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Middlepause, The
A candid and beautifully written wrinkles-and-all meditation on the middle years, with all their dilemmas and challenges...
In a society obsessed with living longer and looking younger, what does middle age nowadays mean? How should a 50-something be in a world ceaselessly redefining ageing, youth and experience?
The Middlepause offers hope, and heart. Cutting through society’s clamorous demands to work longer and stay young, it delivers a clear-eyed account of midlife’s challenges. Spurred by her own brutal propulsion into menopause, Marina Benjamin weighs the losses, joys and opportunities of our middle years, taking inspiration from literature and philosophical example. She uncovers the secret misogynistic history of HRT, and tells us why a dose of Jung is better than a trip to the gym. Attending to ageing parents, the shock of bereavement, parenting a teenager and her own health woes, she emerges into a new definition of herself as daughter, mother, citizen and woman.
Marina Benjamin suggests there’s comfort and guidance in memory, milestones and margins, and offers an inspired and expanded vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously, without sentiment or delusion, making The Middlepause a companion, and a friend.
In a society obsessed with living longer and looking younger, what does middle age nowadays mean? How should a 50-something be in a world ceaselessly redefining ageing, youth and experience?
The Middlepause offers hope, and heart. Cutting through society’s clamorous demands to work longer and stay young, it delivers a clear-eyed account of midlife’s challenges. Spurred by her own brutal propulsion into menopause, Marina Benjamin weighs the losses, joys and opportunities of our middle years, taking inspiration from literature and philosophical example. She uncovers the secret misogynistic history of HRT, and tells us why a dose of Jung is better than a trip to the gym. Attending to ageing parents, the shock of bereavement, parenting a teenager and her own health woes, she emerges into a new definition of herself as daughter, mother, citizen and woman.
Marina Benjamin suggests there’s comfort and guidance in memory, milestones and margins, and offers an inspired and expanded vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously, without sentiment or delusion, making The Middlepause a companion, and a friend.
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First published January 1, 2016
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About the author
Marina Benjamin
18 books38 followersMarina Benjamin worked as a journalist before turning to non-fiction and, later, memoir. She has served as arts editor of the New Statesman and deputy arts editor of the Evening Standard and has written features and book reviews for most of the broadsheet papers. Her first book Living at the End of the World (1998) looked at the mass psychology of millenarians. Rocket Dreams (2003), an offbeat elegy to the end of the space age, is at the same time a story about coming of age in the 1970s, while Last Days in Babylon (2007) blends memoir, political commentary and travelogue to explore the story of the Jews of Iraq.
These days, Marina works as senior editor at the digital magazine Aeon. She teaches regular life writing and creative non-fiction courses for Arvon, and runs workshops for graduate students and staff as an RLF Consultant Fellow. In recent years she has doubled down on her commitment to exploring what memoir can do, with a modern take on the essay form in The Middlepause (2016) – a personal interrogation of what it means to be middle aged. Her new memoir, Insomnia – part confession, part poetic exploration and part philosophical reflection – is published in 2018. She lives in London with her husband, teenager and dog.
These days, Marina works as senior editor at the digital magazine Aeon. She teaches regular life writing and creative non-fiction courses for Arvon, and runs workshops for graduate students and staff as an RLF Consultant Fellow. In recent years she has doubled down on her commitment to exploring what memoir can do, with a modern take on the essay form in The Middlepause (2016) – a personal interrogation of what it means to be middle aged. Her new memoir, Insomnia – part confession, part poetic exploration and part philosophical reflection – is published in 2018. She lives in London with her husband, teenager and dog.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
December 20, 2017
My low score today doesn't reflect this manuscript's quality -- it's actually a really lovely book, written in an engagingly poetic and confessional style -- but rather that the dust jacket makes this sound like a book of general thoughts about aging that are applicable to both genders, while the book itself makes it clear that Benjamin is 100-percent exclusively talking about the female phenomenon of menopause, even going so far as flat-out stating in the introduction, "I suppose men have anxieties about middle-age too, but at least it's not biological so they can avoid it if they try hard enough." Strongly recommended for women going through menopause themselves, but men can safely avoid the book altogether, in that there isn't a single thing here for you.
