I am reading a wonderful book right now and I want to encourage anyone who is approximately my age(55) to read it. It is called “Lots of Candles,Plenty of Cake” by Anna Quindlen. Quindlen “does what she does best. She calmly and carefully untangles the fine strands of a woman’s life by examining her own,and lays them out cleanly for all to see,this time from the perspective of a woman in her fifties”.(Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Here are some excerpts that I thought were fantastic:

“It’s odd when I think of the arc in my life,from child to young woman to aging adult. First I was who I was.Then I didn’t know who I was. Then I invented someone and became her. Then I began to like what I’d invented. And finally I was what I was again”.

“Time passed,almost imperceptibly. First we are so young and then we were so busy and then one day we awoke to discover that we were an age we once thought of as old”.

“I have a lot of stuff. I bet you do too. Sofas,settees,bureaus,bookshelves. Dishes,bowls,pottery,glass,candlesticks,serving trays,paperweights. Beds,chests,trunks,tables.Windsor chairs,club chairs,ladder-back chairs,folding chairs,wicker chairs. Lots and lots of chairs.”

“Many of us have come to a surprising conclusion about this moment in our lives. No,it’s not that there are weird freckly spots on the backs of our hands,although there are,or that the construction guys don’t make smutty comments as we pass,although they don’t. It’s that we’ve done a pretty good job of becoming ourselves,and this is,in so many ways,the time of our lives. Lots of candles,plenty of cake. I wouldn’t be 25 again on a bet,or even 40. And when I say this to a group of women at lunch,everyone around the table nods. Many of us find ourselves exhilarated,galvanized,at the very least older and wiser”.

Anyway-you get the gist….a must-read if you love her writing, which I really do.