100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life

Actor and comedian Van Dyke (Keep Moving) offers poignant reflections on aging and health in this affable memoir. In 100 short, discursive chapters with titles like “Figure Out Who You Aren’t” and “Speak Up for Your Family,” Van Dyke marries wistful recollections with folksy wisdom. “No matter our current circumstances, we all have the capacity for a joyful and purposeful life,” the 99-year-old actor writes, referring to the challenges of his short-term memory loss and vision-impairing dry macular degeneration. Between gleeful anecdotes about Van Dyke’s 2023 stint on The Masked Singer (he competed as a giant gnome) and rapturous odes to his wife (whom he credits as the primary reason he has not “withered away into a hermetic grouch”), the account makes space for more melancholy memories. For example, Van Dyke writes bluntly about his alcoholism (“Cocktails were all but essential for pushing through social anxiety and having some fun”); the deaths of his teenage granddaughter in 1987 and adult daughter in 2017; and anger at his emotionally distant father. Mostly, though, this is a winning celebration of life and laughter. Agent: Ian Kleinert, Paradigm Talent Agency. (Nov.)