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.

Chris Gordon is reading Fine by Michelle Wright

This debut collection of stories is due to be released in July, and it’s one to get excited about. With her words, Michelle Wright has managed to pin to the page that very particular emotion that comes to the surface when we tell ourselves that we are fine, that we are going to be okay, that our life will continue as it was despite the truths falling down around us. Fine was a joy to read.

Nina Kenwood is reading Shrill by Lindy West

I’ve enjoyed Lindy West’s writing for a while. Her current Guardian column is great, and before that, I read her work on Jezebel. She was featured in a fascinating This American Life episode about confronting a man who had been abusing her online by impersonating her recently deceased father. That particular story forms a chapter in West’s new book Shrill, which is an entertaining and insightful collection of essays about her life, covering Disney Princesses, weddings, body image, stand-up comedy, internet abuse, relationships and lots more. I read this book when I was home sick in bed with a cold, and it was a very comforting, lift-my-sickly-spirits-and-make-me-laugh kind of book. Highly recommended for fans of Caitlin Moran, Lena Dunham or anyone who enjoys funny feminist writing.

Bronte Coates is reading The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavits

I’ve read and loved Heidi Julavits’ fiction – The Vanishers is one of those novels I always find myself recommending – and I was very intrigued by the premise of her latest book.

When Julavits found her old diaries, years after writing them, she hoped to find some evidence of the person (and writer) she’d grown into. Instead she found chronicles of anxieties about grades, looks, boys, and popularity. From this grew a desire to chronicle her daily life as a forty-something woman, wife, mother, and writer. The Folded Clock is the result: smart, interesting, meditative. I’ve been reading the diary in brief moments, dipping in and out of Julavits’ world. There’s something deeply comforting about this book.

Ann Le Lievre is reading the Wainwright Prize longlist for 2016

I am happily reading my way through a complete longlist. This is not something I would normally do but the Wainwright Prize celebrates just the sort of writing that I love: nature and travel writing. I guess I am an inveterate armchair traveller. The 2016 longlist was announced at the end of April, and so far, four of the books have left me breathlessly happy.

In The Outrun, Amy Liptrot has taken me to the wild seascapes of the Orkney Islands. Liptrot is seeking both a change and a challenge as she leaves behind a period of dissolute living in London for a new life in the place where she grew up. I loved her gentle unfolding as she becomes enmeshed in a daily life of bird tracking with the occasional challenging ocean dips.

The Fish Ladder by Katharine Norbury has led me walking in all sorts of weather, up and down the streams of Wales and Scotland.

Patrick Barkham has helped me understand the National Trust’s role in safeguarding Britain’s rugged coastal landscape, in Coastlines: The Story of our Shore.

And, finally, James Rebanks has had me entranced with family history and the legacy of generations of farmers, with the family portrait he paints in The Shepherd’s Life. Rebanks was a visitor to the Sydney Writer’s Festival and his story is now charming many more readers, his book was the second highest selling title for the festival. Oh and now I am being charmed by his twitter feed of handsome sheep and a green and pretty English countryside emerging from winter into a bounteous spring.

Holly Harper is reading Within These Walls by Robyn Bavati

You know from the outset that any book about the Holocaust might not be what most would call an “enjoyable” read. But while this tale of a young girl’s struggle in the ghettoes of Warsaw definitely isn’t a fun romp, it’s still an incredibly enjoyable read.

We first meet Miri in happier days, in the warm kitchens of her family as she samples challah and celebrates life with those closest to her. And it’s this warmth, juxtaposed with the darkness of what comes later – the discrimination, the attacks, and death – that makes this book have such an impact. This is a well-researched novel, and it’s an important one to give to readers ten and up to show them yet another side of the Holocaust.