The following books have helped me learn more about the aging process, and my reflections on it. I've ordered them by related subjects.
A User's Guide to the Second Half of Life
William E. Diehl and Judith Ruhe Diehl
Copyright © 2003 Augsburg Fortress
ISBN 0-8066-4448-6
Bill and Judith are friends from Pennsylvania where we all attended St Luke Lutheran Church in Devon. In this book they deal with the religious aspects of retirement. Theirs is most active. They recently moved into a retirement community with continuing care should they need it -- a decision they made for the kids. It is located in the same community where they had lived, so they can conveniently continue with many of their church and community activities. They have added more, shared with others in that new community.
The chapter titles include:
- Retiring Retirement
- Being Necessary
- Planning of Senior Living
- To Move or Not to Move
- Lifestyle
- Work
- Volunteering
- Giving
- The Money Thing
- That Time of Year
- Notes
Finding the Right Place at the Right Time
Joan Cleveland
Penguin Books 1996
ISBN 0140251839
The chapter titles include:
It's Your Turn, Word for the Worriers, Living with the Children, Resort Communities, High-Rises, Assisted Living Facilities, Continuing Care Retirement Communities, An Ounce of Financial Prevention, Useful Information (including State-by-State at a Glance, Taxes, Medical Care, State Agencies on Aging, General Resources.)
Douglas H. Powell
W.H.Freeman and Company, NY, 1998
ISBN 0-7167-4205-6
The myths explored in chapters include:
- Aging Is a boring subject
- All old people are pretty much the same
- An unsound body equals an unsound mind
- Memory is the first thing to go
- Use it or Lose it
- Old dogs can't learn new tricks
- Old people are isolated and lonely
- Old people are depressed, and have every right to be
- Wisdom requires being smart and elderly
- Summing up: guidelines for optimal aging
The complete guide to physical and emotional health and longevity
Copyright © 2002 by
Guy McKhann, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and
Marily Albert, Ph,D, Harvard Medical School
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ISBN 0-471-43028-5
If there is one thing that determines how fully we live at an older age, it is how well our brains work. ... It is involved in almost everyting we do. ... thinking, feelings, modes, movements, senses, sleeping. This book emphasizes ways to keep your brain functions performing as well as possible for as long as possible.
Kahlil Gibran -- Kahlil Gibran
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., May 1976
ISBN 0-394-404289
Many topics, including "On Love", "On Beauty", "On Work", "On Children",
"On Friendship", "On Giving, "Crime & Punishment".
Myths and Mechanisms
Copyright © 1990 by Margaret A. Boden
ISBN 0-465-01452-6
Basic Books
"In sum: whether or not computers can really be creative, they can do apparently creative things -- and, what is more to the point, considering how they can do so can help us understand how creativity happens in people.
101 Ways to Start the Rest of Your Life
Copyright © Howard Stone and Marika C. Stone 2004
Penguine Group
ISBN 0-452-28557-7
"Consider this book an off-the-road map to the rest of your life. It is about discovery, surprise, and blazing your own trail. It isn't about destinations; it's about the journey itself."
A guide to living like 50 until you're 80 and beyond
Copyright © 2004 by Christopher Crowley and Henry S. Lodge
Workman Publishing Company, Inc
New York
ISBN 0-7611-3423-9
Contents
Part One: Take Charge of Your BodyAppendix
Harry's Rules
Author Notes
The Younger Next Year One-Size-Fits-All Exercise Program
Edited by Sandra Haldeman Martz
Papier-Mache Press, Watsonville, CA, 1996
ISBN 0-918949-87-6 Softcover,
ISBN 0-918949-87-4 Hardcover
Contains a series of fifty-nine essays from many authors, mostly women,
"Common threads ran throughout the material: the need to be loved, the importance of family connections, an accepance of the aging process."
Navigating the Emotional Terrain of Our Elders
Mary Piper, Ph.D.
Riverhead Books 2000
ISBN 1-57322-784-6
A field guide for the baby-boomers who are finding themselves unprepared to care for those who have always cared for them. ... offers us new ways of supporting each other -- new ways of sharing our time, our energy, and our love.
