Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: amnesia

Stella Bain is a psychological drama that takes place in London, during World War I. The main character is a young woman who wakes up with amnesia in a battlefield hospital tent in Marne, France. She believes her name to be Stella Bain and she has no memories before being found wounded on the battlefield, however, she does realize that she has nursing skills and is able to drive an ambulance. As she recovers from her amnesia, she returns to duty, caring for the wounded and dying at the front.

Thanks to psychoanalysis treatment by the couple who nursed her back to health, Stella's memories return, and the reader is treated to a story of love, memory and war.

Click here to visit Anita Shreve's website.

The critically-acclaimed Before I Go To Sleep tells the story of a woman with an unusual form of amnesia. Every morning when Christine wakes up, she doesn't remember anything, not even who the man in bed next to her is. Her husband Ben is used to her confusion and tries to help her adjust to the shock each day by anticipating her questions and showing her photos of the two of them. Meanwhile, unknown even to her, Christine has been cheating on Ben with her therapist Dr. Nash. With no way to know who she can trust, it is only through her journal that Christine can gradually come to terms with her unusual condition. From the starred Kirkus review: "Watson's pitch-perfect writing propels the story to a frenzied climax that will haunt readers long after they've closed the cover on this remarkable book."

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Book Review: Stella Bain

Debut Released Today: Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson