Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the
publisher in exchange for an honest review.

My Review:
Are you a Gen X woman who is totally exhausted every single day but tells herself that it is normal, or who feels as if she has no right to even complain about the exhaustion? Well, this book is for you! The Pew Research Center categorizes Generation X as those of us born between 1965 - 1980. If you look at a majority of women aged 39-54, what do you see? A lot of my friends are hustling to get back into the workforce after raising their kids, some are now taking care of their parents, and after a few glasses of wine every single one of them fesses up something they feel guilty about (why did I give up my career, why didn't I stay home with my kids, or the doozy "I supposedly 'have it all', so why am I still not happy?") In Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis, author Ada Calhoun has collected information from thousands of women from a variety of backgrounds to show us that no matter how different we think we are, we are all facing a lot of the same struggles. If you are staring at your ceiling at night wondering why you are so anxious, overwhelmed, or depressed but maybe you just can't quite put your finger on why, Calhoun gives you detailed breakdowns of all the factors that are really working against us. While some would say that reading these statistics would make us even more depressed, I found it informative and comforting to know that "it's not just me!"

Goodreads Summary:
When Ada Calhoun found herself in the throes of a midlife crisis, she thought that she had no right to complain. She was married with children and a good career. So why did she feel miserable? And why did it seem that other Generation X women were miserable, too?
Calhoun decided to find some answers. She looked into housing costs, HR trends, credit card debt averages, and divorce data. At every turn, she saw a pattern: sandwiched between the Boomers and the Millennials, Gen X women were facing new problems as they entered middle age, problems that were being largely overlooked. 

Speaking with women across America about their experiences as the generation raised to “have it all,” Calhoun found that most were exhausted, terrified about money, under-employed, and overwhelmed. Instead of being heard, they were told instead to lean in, take “me-time,” or make a chore chart to get their lives and homes in order.

In Why We Can’t Sleep, Calhoun opens up the cultural and political contexts of Gen X’s predicament and offers solutions for how to pull oneself out of the abyss—and keep the next generation of women from falling in. The result is reassuring, empowering, and essential reading for all middle-aged women, and anyone who hopes to understand them.