Aging Parents Books - Page 4

Men in Midlife Crisis

Jim Conway

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone 3 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

At the outset I must declare that I am an over 50 year old male who has never had the slightest desire to own a Corvette, red or otherwise and who has been fortunate, thus far not to do any of the things normally considered to be aspects of a mid life crisis.

Being British, however, one is just supposed to bite the upper lip and proceed through life like one of the majestic ships in Her Majesty's Royal Navy regardless of what is thrown at you. In plain English, we are not taught about such things, we are ignorant and some things are better that way.

Having said that I have been going through some changes in my life and the fact that I grew my hair long again, for the first time in a decade and a half brought forth a slew of comments about me going through a mid-life crisis with the result that research was needed so I turned to my tried and true stalwart friend, amazon.com for material.

Jim Conway's book came first and one of the things that became very clear was that some of the things that I was experiencing certainly fitted the template of mid-life crisis but also could be explained by depression or even simply burn out. As I proceeded to work through the book I was struck by the honesty of the author and his faith in his religion. The use of real life examples certainly illuminated the things he was saying and I could see the sense of his view. It was also clear to me that he has a tendency to be repetitive and reiterated the same things in slightly different contexts when a shorter book would have been preferred.

Also it became increasingly clear that from a personal perspective I was NOT undergoing a mid-lifer but was more frustrated at a lack of progress and development in the large corporate organisation that I currently work for. Similarly as a relatively highly educated individual my skills and talents are being unrecognised and wasted in the face of the requirement for unquestioned obedience.

I continued with the book until the end but it was superfluous by that stage.

In summary I would say that there is a need for books of this ilk. I would think that many people around forty will face questions that they had not encountered before or in a long time. Those people need answers which they will not get from their best friends or families and these books can help. I learned however, that there is a greater need to understand what is euphemistically called 'adult development' and that there are things that we should all do to help ourselves - the same old hoary chestnuts, eat right, exercise and maintain a good social network being the main ones.


This book ertainly helped me. It helped me to reassure myself that I was not having a belated mid-life crisis. It helped me to seek out other sorts of information. It helped me be grateful that I am the person I am and able to contribute in the small ways that I do and it helped me to see that while having some sort of religious belief is not essential to get through life, some sort of principles are.

Editorial Review:

Jim Conway writes for all men who face midlife and have thought about walking away from family, work, church . . . all responsibilities, and never coming back. Of his own midlife crisis he says, "I feel like a vending machine. Someone pushes a button, and out comes an article. The family pushes buttons and out comes dollars. The community pushes other buttons. . . ."

Also available- Your Husband's Midlife Crisis by Sally Conway.

How to Say It to Seniors: Closing the Communication Gap with Our Elders

David Solie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

How To Say It to Seniors is a book for everyone 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

David Solie was a speaker at a conference I attended this spring. Along with getting to hear him speak, I obtained a copy of his book, "How to Say it to Seniors". I went home and tried some of these strategies with my mother and the results were astounding. The book was easy to read and understand as Mr. Solie uses entertaining stories to illustrate his message.

I have now purchased 5 more of these books and have donated one to my church library, one to our parish nurse, one to my mother and will be making this book available to all my clients as this book, and the techniques contained within, go far beyond my professional use of these strategies. This is a book for everyone who has an aged parent, grand-parent, elderly neighbor, or who deals with elderly people, either professionally, or on a personal level.

Editorial Review:

A practical guide to bridging the generation gap.

In How to Say It(r) to Seniors, geriatric psychology expert David Solie offers help in removing the typical communication blocks many experience with the elderly. By sharing his insights into the later stages of life, Solie helps in understanding the unique perspective of seniors, and provides the tools to relate to them.

New Passages

Gail Sheehy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Millions of readers literally defined their lives through Gail Sheehy's landmark bestseller Passages. Seven years ago she set out to write a sequel, but instead she discovered a historic revolution in the adult life cycle. . .
People are taking longer to grow up and much longer to die. A fifty-year-old woman--who remains free of cancer and heart disease-- can expect to see her ninety-second birthday. Men, too, can expect a dramatically lengthened life span. The old demarcations and descriptions of adulthood--beginning at twenty-one and ending at sixty-five--are hopelessly out of date. In New Passages, Gail Sheehy discovers and maps out a completely new frontier--a Second Adulthood in middle life.
"Stop and recalculate," Sheehy writes. "Imagine the day you turn forty-five as the infancy of another life." Instead of declining, men and women who embrace a Second Adulthood are progressing through entirely new passages into lives of deeper meaning, renewed playfulness, and creativity--beyond both male and female menopause. Through hundreds of personal and group interviews, national surveys of professionals and working-class people, and fresh findings extracted from fifty years of U.S. Census reports, Sheehy vividly dramatizes these newly developing stages. Combining the scholar's ability to synthesize data with the novelist's gift for storytelling, she allows us to make sense of our own lives by understanding others like us.
New Passages tells us we have the ability to customize our own life cycle. This groundbreaking work is certain to awaken and permanently alter the way we think about ourselves.
"SHEEHY CLEARLY STATES IDEAS ABOUT LIFE THAT HAVE NEVER BEFORE BEEN AS CLEARLY STATED."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review
"AN OPTIMISTIC ANALYSIS OF ADULT DEVELOPMENT IN PESSIMISTIC TIMES. . . It is grounded in the economic and psychological realities that make adult life so complex today."
--The New York Times Book Review

