No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club: Diary of a Sixtieth Year

Some books expand our horizons by taking us far away, in time or space or situation. Others shed a light on the place where we are. One of my favorite recent reads is No! I Don't Want to Join A Book Club: Diary of a 60th Year by Virginia Ironside. It so happens that several of my friends will turn sixty this year, or in the next year or two. A few have already done so. So I do have an interest in this age group. (The Book Goddess is timeless. Don't ask.) This novel falls into a category that the British do extremely well: the humorous fictional diary. If you liked The Adrian Mole books by Sue Townsend or Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, and you're, let's say, aware of the passage of time in your life, I think you should hurry up and read this book. The heroine and narrative voice of this saga is Londoner Marie Sharp, retired art teacher and single mother of a grown son. As she approaches sixty, she strongly resists the urging of her friends to take up a hobby, enroll in university courses, or learn Italian. She's about to become a grandmother, one of her oldest friends seems to be seriously ill, and another has taken up online dating. These events, along with bunion surgery and renting her spare room to a young French girl, are inspiration for witty, sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant commentary. I don't agree with all of her choices, though I think she's right about bungee jumping (and we even wear the same brand of comfortable shoes). I, on the other hand, would love to take classes and learn Italian, and you know how I feel about book clubs. But the important point is that she's not letting other people tell her how she ought to feel or live or conduct her life, and she tells us about it in a lively and assertive style. The book is a delight, and I think you will love it, too.

It's difficult for me to laugh and think at the same time, particularly when I'm laughing so hard I have to reach for the tissue. But I managed all the way through my consumption of Virginia Ironside's fictional diary of Marie Sharp's journey through her sixtieth year (and a bit). Marie's not fighting it, rather she is planning to embrace it. She'd love to "start doing old things," if people would only let her. Hence the name of the book. It's not only a book club she doesn't want to join, she doesn't want to learn Spanish or any other language, she doesn't want to take exotic trips... Leave her alone! And she doesn't want to look, act, or be young. She is not "sixty going on twenty." (No Botox here, I'd hazard.) It's not that she didn't enjoy being young, not by any means. She even slept with a Beatle! "Been there, got the T-shirt, wore it to death and put it in a bag for Age Concern." She's ready for this new adventure. An adventure it turns out to be. She learns new loves--a new grandson and a more romantic relationship. She relishes and enlarges friendships while bidding others goodbye. After Penny, her best friend, hears Marie's report on yet another funeral, she comments, "Now we just have to make do with the people who are left." Certainly, enough people are left to keep Marie doing "old things" for some time. Ironside, who has spent a career as an "agony aunt," writing advice columns for English newspapers, has a keen insight into the human (old woman) condition and the talent to leaven it with plenty of English humor. Any appreciator of good, humorous writing will enjoy this book. Ironside's contemporaries (of whom I am one) will relish it. by Patricia Nordyke Pando for Story Circle Book Reviews www.storycirclebookreviewsorg reviewing books by, for, and about women

diary of a woman, Marie Sharp, celebrating the pleasures of finally being 60 and all the perks that go with having arrived. The author even has a new acronym to go with it: SWELL (Sixty, Well Off and Enjoying Life). No bungee jumping, adventure travels or book clubs for Marie. She just wants to savor 'acting' her age and spending time with her first grandchild. This diary of her 60th year begins shortly before her 60th birthday and continues into the summer of the following year. Marie and her friends are a lively group and it is a pleasure spending time with them. An added bonus is that Marie lives in London and it is fun reading about her journeys around town. While this book is fiction, there is a lot of wisdom included as Marie shares her thoughts with us about the joys of being true to ourselves and where we are at in our life as she gracefully (yeah, right!) ages. Marie is feisty as can be and asking no forgiveness for it as age has its privileges. And, to add to the fun, she has decided that another advantage of age is to embrace celibacy -- so much less stress in her life not worrying about the dating scene. Not wanting to tell all, you will have to read the book to find out the ultimate resolution. This book needs a sequel. Recommended.

Refreshing to read about a woman who is unapologetic about and refuses to buy into modern ideas and cliches about what it means to get older.

Finally a book I can read without wanting to throw it at the wall. I can't tell you how many books (new pubs)I've started and put down because they were just awful. This one is real with good writing and even though I'm not almost 60-something it was highly enjoyable. It didn't even have the requisite (lately) graphic sex scene, thank God. When Hugh Grant gets to be 59 he can play Archie. I'm not a great reviewer, let those who can write write. Just get the book and read it.