Remembering the Music, Forgetting the Words

Travels with Mom in the Land of Dementia

By Kate Whouley
(Beacon Press, Paperback, 9780807003312, 240pp.)

Publication Date: September 25, 2012

Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover

Categories: Personal Memoirs, Diseases - Alzheimer's & Dementia, Eldercare

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the September 2011 Indie Next List

Kate Whouley lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where she is the founder and owner of Books in Common, an independent book-industry consulting company. Her first book, Cottage for Sale, Must Be Moved, was a Book Sense Book-of-the-Year nominee. Whouley’s personal essays have appeared in the Cape Cod Times, Boston Globe, and the book-industry online journal Shelf Awareness. 

“A lovely, honest account of her mother’s decline into Alzheimer’s disease.”—The Boston Globe

“In her often humorous and always compassionate memoir, Whouley hopes to transform how people relate to a loved one with Alzheimer's disease."—USA Today

“Whouley’s poignant, perceptive story of remembrance may not make the word 'Alzheimer’s' any easier to hear, but her book offers a perspective that may relieve, comfort and perhaps ease the minds of those who are facing some of the same dilemmas with elder family members – dilemmas about care, yes, but also about just how to take in the idea of communicating with someone who will likely not remember that communication scant moments later.”—The Barnstable Patriot

“Whouley gracefully keeps a balance between poignancy and humor. Her intelligent, sensitive voice is a treat…”—Shelf Awareness 

“Reading Kate Whouley’s memoir felt like sitting down with an old friend over coffee...As a reader, I felt privileged to be on the receiving end of such a confidence, which concerns the most important issues: family, mortality, our aloneness in the world, our connection in the face of it.  I read it in two sittings and turned the last page with regret.”—David Payne, author of Back to Wando Passo  
 
"An exceptional memoir that reminds us—often with surprising humor—of the richness of life in good times and bad."—David Dosa MD, author of Making Rounds With Oscar 
 
“Remembering the Music, Forgetting the Words made me want to go hug my mother. It also made me want to go hug Kate Whouley for her generous, fearless and spot-on recounting of a mother-daughter relationship during its most tragic yet poignantly beautiful years.”—Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of Sundays in America               
   
“With books as her background and music as her guide, Kate Whouley helps her mother navigate the journey of Alzheimer’s. Recalling her mother’s impressive past, Whouley tries to reconcile her “new” mother with the old. Whouley’s straightforward, and at times, very funny take at her mother’s struggles and her own will strike home to many readers familiar with the caregiver role. Incorporating her life-long passion as a flutist, Whouley’s tone and reflection of music in every aspect of the journey fills the book with hope and, yes, joy.  I hope I would be as graceful and kind if I ever become my mother’s support system. Full of mother-daughter issues, identity, grief, loss, along with lots of love, and enduring friendships, Remembering The Music, Forgetting the Words is perfect fodder for reading groups!”—Barbara Drummond Mead, Editor of Reading Group Choices
 
“Remembering the Music is a dance of a daughter’s spirit as she releases her mother (and the reader) to another realm.”—Joan Anderson, Author of A Year By The Sea     

“In Remembering the Music, Forgetting the Words, Kate Whouley explores the mysteries of the human heart with wisdom and wit, giving us a story rich with kindness and comfort.”—Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Close Your Eyes