Finding the Right Words

A Story of Literature, Grief, and the Brain

By: Cindy Weinstein, Bruce L. Miller MD

Narrated by: Jennifer M. Restak

Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

The moving story of an English professor studying neurology in order to understand and come to terms with her father's death from Alzheimer's.

In 1985, when Cindy Weinstein was a graduate student at UC Berkeley, her beloved father, Jerry, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He was 58 years old. Twelve years later, at age 70, he died having lost all of his memories, along with his ability to read, write, and speak.

Finding the Right Words follows Weinstein's decades-long journey to come to terms with her father's dementia as both a daughter and an English professor. Although her lifelong love of language and literature gave her a way to talk about her grief, she realized that she also needed to learn more about the science of dementia to make sense of her father's death. To write her story, she collaborated with Dr. Bruce L. Miller, neurologist and director of the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California, San Francisco, combining personal memoir, literature, and the science and history of brain health into a unique, educational, and meditative work.

Finding the Right Words is an invaluable guide for families dealing with a life-changing diagnosis.

The book is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"Exceptionally well written, organized and presented." (Midwest Book Review)

"A compelling story that will likely touch many who have lived through the loss of a family member with dementia." (Anne M. Kenny, MD, Emerita Professor, University of Connecticut)

"Read this book to understand how your brain creates your self." (Jeffrey Cummings, MD, ScD, University of Nevada Las Vegas)

©2021 Johns Hopkins University Press (P)2023 Redwood Audiobooks