REVIEW: Almost Home by Pam Jenoff

As a State Department intelligence officer, Jordan Weiss' job has taken her to dangerous locations all around the world. However, one place she's refused to return to is England and the memories of Cambridge a decade earlier. When her dear friend Sarah, in the final stages of Lou Gehrig's disease, needs her in London, she decides to go be by her side. She requests and receives a transfer to London so she can be with her friend in her time of need, unaware that this new assignment may be one of the most dangerous yet.

Soon after her arrival an old friend, Chris, contacts her. He has some lingering doubts about what happened in Cambridge ten years previously, resulting in the death of Jordan's boyfriend, Jared. Chris convinces Jordan to return to Cambridge where they soon have more questions than answers as they quickly discover Jared's death wasn't the drowning accident they'd been led to believe.

Suspense and intrigue abound as Jordan searches for answers in Pam Jenoff's third novel (after The Kommandant's Girl and The Diplomat's Wife). The novel is full of twists and turns as Jordan comes closer to the truth. Jenoff deftly combines Jordan's story of 10 years ago with the present day in such a way that it will keep the reader glued to the pages as the mystery unravels. I am off to pluck her other two books off my TBR pile; I think I have discovered a new auto-buy author. Highly recommended.

REVIEW: Still Alice by Lisa Genova

I wasn't quite sure how I'd react to reading a novel about Alzheimer's disease. Having a mother who is 89 and suffering from dementia, it might come too close to home. But the rave reviews convinced me to read this. And I am so glad I did.

As a highly-respected cognitive psychology professor at Harvard, Alice Howland deals with the mind and memory all the time and is a much sought after speaker at conferences throughout the world. Her only worries seem to be how she is going to fit everything into her busy day and her younger daughter who seems dedicated to going to acting school instead of college.

When she becomes disoriented one day in an area that should have been very familiar to her, has word finding problems, and a missed period, at age 50, she naturally assumes she must be menopausal and makes an appointment with her doctor for a checkup. However it isn't long before her physician figures her problems may be much more severe. She is referred to a specialist who, after a series of tests, eventually diagnoses her with the devastating diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's dementia. Alice is stunned. How could this be happening to her? She ends up eventually telling her husband and then her children. At first Alice goes about her life as usual, continuing to give her lectures and other daily activities. It isn't long though before she discovers that the disease has taken over and her life will never be the same.

is an amazing novel by first-time author Lisa Genova who has a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard and is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer's Association. Along with the book, The 36-Hour Day, this should be required reading for anyone caring for an Alzheimer's patient or even knowing someone tragically struck with this disease. Genova explains Alzheimer's in a way that is easy to understand and shows it so vividly in the character of Alice. I couldn't put this book down and am recommending it to everyone I know, whether or not they have been personally affected by Alzheimer's.