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.

Jan Lockwood is watching Guardians Of The Galaxy

Yes, I’m a bit late to the party… But I’m absolutely loving the Guardians Of The Galaxy movie and its accompanying soundtrack, Guardians Of The Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol 1.

Originally from earth but abducted and brought up by a band of space thieves called the Ravagers, Peter Quill (a funnier and more appealing Indiana Jones type) is played to comic perfection by Chris Pratt. Having stolen a mysterious orb, Quill finds himself in a group of misfits, based on the Marvel Comics superhero team Guardians of the Galaxy, who are bound uneasily together against a common and powerful enemy.

This is one Marvel adaptation that I think is definitely aimed at adults rather than children with hilarious character interaction and dialogue, and a superb soundtrack. The whole experience is so much fun and I especially love that the ‘Awesome Mix Vol 1’ is intrinsic to the plot. I’m really looking forward to the next film, which is due for cinema release in 2017.

Chris Gordon is reading Goodwood by Holly Throsby

Reading Goodwood took me back to the time when I was a ‘young adult’ – though not quite adult enough to be in charge of anything remotely to do with your own life. It reminded me what it felt like to have a voice but nowhere to use it. The narrator in the novel is 18-year-old Rosie and Throsby’s depiction of her voice felt completely believable to me; I’m sure teenage me would have been friends with her. The story centres on the disappearance of two people in a small country town, and how the community reacts to the event.

I’m also flicking through two gorgeous books that are pulling on my heartstrings.

Loose Leaf is by Melbourne couple Wona Bae and Charlie Lawler, and Planting Dreams is by garden historian Richard Aitken. Both books celebrate the artistry and imagination of Australian gardens: Aitken’s book looks to our history and explains how we’ve evolved, while Bae and Lawler’s book looks to the future and considers how they may continue to evolve.

I was lying on my couch one rainy afternoon with both books and before you knew it – I had donned my raincoat and was outside cutting branches off my olive tree. My attempt to manipulate them into a circular shape to hang artfully on my wall might have failed miserably, but I still felt good about joining the ranks of other unqualified landscape gardeners willing to give anything a go. I reckon all the authors would have been pleased with me.

Mark Rubbo is reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is the quintessential gentleman – saved from a Bolshevik bullet because of his heroism in the pre-war fight for democracy he’s sentenced to house arrest in Moscow’s Hotel Metropol which despite the revolution is its own little bubble of decorum and style. The Count observes the turmoil of the outside world through the visitors and guests that pass through over the years. Rostov is a wonderful character, a perfect gentleman for whom the rules of civility are paramount and his ruminations on how people should deport themselves are quite profound.

Ed. note: This book is due for release on Monday 3 October.