Waiting on Wednesday - Inside the O'Briens

This is a weekly event that highlights a book we can't wait to be published.  It's hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

The book I selected this week is one I've actually already read.  I read an e-galley of this book at the end of last year before I came back to blogging.  And sent the publisher my reactions.  If you haven't been living under a rock the last few months, you are aware that Lisa Genova is the author of the book Still Alice and that a movie was made about Alice.  It starred Julianne Moore, who was also awarded an Academy Award for her performance.  I have read Still Alice and also this author's second book, Left Neglected.  Both were so emotional, sad, touching and yet so full of intricate details about their respective neurological conditions.  This week's highlighted book is about yet another neurological disease, Huntington's.  I loved this book and recommend it highly.  My pick this week is:

Inside the O'Briens

by Lisa Genova

Publication Date: April 7th

Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s Disease.

Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?

As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.