What does aging look like? Chances are that your answer shifts a bit with each trip around the sun. As you ponder your own perceptions of aging, do you find any fears or stereotypes lurking in the shadows? The good news is that you can overcome
them by exploring diverse aging experiences to counter society’s misperceptions about its more experienced members. The great news is that your library can help!
Join the Intentional Aging program hosted by the North Olympic Library System (NOLS), which meets monthly on Zoom to explore ways to live well while aging. Visit nols.org/intentional-aging to learn more and register.
Or explore these (and many other) titles:
“Ageism Unmasked: Exploring Age Bias and How to End It” by Tracey Gendron, Ph.D.
Available at NOLS as a book
From the publisher: “Why do we still tolerate stereotypes and discrimination based on age? ‘Ageism Unmasked’ inspires people of all ages to embrace aging as our universal and lifelong process of developing over time — biologically, psychologically, socially, and spiritually.”
“Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old?: The Path of Purposeful Aging” by Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro
Available at NOLS as a book and eAudiobook
From the publisher: “Grow old on purpose. This book invites readers to navigate a purposeful path from adulthood to elderhood with choice, curiosity, and courage.”
Photo courtesy of North Olympic Library System / Corrina Desmarais is an Older Adult Services Librarian with the North Olympic Library System.
“Age Later: Health Span, Life Span, and the New Science of Longevity” by Nir Barzilai, M.D.
Available at NOLS as a book, large print book, eBook and eAudiobook
From the publisher: “How do some people avoid the slowing down, deteriorating, and weakening that plagues many of their peers decades earlier? Dr. Nir Barzilai’s life’s work is tackling the challenges of aging to delay and prevent the onset of all age-related diseases.
“The New Rules of Aging Well: A Simple Program for Immune Resilience, Strength, and Vitality” by Frank Lipman, M.D. and Danielle Claro
Available at NOLS as a book
From the publisher: “It’s easy to take charge with this radically simple program to reverse the symptoms we reflexively call ‘normal aging,’ including feeling achy, stiff, sluggish, weak, and vulnerable to chronic illness. This improves not only our life span but, more importantly, our health span — our quality of life and how we feel.”
“Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life,” by Louise Aronson
Available at NOLS as a book and eBook
From the publisher: “Most people alive today will spend more years in elderhood than in childhood. Yet at the very moment that humans are living longer than ever before, we’ve made old age into a disease, a condition to be dreaded, denigrated, neglected, and denied. Geriatrician Louise Aronson weaves a vision of old age that’s neither nightmare nor Utopian fantasy — a vision full of joy, wonder, frustration, outrage, and hope.”
For more
Stop by the Sequim Library at 630 N. Sequim Avenue to find inspiring reads. You can also browse the catalog at nols.org.
For more information, call 360-683-1161 or email to discover@nols.org.
Corrina Desmarais is an Older Adult Services Librarian with the North Olympic Library System.
