Trim, Trim, Trim Challenge: Update 11

Still plugging away. I’ve had a headful of snot crowding the language lobe in my brain. So, I’ve been a little slow. However, I am pleased to mention that I am now down to 94, 533 words. That’s over 10,000 words I will likely never miss cut and released into the great world of binaries.

Separate note: Crispy Minis are no longer my friend. My daughter is trying to eat through a stack of 4 or 5. Imagine the crumbs. Then imagine some more. See how wide spread they are? Yes, it is amazing. Please note that I have no aspirations of attaining Domestic Goddess status. Now, imagine those crumbs again. Imagine my pain. Now, imagine the cooling relief of owning a Dustbuster and teaching a youngster how to use it.

Book Review: Still Alice

Book Review: Still Alice
By: Lisa Genova

Alice is a Harvard professor of cognitive psychology. She has just turned 50 and been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. While smart enough to find ways to hide her diminishing memory skills, she eventually finds she has to reveal her secret, causing her trusted colleagues to treat her differently and slowly, lose everything she has worked so hard for.

Unable to deal with the idea of losing everything that makes her ‘Alice’, she creates a system that will help her keep an eye on herself. When she is no longer Alice, she has a plan that will help her pull the plug. But will she remember?

An interesting thing happened to me as I read this book. I began to feel almost as though I was the one with Alzheimer’s. No, I wasn’t forgetting things, but if I had just put down the book, my actions would be very conscious, almost as though I was keeping tabs on my own memory abilities. I was being Alice. For example, after reading the part where Alice’s husband, John, wrote a note in big, black letters on their fridge ‘Alice, don’t go running without me’, I put down the book and headed to the grocery store. But before I opened the back door, I paused. Was I allowed to go to the grocery store alone? That’s how deeply this story affected me. That’s how deep I crawled inside.

Shop Indie Bookstores