Half a dozen books to consider reading this weekend

Oh my. It shouldn’t be funny. But Holding My Breath – Further Exploits of an ER Doctor really does have some laugh-out-loud moments. Like the young chap who arrives at the hospital worried about the fact that his nipple has moved … from it’s normal place to under his armpit. When lifting his shirt to show the doc … “oh, it has moved back now,” he tells her. It has nothing, he says, to do with the crystal meth he’d had, and insists on Xrays and blood tests. Makes sense … he’s been using drugs for years, and his nipples have never moved before.  Dr Anne Biccard works in a Joburg hospital and juggles migrating nipples with removing Lego from a youngster’s nose, heart attacks with flirting patients, and saving – and losing – lives. Jacana, R260

One for the Royalists. Meghan and Harry. Love them or loathe them, they’ve certainly been in the headlines since they first met in 2016. In Revenge, Britain’s top investigative author Tom Bower gives all the insider gossip and background info on Meghan, portraying her as being manipulative, controlling, ambitious. On the other hand, Harry (previously the Royal Darling) appears to be all too happy to be led by the nose. The Queen, Charles and Camilla, Wills and Kate, along with the teams who look after them … well they appear to be completely out of their depth when it comes to going head-to-head with Meghan-the-not-so-marvellous. It’s a fascinating read … one that shows how, in one tumultuous year, the success of the Sussex wedding became a nightmare. Blink, R368 from Exclusive Books

In The Bitter Olive, Ronad Samujels tells his story, one which starts when he was nine-years-old was forced to leave his parents, siblings and grandparents, and the only life he knows in Pretoria, and move to the Cape Flats. An unwilling victim of segregation, he’s re-classified to coloured and has to start over in this new life – one which needed all his stamina, resilience and grit. Ronald, currently CDO of Botswana Life Insurance Limited, tells of the difficulties of growing up in a hotbed of drugs, alcohol, gangs and violence, but also of the valuable lessons he learnt from the locals, who taught him to laugh despite the hardships and showed what it meant to be part of a community. He writes how he could have succumbed to bitterness and lawlessness, but instead became a significant contributor to society and an inspiration to those who have also suffered injustices wrought by the Apartheid system. Ssalipublishing, R250 from Exclusive Books

Be Impeccable with your word. Don’t take anything personally. Don’t make assumptions. Always do your best. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. It’s a code of conduct that can rapidly change our lives to ones that experience freedom, true happiness and love. Amber-Allen Publishing, R308 from Exclusive Books

Here’s one for those thinking of investing in property in the UK. Inspired by the book Rich Day, Poor Dad, Sean Thomson started his property investment career in 2004 and started building his property portfolio. He kicked off with buy-low-value buy-to-let properties in the north of England, then went on to flip house, and now is focussed on commercial-to-residential conversion and land development. Writing from his home in Plettenberg Bay, he’s put together a practical step-by-step guide, full of useful info, in Plan B: How South Africans Can Invest in the UK Property Market. It includes advise on finding and working with contractors and project managers and offers insight into how the UK property market works. Hands-On-Books, R200

Evictions. Raids. Killings. Drugs. Fire. Murder. And tens of thousands of people – South African and foreign nationals – living in dire conditions, in buildings knowns as hijacked, bad or dark buildings. The Blinded City is Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon’s book that recounts the history of inner-city Joburg from 2010 to 2019, primarily from the perspective of the unlawful occupiers of these buildings. He tells of Blue Moonlight, the case of the eviction of these occupiers by the South Gauteng High Court … a case that went to the Constitutional Court and which catalysed a decade of struggles over housing and eviction in the city.  The book chronicles this case, and others, and the aftermath … a tumultuous period in a city characterised by recurrent dispossessions, police and immigration operations, xenophobic violence, political and legal change, of the succession of mayors ant their attempts to clean up the city, and the struggles of residents and urban housing activists for homes and a better life. Picador, R338 from Exclusive Books.