The Worst Day of My Life, So Far

Book 20 of my 2018 Reading Challenge

The Worst Day of My Life, So Far: My Mother, Alzheimer's, and Me 
by M.A. Harper

Summary (via the book jacket)
In The Worst Day of My Life, So Far, acclaimed novelist M.A. Harper takes us into the complex mind of Jeanne Roth, a middle-aged woman confronting the challenges of taking care of her mother Velma, who suffers with Alzheimer's. Resting in the shadow of her mother's undeniable beauty and Southern charm - the woman she always considered her heroine who is now becoming helpless - Jeanne realizes that heroes aren't born, they are made.
Jeanne, always an expert at analyzing others while neglecting herself, suffers a series of traumas, including her failed marriage and almost getting raped, which force her to reflect on her motives and goals in life: learning to stop pointing the finger at others, to free herself from worry, and to give herself more credit. She is forced to turn to a new person for inspiration: herself.
Through Jeanne, Harper helps us come to terms with thoughts and worries we may have, but are too proud to admit. We're reminded that although we're conscious of our daily routine, we may be out of touch with reality, causing us to questions the truth, if there is one at all. Ultimately, this is a story of a woman's journey toward self-discovery and confidence. It is a timely novel, one that shows us, through the tragedy of Alzheimer's, that there are no dead ends in life, only long roads, often without an end in sight.

My Opinion
I would definitely read this author again.  I like these kinds of books that I refer to as "Seinfeld books" because they're books about nothing but very entertaining.  Nothing unusual or monumental happens but I was absorbed in the people-watching of these flawed, realistic, interesting characters.

A Few Quotes from the Book
"Every morning that I woke up in Auletta and realized that I had not yet poisoned her, nor put my head in the oven, I figured that I was doing okay."

"Never look at your high school yearbook when you're depressed, I learned. Unless you know for a fact that the Homecoming Queen now weighs three-eighty. Or is dead."

"She is unlearning things, in roughly the same order that she learned them as a toddler. Unlearning. Dolores Bordelon thinks that this is all about memory loss, and it's not. It's about personhood loss."