Remember

 Remember written by neuroscientist and novelist of Still Alice, Lisa Genova, is a terrific view of how our brains work.   This book can ease your troubled mind about all the things you have been forgetting.

There are so many times, I feel that my memory is not what it used to be.  I have been saying for years that each child I had took another small piece of my mind, and I became more and more forgetful as the years have gone on.  And now after reading this book, I feel so much more relaxed about those small losses.   I see that it is all normal aging and overextending myself.  For years I have tried to multitask so many things.  Try to take on so many responsibilities it is hard to keep them all straight.

Now I see that writing lists and making written notes about things are the correct way to not forget things.  Writing things down helps you  remember both by reinforcing the memory as you write and also having a list to double check as you  go through the day.  

Genova offers different techniques to help us remember things.  Like connecting names to other memories as we are introduced to someone new so we can recall their name later.  Making connections to items we want to pick up at the grocery store to places in the house which will help us recall the items as we walk through the store.  These are all clever ideas, if you can remember them.

I  still  have a few questions at the end of the book, but for the most part this was a fascinating look at how our minds work and a reassuring reminder that though my kids are teasing about my memory being broken, I am only suffering from normal forgetting . So I do not need to loose sleep over this, which will help me get my 7-8 hours a night, which also helps keeps my memory functioning well.