Books

As I listened to Becky Ann Baker’s wonderful narration of Laurie Frankel’s book Enormous Wings, I couldn’t help but think, What would I do in this situation? The protagonist, Pepper Mills, is 77, newly and unwillingly relocated to the Vista View Retirement Community in Austin, Texas. Her grown children strongly suggest (insist)…

I devoured Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy over the course of a single foggy, drizzly weekend, and in hindsight, the weather couldn’t have set a more fitting mood. I picked it up for a fairly simple reason: this year marks 20 years since Fitzek’s German original novel was first published, and the anniversary arrived with a new audiobook edition…

Remember when teachers told you reading was good for you? They were right. And now reading is even associated with living longer. Researchers at the Yale University School of Public Health have discovered that book…

There’s a particular kind of freedom that arrives, if you’re lucky, in the last chapters of a life. Not the freedom of open roads and infinite possibility – that’s a young person’s freedom, showy and exhausting. This is quieter: the freedom of no longer caring what people think, because you’ve run out of time to perform for them…

I spent much of last year in a reading rut, and I couldn’t understand why. It seems like book recommendations are everywhere; podcasts, Facebook posts, and the viral ‘bookstgrammers’ I like to follow have no shortage of suggestions for me. At first I thought…

I am a mood reader. Sometimes I like a mystery or a thriller. Other times, I crave historical fiction. But during the summer, when I’m heading off on vacation or a weekend getaway, I prefer a quick, fun read – a book that keeps me turning the pages…

I inherited a stack of exquisitely written love letters that my mother had received from her paramour in the South Pacific in WWII. The pages are neat and the care in each swirl of an S or loop of a Y is evidence that love had been injected into every letter…

Songs have the ability to transport us back to a specific time and place in our lives. Music stirs our emotions, and particular songs can be tied to memories we hold dear. They can take us home again…

Arthur C. Brooks’ From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life is a compelling guide for navigating the challenges and transitions of life as we age. Drawing upon a rich tapestry of personal stories, psychological insights…

Full confession: I don’t always read every page of the novel I’m reading. Sometimes I flip to the final chapter. Or I’ll skim through a list of names in a mystery novel to see who’s still alive by page 150. (If my favorite character vanishes, I start slowly backing away – emotionally…