Aging Parents Books - Page 5

Caring for Your Parents: The Complete Family Guide (AARP)

Hugh Delehanty, Elinor Ginzler

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sterling Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $6.36

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> Marriage & Family
Subjects -> Parenting & Families -> Aging Parents -> Eldercare
Subjects -> Parenting & Families -> Family Relationships -> Parent & Adult Child

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Drawing on AARP’s deep wellspring of expertise in the topic, AARP’s Caring for Your Parents offers both sensitive counsel and a practical road map through the complex emotional terrain many of us face as our parents age. This eye-opening book guides readers through a new, creative approach to caregiving that turns familial duty into a journey of emotional development and resolution.
Based on a 32-page National Magazine Award-nominated special feature, Caring for Your Parents documents the innovative ways that real people cope with this age-old issue. Throughout the book you will find useful, field-tested recommendations from AARP’s staff of experts. Topics explored in depth run the gamut from locating quality health care and dealing with the bureaucracy of Medicare to avoiding consumer scams, organizing caregiving from afar, and planning the disposition of an estate. There are tips on designing your parents’ house to make it more elder-friendly, navigating the hidden dangers of assisted living, and dealing with the invisible sibling issue. A resource guide in each chapter lists help lines, websites, and consumer action groups.
Thirty million Americans are looking for a new, more effective approach to eldercare. Caring for Your Parents is the answer.

You Know You're Fifty When

Richard Smith

Amazon Price: $9.95 List Price: $9.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Broadway Amazon Marketplace: 79 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> Parodies
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> Aging -> General

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

Editorial Review:

Richard Smith's wildly popular books have made America laugh about everything from wedding-night jitters to weight loss. Now he turns his comic talent to a subject he's about to experience himself: climbing the half-century hill.



Over the next 15 years, 45 million baby boomers will celebrate their 50th birthdays. With Smith as their guide, the Boomers will know exactly what lies ahead. Not only does turning 50 mean you survived your 40s, but you get to join the AARP, answer your front door in bedroom slippers, and spend your kid's inheritance on liposuction. You also know you're 50 when...



Your main form of aerobic exercise is getting up to change the channelAn obscene phone call makes you chuckleYou think a mosh pit is something found at the center of an exotic fruitYou wonder who'll die first--you or your moneyYou wish the "ol' ticker" had a quartz movement"Performance anxiety" refers to your golf game



With 200 of these cleverly illustrated clues and quips as well as comparison charts, entertaining graphs, and hilarious lists, You Know You're 50 When... will be the must-have, must-give birthday present for every soon-to-be-50 American.

Your Retirement, Your Way: Why It Takes More Than Money to Live Your Dream

Alan Bernstein, John Trauth

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: McGraw-Hill Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $6.29

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Personal Finance -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Personal Finance -> Retirement Planning
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> Aging -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Create a new life plan to thrive in your retirement

"In Your Retirement, Your Way, Alan and John lead the way to a new and dynamic definition of retirement. They begin with this exciting premise: the more you clearly identify your own personal style, the more you will experience a powerful and fulfilling next chapter in your life. With the variety of guides and road maps they provide, including a sample version of the Birkman® (a mini-Birkman®), readers can navigate their way to a more confident phase of life that offers both purpose and renewal."
--Dr. Roger W. Birkman, Chairman, Birkman International, Inc.

After years of focusing on career and family, most of us embark on the next phase of life with only a vague idea of what will make us happy. But you can guarantee yourself a long and successful retirement with Your Retirement, Your Way!

Its revolutionary retirement planning approach combines a powerful self-assessment system based on the Birkman Method®--a personality assessment system used by companies and government agencies worldwide--with sophisticated financial planning tools and step-by-step guidelines that allow you to:

• Define your ideal retirement environment
• Determine where you are now, financially, and where you want to be
• Map out a solid plan for realizing your dreams in the shortest time possible

Human Aging (2nd Edition) (MyDevelopmentKit Series)

Paul W. Foos, M. Cherie Clark

Amazon Price: $84.00 List Price: $105.00 By: Allyn & Bacon Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $84.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> Aging -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Gerontology

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great undergraduate human aging text! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have used this text in my own courses and students love it! It is very well written and the authors are clearly experts on human aging. Senior View sections provide the perspective of a Senior on some of the issues discussed in the text. I recommend this book to anyone teaching an undergraduate human aging course. It is particularly helpful within psychology but has a multidisciplinary bent at times that makes it palpable in a health aging course as well.

The Fearless Caregiver: How to Get the Best Care for Your Loved One and Still Have a Life of Your Own (Capital Cares)

Gary Barg

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Capital Books Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $7.25

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> Aging -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Relationships
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

While they are giving care, the nation's 25 million family caregivers rarely get a rest. Gone are the days when you could rely on others to do the work of caring for a loved one in your family. America's healthcare system throws many of the vital decisions, costs and burdens back on the family.

