The two books I just finished could not be more different; May We Be Forgiven by A. M. Homes and The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. I happily finished the latter during an unexpected bout of insomnia, but reading the last hundred or so pages in the early hours of the morning only heightened the experience.

Will Schwalbe’s elderly mother Mary Anne is dying of pancreatic cancer and during the last years of her life, between chemo, over dinner and while waiting for endless doctors’ appointments, mother and son form a book club of two by swapping, discussing and occasionally disagreeing about a huge range of books including The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stig Larsson, Brooklyn by Colm Toibin and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.