How to Love Your Retirement: Advice from Hundreds of Retirees (Hundreds of Heads Survival Guides)

Hundreds Of Heads

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Read once and then never picked up again 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 9 people found this review helpful.

A friend of mine is now at retirement age, but she is hesitant to retire because she doesn't know what she wants to do with herself when she stops working. To give her some ideas, I bought this book despite the criticism by a number of the other reviewers. My logic was that reading short blurbs about what others were doing with their retirement might give my friend some ideas.

My friend read through some of this book and then never picked it up again. She found it boring and lacking in the insight that I had hoped it would deliver. However, my friend really liked How to Retire Happy: The 12 Most Important Decisions You Must Make Before You Retire by Stan Hinden. No, the Hinden book didn't give her any new ideas about what to do with herself, but it did help her to plan for the day that she does retire. If you are choosing between the books, based on my experience, I would recommend the Hinden book.

Editorial Review:

How to Love Your Retirement shows the baby-boom generation how to plan for, and succeed at, this statge of life, whether relaxation, travel, education, or even a new occupation is the goal. Packed with helpful, entertaining stories and real-life advice from hundreds of retirees who are making the most of their post-work lives, this honest and useful guide covers such topics as how to pick the best time to retire; learning to live with a spouse 24/7; staying fit; starting fresh in business, love, and family; traveling; going back to school; and more.

America's 100 Best Places to Retire, Fourth Edtion: The Only Guide You Need to Today's Top Retirement Towns (America's 100 Best Places to Retire)

Elizabeth Armstrong

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

This book is very helpful 4 out of 5 stars.
16 of 17 people found this review helpful.

Easy read with a lot of good information about various retirement areas. The best information has to do with taxes and health care. I do question why some of the people who already live in one of the 100 best places to retire are highlighted as moving to another one of the best 100 places to retire. It does make one think.

Editorial Review:

From the editors of Where to Retire magazine, America's most authoritative source of information about retirement towns and developments, comes accurate and reliable help for all those seeking a great new town for retirement. Completely updated, the fourth edition is fact-filled with statistics on population, climate, cost of living, housing costs, taxes, education, transportation, health care and more. Because facts and figures alone can't capture the beauty, personality or public spirit of a town, there are interviews with people who have relocated to each town, telling what retirement in their new hometown is really like. Included among the 100 are the editor's designations of the nation's 10 best towns for art, lakes, beaches, colleges, mountains, lower-cost living, small towns, undiscovered towns and main streets.

Smart Women Don't Retire -- They Break Free: From Working Full-Time to Living Full-Time

The Transition Network, Gail Rentsch

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For the amazing female pioneers who shattered the glass ceiling, a practical and inspiring guide to reinventing what's next.

Boomer women have been trailblazers throughout their professional lives. Now that their careers are losing their edge and children leave the nest, these women are ready to do for retirement what they did for the working world--redefine it. The first book from The Transition Network focuses on the unique needs of women as they explore new possibilities and redesign the old model of retirement, which no longer offers the challenges that these women experienced throughout their careers.

This book shows how to create new and exciting work and volunteer opportunities and how to discover new outlets for creativity and passion. Rich in practical advice and stories from women who have successfully navigated this stage, SMART WOMEN DON'T RETIRE -- THEY BREAK FREE is a blueprint for women seeking a whole new set of life choices.


THE TRANSITION NETWORK is a nation-wide community of women who are creating exhilarating new transition possibilities. Members network through monthly programs; online; and through dynamic peer groups. Members have had successful careers in government, finance, international corporations, and the arts.

