Important and devastating

I've long been interested in the microbiome, and have been eagerly awaiting a book that might uncover some of its mysteries. This is that book

This book is really, really interesting ... Nothing more important in your life than your microbiome .... this will change your life

A totally addictive and illuminating read. Compelling from beginning to end

A fountain of knowledge and sense in an overwhelming world of science

A spellbinding explanation of microbiology that will help you get to the bottom of health and happiness

Engaging ... [Dark Matter] stands out in revealing the microbiome through the eyes of a clinician who sees each patient not just as a human, but as a human entwined with a complex, dynamic ecosystem

A gripping undercurrent of forbidden love throughout: the book is scandalous and entertaining

I lost myself so completely in Fran and her family’s woes that I read the whole book in 24 hours rather than the 36 hours it took for everything to unfold. The wedding part was very realistic from the over amorous guests to the women changing into comfy shoes, but this was certainly the most intriguing wedding story I have ever read.
Fast paced and absorbing, I felt like I was one of the guests listening in to something I shouldn’t. A very juicy read!

READER RECOMMENDED: A cleverly written story, thought-provoking and easy to identify with.

Written in almost real time - no easy feat - Cohen combines deft plotting with smart pyschological insight. A writer clued up in the dark realms of grown-up relationships

At once entertaining yet deliciously edgy too. I read it in a sitting

I was challenged, comforted, educated and nourished by this book ... It is the single most powerful, life-changing, heartachingly healing thing I have been given ... The kind of book we must ensure every one of us reads

A beautiful, intelligent book that is as tender and moving as it is demanding and urgent. There is something insightful and original in the way Lucy Jones seamlessly combines the analytical with the emotional, and it is an absolutely essential new addition to the literature of mothering and parenthood

This book should be a must-read for pretty much everyone. We don't talk about the hidden realities of the biological, social and psychological effects of matrescence nearly enough. Thank you, Lucy Jones, for changing that

Fascinating

Dazzling... Matrescence cements Jones' place as one of the most talented nonfiction writers we have. It really is *astonishingly* good

Matrescence is going to set mothers’ worlds alight. Finally, someone has properly expressed what the process of becoming a mother does to women: their sense of self and their brains. We all owe her a debt because it wasn’t just in our heads

Jones writes like a novelist, capturing wild swings of emotion, doubt, the adoration of a new baby, and (always) the tension between what she thinks is expected of her and the pressure of her own mixed-up feelings

Matrescence is a wild and beautiful book, a blend of memoir, science, psychoanalytical thinking and nature writing with a poetic sensibility and a strong sense of political purpose

Engaging and sensitive … Matrescence is an important work

I was challenged, comforted, educated, nourished, soothed and reassured by this book. Almost three years into my own matrescence, this book is the single most powerful, life-changing, heartachingly healing thing I have been given. For it is, first and foremost, a gift. To have journeyed , and still be journeying, through this wild, raw, many coloured land of such unknowns, and to share that journey-the pain and the joy; the grief and love; the anxiety and the hope - in this way is nothing short of grace. This book is the kind of book we must ensure every one of us reads; every single person sharing this earth side by side with our kin of every form. For, as Lucy shows us so tenderly and luminously; we are more finely interwoven than we've been led to believe; more animal than we might ordinarily take ourselves for. Certain experiences change us, bring us closer to the blood and shit and milk and bone. Matrescence holds the power to carry us back to ourselves, to the rituals and community from which we came; the caregivers we all hold the seed within us to become- and Lucy Jones is the person who should have written it. I am so glad she did . She has given us mammals such a gift, one that will save lives

From grief to anger to full-throttled joy, Amy Key hits every note of feeling with perfect pitch... A brave and brilliant exploration of how one woman lives both alone and alongside romance. An absolutely gorgeous work.

Arrangements in Blue is as bold as it is beautiful. Key is not afraid to go to the depths of her longings, but in doing so she creates something new: a space for the voice of solitude, one that is full of heart and creativity for a personal intimacy with home, friends and the self. If a book can be a loving companion, this is it.

Filled with lyrical turns of phrase, this insightful take on living solo will appeal to poets, dreamers and anyone marching to the beat of their own drum. It's a lush and moving memoir.

This memoir may do for you what Blue has done for her Key, putting your unexpressed feelings into beautiful words and helping you feel connected to the world.

Key charts women's lives with a savage delicacy.

'A writer of a rare and strange magic.'

'I love Amy Key.'

'A beautiful read.'

'If you read one thing this weekend make it Amy Key's astonishing essay on Joni Mitchell's Blue, love and love's absence.'