Tag: alzheimers

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey

Book of the Month Club Pick, Indie Next Pick, Publishers Lunch Buzz Book, Top 10 Washington Post- Publication November 7, 2023-Zibby Books-Women’s Fiction-376pp

Book Summary

Kate is a bit of a mess. Two years after losing her young husband Cameron, she’s grieving, solo parenting, working like mad at her university fundraising job, always dropping the balls—and yet clinging to her sense of humor. Lurching from one comedic crisis to the next, she also navigates an overbearing mom and a Tinder-obsessed best friend who’s determined to matchmake Kate with her hot new neighbor. When an in-flight problem leaves Kate and her boss, Hugh, stranded for a weekend on the east coast of Australia, she finally has a chance, away from her son, to really process her grief and see what’s right in front of her. Can she let go of the love of her life and risk her heart a second time? When it becomes clear that Hugh is hiding a secret, Kate turns to the trail of scribbled notes she once used to hold her life together. The first note captured her heart. Will the last note set it free? The Last Love Note will make readers laugh, cry, and renew their faith in the resilience of the human heart—and in love itself.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The Last Love Note is considered a rom com, but that pigeonhole is not a good fit for me. This novel is about losing. Losing love, jobs, babies. Sounds depressing right, but the novel is about so much more. The setting is Australia, so the places were unfamiliar, but Emma Grey’s sense of place takes over! At the novel’s core is the journey of a widow through grief, the understanding and acceptance of the self-sacrificing actions of others, and the mosaic of the human heart. There are secrets, low points and turning points-all revealed through love notes. Readers will long remember the overall theme that ‘love outlives death.’ This novel is full of humor and scaffolded grief shrouded in wisdom.

Emma is a novelist, feature writer, photographer, professional speaker and accountability coach.
She has been writing since she first fell for Anne of Green Gables at fourteen and is the author of YA fiction, memoir, and nonfiction. She wrote her first adult novel, The Last Love Note, in the wake of her husband’s death. It’s a fictional tribute to their love, an attempt to articulate the magnitude of her loss and a life-affirming commitment to hope. Emma lives just outside Canberra, where her world centers on her two adult daughters, young son, loved step-children and step-grandchildren, writing, photography and endlessly chasing the Aurora Australis.

Here is the link to the Zibby Media page featuring Emma Grey and The Last Love Note. Readers will find the book club kit, bonus content, a play list and much more! https://zibbymedia.com/blogs/our-books/the-last-love-note

How Lulu Lost Her Mind by Rachel Gibson

From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Gibson comes the story of a mother-daughter journey to rediscover the past before it disappears forever.

Rachel Gibson is a New York times and USAToday bestselling author of 21 books.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Lou Ann, a.k.a The Love Guru, has built her “brand” and thriving business from a highrise in Seattle. She travels IRL and virtually, spouting relationship advice to thousands of followers. In fact, she’s in the middle of her ten-city Find True Love in February tour! Now her mother, Patricia, age 74, diagnosed with Alzheimers four years ago, has been tossed out of the third care facility and is requesting to spend her last days at the family home near New Orleans. Lou Ann begrudgingly takes Patricia to Sutton Hall, an old sugar cane plantation that comes with its own “To Do” list. Packing for speaking engagements and book signings is not exactly the same as packing for south Louisiana; heat, humidity, possible alligators, a century old cemetery and a crazy bird named Raphael, soon take the place of fame, fanfare & fortune!

Lulu experiences the culture shock of moving across country to a locale of unfamiliar culture and landscape- swamps & bayous; not to mention dealing with the mood swings of Patricia as they both begin to deal with how these last days together would unfold for each of them. Lulu relies on meditating and Patricia gets caught up in TV game shows. Finding common ground and a good mattress turn out to be crucial! Lulu is grappling with saving her business or spending the last days making her mother happy- something many readers may know first-hand or have experienced vicariously. Either way, juggling family, business & volunteer commitments, are always a struggle as ill or aging parents take precedence in our lives. Rachel Gibson deals with the emotional struggles of such a life changing situation with honesty and laugh out loud humor.

How Lulu Lost Her Mind is a magnified view into the dynamic day to day battle of thoughts and emotions that emerge in times of crisis, but also the self analysis & reflection involved. Gibson juggles Lulu’s emotional episodes with Patricia by wrapping the “daily dilemas” in Cajun dialect and taking readers to local shops like Rouse’s market, Monique’s Chic Boutique, and Boots ‘N Roots! Readers will savor the poignant moments of mother-daughter time; and “laugh to keep from crying,” when those heart felt tensions ring so true.