Title: The Compass Solution: A Guide to Winning Your Career Available in both paperback and Kindle formats Author: Tim Cole Reviewed for the NABBW by: Anne Holmes Tim Cole, Founder and CEO of The Compass Alliance, says that his goal is writing this book is to help his readers by providing lessons that will help generate a sustainable and successful career. He points out early in the book that young adults setting out on a career path can expect to spend – at minimum – 100,000 hours building a career. Career-building, then, represents the greatest financial investment of anyone’s... Read More

By Ann Leach, NABBW’s Associate for Loss and Change It’s probably already happened: you’re flipping through a magazine or finally sitting down with the Sunday paper and there’s the article about getting through the holidays after a big life loss. All the articles will tell you basically the same thing like “practice good self-care” or “don’t feel obligated to attend every party if you’re not up to it.” Good advice, but lets be honest: we women are not that great at following those directions. We feel we ‘should’ go and that it might just help us feel better. We feel... Read More

By Linda Ballou, NABBW’s Adventure Travel Associate About twenty years ago, I followed Billy and Saxon, characters in Jack London’s novel The Valley of the Moon, on their journey in a buckboard wagon up the coast of California on their search for the perfect place to land. They put down roots in what is now the Jack London Historic Park in Glen Ellen.  Jack purchased the land in 1905 and dubbed it his “Beauty Ranch.” In my essay Jack London and Me, I detail how my life and the master of adventure writing have intersected. I yearned to be closer to him and had to visit the haven he... Read More

By Phyllis Stoller, NABBW’s Group Travel Associate As we travel these days, some of us are wary of being identified as American.  We often forget that we can be ambassadors as well as tourists. Whether or not you agree with the Trump Administration and the current state of US politics in general, you — yes, you — can contribute to our image abroad in many ways. Remember, we are the Peace Corps generation, the people who –  in our youth –  journeyed to Europe on rickety old ships we used to call “student ships,” then lived “off the land,”... Read More

By Linda Ballou, NABBW’s Adventure Travel Associate I have been migrating from Los Angles to Haines, the prettiest little town in Southeast Alaska, for the last 40 years. Like the arctic tern in its epic 25,000- mile round trip journey and the salmon’s primordial yearning to return to the clear waters of its birth, I come home. When snow-frosted peaks of the Coastal Range that hug the tiny berg and Port Seward come into view, I mist over.  Alaska is to me austere, rugged and moody, yet thrilling in its unrelenting beauty. Haines, population 2500, was once a homely pioneer town; now Main... Read More

Title: The Buffer Zone Diet Author: Fred Cuellar Reviewed by: Anne Holmes For the NABBW According to author Fred Cuellar, when we eat is as important as what we eat. If you’re one of those people who can say you’ve successfully dropped twenty pounds – only to gain it back, plus a few extra – there’s a good chance this book can be your solution – and your salvation. The information contained here is based on the author’s personal experience. Experience gained after he had a near-fatal stroke. He’s done a lot of personal research on diet and the diet... Read More

By Phyllis Stoller, NABBW’s Group Travel Associate Boomer women are different. We were born into the post WWII era when things began to change for women. Our mothers went to work, we got college degrees and became nurses, teachers, lawyers, architects, doctors and accountants. Fast forward to today and we are living longer than our mothers and grandmothers. We’re healthier and more active. And many of us are single – either still, or again.  The oft-repeated mantra of our early years – “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby,” has proven true.  In so many ways... Read More

By Linda Ballou, NABBW’s Adventure Travel Associate Fired by the rapturous descriptions of Estes Park and surrounds by Isabella Bird, a plucky Englishwoman who rode 800 miles solo in the Rockies in 1873, I headed to Colorado to breathe in the beauty of the region for myself. Isabella, like many people suffering from England’s damp, came to Colorado for “the pure dry air.” With religious fervor, she waxed poetic in her travel memoir Lady of the Rockies about the granite faces of the peaks flushing crimson at day’s end. Her first stay in Colorado was with the Alexanders, squatters... Read More

By Linda Ballou, NABBW’s Adventure Travel Associate Krista Burleigh, leading my ride, dreamed of owning a ranch and spending her life sharing her love of the outdoors and horses with her guests. She and husband Bill, roamed the West to find the perfect spot. They picked the Laramie River Ranch for its isolation and endless miles of trails that fan from the ranch and offer a variety of terrain and great footing for the horses. I have sampled many dude ranches and the LLR offers an unrivaled, rustic, authentic western experience on the back of well-trained, fit horses. From a distance the sage-covered... Read More

Title: Sammy’s Broken Leg (Oh No!) and the Amazing Cast That Fixed It Author: Judith Wolf Mandell Reviewed by: Anne Holmes For the NABBW “Sammy’s Broken Leg” is an amazing book! Perfect gift for a grandchild who’s broken a bone – or is about to experience some other sort of potentially scary medical procedure. I recall my mother having to hold a wriggling, screaming four-year old – me – in her lap as my sister and I were being prepped for T&A surgery back in the mid-50s. No one could convince me they weren’t trying to kill me with the... Read More