Project Renewment: The First Retirement Model for Career Women

This is a very helpful book - and one that is also fun to read. It addresses the many concerns and anxieties I felt as I approached retirement after a long professional career. I highly recommend it for other women facing this significant change in their lives.

Three cheers for Bratter and Dennis! They have created an easy-to-digest, practical guide to retirement for career women. If you are a woman thinking about retirement or a human resources professional seeking to assist retirees, Project Renewment will be your best book purchase this year. It would also make an intriguing selection for a women's book club. In short, conversational chapters, the authors talk about the important questions facing career women: Should I retire? Can I afford to retire? What can I do to ensure that I will still feel productive and worthwhile without a job and a full calendar? How can I involve myself with people so that I will not miss being with my work colleagues every day? The authors have a commonsensical approach to these and many other retirement issues, and the humorous illustrations and quotations that introduce each topic are themselves worth the book's cover price. For now, I have two copies, one to keep and one to give to a friend. But I just might throw a "renewment shower" for a colleague about to retire (whoever said that showers were only for brides and mothers-to-be?) and present her with this wonderful book.

I had the opportunity to read Project Renewment, The First Retirement Model for Career Women. I work in the medical field specializing in mental health. With the population getting older it is important to have a book as good as Project Renewment. The book addresses an important part of life. An area left to retirement centers and many times loneliness. There are 38 essays that are pertinent and to the point. The issues are not only pertinent for women but also to men. From the beginning of the book it strikes you with essays on Retirement: Yes or No, I Won't Earn Another Dollar, and Whom Am I Without a Business Card?" I found the book was well documented and written. One of the greatest parts of the book is that it not only talks about the groups but how to create your own. The pitfalls you might encounter and how to make it successful. I recommend this book to any thinking about retirement, professional people working with people approaching retirement. This is a must read.

Project Renewment is one of those rare books that combines real life experience with solid research. The heart of the book are 38 short essays, or vignettes, culled from 8 years of conversations with small groups of women, most recently retired from successful careers. Topics range all the way from "Who Am I Without a Business Card?" to "Less Steam in My Engine", from "Is Busy Better?" to "Buying the Plot." The writing is friendly and colloquial; a book I keep next to the bed and enjoy reading one or two essays at a time. And the illustrations by Lahni Baruck are fun, and always very much to the point. But what really impressed me is that the personal stories are re-enforced with data from the latest research. Bratter is a psychologist and brings professional insight into the transition women make from career to later years; Dennis brings an academic and journalist's insight into the process of aging. The final part of the book is a Guide for others to use who want to start Project Renewments in their communities. The Guide is practical and easy to follow. My hunch is that there will be "Project Renewments" starting up all over the country. If you're looking for the latest academic treatise on women and aging, this is not for you. But if you're looking, as I am, for something that is readable, feels very personal and insightful, this is for you. I've bought the book for several of my friends. Sherry P. May

Helen and Bernice create a powerful and moving exploration of the issues facing a generation of women changing their lives-- the dual transition of both career and identity shifts is, indeed, different for women. Their guided questions at the end of some chapters can encourage deep exploration and stay with the reader long after the book is finished. This is a book to be savored over time, and dipped back into for refreshment, and--as they say--"renewment." Alan Bernstein, author, Your Retirement,Your Way