Best known for Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow, pioneering author Sinetar once again helps define the leading edge of discourse, taking up what will likely become a social, and therefore publishing, preoccupation—good aging—as a boomer wave of millions begins arriving on the shores of later life. Using an exchange of letters between two imaginary friends who are "types" (one executive, the other mystic), Sinetar offers a menu of socio-spiritual analysis and prescription that's half application, half contemplation. She draws on a wide range of statistics, examples and authors, from senior activist Art Linkletter to psychologist Abraham Maslow to Christian Scientist Martha Wilcox. This eclectic blend of findings and concepts into an easy-to-read whole is a Sinetar specialty, marking her career as a writer and corporate consultant. Her simplicity is deeper than it looks, rooted in the early 20th-century post-Transcendental American movement called "New Thought," which is one antecedent of creative visualization and the prosperity gospel. But it also embraces Jesus, albeit somewhat selectively, and classic Christian mysticism. While the dialogue-in-letters conceit is successful, an appendix with "study questions" seems formulaic, its function not clearly stated. With characteristic and persuasive enthusiasm, Sinetar poses for popular understanding questions no policy-maker or aging American will be able to duck during the next 25 years. (Sept.)
Forecast:Paulist plans a major marketing and publicity push to fan the interest it expects for this combination of a proven author and tomorrow's topic. Its Catholic market will be a core, but a 24-city author radio tour as well as a three-city West Coast tour will extend its marketing reach.
