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. This week, all three were spotted on Best of 2022 lists.

The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt

Summary: Raised in Marrakesh by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid ‘mauvais ton’ (bad taste). Her parents have instilled lofty standards. But during solo travel, she finds all assumptions overturned. Will she be able to fend for herself?

I’m thinking: No (because this was a sample that contained nothing of the actual text!).

Other People’s Clothes by Calla Henkel

Summary: Art student Zoe, rudderless and seeking an escape, finds herself in Berlin. Fellow student Hailey organises their apartment, and unknowingly chooses one sublet by a well-known thriller writer. The women soon realize that their landlady, who is supposed to be on a residency in Vienna, is watching them – and her next book appears to be based on their lives.

I’m thinking: Maybe (next time I need a thriller, it may as well be one set in Berlin).

People Who Lunch: Essays on Work, Leisure & Loose Living by Sally Olds

Summary: Essays about working and not working, hating work and needing to work, intimacy and technology, money and love, labour and pleasure.

I’m thinking: No.