38. No, I Don't Want to Join a Book Club: Diary of a Sixtieth Year By Virginia Ironside (Audio)

Marie Sharp is about to turn 60, and unlike many of her peers, she has no interest in taking up paragliding or living for three months with a Masai tribe in Africa. She's intent on accepting this new phase of her life, which brings with it the freedom to do old things, such as getting a pension and free prescriptions and, as her neighbor helpfully points out, "tekkin' it eezee, man." Marie, in fact, has such an easygoing attitude toward aging that her friends are constantly inviting her out to dinner and on vacation. She's also excited about becoming a grandmother and babysitting for her grandchild, who has "the air of a very clean goblin" given to "laughing rather inappropriately." And though Marie has declared herself done with romantic entanglements, there's a very kind old friend, recently widowed, who has a crush on her. For Marie, old age is looking pretty wonderful. Ironside is pretty wonderful herself, offering a witty and, at times, poignant depiction of the challenges and freedoms that come with getting older. Joanne Wilkinson Copyright © American Library Association. This was such a fun book to listen to. I laughed out loud when Marie questions her doctor about her knees hurting because of her age. She's never taken exercise so her knees should be in "like-new" condition. She was a true child of the sixties but now thinks all those drugs were wasted on your youth when they could be so much better used now that she's sixty. And all the parts about being a grandma went right to my heart. If the author had left out all the references to sex at sixty (eeewww, I'm fifty-three so I can eeewww if I want), it would have been much better for me. Also, the profanity is always jarring in an audio version. Rating: 4.25