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.

Amanda Rayner is reading Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

One of my reading goals this year is to alternate reading a pre-2021 book from my TBR bookshelf with a book released this year. As Lisa Taddeo has her debut novel Animal due out in early June this year, I saw it as a sign that I should finally read her acclaimed 2019 non-fiction title Three Women.

Three Women is exactly that; a description of the lives of Lina, Maggie and Sloane and their relationships with sexual and emotional desire. Taddeo spent eight years researching this book including travelling across America various times to find her subjects, then spending months at a time with each one. Each person’s story is powerful, but it was Lina’s that broke my heart. This book is hard to move on from and afterwards you want to have a detailed discussion with everyone who’s read it. If like me, you have been meaning to read this book and have not yet got around to it, I urge you to do so.

Tye Cattanach is reading Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown

I stumbled across this little gem while shelving and was immediately hooked by it’s fabulous cover and intriguing blurb. I can honestly say I don’t think I have ever read anything quite like it. A cleverly crafted story detailing the lives of two women from two different generations, occupants of the same house – Recipe For a Perfect Wife slyly explores the darker side of societal expectations of marriage. Specifically, what are the perceived responsibilities of women in a marriage and despite our best efforts to encourage equality in all things, has that much really changed?

Themes of loss, deceit, fertility and domestic violence are all deftly dissected while the reader is kept in taut suspense of an unexpected ending. Some chapters open with a recipe from the 50’s, all relevant to the emotional tightrope being navigated by the character, I highly recommend you try the chocolate chip cookie recipe stat. Make them before you start reading the book, they will comfort you as you go. If you loved the SBS dark comedy TV Series Why Women Kill, you will adore Recipe for a Perfect Wife.

Carolyn Watson is reading Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson

Caste is a a startling and transformative account of how we are all tied up in a caste system.

Far out! What a book, it is impeccably researched and Isabel’s clarity, empathy and insight have had a powerful impact upon me. This important contribution will resonate for a long time … I have sticky notes throughout the pages as I want to come back to this work, to never forget what has been learnt; I am responsible for my ignorance and this book has opened my eyes.