Amy MacIver spoke with bookseller Exclusive Books – Phemelo Motalane about the latest mid-year reading trends.

July officially marks the second half of 2022 and as the country faces myriad problems, it’s good to know that books remain a place of solace for South Africans.

Amy MacIver spoke with Exclusive Books bookseller Phemelo Motalane about the latest mid-year reading trends.

Here are the most popular non-fiction books:

Sabotage: Eskom besieged by Kyle Cowan
Sabotage documents a story of conspiracy and subterfuge within South Africa’s struggling Eskom electricity utility, providing new insights into a battle that threatens the country’s economy.

Fortunes: The Rise and Rise of the Afrikaner Magnates
Fortunes details how business leaders such as Jannie Mouton, Michiel le Roux, Douw Steyn, Roelof Botha, Hendrik du Toit and a number of commercial farmers built their empires.

The Profiler Diaries 2 – From the crime scene to the courtroom
The second episode of The Profiler Diaries, written by former South African Police Service (SAPS) Chief Profiler Dr Gerard Labuschagne remembers more about the series of 110 murders and countless other bizarre crimes he analyzed during his career.

The boy who never gave up
The story portrays 16-year-old Emmanuel Taban, who left war-torn Sudan with nothing. Relying on the generosity of strangers, he made the long journey south to South Africa, via Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, traveling mostly by bus and on foot . The book details how he rose above extreme poverty, racism and xenophobia to become a South African success story.

On the trail of the devil
This book details the work of Captain Ben Bliksem Booysen on the case of the Krugersdorp Killers assigned to him in 2016. This after 11 people had already been brutally murdered by a group calling themselves Electus Per Deus. The book takes the reader a step further into a behind-the-scenes look at Satanic murders and provides new details about the crimes.

Motalane shared that people now want to know the facts more than ever.

What was also quite interesting is that apart from all the situations we face in the country, more people are cowering for a good read.

Phemelo Motalane, bookseller of exclusive books

Scroll up for the full interview.

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