Dr. Nancy Irwin, a Los Angeles-based psychotherapist, released a nonfiction titled You-Turn: Changing Direction in Midlife. This collection of more than 40 stories of people over 40 chronicles successful transitions in personal and/or professional lives.

Originally from Atlanta, where she trained as an opera singer, Dr. Irwin moved to New York City in 1985 to pursue a career as a stand-up comedian. She worked all over the country and abroad and moved to LA in 1994 when she heard that Hollywood needed more blondes. She quips: “The road from comedy to mental health is very short, indeed."

Dr. Nancy experienced an epiphany when she began volunteering for a shelter for sexually abused children. It changed her life and prompted her to pursue a doctorate in psychology and to specialize in the prevention and healing of child sexual abuse. You-Turn not only shares her own story, but also 43 other you-turns from a variety of people—some simple, some dramatic. These stories include a convicted crack dealer who became a real estate investor, a mother of nine who started a foundation for the leprosy-affected, a monk who became a motivational speaker, a recovering pedophile, a man who became a spouse and parent after 40, a woman who finally embraced her sexual identity after years of denial and abuse, and more. The stories are divided into two parts: change by default (injury, breakup, layoff) and change by choice (boredom, lack of fulfillment).

Like a Chicken Soup for the Soul for Baby Boomers, this book is for the fearful and frozen. For anyone who feels stuck in struggle, yet really wants to move forward.