Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Left Neglected - Lisa Genova

What are your thoughts on our February book?

4 comments:

  1. I loved it. I ate it in one sitting. I just could not shake the question: how would I cope if the same thing happened to me? I found I could connect with Sarah's struggle, and that the author really honestly captured what I believe to be would be the range of emotions and mental states a person would go through should their life be effected in such a way. The nerd in me loved learning about what it would mean to be "left neglected".
    Would I recommend it: Absolutely. An excellent, moving read for all. I'm eager to read more of Lisa Genova's books.
    Purchase or borrow: Borrow. The perfect book to share.
    Would it again? Probably. Not right away but I can see myself returning to it.

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  2. I also enjoyed it quite a bit; I even enjoyed it more than Still Alice which says a lot.

    There was actually an article in the paper about this book on the weekend and I found it interesting to read that Lisa used to work in a field where they considered 35-40 hours a week to be part-time - what kind of crazy is that?

    I related to her 'mother guilt' of not being there enough for her kids and I don't work 80 hours a week!

    Then for her to suffer from such an odd brain injury was impossible for me to imagine. I admit, I tried closing my left eye to get an idea but that doesn't work because my right eye can still see the left side of things. It's hard to imagine what it would be like except to say it must be near impossible to retrain your brain at a certain age.

    Great suggestion for a read, I enjoyed learning about it but even more learning the lesson of picking what's important in life and remembering to keep THAT front and centre ;)

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  3. I loved it too. Especially the detail of day to day parenting...the interruptions, trying to get them ready & focused (even if they don't have ADHD) and then finding time for yourself at the end of the day.

    This novel hit home for because almost 5 years ago my daughter suffered a serious concussion. We were going to a cousin's home for brunch and she slipped on the ice walking to the front door. Soon after Michaela lost her vision when she would look downwards. We brought her to emergency & a cat scan came back clean. Two years ago while doing homework Michaela kept referring to weird circumstances regarding her vision. For example when subtracting numbers she would become frustrated because she couldn't tell how many numbers there were since they kept jumping around. After several appointments with optamlogists and doctors, we realized this was a symptom of her earlier concussion. She has been attending Vision Therapy which are exercises that help her brain and her eyes work together. We are beginning to see some improvement but she continues to see double up to 3 feet away. Some nights its very hard to see her being frustrated & there is not much I can do but give a hug or two. She is still very lucky though because it the injury could have been worse. We will continue to count our blessings.

    I loved the way Sarah set her goal for recovery but made adjustments along the way.

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  4. I am going to join the masses on this one... I loved the book as well. It was absolutely well written, easy to read and flowed nicely. I was fascinated with the medical reality to this fictional story. I just cannot wrap my head around the concept of not being able to find your left side! It would be so frustrating to intelligently know you HAVE a left side, but can't look at your watch on your left wrist because you don't know where it is.

    The element of Sarah having to restructure her life and being forced to slow everything down in order to focus on recovery really resonated with me. A lesson to all of us. It's the little moments in each day that are precious and we take them for granted. And I'm grateful that I'm not faced with a car accident and a brain injury to realize that.

    Will (and have) recommend this book to friends.

    I already have Lisa Genova's "Still Alice" on my radar of upcoming books to read. Sounds like it too is a good one!

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