If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now: Why We Traded the Commuting Life for a Little House on the Prairie

I was given a copy of this book by Harper Collins in exchange for an honest review.

Today's post is on If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now: Why We Traded the Commuting Life for a Little House on the Prairie by Christopher Ingraham. It is 288 pages long and published by Harper Collins. The cover is illustrated country picture with a house, a dog, and a couple walking towards it. the intended reader is someone who likes personal memoirs. There is no foul language, no sex, and no violence in this book. There be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- The hilarious, charming, and candid story of writer Christopher Ingraham’s decision to uproot his life and move his family to Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, population 1,400—the community he made famous as “the worst place to live in America” in a story he wrote for the Washington Post.
Like so many young American couples, Chris Ingraham and his wife Briana were having a difficult time making ends meet as they tried to raise their twin boys in the East Coast suburbs. One day, Chris – in his role as a “data guy” reporter at the Washington Post – stumbled on a study that would change his life. It was a ranking of America’s 3,000+ counties from ugliest to most scenic. He quickly scrolled to the bottom of the list and gleefully wrote the words “The absolute worst place to live in America is (drumroll please) … Red Lake County, Minn.” The story went viral, to put it mildly.
Among the reactions were many from residents of Red Lake County. While they were unflappably polite – it’s not called “Minnesota Nice” for nothing – they challenged him to look beyond the spreadsheet and actually visit their community. Ingraham, with slight trepidation, accepted. Impressed by the locals’ warmth, humor and hospitality – and ever more aware of his financial situation and torturous commute – Chris and Briana eventually decided to relocate to the town he’d just dragged through the dirt on the Internet.
If You Lived Here You’d Be Home by Now is the story of making a decision that turns all your preconceptions – good and bad -- on their heads. In Red Lake County, Ingraham experiences the intensity and power of small-town gossip, struggles to find a decent cup of coffee, suffers through winters with temperatures dropping to forty below zero, and unearths some truths about small-town life that the coastal media usually miss. It’s a wry and charming tale – with data! -- of what happened to one family brave enough to move waaaay beyond its comfort zone.

Review- A charming memoir about a family that moves to the "worst place" in America and making a life there. Christopher Ingraham is a Washington Post reporter who writes stories about data in America. He comes across a ranking list from the government about where is the best to live and Red Lake Falls, Minnesota is the worst. Ingraham wrote a little story about the different places and their rankings and did not think anything more about it. But he opened a can of worms in Red Lake Falls. We get to go an this journey with Ingraham and his family as they decide to up-root their lives and move to the "worst place" in America. I really enjoyed this memoir, it was fun, funny, and an interesting look into way living outside of the big city is not a bad idea. Ingraham is open to learning and humble when he realizes that Red Lake Falls is not the worst place but the perfect place for him and his family. If you enjoy family memoirs then you should give this one a read.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars.