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As many of our readers know, Suzanne Braun Levin, author of Fifty is the New Fifty, blogged for us back in April 2009.

We just received two of her videos from her author tour on June 1, 2009 at Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Center Triangle in New York, New York!

Watch them here!

Read more about the book:

Ten lessons to maximize creativity and happiness in the second half of life

In this inspiring new book, Suzanne Braun Levine follows her groundbreaking Inventing the Rest of Our Lives with fresh insights, research, and practical advice on the challenges and unexpected rewards for women in their fifties and beyond. Rich with anecdotes from the front lines of self-reinvention, this book captures the voices of women who are confronting change, renegotiating their relationships, and discovering who they are now that they are finally grown up. Among the lessons are: "No" is not a four-letter Word, on the energizing power of standing up for what you mean and what you want; Do unto yourself as you have been doing unto others, a new way of getting yourself to the top of the to-do list; and Your marriage can make it, reassurance that changing your outlook doesn't have to mean walking away from your marriage. Shaped by Levine's empathetic and lively voice, this book is about wisdom, survival, joy, and camaraderie. It reads like a conversation among women who know what they are talking about and want to share what they have discovered.

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When my kids were younger and I wanted to have a difficult conversation with one of them, I would wait until we were driving alone in the car. I found that it was easier for me to broach the subject when my gaze was fixed on the road, and it was more likely I would get some feedback if my son or daughter didn't have to make eye contact either. In that circumstance the avoidance of eye contact fostered intimacy.

But most of the time intimacy is, for me, precisely about eye contact. I need to see facial expressions, even the mouth moving, in order to continue the conversation, and I need to see something in the eyes in order to go deeper into my feelings. People in love are all about eye contact. Eye contact is also the source of the momentary intimacy of two strangers acknowledging that, for example, that they both found the way a fellow customer was behaving out of line, or that they both noticed how cute the cocker spaniel in the middle of the sidewalk is.

Internet intimacy is something new for me, both disconcerting and intriguing. Virtual communities offer none of the visual cues I am used to. But they also eliminate other - often harmful - visual clues that enable someone to judge someone else by looks, accent, or station in life. In terms of content, there are almost no barriers, and no consequences. For women in particular, it is exhilarating to express ourselves without concerns for propriety or hurt feelings.

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The first copy of my new book Fifty Is the New Fifty arrived yesterday from my publisher. My emotions are mixed. On the one hand the book embodies the long-awaited launch of my ideas into the public conversation. On the other hand, it makes me vulnerable to the public's response. Curiously, though, I feel somewhat less vulnerable this time out than when Inventing the Rest of Our Lives was published several years ago. 

This is due in part to the fact that I was in my fifties when I wrote the first book and I am in my sixties now. While being in your sixties makes you more vulnerable to invisibility in some circles, it also sets you free from caring so desperately about what other people think. (And, my friend Robin always adds, caring more about what you think.) That's part of it.  But the main reason is that in the interim I have figured out a thing or two, and I am less confused about what I call Second Adulthood.

I wrote Inventing the Rest of Our Lives because I was totally bewildered about what I was feeling and experiencing. I sensed that I was entering a new stage of life, but I wasn't at all sure I wanted to go there. In the course of many conversations with other women in the same boat, and interviews with people who seemed to have a bit of perspective on what was going on, I began to figure out that Second Adulthood might just be the best stage of all.

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Suzanne Braun Levine is our guest blogger during the week of April 6th. If you have any questions for Suzanne Braun Levine, add a comment to any of her posts.

Here is more information about Fifty is the New Fifty: Ten Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood:

View the author's tour dates here.

Ten lessons to maximize creativity and happiness in the second half of life

In this inspiring new book, Suzanne Braun Levine follows her groundbreaking Inventing the Rest of Our Lives with fresh insights, research, and practical advice on the challenges and unexpected rewards for women in their fifties and beyond. Rich with anecdotes from the front lines of self-reinvention, this book captures the voices of women who are confronting change, renegotiating their relationships, and discovering who they are now that they are finally grown up. Among the lessons are: "No" is not a four-letter Word, on the energizing power of standing up for what you mean and what you want; Do unto yourself as you have been doing unto others, a new way of getting yourself to the top of the to-do list; and Your marriage can make it, reassurance that changing your outlook doesn't have to mean walking away from your marriage. Shaped by Levine's empathetic and lively voice, this book is about wisdom, survival, joy, and camaraderie. It reads like a conversation among women who know what they are talking about and want to share what they have discovered.