The Aftermath - Philip Bump

Sub-title: The last days of the baby boom and the future of power in America

This was a fascinating read for me as I've been tracking the impact of the baby boom on our society ever since I studied Gerontology back in the 90s.  The author defines the generation and walks us through its impact on everything from baby carriages to cemetery plots.  My takeaway is that the 76 million babies born in the U.S. from 1946 through 1955 created a unique society that thinks it is the norm while it may actually never be repeated.

The book illustrates the facts discussed with charts, almost every couple of pages, reinforcing visually the information about this mass "pig in the python" moving through society and now seeing its ebb.  After examining the impacts to date, the author shares the predictions for the future on how the fading of this generation will be superseded by the millenials.  He draws no definitive conclusions, rather, speculating with input from demographers, historians and political analysts on what the future may look like.  An interesting read.

Published: 2023  Read:  March 2023  Genre: History

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson

I put off reading this because when my book club discussed it I didn't think I'd be interested in it.  I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the story, however implausible.

Quotes:

"It's a fact of life, I suppose, that the younger generation must try to take over and run the lives of their elders.  I think my son tries to organize my life because it's easier than his own---give him a sense of being in control of something in a world that is not quite ready to put him in charge."

 "...the Major marveled anew at the way so many people were willing to spend time and energy on the adverse judgment of others."

 "At our age, surely there are better things to sustain us, to sustain a marriage than the brief flame of passion?"  'Your are mistaken Ernest', she said at last.  'There is only the passionate spark.  Without it, two people living together may be lonelier than if they lived quite alone'."

 "But we, who can do anything, we refuse to live our dreams on the basis that they are not practical."

"Sometimes I think God created the darkness just so he didn't have to look at us all the time."

Published:2010  Read: September 2016  Genre: Fiction