...
Show More
Very entertaining and true in many cases.
Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book
The Decades of a Woman's Life #6
I'm Too Young to Be Seventy and Other Delusions
...
Show More
The beloved bestselling author of Forever Fifty and Suddenly Sixty now tackles the ins and outs of becoming a septuagenarian with her usual wry good humor.
Fans of Judith Viorst's funny, touching, and wise poems about turning thirty, forty, fifty, and sixty will love this new volume for the woman who deeply believes she is too young to be seventy, "too young in my heart and my soul, if not in my thighs."
Viorst explores, among the many other issues of this stage of life, the state of our sex lives and teeth, how we can stay married though thermostatically incompatible, and the joys of grandparenthood and shopping. Readers will nod with rueful recognition when she asks, "Am I required to think of myself as a basically shallow woman because I feel better when my hair looks good?," when she presses a few helpful suggestions on her kids because "they may be middle aged, but they're still my children," and when she graciously -- but not too graciously -- selects her husband's next mate in a poem deliciously subtitled "If I Should Die Before I Wake, Here's the Wife You Next Should Take." Though Viorst acknowledges she is definitely not a good sport about the fact that she is mortal, her poems are full of the pleasures of life right now, helping us come to terms with the passage of time, encouraging us to keep trying to fix the world, and inviting us to consider "drinking wine, making love, laughing hard, caring hard, and learning a new trick or two as part of our job description at seventy."
I'm Too Young to Be Seventy is a joy to read and makes a heartwarming gift for anyone who has reached or is soon to reach that -- it's not so bad after all -- seventh decade.
64 pages, Hardcover
First published September 27,2005
This edition
- Format
-
64 pages, Hardcover
- Published
-
October 12, 2005 by Simon \u0026 Schuster
- ISBN
-
9780743267748
- ASIN
-
0743267745
- Language
-
English
About the author
...
Show More
Judith Viorst is an American writer, newspaper journalist, and psychoanalysis researcher. She is known for her humorous observational poetry and for her children's literature. This includes The Tenth Good Thing About Barney (about the death of a pet) and the Alexander series of short picture books, which includes Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (1972), which has sold over two million copies.
Viorst is a 1952 graduate of the Newark College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. In 1968, she signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In the latter part of the 1970s, after two decades of writing for children and adults, Viorst turned to the study of Freudian psychology. In 1981, she became a research graduate at Washington Psychoanalytic Institute after six years of study.
Viorst is a 1952 graduate of the Newark College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. In 1968, she signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In the latter part of the 1970s, after two decades of writing for children and adults, Viorst turned to the study of Freudian psychology. In 1981, she became a research graduate at Washington Psychoanalytic Institute after six years of study.
Readers also enjoyed
Community Reviews
Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 78 votes)
5 stars
30(38%)
4 stars
25(32%)
3 stars
23(29%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
78 reviews All reviews
...
Show More
Another of Viorst’s light and amusing books of free verse poems about the changes each new decade brings. This one on 70 is a reckoning with stepping into the realities of reaching old age. She offers up many universal feelings about the aging process in a delightfully acerbic manner.
...
Show More
Well, I'm definitely too young to be seventy but my oldest son sent me this book to remind me that I was born in 1949 and the big 7, O has hit me! I related all too well to many of these well written truths--I mean poems. My favorite had to be "Body Heat" where she writes how she is in the kitchen dressed in a sweater and fleece-lined jacket with the oven on as her husband sits there in a short sleeved shirt and bare feet asking if he can crack open the door. Then at night she is in bed suffering from heat prostration while her husband is lying right beside her with two blankets and flannel pajamas on asking to keep the window closed. They have become thermostatically incompatible! BINGO! That is exactly what is happening at our house! Oh I loved this little book!
...
Show More
Wry and witty, this is a fascinating book of poems that explores the life of a woman in her seventies. It's a quick read and offers a refreshing perspective. I can only hope that I am as vibrant and active in my seventies as she is. I picked out this book at our local library, from a display of poetry books for National Poetry Month. I recognized Judith Viorst as the author of several popular children's books, like Alexander and the Terrible,Horrible,No Good,Very Bad Day. I didn't know much about her poetry, but I thought I'd check it out. After reading this book, I realize that she has a series of poetry books that explore the various decades of a woman's life. I plan to read them all, perhaps in reverse order, since I started with seventy...
...
Show More
Even though I am not near seventy yet, I enjoyed the poems. I will definitely check out her other poetry books.
...
Show More
I was expecting more wit and depth instead of a book of poems. Don't get me wrong the poems were clever and witty for the most part, although tending toward negativism at times. I loved Virost's earlier books - both those for adults and children - and am sorry this wasn't "more".
...
Show More
Don't know for sure about this age but always love Judith Viorst's perspective.
...
Show More
Short and Sassy
Very short but full of wisdom that a younger person may not understand. Enjoyable read. Will wait to turn 80;to get the next one ;-)
Very short but full of wisdom that a younger person may not understand. Enjoyable read. Will wait to turn 80;to get the next one ;-)
Leave a Review