Each week our wonderful staff share the books and music that they've been enjoying.

Rosalind McClintock is reading James by Percival Everett

I just swallowed up James by Percival Everett in less than a weekend, and I have a very chatty 7 year old, so that is saying something! A retelling of Huckleberry Finn, from Jim's view, it is such an elegant, compelling, harrowing and yet hopeful read. Everett's prose is perfect, the issues meaty, and his characters are nuanced – this is a book that feels familiar but breaks the mould. I am not really sure how he has done it, but who am I to question greatness?

Mark Rubbo is reading No Country for Idealists by Boris Frankel

I've been reading No Country for Idealists by Boris Frankel. It's a most fascinating memoir. Boris' parents, and especially his father, were committed members of the Communist Party of Australia. His father was convinced that the Soviet Union was paradise on earth and in 1956 decided to emigrate to the USSR. What they found was far from paradise and their dreams of a socialist utopia were shattered but returning to Australia was far from easy. It's a fascinating portrait of cold war politics and of the left in Australia in the fifties.

Yasmin Baker is readings Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek

I recently just read Where The Dark Stands Still by A.B Poranek AND I LOVED IT. It was such a whimsical read that captivated me from page one. I felt like I'd fallen into a dreamy fairytale, and I could visualise the forest and the characters so vividly which is something I usually really struggle with. The characters were so much fun, and the plot was so enchanting.