Home: A Novel

Published Sept. 2, 2008.

Marilynne Robinson has written very few novels, only three. However, they are all prize winners. Her second novel Gilead won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005.  This novel focuses on Rev. John Ames and his efforts to leave a legacy for his very young son from a second marriage.

After reading Gilead, I learned that she wrote a sequel, or really a parallel novel, Home.  This novel describes the life of another family in Gilead, Iowa: Rev. Robert Boughton and his adult children Glory and Jack.

Like Gilead, this novel is quiet and understated.  The main action takes place when Jack returns home after a twenty year absence. Once he arrives, his father and sister start to review events from decades past.

In Between: Assisted Living

Photo by Esthr.

It's moving day for many older adults. But where are they going when they have a little trouble living independently?

Until the 1980s, housing for older adults in the United States included two extreme options: they could continue to live in their own homes, or they could move to a skilled nursing facility.

This often left people with a mismatch between needs and services.

They might stay too long in their own homes and manage poorly. Or they might move too soon into a care facility and loose too much independence.

Luckily, there are more housing options today.

Inside the Dementia Epidemic: Book Review

Published 21 September 2012.

Mother-daughter relationships are already complex.

Add to the mix, the mother's history of alcoholism and mental illness as well as her emerging dementia, and the relationship threatens to complicate beyond the bureaucratic nightmares of a Kafka novel.

But not so for Martha Stettinius and her mother Judy.  In the pages of her memoir, Stettinius describes a tender relationship with a focus on the seven years spent caregiving since her mother's minor car accident in 2005 until just months before Judy's death in December of 2012.

That minor slip into a ditch signaled significant changes to Judy's cognition, leading to a diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease.

(A review copy was provided by the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.) 

And in order to establish context, Stettinius reaches back to describe her childhood memories of her mother--some happy, some decidedly not. The author also spends time extolling her mother's strengths as a school teacher, as a member of a recovery group, and as a nature enthusiast who lived for decades alone in an idyllic lake house.

Health Benefits of Sardines

Photo by kelpenhagen.

Because I am concerned about my bone health, I've recently added sardines to my diet.

Calcium. Canned sardines contain a lot of calcium and phosphates, which help strengthen bones.  But since I started eating sardines, I learned that they have other health benefits as well.

Omega 3. They contain significant amounts of omega 3 fatty acids, which can protect against heart disease and stroke. Omega 3 fatty acids also might help with arthritis.

While there is no strong evidence that high levels of omega 3 can prevent dementia, those with low levels of omega 3 do demonstrate memory problems.

Protein.  They are a good source of protein as well.  One serving contains 21.5 grams of protein.  A person weighing 150 pounds should eat about 68 grams of protein per day.

Many older adults fail to get enough protein in their daily diet. Sardines are reasonably priced and can be purchased in cans, which can be stored for several weeks if not months (check the expiration dates carefully).