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.

Holly Harper is reading We are the Rebels: The Women and Men Who Made Eureka by Clare Wright

One of the first things I did when I was a brand new resident of Victoria was visit Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. I loved it: the old-fashioned lolly shop, the candle-making, the panning for gold. But I never really understood the history behind the place since I was never taught anything of the Eureka Stockade in high school.

Clare Wright’s We are the Rebels has finally filled in a lot of the gaps in my historical knowledge with the concise younger readers’ edition of her Stella Prize winning novel The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka. Wright paints a powerful picture of life in the goldfields: the disease that ran rife through the camps and arriving ships; the fraught relationships between Chinese and European workers; and the mounting tensions that led to the Eureka Rebellion.

This is a fascinating book for teens that captures the essence of the times while never once feeling like a dry history book.

Chris Gordon is reading Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl came out a few years ago but I’ve only just read it now. I’m so glad I did. I laughed and cried reading it. I read this book because my 17-year-old daughter took me to see the movie by the same name recently. I laughed and cried watching this as well.

The story is about a teenage girl dying of cancer, and how one friend makes sense of it all. Even though the novel doesn’t try to pull your heart out, it does it anyway. The writing is clever and quirky, and the movie is idiosyncratic and very cool. Think Wes Anderson style cinematography with a Brian Eno soundtrack and a good dash of adolescence angst.

Amy Vuleta is reading The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

I’m describing this novel as… Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, meets Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides, meets Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, meets Abigail Ulman’s Hot Little Hands.

The End of Everything is singular – a portrayal of suburban teenage girlhood that is deeply troubling. A pre-pubescent teen goes missing, and this event is seen through the perspective of her best friend, who is trying to make sense of her own coming of age at the same time.

Abbott’s trademark slow, dark, prickling intensity is at its best here. I think I love her writing for its pace and tone more than anything. She stretches her stories out so much, and so gently, that like a band pulled taut, they strain precariously – ready to snap back and sting you at any moment.

This novel, first published in 2011, has recently been re-issued along with a number of Abbott’s other contemporary fiction titles. If you’re interested in seeing more of what this sharp and talented writer can do, I’d recommend The Fever and Dare Me, as well as Abbott’s now slightly more difficult to get hold of (but totally worth the effort to do so) hardboiled/noir novels such as Die a Little and Bury me Deep.