Staff Picks
BroaderBookshelf 2024: Aging in Nonfiction
- Megan M.
- Monday, January 01
Collection
Fulfill the "read a fiction or nonfiction title that confronts the topic of aging or death" prompt with these titles.
This list is part of the BroaderBookshelf 2024 reading challenge. Find more lists here.
The End of Old Age
Living a Longer, More Purposeful Life
Published in 2018
"As one of America's leading geriatric psychiatrists, Dr. Marc Agronin sees both the sickest and the healthiest of seniors. He observes what works to make their lives better and more purposeful and what doesn't. Many authors can talk about aging from their particular vantage points, but Dr. Agronin is on the front lines as he counsels and treats elderly individuals and their loved ones on a daily basis. The latest scientific research and Dr. Agronin's first-hand experience are brilliantly distilled in The End of Old Age--a call to no longer see aging as an implacable enemy and to start seeing it as a developmental force for enhancing well-being, meaning, and longevity. Throughout The End of Old Age, the focus is squarely on "So what does this mean for me and my family?" In the final part of the book, Dr. Agronin provides simple but revealing charts that you can fill out to identify, develop, and optimize your unique age-given strengths. It's nothing short of an action plan to help you age better by improving how you value the aging process, guide yourself through stress, and find ways to creatively address change for the best possible experience and outcome." -- Amazon.com summary.
How to Live
A Search for Wisdom from Old People (while They Are Still on This Earth)
Published in 2009
Part family memoir, part Studs Terkel, How To Live considers some unusual sources--deathbed confessions, late-in-life journals--as well as offering a rich compilation of interviews with the over-70 set to deliver a highly optimistic look at our dying days.
This Old Man
All in Pieces
Published in 2015
"From the acclaimed New Yorker writer and editor, a compendium of writings that celebrate the view from the tenth decade of his richly lived life In February 2014, The New Yorker published an essay by Roger Angell called "This Old Man," a meditation on life at age ninety-three. With great humor and not an ounce of self-pity or sentimentality, Angell wrote about health, mind, and memory; reckoning with the past and a long list of friends and family who have died; daily joys and struggles; and, above all, love. Cheerful and beautiful and moving, the piece became an instant classic, won a National Magazine Award, and has been shared and discussed by legions of readers young and old. "This Old Man" is the centerpiece of Angell's new book, which gathers essays, letters, photos, comic verse, and drawings that in aggregate present a kaleidoscopic portrayal of a deeply engaged and vibrant life. Angell's fluid prose and native curiosity make him an amiable and compelling companion on the page. Whether the subject is coping with the loss of his wife, Carol, editing John Updike, the seventh game of the 2014 World Series, his appreciation of fox terriers, or the Fourth of July ceremonies in his summer home in rural Maine, what links the pieces (most of recent vintage) is the deep sense of gratitude that suffuses them. Gratitude for the people he has known, the experiences he's had, the writers and friends and baseball players he admires. It's a portrait of a full and fascinating life, but a portrait always directed generously outward. Angell is New Yorker royalty. Son of Katharine S. White, the first fiction editor ofThe New Yorker, and stepson of E. B. White, Angell wrote his first piece for the magazine in 1944 and was for many years chief fiction editor himself. His affectionate take on the magazine and the personalities who've worked there makes for a lively slice of twentieth (and twenty-first) century cultural history. He is even better known as a baseball writer--he's in the Hall of Fame with Babe Ruth and Willie Mays!--and the baseball writing in the book is pure heaven for fans of the national pastime. Engaging, sharp, and wonderfully written, This Old Man is a pure pleasure to read"-- Provided by publisher.
Elderhood
Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life
Published in 2019
"[P]hysician and [...] author Louise Aronson's Elderhood is a [...] look at a vital but often disparaged stage of life. For more than 5,000 years, "old" has been defined as beginning between the ages of 60 and 70. That means most people alive today will spend more years in elderhood than in childhood, and many will be elders for 40 years or more. Yet at the very moment that humans are living longer than ever before, we've made old age into a disease, a condition to be dreaded, denigrated, neglected, and denied. [...] Harvard-trained geriatrician Louise Aronson uses stories from her quarter century of caring for patients, and draws from history, science, literature, popular culture, and her own life to weave a vision of old age that's neither nightmare nor utopian fantasy -- a vision full of joy, wonder, frustration, outrage, and hope about aging, medicine, and humanity itself. Elderhood is for anyone who is, in the author's own words, "an aging, i.e., still-breathing human being."" -- Provided by publisher.
Lessons from Lucy
The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog
Published in 2019
"Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and bestselling author of Dave Barry Turns 40 now shows how to age gracefully, taking cues from his beloved and highly intelligent dog, Lucy. Faced with the obstacles and challenges of life after middle age, Dave Barry turns to his best dog, Lucy, to learn how to live his best life. From "Make New Friends" (an unfortunate fail when he can't overcome his dislike for mankind) to "Don't Stop Having Fun" (validating his longtime membership in a marching unit that performs in parades--and even Obama's inauguration), Dave navigates his later years with good humor and grace. Lucy teaches Dave how to live in the present, how to let go of daily grievances, and how to feel good in your own skin. The lessons are drawn from Dave's routine humiliations and stream-of-consciousness accounts of the absurdities of daily life, which will leave you heaving with laughter and recognition. Laugh-out-loud hilarious, whether he's trying to "Pay Attention to the People You Love" (even when your brain is not listening) or deciding to "Let Go of Your Anger," Dave Barry's Lessons From Lucy is a witty and wise guide to joyous living"-- Provided by publisher.
Face
One Square Foot of Skin
Published in 2021
"Face is a book of fictional vignettes that examines the fear and vestigial evolutionary habits that have caused women and men to cultivate the imagined reality that older women's faces are unattractive, undesirable, and something to be "fixed." Based on "older face" experiences of the author, Justine Bateman, and those of dozens of women and men she interviewed, the book presents the reader with the many root causes for society's often negative attitudes toward women's older faces. In doing so, Bateman rejects those ingrained assumptions about the necessity of fixing older women's faces, suggesting that we move on from judging someone's worth based on the condition of her face. With impassioned prose and a laser-sharp eye, Bateman argues that a woman's confidence should grow as she ages, not be destroyed by society's misled attitude about that one square foot of skin."--Amazon.
I'll Be Seeing You
A Memoir
Published in 2020
"For as long as Elizabeth can remember, she has watched her father trail after her mother, kissing her multiple times a day and holding her hand. She watched her mother smooth the lines in her father's face and pay attention to his every move, even when she was desperate for some time to herself. When her parents began to age, Elizabeth and her siblings are placed in the difficult position of taking over more and more supportive roles and tasks. They fix their parents' home, negotiate finances, eventually weather the back and forth of will they or won't they move into a nursing facility; finally they do. Berg gracefully takes readers through navigating the emotional and physical challenges of guiding parents through the final stages of life. In this touching and heart-warming memoir, Berg includes raw accounts of disagreements, encouraging stubborn parents, and dealing with her own heartache and loss. Berg confronts both the realities of the situation and the brighter, happy, funny and endearing moments and memories"-- Provided by publisher.
Jellyfish Age Backwards
Nature's Secrets to Longevity
Published in 2023
Blending together the most cutting-edge research and stories from habitats all over the world, a molecular biologist explores what nature has to teach us about aging, revealing life spans we cannot imagine and physiological gifts that feel closer to magic than reality.
