Still Alice

Still Alice - Lisa Genova

From Amazon: "Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she's a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease changes her life.

As the inevitable descent into dementia strips away her sense of self, fiercely independent Alice struggles to live in the moment. While she once placed her worth and identity in her celebrated and respected academic life, now she must reevaluate her relationship with her husband, a respected scientist; her expectations of her children; and her ideas about herself and her place in the world. At once beautiful and terrifying, Still Alice is a moving and vivid depiction of life with early-onset Alzheimer's disease that is as compelling as A Beautiful Mind and as unforgettable as Ordinary People."

This book was tragic, at times hard to read, yet impossible to put down. I'm glad I read it, even though I wasn't in a great mood while reading it. It reminded me so much of Nana, and really gave me a better idea of what she must have been feeling like, and dealing with. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who knows someone who is dealing with or dealt with this tragic disease.


I almost wish that I had read this book earlier, so that I could understand Nana's need for "home" and her weird gaps in memory a bit better. I really hope that neither of my parents (or anyone I know, for that matter) develops Alzheimer's or dementia, or whatever Nana had.