Between a Rock and a Hot Place - by Tracey Jackson (Paperback)

About the Book

"Laugh-out-loud funny."--O, the Oprah magazine

"Tracey Jackson confronts the speed bumps of life with wit, brilliant insights, and...common sense....Between a Rock and a Hot Place is more than a good read, it's good company."--John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Hollywood screenwriter Tracey Jackson (The Guru, Ashes to Ashes, The Other End of the Line, The Ivy Chronicles, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and others), delivers a funny, fearless, no-holds-barred look at what it really means to turn 50 today. Offering insight into the joys, hurdles, and life lessons surrounding the half-century mark, Jackson explores topics as wide-ranging as hormone replacement therapy, online dating, lifts, nips, tucks, libidos, finances, coping with death, and preparing for the future.

Book Synopsis

"Laugh-out-loud funny."
--O, the Oprah magazine

"Tracey Jackson confronts the speed bumps of life with wit, brilliant insights, and...common sense....Between a Rock and a Hot Place is more than a good read, it's good company."
--John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Hollywood screenwriter Tracey Jackson (The Guru, Ashes to Ashes, The Other End of the Line, The Ivy Chronicles, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and others), delivers a funny, fearless, no-holds-barred look at what it really means to turn 50 today. Offering insight into the joys, hurdles, and life lessons surrounding the half-century mark, Jackson explores topics as wide-ranging as hormone replacement therapy, online dating, lifts, nips, tucks, libidos, finances, coping with death, and preparing for the future.

From the Back Cover

As she approached her fiftieth birthday, Tracey Jackson found herself bombarded by a catchphrase on everyone's lips: "Fifty is the new thirty." With a comedy writer's training and a screenwriter's eye for detail, Jackson skewers that particular myth with a hilarious, bare-knuckled, and ultimately practical appraisal of what middle age really means today. Jackson not only faces the elephant in the room, she puts it under a (very large) microscope, confronting the truth about death, work, and sex in what the French call the "third age."

Review Quotes

"Jackson covers it all . . . with humor and a firm hand. . . . The book is nothing less than what my own grandmother used to call a 'godsend.'" - Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
"Tracey Jackson is the hilarious, brutally honest friend you need when you turn 50. . . . If this sounds like just another self-help book, adjust those magnifying eyeglasses, and keep reading. Jackson is a laugh riot. Hysterical, really." - Jan Tuckwood, Palm Beach Post
"[Jackson] uses her skills as a longtime comedy writer and astute observer of the human condition, her own included, to confront the unvarnished truth about aging bodies, changing roles of motherhood and wifehood, and the necessity of planning a career, especially after the nest empties." - Marilyn McMahon, Santa Barbara News-Press
"Glib, gossipy, and genuinely gutsy, Jackson's take on this middle-aged milestone will have any woman who is 50, approaching 50, or waving bye-bye in the rear-view mirror wondering, 'Who is this woman and how did she get inside my head?'" - Booklist
"Laugh-out-loud funny." - O, The Oprah Magazine
"Finally, there is a voice of reality to counter the claims of a youth-oriented culture and put forward the idea that successful aging isn't about denying reality.... Jackson writes with the humor of Nora Ephron, the honesty of a fiftysomething, and the reality of medical science." - Library Journal
"Between a Rock and a Hot Place is sexy, witty, energizing, smart, and full of terrific advice.... Run, do not walk, to get the book, and then call your nutritionist, your GYN, your health club, your nearest Whole Foods, your mothers and daughters, and tell them all about it." - Judy Collins
"If you're thirty you should read this book, if you're forty you should read this book, if you're fifty, you should definitely read this book." - Martha Stewart, The Martha Stewart Show
"A thought-provoking book." - Meredith Vieira, Today
"A fiercely funny book about a most unfunny subject-aging." - Erica Jong
"Tracey Jackson confronts the speed bumps of life with wit, brilliant insights, and the kind of common sense that leaves you wondering, 'Now, why didn't I think of that?' Between a Rock and a Hot Place is more than a good read, it's good company." - John Berendt
"The cure for fear is laughter, and this book offers a powerful antidote to all the scary aspects of aging. Jackson's stunning candor and sparkling high spirits will have women of all ages laughing as they confront everything from menopause to wrinkles, thanks to this funny, practical and engaging book." - Susan Cheever
"Jackson is a perceptive guide to the country of aging." - Publishers Weekly
"Finally, there is a voice of reality to counter the claims of a youth-oriented culture and put forward the idea that successful aging isn't about denying reality, but planning for the future. Screenwriter Jackson writes with the humor of Nora Ephron, the honesty of a fiftysomething, and the reality of medical science to commiserate on the aging process (e.g., death of friends) and help readers prepare for the best future life possible." - Library Journal