Despite what the title, When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win: Reflections on Looking in the Mirror by Carol Leifer, implies, this is a book about noticing your age when you look back on your life. It is what I would call a memoir written in short story fashion. A compilation of bits and pieces of Leifer's life that have shaped and molded her into the statuette she has become, on display for all to see.

Leifer begins her memoir by showing her comedic side, which many already know. She jokingly describes the parts of her life that literally gave her the fodder to generate audience laughter when writing comedy. A point she made that had me laughing hard was the story on bumper stickers. Upon observing one sticker that said, "What Would Jesus Do?," Leifer's response was "Well, when stuck behind someone crawling at ten miles an hour, my answer would be, Jesus would gun it, lard ass." At the end of the bumper stories, she signs off with, "Carol in the car behind you." Another aspect of her funny bone could be read in her story about the things men know and don't know. In discussing men wearing ponytails, she puts it like this, "On us? Cute. On you? Not so cute." Both are examples of her offbeat sense of humor.

But the book also delves into the more serious and important parts of her persona. She talks about her age in response to psychoanalysis, burying a loved one, high school reunions, earning minimum wage, being a part of a team, loving animals, being a Jew and much more. These kinds of stories designed the woman Leifer became as age began to creep upon her. They and others explained what you come to love and hate, as you tell the world how old or young you are.

When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win: Reflections on Looking in the Mirror  is an easy and simple book to read. Yet that doesn't mean Leifer doesn't discuss poignant issues which we all have to deal with, as the numbers add up telling our ages. Like it or not, it's inevitable. We all get older; lying about it is a waste of time. And if I got the message right, Leifer was explaining that we are our own terrorists in denial. But as she tells it, the half century mark—age 50—is the beginning and not necessarily the end.