This book contains 28 personal stories and poems about growth and development in adulthood that were written by individuals who were purposely chosen to reflect the diversity of U.S. culture and sociocultural factors such as race and ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, and able-bodiedness that affect development in adulthood. The stories and poems are grouped into six categories: identity; the importance of work; intimacy; the family life cycle; physical development, health, and aging; and learning in adulthood. The titles and authors are as follows: "A Sistah Outsider" (Shamara Shantu Riley); "Are You Writing a Book?" (Jaimi Carter); "Flip-Flops" (Perri Klass); "You're Short, Besides!" (Sucheng Chan); "A Dictionary of Japanese-American Terms" (R.A. Sasaki); "Three Steps a Minute" (Ruth Shigezawa); "How I Got to Be Jewish" (Erica Jong); "Dear Aunt Nanadine" (Alexis De Veaux); "Learning to Work" (Dale Brown); "Sweetheart" (Molly Martin); "Piece Work" (Mona Elaine-Adilman); "The Linden Tree" (Ella Leffland); "Church" (G. Winston James); "Is This the Reward of a Catholic Girlhood?" (Margaret Cruikshank); "Between" (Elizabeth Graver); "First Love" (R.A. Sasaki); "The Management of Grief" (Bharati Mukherjee); "This Place" (Beth Brant); "The Storyteller" (Jason Laus Baluyut); "1895 Honeymoon Hotel" (Marie M. Hara); "Groom Service" (Michael Dorris); "What I Know from Noses" (Anndee Hochman); "Finch the Spastic Speaks" (Gordon Weaver); "Combustion" (Susan Carol Hauser); "The Hector Quesadilla Story" (T. Coraghessan Boyle); "La Tortillera [The Tortilla Maker]" (Patricia Preciado Martin); "Talking to the Dead" (Sylvia A. Watanabe); and "Mountain Biking and the Pleasures of Balance" (Marti Stephen). (MN)