Project Renewment: The First Retirement Model for Career Women

This guide for retired career women or those about to make this life change starts out coolly but warms up to a friendly support-group style discussion of the psychological pitfalls associated with leaving a life of work. The authors, a psychologist and a workplace-issues expert who founded a networking organization by the title's name, illustrate their approach to retirement as renewal. The book's businesslike title is a bit misleading; chapters are short and punchy and lacking detailed how-tos on the practical points of retirement, such as exit strategies or financial planning. The book's strengths lie in its “you're not alone” tone, with anonymous anecdotes and quotes from the mostly married, 60-somethings in Project Renewment groups throughout Southern California. Also useful is the book's “Guide to Creating a Project Renewment Group,” which gives a step-by-step how-to for finding like-minded women at or about to embark on the same life stage. Skeptics may identify this self-help book as a disguise to expand the Renewment brand, but it works on its own terms. Illus. (Mar.)