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.

Bronte Coates is reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

This past year, I’ve been making efforts to read backlist titles and seek out older books that have been repeatedly recommended to me. My latest pick is a recommendation from my colleague Jan – Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s first Booker-Prize-winning novel about the life of Thomas Cromwell. Her sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, also won the Man Booker Prize, and there is a third, and final, book slated for release in 2019 with the current title of The Mirror and the Light.

This is a fantastic, gripping and completely immersive historical read. Mantel writes like nobody else I’ve read before, and I’m so glad I’ve now learned this for myself. I did need to take a little break in the middle due to my work reading load, but I had to trouble slipping back in the book when I returned to it. The final section is very moving and I feel pretty heartbroken for the fate that I know is awaiting Cromwell.

Leanne Hall is reading Ponti Sharlene Teo

Ponti is the strange and wonderful debut novel from Sharlene Teo, and I absolutely loved every moment of it. Teo weaves together the storylines of three women across three time periods, linking them by blood, friendship and the cult horror movie trilogy, Ponti! Disaffected sixteen-year-old Szu watches on as her middle-aged mother, the former lead actress in the Ponti! films, descends into ill health. In the 1970s young Amisa moves from a tiny Malay kampong to the metropolis of Singapore, where she meets the director of Ponti!, ‘visionary and auteur’ (his words) Iskandar Wiryanto. In the very near future of 2020, recently-divorced Circe is asked to publicise the Ponti! remake, and finds herself assailed with vivid memories of her teenage best friend Szu.

Ponti is redolent with entropy, both that caused by the humid Singaporean climate, and also the cloying psychology of the characters. I was equally invested in Szu, Amisa and Circe’s stories, even as each woman struggled to find traction in her life. But most of all I enjoyed the plausible strangeness of a novel that boldly mixes Malay myth, spirit mediumship, tapeworms, Taoist statues, corporate marketing speak, and the sheer oddity of the teenage years.

Fiona Hardy is reading I Do Not Like Books Anymore! by Daisy Hirst

I adored Hirst’s first picture book about monster siblings, Alphonse, That Is Not OK to Do!, very, VERY much, as did my daughter. That one was the story of Natalie whose little brother Alphonse is mostly good at things, like naming pigeons and playing games, but is Not Perfect… In this second story about the duo, Natalie is terribly excited to learn how to read. That is until she actually gets her first reader and discovers that first readers are terribly boring with letters that look a bit like birds’ feet or prickles. Even though her family assures her that she will get better (and so will the stories), Natalie decides that the best way to enjoy books is to write her own.

I love everything about this book. Hirst’s characters are bright and endearingly odd, and their situations are comforting and really quite funny. It’s an especially good pick for a little kid who is finding it frustrating to learn their letters. (Parents who are reading early readers with their kids may also feel validated because, let’s be honest – many are very very boring.)

Lou Fulco is watching Molly’s Game and The Post

In Molly’s Game, Hollywood heavyweight Aaron Sorkin takes the true story of Molly Bloom and weaves a script as only he can – this film is delightfully full of sharp, witty dialogue. Of course, one needs a great cast to deliver these lines… Enter Jessica Chastain. Now, I have seen Chastain in supporting roles that still linger in my memory. She is never limited by the size of her role, and here she delivers Sorkin’s lines with strength and authenticity. The cast also includes the likes of Michael Cera, Bill Camp, Idris Elba and Kevin Costner, who all leave their mark.

I recommend you read Molly Bloom’s real-life memoir as it will give you a real sense of the mastery for storytelling that Aaron Sorkin displays in this film, as well as further your appreciation for Chastain’s performance. In addition, the book reveals the identity of the character being played by Cera – a real-life top Hollywood actor whose name is suppressed in the film!

The Post, feels like a natural next watch for anyone who enjoys great newspaper films, such as Spotlight. Set in the early 1970s, it depicts the true story of attempts by journalists at The Washington Post to publish classified documents regarding the 30-year involvement of the United States government in the Vietnam War. Meryl Streep stars as Katharine ‘Kay’ Graham, the publisher of The Washington Post, alongside Tom Hanks as the newspaper’s executive editor, Ben Bradlee. Streep and Hanks both received Oscar nominations for their role and no wonder – they both shine here. This film truly immerses you in the time and place, and conveys the pressure to get the story out on time – damn the consequences!

When you look at the state of world politics in the present-time, it’s possible that comparisons with issues going back decades seem to pale into insignificance. But the late sixties and early seventies were a time of great upheaval and corruption, which would scar and eventually lead to long-overdue change at the top of the tree of U.S. leadership. Perhaps times haven’t changed that much after all?

Chris Gordon is revisiting Anthony Bourdain’s books

My bloke and me were heartbroken to hear of the death of Anthony Bourdain. We liked that when he told a story about food, he was really a story about families and tradition. Way back, I gifted my bloke Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. Oh, it made us laugh out loud and we refer to it often when watching unreal reality cooking shows.

At the moment, we have our copy in easy reach on the bookcase so we can flick through it when we need to remember him with mirth, not sadness. Winter is also a brilliant time to be eating French food and so we have been enjoying meals from two of his cookbooks: Les Halles and Appetites. The latter is Bourdain’s version of a regular cookbook and it’s filled with anecdotes and easy recipes for such dishes as the perfect grilled cheese sandwich and a ‘violence-free’ family dinner. It’s one of my favourite cookbooks of all time.

The Smithsonian Institution has declared that Bourdain was the ‘original rock star’ of the culinary world. That seems apt for a man who was brash, kind and courageous. Though you may know him for his television appearances, and his food books, he also wrote fiction and historical non-fiction, and even a graphic novel about a ruthless sushi chef. I reckon Bourdain was a true genius. He will be so missed.