Written in dense prose with a Welsh lilt, Griffiths' portrayal of pre-industrial revolution Wales was bleak and rainy.
There was little optimism in this book and the moments of comic relief were provided by Sir Herbert, the caricatured English mineowner, which further emphasised the bleakness since he was out to exploit the land and people of Wales for his own profit.
My only criticism would be that I wish there was

more of the affair between Sion and Catherine as I found the moments between them particularly compelling to read

Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Death and Dying by Nicole M. Piemonte, Shawn Abreu

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dark informative slow-paced

You are definitely dead or dying with the rhythm on the cover of this book…

This was a nice little book and great for anyone who doesn’t have experience with death in the context of medicine. Most people will experience it at some point in their lives so it is good to understand that just because we can doesn’t mean we should, when it comes to aggressively treating people who are already at the end of their lives. Whether it is a genuine lack of awareness that the patient is dying, a wilful ignorance, or pressure from the patient/family/medical establishment , this tends to happen a lot in the US (according to the book).
I found the book repetitive and didn’t teach me anything I didn’t already know unfortunately. Also as the UK was where palliative care was pioneered, we aren’t too bad at it over here. Given our health system is publicly funded, we experience different challenges to those in the US.
There were some interesting sections about why we practice medicine in the way we do, and it went deeper than simply, “doctors are taught to make people better, so they don’t know what to do when the patient gets worse”, although words to that effect were thrown around a lot.
In UK medical school curricula I do feel there is emphasis on the fact that most of what we do is chronic disease management rather than curative (with cancer and dementia being chronic diseases) but I appreciate it isn’t the same in the US.

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout

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dark reflective relaxing slow-paced