Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Synopsis: Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty years old, she’s a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned expert in linguistics with a successful husband and three grown children. When she becomes increasingly disoriented and forgetful, a tragic diagnosis changes her life--and her relationship with her family and the world--forever.

At once beautiful and terrifying, Still Alice is a moving and vivid depiction of life with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease that is as compelling as A Beautiful Mind and as unforgettable as Judith Guest's Ordinary People.

Thoughts: This book really blew me away. The journey of Alice and her family as they deal with her diagnosis and her ever-changing symptoms is heartbreaking.  We get a lot of insight into things from Alice's point of view as the disease progresses. As a woman in her fifties who has Alzheimer's in her family history, I can relate to this story on several levels.

I can't wait to see the movie, which I hope will truly do this story justice.

My ratings: Five stars

Blue Hydrangeas: An Alzheimer's Love Story, by Marianne Sciucco

Synopsis: What if the person who knew you best and loved you most forgot your face, and couldn't remember your name? A nursing facility is everyone's solution for what to do about Sara, but her husband, Jack, can't bear to live without her. He is committed to saving his marriage, his wife, and their life together from the devastation of Alzheimer’s disease. He and Sara retired years ago to the house of their dreams, and operated it as a Cape Cod bed and breakfast named Blue Hydrangeas. Jack has made an impossible promise: He and Sara will stay together in their beautiful home no matter what the disease brings. However, after nine years of selfless caregiving, complicated by her progressing Alzheimer’s and his own failing heart, he finally admits he can no longer care for her at home. With reluctance, he arranges to admit her to an assisted living facility. But, on the day of admission, Sara is having one of her few good days, and he is unable to follow through. Instead, he takes them on an impulsive journey to confront their past and reclaim their future. In the end, he realizes that staying together at any cost is what truly matters.

Thoughts: **I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

This is a beautiful, heart-breaking love story. It's the story of an older couple and their journey dealing with the wife's Alzeheimer's over a decade. There is humor, sadness, and so much love. It's so well written that you lose yourself in it and forget that it is a work of fiction. 

I would highly recommend this for anyone of my age group who has begun to have trouble relating to the romantic stories of twenty-somethings. This is what love looks like for those of us of "a certain age." 
My rating: Five stars