‘Intrinsic Capacity’ set off light bulbs in my brain this week when I read about it in the NY Times. (The link may or may not bring up the article. They’re fussy about subscriptions.) Here’s how the World Health Organization defines Intrinsic Capacity: “the inherent functional reserve of an individual, encompassing both physical and mental abilities that support independence and well-being in older age.”

So how is this different from optimal wellness for any age? I see Intrinsic Capacity as another lens through which we all can strive to feel great now and in the future. Imagine if we all strove to intentionally build capacity in WHO’s five domains of Intrinsic Capacity: Locomotion (mobility, balance, strength), Cognition, Psychological Well-being, Sensory (vision and hearing), and Vitality (energy and resilience). Imagine if we intentionally focused on growing what comes from within ourselves – that which is intrinsic and inherent to us as individuals – to build our intrinsic capacity. Imagine how prepared we’d then be to age well.

It seems to me that people who actively choose to grow do. And those are the folks who are most fun to be around. They’re the folks in the pool with me, people who read, discuss, and plan. They’re the folks who foster strong, supportive, and enriching relationships, and who seek out new experiences and experts to grow and maintain their Intrinsic Capacity. I want and choose to be like them – a grower, healthy in mind, body, and spirit.

And so, I’ll be heading to the Y this afternoon. I’ll use my senses and build my cognition by listening to an audiobook while I strengthen my locomotor capacity. And I’ll be filled with a sense of psycho-social well-being that will surely boost my vitality. What will you do to grow your Intrinsic Capacity today?

Making Stuff

It’s been a ‘making stuff’ summer here at the home office of Flair Wearable Arts in preparation for fall scarf-wearing season and my commitment to help women everywhere feel gorgeous. My motto is WEAR YOUR FLAIR! Don’t you feel great when you wear something pretty? But it’s not just you who benefits. It’s a service to humanity. Show the world your personal flair, and you boost the vitality of everyone you see. We influence others in ways we rarely even know, and I’d love to help you do it!

Making Stuff Up

Revisions proceed apace. I’m nearly halfway through this set of revisions and feel a gravitational pull toward the finish line. For this set. I anticipate at least one more set before I’m ready to print a galley. And then, if my history with galleys holds steady, the poor thing will look like a porcupine of Post-its. But progress is still progress.

I’m thinking ahead to early readers. Interested? I’ll ask you to do me the kindness of telling the brutal truth to help make my Finger Lakes novel my best work yet. Or maybe you’d rather be part of my ‘street team’ to hawk the finished book to everyone you know. Both tasks? Even better! Clear your calendar for… Okay, I can’t even guess. But I’ll keep you posted.

Reading Stuff Other Authors Make Up

I liked this second-chance story, though the premise seemed beyond unlikely. Two twenty-somethings hunt for an apartment and luck out when they find a brownstone they can barely afford. They become friends, then lovers, before a big misunderstanding sends her off to LA. Years later, the owner of the brownstone dies and leaves them the multi-million-dollar house – because they were good tenants and occasionally gave him lasagne or cookies. Really? Does that ever happen? What was believable was the boatload of unresolved, unfinished business before they can sell and never see each other again or live happily ever after in their windfall brownstone.

Eleanor is wallowing, not just from the death of her husband, but from the hoarder he became before he died. Her house is crammed to the gills, and she’s overwhelmed and embarrassed to let any of her friends past her door. Until her dot.com millionaire son stages an intervention. He hires a professional organizer who arranges all kinds of services – shredding, hauling, moving – that ease Eleanor’s de-cluttering burden. Oh, those services! I was entertained and envious while I read about someone else’s tidying up – and the pile of money that paid for it all. Was I inspired to tackle my own clutter collection? Alas, not yet.

It’s 1963, and a new book club of four housewives read Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique. Three of four knew their assigned roles didn’t fit, but didn’t have the agency to do much about it. Until Betty and the support they find within their group spur these women to assert their rights in marriage and carve out careers they’d thought impossible. It’s an important topic, and a fitting reminder to honor the women – famous and not who paved the way toward greater gender equity. I thought a fairy godmother guest appearance by Katherine Graham cheapened the tale and wished for a less glossed-over conclusion that showed not just what the women achieved but how.

If you’ve tuned in to Salutations before, you might know I’m a Katherine Center fan. Her latest tale, another classic, unapologetic rom-com cements my fandom. Kate’s a video producer assigned to interview Coast Guard hero Hutch, her boss’s estranged brother. Attraction ensues despite complications and duplicitous insecurities on multiple fronts. Here’s what I like about Center’s writing. Hutch and Kate grow in ways that feel real, becoming more than they thought possible and more themselves. This is the second time Center has used an afterword to defend romance writing. Romance is hopeful, she says, and the world needs hope. She convinced me.

I’m a Laura Dave fan too, though somehow I missed out on Season Two of the television version of this sequel. Would a TV series had the same grip on me as the novel on which it was based? Would I have worried so about whether and how Hannah and her stepdaughter would get away from the bad guys chasing them, episode to episode? Would I have been on the edge of my seat the whole bumpy way? Would I have enjoyed the ride as much? I doubt it. Perhaps the story’s conclusion seemed a tad pat. And once again, wealth made things possible for these characters. But at least, this time the wealth didn’t drop from the sky and actually added to the tale’s believability. I liked it a lot and will keep reading whatever Dave writes.

