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.

Aurelia Orr is reading A Walk in the Dark by Jane Godwin

What’s the worst that can happen when a group of year nine students go hiking in the woods at night, with no adults … and no phones? A Walk in the Dark takes the wilderness survival story and twists it into something so deliciously spine-chilling, it’s impossible not to devour this book in a single sitting.

The casual irresponsibility of the teachers combined with the recklessness (but also naivety) of the children make this story both electric and anxiety-inducing (in the best way, of course). As more and more eerie events occur, and the night grows darker, creepy things come out to prey. In the end it becomes a race to see who, if any of them, will make it out alive.

This is the perfect book to kick off the upcoming spooky season. For 13+.

Mark Rubbo is reading Cold Enough For Snow by Jessica Au

I’m reading Cold Enough For Snow by Jess Au.
This is one of the most exquisite books I’ve read in a long time, so beautifully written.

A young woman decides to take her Hong Kong based mother on a trip; she thinks a visit to another Asian country will be easier for her, so chooses Japan. Superficially the trip is uneventful, but it stirs up memories and feelings for the narrator. Au has an extraordinary ability to describe events and places in such minute detail that you feel as though you are living through them. This book recently won a major international prize – deservedly so.

Jackie Tang is reading Shinsuke Yoshitake’s entire backlist.

A few months ago, I gave Shinsuke Yoshitake’s gloriously weird picture book Still Stuck to my friend’s daughter. I was immediately rewarded with a message a few days later from said friend about how much her young toddler loved the book and how they wanted to read it over and over. Is there anything more satisfying than giving a kid a book they end up loving? Since then, I’ve started collecting as many of Yoshitake’s books as I could, in anticipation of future book-gifting opportunities: I Can Be Anything; It Might Be an Apple, Can I Build Another Me? – whatever our kids booksellers can order in – and I’ve been giving myself the treat of reading them all in advance because after all, why should kids have all the fun?

Yoshitake is an entrancing storyteller and his books are full of situational humour that’s stretched out like taffy to their most ridiculous absurdist conclusions. His illustrations are gloriously expressive: The Boring Book is a masterclass in all the many ways the human face can slump and settle into boredom, and there’s something meme-like about the smirk of the girl on the cover of It’s My Rubber Band. His child characters blend joyful exuberance with surprising profundity (with the occasional brutish ruthlessness of a medieval tyrant). Trust me, if you have a child, if you have friends who have a child, if you think you might encounter a child in the near future (but like, one you know, don’t just approach random children like a creep please), get yourself a Shinsuke Yoshitake book. Just be prepared for repeated pleas for re-reads.