Reading Matters (week 07) 10 February 2026

Men in SA are four times more likely to commit suicide than are women. Marion Scher told me this during our interview about her book, Men and Mental Health: Shattering the Silence (Bookstorm). Amongst the many men that Marion, author and journalist, interviewed, were swimmer Chad le Clos and entertainer David Kramer. They suffered from depression.
The main reason for men remaining silent about their mental health is the stigma attached to it. So hats off to the famous men who spoke to Marion and also to her for writing about matters mental to help dispel the myths about men needing to always be strong and silent. The book contains valuable contributions from psychiatrists and psychologists.

Mystery crime writer, Ann Cleeves, takes us to the Orkney Islands off Scotland’s north coast in The Killing Stones (Macmillan). Cleeves has written over 40 books now and in this one the stones are described as Neolithic with ancient inscriptions on them. So, not your normal murder weapon.

Into the darkness of the wild weather, returns the detective Jimmy Perez, who plunges into the secretive lives of the islanders as he tries to find out who’s the murderer. Vivid, and laced with deeply human characters.

The CEO of Discovery Health, Adrian Gore, has written a book, The Four Principles (Macmillan) that will hit our bookstores, and the international scene, midyear. Should be riveting.

I bumped into Dion Chang, author of a Pawfect Life at the weekend, and talking to him about handling our pets’ deaths

Protea Book House publishers has produced The Boer War in Colour on glossy paper, coffee table size that will grab the attention of many a South African. Tinus le Roux, military history enthusiast, has coloured black and white pictures so strikingly that the concentration camps, burning farm houses, skeletal children, camp life, horses and executions are horrifyingly real.
This is far more than a military history book for it’s an easy to read, exquisitely produced tome that will be as at home in your lounge as in museums. Get it.

Reading Matters with Sue Grant-Marshall