July RandomCAT: Getting to Know You

Let’s get to know each other better. There are six living generations right now, each with its own characteristics born of cultural influences during their formative years. In some ways almost any book you choose will fit this category, but the challenge is to read outside your comfort zone. One way to approach your selection is to choose a generation and then ask: What was formative for this group? Where are they now? Either response will lead you to the task, which is to become more familiar with people and characters formed from a different set of experiences than your own. Find out more about generational influences--events, fashion, technology, music, art, etc. or get to know a character that identifies in that generation. Family sagas work too, where you can explore the generational differences in one family.
I’ve listed a few influencers for each group, but there are many, many more. I limited my book recs to only a few per generation…we can list more as we “talk” throughout the month.



Below are broad definitions of the six groupings that exist in the American marketing lexicon. In my research, it seems that the generations are loosely defined the same around the world. The Influencers will vary from country to country, but world events remain the same. So we’ll go with this for now, but feel free to put your own definitions in place.
For those who want to dig deeper, I’ve listed my sources below. Remember to focus on the formative years (age 18-25) more than the birth year.

GI or Greatest

Born: 1901-1926
Formative: Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, WWII, post war work ethic and family stability

Any Depression or WWII but here are a few recs.


Silent or Mature

Born:1927-1945
Formative: Post war prosperity, traditionalists, pre-2nd wave feminism--women at home, men work in one job throughout their career, Korean War, first to see retirement as relaxation.



Boomers

Born:1946-1964
Formative: Early Subset: 2nd wave feminism, Vietnam, Civil Rights, activism, political assassinations, rise in divorce, Later Subset: 1980’s prosperity, aspiring to financial wealth, the Wall Street generation, drugs in the mainstream culture, cocaine in workplace. Yuppies, “Me” generation,



Gen X

Born: 1965-1980
Formative: Latchkey kids, AIDS, transition to digital, gaming, geeks, individualism, 3rd wave feminism, meth epidemic, some cynical towards institutions, others volunteering for service, children of divorce, late to marry.



Millennials

Born:1981-2000
Formative: 9/11, digital nativists, 4th wave feminism, volunteerism, Eco conscious, social media activism, #MeToo, #Black Lives Matter, opioid epidemic, college debt.




iGen or Gen Z

Born: 2001 forward
Formative: school shootings, gender nonconformity, global perspective, hyper-security, post TV.



Don’t forget to update the Wiki.

Some sources I used:
Links and Info
US
http://www.marketingteacher.com/the-six-living-generations-in-america/
Australia
http://mccrindle.com.au/resources/Generations-Defined-Sociologically.pdf
India
https://hbr.org/2009/02/global-generations-focus-on-in
Middle East
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/everything-you-need-to-know-about-mena-mi...
South America
Ni-ni (ni estudian, ni trabajan) neither studying or working. Roughly same age as millennials.
Africa
Defined by social and political upheaval. Most likely to find books describing apartheid and later “born frees” a generation that was born after democracy took hold in some of the African countries such as South Africa and Zimbabwe. Roughly same age as millennials.
China
Strawberry generation—Asian comparable to Millenials

For some reason the last portion of the post shows in bold. I can't for the life of me figure out what I did to cause that. I'll be happy to edit if someone can help me with the html. I bolded the subtitles but not the text. Learning!!!

I am an Early Subset Boomer. I have always found it challenging to understand the culture of those just behind me...the Late Subset Boomers. I will choose from this category and then move on to another. Thinking about Born to Run. Open to suggestions!

This is a really interesting topic. I'll have to think what I want to delve into, but I have a few options that come to mind.

As for the bold. Did you close the bold thingy after your Gen X title? It seems like that's where the holding begins.

>2 beebeereads: maybe you're missing an ending bold (/b) or after "Later Subset"?

>5 kac522: ah-ha!! I switched the / at the end of Later Subset so it was b/ rather than /b. Proofreading your own stuff is hard...I must have looked at it 50 times! Thank you!!

I meant to mention for those who are looking for a lighter summer read, there are many "beach reads" that should fit this category as they always involve generational conflicts!