March 22, 2017
(I actually read the paperback but that version isn't shown on GR). My response to this book may be biased by my preference for a more optimistic perspective; the tone of the book is primarily downbeat. It's one woman's experience of aging, and written when she was 49. That can be a rough time, and for her especially because of surgery that brought on menopause overnight, with severe symptoms. However, I wish I could tell her that, for a majority of women, their spirits rise later in life. Marina Benjamin is an intelligent, seasoned writer, but unfortunately, I didn't feel moved or enlightened by this work.
August 23, 2016
Coming up to your teenage years, the mother sits their daughter down to tell them about periods, School tell you about sex. But no one sits you down and tells you about menopause and how to handle it. You know it exists and that it is an ending of youth. But will It be easy or hard and what do I expect as menopause comes up to slap me in the face. So that is why when this book came into work I decided to read it.
I guess what I have learnt is that it is different for everyone no two woman are the same. Marina Benjamin has had her own unique experience. Some I found interesting and helpful. Some of it was not for me because I am a Christian, and her belief system is different. I think when you read a book we each come away with something different. So it was good to read and I want to thank Marina for her honesty about what was happening to her.
I guess what I have learnt is that it is different for everyone no two woman are the same. Marina Benjamin has had her own unique experience. Some I found interesting and helpful. Some of it was not for me because I am a Christian, and her belief system is different. I think when you read a book we each come away with something different. So it was good to read and I want to thank Marina for her honesty about what was happening to her.
May 29, 2019
The Middlepause by Marina Benjamin is part memoir and part scientific research. It addresses the issue of Middle-Age, which I won't have to think about for at least another decade. This book was actually quite sad, especially the chapters about the author's Father dying and the the death of her friend, writer Kirsty Milne. I won this book through Goodreads Giveaways.
May 17, 2017
The Prologue and Epilogue were prosaic and profound. However, the individual chapters are a mix of reflection, scientific research and literary criticism. It was an odd mix and I found myself skimming through many of the chapters. It is a topic that desperately needs reflection beyond just the physical changes of the female body. Middlepause disappointedly missed the mark.
July 12, 2017
Thought provoking—sometimes I adored and sometimes I chaffed. I am not sure I subscribe to the idea that there are two parts of life that you have to live differently. I instead liked her idea of the succession of our many selves. The organization, chapter titles and content, were elegant—part science survey, part book report, part journal. The writing is quite beautiful and she seems like an older friend (a decade beyond me) that I would like to have. Her description of her relationships, especially with her daughter were stirring and familiar. I love her line about midlife: my needs are leaner and my storehouse is fuller. So true.
February 17, 2017
Turning fifty seems monumental. It is a turning point, a redefining. Marina Benjamin has captured so well this transitional, or as she terms it, liminal state. In her more personal reflections, the way she communicates the feelings of this time are at once beautifully and bitterly apt.
Though her experience is not exactly mine, the similarities and the feeling of solidarity I found in this slim book are breathtaking. The Middlepause explores many facets of this time, navigating the changing parent/child and adult child/aging parent dynamics as well as contemplating the perceptions and experiences in the medical, emotional, and social spheres. While this memoir does burrow into the personal, the author also mines the fields of literature, medicine, and popular theories and methods from the past and present for information regarding this time of life and shares her findings.
I am more than a little skeptical and do not have the time or energy for middle-age self-help books and gurus. The Middlepause, though, is literature and has sunk into my skin. It is reporting from the trenches, rather than the safe distance of clinical study or the retrospective reinventions that lead to how-to's that are all rah-rah and rules.
For women going through or approaching this liminal time, or for those who know a woman who is, this is a book that I highly recommend.
This review refers to an Advance Reading Copy/Uncorrected Proof of The Middlepause: On Turning Fifty won in a GoodReads giveaway, courtesy of the publisher. As with all GoodReads First Reads giveaways, a review was not required but is encouraged. All opinions expressed are my own. I noted many quotes as I read but did not include them here as they may not match the finished copy.
Though her experience is not exactly mine, the similarities and the feeling of solidarity I found in this slim book are breathtaking. The Middlepause explores many facets of this time, navigating the changing parent/child and adult child/aging parent dynamics as well as contemplating the perceptions and experiences in the medical, emotional, and social spheres. While this memoir does burrow into the personal, the author also mines the fields of literature, medicine, and popular theories and methods from the past and present for information regarding this time of life and shares her findings.
