Questions Worth Arguing About
The eight-page reading guide, including discussion questions, four cases, passages to read aloud, and a complete ninety-minute session plan.
THE TRADE
The useful stuff.
Booksellers, librarians, reviewers, journalists, reading groups, civic organizations, event planners, and anyone considering an alarming number of copies: welcome.
Everything you need to stock, order, review, discuss, cover, or otherwise put Embracing the Local: Extension Cords and All to work is here.
Embracing the Local
Extension Cords and All · Glen Cantrell
Publication: November 10, 2026Publisher: More Taste Than Fortune BooksPaperback ISBN: 979-8-9969010-0-5eBook ISBN: 979-8-9969010-5-0Amazon paperback ASIN: B0HDYK5XP3Amazon Kindle ASIN: B0HDXPDTB5LCCN: 2026922787Paperback: 5.25 × 8 in. · 154 pages · $18.99Distribution: IngramFormats: Paperback · eBook
Human Authored · Reg #: 4055716 · Verify at authorsguild.org/human
October 2026 Pick of the Month · Donovan’s Literary Services
CRITICAL, READER & PRACTITIONER RESPONSE
Independent eyes on the book.
“His humor is never simply decorative; it’s part of his narrative control, allowing him to move between the ridiculous and the meaningful without losing either.”
“The most notable aspects of this memoir are its focus on how volunteer groups interact, react, are managed (or not), and come together, and how civic leadership evolves.”
“a quick, funny, occasionally profound, and ultimately affecting read.”
“Cantrell makes civic memoir distinctive by turning volunteer decisions into a model for distributing responsibility, so organizations can continue beyond one leader.”
1 / 4
From the field
“This book should be required reading for every small town chamber director, board member and volunteer. You’ll laugh and cry as you read and see yourself reflected in his words.”
Read the full review →
BOOKSELLERS
Yes, you can get it through Ingram.
Embracing the Local is available to independent bookstores and other booksellers through Ingram at a 55% wholesale discount, fully returnable.
And because the book spends a fair amount of time arguing that the places we value don't survive by accident, we'd be particularly delighted to see it on the shelves of independent bookstores.
LIBRARIES
We love libraries.
We grew up in libraries. They were some of our first safe spaces: places to wander, discover things, ask questions, and spend an unreasonable amount of time without being expected to buy anything.
So we don't think of libraries simply as another place books are distributed. They're part of the civic infrastructure that makes communities work. A press interested in people, place, belonging, and the institutions we build together has a pretty obvious reason to want its books there.
Embracing the Local is available to libraries through Ingram and is well suited to book clubs, community reads, civic discussions, and programs about local leadership, volunteerism, belonging, and what it takes to keep a community working.
Digital library edition: the eBook is distributed through IngramSpark’s library network, which includes OverDrive, Hoopla, and cloudLibrary by Bibliotheca. Libraries can search for eBook ISBN 979-8-9969010-5-0; platform availability and local acquisition are controlled by the individual library service.
“His eye-opening, engrossing story … deserves highlight and high recommendation from libraries that can use Embracing the Local: Extension Cords and All as a model for fostering cooperative thinking and efforts in communities of all sizes.”
— D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Embracing the Local: Extension Cords and All
Glen Cantrell · More Taste Than Fortune Books
Publication: November 10, 2026
Paperback · 5.25 × 8 in. · 154 pages · $18.99
Paperback ISBN: 979-8-9969010-0-5
eBook ISBN: 979-8-9969010-5-0
LCCN: 2026922787
Available through Ingram.
BISAC subjects:
BIO026000 — Biography & Autobiography / Memoirs
SOC026020 — Social Science / Sociology / Rural
BUS074030 — Business & Economics / Nonprofit Organizations & Charities / Management & Leadership
READING GROUPS & ORGANIZATIONS
This book likes a good argument.
Underneath one very specific story about one very specific mountain community are questions that aren't particularly local: Who does the work? Who gets heard? What makes an institution worth trusting? When does helping become owning? What do we owe the places we call home?
Questions Worth Arguing About is a complete reading and facilitation guide for book clubs, libraries, boards, chambers, service clubs, civic groups, and leadership programs. Four real Chamber decisions anchor a ninety-minute session: each asks a group to argue the decision first, then turn the same problem toward its own organization.
The cases put admirable instincts under pressure: consistency can harden into rigidity, sustainability can become abandonment, restraint can become abdication, and stepping aside can become evasion. The guide does not tell the room which is which. That's the argument.
For Chamber & Association Leaders
Field Notes from a Small Chamber is a closer look at growth, volunteer capacity, trust, institutional memory, and what it means to carry a place.
Ordering for a group? If you need copies for a book club, organization, conference, class, board, or community program, get in touch. We'll help figure out the least ridiculous way to get them to you. Whenever practical, we prefer to fulfill larger orders through independent bookstores.
MEDIA RESOURCES
Everything except the story you're going to write.
Writing, recording, posting, broadcasting, reviewing, interviewing, or otherwise talking about Embracing the Local? We've gathered the useful bits here so you don't have to email us asking for a 300 dpi cover at 4:57 on a Friday afternoon.
Press Kit
Book information, descriptions, author bio, publication facts, interview material, and the useful particulars.
Complete Media Assets
High-resolution cover art, author photography, publisher marks, copy-ready text, and press materials.
Press Photography
High-resolution editorial images, including the community, the mountain, the author, and some questionable wardrobe choices.
Media Contact
Need something that isn't here? A human will answer.
ARC & REVIEW COPIES
Want to read it first?
Digital advance copies are available through NetGalley and Edelweiss+ to reviewers, librarians, booksellers, educators, journalists, podcasters, event organizers, and other professional readers considering the book for coverage, stocking, programming, teaching, or discussion.
Need a print review copy, don't use NetGalley or Edelweiss+, or have a specific media or programming request? We can still help directly.
SPEAKING & EVENTS
Glen leaves the mountain occasionally. He also loves a microphone.
Glen Cantrell is available for bookstore and library events, Chamber and association programs, civic conversations, conferences, podcasts, panels, book clubs, and other gatherings interested in community, leadership, organizational change, volunteerism, small-town economics, and what happens when somebody says, “Sure, I'll help.”
Programs can be built around Embracing the Local or around the larger questions behind it. In-person appearances are based in Northern California. Virtual conversations require considerably fewer extension cords.
PRESS & TRADE CONTACT
A human will answer.
For rights, bookseller and library questions, media inquiries, review copies, group orders, speaking requests, or anything that doesn't fit neatly into one of the sections above.
books@moretastethanfortune.com
More Taste Than Fortune Books · Twain Harte, California
If you're trying to buy one copy of the book, you've wandered too far into the building. Go to The Book →