Counterclockwise ─ My Year of Hypnosis, Hormones, Dark Chocolate, and Other Adventures in the World of Anti-Aging

At this moment, one in three Americans is entering midlife, and many are wondering, "How did I get to be this old?" Plenty will turn to miracle creams, injections, fillers, and surgery to reverse the hands of time, but Kessler investigates the largely unexplored side of anti-aging: what it takes to be younger, not just look younger. Guided by an open but pleasantly skeptical mind, a thirst for adventure, and a sense of humor, she investigates America’s youth obsession and decides, on a very personal level, what to do about it. She is at once the careful reporter, the immersion journalist, the self-designated lab rat, and a midlife woman who is not interested in being as old as her driver’s license insists she is.

Counterclockwise is a lively quest to discover how to maintain stamina, vitality, fortitude, and creativity right to the very end.

"The human smile is an anti-gravity device. Kessler’s delightful, witty book actually takes 20 yearsoff your face!"—Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Gulp

LAUREN KESSLER is the author of seven works of narrative nonfiction, including My Teenage Werewolf, Pacific Northwest Book Award winner Dancing with Rose (published in paperback as Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s), Washington Post bestseller Clever Girl, and Los Angeles Times bestseller The Happy Bottom Riding Club. She directs the graduate program in multimedia narrative journalism at the University of Oregon. She lives in Eugene, OR.