Reviews

Review Excerpts

Mercury News – October 24, 2008
“…Ingeniously, Hanson has compiled delicious tidbits from dozens of biographies, diaries, letters and obituaries. More ingeniously, he’s woven them together with great care and wit — Verdi, next to Cleopatra, next to Peter Sellers on one page; Garbo, next to Jesus, next to Charles Schulz on another — from infancy to death, 1 to 100. What follows is the fascinating evolution and decay of celebrity, the peaks and valleys of famous lives, side-by-side, an intermingling of eras, and 296 pages of did-you-knows”.
— Mike Frankel

Booklist – July 1, 2008
“When Eric Hanson’s A Book of Ages turned up on my desk the other day, I didn’t expect to like it. The premise was intriguing: what various famous people did at a certain age, from 1 to 100. My skepticism, though, came from the assumption that the book would be made up of prodigious feats by extremely talented (John Stewart Mills masters Greek at age 7) and if there is one thing I am sick of is prodigies… Although Hanson does mention ways too many youthful prodigies and aging optimists for my taste, I’m happy to report that his compendium includes a healthy supply of underachieving tykes and grumpy or at least wildly eccentric seniors”
— Bill Ott