Left Neglected is the newly released novel by Lisa Genova author of Still Alice. I have not read the first one, but quite honestly if it is anything like the new one, I am going to put it on my Goodreads –to read – list. Maybe Goodreads should make a new designation, -must read-, to make things easier. Genova seems to have a thing about brains and the injury that can come to them, in Still Alice she tackles Alzheimer’s, in Left Neglected she goes after brain injury via auto accident that leaves our main character without the use of the left side of her brain. Here are the particulars of the novel:
“Sarah Nickerson is like any other career-driven supermom in Welmont, the affluent Boston suburb where she leads a hectic but charmed life with her husband Bob, faithful nanny, and three children—Lucy, Charlie, and nine-month-old Linus.
Between recruiting the best and brightest minds as the vice president of human resources at Berkley Consulting; shuttling the kids to soccer, day care, and piano lessons; convincing her son’s teacher that he may not, in fact, have ADD; and making it home in time for dinner, it’s a wonder this over-scheduled, over-achieving Harvard graduate has time to breathe.
A self-confessed balloon about to burst, Sarah miraculously manages every minute of her life like an air traffic controller. Until one fateful day, while driving to work and trying to make a phone call, she looks away from the road for one second too long. In the blink of an eye, all the rapidly moving parts of her jam-packed life come to a screeching halt.
A traumatic brain injury completely erases the left side of her world, and for once, Sarah relinquishes control to those around her, including her formerly absent mother. Without the ability to even floss her own teeth, she struggles to find answers about her past and her uncertain future.
Now, as she wills herself to regain her independence and heal, Sarah must learn that her real destiny—her new, true life—may in fact lie far from the world of conference calls and spreadsheets. And that a happiness and peace greater than all the success in the world is close within reach, if only she slows down long enough to notice.”
I like the concept and execution of the plotline, Genova follows through with it very well and delivers a very touching, gripping novel. The heartstrings get pulled often and the title although in one way is very literal can be taken in many ways, I really like that. The medical jargon at times goes a bit too far but I can’t help but admire the amount of research she did to prepare for the novel. Overall I would suggest reading this novel if for nothing else other than the different perspective. It allows the reader to gain to a perspective as to what and can be very important in one’s life and the variety of positive choices that can be made with regards to family and quality of life, the basic important things that come free and can’t be bought.
What are you reading today? Check us out and become our friend on Shelfari & Linkedin. Go to Goodreads and become our friend there and suggest books for us to read and post on. You can also follow us on Twitter,and Wattpad. Did you know you can shop directly on Amazon by clicking the Amazon Banner on our blog? Thanks for stopping by today; We will see you tomorrow. Have a great day. http://www.gelatisscoop.blogspot.com

A wonderful story about a brain injury, relationships, courage and making life changing decisions. This is a perfect melding of medical and personal story lines. We all took away different messages that affected our own personal lives.

Excellent story line, wonderful characters, fast reading!

Loved this book. Story about a women who suffers from a tramatic brain injury but really a story about life. Reminds us all of what we have and how we let life take over and forget what is really important.
The author was able to make us feel Sarah's pain without it being depressing. Like her previous book "Still Alice" it is worth the read and very informative! Loved it!

If you liked Still Alice - you will LOVE Left Neglected. Lisa Genova has quickly become my favorite author. Do not miss out on this book!

A good read and will inspire conversations regarding our own hectic lives.......

I really liked this book, however, I liked Still Alice so much better. They are both by Lisa Genova. I had no idea what it would be about. I found Sarah very brave. Her relationship with her Mother and children changed so dramatically after the accident and it was uplifting.

The book presented a very believable family dealing with an interesting after-effect of a brain injury. The book was a cautionary tale of leading a too frenzied life and also a hopeful tale of blessings and improvements coming out of seeming tragedies.

This book gave me powerful insight into something I knew nothing about. It was inspiring and I highly recommend the book, in fact, I have recommended it to friends.

