Loved this book! Fun character development and story line. Diverse personalities and life stories bonded through the goal of saving the town’s community center. Very fun read!

I would like to express my gratitude to NetGalley and Pamela Dorman Books for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received Clare Pooley's book, 'How to Age Disgracefully,' an incredible read that surpassed my expectations! As someone reading Pooley's work for the first time, I was delighted that the book had a great sense of humor and a suspenseful twist. The characters were well-crafted, and the storyline was so engaging that I stayed up late several nights to read more. I loved the author's writing style; how she brought the story to life was amazing. This author's work was my first Clare Pooley read, and I loved how comical and adventurous it was as we met each character and their story. I can't wait to read more from this author and devour another book!

Can I be Daphne when I grow up?

What a delightful book! All of the characters (that weren't Jeremy, Floyd and the council) were just so enjoyable. What I liked about this story especially was that while there were personal struggles, they didn't weigh things down and get too heavy. The characters persevered and I just felt good about their futures by the end. And I miss them already!

This was the first time I've read something by Clare Pooley but I'm looking forward to reading more!

Book Title: How to Age Disgracefully
Author: Claire Pooley
Publisher: Penguin Group/Viking- Pamela Dorman Books
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Pub Date: June 11, 2024
My Rating: 3.6 - rounding up!)
Pages: 352

The Prologue set the stage for what readers are in store for in this story.
Police Constable Penny Rogers is trying to pull over a mini bus as it has been reported that a person of interest is wanted by the Met for questioning but the mini bus won’t pull over. The siren is sounding and the lights flashing but it keeps on going.

Constable Penny can see that half the passengers in the mini bus look to be well over seventy but the others appear to be under the age of five.
The Mimi bus finally comes to a stop and the frazzled driver states she was looking for a service station as another urgent bathroom break is needed. (No surprised based on the age of the passengers!)
As for whom the person is wanted for questioning – they all confess to doing some wrong-doing and surely they are the person wanted.
Now the story begins with - Three Months Earlier

Lydia is the new coordinator of the Senior Citizens Social Club at the Mandel Community Centre (yes spelled Center here in US just so you know that I know) - and was expecting to sit around drinking hot tea and chatting and playing board games and/or playing cards. However, when there is a threat of closure of the community center the group goes into action to save it. That is she and a bunch of elderly quirky characters plus look Ziggy a young single father whose baby daughter attends the daycare there...
.
Story is definitely characters driven and told from the POV of a lot of these characters.

Although it took a while to get to it – this story does have a message ~ You will probably call your grandparents. This story is a reminder that elderly folks need to be needed and can be fun!

Author’s Note –Ms. Poole tells us her motivation for writer this story. She is fifty-four and starting to deal with menopause. Then there is ‘Looking in the Mirror’ and sees that she is gradually falling apart but inside she doesn’t feel any different than when we was much younger.
Her parent are in their eighties are busy traveling as well as surfing the net and are not the typical helpless older folks most of us read about in novels.
She decides to write a story about older characters who are ‘bossing it! Showing G X as well as the other younger generations that they are not going to age gracefully – with that she immediately visualized the passengers in the mini bus.

Thank You NetGalley and Penguin Group/Viking – Pamela Dorman Books for this early eGalley of Claire Pooley's How to Age Disgracefully.
Publishing release date Scheduled for June 11. 2024

Clare Pooley has done it again! She's created another great group of people you'd like to spend time with in a setting where all sorts of people might go. How to Age Disgracefully takes place (mostly) at a community center in Hammersmith. There is a wide range of ages represented, from babies to senior citizens, and all of them have something going on.

The book opens on a minibus full of senior citizens being pulled over by the police. When the officer enters the bus and says she's looking for someone, everyone starts to confess to one transgression or another. I couldn't wait to find out what led up to this and I wasn't disappointed. Iona (from Rules of Commuting) even gets a shout out at one point!

I liked that the pensioners were lively, active people, who had more going on that just aging. Daphne was a great grump with a big heart. I'm glad she came out of her apartment after 15 years and joined the senior group at the Mandel Community Center. There were a lot of predictable plot points, but that doesn't take away the fact that it's a fun book.

