Anyone who grew up on MTV has a soft spot for its V.J.’s, those impossibly cool yet slightly goofy hosts who delivered the patter between Dire Straits and Madonna videos. Karen Duffy was a particular favorite, and her latest is an idiosyncratic and highly entertaining self-help book inspired by this quote from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus: “If you make beautiful choices, so too, will you be.” Duffy imparts her life lessons via letters to her son, Jack, who at book’s end writes his own letter back, thanking her for all the wisdom she has shared with him over the years (and lots of fascinating trivia). He signs off with another quote from Epictetus: “Make the best use of what is in your power and take the rest as it happens.” Like mother, like son.
This is a very different kind of advice book from Wise Up, as it focuses on 40 women speaking about what life is like over the age of 50. The black-and-white portraits are intimate and revealing, and the interviews, ranging from Yo-Yo Ma’s mother to a Filipino housekeeper to actress Leslie Caron, are never less than fascinating. In fact, Ellen Warner’s The Second Half is not so much an advice book as it is an eloquent chronicle of what very different women have experienced and endured during their lives. And its magic rests in the portraits, which are so wondrous that one is drawn irresistibly into the words.
