Aging Sideways: Changing Our Perspectives on Getting Older

Aging Sideways: Changing Our Perspectives on Getting Older

If you’re alive, you’re aging. It’s as simple as that. We’re bombarded daily with cultural messages telling us that to age means simply to deteriorate and decline. While it’s true that our bodies and minds change with the passage of time, not all these changes are negative ones. In fact, there are some wonderful assets to getting older. Social gerontologist and community educator Jeanette Leardi believes it’s way past time that everyone hears that story. She draws on groundbreaking research, expert opinions, and personal experiences to bust the many false stereotypes about age and provides you with surprising, refreshing, “sideways” approaches for embracing getting older as well as for changing the minds of others in your life in the hope that all of us can transform our society into a truly pro-aging one –– now and for generations to come. "Jeanette Leardi challenges us to look at aging from a new perspective, revealing some of our misconceptions and biases. The sideways view of aging invites us to redefine our own aging, embrace the beauty etched upon our faces, and live to our full potential at all ages and stages. After years of writing and lecturing about aging, Jeanette has accumulated stories, anecdotes, and meaningful data that encourage us to transform our culture into a pro-aging society. Her approach to a subject so familiar to me still left me feeling more enlightened than when I began." — from the Foreword by Tracey Gendron, PhD; gerontology chair at Virginia Commonwealth University and executive director of the Virginia Center on Aging, author of Ageism Unmasked: Exploring Age Bias and How to End It. "In this entertaining and provocative book, Jeanette Leardi unpacks what most of us think getting older is all about, and why it matters so much. (Spoiler alert: Most of what we know is wrong.) A social gerontologist, Leardi draws on solid research, startling comparisons, and engaging stories to reveal later life as a time of growth and purpose. Exposing the forces that frame long life as decline, she offers clear-eyed strategies for aging with dignity and purpose. I heartily recommend AGING SIDEWAYS to everyone who wakes up a day older and hopes to make the most of the years ahead." — Ashton Applewhite, pro-age advocate and author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism "Jeanette Leardi provides a sharp and provocative take on the scourge of ageism and what we can all do to defeat it. She offers a refreshing, entertaining, and thought-provoking approach for how to explore and perceive growing older, combining her research and analysis as a gerontologist with her personal experience. To follow her advice, you may need to start thinking very differently about aging and ageism and changing your ways, but that's a good thing." — Richard Eisenberg, "The View From Unretirement" columnist at MarketWatch "Even though I study aging, when I read AGING SIDEWAYS, I immediately thought, 'This is the book I need to give my family and friends.' It is a book that talks with you, not at you. It's an honest, approachable, and well-researched look at getting older and being judged for it. But make no mistake. This is not a book that calls on us to defy aging, ignore aging, or forget aging. Instead, Leardi challenges us to recognize and confront the negative societal messages about aging that tell us that aging is bad, that we should be ashamed of our age, or that we, as aging people, no longer matter." — Kate de Medeiros, PhD; gerontologist and professor in the department of sociology and anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal "In a world in thrall to youth, AGING SIDEWAYS is a welcome blast of fresh air. It torpedoes the myth that growing older is just a downward spiral. Jeanette Leardi reminds us that aging can be an extraordinary journey: rich, complex, contradictory, magical, thrilling, beautiful. And she shows us how to make the most of life at every stage. Aging Sideways is a timely, bracing read. Whatever your age, grab a copy now!" — Carl Honoré, author of Bolder: How To Age Better and Feel Better About Aging "I was delighted when Amazon delivered my copy of Jeanette Leardi's new book Aging Sideways: Changing Our Perspectives on Growing Older . In this wonderful book, Jeanette has done a masterful job of sharing a wide range of illuminating ideas and suggestions for how we might live better longer." — Ken Dychtwald, founder and CEO of Age Wave and author of Age Wave: The Challenges and Opportunities of an Aging Society "Ageism is alive and well in our culture. If you are a certain age, you pretty much know this already. But to actually deal with it, you need to start thinking differently about aging itself, according to gerontologist Jeanette Leardi. In her new book, Aging Sideways: Changing Our Perspectives on Getting Older, Leardi crushes stereotypes about age and offers new approaches for welcoming getting older — and dealing with how others think