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m very into grumpy/quirky older characters living their best lives lately, and man did How to Age Disgracefully fit right into that.

Lydia is finally back at work with a parttime job running the Senior Citizens Social Club at the local community center. That is until the center is at risk of being shut down. Now Lydia and her members, (Daphne who has hidden from the world the last few decades and is just now getting back out to make some friends. Art, who is just trying to stay relevant in his acting career. Ruby, who just wants to knit. and a host of others) are dead set on saving the center and might just become friends in the process.

Please Clare Pooley, make this a series! I’m not ready to leave this quirky cast of characters behind! I love everything about this fun book. From our grumpy seniors to our mangy mutt, everyone was a joy to get to know. I adored getting a POV from so many of the characters and while they all have their own problems, none of the storylines outweighed the overall plot. If you need something fun, then How to Age Disgracefully is perfect for you!


How to Age Disgracefully comes out June 11, 2024. Thank you to Pamela Dorman Books and Penguin Group for my advanced copies in exchange for my review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.

HOW TO AGE DISGRACEFULLY was such a cozy, comforting read, following an unlikely group of allies—a senior citizens' social club and a daycare—who band together to save their local community center. Clare Pooley does a fantastic job of developing this vibrant cast of characters, and the found family element was so sweet to read about. I also appreciated how Pooley effortlessly balances the lighthearted tone of the story with some emotional topics. Overall, I'd recommend this one for anyone in need of a heartwarming, humorous summer read! Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking/Pamela Dorman Books for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley & Pamela Dorman Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This review can be found on Goodreads.

When her 70th birthday rolls around, Daphne decides enough is enough. It's time for her to come out of hiding after 15 years and start living life again. She makes a few goals and pushes herself out of her comfort zone. Daphne decides to join a local senior social club at the community center, and her world is flipped upside down. Daphne begins making friends and having fun, but will she be able to outrun her shady past?

We are introduced to a rag tag group of characters at the community center. While we do follow Daphne's journey, we receive multiple other POVs of characters. Pooley crafts unique and individually storylines for each person, and as a reader, I felt I was part of the group.

When their community center is at risk of being sold and demolished, the senior social club is determined to save the day. As you would expect, Daphne is often at the center of this ready to problem solve in a crafty, yet slightly concerning, way. The senior social club pairs with an unexpected crowd at the other end of the age spectrum - the nursery that is also housed in the same building. The old and young come together to fight for what they believe in (both for their community and each other).

This was such a sweet, fun, warm, and cozy read. The characters are darling and inviting. Each character is innately human, and Pooley does an incredible job making them relatable. This book will tug at your heart strings, make you laugh, and wrap you in a hug.

4.75 🌟

I fall in love with Clare Pooley's characters in every.single.one of her books!

Cranky older lady as a main character? Found family in the form of a unique cast of characters around her? Yes. Yes, please. I laughed out loud in this book multiple times and already miss the characters. Seriously loved this book and will read everything by Clare moving forward.

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley is a laugh out loud, feel good, easy read that was such a breath of fresh air. This is my first book by this author & I am definitely planning to read more. I loved the characters in this book & Pooley literally made them feel like family. I can’t wait to read more of her books.

Thank you NetGalley & Penguin Group Viking for an ARC copy of this book.

Thanks to Netgalley & PENGUIN GROUP- Viking for access to this E-ARC! This was so good! I was cackling the whole time!! Loved the characters & the pacing. Definitely recommend.

Absolutely loved it. Heartwarming and entertaining. Highly recommend! I didn’t want it to end. The expectation-defying geriatric characters were wonderful.

This is the third book I’ve read by Clare Pooley, and while I’ve loved them all, this is definitely my new favorite. Her knack for bringing an unlikely group of people together for humor, friendship, love, healing, wacky antics, and then subverting expectations- it’s unlike anything else I’ve read. And I just love every minute spent with her delightful characters and their adventures. She manages to touch on numerous heavy topics with empathy and humor, and without unduly weighing down the story. I highly recommend reading this. And even better, read it somewhere in public, so that when you find yourself laughing hysterically and repeatedly, the person at the next table can interject, and next thing you know, you’ve befriended everyone around you and devised a scheme to….. oh wait, I should really leave that to Pooley, she’s much better at this than I am. Anyway, seriously just read this.

