Still Alice in Crazy Challenge Connection

Apr 26, 2013 Book Concierge rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: concierge, strong-women, women-writers, library, psychology, favorite, own, literary-fiction, love, contemporary-fiction

Book on CD read by the author.
5***** and a ❤

Alice Howland, Ph.D., professor of Psychology and Linguistics at Harvard University, wife and mother, begins to notice that she is forgetting things. No, not just where she put her keys, but words and thoughts and directions. Still, when she’s diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease she is stunned.

The brilliance of Genova’s book is that she writes from Alice’s perspective. The reader experiences the slow decline as one daily function after anot Book on CD read by the author.
5***** and a ❤

Alice Howland, Ph.D., professor of Psychology and Linguistics at Harvard University, wife and mother, begins to notice that she is forgetting things. No, not just where she put her keys, but words and thoughts and directions. Still, when she’s diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease she is stunned.

The brilliance of Genova’s book is that she writes from Alice’s perspective. The reader experiences the slow decline as one daily function after another becomes challenging, difficult and even impossible to perform. The last third of the book is particularly poignant.

I had a very hard time with this book. My mother is in the final stages of this terrible disease. She is no longer mobile. She cannot speak and does not recognize any of her family or friends. She is just a physical shell of a person, the woman she was either locked away or perhaps completely lost to us and to herself.

Several years ago my brothers and I arranged a celebration for our parents’ 60th wedding anniversary at the assisted living facility where they then lived. Mother was still mobile and speaking (though not making much sense). She enjoyed the music and the food and the celebration. Several of her long-time friends came. One, Maria, approached me when she arrived and asked if my mother still recognized me. I said yes – but I realized suddenly that this was the first visit where she had failed to call me by the pet name she’d always used for me. Just before Maria left the party, she came up to me again and said, “Your mother recognizes love.” I took a wonderful picture of Maria and my mother at that gathering, and last year when Maria published her memoir she included that photo in her book along with several pages describing what my Mother meant to her and other young women in the community. Yes, my mother recognizes love, and I am especially glad that so many other people recognize HER love for them.

One final word about the audio version of this book. Had I been rating this based on the audio performance I would have given it only 3-stars. How I wish a professional voice-over artist had been hired to do the reading! Genova clearly believes strongly in the work and the message, but she reads with the same inflection throughout. So it is difficult to follow conversations at times because the listener cannot effectively tell which character is speaking. This is especially true early in the book when Alice isn’t so severely impaired, and her use of language matches the other speakers.

UPDATE 12Aug13
Reread this book in one day, in preparation for my F2F book club meeting. I got as much if not more out of it on this second reading. ...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Bucket rated it really liked it

Shelves: life-and-death, identity, women, reviewed, tragedy, science, psychology, literary, unreliable-narrator, language

My cousin recommended this book to me as our 61-year-old aunt has early-onset Alzheimer's. For me, it was so helpful (and frightening) to experience the perspective of Alice herself, the one actually experiencing the disease. I agree with Genova that having this perspective was worth the sacrifice of the thoughts and feelings of Alice's family, as well as the lack of clarity towards the end when Alice's condition has very much deteriorated.

The book confirms what I suspected, that a person with ...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Carol rated it really liked it

Shelves: alzheimers

I have put off reading this book because my mother-in-law (Alice) has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's three years ago and it is challenging to say the least. I thought that the writing is true to what a person goes through with Alzheimer's. It is a long process and this book is true to how this illness affects your loved one and everyone in your family. Thank God we have a very large family and everyone contributed until the wandering and incontinence started. And now we have 24 hour care. 2002 ...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Stacy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: five-stars, favorites, read-in-2014

This was an amazing book--one that I'll be thinking about for months to come. ...more

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Jan 18, 2015 Angie H rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, favorites, goodreads-first-reads

It is hard to say I "enjoyed" this book as it was pretty frightening and depressing to read about, but I definitely thought it was a fantastic and engaging read.
Why the 5 star " it was amazing" rating? Well first of all this book is well researched, easy to read and follow what is going on even with the scientific/medical terminology. The characters are great and the story and progression of the disease is well developed. Second this is the first time I've ever read a book taken from the point ...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Melissa (ladybug) rated it liked it

I sat down to read this book and could literally not put it down. It was emotional and moving and thought provoking. I had an Aunt who went through early onset Alzheimers. It does run in her family. Her sister had it, her mother had it, and more... This book reminded me of what she and my Uncle went through. My Uncle had tried to see if he could have her live her life (when it got bad) in a nursing home. The state said (because he couldn't afford it) that he would have to divorce her and sell th ...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Rusty rated it it was amazing

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

Loved the detail in this read. Alice's story touches one to the depths of the heart. I admire this author's book as it is so challenging to write about a condition that one has not experienced for one's self. Having encountered many who have had alzheimer's disease the author helped me understand the fears, the incidents that trouble both caretakers and the individual who lives through them, and how life changes for all of those involved. Furthermore, this story helps me understand a 99-year-old ...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Rachel rated it really liked it

Absolutely incredible book - read it in 2 days. A must read for anyone that either works with or has personal experience with individuals with memory loss or dementia. Highly recommend.

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May 09, 2015 Juliette rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2015

Simply, wow. This is an amazing and emotional book.

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Dec 22, 2011 Kayla rated it liked it

Shelves: x-2013

Wow! This book was a little hard for me to get into but at the same time Wow! I didn't cry until the very end where Alice had lost most of her memory. It breaks my heart thinking that so many people live day to day with out knowing what their past was filled of. I can't imagine not knowing when I met my husband, got married, and had children. I pray for all who are affected by this horrible disease. ...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Kim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star, new-england, audio, 1000books, alzheimer-autism

4.5 stars - I really enjoyed the story line and the writing, but this is one book where listening to the audio version detracted from my enjoyment somewhat.

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