The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, narrated by Jim Broadbent

I loved this book!

Harold's been retired for six months when he gets a letter from a woman he used to work with.  Queenie is dying from cancer and just wrote to say goodbye.  Harold dashes off a quick reply but when he walks to the post office to mail the card, he suddenly decides to keep on walking.  I didn't have any idea how this journey would end but I wasn't disappointed.  I laughed; I cried; I was engrossed.. Jim Broadbent is Harold. 336 pages. 9 hours 57 minutes, unabridged.

The Sonderberg Case by Elie Wiesel

The Sonderberg Case by Elie Wiesel

 I picked up this book because it was by Elie Wiesel. I also thought the book would be about a murder trial.  According to the book jacket, "a German expatriate named Werner Sonderberg returned alone from a walk in the Adirondacks with an elderly uncle, whose lifeless body was soon retrieved from the woods." But the Sonderberg case is really a point of departure for the main character, a theater critic named Yedidyah Wasserman, to reflect upon his own life and work.  "Somewhere on earth, each person is acting in his own play; here or there, it makes one or another stranger weep or roar with laughter."  (192 pages)

Smart Women Don't Retire - They Break Free, by Gail Rentsch

The Transition Network (TTN) is a national community of women over 50, which provides a forum for exploring what's next in women's lives. This book is a synopsis of what has emerged from this community, which began in 2000 in New York. TTN now has active groups in several major metro areas, and an online community. Each chapter explores a different aspect of post-career life, but definitely focuses on women who are transitioning from full time, good paying jobs to retirement. Each chapter is a mixture of anecdotes showing various paths taken by individuals, and checklists to help you with your own thinking. Some of the anecdotes are a bit tedious, but most are short and serve as good illustrations of people searching out and finding satisfying post-career lives. My spouse has retired from state employment, but does part-time work; so we've been talking about future plans. I picked this up because of its focus on the social and lifestyle aspects, rather than just the financial considerations of retirement. I think it covers a good range of the issues, and provides generally helpful, if not terribly detailed, advice. 240 p.