Question: As my husband and I – now 61 and 59 -- grow older, we seem to be less concerned with retirement and more concerned with staying in good health so we will be able to not only take care of ourselves, but also assist our parents and other seniors in our families who have no one else to help them. Then, of course, we have our three children who, it seems, will never quite get out of the nest – even though two of them have gotten married.

We have read your column for years and often wondered why you did not write a book. But since you obviously didn’t, we have been searching for a good read that will sort of put it all together for us, given the fact that my husband and I – and many others like us -- are like the baloney between the slices of bread that make up the “sandwich generation.”

Thank you for the good information you two have delivered over the years that has helped us and so many others similarly situated.

Answer: We, too, have been looking for a book that laid out in an understandable, yet entertaining fashion, the basic steps required to deal with the complexities that accompany not only aging, but also “boomerism.”

Unfortunately, nothing is simple any more, especially when dealing with the Medicare system, IRA minimum distribution rules, and the declines and losses that so often accompany the aging process. But there is a ray of light: A new book entitled Alive and Kicking: Legal Advice for Boomers is, in our opinion, one of the best bets to help average people plot a course to avoid the disasters that too often occur.

Written by Kenny Hegland, a law professor at the University of Arizona, and Robert Fleming, an elder law attorney from Tucson, Arizona, Alive and Kicking covers a myriad of topics – including Social Security, health care, avoiding financial and legal troubles, estate planning, divorce, remarriage, starting a business, nursing homes, protection from scams, age discrimination, elder abuse, making your children treat you better, driving, sex, and other issues that accompany aging – all treated with humor, sensitivity, and common sense in an easy-to-read format.

In fact, Alive and Kicking has been favorably reviewed by Dr. Andrew Weil as an “engaging, even entertaining and uplifting, book about a subject most of us who are getting on in life often avoid: arranging our affairs for our latter years to avoid medical, financial, and legal troubles. I will use it myself and recommend it to patients, friends, and loved ones."

According to the authors, “the condition of ‘geezerhood’ should not be accompanied by a loss of intellectual interest.” And we agree that mental exercise is just as important as the physical type. So, if you and those around you are getting older and are interested in an entertaining and informative publication to help you plot your path, we highly recommend Alive and Kicking, a serious book about serious times and serious issues written in a reader-friendly format.

Taking the NextStep: To find out more about Alive and Kicking: Legal Advice for Boomers, go to www.nextsteps.net and click on “useful links” and look for the link to Amazon or, if you like, the link directly to the table of contents and prologue to learn more on this wonderful read.