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Books to Give or Keep in 2017

Friends all know I’m an avid reader, and it’s that time of year when they ask me to recommend books for holiday gift lists. I primarily seek out new fiction, but I enjoy deviating for an interesting memoir. Each of my picks connects to aging, from midlife on up.

If it seems as though the bookshelves are full of crotchety old-people stories, and you’re left aching to believe that all of us don’t end up curmudgeons, Elizabeth Berg’s The Story of Arthur Truluv: A Novel (2017) may be just what the doctor (or librarian) ordered. Every day, 85-year-old Arthur Moses packs a lunch, leaves his garden and Gordon, his aloof cat, and takes the bus to the cemetery to talk to Nola, his late wife. His only other regular companion is Lucille, an 80-year-old neighbor who still pines over a lost love. In the cemetery, Maddie, an 18-year-old rebel with poor taste in suitors, avoids the bullies at school and a cold father at home. When she hears Arthur talking to Nola, she names him Truluv, and an unlikely friendship forms. Arthur is a found treasure in Maddie’s sad life, and ultimately she gives purpose to his. Soon Arthur and Lucille support Maddie and give her what she’s always craved, while Maddie helps them to live independently at home. Read this one to restore your faith that aging won’t leave you grumpy.

After heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, the “poor little rich girl” of the infamous 1940s child custody battle, has a life-threatening illness at 91, her son Anderson Cooper, the CNN news correspondent, commits to understanding his mother better in the time they have left. What follows, The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss (2016), is a year-long email exchange between the two that allows for revelations and unburdening. She exploited the family name; he shunned it. She worked the socialite circles; he, in war zones. Ever the journalist, Cooper delves into his mother’s lonely, privileged childhood, her salacious affairs and multiple marriages, as well as who she was in her professional life far beyond her iconic designer jeans. (I had some!) Deeply personal, at times heartbreaking, the book is full of wisdom and insights on the freedom and clarity aging has brought to her, plus some maternal advice; the mutual affection is clear. A love story, beautifully told.

I’d love to hear what books you would recommend to your reader friends so I can put them on my list in 2018. In the meantime, I wish you a warm, cozy spot, with good light to read, and a wonderful year ahead.