Many women, and a minority of men, are deciding that 'adequate' marriages are inadequate. They are driving an explosion of 'grey' divorce and remarriage in the over-50s. With children departing into their own journeys and ever-longer lives stretching out ahead, more mature adults are leaping, unconventionally and aspirationally, at a last chance at love. Most of the existing literature discourages them. The dominant mantra of books, counsellors and media is that 'staying together' is the superior, admirable choice. They insist that romantic dreams of great sex and soul mates are the Disney-esque yearnings of the naively immature. This book argues the contrary. Great relationships are not only attainable; they are a natural and admirable goal for ageing humans. And if your current mate isn't interested in working with you to craft an ever-deeper and finer partnership, then it may be your mate that requires changing - not your dreams. As a gender expert, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox frames her reflections in the context of an unprecedented, millennial shift in gender relations. As women's educational, social and economic empowerment increases, they continue to demand more for the world - and from it. This is true both at home and at work. Settling for anything less than mutually supportive, seductive and stretching relationships is so yesterday. As the number of late leavers and lovers swells, their thirst for more is redefining what relationships look like in a greying, gender-balanced world. And it looks pretty good. Many women, and a minority of men, are deciding that 'adequate' marriages are inadequate. They are driving an explosion of 'grey' divorce and remarriage in the over-50s. With children departing into their own journeys and ever-longer lives stretching out ahead, more mature adults are leaping, unconventionally and aspirationally, at a last chance at love. Most of the existing literature discourages them. The dominant mantra of books, counsellors and media is that 'staying together' is the superior, admirable choice. They insist that romantic dreams of great sex and soul mates are the Disney-esque yearnings of the naively immature. This book argues the contrary. Great relationships are not only attainable; they are a natural and admirable goal for ageing humans. And if your current mate isn't interested in working with you to craft an ever-deeper and finer partnership, then it may be your mate that requires changing - not your dreams. As a gender expert, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox frames her reflections in the context of an unprecedented, millennial shift in gender relations. As women's educational, social and economic empowerment increases, they continue to demand more for the world - and from it. This is true both at home and at work. Settling for anything less than mutually supportive, seductive and stretching relationships is so yesterday. As the number of late leavers and lovers swells, their thirst for more is redefining what relationships look like in a greying, gender-balanced world. And it looks pretty good.

Peggy Knickerbocker, a native San Franciscan, and daughter of a drama critic and a political activist, had a long and charmed career in the world of food. She taught cooking, ran a catering business in the 1970’s and co-owned, with her childhood friend, Flicka McGurrin, two colorful restaurants, one still thrives on the waterfront with McGurrin as sole owner. In 1989 she left the business to write about food. At first she wrote steadily for magazines such as Saveur, Food and Wine and Gourmet and then went on to write four cookboo ks, the last won a James Beard Award. She’d eaten her way through every continent by the time she was done writing about food. Along the way, Knickerbocker had the greatest friends and a fascinating life, including years in Paris. She’d wrestled most of her demons to the mat, but with men, she’d faltered. After an early divorce and one or two good relationships, she repeatedly under-served herself with her choices. Late in middle age, Peggy realized that she was quite satisfied with her life. That was when the man appeared. She’d never considered a businessman, let alone one originally from the Midwest. Since Knickerbocker had come of age in San Francisco’s Bohemian North Beach during 70’s, she’d gone for unconventional and often unavailable men. Robert Fisher, a widower, a man with innumerable attractions, pursued her hotly. She clung to her independence only to realize she could have it all. She discovered the man with whom she’d spend her life, and, along the way, the subject of this book.

“Coach Brown is 1 of 1. A total original. Watching him on Last Chance U was the most interesting thing on TV since The Sopranos. He's the Tony Soprano of football.” Michael Rapaport Actor/Comedian “JB was the first QB I coached at Compton College. Jason's father came to me to make sure I would look after him and I took that task on head first and with honor. Jason not only became my first All-American QB, he went on and did everything he said he would. This book epitomizes who he is: straightforward, driven, emotional, and 100% invested in the WIN.” Coach Cornell Ward Former Head Coach Compton Community College “I did not have a single college scholarship offer coming out of high school. Jason Brown saw potential in me when no one else did. He helped teach and mold me into a future NFL QB.” Brad Sorensen Quarterback San Diego Chargers Tennessee Titans Minnesota Vikings “Jason and I have known each other for twenty years. I coached against Jason while he was a player and together on the same staff. The general public does not know how caring and committed he is to the well-being of his players. Many outside of his circle fail to ascertain this quality in him but once you get to know JB, you will appreciate Jason Brown.” Marguet Miller Head Football Coach West Los Angeles College

“Winning [and] intelligent. . . . [An] impressive, often heartening addition to the literature of aging.” — Heller McAlpin, Wall Street Journal In this “unique blend of memoir and literary commentary” (Bookpage), acclaimed author and literary scholar Susan Gubar contemplates the beauty and strength of enduring love—both for her husband and for the literature that has shaped her life. Throughout the complications of devoted caregiving, her own ongoing cancer treatments, and a stressful move to a more manageable apartment, Gubar proves that love and desire have no expiration date—on the page or in life. Late-Life Love offers a resounding retort to ageist stereotypes, appraises the obstacles unique to senior couples, and celebrates second chances.

