These are among the books that landed on my desk this month. The first four are from the list of Exclusive Books’s top reads for March. Some will be reviewed in full later. – Vivien Horler

Only Good Things – Celebrating 100 feel-good SA stories of 2024, by Brent Lindeque, Tyler Leigh Vivier, Ashleigh Nefdt and Nothando Mthembu (Good Things Guy)

The word boep – specifically the term beer boep – has been added to the Oxford Dictionary.

It means, as we all know: “A protuberant belly or paunch [especially] on a man, attributed to beer consumption.”

This is just one of the stories to smile about in the Good Things Guy Brent Lindeque’s second coffee table volume of stories to brighten our days. And since things, both international and national, are somewhat dire, we all need a touch of cheer.

In his introductory letter to this title, Lindeque says the Good Things Guy has blossomed from a simple idea to share the brighter side of SA to become “something much bigger than I could ever have imagined. It has become a movement, one that has firmly cemented itself as SA’s leading platform for good news.”

Lindeque says his good news stories are a source of inspiration, not just for individuals but also for mainstream news outlets. “It’s been amazing to watch them pick up our stories, further spreading the ripple effect of hope.”

So here you can read about a foreign stem cell donor who helped save the life of a local leukaemia sufferer; a Cape Town man who moved into a flat after a lifetime in a shack; a poisoned dog who was rescued; a penguin with scoliosis having his life saved by a device that enabled him to swim; clean-up initiatives; a memorial to Pigcasso, the painting pig; the love story of a couple who shared a desk in grade 4, years later reached out to each other on Twitter, and then got engaged back in their grade 4 classroom; how to work wonders with your budget; turning beach plastics into artworks – the list goes on.

My only criticism: there should be 365 stories in this book, so we can start each day with a positive energy boost. May the Good Things Guy team go from strength to strength.

Brooke Shields is Not Allowed to Get Old – Thoughts on ageing as a woman, by Brooke Shields (Piatkus)

Well, for one thing Brooke Shields is not old – she’s 59. Also, she’s still gorgeous.

But even she is aware the years are ticking by.  She writes that the first time it dawned on her she had reached “a certain age”, she was walking in downtown New York with her two “stunning” daughters.

She’s used to being recognised in the street, but this time the glances were being cast at her daughters, not her.

She writes: “I had every single feeling, all at once. What are you doing ogling my babies I will cut you but also aren’t they gorgeous but also, wait, no one’s gazing at me? When did that happen? Am I over?

“Protectiveness, pride, melancholy – it all smacked me upside the head in one quintessential New York moment.”

I remember going to a restaurant with my mother and younger sister, and the waitress spoke exclusively to my sister and me – until my mother pointed out, quite forcefully, that she was paying for the lunch and would appreciate it if the waitress spoke to her too.

Which leads on to Shields’s next point: that brands trip over themselves to capture the coveted 18-to 34 demographic, even though surveys show it’s women over 40 who have the most purchasing power. “We have accumulated wealth, and we’re making 85% of the household-buying decisions… We are ignored by brands, and when we are targeted, it’s for wrinkle cream or menopause supplements. Talk about short-sighted.”

She quotes the American Psychological Assocation’s Monitor on Psychology describing ageism in the US as “one of the last socially acceptable prejudices”.

This book is more than a memoir, it’s a reflection of where she’s been and where she hopes she’s going. She writes about “having work done”, although very little on herself other than colouring her roots and having treatment to even her skin tone.

She is happy accepting her limits, and says acceptance is not defeat but is understanding that you can’t or don’t want to do something, and then just not doing it.

I think this book looks interesting.

The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil, by Shubnum Khan (Macmillan)

Dreams can true, sometimes it just takes a little time.

So writes Shubnum Khan in a note to readers at the start of this novel.

Akbar Manzil is a house, once a grand one, near Durban. But nearly a century after it was built, it is crumbling and dreary when, in 2014, Sana Malek, neither girl or woman, and her father move in, the latest in a long line of tenants.

Sana discovers the house’s deserted west wing, where former tenants’ stuff has been left behind. And at the end of the passage is a locked door, probably unopened for years.

Slowly Sana begins to discover the truth about the house, and its secrets, including the djinn, who sits weeping in a cupboard.

The novel is described as a haunting, a mystery and a love story.

It was first published in 2024, but has been reissued in 2025, with the author’s note and a set of frequently asked questions added to the original text.

Khan, whose debut novel was Onion Tears, said this one took her 13 years to write. It was rejected by publishers numerous times, and endlessly reworked.

Eventually the manuscript sold on auction to one of the biggest publishing houses in New York, and was later selected as a New York Times Editor’s Choice.

All of this, she says, seemed impossible for an SA author making her US debut, “let alone one still living in Durban”.

The Favourites, by Layne Fargo (Chatto & Windus)

Katerina has known since toddlerhood she wanted to win an Olympic gold medal in ice dance. But when, as a pre-teen, she meets Heath, who has grown up in the foster system in Chicago, there is an instant connection.

She teaches him to skate, and he becomes her partner in all ways. But Kat’s homelife hasn’t been that much better than Heath’s, and they see their connection as a way of escaping their troubled pasts.

They achieve their dream to become champion ice dancers, and eventually qualify for the Olympics, where a terrible incident destroys everything.

Ten years after what Kat calls the most terrible day of her life, an unauthorised documentary about Kat and Heath and their relationship is broadcast, reiterating the sensational rumours about the pair.

Kat decides the time has come to the story in her own words – and it’s a pretty wild story.

Precipice, by Robert Harris (Hutchinson Heinemann)

If you’ve seen the movie Conclave you’ll be familiar with the work of Robert Harris, who not only wrote the novel on which it was based but also co-wrote the screenplay.

After his first novel, Fatherland, became a bestseller, he was able to stop being a journalist – he was editor of the Observer at 30 – and turn to fulltime fiction.

He has specialised in historical fiction and Precipice is his latest. It is a story about the (true) relationship between the British Prime Minister, HH Asquith, and a woman less than half his age, on the eve of the outbreak of World War 1.

The powers that be realise top secret documents are being leaked, and an intelligence officer is assigned to discover the source.

It emerges Asquith likes to discuss affairs of state with the gorgeous 26-year-old Hon Venetia Stanley. And we also know, right from the off, she has a wide variety of friends of various nationalities.

In a note, Harris says all the letters quoted in the text from Asquith are authentic, as are the telegrams, newspaper reports and official documents.

Looking forward to this one.