From the Inside Flap
Whether you are looking ahead to fifty, just turning fifty, or already enjoying your fifties, you will be inspired by the honest, intimate voices of these fifty women who are walking the walk with you -- and surviving, proudly and joyfully. Warm, witty, candid, and wise, these are revealing stories told by women from many walks of life, all of whom agree: The Big Five-O milestone, far from being an occasion for dread or regret, is the beginning of an extraordinary journey.
From the Back Cover
Just a few years ago you wouldn't hear a woman, especially a well-known woman in the public eye, talk about facing, turning, or being fifty. Happily, that's changed. Today we view the middle years as rich with possibility, abundant with new challenges, blessed with wonder. And we're willing, boldly and passionately, to talk openly about them.

"A woman's journey," the actress Susan Sarandon writes in her graceful foreword to this volume, "is one of constant discovery." The engaging voices that fill these pages tell of all kinds of discovery, from simple lessons humbly learned in the crucible of family and home to extraordinary adventures undertaken in the arts, movies, sports, business, and elsewhere. These illuminating stories are told by famous actresses, singers, newscasters, and entrepreneurs as well as by lesser-known women who engage life in imaginative, if unheralded, ways. Throughout, splendid images by leading photographers capture the depth and spirit of the faces that go with the voices.

The women who speak here are following different paths to and through fifty. There are women at the heights of careers and women who lead lives of simplicity and charity. There are brand-new mothers and newly minted grandmothers. There are stories of enduring love and stories of love lost and found again. Though the stories are rich in their variety, all are revealing, thoughtful, and inspiring celebrations of fifty.