This was an interesting read and I learned some new things. It felt a bit repetitive, but overall I enjoyed it.

An incredibly accessible account of how memories are formed, retained and modified. I didn’t really learn anything new, but now I remember it better. Personal detail add highlights to the book. If you want to learn more on how we remember and why we forget, read this. It’s an easy, I formative and delightful read, highly recommended!

This is a fascinating book on memory. Why do we remember certain things yet forget others? Is there a benefit to forgetting? Spoiler, yes there is. Forgetting plays an important part of memory, we do not need to remember every mundane detail of our lives. Things like were you parked yesterday can interfere with remembering where you parked today.
I love how accessible this book is. While it deals with the complicated topic of memory, and does so beautifully, it still uses language that is understandable as well as relatable anecdotes. As it is a shorter book it does not deal with all the variations of memory. I would love more on other memory failures than Alzheimer's, even though this is the big scary one for most of us. There's a combination of learning and some self help style tips in this book and I enjoyed both even though self help is not usually my thing. There are some important reminders for helping our memories. Namely, get enough sleep and exercise. No, seriously, the 7-9 hours of sleep a day really is vital to our well being. Another trick is to remember things in a similar mindset or location that you learnt them. Have caffeine while studying? Have some when taking the test as well. Calm while learning something but anxious while testing makes retrieval of information harder.
The biggest part of this book though is the importance of paying attention. If you aren't paying active attention to something you wont create the memory for it. Also to self test past the point of mastery. Repetition and muscle memory are great for creating those long term automatic memories.
Super interesting is how memory retrieval works and how each time we remember a memory we store a new version of it. Every time you think of a past event you modify it a little and that modified version is the one that is stored back in your memory. This means so much of our detailed favourite shared memories aren't as factual as we believe. Memory is fallible, it gets modified both by us and by things around us and other peoples accounts of events.

I recommend this one to anyone looking for an easy to understand look into memory.

Some science, some self-help. Not bad.

"It is through the erosion of memory that time heals all wounds"

I'd have preferred a bit less science and a bit more art. But it was reassuring to learn many of my forgetting episodes, like names, words, why I went into a room etc. are normal and not symptoms of imminent dementia or Alzheimer's. The author (a neuroscientist) is obviously an expert on her subject and her advice on how to adopt a lifestyle that helps minimise the possibility of Alzheimer's, through diet, exercise, getting enough sleep and learning better ways to manage stress was invaluable.

Highly recommend! So incredibly fascinating!

Who among us hasn’t felt panic when we couldn’t find our car in the parking lot? Grappled with remembering why we walked into a room? Struggled to recall where we left our car keys? And these challenges only worsen, feeling more significant and worrisome as we get older.

The gift in this book, Lisa Genova’s first nonfiction endeavor, is how incredibly reassured we feel as the neuroscientist-turned-novelist brings us all of the most current research on memory. Turns out forgetfulness is how our brain is designed—that a healthy brain is in fact, designed to forget most of its experience. Genova is a storyteller, weaving herself and colorful anecdotes in to the narrative even while giving us the facts, and this is a compelling and quick read.

We learn how memories are made, stored, altered and retrieved. We learn what affects memory (spoiler alert: all the important stuff—Sleep, diet, stress, exercise), how we can protect our memories, and strategies we can use to make it stronger (I was thrilled to discover I already do some of them. LOL I need all the help I can get!)