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This was an interesting memoir, and one that really resonated for me because, like Wix, I've lost relatives to dementia and brain tumours, so I could strongly relate both to her stories of losing them and how to deal with the grief that comes over you after that. It covers a lot of ground other than that, though, and structuring it around memories of cake is an interesting way to frame a life, but it brings in her other themes of body image and mental health. It's easy for a story like this to sprawl into lots of different parts that don't cohere or just become a series of anecdotes, but there's a strong shape to this even if it only comes together towards the end as she begins to understand and process everything that's happened to her. One thing worth noting is that yes, this is Katy Wix the actor (from Ghosts, Not Going Out, Stath Lets Flats etc) but no, this isn't a typical celebrity memoir or autobiography, and if you come here looking for amusing insights into life behind the scenes on that show you like, you're not going to find it. Acting and writing, are her job, not her entire life, and where they do intrude on this story it's because they connect to her wider life, not as a focus in themselves.

(The version I read was called Pathfinders, but I believe it's the same book, just has a different title in the UK) Second book I've read on this topic this year, but this is the more interesting one. It focuses more on the story of how Arabic science developed, especially how Baghdad became a centre of learning and discovery first through the translation movement processing Greek and Roman texts, then moving into their own age of discovery. There's a series of interesting profiles of key figures in different fields, looking at how they moved things forward, but the book also looks at the wider history going on, and how this happened within the development and expansion of the Islamic world. Only at the end does he move on to how this influenced later Western science, so it's not the focus of the book but an interesting addition. Could have been longer and gone into more detail, especially about the wider society around these discoveries and how it changed with them, but still a fascinating read.