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.

Green Dot by Madeleine Gray

Why I have it: Reminded of it during my Stella Prize research.

Summary: Hera is clawing through her mid-twenties. While everyone around her seems to have slipped effortlessly into adulthood, she has spent years caught between feeling that she is purposefully rejecting traditional markers of success and wondering if she’s actually just being left behind. Then she meets Arthur, an older, married colleague. Intoxicated by the promise of ordinary happiness he represents, Hera falls headlong into a workplace romance.

I’m thinking: Yes.

Naked Ambition by Robert Gott

Why I have it: Popped up in my Goodreads list.

Summary: Up-and-coming junior minister Gregory Buchanan has had a portrait painted of himself by the acclaimed artist Sophie White — a painting she intends to enter in this year’s Archibald Prize. Until then, Gregory has hung it in pride of place on his dining-room wall. It’s a life-sized standing portrait, practically photographic in nature. And it’s a nude. When a senior minister resigns, Gregory needs to step into the spotlight ahead of the coming election (with everything on show).

I’m thinking: Yes.

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

Why I have it: The Berlin setting.

Summary: Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married. Theirs is an intense attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain. But when she strays for a single night he cannot forgive her and a dangerous crack forms between them.

I’m thinking: Yes.

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