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.

Lian Hingee is reading A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

For someone who’s never read The Iliad (and truthfully, probably never will) I have a deep and abiding fascination for the story of the Trojan War. Pat Barker’s remarkable novel The Silence of the Girls was one of my favourite books of 2019, and Natalie Haynes’s Women’s Prize-shortlisted book A Thousand Ships makes a wonderful companion to it.

Where The Silence of the Girls gave voice to Briseis – the woman at the heart of the dispute that nearly cost the Greeks the war – A Thousand Ships offers up the experiences of an entire cast of women: priestesses, amazons, goddesses, princesses, muses, and slaves. I’ve been reading it with my phone open to Wikipedia, because Haynes has done such a stunning job of breathing life into these oft-forgotten women that I find myself anxious about their fates, and the fates of their loved ones.

A Thousand Ships is immensely readable; each chapter offering another piece to the puzzle, another thread to a tapestry that’s soaked in blood and tears.

The original texts may gloss over the women of Troy to focus instead on battles, but when you consider Aphrodite and her apple, Cassandra’s cursed premonitions, Helen running away with Paris, Penelope’s machinations, and so on, I actually think the women’s stories are far more interesting.

Lucie Dess is watching Bridgerton

This week, I put on my most elegant dress and dusted off my finest tea set in preparation for a visit from the Duke and Duchess of Hastings.

From the very first episode of Bridgerton, I was hooked. Based on the books by Julia Quinn, this show is Pride & Prejudice meets Gossip Girl. It comes complete with gorgeous outfits, a swoon-worthy cast, and a soundtrack to die for. (You truly can’t go wrong with string quartets covering songs by Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Ariana Grande.)

If, like me, you’re obsessed with this new Regency drama from Netflix, you can follow the lives of the Bridgerton family in Quinn’s books while we wait for the official announcement of a second season.

Tye Cattanach is reading Outlawed by Anna North

I loved this smart, sassy, visually spectacular novel. A feminist western perfect for book club discussion, Outlawed is a deeply satisfying read. Closing the cover on the last page, I felt the same way I do when leaving a cinema. For those of us who enjoy a good ‘elevator pitch’ here’s mine – if The Handmaids Tale and The Brothers Sisters produced a Gen Z baby, Outlawed would be it. Highly recommended.