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.

Annie Condon is reading Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek and T.J. Mitchell

Last week I came across a fascinating title – ‘Working Stiff: 2 Years 262 Bodies and the Making of a Medical Examiner’. I was gruesomely intrigued, especially when I read that the author, Judy Melinek was a trainee medical examiner in New York during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre. I know the topic may put readers off, but Melinek’s writing is compelling. She writes about her fascination with science, and how she enjoys the autopsy process. She explains the process and the relevant anatomy issues that correspond to certain types of natural and (very) unnatural deaths.

Melinek is extremely personable and weaves her own history into the story, including her father’s suicide which traumatised her as a thirteen-year-old. I found her descriptions of the 9/11 rescue and recovery work very moving, and she described the camaraderie between all the essential services – fire/police/medical examiners and volunteers. This is a book for people who enjoy the forensic aspects of crime shows and want to experience a real behind-the-scenes.

Isobel Moore is reading If This is a Woman: Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women by Sarah Helm

If This is a Woman is about the Ravensbruck Women’s Concentration Camp in WWII. It’s long and brutal and utterly enthralling. Helm really manages to paint a clear picture of the camp and the women in it. It’s not easy or light reading by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s certainly vital and interesting reading. I’m only two thirds of the way through and I can’t put it down.

Angela Crocombe is reading The Strays by Emily Bitto

I was already avidly reading The Strays when I heard it was longlisted for the Stella Prize last week. I devoured this story based on a bohemian artist family and the circle of young artists and like-minded eccentrics they gathered around themselves. The world depicted in the book was equally captivating and terrifying from the child narrator’s perspective and I found that I couldn’t put it down.

Stella Charls is following along with the Digital Writers’ Festival

I’m generally technologically incompetent, but I’m trying very hard to keep up with all the excellent things going on at the Digital Writer’s Festival this week. Two highlights for me so far have been Presenting the Stella Prize Longlist and Post-Postsecret.

It’s such a treat hearing authors read their own work, and the Stella Prize session involved exactly that – nine incredible women reading from their books over the course of an hour. Covering both fiction and non-fiction, the 2015 longlist includes two of my favourite novels to come out of 2014: The Strays and Heat and Light.

Post-Postsecret explored the relationship between confessional memoir and technology. This was fascinating discussion between another group of supremely talented women, including writer Rosanna Stevens who’s personal essay ‘The Right Kind of Blood’ demonstrates how powerful narrative non-fiction can be.