DC Public Library System

Happiness is a choice you make, lessons from a year among the oldest old, John Leland

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-336)

no index present

fiction

Happiness is a choice you make

bibliography

1012717309

John Leland

Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfiction

lessons from a year among the oldest old

An extraordinary look at what it means to grow old and a heartening guide to well-being, Happiness Is a Choice You Make weaves together the stories and wisdom of six New Yorkers who number among the "oldest old"--Those eighty-five and up. In 2015, when the award-winning journalist John Leland set out on behalf of The New York Times to meet members of America's fastest-growing age group, he anticipated learning of challenges, of loneliness, and of the deterioration of body, mind, and quality of life. But the elders he met took him in an entirely different direction. Despite disparate backgrounds and circumstances, they each lived with a surprising lightness and contentment. The reality Leland encountered upended contemporary notions of aging, revealing the late stages of life as unexpectedly rich and the elderly as incomparably wise. Happiness Is a Choice You Make is an enduring collection of lessons that emphasizes, above all, the extraordinary influence we wield over the quality of our lives. With humility, heart, and wit, Leland has crafted a sophisticated and necessary reflection on how to "live better"--informed by those who have mastered the art

Meet the elders -- Surprise of a lifetime -- The paradox of old age -- Why older means wiser -- Love in the time of Lipitor -- On the other hand ... -- More years, less life? -- The lessons -- The lessons of Fred -- The lessons of Ping -- The lessons of John -- The lessons of Helen -- The lessons of Ruth -- The lessons of Jonas