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.

Ellen Cregan is reading The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

The Confessions of Frannie Langton was one of the winning books in this year’s Costa Book Awards. This is a big, intelligent bildungsroman-esque novel set in 1826 London. Frannie Langton is a mixed-race former slave who grew up in a Jamaican plantation, and was taught to read and write as a young child. When Frannie’s master brings her to England, he leaves her in the house of a colleague: Mr Benham. There, she works as a maid, eventually falling in love with the mistress of the house. Of course, things go terribly, terribly wrong, and after Mr and Mrs Benham are horribly murdered, Frannie is of course accused of having committed the crime.

This isn’t just a darkly enjoyable novel – Collins uses this fictional vessel to tell some of the true, chilling tales of the history of race theory and England’s relationship to slavery. This is the kind of book that will leave you feeling educated and entertained at the same time.

Gabrielle Williams is reading The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda (translated by Alison Watts)

I have a massive advantage over all you non-bookshop-working folk: the opportunity to stumble across treasures I wouldn’t normally pick up, in sections of the shop I wouldn’t normally browse. I’m not a big crime girl as a general rule, but as I stood with a pile of books in my arms ready for shelving, The Aosawa Murders grabbed my attention.

Thirty years ago, the wealthy Aosawa family hosted a birthday party at their villa on the Sea of Japan, an event which turned murderous when 17 people died – poisoned by cyanide placed in their drinks. An unexpected confession by way of a suicide note seems to solve the case, but there are still too many questions. Told through a rolling series of testimony from different people (a novelist, the daughter of the housekeeper, the detective, and others), the facts of the afternoon are drip-fed tantalisingly to the reader, winding back time and again to the intriguing idea that perhaps the only surviving daughter of the Aosawas did it: a girl who was a teenager at the time, and blind. There are many questions I have at the moment, but I’m really enjoying this unexpected (and shhhh, don’t tell my manager, unshelved) delight.

Tye Cattanach is Below Deck by Sophie Hardcastle

Below Deck is a compelling exploration of the ways in which our instinctive choices can lead to life-altering experiences – experiences shaped by both the environment we surround ourselves with and the people we meet; environments and people that can both irrevocably harm and heal us, in the most unexpected of ways. A marvellous and sometimes confronting read, Below Deck will both unsettle and reassure its readers that even the most damaging circumstances can be overcome by embracing the kindness of others, by being open to what the world needs us to hear and by having belief in ones own strength.