Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.

Emma Davison is listening to The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We by Mitski

I have been a bit slow on the reading front this week but on a musical note, I have been loving Mitski’s album The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We which came out just last month, a great album for all the sad girls out there, and Grian Chatten’s Chaos for the Fly which is the singer's first solo album outside of his usual band Fontaines DC. I’ve had both of these albums on repeat all week and if you are a customer in the Malvern store then you’ve probably already heard me playing them.

I also went to see Sick of Myself at the cinema last week and I loved it! This Norwegian movie is so deranged, it’s definitely one for all the Ottessa Moshfegh readers out there. Imagine if Worst Person in the World and Titane were to have a film baby, well the result would be this. The movie follows Signe who is in an unhealthy and competitive relationship with her partner Lege. After Lege gets a breakthrough in his art career Signe goes to extreme lengths to take back some attention. This film is a hilarious and often excruciating watch; it’s an intense character study and a satire of the modern world of self-promotion. It’s definitely not for everyone but I for one loved it. Kristine Kujath Thorp does an incredible job at portraying a protagonist who is disturbingly narcissistic but also deeply misunderstood. Throughout this movie I found myself completely recoiling into my seat while watching through my fingers. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Dani Solomon is reading Mr Chicken Goes to Mars by Leigh Hobbs

Mr Chicken has been to Paris, Rome, London and all-around Australia, and those are just his trips we know about! Who knows where else he's been when Leigh Hobbs wasn't there to chronicle his adventures. Thankfully Hobbs was there when Mr Chicken decided that having completed Earth, he would now visit Mars. 

I love the Mr Chicken series largely because of Hobbs' commitment to ignoring physics, perspective and well basically all sense at any cost. Mr Chicken Goes to Mars has given Hobbs so much to work with in this regard. Mid-journey Mr Chicken exits his rocket with no consideration for the fact that he's in space and happily dances on top naked as the day he was born (as he always is), but a few pages later when he lands on Mars, he's careful to put on his helmet before stepping outside.

The technobabble/sci-fi language used also cracks me up. Mr Chicken's ship requires him to turn off the 'trans-lunar-injection transponder' and engage with 'lower thrust transmitters' and 'turbo pump injectors'. There is nonsense on every page and kids will appreciate it in the way that only kids now how, by completely not noticing it at all, because of course you have to adjust the 'fission force fluctuator' before you fly your rocket, how else would you get in space?

Melinda Houston is reading The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

She says of the novel, 'Dickens meets Damon Runyan in this rollercoaster yarn: equal parts joy and pathos, and packed with fabulous characters.' Read the full blurb below.

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighbourhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.

As the story moves back in time to the 1930s and the characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community - heaven and earth - that sustain us.