Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on, or the music we’re loving.

Mike Shuttleworth is reading Wayward: Just Another Life to Live by Vashti Bunyan

In the mid-1960s under the guidance of the Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham, Vashti Bunyan released several singles…all of which bombed. While The Beatles were filming Let It Be in 1969 Vashti Bunyan was traveling to the Isle of Skye by horse-drawn carriage, to join a colony of like-minded souls, including the singer Donovan.

The journey would define her vivid, elegant songs for the 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day, recorded with the cream of British folk-rock musicians. And although it would be 30 years before anyone really noticed, time only made her diamonds shine brighter.

In one sense Wayward: Just Another Life to Live is a travel book since that journey north provides the memoir’s spine. What was it Vashti Bunyan was looking for when she and her partner arrived on the Outer Hebrides? An escape from London, from what she feared the modern world was becoming, a place to build a new life.

Her clear-eyed stories of love, landscapes and travel arrive in pin-sharp images – the same quality that makes her songs, once heard, so memorable. Wayward sheds light on an era so often wreathed in smoke and, far from recounting past glories, continues a maverick artist’s search for meaning and connection.

Teen Advisory Board Member Elli is reading Anything But Fine by Tobias Madden

This books is one of my favourite reads of the year. It is like an Australian version of Heartstopper, and will fill the hole in your heart left by it.

The story follows a boy named Luca whose life comes crashing down when he sustains an injury that ends his dream of a career in ballet before it even has a chance to begin. At his new school he meets Jordan, who excels at rowing and football, and begins to develop feelings…

Lucie Dess is listening to In Our Own Sweet Time by Vance Joy

It’s a new week and once again I am spending all of my money on vinyl. This week’s purchase is Vance Joy’s third album, In Our Own Sweet Time.

I have been a big fan of Joy’s since seeing him support Taylor Swift on her 1989 tour (Yes, I went 4 times!) and have been eagerly anticipating this album. I was not disappointed. This is Joy’s most emotional and romantic album so far and provides further proof that Joy was not a one hit wonder with ‘Riptide’ and will continue to release hit after hit.

‘Catalonia’ is my favourite track on the album. It’s an absolute bop and I can’t wait to dance to it when I see Joy later this year at Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Overall, In Our Own Sweet Time will please pre-existing fans of Joy and create some new fans too.