Over 55 million people are living with Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related illnesses. That means many of us are personally impacted by this disease and deserve support. Below, you’ll find a collection of books exploring this topic.
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And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman
This is a beautiful short story about the power of the mind and what happens when it loses control. The story takes place inside the mind of a grandfather struggling with dementia and desperately trying to hold on. It’s also the story of his son and grandson trying to grapple with his new reality and how to best support him. Anyone who has ever been close to Alzheimer’s or dementia will feel seen inside this book and others cannot help but walk away with a newfound understanding, appreciation and awe for anyone who does.
What We Carry: A Memoir by Maya Shanbhag Lang
This book was a beautifully written, highly addictive avalanche of emotions from cover to cover. I came into this book expecting to gain insight into Maya’s life and relationship with her mother, hopeful that I could learn from her stories to better write my own. Instead, I gained an insight into my own life, my own expectations, my own relationships, my own sense of motherhood and mothering. I laughed, I cried and I cried some more as Maya seemed to speak directly to me, leaving me with lessons on the page that I could not escape. This book has forever changed how I view myself, my mother, motherhood and the tangled bonds woven between each.
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Fiercely independent, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live in the moment, even as her sense of self is being stripped away. In turns heartbreaking, inspiring and terrifying, Still Alice captures in remarkable detail what’s it’s like to literally lose your mind…
The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
Anna Forster, in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease at only thirty-eight years old, knows that her family is doing what they believe to be best when they take her to Rosalind House, an assisted living facility. She also knows there’s just one other resident her age, Luke. What she does not expect is the love that blossoms between her and Luke even as she resists her new life at Rosalind House. As her disease steals more and more of her memory, Anna fights to hold on to what she knows, including her relationship with Luke.
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
Goodbye, Vitamin is the wry, beautifully observed story of a woman at a crossroads, as Ruth and her friends attempt to shore up her father’s career; she and her mother obsess over the ambiguous health benefits – in the absence of a cure – of dried jellyfish supplements and vitamin pills; and they all try to forge a new relationship with the brilliant, childlike, irascible man her father has become.
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
The swimmers are unknown to each other except through their private routines (slow lane, fast lane), and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief. One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. For Alice, the pool was a final stand against the darkness of her encroaching dementia. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps she is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese internment camp in which she spent the war.
The Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristin Harmel
At thirty-six, Hope McKenna-Smith is no stranger to bad news. She lost her mother to cancer, her husband left her, and her bank account is nearly depleted. Her own dreams of becoming a lawyer long gone, she’s running a failing family bakery on Cape Cod and raising a troubled preteen.
Now, Hope’s beloved French-born grandmother Mamie is drifting away in a haze of Alzheimer’s. But in a rare moment of clarity, Mamie realizes that unless she tells Hope about the past, the secrets she has held on to for so many years will soon be lost forever. Tantalizingly, she reveals mysterious snippets of a tragic history in WWII Paris. Armed with a scrawled list of names, Hope heads to France to uncover a seventy-year-old mystery.
The Last Love Note by Emma Grey
This book started off uproariously funny, took a serious turn and tugged at the heart strings on every page. Kate just lost her husband to early-onset Alzheimer’s and is struggling to find her way with her young son. Navigating between loss and grief, hope and possibility, Kate’s conflicted on what her future holds. When a business trip turns into a weekend away with her boss, Hugh, Kate finally processes her grief and starts to make plans to heal herself. There on the beach, secrets are revealed, feelings are uncovered and unexpected plans are made. This book had me at hello with an unexpected grenade, neighbor-watching and a trip off the treadmill. But it kept me reading with its relatable characters and the emotional journey they took me on….and sticky notes.
These book lists are continually evolving and growing. Check back frequently for new additions!
