorporate, and start building more resilience right into your home.
Have you read this book yet? Do you follow Laurie’s site? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
