To A Town Near You

My friend Gina wrote a book. This is me plugging it.

I meet Gina at Drake. She was studying the same things I was studying, advertising and graphic design. I dropped out. She graduated and took a job as an art director for an agency in Chicago. She wasn't satisfied in quite the same way I imagine I wouldn't have been satisfied.

She found Wild Gift, a fund that offers a few people a year cash to do whatever it is they plan to do that "will benefit the natural environment and human community." She wrote a proposal and was stunned when they accepted hers. Stunned and very very excited. Her proposal was to write a book on and take pictures of urban sprawl. She wanted to make a change and was offered a chance.

I'm not real clear on if the format the book appears in was the planned format, but it works out very well. Rather than trying to become an expert and preach in typical nonfic style, she opted to interview people who are experts only in their very limited way: mayors and residents of suburbs and exurbs. A town planner, an environmentalist, and a small farmer.

The small farmer was my dad. The book is titled Now Coming To A Town Near You and can be found at www.atownnearyou.com. The photography is also by Gina and is awesome. You should buy this book. It's for a good cause. It looks good on your end table. The pictures are pretty. I told you to. It'll make you look aware in front of that girl you want to impress. I'm in it.