How to Enjoy Your Retirement: Activities from A to Z

Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource!
Review: Being newly retired at age 53,I figured I'd better find a way to keep out of trouble.This book is it! There are so many things,even little things,that I had not considered as part of my retirement activities. I have been engrossed in the book since it arrived,and as soon as I get organized,I will be off and running.I would recommend this jewel of a book to anyone who might need a little help getting used to a new life..retirement!!

Rating:
Summary: This book is a keeper!
Review: I borrowed this book from the library and liked it so much that I had to buy it. It has ideas, quotes, resource leads, and an index. This book will continue to serve throughout life.

Rating:
Summary: Needs an accuracy check
Review: I haven't read this book so can't judge it as a whole, but I did read the single paragraph on genealogy. I found three glaring errors/omissions there that make me wonder how much of the rest of the book is any good. First it tells you to go to your community college and take a course on genealogy in order to learn how to do it. I think that's a bit much, frankly. Get a book at the bookstore or library, or even browse the web for information, and you can save yourself the time and expense of a college course. Then it tells you to "Find out where your great grandparents were born through the Internet" by using the Social Security Death Index on ancestry.com. First of all, the SSDI does not give birth places for anyone. The closest it comes is to give the state where they first filed for their social security number. Secondly, anyone retiring today has great-grandparents who were most likely dead long before there ever was such a thing as social security numbers. I'm many years from retirement and even my great-grandparents aren't in there.

Enough said. The rest of the book may be wonderful, but these errors would make me distrustful of anything in the book. The third edition hopefully will at least correct these errors.

Rating:
Summary: Different styles and genealogy
Review: The authors would like to note that their suggestion of a college course for people interested in genealogy will work for those people who prefer to learn with others in a group setting. There are also many excellent website resources in addition to books,...Also, about another...the Social Security Death Index, there you can click on Order Original Application to send for a copy of your ancestor's original Social Security information (you can also use the information in this index to obtain birth, death, and employment records). Although the Social Security Act was created in 1935, a computer system reporting death benefit claims did not exist until 1962. Most of the records date from the 1960s. Many of these people were born late in the 1890s. So in 100 years, depending on how young a family reproduced, there could be as few as 5 generations (if they married at 20) to as many as 6 or more generations (married at 16). So you really could be looking for your great grandparents.