I’m very late in giving feedback here. Why We Forget and How to Remember is a fascinating, informative book written by experts in how our brains work to remember different things. This book I think would work well as a reference/self help book as it has many tips on how to improve your memory. As an audiobook, it has many good anecdotes. I wish the tone were a little bit more public facing but I found this enjoyable and educational.

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
The book has lots of information about how to improve your memory. It also goes into why and how you forget.

Why We Forget and How To Remember Better: The Science Behind Memory, written by Andrew E. Budson, MD and Elizabeth A. Kensinger, PhD, and narrated by Elise Arsenault shows you how to use these answers to improve your memory. You will learn: how memory's most important function isn't to help you remember details from your past; how memory is actually a collection of different abilities; how you create, store, and retrieve memories of your daily life; ways to control what you remember and what you forget; ways to distinguish between a true and false memory; effective ways to study for an exam; how to remember people's names, all your passwords, fifty digits of Pi, and anything else you wish; how memory changes in normal aging, Alzheimer's disease, depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, and other disorders—including COVID brain fog; and how exercise, nutrition, alcohol, cannabis, sleep, mindfulness, and music affect your memory.

Why We Forget and How To Remember Better is a well written, researched, and narrated audiobook. I liked that the authors put their recommendations and research based finding into use in the format of the book, using the small chunks and repetition that they suggest for aiding forming lasting memory into the structure and flow of the book. I wish this book had been out when I was still in school, maybe I would have studied in a different way and still remember some the language and math details that might come in handy. Most of the book was very practical and informational, and I was glad to learn some of how memory works and changes I can make to better remember names and little things that often slip away. I thought the text was easy to follow and I thought the narrator did a good job with the read. Some of the book was a little beyond my interest level, but could be very interesting and helpful to others. Schemas for mnemonic and other tools were more advanced than anything I was looking for but I liked that they actually noted that these tools were not for everyone and put them at the end of the book as such for those that had interest in learning more about them and how to put them into practice.

Why We Forget and How To Remember Better offers readers exactly what the title promises, and does it in a accessible way.

***** I received this ARC audiobook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Let’s just say I am a bit of a “memory nerd”. This book was right up my alley. It was broken into parts so that you could use it as a reference to learn more of what you are specifically looking for or read the entire thing. Each part has a well written summary. For those looking for specific topics this addition would be very helpful.

This book was packed with knowledge about memory loss and what causes it. It had tips to keep it from happening. It also had a wealth of information to teach you strategies to remember more!

Why We Forget and How to Remember Better intrigued me when I was browsing titles. I have a family history of Alzheimer’s disease and I want to do what I can to maintain brain health for myself.

I found parts of this book interesting, but overall I feel it was far too long. At 12 hours, it’s a long audiobook and most of it felt targeted at college students which is not my current life experience. The sections on is it normal aging or is it a brain disease was the most important for me, and I’m glad I stuck it out for that section.

I think this book is great for students and with organized chapters, it is the kind of book that you could pick and choose what is of importance to you. However, I’m less enthusiastic about it as a nonfiction read from cover to cover.

Our Memory and How it Works

This was a very informative book. It explained how our memory works and what causes us to either remember or to forget. It describes the different kinds of memory and also how different memories can be connected to each other.

It goes on to describe what happens in memory loss and how we can work to help prevent it. How memory is lost due to head injury , illness and aging and sometimes even medications. It was very descriptive and informative.

I did sometimes have a hard time with the technical words but they were explained well. I did not have a hard time understanding what the book was trying to tell me. It was set aside into different sections which dealt primarily with one subject of memory but mentioned most briefly in each section.

The book was laid out well, it was explained extremely well and it gave some very important and useful information on how to better remember using different methods.
The narrator was easy to listen to and very easy to understand.

The book was a help to me, I will try some of the methods mentioned and hopefully it will help me to remember events better and clearer.

Thanks to Andrew E. Budson, M.D. and Elizabeth A. Kensinger PhD for writing this helpful and informative book, to Elise Arsenault for the wonderful narration, to Tanor Audio for publishing it and to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the audio book to listen to and review.

