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• Sarah Nickerson is vice president of human resources at Berkley Consulting. She is also a supermom. She works many long hours and then tries to be there for her family. She takes both of her jobs very seriously. Juggling her job and her busy family life are enough to make one's head spin.One fateful day, she is involved in an accident which forever changes her life. Driving to work, she tries to make a phone call which ends in disaster. She sustains a brain injury which leaves her not being able to feel or see anything on her left side. It's as though the left side of the world does not exist. Sarah's life is turned upside down.I found Sarah's journey fascinating. At first I did not care for Sarah. I found her to be a bit overpowering and kind of cold. As the book progressed, Sarah struggles with not only her injury but also her life both past and present. She grew into a person I could respect and appreciate. I enjoyed seeing her develop a sense of humor as well. By the end of the book, I was a fan.This is a beautiful story about human spirit and what really matters most. I found myself reading faster to find out if Sarah would recover or not. Would she go be able to go back to her high-powered life? Could she be satisfied with her life being different from what she was accustomed to if she did not recover?This was the first book I have read by Lisa Genova but it won't be my last. The book was well written and well-researched. Lisa Genova has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and has a degree in Biopsychology but the book was easy to read and flowed very nicely. I was afraid the book might be full of technical terms that would leave me bewildered but that was not the case at all.This book comes out in paperback July 26, 2011. I highly recommend it! Pick yourself up a copy!Lisa Genova is working on her third book about a boy with autism, titled Love Anthony. I can't wait to read it! Until then I will be picking up Still Alice, which I hear is also a winner!

  5.00 out of 5

  bookaholicmom

• This book was incredible, most books that are read and reviewed are mystery, paranormal and don't deal must with what could happen to someone. In this book we follow the lives of Bob and Sarah Nickerson who are so busy working, commuting, raising their kids and rushing through the days, they miss out on the small things with their kids. Charlie their son is dealing with school issues due to ADHD not being diagnosed. Sarah finds herself in a horrible car accident which has left her loosing touch with her left side also known as Left Neglected. Sarah's mother returns to her daughter to right wrongs that were done when Sarah was a child after a traumatic family accident. She shows up when Sarah needs her most, even when Sarah tries to show her away time and again.A good part of this book was the realization from Sarah that she couldn't do everything anymore. That she needed to trust and ask for help. That through everyone in her family, they helped her in different ways. Her husband was uber supportive of her issues and needing help, her mother gave her courage and reassurance that she was doing good. In the end the relationship between mother and daughter repaired, and a new course was laid out for Sarah, Bob and their family. I loved this story so much, I couldn't put it down. It gripped me and held my attention and probably will long after I've posted my review. To have an author grip you this way and make you look at your own life and wonder if we are moving to fast and missing the small things in life. What a great story to read and definitely worth checking out. I would recommend adding this to your bookcase if you haven't already.

  5.00 out of 5

  CommunityBookstop

• Are you looking for a book worthy of spending your Christmas gift card on? I've got one for you. Lisa Genova had a New York Times bestseller with her first novel Still Alice. I know she's got another bestseller on her hands with her latest book Left Neglected - releasing Jan 4/11.Sarah Nickerson has it all and can do it all. Can't she? High powered job - minimum of 80 hours a week, gorgeous house in a sought after neighbourhood, vacation home in Vermont, 3 children and a devoted husband. The one thing she doesn't seem to have though, is enough time. She can't make it to every soccer game and is sure that the other parents think that "Mothers who miss the games, like me, are bad mothers." "I love my children and know they're important, but so is my career and the life that career affords us." And her love life...well..."It's our typical morning good-bye kiss. A quick peck. A well-intentioned habit....It's a routine kiss, but I'm glad we do it. It does mean something. It's enough. And it's all we have time for." You get the picture. It is while trying to multitask - driving while talking on the cell phone - that Sarah's world is turned upside down. She gets into a horrific crash - one that leaves her with a traumatic brain injury. She is unaware of the left side of anything, including herself. And yes, the condition is real.Unable to work, dependent on others and forced to accept that her life will never be quite the same, Sarah must reexamine her life, her priorities and her relationships - the things in her life that have been 'left neglected.' I found the rekindling of the relationship with her mother especially poignant.Although the subject matter is serious, Genova handles it with candor and humour. Sarah's voice is so appealing and honest. Genova has a degree in Biopsychology and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard - her descriptions of a patient coping with brain injury are both accurate and informative.But Left Neglected is simply a really, really good read. Genova's prose flow so easily, the story is addictive and I became invested in Sarah's journey. And maybe take some time to reevaluate your own priorities."What else is there? Maybe success can be something else, and maybe there's another way to get there."Eminently gift card worthy. I think this is going to be one of 2011's best sellers too. Five stars for me.

  5.00 out of 5

  Twink

• I am asked what a good book would be for a book club and I hesitate. I want to be able to recommend a book that 1) has the power to transform or alter perception 2) is written well 3) is clean enough that I can look the ladies in the eye at church after they have read it. This one passes all three of my requirements.I'm going to work backwards.The book is clean. Yes, there is swearing but I don't recall anything blatantly offensive. Yes, there is sex as Sarah reconnects with that portion of herself and her husband. In fact, that was one of my favorite parts of the book in regard to Sarah's healing.The book is written well. It struck me, in fact, that Genova is more than a novelist but also an essayist. She writes each chapter so it connects with the book but the chapters are like well written essays. Each one addresses something in particular while following the chronology of Sarah's life. On top of this, I loved the protagonist. She is snarky, spunky, intelligent, high achieving, and juggling the demands of career and home. Genova describes the ins and outs of motherhood and appointments in a way that I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry. The constant struggle of balancing these aspects often do have me either mentally writing a blog post in my head or curling up in fetal position when I hit my tipping point. Genova seems to understand this very well. The content makes the reader think. The story is about a woman who suffers TBI and maintains her memories, her speech, hearing, sight, taste, touch, most of her neurological function and all of her wit and intellect. What she loses is the connection to the left side of her body. It still works. It's still connected to her brain. She simply does not recognize it. There is no left. She doesn't own a left leg because it doesn't exist. On the other hand, if someone taps her left leg or scratches her left arm, she feels it or it hurts. She has to retrain herself to pay attention to the parts of her body that don't exist to her anymore. Her progress or lack thereof could be viewed as tedious as it is slow and, like real life, a neurological injury does not fully heal. On the other hand, if reading the chapters like essays, each chapter offers wisdom and growth. On a personal note, it gave me a huge insight and respect for my father's brain surgery which caused neurological damage 16 years ago and his tenacity to retrain his brain.Abstractly, the book is about neglect. In one part of the book, Sarah remembers an article that explains the 20% rule. We only need to understand 20% of something to be effective doing 80% of it. Trying to understand something 100% is a waste of time and we will neglect something else in our life of import. The story nudges the reader to look at her own life and assess what she may be neglecting that is important? What can be simplified and scaled back to manageable bite sizes in order to concentrate on what is important? What can be forsaken?This is an awesome read. It is funny, moving, and cerebral.

  5.00 out of 5

  amusingmother

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