Brainy fiction

Sometime ago I was made aware of a self-published book by Lisa Genova entitled "Still Alice." I purchased a copy and passed it around amongst my sisters and book club friends. The author lets Alice, through her point of view, tell her story as she begins the mental descent that comes with a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's disease. It is chilling and most realistic and I felt it gave me an idea of what my mother went through during the 8 years of her final life journey that was Alzheimer's.

Fictional Alice is a professor at Harvard University. Author Lisa Genova is a Harvard-trained Neuroscientist. This training gives her description of Alice's story an authenticity as well as practical, helpful information for the reader. Mesmerizing!

"Still Alice" was eventually picked up by Simon & Schuster and remained on the New York Times best seller list for months. Genova's second novel, "Left Neglected" has been on the Times list since being released in early January.

Once again Sarah Nickerson, as the main character, tells her story. Sarah is also Harvard educated in business and lives a very busy life as a vice-president of human resources at a major company, a wife, and a mother of three small children who have a nanny. She lives in a tony suburb of Boston and is constantly multi-tasking as she tries to do and be it "all." While on the telephone on the way to work she rolls her car which leaves her with a brain injury.

She is diagnosed as "left neglected." She thinks she sees and feels the whole picture, but her right side is all that is actually real. She can't find her left hand, finish the picture on the left side, read the whole page, or see someone standing on her left. Her life will never be the same.

As the book works its way through a year of her slowed down life, Sarah discovers that perhaps she has left neglected the things in life that are most important and worthy of her time.

The book is informational, a general wake-up call, and inspirational as we join Sarah on her journey through a recovery that is not total physically but is perhaps more than 100% emotionally.

Note: I find it interesting that this book was released to the public just one week before the shootings in Tucson and the resultant brain injury suffered by Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords. It opened my eyes to the rehab which Gabby may be experiencing in Houston.