Still Alice is a very personal read. I felt so much sympathy for Alice right away, and I could only see her getting worse. Time and finality are some of the underlying themes of this book about a disease that only has one outcome. Some of Alice's family choose to focus on the present and Alice's current wants and desires. Some want to focus on the future and the inevitable. ("She won't know what she wants in a year.") Choice is also a central theme. Some family members say that Alice would never have wanted her disease to burden their lives. Some say she's their mother, and she'd never be a burden, Alzheimer's or not. There are no easy answers, and Lisa Genova provides none.

I don't often put myself in the place of fictional characters, but I think everyone who reads this book wonders what it would be like to have early-onset Alzheimer's. Still Alice isn't fancy nor is its plot complicated. Its an "easy read." Yet it hits home for its themes about aging, disease, and death.

Recommended to anyone who's been impacted by degenerative disease and anyone who's felt isolated due to mental illness.