Everything to Everyone

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, but on soccer sidelines and on text threads, simmering resentment poured forth in stolen moments among women. So 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 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. Mixing advice from experts with stories from women who’ve achieved balance, this is the roadmap for the ordinary person’s midlife, exploring how to untangle ourselves from the tyrannical thrum of shoulds. 

This isn’t a call to burn it all down; it’s a warm, witty guide to know what to put down and when—an invitation to appreciate what we’ve built on our own terms. 

• "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