Older Americans Month: Powered by Connection
Older American Month is celebrated each year in May. This booklist includes stories about connection and positive, inclusive aging narratives with both fiction and nonfiction titles. (Created by the Older Adults Work Group, May, 2024)
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Jesintel
"Jesintel - "to learn and grow together" - characterizes the spirit of this book, which brings the cultural teachings of nineteen elders to new generations. Featuring interviews that share powerful experiences and stories, Jesintel illuminates the importance of ethical reciprocal relationships and the interconnectedness of places, land, water, and the spirit within all things."
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Stepping Out
"Long inspired by mature adults daring to express their creativity and individuality through their style choices, New York Times bestselling novelist Connie Briscoe shines a light on these often overlooked and underappreciated sharply attired individuals. Accompanied by the marvelously talented Milton Washington's dazzling photographs, Briscoe's vision comes alive in these pages. From intrepid to chic, and sophisticated to free-spirited--Stepping Out captures the very essences of a vibrant cross section of Black elders, showcasing their stories, their styles, and how their love of fashion was born and bred. This book contextualizes the cultural, spiritual, and historical influences on decades of Black style and testifies to this dynamic legacy for generations to come."
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Gray Love
"Gray Love narrates stories about the most common themes - searching for and (perhaps) finding love. Forty-five men and women between ages 60 and 94 from diverse backgrounds talk about dating, starting or ending a relationship, embracing life alone or enjoying a partnered one. Those who find new partners explore issues that most relationships encounter at any age, as well as some that are unique to elder relationships."
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Essential Questions
"In The Essential Questions, Elizabeth Keating applies the same techniques that anthropologists use to get out of their own frame of reference and better understand entirely different perspectives and cultures. She's developed questions that treat your parents and grandparents not just as the people who raised you, but as individuals of a certain society and time, and as the children, teenagers, and young adults they once were. This book helps you better understand the forces that shaped your family history and your own identity."
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Radiant Rebellion
"What if aging is something to aspire to, not to dread? Join Karen Walrond, author of The Lightmaker's Manifesto, as she investigates how we can reclaim aging, cultivate joy, and resist ageism. Walrond does a deep dive into different aspects of getting older, including health, beauty, spirituality, relationships, adventure, activism, and purpose."
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Still Distracted After All These Years
"We've known that ADHD affects us throughout our lives, but until now, there's been little to no attention paid to the ADHD-related need of adults over 55. Whether you suspect that you may have ADHD, have recently received a diagnosis, or were diagnosed years ago, Still Distracted After All These Years is a much-needed resource for coping and thriving with ADHD as an older adult"
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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The Old Gays Guide to the Good Life
"Ranging in age from 67 to 80, Mick, Jessay, Robert, and Bill are survivors whose lives have been transformed by sweeping cultural change. It was their generation that was devastated by AIDS, a health crisis that deprived us of so many brilliant, creative lives, including many of their friends. They offer their collective wisdom on a rainbow of topics, including coming out, sex, gay liberation, gay marriage, AIDS, aging, and saving the best act for last. Between the four of them there's not much of life they haven't seen or done, and now they dish on everything from fitness and fabulous dinner parties to church and orgies. They remind us that age is just a number and that getting older can be outrageously fun"
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Not Too Old for That
"The narratives around women at midlife and older are more than just sexist and ageist; they're damaging to women's physical, emotional, financial, romantic, and sexual health. This book will help women break through those tired and hurtful stereotypes to better reflect who they are, how they live, and what they want as they age"
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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A Grandmother Begins the Story
"Written like a crooked Métis jig, A Grandmother Begins the Story follows five generations of women and bison as they reach for the stories that could remake their worlds and rebuild their futures. Carter is a young mother, recently separated. She is curious, angry, and on a quest to find out what the heritage she only learned of in her teens truly means. Allie, Carter's mother, is trying to make up for the lost years with her first born, and to protect Carter from the hurt she herself suffered from her own mother. Lucie wants the granddaughter she's never met to help her join her ancestors in the Afterlife. And Genevïve is determined to conquer her demons before the fire inside burns her up, with the help of the sister she lost but has never been without. Meanwhile, Mamé, in the Afterlife, knows that all their stories began with her; she must find a way to cut herself from the last threads that keep her tethered to the living, just as they must find their own paths forward."
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Different Kinds of Minds
"With her knack for making science easy to understand, Temple Grandin explains different types of thinkers, who are good with language, and visual thinkers, who think in pictures and patterns. You will discover all kinds of minds and how we need to work together to create solutions to help solve real-world problems."
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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