>3 beebeereads: I am a Later Subset Boomer. I turned 18 in 1980. I never understood that culture either. None of the things that you listed for that group-- which are sadly true for the culture at large at that time-- has any resemblance to my life or the life of anyone I knew at that time. And I live in New York City, the center of Yuppie greed. Oh, I used to see them everywhere, but I never knew any of them. I've been sitting here for 10 minutes trying to remember what I did in the 1980s. University and working took up most of my time. My family struggled through the Reagan/Bush years.
I always wished I had gone through my late teens/early twenties in the 1960s. I was thinking I'd read something in the Early Subset Boomers category but that's not really out of my comfort zone. It is my comfort zone. I'll have to check what's on my shelves.
Is non-fiction okay for this CAT?

I'm a Gen X-er, apparently. I've lots of books I could use for this category, but like >8 VioletBramble: a lot of those are still "comfortable" reads for me in that although they're not about my generation, I relate to those stories. I think I'm going to go for something from an older generation. Probably either the second of the Call the Midwife series, or The Bletchley Girls. Alternatively, I might go for I Guess We Missed the Boat, which is a group of retired folk reminiscing about travel.

>9 Jackie_K: I'm a Gen X, too, and I Guess We Missed the Boat reminded me I won The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses) from the Early Reviewer program in May. If it comes in the next month, I think that's what I'll read.

Interesting theme! I am planning to read Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers next month...it was published in 1932, and main character Lord Peter Wimsey's formative years were shaped by World War I. The book isn't really out of my comfort zone, since I read Golden Age mysteries all the time, but it certainly is a look at a time and generation far different from my own.

Great setup and interesting theme!

My birth year puts me in the (always pejorative as far as I can tell) category of "millennial", but I identify a little more with some of the Gen X characteristics. I remember what life was like before the Internet, for example, so I identify more with the "transition to digital" than the idea of being a digital native.

For this challenge I'll count the book I'm reading right now: A Bridge Too Far, by Cornelius Ryan. As a WW2 book it fits into understanding the formative years of the Greatest Generation.

What an excellent theme!

My choice was easy since I was recently hit by a bullet from mamzel with The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. Like the protagonist, mamzel's mother was a teen in occupied France. A bit before my own generation.

I've been planning to read Reply to a Letter From Helga by Bargsveinn Birgisson for a BINGO square and I think it will work here as well. It's an epistolary novel in which a 90 year old man living in a nursing home explains why he didn't leave his wife and farm and go away with the woman that was the love of his life.

I'm a Gen Xer, so I'll be reading something outside that. It's hard for me to get outside my comfort zone, as I read so widely - history and historical fiction are some of my favourites, so it's possible I could lean toward reading something that fits a generation after me. But, I need to think a little more about it...

I may have found the perfect book (luckily, my library has it!):

Generation Me / Jean M. Twenge

I am an early subset Boomer but I think I am going to explore the silent/mature generation of the 1930's and 1940's. I am planning on reading Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott which is set in the 1930's and then The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison set in the 1940's which will give me a picture of a totally different ethnic background.

What with this being the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War, I will probably read something about young adults between WWI and WWII. I'm considering To Serve Them All My Days by R F Delderfield or A Month in the Country by J L Carr.

I'm a later subset Boomer and I think I will read one of the recommendations from the greatest generation The Women in the Castle, where the focus is before, during and after WWII for three German women.

>18 kac522: my mother loved that book, and all Delderfield's works.

I have The Two Mrs. Abbotts on my shelves, unread, and I loved the first two books in the series...time to dust it off for this challenge, perhaps?

This is a great theme! I am an Early Subset Boomer, and my husband is a Vietnam Veteran. I read some of the D. E. Stevenson books years ago, and The Two Mrs Abbotts is on my shelf, along with others by this author. I also have The Good Girls Revolt on my Kindle. I have recently been reading some novels set during World War II, and my dad was in the Navy during that war (before I was born). Lots to think about for this theme. Thanks!

>12 rabbitprincess: My son who is the more millenial of my three told me people like his slightly older brother and sister are sometimes referred to as xenials. In our family I watched the digital transition in real time.

