In Speaking our Minds, social worker Lisa Snyder gives readers the opportunity to hear from seven people living with Alzheimer’s. I think the greatest value of the book comes as a reminder that people with Alzheimer’s are people; as I was reading, I repeatedly thought about the value of a person not being in what they do but in what they are.

One thing I became more aware of was how easy it is to misjudge the cause by noticing an effect. For example, one woman had difficulty shaking hands, not because she couldn’t remember what to do when someone extended a hand to shake, but because visual-spatial difficulties made it impossible for her to grasp someone’s hand in the air.

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Yesterday evening, I finished Aging with Grace by David Snowdon, Ph.D. It describes the research of a unique study on Alzheimer’s by intertwining the stories of individual nuns with research findings.

I enjoyed reading about the research process. I am familiar with some aspects of the research process (things like peer review and ethical issues involving human subjects) because of Michael’s work, but I think Snowdon describes things well enough that you don’t need to know a lot about academic research to enjoy the book.

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