In The Privilege of Aging author Patricia Shapiro (M.S.W.) opens a window for us into the lives of women from 75 to 102 years old and explores their successes and challenges, longevity and vitality. Each woman has lived a different path of life, and their examples show us that the resources for successful aging are within us. Anthropologist Doris Francis says that we need "to seize the challenges and honors of growing old." "Patricia Gottlieb Shapiro introduces us to ordinary women who model growth, resiliency, creativity and vibrancy in later life. These women are our guides; they beckon all of us to age fearlessly." Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman, M.A., M.S.W., B.C.C. Author of Jewish Visions for Aging Director, Growing Older: Wisdom + Spirit Beyond Midlife "The Privilege of Aging presents the empowering life stories of twelve Jewish women, who courageously assess their advanced years not as a barrier but rather as a unique possibility for continued growth...a valuable guide how Jewish values, resilience and creativity offer immeasurable resources to forge new late-life paths and to redefine the meaning and dignity of the aged self." Doris Francis, Ph.D. Anthropologist Author of Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me, When I'm 84?

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• Shares the author’s inner adventure to face aging, illness, and death, along with hard-won wisdom on the art of resting, happiness, and letting go • Draws on stories from different spiritual traditions and offers strategies, tools, and ways of thinking to navigate the challenges of aging • Reveals how to examine your fears and regrets, declutter the mind of negative thoughts, and reframe reality with the powerful tool of unconditional self-love Presenting a clarion call to the aging to awaken before they die, Kamla K. Kapur explores how we can become warriors on the spiritual path in order to embrace and prepare for the truth of our mortality and the ultimate triumph of conscious living and dying. Set in both California and India, Kapur shares her inner adventure to navigate the hazardous battlefield of aging with the aid of spiritual guides that pilot her to safety and offer hard-won wisdom on the art of resting, happiness, and letting go. Revealing the arc of her own self-discovery, she examines her own shadows, fears, anxieties, and regrets, decluttering her mind of disempowering thoughts and reframing and co-creating her reality with the powerful tool of unconditional self-love. Drawing on stories from all traditions, Kapur demonstrates the power of self-examination, vigilance, and intentionality to have a successful old age and offers strategies, tools, and ways of thinking to ensure mental, physical, and spiritual strength to meet aging’s challenges and transform from the people we once were to the ones we are becoming on the penultimate stage of earthly life. Encouraging readers to proceed on their own journeys of awakening, Kapur describes how to confront, express, and embrace your darkness, consciously and honestly, to move forward into the ever greater wholeness of being that incorporates our animal, human, and divine nature. She shows how to make the final course of an ardent, empowered, and courageous journey into God’s heart, revealing how the privilege of aging is to fully experience this precious, painful life and to achieve vitality, satisfaction, and joy in the life we are fortunate to still have.

Cameron Diaz shares her formula for becoming happier, healthier, and stronger in this positive, essential guide grounded in science and inspired by personal experience, a #1 New York Times bestseller. Throughout her career, Cameron Diaz has been a role model for millions of women. By her own candid admission, though, this fit, glamorous, but down-to-earth star was not always health-conscious. Learning about the inseparable link between nutrition and the body was just one of the life-changing lessons that has fed Cameron’s hunger to educate herself about the best ways to feed, move, and care for her body. In The Body Book, she shares what she has learned and continues to discover about nutrition, exercise, and the mind/body connection. Grounded in science and informed by real life, The Body Book offers a comprehensive overview of the human body and mind, from the cellular level up. From demystifying and debunking the hype around food groups to explaining the value of vitamins and minerals, readers will discover why it’s so important to embrace the instinct of hunger and to satisfy it with whole, nutrient-dense foods. Cameron also explains the essential role of movement, the importance of muscle and bone strength and why we need to sweat a little every day. The Body Bookdoes not set goals to reach in seven days or thirty days or a year. It offers a holistic, long-term approach to making consistent choices and reaching the ultimate goal: a long, strong, happy, healthy life.

