Each week our wonderful staff share the books that they've been enjoying.

Aurelia has been reading Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith's stories of obsession, manipulation, and murder are undisputedly some of the best crime fiction to exist. I already loved the Talented Mr Ripley series, I just finished Strangers on a Train and equally devoured it, and I'm very sure my next book of hers to read – The Cry of the Owl – will steal my breath away with her enthralling psychological insights into the criminal mind. I strongly recommend you read them if you haven't before, or reread them again if you have.

Thomas has been reading My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

Having missed the MTC season of My Brilliant Career, I thought what better reason to pick up the classic novel that inspired it by Miles Franklin. Set in Rural Australia in the early 1900s, we follow Sybilla as she tries to make a name for herself as a writer. Having not read many ‘classics’ before, I was a little apprehensive going into this but I thought it was just so brilliant (no pun intended).

This is a must-read. Franklin depicts such rich characters, displaying them flaws and all. She also writes such amazing descriptions of life in Australia at this time. I would say this is the perfect gateway if you’re wanting to get into classics.

Emma has been reading Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace

I have been reading Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (late to a party that is essentially over) and what I will say is this – what a mind! In the words of William H. Gass: 'It’s not the word made flesh we want in writing ... but the flesh made word'. This is the achievement of Wallace, whose clarity allows him to simply place a thought in the reader's mind rather than asking them to do the laborious task of analysing and notetaking. And of course, it is an enlightening read about American culture, a worthwhile one I think, considering the glut in the market after the election of Trump. The essay 'Up, Simba' I would especially recommend, if you are interested in American politics and the origins of our so-called 'post-truth' era.