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!)

This is a quick and easy read about memory, how it’s formed, how to keep it and how to potentially lose it. Lisa Genova introduces the different types of memories such as motor, semantic and episodic, which part of the brain is employed for each of these and how we can manifest them. Interestingly, our semantic memories - essentially our story - is never really accurate but only one viewpoint. Genova details the distinction between normal forgetfulness, often due to our lack of attention, and the onset of Alzheimer’s or other dementia; and most importantly lists several actions we can all take to minimize the risk and/or delay the onset of these diseases.
I appreciate the directness of the writing style, but found it at times slightly repetitive. Nevertheless, I recommend it for a first dive into the subject.

Remember is Lisa Genova’s first nonfiction book, and it attempts to make the science of memory accessible to the lay person. For providing another tool in the arsenal to help someone, I applaud the book. For providing an approachable yet scientifically based text, I applaud the book. For its almost too casual tone, I question the book. Yet, this is one I think I may reread occasionally such that I can remember its lessons.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2021/12/remember.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

Delivers clear and absorbable facts about memory and forgetting, busting myths and fears about memory and aging

Another excellent book to shelf for 2021! Lisa Genova writes about the brain and makes it entertaining, all while sprinkling in research to support her ideas. She does not claim to be an expert and as a result, she goes directly to recent scholarship and studies to support her ideas. This book is an excellent emulator on how non-fiction and personal development books should be written.

This book shines in many ways because of it accessibility to people that may not have strong scientific literacy. This last statement is not meant to be a punch to the heart; as an educator myself that does not teach the sciences, I would consider myself somewhat weak on scientific terminology. My strengths are understanding education and the art of teaching, because this is my professional field. What is amazing is that Genova considers her readers' understanding based on how she wrote this book. Its accessibility is excellent.

Genova's writing style is not pompous or stuffed with low-frequency vocabulary that makes some books read with medical jargon. Lisa Genova approaches this topic of memory like a teacher and uses examples, research, and explanations to make everything clear for regular citizens that are not neuroscientists. Although I think a medical doctor could likely benefit from this book (because there are light jabs on pharmaceutical companies and a mammoth recommendation to sleep more), this book is easily accessible to all professions and would likely benefit readers in both their professional and personal lives.

The only downside for this book that I have is that it was not the best I read in 2021 and that I wish I read it sooner! This is an excellent book that I would put next to Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep because these are life altering books. I found a lot of life alteration in this book. It is likely that you will find at least one nugget of gold in here as well.

Hats off to Genova! Her dedication to finish this book, and the time she used from her life to curate research to make a very complex topic easily digestible to citizenry are commendable feats.

The easiest way to describe this book is a layperson’s guide to the brain and memory. It was clear and concise. It answers much any of us with an aging brain are concerned about. It explains much to those of us with loved ones who have a form of dementia. It quite simply is excellent.