What Alice Forgot

While attending the Book Expo in NYC, I enjoyed attending a panel discussion featuring Liane Moriarty. As a fan of her writing, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to her talk about her books and life. She was so charming and entertaining that I wanted to read more of her work. What Alice Forgot tells the story of Alice, a young woman in her late thirties who wakes up with amnesia and realizes she can't remember the past ten years of her life. Her marriage is in disrepair, she doesn't know her children, and many of her relationships with family and friends have drastically changed. I felt for Alice and her confusion as she discovers herself ten years later. I couldn't help but reflect on my younger self and the steadfast ideals I once held. This book sends a strong message about priorities and how people can easily stray from their original values. Staying true to one's beliefs is not always easy for everyone. The story is both thought-provoking and entertaining, with excellent character development. It offers many topics for discussion and would make a fantastic book club selection. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice's surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over-she's getting divorced, she has three kids, and she's actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it's possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she's become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it's possible to start over...

1. Did you like the younger Alice best? Or did you relate more to the older Alice?

2. What would your younger self of ten years ago think of the person you are today?

3. What would surprise your younger self most about the life you're currently leading? What would disappoint you?

4. What would you think of your children? Are they how you imagined they would be? Are you the parent you envisioned? Why or why not?

5. Alice is shocked by many transformations-her gym-toned body, her clothes, her house. Are you more or less polished than you were a decade ago? And do you think there's any deeper significance to such change?

6. Were you happy with the ending? Do you think it was realistic? Was it inevitable? Do you think it would have happened that way if Alice had not lost her memory?

7. In order for Nick to be successful at his job, was it inevitable that he would spend less time with his family and thereby grow apart from Alice?

8. How did you feel about the sections written from the perspectives of Elisabeth and Frannie? Did they add to your enjoyment of the book, or would you have preferred to have it written entirely from Alice's point of view?

9. Do you think it was unavoidable that Elisabeth and Alice had grown apart, because of the tension caused by Elisabeth's infertility versus Alice's growing family? Or do you think their rift had more to do with the kind of people both of them had become?

10. It's not only Alice who changed over the last decade. Elisabeth changed, too. Do you think she would have been so accepting of the new Alice at the end if she herself didn't get pregnant?

11. Out of all the characters in the book, who do you think had changed the most over the past decade and why?

12. The film rights to the book have been sold to Fox 2000-who do you think would be good in the lead roles? If you were to write a letter to your future self to be opened in ten years, what would you say?