The Upgrade
How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond
Published in 2022
"Now, Brizendine uses her unique ability of making science approachable to offer an empowering vision of the years in a woman's life that have too often been ignored or misunderstood and creates a positive new framework for this life stage. She never uses the words perimenopause or menopause, with their suggestions of obsolescence. She guides women to become more of who they are and who they want to be in the second half of life. After analyzing the latest research, Brizendine has found that in midlife the inclination to cater to the needs of others relaxes, allowing women to become more centered while retaining their gifts of perception. The change in ratio of estrogen to testosterone makes women more direct and able to speak out. There's also a drop in anxiety that allows the female brain to flip its attentional style from multitasking to focusing on one thing at a time. The upgraded female brain is centered, direct, validated, focused, fearless, expansive, and free. In this sweeping look at the second half of life, Brizendine dives deep into the microscopic workings of your mitochondria one moment and zooms out to the bigger picture--family, relationships, identity--the next. With clear prescriptive advice, she also offers specific ways women can fend off dementia; increase longevity, well-being, and sexuality; and find their best selves at this stage of life. Ultimately, The Upgrade amounts to a celebration of how women step into their power and an entirely new--and radically positive--understanding of aging"-- Provided by publisher.
From Strength to Strength
Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life
Published in 2022
"The roadmap for finding purpose, meaning, and success as we age, from bestselling author, Harvard professor, and the Atlantic's happiness columnist Arthur Brooks. Many of us assume that the more successful we are, the less susceptible we become to the sense of professional and social irrelevance that often accompanies aging. But the truth is, the greater our achievements and our attachment to them, the more we notice our decline, and the more painful it is when it occurs. What can we do, starting now, to make our older years a time of happiness, purpose, and yes, success? At the height of his career at the age of 50, Arthur Brooks embarked on a seven-year journey to discover how to transform his future from one of disappointment over waning abilities into an opportunity for progress. From Strength to Strength is the result, a practical roadmap for the rest of your life. Drawing on social science, philosophy, biography, theology, and eastern wisdom, as well as dozens of interviews with everyday men and women, Brooks shows us that true life success is well within our reach. By refocusing on certain priorities and habits that anyone can learn, such as deep wisdom, detachment from empty rewards, connection and service to others, and spiritual progress, we can set ourselves up for increased happiness"-- Provided by publisher.
The Beauty of Dusk
On Vision Lost and Found
Published in 2022
"From New York Times columnist and bestselling author Frank Bruni comes a wise and moving memoir about aging, affliction, and optimism after partially losing his eyesight. One morning in late 2017, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni woke up with strangely blurred vision. He wondered at first if some goo or gunk had worked its way into his right eye. But this was no fleeting annoyance, no fixable inconvenience. Overnight, a rare stroke had cut off blood to one of his optic nerves, rendering him functionally blind in that eye--forever. And he soon learned from doctors that the same disorder could ravage his left eye, too. He could lose his sight altogether. In The Beauty of Dusk, Bruni hauntingly recounts his adjustment to this daunting reality, a medical and spiritual odyssey that involved not only reappraising his own priorities but also reaching out to, and gathering wisdom from, longtime friends and new acquaintances who had navigated their own traumas and afflictions. The result is a poignant, probing, and ultimately uplifting examination of the limits that all of us inevitably encounter, the lenses through which we choose to evaluate them and the tools we have for perseverance. Bruni's world blurred in one sense, as he experienced his first real inklings that the day isn't forever and that light inexorably fades, but sharpened in another. Confronting unexpected hardship, he felt more blessed than ever before. There was vision lost. There was also vision found"--Publisher's website.
Knocking on Heaven's Door
The Path to a Better Way of Death
Published in 2013
"An exquisitely written, expertly reported memoir and expose; of modern medicine that leads the way to more humane, less invasive end-of-life care based on the author's acclaimed New York Times Magazine piece. This is the story of one daughter's struggle to allow her parents the peaceful, natural deaths they wanted and to investigate the larger forces in medicine that stood in the way. When doctors refused to disable the pacemaker that caused her eighty-four-year-old father's heart to outlive his brain, Katy Butler, an award-winning science writer, embarked on a quest to understand why modern medicine was depriving him of a humane, timely death. After his lingering death, Katy's mother, nearly broken by years of nonstop caregiving, defied her doctors, refused open-heart surgery, and insisted on facing death the old-fashioned way: bravely, lucidly, and head on. Against this backdrop of familial love, wrenching moral choices, and redemption, Knocking on Heaven's Door celebrates the inventors of the 1950s who cobbled together lifesaving machines like the pacemaker and it exposes the tangled marriage of technology, medicine, and commerce that gave us a modern way of death: more painful, expensive, and prolonged than ever before. Caring for declining parents is a reality facing millions who may someday tell a doctor: "Let my parent go." A riveting exploration of the forgotten art of dying, Knocking on Heaven's Door empowers readers to create new rites of passage to the "Good Deaths" our ancestors so prized. Like Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death and How We Die by Sherwin Nuland, it is sure to cause controversy and open minds"-- Provided by publisher.
Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
Published in 2014
"In her first memoir, Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. Spanning the last several years of their lives and told through four-color cartoons, family photos, and documents, and a narrative as rife with laughs as it is with tears, Chast's memoir is both comfort and comic relief for anyone experiencing the life-altering loss of elderly parents. When it came to her elderly mother and father, Roz held to the practices of denial, avoidance, and distraction. But when Elizabeth Chast climbed a ladder to locate an old souvenir from the "crazy closet"--with predictable results--the tools that had served Roz well through her parents' seventies, eighties, and into their early nineties could no longer be deployed. While the particulars are Chast-ian in their idiosyncrasies--an anxious father who had relied heavily on his wife for stability as he slipped into dementia and a former assistant principal mother whose overbearing personality had sidelined Roz for decades--the themes are universal: adult children accepting a parental role; aging and unstable parents leaving a family home for an institution; dealing with uncomfortable physical intimacies; managing logistics; and hiring strangers to provide the most personal care" -- from publisher's web site.
Old Man Country
My Search for Meaning Among the Elders
Published in 2020
" We aspire to live in a country where old men are celebrated as vital elders but not demeaned if they become ill and dependent. We aspire to maintain health as well as maintain dignity and fulfillment in frailty. Old Man Country helps readers see and imagine these possibilities for themselves. The book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom, as he encounters twelve distinguished American men over 80 -- including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world's most famous heart surgeon. In these and other intimate conversations, the book explores and honors the particular way that each man faces four challenges of living a good old age: Am I still a man? Do I still matter? What is the meaning of my life? Am I loved? Readers will come to see how each man -- even the most famous -- faces universal challenges. Personal stories about work, love, sexuality, and hope mingle with stories about illness, loss and death. This book will strengthen each of us as we and our loved ones anticipate and navigate our way through the passages of old age. "-- Provided by publisher.
No Stopping Us Now
The Adventures of Older Women in America History
Published in 2019
A lively, fascinating, eye-opening look at women and aging in America, by a <i>New York Times<i> columnist who illustrates the ways in which age is an arbitrary concept that has swung back and forth over the centuries.
What Would Virginia Woolf Do?
And Other Questions I Ask Myself As I Attempt to Age Without Apology
Published in 2018
The creator of the Facebook group, "What Would Virginia Woolf Do?" shares anecdotes by and for perimenopausal women on the challenges and wisdom of the second half of life, offering advice on subjects ranging from fashion and skin care to sex and surviving the empty nest.
