Ten lessons to maximize creativity and happiness in the second half of life
In this inspiring new book, Suzanne Braun Levine follows her groundbreaking Inventing the Rest of Our Lives with fresh insights, research, and practical advice on the challenges and unexpected rewards for women in their fifties and beyond. Rich with anecdotes from the front lines of self-reinvention, this book captures the voices of women who are confronting change, renegotiating their relationships, and discovering who they are now that they are finally grown up. Among the lessons are: βNoβ is not a four-letter Word, on the energizing power of standing up for what you mean and what you want; Do unto yourself as you have been doing unto others, a new way of getting yourself to the top of the to-do list; and Your marriage can make it, reassurance that changing your outlook doesnβt have to mean walking away from your marriage. Shaped by Levineβs empathetic and lively voice, this book is about wisdom,...
From Publishers Weekly
In a time when How Not to Look Old is a bestseller, and the women who came of age during the 1960s are now in their 60s, outspoken women's movement veteran Levine (Inventing the Rest of Our Lives) advises women 50-plus to reject the desire to recapture youth and acknowledge their great good fortune in arriving at a point where they can creatively enhance the rest of their lives. Citing Madeleine L'Engle's observation, the great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been, Levine uses this book to air and explore her own feelings, and those of other women, about moving from the Fuck-You Fifties to a pleasanter, stress-defusing outlook characterized by a growing ability to not take lesser things too seriously. She offers a 10-step strategy for avoiding a descent into The Fertile Void, where late-midlife women find themselves in a state of confusion and lost self-confidence. The self-help lessons are nothing new: be your age, not your stage; take responsibility for your physical and emotional life; accept that you are not who you were, only older; use what you already know. Advertising-style jargon and nonsensical slogans get in the way of an otherwise promising positive message. (Apr.)
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Review
"No more pretended youth! Suzanne Braun Levine shows us the wisdom and joys of living in our own personal present. For women who have been pressured into living the past over and over again, Fifty is the New Fifty is the first true age liberation."
-Gloria Steinem
"Suzanne Braun Levine's honest and empowering book is the antidote to all those anti-aging creams and glum pronouncements about life after fifty. It explains why for me and for so many other women, this has turned out to be the most free, creative, and rewarding time of life."
-Isabella Rossellini
"Fifty is the New Fifty is just what I expected from Suzanne Braun Levine-useful, comforting and smart."
-Jane Fonda
"Finally, fifty comes of age! Levine's concept of Second Adulthood confirms what women have been telling one another in private-this is a wonderful stage and we can each claim it in our own way."
-Marlo Thomas