Helpful Score: 6
I really enjoyed this book and ended up reading it in one sitting. It is at times heartbreaking, heartwarming, and surprisingly, also laugh-out-loud funny. The plotting is predictable, but the subject matter is so fascinating that it really carries the book along. Much as I enjoyed "Still Alice", the author's previous work, I found that I connected more with this book and felt enriched my its inspirational message.
Helpful Score: 5
I started this book hating the main character. I couldn't wait for her to have her accident, because I felt like she deserved it (I promise, I'm not that vindictive in real life!). Genova does an excellent job attempting to teach the reader about this condition called Left Neglect that many probably have never heard of before. Sarah becomes a sympathetic character along the way. I didn't like this as much as I liked Still Alice, but again, I liked Alice and couldn't stand Sarah at first, which probably had a lot to do with it.
Helpful Score: 3
Loved this book. Not only did I become familiar with what it was like to have a brain injury, but loved the way it was revealed to me; slowly, as it was being experienced. Amazing.
Helpful Score: 3
If I could give this book more stars, it certainly deserves it! When I received this book, I decided to read a few pages prior to going to sleep. These few pages turned into the first 200 pages. I finished this book the following day. This book was beautifully written and certainly thought provoking. This novel is also an important reminder that nothing in life should be taken for granted. Life can change when you least expect it. No one welcomes a life changing tragedy, but sometimes it allows us to put life into perspective and to value what truly matters. I cannot say enough about this book. I highly recommend it.
Helpful Score: 3
This book hit close to home for me having a loved one that has had a closed head injury. Of all I learned I didn't know this even exisited. This book is a great learning tool, with a great story, full of love and humor. I would recommend this book to anyone. Easy read.
Helpful Score: 1
I loved, loved, loved this book! Narrator Sarah, a Harvard MBA and vice president at a consulting firm, works crazy hours, multitasking every moment, trying to fit everything into her life. Then in the blink of an eye, she loses half of everything--the left half--and then finds that, in many ways, her traumatic brain injury adds value to her life instead of diminishing it. This is a really fascinating portrayal of a character with Hemispatial Neglect (or Left Neglect), by an author with a PhD in neuroscience.
Helpful Score: 1
Sarah Nickerson survives a car crash but has a right-brain injury. She no longer can "have it all" so she must decide what's most important in her life.
Helpful Score: 1
Very interesting book on a subjest I wasn't really familiar with. Sometimes sad, sometimes funny, all the time full of family coming together and lots of love. Book well researched and well written. I flew through the pages, I didn't want to put it down.
Helpful Score: 1
Left Neglected is the engrossing story of Sarah Nickerson, whose hectic life as an executive, wife, and mother of three comes to a crashing halt (literally) one day. Readers follow Sarah on her journey of learning to live with her brain injury and her new reality, which in some ways is better than her old reality. There is neglect and healing that takes place in the story beyond Sarah's brain injury. Genova is a talented writer who skillfully translates the feelings of having left neglect. Highly recommended.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a fantastic book. I learned about a subject that I thought was for stroke victims only, I feel like a made a friend in the main character and her family and I had the opportunity to reflect upon my own hectic life and remember that it is a borrowed life that can be gone in a matter of seconds. When I finished this book I lost a friend, there is so much more I want to know about my friends. That is the telltale sign of a fantastic book to me.
Helpful Score: 1
Absoutely LOVED this book! It started out a bit slow, and her flashbacks kind of annoyed me but after the first few chapters it is much better. I loved her other book "Still Alice" and this one was just as good. I can say that Lisa Genova is now a favorite author of mine. Highly recommended!
Helpful Score: 1
Every bit as good as Lisa Genova's other book, Still Alice. Wonderfully written snapshot of a life totally changed by an accident. A+
Helpful Score: 1
Loved this and was inspired by it. It's the story of a woman who, due to a brain injury, has to work to remember that anything on the left exists. She isn't aware of the left side of her body, of a page, of a tree, etc. She has to work to "find" her left hand and remember to put it into a left sleeve, for example. Just understanding her condition is a challenge, much less understanding how she deals with her condition. The book is a novel, but the condition really exists. Very interesting read, by the same author who made early-onset Alzheimer's understandable in "Still Alice".
