"An old woman shares her house with a scruffy old dog, her best friend. When they go for a walk, the old woman throws sticks for the dog. She loves hearing the autumn leaves under her feet and the wind in the trees. She looks up at a crow and imagines what it might feel like to fly; she remembers playing outside as a child, never wanting to go in. "--

A cantankerous, elegant old woman sits in her beautiful Somerset house while her family secretly plots to evict her. In the garden is her one remaining racehorse, prematurely retired, and in London the man she probably should have married, who is still her dearest friend. Onto this scene comes Maeve Delaney. Sole applicant for the job of companion to Lady Pamela, streetwise and outrageous, Maeve bursts into the old house like a firecracker. As open...

Birdie Wainwright sees things--purple flowers growing out of floors and alpine slopes where her stairs ought to be. But she's not worried. It's just her macular degeneration acting up. No vision is going to stop this tango-loving grandmother!...Then one day, she sidesteps an imaginary boulder---and tumbles down the stairs. The bad news? A broken ankle. The worse news? She must convalesce at her son's home, under the harsh eye of her daughter-in-law....

After destroying all of the gifts and decorations at home, Bad Kitty escapes from the car on Christmas Eve and finds a new friend, who helps her learn the true meaning of Christmas.

"Women growing older contend with ageism, misogyny, and loss. Yet as Mary Pipher shows, most older women are deeply happy and filled with gratitude for the gifts of life. Their struggles help them grow into the authentic, empathetic, and wise people they have always wanted to be. In Women Rowing North, Pipher offers a timely examination of the cultural and developmental issues women face as they age. Drawing on her own experience as daughter, sister,...

When nerdy cruciverbalist Harvey Beerbaum throws a birthday bash for Cora Felton at the Bakerhaven Library, it's no surprise that the centerpiece, a huge cake decorated like a crossword puzzle, is a complete bust—until a corpse thrown from the second floor stacks hits it dead center and fills in 14 down. Cora may hate birthdays almost as much as she hates crossword puzzles—but when it comes to solving crimes, no one can hold a candle to the Puzzle...

"For nearly four decades, lifelong friends Jude, Wendy, Adele, and Sylvie have seen each other through romances, child-rearing, changing careers, divorces, medical recoveries, and general aging. But now Sylvie has died, and the three remaining women are tasked with cleaning out her beach house before it's sold. Thrust together In this weathered old house on the ocean, where the ghosts of their younger selves compete with their current realities, the...

"When an elderly boarder at a Bakerhaven bed-and-breakfast drops dead during afternoon tea, there's nothing particularly suspicious about it--except for the Sudoku in his jacket pocket. But when a second body turns up in the window seat and an autopsy shows both men were poisoned with elderberry wine, the Puzzle Lady suspects she's dealing with a cold-blooded killer who for some reason is copying the Cary Grant movie Arsenic and Old Lace, in which...