The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom »

SARAH LUISE (Sadie) and ANNIE ELIZABETH (Bessie) Delany were born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. As young women, they moved to Manhattan and became leading professionals in New York City. Bessie, a dentist, died in 1996 at the age of 104. Sadie, a New York school teacher for many years, is now 106 and continues to maintain her home and garden in a town near New York. AMY HILL HEARTH, a native of Massachusetts, won numerous awards for her work on the Delany sisters' Having Our Say. She was formerly a journalist and a regular contributor to the New York Times.

"IT'S AS IF WE'VE BECOME AMERICA'S GRANDMAS."

That's how Sadie Delany described the outpouring of affection and admiration that followed the success of Having Our Say, the best-selling memoir she and her sister published in 1993. Now they offer their fans a treasury of grandmotherly good sense: memorable aphorisms, engaging anecdotes, rules for managing money, practical advice on staying active in old age, and some favorite recipes, too. It's a book filled with the secrets of living well, from two women who did it for more than a century.

Publishers Weekly

An inspirational and delightful guidebook on how to live long and well, written by feisty centenarian sisters who do yoga every morning, this no-nonsense manual could add years to your life. Authors of the bestselling Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (also written with Hearth), Sarah, now 105 years old, and Bessie, 103, were among the first African American professional women in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Raleigh, N.C., to an ex-slave turned Episcopal bishop and a free-born mother of mixed racial parentage, the Delany sisters rejected marriage proposals to live together and pursue careers-Sarah a high-school teacher, Bessie a dentist. Their homespun, plucky advice-exercise regularly, don't smoke or drink, shun credit cards, spend more time with family-reflects their perception that people today are too rushed, self-centered, overworked, lack consideration and ``rot their brains'' watching TV. Interspersed with family photographs and documents, recipes and numbered lists of pointers for right living. (Nov.)