Lisa Genova has become one of my favorite authors. As a health professional, I enjoy the story of the patient's perspective. The trials and tribulations of patients with neurological trauma/insult provide one with insight into the human condition.
We take for granted much of what we see and do. LEFT neglected is a reminder of how fragile we are and how resilient we can be. I laughed and cried while reading this book. Enjoy!
We take for granted much of what we see and do. LEFT neglected is a reminder of how fragile we are and how resilient we can be. I laughed and cried while reading this book. Enjoy!
Outstanding read from someone who worked in a NEURO ICU, this is a job well done.
A friend gave a great review of this book so maybe I had higher expectations. It is good but not a forever favorite. learned a lot about a medical condition I knew nothing about. Good message that we all need to slow down and learn to enjoy each day
A well written fictional book about a woman and her family's recovery from a brain injury.
I read this a while ago, but it is very interesting material on the brain. Sometimes a bit slow reading, because of the explanations, but overall a fascinating story. I had not realized that this syndrome existed!
This was an incredible story. I cried most of the way through it. It was so true to life. She has an amazing insight into the human body,as evidenced in her other books, also. This is about a woman with a traumatic brain injury,and Lisa Genova get right inside her head to tell the story
** Update from the first time I read this-I noticed it was hard for me to distinguish that this was a work of fiction. It's a very scary thought for a woman with a Harvard MBA running 24/7 with a high pressure job and a family to suddenly be in this position. And a great deal of insight of what it is to be in a situation like she was. I highly recommend this book-as well as all her others!
** Update from the first time I read this-I noticed it was hard for me to distinguish that this was a work of fiction. It's a very scary thought for a woman with a Harvard MBA running 24/7 with a high pressure job and a family to suddenly be in this position. And a great deal of insight of what it is to be in a situation like she was. I highly recommend this book-as well as all her others!
I am a big fan of Lisa Genova. She writes with great dialogue and detail. I have read several of her books and keep going back for more!
This is an amazing story. I loved Still Alice but felt almost deflated at the end...this one will make you feel good when it's over. I want to hear more about these characters!
I loved this book. I read it after years of not reading saying I wasnt a reader and every book I tried to read never finished this is the first one I actually finished and totally enjoyed and went on to read others by this author. I recommend this book.
This book is about a busy career woman who has a sever car accident and has brain damage. She can't see or feel anything on her left side. It's about her strong courage and her fight to get back what she had before the accident. Very inspiring for anyone who has ever had a struggle to go through.
Good book, well written and interesting to read about this and never knew it existed.
I was disappointed in this book. It was predictable with a predictable ending wrapped up in a nice package. The medical condition - left neglect or hemispatial neglect - that is at the heart of the book is fascinating. However, the story was an old one - Woman living a high powered lifestyle suffers a traumatic injury. In her recover, she discovers new priorities and a new paradigm for her life. But new jobs come up at just the right time. Relationships work out at just the right time. The accident and injury is devastating. The presentation of what happens next is just too neat.
I loved this book. Couldn't put it down!
I read very few novels, but this one was one of the best. It was well written and kept my interest throughout the whole book. About a career woman, wife and mother who had the world by the tail and then had something happen to her that changed her and her familys whole life. The same author who wrote Still Alice, another good book.
Amazing story and so insightful for the reading to experience.
A wild ride that you hope will never happen to you or someone you know.
So interesting on how the brain works and how it effects us.
A don't miss book!
A wild ride that you hope will never happen to you or someone you know.
So interesting on how the brain works and how it effects us.
A don't miss book!
I loved this book. Reading this really made me think about what is important in life. I also learned about a medical condition I never knew existed. Makes me put my own problems in better perspective.
