Detailing the practicalities of retiring as well as the range of emotions brought forth by the process of separating from the university environment, Klaus' book, with its insight, candor, and rare command of the journal form, will pique the interest of anyone contemplating the possibility of
retiring. It ought to be required reading for those readers who know retirement is looming on the not-too-distant horizon. --BOOKLIST

Carl Klaus has done it again--in Taking Retirement he conducts us through a bittersweet life passage with the pitch-perfect voice of his acclaimed garden books.... Here, in the modest and appealing form of a journal, is a novel of acceptance and new life, a memoir of a great teacher, and memorable travel writing of a thrilling journey West.... Klaus has made of his story a touchstone for this most beguiling-- and bedeviling--of life's changes.
--Patricia Hampl, author of I Could Tell You Stories

"Carl Klaus leads us through a rite of passage for which we have few guides--the laying down of the work that has defined one's life, the shedding of an old skin, and the shaping of a fresh identity. The path he shows us cuts through swamps of discouragement and thickets of fear before it reaches the clearing where his new life will blossom. This journal records his emotions along the way as faithfully as any seismograph gauging the tremors of earth."
--Scott Russell Sanders, author of Hunting For Hope and Staying Put

"Taking Retirement is the quiet testimony of a man whose ongoing writing, editing, reading, gardening, traveling and ceaseless quest for self-knowledge make him much less retired than many people half his age. And in that lie some good lessons, both about writing and retirement."
--Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost

"An evocative meditation on purpose, dependence, leisure, and fulfillment. Occasionally wistful, always insightful, Carl Klaus will charm you with his musings about the meaning of work and his
honesty about the natural ambivalence that accompanies this lifetransition."
--Hope Edelman, author of Mother of My Mother: The Intricate Bond Between the Generations

"A life-altering condition is faithfully chronicled in this story of a condition that is new to humanity."
--Kirkus Reviews