BEYOND THE BOOK

Put some real life into your reading life with nonfiction books that everyone should be reading. 

Connect with outstanding authors and experts for online conversations about nonfiction books that grab our attention and stay with us.

During a six-to-eight week discussion period, the author/expert will post thoughts, conversation starters, and discussion questions to the Beyond the Book blog. Share your comments, recommend related book or other resources, and suggest books for future Beyond the Book conversations. You can read the book before, during, or after the discussion.

Current Discussion

Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life
by Marc Freedman

In one of the most significant social trends of the new century, …members of the baby boom generation are inventing a new phase of work. If the old golden years dream was the freedom from work, the dream of this new wave is the freedom to work – in new ways, on new terms, to new and even more important ends.

Encore tells the stories of …encore career pioneers who are not content, or affluent enough, to spend their next thirty years on a golf course. These men and women are moving beyond midlife careers, yet refusing to phase out or fade away. They are searching for a calling in the second half of life, crafting a new phase of work that offers not only continued income but the promise of more meaning – and the chance to do work that means something beyond themselves.

From the book jacket

LearningLife is delighted to welcome Marc Freedman as its keynote speaker at the LearningLife Encore Fest on May 16, 2009. A pioneering thought leader of the longevity revolution, Marc's work centers on the changing face of retirement, the necessity of work later in life, and the enormous talent pool of older adults who could – and want to – contribute to our society. 

The founder and CEO of Civic Ventures, a think tank "helping society achieve the greatest return on experience," Marc spearheaded the creation of both Experience Corps, America's largest nonprofit national service program engaging people over 55, and The Purpose Prize, the nation's biggest investment in older social innovators. 

He is author of Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America and Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life. His new book, On Purpose: Boomers, Work, and the Search for a Calling, will be out this year. He has received many honors for his groundbreaking work, both as a social innovator and author.

When Encore was published two years ago, the Wall Street Journal called Marc “a leading voice in discussions nationwide about the changing face of retirement," and the New York Times called him "the voice of aging baby boomers who are eschewing retirement for… meaningful and sustaining work later in life." 

Since last fall’s economic nosedive, the book’s message has taken on new urgency. In a time of high unemployment, encore careers may offer solutions for older workers who need to keep working for pay, for nonprofits and public sector entities whose funding has decreased, and for companies who might gratefully steer outbound older workers to work that marries some continued income with personal meaning and social impact.

Encore is widely available at bookstores and online booksellers. The paperback edition costs $10-$12.

Want to be an Encore Blogger?

LearningLife encourages you to read Encore, and, if you're so inclined, to blog about it here at Beyond the Book. We would like to recruit two or three people to serve as volunteer bloggers to lead discussions about the book over the weeks leading up to the Encore Fest.

Do you like to talk about what you're reading? Does Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life sound like a book you want to read? Is there a blogger in you yearning to get out? If so, we'd love to hear from you! Please e-mail LearningLife, and Andy Gilats, LearningLife's director, will fill you in.

To Do

Go to the Encore Beyond the Book blog.
Make a comment if you'd like.

Become a LearningLife Encore blogger.
E-mail LearningLife.

Register for the Encore Fest
$75 fee includes your participation in the Fest, parking adjacent to the Continuing Education and Conference Center, continental breakfast, lunch, refreshments, and an Encore resource packet.

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