Books about starting over at 50

I’m always looking for novels about older adults. I want to know how they live, how they deal with second-half challenges, what spurs them on and keeps them fired up. Here’s a partial list of what I’ve read. Click on the book image to go to the Amazon detail page. For a more complete list (over 60 titles!), go to FB Midlife Books.

My Midlife Fiction Recommendations!

The Vibrant Years by Sonali Dev with intro by Mindy Kaling

The title of this book doesn’t begin to convey the sweep of personalities, the character arc, the rich cultural descriptions, and the earthshaking changes undergone by the three generations of characters. My review is here and you can buy it here.

The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg

When I read a novel, I want to learn something about life, especially in the second half.

The Year of Pleasures is about a recently widowed 55-year-old woman, and there’s so much wisdom in the story. It’s a joy to read, but also enlightening. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Two Old Women by Velma Wallis

Two old women, left to starve by their Alaskan tribe, discover strengths they never knew they had. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Old Friends Reunited by Maddie Please

Three lifelong friends meet in France to relax and reconnect, but nothing works out as expected. My review is here and you can buy it here.

The Other Son by Nick Alexander

Alice and her husband Ken are close to seventy when he punches her in the face for the last time. The Other Son is partly a story of domestic abuse, but the main theme is how we adapt over time. My review is here and you can buy it here.

The Woman I Was Before by Kerry Fisher

When three families move into a new neighborhood, their lives appear to be great, wonderful, totally okay. But then the secrets begin to unravel. A story about midlife women becoming strong and honest. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Season of Second Chances by Aimee Alexander

Grace, a physician, takes her two teenagers back to her childhood village in an effort to escape her abusive husband. A lovely story of growth and renewal in an Irish setting. My review is here, and you can see it on Amazon here.

The Bette Davis Club by Jane Lotter

Margo is in her 50s, had a sad childhood, is bumping along in her halfway life, and then a non-wedding sets into motion a series of madcap events, starting with the jilted bridegroom joining her for a trip to Palm Springs in a vintage MG, while chasing the runaway bride. My review is here and you can buy it here.

The rest of this page is undergoing transformation. Please forgive the mess.

A widow in her sixties sets out to learn the truth about her family of origin, while the story of her childhood is told in flashback. A richly drawn saga based in the South in 1968. My 5-star review is here and you can buy it here.

Ruth Devon, 42, is re-evaluating her life. Five stars for a story modeled after the amazing Doris Burke, the former basketball player and now-legendary NBA sidelines reporter. I’m not even a basketball fan and I loved it. My review is here, and you can order it here.

Scientists in the Amazon, life and death! You get two for one: a 45-year old main character, and a 70-year-old antagonist, both women, both richly drawn. My review is here and you can buy it here.

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Rebecca, long widowed, is fifty-three years old. She lives in a big old Baltimore row house which serves as an event venue. In this typical Tyler novel, Rebecca reevaluates her life. My review is here and you can buy it here. 

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A 71-year-old retired army captain in 1870, Texas, must return a 10-year-old girl, captured at 4 by Kiowa indians, to her relatives in San Antonio. But she’s become Kiowa. Now, as Captain Kidd travels with her, he begins to worry about what will happen at the end of her journey.  Yes, this is the one made into a movie starring Tom Hanks, but the book was better. My review is here and you can buy it here.

A childless older couple in Alaska in the 1920s are blessed with a family, in an unusual way. Heartbreakingly beautiful story. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Wilber is 115 and living in an old-age home. In his last days, he develops mental powers, like communicating without speaking and moving objects with his mind. He uses these tools to benefit the people who populate this book. A sweet, uplifting novel. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Kent Haruf wrote so simply and richly about the experience of aging. Here two older souls (in their late 60s? 70s?) find each other, and defy their families. Made into a movie starring Redford and Fonda. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Aren’t You Forgetting Someone? Essays from My Midlife Revenge by Kari Lizer

What it’s like to be an empty-nester and working in sexist Hollywood. Brutally funny midlife memoir by the woman who wrote and produced The New Adventures of the Old Christine and others; she writes like you’d think Julia Louis-Dreyfus would sound. My review is here here and you can buy it here.