This book has much excellent advice, with case study results based on her clinical practice. Her writing is most stimulating. She has written other award-winning books as well.
Notable are her five R's: We all want
Our challenge is to create a culture that allows our elders to have these things.
A Wry and Witty Guide to Life
Roger Rosenblatt, Copyright © 2000
Harvest Book, Harcourt Brace
ISBN 0-15-100659-8
Fifty-eight rules, somewhat tongue-in-cheek. For example: "resist normal impulses, live longer, attain perfection"
Finally: "Apologize, reconcile, give help."
Copyright © 1998 by Bob Phillips
ISBN 0-7369-0002-0
Laugh lines for the better half of life.
Packed with wisdom, humor, and fascinating fact,
this book celebrates the passing of time and pokes
fun at what lies ahead for all of us!
Erik H. Erikson, Joan M. Erikson, Helen Q. Kivcnick
Norton & Company 1998
ISBN 0-393-02359-1
Examines eight stages of living:
| Life Stage | Systemic | Dystemic | Memnonic |
|---|---|---|---|
| helpful | destructive | ||
| Infancy | basic trust | basic mistrust | HOPE |
| Early Childhood | autonomy | shame,doubt | WILL |
| Play Age | Initiative | Guilt | PURPOSE |
| School Age | Industry | Inferiority | COMPETENCE |
| Adolescence | Identity | Confusion | FIDELITY |
| Young Adulthood | Intimacy | Isolation | LOVE |
| Adulthood | Generative | Self-absorption | CARE |
| Old Age | Integrity | Despair | WISDOM |
This is based on a Berkeley CA study of octogenarians whose life histories had been studied over a half-century. What emerges is a remarkably absorbing, detailed, and intimate portrait of the experience of old age. [The Eriksons were in their ninth decade when this was written.] So they added a Ninth Life Stage in a separate book.
Extended versions with New Chapters on the (additional)
Ninth Stage of Development
Erik H. Erikson
by Joan M. Erikson
Original version Rikan Enterprises Ltd. 1982
Norton Paperback 1998
ISBN 0-393-03934-X
Reviews Vital Involvement in Old Age, expanding on the final stage.
"...to complete our lives, we are called to give to others so that when we leave this world, we can be what we have given. ...pg 126"
This book will last and last, because it contains the wisdom of two wonderfully knowing observers of our humany destiny -- Robert Coles
How the 21st century will be ruled by the new old
Copyright © 1999 Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D
Penguin Putnam, Inc.
ISBN 0-87477-954-5
"The baby-boom generation is about to transform into the largest elder population in human history, changing how everone lives, large and small. No business, family, or home will work tomorrow as it does today."
The revolutionary Program to Control the Symptoms of Aging Naturally
New American Library
Copyright © Gary Null's Anti-Aging Center 2003
ISBN 0-451-21050-6 (alk. paper)
Dedication:
To people of any age who aren't afraid
to make conscious choices to be the best that thay can be
and get the best from others.
Table of Contents
Part 1: Beginning the processReferences
Recipe index
Index
Roger N. Butler, M.D.
Harper and Rowe, 1975
ISBN 0-06-010591-7
"...Americans find it difficult to think about old age until they are propelled into the midst of it by their own aging and that of relatives and friends. Aging is the neglected stepchild of the human life cycle. ... Death is a dramatic, one-time crisis while old age is a day-by-day and year-by-year confrontation with powerful external and internal forces, a bittersweet coming to terms with one's own personality and one's life.
The provocative chapter titles introduce an effective discussion of a significant topic, then and now.
A Revolutionary New System for Prolonging Your Life
Walter McQuade and Ann Aikman
Simon and Schuster, 1979
ISBN 0-617-24038-2
"...The best way to 'cure' degenerative diseases is to prevent them, ahead of time. The catch is that the person who does the preventing is not the doctor or the scientist, but you. ... Develops ideas of health profiling as a useful tool -- long before computer-assisted evaluations.
