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.

Baz Ozturk is reading Little Misunderstandings of No Importance by Antonio Tabucchi

I just finished the short story collection Little Misunderstandings of No Importance by Antonio Tabucchi. It was recently published, along with the novels Pereira Maintains and Requiem, by Penguin in their Modern Classics series. Discovering Tabucchi was one of the highlights of my 2021.

I love the one-page author’s note Tabucchi has at the beginning of this collection, in which he touches on the idea of ambiguity, an inherent part of the human condition: ‘Misunderstandings, uncertainties, belated understandings, useless remorse, treacherous memories, stupid and irredeemable mistakes, all these irresistibly fascinate me, as if they constituted a vocation, a lowly stigmata.’

They definitely fascinate me, and are what draw me to literary fiction in the first place. The slippery, elusive stories in this collection all revolve around these inescapable facets of life. It was a delight.

Tracy Hwang is reading My Body by Emily Ratajkowski

I’m currently enjoying Emily Ratajkowski’s first book of essays, My Body. This is an interesting one because it’s quite different to the books I normally read and the perspective – a famous supermodel exploring our society’s commodification and sexualisation of women through a personal reflection on her career – is one quite removed from my life and yet not so removed simply by the shared experience of being a woman.

I think it would be fair to say that some readers may have prior assumptions of Ratajkowski before reading My Body, and this collection is really about deconstructing those prejudices. Ratajkowski’s writing is vivid, bold and honest; I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

Angela Crocombe is reading Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

I’ve been wanting to read this young adult novel for some time. It’s got a fantastic premise and has won so many awards. Well, I was definitely not disappointed.

Set in San Francisco in the 1950s, it’s about a young Chinese American, Lily Hu, who is passionate about science and maths, and feels very different from her long-term best friend, Shirley, who is keen on boys and dresses. When Lily sees an advertisement for Tommy Andrews, a male impersonator who performs regularly at the Telegraph Club, a lesbian nightclub, something inside her awakens.

Lily’s discovery of her interest in women is made particularly difficult by her Chinese background and the highly conservative era, where fear of communism and discrimination against homosexuals is rife. The streets and characters of San Francisco are lovingly depicted and you can’t help but empathise with Lily, forced to hide so much of who she is, in this beautifully written and fascinating story of queer historical fiction. I highly recommend it.