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margaretatwoodIn her 2003 novel Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood describes a future after humanity had been almost entirely wiped out by a plague. Jimmy, aka Snowman, lives... Continue »
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Can't Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research

by Sue Halpern

Can't Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research Cover

Review-a-Day   (What is Review-a-Day?)

Can't Remember What I Forgot is a virtuosic work of journalistic synthesis. In spite of the certainties and empirical trappings of scientific research, Halpern reminds us that it is a collection of stories like any other, each following its own plot line. Her accomplishment is to have drawn out the myriad threads of these stories, connecting them when possible, to produce a panoramic portrait of an intricate and largely unknown world. Michael Greenberg, the New York Review of Books (read the entire New York Review of Books review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

An essential behind-the-scenes foray into the world of cutting-edge memory research that unveils findings about memory loss only now available to general readers.

When Sue Halpern decided to emulate the first modern scientist of memory, Hermann Ebbinghaus, who experimented on himself, she had no idea that after a day of radioactive testing, her brain would become so "hot" that leaving through the front door of the lab would trigger the alarm. This was not the first time while researching Can't Remember What I Forgot, part of which appeared in The New Yorker, that Halpern had her head examined, nor would it be the last. Halpern spent years in the company of the neuroscientists, pharmacologists, psychologists, nutritionists, and inventors who are hunting for the genes and molecules, the drugs and foods, the machines, the prosthetics, the behaviors and therapies that will stave off Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia and keep our minds — and memories — intact. Like many of us who have had a relative or friend succumb to memory loss, who are getting older, who are hearing statistics about our own chances of falling victim to dementia, who worry that each lapse of memory portends disease, Halpern wanted to find out what the experts really knew, what the bench scientists were working on, how close science is to a cure, to treatment, to accurate early diagnosis, and, of course, whether the crossword puzzles, sudokus, and ballroom dancing we've been told to take up can really keep us lucid or if they're just something to do before the inevitable overtakes us.

Beautifully written, sharply observed, and deeply informed, Can't Remember What I Forgot is a book full of vital information — and a solid dose of hope.

Review:

"Like her fellow New Yorker writer, Malcolm Gladwell, Sue Halpern has the remarkable capacity — genius, actually — to absorb large amounts of complex information and deliver them to the reader in a comprehensible, engaging, page-turning way. In Can't Remember What I Forgot, she travels to the cutting-edge of medical and scientific research about memory and reports back with critical information for all of us now dealing with aging parents and with our own aging. Informative, beautifully written, and hard to put down, this is a book you have to remember not to forget to buy." Julia Alvarez

Review:

"Educational, fabulously well written, and on a hot topic. Highly recommended." Library Journal

Review:

"Halpern is an exceptionally companionable and enlightening guide through the maze of memory maladies and the promising search for remedies." Booklist

Review:

"High-quality science writing: an illuminating picture of investigators at work and a lucid explication of their findings." Kirkus Reviews

Synopsis:

Halpern offers this essential foray into the world of cutting-edge memory research that unveils findings about memory loss that are only now available to general readers.

About the Author

Sue Halpern received her doctorate from Oxford University in 1985 and first began teaching at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is the author of Four Wings and a Prayer, Migrations to Solitude, and two books of fiction. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Condé Nast Traveler, and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. She lives in Ripton, Vermont, with her husband, writer Bill McKibben, and their daughter, Sophie, and is a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
Tim Cook, February 26, 2009 (view all comments by Tim Cook)
Who knew that ballroom dancing, blueberries, and Mars bars could do so much to help memory. this is a very accessible book that provides an overview of current research on memory related to Neuroscience and Neuropsychology. An engaging and interesting read. It makes me hopeful that we are on the cusp of a cure for Alzeimer's.
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(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
Gillian May, May 26, 2008 (view all comments by Gillian May)
Since finishing Can't Remember What I Forgot, I find myself thinking about what I learned almost daily, and talking about it. Turns out memory and the lack thereof are common topics of conversation, and the information I picked up from Halpern's book is as new to most people as it was to me. I found the style engaging, drawing me into a world of science research that I'd never see with my own eyes. Fill in obvious pun here about remembering this book for a long, long time:
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(8 of 8 readers found this comment helpful)
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780307406743
Subtitle:
The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research
Author:
Halpern, Sue
Publisher:
Harmony
Subject:
Memory
Subject:
Alzheimer's disease
Subject:
Neuropsychology
Subject:
General
Subject:
Personal Growth - Memory Improvement
Copyright:
Publication Date:
January 2008
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
256
Dimensions:
966x636x98 111

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