Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Still Alice

Alice is 50 and is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. 

The book was written by Lisa Genova, who has worked with Alzheimer's patients, and there is a lot of information throughout the book. In fact, if you or a loved one were diagnosed with Alzheimer's, this would be a good informative book to read, and I'm sure that was the author's plan when writing the book. There is a lot of information in fiction form without it being a textbook.

I related to Alice, a Harvard lecturer and mother of grown children. I felt I knew her from page one. Her life was full and the diagnosis was sudden, and then while reading the book we are treated to an increase in the symptoms of the disease. 

I felt so sorry for her when she went out for her usual jog and got lost on her way home, or when she couldn't find her blackberry and another family member found it in the freezer. We are invited in to the life of the family, which isn't a picture perfect family as in other books, but real with its own family tensions outside of Alice's diagnosis. 

I loved the character of Alice and her stubbornness to fight the illness, and although it was a sad book, enjoyed the book too.

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