It’s almost the middle of the year, so I’m accepting the fact that a handful of books that I read months ago are not getting thorough reviews. A shame, because I probably had a lot to say about them but… but…

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

Here’s what has stayed with me about this book: a sickening sense of apprehension the whole time I was reading. And the truly shocking ending.

4/5

The Long Goodbye by Meghan O’Rourke

This book is often listed as one of the ‘best grief memoirs’. O’Rourke writes engagingly about the experience of her mother dying and her marriage ending (therefore different types of grief) but she also includes a lot of textbook explanations about grief and bereavement. I do not doubt that this would be helpful for many people but it didn’t offer anything new for me.

3/5

The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves by Siri Hustvedt

I have highlighted a million passages in this book. It was really interesting to me from a neurological science point-of-view. Brain stuff fascinates me. But Hustvedt can be hard going. Remember back in the day when word processing programs on your computer had a ‘readability index’ to decipher how clear and succinct your writing was? Fairly certain that Hustvedt would put the readability index into meltdown. I am accustomed to reading scientific texts; I don’t shy away from dense texts; but this was hard going. I pushed on because, as I said, there are passages of brilliance. Read it if you suffer from migraines (and beware that reading it might give you one).

3/5

My Brilliant Sister by Amy Brown

I feel really bad about not doing my bit to plug this charming story. Brown plays with structure and the result is a clever linking of three stories – the links aren’t necessarily obvious, but themes around family relationships intersect the three stories. Reimaginings of historical figures can be fraught – too often I find myself cringing at dialogue in historical novels, but not so here – it is beautifully done.

4/5