This book clearly defines your vital role in developing your loved one's care plan. It teaches you to deal successfully with managed care organizations, home health services, and especially your loved one; and arms you with the knowledge and skills you need for deciding if your loved one's care is appropriate, if your doctor is the right one, if something more is needed. From wills and powers-of-attorney, to practical tips for dealing with disabilities, to long term care options, to battling stress and depression -- the "shared wisdom" in this book comes not only from the experienced editors of Today's Caregiver Magazine, but also from the inspiring personal stories of readers of the magazine who have learned to "stand up to the system when the system no longer stands up for your loved one."

Successful Aging

John Wallis Md Rowe, Robert L. Kahn

List Price: $15.00 By: Dell Amazon Marketplace: 19 new & used starting at $4.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> Aging -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> Healthy Living
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This groundbreaking book should definitely help further the movement of what the authors call "a new gerontology." John Rowe, M.D., and Robert Kahn, Ph.D., both members of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network, thoroughly debunk the myth that aging has to be a painful process of debilitation. Their research has shown that the influence of genetics shrinks proportionately as you get older, while social and physical habits become increasingly integral to your state of health--both mental and physical. The 10 years' worth of research cited in Successful Aging reveal some flabbergasting facts about health in later life. For example, an inactive person is worse off, health-wise, than a smoker who exercises regularly. And your lifestyle and attitude are significantly more important than your genes in determining whether or not your golden years are healthy ones--even if you have a genetic predisposition for developing Alzheimer's, arthritis, cancer, or other serious health problems.

Rowe and Kahn start with a thorough breakdown of nutritional advice, including a rundown of the many vitamins and other nutrients that those older than 60 are in particular need of. They also detail the most important exercises for optimal functioning of body and mind, and analyze the benefits and risks of DHEA, melatonin, and tretinoin, while warning about snake-oil formulations that are now being marketed to the AARP set. There's also a thorough explanation of the importance of creativity and social connections--the research shows that, for the aging, strong social ties are even more important in preventing illness than genetic background.

Designated Daughter: The Bonus Years with Mom

D.g. Fulford, Phyllis Greene

Amazon Price: $15.61 List Price: $22.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Voice Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $9.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> Aging -> General
Subjects -> Parenting & Families -> Aging Parents -> Aging
Subjects -> Parenting & Families -> Aging Parents -> Eldercare

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Funny, poignant, and wise, Designated Daughter: The Bonus Years with Mom is D .G. Fulford's uplifting story of how, after her father's death, she returned home to become her mother's closest companion--a move that brought her more in return than she could ever have expected.
D.G. recalls how she and her mother--a pair who are opposites in almost every way, including how they unload the dishwasher--came together to learn what it means to be best friends, and to need each other in the truest sense. Sharing her experience of the lessons, expectations, and surprises involved with caregiving, D.G. also reveals her unique perspective as daughter, mother, and grandmother--and the wonderful ways to honor four generations of family. D.G.'s eighty-eight-year-old mother, Phyllis Greene, adds her own remarkable voice, contributing her point of view at the end of each chapter.
With humor and grace, D.G. and her mom talk about keeping in touch with D.G.'s two brothers as the entire family copes with the challenges and pleasures of change and transition. Woven throughout are the stories of other mothers and daughters who, despite many hardships and sacrifices, manage to draw from their mutual love and support and embrace these bonus years together as an opportunity to celebrate each other's insight.
This is a heartwarming, refreshing, and inspiring mother-daughter story about sharing the very best years. Moving, sensitive, and above all, honest, Designated Daughter speaks to the joys and privileges of bringing generations together toward the end of life--a hopeful message for mothers and their children everywhere.

The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty

Carolyn G. Heilbrun

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 138 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> Aging -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good News Bad News 4 out of 5 stars.
22 of 22 people found this review helpful.

If you are in your sixties, seventies, or beyond - or even if you are a precocious fifty-year-old, there is much to be had in this ultimately enigmatic series of essays by feminist, scholar, activist and mystery hound Carolyn Heilbrun. Thoughtful, introspective, funny and only occasionally cantankerous, Heilbrun strikes many a familiar chord in examining the oddly satisfying process of aging, if not gracefully, at least with some unexpected zest.

Heilbrun wore many hats in her life - her book Writing a Woman's Life is now a classic feminist study. She has a huge and richly deserved reputation as a scholar of Virginia Woolf as well as the Bloomsbury era in general. In popular culture, Heilbrun is probably best known by the pseudonym Amanda Cross, author of the Kate Fansler mystery series. She spent most of her academic career at Columbia University and speaks in these essays of her dismay at her experiences there and her relief at finally retiring.

