‘There are two things in life I enjoy. Talking on the phone and drinking coffee. Better yet, talking on the phone while drinking coffee. That’s about it.’ Welcome to the wonderfully dark and witty world of Ariel Leve. This collection of her much-loved Cassandra columns, which have been popping up in The Sunday Times since 2003, is packed full of laugh-out-loud one-liners and thoughtful observations on everyday life.

The NYC- and London-based scribe addresses everything from napping, queuing and her local deli man to therapy, friendship, Facebook and nosejobs in a series of short, snappy pieces driven by an extremely dry sense of humour and pithy sentences. In this forthright, funny and extremely honest offering, Leve says the unspeakable that you’ll doubtless have thought but felt instantly bad about and then tried to forget. Imagine the musings of an even more world-weary Enid from Ghost World, but for grown ups.

(Portobello)