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.

Bianca Looney is reading New Shoes by Sara Varon

Sara Varon’s earlier book, Robot Dreams, is already one of my favourite graphic novels for younger readers and I know I’m not alone. A mother of a child in prep recently told me how after reading the story, her son created his own comic about a ‘fainting warthog’. I love stories like this.

Varon’s New Shoes might be my new favourite. Francis the donkey is a talented shoemaker who always sources the best materials for his creations. When he receives an order from his own personal hero, calypso singer Miss Manatee, he must leave his village for the first time and journey deep into the jungles of Guyana in South America to find a special material. Along the way, he meets a variety of animals including the capybara, the toucan, the jaguar and the three-toed sloth.

Photographs are used in the book to give real-world references to some of the places and animals Francis encounters, adding a nice touch to an already engaging story. For ages 5+.

Lian Hingee is reading Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

I’ve just started reading this novel on the recommendation of my colleague Leanne Hall. Leanne knows that I have a penchant for richly imagined fantasy novels, especially ones that take their inspiration from fairy tales, and Forest of a Thousand Lanterns has the added selling point of having turned its back on the overly familiar Western canon of fantasy in favour of one based in Chinese myths and legends: the princesses become concubines; fairy godmothers become sharp-tongued aunties with blood magic.

Dao’s protagonist is Xifeng. She’s beautiful, poor, ambitious and (if her aunt is to be believed) destined to one day be Empress. Like all proper fairytales, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is visceral and bloody – Xifeng’s path to the top is a treacherous one, and not without its sacrifices. Xifeng herself is balancing on a knife’s edge between light and dark, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that this might not be the story of the princess after all, but that of the evil queen. And isn’t that just so much more interesting?

Ellen Cregan is reading Normal People by Sally Rooney (available September)

I was beyond ecstatic to get my hands on a copy of Sally Rooney’s forthcoming novel, Normal People. Last year Rooney had a huge hit with her wonderful debut, Conversations With Friends, and it was one of my top novels of the whole year. When I heard she was releasing a second novel in the latter half of 2018, I pretty much lost my mind.

Normal People is just as wonderful as anticipated. While it has some similarities to Conversations With Friends, it holds its own. In some ways I loved this book more than its predecessor, but I think that may be because I took my time reading it (I finished Conversations in a single, beautiful sitting). The plot is quite simple – a young man and woman leave their small town to attend university – but the nuance with which Rooney creates characters, and the way they all interact with each other, is stunning.

Rooney is a wonderful young author, and I hope she has a long future of novel writing ahead of her for all our sakes. You can get your hands on Normal People in September.