All of the generational naming of course is just a marketing ploy, but we can have some fun with it for our purposes. Everybody is making some great choices. I have added so many to my list already...TBR groan.

I'm a boomer. I'd like to read iGen, but there is no way I'd be able to read it in July because of the wait list. Therefore, I'm going with another generation and opting for The Women in the Castle. I will wait to put myself on the hold list until next week since there are enough copies available I think that timing will be better than requesting it now. It's available in both ebook and audio, so I'll need to figure out which format I want!

>22 beebeereads: I seem to recall Gen Y being used more often when I was younger. That's how I like to think of myself ;) Although xenial is good too for its combination of Gen X and millenial.

I'm an Early Subset Boomer and I think I'll read Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum about WW II. I kind of feel like I'm cheating just a bit since I enjoy stories about WW II anyway.

I am a boomer. >1 beebeereads:, thanks for posting this randomCat, so very interesting. I am not sure that I will read anything specific but no matter what I read, it should work for something. I am eclectic reader and read in all areas but am really interested in the newest group as my granddaughters would be the Gen Z

>20 fuzzi: ...and I just finished the Mrs Tim series, and can't wait to read more Stevenson...I have the first Miss Buncle on my TBR.

Another couple of suggestions: The Provincial Lady in Wartime and Mrs. Tim of the Regiment.

>27 kac522: I loved Miss Buncle's Book, and the follow up volume too. Enjoy!

I am currently reading The Group by Mary McCarthy which, for some reason I don't comprehend, I had I thought I wouldn't like so I had been putting off reading it. I am enjoying it very much and it would be great for this as it is about the lives (especially their sex lives) of a group of Vassar 1933 grads during the year following their graduation. Too bad I will finish it before July starts but I recommend it to others.

>30 leslie.98: This is a great suggestion for this cat. I read it when it came out in the 60's but your comments and the reviews of current readers suggests it stands the test of time. I don't usually re-read, but this tempts me. Thanks!

What a great idea. I'm a late Boomer. I'm planning to read the Doris Kearns Goodwin book, No Ordinary Time about World War 2 on the American homefront. I rarely read about the younger generations and so may try to work at least one of those books in as well.

I've started reading I Guess we Missed the Boat already for this challenge, but have changed my mind on the other books I was thinking about. Well, I may still get to them, but I got a book out of the library which I realised afterwards was perfect for this month (as well as featuring top quality book-title punning), Jambusters by Julie Summers, about the Women's Institute in WW2, so I'm going to prioritise that for this month's theme.

>33 Jackie_K: A+ punning! Depending on how you get on with it, I might have to hunt up a copy based on the title alone.

>33 Jackie_K: I'll be interested to see what you think of Jambusters! There was a brief TV series based on the book called "Home Fires," which I quite enjoyed.

I've been thinking about this one, trying to figure out what to read. I was born in the first months of 1981, making me a Millennial, but I don't really identify as that at all. I guess I identify more as Gen X, but I've never known quite what to make of the terms in relation to myself, just as the earlier generation descriptors don't quite fit members of my family. My husband and I have talked about this before--he was born two months before me, making him technically a Gen X-er, but he also doesn't identify all that much with either Millennial or Gen X descriptions. That first post here is a great explanation, too... but it's strange to read descriptors of generations and try to figure out where you fit, and not see yourself anywhere lol. (If I were to think about those formative years for me, and the notes listed, I'd probably be pulling equally from Gen X and Millennial AND Boomer descriptions, but not feeling any connection to much of what's listed, either.)

So, anyhow...

I read so widely, I'm not sure how I can get out of my comfort zone with this, but I guess the best I can do is to read a book that's slightly out of the norm for me in terms of content, and which crosses generations. I started Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea a month or so back but didn't finish it, and while the shipwreck it focuses on happened in 1857, the book focuses on men from a variety of the listed generations in examining the development of technology to look for shipwrecks/treasure, the science involved, and the various motivations. The nonfiction I read tends more toward either adventure or science, versus in between territory like this, so it's a bit out of my comfort zone. So, reading the second half of that book and finishing it up is my plan for this.

