Every now and then, if you’re lucky, a book comes along at just the right time in your life. Dancing with the Muse in Old Age, by Priscilla Long, is such a book. My joints were aching, my hair had turned gray, and I was wondering if my race was run. I was falling into the trap of ageism, that toxic trap that the writer describes as equating old age with being ill, decrepit, and in physical and mental decline. Dancing with the Muse in Old Age, dismantles this stereotype of old age as being a period of bleak and inevitable decline. It gives us a vision of old age as a joyful, creative, and freeing time of life. It’s full of examples of people who have led vibrant creative lives well into their nineties and beyond. It is a hopeful and necessary book for anyone who wants to thrive, not just live, well into old age. ( )