Although the weather has been very unreliable, I’ve managed to steal a few hours of dolce far niente and lazy reading at the beach. My favourite summer read so far? You Don’t Need Another Self-Help Book by Sarah Salway. I have to admit that I’m in the habit of reading poetry books cover-to-cover before putting them down. Not this one, though! I found Salway’s book to be like a box of individually wrapped chocolates with different flavours, which you covet so much that you eat only a few because you want to save the rest for later. Her poems are enchanting, poignant, tender, sensual, humorous and bittersweet. There are so many that I want to read over and over again. Some of them made me smile (“Things to Do Today”), others brought tears to my eyes (“Left”), and along the way long-forgotten memories were found (“The Interruption”), and shared idiosyncrasies revealed (“Through Carved Wooden Binoculars”).