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Women of a Certain Age

FICTION

FIC BERG
Never Change
Elizabeth Berg
At 51, visiting nurse Myra Lipinsky has never had a close friend, much less a boyfriend. Then Chip Reardon, star athlete of her high school class, comes home suffering from brain cancer. As Myra cares for him, supporting his decision not to seek heroic medical intervention, they unexpectedly become romantically involved.

FIC BROWN
Lamb in Love

Carrie Brown
At 19, Vida Stephen took on the job of nanny to the infant son of a local rich man. Twenty years later, she is still looking after Manford, who is developmentally disabled. On the night of the first moon landing, Vida is moved to dance outside in the moonlight and is seen by Norris Lamb, the village postmaster. Norris, who has known Vida all her life, is suddenly struck by love. But the shy, 55 year-old bachelor isn’t sure what to do about it.

FIC BUCK
Pavilion of Women
Pearl S. Buck
Elegant Madame Wu shocks her family on her 40 th birthday by declaring her marital duties at an end and acquiring a second wife for her husband. Enjoying the peace of her private pavilion, she joins her son as he studies with the foreign Brother Andre and finds her preconceptions unexpectedly challenged.

FIC CLARK
The Hills at Home
Nancy Clark
Retired spinster school teacher Lily Hill has been contentedly living alone in the gently decaying ancestral home (new addition put up in 1830) in Towne, Mass. Suddenly, a swarm of relatives arrive as guests, but show alarming signs of becoming permanent residents: her brother Harvey, pursued by widows at the nearby senior retirement home; her addle-pated niece Ginger with her practical teen-age daughter Betsy; Ginger’s brother Alden, fired from his high-powered Wall Street job, with his wife Becky and their four unsatisfactory children; Harvey’s grandson Arthur, a would-be stand-up comic and his girlfriend Phoebe (with cat); and, finally, graduate student Andy, come to “do” the Hill family as his sociology thesis.

FIC HERMAN
Dog

Michelle Herman
Professor and poet Jill Rosen has succeeded in shunning her neighbors and isolating herself from her family and colleagues, drinking a little too much and writing far too little. On impulse, she adopts an abandoned puppy—a faster learner than some of her students—who is as emotionally wary as she is. Together, they begin the healing process.

FIC KABAK
Cover the Butter

Carrie Kabak
Forty-something Kate Cadogan has spent the first half of her life trying to please her critical, controlling mother, and the second half trying to please her distant, sports-obsessed husband. When she returns from a trip to find the home she has lovingly created trashed by her teen-age son’s friends, she finally steels herself to discover what she wants out of life.

FIC KING
The Same Sweet Girls

Cassandra King
30 years ago, six Southern college girls formed a deep bond. Now at midlife, they still continue their twice-yearly get-togethers, filled with silly traditions and marked by persistent rivalry. When one of them faces a fatal illness, the rest come to her support and are spurred to try to reshape their own less than perfect lives.

PBK MCCRUMB
The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter
Sharyn McCrumb
Laura Bruce’s minister husband is overseas, leaving her to deal with parish affairs, when a teen-age boy kills his parents, youngest brother, and himself, leaving a sister and another brother alone in Dark Hollow, Appalachia . Nora Bonesteel, life-long resident with the Sight, and sheriff Spencer Arrowood approach the tragedy in their own ways.

LP FIC RAY
Julie and Romeo
Jean Ray
Julie Roseman’s family has hated fellow florist Romeo Cacciamani’s family for as long as she can remember, although no one seems to know how the feud between the Lithuanian Jews and the Italian Catholics began. Now divorced at 60, Julie runs into the widowed Romeo at a small business convention. Soon they’re sneaking away from their families to conduct a surprisingly hot affair.

FIC SCHOEMPERL
Our Lady of the Lost and Found

Diane Schoemperlen
The anonymous narrator is a quiet, unmarried middle-age writer, middle child of a conventional middle-class Canadian family who had a conventional Protestant religious education. She is therefore flabbergasted when she discovers the Virgin Mary in her living room, asking to be allowed to stay a week for a quiet vacation. When Mary asks for something, of course you say yes . . .

 

NONFICTION

305.24 CHINEN
Once Upon a Midlife

Allan B. Chinen
What happens after Cinderella marries the prince? Dr. Chinen uses folk tales from around the world to illuminate the changes in roles and attitudes of men and women as they enter midlife. As women gain authority and confidence, men explore their emotional side.

612.68 CRO
Younger Next Year for Women
Chris Crowley & Henry S. Lodge, M.D.
Authors Crowley (age 70) and Dr. Lodge (age 47) explain what you can do to retain your vitality into old age. Quote: “You do have to age, but you don’t have to rot.” They discuss both formal and recreational exercise, explaining the physiology and chemistry behind the healthy results. Biology and social connections can work for you. Find out how.

646.7 GRANDCOLAS
You Can Do It: The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-up Girls
Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas
What are you always saying you’d like to be able to do? Invest like a pro? Climb a mountain? Paint a picture? Decorate your house? 58 “merit badge” chapters get you started in a broad array of enterprises. Each chapter provides motivation, expert advice from a woman in the field, steps toward your goal, and print and online resources. You can do it!

910.2 BEN
A Foxy Old Woman’s Guide to Traveling Alone
Jay Ben-Lesser
Although geared to women who are inexperienced at traveling solo, the very experienced author—around the world 13 times!—has a suitcase full of good advice for every traveler, even if you’re not going alone. She starts out getting you to a movie and restaurant on your own and works up by way of day trips and overnight stays to foreign travel. Advice is interspersed with snippets from her own travels.

 

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