The Measure of Our Age
Navigating Care, Safety, Money, and Meaning in Later Life
Published in 2023
"An elder justice expert uncovers the failures in the systems that are supposed to protect us as we age, and provides a battle plan for families and policy-makers to counter the greed and incompetence. Between 1900 and 2000, Americans gained, on average, thirty years of life. That dazzling feat allowed tens of millions of Americans to reach the once-rare age of 85, now the fastest-growing age group. The bad news: For millions of Americans, the Golden Years are appallingly tarnished, leaving them and those who love them at a loss for what to do. More than 34 million family members care for an older relative for "free," but with costs to them in time, money, jobs, and health. Countless seniors are targeted by scammers and make riskier decisions about care, housing, money, and driving due to cognitive decline. And epidemics of isolation and loneliness make older people unnecessarily vulnerable to all sorts of harm. These problems touch millions of families regardless of class, race or gender. Today, one in ten older Americans is neglected or exploited with devastating results. And the systems supposed to safeguard them-like nursing homes, guardianship, Adult Protective Services, and criminal prosecution-often make problems worse. Weaving first-person accounts, her own unrivaled experience, and shocking investigative reporting across the worlds of medicine, law, finance, social services, caregiving, and policy, MT Connolly exposes a reality that has been long hidden-and sometimes actively covered up. But things are not hopeless. Along with diagnosing the ailments, she gives readers better tools to navigate the many challenges of aging-whether adult children caring for aging parents, policy-makers trying to do the right thing, or, should we be so lucky to live to old age, all of us"-- Provided by publisher.
The Rainbow Comes and Goes
A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss
Published in 2016
"A charming, intimate and fascinating collection of correspondence between broadcaster and #1 New York Times bestselling author Anderson Cooper and his mother, the celebrated Gloria Vanderbilt"-- Provided by publisher.
Still Foolin' 'em
Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys?
Published in 2013
"Billy Crystal is turning 65, and he's not happy about it. With his trademark wit and heart, he outlines the absurdities and challenges that come with growing old, from insomnia to memory loss to leaving dinners with half your meal on your shirt. In humorous chapters like "Buying the Plot" and "Nodding Off," Crystal not only catalogues his physical gripes, but offers a road map to his 77 million fellow baby boomers who are arriving at this milestone age with him. He also looks back at the most powerful and memorable moments of his long and storied life, from entertaining his relatives as a kid in Long Beach, Long Island, his years doing stand-up in the Village, up through his legendary stint at Saturday Night Live, When Harry Met Sally, and his long run as host of the Academy Awards. Readers get a front-row seat to his one-day career with the New York Yankees (he was the first player to ever "test positive for Maalox"), his love affair with Sophia Loren, and his enduring friendships with several of his idols, including Mickey Mantle and Muhammad Ali. He lends a light touch to more serious topics like religion ("the aging friends I know have turned to the Holy Trinity: Advil, bourbon, and Prozac"), grandparenting, and, of course, dentistry. As wise and poignant as they are funny, Crystal's reflections are an unforgettable look at an extraordinary life well lived"-- Provided by publisher.
In Our Prime
How Older Women Are Reinventing the Road Ahead
Published in 2020
"With a sharp sense of justice and humor, Susan J. Douglas confronts ageism against women in media, work, and politics. In the 1970s, baby boom women began to redefine women's lives and opportunities. Now, that they are the largest American female generation over fifty, Susan J. Douglas argues that these feminist boomers are again challenging outdated stereotypes, and reinventing what it means to be older and female. This is a demographic revolution, and Douglas proposes that it's time for a new wave of activism to address ageism against women in all its manifestations. In Our Prime takes on the cosmetics industry for its expensive products and anti-aging messages; big pharma for its images of docile grannies and puttering gardeners; and Hollywood and TV for seeing females over fifty as has-beens. She exposes the financial insecurity many face even as conservatives continue their attack on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid-and calls on women of every age to unite to combat gendered ageism and to secure our country's financial safety net"-- Provided by publisher.
Natural Causes
An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer
Published in 2018
Offers insight into healthcare practices, identifying the cellular sources of aging and illness and revealing that aggressive treatments provide an illusion of control and survivability at the cost of life quality.
Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light
Essays
Published in 2021
"The bestselling author of American Housewife and Southern Lady Code returns with a viciously funny collection of literary essays on love, family, and friendship among grown-ass women"-- Provided by publisher.
Shock of Gray
The Aging of the World's Population and How It Pits Young Against Old, Child Against Parent, Worker Against Boss, Company Against Rival, and Nation Against Nation
Published in 2010
In "Shock of Gray," Ted Fishman explains the astouding economic and political changes we face as our world suddenly grows old.
The Longevity Project
Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-decade Study
Published in 2012
For years we have been told to obsessively monitor when we're angry, what we eat, how much we worry, and how often we go to the gym. So why isn't everyone healthy? With self-tests that illuminate your own best paths to longer life, this book changes the conversation about what it really takes to achieve a long, healthy life.
Being Mortal
Medicine and What Matters in the End
Published in 2014
Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families of the terminally ill.
Spring Chicken
Stay Young Forever (or Die Trying)
Published in 2015
"From acclaimed journalist Bill Gifford comes a roaring journey into the world of anti-aging science in search of answers to a universal obsession: what can be done about getting old? SPRING CHICKEN: Stay Young Forever (or Die Trying) SPRING CHICKEN is a full-throttle, high-energy ride through the latest research, popular mythology, and ancient wisdom on mankind's oldest obsession: How can we live longer? And better? In his funny, self-deprecating voice, veteran reporter Bill Gifford takes readers on a fascinating journey through the science of aging, from the obvious signs like wrinkles and baldness right down into the innermost workings of cells. We visit cutting-edge labs where scientists are working to "hack" the aging process, like purging "senescent" cells from mice to reverse the effects of aging. He'll reveal why some people live past 100 without even trying, what has happened with resveratrol, the "red wine pill" that made headlines a few years ago, how your fat tissue is trying to kill you, and how it's possible to unlock longevity-promoting pathways that are programmed into our very genes. Gifford separates the wheat from the chaff as he exposes hoaxes and scams foisted upon an aging society, and arms readers with the best possible advice on what to do, what not to do, and what life-changing treatments may be right around the corner. An intoxicating mixture of deep reporting, fascinating science, and prescriptive takeaway, SPRING CHICKEN will reveal the extraordinary breakthroughs that may yet bring us eternal youth, while exposing dangerous deceptions that prey on the innocent and ignorant"-- Provided by publisher.
This is Assisted Dying
A Doctor's Story of Empowering Patients at the End of Life
Published in 2022
"Dr. Stefanie Green has been forging new paths in the field of medical assistance in dying since 2016. In her landmark memoir, Dr. Green reveals the reasons a patient might seek an assisted death, how the process works, what the event itself can look like, the reactions of those involved, and what it feels like to oversee proceedings and administer medications that hasten death. She describes the extraordinary people she meets and the unusual circumstances she encounters as she navigates the intricacy, intensity, and utter humanity of these powerful interactions. Deeply authentic and powerfully emotional, This Is Assisted Dying contextualizes the myriad personal, professional, and practical issues surrounding assisted dying by bringing readers into the room with Dr. Green, sharing the voices of her patients, her colleagues, and her own narrative. As our population confronts issues of wellness, integrity, agency and community, and how to live a connected, meaningful life, this progressive and compassionate book by a physician at the forefront of medically assisted dying offers comfort and potential relief. This Is Assisted Dying will change the way people think about their choices at the end of life, and show that assisted dying is less about death than about how we wish to live."--Publisher's website.
