This was a very hard book to read, not in that it was difficult to read but rather that the impact of the book was very hard to take. If you've read "Flowers for Algernon" and remember Algernon at the peak of his intelligence realizing that it's all slipping away, and watching his slow decline -- this book reminded me of that. It starts as Alice Howland, a brilliant 50-year-old cognitive psychology professor at Harvard, notices she's experiencing some odd lapses in memory. She is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease, and the book follows the slow decline of her memory as well as the efforts of herself and her family to come to grips with the diagnosis and try to fight a disease for which there really is no way to fight back.

It's an insightful, painful, frightening read and does an excellent job of portraying how the disease affects Alice's memory over time. At what point does she stop being Alice? She wonders to herself: "Is the part of my brain that's responsible for my unique 'me-ness' vulnerable to this disease? Or is my identity something that transcends neurons, proteins, and defective molecules of DNA? Is my soul and spirit immune to the ravages of Alzheimer's?"

This is not an easy read, especially if you've ever seen this disease affecting a loved one. But it's very thought provoking and compassionately written, by an author who clearly knows the subject inside and out.