Ada Calhoun discusses Why We Can't Sleep:  Women's New Midlife Crisis.  A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.  At Congregation  Rodfei Zedek, organized with the Seminary Co‑op Bookstore.

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?   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 their issues 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.

Ada Calhoun is the author of the New York City history St. Marks Is Dead:  The Many Lives of America’s Hippest Street, and the memoir Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give.  She has written for Time, National Geographic Traveler, O: The Oprah Magazine, the Times Literary Supplement, The New Republic, Billboard, Cosmopolitan, and Redbook.