I love Judith Viorst so so so much. She has shared her reflections on life with her wonderful picture books and with these books reflecting on her life at different ages. In this one, she is older and her husband has died, and she's sharing the experiences of herself and her family and friends.
Everyone is different and she respects the differences, looking at life with a clear and compassionate gaze. Now in her 90s, she's just as intelligent and clear-eyed as ever. It's so easy to relate to her and the people she portrays.

Judith Viorst, now in her mid-90s, has written an incredibly insightful book on what it's like to be in the "final fifth" of your life, that is from the ages of 80-100. Downsizing from their beloved Washington, DC home to a small and compact apartment in an RC (retirement community), Viorst describes the adjustment that she and her husband Milton made and then her own adjustment to widowhood when Milton passes away.

Describing not only the physical, but also the mental decline that comes with age, Viorst describes how she and her fellow RC residents are coping, adjusting, but also thriving with this last phase of life. I appreciated the balance of humor (and there are laugh out loud moments in this book) as well as the heartbreak that she describes of residents who have lost their soulmate or are dealing with the physical and/or mental decline of their loved one.

No matter the age of the reader, this is an insightful and lovely read.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #Simon&Schuster for this electronic ARC of #MakingTheBestOfWhatsLeft.

Making the Best of What's Left: When We're Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered, by Judith Viorst, is a short combo of reflection, memoir, and advice about life in the "Fifth Fifth" of your life. Written at age 94, she defines this as 80 to 100 years old. As with other volumes on earlier decades, this volume is insightful, a bit sad, often very funny, and wise. I am a big fan of her wisdom and brutal honesty about life...death. Some of her poetry is fun; some I could do without. This book could make a great gift for an elder in your life, even if they have not yet reached 80! For me, if and when I reach the Fifth Fifth, I hope I navigate the terrain with as much grace as Viorst suggests! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC. It was a pleasure.

Judith Viorst was a favorite author of my children when they were young readers. I found this book interesting, given that I am now a senior citizen looking back and forward about my life. This book is worth a read.

If you are a woman of a certain age, or if you are a woman approaching a certain age--or even just a woman who believes she will someday be of a certain age, then this book is for you. Viorst is thoughtful, amusing, and continues to make the most of her life as she shares her thoughts on what she calls the fifth stage of life. She discusses the kind of issues that may have fleetingly crossed your mind and she doesn't hesitate to dig deeply--but always in a very caring way. When she talked about feeling diminished by society's ageism it really resonated with me.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I hope it isn't the last one that we see from Viorst.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for gifting me a digital ARC of the new book by Judith Viorst. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 5 stars!

I have loved all of Judith Viorst’s books, from reading her children’s books to my boys to her decade poem books that I’ve bought for myself and others, so I couldn’t wait to read her latest. Judith reflects on her life in the Final Fifth, as she terms the period from age 80-100, and living after the loss of her husband. There are heartbreaking and heartwarming stories, as well as much good practical advice and her trademark humor, honesty, and practicality. As the caregiver for my mom who’s in her 90s, this one hit home on many fronts. Highly recommended!

In my mid-70s, I wasn't sure I wanted to read this book but I'm glad that I did. It was a very witty, insightful look at the "Final Fifth" and was very thought-provoking in terms of how we should all look at all of our lives and how to make the best of the last part. Because we don't get another shot at it.

This book is a series of essays on life. Judith Viorst is in her twilight years and still writing. She has done a lot of living and she reflects on her life and what is ahead. With age there is some loss but there is also a lot of joy. She talks with people in her retirement community about their feelings about life. This book will lead you to believe that it is never too late for anything and planning for tomorrow is a joy.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #JudithViorst, and #Simon&Schuster for a copy of this book.
#MakingtheBestofWhatsLeft

In Making the Best of Whats Left, Judith Viorst gives us, via poetry and prose, an interesting look at the last fifth of life, ages 80-100. Told with heart, hope, and humor, she informs and entertains with honesty.

This is a lovely book, written by beloved author Judith Viorst, about what it means to grow old. I first read Viorst's "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret" when I was a child, and it perfectly spoke to the girl I was then. If we're lucky, we get older; "Making the Best of What's Left" speaks to the newly-retired me just as strongly.

Viorst is now 94 years old and as sharp and witty as ever. She writes about her own life as she ages, and the health, loneliness, widowhood, and other challenges she faces. She also discusses how society as a whole treats seniors differently. 

Overall, it's a wry, realistic, balanced, and honest view of aging that will appeal to people of her generation as well as those who want to understand what it means to be a super-ager.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Now in her 90s, Judith Viorst has written a memoir with essays and poems about the last stage of life, what she calls the 'fifth fifth.' It is funny, poignant, wise, thought-provoking and, at times, terribly sad.