Elder Rage, or Take My Father... Please!: How to Survive Caring for Aging Parents

Jacqueline Marcell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 276 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Thank you for a WONDERFUL book. Both entertaining AND full of valuable information. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I wish to extend a huge thank you to Jacqueline for writing this book! My mother-in-law had been diagnosed with dementia and had progressed to point where we felt it was no longer safe to allow her to continue to live alone. Our problem was that she was fighting us "tooth and nail" at every turn. She did not realize the scope of her problem. She felt she merely could not remember things once in awhile. Reality was, she was no longer cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, or bathing. We were having to keep her stocked with foods to eat that did not require being cooked, or even warmed up, because she no longer knew how to do that. Her home looked "neat" (other than the knick-knacks that she would constantly move from place to place throughout), but when one of us would go and actually clean - it was shocking the amount of dirt that we would take out of there! Yet, any mention of moving her to somewhere that could provide her with meals, laundry, cleaning, etc would result in her flying into a rage at the person suggesting it! We didn't know what to do.
Long story short, Jacqueline's book ELDER RAGE came up on a link on a website for dementia. I decided to read the book. First of all, her book is quite engaging and entertaining. Jacqueline's sense of humor and story-telling keeps the reader interested. I felt compelled to read it just to find out how things turned out! But also, throughout the book, Jacqueline tells of all the different things that she tried to do to help her parents. Just that, alone, was valuable - because she not only tells what worked, but also what DIDN'T work. The end of her book is a wealth of information for anyone caring for a loved one with dementia. It sure helped our family! My mother-in-law is now being cared for in an assisted living facility that specializes in memory care. The road to get her there was a bumpy one at times, but Jacqueline's book helped us realize that it was what we needed to do, and it helped us to know how to do it! If you have a loved one with dementia you MUST read this book!

Editorial Review:

A riveting, often humorous, non-fiction novel that chronicles Jacqueline Marcell's trials and tribulations, and eventual success at managing the care of her aging parents. Elder Rage is also an extensive self-help book with solutions for effective management, medically and behaviorally, of challenging elders who resist care. Includes answers to difficult "how to" questions like: getting obstinate elders to give up driving, accept a caregiver, see a different doctor, go to adult day care, move to a new residence--and includes a wealth of valuable resources, websites and recommended reading. The addendum by renowned dementia specialist, Rodman Shankle, MS MD: A Physician's Guide to Treating Dementia, makes it valuable for everyone from the family to the physician. Elder Rage is required reading at several universities for graduate courses in geriatric assessment and management.

Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson

Alan Pell Crawford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Much has been written about Thomas Jefferson, with good reason: His life was a great American drama–one of the greatest–played out in compelling acts. He was the architect of our democracy, a visionary chief executive who expanded this nation’s physical boundaries to unimagined lengths. But Twilight at Monticello is something entirely new: an unprecedented and engrossing personal look at the intimate Jefferson in his final years that will change the way readers think about this true American icon. It was during these years–from his return to Monticello in 1809 after two terms as president until his death in 1826–that Jefferson’s idealism would be most severely, and heartbreakingly, tested.

Based on new research and documents culled from the Library of Congress, the Virginia Historical Society, and other special collections, including hitherto unexamined letters from family, friends, and Monticello neighbors, Alan Pell Crawford paints an authoritative and deeply moving portrait of Thomas Jefferson as private citizen–the first original depiction of the man in more than a generation.

Here, told with grace and masterly detail, is Jefferson with his family at Monticello, dealing with illness and the indignities wrought by early-nineteenth-century medicine; coping with massive debt and the immense costs associated with running a grand residence; navigating public disputes and mediating family squabbles; receiving dignitaries and corresponding
with close friends, including John Adams, the Marquis de Lafayette, and other heroes from the Revolution. Enmeshed as he was in these affairs during his final years, Jefferson was still a viable political force, advising his son-in-law Thomas Randolph during his terms as Virginia governor, helping the administration of his good friend President James Madison during the “internal improvements” controversy, and establishing the first wholly secular American institution of higher learning, the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. We also see Jefferson’s views on slavery evolve, along with his awareness of the costs to civil harmony exacted by the Founding Fathers’ failure to effectively reconcile slaveholding within a republic dedicated to liberty.

Right up until his death on the fiftieth anniversary of America’s founding, Thomas Jefferson remained an indispensable man, albeit a supremely human one. And it is precisely that figure Alan Pell Crawford introduces to us in the revelatory Twilight at Monticello.

