Uncovering the Secrets of Longevity: A Year of Studying the Habits of the Oldest Old

Mo: General lesson was ok, but the author focused on sex way too much. Almost every other page had some mention of sex. I found it off-putting and stopped reading halfway through the book.

United States on Sep 12, 2021

Traveler: I bought this book thinking it would sugar coat old age, but it didn't. I am 81 and I was looking for hope. I found none. Old age is suffering and made worse by memories of when you were young. The future is only one day closer to more disability and death. If you are alone it is the worst. After reading this book, instead of gratitude and being thankful for just being alive despite disabiilty and pain, I want to die. Each day I long to die. Each day brings more hopeless misery and disability.
This book may make a younger person wake up and see what horrors come with old age and maybe the book will make them experience life more fully realizing that things don't get better, they get worse. That life is running out. Each day lived is a day gone forever. I wasted a lot of my life sitting in the house. Reading. Semi-reclusive. I was educated and pretty and took for granted I always would be. I could not imagine my legs would weaken and walking would be difficult and painful. I could not imagine sagging skin or wrinkles. This book will make you realize what lies ahead. The book made me realize love and health are the most important things. Guard you health knowing you wll lose it....

United States on Nov 01, 2020

Emcreynolds: This book may not change the way you approach old age,decline, and death but will certainly open the mind to what it really is and ways others are and have dealt with it. My own lesson learned was to be grateful for everyday and get the most from it. It will not come back!

United States on Aug 26, 2018

Hello: I have read it now 3 times and next will condense my notes
Life changing
Somehow comforting at 70

Canada on Jul 10, 2018

Stoic: It was tough to get through the book, to consider the position of the elders and of what happens in old age. A little better and harsh, but that bring into focus the bueaty and value of life and living.

Canada on Jun 02, 2018

Tee: excellent story--true to heart and photos added in book so nice to put a face with the stories. let this book be a lesson to all.

Canada on Mar 26, 2018

Susan M. Baumann: This book is somewhat reminiscent of “Tuesdays with Morrie”. It is a perfect mix of unflinching candor and unabashed wonder at what it means to be alive and present in one’s life. NY Times writer, John Leland, asked six New Yorkers, who were at least 85 years old, to give their thoughts and insights on happiness and aging. The 2015 interviews and profiles then became the genus for his warm and thoughtful book. Leland expected to encounter “typical” sad, elderly folks with diminished lives, endless medical issues and despondent resignation. He anticipated futility and despair. Instead, his diverse subjects repeatedly surprised him, greeting him with vitality, optimism, resiliency and contentment, despite decreased mobility, uncertainty and limitations. This book has much to teach, and Leland absorbs the frank elder wisdom with humility and grace. In a culture that worships perpetual youth, this book is a welcome respite. The true joys of purpose, love, friendship, gratitude and memories can exist equally alongside the debilities of advanced age. These people do not deny their frailties, but rather tolerate them, work around them and continue to forge on. The book...

United States on Mar 01, 2018

Lynne M. Spreen: Happiness is a Choice You Make is the account of a yearlong conversation between a New York Times journalist and six people who are among the “oldest old” in America. The journalist, John Leland, was 57 as of the the time of this writing, and going through his own challenges. He was hoping to learn from these elders, and to share his findings with us. He did both brilliantly.

Leland writes with compassion, humor, and incisiveness. I knew I was home when, in the very beginning of the book, his elderly interview subjects answered his questions with platitudes or reminiscing about their youth, but he didn't settle for that. "...I was interested in what their lives were like now...How did they get through the day, and what were their hopes for the morrow? How did they manage...Was there a threshold at which life was no longer worth living?" He also writes with humor which leavens the weight of the topic.

This was my main takeaway: It seems regular old people, not heroes or geniuses, but just everyday elders, might come to some ways of being that are essential for a good end of days (and might enhance our younger years as well.) What they know looks simple on the...

United States on Feb 04, 2018