Before I Forget

"Working with Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Shnayerson, B. and her husband Dan share B.'s unfolding story on dealing with early-onset Alzheimer's. Crafted in short chapters that interweave their narrative with ... advice, readers learn in small bites about dealing with Alzheimer's disease's day-to-day challenges, the family tensions, and ways of coping, as well as gain tips on diet and exercise from a lifestyle maven using her decades of expertise in a new and unexpected way"--

“An unsettling, compelling first novel about secrets, illness, and the role of African-American men in society and family life.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) This powerful novel of three generations of black men bound by blood—and by histories of mutual love, fear, and frustration—gives Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Leonard Pitts the opportunity to explore the painful truths of black men’s lives, especially as they play out in the fraught relations of fathers and sons. As fifty-year-old Mo tries to reach out to his increasingly tuned-out son Trey (who himself has become an unwed teenaged father), he realizes that the burden of grief and anger he carries over his own estranged father has everything to do with the struggles he encounters with his son. Part road novel, part character study, and part social critique, and written in compulsively readable prose, Before I Forget is the work of a major new voice in American fiction. Pitts knows inside and out the difficulties facing black men as they grapple with the complexities of their roles as fathers. “Pitts is a master storyteller with a keen eye for both social trends and the human heart.” —Tananarive Due, American Book Award-winning author “A beautiful, tragic and riveting work.” —Shelf Awareness (selected as one of top ten novels of 2009) “A gripping story of regret, revenge, unconditional love, acceptance, and ultimately forgiveness.” —Atlanta Daily World

Fiona Phillips is one of our best-loved television presenters. Well-known for being warm, chatty and down to earth, she attended her local comprehensive in Southampton before studying English in Birmingham. For over twelve years she presented GMTV, during which time she interviewed some of the most famous and influential people on the planet, from film stars to royalty, politicians to local heroes. But in August 2008 Fiona announced that she was to quit the job she loved, revealing that her father, Phil, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's just a year after her mother had died of the same disease and that she had decided to devote more time to him and to her family. Before I Forget is a wonderfully honest account of growing up in the 1960s and 70s within a complex family. During her childhood her father could sometimes be distant and demanding which both saddened her and drove her to succeed, her mother always the devoted wife and the steady heart of the family. When Fiona lands the job at GMTV she revels in how proud they are of her achievement. When her mother and then her father succumb to Alzheimer's we share in Fiona's sadness as she movingly describes watching them fade away, one moment interviewing George Clooney the next taking a call from Pembrokeshire Social Services to say that her mother had wandered away from her care home. Before I Forget is an extraordinary book which will resonate with Fiona's millions of fans and the millions of people who day-by-day are going through, or have gone through, the same experiences.

'Some days all I want to do is give up the constant, exhausting struggle and stop trying to be normal. But I can't. It's not in me to walk away from a fight. I'll keep fighting and telling my story. Before I forget.' When she was just 46, Christine Bryden – science advisor to the prime minister and single mother of three daughters – was diagnosed with younger-onset dementia. Doctors told her to get her affairs in order as she would soon be incapable of doing so. Twenty years later she is still thriving, still working hard to rewire her brain even as it loses its function. The unusually slow progress of her condition puts Christine in a unique position to describe the lived experience of dementia, a condition affecting tens of millions of people worldwide. In this revealing memoir, she looks back on her life in an effort to understand how her brain – once her greatest asset, now her greatest challenge – works now. She shares what it's like to start grasping for words that used to come easily. To be exhausted from visiting a new place. To suddenly realise you don't remember how to drive. To challenge, every day, the stereotype of the 'empty shell'. Brave and inspiring, this is Christine's legacy for people with dementia and those who care about them. 'Christine teaches us that we are more than what our brains are capable of remembering, that while we can still breathe and love, we all have something important to contribute to this world.' Lisa Genova, author of bestseller Still Alice

My ancestors went to Guyana, only English country in South America, by boats from different continents. My mother, Indian, father, Negro, ate the forbidden fruit. I was rejected from conception, amidst the hate and confusion. Old enough to walk, I became my older brothers Datson and Davids keeper. They were mute, deaf and later blind; I was their ears, mouth and later eyes Allegedly, curse on my mother from her father for marring a Black man. Nothing stopped me from loving, caring, being proud of them. Bigotry, hatred, ignorance engulfed my childhood in a providently Indian village. We were dehumanized like animals, freaks and slaves. Even the good Madras people of Whim couldnt stop the horror of being Mixed. In the house of silence, practicing my vocabulary/hearing on animals. Am an animal lover till today. Was told am Indian, speak, pray in Hindi and Sanskrit, keep away from Blacks; they eat Indian children with curly hair. After ten, this barefooted Indian found her other half. Allowed to enter their homes, gravitated and become a runaway. Giant ants, deepwater, dunce cap, ostracized Mommy died, Cinderella abuse stopped when my dearest Uncle Bertram set me free on an elephant - five-dollar bill. Like barnacle, I clamped to the first man in freedom town. He gave me three beautiful children, when nothing left to clamp onto, he forced me to fly without wings. Flew to America, cold, homeless, penniless. A Stranger gave me some silver. I slept under friends table, a kind family made me and mine American Citizens. No job was too many. Goodwill perfect for low-maintenance like us. Education and focus, #1 priority I thank/forgive those haters who looked down at me, they gave me the will to rise. I have my David, and, for not eating my young, God blessed me with six grandchildren.

Now in his late-eighties, and listed by the National Trust as a 'Living Treasure', in Before I Forget Geoffrey Blainey reflects on his humble beginnings as the son of a Methodist Minister and school teacher, one of five children, and a carefree childhood spent in rural Victoria, from Terang to Leongatha, Geelong to Ballarat. From a young age these places ignited for Blainey a great affection for the Australian landscape, and a deep curiosity in Australia's history. He longed to travel, and would climb atop the roof of their home to stare out at the Great Dividing Range and imagine the world beyond. His mother created gardens wherever they went and had literary ambitions of her own; his father spent more on books than he could ever afford, and the library travelled with the family. Blainey's devotion to the Geelong Football Club began in Newtown from where he'd watch his team play at Corio, and as a newsboy he developed an early interest in current affairs, following the dramas and triumphs of the Second World War and the political careers of local identities John Curtin and Robert Menzies. With a burning desire to see Sydney but barely a penny to his name, he hitched there with a schoolfriend to see the harbour that greeted the First Fleet, and visited the national theatre of Parliament House on the way home to see Billy Hughes, JT Lang, Arty Fadden, Arthur Calwell, Enid Lyons and hero Ben Chifley in action. The course of Blainey's life changed when he was awarded a scholarship to board at Wesley College in Melbourne - an opportunity that instilled in him a great love of learning, under the tutelage of a group of inspiring teachers. This flourished further at the University of Melbourne, first as a wide-eyed student at Queen's Collage, where he was lectured by Manning Clarke, and later as a professor of history. Later he and Manning Clarke became great friends, both sitting on the Whitlam Government's new Literature Board. Hours spent at Melbourne's State Library as a student poring over the country's old newspapers cemented his calling to become a professional historian. Like Clarke Blainey has always been compelled to visit the places of our historical interest, including places of archaeological and Indigenous significance. Now the author of over forty books, Geoffrey Blainey claims he has discovered Australia's history his own way - and is still learning. Warm, insightful and lyrically written, Before I Forget recounts the experiences and influences that have shaped the astonishing mind of Australia's most loved historian. But in this book Blainey has given us something more - a fascinating and affectionate social history in and of itself.