29 by Adena Halpern
Published by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster
Growing old sucks.
At least that is what Ellie Jerome thinks. She is turning 75, but she sincerely wishes that she wasn’t. She does everything possible to not look 75, and she doesn’t, but looking like she’s in her 50s or 60s doesn’t really do it for her. Ellie wishes she was young and glamorous, like her granddaughter Lucy, a 25-year old fashion designer. At Ellie’s party, when her daughter Barbara can fit only 29 candles on her cake, she decides to make a wish that she really could be 29, if only for one day. When Ellie’s wish comes true, she has no idea just how being young again will change her.
I expected that “29″ would be a fun, light sort of book, based on the title and description. And it was, of course, but there was also a surprising amount of depth throughout the book, but particularly in the end. One thing that I thought Halpern did particularly well was to keep Ellie consistent as a 75 year old woman in the body of a 29 ear old. By that, I mean that she kept Ellie in the mindset of a woman raised in her generation, while allowing her a bit of adaptability and keeping her mindset from becoming just a gag.
While it may not be my favorite book I read all year, it was definitely well-written and engaging. Recommended.
Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*
Love the idea of books like these, though they seldom turn out to be favorites in the end. Still – I keep reading them!!
This one sounds cute and fun. Just what I need with school about to start again.
I have never read a book like this, but I would be so scared it would be sad.
Haven’t heard of this one…I will be hitting the “29″ mark in November where I plan to stop aging so perhaps this should be on the TBR list!
This sounds appealing to me!
Sounds good. And I like reading more books written about “older” characters, I hardly read anything about them.
Now this sounds like a fun summer read. Glad to know that it doesn’t just turn into one long gag.
Oh how I wish I could be 29 again, this book sounds interesting.
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I enjoyed this one. I was expecting it to be kind of silly and mindless, but it had surprising depth.