“MacKinnon has a bricklayer’s talent for achieving beauty out of stacks of facts and statistics. . . . In wrestling with the realities of incremental change, examining our collective consumption and his own, MacKinnon says a great deal about what it is to be human during this moment on Earth, and how to live a meaningful life as one consumer among many. Surely part of the trick is to dare to imagine, as MacKinnon does, a scenario in which our prognosis improves, even a little.” — Sierra Magazine
“A well-researched and provocative analysis offering hope and optimism for our future." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A journalist crafts an eloquent call to scale back shopping and consumption in wealthy countries, thereby allowing our exhausted planet a chance to heal and regenerate." — Shelf Awareness
“Witty and erudite…. Expertly showing the complex relationship between consumer culture and nature, this insightful account offers a starting point for change (and optimism).” — Library Journal
“Well-researched and stimulating. Readers will be galvanized to make changes in their own buying habits.” — Publishers Weekly
“J.B. MacKinnon’s The Day the World Stops Shopping is a welcome and rare mix: a strong environmental argument and a jaunty picaresque. For the former, MacKinnon makes a convincing case that we need to shop less now. Green consumerism, in MacKinnon’s telling, isn’t just about buying ecologically-sound stuff or recycling our rubbish. It’s about buying many fewer things, leaving us so much less to recycle in the first place. You will want to buy this book and after you read it, little else.” — Alissa Quart, author of Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America and Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers
"Dissecting the dilemma at civilization’s heart—the burden that reckless growth heaps upon the faltering Earth—J.B. MacKinnon lays out a wealth of knowledge and wisdom in a gripping, page-turning read. With wit, precision, and startling insights from around the world, he looks deeply into what we have done, and might do so much better. A model of clarity and grace, The Day the World Stops Shopping is one of the most important and well-written books I have read." — Ronald Wright, author of A Short History of Progress
"A provocative thought experiment that asks us to imagine what currently seems unthinkable, this is a beautifully written and rigorously researched revelation, an extraordinary creative journey to a place we urgently need to go. Full of hope and deep thought, unassuming and devoid of preaching, it is an exciting and truly inspiring read. I couldn’t put it down." — Joel Bakan, author of The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power and The New Corporation: How “Good” Corporations are Bad for Democracy
"In a large pool of often simplistic manuals for simple living, this book stands out for its curiosity, humanity and genuinely global appreciation of why we consume too much and what to do about it." — Frank Trentmann, author of Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First