A recent PEW study indicates older Americans (65+) are embracing technology; approximately two-thirds of them go online regularly and many now own smartphones. Not surprising that usage is greater among adults with higher income ($75,000) and are college educated.  Interestingly though, is some 34% of older internet users say they have little to no confidence in their ability to use electronic devices to perform online tasks, while 48% of seniors say that this statement describes them very well: “When I get a new electronic device, I usually need someone else to set it up or show me how to use it.” 

When Deputy Ken Brody's sweetheart goes missing in the mountains outside Timber Creek, Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo are called to search. But it's mid-October and a dark snow storm is brewing over the high country. And they're already too late. By the time they find her body, the storm has broken and the snow is coming down hard. While Brody hikes down to bring back the forensics team and veterinarian Cole Walker gathers supplies to protect them from the storm, Mattie and Robo find themselves alone, guarding the gravesite overnight in the dead of the early winter. And that's only the first long, dark night in a series of them, because as their investigation develops, Mattie, Robo, Brody, and Cole find themselves in the middle of the killer's stalking ground--where the hunters have just become the hunted.

Professional journalist and amateur drinker Bianca Bosker didn't know much about wine--until she discovered an alternate universe where taste reigns supreme, a world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavor. Astounded by their fervor and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, she set out to uncover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a "cork dork." With boundless curiousity, humor, and a healthy dose of skepticism, Bosker takes the reader inside underground tasting groups, exclusive New York City restaurants, California mass-market wine factories, and even a neuroscientist's fMRI machine as she attempts to answer the most nagging question of all: what's the big deal about wine? What she learns will change the way you drink wine--and, perhaps, the way you live--forever. Named one of The 4 Books You Should Read This Spring by Fortune Named one of 12 Nonfiction Books You Need to Read in March by Harper's Bazaar Named one of the 20 Best Nonfiction Books Coming in March 2017 by Bustle Named one of The Best Drink Books of Spring and Summer 2017 by Punch Named one of the Best Books of Early 2017 by Brightly

Grandpa and Noah are sitting on a bench in a square that keeps getting smaller every day. The square is strange but also familiar, full of the odds and ends that have made up their lives : Grandpa's work desk, the stuffed dragon that Grandpa once gave to Noah, the sweet-smelling hyacinths that Grandma loved to grow in her garden.

"In post-World War I England, Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady's maid, Eva Huntford, step outside of their social roles and put their lives at risk to apprehend a vicious killer"--.

Bell Elkins, prosecuting attorney in Acker's Gap, West Virginia, is asked by an old acquaintance to look into her beloved father's death in an Alzheimer's care facility. Did he die of natural causes -- or was it something more sinister? Meanwhile, Bell's daughter Carla has moved back home. But something's not right. Carla is hiding something. Once again, past and present, good and evil, and revenge and forgiveness clash in a riveting story set in the shattered landscape of Acker's Gap, where the skies can seem dark even at high noon..

A study in scarlet women by Sherry Thomas

"USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas turns the story of the renowned Sherlock Holmes upside down... With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society. But she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London. When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She'll have help from friends new and old--a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her. But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society's expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind"--.

The third squad by V Sanjay Kumar

The Third Squad is an arresting, ripped-from-the-headlines noir novel that deftly explores how in recent decades, to ostensibly combat the rising tide of criminality in Mumbai's underworld, the Indian Police Service has carried out many hundreds of extrajudicial assassinations of suspected criminals. Karan, a sharpshooter dispensed with dishing out this peculiar blend of vigilante justice, has a difficult choice to make: should he continue to follow orders from his superiors, regardless of their moral standing, or should he take matters into his own hands and do what he believes to be right?

Blood and bone by V. M Giambanco

"After two years in the Seattle Police Department, homicide detective Alice Madison has finally found a measure of peace she has never known before--a sense of belonging. When a local burglary escalates into a gruesome murder, Madison takes charge of the investigation, only to discover that this is no ordinary killing. She finds herself tracking a serial assassin who has haunted the city for years--and whose brutality is the stuff of legend among the super-max prisons of the Pacific Northwest. As she delves deeper into the case, Madison learns that the widow of one of the victims is being stalked--is the killer poised to strike again? As pressures mount, Madison will stop at nothing to save the next innocent victim. even if it means playing a killer's endgame by presenting herself as the bait"--.

Each May, the Administration for Community Living (ACL) leads our nation’s celebration of Older Americans Month (OAM). ACL designed the 2017 OAM theme, Age Out Loud, to give aging a new voice—one that reflects what today’s older adults have to say.  This theme shines a light on many important trends. More than ever before, older Americans are working longer, trying new things, and engaging in their communities. They’re taking charge, striving for wellness, focusing on independence, and advocating for themselves and others. What it means to age has changed, and OAM 2017 is a perfect opportunity to recognize and celebrate what getting older looks like today.

This follow-up to the popular blog, Advanced Style this book features 22 short essays by some of the portrait subjects, distilling the wisdom and lifestyle secrets of some of photographer and author, Ari Seth Cohen's favorite Advanced Style ladies.

Elaine Madsen and Virginia Madsen interview a variety of older women and explore how they have faced challenges in the past and present. Interviewees: Rita Moreno, Rosemary O'Callaghan, Olive McQueen, Lupe Anguiano, Valerie Sobel, Eartha Kitt, Marg Starbuck, Jean McFaddin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Elaine Kaufman, Nancy Freedman, Lucille Borgen, Tao Porchon Lynch, Elaine Madsen, Lauren Hutton, Suzanne Adams, and Gloria Steinem.
 

Please join the Canton Seniors Book Discussion group on Thursday, May 25 from 2:00PM-3:00PM in the Friends Activity Room when we discuss BLACK DIAMONDS: THE DOWNFALL OF AN ARISTOCRATIC DYNASTY... Copies of the book will be available on April  28.

