What We're Reading

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.


John is reading Heads or Tails


Some of my favourite comic books at the moment include

My Dirty Dumb Eyes

by Lisa Hanawalt. An incredible collection of doodles, daydreams and daily life with hilarious movie reviews and a trip to a toy expo. Black humour has never looked so pretty!

I’m also loving Heads or Tails by Lilli Carre (the author of Woodsman Pete) - it kind of looks like stories for kids, but twisted.

And look out for a new release from Jim Woodring who wrote the ‘Frank’ comics. His upcoming title, Fran has been hotly anticipated by fans for some time and it’s nearly here.


Chris is reading Dear Life


In celebration of

Alice Munro winning the Nobel Prize for literature

, I’m reading her wonderful short-story collection,

Dear Life

.

I love to read short stories, one before bed every day, and Munro’s twists and turns around everyday life of everyday people are affirming both of humanity - and of her skill as an architecture.

Like many other Readings staff, I’m also watching Orange Is the New Black – an American comedy-drama series by Lionsgate Television. The show is based on Piper Kerman’s memoir about her experiences in prison and its depiction of women is extraordinary.


Alec is reading Kafka: The Decisive Years


I’ve never been a fan of biographies but my favourite book last year was the David Foster Wallace biography by D.T. Max (

Every Love Story is a Ghost Story

) and this year, I might hold up the Kafka biography by Reiner Stach. You wouldn’t expect either one to make for happy reading and yet, both writers lived eyes-wide-open lives and laid their souls bare - which does make for a compelling read.

I’ve now discovered that reading a great biography is similar to watching a brilliant documentary. They seem rare, but one will occasionally come along that reveals the world in a whole new way. They leave you feeling it might be years before you come across that unique perspective again; that particular pleasure of insight.

A documentary will give glimpses of the subject but will often rely on talking heads for the most part, the experts and critics, the family and friends, the narrator, a montage. In this case it’s as though the filmmaker had discovered hundreds and hundreds of hours of Super 8 film and audio tapes and can build a cinematic portrait, and then, it goes a step further. Suddenly, you are watching and listening to Kafka, and you are more intimate than you ever would have been merely watching a film on a screen - because literature is, of course, the most intimate of all the arts. It allows us into the mind/heart/soul of another human being like nothing else, and when it’s Franz Kafka… it leaves me almost speechless.

The Decisive Years has been an ecstatic revelation.


Emily is reading Wild Awake


I’m three-quarters of the way through

Wild Awake

by Hilary T. Smith, because life keeps getting in the way. I grab moments with it while standing on busy trains or travelling on escalators, that’s how you know it’s the real-deal.

This debut YA novel, due out in Australia on 1st November, is smart, funny, sad and romantic. Yep, the full deck.

Although I have this nagging feeling that the one doubt I have plot-wise is either going to be (a) unresolved, or (b) heartbreaking, I’m willing to champion this book whatever happens for its brilliant main character, Kiri, who is a girl we can admire for her drive as much as we can identify with her mistakes.

The writing is eminently quotable and I love the nuggets of wisdom and wit. This will be a hit with 14+, I’m sure.