An informative and humorous book that will inspire seniors to live more rewarding lives as they read these encouraging words from one great-grandmother who has learned the difference between existing and living.

"Don't be surprised, Pussycat," said Helen Gurley Brown, still flirtatious at eighty-four, "We're all survivors and proud of it. We want to talk about it." And they do. Eighty of America's most famous eighty year-olds reflect on their journeys to the big 8-0 and describe the passions that keep them young. They all have opinions about today's world what is good about being eighty and what keeps them vital. The members of this generation have spent eighty-plus years honing the art of living and they have secrets to share. Their personal stories are truly inspirational. "My answer to growing old at any age, whether you're growing to be twenty , or forty, or sixty or eighty, is to fall in love and stay in love." --Ray Bradbury, 86, author "It's interesting to me--my career has taken off now that I'm ninety-five. It's totally taken off. I had to wait 'til I was ninety-five to be this popular." --Kitty Carlisle Hart, 95, singer "I say quite sincerely that this is the best time of my life." --Hugh Hefner, 80, founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy Contributors to the book include: Mike Wallace, Helen Thomas, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Lena Horne, Kitty Carlyle Hart, Ray Bradbury, Art Buchwald, Norman Lear, Robert Byrd, George McGovern, and Jack Valenti. Advanced Praise for 80: "Everyone from 9-90 needs this book, because save for the two or three mad people in the world, everyone wants to live & never die. The selected people in "80" have with, charm and ensusiance revealed how they have survived, with passion, compassion, humor and style. I hope Gardner and Bellows will do another one on 90 - I am in for the long run."--Maya Angelou "80 is the new young! These inspiring stories of vibrant, active octogenarians are the best kind of tonic for warding off worries about old age."--Tom Brokaw "Once, almost nobody was eighty. Now many of us are and more of us are going to be soon. So Gerald Gardner and Jim Bellows give us a wonderful book about being eighty and more."--Jimmy Breslin "A joy to read and a guaranteed attitude adjustment. These people are hope! And Gerald Gardner and Jim Bellows know how to edit down their famous lives to the fearless truths."--Gail Sheehy, author of Passages and Sex and the Seasoned Woman "Jim Bellows' and Gerald Gardner's 80 made me laugh, 80 made me think, and 80 actually made me look forward to reaching and to enjoying that Grand Age"--Mark Shields, syndicated columnist and PBS commentator "80 is the most heartening book on old age I've read since De Senectute (Cicero, you callow sub-octogenarians, Cicero). The 80 old folks in 80 make 80 sound so fascinating, I feel short-changed by being forced to wait until 2010 to be among their number."--Tom Wolfe "I love this book. What a pleasure: great interviews, lovely wise people."--Ånnie Lamott, author of Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

Baby boomers are turning 65 at the rate of 12,000 a day. This is the ultimate guide filled with positive and practical advice for women for the second half of life. Here is everything boomers need to know about aging, but never thought (or were afraid to) to ask. It takes the reader on a journey of discovery; a journey in which the author and reader explore together the hopeful, interesting, and exciting aspects of aging alongside the more difficult ones. She encourages the fifty-plus population to (among other things) confront their fears, discover their spiritual selves, re-discover play, friends, and family, and embrace the future. Each essay is judiciously sprinkled with quotes from a wide range of women, including May Sarton, Edith Wharton, Betty White, Betty Friedan, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Helen Gurley Brown, and includes dozens of practical and motivational ideas, concrete suggestions for moving forward, and guidance for daily journaling.

Square Squire and the Journey to DreamState, my 394-page, 96,729-word novel, is a semiautobiographical story of growing up geeky in the last innocent time when all the basketball players had hopes and none of the gangs had guns. Squire Brooks is a precocious nerd whose only awareness of the transitions in his neighborhood of Compton, California, in the 60s is the opportunity to chuck stones at the increasing number of For Sale signs in the yards of his white neighbors. His fathers deepening involvement in civil rights creates increasing chaos in his home, where Squire writes his short stories and daydreams. Adolescence brings peer-driven lessons about girls, puberty, girls, bullies, and girls as he navigates the temptations during his elementary, junior high, and high school years. Squires daydreaming has developed into an imaginative mechanism that frees his mind from all the chaos and allows him to escape to a dream state whenever he writes. After graduating from high school and on a road trip with his dog, Julius, Squire meets Octavia Steves, who teaches him that his dream state is actually a form of meditation that could help him become the writer of his dreams.

*** 'Are you aging fabulously? Here's how.' Anna Murphy, The Times 'A lovely book celebrating female beauty over 40.' Top Sante 'You become what you see. What you see determines what you believe - and the most powerful way of inspiring people is with images. My goal with AndBloom is to motivate women to embrace life without fear. To provide examples of women between the age of 40 and, currently, 100, so that any woman can open this book and see themselves recognized.' Denise Boomkens launched the AndBloom project on Instagram in 2018, to create a 'happy place for women over 40' - a community where women can be themselves and where aging is celebrated instead of feared. In this, her first book, she shares her own experiences of aging and brings together portraits and interviews with more than 100 extraordinary 'ordinary' women to create both a gloriously illustrated celebration of female beauty over 40 and an empowering handbook to aging happily.

While growing older certainly has its benefits, its downside poses big challenges. Physical decline; loss of spouses, relatives, and friends; memory lapses; feelings of inadequacy or uselessness--such things can give us those "senior moments" that sidetrack us with fear and worry. In this sequel to her bestselling book, Karen O'Connor brings even more encouragement to people in their golden years, prompting them to reflect, laugh, play, and take both burdens and joys to the Lord who cares for them.