Book Reviews

I Don’t Want to Turn 3  By Gramps Jeffrey Reviewed for the NABBW by Anne Holmes This sweet picture book is author Gramps Jeffrey’s first. He wrote it after having the opportunity to spend more time with his grandkids during the past year’s pandemic. Gramps says, “I wrote this book to read to (my) grandkids. Their reaction has been invaluable. As you read aloud and watch them begin to understand Jordan’s discovery of right versus wrong, you can see the older kids recognition that they have gone through the same dilemma. While the younger kids don’t quite yet understand the concept... Continue Reading

According to author Ronald Surz, most of us Baby Boomers are going to be spending much of this decade (the 2020’s, which are still in early days) in what he calls the Risk Zone – his term for the ten years before and after Retirement. Surz, who has been an investment consultant since 1974, and brings with him excellent credentials, uses his book’s introduction to explain why he believes the decade of the 2020s is a challenging time to be in or considering retirement. And because he wants more of us Boomers to be able to afford to live a dignified retirement. He points to four key challenges... Continue Reading

I was not initially familiar with the story of Englishwoman Lady Isabella Lucy Bird, so I didn’t know what to expect when I began reading Linda Ballou’s newest book, Embrace of the Wild: Inspired by Equestrian Explorer Isabella Bird. However I was lucky enough to read it just days after publication, and am pleased to tell you a little bit about the book. Right up front, let me say I was gifted this copy because Linda Ballou, an adventure travel writer, is NABBW’s Adventure Travel Associate, and writes a regular column about her travels for the National Association of Baby Boomer Women. Her... Continue Reading

Being originally from Wisconsin, which boasts being The Dairy State, I have alway loved cooking, baking and eating foods made with real butter. (I’m actually a butter snob, truth be told.) So when this sunny looking, smallish paperback came across my desk, touting that life is better with butter, I just had to pick it up and start reading. Of her reasons for writing the book, author Heidi Herman says, “This book was inspired by my other, who lived her life to the fullest. After my mom’s recovery from a stroke in 2016 at the age of 92, my mom began promoting the message of living life with... Continue Reading

If you’re a home-owning Baby Boomer looking for a profitable side hustle, this book is for you. You’ll be especially interested if, going forward, your personal housing preference is not to move to a Retirement community, but to stay in the family homestead – or at lest the home you currently live in – and “age in place;” yet you’ve realized that the kids don’t have time to come visit very often, which means the family homestead, as it currently stands, is really too big for your current needs. This situation not only describes the experience of Art Barry, author of “The Downsize... Continue Reading

As author Ralph Mroz states in the first sentence of this book, we’re all going to die. But, he says, the more important question is, how hard is dealing with your death going to be – both for you and for the people you leave behind?   Obviously, your family and the other people who are tasked with handling your estate, are going to grieve your loss, whether or not it’s timing comes as a surprise. But how much work will they have ahead of them, finalizing your estate? Most of us, he points out, would prefer to minimize their work, and have a say in our endgame. That’s why this book exists. While... Continue Reading

Against My Father’s Will: A Memoir By Jane Morgan Barry Reviewed for the NABBW by Anne Holmes If you’re a Baby Boomer woman, you grew up in the late 50s, the 60s  and 70s, a time of great change and civil unrest. We had Martin Luther King, Jr. leading the cause for racial equality, the strong anti-war movement that grew out of the Vietnam conflict, and, of course, Betty Friedan, the feminist writer and activist who sparked the fight for women’s liberation. As was demonstrated at dinner tables all over the country, and well-portrayed in Norman Lear’s iconic must-watch 70’s era sitcoms... Continue Reading

Perhaps all of us have moments when one of our more mundane thoughts crystalizes and remains frozen in our memory forever, though we don’t know why. I’ve had many of these over my lifetime. For example, during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, I recall listening to the news on the radio in my mother’s kitchen, while I baked a cake which was destined to be that night’s dessert. I remember wondering whether or not Russian housewives had access to boxed cake mixes. And deciding they probably didn’t. In an earlier memory – I couldn’t have been more than three or four – I remember lying... Continue Reading

NOTE: I was lucky enough to be invited to read a pre-publication copy of this book. As a result of that early reading, and my subsequent positive impression, I am honored to tell you that you’ll find a brief quote from me – along with the thoughts of dozens of other authors, coaches and medical experts – at the front of the book and on the front and back covers. Now, given that disclaimer, here’s my totally honest opinion of this book in a single sentence: If there’s a man in your life that you care about, you owe it to yourself and to him to buy this book. Heck, while you’re at... Continue Reading

In-Laws Can Be Murder: Every Wife Has a Story (A Baby Boomer Mystery Book 8) By Susan Santangelo http://babyboomermysteries.com Reviewed for the NABBW by Anne Holmes Carol and Jim Andrews are back again in this eighth installment of author Santangelo’s “Every Wife Has a Story” Carol and Jim Andrews Baby Boomer Mystery series. This one entitled “In-Laws Can Be Murder.” A bit of time has passed since daughter Jenny married Mark Anderson, her best buddy since grade school days, who’s now a detective on the Fairport, Connecticut police force. In fact, as the book opens, Jenny and Mark are... Continue Reading