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.

The Dead Beat by Marilyn Johnson

Why I have it: Spotted on one of Shelley’s Book Lust posts.

Summary: Where can readers celebrate the life of the pharmacist who moonlighted as a spy; the genius behind Sea Monkeys; and the school lunch lady who spent her evenings as a ballroom hostess? The obituary page. Enthralled by these fascinating former lives, Johnson explores the little known world of the obituary page to find out what makes it so compelling.

I’m thinking: Yes.

The End of Normal by Stephanie Madoff Mack

Why I have it: Spotted on Insta.

Summary: Memoir from the widow of Mark Madoff and daughter-in-law of Bernard Madoff (the person behind the largest known Ponzi scheme). After learning that their father’s successful wealth management company was all a lie, Mark and Andrew Madoff turned their father in and cut off all communication with both parents. Mark and his wife, Stephanie, strove to make a fresh start for the sake of their two young children, but Mark could not overcome his sense of betrayal and shame. He ended his life on the two-year anniversary of his father’s arrest. Stephanie wrote her memoir to give her children a sense of who their father really was.

I’m thinking: Yes.

Ten Days by Austin Duffy

Why I have it: Because I enjoyed his previous book, The Night Interns.

Summary: When Wolf’s recently-estranged wife, Miriam, dies from cancer, his entire world is turned upside down. Wolf and his daughter, Ruth, travel to New York from London to scatter Miriam’s ashes in the Hudson River, despite Miriam’s conservative Jewish family being adamantly against her choice of burial.

I’m thinking: Maybe.