I am more than a little skeptical and do not have the time or energy for middle-age self-help books and gurus. The Middlepause, though, is literature and has sunk into my skin. It is reporting from the trenches, rather than the safe distance of clinical study or the retrospective reinventions that lead to how-to's that are all rah-rah and rules.
For women going through or approaching this liminal time, or for those who know a woman who is, this is a book that I highly recommend.
This review refers to an Advance Reading Copy/Uncorrected Proof of The Middlepause: On Turning Fifty won in a GoodReads giveaway, courtesy of the publisher. As with all GoodReads First Reads giveaways, a review was not required but is encouraged. All opinions expressed are my own. I noted many quotes as I read but did not include them here as they may not match the finished copy.
April 2, 2022
What a lovely book! I enjoyed it immensely. Benjamin’s prose is like cool clear water; I will definitely read more from her.
Read
May 25, 2018This tender and thoughtful book calls for an “invisible revolution” in our attitudes to women’s ageing. In a deeply personal meditation Benjamin places body knowledge and luck alongside grieving and family history; intimate reflection with literary exemplar; communion with ghosts sadly close to the painful real. The Middlepause is a wise, lucid and beautiful plea for more candid discussion of the time-wrought transformations of the female body.
Gail Jones, Author of A Guide to Berlin
Both a deeply personal reflection and an elegantly philosophical navigation of the transitions, changes, and challenges of growing older, The Middlepause is written with candour and cosmopolitan wisdom. Benjamin draws on a wide variety of sources from life and literature to illuminate her own experience and amplify its impact, making this book an essential companion for women who want to journey forward with grace and confidence.
Caroline Baum, Booktopia
Women do a lot of things to mark turning fifty. Go to a resort! Have a bang-up party! Far, far better: read The Middlepause.
Jill Lepore, Author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman
Emotionally honest.
Tom Gatti, New Statesman
We are not supposed to beguile, we the middle-aged women. But with The Middlepause, Marina Benjamin does that: she beguiles and entrances with a lyrical, thoughtful, erudite, and always lucid exploration of the middle years of her life, and what they mean to her, and what middle-aged women mean to society.
Rose George, Author of The Big Necessity
Beautifully written and so thoughtful, The Middlepause made me think about fleeting time and what is important to me. I couldn’t put it down.
Amy Jenkins, Author of Honeymoon and Creator of This Life
Intimate, open-hearted, clever and kind, this book is a companion which, by naming the shadow fears, finds the truer gold.
Jay Griffiths, Author of Kith
A candid and beautifully written “wrinkles and all” meditation on the middle years with all their dilemmas and challenges … [Marina Benjamin] seeks a new vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously without sentiment or delusion.
Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller
Deeply moving and gorgeously written ... Marina Benjamin leads us on a journey into the heart of age-ist darkness, then upwards into a light of self-understanding as she faces that most difficult of all challenges — not death but getting old.
Margaret Wertheim, Author of Pythagoras’ Trousers
A 21st-century meditation on middle age … The Middlepause is erudite, with a lengthy list of notes and ideas for further reading, but it is also personal – part memoir, part unflinching travelogue through the unsettling physical and mental challenges of the menopause … Honest and uplifting.
FIT
Lucid and sophisticated … A restrained but wonderful guide to the convulsive changes of 50 and over … This is a book that yields valuable insights on almost every page.
Melissa Benn, The Guardian
A candid look at what it means to be 50 today … Warm, wise and beautifully written.
Good Housekeeping
Benjamin has conjured something philosophically poised and poetic from an unlikely subject, as much about the sanctuary of place and coming to terms with time, seasons and life’s cycles, and all rendered with clarity and calm.
Saturday Age
An honest mid-life reflection … In this elegantly written, extended essay, [Marina Benjamin] explores what it means to have lived for half-a-century, and contemplates what may be left in perhaps another half-century.
The Jewish Chronicle
A personal meditation on the losses and gains of facing the middle years … [Marina Benjamin] offers hope and heart to others facing the same life transition.
Irish Examiner
Benjamin combines personal experience with more objective scientific and historical accounts of ageing … Elegantly written.
Prospect
This is a measured and beautifully written critique of menopause and middle age that pre-, mid-, and postmenopausal women will find eminently relatable, and that those who love and care for them will likewise appreciate.
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Benjamin takes us into her inner world — it’s instructive, and very moving.
