Age is Just a Number |

June was Seniors' Month at Toronto Public Library, and many programs focusing on age and aging were held in branches across the city. Some of the programs included how to avoid identity theft, how to write your memoirs, or how to invest wisely.

The North York Central Book Club discussed the fiction title Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante. Jennifer White, an accomplished orthopaedic surgeon, is coping with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. Told from her viewpoint, she is the prime suspect and charged with the murder of her best friend Amanda, who is found dead with four fingers of her hand cut off.

I recently turned 60, but they say it's the new 40. There are a lot of cliches about aging: "Old Age is not for sissies", "Age is a state of mind", or "You're only as old as you feel".

Here are a few more titles where the central characters deal with aging.

Award winner Julian Barne's relates the story of Tony in Sense of an Ending. Divorced and comfortably retired, he suddenly receives a letter from the recently deceased mother of his first love, who has bequeathed him the diary of his school friend who committed suicide.

Linden McIntyre follows his successful The Bishop's Man with Why Men Lie. In 1997, Effie is a middle-aged woman working as a professor of Celtic studies, but her disappointing love life has her questioning why men lie.

Jeanne Ray writes about Clover in Calling Invisible Women. As she enters her 50's she is feeling unattractive and underappreciated as a wife and mother. She wakes up one morning and discovers that she has actually become invisible, a condition that goes unnoticed by her family. After answering a classified ad, Clover soon discovers a community of other middle-aged invisible women.