Category: Non Fiction
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Sixteen Days
As an aunt of two bubbly nephews, the thought that I might potentially outlive them is terrifying. While I am quite comfortable thinking about my own mortality, thinking of the possibility of people younger than me dying is haunting. In Sixteen Days. Victoria Wilson-Crane deals with exactly this topic, as she reflects on the unexpected…
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Funerals your way
Funerals your way is a bit different compared to the books I have read so far for my blog. Sarah Jones kindly sent me a copy of her book, which is a compact guide book, or self-help book, for anyone needing to plan a funeral, or anyone contemplating what their funeral, or that of others,…
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Between Two Kingdoms
In Between Two Kingdoms: what almost dying has taught me about living Suleika Jaouad reflects on being diagnosed with cancer at a mere 22. Being a twenty-something, cancer was definitely not on her mind. When she started to experience strange bodily sensations and itching it, perhaps unsurprisingly, took quite a while to get diagnosed with…
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A Tomb With a View
A Tomb With a View: the stories and glories of graveyards is the first book I am writing about that is actually concerned with cemeteries. I was surprised (but should not have been really, as I was present during all my reading) that it has taken me over a year to pick a book about…
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The Silly Thing: Shaping the Story of Life & Death
This month I am taking part in Memoir March. Memoirs are an interesting genre of books. Memoirs are based on people’s life stories but memories are not fixed entities, instead feelings towards, and interpretations of, memories might change over time. Furthermore, whilst memoirs are based on ‘true events’, sometimes the truth needs to bend to…
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Narratives of Parental Death, Dying and Bereavement: a kind of haunting
This month I am taking part in Memoir March. Memoirs are an interesting genre of books. Memoirs are based on people’s life stories but memories are not fixed entities, instead feelings towards, and interpretations of, memories might change over time. Furthermore, whilst memoirs are based on ‘true events’, sometimes the truth needs to bend to…
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Murder isn’t easy
On this last day of February 2022 we have also arrived at my last blog in this year’s Forensic February series! Today we take a look at Carla Valentine’s Murder isn’t easy: the forensics of Agatha Christie. Right out of the gate I have a terrible confession to make: I have never read an Agatha…
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Unexplained Deaths
Welcome to the second review in the Forensic February series! This week we will be talking about Unexplained Deaths: how one woman changed homicide investigation forever written by Bruce Goldfarb. This book has also been published under the name 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics,…
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Written in Bone
This February I have decided to read books around a certain theme namely: Forensics. So welcome to Forensic February! The books I will write about in the remainder of the month all have something to do with Forensics (they have little to do with February, but I love alliteration, so you might also want to…
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A Matter of Death and Life
Happy 2022 everyone! This is my first blog after a bit of a hiatus as I finished my postdoc at the University of Surrey. A downside is that I am now unemployed. The upside is that I have more time reading books and writing about them! I don’t really believe in New Year’s Resolutions (and…
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Heartwood: The art of living with the end in mind
In this week’s blog we turn our attention to another memoir, as Barbara Becker has kindly sent me a digital copy of her book Heartwood. The Art of Living with the end in Mind. This has taught me, amongst more profound things, that it is much more difficult to take a good picture of an…
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Sudden Death and the Myth of CPR
June 12 was a historic day: Finland played its first ever match in a European Championship. In Helsinki people were buzzing (in their own homes, quietly, per Finnish style). Shops were filled with scarves, shirts, hats, and other types of Finnish memorabilia. Covid may have made the Finnish people wait an extra year, but they…
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Life in pieces
Take your mind back to early 2020, when there were only whispers of a mysterious virus in Wuhan. Coronavirus was something that was happening ‘out there’ on the other side of the world, not something to really worry about. I remember stickers where placed inside the bathroom stalls at my University advising people who had…
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Surviving Death: a journalist investigates evidence for an afterlife
In Surviving Death: a journalist investigates evidence for an afterlife Leslie Kean takes the reader on a journey to the world of mediums, clairvoyance, telekinesis, and various other things that ‘proof’ that there is more between life and death. She describes children with memories of a past life, people who can communicate with the dead,…
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Dear Reader. The comfort and joy of books
I mentioned before that I love reading books. Then I started reading Cathy Rentzenbrink’s book Dear Reader. The Comfort and Joy of Books, and now I am not so sure, because, boy, does she love books! Using books as a red thread, Rentzenbrink weaves her life story from childhood to adulthood together, highlighting the books…
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The Way Through The Woods
There is something about grief and loss that makes people decide to take new chances, to pursuit new hobbies, to try out new things. As much as a loss can rupture someone’s life, I find it beautiful that it opens up space to walk a new path. Long Litt Woon lost her husband of thirty…