Book Makes Great Gift For Boomer Women

This is a little off the beaten path for the caregiving readership of Minding Our Elders, but many of us could use a chuckle, or have mothers who could use a laugh. I received for review copy of a cheerfully wry book titled The Beautiful People and Other Aggravations, written by Rose Madeline Mula, which could entertain both generations of women.

“Beautiful People” is a compilation of over fifty satirical essays meant to “pass on wisdom with the younger generation while reminiscing with an older audience.” Mula is a regular contributor to  Saturday Evening Post. Her work has also appeared in Yankee, Modern Maturity, Christian Science Monitor, Reader’s Digest and Miami Herald.

One of my favorite essays tells of her tough night when she realizes that if she died, the younger generation who would go through her home would decide she had “lost it,” because they would find a shoe stuffed with ice in the freezer. Her point, which I loved, was that there was a very logical explanation (she had put a bag filled with water in the shoe and frozen it to stretch the shoe – which she says worked). Because of her age, she would have been deemed someone who was losing it, while a younger person with something this strange in the freezer would have been considered to have a “reason,” even if it was a bit odd. Most of us over 50 are cognizant of this discriminatory thinking.

“Beautiful People,” published by Pelican Publishing Company, sells for $14.95 and is available online and in stores.

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Comments

[IsabelCares]

The excerpt you have shared from the book is funny enough to make me add the book to my reading list. Thanks for blogging on this. Sounds like perfect summer reading, too.