Sunday Times

Kate Sidley on what new book lists tell you about the world

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Every month, publishers send out This Month’s Highlights e-mails to reviewers like me. The point of the mail is for us to select books to review, but I use it as a handy snapshot of the state of the world. It’s almost as effective as reading the newspaper, and a lot quicker. From recent months’ offerings, I have developed the following worldview:

We wuz robbed

Books about the pillage of the public purse are a thriving industry in SA. There’s at least one new one a month —

Licence to Loot; How To Steal a City; Shadow State; Other titles with the words ’plunder’ and ’capture’ — and they barely even overlap, so rich is the seam to be mined. There’s enough meat for sequels — I imagine Licence to Loot More, How To Steal Another City and

Even Shadowier State.

Veg is the new Banting

The lists are littered with vegetarian and vegan recipe books like The PlantBased Cookbook and Vegan

Christmas. OK, so the titles lack the finger-licking allure of How To Be A

Domestic Goddess, which made the full-creamy Nigella Lawson a welcome presence in our kitchens, but no animals were harmed in their making. South African restaurant­s still relying on pasta arrabiata and the “vegetarian platter” (aka, a plate of fried brown things) as their extensive vegetarian menu, could learn a thing or two.

#MenAreTras­h

The number of stories about spousal abuse and gender-based violence is simply appalling. Famous names like Tracy Going (Brutal Legacy) and Vanessa Govender (Beaten But Not

Broken) — and lesser-known but equally brave survivors — are telling their stories.

But people are pretty awesome

There they are, overcoming cancer, fighting apartheid (100 Mandela

Moments), swimming long distances in very cold water, challengin­g injustice, pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and climbing mountains on their one remaining leg — not at the same time, just to be clear. And we get to read about it. It’s properly inspiring.

Except for the ones that are psychos

There they are, murdering, abusing children, running apartheid death squads, mucking up the country (The

Lost Boys of Bird Island being a case in point). And we get to read about it. It’s properly depressing.

We drink too much

The Craft Beer Dictionary, The Bourbon Bible, The Vodka Lover’s Guide to Cirrhosis, and wine, wine, wine. The world is all boozed up, and increasing­ly adventurou­sly so — no longer does one simply add some T to one’s G — you toss in lavender and star anise and burnt orange peel.

We need help!

People, we are struggling! And there are books to help. From colour therapy to feng shui, to spiritual guidance, to diet secrets, to career advice, they make big promises — like My Bitcoin: How I Became a Bitcoin Millionair­e at 21. I can’t vouch for the success of the methods, but the category is booming.

We need escape

Leave the predictabl­e daily grind for the mystery of novels where people who are thought dead turn out not to be, or whether the assumed killer is but a red herring. Be transporte­d to Tuscany, into the chiselled arms of a handsome stranger. Or to a Chicago speakeasy. Or to suburban London. Any place, really. Any place but where you are.

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