Book Discovery Tuesday: The Best of Everything After 50: The Experts’ Guide to Style, Sex, Health, Money, and More

In an enthusiastic, likeable tone, author Barbara Hannah Grufferman guides us cheerfully through the maze of what we need to know after age 50. She has researched her work, getting advice from doctors, dermatologists, and other professionals so that we can look and feel our best. Reading The Best of Everything is a bit like chatting with your best gal pal, but with solid medical and financial information. After 50, we can still look and feel fabulous!

Grufferman is committed to her own health and fitness and runs in marathons. In The Best of Everything, she describes her running regimen, designed to keep those older joints safe.  She helps us avoid the middle-aged spread that isn’t, as it turns out, as inevitable as we might think. She keeps us on track for scheduling the appropriate medical tests at the right time, and even provides tips on caring for skin, from moisturizers to plastic surgery.

More than anything, Grufferman distills a lot of wisdom into simple terms. Some sections may not interest you. For example, I skipped over the plastic surgery stuff. I happen to like my wrinkles and scars, and I think my face is far more interesting with some lines on it. However, I do believe in a woman’s right to choose, whether it has to do with her womb or her face, and let’s face it—we can’t ignore our aging. Better to discuss our options and make informed choices.

The Best of Everything After 50 is, overall, a comprehensive guide. As with any complex subject, though, it has its limits. You will not get tips on empty nesting, dealing with sandwich generation issues, or how to cope with a difficult menopause from an emotional perspective. I don’t see this as a criticism, though. She has kept a clear focus to her work, and no one book could cover everything without getting clunky.

For women just starting to face the topic, The Best of Everything After 50 provides a great beginning and information that every woman needs to know, and Grufferman’s gift for distillation makes this book a must-read for initiates to this profound, exciting, and sometimes frustrating time of life.