melc's reviews
1216 reviews

The story of this amazing woman was incredibly inspiring. The history of Poland's part in WWII was not something I knew much about and was especially poignant to read in light of the war in Ukraine. Mulley drew the colourful, determined character of Zo in a well-rounded and entertaining way and she highlighted the underestimated and downplayed part that women played in WWII very effectively. Some of the stories were very sad and moving. This book is very detailed and the length and amount of detail may put some readers off. It's a great book and well-researched but be prepared for a deep dive.

This was a tough read. It had interesting sections about the indigenous nations of America and the land theft, genocide, imprisonment and allotment imposed on them. However, it was challenging to wade through so much US law and politics. Also as the case hinged on a murder and child rape it felt weird that these heinous crimes ended up being pivotal in the land battle fight for justice of indigenous nations. I would probably go for a different book on indigenous American tribe history to learn more about this subject.

I know this is unpopular but I was just at bored with this book. My first DNF from the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist. I found it difficult to distinguish between the four women with the way the book separated their stories. The writing style wasn't anything particularly special and I felt it was quite dry. It seemed to be a regurgitation of interviews the author had held with the women without much writing prowess added to engage the reader through a clear angle, expressive prose or edgy reportage. Nothing to hold my interest - DNFd at p100.

This wouldn't be a subject I would normally read about, but I'm glad I did as it educated me about some important issues. This book made me very sad, though it offers hope. Going beyond the headlines it was shocking how much beautiful marine nature is being damaged by human greed and carelessness. This book did a great job at highlighting issues in an accessible way. However, that said there's only so much science I would like to read but that's down to personal preference. Still I found this emotional and interesting.

Probably the best non-fiction book I've ever read! If you had told me that a book combining philosophy and a 19th/20th century taxonomist would be so compelling I wouldn't have believed it.

It celebrates diversity, difference and adaptability and warns about the dangers of judgement, assumption, classification, sitting on things we've always "known", and assigning value.

The author goes on a personal quest to reconcile her struggle with mental health and to understand the meaning and significance of life.

This genre-defying book is brilliant! So readable, so profound. Can't believe it's a debut. I would never had picked it up had it not been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction 2025, but I'm so glad I did.

The issues surrounding public fascination with murder, psychopaths and serial killers were interesting. I also found the discussion about how this plays into the psychology of murderers and their desire for fame was good and challenged our modern fascination with true crime. I also liked the exploration of dirty tricks of the press and their disregard for victims. I also appreciated the social history described of the 1950s.

However, I think Summerscale needed to make her aims more explicit. Unlike Rubenhold's The Five where the author's intentions are more obvious I found I was confused about what angle she wanted to take. In the end this was just another book about Christie with some interesting side issues which ironically still seems to fall into the true crime fascination and industry and did not do enough to stand aside from its desire to become fixated on the murderer and his motives.

Beautifully written, but maybe I was reading it at the wrong time as it just didn't keep my interest.