Today, September 21, 2023 is “World Alzheimer’s Day… a global effort to raise awareness and challenge the stigma around Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia.” https://www.alz.org/about/awareness-initiatives/world-alzheimers-day

To celebrate, I want to share a new book I’m a few chapters into: Travelers to Unimaginable Lands: Stories of Dementia, the Caregiver, and the Human Brain, by Dasha Kiper (Penguin 2023).

For me, it’s already on my “you MUST read this if you’re a dementia caregiver” list, next to The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease and Other Dementias, by Nancy L. Mace and Peter V. Rabins (7th ed., Johns Hopkins U, 2021).

I do a lot of reading to understand my partner’s Alzheimer’s. I’m far from expert, but I can talk about beta-amyloid, tau tangles and acetylcholinesterase inhibitors; what sundowning is, why benzodiazepines might not be a good idea, and what to do if a person with dementia gets argumentative. But here’s a book about me, and why my brain as a caregiver for someone with dementia sometimes feels like that fried-egg “just say no to drugs” commercial (for those who want a nostalgia kick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gaxWcHkbpI).

Travelers uses a nuanced understanding of how memory is stored and retrieved, along with snippets from literature (Borges, Kafka) and case studies, to answer the question “If I’m not the one with dementia, why am I feeling like I’m crazy?”