What Makes Olga Run?
The Mystery of the 90-something Track Star and What She Can Teach Us About Living Longer, Happier Lives
Published in 2014
"In What Makes Olga Run? Bruce Grierson explores what the wild success of a ninety-three-year-old track star can tell us about how our bodies and minds age. Olga Kotelko is not your average ninety-three-year-old. She not only looks and acts like a much younger woman, she holds over twenty-three world records in track and field, seventeen in her current ninety to ninety-five category. Convinced that this remarkable woman could help unlock many of the mysteries of aging, Grierson set out to uncover what it is that's driving Olga. He considers every piece of the puzzle, from her diet and sleep habits to how she scores on various personality traits, from what she does in her spare time to her family history. Olga participates in tests administered by some of the world's leading scientists and offers her DNA to groundbreaking research trials. What emerges is not only a tremendously uplifting personal story but a look at the extent to which our health and longevity are determined by the DNA we inherit at birth, and the extent to which we can shape that inheritance. It examines the sum of our genes, opportunities, and choices, and the factors that forge the course of any life, especially during"-- Provided by publisher.
The Perennials
The Megatrends Creating a Postgenerational Society
Published in 2023
"In today's world, the acceleration of megatrends - increasing longevity and the explosion of technology among many others - are transforming life as we now know it. In The Perennials, bestselling author of 2030 Mauro Guillén unpacks a sweeping societal shift triggered by demographic and technological transformation. Guillén argues that outmoded terms like Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z have long been used to pigeonhole us into rigid categories and life stages, artificially preventing people from reaching their full potential. A new postgenerational workforce known as "perennials" - individuals who are not pitted against each other either by their age or experience - makes it possible to liberate scores of people from the constraints of the sequential model of life and level the playing field so that everyone has a chance at living a rewarding life. Guillén unveils how this generational revolution will impact young people just entering the workforce as well as those who are living and working longer. This multigenerational revolution is already happening and Mauro Guillén identifies the specific cultural, organizational and policy changes that need to be made in order to switch to a new template and usher in a new era of innovation powered by the perennials"-- Provided by publisher.
Fifty Things That Aren't My Fault
Essays from the Grown-up Years
Published in 2019
"From the iconic creator of the "Cathy" comic strip comes a collection of funny, warm, and wise essays in the style of Nora Ephron and Erma Bombeck, centered around the particular challenge of caring for aging parents and growing children, all while trying not to lose oneself in the process. As the creator of the "Cathy" comic strip, Cathy Guisewite found her way into the hearts of readers over 40 years ago, and has been there ever since. Her deeply funny and relatable look at the life of a frazzled career woman became a cultural touchstone for women everywhere, and now, in her debut essay collection, Guisewite returns with her signature self-deprecating wit and warmth, this time taking a look at her own life. The autobiographical essays that make up Fifty Things That Aren't My Fault offer a disarming, hilarious, and wise look at the lives of "the sandwich generation," which Guisewite calls "the panini generation." In this collection, Guisewite turns her uniquely wry and funny gaze to her own day-to-day life, with topics ranging from the mundane--teaching her parents to use TiVo, organizing four decades of photos, attempting to meditate--to the more profound--her struggle to find a purpose post-retirement, helping her parents downsize their lives, and her personal definitions of feminism. Humorous, warm, and poignant, Fifty Things That Aren't My Fault is ideal reading for mothers, daughters, and everyone who is caught somewhere in between, and on the threshold of "What Happens Next.""-- Provided by publisher.
The Longevity Paradox
How to Die Young at a Ripe Old Age
Published in 2019
From the moment we are born, our cells begin to age. But aging does not have to mean decline. World-renowned surgeon Dr. Steven Gundry has been treating mature patients for most of his career. He knows that everyone thinks they want to live forever, until they hit middle age and witness the suffering of their parents and even their peers. So how do we solve the paradox of wanting to live to a ripe old age�but enjoy the benefits of youth? In The Longevity Paradox, Dr. Gundry outlines a nutrition and lifestyle plan to support gut health and live well for decades to come. A progressive take on the new science of aging, The Longevity Paradox offers an action plan to prevent and reverse disease as well as simple hacks to help anyone look and feel younger and more vital.
I See You Made an Effort
Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of Fifty
Published in 2014
"A collection of humorous essays about aging by actress and comedian Annabelle Gurwitch"-- Provided by publisher.
Life Reimagined
The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife
Published in 2016
"A dynamic and inspiring exploration of the new science that is redrawing the future for people in their forties, fifties, and sixties for the better--and for good. There's no such thing as an inevitable midlife crisis, Barbara Bradley Hagerty writes in this provocative, hopeful book. It's a myth, an illusion. New scientific research explodes the fable that midlife is a time when things start to go downhill for everybody. In fact, midlife can be a great new adventure, when you can embrace fresh possibilities, purposes, and pleasures. In Life Reimagined, Hagerty explains that midlife is about renewal: It's the time to renegotiate your purpose, refocus your relationships, and transform the way you think about the world and yourself. Drawing from emerging information in neurology, psychology, biology, genetics, and sociology--as well as her own story of midlife transformation--Hagerty redraws the map for people in midlife and plots a new course forward in understanding our health, our relationships, even our futures"-- Provided by publisher.
A Carnival of Losses
Published in 2018
New essays from the vantage point of very old age, once again "alternately lyrical and laugh-out-loud funny,"* from the former poet laureate of the United States * ( New York Times)
Racing the Clock
Running Across a Lifetime
Published in 2021
In this part memoir, part scientific investigation, a biologist and natural historian uses his long-distance running to illuminate the changes to a human body over a lifetime, exploring the relationship between metabolism, diet, exercise, and age.
The End of Memory
A Natural History of Aging and Alzheimer's
Published in 2015
"It is a wicked disease that robs its victims of their memories, their ability to think clearly, and ultimately their lives. For centuries, those afflicted by Alzheimer's disease have suffered its debilitating effects while family members sit by, watching their loved ones disappear a little more each day until the person they used to know is gone forever. The disease was first described by German psychologist and neurologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906. One hundred years and a great deal of scientific effort later, much more is known about Alzheimer's, but it still affects millions around the world, and there is no cure in sight. In The End of Memory, award-winning science author Jay Ingram writes a biography of this disease that attacks the brains of patients. He charts the history of the disease from before it was noted by Alois Alzheimer through to the twenty-first century, explains the fascinating science of plaques and tangles, recounts the efforts to understand and combat the disease, and introduces us to the passionate researchers who are working to find a cure. An illuminating biography of "the plague of the twenty-first century" and scientists' efforts to understand and, they hope, prevent it, The End of Memory is a book for those who want to find out the true story behind an affliction that courses through families and wreaks havoc on the lives of millions"-- Provided by publisher.
