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.

Fiona Hardy is Reading Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

For a long time, both colleagues and customers have been recommending Crying in H Mart; for a long time, I didn’t think I had the emotional fortitude for the task. I adore Zauner’s releases with her band Japanese Breakfast — I have played the song Paprika on repeat, a lot — and eventually the song wore me down. If I loved her on vinyl, imagine what she’d be like on the page. 

Crying in H Mart is wonderful. I should call this review 'Crying on My Couch, Twice'. (I haven’t finished the book yet, so there may be more). Zauner details her complicated but intense relationship with her mother, one where affection is offered almost solely through Korean food, the one place they meet without fighting. When Zauner’s mother is diagnosed with cancer, Michelle returns to her forest home in Oregon to care for her, to love, to find her way. It’s a journey from bandrooms to Korea and to the Pacific Northwest, into love and grief and family secrets. I am reading it fast and hungry, like I would food. Yes, I am sad. But, as always, feeling things is what art is all about.

Justin Cantrell is listening to the soundtrack for TÁR

TÁR, is one of the only movies I have genuinely looked forward to with marked, intent interest in the last few years. For all of its seriousness, it often displays a light-hearted self-referential touch.

Hildur Gunadóttir, an award-winning composer in her own right (Joker, Chernobyl), is mentioned early in the film as a promising up-and-comer in classical music's vanguard. This meta quality extends to TÁR's soundtrack, released by the prestigious classical label Deutsche Grammophon—an important cameo as the intended home of Lydia Tár's cursed Mahler box set. The score of TÁR is so undeniably subtle that even the most meticulous listener may not be conscious of Gunadóttir’s contributions; the film is filled with music, but it’s mostly heard in orchestra rehearsals, as Tár prepares the Berlin Philharmonic for what is meant to be a historic recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. *Spolier alert* In this alternate reality, Lydia Tár finishes the release for Deutsche Grammophon.

Mark Rubbo is reading Hotel Milano by Tim Parks

In Hotel Milano, Frank, a self centred, selfish journalist travels to Milan to attend the burial of an old friend days before Europe locks down and he subsequently finds himself trapped in the city as it closes. Ensconced in a luxurious hotel, he ruminates on his life and the slights that he’s suffered. Soon his deliberations are interrupted and he has to make a moral choice. I just loved this novel.