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.

Angela Crocombe is reading The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose

Earlier this week my book club met to discuss The Museum of Modern Love. I had no expectations going in – I only knew that it had won the Stella Prize, and that I had to read it very quickly. And it wasn’t a topic I had any fascination for. (Performance art, no way!) But I can now say that this novel is utterly compelling. My entire book club loved it.

Melding truth and fiction, the novel is based around Marina Abramović’s 2010 performance of ‘The Artist is Present’ at MOMA in New York, at which the artist sat in the gallery, unmoving for the entirety of the day for 75 days. The story follows Arky, Jane and Britta who each find themselves returning day after day to watch Abramović sit with people, silently but with purpose. How they are opened up and transformed by this experience is fascinating.

The Museum of Modern Love is an eloquent, beautifully written novel that shows the power of art to change us. I could not put down and I want to tell the world to read it just as soon as you can.

Kara Nicholson is reading Adults in the Room by Yanis Varoufakis

I was fascinated but horrified by And the Weak Suffer What They Must? – the book Yanis Varoufakis wrote before he briefly served as the Greek Finance of Minister in 2015. It was a complex, no holds barred exposé of European capitalism after the GFC. His latest book, Adults in the Room, was written after his time as an ‘insider’ during the tumultuous and game-changing period in European democratic history. I’m half-way through and so far, I’m fascinated by his description and analysis of the machinations of economic politics. His real-life experiences being on the ‘inside’ also make this book more reflective and human.

Varoufakis is a wonderful writer and very well-versed in literature and history. In Adults in the Room, he combines his passion for democracy with a deep understanding of economics and human nature to great effect.

Ellen Cregan is reading The Power by Naomi Alderman

I’m calling it now. This is my favourite book of 2017.

The Power has everything I look for in a good book. Alderman is a fantastic writer, but isn’t afraid of genre fiction. There is a wonderfully grim sense of humour that runs through this book that is often quite sneakily satirical – the last line KILLED me. This imagined world, where women have the power to cause excruciating pain (and even death) to men with a single touch, sees power dynamics shifted dramatically. Men are afraid to walk the streets at night, and need their female guardian’s permission to move freely.

I think my absolute favourite aspect of this novel is that it turns convention on its head in a way that flies under the radar. You’ll be reading a sentence, thinking something is awful or utterly ridiculous, and then you’ll realise the very thing you questioned is something that really happens in the world we live in. This is a brilliant, feminist novel that I will be recommending to everyone – starting now.

Bronte Coates is reading The Girl Guide by Marawa Ibrahim and Sinem Erkas

My colleague Leanne Hall wrote about this brilliant book in her monthly round-up of young adult books, and she made it sound so terrific I immediately went to the shop to take a look. Written by world champion hula-hoop star Marawa Ibrahim, The Girl Guide is a frank and charming guide to puberty. The book is packed with 50 lessons, anecdotes and stories from Ibrahim (written in consultation with Doctor Janice K Hillman) and colourful illustrations and diagrams from Sinem Erkas. Leanne says to buy it for every tween and teen in your life and I agree! This is such a sensible and friendly book for young people who are having to face some big changes.