Five books that are jumping my reading queue

Visiting a book shop for me is like going food shopping with an empty stomach. Except it's applicable at all times.

I cannot be the only one who always seems to have too many books to read before I can pick freely what I want to read next. It's delightful, but it's still a chore. Skipping ahead is unforgivable, so I only do it with every other book. Now, though, with the summer peak, it's getting harder to prioritise.

Below are five books that are about to make the leap from my to-read shelf to my backpack.

I don't know much about Patrick Gale (shame on me, this is his 16th novel), or about Take Nothing With You - but this I know: that is one fabulously beautiful title. Second, I know it is going to be sad, and my kind of sad. Emotional, lonely, heartbreaking and I also bet it's really well written. 

A nostalgic aura is invoked in all the blurbs: something like À la recherche du temps perdu (of which I only read one book so far - perhaps when I'm older). And the story is set off by a musical singularity, sounding like it shouldn't be anything major, yet it sets the story in motion. That is true skill, the type I long for.

Raising Sparks by Ariel Kahn is the next book on my list. Apart from the fact he was one of my most admired lecturers at university, I am extremely excited to discover some hidden depths of Jewish mysticism - for example, did you know that in the Kabballah, God is a woman? Ariel has recently dropped such small baits and more in this piece on Female First. 

I have absolutely no doubt that Ariel's first novel is going to be a real treat, both in terms of story and language. I cannot wait to get my hands on this.

This one's an odd ball, so obviously I am really looking forward to it. Going through a rough time, I recently bought my first ever self-help book (You Do You by Sarah Knight), which did absolutely nothing for me. Disappointed, but determined, I am still looking for my next venture into the world of self-help. But in the meantime, I will be reading Marianne Power's Help me! because she went a whole year reading self-help books and seeing whether they would help.

Well, did they? I must find out.

Do I want to read essays and anecdotes by Kimmy Schmidt? Yes. Yes I do. I am expecting fun, laughs, cuteness - I know she's not technically Kimmy, but... I mean... she is. According to Hodder & Stoughton, Tina Fey actually developed the tv series around her personality. So who's laughing now?

In any case, I have no doubt Ellie Kemper's My Squirrel Days is going to be one cheery read, and the perfect antidote for when autumn starts to set in. Plus, I'm guessing she'll be coming around to the UK to sign some stuff sooo... see you there.

Dystopia is unbeatable, and Rachel Heng's Suicide Club sounds especially enticing. The whole concept seems to me widely original: people are able to live forever - but not everyone wants to. Ultimately, what would you prefer?

There's also a juicily harsh world of organ-trading instead of stocks and if it's well-written too (which I'm assuming it is, with all the attention it's already getting), this one deserves special merit in contemporary dystopian novels. If you're London-based, you're also going to want to attend Blackwell's Dark Societies next week. I'm gutted I can't.