THIS OLD BODY: And 99 Other Reasons to Laugh at Life

Personal essays on the ridiculousness of aging

It’s clean, it’s clever, it’s anything but clichéd, This Old Body speaks to all of us who aren’t what we once were. With such witty titles as, “Where, Oh, Where Has My Little Waist Gone?” and “The World is Round but my Feet are Flat,” Barbara Greenleaf will get you laughing at the everyday humiliations and aggravations that befall people of a certain age. In addition, she treats you to quick takes by other funny people. In the book’s first section, “Aging: Why Didn’t Anybody Warn Me,” Barbara pokes fun at our physical decline. In the second section, “Married Since the First Crusade,” she kids around about her eons of marital bliss. And in the third section, “Muddling Through the Modern World,” she good-naturedly lampoons family occasions, airplane seatmates, oldies concerts, and dietary fads. When Barbara has read out loud from This Old Body, audience members raved: “I felt she was speaking just to me,” “Entertaining as hell,” “Made us feel we’re all in this aging thing together.” Wonderful birthday, host, and holiday book for all the Baby Boomer and above men and women in your life. One for them, one for you . . .