Also available in: audiobook | e-audiobook

"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Rooms, the extraordinary true story of the downfall of one of England's wealthiest families. Fans of Downton Abbey now have a go-to resource for fascinating, real-life stories of the spectacular lives led by England's aristocrats. With the novelistic flair and knack for historical detail Catherine Bailey displayed in her New York Times bestseller The Secret Rooms, Black Diamonds provides a page-turning chronicle of the Fitzwilliam coal-mining dynasty and their breathtaking Wentworth estate, the largest private home in England. When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902, he left behind the second largest estate in twentieth-century England, valued at more than [ ] billion of today's money--a lifeline to the tens of thousands of people who worked either in the family's coal mines or on their expansive estate. The earl also left behind four sons, and the family line seemed assured. But was it? As Bailey retraces the Fitzwilliam family history, she uncovers a legacy riddled with bitter feuds, scandals (including Peter Fitzwilliam's ill-fated affair with American heiress Kick Kennedy), and civil unrest as the conflict between the coal industry and its miners came to a head. Once again, Bailey has written an irresistible and brilliant narrative history"--.

Books About Mundane Stuff That Are Actually Fascinating...

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, which covered nearly thirty thousand square miles across seven states, was the most destructive river flood in U.S. history. Due to the speed of new media and the slow progress of the flood, this was the first environmental disaster to be experienced on a mass scale. As it moved from north to south down an environmentally and technologically altered valley, inundating plantations and displacing more than half a million people, the flood provoked an intense and lasting cultural response. The Flood Year 1927 draws from newspapers, radio broadcasts, political cartoons, vaudeville, blues songs, poetry, and fiction to show how this event took on public meanings. 

"Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky presents an insider's view of Havana: the elegant, tattered city he has come to know over more than thirty years. Part cultural history, part travelogue, with recipes, historic engravings, photographs, and Kurlansky's own pen-and-ink drawings throughout, Havana celebrates the city's singular music, literature, baseball, and food; its five centuries of outstanding, neglected architecture; and its extraordinary blend of cultures. Like all great cities, Havana has a rich history that informs the vibrant place it is today--from the native Taino to Columbus's landing, from Cuba's status as a U.S. protectorate to Batista's dictatorship and Castro's revolution, from Soviet presence to the welcoming of capitalist tourism. Havana is a place of extremes: a beautifully restored colonial city whose cobblestone streets pass through areas that have not been painted or repaired since the revolution. Kurlansky shows Havana through the eyes of Cuban writers, such as Alejo Carpentier and José Martí, and foreigners, including Graham Greene and Hemingway. He introduces us to Cuban baseball and its highly opinionated fans; the city's music scene, alive with the rhythm of Son; its culinary legacy. Once the only country Americans couldn't visit, Cuba is now opening to us, as is Havana, not only by plane or boat but also through Mark Kurlansky's multilayered and electrifying portrait of the long-elusive city"--.

Friedman (coauthor of That Used to Be Us), a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner for his work as a reporter with the New York Times, engages in an intelligent discussion of the faster paces of change in technology, globalization, and climate around the world. His core argument is that "simultaneous accelerations in the Market, Mother Nature and Moore's law" (the principle that the power of microchips doubles every two years) constitute an "Age of Accelerations," in which people who feel "fearful or unmoored" must "pause and reflect" rather than panic.

"A former police academy classmate and protégé asks Tracy to help solve a cold case that involves the suspicious suicide of a Native American high school girl forty years earlier. But as Tracy probes one small town's memory and finds dark, well-concealed secrets hidden within the community's fabric, her own life may be endangered"--.

Today, people worry that they're going to run out of money in their older age. That won't happen if you use a few tricks for squeezing higher payments from your assets-- from your Social Security account (find the hidden values there), pension (monthly income or lump sum?), home equity (sell and invest the proceeds or take a reverse mortgage?), savings (should you buy a lifetime annuity?), and retirement accounts (how to invest and-- critically-- how much to withdraw from your savings each year?). The right moves will not only raise the amount you have to spend, they'll stretch out your money over many more years. You will also learn to look at your savings and investments in a new way. If you stick with super-safe choices the money might not last. You need safe money to help pay the bills in your early retirement years. But to ensure that you'll still have spending money 10 and 20 years from now, you have to invest for growth, today. Quinn shows you how. At a time when people are living longer, yet retiring with a smaller pot of savings than they'd hoped for, this book will become the essential guide.

Senior Discounts & Deals

Looking for ways to save money?   Senior discounts for a variety of services and goods are readily available.  Members of AARP are eligible for discounts simply by showing their membership card.  The Senior List is another resource for discounts available to individuals as young as 50 years of age.   Canton Township's Club 55 hosts monthly events and trips. Those over 60 can lunch at Senior Center daily (Reservations are required by 12 pm the day prior by calling 734/394-5485 ext. 1253).

In addition to offering discount and deal resources, these sites offer tips on retirement living.

Gift Card Granny

Tough Nickel

The Balance

 

We’re celebrating Cultural Diversity Month in April! Check out these series--there’s a detective for every holiday destination.

Follows Mma Ramotste, a recently bereaved woman, as she sets up the only woman-run Private Detective Agency in Botswana and her attempts to get it off the ground. She gets help from Mma Makutsi, her new secretary, and Mr. JLB Matekoni, the owner and super mechanic of the wonderful Speedy Motors. Mma Ramotste takes on cases, meets many new people who need her help - from a woman who thinks the man who has turned up at her door is not her father, to another lady who has a boyfriend who may or may not be faithful to her.  Based on the books by Alexander McCall Smith.

Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez and his staff work to solve mysteries in the Shetland Islands. Based on the books by Ann Cleeves.

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