Turning 50: Fifty Personal Celebrations

The 50th birthday is one of life's milestones-it's a time to reflect on half a century's worth of experiences and a time to look ahead at all that life still has in store. As the nearly 80 million members of the baby boomer generation start reaching this milestone, they're celebrating it in their own unique style, and along the way they're redefining just what it means to be 50. Turning 50 is a collection of these celebrations. It examines how 50 different people have chosen to mark the day-from renting out Carnegie Hall and giving a concert to taking two weeks alone on an isolated beach to jumping out of an airplane to inviting friends to a sunrise ceremony. This collection will inspire and give ideas to those who will reach 50 in the next 15 years. Author Olivia Wu uses a mix of text, photographs, and other images such as programs and invitations to capture the unique spirit of each celebration. She groups the events by theme; chapters include "Adventure," "Dreams," "Letting Go," "Gratitude," "In the Face of Death," and "Miles to Go." Wu's subjects are largely the ordinary people who fashion extraordinarily creative rituals for themselves. They range from business tycoons to homemakers to celebrities. But she finds in them all a common thread-an enthusiasm for life and a belief that the best is yet to come.