Autumn Light
Season of Fire and Farewells
Published in 2019
"From one of our most astute observers of human nature, a far-reaching exploration of Japanese history and culture and a moving meditation on impermanence, mortality, and grief. For years, Pico Iyer has split his time between California and Nara, Japan, where he and his Japanese wife Hiroko have a small home. But when his father-in-law dies suddenly, calling him back to Japan earlier than expected, Iyer begins to grapple with the question we all have to live with: how to hold onto the things we love, even though we know that we and they are dying. In a country whose calendar is marked with occasions honoring the dead, this question is more urgent than anywhere else. Iyer leads us through the year following his father-in-law's death, introducing us to the people who populate his days: his ailing mother-in-law, who often forgets that her husband has died; his absent brother-in-law, who severed ties with his family years ago but to whom Hiroko still writes letters; and the men and women in his ping pong club, who, many years his senior, traverse their autumn years in different ways. And as the maple leaves begin to redden and the heat begins to soften, Iyer offers us a singular view of Japan, in the season that reminds us to take nothing for granted"-- Provided by publisher.
Between a Rock and a Hot Place
Why Fifty is Not the New Thirty
Published in 2011
A funny, fearless, no-holds-barred look at aging--hormone replacement therapy, online dating, eye lifts, and all. As she approached her fiftieth birthday, Tracey Jackson found herself bombarded--at the gym, at parties, in conversations with friends--by a catchphrase on everyone's lips: "Fifty is the new thirty." The new aphorism had apparently bloomed out of a collective sense of denial, masking the true fears of a generation unwilling to relinquish their youth. With a comedy writer's training and a screenwriter's eye for detail, Jackson skewers the myth in a hilarious and ultimately practical appraisal of what middle age really means today. Turning fifty is a wake-up call--but one that can be greeted with a plan.--From publisher description.
Never Say Die
The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age
Published in 2011
In a narrative that combines the intensely personal with social, economic, and historical analysis, Jacoby turns an unsparing eye on the marketers of longevity--pharmaceutical companies, lifestyle gurus, and scientific businessmen who suggest that there will soon be a "cure" for the "disease" of aging.
Last Rights
Rescuing the End of Life from the Medical System
Published in 2007
Explores the dichotomy between how patients want to live the end of their lives and the medical establishment's extreme interventions, performed at immense cost and with little regard to pain, human comfort, or the wishes of family and patients.
Old Age
A Beginner's Guide
Published in 2016
"Vanity Fair columnist Michael Kinsley escorts his fellow Boomers through the door marked "Exit." The largest age cohort in history--the notorious baby boomers--is approaching the end and starting to plan their final moves in the game of life. Now they are asking: What was that all about? Was it about acquiring things or changing the world? Was it about keeping all your marbles? Or is the only thing that counts after you've gone the reputation you leave behind? In this series of essays, Michael Kinsley uses his own battle with Parkinson's disease to unearth answers to questions we are all at some time forced to confront. "Sometimes," he writes, "I feel like a scout from my generation, sent out ahead to experience in my fifties what even the healthiest Boomers are going to experience in their sixties, seventies, or eighties." This deeply affectionate book is at once a fresh assessment of a generation and a frequently funny account of one man's journey toward the finish line. "The least misfortune can do to make up for itself is to be interesting," he writes. "Parkinson's disease has fulfilled that obligation.""-- Provided by publisher.
Displacement
Published in 2015
"In the next installment of her graphic memoir series, Displacement, Knisley volunteers to watch over her ailing grandparents on a cruise. (The book's watercolors evoke the ocean that surrounds them.) In a book that is part graphic memoir, part travelogue, and part family history, Knisley not only tries to connect with her grandparents, but to reconcile their younger and older selves. She is aided in her quest by her grandfather's WWII memoir, which is excerpted. Readers will identify with Knisley's frustration, her fears, her compassion, and her attempts to come to terms with mortality, as she copes with the stress of travel complicated by her grandparents' frailty" -- provided by publisher.
Going Gray
What I Learned About Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity, and Everything else That Really Matters
Published in 2007
The Third Chapter
Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50
Published in 2009
Offers us insight and hope about our endless capacity for change and growth.
No Time to Spare
Thinking About What Matters
Published in 2017
"From acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin, and with an introduction by Karen Joy Fowler, a collection of thoughts--always adroit, often acerbic--on aging, belief, the state of literature, and the state of the nation. Ursula K. Le Guin has taken readers to imaginary worlds for decades. Now she's in the last great frontier of life, old age, and exploring new literary territory: the blog, a forum where her voice -- sharp, witty, as compassionate as it is critical -- shines. No Time to Spare collects the best of Ursula's blog, presenting perfectly crystallized dispatches on what matters to her now, her concerns with this world, and her wonder at it. On the absurdity of denying your age, she says, "If I'm ninety and believe I'm forty-five, I'm headed for a very bad time trying to get out of the bathtub." On cultural perceptions of fantasy: "The direction of escape is toward freedom. So what is 'escapism' an accusation of? " On her new cat: "He still won't sit on a lap" -- Provided by publisher.
Who Do You Want to Be when You Grow Old?
The Path of Purposeful Aging
Published in 2021
"Our later years need not be a time of loss. This book helps readers embrace the positive possibilities of aging and provides guidance on doing so purposefully, with courage, compassion, and curiosity"-- Provided by publisher.
Wandering Through Life
A Memoir
Published in 2023
"The internationally bestselling author of the Guido Brunetti mysteries tells her own adventurous life story as she enters her eighties. In a series of vignettes full of affection, irony, and good humor, Donna Leon narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than been planned. From a childhood in the company of her New Jersey family, with frequent visits to her grandfather's farm and its beloved animals, and summers spent selling homegrown tomatoes by the roadside, Leon has long been open to adventure. In 1976, she made the spontaneous decision to teach English in Iran, before finding herself swept up in the early days of the 1979 Revolution. After teaching stints in China and Saudi Arabia, she finally landed in Venice. Leon vividly animates her decades-long love affair with Italy, from her first magical dinner when serving as a chaperone to a friend, to the hunt for the perfect cappuccino, to the warfare tactics of grandmothers doing their grocery shopping at the Rialto Market. Some things remain constant throughout the decades: her adoration of opera, especially Handel's vocal music, her advocacy for the environment, embodied in her passion for bees-which informs the surprising crux of the Brunetti mystery in Earthly Remains-and her eager imagination for crime as she watches unsuspecting travelers on trains. Yet as Leon inspects the cracks in the wall of a friend's bedroom, caused by the seven-story cruise ships making their way down Venice's canals, she admits regretfully that the thrill may be gone as mass tourism renders the city less and less appealing to its longtime chronicler. Having recently celebrated her eightieth birthday, Leon now confronts the dual challenges and pleasures of aging. Complete with a brief letter dissuading those hoping to meet Guido Brunetti at the Questura, and always suffused with music, food, and her fierce sense of humor, Wandering through Life offers Donna Leon at her most personal"-- Provided by publisher.
The Bridge Ladies
A Memoir
Published in 2016
"A fifty-year-old Bridge game provides an unexpected way to cross the generational divide between a daughter and her mother. Betsy Lerner takes us on a powerfully personal literary journey, where we learn a little about Bridge and a lot about life. After a lifetime defining herself in contrast to her mother's "don't ask, don't tell" generation, Lerner finds herself back in her childhood home, not five miles from the mother she spent decades avoiding. When Roz needs help after surgery, it falls to Betsy to take care of her. She expected a week of tense civility; what she got instead were the Bridge Ladies. Impressed by their loyalty, she saw something her generation lacked. Facebook was great, but it wouldn't deliver a pot roast. Tentatively at first, Betsy becomes a regular at her mother's Monday Bridge club. Through her friendships with the ladies, she is finally able to face years of misunderstandings and family tragedy, the Bridge table becoming the common ground she and Roz never had. By turns darkly funny and deeply moving, The Bridge Ladies is the unforgettable story of a hard-won--but never-too-late--bond between mother and daughter"-- Provided by publisher.
