By Kara Baskin

On Sale: Mar 16, 2027
Page Count: 256 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN-13: 9780306832475

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$40.00 CAD

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A Boston Globe journalist reframes the pressures of midlife and maps a more fulfilling way forward for Gen X and Millennial women.

When Kara Baskin found herself losing her mom while working full time and caring for young children, she sought out a book that would put her experience—which hit like a cocktail of overwhelm, muddled feminism, and bitters—into words. She didn’t find the book she was looking for, and yet on every soccer field sideline, over drinks with friends, and during meetups of other journalists, simmering resentment poured forth in stolen moments among women, as did a search for validation. So Kara started asking questions. What is it that makes this stage different from what it was for women who came before? How can we field all of this midlife grief, stress, and upheaval and still, you know, enjoy ourselves?

Each chapter of Everything to Everyone takes readers through a different role Gen X and early Millennial women play, from adult daughter of aging parents, to operations executive, to diligent professional, to EQ-translator, and asks how to adopt these roles more thoughtfully. As Kara explains, we are still the primary caregivers for our parents (66 percent of us, anyway!), and do the majority of labor in our own households, as in earlier generations–but we are also woke enough to know that we’re getting screwed. We are the ones calling our widowed dads to make sure they eat while simultaneously telling our daughters not to blindly take on gender stereotypes. We understand the necessity of hard work and sacrifice for family. We also deserve to feel buoyed by the fullness of our lives, not crushed.

This isn’t a call to burn it all down. It’s an invitation to appreciate what we’ve built, on our own terms.

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Kara Baskin is a journalist based in Boston who writes about parenting and culture for The Boston Globe, and is a contributing editor at Boston magazine. She works with select corporate and university clients on editorial projects involving health, science, and technology, and speaks frequently about food, mental health, and writing. Baskin began her career in Washington, DC, as a production assistant at NBC National News, where she tracked Gary Condit’s every move, hung up on Tom Brokaw (thrice), and made the fax machine hiss. She later worked at The New Republic magazine and New York magazine’s Grub Street. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Architectural Digest, Better Homes & Gardens, Bon Appetít, Elle, Roads & Kingdoms, Serious Eats, Time, Women’s Health, Washingtonian, and more. Her humor columns for McSweeney's are among the site's most-read of all time.

"We live in a culture that specializes in making people feel unseen through productivity demands, influencer highlight reels, and a culture of comparison. Baskin is the antidote. She brings warmth, humor, and clear-eyed optimism to the messy, meaningful work of navigating midlife. She will make you feel seen and empowered. Read it and pass it on."

Jennifer Wallace, New York Times bestselling author of Never Enough
"Sandwich generation? More like triple-decker club sandwich for most of us caregivers these days. Everything to Everyone has the best resources and strategies I've ever found, but its magic is in its humor and solidarity. Kara somehow rewired my brain to turn overwhelm into gratitude."
Lauren Smith Brody, author and CEO of The Fifth Trimester, and co-founder Chamber of Mothers
“Everything to Everyone is the warm, funny, deeply validating midlife book so many women need. Kara Baskin captures the overwhelm and emotional weight of this stage of life with clarity and compassion, while pushing back against the pressure to constantly fix or reinvent ourselves. It reminds us that sometimes small shifts and better balance are more than enough.”
Eve Rodsky, JD, Best-Selling Author of Fair Play and Founder of the Fair Play Policy Institute