When I reach that age, I intend to still buy green bananas and plan to carry on as if I'm going to live forever. Defiant until the end, lol.

Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this memoir via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

Making the Best of What's Left is a collection of essays and poetry from Judith Viorst. She writes about what it's like to be in the final fifth of life - from age 80 - 100. (She's 94) She looks at what it means to be a widow - how it feels to leave the comfort of your longtime home and move into a retirement community - how often seniors feel invisible - and the need for community and intimacy. This book is great for people with older parents and grandparents - and even if you're in this demographic, especially if you're a complainer. Viorst writes candidly about everything it means to be older. This book will make you laugh and cry.

Don't wait until November to read this non-fiction from Judith Viorst.

Review of Making the Best of What's Left: When We're Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered by Judith Viorst

At 94, Judith Viorst speaks with vulnerability, honesty, and wit about what it's like to be living in "the final fifth" of life (ages 80 - 100). You've probably heard the phrase "growing old isn't for sissies", and Viorst shows the truth in that. She shares her experiences on having to deal with downsizing, moving to a retirement community, increasing health issues, grieving the loss of her beloved husband and more and more friends to death, being lonely, feeling invisible, trying to figure out who she is now, and balancing being realistic and optimistic about her new reality.

Though I'm not in her age group, I found her writing style and words to be very relatable and a sneak-peak of what lies ahead. Warm-hearted, poignant and funny, this book had me laughing out loud one minute and tearing up the next. Reading this was like having a porch visit with a treasured friend. You laugh and cry together and come away feeling seen, heard, and understood.

I highly recommend this book!

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster for allowing me to access a DRC of this book via NetGalley. Publication is 4/1/25. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

I have some relatives in their 90s and when I saw this book, I wanted to read it, thinking it would help me understand them better and what they are going through. Someday, I will or could be there, and it would also give me an idea of what I would be facing. It gave me better understanding of what life is like for the 90-year-olds. After reading the book, I talked to one of my aunts, and we talked about what her life is like. Loneliness was the big thing, which surprised me, because she lives in a place with people her age and so many things to do. I thought she was busy all the time.It took reading this book, to ask some questions, so I am glad I read it. I think any age would enjoy this book, and it will give them insight on elderly people they know. You have to go beneath the surface to see what really is going on, and this book for me was going beneath the surface.
I really encourage people to read this book. I received an ARC from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley.

A short, sweet little book about the trials of getting older and how to face death, loneliness, and some of the other indignities and challenges of old age (losing a spouse, feeling isolated). I especially enjoyed her description of her retirement community (often abbreviated to "the RC") and her neighbors and friends. Although not in the "final fifth" of my own life, her perspective on life in her nineties helped give me fresh perspective and empathy for my own older relatives and friends.

This book is about the Final Fifth, as the author has coined it, meaning the years between ages eighty and a hundred. Judith Viorst writes of her own experiences with the Final Fifth, as well as those of friends and acquaintances she interviewed. In recent years. Viorst was widowed and writes about her experiences living on her own, coming to terms with what her life is today, and what it will become. I'm a woman in her 50's, but can only hope to live the type of fulfilling life the author appears to have in her 90's.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book and give my honest opinion.

Judith Viorst, at 94, has written thoughts about being in your “Final Fifth” of life. The tone was funny, but vulnerable and honest. There were a lot of intimate details related to her feelings about her late husband. There are a lot of perspectives from others in Judith’s retirement community. I found myself laughing and crying multiple times.

One of my laughing moments was when Judith complained that everyone said she needed to give up driving. She’s a safe driver! She’s never even texted while driving before! And, well, honestly it’s because she doesn’t know how to text 🤣

Judith adds short, sweet poems at the end of each chapter and I enjoyed them much more than I would have anticipated. I can see myself referring back to them in the future.

I think this would be enjoyed by not only those are in their Final Fifth of life, but also by anyone who may have relatives or friends in this stage of life. My grandma is 94 (and still lives alone!) so I found myself thinking of her a lot.

At pretty much every stage of my life, I have come to a point where I had to ask – why doesn’t someone tell you this? It is usually after stumbling into some trap I could have avoided if only. Now here’s Judith Viorst, in her mid 90s, still pumping out books and poetry that are both affective and effective. This one is called Making the Best of What’s Left. It is an advance copy of the final chapter of the human user manual – things you would be well advised to know and not have to learn the hard way. Knowing them in advance can save eons of frustration, though perhaps not all of the aggravation.

Western society is horribly unhelpful. Friendships are hard to build and harder to keep. Family cannot be depended on. Everyone has to make their own way through the minefields. Wisdom is not being passed from generation to generation. This book is a collection of anecdotes, stories, memories and evaluations from someone navigating what she calls the fifth fifth of life. Thankfully, it is not much about doctor appointments and more about the pitfalls and occasional benefits of extreme aging in the USA. Be prepared to take notes. And laugh.