Successful Aging
A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives
Published in 2020
"Author of the iconic bestsellers This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organized Mind, Daniel Levitin turns his keen insights to what happens in our brains as we age; why we should think about health span, not life span; and, based on a rigorous analysis of neuroscientific evidence, how you can make the most of your seventies, eighties, and nineties today, no matter how old you are now"-- Provided by publisher.
My Life As a Villainess
Essays
Published in 2020
Collects the author's recent essays exploring motherhood as an older mom, her life as a reader, her relationships with her parents, her newspaper career, and her experiences as a novelist.
Life in the Garden
Published in 2018
"From the Booker Prize winner and national bestselling author, reflections on gardening, art, literature, and life Penelope Lively takes up her key themes of time and memory, and her lifelong passions for art, literature, and gardening in this philosophical and poetic memoir. From the courtyards of her childhood home in Cairo to a family cottage in Somerset, to her own gardens in Oxford and London, Lively conducts an expert tour, taking us from Eden to Sissinghurst and into her own backyard, traversing the lives of writers like Virginia Woolf and Philip Larkin while imparting her own sly and spare wisdom. "Her body of work proves that certain themes never go out of fashion," writes the New York Times Book Review, as true of this beautiful volume as of the rest of the Lively canon. Now in her eighty-fourth year, Lively muses, "To garden is to elide past, present, and future; it is a defiance of time." "-- Provided by publisher.
Why Did I Come into This Room?
A Candid Conversation About Aging
Published in 2020
In her most candid and revealing book yet, acclaimed broadcast journalist and Baby Boomer Joan Lunden delves into the various phases of aging that leave many feeling uncomfortable, confused, and on edge. In her hilarious book, Lunden takes the dull and depressing out of aging, replacing it with wit and humor. After all, laughing is better than crying--unless it makes you pee! Whether you're in your 40s, 50s, 60s, or more, this book is full of helpful information to embrace--or at least prepare for--the inevitable.
Life Gets Better
The Unexpected Pleasures of Growing Older
Published in 2012
From our earliest years, we are told that youth will be the best time of our lives. But for many, Wendy Lustbader asserts, youth is a time riddled with tension, confusion and angst. As we get older, we gain self-knowledge, confidence, and an increasing capacity to be true to ourselves. Through first-person stories and Lustbader's observations, Life Gets Better looks beyond the physical challenges of aging into the discoveries and pleasures of growing older.
The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly
Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (probably) Die Before You
Published in 2022
Shows readers how to prepare for and understand the aging process, and the joys and sorrows it can bring, with the ultimate message that people should all be less afraid of the idea of death.
Older, but Better, but Older
Published in 2019
"From the bestselling authors of How to be Parisian, what smart, savvy, fabulous French women think, feel and advise as they hit forty on life, love, and everything else Older, but Better, but Older has the playful wit, self deprecation and worldly advice we have come to expect from these bestselling authors, but now that advice is focused on the French woman's mindset as she hurtles towards forty. Caroline de Maigret and Sophie Mas are back to amuse you with how they find they are modifying their favorite bad-girl behavior as they address beauty, love, seduction as well as lifestyle, family, work, and living alone. They are still bohemian iconoclasts saying what you don't expect to hear. They will tell you things aren't what they used to be--when a thirty-year-old guy arrives at a party and does not even glance at you; when you wake up feeling great and everyone tells you how tired you look; you know you're an adult when you're excited just to go home. Neuroses vs. confidence, resistance vs. acceptance, passion vs. serenity, de Maigret and Mas through spirited short stories capture the different stages of ageing--as nostalgic but modern Parisian women. From the privately absurd to the strangely universal, this book captures moments of everyday life that will make the reader nod, cringe, and laugh out loud"-- Provided by publisher.
And Finally
Matters of Life and Death
Published in 2023
"From the bestselling neurosurgeon and author of Do No Harm, comes Henry Marsh's And Finally, an unflinching and deeply personal exploration of death, life and neuroscience. As a retired brain surgeon, Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced cancer. And Finally explores what happens when someone who has spent a lifetime on the frontline of life and death finds himself contemplating what might be his own death sentence. As he navigates the bewildering transition from doctor to patient, he is haunted by past failures and projects yet to be completed, and frustrated by the inconveniences of illness and old age. But he is also more entranced than ever by the mysteries of science and the brain, the beauty of the natural world and his love for his family. Elegiac, candid, luminous and poignant, And Finally is ultimately not so much a book about death, but a book about life and what matters in the end"-- Provided by publisher.
Let's Be Less Stupid
An Attempt to Maintain My Mental Faculties
Published in 2015
" "I believe Freud got it wrong when he said that the two basic drives that motivate our thoughts and behavior are 1) sex and 2) death, which he sometimes called aggression, go figure. So what runs the show, then? Fear of embarrassment prevails until the age of thirty, followed by the desire to lose weight, and finally, the need to sit down." In LETS BE LESS STUPID, longtime New Yorker staffer and former SNL writer, Patty Marx, employs the weapon she wields best--razor-sharp humor--to tackle what is perhaps the most difficult facet of aging-the decline of the mind. From losing her keys to forgetting her sister-in-law's name, Marx has done it all, and somehow prevailed with friendships in tact. Unrelentingly funny and unexpectedly candid, LET'S BE LESS STUPID speaks to women and men of a certain age, but it will make you laugh at any age. Filled with anecdotes about trying to learn Cherokee, zapping her brain with electricity, taking pills that make her pay attention, and listening to hours of Mozart--all in the service of keeping her mental faculties intact--this is an utterly fresh and original take from one of the smartest comedic writers today. The first woman to be elected to the Harvard Lampoon, Marx is her generation's Nora Ephron. "-- Provided by publisher.
Omega Farm
A Memoir
Published in 2023
"A long-awaited memoir from an award-winning novelist-a candid, riveting account of her complicated, bohemian childhood and her return home to care for her ailing mother. In March 2020, Martha McPhee, her husband, and their two almost-grown children set out for her childhood home in New Jersey, where she finds herself grappling simultaneously with a mother slipping into severe dementia and a house that's been neglected of late. As Martha works to manage her mother's care and the sprawling, ramshackle property-a broken septic system, invasive bamboo, dying ash trees-she is pulled back into her childhood, almost against her will. Martha grew up at Omega Farm with her four sisters, five stepsiblings, mother, and stepfather, in a house filled with art, people, and the kind of chaos that was sometimes benevolent, sometimes more sinister. Caring for her mother and her children, struggling to mend the forest, the past relentlessly asserts itself-even as Martha's mother, the person she might share her memories with or even try to hold to account, no longer knows who Martha is. A masterful exploration of a complicated family legacy and a powerful story of environmental and personal repair, Omega Farm is a testament to hope in the face of suffering, and a courageous tale about how returning home can offer a new way to understand the past"-- Provided by publisher.