A while back I read this authors first book entitled Still Alice and absolutely loved it. That book was about a woman who developed early-onset Alzheimers Disease. Alice was a loveable main character and that made it easy to love the book. "Left Neglected" was about a 37 year old woman who was in a car accident and incurred brain damage which left her pretty much unaware of her left side. Unlike Alice, this main character, Sarah, was not particularly loveable. In fact, I didnt like this woman AT ALL through the first two-thirds of the book. I didnt even feel sorry for her when she got into the big accident. Why? Well, she was SO into herself and her high-powered job that she really had little time for her three kids or her husband. Maybe its just me. I think that having a job is great (obviously, as Ive had one for all of my adult life) but I also place more importance on family than this woman did. That aside, it WAS interesting to learn about the real neurological condition of left neglect. People really DO suffer from right-sided brain damage that leaves them unaware of anything on their left side. Medically, this was a very interesting book! Towards the end, I began to like Sarah more. She struggled with her disability, learned to love her family more, and faced hard decisions with more than the how would that affect my job mentality.
This is an outstanding book. One that should make all of us take a moment and appreciate what we have. I'm holding on to my copy!
I duplicate all other reviews of this novel, one which is compelling reading about the importance of what really matters. We can all learn from this powerful narrative.
I will not provide a synopsis in this review, if you are looking for that, please look elsewhere.
I recently finished Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and all I can say is wow! When I picked this book up at my local librarys book sale, I was not at all certain that Id be interested in the topic. Boy was I in for a huge surprise. When I started reading it, I almost couldnt put it down to eat, much less sleep.
Its not my intent to spoil any part of this book for any of you who may read it, so, I will not go into great detail, but, I have to say that I never knew there was such a condition as the main character, Sarah, has after her accident. The challenges she faced, OMG! Again, I do not want to spoil this book for potential readers, so, that is all I will say about the topic. Also, I will say that if theres one message in this book, its to slow down.
I felt sorry for Sarah and her husband Bill, who were both so busy chasing after the brass ring, so much so that they could not take time to take vacations together, spend time with their families, or even raise their children. I was fortunate enough to have grown up in a time when mothers were expected to stay home with their kids. My own mother went to work in a time when most mothers did not work, but my mother did so when her children were older and in school. We never knew what a babysitter was. When my own kids came along, I chose to be a housewife until they were both in school. Perhaps this was a mistake, but I will never regret the sacrifices we made in order that our children could be raised by their parents rather than day care or a succession of babysitters. Im proud to say that I raised my children and was the CEO of my own house. That translates in to much more than money.
Pick up this book and its my bet that you will not put it down.
I recently finished Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and all I can say is wow! When I picked this book up at my local librarys book sale, I was not at all certain that Id be interested in the topic. Boy was I in for a huge surprise. When I started reading it, I almost couldnt put it down to eat, much less sleep.
Its not my intent to spoil any part of this book for any of you who may read it, so, I will not go into great detail, but, I have to say that I never knew there was such a condition as the main character, Sarah, has after her accident. The challenges she faced, OMG! Again, I do not want to spoil this book for potential readers, so, that is all I will say about the topic. Also, I will say that if theres one message in this book, its to slow down.
I felt sorry for Sarah and her husband Bill, who were both so busy chasing after the brass ring, so much so that they could not take time to take vacations together, spend time with their families, or even raise their children. I was fortunate enough to have grown up in a time when mothers were expected to stay home with their kids. My own mother went to work in a time when most mothers did not work, but my mother did so when her children were older and in school. We never knew what a babysitter was. When my own kids came along, I chose to be a housewife until they were both in school. Perhaps this was a mistake, but I will never regret the sacrifices we made in order that our children could be raised by their parents rather than day care or a succession of babysitters. Im proud to say that I raised my children and was the CEO of my own house. That translates in to much more than money.
Pick up this book and its my bet that you will not put it down.
I just loved everything about this book! I have to read Still Alice now. I can't wait!
Excellent book. Everyone who texts and drives should read it!!!
My wife liked it, I did not; didn't even finish it. Not my genre. Read well and quickly, but the story line didn't drive me to read it. Sue stayed up nights to finish it: chick flick?
I enjoy this author's writing style and liked this book. I didn't find the subject matter as compelling as Still Alice, but still a interesting read.
I love reading Genova's books. They are so insightful and believable. I didn't want to put this down.
It was an ok book.