She found one’s nineties are a different era, not merely an extension of their eighties. They can actually be a time of happiness, as the stress of children, families, mortgages, and jobs have relented. There is time for friends, culture, and relaxing. There can be learning for pleasure, and responsibility-free enjoyment of grandchildren and great grandchildren. For more and more, these benefits can come without also losing their independence.

The experiences of the eighties can help prepare one for what Philip Roth called the massacre. In Viorst’s words: “I have now reached the age when there’s no such thing as hypochondria, when any lump, bum, bruise or cough could mean fatal, when the test I’m taking tomorrow or the scan I had last week might bring me definitive news that the end is near.”

If there is one piece of advice, one “guiding principle” she can agree to give everyone facing their nineties, it is “DON’T FALL DOWN” (Her caps). The more help a person has with this, the better off they will be, she says. Falling down is punishable by all kinds of privileges being taken away, as the formerly respected and respectable human becomes an uncertain liability.

She has heard if not experienced all the complaints. Grandchildren don’t call or visit. Travel is just not worth the hassles. There is loneliness. One former Washington DC socialite bemoaned the fact that while everyone used to clamor for invitations to her famous parties, now that her husband has died, no one calls at all, not even just for lunch. Once the connection to power was removed, she was left totally alone.

The answer, no matter how difficult to hear and execute is: “’Have your own circle of friends. Build a life for yourself around your own interests and expectations. . . . When they [your children] see you being active and involved,’ she (“Betty”) reassures us, ‘they will want to see more of you.’” In this, Viorst is quoting a new woman friend in her retirement community, who has the perspective to see life this way. Because the irony is that though people who need people are the luckiest people, nobody likes a needy person. They want to see a self-assured, competent person who will contribute to the day, not one who drains the energy from it. Even grandchildren see it.

The book reflects a sharp mind, still sarcastic as ever, still just as insightful, and just as definitive. It is both emotional and moving. It is a great public service. Readers will follow as her family spreads out across the country, as her sons begin directing her and her husband’s lives, and as physical deterioration crimps their style. She recognizes some of her senior moments in great stories she can laugh at now.

They gave up their gigantic monster of a house that had been their refuge and sanctity for more than half a century, and downsized to an independent living retirement community in their own, familiar section of Washington. They found the friendliness of the other residents to be gigantic, if not overwhelming, and everyone’s open and positive attitude to make the most of this new era in their lives, to be totally diverting. Boredom there is self-imposed only. Note to self.

Nonetheless, she has her moments. She likes to lie in bed and call out the names of people in her life who have died. She brings up memories of them, to keep them front and center in her life and in the cosmos. Yet she and many she queried said they no longer live in the future or the past. They are firmly in the present, making every day count, and nothing more. Thoughts and plans for legacy and reputation fall away as priorities. What is important is enjoying what is left. Another note to self.

Viorst has a huge collection of books and articles to her credit. Her humor can be very direct and scathing. Her insights are simple and straightforward. She might be best known for a children’s book title that is stolen and reused (without credit) almost daily: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Anyone who could get that published and have it become a meme long before memes existed, should have a reader’s automatic respect and attention for anything else with her name attached. Viorst’s stated goal, and one she has succeeded at, is being reliable. She honors her commitments, be they to family, community, or readers.

In the last book of hers I reviewed, she gave her husband a severe pummeling in a poem where she repeatedly said “Don’t you dare die before me.” But he did, sending Viorst on a trip she had not planned, making new friends in their retirement community, querying them about aging, life, death, daily living, and wisdom for the ages, among other things. She quotes them in this book. She deals with life, but has to admit in a poetic way: “I have no interest in starting again—with anyone, though I’m happy for and rooting for those who do. I don’t want some Perfect Pete or Terrific Ted. I just want my imperfect Milton to stop being dead.”

David Wineberg

Making the Best of What’s Left by Judith Viorst is in my honest opinion one of the best books of 2025.. Judith has been writing for over fifty years including fantastic poetry books and wonderful children’s books. Now in her nineties she has written this book about those from age 80 to 100., calling it, the final fifth. It is both humorous and poignant. She talks to her dead husband, telling him she needs him and asking him not to be dead. She is very honest and shares memories, which are both sad and happy.
I’m 62 and I truly enjoyed this book.
I was sent this book to review and my opinion is my honest and my own.

This book is an entertaining read about the last fifth of life as define by the author. She is in her 90’s and relates stories about herself and her friends as the last lap of life. It covers several subjects which I won’t list here, but addresses the challenges of growing old and adapting to the situation. She does this with a great deal of humor and causes us rapidly approaching this stage to pause and ponder the future.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.