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Trudy, 47, finds out her husband is having an affair and kicks him to the curb. And then she falls apart, because she loves him passionately. My review is here and you can buy it here.

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A 60 yo man, hiding from life, is fired from his job and suffers a conk on the head. Now he’s obsessed with remembering, but what he really needs is to wake up. A slow start but a lovely book. My review is here and you can buy it here.

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A 49-yo woman in a difficult marriage must decide whether to stay with her husband or pursue the love of her life, now that the kids are grown and flown. Great story! My review is here and you can buy it here.

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I had mixed feelings about this beautifully written book. A middle-aged painter is trying to transcend his past. He’s kind of a dick, but he lives in a beautiful place and fly fishes like it’s poetry. And like I said, the writing. Here’s my review and you can buy it here.

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The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

of sorts, following a horrific event in middle age. Then the husband decides to take action that will change everything. For those who think “old people” can’t change, and anyone else on the planet, read this lovely book. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Fantastic story about an 82-yr old heroic veteran (he was a sniper in Korea) who goes up against Serbian war criminals to save a 4-yr-old boy. Reminds me of City of Thieves by Benioff. My 5-star review is here and you can buy it here.

In this follow-up to Norwegian by Night, above, middle-aged Chief Inspector Sigrid Ødegård returns with her dry wit and quietly ballsy attitude. I laughed myself sick at some of the passages. My review is here and you can buy it here.

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The Runaway Midwife by Patricia Harman

Middle-aged Clara Perry, a nurse/midwife, flees from a manslaughter charge and hides out on a remote island on Lake Erie. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Most of the characters in this book are over 50. It’s masterfully written by the best of the best. My review is here and you can buy it here.

A sweet story with multiple voices, led by that of an elderly woman coming to grips with the truth of her family. My review is here and you can buy it here.

I really enjoyed this midlife novel by Marj Charlier. Three women in their 50s buy a fixer-upper in South America. My review is here and you can buy it here.

A 56-year-old woman is put in the position of competing with her daughter for a prized TV spot. They handle it with love and wisdom. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Lovely, amazing, rich, wonderful book. Main character is 95, but there’s a middle-aged woman and a kid just out of high school featured here, too. Add in the vanishing culture of a modern-day Alaskan village…no, I can’t begin to describe it. But it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. Here’s my review and you can buy it here.

A lovely romance in the Welsh countryside featuring a couple around age 60. My review is here and you can buy it here. 

Never Change by Elizabeth Berg  

This book had me riveted. The plot is about a woman falling in love with a terminally ill man, but the story is really about her growing up unloved and deciding how and whether to live her own life. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly  

Love that Harry Bosch is now of retirement age, but still in the thick of crime fighting. My review is here and you can buy it here.

The sequel to Julie and Romeo, featuring a couple around age 60. I enjoyed it, and I appreciate Jeanne Ray (Ann Patchett’s mother) for getting mad, like me, about the lack of novels featuring older adults, who have their own unique journeys to undergo. My review is here and you can buy it here.

What a fun, poignant, fulfilling collection of short stories set in a retirement community in Florida, by the author of War of the Roses. First published in 1977. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Apples Should Be Red by Penny Watson

What a fun, joyful book about two people over 60 who hate each others’ guts and then change their minds. My review is here and you can buy it here.

A 69-year-old man discovers that his wife of 40 years, who has recently died, had a secret life before she met him. His pursuit of her secrets leads him to evolve. My review is here and you can buy it here.

As All My Fathers Were by James A. Misko

Two brothers, both ranchers, both in their 60s, must undertake a trip via horseback and canoe in contemporary Nebraska to understand their impact on the land. I reviewed this award-winner here and you can buy it here.

A divorced couple in their 40s, grieving over the death of their 11-year-old son, find redemption in their friendship with a still-evolving 104-year-old neighbor. My review is here and you can buy it here.

Wonderful short book about a colorful 75 year old woman living in San Francisco. My review is here and you can buy it here.

The two main characters are a lonely 87-year-old woman who flew in WWII and has a terrible secret, and a 15-year-old girl who needs a friend. Fantastic story. My review is here and you can buy it here.

This is a love story, and surprise! It’s Older Adult Romance, set in an assisted living environment. I read it in one day and very much enjoyed it. My review is here and you can buy it here.