Heather's books

Sarah's Key
Room
Rainwater
The Help
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Lightning Thief
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The Notebook
Eat, Pray, Love
The Time Traveler's Wife
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone


Heather's favorite books »

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

STILL ALICE by Lisa Geneva


Title: Still Alice
Author: Lisa Genova
Genre: Women Fiction
# Pages: 272
ED: Hardcover
STARS: 4 out of 5


Why I read: My TBR pal, May, picked it for me to read J
Time it took me to read: 6 days
Website: www.lisagen0va.com

Summary: This novel is narrated by a 50 year old Harvard professor who gets diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. It details the next year and a half of her and her families struggle with the new reality of the deterioration of the disease.

Review:  This book was a very well written novel and although scary at how quickly in can deteriorate in such a young adult; it is a very powerful novel.  Also, it makes it a very appreciated book that the author leads an Alzheimer’s online column. She knows what she is taking about and not just making it up. In the back of the book there is an interview of the author and she states that the individuals that have read the book were overwhelming positive too.


SPOILER ALERT

She is a courageous women and I love that she fights and creates her own support group when none is to be found. It irritates me how her husband and eldest daughter seem very selfish in the book especially at the beginning, but it all makes a better story. I do enjoy when a story can evoke feelings, very not so good ones, throughout. It shows an emotional bonding to the story and characters.

Alice struggles so much because she is known as a prestigious professor at Harvard, a grand lecturer and a very intelligent woman.  She constantly tests herself and is hard on herself as she struggles to lose her herself.

As the story continued, the husband became more understanding and supportive, although not entirely, but I began to see his side of things. He stayed with the love of his life, but wanted/needed a life of his own too. Who can’t understand that?

The only reason I did not give it a 5 star rating is because I am very much into novels with multiple storylines and this one simple had one although it did show her own struggles and that of her family’s with the disease.


I look forward to reading Lisa Geneva’s next book, Left Neglected.


No comments:

Post a Comment