Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Fayne’. Thanks to Tramp Press and Helen Richardson for my place on the tour and proof copy of the book (published 17th August).
As always, opinions are my own!
Blog Tour: ‘Fayne’ by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Tag: medicine
Blog Tour: ‘Voices of the Dead’ by Ambrose Parry
I was delighted to be invited onto the blog tour for ‘Voices of the Dead’, the fourth novel featuring Dr Will Raven and Sarah Fisher. Thanks for the copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Book Review: ‘A Bitter Remedy’ by Alis Hawkins
This was always going to be a hit for me – a pioneering heroine taking on the exclusively male Oxford University in Victorian times. Yes, yes and yes. Add in poison, intrigue and murder and I’m totally sold.
The story follows the investigation into the death of a solitary undergraduate from Jesus College, Oxford, in 1881. His body is discovered in his lodging house by his landlady – but a search of his possessions yields little but some dodgy-looking proprietary medicines. Both his tutor at the university (Basil Rice) and a headstrong young woman attending lectures at the university (but not allowed – by virtue of her gender – to be a student) suspect that all is not as it seems…
Continue reading Book Review: ‘A Bitter Remedy’ by Alis Hawkins
‘And Now For The Good News’ by Ruby Wax
I really like Ruby Wax and – to be honest – felt like I needed to read some good news in 2020, so this seemed like a good book for me right now.
This book is packed with ‘good news’ – ways in which humanity is making steps forward in various fields that are often unreported by the doom-and-gloom mass media.
It was really heartening to read of some really positive projects and people really making a difference, from a global project setting up ecovillages to those individuals helping refugees on the front line in camps in Greece. There are some really worrying and harrowing stories alongside the cheeriness – it is useful (but sad) to see the extent of the problem before Wax shows us the people and projects trying to fix the issues.
Wax also looks at technological advances and the ways in which businesses are embracing more sustainable models and developments in education so that schools become more than exam factories. In order to do all this, she travels widely and meets lots of interesting people. This all makes for engaging reading as Wax relates all this with her trademark humour and self-deprecation.
One of the slightly odder things about the book is that it was written pre-pandemic so it doesn’t grapple with that at all. However, Wax has added some footnotes and a little bit of an introduction to explain this so it is not a problem – just strange to read the optimism with the hindsight of what has actually happened!
All in all, this is an uplifting and hopeful book and one that I would recommend to anyone who feels that the world is headed in the wrong direction. I can’t quite embrace the mindfulness that Wax endorses so enthusiastically, but I’m totally on board with all the other messages in this engaging and positive book.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Header photo with thanks to Jon Tyson for sharing their work on Unsplash.
‘The Art of Dying’ by Ambrose Parry
Here is my five star review of this fabulous book! This was published in January 2020.
This is the second book in the Will Raven/Sarah Fisher series after the truly excellent 'The Way of All Flesh'. They are written by a husband and wife team - he's an award-winning thriller writer and she is a medical doctor with an interest in the history of medicine, so they really know their stuff on all fronts. I could not wait to read this book after loving the first one.
This is a fascinating, pacy and engaging story set in Victorian Edinburgh a while after the first book. Dr Will Raven has just returned to the city after a period travelling in Europe developing his medical knowledge. He returns to the house of Dr James Simpson, leading developer of chloroform as an anesthetic, where his former partner in investigations Sarah has been elevated above her status as housemaid and is learning medical skills for herself. It's an awkward reunion between the two former allies, although they soon have to work together when they notice a worrying pattern of deaths occurring in the city.
This book met all my high expectations. It's cleverly plotted and brings alive the setting of Victorian Edinburgh, from the hospital wards to consulting rooms, from the wealth of the doctors' lives to the less salubrious areas lived in by some of their patients. Sarah is a very appealing heroine, fighting for her right to learn medicine in a time and place that denied women such education. In comparison, Will is a rather infuriating hero who makes bad decisions and whose motives are not always pure, yet he also seems real and flawed and interesting; he definitely developed as a character during this book in a positive way.
I would whole heartedly recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction or who has an interest in medical history. However, the book should have much wider appeal - it is engrossing and well-researched and engaging, albeit a bit graphic in relation to the medical issues. Anyone and everyone should give it a go!
I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Photo by Adrien Olichon from Burst