>36 whitewavedarling: I love your interpretation of this challenge. That's what makes these cat challenges so fun and so unique. I particularly like the random challenge for that reason. It's a guideline and a jumping off point, but not an exact map. Thanks for your input!

>37 beebeereads:, Thanks for the excellent set-up :) That really is a great summation of what I've read of the different generations--it just leads me back to the same conversation that I really have had with my conversation multiple times lol :)

I've just finished I Guess we Missed the Boat. To be honest, it was pretty underwhelming. Hopefully Jambusters will be more up my street.

I just finished The Women in the Castle which you listed for The Greatest Generation.

I have read Last Witnesses, by Svetlana Aleksievic. It is outside my comfort zone not because of the author or the style (I have read two others by the same author) but because of the subject. The book presents testimonies of people who were only children when their lives were turned upsided down by World War Two in the USSR. It is all at once horrible and brilliant and essential and horrible again.

I know this is a book I will never forget.

Fun! I'm a boomer. Interestingly, I've read all three of your recommendations for Millennials - maybe because I work with them and so I'm drawn to their experience and literature?

I've got Pachinko on my TBR stack so I may go with that. I will also explore some options for iGen or Gen Z as those are my students now into the next few years.

I am smack in the middle of the Gen X group. I finished a Mission to Paris yesterday which is a spy novel set in France right before WWII really got going.

Completed A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr. Set in 1920, story of a young Great War veteran who goes to a North Yorkshire country village to restore a painting in a church, and begins to restore himself. Loved it. In many ways, these returning men were a lost generation, with few people who understood the horrors of modern warfare they experienced.

>16 LibraryCin: Well, my library does have the perfect book, but (though I put it on hold a couple weeks ago), I am #3 on only 1 copy. Not sure if I'll get to it this month, but I will count it here when it does come in for me.

The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal

This book features 30-something millennial Nora Watts, a deeply troubled woman, alcoholic, homeless, and casual investigator. She gave up her daughter for adoption fifteen years ago and now is contacted because Bonnie, the daughter, has gone missing. This is a story set in the the gritty dark side of of modern Vancouver.

I belong to the early sub-set of boomers so both Nora and her daughter are well outside my generation. It was good and I'll watch for more by Kamal.

I've finished the first book I chose for this challenge. #NeverAgain I think it is important to listen to "own voices" descriptions of events. How do we understand what it must be like to experience a mass shooting by just listening to news reports? David and his sister experienced the school shooting at Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. Their willingness to tell their story and to encourage activism on the subject of gun violence is meaningful and appreciated. There was not a lot of content that had not been out there already, but reading the book and learning about their background put context around their commentary. It is a short book written in the style of high schoolers who have something important to say. I definitely recommend it.

I'm actually wondering if The Overstory will work for this month's challenge. It is so multi-generational.... and truly wonderful (so far).

I just finished The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne and this one covered all the generations. What an epic tale of a family but also a country.

I've started The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah and so far it is wonderful. I got the recommendation from mamzel whose mother was a teen in occupied France, just like Hannah's character.

I've finished reading Playing with Dynamite: a Memoir by Sharon Harrigan, a local author whom I heard speak at the Virginia Festival of the Book last March. This is a rather unusual memoir because it describes Sharon's search for herself through learning more about her father who died when she was 7 years old. It is also a story of various generations: Sharon and her siblings are early GenX, her parents late Silent generation, and her children a millennial and GenZ. She brings all of them into the picture as she describes her search.

I finished Reply to a Letter from Helga by Bergsveinn Birgisson, translation by Philip Roughton. Ninety year old Bjami replies to a letter he received decades earlier from his illicit lover. She has moved from the neighboring farm to the city with her three children, one of them being his, and she is inviting him to join her. In the answering letter written after her death, Bijan explains why he remained with his wife on the farm.

>48 EBT1002: The Overstory is on my TBR. Glad you are giving it a thumbs up so far!

The August RandomCAT is up: http://www.librarything.com/topic/293618

I finished The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah, a story of two sisters who survived occupied France. No wonder this generation is known as "the greatest", they needed to be great to endure hardships and distress to an extent unknown to later generations.

