Tough Broad - by Caroline Paul

About the Book

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Gutsy Girl, a funny, inspiring, deeply researched exploration into the science and psychology of the outdoors and our place in it as we age.

Caroline Paul has always filled her life with adventure: From mountain biking in the Bolivian Andes to pitching a tent, mid-blizzard, on Denali, she has never been a stranger to the exhilaration the outdoors can hold. Yet through it all, she has long wondered, Why aren't women, like men, encouraged to keep adventuring into old age?

Tough Broad is her quest to understand not just how to live a dynamic life in a changing body, but why we must. She dives deep into the current research on aging, and highlights the results with the stories of women like ninety-three-year-old hiker Dot Fisher-Smith, eighty-year-old scuba diver Louise Wholey, fifty-two-year-old BASE jumper Shawn Brokemond, sixty-four-year-old birdwatcher Virginia Rose, and the many septuagenarian Wave Chasers who boogie board together in the San Diego surf. These women aren't experts. But their experiences and the scientific studies that back them up offer important insight into our own physical and emotional health as we age, showing that growing older is no reason for women to sell themselves short. Tough Broad is a high-spirited call for women to embrace the outdoors, not back away from it, in our fifties, sixties, seventies, and beyond, casting our own futures in a new and dazzling light

Review Quotes

"Tough Broad is an entertaining read. It's sure to inspire women to continue to enjoy the outdoors, create new neural pathways as they try new things, and enjoy the camaraderie of their sisters in adventure into their later years." --USA Today, "Outdoor Wires"

"Paul's storytelling here goes deep, exploring the nuances of each woman's quest to understand her own pull to outdoor adventure. Tough Broad, she writes, 'is not about bravado, it is about bravery.' And it is as engrossing as it is inspiring." --BookPage

"Paul makes a strong case for how a positive attitude about getting older can lead to a longer, healthier life ... Women don't have to give in to age's changes; there's a big world out there to engage with and gain strength and pleasure from. Here's to being old, 'game, ' and down for adventure." --Booklist

"Caroline Paul has long been my North Star for what it is to be an adventurer in the world. I'd follow her anywhere." --Bonnie Tsui, author of Why We Swim and Sarah and the Big Wave

"Oh, how I love-and need-this book! Paul's subjects don't deny or mask their years: they embrace who they are with gusto and vitality, seizing the opportunity to enjoy, to grow, to challenge themselves mentally and physically. And they remind us of a fundamental truth about women and aging: even as we become invisible to the culture, we become more visible-in the best of ways-to ourselves. I am here for you, tough broads!" --Peggy Orenstein, New York Times bestselling author of Unravelling

"This arc of a critical life blueprint comes from the toughest broad I know, Caroline Paul. You turn the last page of Tough Broad and promise yourself to spend every minute possible in the Great Outdoors. You are determined to test new horizons, to abandon your fears, to breathe your deepest breath. I'm 74. Caroline leads those of us of mature and wise ages to the very real hope that we all of us have much more to explore." --Diana Nyad, the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, at age 64

"Caroline Paul and her fellow tough broads know how to live life to the fullest. Every story in this book reminds us that life is truly what we make it and that our curiosity, love of the outdoors, and appetites for adventure don't have to end in middle or even old age." --Natalie Baszile, bestselling author of Queen Sugar and We Are Each Other's Harvest

"In Tough Broad, Caroline Paul takes the prevailing view of how women age-the 'long slow rot theory' of aging-and completely upends it. By masterfully pairing the latest research on aging along with stories of amazing, adventurous women who are taking risks and playing outdoors well into their 80s and beyond, she demonstrates that women can not only survive but thrive during this period of their lives. Prepare to be inspired!" --Juliet Starrett, New York Times bestselling author of Built to Move, and 3x Whitewater World Champion

"Just as Paul's previous book appealed to older women, Tough Broad, though meant for older women will likely inspire women decades younger . . . At 84, Paul's mother told her daughter wistfully, 'What I would give to be 60 again. Do it Now, before you can't.' That's good advice for any woman, or man, at any age." --The Hippo

"Inspiring. The book of the year for daredevils, doers, and dreamers of all ages." --Cheryl Strayed on THE GUTSY GIRL

"Delightful . . . There's a lot here that will thrill any girl-or boy-of any age." --San Francisco Chronicle on THE GUTSY GIRL

"The perfect book for young feminists, or really any woman who needs a dose of inspiration in her life." --Buzzfeed on THE GUTSY GIRL

"A modern manifesto for bravery, perseverance, and breaking the tyranny of perfection." --Maria Popova on THE GUTSY GIRL

About the Author