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 The Ice Age by Luke Williams

I picked up Luke Williams’ memoir about his addiction to crystal meth for a couple of reasons. First, I heard Luke speaking on the radio and was impressed by his candour. Second, I have two wonderful teenage kids and I want them to be terrified of ice. I want them to be as scared as I was about heroin when I was growing up. I want them to believe that all they have to do is look at ice and they will suffer grave consequences. Gone are my days of sugar-coating tough issues for them – now I aspire to scare them shirtless.

And Luke’s book is an eye-opener. He writes about his experiences with grace, gravity, humour, and alarming honesty. Reading this book has shocked me, petrified my kids, and worried my bloke. I call this whole experiment where I read moments from the book aloud to them all – ‘Another fun family moment with Mum’. I’m glad of being able to have it. I reckon this should be essential reading for all of us.

Robbie Egan is reading The Hunger of the Wolf by Stephen Marche

Stephen Marche’s extravagantly written tale of exorbitant family wealth. Marche has a way with words, sometimes too much of a way, but the essential story of the multi-billionaire Wylie family holds up. Our narrator, a failed, flailing journalist, discovers the Wylie’s darkest secret and realises if he can decode a cache of their correspondence, there is a story for sale to Vanity Fair. So far, so good.

I have also just finished Gathering Prey, the latest in a very long line of Prey novels from John Sandford. Sandford is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose fictional detective hero Lucas Davenport has also made him a rich man. I’ve read every book in his series, and they are exceptional page-turners. Most of us have a favourite airport read and mine are Sandford’s Davenport vehicles which have covered decades of the fictional detective’s life. If you want time to fly, your bad guys to be bad and your good guys to be willing to step over the line, then Sandford is well worth a try.

Lian Hingee is reading Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

When I first admitted to the people in my office that I’d never read anything by Rainbow Rowell there were gasps all round. This much-beloved YA author has a devoted fan base here at Readings, and since I’ve learned to trust their opinions I set off to remedy the situation immediately. I decided to start with Eleanor & Park, because I like to read body-positive love stories, and frankly there aren’t enough of them around.

With her flaming red hair and commanding figure, Eleanor attracts attention, and bullies. But the desperate poverty, and razor-edge of danger she lives with at home means she’s got bigger problems to deal with than not fitting in at school. Meanwhile Park worries that his identity is defined by his half-Korean nationality. Born and bred in Nebraska he remains an outsider at school, but at least he knows how to fly under the radar. When these two social misfits are forced together by circumstance they discover a kindred soul, and eventually a shared appreciation for comic-books and music blossoms into love.

Told in alternating viewpoints Eleanor & Park is full of wonderfully well-rounded and realistic characters from the titular characters down: Eleanor and Park are wonderful, of course, but their families and friends have enough depth to hint at layers that go well beyond the main story.

Isobel Moore is hooked on Cassandra Clare

Having powered my way through Clare’s Mortal Instruments series last week (I wrote some thoughts on these books here), I’ve now begun reading the Infernal Devices books. This trilogy takes place in Victorian London, and is set within the same world as her earlier series – even with a few crossover characters. I’m a sucker for historical fiction/demon fighting mash-ups, and my only issue here is that Clare chose Victorian London rather than regency London…

Before going in, I knew that the Infernal Devices series hinged on a love triangle. This made me a little nervous because I’m majorly not a fan of this particular trope. Thankfully, I soon discovered that the books were far less love triangle-y than I’d been told - and I’m part-way through the second book now so that’s a great sign. It feels like Clare is less interested in ‘over-the-top-drama’ and more interested in ‘complex-human-friendship’, and I’m pretty happy about this.