>55 VivienneR: One of my favorites...glad you found it an informative read. I thought the variety of voices in Hannah's novel were successful in expressing the different angles of the impact in France.

I'm in the middle of Tomorrow Will Be Different which so far is excellent. I'll update when I finish. Also re-reading Born a Crime which I read last year but my RLBC is discussing it this week. The 80's were a very different time in South Africa than in the US although there are interesting parallels and crossover issues. The end of Apartheid was a worldwide concern.

For this challenge I read the semi-autobiographical Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns, which was set primarily during the Great Depression in London.

As a young and terribly naive girl, Sophia Fairclough enters into a disastrous first marriage and tries to raise her young family despite crushing poverty and an irresponsible, disinterested artist for a husband. Sophie's narrative voice is so light and trips along so breathlessly that the reader almost overlooks the very real hardships she endures. Her naivete can be funny--she believes birth control is just thinking very hard that you don't want to become pregnant--but she shows great resourcefulness when pretty much everyone in her life lets her down, and her insights into the plight of women are quite sharp. This is a quick and easy but affecting read, only marred by a very rushed and rather fairy-tale-like ending, and I think it gives a good sense of what the Great Depression was like to live through.

I decided to go with the Greatest Generation for this challenge, that time period in history of their formative years, 1930s-1950s, especially WWII related, is something I tend to shy away from in my reading. I'm not sure why, exactly. I chose to read Shanghai Girls by Lisa See which takes place right in that period, 1937-1957. It had been on my wishlist for quite awhile, but I kept putting it off. I'm so glad to have finally read this book. It focuses on the Chin sister, Pearl & May, from Shanghai, who are 18 & 20 when the story opens in 1937. The story deals with the Japanese invasion of China, the treatment of Chinese immigrants at Angel Island and once they make it into the country, Hollywood, Chinatown, WWII & McArthyism with the underlying theme of doing what you have to for your family. Hopefully it won't take me as long to get to the sequel.

>58 staci426: I really liked that one. I'm not sure if I'm in a minority or if other people thought so, too, but I actually liked the sequel, Dreams of Joy better!

I decided to read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

I thought I would fly through this book and it was going to be easy, but in the end it was out of my comfort zone. I've read other holocaust books, but this was hard for me to pick up.

As I finished the book it occurred to me that it was different because I knew Anne's fate. There are more horrible holocaust memoirs, more graphic, more intense. But in those other memoirs, we know that in the end our writer will survive--they have lived to tell the tale. And this memoir is different because she writes in such an intimate way--I feel like she's writing directly to me. And because she made me long for the fresh air and sunshine, too.

I honestly can't recall if I read this as a young person. My vague remembrance is that I tried, but gave up. So glad I finished this time as a senior citizen.

>59 LibraryCin: That's good to hear about the sequel. I haven't heard much about it.

I've read Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum for my Random Cat book this month. It takes place in Germany during the war and also in the 1990s as Trudi attempts to understand what German people did and thought was going on during the war.

Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled -- and More Miserable Than Ever Before / Jean M. Twenge
4 stars

What the author, a professor of psychology, calls “Generation Me” has also been referred to as “Millennials” and “Generation Y” – people born primarily in the 1980s and 1990s. She compares studies of three generations: Baby Boomers, Generation X and “GenMe”, with the focus on GenMe, and brings those statistics to this book. The statistics speak to averages and she also offers anecdotes that illustrate those averages she’s found in the statistics.

GenMe-ers have always been told they are special, to pursue their dreams and that they can be anything they want to be. But, the reality is that it’s now harder for that to realistically happen. So, people of this generation are disappointed, sometimes to the point of anxiety and/or depression when they do not actually realize those dreams. Additional chapters in the book also look at sex, equality, and work.

This was originally published in 2006, but I read the “Revised and Updated” edition, published in 2014, so there was more up to date info. I found this very interesting. It is a lot of stats, but I thought the author made it very readable. I think it might be even more interesting to parents, teachers, etc, as she also offers advice at the end of the book.

