EVERYTHING TO GAIN Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life <i> by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter (Fawcett Gold Media: $4.95) </i>

A collaborative memoir by the former President and First Lady and inspiring counsel for those on the verge of retirement or any similar life transition.

“We begin by describing the profound disappointment and frustration over our defeat in the presidential election of 1980,” the Carters write. They report of their shocking discovery, after leaving the White House in 1981, that due to three years of drought in Georgia they were very much in debt; about the stress in their relationship as Jimmy found it hard to admit how deeply hurt he was about losing the election (his calm and reassuring facade caused Rosalynn to feel that he didn’t recognize her pain). They write of their shared values, their religious faith and conclude that retirement years offer “the chance to be bolder than ever before and to do worthwhile things that have been avoided or postponed for five or six decades.” Jimmy Carter had always longed to teach, as he’s been doing for more than five years at Emory University; they both wanted to write, as they’ve done in their individual memoirs and here.

“Who knows what we can do if we set our objectives high?” Jimmy writes. “We may even be able to do more than if we had won the election in 1980!”