When the gossip newspaper where her daughter works is in danger of closing down because of the owner's gambling debts, Teresa "Toots" Loudenberry calls on three trusted friends to help her pull some strings to keep her daughter employed among Hollywood's elite.

Lucille Howard is getting on in years, but she stays busy. Thanks to the inspiration of her dearly departed friend Arthur Truluv, she has begun to teach baking classes, sharing the secrets to her delicious classic Southern yellow cake, the perfect pinwheel cookies, and other sweet essentials. Her classes have become so popular that she's hired Iris, a new resident of Mason, Missouri, as an assistant. Iris doesn't know how to bake but she needs to...

The staff and residents at Fulton, North Carolina's retirement facility, share the realities of their lives, from a prominent lawyer who feigns dementia to escape life with his son, to a woman who keeps a scrapbook of every local crime.

When Iola Anne Poole, an old-timer on Hatteras Island, passes away in her bed at ninety-one, the struggling young mother in her rental cottage, Tandi Jo Reese, finds herself charged with the task of cleaning out Iola?s rambling Victorian house. Running from a messy, dangerous past, Tandi never expects to find more than a temporary hiding place within Iola?s walls, but everything changes with the discovery of eighty-one carefully decorated prayer boxes,...

Women growing older contend with ageism, misogyny, and loss. Yet 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. Here she offers a timely examination of the cultural and developmental issues women face as they age.

An eighty-four-year-old loner, sitting at a grand hotel bar in Ireland, toasts the five people who have meant the most to him while recalling unspoken losses and joys, a tragic secret, and a fierce love.

"Sarah knows first-hand the heartache that results from making wrong choices. But will she be able to convince a troubled young woman before time runs out? For when the twelve days of Christmas have passed, it is possible that the melody of Sarah's song might bring out not one, but two miracles.