Love in the Late Edition is a story about a man who retires with his wife to an idyllic retirement community in California but is very soon left tragically alone. Alistair Brown is originally from Australia but has spent decades working in America, once as the editor of the local newspaper nearby, which is why he and his wife have come back to beautiful Carmelito to retire. Now, suddenly blindsided by fate, Alistair knows he must somehow find a new purpose in his life, which at first he struggles to do, often comically. Written in the style of an autobiography, Alistair's story is both funny and sad. It is full of compelling characters and memorable incidents in a world unto itself with its own attitudes and customs, a world that becomes threatened and in need of saving. Alistair, who finds fulfilment by using his old journalistic talents as editor of the community's newsletter, is able to help sound the alarm. Then something else surprising and good happens, when he least expects it. Love in the Late Edition is part love story, part homage to the newspaper business, part ode to friendship. But, most of all, it is an affirmation that while there is life there is hope, and that even in the evening of our lives we can find happiness with a fresh reason for living.

In Love and Narrative Form in Toni Morrison’s Later Novels, Jean Wyatt explores the interaction among ideas of love, narrative innovation, and reader response in Toni Morrison’s seven later novels. Love comes in a new and surprising shape in each of the later novels; for example, Love presents it as the deep friendship between little girls; in Home it acts as a disruptive force producing deep changes in subjectivity; and in Jazz it becomes something one innovates and recreates each moment—like jazz itself. Each novel’s unconventional idea of love requires a new experimental narrative form. Wyatt analyzes the stylistic and structural innovations of each novel, showing how disturbances in narrative chronology, surprise endings, and gaps mirror the dislocated temporality and distorted emotional responses of the novels’ troubled characters and demand that the reader situate the present-day problems of the characters in relation to a traumatic African American past. The narrative surprises and gaps require the reader to become an active participant in making meaning. And the texts’ complex narrative strategies draw out the reader’s convictions about love, about gender, about race—and then prompt the reader to reexamine them, so that reading becomes an active ethical dialogue between text and reader. Wyatt uses psychoanalytic concepts to analyze Morrison’s narrative structures and how they work on readers. Love and Narrative Form devotes a chapter to each of Morrison’s later novels: Beloved, Jazz, Paradise, Love, A Mercy, Home, and God Help the Child.

..".a deliciously tangled plot and insight into life on the Persian Gulf." Kirkus Review When newlywed Abdulla loses his wife and unborn child in a car accident, the world seems to crumble beneath his feet. Thrust back into living in the family compound, he goes through the motions--work, eat, sleep, repeat. Blaming himself for their deaths, he decides to never marry again but knows that culturally, this is not an option. Three years later, he's faced with an arranged marriage to his cousin Hind, whom he hasn't seen in years. Hard-pressed to find a way out, he consents to a yearlong engagement and tries to find a way to end it. What he doesn't count on, and is unaware of, is Hind's own reluctance to marry. Longing for independence, she insists on being allowed to complete a master's degree in England, a condition Abdulla readily accepts. When she finds an unlikely friend in Indian-American Sangita, she starts down a path that will ultimately place her future in jeopardy. The greatest success of Rajakumar's novel is the emotional journey the reader takes via her rich characters. One cannot help but feel the pressure of the culturally mandated marriage set before Hind and Abdulla. He's not a real Muslim man if he remains single, and she will never be allowed freedoms without the bondage of a potentially loveless marriage. It's an impossible situation dictated by a culture that they still deeply respect. Rajakumar pulls back the veil on life in Qatar to reveal a glimpse of Muslim life rarely seen by Westerners.

A sparkling romantic comedy starring a bestselling author who goes to Paris to overcome writer's block and rediscovers family, independence, and love along the way. All Maggie Bliss needs to do is write. Forty-eight years old and newly single (again!), she ventures to Paris in a last-ditch effort to finish her manuscript. With a marvelous apartment at her fingertips and an elegant housekeeper to meet her every need, a finished book—and her dream of finally taking her career over the top—is surely within her grasp. After all, how could she find anything except inspiration in Paris, with its sophistication, food, and romance in the air? But the clock is running out, and between her charming ex-husband arriving in France for vacation and a handsome Frenchman appearing one morning in her bathtub, Maggie’s previously undisturbed peace goes by the wayside. Charming and heartfelt, Dee Ernst's Maggie Finds Her Muse is a delightful and feel-good novel about finding love, confidence, and inspiration in all the best places.

From the New York Times columnist, a portrait of a family and the cycles of joy and grief that mark the natural world: “Has the makings of an American classic.” —Ann Patchett Growing up in Alabama, Margaret Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents—her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father—and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child’s transition to caregiver. And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees. As these two threads haunt and harmonize with each other, Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. For in both worlds—the natural one and our own—“the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love’s own twin.” Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut. “Magnificent . . . Readers will savor each page and the many gems of wisdom they contain.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)