A wake-up call that may inspire retirees to spend their kids’ inheritances.
Certified appraiser Stewart (Collect Value Divest, 2016, etc.) doles out advice for baby boomers whose adult children reject their family heirlooms.
Stewart’s slim guide begins with her own story: after her son announced his engagement, she, without asking his opinion, spent more than $2,000 shipping family treasures, such as china and crystal, to him and his future wife. She was ready to send more when they “kindly but firmly” told her to stop. The first chapter then lays out the top 10 items that millennials don’t want, from books to fine porcelain dinnerware. As lifestyles have changed, writes Stewart, so have tastes and object valuations; for example, digital-savvy millennials don't feel an attachment to old tomes. They also lead mobile lives and don’t care for dark, heavy antique furniture. So what’s a boomer to do with all this rejected stuff? Chapter 2 lays out a “Five Piles Theory” of organizing and downsizing, beginning with what can be sold. If one is planning to donate items, Chapter 3 advises readers not to second-guess that decision. At times, this unblinking guide leaves the impression that the younger generation is erasing its heritage; in one sad anecdote, for instance, a 26-year-old seems more interested in dressing up for Star Trek conventions than inheriting and appreciating her great-grandmother’s steamer trunk. However, although Stewart acknowledges that there are exceptions, she still offers sweeping generalizations about millennials and other generations; many readers from Generation X, for instance, will be surprised to find out that they supposedly have “hired-out” housekeeping. The author’s voice is friendly but without sentimentality—she calls family photos “paper ephemera,” for example, and she sometimes scolds readers: “You have to face facts! Your grown children value a mobile lifestyle, uncluttered comfort, and the aesthetics of prevailing technology.” It’s a quick, easy read, though, which is brimming with color photographs of smiling people and lovely objects, such as antique dolls. It also contains some sound advice; for example, Stewart points out that local theater costume shops may want donated linens.
A wake-up call that may inspire retirees to spend their kids’ inheritances.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9981025-3-5
Page Count: 95
Publisher: Flandricka House Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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