Iyer, a well-known essayist and travel writer, converted his TED talk into this slim volume accompanied by beautiful photographs of empty and quiet places (the absence of any identification of the locations is a deficit).   The message is simple and straightforward—-slow down, stop your immersion in technology, stay at home, be quiet, manage your inner life.  The value of the book is not in any new element of its message, but in the quotations and individuals whom Iyer marshals in support of the thesis—-Shakespeare :There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so, Hamlet; William James, The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another; and the featured quotation stars—Emily Dickinson, Thomas Merton, and Leonard Cohen.  A good addition to my Meditation notebook.