Following is the most recent published review of the book. Robert Bruss is a nationally syndicated real estate columnist. The review may be found on the Inman News Features site

HOW TO FIND YOUR IDEAL COUNTRY HOME, By Gene GeRue (Warner Books, New York), 1999, $16.00, 332 pages [plus the introduction, appendixes, glossary, bibliography, and index]. Available in stock or by special order at bookstores, libraries and www.amazon.com. 

If you dream of living the quiet country life, read Gene GeRue's excellent new book "How to Find Your Ideal Country Home." The author, who moved from urban California to rural Missouri, explains how to plan a move to any rural area and how to anticipate problems and their solutions. 

For those interested in moving to rural areas, this monumental book addresses thousands of potential concerns. The research is detailed, and the 90 maps and more than 300 illustrations add to the book's appeal. Equally entertaining, GeRue collected quotations from famous, and not so famous, people on the book's topics. My favorite is from Dolly Parton: "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." 

As an urban expatriate, the author understands the questions and concerns confronting those who want to move to rural America. He anticipates virtually everything, including real estate questions about buying acreage or an existing house. He establishes essential relocation criteria, such as choosing a home far away from a busy highway, federal land (the government might expand by eminent domain condemnation), and neighbors. And if distance from neighbors is too rural for some, he suggests relocating to small towns without parking meters. 

GeRue realizes many who want to move to a rural area must still earn a living. He explains that, thanks to computers, anyone can have a rural home and be linked to the Internet Ñ and to a job. In fact, GeRue admits much of his research for this book was done on the Internet. 

Chapter topics include The Ideal Country Home; Buy Your Land as Soon as You Can; Wants, Needs and Fantasies; Developing a Criteria List; Lifestyle; Choose Your Climate; Land Characteristics: Topography, Soil and Vegetation; The Cost of Living; Making a Living; Farming and Market Gardening; Air; Water; Health 101; Demographics and Social Conditions; Services and Taxes; To Build or Not to Build; Prices; Regions, Bioregions, States; Real Country, Boondocks and Old Subsistence Farms; Places to Avoid; Real Estate Law and Real Estate Agent; and Making a Final Evaluation Before Purchase. 

This is one of those rare realty books that is well-researched, extremely well-written and interesting enough to be compelling. On my scale of one to 10, this fantastic new book rates an off-the-chart 12.