A Beginner's Guide to the End
Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death
Published in 2019
"The first ever practical, compassionate, and comprehensive guide to dying--and living fully until you do. "There is nothing wrong with you for dying," palliative care doctor BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger write in A Beginner's Guide to the End. "Our ultimate purpose here isn't so much to help you die as it is to free up as much life as possible until you do." Theirs is a clear-eyed and big-hearted action plan for approaching the end of life, written to help readers feel more in control of an experience that so often seems anything but. Their book offers everything from step-by-step instructions for how to do your paperwork and navigate the healthcare system to answers to questions you might be afraid to ask your doctor, like whether or not sex is still okay when you're sick. You'll be walked through how to break the news to your employer, whether to share old secrets with your family, how to face friends who might not be as empathetic as you'd hoped, and to how to talk to your children about your will. (Don't worry: if anyone gets snippy, it'll likely be their spouses, not them.) There are also lessons for survivors, like how shut down a loved one's social media accounts, clean out the house, and write a great eulogy. An honest, surprising, and detailed-oriented guide to the most universal of all experiences, A Beginner's Guide to the End is the one book that everyone needs"-- Provided by publisher.
Tasha
A Son's Memoir
Published in 2022
"Acclaimed novelist Brian Morton delivers a moving, darkly funny memoir of his mother's vibrant life and the many ways in which their tight but turbulent relationship was refashioned in her twilight years. Tasha Morton is a force of nature: a brilliant educator who's left her mark on generations of students -- and also a whirlwind of a mother: intrusive, chaotic, oppressively devoted and irrepressible. For decades, her son, Brian, has kept her at a self-protective distance, but when her health begins to fail, he knows it's time to assume responsibility for her care. Even so, he's not prepared for what awaits him, as her refusal to accept her own fragility leads to a series of epic outbursts and altercations that are sometimes frightening, sometimes wildly comic, and sometimes both. Clear-eyed, loving and brimming with dark humor, Tasha is both a vivid account of an unforgettable woman and a stark look at the impossible task of caring for an elderly parent in a country whose unofficial motto is "you're on your own." Turning his novelist's eye on his own life, Brian Morton lays bare the treacherous business at the heart of every family -- the business of trying to honor ourselves without forsaking our parents, and our parents , and our parents without forsaking ourselves." - jacket.
Still Distracted After All These Years
Help and Support for Older Adults with ADHD
Published in 2022
"We've known that ADHD affects us throughout our lives, but until now, there's been little to no attention paid to the ADHD-related need of adults over 55. Whether you suspect that you may have ADHD, have recently received a diagnosis, or were diagnosed years ago, Still Distracted After All These Years is a much-needed resource for coping and thriving with ADHD as an older adult." -- p. 4 of cover.
Excuse Me While I Disappear
Tales of Midlife Mayhem
Published in 2022
Laurie Notaro has proved everyone wrong: she didn't end up in rehab, prison, or cremated at a tender age. She just went gray. At past fifty, every hair's root is a symbol of knowledge (she knows how to use a landline), experience (she rode in a car with no seat belts), and superpowers (a gray-haired lady can get away with anything). Though navigating midlife is initially upsetting, the cracking noises coming from her new old body, receiving regular junk mail from mortuaries, Laurie accepts it. And then some. With unintentional abandon, she shoplifts a bag of russet potatoes. Heckles a rude driver from her beat-up Prius. And engages in epic trolling on Nextdoor.com. That, says Laurie, is the brilliance of growing older. With each passing day, you lose an equivalent amount of fear.
Unraveling
What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater
Published in 2023
The author sets out to make a sweater from scratch--shearing, spinning, dyeing wool--and in the process discovers how we find our deepest selves through craft.
Stupid Things I Won't Do when I'm Old
A Highly Judgmental, Unapologetically Honest Accounting of All the Things Our Elders Are Doing Wrong
Published in 2021
An award-winning journalist, in this essential, and hilarious, guide, addresses the fears, frustrations and stereotypes that accompany aging, offering a blueprint for the new old age, and an understanding that aging and illness are not the same.
Women Rowing North
Navigating Life's Currents and Flourishing As We Age
Published in 2019
"Women growing older contend with ageism, misogyny, and loss. Yet as Mary Pipher shows, most older women are deeply happy and filled with gratitude for the gifts of life. Their struggles help them grow into the authentic, empathetic, and wise people they have always wanted to be. In Women Rowing North, Pipher offers a timely examination of the cultural and developmental issues women face as they age. Drawing on her own experience as daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, caregiver, clinical psychologist, and cultural anthropologist, she explores ways women can cultivate resilient responses to the challenges they face. "If we can keep our wits about us, think clearly, and manage our emotions skillfully," Pipher writes, "we will experience a joyous time of our lives. If we have planned carefully and packed properly, if we have good maps and guides, the journey can be transcendent.""--Dust jacket.
Carved in Sand
When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife
Published in 2008
Anyone older than forty knows that forgetfulness can be unnerving, frustrating, and sometimes terrifying. With compassion and humor, acclaimed journalist Cathryn Jakobson Ramin explores the factors that determine how well or poorly one's brain will age. She takes readers along on her lively journey-consulting with experts in the fields of sleep, stress, traumatic brain injury, hormones, genetics, and dementia, as well as specialists in nutrition, cognitive psychology, and the burgeoning field of drug-based cognitive enhancement. Along the way, she turns up fresh scientific findings, explores the dark regions of the human brain, and hears the intimate confessions of high-functioning midlife adults who-like so many of us-are desperate to understand exactly what's going on upstairs.
Life Force
How New Breakthroughs in Precision Medicine Can Transform the Quality of Your Life & Those You Love
Published in 2022
Transform your life or the life of someone you love with Life Force -- the newest breakthroughs in health technology to help maximize your energy and strength, prevent disease, and extend your health span -- from Tony Robbins, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Money: Master the Game. What if there were scientific solutions that could wipe out your deepest fears of falling ill, receiving a life-threatening diagnosis, or feeling the effects of aging? What if you had access to the same cutting-edge tools and technology used by peak performers and the world's greatest athletes? In a world full of fear and uncertainty about our health, it can be difficult to know where to turn for actionable advice you can trust. Today, leading scientists and doctors in the field of regenerative medicine are developing diagnostic tools and safe and effective therapies that can free you from fear. In this book, Tony Robbins, the world's #1 life and business strategist who has coached more than fifty million people, brings you more than 100 of the world's top medical minds and the latest research, inspiring comeback stories, and amazing advancements in precision medicine that you can apply today to help extend the length and quality of your life. This book is the result of Robbins going on his own life-changing journey. After being told that his health challenges were irreversible, he experienced firsthand how new regenerative technology not only helped him heal but made him stronger than ever before. Life Force will show you how you can wake up every day with increased energy, a more bulletproof immune system, and the know-how to help turn back your biological clock. This is a book for everyone, from peak performance athletes, to the average person who wants to increase their energy and strength, to those looking for healing. Life Force provides answers that can transform and even save your life, or that of someone you love.
Memory's Last Breath
Field Notes on My Dementia
Published in 2017
Based on the "field notes" she keeps in her journal, Memory's Last Breath is Saunders' astonishing window into a life distorted by dementia. She writes about shopping trips cut short by unintentional shoplifting, car journeys derailed when she loses her bearings, and the embarrassment of forgetting what she has just said to a room of colleagues. Coping with the complications of losing short-term memory, Saunders nonetheless embarks on a personal investigation of the brain and its mysteries, examining science and literature, and immersing herself in vivid memories of her childhood in South Africa.
