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.

Tye Cattanach is reading No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

No one Is Talking About This is a difficult book to talk about. Lockwood does such an incredible job of articulating her astute observations of the demise of human compassion, the disassociation from reality that can occur on social media and the thoughts most people keep to themselves, I was left breathless in the wake of it. What surprised me most about this slender little book is how much it made me feel. I was quite unprepared for the roller coaster of emotions it evoked from me, particularly the long minutes I found myself crying on the train.

Brave, thought compelling, sophisticated and at times, damn funny. Lockwood has gifted us with something magical and everyone should be talking about it.

Lou Ryan has also been reading Lockwood’s latest this week and says of the novel…

No One Is Talking About This looks like a self help book from the outside but the contents are as whacky as the cover. I’m forty-six pages in, laughing out loud and thinking it might appeal to anyone who enjoyed Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation (that’s everyone, right?) Contemporary, irreverent and highly refreshing!

Gabrielle Williams is reading Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry

Night Boat to Tangier was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, and it’s seriously excellent. Funny and grim and violent and poetic and charming and very, very cool.

Night Boat to Tangier the story of two men - Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond - waiting (like Godot) on the dock of Algerciras for Maurice’s daughter to turn up. She’s been MIA in Morocco and various other places for the better part of three years, and as we (and they) wait for her appearance, it’s hard to know whether they’re simply wanting to check that she’s okay, or if they have slightly less noble motivations.

It’s a masterful book, the author playing with the reader, surprising us, keeping us off balance, and making us love these two characters, even as we see how completely and utterly unlovable they really are.

Teen Advisory Board member Aurelia Orr is reading The End of the World is Bigger Than Love by Davina Bell

I can barely put to words how I feel after reading The End of the World is Bigger Than Love.

A masterful tapestry of brutality and poetry, this book magnifies the severity that a pandemic and global warming can cause on our planet. A survival story between two sisters that you will never forget.