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.

Amy Vuleta is reading Skin by Ilka Tampke

There’s something deeply satisfying about spending an entire day in bed reading a fantasy novel. It’s an entirely irresponsible adult indulgence!

I picked up Ilka Tampke’s debut novel Skin last weekend with mild curiosity, but found myself glued to where I sat, pyjama-clad, up in bed from Sunday morning until well into the afternoon. Skin is set in Iron-Age Britain and depicts a fantastically mystical pagan culture. It follows the journey of its heroine, Ailia, as she seeks her place in the world and among her people.

As well as being transported to the rich world Tampke has created in the novel, I’m also being transported back to those glorious teenage years when I had nothing more to do on a weekend than finish devouring Victor Kelleher’s The Hunting of Shadroth before turning to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon. Because what better use of time could there possibly be?!

Jan Lockwood is reading Life Moves Pretty Fast) by Hadley Freeman

I’ve just thoroughly enjoyed Life Moves Pretty Fast by Hadley Freeman. Somewhat older than the author, who was born in 1978, I was already on BFF terms with all but one of the movies covered in the essay-like chapters. I was moved to tears by the sweet nostalgia of reliving scenes and dialogue from movies such as When Harry Met Sally, Steel Magnolias, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Ghostbusters, as well as feeling enlightened by Freeman’s insight into the underlying themes of some, which had previously passed me by. It certainly resonated with me that if you want to see such quality nowadays, more often than not you have to commit yourself to 50 hours of TV watching rather than a night out at the movies. I’m telling all my friends who are fans of 80s Hollywood movies, which is everyone, about this book.

Ann Le Lievre is reading My Paris Dream: Life, Love and Fashion in the Great City by the Seine by Kate Betts

It’s the lead-up to the Tour de France and I am doing some serious homework. Luckily, there are some intriguing new releases that are just perfect for the job. This week Kate Betts is giving me a thorough tour of Paris in My Paris Dream. Kate lands in Paris as a young graduate from Princeton. The streets and architecture are described in such detail that I could almost be there with her. Here I am, clacking down a cobbled lane (in high heels, it’s tricky) while she hunts out un appartement with a tiny view of course. So much fun, wish I was really there.

Chris Gordon is reading The Festival of Insignificance by Milan Kundera

When I was at university I spent hours discussing the work of Milan Kundera. His novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, had just been released and us earnest 18-year-olds all felt as if we were French revolutionaries as we drank our bad wine, rolled our bad cigarettes, and talked our talk of change and possibilities. And always with the pure glee of young adults situated somewhere between realising everything, and nothing. For all the criticism that has since been laid at his feet, I still consider Kundera to be one of my leading men. It was because of him that several long-lasting friendship were formed.

And so I read The Festival of Insignificance, his latest novel, with a type of yearning deep down because, again, the issue of existence is explored. The book reminded me of those heady days of old where we discussed with such fever how to contribute, how to exist, how to be. These questions are raised in his new novel’s slim plot which centres on five men who share a neighbourhood, along with musings of the banality of life. The notion of truth is raised continually as Kundera weaves their stories with anecdotes from Stalin and his followers, and by combining the modern with the past, nothing remains steadfast. Kundera writes as if he was living in playwright Brecht’s shadows – you, the reader, are never allowed to know that this is not real as Kundera’s presence is there on every page, toying with what a novel should be and how it should be read. Or maybe he is just toying with my past memories, as well he should.

The Festival of Insignificance may be his last contribution. He is 86-years-old now and I’d like to think that this book is actually his own means of farewelling us, his loyal disciples.

Bronte Coates is watching Parade’s End

Back in our first ever ‘what we’re reading’ column (find it here), I wrote about a club I’m part of: every few months, some friends and I get together to watch a period drama and eat baked treats. These are two of my favourite things so naturally, it’s a stack of fun. We most recently watched Parade’s End, based on novels by Ford Maddox Ford.

Benedict Cumberbatch is wonderful as the repressed and heartfelt Christopher though I was surprised to find myself feeling much more sympathetic to his ‘vindictive’ socialite wife Sylvia (Rebecca Hall) as opposed to the young suffragette Christopher pines for, Valentine Wannop (Adelaide Clemens). Surprised, because I’m usually in favour of characters who strive for goodness and that is the idealistic Valentine to a tee. Sylvia, on the other hand, is so obviously the villain in this love triangle that I almost couldn’t take her seriously. Not only does she have sex with two different men before marriage, but she’s also an outrageous snob, cruel for her own amusement and throws a plate against a wall because she’s bored. Her treatment of Christopher is awful, without a doubt, but in the few moments where she is vulnerable, I really felt for her. I just found her much more complicated and compelling than Valentine who seemed a bit too perfect. This Telegraph article essentially sums up my problems with how she was represented: “Winsomely pretty, gentle, meek and uncomplainingly devoted to the man she loves, surely Wannop has to be the male writer’s perfect suffragette.”

I also watched the new adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, which is currently showing at Cinema Nova. Matthias Schoenaerts is swoon-worthy as shepherd Gabriel Oak but the star of the show is undoubtedly Carey Mulligan who is irresistible as the independent Bathsheba Everdene.