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.

Abandon Every Hope by Hayley Singer

Why I have it: It’s on the Stella Prize 2024 longlist.

Summary: Singer investigates the slaughterhouse, mapping the contours of organised and profit-driven death. She asks how we may write the life of the dead; the smell of an egg factory; of multispecies PTSD; of planetary harm and self-harm; of the horror we make on earth.

I’m thinking: No (but if it makes the Stella Prize shortlist I might read it).

The Snakehead by Patrick Radden Keefe

Why I have it: I’m a big fan of Keefe.

Summary: Keefe investigates a secret world run by a surprising a charismatic middle-aged grandmother, who from a tiny noodle shop in New York’s Chinatown, managed a multimillion-dollar business smuggling people.

I’m thinking: Yes.

Why We Sing by Julia Hollander

Why I have it: Not sure.

Summary: Hollander considers singing’s importance to our wellbeing, charting its extraordinary influence on all aspects of our spiritual, emotional and physical lives. For example, why do parents feel compelled to sing to their newborns, and how does it help their development? What is it about song that brings communities together in harmony but also in protest? And what magic is at work when people who have lost the power to speak are still able to sing?

I’m thinking: Yes.

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