The Gift of Aging: Growing Older with Purpose, Planning, and Positivity offers practical guidance, healthy ageing resources, and personal anecdotes from the authors and the older adults they interview. Organized into a four-part ethnography across 38 chapters, the two authors, one a wildlife biologist and the other a tai chi-practising geriatrician, set forth suggestions for optimal ageing. After Eckstrom’s ‘Introduction’, Houle’s Chapter 1, ‘Map and compass’, opens with the recounting of her experience of falling whilst walking across a grocery store parking lot where she fractured both arms, thus becoming vulnerable and in need of care for activities of daily living (e.g. eating, bathing and dressing). For her, it was an introduction into ageing as she felt helpless, invisible and like a burden at times, all feelings likely shared by some of her co-author’s geriatric patients, and many elders globally. Houle’s fall and subsequent vulnerability served as an eye-opening experience that gave her a first-hand understanding of the challenges associated with ageing. This personal ordeal offered her the unexpected gift of insight into the physical and emotional difficulties that many elderly individuals face. It provided her with a unique perspective on what may lie ahead in the ageing process, enabling her to better empathize with geriatric patients and address the broader issues of ageing discussed throughout the rest of the book.

Part I, ‘Caring for your mind’, comprises 11 chapters, beginning with Chapter 2, ‘A goal higher than joy’, where Houle quotes 97-year-old Rabbi Josh Stampfer, mentioning that ‘the secret to finding joy …[is] to make life a little better for someone else’ (p. 12). This section ends with Eckstrom’s guidance that people should ‘keep up the persistent metabolic youth’ of their cognition (p. 84). The chapters address the importance of purpose, service, mobility, proactive acceptance and adaptation to changing abilities, laughing, dancing and fostering ‘Humanitude’ (p. 55), a deep human-to-human connection, as keys to longevity and a higher quality of life.

In Part II, ‘Caring for your body’, Eckstrom focuses on specific physical aspects of ageing, beginning with an explanation of how mindfully ‘jarring’ (p. 88) activities can strengthen bones across the lifecourse. In the following eight chapters, Eckstrom focuses on specific physical aspects of health: fall prevention, frailty, pelvic strengthening, incontinence, sexual health, cardiovascular fitness and guidance regarding evidence-based optimal nutrition and pain management, closing with a chapter on the value of physical therapy written by physical therapist Darla Phillips.

Part III, ‘Caring for yourself and your family: practical planning’, opens with the African proverb ‘Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today’ (p. 134) and closes by noting that having positive feelings about ageing can add seven and a half years to one’s life. Across six chapters, the authors cover estate planning, advance directives, financial planning from ages 20 to 100, caregiver–patient support, assistance living – specifically when to opt in versus ‘give in’ (p. 176), and strategies to challenge ageism in oneself and society.

Part IV, ‘Caring for your soul’, opens with 90-year-old Mary Hughes declaring that ‘the past is the past and …I am determined to be happy wherever I am’ (p. 186) and closes with the aforementioned Rabbi Stampfer reiterating that ‘when you care about the welfare of others more than yourself …you will discover joy’ (p. 256). The 12 chapters within Part IV explore grief and overcoming fear of death, which Eckstrom calls a ‘reasonable’ (p. 197) fear; she reminds us that ‘each death is unique’ (p. 202). Houle reflects on the words of Barbara Roberts, Oregon’s first female governor, who describes her trajectory of grief after losing her husband, noting that ‘grief waits its turn …until it has been heard’ (p. 209), and that giving oneself permission to grieve is essential to healing. Additionally, the chapters in Part IV cover the value and power of accessing nature to help one age well, and the benefits of positivity on ageing along the journey of life. The last words of the book leave us with an edict that aligns with the overall ethos of the book. That is: ‘simply, let love in’ (p. 258).

Another aspect of Part IV is that the authors weave in Indigenous views of life and death, the healing power of nature (e.g. Blue and Green Spaces [pp. 236–237]) and the impacts of inequality on later life, particularly for people of colour. Here, they underscore the value of community and reference Karen Wells of the PreServe Coalition – a group concerned with the memory and brain health of African Americans – who views being there for someone ill or isolated as ‘a ministry of presence’ (p. 226). The authors also champion a proactive, purpose-driven mindset of connecting, sharing, creating, eating and planning well, along with nurturing one’s soul.

This book is accessible to students, academics, clinicians and the general public. It offers practical guides interspersed between anecdotes and interviews, providing resources and insights that can serve as a daily guide for overall wellbeing throughout the lifecourse.