At The Edge of the Orchard, by Tracy Chevalier

 One more book that I read on my own. I wanted an audiobook for traveling to and fro in my car. At The Edge of the Orchard is in the "historical fiction" genre, and the reason I chose it is because it deals with the drive westward in the early to mid 1800s by white immigrants. I wanted to see how the author would deal with the topic of indigenous populations. Though there were minimal references to "Indians" in this book, there was one significant instance where an indigenous woman was portrayed in a human, respectful manner -- which I appreciated. 

I give this book a thumb's up for the quality of writing, and it held my interest. I felt invested in the characters and the story.

Topics include early immigration and what "pioneers" dealt with. There's even a mention of a man I learned about in elementary school - Johnny Appleseed. In 1838 in Ohio, pioneers were required to plant 50 apple trees, which exhibited their intention to stay put on the land on which they claimed.  

There was a lot about family (some good, some really bad), what constitutes family, and what we do for family. There were characters I loved, and characters I hated (the kind of hate that a good writer wants you to feel). I laughed many times, and other parts, I felt the sadness of this story of one family in mid-1800s America. This was an all around good read. Five stars! (5/5)

Remember: The Science of Memory & The Art of Forgetting, by Lisa Genova (author of Still Alice)

 This is another book that I read without "L." I read faster, also, I enjoy a good nonfiction read now & then, but "L" prefers fiction. 

This book was on the "Just Out" shelf of my library, and since I liked the movie, Still Alice, with Julianne Moore, I checked it out. The fact that it has a lot to say, without being a doorstopper (300-350+ pages), appealed to me. 

The takeaways:

- Alzheimer's is an insidious disease, but just because we forget more as we age is not a reason to freak. Forgetting is not only natural, it's also desirable in many cases. For example, if we're on vacation, and we stay in 3 different hotels, it is good to "forget" our room number of Hotel 1 when we're in the elevator of Hotel 2 or 3. 

- Memories are made by the hippocampus -- no, that's not a zoo only for hippos, it's part of your brain! Google "Patient H.M" + "hippocampus" and you'll learn of the man whose hippocampus was surgically removed as a way to remedy his epilepsy, only to render him unable to form new memories. Living life in this moment only, unable to recall a conversation 5 minutes ago, that's the life H.M. lived after the surgery. He was famously studied the rest of his life as you can imagine. 

- What Alzheimer's is: The protein - amyloid - builds plaque in our brains, starting with the hippocampus. Scientists believe it takes 15 to 20 years for the plaque to build up until a tipping point, at which time tangles emerge, as well as cell death and pathological forgetting. Alzheimer's spreads from the hippocampus to the parietal lobes, which are responsible for spatial thinking, and this is why someone with this disease gets lost in their hometown. Alzheimer's also impacts the frontal and prefrontal cortices (yes, that's the plural of 'cortex'), which will impair a person's decision-making, logical thinking, problem solving. 

- HOW STRESS FIGURES INTO THE PICTURE - this is where it gets dicey y'all. If you live with constant stress, without finding ways to relieve it, your hippocampus loses neurons, it shrinks. And a smaller hippocampus is more vulnerable to attacks in the form of strokes or Alzheimer's. 

    How do you relieve stress, thereby helping your brain? The author reminds us of things we already know. Yoga, exercise, healthy diet, meditation, mindfulness, gratitude (keep a gratitude journal!), and compassion. By training ourselves to be less reactive to stress, we protect our brains. Remember: You cannot change someone's actions, only your reactions. Sound familiar? 

   And now for those worryworts out there (yes, I've been guilty of this, and I'm trying to fix that about myself). It turns out that worrying, endless rumination of things out of our control, literally bathes your brain in cortisol - a stress hormone that can set you up for Alzheimer's. There's a famous prayer, something about learning to deal only with that which is within our power, letting go of that which is outside our realm of influence, and having the wisdom to know the difference. If you spend your life worrying, your brain lives in a bath of cortisol, and the impact on your brain is the same as if you'd been living in a war zone. Don't let worry wage a war on your brain!