'Crawford (Thunder on the Right) offers his own equally compelling look, in this case at Jefferson's life, post-presidency, from 1809 until his death in 1826. Then a private citizen, Jefferson was burdened by financial and personal and political struggles within his extended family. His beloved estate, Monticello, was costly to maintain and Jefferson was in debt. Newly studying primary sources, Crawford thoroughly conveys the pathos of Jefferson's last years, even as he successfully established the University of Virginia (America's first wholly secular university) and maintained contact with James Madison, John Adams, and other luminaries. He personally struggled with political, moral, and religious issues; Crawford shows us a complex, self-contradictory, idealistic, yet tragic figure, helpless to stabilize his family and finances. Historians and informed readers alike will find much to relish in both of these distinctive works of original scholarship. Both are recommended for academic and large public libraries.
–Library Journal

“In "Twilight at Monticello," Alan Pell Crawford treats his subject with grace and sympathetic understanding, and with keen penetration as well, showing the great man's contradictions (and hypocrisies) for what they were.”
–Wall Street Journal


“Like all people, famous or almost unknown, Jefferson was a mass of contradictions. Crawford explores them masterfully, thus indeed presenting a new Jefferson for a new generation.”
–Houston Chronicle

“…a worthy addition to the already enormous body of Thomas Jefferson scholarship. Crawford did his homework well, using literally dozens of sources to give us an unvarnished picture of the human side of one of America’s greatest leaders in an entertaining, fast-moving narrative. You might never loom at Monticello in quite the same way again after reading this book.”
–The Fredericksburg (Va.) Free-Lance Star

Choose Costa Rica for Retirement, 8th: Information for Travel, Retirement, Investment, and Affordable Living (Choose Retirement Series)

John Howells

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Interesting, well written & up-to-date 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I'll mention up front that this is the only book I've read on the subject of living in Costa Rica, but I can't imagine many being much better. I spent 10 weeks in Costa Rica (8 weeks in language immersion school, 4 days a week). Having two full weeks plus several 3-day weekends to travel around, I'm familiar with the basics of Costa Rican culture & geography.

Nowhere near retirement age myself, I was impressed to find plenty of information on other topics: Mr. Howells reviews culture & politics, but not in any long and boring sense - really keeping to the necessities. He frequently compares cultural topics with North American analogies, helping to define it better for North Americans. He does take pains to be clear, while concise, about business, legal & immigration matters - all of which you probably find interesting, anyway, if you think you want to move to Costa Rica. He also does a great job covering costs of living for all life styles, health care, transportation, education, real estate and investments. He's interviewed plenty of folks for the content, too. From parents with children in private or public schools to immigration or real estate lawyers. This was clearly not his first attempt at such a book.

One thing I repeatedly found interesting were the details about North American & European expat communities all over the country. I'm sure some of those details change in time, but it really gives you a feel for what to expect in the way of finding English (or other European language) speaking friends & advice. (But you are encouraged to learn some Spanish, of course!) Another specific that he gives several pages to is driving to Costa Rica from the US! I've always wanted to do that, and he's done it several times... I'm inspired already!

My only concern with the book would be for someone who isn't familiar with the geography (thus my disclaimer @ the top) might like to supplement their reading with Google Earth or a map. The book does a fair job of keeping you oriented as he travels around, though, so don't worry if you'd rather not. It does have some maps indicating the regions he discusses.

I found the book so interesting that I actually read most of it while traveling in Ecuador. At no point did I ever feel bored or bogged down and I didn't skip a single page. There's even some comic relief! This book, combined with a good trip, should be a nice spring board into living, retiring or doing business in Costa Rica.

Editorial Review:

Information on managing investments, cost of living, and medical care and safety in Costa Rica makes this guide perfect for retirees looking to relocate. In addition, the guide offers useful tips for exploring the beautiful coastal areas, finding entertainment, and dining on delicious Costa Rican specialties.

The Body Knows... How to Stay Young: Healthy-Aging Secrets from a Medical Intuitive

Caroline Sutherland

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Is it possible to actually slow down the aging process? Health educator and medical intuitive Caroline Sutherland says yes; and when you look at this vital, energetic woman who’s in her mid-60s, you can tell she has a few secrets that are worth sharing.

This is a book that certainly comes along at the right time: With much of the population moving into retirement age, and billions of dollars being spent annually on vitamins and anti-aging therapies, men and women are eagerly seeking healthy approaches during their later years.

Men and women are often wary about what might befall them as the numbers tick away. Fortunately, Caroline has answers for the chronic degenerative breakdown that leads to mobility issues, decrease in hearing and vision, osteoporosis, and arthritis—not to mention memory loss. With her expert wisdom and sparkling sense of humor, Caroline covers the four components of a vibrant-aging program, showing in the process that the body has a phenomenal capacity to repair.

This book is perfect for you if you want to live a long and vivacious life and fulfill your destiny!