Still Alice by Lisa Genova

From Goodreads

A moving story of a woman with early onset Alzheimer's disease, now a major Academy Award-winning film starring Julianne Moore and Kristen Stewart.

Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty, she's a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a renowned expert in linguistics, with a successful husband and three grown children. When she begins to grow forgetful and disoriented, she dismisses it for as long as she can until a tragic diagnosis changes her life - and her relationship with her family and the world around her - for ever.

Unable to care for herself, Alice struggles to find meaning and purpose as her concept of self gradually slips away. But Alice is a remarkable woman, and her family learn more about her and each other in their quest to hold on to the Alice they know. Her memory hanging by a frayed thread, she is living in the moment, living for each day. But she is still Alice.

My thoughts

This was one of my local Library Reading Group reads.  Sadly, the book wasn't enjoyed as much by some of the group as much as I enjoyed it.

Telling the story of Alice Howland, a lady of 50 who's a very successful woman with a great career that is by no means over.  She's a lot going for her both professionally and personally.  She notices small changes to her life, she begins to grow a little forgetful and disoriented.  She thinks nothing of it really as many of us as we grow older can have similar experiences in our day to day life.  Sadly for Alice though, she is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease.  

This opens up a whole new dynamic to the family she has around her as they learn to cope with this newly diagnosed disease and the effects that it has on all of them.  

I enjoyed the read and feel for Alice, as I too at times have experienced periods of forgetfulness and I can fully appreciate what she was going through to some extent.  Alzheimer's is a cruel disease that takes away our loved ones as we knew them and leaves us getting to know them as they are now, a slightly different version to the person to the person that they once were.