A well writteen book, that was very informative about a medical condition of the brain.

I liked this book since it dealt with a disorder that I had never heard of before. In that respect it was very interesting and informative. As far as the story went it was somewhat unbelievable. My book club pretty much shared my view. We felt that a woman who was such a type A personality would probably have much more difficulty coming to grips with her disorder than the protagonist of this novel. Where was the depression, the angst and the utter disbelief of her situation. She was a little too happy go lucky and Polly Annish for all of us. But all in all a good, quick read.

Although LEFT NEGLECTED by Lisa Genova is fiction, it is about living with a real affliction, left neglect. Left neglect occurs after damage to the right side of the brain. The affected person is unaware of the left side of their body and the left side of everything around them. Therefore, she can’t process or perceive anything on the left side of her body or environment. Yet, this is not because of blindness or paralysis or even lack of sensation on the left side.

In LEFT NEGLECTED Sarah’s brain damage happens when she is on her way to work, preoccupied with locating her cell phone. Her car flipps. The next thing she knows, she’s in the hospital. She had been in a coma for about a week and would soon discover the symptoms of left neglect.

Before her accident, Sarah had been quite a busy working mother of three. Not only that, but her job as vice president of marketing was so time consuming, it was a wonder she had time for her family at all. Somehow, this superwoman did. But all that was about to change at least temporarily.

While I’ve been seeing much praise of Lisa Genova for her skillful writing about this medical condition, I give her hats off, too, for her ability to describe for pages and pages the life of a busy mom while still keeping me interested. I think you’ll enjoy, as I did, Genova’s humor as Sarah deals with each child before and after work.

Soon, though, Sarah has her car accident and is in the hospital. Now we see her begin dealing with her left neglect and with the people working on it with her. I can assure you, her descriptions are accurate. And, yet, both Sarah and the author keep their humor throughout.

When it’s time for Sarah to go home, though, will Genova be able to retain her accuracy or just keep trying to be funny? I was pleased to see that, yes, she still does both.

As I said, I can assure you that Genova is accurate in her descriptions of the feelings and thoughts of a brain injured person forced to live with this unexpected and, put lightly, inconvenient condition. Although brain injuries vary and do not all involve left neglect but some other result, the thoughts and feelings of the afflicted person and the reactions of nonafflicted people around her are common

We read Still Alice by the same author and have recommmended it to many of our friends and family members. Not knowing what lay ahead of me, I was aware of Lisa Genova's second book, Left Neglected and even listened to a radio interview by her about the subject. The story has taken a personal turn, my mother-in-law, who is a member of our book club suffered a stroke and is experiencing Left Side Neglect. This book has touched us all in ways we never expected. Well written, insightful and so helpful.

I read Lisa Genova's first book, Still Alice, loved it and was anxious to read this one. I was not disappointed! This book was excellent! Story of a mother, three kids, husband, living a busy life as a working mom at a high powered career. When she takes her eyes off the road on the way to work one day her life changes completely. Because of the condition (Left Neglect--damage to the right hemisphere of her brain so that everything on her "left" does not exist) she is left with a completely different life and has to adjust to all the changes. We see how she copes, triumphs and makes changes in her life that in the end end up being a wonderful thing! Highly recommend!

This obok was a quick read. The story is a heart-breaking one, but reflects real-life possibilities and lessons we all should stand up and take stock in. It's told with humor and love and humility, yet displays perserverence, resolve and acceptance. A little close to home for me having a familty member with a TBI (tramatic brain injury), but insightful as to what can go on in the mind fo someone with a TBI that they don't always let on.

I find that Lisa Genova is wonderful in developing characters so you are actually experiencing what they are! In a fictional format I feel like she teaches me about a subject - in this case the brain injury Left Neglect. Not only informative, a great story about human spirit, family dynamics and making choices about what is most important in your life. I would definitely recommend it! If you liked this book read Still Alice.