William Leith, Evening Standard
Gail Jones, Author of A Guide to Berlin
Both a deeply personal reflection and an elegantly philosophical navigation of the transitions, changes, and challenges of growing older, The Middlepause is written with candour and cosmopolitan wisdom. Benjamin draws on a wide variety of sources from life and literature to illuminate her own experience and amplify its impact, making this book an essential companion for women who want to journey forward with grace and confidence.
Caroline Baum, Booktopia
Women do a lot of things to mark turning fifty. Go to a resort! Have a bang-up party! Far, far better: read The Middlepause.
Jill Lepore, Author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman
Emotionally honest.
Tom Gatti, New Statesman
We are not supposed to beguile, we the middle-aged women. But with The Middlepause, Marina Benjamin does that: she beguiles and entrances with a lyrical, thoughtful, erudite, and always lucid exploration of the middle years of her life, and what they mean to her, and what middle-aged women mean to society.
Rose George, Author of The Big Necessity
Beautifully written and so thoughtful, The Middlepause made me think about fleeting time and what is important to me. I couldn’t put it down.
Amy Jenkins, Author of Honeymoon and Creator of This Life
Intimate, open-hearted, clever and kind, this book is a companion which, by naming the shadow fears, finds the truer gold.
Jay Griffiths, Author of Kith
A candid and beautifully written “wrinkles and all” meditation on the middle years with all their dilemmas and challenges … [Marina Benjamin] seeks a new vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously without sentiment or delusion.
Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller
Deeply moving and gorgeously written ... Marina Benjamin leads us on a journey into the heart of age-ist darkness, then upwards into a light of self-understanding as she faces that most difficult of all challenges — not death but getting old.
Margaret Wertheim, Author of Pythagoras’ Trousers
A 21st-century meditation on middle age … The Middlepause is erudite, with a lengthy list of notes and ideas for further reading, but it is also personal – part memoir, part unflinching travelogue through the unsettling physical and mental challenges of the menopause … Honest and uplifting.
FIT
Lucid and sophisticated … A restrained but wonderful guide to the convulsive changes of 50 and over … This is a book that yields valuable insights on almost every page.
Melissa Benn, The Guardian
A candid look at what it means to be 50 today … Warm, wise and beautifully written.
Good Housekeeping
Benjamin has conjured something philosophically poised and poetic from an unlikely subject, as much about the sanctuary of place and coming to terms with time, seasons and life’s cycles, and all rendered with clarity and calm.
Saturday Age
An honest mid-life reflection … In this elegantly written, extended essay, [Marina Benjamin] explores what it means to have lived for half-a-century, and contemplates what may be left in perhaps another half-century.
The Jewish Chronicle
A personal meditation on the losses and gains of facing the middle years … [Marina Benjamin] offers hope and heart to others facing the same life transition.
Irish Examiner
Benjamin combines personal experience with more objective scientific and historical accounts of ageing … Elegantly written.
Prospect
This is a measured and beautifully written critique of menopause and middle age that pre-, mid-, and postmenopausal women will find eminently relatable, and that those who love and care for them will likewise appreciate.
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Benjamin takes us into her inner world — it’s instructive, and very moving.
William Leith, Evening Standard
October 28, 2016
Suddenly finding yourself experiencing perimenopausal symptoms and not knowing what to do with them can be rather startling if not frightening at times.
Considering how much medical knowledge we have about pretty much every other aspect of our physical lives, I am surprised by how much myth and mystery still surrounds menopause and it's various stages.
Fortunately, the baby boomers have never done anything quietly or on the sly, which is good for us Gen X-er's that follow along. As the boomers have hit each stage of life, they have brought it kicking and screaming into the public eye, thrown money at it and done everything possible to conquer it, fix it or normalise it.
Books like The Middlepause are popping up everywhere as boomer women embrace menopause and want everyone to know about it.
Personal stories about individual experiences are an important part of the normalisation process - they help us to see that everyone has their own story, their own way of going through menopause and that they are all perfectly valid. Menopause is not a prescribed process with specific signs and symptoms that everyone follows. Every woman's experience will be different and that is normal.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/20...
Considering how much medical knowledge we have about pretty much every other aspect of our physical lives, I am surprised by how much myth and mystery still surrounds menopause and it's various stages.
