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.

Ellen Cregan is reading The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff

I have always been the sort of reader who tends to devour books in hours, rather than days. This year I’ve been consciously attempting to slow down and take my time with the books I read. While I was relatively unsuccessful with this goal for most of the books I read in 2016, there were a few that I managed to really savour. Stacy Schiff’s extremely intriguing history of the Salem witch trials is one of these few.

This book recounts the events of a single year (1692), over the course of which 19 people and two dogs were executed. The group of accusers, largely made up of adolescent girls, had a whole community of people losing their minds. Schiff’s retelling of the accounts of the bewitched are legitimately chilling – the stories of phantom bites and pinches on the bodies of those who sat in the courthouse as the trials were held were particularly disturbing. This is a dense read – full of names, dates, and facts – but Schiff’s prose is vivid and addictive. The Witches feels less like a history lesson and more like a supernatural thriller.

Nina Kenwood is reading The Sun is also a Star by Nicola Yoon

I was planning to read this YA novel over summer, but I heard so many good things about it, that I couldn’t wait and decided to bump it up the list and read it before Christmas. It’s a love story between Daniel, who is struggling with the expectations of his Korean-American parents, and Natasha, an illegal immigrant who is about to deported to Jamaica. Daniel is a romantic; Natasha doesn’t believe in love. Daniel is looking for an escape from his life; Natasha is desperately trying to find a way to stay in hers. This is a novel that deftly grapples with race, culture, politics, literature and more, while simultaneously being funny, sexy and soulful. It jumps from Natasha’s perspective to Daniel’s and back again, dropping into the stories of periphery characters along the way. It’s very cleverly put together, and it’s a deeply thoughtful book, really capturing the fears and desperate hopes of the main characters. Well-deserving of the hype, this is a must-read for YA fans.

Bronte Coates is loving The Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels by Ann M. Martin and Raina Telgemeier

Raina Telgemeier perfectly captures the verve and warmth of Ann M. Martin’s original series in these new graphic novel adaptations. These updated editions stick closely to the original story, yet Telgemeier still manages to impart a fresh and modern feel with her bright, clean-cut visuals. You might recognise her distinctive style from some of her terrific earlier books such as Smile and Ghosts.

If you’re a long-time fan of this iconic series, these books are a must-have, and if there’s a young reader you’re dying to share Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey’s adventures with, this is the ideal gift. While certain details from these stories have aged, the themes of friendship, diverse families, growing up, and more, are all still so relevant today. For further reading, take a look at this recent article on the New Yorker that explores the feminist legacy of the series.

Stella Charls is reflecting on Georgia Blain’s body of work

Like many people, I was immensely saddened to hear that Australian novelist Georgia Blain passed away this week. Blain had been chronicling her battle with terminal brain cancer in a monthly column for The Saturday Paper called ‘The Unwanted Guest’, and like all of her writing, these articles were piercing and honest, affecting but never gratuitously sentimental.

I had not read anything by Blain until Between a Wolf and a Dog (her seventh novel for adults) was released earlier this year in April. It’s now up there with the most incredible books I’ve ever read, and definitely a stand-out favourite from 2016. You can read my review of the work here, and I’ve also listed it as one of the significant books from 2016 that I’m still thinking about, months after reading them. It is a masterful examination of the small beauties and ordinary tragedies of daily life – I could not recommend a book more highly.

After inhaling Between a Wolf and a Dog I turned to Blain’s Special – a young adult dystopian novel that was also released this year. Set in the not-too-distant future, where corporations control everyone’s lives from their DNA to their schooling and career has a lot to say about how our societies value the ‘gifted and talented’. For Blain to release two books in such a short space of time, exploring truly challenging ideas across genres and demographics, really speaks to her skill as a writer, and her willingness to experiment and push herself.

Right now, I feel incredibly privileged to have been in the audience of Blain’s conversation with her dear friend Charlotte Wood at the Melbourne Writers Festival a few months ago. The conversation between them at MWF was unlike anything else I’ve ever seen at a writer’s festival – intimate, emotional and incredibly warm. Sophie Cunningham writes of the event in her recent tribute to Blain – a beautiful piece of writing in its own right, and a fitting celebration of such an exceptional writer. I feel so lucky to have read Georgia’s work this year, and am grateful for the extensive backlist of her work left behind to read.