How to Age Disgracefully: A Novel

A very fun read....especially if you are over 70.

Bog-standard feel-good stuff featuring clicheed, over-the-top characters, a rather boring story, conflicts that are resolved by "a good, strong talking-to" by one senior or another.

Readable but not worth my reading time.

A hoot of a listen about a woman who had been in hiding for 15 years that becomes determined to make connections. Step one is answering an add asking for 70+ year olds who want to make new friends. This senior group is small and full of characters. The book starts with the police coming on a bus looking for someone when a group of pensioners and little kids are on their way to a tv taping of a dog talent show. Then the book back tracks to share how they got there. A fun listen!

This was a Book Group book and took several meetings (and weeks) to finish. It was funny and clever but fits into the same pattern/formula that the last one did. It seems to be the fashion at the moment.

This was a very humorous book. Just what the doctor ordered. I am a septagenerian. I would love to be part of the social club at the Mandel Community Center. I found myself, smiling, chuckling, and outright laughing-out-loud. I would recommend this for ages 20+ and of course, "The young at heart"!

Light hearted, lol, perfect book for a rainy day

The story begins when a van is pulled over by the police. One of the passengers is wanted.
Rewind 3 months and we meet Daphne, Art, and Ruby - all senior citizens with a bit of a unique past. Lydia runs the social club at the senior center, and the seniors advise her they don't want to just sit around and play bingo.
The city council plans to sell the community center building which will also close the daycare center. The seniors get together with the daycare and one of the teen dads to fight and save the center's building. Will they be able to save it before the cops find out their secrets?
Another delightful tale from Clare Pooley.

Lydia is taking on a new job running a social club at The Mandel Community Center. She is the nicest woman who cares about people. She is married to a miserable and selfish man and while you won’t like him we do need him in this story - he has a part to play. As to our Seniors - Art is an actor with few parts coming his way. Art has a friend, William who is a retired paparazzo and is the most neutral of the characters. William’s job is to look out for Art, to encourage him to make sure he continues on. Pauline is a retired headmistress who you won’t like and it doesn’t matter. There is a dog named Margaret Thatcher, a little boy named Lucky who isn’t and who has never spoken. Ruby will knit anything and she does - pay attention to Ruby. Anna mows down anyone who steps in front of her walker - and she tends toward very distinctive hair colors. Then there is Daphne who is at the center of it all - her still waters run very deep. These over seventies want to skydive, target practice, speed date, learn martial arts, perform synchronized swimming or go-karting - don’t even mention bingo. There are other important people on the nursery school side of the community center, but I will leave you to discover them at your own pace.

There is so much more to this than a bunch of septuagenarians getting together at a senior center trying to make friends, enjoying activities, living the best of their days and then of course they have to try to save the center from the council and the developers. This was funny, very funny and I have to admit to coffee snorting moments. There is poignancy, ageism and more but it is just a wonderful, upbeat and did I mention that it is often laugh out loud hilarious writing that can pull you out of a foul mood. The characters are great, the writing is super and the dialog is - just read this book.

A million thanks to Pamela Dorman Books and NetGalley for a copy.

Laugh-out-loud funny and heartwarming, featuring a diverse cast of characters (including a charming dog named Maggie Thatcher), How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley is a delightful read that will touch a chord in your heart.

As she approaches her seventieth birthday, reclusive Daphne decides to make some changes to the way she leads her life. For starters, she decides to be more sociable, which motivates her to join the Senior Citizens Social Club at the local Community Centre. Daphne isn’t the easiest person to be around – secretive and opinionated – she’s off to a bumpy start but gradually makes friends with the other members - Art (and his friend William who often joins the group activities), Ruby and Anna– a diverse group of people, each of whom is dealing with their own difficulties in life, including fifty-three-year-old Lydia, who runs the group. An empty nester whose husband mostly ignores her has,she just started in her new role and wasn’t prepared for the spirited group of seniors whose idea of fun doesn’t quite translate into quiet group activities. When the city council decides to sell the crumbling building that houses the community centre, the club members join forces with the daycare (also housed in the same building) and Ziggy, the teenage father of one of the toddlers to raise funds to save the building – not an easy task, with Daphne struggling to keep her dark past hidden and each of the members dealing with their own life problems.

The narrative is presented from multiple perspectives that allow us to get to know the characters and their backstories. I loved the characters, enjoyed their banter and loved how they grew to care for one another, banding together not only to save their community centre but also to help one another. Daphne is a fascinating character and I enjoyed following her character arc, not to mention her dynamic with Art. Ziggy is an endearing character. I was rooting for him to get his life sorted. Ruby and Anna were wonderful characters. I sympathized with Lydia but also admired her resolve. I really liked how she was able to emerge out of her shell with the help of her new friends! The author approaches several serious themes such as aging, loneliness, infidelity, emotional abuse, teenage parenthood and complicated family dynamics and much more with heart and insight. You might have to suspend disbelief on occasion, but that does not detract from the overall reading experience.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this uplifting story about unlikely friendships, living life on your own terms and new beginnings. I didn’t want the story to end and would love to meet these characters again!

Many thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Viking for the digital review copy via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I simply hope the story is real! Everyone is so full of character yet lovely! It is a well-written and smart feel-good story. Love it!

A community centre which hosts a senior citizens social club and a children’s nursery is under threat of closure. Can the eclectic group of pensioners, little people and one small dog named Margaret Thatcher save the day and succeed in keeping the building from being bulldozed?

Another cracking read from Clare Pooley! I loved this author’s previous two books and was looking forward to her new one enormously. It really didn’t disappoint. It’s absolutely brilliant. I enjoyed every minute of it, it had me laughing all the way through. The characters are just wonderful and the writing is sublime. Daphne is a hoot! Everyone needs a Daphne in their lives. I was so sad to turn the last page. I will miss Daphne and friends very much. An uplifting, heartwarming and uproarious read which I can most highly recommend. It will definitely lift your spirits.

This story is told from the points of view of several different senior citizens who meet up at a local community center. Lydia, the director of the program, expects a quiet group who plays bingo and visits. Instead, she gets a feisty group of seniors, each with secrets and past activities that eventually come to light amongst the group members. Throw in a teenage single dad and his little girl along with an aging dog, and you will find warmth and humor as the group bonds together and works to save the community center.

I received this book from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Well, this was a fun book! It starts off with a policewoman pulling over a bus filled with members of a senior group and children from the daycare that shares the building with them. Everyone on the bus starts confessing things they've done. Then, we get into the backstory of these characters and how they ended up on the bus going to win enough money to save their building.

Lydia takes a job running a senior center, but she never imagined it would be like this! The members of the Social Club are an unusual mix, not at all what Lydia was expecting. They look like ordinary seniors, but they are anything but ordinary, and they all have secrets. When the city council threatens to close the center due to lack of funds, the seniors decide to raise the money themselves. First, they team up with the daycare next door to produce a Christmas nativity show. Their next fundraising idea is even stranger. But the stars of the show are the street-smart seniors, who use their wisdom and ingenuity garnered in their many years to help out their new friends and each other. This charming book is a delight from beginning to end. The characters are quirky and humorous. The plot is engaging and very entertaining. Who says old age isn’t fun? Not these seniors!

A fun easy book featuring old people young babies adolescent and middle aged woman. Set with the back drop of saving a community center this is a fun book. It is predictable but some of the events especially around Lydia are just too funny.