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.
Nina is reading Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
is one of the best YA books I have ever read.
I loved it from start to finish, and devoured it in less than a day. It captures everything that’s wonderful/awful about being a teenager – from feeling like you don’t belong to experiencing your first kiss – and does so in a way that is wholly original and utterly heartbreaking.
Told from the alternating perspectives of the two main characters, this is a near-perfect love story.
I will also add that author Rainbow Rowell has some great blog posts on her website discussing her characters, such as ‘Why is Park Korean?’ and ’Is Eleanor fat? Or does Eleanor just THINK she’s fat?’, that make for interesting reading (after you’ve read the book, of course).
Bronte is reading In Pieces by Marion Fayolle
This book of wordless comics comes from French artist Marion Fayolle. Her characters in this collection are dreamlike; barefoot and without backdrops or spoken language, their interactions are surreal and often quite unsettling. In one comic, a woman lights the ‘wick’ attached to the top of a man’s head, melting him down to a puddle of wax. She then removes her clothes and dives in, suggesting much about the language we use when talking about our loved ones.
Fayolle’s meticulous style – a playful approach to line and texture that utilises a mix of mediums such as printmaking and fine-hatching across a subdued colour palette – brings to mind antique illustrations and engravings. In Pieces is a gorgeous argument for printed books.
Robbie is reading The Counselor by Cormac McCarthy
I’m reading The Counselor, a script by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy.
A dark, sexually explicit thriller about drugs and money that is both disturbing and thrilling, the book bodes extremely well for the upcoming Ridley Scott film.
Chris is watching Borgen: Season 2
What do we want from a leader? Passion? Intelligence? Humility? Compassion?
Birgitte Nyborg, the PM of Denmark character in the BBC series Borgen, has all these qualities. Season two is heart-in-your-mouth viewing. I cried, I laughed and sadly I hoped.
Alas, those virtues we desire in a leader seem to only exist in TV-land, not here in Australia.