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.

Bronte Coates is reading Notes from No Man’s Land by Eula Biss

So I think Eula Biss is one of my new favourite authors. I read On Immunity last month and loved it so much (you can read my review here) that I immediately bought myself a copy of her earlier work, Notes from No Man’s Land. In this book, Biss explores race in America through a series of essays. Much like On Immunity, Biss’ prose is elegant and sophisticated, with ideas that layer over each other to form a whole picture. The best way to describe the sensation I get from her work is that she fills me with a sense of sustained wonder, a delicate and fragile sense that lingers after the final page of each essay.

Nina Kenwood is reading All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

I’ve just started reading my bookclub’s next pick, All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews, and I’m really enjoying it so far. I have actually had the book on my reading list for quite awhile. I planned to read it over summer but got sidetracked by the Ferrante novels. The review that first made me pay attention to the book was this one in the New York Times by Curtis Sittenfeld (I’m a die-hard Sittenfeld fan), and then it was shortlisted for the Folio Prize, which further cemented my desire to read it.

Toews’ prose is exquisite. I’ve found myself wanted to highlight or underline lines that are simply beautiful. I’m looking forward to spending the weekend with the book (and then maybe moving on to read either Clade or Brother of the More Famous Jack, both of which are being talked about on this Sunday night’s ABC Book Club show.)

(Please note: a new, cheaper format of All My Puny Sorrows is coming out in April.)

Emily Gale is reading The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney has been sitting on my shelf for a few years waiting to be read. It’s set in an isolated settlement (Canada in 1867) and the story opens with the brutal murder of a man and the disappearance of a teenage boy – the story is narrated by the boy’s mother. This week I finally picked it up and started reading and my immediate reaction was that all-too familiar: ‘Why did it take me so long?’ I’m drawn into a landscape completely unfamiliar to me, which is exciting. This was Penney’s debut novel and it seems assured and ambitious. I was interested to learn that it had been remarked upon after the book won the 2006 Costa First Novel Award that Penney, being an agoraphobic, had never visited the place she’d written about (not that she could visit 1867…), but that many believed her portrayal of those frozen lands to be utterly convincing. It’s convincing me in every way so far.

Stella Charls is reading Changing My Mind by Zadie Smith

This year I resolved to read every book I’ve borrowed, in order to a.) be a better friend and give back stuff that doesn’t belong to me and, b.) stop the pile next my bed from reaching the ceiling. Plus the added bonus is that I know I’ll probably love these books, because I love the people who recommended them to me. Really it’s a win-win.

So last week when Rookie published Zadie Smith’s lovely piece on why she refuses to keep a diary (‘I never know what I was doing on what date, or how old I was when this or that happened – and I like it that way’), I grabbed her essay collection Changing My Mind from the pile of books I’ve borrowed. (The title acknowledges the ways in which her writing has changed since being published at such a young age.) I’m enjoying Smith’s essays, especially her thoughts on cinema. Her intellect is astonishing, but her voice remains witty and unselfconscious, which keeps this collection accessible and entertaining. The Rookie article also reminded me of a piece by Melbourne writer Ellena Savage on reading other people’s diaries, which I re-read.

Joan Didion’s Slouching Toward Bethlehem, which includes her essay on keeping a notebook, is next on my to-read list.