In our youth obsessed culture, we're bombarded by media images and messages about the despairs and declines of our later years. Applewhite traces her own journey from apprehensive boomer to pro-aging radical, and in the process debunks myths about late life. Explaining the roots of ageism in history and how it divides and debases, Applewhite examines how ageist stereotypes cripple the way our brains and bodies function. She believes it's time to create...

A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.

In nineteenth century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, or "old same," in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The two women exchange messages written on silk fans and handkerchieves using nu shu, a unique language that women created in order to communicate in secret, sharing their experiences, but when a misunderstanding arises, their friendship threatens to tear apart....

In 1949, four Chinese women--drawn together by the shadow of their past--begin meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks and "say" stories. They call their gathering the Joy Luck Club--and forge a relationship that binds them for more than three decades.

Martha Andersson may be 79 years old and live in a retirement home, but that doesn't mean shes ready to stop enjoying life. So when the new management of Diamond House starts cutting corners to save money, Martha and her four closest friends--Brains, The Rake, Christina and Anna-Gretta (a.k.a. The League of Pensioners)--wont stand for it. Fed up with early bedtimes and overcooked veggies, this group of feisty seniors sets about to regain their independence,...

A tale of best friends Lila and Elena, which started at school in Naples in the 1950s. As an elderly woman, Elena tries to unravel the mystery of her brilliant friend, who also became her worst enemy.

Barbara is a cynical schoolteacher who is close to retirement. Her only means of taking the edge off her desperate loneliness is writing in her journal. Sheba is a younger, attractive woman, who joins the faculty as an art teacher. Barbara watches her from afar and has nothing but caustic things to say in her diary. Barbara finds herself reaching out to Sheba. Sheba responds by inviting her to dinner at her house to meet Sheba's lecturer husband and...