A Grand Midlife

Ava Walker: Mom, Bonus Mom, almost-mother-in-law, and soon-to-be grandmother! The entire Howe-Harper-Walker clan is through the roof excited for Michelle and Wallie’s baby. Nobody more so than Lucy-Fur. In the midst of all the last-minute baby preparations, Zoey faces immense familial challenges of her own. After receiving a mysterious message from her cousin, Zoey goes on a journey to learn about her family and pride. Ava is at her side every step of the way. Not all of the news is good. Ava and Drew are determined to help Zoey and Larry find out what happened to Zoey’s parents. Zoey’s uncle, a gigantic man with an easy smile, doesn’t quite seem to be who he says he is. Could he be hiding some big clue that will help solve the mystery of Zoey’s parents’ deaths? Only time will tell. Sam and his new psychic powers would be very helpful in digging to the bottom of this if only they could pull him away from his own family research…With Olivia spending so much time dealing with her family, Ava’s support system is rather scattered at the moment. Oh, well, Ava can always call on her friends to help if push comes to shove. After all, what’s the point of knowing the ruler of hell, ruler of the vampires, ruler of the hunters, and being the most powerful necromancer in the world if Ava doesn’t use those connections?

Ava Walker: Mom, Bonus Mom, almost-mother-in-law, and soon-to-be grandmother! The entire Howe-Harper-Walker clan is through the roof excited for Michelle and Wallie's baby. Nobody more so than Lucy-Fur. In the midst of all the last-minute baby preparations, Zoey faces immense familial challenges of her own. After receiving a mysterious message from her cousin, Zoey goes on a journey to learn about her family and pride. Ava is at her side every step of the way. Not all of the news is good. Ava and Drew are determined to help Zoey and Larry find out what happened to Zoey's parents. Zoey's uncle, a gigantic man with an easy smile, doesn't quite seem to be who he says he is. Could he be hiding some big clue that will help solve the mystery of Zoey's parents' deaths? Only time will tell. Sam and his new psychic powers would be very helpful in digging to the bottom of this if only they could pull him away from his own family research...With Olivia spending so much time dealing with her family, Ava's support system is rather scattered at the moment. Oh, well, Ava can always call on her friends to help if push comes to shove. After all, what's the point of knowing the ruler of hell, ruler of the vampires, ruler of the hunters, and being the most powerful necromancer in the world if Ava doesn't use those connections?

From the founding editor of "MORE" magazine comes an inspiring and useful look at how yesterday's Baby Boomers are becoming today's adventurous midlife pioneers.

Widow and empty nester, Ava Harper, never dreamed of turning forty without the love of her life. Nor did she know she would bury her favorite aunt, who raised her after the death of her mother, a few years later. Then again, she doesn’t have the power of foresight. No, her powers are much darker. Powers she has kept behind lock and key. With her only son off to college and her life savings depleted, Ava returns home to Shipton Harbor, Maine. She’s only there to clean out, fix up, and sell the family home. But like everything in her life in the last five years, things change. Plans get canceled. Arriving in Shipton Harbor is like stepping into another world. Her high school rival is married to her best friend and is set on making up for every devious thing she did when they were teens. The magic in the house reawakens, making it impossible to sell. It doesn’t want new owners, apparently. And to top it all, the sheriff looks like he belongs on the cover of a romance novel. When an old friend of the family turns up dead, Ava must delve deep into the powers she’s repressed all her adult life to find the killer. Only a necromancer could’ve killed her friend. Now she must open up to her own wells of dark magic to find the murderer while working with the hottie sheriff she’s sure has his own secrets.

By revealing her own up-close and personal journey through midlife, Lee shows how to navigate new waters with increased self-respect and confidence, and come out the other end of one's own transformation.

Midlife is a wake-up call that requires we pay attention to where we stand in our lives. It is a time of intense reevaluation. Yet it is also a time of immense opportunity from which every woman can emerge a new person. Now in one of the first books to address the spiritual, emotional, and psychological dimensions of the midlife transition, acclaimed family therapist Stephanie Marston acts as a "midwife" to help women make it the extraordinary and transformative rite of passage it can be.

From acclaimed photographer Elinor Carucci, a vivid chronicle of one woman's passage through aging, family, illness, and intimacy. It is a period in life that is universal, at some point, to everyone, yet in our day-to-day and cultural dialogue, nearly invisible. Midlife is a moving and empathetic portrait of an artist at the point in her life when inexorable change is more apparent than ever. Elinor Carucci, whose work has been collected in the previous acclaimed volumes Closer (2002, 2009) and Mother (2013), continues her immersive and close-up examination of her own life in this volume, portraying this moment in vibrant detail. As one of the most autobiographically rigorous photographers of her generation, Carucci recruits and revisits the same members of her family that we have seen since her work gained prominence two decades ago. Even as we observe telling details--graying hair, the pressures and joys of marriage, episodes of pronounced illness, the evolution of her aging parents' roles as grandparents, her children's increasing independence--we are invited to reflect on the experiences that we all share contending with the challenges of life, love, and change.

On old age that steals on us fast -- Spiritual development -- The search for happiness -- Meaningful living according to logotherapy -- Guiding principles of logotherapy -- The courage to be authentic : philosophical sources of logotherapy -- The concept of meaning in religion and literature -- Life as a task -- On fate and meaningful living -- Despair as mortal illness in aging -- The gifts of the Gods : sources for discovering meaning in life -- The importance of humor and laughter in old age -- Dealing with guilt and remorse -- Coping with loneliness -- A logotherapeutic perspective on death. a Formerly CIP. |5 Uk.

Necromancer trainee, book seller, novel writer Ava Harper is settling into her new life with friends and her houseguests. And she definitely isn’t thinking about a certain hunky sheriff who pops in unannounced at every turn. And mostly ignoring her devilish new neighbor, a lingering Christmas present from herself. She has bigger things to worry about. Like learning her newly woken powers. And convincing her house that she isn’t selling it so it will stop scaring off any visitors. Plus, she’s teaching a ghoul to use a computer. Why shouldn’t he? He can’t talk, he might as well be able to use social media. Her life gets more complicated when the local coven decides Ava has dodged them for long enough. She doesn’t have any interest in joining the coven. She’s everything they turn their nose up at. A necromancer with a weird ability to heal people. But they want her. When other coven members fall victim to freak accidents, Ava is sure something dark is at play. And the more Ava learns about the so-called accidents the more her past haunts her. Once again, she puts her trust in her friends—and the deliciously mysterious man in charge of the local law enforcement—to get to the bottom of whoever is targeting witches.

The acclaimed author explores the hidden crises of Gen X women in this “engaging hybrid of first-person confession, reportage [and] pop culture analysis” (The New Republic). Ada Calhoun was married with children and a good career—and yet she was miserable. She thought she had no right to complain until she realized how many other Generation X women felt the same way. What could be behind this troubling trend? To find out, Calhoun delved into housing costs, HR trends, credit card debt averages, and divorce data. At every turn, she saw that Gen X women were facing new problems as they entered middle age—problems that were being largely overlooked. Calhoun spoke with women across America who were part of the generation raised to “have it all.” She found that most were exhausted, terrified about money, under-employed, and overwhelmed. And instead of being heard, they were being told to lean in, take “me-time,” or make a chore chart to get their lives and homes in order. In Why We Can’t Sleep, Calhoun opens up the cultural and political contexts of Gen X’s predicament. She offers practical advice on how to ourselves out of the abyss—and keep the next generation of women from falling in. The result is reassuring, empowering, and essential reading for all middle-aged women, and anyone who hopes to understand them.