Early Bird: A Memoir of Premature Retirement

I picked this up partly because I loved a book by the author’s wife last year, and I was curious whether his voice would hold up on the page…it does. The premise alone is absurd: he “retires” at 28 and moves into a Florida retirement community, then reports back like an embedded journalist with a very good sense of humor. It’s full of Del Boca Vista (Seinfeld)-style characters, but underneath the jokes there’s a sharper question: if you step off the treadmill early, what’s left of your identity? Way funnier than I thought it would be, and also sneakily insightful. There’s always a lot to learn from older generations.