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…
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…
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…
Playing with Fire
5 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
One of the UK’s hardest working crime writers must be Kindle sensation turned paperback hit Kerry Wilkinson. Already we’re onto the fifth novel in his DS Jessica Daniel series and there’s no sign of a let-up with a new spin-off series in the pipeline. I’ll admit that when I received a review copy of Playing with Fire I was a little worried….
Rush
2 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ron Howard is a funny old director. You never quite know what you’re going to get with him. His work ranges from the brilliant (Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon) to the fairly good (Backdraft, Splash) to the diabolical (The Dilemma) and encompasses every stage in between. He hits more often than he misses but his name isn’t an automatic guarantee of quality…
Gone Girl
19 August 2013 by 2 Comments
One of the most popular and talked about books of the last 12 months has been Gillian Flynn’s mystery Gone Girl. Reviews have refused to discuss the narrative in case any of the suspense was spoiled and it has been praised for its literary excellence as well as its ability to please a mass audience…