The seventy-six million Americans born between 1946 and 1965 have reshaped America with their style, their tastes and, above all, by their sheer numbers. The Boomers are passing through American history, outnumbering the previous generation by a staggering 28 million. This book is a refreshing reminder of what we considered the simpler, quieter times of the fifties, surviving the turbulent sixties and further impressions of a baby boomer growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hopefully, it will take you on a trip down memory lane. Times have changed so much from the fifties, some for the good, some for the bad, but life does go on and we as "baby boomers" will survive.
Everyone's life takes them on a trip from birth to death, success and failure, and joys and sorrows. Reflections of a Baby Boomer is a God-inspired book, using some of the author's real-life experiences, good and bad, enabling the reader to reflect on their own life's journey, using these stories as guides on how to depend on God who is ever present in all circumstances. It also explains to the reader how to begin their journey with God, from joy in salvation, to right living and blessed dying. From the author's humble beginnings in a holler in West Virginia through her life's travels all over the world, she shares her failures, successes, and dreams, using the many different people, cultures, and experiences she had on her way. When she traveled wrong paths, she shares what enables her to return to her foundation in Christ, and when she traveled the right path, how to never forget to thank God for all experiences. She shares her love for others, and the reader will be able to gain insights into their personal life's journey as they begin or continue their walk with God.
After a multi-faceted career, M.L. (Mike) VanBlaricum has turned his attention to writing poetry and musing on his life as a Baby Boomer. The author is a prototypical Boomer. He was born in 1950 and went off to college to study engineering in the explosive year of 1968. He grew up in small towns in Illinois where he developed a fascination with science, the trombone, nature, and girls. This collection of poems, essays, and musings includes memories and reflections of being a free-range child in the Fifties, a restrained teenager in the Sixties, a college student in the Seventies, and a rambunctious retiree in the Tens. VanBlaricum's accessible writings are laced with wry humor, musical references, and surprise endings. The subject matter ranges from lost loves, the importance of puppy love to the wonderment of real love, what it means to be a Baby Boomer, teenage angst, ruminations on kite-flying and teeter-totters, a fascination with clouds, toads, and moons, and observations and sideways ponderings on natural phenomena. The internal dialogue between engineer and poet bookends this collection.
What a gift life is! It comes ready to open every morning. Each day is totally unique. Each day can be a new adventure. It can be a source of joy, or of sorrow. It all depends on how we approach it. The secret to joyful living is learning to look at life through the eyes of a small child. As a bona fide baby boomer, I have lived a life filled with many joys and some regrets. Today I choose to live life in joy and with a sense of childlike wonderment. This book is a reflection on how to recapture the sense of wonder and joy we were born with. This book is a collection of thoughts, ramblings, and experiences about our special gift of life. Baby Boomer Ramblings offers my thoughts, observations and suggestions, on living life in a more positive and happier way. All of this is wrapped around a poem, or more correctly, a poem wrapped around lifes gifts. Personally, I prefer to live life as a poem. Poetry adds magic to life. Its the minds and hearts way of expressing ones inner voice. That is what this book does. Unlike a textbook of life that one reads and studies, poetry is recited by ones mind and speaks to ones heart and spirit. At the minimum, this book offers some food for thought on how to live in the moment. Learn how to live life with a sense of awe and childlike glee. As a baby boomer who has experienced around two-thirds of my life, Im finally at that stage where Ive finally got it. Read this book and discover how to have contentment and laughter. Become a childlike poet of life and be forever young!
