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.

Bronte Coates is reading The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox

I’ve been struggling to read the past few weeks, instead opting for mindless television over books, but then my partner brought home this hefty fantasy epic from New Zealand writer Elizabeth Knox. I cracked it open to take a look and was forced (forced!) to steal it for myself immediately. Thrilling, immersive and wildly inventive, The Absolute Book is one of my absolute favourite reads of the year. The novel follows Taryn Cornick as she is drawn into a mysterious, perhaps nefarious, most definitely exciting plot involving the fae, Norse gods, demons, angels, and other non-human beings. Taryn’s grief-stricken, vengeful history and her extensive knowledge of books and libraries uniquely place her to play a role in these events. Pursed by demons and under suspicion by human law enforcement, she’s taken under the care of Shift, a shadowy figure who has his own past to contend with.

The Absolute Book has received deserving comparisons to both Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials (perhaps most famously in this rave review from Slate’s Dan Kois, which helped Knox secure a US publisher for her book). Similar to those touchstone works, The Absolute Book, is a myth-soaked fantasy driven by moral questions. How do you be a good person? What does it mean to make reparations for the past? Is the world is worth saving? I was enchanted and challenged by this novel, and bereft when I turned the final page. The Absolute Book is a book to disappear inside off for a while.

Lian Hingee is reading The Safe Place by Anna Downes

These last couple of weeks (fingers crossed) of Stage 4 lockdown have really been tough. I’ve been stuck in an apartment, working from my dining room table, and trying to keep my one-year old from chewing the charging cable for my ancient laptop. Escaping to some gorgeous French chateau on a remote island in the middle of nowhere sounds lovely to be honest, but the borders are closed so I’ve had to make do with reading about it. Anna Downes’s The Safe Place is the story of Emily Proudman, a young woman who leaps at the opportunity to trade her dreary life in London to work as the housekeeper/nanny/companion at an idyllic (if isolated) beach-side property. But if things seem too good to be true then they probably are, and it’s not long before the cracks appear.

I’ll be honest. Forty pages in I nearly gave up on this Australian debut. Emily is everything I hate in a protagonist: she’s incompetent, thoughtless, inconsiderate and flighty. But it turns out the mystery of what was going on had already hooked me. Downes does a fantastic job of balancing the light with the dark in The Safe Place. She paints the surroundings so impeccably that you can almost smell the lush gardens and feel the sun on your skin, but there’s always a frisson of unease, a taut layer of not-quite-right that makes reading this thriller a slightly disorientating but very engaging experience.

Tye Cattanach is reading Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

I just finished reading John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let the Right One In. Late to the party I know, I was prompted to pick it up after a conversation with a colleague about creepy reads that stay with you. This book certainly ticks THAT box. Without doubt, this was one of the most unsettling, dark, deeply disturbing books I have read in my lifetime. I was so enthralled I read all 500+ pages in a single sitting. There is an awful lot going on in this novel. It is not just a horror story - there are keen observations being made and a much broader social commentary woven through the narrative. I won’t be forgetting it any time soon.

I was also delighted to be working in the store this week when we unpacked the new cookbook from Yotam Ottolenghi, written together with Ixta Belfrage. Ottolenghi FLAVOUR is a masterclass on how to pack as much punch as possible into nutritious dishes composed from vegetables and grains. Beautifully designed and packed with Ottolenghi’s trademark humble anecdotes and stories, the recipes are accessible, family friendly and wildly creative. I recommend you start with ‘The Ultimate Traybake Ragu’. You won’t be disappointed!