- SLEEP - yes, this is in caps for a reason. Because as it turns out, sleep is a major defense against Alzheimer's. To be clear, humans need 7 to 9 hours per night. Every night. That's 7 to 9 hours every single night. Long-term sleep deprivation, that is, over a lifetime, can make you vulnerable. 

- Now for the Nun Study (pg 223 of the book).  678 nuns, all 75+ yrs old, were followed for more than 20 years. They were regularly given physical check-ups and cognitive tests, and when they died, their brains were donated for autopsy. In some of the nuns' brains, scientists found the presence of plaques and tangles and brain shrinkage, and they appeared, unquestionably, to be Alzheimer's. Except that the nuns whose brains showed plaques/tangles/shrinkage - the "unquestionable Alzheimer's" - had shown NO behavioral signs of having had Alzheimer's while they were alive. Scientists believe the answer is: these nuns had a high degree of cognitive reserve. People with more years of formal education, who have greater literacy, and who engage regularly in social and mentally stimulating activities will have more "cognitive reserve." 

    The caveat to the above - that is, building "cognitive reserve" - is that it's not about doing crossword puzzles. Nope. Building this type of reserve comes from learning. Building an Alzheimer's resistant brain, the author tells us, "means learning to play piano, meeting new friends, travel to a new city, or reading this book." (the author quips, "You're welcome." LOL)

- As for diet, a couple of things the author mentions is getting enough vitamin D, a challenge in northern climates for sure. Author says, "People with low vitamin D are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's." So google food high in vitamin D! There are lots of options, no matter your diet. Also, vitamin B12 deficiency can actually look like Alzheimer's. Fix the deficiency and voila, the person suffering gets better. The body is an ecosystem. It's the only true temple you'll ever truly own.

- Just the stats, please. The author gives some pretty alarming stats on who actually suffers from Alzheimer's. Are we "safe" just because no one in our family has had it? Not so, say the stats (pages 217-218 in the book). Only 2% of people with this disease have the purely inherited kind. The other 98% is caused by a combo of our genes and HOW WE LIVE (and eat, and worry, and whether we learn to relieve our stress, and...all of the above).

    More stats: on pages 204-205, the author discusses the increased cases of Alzheimer's among worryworts. Those who worry for the sake of worrying, and don't find a way to "let go" and/or relieve that stress response. A study of stress levels in 1100 women, ages 38-60, over a period of 30+ years, among those who reported chronic stress had a 65% increased risk of Alzheimer's. In another study, chronically-stressed people were TEN TIMES more likely to develop cognitive impairment over five years (that's five years of unrelieved stress, when you don't do anything to destress or stop the worrywort cycle).

IN THE END: The author gives those with Alzheimer's hope in the form of what CAN be done if you or a loved one develops this disease. I'll leave that for you to read yourself. 

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Also July: The Book of Lost Names, by YA Author Kristen Harmel

 I got ahead of "L" on this one. We were going to read it together, but I'm a faster reader, and therefore got to it already. And now that I've read it, I don't want to promote it with our little book club. That is to say, I pretty much detested it. The topic is historical and interesting - forgers who created fake papers to save Jews in Paris and elsewhere during WW2. It's brave, and the forgers saved lives. 

Author Kristen Harmel is a YA author. She's brought out a book almost every year (every year, mind you!) for the past dozen years. As a writer myself, I don't see how this is possible, while creating something that is well-written. I cannot attest to her other books, but this one does not make the cut. Harmel peppers every single page with questions -- as in, "What if I did this? What if they think that? Where will I go? What should I do? Have a let him/her down? Can I trust him? I know him well, don't I? Is he a traitor? Did they make it across the border? What if they didn't?" ON & ON & ON (& ON).

When a writer does this, they are "telling" us what the character is thinking. There's a rule for writing, "Show, don't tell." I deplore being "told" what the character is thinking. I'd rather come to those conclusions based on what I'm "seeing" (what the author is "showing" me). 

Before you think I'm too brutal with this book, hear me out. Any experienced developmental editor would have suggested that Harmel take out most of those questions. But with big publishing houses, word-count matters. Once the writer surpasses the 300-page mark, the publisher can charge more for the book. And so there's an incentive to let writers pad their work with extra words...extraneous, unnecessary, aggravating words (in this case, questions!). 

