Anne Aly, Liz Byrski, Sarah Drummond, Mehreen Faruqi, Goldie Goldbloom, Krissy Kneen, Jeanine Leane, Brigid Lowry and Pat Torres are among fifteen voices recounting what it is like to be a woman on the other side of 40. These are stories of identity and survival, and a celebration of getting older and wiser, and becoming more certain of who you are and where you want to be.
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! “This Golden Girls meets James Bond thriller is a journey you want to be part of.” -Buzzfeed Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon. They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire – it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn. Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills. When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death. Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age.
At age thirty-two, I had overcome cancer and the amputation of my left leg. I had paid my dues and figured it would take a lot more than turning seventy to bring me down. Or would it? I began to wonder about other women of a certain age and what paths they've taken and how they are managing their own changing tides. So, I invited ordinary women with extraordinary stories to get real about aging. With wit, humor and staunch frankness, these women explain, discuss, call out and examine how they continue to negotiate the dynamic currents of aging. In my own response to aging, I've written personal stories and anecdotes around my own discoveries. Some are serious, inspirational, illuminating. Others are outrageous, foolish, awkward and funny. Our stories, together, powerfully impart what it means to possess a certain wisdom, a certain comfort, a certain sensuality, a certain persona . . . not despite but precisely because of the experience of growing older.
The best-selling author of BRINGING UP BÉBÉ investigates life in her forties, and wonders whether her mind will ever catch up with her face. When Pamela Druckerman turns 40, waiters start calling her "Madame," and she detects a new message in mens' gazes: I would sleep with her, but only if doing so required no effort whatsoever. Yet forty isn't even technically middle-aged anymore. And there are upsides: After a lifetime of being clueless, Druckerman can finally grasp the subtext of conversations, maintain (somewhat) healthy relationships and spot narcissists before they ruin her life. What are the modern forties? What do we know once we reach them? What makes someone a "grown-up" anyway? And why didn't anyone warn us that we'd get cellulite on our arms? Part frank memoir, part hilarious investigation of daily life, There Are No Grown-Ups diagnoses the in-between decade when... • Everyone you meet looks a little bit familiar. • You're matter-of-fact about chin hair. • You can no longer wear anything ironically. • There's at least one sport your doctor forbids you to play. • You become impatient while scrolling down to your year of birth. • Your parents have stopped trying to change you. • You don't want to be with the cool people anymore; you want to be with your people. • You realize that everyone is winging it, some just do it more confidently. • You know that it's ok if you don't like jazz. Internationally best-selling author and New York Times contributor Pamela Druckerman leads us on a quest for wisdom, self-knowledge and the right pair of pants. A witty dispatch from the front lines of the forties, THERE ARE NO GROWN-UPS is a (midlife) coming-of-age story--and a book for anyone trying to find their place in the world.
One of Kirkus' Best Books of 2016: Crisis is looming for three generations of the Olyphant family. In less than a year, Henrietta has lost her husband and nearly all of her money, and is about to lose her hard-won anonymity. After a lifetime spent trying to outrun the humiliation her own book caused her, Henrietta has reluctantly agreed to a reissue of The Inseparables, the salaciously filthy and critically despised bestseller she wrote decades earlier. At the same time, her daughter, Oona, has moved back home to the house that Henrietta needs to sell. Oona is in the middle of a divorce from her husband, Spencer, a corporate-law refugee, stay-at-home dad, and unapologetic stoner. And Oona's teenage daughter, Lydia, away at boarding school, is facing an onslaught of scrutiny and shame when a nude photo of her goes viral. The trouble only gets worse: Henrietta makes an upsetting discovery about her late husband; Oona embarks on a disastrous affair; and Lydia must deal with an ex-boyfriend who is determined to wreak havoc. Over the course of a few tumultuous days, the Olyphant women must come to terms with their past and try to reimagine their future. Incisive, moving, and wickedly funny, The Inseparables examines what happens when our most carefully constructed ideas about our lives unravel, and we begin to reinvent ourselves -- and our family -- anew.
This is the compelling story of the experiences of three young women who attended the University of California at Berkeley and became caught up in the tumultuous changes of the Sixties. Davidson's honest and detailed chronicle reveals the hopes, confusion and disillusionment of a generation whose rites of passage defined one of the most contentious decades of this century.
This book was written to give 'women of a certain age . . . ' a personal opportunity to examine relationship choices they have made in the past, as well as to have new information and greater choices going forward. "Jacki Gethner has written a wonderful book that allows women to experience their power through the understanding that, in any relationship situation, they have the right and creativity to exert choices. Behind Door#3 is the perfect book for women's groups, book clubs, therapy groups, and for sharing among girlfriends." Sally Fisher AIDS Activist: founder Intersect Worldwide & AIDS Mastery, Writer, Theater Producer, Blogger: "Don't Just Stand There. Do Something" "Beautifully written . . . Powerful information. A must-read and powerful workbook for any woman entering the world of dating." Lorren Sandt, Executive Director Caring Ambassadors Program, Inc.
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The book that launched a French Revolution about how to approach healthy living: the ultimate non-diet book—now with more recipes. “The perfect book.... A blueprint for building a healthy attitude toward food and exercise"—San Francisco Chronicle French women don’t get fat, even though they enjoy bread and pastry, wine, and regular three-course meals. Unlocking the simple secrets of this “French paradox”—how they enjoy food while staying slim and healthy—Mireille Guiliano gives us a charming, inspiring take on health and eating for our times. For anyone who has slipped out of her Zone, missed the flight to South Beach, or accidentally let a carb pass her lips, here is a positive way to stay trim, a culture’s most precious secrets recast for the twenty-first century. A life of wine, bread—even chocolate—without girth or guilt? Pourquoi pas?
On the verge of Mt. St. Helens’ historic eruption, three women must face the mountain: two to search for their missing husbands; the third, to rediscover her life… After a local mountain becomes a deadly and imminent threat, three strikingly different women become linked in a desperate mission. Children’s author Katherine Sommers is searching for her depressed husband, David, and their son Brian, camping together on Mt. St. Helens’ tumultuous north slope. Mellie Sedor seeks her husband, Daniel, who has taken a logging job to pay for their daughter’s chemotherapy. Fashion photographer Jen Stockton joins Cowlitz County Sheriff Frank McKenzie, himself the victim of a brutal loss, in his quest to evacuate the awakening volcano. Jen came to the mountain in an effort to recover the peace she experienced as a child. Instead, she finds destruction and heroism, tragedy and friendship. When Women Strive Together, They Can Face Even the Unthinkable. Written by best-selling and award-winning author Lauraine Snelling, The Way of Women celebrates the resilience and strength of women, both individually and collectively, in the face of extraordinary crisis.
Some people might that, at age forty-six, Jane “Par” Parker is too old to win golf tournaments; too old to fear her mother; and too old, after twenty years, to still feel such heavy grief over the murder of her father. But Par has an obsessively tight grip on the past, and no one can tell her to live her life otherwise—not even her three best friends: Pinky, a petite, bossy 911 dispatcher, Carmen, a pot-smoking, dessert-loving masseuse-in-training, and Gail, a business professor, wife of a prison guard, and unlikely romantic. Par is busy preparing for an upcoming tournament, and things are looking good for her—right up until she has to spend a night in jail for a bogus DUI charge and ends up on the front page of her local newspaper as a result. As the week unfolds and Par comes up against one challenge after another, she’s forced to decide: either continue to cling to her memories, or seize the opportunity to evolve and let go of the past once and for all.