Before I Forget: Love, Hope, Help, and Acceptance in Our Fight Against Alzheimer's by B. Smith & Dan Gasby

I bought this book to give to my stepmother, who is the caregiver for my dad, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. After receiving it in the mail, I decided to read it before giving it to her. I thought I might gain a better perspective of what she is going through and learn more about the disease. This book provided the details I was seeking, plus more. It was extremely informative and I found a lot of value in reading it. I hope my stepmother does too.

B. Smith was a model, singer and New York restaurant owner. She decided to go public with her early on-set (before age 65) Alzheimer's diagnosis. Dan Gasby is her husband of 22 years, and her caregiver. The book is split up into 10 Parts and B. Smith shares her thoughts as a preface to each Part. Dan expresses his frustrations, impatience, compassion, love and denial as they learn to live with Alzheimer's. He also explains the different theories on what causes Alzheimer's, how different drugs may or may not help and why, how genetics plays a role, how lifestyle also plays a role, the research that is currently going on to slow down the progression of the disease after it has been diagnosed, and even the steps being taken to stop the disease from ever developing in the first place.

The book alternates from Dan sharing their personal story of day-to-day life and all the trials and tribulations of understanding Alzheimer's and the different lives they are forced to lead because of it, and information regarding Alzheimer's itself, including how many people are affected by it, how challenging and expensive it is to complete drug trials, and how underfunded the research for Alzheimer's is compared to other diseases - even Ebola! (Which doesn't affect even a tiny fraction of people in the US compared to the growing number of people living with Alzheimer's).

Dan is open and honest about his feelings, and his shortcomings as a caregiver. He has also spent a lot of time and energy researching this disease, talking to doctors, understanding the options, planning for the future. B. Smith's voice also strengthened my understanding of how frustrating it must be to be told what to do each day, even as you know that someone needs to tell you what to do each day. I would recommend this book to all people who love someone who has this disease or is caring for someone with Alzheimer's.

Wendy's Rating: *****

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

So, I really don't get the title. The Age of Miracles.... Where exactly are the miracles in this book? This story was not at all what I thought it would be. It was sad, tragic, frightening and disturbing. Sickness, death, accidents, people turning against each other. Just not sure how it provides "solace", as one reviewer stated. Where was the hope? Even in the book of Revelations there is hope at the end of all the tragedy!

The narrator of the book is Julia, a lonely, basically friendless, 11/12 year old. She is an only child, so she doesn't even have a sibling to talk to. Her mom is sick; her dad is having an affair and lying to both of them about several different things. Hanna, her BFF at the beginning of the book, moves away, comes back and completely dismisses Julia as a friend. Julia ends up having a few happy months with Seth, who is sad because his mom died of cancer, but then Seth gets sick and moves away. Her grandfather puts all this effort into saving the four of them, and then dies from falling off a ladder, on her birthday nonetheless. Honestly. This is one depressing book! The birds die, the whales die, plant-life dies, people die from suicide pacts, some people are ostracized because they want to live on "real time" vs. "clock time".

Is this supposed to be a forewarning of things to come if we don't stop the ozone from depleting? Then why not just write a book about that? Instead, the world comes to an end as we know it because the earth slows down its rotation, but not its orbiting. Why?? If the author can come up with this unique dystopian idea, then maybe she can come up with a reason why! If the point is that there is no explainable reason, then I guess (for me) there needs to be a message of hope at the end. I need one or the other!

Since this book was so depressing, it won't be a leap for me to start my next book tonight, a non-fiction book on Alzheimer's.

Wendy's Rating: ***

After You by Jojo Moyes

Me Before You was my favorite book in 2015, and one of my favorites of all time. I wasn't sure I wanted to read about Louisa after Will's death. I am glad I did though. This book wasn't the "page-turner" that Me Before You was, and it didn't leave me bawling my eyes out at 3:00am, but it was appropriately good. 

Louisa drove me a little crazy at times - especially when she turned down the New York job! That was the most frustrating part of the story for me because I really, really wanted her to move on with her life and get out of the ridiculous work situation with Richard and that awful uniform!  It's not that I wanted her to leave Lily or Sam, but I kept waiting for her to do something - one thing! - for herself. I could not believe that she asked Richard for her job back either! I think I would have worked anywhere but there. I guess the point was, jobs were hard to come by, and Louisa needed to figure things out in her own time. Thank goodness she did!

This book was satisfying to me for a couple of reasons: Louisa found love again - and to a really good man - and she followed through with moving on with her life, despite her love for Sam. I would have been disappointed in Sam if he had tried to make her stay, or feel guilty for going. I would have been disappointed in Louisa if she decided to stay because of Sam and/or Lily. Louisa made the best possible decision for herself. 

I am glad that the author fleshed out Lily's story for us. I am glad there were reasons that Lily stole from her mother and Louisa. I didn't want her to be just a lying thief! I felt bad for her - one error in judgment really affected her life negatively. She really didn't have anyone that she trusted enough to share her story. I understood why she didn't tell Louisa, because it would have been humiliating, but I am really glad she did in the end.

Sam was awesome! I completely didn't predict the true connection between Sam and Jake. That was a twist that I didn't see coming. I thought maybe Jake was just lying about his father "shagging" everyone in sight and then crying about it. I mean, he was a teenager who had lost his mother. I was relieved by the truth though about Sam!

Will this be the end of the story for Louisa, Sam, Lily and company...? Who knows! The ending was satisfying to me (because I know that Louisa will come back for Sam after she has fulfilled her commitment to her new employer - as well as to Will and herself), so I would be fine either way!

Wendy's Rating: ****

Traction by Gino Wickman

If you own a business, or you are part of the leadership team of a business, this is a valuable book. At the company I work for, we sit in meeting after meeting rehashing the same old issues. We never seem to resolve anything because we are never on the same page. We can never come to an unanimous decision, so we table it until the following month - or months - or year. It gets frustrating, to say the least. What is encouraging to me personally is that the owner of my company wants each member of the leadership team to read this book - and he even bought us each a copy. So, I think he means business. ;) Now that I have read the book, I see that he is already starting to implement some of the suggestions in the book - and that is encouraging to me.

This book explains how to make sure the right person is in the right seat within the company; how to structure your company; how to grow your company - because if it's stagnant, it's dying; how to determine your core value and core focus - and then making sure that everyone on the leadership team agrees so that you are all working toward the same goals; how to eliminate the people on your leadership team if they are the wrong person in the wrong seat; how to hold each other accountable by setting measurable goals and then having to report back to the team on a regular basis.

I know a lot of people who think that meetings are a waste of time - and they probably are if you don't have any goals or direction. This book explains how to set a 10 year target, a 3 year target, a 1 year target, 90-day targets and the importance of weekly meetings. It encourages an all day off-site meeting every 90 days and weekly meetings (same time, same place every week). The greatest part of each meeting is discussing and solving issues. This book explains how to actually solve them, instead of rehashing them meeting after meeting.

This book inspired me to try these techniques on the group of coordinators who report to me. It's about taking control of your business - finding the traction to move it forward. This book is very readable and I actually kept picking this one up instead of the book I was reading for book club!

Wendy's Rating for a Business Book: *****