Fortunately, the baby boomers have never done anything quietly or on the sly, which is good for us Gen X-er's that follow along. As the boomers have hit each stage of life, they have brought it kicking and screaming into the public eye, thrown money at it and done everything possible to conquer it, fix it or normalise it.
Books like The Middlepause are popping up everywhere as boomer women embrace menopause and want everyone to know about it.
Personal stories about individual experiences are an important part of the normalisation process - they help us to see that everyone has their own story, their own way of going through menopause and that they are all perfectly valid. Menopause is not a prescribed process with specific signs and symptoms that everyone follows. Every woman's experience will be different and that is normal.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/20...
September 1, 2016
A deeply personal book on turning 50 and the journey of aging for women.
Marina Benjamin explores Menopause and the myths and truths behind treatments and the way different people deal with a factual part of getting older.
Marina Benjamin explores Menopause and the myths and truths behind treatments and the way different people deal with a factual part of getting older.
February 20, 2017
This book was helpful in knowing that I'm not alone and my experiences are not unique. It gives me a good perspective moving forward to do what I really want to do but not get hung up on things I cannot change.
June 19, 2017
I am myself just short of the milestone of turning 50, not yet experiencing menopause, but perhaps seeing some early signs of it. So I was interested to read a personal account of another woman reaching, and passing, those milestones.
“The Middlepause” is a personal account, and doesn’t pretend to be a medical tract, nor to have answers for everything. It includes some very interesting history about the origins of HRT therapy, and a personal account of Benjamin’s experiences with it. This is a pretty challenging issue for most women reaching menopause, and the history was information I hadn’t come across before.
The rest of the book is less concrete, consisting largely on musing on Benjamin’s experiences and thoughts as a woman experiencing a significant transition. I was perhaps a little disappointed that she didn’t talk more about how it affected her relationships, particularly with her husband. I acknowledge this might have been influenced by privacy concerns, but it does seem to me to be a very significant aspect of a woman’s transition.
Benjamin spends considerable time reflecting on visual appearances, and how they’re affected by aging. To a lesser extent, she also considers the legacies people leave behind, and how it feels to enter what are clearly the closing chapters of your life.
There are no answers here, but it is thoughtful, and may help you clarify the things you wish to consider, alter, and preserve at this stage in your life. There are thoughts about re-examining some of your values, and considering how your past has shaped – and may still shape – your future. I found this interesting, and worth reading, although a little less personally relevant than I had hoped.
Although clearly a very personal meditation, this is a book which many women will find worth reading. It will prompt your own thoughts to go in directions you may find very meaningful for your life.
“The Middlepause” is a personal account, and doesn’t pretend to be a medical tract, nor to have answers for everything. It includes some very interesting history about the origins of HRT therapy, and a personal account of Benjamin’s experiences with it. This is a pretty challenging issue for most women reaching menopause, and the history was information I hadn’t come across before.
The rest of the book is less concrete, consisting largely on musing on Benjamin’s experiences and thoughts as a woman experiencing a significant transition. I was perhaps a little disappointed that she didn’t talk more about how it affected her relationships, particularly with her husband. I acknowledge this might have been influenced by privacy concerns, but it does seem to me to be a very significant aspect of a woman’s transition.
Benjamin spends considerable time reflecting on visual appearances, and how they’re affected by aging. To a lesser extent, she also considers the legacies people leave behind, and how it feels to enter what are clearly the closing chapters of your life.
There are no answers here, but it is thoughtful, and may help you clarify the things you wish to consider, alter, and preserve at this stage in your life. There are thoughts about re-examining some of your values, and considering how your past has shaped – and may still shape – your future. I found this interesting, and worth reading, although a little less personally relevant than I had hoped.
Although clearly a very personal meditation, this is a book which many women will find worth reading. It will prompt your own thoughts to go in directions you may find very meaningful for your life.
