The Book Of Seventy

Alicia Ostriker seizes the opportunity to take us where too few poets have been able to take us: into a domain of what our fabulists like to call the “golden years.” as we live longer, we become inevitably curious about the actual texture of these late years, curious about what happens in the soul. Out of that curiosity is a new kind of poetry born, an elderstile that has passion and irony, wisdom, folly, clarity and tenderness. In her keen engagement with the self and the world, Ostriker offers us a voice and a perspective that explore the territory of seventy and beyond.

Winner of the American Book Award: May Sarton’s honest and engrossing journal of her seventieth year, spent living and working on the Maine coast. May Sarton’s journals are a captivating look at a rich artistic life. In this, her ode to aging, she savors the daily pleasures of tending to her garden, caring for her dogs, and entertaining guests at her beloved Maine home by the sea. Her reminiscences are raw, and her observations are infused with the poetic candor for which Sarton—over the course of her decades-long career—became known. An enlightening glimpse into a time—the early 1980s—and an age, At Seventy is at once specific and universal, providing a unique window into septuagenarian life that readers of all generations will enjoy. At times mournful and at others hopeful, this is a beautiful memoir of the year in which Sarton, looking back on it all, could proclaim, “I am more myself than I have ever been.”

"'Jesus instructed us to forgive those who have wronged us seventy times seven times,' Brother Vito Fortunato teaches the boys in his high school religion class, but it's Vito himself who has the most trouble with forgiveness: trying to forgive the Church, the gay community, and most of all, himself. Just a few months from his final vows as a Brother in the Catholic Church, Vito finds himself at a crossroads, torn between his spirituality and his sexuality as a fully out and proud gay man. Will a summer of volunteer work at an AIDS center in San Francisco--and a love affair with Gabriel, a recently divorced landscaper--help Vito decide his calling--and his future?"--Page 4 of cover.

Having seen anger, resentment, and bitterness consume too many lives, the author of this book argues that forgiveness is the only route to relieving the sting of life's deepest hurts. Seventy times seven tells stories of real people scarred by crime, betrayal, abuse, and war-people who have earned the right to tell you that forgiveness is the only way out. Arnold won't ask you to excuse, ignore, or forget your wounds. He knows forgiving isn't easy. But he is convinced, as are the men and women you'll meet in this book, that it is possible.

The beloved author of Forever Fifty and Suddenly Sixty tackles the ins and outs of becoming a septuagenarian with wry good humor. Fans of Viorst’s funny, touching, and wise decades poems will love these verses filled with witty advice and reflections on marriage, milestones, and middle-aged children. Viorst explores, among the many other issues of this stage of life, the state of our sex lives and teeth, how we can stay married though thermostatically incompatible, and the joys of grandparenthood and shopping. Readers will nod with rueful recognition when she asks, “Am I required to think of myself as a basically shallow woman because I feel better when my hair looks good?,” when she presses a few helpful suggestions on her kids because “they may be middle aged, but they’re still my children,” and when she graciously—but not too graciously—selects her husband’s next mate in a poem deliciously subtitled “If I Should Die Before I Wake, Here’s the Wife You Next Should Take.” Though Viorst acknowledges she is definitely not a good sport about the fact that she is mortal, her poems are full of the pleasures of life right now, helping us come to terms with the passage of time, encouraging us to keep trying to fix the world, and inviting us to consider “drinking wine, making love, laughing hard, caring hard, and learning a new trick or two as part of our job description at seventy.” I'm Too Young to Be Seventy is a joy to read and makes a heartwarming gift for anyone who has reached or is soon to reach that—it’s not so bad after all—seventh decade.

Sometimes you need a little help learning to believe in yourself. And it can show up in the most unexpected ways. Robbie Berger has stalled out in his life and career, hoping for a fresh gust of wind to take him in a new direction. When he arrives at the home of his latest "senior care" assignment, Robbie has no idea he's about to meet someone destined to change his world. The new client unfolds a remarkable tale of a corporation run aground, a twelve-year-old boy convinced he'll always be a loser, and a sage owl whose wisdom may shift the future for them all. This story-within-a-story is about the boundless possibilities that arise when we learn to ask the right questions, set priorities that match our values, and go after the things we we want in life with unstoppable gusto.