Thank you Clare Pooley, Penguin Viking, Pamela Dorman Books, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

For such a large cast, I thought the characters had remarkably well developed back stories. I especially liked that there was a responsible single teen dad, not because I think teens should be having babies but because I like to see positive representation.

Like Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting, the large cast leads to themes of found family and solving one another’s problems. In this case, though, I think there was one or two too many storylines and I wish it had been cut down so we got more depth on the others. I was surprised to read the author’s note and see she was inspired to write a Lydia as a mirror for herself when I found Lydia the weakest of the characters. I was much more interested in Daphne, Ziggy, and to a lesser extent, Art.

I think I’d call this cozy found family fiction, which goes down like a milkshake but will ultimately not be memorable. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Absolutely delightful! Right out of the gate these characters feel like your friends. The found family trope is one of my favorites, and this family will be sticking with me for awhile. All I can say is THAT ENDING!!!!!! Chefs kiss ❤️

Once I saw that Clare Pooley had another book I knew I needed to read it! I loved Iona Iverson so much and was worried that this wouldn’t compete.
I loved the characters, the stories that each of them had were so unique and came together perfectly in a tale of life, love, redemption, and secrets. So good and the ending was exactly what I was wanting for the characters! Loved this!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Ok so I might think I'm not the proper demographic for this book. I was excited to read it based on the description but I'm a bit disappointed. This book was a bit hard to read! The characters were kind of funny, and all very different - i liked that rhey all had their own pasts, flaws, thoughts, and redeeming qualities. I sometimes had a hard time keeping all of the characters straight, There are so many. Ziggy really through me for a loop, I thought he was going to be older also, so it was a shock that he was a teenage dad. Idk what I would do the improve this, I think it was well written - just didn't hold me.
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Hooked from page one! A feel good story of 70 year olds and 5 year olds bringing a community together leaves you with characters that will stay with you. With laughs along the way. Different ages, backgrounds, way of life coming together. I absolutely fell in love with Ziggy (rallying for him all the way). I hope to be Daphne when I’m well starting today not when I’m 70. Arts story really pulled me in with his backstory, actions, and even his feelings. Definitely a feel good story as A Man Called Ove and The Help. Highly recommend

How to Age Gracefully, by Clare Pooley, is such a fun read. The characters are great, from young to old. (This group of seniors...I want to be their friend!) The story is filled with so many laughable moments that you'll find yourself laughing out loud or at least smiling through most of it. I highly recommend this one if you want something to lift your spirits!
Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with the ARC ebook I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

Clare Pooley has once again captured my heart with her delightful storytelling! In "How to Age Disgracefully," Lydia finds herself immersed in a world brimming with eccentricity and mischief when she encounters a cast of characters so vibrant, they practically leap off the page. From Art's penchant for pilfering to Daphne's shady past and Ruby's knitting prowess—each character is a masterpiece in their own right. When the city council threatens to bulldoze their beloved hangout spot, this golden team isn't about to take it lying down!

This book had me laughing out loud, with belly laughs that had me clutching my sides. But amidst the humor, there's a poignant exploration of friendship and community, which brought tears to my eyes. I was particularly drawn to Daphne's journey as she navigates the complexities of re-entering society, with her interactions with fellow senior citizen Art providing some truly amusing dialogue.

"How to Age Disgracefully" presents a diverse cast of characters, from the funny to the malevolent, all united in their determination to save their community center from closure. With Lydia leading the charge and a motley crew of characters by her side, this quirky tale promises laughter, mischief, and a hefty dose of British charm.

Overall, Clare Pooley has crafted a fresh and unique story that celebrates the highs and lows of aging disgracefully. From Daphne's fearless quest for friendship to Art's knack for playing dead on screen, "How to Age Disgracefully" is a delightful read that will leave you chuckling from start to finish!