Rancho Costa Nada cover

Rancho Costa Nada

by Phil Garlington

After being sacked from two corporate jobs in a row for insubordination and bad attitude, the author tries homesteading ten worthless desert acres he bought at a tax default land auction for $325. Broke and desperate, he manages to build a weather proof little hogan out of salvage and sandbags, and lives more or less comfortably despite having almost no pioneer or survival skills such as carpentry or auto mechanics. His solutions are low-tech and he borrows heavily from some of the hard scrabble fellow residents of the sun blasted Smoke Tree Valley. Few will want to follow the author's journey, but the point seems to be that just about anybody can live a life of leisure and basic creature comfort for almost no money.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?