Lifespan
Why We Age--and Why We Don't Have to
Published in 2019
"From an acclaimed Harvard professor and one of Time's most influential people, this paradigm-shifting book shows how almost everything we think we know about aging is wrong, offers a front-row seat to the amazing global effort to slow, stop, and reverse aging, and calls readers to consider a future where aging can be treated. For decades, experts have believed that we are at the mercy of our genes, and that natural damage to our genes--the kind that inevitably happens as we get older--makes us become sick and grow old. But what if everything you think you know about aging is wrong? What if aging is a disease--and that disease is treatable? In Lifespan, one of the world's foremost experts on aging and genetics reveals a groundbreaking new theory that will forever change the way we think about why we age and what we can do about it. Aging isn't immutable; we can have far more control over it than we realize. This eye-opening and provocative work takes us to the frontlines of research that is pushing the boundaries on our perceived scientific limitations, revealing incredible breakthroughs--many from Dr. David Sinclair's own lab--that demonstrate how we can slow down, or even reverse, the genetic clock. The key is activating newly discovered vitality genes--the decedents of an ancient survival circuit that is both the cause of aging and the key to reversing it. Dr. Sinclair shares the emerging technologies and simple lifestyle changes--such as intermittent fasting, cold exposure, and exercising with the right intensity--that have been shown to help lead to longer lives. Lifespan provides a roadmap for taking charge of our own health destiny and a bold new vision for the future when humankind is able to live to be 100 years young"-- Provided by publisher.
The Grace in Aging
Awaken As You Grow Older
Published in 2014
Learn to use your later years for awakening and spiritual growth. Encouraging, inspiring, and practical, The Grace in Aging invites all those who have ever experienced spiritual longing to awaken in their twilight years. Since aging, in and of itself, does not lead to spiritual maturity, The Grace in Aging suggests and explores causes and conditions that we can create in our lives, just as we are living them, to allow awakening to unfold--transforming the predictable sufferings of aging into profound opportunities for growth in clarity, love, compassion, and peace.
Year of the Monkey
Published in 2019
"A memoir about the year 2016 in which dreams and reality are interwoven" -- Provided by publisher.
Ageless
The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old
Published in 2021
"A startling chronicle by a brilliant young scientist takes us onto the frontiers of the science of aging, and reveals how close we are to an astonishing extension of our life spans and a vastly improved quality of life in our later years. Aging--not cancer, not heart disease--is the true underlying cause of most human death and suffering. We accept as inevitable that as we advance in years our bodies and minds begin to deteriorate and that we are ever more likely to be felled by dementia or disease. But we never really ask--is aging necessary? Biologists, on the other hand, have been investigating that question for years. After all, there are tortoises and salamanders whose risk of dying is the same no matter how old they are. With the help of science, could humans find a way to become old without getting frail, a phenomenon known as "biological immortality"? In Ageless, Andrew Steele, a computational biologist and science writer, takes us on a journey through the laboratories where scientists are studying every bodily system that declines with age--DNA, mitochondria, stem cells, our immune systems--and developing therapies to reverse the trend. With bell-clear writing and intellectual passion, Steele shines a spotlight on a little-known revolution already underway"-- Provided by publisher.
The Longevity Code
Secrets to Living Well for Longer from the Front Lines of Science
Published in 2018
"A leading proponent of a bold new approach to slowing aging details the fast-developing science of longevity�and the steps we can take�at any age�to live well for longer." -- From Amazon.com summary.
Modern Death
How Medicine Changed the End of Life
Published in 2017
"There is no more universal truth in life than death. No matter who you are, it is certain that one day you will die, but the mechanics and understanding of that experience will differ greatly in today's modern age. Dr. Haider Warraich is a young and brilliant new voice in the conversation about death and dying started by Dr. Sherwin Nuland's classic How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter, and Atul Gawande's recent sensation, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. Dr. Warraich takes a broader look at how we die today, from the cellular level up to the very definition of death itself. The most basic aspects of dying--the whys, wheres, whens, and hows--are almost nothing like what they were mere decades ago. Beyond its ecology, epidemiology, and economics, the very ethos of death has changed. Modern Death, Dr. Warraich's debut book, will explore the rituals and language of dying that have developed in the last century, and how modern technology has not only changed the hows, whens, and wheres of death, but the what of death. Delving into the vast body of research on the evolving nature of death, Modern Death will provide readers with an enriched understanding of how death differs from the past, what our ancestors got right, and how trends and events have transformed this most final of human experiences"-- Provided by publisher.
Mr. Know-it-all
The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder
Published in 2019
"The newest essay collection from the New York Times-bestselling John Waters, reflecting on how to overcome newfound responsibility and rebel in the autumn of your years"-- Provided by publisher.
Long for This World
The Strange Science of Immortality
Published in 2010
"A rollicking scientific adventure story is science writing of the highest order and with the highest stakes. Could we live forever? And if we could-- would we want to?"--Publisher's note.
Sailor and Fiddler
Reflections of a 100-year-old Author
Published in 2016
"In an unprecedented literary accomplishment, Herman Wouk, one of America's most beloved and enduring authors, reflects on his life and times from the remarkable vantage point of 100 years old. Many years ago, the great British philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin urged Herman Wouk to write his autobiography. Wouk responded, "Why me? I'm nobody." Berlin answered, "No, no. You've traveled. You've known many people. You have interesting ideas. It would do a lot of good." Now, in the same year he has celebrated his hundredth birthday, Herman Wouk finally reflects on the life experiences that inspired his most beloved novels. Among those experiences are his days writing for comedian Fred Allen's radio show, one of the most popular shows in the history of the medium; enlisting in the US Navy during World War II; falling in love with Betty Sarah Brown, the woman who would become his wife (and literary agent) for sixty-six years; writing his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Caine Mutiny; as well as a big hit Broadway play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial; and the surprising inspirations and people behind such masterpieces as The Winds of War, War and Remembrance, Marjorie Morningstar, and Youngblood Hawke. Written with the wisdom of a man who has lived through two centuries and the wit of someone who began his career as professional comedy writer, the first part of Wouk's memoir ("Sailor") refers to his Navy experience and writing career, the second ("Fiddler") to what he's learned from living a life of faith. Ultimately, Sailor and Fiddler is an unprecedented reflection from a vantage point few people have lived to experience"-- Provided by publisher.
Extreme Measures
Finding a Better Path to the End of Life
Published in 2017
"An ICU and Palliative Care specialist featured in the Netflix documentary Extremis offers a framework for a better way to exit life that will change our medical culture at the deepest level In medical school, no one teaches you how to let a patient die. Jessica Zitter became a doctor because she wanted to be a hero. She elected to specialize in critical care--to become an ICU physician--and imagined herself swooping in to rescue patients from the brink of death. Butthen duringher first codeshe found herself cracking the ribs of a patient so old and frail it was unimaginable he would ever come back to life. She began to question her choice. Extreme Measures charts Zitter's journey from wanting to be one kind of hero to becoming another--a doctor who prioritizes the patient's values and preferences in an environment where the default choice is the extremeuse of technology. In our current medical culture, the old and the ill are put on what she terms the End-of-Life Conveyor belt. They are intubated, catheterized, and even shelved away in care facilities to suffer their final days alone, confused, and often in pain. In her work Zitter has learned what patients fear more than death itself : the prospect of dying badly. She builds bridges between patients and caregivers, formulates plans to allay patients' pain and anxiety, and enlists the support of loved ones so that life can end well, even beautifully. Filled with rich patient stories that make a compelling medical narrative, Extreme Measures enlarges the national conversation as it thoughtfully and compassionately examines an experience that defines being human."-- Provided by publisher.