If you don’t choose your midlife crisis, your crisis will choose you. Darrel Bristow-Bovey has tried his best to deny to himself that he’s getting older, but you can’t hide from the truth in the changing-room mirror. One day, surrounded by sharks on a small boat in the Indian Ocean, he suddenly realises his midlife crisis is already under way. Running a gauntlet of bucket lists, prostate examinations and sexual misadventures, Darrel sets himself a task: to follow in the footsteps of Lord Byron and the Greek hero Hercules and swim across the Dardanelles in Turkey. The only problem is that he’s old and tried and lazy and can’t swim very well. One Midlife Crisis and a Speedo is a warm, witty, eventually wise journey into the terrors and absurdities and grumpy compensations of middle age that will speak to every man and woman who has ever noticed that time is ticking by faster every day.

The problem with self-help books that litter the shelves of the bookstores and bedside tables of the nation is that they expect you to do all the work. You are required to read them, remember key words, perhaps even put their teachings into practice in everyday life. Not this self-help book. This is the self-help book for people who want to take no steps at all. This is the self-help book for people lying on the sofa. This book will tell you how to reap the rewards of being a better person without having to trouble yourself with the unnecessary burden of actually becoming better. Our pages have been treated with a revolutionary new formula that allows wisdom to pass directly from the page into the atmosphere, where it can be easily inhaled from a reclining position.

The life-affirming story of Constance, who floats above her home town after her death from cancer, keeping watch over her loved ones while trying to work out while she's still there. A poignant celebration of living and loving, friendship and motherhood, loss and hope.

A lifelong swimming enthusiast who had always dreamed of Olympic glory describes how, despite his failure to qualify for the Olympic trials from 1976 through 2004, he took up his quest at the age of forty-two by preparing for the Masters Championships, undergoing a long, difficult, and effective training regimen in pursuit of his dream.

Now in paperback comes the moving account by an extraordinary young woman who mounted a daily struggle with cystic fibrosis in an effort to lead an ordinary life. Twenty-one-year-old Laura Rothenberg had always tried to live a normal life -- even with lungs that betrayed her and a constant awareness that she might not live to see her next birthday. Like most people born with cystic fibrosis, the chronic disease that affects primarily the lungs, Laura struggled to come to grips with a life that had already been compromised in many ways. Sometimes healthy and able to attend school, other times hospitalized for weeks, Laura found solace in keeping a diary. In her writing, she could be open, honest, and irreverent, like the young person she was. Yet behind this voice is a penetrating maturity about her mortality, revealing a will and temperament that is fierce and insightful.

Comical Vacations 2 Three-Book Bundle Contents The Finch Family Holiday 3 It is that time of year again folks, yes summer is here so batten down the hatches because the Finch family are heading for Cornwall to stay in a holiday home by the sea with its own secluded beach. Sounds idyllic, sounds relaxing and sounds like a lot of fun in the sun so one out of three is not bad since all is not what it seems and how is Kitty Finch supposed to chill out when there are certain people winding her up from start to finish. As extra members of the clan are joining them for the ten-day humorous adventure, sparks could fly if someone lit a match to ignite the tension, sexual or otherwise. There are days out to look forward to in Cornwall where the Finch family discover new things, try out new stuff and resort to old tricks when needed. Will Kitty’s cousin get the better of her on this comical vacation? Will Kitty Finch be involved in any holiday romances or just watching from the sidelines, as per usual? Will a cardboard figure and a knitted scarecrow survive the vacation to go on another one? So come along and catch up with the funny Finches as they show you what having a British family holiday is about. The Finch Family Holiday 4 This year’s Finch family holiday finds them flying off to France for ten days in the rural French countryside. Only Kitty Finch seems to spend her vacation time searching for something whether it is a home for a pet, a handbag or a holiday romance. Not to mention the mystery man and his yellow socks that bring trouble her way. All whilst avoiding the unwanted advances of a certain somebody who does not know when to take no for an answer but should know better. As the Finch family comes across plenty of people to share their time with including German neighbours, English expats and even a French farmer to name a few. One of the men Kitty meets is special enough to take her fancy for a French fling, so start reading this funny French farce to see if she succeeds despite the exes who are hijacking her holiday fun. Whether it comes to randy rabbits, randy monkeys or randy men it is all part of the experience. The Finch Family Holiday 5 Who wants to go on holiday when they are ill in bed? Kitty Finch does not so she does her best to get out of the annual family holiday but no, her parents are having none of it so she is going to Turkey whether she likes it or not. Since they will probably kidnap her if she does not comply and come willingly while she never imagined part of that sentence actually coming true on this trip. Anyway, they are soon off to the airport where her nightmares begin and not for the only time on this holiday does Kitty wish that she had stayed in bed and had not bothered getting up. Not that she wants to appear ungrateful about going on a five-day all-inclusive package holiday in the sun during the school half-term in October, it is just that she will be face-to-face with her ex-husband who she hasn't seen since the wedding fiasco and the less said about that the better. Despite not feeling up to a holiday with the family, it is not all doom and gloom for poor old Kitty because she does get to experience things in Turkey that she never would have had she not gone there and some aspects of it she even enjoys. As this is what a British family holidaying abroad gets up to when left to their own devices. Only do not expect this laugh-out-loud saga to end there because the funny Finches will be back for yet more shenanigans in the next book.

In Raging Gracefully, women just like you give voice to the unique challenges and choices that color this glorious yet gut-wrenching time of life. This engaging, endearing collection of true-life stories reveals the guts and glory of women old enough to know who they are--and run with it: a grieving widow of forty-nine experiences the healing powers of friendship, laughter, and water while vacationing and skinny-dipping in Mexico with sister-friends; a committed bachelorette has a change of heart and ties the knot in her sixtieth year; and a once mild-mannered woman raves about her unexpected menopausal rage, whiskers, weight gain, crushing fatigue, and crashing libido, and refuses to go without a fight into that dark crone's night. In mid-life the truth comes out whether we like it or not--about life, about death, about what really matters. We take on everything from children who won't grow up and parents who become children to about-face career changes and relationship rescues (or not). But through it all we can still have some fun, and this is the book that proves it! So treat yourself to a little graceful raging!