We tend to feel good (don't we?)when we read a book describing a societal pattern that we already know about, but it's nice anyway to have company to confirm our experience. If, for example, you're reading the just published "The Hourglass Solution: A Boomer's Guide to the Rest of Your Life," you can't change being a baby boomer between the ages of (gasp!)50 or at the boomer's tail end, 65. You just are, that's all (I have long since passed wagging that tail). You were born in a generational epidemic of babies, and you can't do much now about having been brought up in prosperity so that you've come to expect it as a fact of life. You can't help your materialistic values which by now you've passed on to your kids if you have any. The authors, Jeff Johnson and Paula Forman, with two Ph.Ds between them, describe all that in comforting detail so that you'll probably nod, uh huh, uh huh, that's how it is with me. And then they go on to describe how all this has come to a short stop. A very short stop. Economic times are tough, and your job, your house, and your sense of entitlement have all run into trouble. Where you knew you were heading is stuck right in the middle of the hourglass. But Drs. Jeff and Paula say that you don't have to get stuck in the hourglass. As a matter of fact, this economic crisis may even be a good thing because, as a boomer who has already achieved all your educational and career goals (unless you haven't), you may have already started feeling a little empty surrounded by all this prosperity and accomplishment. You're not having the kind of emotional crisis people experience at 40, an age when you may look back at the past with regret for what you DIDN'T do. No, no, the neck of the hourglass at age 50 is different. It's the FUTURE you're worried about, and naturally, since you're a boomer, you don't see your reflection in the senior citizens that have gone before you, certainly not your parents. No one has REALLY experienced aging before baby boomers came on the scene. That's why, in the second half of the book, Jeff and Paula get down to serious business: How do you take the glass that is starting to feel half empty and fill it again? In entertaining little conversations with one another that occur throughout the book, the authors discuss very practically the steps boomers will have to take to ensure their futures. Since the economy has already tanked, forget finding a job, for one thing, if you've lost yours. If you do find one, it's not likely to be at the same level in either rank or salary-wise. What to do? Unless your savings haven't gone down the tubes and you're planning to retire, be inventive and start your own business. After all, you're a boomer. The world is your oyster. Re-energize! "The Hourglass Solution" is easy reading, and there are really some excellent ideas that offer concrete possibilities and options to invigorate the second half-century of your life. At the very least, when you set out to meet this brave new world, you'll have Jeff and Paula in your corner. Bon courage! "The Hourgalss Solution" is published by Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Book Group.