April 13, 2021 Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker Reviewed by Lory Widmer-Hess Schizophrenic. The very word is a trigger for aversion, a signal to run away, with its spiky, spluttered consonants and…
April 8, 2021 Heavy Light: A Journey through Madness, Mania and Healing by Horatio Clare Reviewed by Peter Reason It was on a family skiing holiday that Horatio Clare finally went mad. This was the culmination of a period…
October 13, 2020 Spoon-Fed by Tim Spector Reviewed by Annabel Kings College Hospital-based Professor Tim Spector’s name is, I hope, becoming more widely known in the UK since the pandemic began….
August 27, 2020 The Changing Mind by Daniel Levitin Reviewed by Terence Jagger This is a wonderful book, and the real title is the sub-title: A Neuroscientist’s Guide to Ageing Well. It is…
July 2, 2020 Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty Reviewed by Rebecca Foster When the Wainwright Prize longlists (for writing on UK nature and global conservation themes) were announced in early June, Dara…
June 11, 2020 Wayfinding by Michael Bond Review by Terence Jagger I found this book absolutely fascinating. I have always been fairly confident in my abilities as a navigator (though with…
April 23, 2020 ‘Not’ the Wellcome Prize Blog Tour 2020 #2 – Galileo’s Error by Philip Goff The Wellcome Book Prize is on hiatus this year – we really hope it’ll return in 2021 as this unique prize, which celebrates literature…
April 23, 2020 ‘Not’ the Wellcome Prize Blog Tour 2020 #1 – Vagina A Re-Education by Lynn Enright The Wellcome Book Prize is on hiatus this year – we really hope it’ll return in 2021 as this unique prize, which celebrates literature…
April 16, 2020 Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild by Lucy Jones Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Back in early March, just before literary events started being cancelled due to coronavirus, I had the good fortune to…
November 7, 2019 Galileo’s Error: A New Science of Consciousness by Philip Goff Review by Peter Reason This is a book about the philosophical perspective of panpsychism, written by a leading academic advocate. Panpsychism is an awkward…
September 5, 2019 The Remarkable Life of the Skin by Monty Lyman Review by Simon. The number of science books I’ve read can be numbered on my fingers, and number of science books I’ve read that weren’t written…
July 30, 2019 This Really Isn’t About You by Jean Hannah Edelstein Review by Max Dunbar There’s a common British anecdote that goes: ‘We had some American friends here on holiday, and on the third day…
April 9, 2019 The Art of Life Admin: How to do Less, do it Better, and Live More, by Elizabeth Emens Review by Liz Dexter Emens is a professor of Law who made the discovery a while back that there was something invisible and other…
March 26, 2019 War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line by David Nott Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Looking out from my inconsequential life, I’m often envious of people who save lives on a regular basis – doctors,…
February 19, 2019 With the End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix Reviewed by Annabel Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize in 2018 this book, which is full of wisdom and compassion, was one of the…
February 14, 2019 I Am Dynamite! A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche by Sue Prideaux Review by Max Dunbar Alpha males in print tend to be omega males in real life. Friedrich Nietzsche was not rich during his lifetime….
November 27, 2018 Nine Pints: A Journey through the Mysterious, Miraculous World of Blood by Rose George Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Rose George is the author of three previous wide-ranging nonfiction books, about refugees, human waste and foreign shipping. In Nine…
November 1, 2018 The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal by Horatio Clare Review by Peter Reason Reading the title of this book and seeing the book cover, the prospective reader might, as did I, expect a…
September 18, 2018 On Rape by Germaine Greer Review by Anna Hollingsworth To say that the statistics are grim is a blatant understatement. One woman in five will experience sexual violence, but…
August 9, 2018 How to Change your Mind: The new science of psychedelics by Michael Pollan Review by Peter Reason ‘The soul should always stand ajar.’ It is fitting that Michael Pollan introduces his latest book on the resurgence in…
April 12, 2018 To Be a Machine by Mark O’Connell Review by Annabel I loved this book from the front cover to the back, starting with its title – that capital ‘B’ is crucial…
April 3, 2018 Diary of a Bipolar Explorer by Lucy Newlyn Reviewed by Jean Morris This is both useful and beautiful. Lucy Newlyn, recently retired Oxford professor of English literature, author of a lovely book,…
February 22, 2018 From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty Reviewed by Rebecca Foster If you’ve read thirtysomething California funeral director Caitlin Doughty’s previous book, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, you’ll remember her account…
October 26, 2017 This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay Review by Annabel I love reading medical memoirs, we’ve featured neurosurgeon Henry Marsh’s two volumes here at Shiny (see my review of Do No…
October 17, 2017 I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O’Farrell Reviewed by Harriet I’ve always admired Maggie O’Farrell’s fiction, and greatly loved her most recent novel, This Must Be the Place, which I reviewed…
