Join television and radio host\, award-winning journalist and author\, Ian Brown in conver sation about his latest release\, Seventy: A Diary of My Seventy -First Year. Books will be available for purchase\, and a signing will follow the event.
\nPresented in partnership with Words Worth Books.
\nIan Brown\, award-winnin g \;author of \;The Boy in the Moon \;and the memoir& nbsp\;Sixty\, now recounts his daily reckoning with the milestone age of 70. Fearlessly candid\, often funny and relentlessly real\, Brown asks the terrifying questions we all have about growing old\, even when he doesn&rsquo\;t want to know the answers.
\nAn acclaimed journalist and chronicler of contemporary life\, 70-year-old Ian Brown is not going g ently into his eighth decade. The outlook is more perilous than it was at age sixty\, but Brown is determined (however hopelessly) not to let time g et the better of him. During the course of his seventy-first year\, Brown writes incessantly\, travelling on assignment for the \;Globe and Mail \;across the United States in the months leading to the shocking 2024 election\; holidays with family and friends\, always aware he might not s ee them again\; skis and rows and exercises like a madman while turning a wary eye on the live-forever movement\; takes up pickleball and talks book s\; and in general tries (and frequently fails) to show some human courage in the face of the march of his dwindling years.
\nAlong the way he encounters the lists that have suddenly become essential to daily life (w hat to take when leaving the house\, what to pack for a trip\, what to pic k up at the drugstore)\; the indignities of medical tests and the shock of financing a retirement\; the terrors and pleasures of growing older with one&rsquo\;s spouse of four decades\; the now-suspenseful drama of sex\; t he thrilling spectacle of watching adult children inhabit new roles of fam ilial responsibility\; and the shocking new lessons of life as an older pe rson (accept compliments with grace\, remember to smile\, stand up straigh ter).
\nAs the percentage of the Canadian population over eighty-fiv e will triple in the next twenty-five years\, Brown contemplates his morta lity and that of his contemporaries for readers of all ages. Growing old&m dash\;anything after seventy&mdash\;is a grave challenge\, but also enormo usly liberating: if there is something you want to say or do\, now is your chance to say it or do it. \; &ldquo\;I have to keep taking chances\, &rdquo\; Brown reckons. &ldquo\;I don&rsquo\;t want to give in too soon.&r dquo\;
\nIan Brown is an author and a feat ure writer for the \;Globe and Mail \;whose work has won many Nati onal Magazine and National Newspaper Awards. His most recent book\, \; Sixty: The Beginning of the End\, or the End of the Beginning?\, was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-Fiction as well as a finalist for the RBC Taylor Prize. He is also the author of& nbsp\;The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son \, which was a national bestseller and a \;New York Times \;and&nb sp\;Globe and Mail \;Best Book\, as well as a \;New York Times&nbs p\;top ten book of the year\; it also won the Charles Taylor Prize for Lit erary Non-Fiction\, the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and the Trillium Book Award. His previous books include \;Freewheeling\, which won the National Business Book Award\, and the provocative exam ination of modern masculinity\, \;Man Overboard. He lives in Toronto. \;
\nPhotography Notice: Pleas e note that photographs and videos may be taken at this event and may be b roadcast\, reproduced\, and/or made available in print or online. For indi vidual or small group photos\, staff will make attendees aware of their pr esence and will ask permission before taking photos. \;
\nFor la rger public events\, please note that by attending\, you are consenting to the use of your appearance\, image\, and voice in print or digital produc tions created by the Waterloo Public Library for promotional use only. Ple ase speak to library staff at the event if you&rsquo\;d like to be exclude d from any photo/video. \;
\nStaff: Charlie
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