Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye.

Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford

Why I have it: Not sure…

Summary: A Saturday, 1944: a Woolworths in southeast London receives a delivery of aluminum saucepans. A crowd gathers to see the first new metal in ages (for years all metal had gone to the war effort). An instant later, the crowd is gone; incinerated. Among the shoppers were five young children. Who were they? What futures did they lose?

I’m thinking: No – I like the concept but not the style.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

Why I have it: Susan’s February 2022 recommendations.

Summary: Twenty-four-year-old painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York. She meets Frank – 44-years-old and a self-made success. She marries him for the Green Card, and what unfolds changes both their lives.

I’m thinking: Maybe – is it clever or a bit full of itself? I couldn’t get a good sense from the sample.

L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón

Why I have it: Spotted on a few ‘best of 2021’ lists.

Summary: L.A. is parched and all Oscar, the weather-obsessed patriarch of the Alvarado family, wants is rain. His wife, Keila, who wants more intimacy and less Weather Channel, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three adult daughters—Claudia, Olivia and Patricia, are blindsided and left questioning everything they know.

I’m thinking: Yes. The opening is gripping.