Actress Cameron Diaz opens a conversation with her peers on a topic that for too long has been taboo in our society: the aging female body. She shares the latest scientific research on how and why we age, synthesizing insights from top medical experts with her own thoughts, opinions, and experiences. The Longevity Book explores what history, biology, neuroscience, and the women's health movement can teach us about maintaining optimal health as we transition from our thirties to midlife. From understanding how growing older impacts various bodily systems to the biological differences in the way aging effects men and women; the latest science on telomeres and slowing the rate of cognitive decline to how meditation heals us and why love, friendship, and laughter matter for health, Diaz offers an all-encompassing, holistic look at how the female body ages -- and what we can all do to age better.

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In 1986 Dr. David Snowdon, one of the world’s leading experts on Alzheimer’s disease, embarked on a revolutionary scientific study that would forever change the way we view aging—and ultimately living. Dubbed the “Nun Study” because it involves a unique population of 678 Catholic sisters, this remarkable long-term research project has made headlines worldwide with its provocative discoveries. Yet Aging with Grace is more than a groundbreaking health and science book. It is the inspiring human story of these remarkable women—ranging in age from 74 to 106—whose dedication to serving others may help all of us live longer and healthier lives. Totally accessible, with fascinating portraits of the nuns and the scientists who study them, Aging with Grace also offers a wealth of practical findings: • Why building linguistic ability in childhood may protect against Alzheimer’s • Which ordinary foods promote longevity and healthy brain function • Why preventing strokes and depression is key to avoiding Alzheimer’s • What role heredity plays, and why it’s never too late to start an exercise program • How attitude, faith, and community can add years to our lives A prescription for hope, Aging with Grace shows that old age doesn’t have to mean an inevitable slide into illness and disability; rather it can be a time of promise and productivity, intellectual and spiritual vigor—a time of true grace.

In an unprecedented series of studies, Harvard Medical School has followed 824 subjects -- men and women, some rich, some poor -- from their teens to old age. Harvard's George Vaillant now uses these studies -- the most complete ever done anywhere in the world -- and the subjects' individual histories to illustrate the factors involved in reaching a happy, healthy old age. He explains precisely why some people turn out to be more resilient than others, the complicated effects of marriage and divorce, negative personality changes, and how to live a more fulfilling, satisfying and rewarding life in the later years. He shows why a person's background has less to do with their eventual happiness than the specific lifestyle choices they make. And he offers step-by-step advice about how each of us can change our lifestyles and age successfully. Sure to be debated on talk shows and in living rooms, Vaillant's definitive and inspiring book is the new classic account of how we live and how we can live better. It will receive massive media attention, and with good reason: we have never seen anything like it, and what it has to tell us will make all the difference in the world.

Former president Jimmy Carter reflects on aging, blending memoir, anecdote, political savvy, and practical advice to truly illuminate the rich promises of growing older. “As we've grown older, the results have been surprisingly good,” writes former president Jimmy Carter in this wise, deeply personal meditation on the new experiences that come to us with age. President Carter had never enjoyed more prestige or influence on the world stage, nor had he ever felt more profound happiness with himself, with his accomplishments, and with his beloved wife, Rosalynn, than in his golden years. In The Virtues of Aging, Jimmy Carter shares the knowledge and the pleasures that age have brought him. The approach to old age was not an easy one for President Carter. At fifty-six, having lost a presidential election, he found himself involuntarily retired from a job he loved and facing a large debt on his farm and warehouse business. President Carter writes movingly here of how he and Rosalynn overcame their despair and disappointment as together they met the challenges ahead. President Carter delves into issues he and millions of others confront in planning for retirement, undertaking new diet and exercise regimens, coping with age prejudice, and sorting out key political questions. On a more intimate level, Carter paints a glowing portrait of his happy marriage to Rosalynn, a relationship that deepened when they became grandparents. Here too are fascinating sketches of world leaders, Nobel laureates, and great thinkers President Carter has been privileged to know—and the valuable lessons on aging he learned from them. The Virtues of Aging celebrates both the blessings that come to us as we grow older and the blessings older people can bestow upon others. An important and moving book, written with gentleness, humor, and love, The Virtues of Aging is a treasure for readers of all ages.