Still Alice

Still Alice by Lisa Genova (ARC) ~~

Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer's disease. Fiercely independent, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live in the moment, even as her sense of self is being stripped away. In turns heartbreaking, inspiring and terrifying, Still Alice captures in remarkable detail what's it's like to literally lose your mind...

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up this book to read - certianly not for it to be one of my top five favorite books I've read this year. The story of Alice's diagnosis with early onset Alzheimer's, the struggle for her husband to accept it, the difficult choices her children face of getting tested for the gene, and how Alice handles herself during her "decline" is one that will move you to tears. While the book takes place over a realtively short period of time it is scary how fast the Alzheimer's takes over. You'll find it hard to put down as you walk with Alice through the ways in which she copes with her disease to the heartbreaking moment when she realizes that she has to give up her beloved job of teaching to the hatred you'll feel for her husband, yet understanding his feelings all at the same time. This book left me wanting to hug Alice and her family - and never let them go! A+++++++++