How To Age Disgracefully

This was a heartwarming, easy-going read that centres around a ragtag, multigenerational group of people who band together to save their community centre which houses their senior citizens club, daycare and other local groups.

The story is filled with a series of wacky situations, British humour and unlikely friendships between a cast of memorable characters that range from a spunky group of septuagenarians, a teenage father, a gaggle of preschoolers and a middle-aged woman in need a change. Each of the characters share their stories but it was Daphne, the devil-may-care, ornery elderly woman with a shady past and teenage dad Ziggy who captured my interest the most.

This is a feel good, easy read that will have you snickering to yourself and will leave you with a heartwarming feel. Aging is inevitable but that doesn't mean you have to do it gracefully. Where's the fun in that?

Disclaimer: Thanks to Viking Books for the advanced digital copy of this book which was given in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3.75 stars

Author: Clare Pooley

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Viking (Penguin Random House Canada)

First Published: June 11, 2024

Book Description from GoodReads: A senior citizens’ center and a daycare collide with hilarious results in the new ensemble comedy from New York Times- bestselling author Clare Pooley

When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards.

The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign—but when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide.

When the city council threatens to sell the doomed community center building, the members of the Social Club join forces with their tiny friends in the daycare next door—as well as the teenaged father of one of the toddlers and a geriatric dog—to save the building. Together, this group’s unorthodox methods may actually work, as long as the police don’t catch up with them first.