What really determines how long you live
Norman B. Anderson, Ph.D.
with P. Elizabeth Anderson
Viking Penguin 2003
ISBN 0-670-03185-2
"This book brilliantly connects biomedical and behavioral science for a more comprehensive understanding of how long and how well we live. The analysis was so impressive I read it twice!" -- Donna E Shalala
Discusses six dimensions of health:
Optimism protects health; pessimism increases vulnerability to emotional and physical disfunction. p29
How to Live to 100 Using the Brain-Body Connection
David Mahoney and Richard Restak, M.D.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1998
ISBN 471-24867-3
The brain-body connection is the interaction among three factors:
the health of your brain, your attitude, and your physical health.
The authors ... draw on state-of-the-art brain-body research to demonstrate
the vital importance of handling stress properly, lifelong education and
mental activity (use it or lose it!), the socil connections, physical
exercise, and rearranging your brain's hardwiring toward optimism.
Sections include:
Get the longevity attitude (4 chapters)
Maximizing the Quality of Later Life
Douglas H. Powell
W.H.Freedman and Co, New York, 1998
ISBN 0-7167-3104-5
The nine myths debunked are:
Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life
From the landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development
George E. Vaillalnt, M.D. 2002
ISBN 0-316-98936-3
Dr. Vaillant reports on over fifty years studying the aging of selected Harvard students since they were sophomores. He contrasts that with a group of inner-city kids, and of Stamford University high-IQ women. He concludes that individual life-style choices play a greater role than genetics, wealth, race, or other factors in determining how happy people are in their later llfe. He reveals which lifestyle choices really make a difference.
The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health
Copyright © 2000 Jeanne Wei, M.D., Ph.D., and Sue Levkoff, Sc.D.
Associate Professors, Harvard Medical School.
John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
ISBN 0-471-32678-X
[list from cover.] How to stay healthy and happy, coping with age-related conditions, dealing with your doctor and the health-care system, everything you need to know about drugs and surgery, and retirement issues. Also includes words of support for caregivers.
Answers to help you make the most of the rest of your life.
Edward T. Creagan, M.D., Editor in Chief
Copyright © 2001, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
ISBN 1-893005-07-0
"Healty aging doesn't occur by accident.
Individuals who age best are people who are positive minded,
proactive in their decision making and well informed.
They are realistic. ..."
John W. Rowe, M.D. and Robert L. Kahn, Ph.D.
Pantheon Books, New York 1998
ISBN 0-375-40045-1
[from the book jacket] A profoundly important book that announces a completely new way to live your life.
The authors explain that successful aging is largely determined not by genetic inheritance -- as common wisdom has it -- but by individual lifestyle choices in diet, exercise, the pursuit of mental challenges, self-efficacy, and involvement with other people. This shift in the field of gerontology is due in great measure to the MacArthur Foundation Study of Aging in America, which was begun in 1987 and led by Drs. Rowe and Kahn. Its remarkable resuts are brought together for the first time in Successful Aging.
Inspiring and instructive, and based on more than ten years of groundbreaking research, the information and ideas presented here will transform our thinking about the quality of life that it is possible to obtain and sustain as we grow older.
Notes to God on GROWING OLDER
Copyright © 2003 Karen O'Connor
Regal Books, a ministry of Gospel Light
ISBN 0-8307-3340-6
Senior Moments -- guaranteed to keep us from becoming too self-important. Have another slice of humble pie!
Like it or not, perhaps earlier than we thought, senior moments hit us all. Karen helps us laugh at ourselves. -- Betty Southard.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. For by me your days will be multiplied and years will be added to your life. -- Proverbs 9:10-11
Successful plans are implemented in steps, reviewed regularly, and revised as needed. This book can help you formulate a well-conceived general plan for the years ahead. Through its activities, you will identify both your larger goals as well as more immediate goals that you will have to face along the way. Successful planners learn from failed plans and use each planning opportunity to improve their ability to foresee obstacles and formulate alternatives.
Six life components are the mainstays of productive future planning:
An appendix provides many references to resources, a bit dated.
The essential Guide to Wills, Trusts, and Your personal Legacy
Copyright © 2005 by Michael T. Palermo
ISBN 0-7394-5067-0
Published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
Part 1: Understanding Estate-Planning Basics
Applying the Basics: Estate-Planning Tools for Common Life Situations