In the third book of her popular "Decade Series," Cathleen Rountree interviews twenty inspiring, vibrant, and energetic women who discuss their thoughts and feelings about having passed their 60th birthday.          The women featured in these pages show us how they are working against stereotypes and reaching beyond common assumptions about physical, mental, and social limitations on their lives due to their age. For this group portrait of feminine potential and achievement, Ms. Rountree has gathered a diverse roster of women, including Ann Richards; Jane Goodall; Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary; and Oh Shinnah Fast Wolf, a Native American and codirector of the Center for Grandfather Coyote. They are painters, politicians, writers, activists, performers, psychologists, and nuns. Their faces are those of our mothers, our sisters, our grandmothers, our friends, and ourselves. Whether these women are confronting new challenges for the first time in their lives, or reaping the rewards of an enriching life, each one's story is a unique but universal testament to the strength of the human spirit.          On Women Turning 60 is essential reading for older women and their younger sisters seeking strong female role models. This engaging book shows all of us--no matter what age--how to face each day with optimism and teaches us that growing older is a journey of empowerment and self-discovery. INCLUDED AMONG THE TWENTY EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN INTERVIEWED IN THIS BOOK ARE: Oh Shinnah Fast Wol                        Jane Goodall Riane Eisler                                 Elayne Jones Ursula K. Le Guin                         Marion Woodman Matilda Cuomo                         Nellie Wong Fay Weldon                                 Maureen Stapleton From the Trade Paperback edition. Photojournalist Cathleen Rountree ( On Women Turning 40 and On Women Turning 50 ) has made a cottage industry out of chronicling women who've reached a significant age. The 20 distinguished women she chose for this collection have all had six decades to hone skills and flout convention. Some, like Marian Woodman , a Jungian analyst in Canada, have found ways to simplify life. A few seem intent on embroidering it. British novelist Fay Weldon careens through romance, shoes, feminism, death, and the choice to embrace discontent in her comments, with great gusts of common sense and humor. "Stop trying to grow when it's obvious there's no potential for growth there," she advises those intent on finding fulfillment. Still others insist that 60 is an age to embrace change. Performance artist Terry Sendgraff learned to walk on stilts at 57 and now uses her crossbred brand of dance and circus acrobatics to teach people how to fully embrace themselves. Writer Ursula K. LeGuin , dancer Luly Santiago, and anthropologist Jane Goodall are also among the diverse subjects of Rountree's interviews. --Francesca Coltrera Turning the age of 60 is a defining moment in many women's lives. Free of menopause and not yet to the age of cronehood, women in their sixties are more confident, able to live in and appreciate the present, and less vain. Rountree (On Women Turning Fifty, HarperSanFrancisco, 1994. pap.), a leader of workshops for women in mid-life, presents oral histories of 20 diverse women. She talks with the famous (such as Mary Travers, Jane Goodall, and Ann Richards) and the "famous" within their profession (Elayne Jones, Matilda Cuomo, and Lucy Santagelo). While the volume is ethnically diverse, it includes few ordinary women?housewives, laborers, and noncareer women. Still, it is fascinating to listen to these women's stories and their perspectives on life. Recommended for all public libraries and oral history collections.?Jenny L. Presnell, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, Ohio Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. A delightful series of interviews with accomplished women in their 60s that celebrates both the pain and the newfound freedom of growing older. Rountree (The Heart of Marriage, not reviewed, etc.) does not draw on the usual cast of feminist icons. The subjects constitute a cross-section of women, including politicians, performers, artists, writers, activists, and even one who styles herself a ``woman warrior.'' Some are relatively well-known--folk singer Mary Travers, author Ursula K. LeGuin, primatologist Jane Goodall; others are accomplished in other spheres--poet Nellie Wong, tympanist Elayne Jones, quilter Virginia Harris. There are 20 women in all, each one briefly introduced with a picture and a bio, followed by a first-person narrative reflecting on the meanings of turning 60. The bios verge on the gushing sometimes, but Rountree is a skilled interviewer and leads her subjects to relect honestly and often eloquently about the decade that Carolyn G. Heilbrun, who wrote the foreword to this volume, has called a ``gift.'' Their voices are distinctive--Matilda Cuomo speaks in the carefully framed sentences