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.

Fair: The Life-Art of Translation by Jen Calleja

Why I have it: always fascinated by the work of translators and interpreters.

Summary: A satirical book about learning the art of translation, set in an imagined book fair/art fair/fun fair, in which every stall or ride imitates a real-world scenario or dilemma which must be observed and negotiated.

I’m thinking: No.

Bad Friend by Tiffany Watt Smith

Why I have it: Because of the terrific cover.

Summary: a new history of female friendship and reclamation of the ‘bad friend’ (think the office gossips of the 1930s, the mum cliques of the 1950s, and the angry activists of the 1970s). ‘Bad’ friends broke the rules about femininity (that they didn’t write).

I’m thinking: Yes.

The Anatomy of Anxiety by Ellen Vora

Why I have it: Not sure.

Summary: A groundbreaking approach to understanding and managing anxiety from a holistic perspective. Vora acknowledges that much of our anxiety begins in the physical body, and that ‘intuitive’ anxiety is not pathologic but serves to alert us to the fact that something else is out of balance – in our bodies, our lives, or in the world around us.

I’m thinking: Maybe (I’m already onboard with her hypothesis and don’t need convincing of a person-centred approach).