Alice Winn, author

It’s been a slow reading month for me because I keep picking up Sir Walter Scott’s The Talisman, reading a paragraph, then putting it down to do the dishes. I blame myself for this — I’ve been performing at the Edinburgh fringe all month and I am tired — not Scott, who is honestly a lot of fun.

I just finished Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich, which is an oral history of the decline of the Soviet Union. It is one of the most profoundly unsettling books I have ever read. I struggle to talk about it because it feels almost like passing on a curse – because the things I read in this book were so vividly evil that I think they will follow me forever. But it’s an extraordinary insight into the experience of Russia and ex-Soviet countries over the last few decades. I always find it interesting reading things that talk about the misery of the 90s, because as a western millennial it’s easy to romanticise it as a decade of prosperity and cute butterfly hair grips.

I’m also still a bit hungover from Shola von Reinhold’s Lote, about a young Black woman who is obsessed with the Bright Young Things of the 1920s. When she stumbles upon evidence of an undiscovered (or buried) Black poetess, she embarks on a quest to find out what happened to her. I really admired how Von Reinhold balanced the more philosophical questions of the novel – for instance, what does it mean to be a Black person nostalgic for the aesthetics of a racist European past – with a galloping plot. It’s funny and weird and dazzlingly clever.

• In Memoriam by Alice Winn (Viking, £14.99) was the winner of the 2023 Waterstones debut fiction prize. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges apply

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Angela, Guardian reader

When Ben Aitken heard from his gran that she enjoyed an incredibly cheap coach holiday, he signed himself up for six trips. He takes his girlfriend on one, his gran on another, and the rest he takes alone. From Scarborough to St Ives, Killarney, Llandudno, Pitlochry and Lake Como, he travels with companions who are mostly in their 80s but have a zest for life he often lacks. In his resulting book, The Gran Tour, he documents what he learned from his trips and his fellow travellers.

I normally only read fiction but I was drawn to this book as I have accompanied my mum on many coach trips like this. Aitken is a great writer, who chronicles the social history of the country through the lives of the coach trippers. It brought back many happy memories for me.

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Joe, Guardian reader

There are so many great books coming out at the moment. My genre of choice is crime fiction and I would recommend the following which I have recently read: Lucky Number 11 by Jess Kitching and The Treatment by Sarah Moorhead. They are totally different books but both are amazing. These are novels that ooze with emotion, and make you think deeply about the characters and how they affect and are affected by the worlds they occupy.