Fans pick 100 books like The 36-Hour Day

First, this book provides a wonderful history of the important discoveries of the different aspects of the disease. You also learn the stories behind many aspects of the disease that are now taken for granted—even with our 25+ years of treating people with this disease and conducting research to understand it better, we learned a lot. Dr. Karlawish also explains why research into dementia languished for more than 50 years. Finally, he raises many thought-provoking ethical issues that people with dementia, doctors, and society will need to wrestle with if we are going to solve “The Problem of Alzheimer’s.” 

Reading Patti Davis’s book is like sitting in her living room talking with her, one caregiver to another. Because she not only lived through Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with her father, Ronald Reagan, but ran a support group for a number of years, her knowledge is vast and she shares it with you. For example, chapters with titles such as, “Grief Arrives Early,” “Creative Lying,” “The Battle Over Bathing,” and “Where is the Person I Knew?” discuss important topics in relatable ways. Her story and the way she tells it also make this book a wonderful read.

I loved this book so much that I have recommended it more than any other book in recent years. It is so well written that no one needs to have any interest in Alzheimer’s, which is what the fictional Alice is diagnosed with, to be affected by the story.

At first, I was concerned that it was not the story of a “real” person but an amalgam of many. But the story told allowed her to take me to a more personal place of understanding the loss of self that Alice endured, the strength of character as she fought back, and the journey her family was on to try and deal with what this loss meant to her.

It was clear this stunning book should be a movie, and though I also loved the movie, I’m glad I read the book first; it goes into detail you can only get… show more.

Over the years, I’m often asked to recommend books for caregivers about Alzheimer’s or memory loss in general. I often hesitated because so many books are so dreadfully depressing and clinical. In particular, some older books are not in keeping with the more contemporary views on a disease, which is, yes, a cruel and unrelenting villain, but there is hope to be found.

This book showcases many years of experience with thousands of people on the same journey, the opposite of the many books out there that just tell one person’s story. If I have learned anything, it is that all people with Alzheimer’s are different and experience this disease differently.

The late, great Joanne, from whom I got my dementia certification, has a much more useful and uplifting approach for families and friends of those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It's a classic. 

This book shows you how to meet many of the daily challenges of caring for someone with dementia. Illustrated through the heartfelt stories of others this book shows your how The Best Friends method brings dignity to the lives of those presenting dementia symptoms and those who are caring for them.

I found the explanation of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia symptoms very interesting and helpful, specifically how this type of loss and experience can make the individual feel. I appreciated learning additional and successful ways to respond and communicate to many situations that caregivers face when caring for any individual with any cause of dementia symptoms.

Dementia care is complex and different for every person, and I am always looking for new perspectives and care approaches to share with family and professional care providers that can give confidence and feelings of empowerment to anyone on their individual dementia care journey-and… show more.

The 36-Hour Day is a comprehensive guide for caregivers that is often recommended by physicians to the families caring for a loved one with any cause of dementia symptoms or cognitive decline. I found the information provided very practical on the medical, legal, financial, and emotional aspects of caring for an individual presenting any level of dementia symptoms.

The clinical insights provided were very helpful, and the information for the caregiver throughout on the value of accessing outside help is such an important reminder for them to not try and navigate this dementia care journey alone!

Combining practical advice with specific examples on how to cope with the challenges associated with caring for a loved one with dementia symptoms make this an excellent guide for the family caregiver.

Difficult for me not to gush about this book by my good friend! It is amazingly rich. It builds on Kitwood, introducing the idea of ‘malignant positioning’. It deepens Kitwood’s approach to personhood using William Stern’s notion of ‘Critical Personalism’. Steve sets out how, from a social constructionist standpoint, we can give different accounts of selfhood. He shows how these remain relevant even as dementia advances. The richness, for me, comes from the verbatim accounts of people with whom Steve worked closely over an extended period of time. Theory and reality come together. We get to know real people and see into the intricacies of their lives. The importance of the new culture of dementia care – where seeing the person as a psychosocial being is imperative – becomes utterly compelling. 

Among my prescriptions to caregivers – especially those who struggle to find meaning and in creating a typical day that is safe, social, and engaged – is Anne Basting’s book. Basting, a theater arts professor, makes a persuasive case that upends the usual and customary approaches to caring for persons living with dementia. Her central premise is this: Together, caregivers and patients can create. She offers concrete ideas and steps to address some of the most vexing challenges such as when a patient asks the whereabouts of a long-ago deceased relative.

Lynn Casteel Harper, currently minister for older adults at The Riverside Church in New York City, has written a compassionate book about contemporary fears of aging, dementia, and death. She shows how these fears produce greater social isolation and suffering for people living with dementia and caring for loved ones, whether in private homes or in care communities. She uses personal experiences to illustrate the way our fears of “vanishing” can be overcome when we learn to connect meaningfully with people with dementia.

This first-person account of living with a biomarker-defined diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is a clearly written story of two very distinct, even antagonistic experiences. There’s the highly subjective experience of being a patient and the highly objective experience of being a physician who has diagnosed and cared for persons with the same disease. In one book is one narrative of two perspectives embodied in one person. The result is an unadorned account of what it’s like to lose one’s mind just a little bit at a time. Case in point is his account of apathy. I’m routinely prescribing this book to my patients.