Halpern's three-year inquiry into research on memory, aging, and Alzheimer's disease is an investigation of modern brain science rendered in creative nonfiction. Halpern gets to know a prominent neuroscientist, subjects herself to multiple tests (from paper-and-pencil tests to nuclear brain imaging), visits businesses involved in the quixotic race for memory-fixing drugs, and attends the Memory Olympics. She explains in plain English what science has discovered about learning and memory, what is currently agreed to improve memory, and what remains to be seen. No self-help book writer, Halpern has published four well-received books (e.g., Four Wings and a Prayer; Migrations to Solitude ) and written for the New York Times , the New York Review of Books , and Slate magazine; she is frank and funny about her own fears and memory lapses and gently debunks memory-boosting fads, leaving the reader with few suggestions of what the ordinary person can do. Her book documents (with references) the great strides that have been made and holds out hope for real treatments for Alzheimer's and age-related memory loss. Educational, fabulously well written, and on a hot topic. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries. [Halpern is married to nature writer Bill McKibben—Ed.]—Nancy Fontaine, Dartmouth Coll. Lib., Hanover, NH

Novelist and science writer Halpern (Four Wings and a Prayer ) wades bravely into the morass of modern memory research to sort the truth from a wide assortment of "hyperbole and promises and platitudes." The news is mixed: most of us won't develop Alzheimer's, but everyone will suffer some memory loss. After describing the different types of memory, Halpern gamely undertakes a series of brain scans used to reveal brain damage and tries diagnostic tests that measure memory through the ability to recall words, images and smells. Researchers have identified a gene closely linked with Alzheimer's, but drugs to treat or prevent memory loss are still far from reality, Halpern says, adding that for many drug companies, the success of a remedy is measured only by how quickly it moves off the shelves. Armed with a mix of hope and healthy skepticism, the author also examines claims that eating chocolate (among other things) or solving puzzles can improve brain function. "So much of who we know ourselves to be comes from what we remember," Halpern writes, and her timely book offers a vivid, often amusing introduction to a science that touches us all. (May)