This book brings together the experiences and reflections of twenty-five women over forty as they embark on a new stage of life. The writers explore a wide range of concerns, from keeping love and sex alive, to letting children go, to contemplating plastic surgery. The tales are true, the confessions candid, the humor infectious.

"[A] diverse and satisfying mixture of midlife stories....What unites these new essays is their vivid honesty, capturing universal truths and personal experiences in sparkling prose."

Kim Barnes is the winner of the PEN/Jerard Fund Award and was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize. She teaches at the University of Idaho.