Book Synopsis
If you’re alive, you’re aging. It’s as simple as that.
Unfortunately, many of us dread becoming old because we view the process as a scary or repulsive one. That’s understandable, considering that we’re bombarded daily with cultural messages telling us that to age means simply to deteriorate and decline. While it’s true that our bodies and minds change with the passage of time, not all of these changes are negative ones. In fact, there are some wonderful assets to getting older.
Social gerontologist and community educator Jeanette Leardi believes it’s way past time that everyone hears that story.
Her probing and engaging book, Aging Sideways, will encourage you to put aside what you think you know about getting older and instead come at aging from new “sideways” angles in order to shake up any entrenched negative beliefs that may be keeping you from living your later years with greater dignity, passion, and fulfillment.
Through its entertaining, highly readable essays that draw on groundbreaking research and expert opinions, Aging Sideways busts the many false stereotypes about age. It provides surprising and refreshing ways to embrace getting older and change the minds of others in your life in the hope that all of us can transform our society into a truly pro-aging one — now and for generations to come.
Book Information
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Title: Aging Sideways: Changing Our Perspectives on Getting Older
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Publish Date: September 10, 2024
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Trade Paperback ISBN: 979-8-218-45246-9
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Formats: Trade Paperback and Digital
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Available for Purchase: Amazon, Ingram
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Publisher: Jeanette Leardi
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Cover Design & Layout: Victoria Wolf, Wolf Design & Marketing
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Website: https://jeanetteleardi.com
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Book Page: https://jeanetteleardi/book
Endorsements/Testimonials
What Others Are Saying About AGING SIDEWAYS…
Tracey Gendron, Ph.D.
From the Foreward
Gerontology Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University; Executive Director of the Virginia Center on Aging; and
author of
Ageism Unmasked: Exploring Age Bias and How to End It
Jeanette Leardi challenges us to look at aging from a new perspective, revealing some of our misconceptions and biases. The sideways view of aging invites us to redefine our own aging, embrace the beauty etched upon our faces, and live to our full potential at all ages and stages. After years of writing and lecturing about aging, Jeanette has accumulated stories, anecdotes, and meaningful data that encourage us to transform our culture into a pro-aging society. Her approach to a subject so familiar to me still left me feeling more enlightened than when I began.
Ashton Applewhite
Pro-age advocate and author of
This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism
In this entertaining and provocative book, Jeanette Leardi unpacks what most of us think getting older is all about, and why it matters so much. (Spoiler alert: Most of what we know is wrong.) A social gerontologist, Leardi draws on solid research, startling comparisons, and engaging stories to reveal later life as a time of growth and purpose. Exposing the forces that frame long life as decline, she offers clear-eyed strategies for aging with dignity and purpose. I heartily recommend AGING SIDEWAYS to everyone who wakes up a day older and hopes to make the most of the years ahead.
Richard Eisenberg
“The View From Unretirement” columnist
at MarketWatch
Jeanette Leardi provides a sharp and provocative take on the scourge of ageism and what we can all do to defeat it. She offers a refreshing, entertaining, and thought-provoking approach for how to explore and perceive growing older, combining her research and analysis as a gerontologist with her personal experience. To follow her advice, you may need to start thinking very differently about aging and ageism and changing your ways, but that’s a good thing.
Kate de Medeiros, Ph.D.
Gerontologist and professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal
Even though I study aging, when I read AGING SIDEWAYS, I immediately thought, ‘This is the book I need to give my family and friends.’ It is a book that talks with you, not at you. It’s an honest, approachable, and well-researched look at getting older and being judged for it. But make no mistake. This is not a book that calls on us to defy aging, ignore aging, or forget aging. Instead, Leardi challenges us to recognize and confront the negative societal messages about aging that tell us that aging is bad, that we should be ashamed of our age, or that we, as aging people, no longer matter.
CArl
honorÉ
Author of
Bolder: How to Age Better and Feel Better About Aging
In a world in thrall to youth, AGING SIDEWAYS is a welcome blast of fresh air. It torpedoes the myth that growing older is just a downward spiral. Jeanette Leardi reminds us that aging can be an extraordinary journey: rich, complex, contradictory, magical, thrilling, beautiful. And she shows us how to make the most of life at every stage. AGING SIDEWAYS is a timely, bracing read. Whatever your age, grab a
copy now!
Interview Questions
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What is a social gerontologist, and why did you decide to become one?
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What was your purpose in writing Aging Sideways?
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Aging Sideways is an unusual title. What does it mean?
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In the book’s Introduction and Epilogue, you present and revisit four strategies for aging more positively and productively. Can you briefly describe them and explain why they can be effective?
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You talk about the importance of us asking “right-side up” questions whenever we’re confronted with a situation of age bias. What do you mean by this, and what are a few of those questions?
Biography
(35 words)
Jeanette Leardi is a social gerontologist, community educator, writer, public speaker, and aging wellness leader who gives engaging in-person and virtual presentations, workshops, and classes; writes articles for national publications; and appears on national broadcasts.
(75 words)
Jeanette Leardi is a social gerontologist, community educator, writer, public speaker, and aging wellness leader who changes people’s perceptions about older adults and the aging process.
She gives engaging in-person and virtual presentations, workshops, and classes to people of all ages; writes articles for national publications; and appears on national broadcasts.
Leardi has an M.A. with honors in English from Rutgers University and a gerontology graduate certificate from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
(150 words)
Jeanette Leardi is a social gerontologist, community educator, writer, public speaker, and aging wellness leader who has a passion for empowering older adults and helping them identify and share their wisdom with others.
Her decade of experiences as a caregiver to her parents inspired her encore career goals of changing perceptions about the aging process and promoting awareness of elders’ inherent dignity, wisdom, and unique value as mentors and catalysts for social change.
Leardi's efforts include giving engaging in-person and virtual presentations, workshops, and classes to people of all ages; writing articles for Next Avenue, 3rd Act Magazine, and other publications; and appearing on national broadcasts.
Her editorial experiences include positions at Newsweek, Life, People, Condé Nast Traveler, and Sesame Street magazines, and The Charlotte Observer. She has an M.A. with honors in English from Rutgers University and a gerontology graduate certificate from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.