An interesting book that had us discussing hectic lifestyles and the possibility that maybe there is more to "intuition" and "gut feelings" than we think.

The story was a little confusing at first because there were some dream sequences that didn't make sense until the end. But the main character was interesting and her ultimate changes in her lifestyle as a result of the crisis in the book made for good discussion by our group. We felt that the author's previous book was a better read (Still Alice).

I love this author. She is bright, compassionate and draws you in as a reader. She tackles life's challenges with a very real way and with humor added in. I have both laughed and cried through both of her books!

Lisa Genova is an author I will be watching for. Left Neglected was another great story that was well written, interesting,eye opening and based on a real condition not widely spoken about.

Written by a neuro-scientist Left Neglected tells an interesting story of a woman with a head injury from her viewpoint. The set-up and the ending were a bit contrived. The main part about the rehabilitation was good and evoked lots of interesting conversation at the book club.

The author did an excellent job with this book. I was hooked and couldn\\\'t put it down. I laughed, cried and learned quite a bit. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

What a great book! Really makes you think in this busy world.

A fabulous read. A little convenient in places, but an informative and fast read. Enjoy

This was an interesting book about a neurological condition that I had never heard of. It shows the dramatic changes that occur in a Type A career woman's life after a car accident leaves her disabled. It also explores a very difficult mother-daughter relationship. I love the author's writing style.

Imagine finishing off a whole plateful of food and then being made aware that half of it has not been touched. Not only is this brain’s auto-pilot unable to process whatever appears to the left, but it cannot move the limbs on that side and the affected person will fall over if they stand up without care or assistance. This is a glimpse of coping with a brain condition called ‘Left Neglect’ (also known as Hemineglect, Unilateral spatial neglect, or Unilateral inattention and the book’s main character Sarah is affected by it after a major car accident. As it overturns her orderly world it forces her to re-assess priorities and the future.
Sarah is very proud of her career and achievements. She is a loving wife and doting mother; a coin in the mornings dictated whose hectic schedule would include dropping off their three children at school and the parent who did not have a meeting would collect them.
Post accident the seemingly helpless Sarah must re-assess her strengths. She must re-channel her determination to succeed; unless she can accept defeat in some directions of her life she will remain unable to do even the most basic things. Our readers likened the effects of ‘Left Neglect’ to being a ‘stroke’ victim or subject to an epidural. The idea of having no sensation or awareness of 50% of our boy and field vision was difficult to imagine.
Sarah is not likeable and that makes it difficult to sympathise with the couple as they struggle to come to terms with losing an exclusive lifestyle that they loved and had expected to maintain long-term. The author appears to be judgemental about women who choose a career and a family. Our group members observed that when children become less dependent, high earners could live and retire very comfortably.
Sarah’s mother is one of the more interesting people in the novel and it is unfortunate there is little focus on her depression. Her inability to support/nurture young Sarah appears to have been a catalyst in her daughter’s life choices. Having crumbled when her son drowned, she makes an unheralded reappearance at Sarah’s hospital bedside and her offers of help are rebutted at first and then become integral to the family’s survival.
This is an easy book to read and well written, and there is no doubt about the credibility of Lisa Genova’s background knowledge and research with a Ph.D in Neuroscience from Harvard University. The level of pathos, suffering or hardship never reaches a high level of interest or impact

with any of Lisa Genova's books. I have read all of them and they are all good!

We had a good discussion in our book club. Many members hadn't heard of the "left neglected" condition that is suffered from a brain injury and leaves the brain unable to remember the idea of left or right, depending on where the injury on the brain is. This book took too long to get started with the interesting stuff, and it did seem contrived, not great writing. But the concept of forgetting "left" is really intriguing.

This is the story of “an accident waiting to happen” and what happens once it does. Like Still Alice, Lisa Genova takes us to a scary place, this time with a cautionary tale. Three stories in one: a driven business woman, her son, and her mother, and her marriage. All good.