My latest read, related to Maxed Out which I recently read and posted about, has been another book on that same theme of parents trying to juggle work and love and play called Overwhelmed.
Although the topic is very much the same, the authors' approaches differed. While Alcorn is a blogger and coming from the tech business world, Schulte is a journalist. Those different backgrounds show in the work. Alcorn's style is much more personal memoir, but Schulte only uses a few personal examples and many more interviews.
Overwhelmed starts off with the author's encounter with a time-use researcher, and then follows her to a conference on leisure and time. She concludes that it is about the balance in life between Work, Love, and Play and that forms the structure for the rest of the book with solid sections devoted to each of those three spheres.
The book deals with both men and women, mothers and fathers, although there is more focus on women and parents. But this is about what is going on with all of us - everyone who is caught up in the culture of overwhelm and busyness.
This is a well-researched, thought-provoking, and ultimately useful book. Now I'm mulling over the balance for myself: Work, Love, and Play. Can I elevate play to equality with those other two? Woah! Now that feels like a challenge.
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