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.

Mark Rubbo is reading Staying by Jessie Cole

I sometimes go through periods (thankfully short) when whatever I pick up to read just doesn’t engage me. Last week, a friend gave me a copy of Jessie Cole’s memoir Staying, which will be reviewed in the May issue of the Readings Monthly, and my drought was broken. Although it’s dealing with a tough topic, this memoir absolutely sparkles, and reminded me how powerful and moving books can be.

Bronte Coates is reading Far From the Tree by Robin Benway

I’m half-way through Robin Benway’s award-winning YA novel, Far From the Tree. This is a story of three siblings who were separated when very young (two were adopted by different families, one went into foster care) and are now meeting for the first time as teenagers. I love reading about the mess of families and this story is proving to be incredibly authentic and heartwarming. Benway has done a brilliant job of presenting three different and complicated characters, each with their own baggage and yearnings, and I’m very interested to see how how their personalities will play off against one another as their secrets are revealed.

Ellen Cregan is reading Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry

I’ve just joined a second book club, which probably isn’t a great idea for time-management reasons, but I’m still very excited about it. This month’s pick is Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry, an expat journalist who was living in Japan at the time of the 2011 earthquake that caused a mega tsunami which in turn claimed the lives of hundreds. This book focuses on the effects of the Tsunami on one small town in north-eastern Japan where the loss of life from the tsunami was greatest.

This is a pretty devastating read as a great deal of the book consists of Parry’s interviews with those who lost loved ones to the tsunami. Especially difficult to read are the accounts of people whose children died in the disaster – in some cases, their bodies weren’t located for weeks. While the subject matter of this book is extremely heavy, Parry’s prose is stunning. It is intense and forward driving when it needs to be, but also has the capacity to describe the emotional distress of the families and survivors with delicacy and care. Ghosts of the Tsunami is a captivating, page-turning read, and I will definitely be reading more of Parry’s work in the near future.

Chris Gordon is celebrating the release of CIBI

CIBI is a book on home-style Japanese cooking inspired by the eponymous Melbourne cafe and design space created by Meg and Zenta Tanaka. Their style is a wonderful nod to Japanese cuisine, family meals and living in Australia. On Monday evening, a group of us came together to celebrate the cookbook’s release and to exchange ideas while we ate some truly appetising food. We fell into the welcoming embrace of Meg and Zenta, and the whole night was mixed up in delicious tastes.

We heard about the simplicity of Japanese food, the need for flavours to be balanced. The recipes in CIBI are refreshing and unpretentious. My bloke, the cook in my home, is planning to make his way through this book, one recipe at a time. I’m dreaming of red rice, marinated eggplant, mushrooms with swirls of filling, fish with radish, and so much more. Officially CIBI is now our go-to book, and not just because the owners are the loveliest and most gracious people of all time. It’s because the food is fresh, flavoursome and most importantly achievable.

Chris Somerville is reading Always Happy Hour by Mary Miller

I was a big fan of The Last Days of California, Mary Miller’s debut novel about an observant family driving across America, warning people rapture was coming. The real takeaway was her incredible gift for clear and funny sentences. Always Happy Hour is her latest work, a second collection of short stories, and each one is again defined by the spark of its prose.

Here is a collection of some of the stories’ openings: ‘The roller skates are busted and the bikes have flat tyres and the wagon is full of leaves and rainwater, but they’re used to these things.’; ‘I’m on a cheap raft, pink and deflating, trying to keep my body balanced in the center while Aggie sits on a step churning the water.’; ‘The RV park is nice and shady. The residents are mostly older and quiet, but the bugs are loud. There are all sorts of bugs and they are all so loud.’ Each story delivers people caught in a kind of weightlessness, their problems overwhelming no matter how insignificant they seem to be. They’re fun in a way like pushing down on a bruise can be fun. Highly recommended.