Rooms of our own

There’s a moment at the edge of every season when the air itself floats differently — when winter hasn’t quite loosened its hold, yet the light is softening into spring. Reading in this moment feels different: you want books that are both warm and enlivening, quiet but stirring, companions for evenings that stretch a little longer but still call for luminescence.

This trans-seasonal reading list gathers three books that suit that mood — thoughtful, nourishing yet gently expansive.

Sandwich
Catherine Newman

Some novels feel like a picnic shared with friends — generous, lively, sometimes messy. Catherine Newman’s Sandwich is exactly that.

Newman captures family life with both tenderness and nuance. Set across a handful of days on a seaside holiday, you can almost feel the warmth of both the sand and the narrators adoration for her children – living and not. Reading Sandwich feels like sitting around a kitchen table, where conversations are layered and love coexists with gentle chaos.

Enjoy with:
• A chilled Pinot Gris
• Moreton Bay bug rolls
• Laughter across a kitchen island.

Table for One
Emma Gannon

Winter often teaches us the art of solitude — evenings spent alone with the small rituals that sustain us. Table for One embraces that idea with candour and grace.

Gannon reframes solitude as something to carry forward — not just endured, but experienced.

Pair with:
• A candlelit bath
• Lemon pepper linguine
• Quiet journaling by the window.

The Story of Art Without Men
Katy Hessel

As spring begins to paint the air with hints of jasmine, The Story of Art Without Men feels like the right book to reach for. Expansive and deeply feminist, it reframes art history through women whose voices have too often been silenced.

Reading Hessel’s study of such a topic in this liminal season feels fitting – stepping out of the quiet into a more vivid landscape, bringing women’s voices with us.

Perfect with:
• A fresh bouquet of wildflowers
• Rainy afternoons
• Piano sonata playlists.

These three books, each in their own way, remind us of what it means to be accompanied – by family, ourselves, by women whose stories have too often been silenced. As winter wanes and spring approaches, they offer both the comfort of the familiar and the exhilaration of something just beyond the horizon.