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uptoolatereading's review against another edition
4.0
A bit confusing at first but then that sets the scene as the main character is suffering from alzheimers so you certainly get an insight right from the start. The story follows Claire and her family as they deal with this and we see their pov as they fill in a memory book. All members of the family were affected in different ways. The narrative was very clever in that it really highlighted how Claire switched from lucidity to muddled in the blink of an eye. I really felt for Greg who went from being the love of Claires life to a strange man living in the house. All in all this was an insightful look into the world of alzheimers. It was a little ray of sunshine in a gloomy situation.
sairs_21's review against another edition
5.0
This was such a wonderful story to read emotional in parts whilst uplifting too. I found myself getting emotional and needing the tissues to hand in parts so be warned!
The story is about a lady called Claire who suffers with Alzheimer’s disease which not only addresses the issue and the character suffering from it but includes the view points of other members of the family. I loved this format and found it lovely to be able to read about how the disease affects other members of the family not just the main character that lives with it. The author tackles a difficult subject matter that has been highlighted in the news earlier this year and does so with such sensitivity, emotion and understanding that it completely captivated me. I struggled to put the book down and was sad when it ended but happy with how it ended.
I loved reading about the relationship Claire has with her daughters especially with her youngest daughter Esther and I hope I can have that kind of relationship with my children when I have them. I love the whole idea of a memory book and not just for people with such a debilitating disease but for families to do together to record their memories together. It has inspired me to want to start doing something like this for myself.
It deals with the issues not only relating to Alzheimer’s disease but also other issues that families deal with on a day to day basis. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and think it is one that will strike a chord with many other people.
I can not recommend this book highly enough to everyone! It is a truly heartfelt amazing story and one I am sure lots of people will enjoy and understand in a personal way!
The story is about a lady called Claire who suffers with Alzheimer’s disease which not only addresses the issue and the character suffering from it but includes the view points of other members of the family. I loved this format and found it lovely to be able to read about how the disease affects other members of the family not just the main character that lives with it. The author tackles a difficult subject matter that has been highlighted in the news earlier this year and does so with such sensitivity, emotion and understanding that it completely captivated me. I struggled to put the book down and was sad when it ended but happy with how it ended.
I loved reading about the relationship Claire has with her daughters especially with her youngest daughter Esther and I hope I can have that kind of relationship with my children when I have them. I love the whole idea of a memory book and not just for people with such a debilitating disease but for families to do together to record their memories together. It has inspired me to want to start doing something like this for myself.
It deals with the issues not only relating to Alzheimer’s disease but also other issues that families deal with on a day to day basis. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and think it is one that will strike a chord with many other people.
I can not recommend this book highly enough to everyone! It is a truly heartfelt amazing story and one I am sure lots of people will enjoy and understand in a personal way!
shell74's review against another edition
5.0
Actual Rating: 4.5 Stars
‘Everything I attempt is fraught with the possibility of failure. And yet I am still me, at the moment. My mind is still me. When will the day come that I am not me anymore?’
The Day We Met took me on an emotional roller coaster ride while I commiserated along with Claire, Greg, Ruth, and Caitlin. They all had to come to terms with the devastating disease that was overtaking a fiercely independent and brilliant woman in the prime of her life.
“I think it’s love that lasts. It’s love that remembers us. It’s love that is left, when we are gone.”
Originally titled The Memory Book and released in the UK in 2014, I thought author Rowan Coleman did a fantastic job of giving us readers an honest take on how Alzheimer’s Disease affects families. This is a novel filled with extreme highs and lows, in terms of emotions and events. There were scenes that took my breath away with their beauty and poignancy, and then there were awkward, heartbreaking scenes that made me sad and almost uncomfortable with their realism.
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‘Everything I attempt is fraught with the possibility of failure. And yet I am still me, at the moment. My mind is still me. When will the day come that I am not me anymore?’
The Day We Met took me on an emotional roller coaster ride while I commiserated along with Claire, Greg, Ruth, and Caitlin. They all had to come to terms with the devastating disease that was overtaking a fiercely independent and brilliant woman in the prime of her life.
“I think it’s love that lasts. It’s love that remembers us. It’s love that is left, when we are gone.”
Originally titled The Memory Book and released in the UK in 2014, I thought author Rowan Coleman did a fantastic job of giving us readers an honest take on how Alzheimer’s Disease affects families. This is a novel filled with extreme highs and lows, in terms of emotions and events. There were scenes that took my breath away with their beauty and poignancy, and then there were awkward, heartbreaking scenes that made me sad and almost uncomfortable with their realism.
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ljbentley27's review against another edition
4.0
Meet Claire. She is in her 40s. She is married with two daughters, Caitlyn and Esther and she has early onset Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).
The Memory Book by Rowan Coleman is the heartbreaking story of Claire Armstrong who is battling with a degenerative illness that she has inherited from her father’s side of the family. Every day she wakes up unsure whether she will have a good or bad day; whether she will be lucid in the present or lingering in the past; whether or not her mind will be able to recognise her loved ones.
The multi-perspective story explores the debilitating effects of AD on not only the patient but also on the patient’s family and loved ones. We see how Ruth, Claire’s mother has to watch her daughter go through the same regression that her beloved husband went through before he succumb to the disease.
We watch Caitlyn as her life mimics her mother’s life when she was in her early 20s. Her struggle seems all the more brutal because she needs her mother now more than ever but only sees her own problems as an extra burden on a family already struggling under the weight of their circumstances.
And then there is Greg, Claire’s husband who watches his wife become a stranger on a daily basis. She forgets who he is, what connection he has to her and most hurtfully that he is the love of her life. Greg continually gets lost in the fog of Claire’s condition and it is truly heartbreaking.