October 20, 2018
This wasn't the book that I thought it was going to be, but I loved it anyway and would strongly recommend it to anyone in their 50s who is interested in evaluating this time in life. Benjamin does write about menopause, which is why I picked up the book for my own book chapter on men and women's health in old age, but that is only a small part of the book. It is organized around chapters labeled for different body parts, but the content of the chapters don't seem to necessarily focus on that part of the body. Instead, Benjamin uses her considerable talents to take readers on an intellectual pilgrimage that wanders all over the place; mostly, it is worth the meander and some brilliant insight will be delivered. The parts I enjoyed the most were her investigations into the wife of the doctor who first wrote that hormone therapy was the way to go for women during menopause (wrong!) and how she discovers and analyses that woman's sacrifice for her husband that ended up damaging a lot of other women's lives. I also really appreciated that the book continued to go back to Colette, the French novelists, who continued to reinvest herself through her late years--even opening up a spa and giving up writing for a while. Benjamin also has a very powerful chapter on the early death of a friend and how she studied her research on "Pilgrim's Progress" to connect further with her friend after her death. Again, not what I expected when I picked up the book, but I am happy that Benjamin had so much to say on a variety of topics.
May 7, 2020
I picked this book up because I am nearing 50.
The book is the authors story about her experience with menopause and includes some stories and observations from wider society and history. I did like her research about the HRT pioneer woman, and information about the animal cruelty of this Industry was informative. (I will not be supporting that) she interestingly didn’t seem to explore any natural therapies or supplements, yet a quick internet search shows many receive relief through that option. It is clear that for some, there are devestating symptoms as well as an emotional toll, and it’s also clear how little medical science really knows about something that has happened for thousands of years. It did leave me feeling a bit sad and put out, that this awful process is something nature forces upon women, as if they don’t have enough to deal with.
The book gave me only a few tidbits of interest, that’s why I gave it two stars only.
The book is the authors story about her experience with menopause and includes some stories and observations from wider society and history. I did like her research about the HRT pioneer woman, and information about the animal cruelty of this Industry was informative. (I will not be supporting that) she interestingly didn’t seem to explore any natural therapies or supplements, yet a quick internet search shows many receive relief through that option. It is clear that for some, there are devestating symptoms as well as an emotional toll, and it’s also clear how little medical science really knows about something that has happened for thousands of years. It did leave me feeling a bit sad and put out, that this awful process is something nature forces upon women, as if they don’t have enough to deal with.
The book gave me only a few tidbits of interest, that’s why I gave it two stars only.
October 26, 2020
Being of A Certain Age, I was interested in this after finishing the author's book Insomnia.
I admit I enjoy her style, the precise and clear writing. No surprise since she also works as an editor so every word counts.
Like her other book this is part memoir, personal details from her life and family.
This isn't a self help or how to avoid menopause book. Benjamin states her distrust and distaste for self help guides which made me warm to her. It's more of an acknowledgement and acceptance of life. She does discuss hormone replacement therapy and there is a chapter about its history including the first woman to use estrogen.
The last chapter is about the last stage, of loss and what comes. It's a tribute to her friend who died from lung cancer at 49. She dedicated the book to her, Kirsty Milne.
I admit I enjoy her style, the precise and clear writing. No surprise since she also works as an editor so every word counts.
Like her other book this is part memoir, personal details from her life and family.
This isn't a self help or how to avoid menopause book. Benjamin states her distrust and distaste for self help guides which made me warm to her. It's more of an acknowledgement and acceptance of life. She does discuss hormone replacement therapy and there is a chapter about its history including the first woman to use estrogen.
The last chapter is about the last stage, of loss and what comes. It's a tribute to her friend who died from lung cancer at 49. She dedicated the book to her, Kirsty Milne.
June 28, 2017
I won a copy of this on Good Reads.
Middlepause is the perfect name for this period of time in a woman's life.
I often get frustrated when the wrong reference is made between peri-menopause and menopause. Let's educate ourselves or no one else will do it for us.
Having 5 older sisters and already reaching menopause myself, I never expected what's even next to come. Bladder slings, falling uterus. Can't wait.
If I would have known the things my body was going to go through, I would have said "no thanks". And, congrats to those women who get the opportunity to float through this period of time with very little to no issues. I'd pay good money to trade places with you.
Middlepause is the perfect name for this period of time in a woman's life.
I often get frustrated when the wrong reference is made between peri-menopause and menopause. Let's educate ourselves or no one else will do it for us.
Having 5 older sisters and already reaching menopause myself, I never expected what's even next to come. Bladder slings, falling uterus. Can't wait.
If I would have known the things my body was going to go through, I would have said "no thanks". And, congrats to those women who get the opportunity to float through this period of time with very little to no issues. I'd pay good money to trade places with you.
