THE BLACKBERRY TEA CLUB: Women in Their Glory Years

Standing before a mirror assessing her bare bottom and thighs (which resemble "oatmeal to a remarkable degree"), her round belly and sagging breasts (which, "propped up and corralled," provide cleavage), 52-year-old Herrick eyes her reproduction of the Venus of Willendorf. "Thirty thousand years ago, holy women looked the way I do now," she thinks. "I finally have the body of a goddess." It's this blend of humor and candor that makes Herrick's meditations a delight. Simple and straightforward, it will resonate with women who prefer to see the inevitable emotional upheaval that accompanies aging as "a spiritual passage" rather than a midlife crisis. A former hospital administrator (and author of two books about Idaho), Herrick has plenty of wisdom to share, some learned from her own bumpy past, some honed over blackberry tea spiked with Amaretto and Grand Marnier with a group of female friends. Herrick tends to break into New Age jargon, and readers looking for more depth may be frustrated by her glossing over significant passages in her life: she covers her painful decision not to have children and her struggle to overcome anxiety and depression in a matter of paragraphs, providing fleeting glimpses into material that could easily fill another volume. Perhaps she'll win enough fans with this effort to convince her to dig deeper for a sequel. (Sept.)