This is an excellent book that is well written and researched, friendly, informative, and ultimately useful. It can help answer a lot of questions people have about memory, such as why we forget keys, get in car accidents while distracted, determining if memory issues are age or the beginning of Alzheimers, best ways of remembering new people's names or memorizing a presentation, and how the brain works. I listened to the audio narration and the narrator was excellent - one of the best I've heard for a non fiction book.

The book is broken down into two main sections: the first half explains the different parts of the brain that pertain to memory and how they work/interwork. The second half goes over ways to help strengthen memory: tips, tools, tricks, and things that make memorizing or remembering easier. As well, there is a section on how not to remember (e.g., traumatic or embarrassing events you can't seem to get rid of).

Perhaps the best thing about the book is that the authors always have excellent examples for each of the topics they are discussing. They are all useful and are extremely helpful since they are so relatable. Whether it is a person learning a new language, how to retrieve lost memories, remembering where the car was parked in a parking garage, or examples in history when scientific discoveries were made. The authors live up to the discussion by presenting aids that helps us to remember the concepts being discussed.

Although the audio book was great, it is important to note that the authors are adamant you cannot do two things at once well. So while I listened to this book while doing a nightly walk, I do encourage you to read the book so you can easily go back and reference points. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

I thought this book was interesting. It gave me an interesting point of view about memory and how it works. I’ve always been fascinated with the mind. Some words were a little difficult to comprehend but overall it was a great book! Thanks to the authors, publishers and NetGalley for letting me read this book!

I really enjoyed this book, the structure worked really well and it covered a great range of detail! I found it a little repetitive in places but the authors stated this was intentional as a memory practice. I did find that a lot of the tricks they suggested to learn and memorise information relied on picturing things - which I am unable to do so that I found a little tricky and not so helpful for me, but I'm sure those memory methods work great for other people.

This non fiction book about memory was very interesting! Although it is not revolutionary and I didn't learn much new things about memory (aka exercise, eat well and sleep well to have a better memory), it contained a lot a very interesting facts I did not know (e.g. people with Alzheimer's are more likely to remember what is not true). I listened to the audio book and the narrator did a great job, but I do suggest to read this one with your eyes (either in ebook of physical copy), because it is a very good reference to go back to, and I find it harder to skip back and forth to a particular section in its audio form. I loved that it was very much in layman's terms, even in the parts that were more scientific.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This non fiction book contained some interesting information about memory but most that I already knew. Some of the information regarding health and BMI were outdated but the overall messaging about memory/mental was good.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Best Book On Memory I Can Remember

This was a truly amazing book on memory

Quite possibly the best book I've read on learning strategies for best recovering memory finding out why we forget things and how to optimize your memory

I really got a lot of tips out of this book and found it structured really well

I must read for people who want to optimize their learning with great strategies and tips

Highly recommended!

4.6/5

I opted for listening to this on audiobook and am glad I did, because I was able to get through more of the book listening to it. However, I’m wishing I’d of had the hard copy to make notes because it was a heavy vocabulary book coming from a psychology major in college, I’m thankful I had some sort of background of the topic going in. It was very informative and even someone who doesn’t have a background in the subject would be able to pick up on the subjects quickly. I think the topics were presented well and built upon each other, and the repetition helped grasp some of the topics over the course of the audiobook.

I think the topic initially drew me in, and I’ll revisit it later in the future as I am working with my own kids in schooling and mastering topics, as well as having an elderly grandparent with Alzheimer’s running in my family. Thank you Andrew and Elizabeth for presenting the topics covered here in a way that’s accessible for anyone.

I really enjoyed this non-fiction book. It was very informative with helpful about memory and how to improve it. As someone that claims that I don't have a good memory, I now understand so much more. The audiobook narrator did a good job. Thanks to Netgalley and the audiobook publisher for allowing me to read and review this audiobook.

This is a comprehensive, entertaining, and easy-to-read book about memory and how to improve it. It's useful for people of all ages.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.