Carved in Sand: When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife
Written by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin
Narrated by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Acclaimed journalist Cathryn Jakobson Ramin takes readers on a lively journey to explain what happens to memory and attention in middle age.
Anyone older than forty knows that forgetfulness can be unnerving, frustrating, and sometimes terrifying. With compassion and humor, Jakobson Ramin sets out to discover what midlife forgetfulness is all about—from the perspectives of physiology, psychology, and sociology. Relentless in her search for answers to questions about her own unreliable memory, she explores the factors that determine how well—or poorly—one's brain will age. She consults experts in the fields of sleep, stress, traumatic brain injury, hormones, genetics, and dementia, as well as specialists in nutrition, cognitive psychology, and the burgeoning field of drug-based cognitive enhancement. The landscape of the midlife brain is not what you might think, and to understand its strengths and weaknesses turns out to be the best way to cope.
A groundbreaking work that represents the best of narrative nonfiction, this is a timely, highly readable, and much-needed book for anyone whose memory is not what it used to be.
Cathryn Jakobson Ramin
Investigative journalist Cathryn Jakobson Ramin is the author of Carved in Sand: When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife, published by HarperCollins in 2007. Her new book about the back pain industry, Crooked, will be published in April 2017. She’s written for many national magazines on topics that include healthcare, neuroscience, business, public policy, travel, art, design and culture. A popular speaker, these days, she’s booking lectures that enlighten patients, health care practitioners, corporations and medical facilities about how to manage back pain. Cathryn is married to Ron Ramin, a music composer. They have two adult sons, Avery and Oliver, and a Jack Russell-Daschundt mix dog named Dasch, after the punctuation mark, which he resembles. She divides her time between Northern California and New York City. Facebook: http://bit.ly/fbcrooked . Twitter: @cjramin
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Reviews for Carved in Sand
27 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A 'fun' read with lots of examples of forgetting that I could relate to. Written in a non-scholarly manner. Highlights some of the recent memory work without documentation.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I was fairly disappointed with this book. The premise was great, but I didn;t feel like I learned anything useful except for the author's personal issues.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The author, dealing with memory loss in mid-life, dives into this issue as she's not willing to just sign it off as something that happens to all of us at this time. She details the "Interventions" she goes through and tells us the good and the bad results as they unfold. While there was no simple pill or treatment for her, as a reader I came away with the knowledge that memory loss isn't inevitable. If your doctor shrugs it off you need to push him or her to help you find the cause. Barring a severe medical issue, it's not too late to do something to stem the tide.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Journalist Cathryn Jakobson Ramin sets out to discover the cause of her missed appointments, lost keys, forgotten names, etc. She interviews experts in the field of mind studies as well as peers dealing with the same issue. It's comforting to know others having similar problems, but the entire subject is a little frightening for those of us of a similar age. Worth reading.