A Roller-coaster Ride: Thoughts on Aging

April 2012
230 pages | ISBN 978-1-894987-64-6

**Silver medal for the 4th Annual Living Now Book Awards**

Now past her eightieth birthday, Naomi Beth Wakan is well-placed to be writing about aging. Qualifying between merely being old and old-old, she considers retirement homes, elder abuse, death and the often thorny question of what to call people once they’re past retirement. With humour and honesty she looks at the disconnect between how she sees herself and how the world sees her and concludes it’s this inner view that decides nearly everything about aging.

Articles

Naomi's Legacy (Susan Yates, Senior Living, 01/08/2012)
"Her roll-out of *A Roller-coaster ride: Thoughts on Aging* was a presentation without artifice, funny (it’s her unexpectedly blunt honesty), and full of sincere, well-honed advice. Each word was measured and thoughtful, like her trademark gems of haiku and tanka."

Reviews

Gabriola Island writer charts her own path into old age (Mary Ann Moore, Vancouver Sun, 26/07/2012)
"Her descriptions of life with Eli in their vinyl-sided, now mortgage-free, cottage on Gabriola Island, are really the best parts of the book. They’re enchanting, warm-hearted and a reminder that it’s really the appreciation for the ordinary things that keeps one connected to life."

Naomi's Roller-Coaster (Phyllis Reeve, BC Bookworld, 14/06/2012)
“In this roller-coaster of brief chapters, with poems scattered throughout, she addresses the ‘small and personal,’ with no big dramas and a lot of questions, confronting head-on the expected questions.”

Interviews

Wakan enjoys intellectual adventure (Julie Chadwick, Daily News, 04/08/2012)
"In the introduction to her newest book, A Roller-coaster Ride: Thoughts on aging, Gabriola author Naomi Wakan says the highs and lows on the road to aging are a little bumpier than the easing into wisdom that many promised it would be."

The Roller Coaster and the Loom (Sheryl MacKay, North by Northwest, 29/04/2012)

Naomi Beth Wakan (Joseph Planta, Planta: On the Line, 14/05/2012)
"A highly readable, charming book." Click the link to listen to the interview podcast.

Excerpt

Click to read the introduction and first few chapters of A Roller-coaster Ride.

About the Author

Naomi Beth Wakan has written over thirty books, including Images of Japan, Segues, Late Bloomer: On Writing Later in Life, Compositions: Notes on the written word, Book Ends: A year between the covers and A Roller-coaster Ride: Thoughts on aging. Her book Haiku – one breath poetry was an American Library Association selection. Her essays, haiku and tanka have appeared in many magazines and anthologies and have been broadcasted on the CBC. Naomi lives on Gabriola Island with her husband, sculptor Elias Wakan.
She was named the first poet laureate of Nanaimo, BC, in 2013.

Other Titles by this Author

Book Ends: A year between the covers (2010)

Compositions: Notes on the written word (2008)

Late Bloomer: On Writing Later in Life (2006)

Segues (2005)