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, I was alerted to all four thanks to Susan’s round-up of August releases.

Normal Rules Don’t Apply by Kate Atkinson

Summary: The first story collection from Atkinson in twenty years, featuring eleven interconnected tales.

I’m thinking: Maybe.

Lazy City by Rachel Connolly

Summary: Following the death of her best friend, Erin has to get out of London. Returning home to Belfast, an au pair job provides a partial refuge from her grief and her volatile relationship with her mother. She meets Erin, an American academic who is also looking for an escape.

I’m thinking: Yes.

Cheri by Jo Ann Beard

Summary: Cheri has been living with cancer for many years. Now, she is dying. As she navigates the final weeks of her life, and takes charge of the manner of her death, she is flooded with childhood memories, and returns to the present with a renewed appreciation for the brilliance of life around her.

I’m thinking: Not sure – one of those annoying samples that only has end-papers.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Summary: Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan to work over summer. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake.

I’m thinking: Yes.