The Hot Flash Club
by Nancy Thayer

From the bestselling author of Between Husbands and Friends and An Act of Love comes a wise, wonderful, and delightfully witty coming of age novel about four intrepid women who discover themselves as they were truly meant to be: passionate, alive, and ready to face the best years of their lives.

Meet Faye, Marilyn, Alice, and Shirley. Four women with skills, smarts, and secrets all feeling over the hill and out of the race. But in a moment of delicious serendipity, they meet and realize they share more than raging hormones and lost dreams. Now as the Hot Flash Club, where the topics of motherhood, sex, and men are discussed with double servings of chocolate cake, they vow to help each other . . . and themselves.

Queen Bee of Mimosa Branch
by Haywood Smith

"The only degree I have is a Ph.D. in Southern Bitch," proclaims Linwood Breedlove Scott, the feisty Prozac-popping, menopausal heroine of Smith's hardcover debut. When her husband drains their bank account and leaves her for a stripper, Lin retreats to her hometown of Mimosa Branch, Ga., to lick her wounds...

The Red Hat Club
by Haywood Smith

Meet Georgia, SuSu, Teeny, Diane, and Linda--five women who've been best friends through thirty years since high school. Sit in when they don their red hats and purple outfits to join Atlanta's Ladies Who Lunch for a delicious monthly serving of racy jokes, iced tea and chicken salad, baskets of sweet rolls, the latest Buckhead gossip, and most of all--lively support and caring through the ups and downs of their lives. When Diane discovers her banker husband has a condo (with mistress) that he bought with their retirement funds, the Red Hats swing into action and hang him with his own rope in a story that serves up laughter, friendship, revenge, high school memories, long-lost loves, a suburban dominatrix, and plenty of white wine and junk food. From the 1960s to the present, The Red Hat Club is a funny, unforgettable novel that shows the power women can find when they accept and support each other.

The Red Hat Society: Fun and Friendship After Fifty
by Sue Ellen Cooper

Finally, the official book of the The Red Hat Society™, which is sweeping the nation.

Inspired by the Jenny Joseph poem that begins: "when I am an old woman I shall wear purple/with a red hat that doesn't suit me," Sue Ellen Cooper bought herself a red hat. Soon it became her signature gift for friends turning 50. In 2000, Cooper and her friends formed the Red hat Society, whose only rule is no rules-it's simply a play group encouraging woman over 50 to have fun, support each other, and find kindrid spirits.

The book contains the history of the Red Hat Society, a guide to life by Ruby RedHat and funny, heart-warming and sassy stories shared by Red Hatters from all over North America, with narratives offered by Sue Ellen.

Besides this link to amazon, books will be available through the official Red Hat Society store, the Imperium www.redhatsocietystore.com; or call (866) FUN-AT-50 (866-386-2850) by the end of April.

Red Hats, Purple Shoes, and Afternoon Teas

A recipe book for when Red Hatters gather for afternoon teas. There are many choices of finger sandwiches, cookies and scones, luscious desserts and even cocktails when deciding on a menu. A few favorites include Fudge Mint Petits Fours, Lemon Chewy Crips, Crab Salad Sandwiches, Almond Thumbprint Cookies, Tiny Pecan Tarts and Bikini Martinis.

Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman
by Elizabeth Buchanan

Get ready to cheer for Rose Lloyd, a woman of young middle-age who proves that starting over doesn’t have an age limit. After twenty-five years spent juggling husband, career, and kids with admirable success, Rose suddenly finds both her marriage and her career in unexpected ruin. Forced to begin a new life, she is at first terrified, then energized, by her newfound freedom—it’s amazing what prolonged reflection, a little weight loss, a new slant on independence, and some Parisian lingerie will do for the psyche! Witty, insightful, and emotionally resonant, Buchan’s novel will strike a chord with anyone who has ever wondered what Middle Age would look like from the other side of the looking glass (answer: much better than you could ever expect).

Warning: When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple
by Jenny Joseph, Pythia Ashton-Jewell (Illustrator)

Voted Britain's best-loved poem by viewers of BBC TV's Bookworm, this perennial favorite with its declaration of defiance against convention appeals to all those with a secret desire to throw off the strictures of propriety and set out deliberately to shock and be outrageous. It sums up this wish perfectly with its pronouncement: 'When I am an old woman I shall wear purple/With a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me/I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired/And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells." Reprinted here as a gift book with line drawings by Pythia Ashton-Jewell, this edition of the classic is ideal both for those who know and love the poem and for those who have yet to relish its gleeful anticipation.

When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple
by Sandra Martz (Editor)

The difficulties and challenges that old age presents are discussed in a series of poems and stories. This award-winning anthology contains material selected from thousands of submitted manuscripts. Ellen Burstyn has the remarkable ability to transform herself from child to old woman in the blink of an eye. Every word she speaks conjures vivid images. The listener will break into laughter as Burstyn interprets anecdotes about eccentric friendships and senior citizen love affairs. CCH Pounder's performances overflow with compassion, humor and insight as she breathes life into the colorful characters. She entertains with a unique style of sarcasm, humor and empathy, provoking laughter, tears and compassion. These two talented women perform from the heart, revealing and respecting the realities of growing older.