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.
Mark Rubbo is reading Aphrodite’s Breath by Susan Johnson
I’ve been reading Aphrodite’s Breath by Susan Johnson. Susan is the author of many books and has spent much her working life overseas; in the 70s she spent some idyllic months on the Greek island of Kythera and as she entered her early 60s she decided she’d like to go back and perhaps relive some of her lost youth; on a whim she asked her 85 year old mother if she’d like to join her for a year on the island. She’d finish the novel she was working on, and her mum could discover the joys of Mediterranean life. Without hesitation her mother said yes. And this beautiful, joyous, funny and sad memoir is a record of that time and the evolution of their relationship.
Baz Ozturk is reading Harrow by Joy Williams
I’m currently reading Harrow by Joy Williams—one of my favourite authors—and I am loving it so far. It’s a haunting novel that explores the dark side of human nature in a world devastated by environmental destruction. Williams has a distinctive voice and style that sets her apart from other writers. Brutal, strange, surprising, bordering on the surreal, I never know what to expect from her fiction. But I can tell this is going to be another wonderfully disturbing and immersive experience.
Pierre Sutcliffe is reading The Trees by Percival Everett
A fantastic combination of Southern grotesquerie, savage satire and deep humanism. If Flannery O'Connor and John Kennedy Toole had somehow procreated, their offspring may have written this.
