Still Alice, In Defense of Food

Some of my favorite books are ones friends have recommended, so I'm excited that many staff members have shown interest in a book-sharing blog!

I don't often give myself time to read, and all too often I fall asleep when I do sit down with a book. So I'm a big fan of audio books,which allow me to read while quilting, walking on the treadmill, or driving to the grocery store. (I thought about listening in the grocery store until I read Why We Make Mistakes, and I re-considered...)

Let me start off by sharing a couple of books that I've enjoyed recently:

Still Alice by Lisa Genova, 2009.
By all outward appearances, Harvard professor Alice Howland shares a storybook life with her successful husband and three grown children. But a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease at age 50 confirms Alice's fear that episodes of confusion are more than mere "senior moments." Alice must re-evaluate her self image and learn to live in the moment as her world changes in this moving novel.

Lisa Genova holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard and writes a column for the National Alzheimer's Association. Still Alice is available in print and on CD at the Shrewsbury Public Library.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan, 2008.
The author of The Omnivore's Dilemma takes a fresh look at how the Western diet and a nutrient-by-nutrient approach to eating have replaced the traditional foods our ancestors ate, and how our health has suffered because of it. His advice? "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." It's enough to make me think twice before ordering at the drive-through or reaching for the processed "edible foodlike substances" that fill our supermarket shelves. :-)

Pollan is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine. Newsweek named him one of the top ten New Thought Leaders of this decade. In Defense of Food is available in print at the SPL and on CD through inter-library loan.