>62 dudes22:, I've read this one a while back. I think it is a great choice for this challenge.

>63 LibraryCin:, I think this sounds like it would be a good read.

I keep adding more to my TBR!
>63 LibraryCin: This book sounds right up my sociology alley. I believe this is the same author who wrote iGen, the new book on the next generation. Perhaps I will read Generation Me first though. It's good to know it is readable even around all the stats. Thanks for the review. I am nearly done with one for this category that I will post about shortly...excellent read!

>66 beebeereads: Oh, that sounds interesting, too. I'll have to take a look!

ETA: Yes, looks like the same author. I've added iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids... to my tbr, as well. :-) I think it would make sense for you to read "Generation Me" first, yes.

I should add that I, myself, am Generation X (born just one year after the author), so it was a different generation for me to read about.

>62 dudes22: I thought Those Who Saved Us sounded familiar to me. I have it from Prime. So glad you posted your thoughts about it. I'll move it up my TBR!

Charming Billy
Framed by the narrative of the family funereal gathering for the late Billy Lynch, the novel recounts Billy's life, his early lost love, his struggle with alcohol, his never-lost charm. We're also given the lives of other members of the family and their close, everyday relationships, especially how Billy's live - and death - have influenced them. The real charmer here is the story itself, and the lovely way it is told, through the sweetness of its quotidian details, the mundane made holy, in some way. So excellently written, this one. Definitely recommended.

I finished up July yesterday with the RandomCAT of Warriors Don't Cry. The events took place the year I was born (1957) so it seemed to fit the challenge well. If you have an interest in the integration efforts, I recommend this book, written by someone who lived it. The abuse those students endured was truly horrific, and was made even more so by the indifference and/or encouragement by the adults involved.

I finished Altes Land which features two women: Vera who was born in 1940, and her niece Anne who belongs to Generation X. The narration is not chronological, we get flashbacks to the past, but it paints a very vivid picture of life in the farming district near Hamburg, known as Altes Land and famous for its fruit. The author has very little sympathy for big city types buying up old farm houses and playing at country life.

Just finished Tomorrow Will Be Different I am so glad I read this book. It was on my TBR but I might have let it slip down the pile if not for this challenge. Sarah McBride is a millennial and an activist for transgender rights. Her story is well told and very current. The two obvious themes of transgender backstory and political activism are set alongside a grief memoir which is particularly difficult due to the ages of she and her husband. Well written, informative and important. I highly recommend.

I finished Jambusters by Julie Summers and enjoyed it very much. Apart from the rather weak last chapter, it was a solid social history of the women of the Women's Institute (England and Wales) and all they did for the war effort during WW2. 4/5.

I finally finished Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, and it was wonderful. There's a full review written, but meanwhile, I'll just say...

This was a fascinating work, and I should say here that the fact that I have a hardback slowed me down a lot. My mom bought this for me ages ago when it first came out--it's clearly something that's right up my alley--but it's such a big hardback, and looks like pretty dense nonfiction, so I didn't get around to picking it up until now. I'm so glad I did, though. This isn't nearly so dense as it looks, and makes for absolutely fascinating reading. If you have any interest in history, science & technology in relation to the ocean or archaeology or development, or shipwrecks and buried/lost treasure, I 100% recommend it. I'm tempted to say this would even be worthwhile for fans of biographies, Kinder does such a magnificent job of providing character studies of a sort.

I just read and enjoyed a journal from the 1850s, written by a young lady (14-24), and while it is not on the list of generations, I thought it still fit the challenge:

Mollie: The Journal of Mollie Dorsey Sanford

Will this qualify?

>76 fuzzi: My attitude on all these challenges is if it works for you, it works! This is not a school assignment to be graded :-) Sounds like an interesting book.

Thanks to everyone for participating this month. I picked up a lot of good recommendations from everyone who shared. It was fun and I look forward to next month on the random thread.

Don’t forget to update the Wiki. I almost did!

>77 beebeereads: thanks!

We were on vacation for almost two weeks, so my reads were noticeably less, but I'm glad I got this challenge covered.