I don’t claim to know a lot about Alzheimer’s Disease but what I do know is that it is a wretched disease not only for the person who has been diagnosed with it but also for their family. What Coleman has managed to do with such acute verisimilitude is to beautifully present a heartbreaking yet heart warming story of a family fighting to come to terms with a diagnosis that does not have a positive outcome. It is this skill and tenacity of storytelling that made this book a real eye-opener and a privilege to read. If you haven’t read this book then add it to your nightstand pile of books immediately.
The Memory Book by Rowan Coleman is the heartbreaking story of Claire Armstrong who is battling with a degenerative illness that she has inherited from her father’s side of the family. Every day she wakes up unsure whether she will have a good or bad day; whether she will be lucid in the present or lingering in the past; whether or not her mind will be able to recognise her loved ones.
The multi-perspective story explores the debilitating effects of AD on not only the patient but also on the patient’s family and loved ones. We see how Ruth, Claire’s mother has to watch her daughter go through the same regression that her beloved husband went through before he succumb to the disease.
We watch Caitlyn as her life mimics her mother’s life when she was in her early 20s. Her struggle seems all the more brutal because she needs her mother now more than ever but only sees her own problems as an extra burden on a family already struggling under the weight of their circumstances.
And then there is Greg, Claire’s husband who watches his wife become a stranger on a daily basis. She forgets who he is, what connection he has to her and most hurtfully that he is the love of her life. Greg continually gets lost in the fog of Claire’s condition and it is truly heartbreaking.
I don’t claim to know a lot about Alzheimer’s Disease but what I do know is that it is a wretched disease not only for the person who has been diagnosed with it but also for their family. What Coleman has managed to do with such acute verisimilitude is to beautifully present a heartbreaking yet heart warming story of a family fighting to come to terms with a diagnosis that does not have a positive outcome. It is this skill and tenacity of storytelling that made this book a real eye-opener and a privilege to read. If you haven’t read this book then add it to your nightstand pile of books immediately.
hcarver's review against another edition
3.0
I started getting creeped out whenever I realized I'd forgotten something.
I enjoyed reading it. It wasn't bad.
I enjoyed reading it. It wasn't bad.
karlou's review against another edition
5.0
As a mum to three girls I was immediately drawn to The Memory Book when I saw it was a book about the relationships between mothers and daughters. It focuses on three generations of women, Claire who has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease, her daughter, Caitlin who has to make her own life-changing decisions whilst watching her mum deteriorate rapidly, and her mother, Ruth who lost her husband to Alzheimer's and now faces the loss of her only daughter. So emotional stuff then and it would be foolish of me to deny that it made me cry several times. However, this is not in any way a depressing read, despite the sombre subject matter it is a warm, often funny and always touching look at a family learning to deal with the massive changes they are facing. Claire is the main narrator of the story and we see her fear and frustration as she slowly loses who she is. This is sensitively and believably handled, particularly in the scenes where her memory loss is apparent. The Memory Book of the title refers to a book Claire is filling in with memories of her past, her teenage pregnancy, years as a single mum, her love affair and subsequent marriage to Greg, the birth of her second daughter, Esther (who is a thoroughly real small girl with all the charm, humour and tyranny they possess) and always her relationship with Caitlin and Ruth. Caitlin, Ruth and Greg also add their memories to the book and so we see what they're going through watching the gradual loss of such a significant person in all their lives as some chapters are narrated in their voices, something that works very well and creates a fully rounded family whose plight is easy to identify with. I sympathised with them, of course but the writing is such that I didn't ever pity them.
I lost my own mum to breast cancer when I was 22 and so have always been a motherless mother to my own three girls although have been fortunate to have a wonderful mother-in-law. I miss my mum every day but still feel blessed that I learned how to be a mum from her. The Memory Book really touched me, it's a truly lovely reminder of the relationship between mothers and daughters. I thoroughly recommend it. Many thanks to the author and the publishers for my copy through Netgalley.
I lost my own mum to breast cancer when I was 22 and so have always been a motherless mother to my own three girls although have been fortunate to have a wonderful mother-in-law. I miss my mum every day but still feel blessed that I learned how to be a mum from her. The Memory Book really touched me, it's a truly lovely reminder of the relationship between mothers and daughters. I thoroughly recommend it. Many thanks to the author and the publishers for my copy through Netgalley.
rebascool18's review against another edition
5.0
Check out my review on my blog
http://diariesofabooklover.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-day-we-met-by-rowan-coleman.html
http://diariesofabooklover.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-day-we-met-by-rowan-coleman.html
mumtwogirls's review against another edition
4.0
Enjoyed this book immensely, got a surprise towards the end.
whimsicallymeghan's review against another edition
4.0
Claire Armstrong is a headstrong woman who does what she wants, but when she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s things slowly start to change. The novel takes on what Clair is going through, but also brings in the other people in her life, namely her mother, and husband Greg, and shows how it directly affects them. On top of this her daughter Caitlin is struggling with her own battles, fighting to stop history from repeating itself. The novel tackles so many issues that at times it feels overwhelming to read; but at others everything seems to fit just nicely together. As much as the plot is focused around a very heavy subject, there are some lighter and funnier moments thrown in, certain characters added to drop the tension. It’s a fast-paced read, that is captivating, and mesmerizing tale of not only hardships, but of love.
greyetal's review against another edition
4.0
About a woman with the early onset Alzheimer’s her father died of. Loved all the perspectives, her husband who she didn't meet until later in life, her daughter who is experiencing other big life changes at the same time, her mother who is losing the second person she loves most in the world to a terrible disease. It’s heart wrenching but I enjoyed it.