The Oscar nominations were announced earlier and everyone has an opinion on them. Including, as it turns out, me. I haven’t seen all of the films nominated and with so many strong performances and the high level of technical craft on show I wouldn’t dream of second-guessing The Academy. Having said that…
The Midnight Rose
16 January 2014 by Leave a Comment
I love getting review copies of books through the post – no matter how many I receive there’s still a real excitement when they arrive. Someone wants me to read their book and give my opinion to other people. It’s a true thrill. I’d be lying though if I said there aren’t days that I look at my post and sigh…
The Dinner
13 January 2014 by 2 Comments
Whenever I’m reading publicity material for books my hackles are raised by phrases such as “If you loved xx then you’ll love this”. It’s such a cheap way of selling a book which ignores the merits of the book being sold and attempts to piggy-back on the popularity of a previous success. I can see the merits of such tactics…
2014 Blogging Resoultions
10 January 2014 by 1 Comment
Well, 2014. Who expected that to come around so quickly? Not me – I still can’t believe it’s a year and a half since the London 2012 Olympics. Or slightly more than a year since Les Miserables was released in UK cinemas… I can remember writing news posts about casting announcements. 2013 wasn’t the best year I’ve ever had…
Piranha 3DD
11 December 2013 by Leave a Comment
It would appear that my battle against the creeping normalisation of 3D is being lost. At least in my own house. It was a red-letter day when I saw and loved a 3D film, but things are going even further. We now have a 3D television and subscription to Sky 3D. It seems that a lot of 3D is in my future …
Gravity
28 November 2013 by Leave a Comment
As I may* have mentioned before I hate 3D (*definitely, on numerous occasions). Hate it with an absolute passion. It’s usually a pointless gimmick which offers little to the narrative and relies on flashy whizzing tricks flying off the screen to elicit “ooohs and aaahs” from the audience…
The Summer House
27 November 2013 by Leave a Comment
It’s been a busy old couple of months, I’ve moved home from Surrey, which I adored, to Somerset. In that time my reading and film-going have taken a back seat to packing, unpacking, fighting with BT and trying to remember to change addresses with all of the appropriate companies. Things are settling down now…
World Book Night 2014 Books Announced
26 November 2013 by Leave a Comment
The last year has certainly passed by in a flash. It seems only a couple of weeks since I was giving out copies of The No1 Ladies Detective Agency for World Book Night 2013 and now the list of books for World Book Night 2014 has been released. It’s an interesting list…
Captain Phillips
25 November 2013 by Leave a Comment
One of my least favourite aspects of my own personality is that I can be a bit of a spoiler addict at times. I don’t ever (deliberately) share spoilers although my husband does have bad memories of our discussion about the first series of 24. No, I look for spoilers. I actively hunt them out…
White House Down
13 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ever since mid-April when I saw Olympus Has Fallen I’ve really been looking forward to this year’s second film about the Presidential home being attacked by terrorists. I was underwhelmed in April but I had high hopes for White House Down…