If you love Borgen…

The story of charismatic politician Birgitte Nyborg who unexpectedly becomes the first female Prime Minister of Denmark was our bestselling DVD of the last year - and justifiably so! This fast-paced political drama is an excellent, addictive show which touches on issues that are very close to the surface in our own homegrown politics as well. For an Australian spin on the show, pick up a copy of Bewitched and Bedevilled: Women Write the Gillard Years, a provocative analysis of Australian attitudes towards the nation’s first female Prime Minister. In this fascinating book editor Samantha Trenoweth presents a selection of Australia’s most influential, entertaining and controversial female voices, all of which examine the country’s reaction to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

If you love Girls…

An intimate and often-comical look at friendship, relationships and self-discovery, Girls has been called a manifesto for Generation Y and it’s astounding how much the show has resonated with international audiences. While we wait for this show’s creator Lena Dunham’s own book to arrive later this year, it’s worth getting your hands on a copy of Sheila Heti’s controversial How Should A Person Be?. There are definitely echoes of Dunham’s characters here including a creative impulse that lends itself to selfishness and a ongoing search for answer to the ‘big questions’. In her write-up of the book (for an article titled ‘Five books that unsettled me in 2013’) Gen-Y-er Bronte Coates wrote, “I found the protagonist irritating, kind of grotesque and overwhelmingly familiar. She was me and in the worst possible way.”

If you love Game of Thrones…

Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin has made no secret of drawing inspiration from history (see here) and so aside from reading his book series that this ever-so-popular and violent television show is based on, we also highly recommend grabbing yourself the first two novels in Hilary Mantel’s amazing historical fiction trilogy: Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Even though Mantel keeps most of the actual violence and slaughter offstage the threat is always there and Mantel’s prose style is violent in itself with words like 'frottage’ (you will not be disappointed if you hunt down the definition for this word) making an appearance. Both titles won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and so you get yourself some Literary Gold Stars on the side.

If you love Friday Night Lights…

This drama about a high-school football team in the small town of Dillon, Texas is a favourite among Readings staff. It’s a show about sports that appeals to people who don’t like sports and those same fans will find much to love in Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding, a novel about baseball that reads just as well for people who don’t know anything about baseball as those who love it. Harbach’s Henry Skrimshander has a talent for the game that borders on genius but when he misthrows a ball, his life and those around him are changed forever. Much like Friday Night Lights, this novel is about heart, and how to keep it when confronted with failure.

If you love Top of the Lake…

This haunting mini-series, written and directed by Jane Campion, is an emotionally-charged and twisty mystery story. When a pregnant 12 year old girl walks chest deep into the freezing waters of a South Island lake in New Zealand, gutsy - but inexperienced - detective Robin Griffin is called in to investigate and what unfolds from the investigation will drive a knife right into your emotional centre and give it a hearty twist. Australian author Jessie Cole’s Darkness on the Edge of Town will do much the same. This gripping and heartbreaking read follows the story of what happens when a stranger crashes her car outside the home of Vincent and his sixteen-year-old daughter, Gemma. It’s a haunting tale that beguiles the reader with its deceptively simple prose, its gripping and unrelenting tensions, and its disturbing yet tender observations.