Official Review: To Gen X, Baby Boomers and Millennials, ...

kasi1215 · Post by **kasi1215** » 29 Dec 2015, 13:13

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "To Gen X, Baby Boomers and Millennials, with Love" by Francis T. Sganga.]

4 out of 4 stars

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To Gen X, Baby Boomers and Millennials, with Love includes a brief recollection of the author’s life with his wife of 57 years and then mostly discusses the various dramatic events that happened after her death. The author, Francis T. Sganga, was almost 95 years old at the time his set of diary entries and commentary were put together for this book.

Francis believes the key to a long life is staying in love and being active. When his wife of 57 years passed away almost suddenly, Francis found a new mate rather quickly according to his children and things went downhill from there. Francis spent a lot of time with his new mate and did a lot of generous things for her and especially for his children in the beginning hoping to bribe them into liking her. In the end, Francis’ children never came around to liking her. Francis determined that his adult children cared more about their inheritances than they cared for their elderly father. This led to many legal discussions on disinheriting them and getting back the gifts of property he had given to them. In the end, Francis found true love and became content with the way his children treated him, but I won’t ruin that by spoiling the ending in this review.

I really enjoyed this book. At first, I thought the writing style was a little strange; but as I kept reading, I grew to enjoy it. Francis includes a lot of photos of him and his first wife, Babs, in the first few chapters to help the reader understand their relationship and his love for her. There are also some photos in the end that show some evidence of some dramatic events explained in the book as well as some photos of Francis and the new love of his life. This book made me feel like I was sitting down with Francis as he told me the stories and showed me pictures of his life. He really is an amazing individual. It is such a rare opportunity to get inside the mind of such an active, impressive, clear-thinking person of nearly 95 years in age.

I battled back and forth with myself on whose “side” I was on when Francis was having legal issues with his children about the gifts he was seeking to revoke. Most of the time I sided with Francis because his kids seemed overly greedy, but other times I could see their point of view. Even now after finishing the book, I do not know if any of them were in the right 100% of the time during all of the drama that went on. I think a lot of things could have gone differently and ended in better results – but the world is not one where we need to spend our time in the land of “if only” and I think Francis understands and accepts that.

Francis is truly happy in his life now and this book is definitely one worth reading. I rate this book 4 out of 4. It is not a predictable story at all. I was constantly surprised at the chain of events - especially the ending, but you must read it to find out what happened and how Francis found his happiness again.

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To Gen X, Baby Boomers and Millennials, with Love
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Ramona · Post by **Ramona** » 07 Jan 2016, 18:40

Love your review! I read and reviewed a children's book by this author and absolutely loved it. I loved his writing style in that book. It's so sad that he and his children had the falling-out. I would love to read To gen X, Baby boomers and Millenials,...! Thanks for a great review!!

katiesquilts · Post by **katiesquilts** » 07 Jan 2016, 18:59

The title seems a little misleading, since the book seems to be more about one family's issues rather than the Gen X/baby boomer/millennial generations as a whole, but it does sound like a good read!

Cee-Jay Aurinko · Post by **Cee-Jay Aurinko** » 08 Jan 2016, 04:04

The book sounds interesting, thanks to your amazing review kasi.

kasi1215 · Post by **kasi1215** » 29 Jan 2016, 14:00

katiesquilts wrote:The title seems a little misleading, since the book seems to be more about one family's issues rather than the Gen X/baby boomer/millennial generations as a whole, but it does sound like a good read!

Now that I think about it, you're right. From the title, I assumed it was going to be a completely different kind of book. I guess in a way everyone in any generation could learn something from the story of his life. Maybe that's where he got the title?

kimmyschemy06 · Post by **kimmyschemy06** » 08 Feb 2016, 08:32

kasi1215 wrote:
katiesquilts wrote:The title seems a little misleading, since the book seems to be more about one family's issues rather than the Gen X/baby boomer/millennial generations as a whole, but it does sound like a good read!
Now that I think about it, you're right. From the title, I assumed it was going to be a completely different kind of book. I guess in a way everyone in any generation could learn something from the story of his life. Maybe that's where he got the title?

I've just read another review of a book by the same author and the content was also different from what was expected based on the title. So, I guess that was part of the author's style.

sosimple · Post by **sosimple** » 08 Feb 2016, 23:05

It's awkward when your parent gets involved with someone so soon after the death of their spouse. I've experienced it. I'm intrigued by your review. I'll add the book to my shelves. I'd love to "see" his view point. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.