Making the Best of What's Left: When We're Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered by Judith Viorst ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

A witty and poignant exploration of the joys and sorrows of life’s twilight years—one that leaves us laughing, pondering, and grateful for the moments we have left.    

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site.  A free book was provided for an honest review.

April 2025; Simon & Schuster; 978-1668068014
audio, ebook, print (192 pages); memoir

Judith Viorst has been an author for over 50 years.  At 94 years old, she has written a book that is partly a memoir and partly advice for the aging.  Her book is aimed at those people in their 'Final Fifth' a phrase that she uses for people from 80 - 100.  It's full of humorous anecdotes from her life and the lives of her friends mixed in with the difficulties of aging and losing old friends.  It's a beautiful exploration of the joys and sadness in the Final Fifth of our lives.

Even though I'm not quite in the demographic that she refers to as the Final Fifth, I did connect with many of her stories.  You don't have to be 80 before you become invisible -- that happens to women at about 60.  I also live on an independent care campus and many of the stories that she told about her living facility sounded just like life here.  Her stories and poems touched my emotions - especially when she wrote about the pain of losing her husband and giving up her home.  But along with the sadness, she gave us examples of things to be thankful for - our children and grandchildren and our old and new friends.  This is a book that I will be putting on my bookshelf so that I can read it again and again.  Thanks, Judith, for sharing your life as you age with your readers.

Buy Making the Best of What's Left: When We're Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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