And now to the types of phrases that are downright wrong. "The sun sunk." The past tense of sink is sank. And if you use "sunk" which is the past participle form, then you must use "has" or "been" (has sunk). Using the wrong verb choice just so that you rhyme is bad writing.

There are other examples when Harmel got too cutesy with her language. Most writers will unconsciously choose words that have a rhythm (consonance, assonance), however, when words are overly cutesy - in a novel - it doesn't work. When words call attention to themselves like that, it stops the reader in their tracks and they shake their head. Example: "her hair was spun in a bun." I'm sorry, but that kind of writing might work for kids books or YA, but it does NOT work for mature readers.

Now that I've ground down my ax on her writing, here's my take on the characters. They're unbelievable. The protagonist, Eva, never stands up for herself, not even 60 yrs after the war. Also, Eva's mother says things that are beyond hurtful, and to be quite frank, the mom isn't painted as a monster in any other manner, so WHY would she treat her daughter with such - anger, blame, violence thru words?? In the midst of war, a mother would try to shelter her child. If not shelter, at least not rip them a new one at EVERY turn! 

One more unbelievable scene: (spoiler alert) - Eva's mother has been arrested. Eva disguises herself in at attempt to save her mother. BUT, the reason the mother was arrested is because the authorities knew she was Eva's mom. They're actively looking for Eva. So here's a woman who shows up at the jail, in disguise...and it raises no suspicion. If this "woman in disguise" (who is Eva herself) knows Eva's mother, then the jail guard would have questioned the visitor. -- As in: Why do you want to see Mrs. so&so (Eva's mother)? Do you know where we can find Eva? 

On and on goes the unbelievability of this book. Flat, undeveloped, unbelievable characters and too many scenes that don't work. 

If you want to know more about the forgers that helped save thousands of lives during WW2, turn to Dr. Google, not to this book.

July 2021: Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate

 I had read this book last year, and having really liked it, I suggested "L" read it, and then we could discuss. We give this book 5 stars for its Page-Turner element. The only setback was that "L" has a hard time with scenes where kids are hurt, and this book definitely has a scene that is both heartbreaking and unsettling. That scene aside, this book has a lot of food for thought - here are a few:

For one, this book is based on actual events that took place in the 1920 through 1950. There are many hidden/ugly chapters in U.S. history, this is one more. 

There is a strong undercurrent of the need to live our lives as authentically as possible. It seems that at every turn, this book offers another example of someone conforming to what "others" (family, society, whomever) will think of their words/actions. There's a nice analogy of "finding the music" to one's life. Kind of like, if each of us has a theme song for our lives, what would it be? Sometimes, we never stop to listen, we don't pause long enough to find our own music, our own path in life.

This book deals with the elderly and issues related to nursing home care. And since "L" and I both have had our mothers in nursing homes before they died, we zeroed in on this aspect a bit. For example, when the protaganist, Avery, says that her family "can afford" to keep her grandma in a premium nursing home, it left me feeling like, Oh. Well, how nice is that for her/them? The reality for too many is that they cannot afford premium care in old age. There's a whole system of for-profit medical science and nursing homes that I could discuss, but won't. Suffice it to say, that America doesn't do a great job with its elderly. We are stuck with minimal options, and families do their best. But sometimes, it's just not good enough.

There is a moment in this book where it refers to an "old slave cabin" being moved to someone's estate. Without giving spoilers, think about that for a moment. Pay attention to that section of the book, or if you've already read it, and you're reading our review after-the-fact, what do you think about what that cabin was used for? "L" and I had our own epiphany...having to do with those who were considered throwaways (by the power brokers in this book) - and what symbolism we see for that cabin having been for people considered throwaways pre-Civil War. 

"L" is reading Wingate's nonfiction book, Before and After -- not a sequel for this book -- but definitely related. I'm not reading it. So if she decides to post an "Comment" here later on, well then, that's up to her. I'm the writer between the 2 of us...she doesn't like to write...which is why you hear from ME all the time (haha!). Peace out.