Heilbrun is generous in sharing her inner life but never quite explains the puzzles. She was an ardent feminist, patriarchal enemy to the core. She deplored society's requirement that women dress the role and ultimately gave up dresses altogether. She slants towards androgyny and regards bisexuality as just a moving point on a line. She devotes a whole chapter to May Sarton, the poet, novelist and essayist who was her contemporary and her friend. Sarton was a tempestuous, oft ill-tempered lesbian who, much to her own dismay, found most public appreciation with the publication of her numerous journals recounting her rural life in New Hampshire and Maine.

But despite all of this, Heilbrun was a wife and mother and lived a seemingly contented life with her husband. The fact that, at the age of 68, she bought a home of her own where she often stayed, sans husband, seemed to her quite ordinary. In her personal life, there seemed to be little of the cacophony that marked her work and her times.

But the enigma of Carolyn Heilbrun lies mainly in her oft-vocalized determination to commit suicide at the age of 70 when, presumably, all usefulness and joy would be gone from life and ending it would avoid all of the nastiness involved in the endgame. But 70 came and went and she makes much in The Last Gift of Time of her decision to go on. Life, it seems, still had a lot to offer and that is what she offers us. These later years can be so rewarding that many women are quite shocked by this unexpected gift.

But, having read the book, and being inspired by that message, it is a bit disconcerting to learn that in 2003, at the age of 77, Heilbrun actually did commit suicide. By all accounts, there was no hint that this was to happen. Her husband and children were profoundly shocked, as were her friends . On the day she died, a Tuesday, Heilbrun walked through Central Park with a friend - something the two had done every Tuesday for 26 years. All seemed normal. Heilbrun was her usual self. The only possible hint, and a very thin one, was that at one point Heilbrun said "I feel sad". When the friend asked what she felt sad about, Heilbrun responded "The universe". And then she went home and put a plastic bag over her head.

Knowing the eventual outcome of Heilbrun's journey certainly changes the flavor of this book but it is difficult to say whether the message is diluted or enhanced. I, personally, was taken aback and re-read the book to see what I might have missed but did not find anything significant. It is still a book well worth reading and it has a lot to say to us "women of a certain age". But, despite its insight and its wisdom, what it mostly affirms is the unpredictability of life. And that, I suppose, is a good thing.

Editorial Review:

Years ago Carolyn Heilbrun, a long-time feminist (Writing a Woman's Life) who also writes mysteries as Amanda Cross (The James Joyce Murder), decided to leave before age dragged her down by committing suicide at 70. Fortunately, she reneged, and chose instead to chronicle moments from her 60s. Always erudite, often deliciously wry, if sometimes pretentious, Heilbrun hits the mark more often than not in this book of essays. She speaks of "unmet friends" whose lives have paralleled her own and blessed deliverance from the academic bustle and backstabbing of Columbia University, the tyranny of memory, and foolish feminine clothes. Throughout, her sense of renewal is as welcome as her determination to go against the grain.

Last Laughs: Cartoons About Aging, Retirement...and the Great Beyond

Amazon Price: $15.61 List Price: $22.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scribner Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $12.30

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> General
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Graphic Novels -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

At long last, here are cartoons about the truly important issues. Featuring twenty-six of The New Yorker's most talented cartoonists, Last Laughs is a provocative and exhilarating collection that will amuse, inspire, and occasionally unnerve everyone obsessed with the perennially compelling topics of old age, retirement, and,

yes, death.

Longtime New Yorker cartoonist Mort Gerberg has assembled an all-star cast of gifted and popular greats such as George Booth, Roz Chast, Leo Cullum, Frank Modell, and Jack Ziegler to join him in this exclusive collection confronting, illuminating, and celebrating the inevitabilities of life. Everything from cloning to cryogenics is tackled with humor and pathos. It turns out the Grim Reaper can be funny.

Also included in this book are brief reflections from the contributors that give readers a glimpse into their unique personalities. These artists prove that they are just as funny with the written word as they are with the image. Last Laughs is a must-have for fans of literary cartoons and anyone interested in slightly off-kilter insights about life and death.

Eldercare for Dummies

Rachelle Zukerman

Amazon Price: $13.59 List Price: $19.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: For Dummies Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $9.68

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> Aging -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

How to Help when Help is Refused 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I made my holiday trip to the bookstore last week. I purchased a copy of Eldercare for Dummies, by Rachelle Zukerman, PhD. The book is packed with light humor and also great tips. I especially liked Chapter 2 with the section on how to help when help is refused.It's great.

Editorial Review:

Cope with legal, financial, and medical issues

Minimize anxiety and stress and make the later years golden

Need help caring for an elderly loved one? This sensitive, reassuring guide provides strategies for assessing older persons' needs, arranging for care, ensuring their safety, and enhancing quality of life - all while respecting their dignity. You'll see how to manage physical disabilities and chronic health problems, evaluate nursing homes, and help elders control their destinies.

The Dummies Way
* Explanations in plain English
* "Get in, get out" information
* Icons and other navigational aids
* Tear-out cheat sheet
* Top ten lists
* A dash of humor and fun