Still Alice by Lisa Genova

She didn't want to become someone people avoided and feared. She wanted to live to hold Anna's baby and know it was her grandchild. She wanted to see Lydia act in something she was proud of. She wanted to see Tom fall in love. She wanted to read every book she could before she could no longer read.
Alice Howland is proud of the life she has worked so hard to build. A Harvard professor, she has a successful husband and three grown children. When Alice begins to grow forgetful at first she just dismisses it, but when she gets lost in her own neighborhood she realizes that something is terribly wrong. Alice finds herself in the rapid downward spiral of Alzheimer's disease. She is only 50 years old.
While Alice once placed her worth and identity in her celebrated and respected academic life, now she must re-evaluate her relationship with her husband, her expectations of her children and her ideas about herself and her place in the world.
Losing her yesterdays, her short-term memory hanging on by a couple of frayed threads, she is living in the moment, living for each day. But she is still Alice.
Still Alice is as compelling as A Beautiful Mind and as powerful as Ordinary People. You will gain an understanding of those affected by early-onset Alzheimer's and remain moved and inspired long after you have put it down.  (Summary from goodreads.com)

Read from March 24 to 25, 2010


My Review: 5 STARS
Still Alice by Lisa Genova is the story of Alice Howland. Alice is a brilliant psychology professor at Harvard, wife and mother of three grown children who has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease at the age of 50. I am not going to lie this story is absolutely heartbreaking and I had a hard time reading it through all of my tears. I don't think I have ever in my life cried so much while reading a book! This is the story of Alice's downward spiral into this devastating disease, she is stripped of her career, memories and her sense of self. Still Alice is so heartbreaking but at the same time so beautifully written that I found myself physically unable to set the book down. This story will stay with me for a long time.

Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks

Message in a Bottle launches a remarkable woman on a mysterious voyage of self-discovery and renewal when she finds a deeply-felt love letter hidden in a bottle, a letter that reawakens her belief that star-crossed lovers will find each other across time and space.
(Summary from goodreads.com)

My review: 3 STARS
Almost gave up on this one half-way through. I am glad that I decided to keep reading though because it actually turned out to be pretty good. This is my third Nicholas Sparks novel and my overall impression so far is that his writing is full of emotional pull but is lacking in any real substance. I would recommend his books for a nice beach read or to take with you on vacation.

These is my Words by Nancy E. Turner

Inspired by the true story of the author's pioneering great-grandmother, this mesmerizing saga tells of the emotional, intellectual, and romantic awakening of a spirited young woman of the late 19th century in the American West.

My Review: 5 STARS
These is my Words "The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901" is seriously one of the BEST books I have read in a long time!! I cannot stop thinking about it...the story and the characters really draw you in and I actually feel like I have been living in the late 1800's along with Sarah Prine and her family. This is hands down the best love story I have read (this is not a cheesy romance novel either it is a real love story.) These is my Words is full of excitement, adventure, love, romance, I laughed and I cried and will soon be reading the next novels in the series. Thank you Nancy E. Turner! Do yourself a favor and read this book!

The Summoning (Darkest Powers #1) by Kelley Armstrong

Summary:After years of frequent moves following her mother’s death, Chloe Saunders’s life is finally settling down. She is attending art school, pursuing her dreams of becoming a director, making friends, meeting boys. Her biggest concern is that she’s not developing as fast as her friends are. But when puberty does hit, it brings more than hormone surges. Chloe starts seeing ghosts–everywhere, demanding her attention. After she suffers a breakdown, her devoted aunt Lauren gets her into a highly recommended group home.
At first, Lyle House seems a pretty okay place, except for Chloe’s small problem of fearing she might be facing a lifetime of mental illness. But as she gradually gets to know the other kids at the home–charming Simon and his ominous, unsmiling brother Derek, obnoxious Tori, and Rae, who has a “thing” for fire–Chloe begins to realize that there is something that binds them all together, and it isn’t your usual “problem kid” behaviour. And together they discover that Lyle House is not your usual group home either…
(Summary from book jacket)
 
My review: 2 STARS

This book was just not captivating. You would think a book about a girl who was able to summon the dead would be a at least a little bit exciting or thrilling but it wasn't at all. I am very surprised at how many reviewers seem to have liked this book. All I could think about while reading this book was that I was wasting precious time that I could be spending to read a different book! I will not be picking up the next book in the series.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan 

Summary:

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.But, slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future - between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

(summary from book cover)

 
My Review: 5 stars
Yes I just gave 5 stars to a book about zombies of all things! I must say though that this book really is about so much more than just the walking dead.
Mary has never known anything other than living in a small village enclosed by fences to keep out the unconsecrated that live in the Forest of Hands and Teeth. She has been raised to believe that there is nothing more....that there is no life beyond the fences.
The Forrest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan is an engaging, dark, scary, elegantly written novel. It is not just the story of the moaning, shuffling, walking dead it is a story of hopes and dreams and thinking outside of the box (literally). This is a story about finding your own truths not just accepting the way things have always been.
I am eagerly awaiting the follow-up novel The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan!