Reviews

How to Save the World in Your Spare Time by Elizabeth May

midici's review

3.0

*3.5 stars*

Elizabeth May's book How to save the world in your spare time has some really good information on building and sustaining movements. It is from 2006, so some of the information is a bit dated now, but it was interesting to read what sort of strategies and methods go on behind-the-scenes in community-led efforts to, effectively, "save the planet."

Some of it didn't quite hit the mark - it had a lot of top-down organizational information but I assume I'm going to be one of the peons making petitions, not someone flying chartered planes with celebrities to save Amazonian basins. Those stories are super cool but they felt more like part of a memoir than part of how-to, if it makes sense? Also made me sort of jealous in that my life is much, much, more boring.

melwyk's review

4.0

This is a little dated already in some ways -- social media in particular, which May acknowledges will change before she even finishes the book -- but otherwise a useful and thorough overview of activism techniques for Canadians. I finished the book with a lot more understanding of May and more respect for the years of work she did even before joining politics.

I think this book will be very useful to me in 2017.