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.

Ruth McHugh-Dillon is reading Free by Lea Ypi

Albania is a word I remember being flung around in the 90s during conflicts in the Balkans, but I know so little about the place and its people that this book really opened my eyes to its particular and peculiar history. The author, Lea Ypi, is now a Professor of Political Theory at the prestigious London School of Economics, but her memoir of growing up as communism came to an end in Albania takes a more humble approach to the cataclysmic social changes that swept the country.

The family home, the school system and the network of neighbourhood gossip are Ypi’s entry points to exploring the slippery idea of freedom: how it morphs, disappears and reassembles in different contexts, from a totalitarian communist state that was too Stalinist even for the USSR, to the arrival of liberalism, heralded by an influx of sex-traffickers, pyramid schemes and World Bank representatives.

This book has won a heap of prizes so far and I think it’s due to its rare combination of warmth and cynicism, as it explores the friction between family members, the East and West, and between political ideologies. And of course, in 2022, the idea of freedom is still so tangled and provocative.

Rosalind McClintock is reading Angel Creek by Sally Rippin

I just read Angel Creek by Sally Rippin, first published in 2011, to my child. The story is set along the Merri Creek around Christmas time and while I did have to skip over some Santa intel –– my child is not quite 6 and it is middle fiction –– the story is perfect as a bedtime read-aloud.

Jelly and her family have just moved house so she can attend a preferred high school, and she is not happy. Her cousins are over for Christmas and together they find an injured angel in the creek, which they decide to keep. However, things soon start going wrong and tensions rise. The dialogue in this book is spot on, and the interactions between the kids had us laughing. Angel Creek is a short read that explores family, relationships and dealing with complex emotions.

Gabrielle Williams is reading Guardians: Wylah the Koorie Warrior by Jordan Gould & Richard Pritchard

I just finished reading Guardians: Wylah the Koorie Warrior and it’s an absolute cracker. The illustrations are gorgeous and the story is jam-packed with awesome adventure.

The connection to the land and the animals that Wylah has, combined with her cleverness, compassion and kindness, make this a book that should be put into every primary schooler’s hands.

Although it’s set 40,000 years ago, there is a very modern edge to the stories of this endearing and enchanting Koorie warrior. Ages 6+.