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “From The New Yorker’s beloved cultural critic comes a bold, unflinching collection of essays about self-deception, examining everything from scammer culture to reality television.”—Esquire Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times • “A whip-smart, challenging book.”—Zadie Smith • “Jia Tolentino could be the Joan Didion of our time.”—Vulture FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE’S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND HARVARD CRIMSON AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • Chicago Tribune • The Washington Post • NPR • Variety • Esquire • Vox • Elle • Glamour • GQ • Good Housekeeping • The Paris Review • Paste • Town & Country • BookPage • Kirkus Reviews • BookRiot • Shelf Awareness Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity. Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Tolentino writes about a cultural prism: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the advent of scamming as the definitive millennial ethos; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter; the punitive dream of optimization, which insists that everything, including our bodies, should become more efficient and beautiful until we die. Gleaming with Tolentino’s sense of humor and capacity to elucidate the impossibly complex in an instant, and marked by her desire to treat the reader with profound honesty, Trick Mirror is an instant classic of the worst decade yet. FINALIST FOR THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD FOR THE ART OF THE ESSAY
The Hospodars took a year-long "journey of a lifetime" circumnavigating the waterways of the eastern United States and Canada. Their journey takes them from Florida to New Jersey; through some of the Great Lakes; and from Chicago to Mobile along riverways.
Jimmy “Boomer” Benjamin has arrived at the place he has dreaded and dreamed of for the past fifteen years: the town he grew up in. Nearing retirement and seeking closure to a novel that has plagued him for decades, Jimmy is determined to break the long-held silence that muted two murders. One was rumoured to have been committed by his father. The other was a part of his own nightmarish past—and resulted in his excommunication from his community. Jimmy’s journey begins and ends at Lighthouse Pier on the bleak and beautiful shores of Lake Erie, where memories, visions, shadows, love, and violence converge and break—for better or worse. Encouraged and directed by his novel, his opus of truth, his testament to fiction, Jimmy gives himself permission to come home. Follow the Silence is a disturbing portrait of racism and homophobia in small-town Ontario, a stirring investigation into collective memory, and a deeply felt examination of one man’s reckoning with his past. Timely, moving, and populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, Follow the Silence shows readers the remarkable power of truth.
A Baby Boomer's Decision Making drives the nation's 75 million baby boomers to examine life through the decisions they make, whether they are considering finances, changing national priorities or the needs of aging parents. Boomers will explore decisions of love, school, career, family and fun. From 1956 Chevrolets to Martin Luther King Jr., Vietnam and the 21st century, memoir snippets expose the author's best and worst decision making. From these engaging stories, a model of decision making emerges driven by individual experience in a distinctive combination of understanding, relationships and God. A Baby Boomer's Decision Making creates a bridge from abstract theoretical manuscripts to the daily reality, dreams and apprehensions of baby boomers. Mathematics unlocks the tools of decision making, and prejudice is an omnipresent force. The peaks and valleys of love, family and career highlight the ingredients of decision making. Guidelines and principles of decision making solidify and further assist readers in reviewing the past, assessing the present and preparing for their future. A series of activities and questions at the end of the book encourage individual reflection or small group discussion. Francis J. Kostel earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. As superintendent of schools in suburban Chicago's St. Charles, he led the district of more than 13,000 students, 1,600 staff members and 17 schools. He also served as principal of St. Charles High School, a nationally recognized Blue Ribbon high school, as a leadership consultant and as a mathematics teacher. From the working-class neighborhoods of Chicago to the White House Rose Garden, Kostel has experience with organizational success and conflict resolution. Through August One Consulting, Kostel serves as an executive coach and mentor. Kostel has given presentations throughout the country on leadership, strategic planning, personnel evaluation, change and policy decisions. He has written several articles and served on statewide and regional boards. Kostel is a choir member and ballroom dancer. He and his wife, the love of his life for more than 38 years, have two adult sons. Comments and inquiries regarding A Baby Boomer's Decision Making and August One Consulting are welcome at [email protected].
Boomer’s Bust is a story of one man’s courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Despite his steadfast determination to beat its debilitating effects, he slowly loses his grip on reality and enters a surreal and abstract world. The reader is taken for an enthralling journey through the inner passages of his troubled mind. Incredibly, every 70 seconds, a new case of dementia is diagnosed in North America. One in 11 seniors will develop it. And the demographic shift of the “Baby Boomers” generation has only just begun. Boomer’s Bust is a gift of solace packaged in a heartfelt message to all of us.