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.

Good Girls by Hadley Freeman

Why I have it: Have enjoyed Freeman’s writing in the past.

Summary: From the ages of 14 to 17, Freeman lived in psychiatric wards after developing anorexia. For the next 20 years, she lived as a ‘functioning anorexic’, grappling with self-destructive behavior as the anorexia mutated and persisted. Anorexia is one of the most widely discussed but least understood mental illnesses. She interviews doctors to learn how treatment for the illness has changed and tracks down the women with whom she was hospitalized.

I’m thinking: Yes.

We Need to Hang Out by Billy Baker

Why I have it: Referenced in Elizabeth Day’s Friendaholic.

Summary: Having settled into his busy career and family life, 40yo Baker discovers that he’s lost something along the way: his friends. He writes about the modern loneliness epidemic, particularly common for middle-aged men (chronic loneliness has been described as one of the ‘greatest pathologies’, worse than smoking, obesity, or heart disease in increasing a person’s risk for premature death).

I’m thinking: Yes.

This Ragged Grace by Octavia Bright

Why I have it: Not sure.

Summary: The story of Octavia’s journey to recovery from alcohol addiction, and the parallel story of her father’s descent into Alzheimer’s.

I’m thinking: Yes.