mds's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
zotty's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent
leilaniann's review
4.0
Super interesting story of the author's search to figure out what caused her body to uncontrollably shake while she was giving a speech. Lots of cool medical history since it touches briefly on several different types of neurological disorders that she rules out (including temporal lobe epilepsy, which I have). It always makes me stoked to learn more about these sorts of things! One of the best parts of the book is its work cited list, I got a lot of ideas for books to read from it.
boekenhonger's review
4.0
This was a very interesting read and Hustvedt has a way of making neuroscience and psychiatry understandable for someone who knows not a lot of things about these topics. I really enjoyed how she wrote about Freud as a scientist and was constantly debunking the myth of the sex-and-mother-obsessed couch psychoanalyst everyone has.
This book was recommended to me and I am very very grateful for that. Can't wait to read more of Hustvedt's work.
This book was recommended to me and I am very very grateful for that. Can't wait to read more of Hustvedt's work.
kaleko's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
bookswithpetra's review
3.0
I approached The Shaking Woman as memoir and that is completely wrong way to go into this book. Yes, it's Hustvedt's look into her illness and life after the death of her father, but it's more neurological look into hysteria, nerves and migraines. It's more nonfiction book with some of autobiographical mentions and that was a let down for me as I came across this book thinking it would be a more of autobiography.
sannielee's review
2.0
The Shaking Woman or a History of My Nerves is a mix of autobiography and research on a wide range of topics, such as psychology, psychiatry, neurology, theology, philosophy, linguistics, and literature. And that is the problem with this book. It is such a wide range that the author rambles from one topic to the next, then jumps back to her personal story, and then delves into another specific case that is vaguely related. If it's any hint, the book isn't divided into chapters or even sections; it's just a bunch of paragraphs collected into a book with some sort of logic behind it.
I had to read this for an upcoming class this semester and there were a lot of theories that I had come across during the last semester. I can't imagine reading this book for pleasure and not really wanting to know all the theories behind it. This is definitely not something I would have read on my own free will.
I had to read this for an upcoming class this semester and there were a lot of theories that I had come across during the last semester. I can't imagine reading this book for pleasure and not really wanting to know all the theories behind it. This is definitely not something I would have read on my own free will.
soavezefiretto's review
2.0
Much too scientific, a recapitulation of many theories, but little insight into her own experience. I feel bad giving a bad review to this author, whom I otherwise quite. I just think this book was not meant for the general public.