Old Is Not a Four-Letter Word: A Midlife Guide

Book by Gerike, Ann E.

Both of these titles put a positive spin on growing older and offer encouragement to the over-50 crowd. Psychotherapist Gerike presents good practical advice about health, exercise, sex, and more, and she offers a particularly helpful chapter on ten ways to combat age discrimination. However, the format of little text and many cartoon drawings and occasional humor?which some readers may feel talks down to its audience?might detract from the overall power of the message. NPR commentator Weaver (The Girls With the Grandmother Faces, Hyperion, 1996) takes a more personal approach. A few early chapters describe her battle with alcoholism and her path to sobriety. Then Weaver talks about how returning to school, traveling, and writing helped her adjust to widowhood and continue to grow in the second half of her life. A chapter-long poem relates her adventures on a whirlwind book tour. Although both books offer valuable information, Gerike's book is a little too slim to recommend for most library collections; Weaver's book will be popular especially where her earlier book is doing well.?Marguerite Mroz, Baltimore Cty. P.L., Md.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

With millions of boomers turning 50 each day, it's no shock that "aging gracefully" is a hot topic. High-visibility writers have already mined this vein: first, Helen Gurley Brown (The Late Show, 1993) and Betty Friedan (The Fountain of Age, 1993); then, Gail Sheehy (New Passages, 1995) and venerable oral historian Studs Terkel (Coming of Age, 1995). Newly minted AARP members and their slightly younger siblings may want to test the water on a potentially scary subject with this brief, sensible, often humorous volume from a psychotherapist specializing in gerontology. Gerike, national chair of the Gray Panthers' Ageism Task Force, demolishes the common myths about aging: e.g., loss of looks and memory, mental decline and physical decay, and so forth. In brief, punchy chapters of solid advice, illustrated by warmly funny line drawings from syndicated Los Angeles Times cartoonist Peter Kohlsaat, Gerike urges soon-to-be-50s to face the future with flair, not fear. Mary Carroll