Over the Hill, You Pick Up Speed: Reflections on Aging (for Anyone Who Happens To)

This book is for anyone. I read this for a graduate course on Gerontology and it's one of the few texts I've had to read that I've enjoyed this much. Although already in her eighties, Campion has a way of engaging her reader in everyday dilemmas that accompany issues of aging, while still finding the humorous side in everything. Her work is original and full of insightful observations. She seems to be eternally optimistic about aging; she has accepted the fact that it happens, and now is finding ways to learn from each and every new experience that aging brings. The book is set up in three stages: misadventures in aging, how did I get here?, and people met along the way. The first section talks about funny situations Campion has been in, such as hitchhiking now that she's given up driving, and the fun of geriatric dating. The second section discusses lessons she's learned as a result of her aging, such as how to shop for a bathing suit in your new body! And the last section speaks about the inspirational people she's met throughout her life that have had the most impact on her. Campion asks herself and the reader in the beginning of her book, "Who was that strange-looking character in the mirror? How did she get that way? How does she really feel about growing old? Answer: read on." And although most of her book is on a more sarcastic and humorous note, the book's ending statement leaves an impact. "It has finally dawned on me that growing up and growing old are the same thing. It is what we are meant to be doing all our lives." I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in looking at aging from a more amusing perspective, which in itself is an encouraging change of pace.

This is the copy I bought for myself after I'd first borrowed it from our town library. The author is a newspaper columnist and her writing and each chapter flows like a feature article. Delightful! The content is perfect for, as she says, those who are aging or plan to. My favorite chapter on first reading was about senior-citizen dating -- and I laughed until my sides hurt and I insisted my closest friends listen as I read exerpts from it aloud. Pre-70s would enjoy it and learn from it but the author has pulled a little beyond that and she knows whereof she speaks. Insightful and great fun!

I read this as my own parents aged. I loved every page and had some laugh out loud moments. It is breezy,light and poignant. I immediately bought another book by author and gave this one to my mother- who years ago knew the author but had never read any of her books. My mother in turn gave the book to her retirement center library.

Nardi Campion, a prolific NH writer, gives the aging process a light and humorous observation as she ages. On the other side of 65, I laughed my way through the book because I can relate to what Nardi tells us. She is enjoying her later years in a beautiful community, most familiar to a lot of people--Lebanon near the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital. Her abandonment of driving gave me ideas to apply to my mother-in-law who is 90. She is feisty and determined to do everything she can without help, if possible. The opportunities are endless when one way to do things no longer work. The episode of her hitchhiking was too much. Perfectly sane in that area of our state. She describes aging as the epitome of living. I highly recommend this book if aging is of concern. Marion E Cason, Reviewer