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.

Ellen Cregan is reading Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This novel follows the rise and fall of a legendary rock band from the 1970s, The Six, whose journey to fame took off when they were joined by singer and ‘it girl’ Daisy Jones. The book is written in a ‘rockumentary’ interview style, bringing together accounts of the tumultuous relationships, smash hits, and general sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll of the era.

I think this is one of those wonderful books that will appeal to a really broad range of readers – it has literary appeal, but is also a total page turner. It is beautifully written, and Jenkins Reid has a wonderful knack for creating scenes that are heartbreaking, bittersweet, and convey the sometimes unpleasant complexities of relationships.

Lian Hingee is reading The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

A couple of years ago, I stumbled across a terrific book about a young woman who must venture into the underworld after she is tricked into a marriage with a predatory ghost. The combination of fantasy, romance, and Chinese mythology grabbed me immediately, and I’ve been anxiously awaiting another book from the author, Yangsze Choo.

It took some time (The Ghost Bride came out in 2013) but The Night Tiger is absolutely worth the wait. Featuring another strong and self-sufficient heroine, and richly imbued with Chinese and Malayan folklore, The Night Tiger is the story of Ji Lin, an apprentice dressmaker who finds herself caught up in a web of murder and intrigue when she accidentally comes into possession of a preserved human finger.

Choo’s new book is pitched a little older than The Ghost Bride – it’s just as richly imagined, but more complex and sensual. Set in 1930s colonial Malaysia, The Night Tiger effortlessly depicts the uneasy clash between the local Chinese and Malayan traditions and the unflagging Western drive for modernisation. This lush, gorgeously-written novel has everything, from dark secrets and cursed weretigers, to forbidden desire and broken promises. I loved it.

Jason Austin is reading Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff

Zombies have become so passé. Over the last years we’ve been inundated with World War Z, The Walking Dead, Warm Bodies, The Girl with All the Gifts and the like, but there’s not been anything quite like Last Ones Left Alive.

Orpen was born into a world of chaos. She has been raised and trained to survive against these undead beings – or skrake as they are called in the novel. Set in Ireland several years after the outbreak, the book begins with Orpen leaving the skrake-free island where she grew up with her mother and Maeve. Maeve has been bitten and she’s turning, but Orpen cannot let her go, not yet.

This is a very clever and simply told genre novel about loneliness and grief with kick-arse female characters and a feminist edge.

Laura Wilson is reading What I Like About Me by Jenna Guillaume

This is a story full of amazingly relatable characters and life issues that felt all too familiar. Combine this with Jenna Guillaume’s humourous yet emotional writing, and you have a book that hooked and enthralled me and that I truly loved.

Ed. note: Laura is a member of our current Readings Teen Advisory Board.