America's 100 Best Places to Retire (America's 100 Best Places to Retire)

Rating:
Summary: A fresh start?
Review: Good overview of 100 locations picked by logical categories:

Ten best Seaside Ten best lakeside Ten best college town Ten best low cost Ten best mountain, etc.

Naturally there is a great deal of subjectivity: I have always been highly sceptical of the Pseudo-scientific approach taken by the "place rated" books.

Interesting to hear from locals; unfortunately continuity and judgement is lost by using different people for each town.

Useful for anyone planning a retirement move.

Rating:
Summary: Too much anecdote, not enough facts
Review: This book looked rather like the author decided to make a trip around the country and stopped in at a number of towns to interview people. Based on the interview, he decided whether this was a great retirement place. While some statistical facts are presented, there is little to substantiate "Joe and Velma's" statement that "this is a really nice place to live". I know several of the places included and had a great deal of difficulty understanding how some of them got into the book (and why some others were left out).