Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.

Jo Case is reading You Play The Girl by Carina Chocano

You Play The Girl, for me, just surpassed Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist in the category of ‘smart, thoughtful, completely engrossing read that makes feminist arguments through deep engagement with popular culture’. (That’s a category, right?)

In this book, Carina Chocano critically reflects on how the stories we tell and consume shape who we are, taking apart everything from The Bachelor, Real Housewives and Frozen, to The Philadelphia Story and Lars and the Real Girl. Paring these narratives back to their underlying story structure and the archetypes the characters enact, she uncovers deeper – often uncomfortable – truths about our culture. She also looks at media phenomena like the tabloid obsession with ‘trainwrecked’ former child stars (Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan) and the demonisation of Katherine Heigel after she told a journalist that Knocked Up – the movie she starred in as an uptight knockout-blonde with a great career whose love interest is an overweight unemployed stoner obsessed with the sex bits in non-porn movies – was ‘a little sexist’.

I was never not going to love this book, but the use of Alice in Wonderland as a guiding metaphor throughout nailed it for me. Also note – others who’ve raved about it include personal-essay queen Meghan Daum and the writer of Transparent, Jill Soloway.

Bronte Coates is reading Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic

Emma Viskic’s debut won a host of prizes last year and has been repeatedly recommended to by a number of my colleagues. I finally picked it up earlier this week and am pleased to report that it’s just as good as everyone promised. I read the novel over two evenings – I even took it with me when I went places in the car, just in case I arrived early and had time for a sneaky quick read.

I’m not a big crime reader but when I find one I love, I’m completely hooked. My favourites are invariably character-driven thrillers which are light on sexual violence (if it features at all) and extremely well-crafted. Resurrection Bay happens to fit my brief perfectly – Viskic is a great writer on a line level, and the novel’s taut narrative structure builds up to an immensely satisfying conclusion.

Caleb is such a compelling lead, and completely believable. His relationships with those are around him are complicated, not least with those who know him best such as his brother Anton and ex-wife, Kat. (As a side note, the chemistry between Caleb and Kat is crazy high.) His deafness allows for a unique perspective for what might otherwise have been a fairly standard crime read, enjoyably amping up the tension at moments of extreme action such as fights, and even a car chase. I’m definitely keen to read the follow-up now.

Stella Charls is reading two brilliant debuts

This month I’ve been tackling some pretty heavy books, hoping that their gripping narratives would pull me out of a reading slump.

I finally got around to Angie Thomas’ much-hyped YA novel, The Hate U Give, which my colleagues have raved about this year. I was keen to read it for myself but afraid that it wouldn’t live up to the hype. I was so wrong – this timely, important book was impossible to put down and I couldn’t recommend it more highly. I agree with my colleague Ellen who writes that The Hate U Give should be ‘required reading for all ages’. I’m so looking forward to hearing Thomas speak at the Melbourne Writers Festival next week.

I’ve also just started Gabriel Tallent’s My Absolute Darling– like Thomas’ novel, this has to be one of the most evangelically praised releases of the year. Stephen King has called it a ‘masterpiece’, Celeste Ng wrote that this debut will ‘shock, then shake, then inspire you’. I am 50 pages in and already desperately attached to the protagonist, 14-year-old ‘Turtle’ Alveston, and completely engrossed in her story. As my colleague Alison writes in her wonderful review – be warned that this novel contains many graphic and upsetting scenes. I’m finding that I need to read it during daylight hours only! It’s also unlike everything I’ve ever read before and I’m eager to see how it unfolds.

Mark Rubbo is reading The Weaver’s Son by Donald Hossack

The Weaver’s Son is a charming and inspirational story about overcoming life’s challenges. Don struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia, left school early and luckily landed a job as a lab assistant at the Zoology Department at Melbourne University. The staff there encourage him to return to school and he eventually qualified as a pharmacist, doctor and surgeon.

I have a personal connection too; at medical school, Don was one of my father’s students and my father was involved in a program to send senior medical students to PNG to work in remote regions. Don was one of those who applied and was selected, even though my father had admonished the students that it was for serious work and not a free tropical holiday!