Is one night of drunken embarrassment and another of crossed signals enough conflict to make a romance work? I don’t think so. But I still give this author credit for pushing her female lead to recognize how her (again excessive) wealth came from displacing native coastal peoples from the Seattle area, and addressing inequities and generational trauma still affecting many Native Americans. It was a refreshing surprise to find an account of historical injustice within a romance and the strongest element of the story. Without the history, the best I’d call it sweet but dull. With it, I could give the story four stars. Bump up the romantic conflict, keep the history, and Pearson’s next book might even earn a fifth star. I hope she’s listening.

As noted above, it’s been a ‘making stuff summer,’ which translates to a lot of listening while felting, and who could ask for a better making-stuff-companion than Elinor Lipman? Imagine getting a job to manage the estate-sale for what you think was a respectable inn but turns out to be a house of ill-repute. What price would you put on that odd pink statue of a naked woman? And just how might a budding romance with the town chief of police complicate the situation? I laughed all the way through, and thoroughly enjoyed Lipman’s sense of the ridiculous.

This was fun too – mostly because of the female lead Ruthie and the eccentric ‘sisters’ who add challenge to managing the retirement community where Ruthie works. Mousy Ruthie’s fallen for these 90 year-old women, and they for her, despite their efforts to push her into the world beyond the safety of her job. Enter Teddy, hot son of the owner. He’s way out of Ruthie’s league and far from safe, with his glorious hair and artful tattoos. Can the eccentrics and Teddy bring Ruthie out of her shell? It was fun to see.

Romantasy here I come again, and for this I have to give credit to Libby. If these didn’t show up to borrow, I wouldn’t know they exist. And I’d have missed hours of listening fun. To fulfill an ancient pact among the five kingdoms, Princess Odessa’s father weds her off. Her new husband whisks her away to his land across the sea, where blood-thirsty monsters seem to rule as much as royalty. But even as Odessa adapts to her new role, a shift of identity changes everything. I loved volume one, liked volume two, and am eager to listen to volume three – assuming I remember any of the story by the time it gets published next year.

This is another romantasy – a sweeter version than most. As the Empire collapses, Kiela and her pet spider plant Caz load the library boat with books and escape to the island of her birth. There, the only way she’ll survive is to conjure forbidden magic from the books she saved from destruction. Maybe it’s the only way the island will survive too. But practicing magic is reserved for trained sorcerers. Dabbling as Kiela and Caz do is dangerous and against the law. Kiela gets top billing in the story, but for my money, walking, talking Caz steals the show.

Rocky and her family rent the same Cape Cod cottage for a week every summer. It’s the highlight of her year, her grown kids and parents all under the same roof. If only the ravaging effects of menopause and wracking guilt over long-ago choices didn’t plague her. Alternately full of rage, melancholy, and delight, Rocky is sure love is going to kill her. It’s a hilarious and poignant romp that explores change, marriage, motherhood, loss, and the eroding power of secrets. And a happy vicarious visit to the beachy vacation world of old Cape Cod.

How did I miss this Nora tale published last year? Beats me, but thanks to Libby, I read it start to finish in a single weekend. Count on Nora to draw me in with likable characters I’d enjoy having as friends. Or family, since in this case, Natural Resources Police officer Sloane must and can rely on a great mom, dad, and sister to recover from a gunshot wound to the chest. She almost died – did actually for a few minutes on the operating table. It takes all she’s got and more to heal. And as she does, because she misses her work, her attention snags on a series of mysterious disappearances. Even back to work educating and enforcing laws on public land, not to mention bedding the hunky new handyman in town, she keeps investigating. As a pattern emerges, she discovers she could be the abductor’s next target. Fun, classic Nora.

When I’m in a book hole, I can count on the collection of Anna Pigeon stories my guy amassed. And as with other Nevada Barr tales, I happily followed Anna into danger again. Here, Anna is 42 and on temporary fire-watch assignment at Cumberland Island National Park. It’s brutally hot and boring as hell until a drug interdiction plane crashes on the island. By day, Anna takes notes for the FAA agent investigating the crash. By night, she babysits the very pregnant widow of a supervising Ranger killed in the crash. Meanwhile, Anna’s sister Molly is getting death threats in NYC. Anna enlists her long-distance lover, Frederick, to investigate, and… I smell trouble ahead. But that’s nothing compared to what Anna smells in one particular scene of this fifth book of the series. I’m already looking forward to #6.

And thus, my dear readers, my list of August reads and listens concludes. With the approach of chillier temps, I anticipate more listening as I continue beef up my Etsy shop’s fall and winter scarf collection. And, since I can never go to bed without an actual book, you can anticipate a hefty September read count. In the meantime, I’ll be intentionally beefing up my Intrinsic Capacity in the pool, gathering with friends, completing daily crossword puzzles, monitoring sight and hearing, and marshalling my energy reserves to live my fullest life.

How will you build your Intrinsic Capacity in the coming month? Perhaps you’ll need some time with a good book like one of these? Find them all here!

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Be Well! Stay Well!