August 10, 2019
*2.5 rounded up.
I dithered about whether to call this self-help, but decided to because it traces the course of the writer sorting out how to help herself not give a damn about or reframe all the social trauma the world wants to heap on women turning 50, being middle-aged, becoming less visible, and cope with the body's menopausal experiences of hot flashes, fatigue, brain fog, mood downswings.
I'm interested in finding personal books on menopause because there are shockingly few (though this seems to be undergoing a change, ha), but this one did not speak to me and my experiences/views very much. Rather meh.
I dithered about whether to call this self-help, but decided to because it traces the course of the writer sorting out how to help herself not give a damn about or reframe all the social trauma the world wants to heap on women turning 50, being middle-aged, becoming less visible, and cope with the body's menopausal experiences of hot flashes, fatigue, brain fog, mood downswings.
I'm interested in finding personal books on menopause because there are shockingly few (though this seems to be undergoing a change, ha), but this one did not speak to me and my experiences/views very much. Rather meh.
May 28, 2019
Two stars because the author can write. She has a lyrical, poetic style which is very pleasant. No more stars, because this was not the book it was made out to be. I was expecting a kind of handbook for menopausal women, with advice and understanding. This is an autobiographical account of the author's own experience, written in an extremely literary style. If that was what I wanted, I would have thought it very good. As it is, I feel it was mis-sold, and if I had not borrowed it from the library, I would want my money back!
November 6, 2023
I won this book back in 2017 from a Goodreads contest giveaway, and unfortunately it got buried in my "books to read" pile. I stumbled across it the other day and here I am finally reading it and writing a review.
I was expecting more advice and sharing of experiences, instead this is more of an autobiography of the author. It was sad and depressing to read. Very research based but just not something I enjoyed.
If you are about to go thru menopause or will be, you might find this book a pleasant read, I however, did not enjoy it because of the negativity
I was expecting more advice and sharing of experiences, instead this is more of an autobiography of the author. It was sad and depressing to read. Very research based but just not something I enjoyed.
If you are about to go thru menopause or will be, you might find this book a pleasant read, I however, did not enjoy it because of the negativity
January 8, 2019
I came to this audio book hoping to find out more about the 'change' I am currently going through. Well I did find out more, but not quite what I wanted or was expecting.
This was an interesting book, read by the author, but it was rather depressing. What I am really looking for is a book which embraces the 'second spring'.
In China menopause is known as 'second spring', a time of rebirth, renewal, and new opportunity. This is the way I like to view menopause - as freedom.
This was an interesting book, read by the author, but it was rather depressing. What I am really looking for is a book which embraces the 'second spring'.
In China menopause is known as 'second spring', a time of rebirth, renewal, and new opportunity. This is the way I like to view menopause - as freedom.
October 16, 2023
I thought this book would be an inspirational positive book about approaching being 50! Instead I found it to be a very depressing mood hoover of a book that was mainly all doom and gloom about getting older! So much of the book was written in a negative and downbeat way I think the author is very much a “glass half empty” person! I nearly gave up on this book but thought it might have got better with an ending of hope and possibility - but no!
August 22, 2022
Im Original "The Middlepause": Dieser persönliche Blick auf die "mittleren Jahre" einer Frau hat mir sehr gut gefallen, auch wenn letztendlich jede Lebenssituation bzw. das Empfinden unterschiedlich ist (in diesem Fall ist die Autorin durch eine Hysterektomie übergangslos in die Menopause versetzt worden).
June 26, 2023
I listened to Marina reading her own audiobook. I really liked it. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but was actually better. Her ideas and reflections are deep, and her choice of descriptive phrases brilliant. A literary read and an exploration of what it is to face an ageing body head-on and make sense of what is happening, rather than trying to resist it.
June 4, 2017
I really enjoyed this - gave me some perspective on what lies ahead and empathise with some loved ones.
June 14, 2018
Read my full review of this thoughtful memoir in BoomerLitMag: http://boomerlitmag.com/what-were-rea...
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December 13, 2019Writing style is not my cup of tea.
February 15, 2022
4.5 stars
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December 28, 2022I did not read it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 29, 2024
Nicht der übliche Ratgeber: Persönlicher Blick auf das Ende des Sommers, wenn Abschiede sich mehren und der Blick auf das Ich sich neu konstruiert.
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