No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club : Diary of a Sixtieth Year Hardcover - 2007

by Virginia Ironside

A delightful novel about letting go of youth and embracing the sassy curmudgeon within

Don't harass her about parasailing or taking Italian language courses. Forget about suggesting she join a gym. Marie Sharp may be a little creaky in the bones as she heads toward the big 6-0, but she's fine with it. She would rather do without all the moving-to-Florida-bicycling-across-Mongolia-for-the-hell-of-it hoopla that her friends insist upon. She's already led an exciting life: She came of age in the 1960s, after all. Now, with both a new grandchild and a new man on the horizon, all she wants to do is make the most of what she considers the most interesting stage of her life. In this wonderfully astute novel based on the author's own experiences, No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club is the funny and often poignant fictionalized diary of an older woman . . . a decade or two past her prime and content to leave it all behind her. So don't tell her to take a gourmet cooking class, and whatever you do, don't you dare tell her to join a book club. Fresh and truly unique, moving gracefully on in years has never been more hilarious than in this forthright grandma's take on the 'third phase' of life.