I read this book on a whim because I'd heard good things about her previous book. This book was fun and interesting and full of some solid advice. I greatly enjoyed her anecdotes of her life and seeing the difference in cultures around the world.

This read more like a memoir than actual practical advice, but I still loved it. The author is lovely and funny so I enjoyed hearing about her life. The chapter on treating kids and grandkids well made me think of my own grandmother close to the author’s age. A great, feel-good book. You will laugh and leave with some great advice.

I think I should probably go back and read the author's first book, as it sounds like more of what I was looking for--a practical guide for paring down. This was a more of a memoir with a wry sense of humor, but the distilled points of wisdom are actually all explained on the table of contents (I had a kindle version). If you need a straight-talking Swedish godmother, though, this might be your book.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book was a very sweet read. As someone who doesn’t have any more extended family, it felt like a close aunt was instilling this wisdom to me. I highly suggest reading a little each morning! With amazing advice like “Don’t fall over!” And “Eat Chocolate!” this is an easy book to recommend. The book also includes illustrations from the author which was a nice treat.

Thank you to NetGalley, Scribner, and the author Margareta Magnusson for this digital copy!

This book was just a delightful read. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this was refreshingly different. I love the way she sprinkles practical advice amongst funny stories of her childhood or from raising her children. It is evident that she has lived well, and now I can’t wait to start death cleaning tomorrow!!

I adored this collection of essays. Advice to younger people that is written in both a thoughtful and humorous way. The author lostt her husband Lars and managed to create a bibranr life for hers2lf as an aging widow.

I was intrigued by this book both because I am getting older and because of my Swedish heritage. I don't normally read memoirs or self-help books, but overall, I did enjoy the vignettes from Magnusson's vignettes from her life.

Felt more like a memoir. Wasn’t a fan. Did not finish after reading half of the book. Maybe older people in retirement age would enjoy it.

The synopsis calls this book 'Wise, funny, and practical'. After reading it, I would call it 'One woman's memoirs and ponderings on aging'.
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I enjoyed reading about the author's memories, family, and her good and bad experiences. Some of her anecdotes may provide readers with information they can apply to their own daily lives, but I wouldn't go so far as to call this book a practical guide to aging.

Taken as a charming, light read about one woman's relationship with her own aging process, it's a little treasure, and I do recommend it.

My thanks to author Margareta Magnusson, Scribner, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a digital advance review copy of this book. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion.

I just reviewed The Swedish Art of Aging Well by Margareta Magnusson. #NetGalley

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published January 23, 2023.

Not at all what I was expecting. The 86-year-old Swedish author tries to share some tips for aging well but this book is more memoir than self-help and more humorous than practical. Her advice isn’t even really Swedish. For example, wear stripes?!?! Eat chocolate?!?!

This was a surprisingly fun book about aging and death. While I haven’t read her first book about death cleaning, I’ve been practicing a form of that for a while now. I’m envious of the authors very long life. It sounds like it was fabulous.

I enjoyed The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and was looking forward to Margareta Magnusson’s The Swedish Art of Aging Well. While TGAoSDC was largely a guide of how to go about implementing the practice yourself, The Swedish Art of Aging Well is more enjoyable memoir. Magnusson starts each chapter with a theme of what perhaps has kept her young (at age 86). Then, we pleasantly meander a bit in her memories. She paints scenes from her own childhood, to the decades spent on an island in Western Sweden, to raising her children in Annapolis and Singapore, to her current years in a Stockholm apartment. Then, each chapter is wrapped up with a bit of applicable wisdom.

There are lots of bits of Swedish culture sprinkled through the book (like I was amazed to learn that almost everyone eats the same soup on Thursdays), but there is nothing distinctly Swedish about her secrets to aging. No one is going to have to build a sauna to follow her advice. She says herself, “You were expecting Swedish secrets, and yet I think the secrets of aging well and happily are in finding ways to make your routines dear to you. I may not have a choice in how long they will take me to do or whether I will even be alive a few weeks from now, but I do have the choice to decide how to approach my daily life.”

Some of her advice includes: “Happiness is being surrounded by the young…. Surrounding yourself with young people is a way to stay in tune with the young person you yourself were at some point,” or, “Volunteering makes you feel useful and good about yourself.” Magnusson also includes bits of wisdom, such as: “Once you have turned eighty, it’s important to have the right sort of wrinkles. Even more important, though, is to start laughing early enough to spend more time laughing than frowning. If your wrinkles point upward you will look happy instead of merely old.”

Thank you, NetGalley, for sharing this manuscript to review.

The author has led an incredibly interesting life as an artist, mother of five and living all over the world. This book is a great memoir with advice on aging well and gives glimpses into the life of a very interesting woman. This would be a great gift to someone who is retiring or is having difficulties with retirement. Magnusson encourages the reader to continue to take care of themselves and aspire to living to 100!
I received a complementary copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

While self-improvement books have been very popular with students at my school this past year, I think that they might have a difficult time relating to the content in this book. I feel like it would appeal more to a middle-aged audience, which makes sense when you think about who is concerned about aging well. My teenage students are still just trying to grow up and their lives are just beginning and so the idea of reflecting on their lives ending still seems quite distant. Reading this, though, does make me want to seek out the author's previous book about death cleaning. Going along with the whole minimalist, Marie Kondo type of cleaning, I think that it would be good to start curating my belongings now rather than leaving them all to my kids to have to sort out later.

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!! Honestly I want to gift it to all my friends. Margareta's perspective is unparalleled. She is as witty as she is wise. I read this in one sitting and could have read it again!

I wanted to enjoy this book. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting -- perhaps some sage advice or something that would make the book stand out as uniquely Swedish, since my husband is Swedish and I lived there for several years. I was disappointed in this book because it just felt like reading someone's not-very-interesting diary. It talked about events and people that I'm sure were important to the author, but had no impact on anyone else. For instance, when her children were small, the family moved from Sweden to the US. The author and her husband overheard the children playing and noticed that they spoke to each other in English, except when they wanted to curse, and then they reverted to Swedish. Hilarious? I didn't think so. That's the sort of non-stop personal recollections that make up this book. It might make very touching reading for her family, but I don't understand why anyone else would be interested. I'm glad her previous book about "Swedish Death Cleaning' was a hit, but this one is a bit too personal to be relatable.

A gentle book that's pleasant and easy to read. It offers both helpful advice and realistic, appealing stories from the author's life. Great for those who have read her first book and who haven't.

This brief volume is nothing life changing and doesn't contain any shocking or new pieces of advice, but it is still a cute, lovely little book of reminders and anecdotes from an octogenarian who has lived a full, happy, meaningful life. Very simple.

While youve likely heard the advice before, you may have heard it under different circumstances; this is definitely aimed at older readers (50+) to get the most out of their twilight years, without squandering precious time or energy. Some of the chapters begin with a story that doesn't seem related, but then she does a nice job of bringing it back to the point at hand.

I did not feel compelled to read a lot in one sitting, so it took me longer to read this than it should have, but it wasn't a page turner by any means.

Could make a cute gift for older family members that you may not know what else to give them.

I really enjoyed this book. My eye catches anything with the word "Swedish" in it due to my family background. I found this book to have lots of good practical advice and examples.

#NetGalley #TheSwedishArtOfAgingWell

The experience of reading this book is like sitting to tea with your 80-year old grandmother and listening to her life stories with threads of humor and wisdom woven in. If you read and enjoyed Magnusson’s first book “The Art of Swedish Death Cleaning” you will enjoy this book as well and recognize her unique voice. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.