Fifty Is the New Fifty: Ten Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood

Sitting across a lunch or dinner table when Suzanne Braun Levine starts telling stories is one of life's great treats. Now that I have some of those stories between covers of a book, so much the better! I loved this book, relating the spunk, the attitude, the honesty, and the pure nerve that comes with each decade. Women of a "certain age" are no longer consigned to an indoor life in a housecoat and slippers. Suzanne ardently believes we've got nothing to lose and a lot of laughs and wisdom to gain by altering our lives--I'm IN! Mary Kay Blakely

Fifty Is the New Fifty: Ten Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood KEEP THIS BOOK ON YOUR NIGHT TABLE! Don't stash it away on some shelf - because if you are a woman past 50 trying to invent the rest of your life, you will need to access its wisdom every single day. Braun Levine gives practical advice that is sometimes permission -- "You don't have to keep doing something just because you're good at it," -- sometime caution -- "All Yellow Brick Roads need a stop sign at the bank" -- sometimes instigation - "Anything that gets you moving will get you where you want to be" -- always with real life examples (one of my favorites is the woman who couldn't lose weight until she invited the general public to watch her diet.) Her style is short, clear, powerful. Her book is indispensable.

"50" is an inspiring and really fresh read. I had quite an exchange with my nurse practitioner who is, not surprisingly, into 50 is the new 40 (and doing Botox to prove it). I hope she buys this book, or I'll just bring her a copy.

Having avoided all those other books proclaiming how great getting older is, I opened this one warily and found myself intrigued, challenged, and convinced - even on the eve of a Big Birthday, which might otherwise have left me with nothing to say except, It's better than the alternative - I guess! Suzanne Levine has crystallized in ten pithy lessons (each one deserving of its own T-Shirt) the real truth about this life stage - for women, it can be the best one yet, especially if we make it about the stage,which is full of new possibilities, pleasures, and vistas, rather than about the age, which buys into too many old myths and a few new ones about what 50, 60, or 70 is supposed to be like. When Our Grown Kids Disappoint Us: Letting Go of Their Problems, Loving Them Anyway, and Getting on with Our Lives

There are wise and wonderful observations in this book, and fascinating science to back up what many of us are experiencing, but not always talking about, as we discover that 50, and 60, and 70, are not at all what we expected. It's not our mothers' aging. And it's not men's aging. It's a whole new ball game, and we're only finding out how it's played by playing it. Levine has given us great roadsigns.