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Book Review – The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary

books, reviews

Rating: 3 out of 5.

It should be obvious by now that I’m really far behind the literary trends. This book was all over Instagram ages ago but I just didn’t think it was the book for me. It’s just not my typical genre. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with romance but it’s just not my favourite. Still, when I found a copy of this book in a charity shop a while back, I had to buy it. Although, it wasn’t until the audiobook came up to borrow at the library that I finally went to read it. It seemed like the perfect book to listen to at work when it was super hot.

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Film Review – CODA (2021)

films, reviews

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

I promise that after this week, I won’t ever mention that thing that happened at the Oscars again. Mostly because my opinion of what happened doesn’t matter. Also because we’ve wasted too much time discussing it. What I will say, is that it did take a lot of attention away from the important things of the night. Important things like this film. Had the ceremony gone off without the drama, CODA would have been the thing that everyone was talking about. It’s a very un-Oscars film but it walked away with Best Picture. It should have been the talking point. After all, it could have opened up more people to actually see it. I know it did anyway but it could have been bigger. Like when Parasite won in 2020 and a shit ton of people who would never have watched a Korean film actually bothered to see it.

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Book Review – A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll

books, reviews

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once again, I found myself in a situation where I needed to listen to an audiobook so I had a book to review. These days, I’m normally reading until Thursday when I have to write my Friday review. Then it’s just not possible to finish a whole book before my next review. This is what happens out of lockdown. I’m so bloody busy. Is this what life was like before? Thankfully, there are plenty of free audiobooks available with my Audible membership. I picked one I’ve seen around for ages and was short enough to finish at work.

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Book Review – The Royal Rabbits of London by Santa Montefiore, Simon Sebag Montefiore

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

As kids, my sisters and I were obsessed with any film, TV show or book about animals. Anything that personified animals was perfect. It’s something that hasn’t really left me as I got older, which is why I was so excited to see this in the charity shop. Personified rabbits who are tasked with looking after the Queen? I’m not exactly pro-Royal but that sounded like a lot of fun. I had to buy it and I couldn’t wait to read it. But would it really be as good as it sounded?

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Book Review – The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina, Lucy Rand

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

After my last read, I needed something to lift my spirits and get me back into reading. I started reading Bridget Jones’ Diary as my physical read but I wanted something for work. This is one of those books that I’ve been aware of for some time but never thought I’d get around to reading. Then I found out that I had access to it for free on Audible. So, as usual, I set about listening to it at work during my quieter moments. Would this be the antidote to my last reading experience or would it push me further into a reading slump?

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Tuesday Review – Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (2021)

films, reviews

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

I like to think that I’m a musical theatre geek but, the truth is, I don’t actually watch a lot of musical theatre. I’m not just talking about during the Pandemic but in general. I know the classics but there are so many modern examples that I know very little about. Aside from Hamilton, I’ve not kept up with contemporary musicals. Add that to the fact that I’d not watched the BBC3 documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 and you can see that I wasn’t really rushing to watch the film adaptation of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. But, I also think it should be celebrated for putting drag culture further into the public domain and, you know, Richard E Grant is everything. So, I settled down this weekend to watch it.

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Book Review – The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent

books, review

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’m on holiday next week, so I’ll be taking a break from blogging for a bit. Meaning, this will be my last book review for a while. It better be a good one I guess. I’d never heard of this book until Amazon suggested it to me. I know that I should use Amazon as little as possible but I’ve discovered so many novels thanks to its algorithm. This one was perfect for so many reasons but mostly because I was struggling to find shorter reads for my September reading challenge. I’ve got so many letters to cross off but the majority of the books I’d lined up were all over 300. That wouldn’t do. The Reader comes in at under 200, which means I already loved it before I’d even opened it.

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Tuesday Review – Luca (2021)

films, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

My last Tuesday blog ended with me saying that I needed to stop watching random animated movies and start watching real films again. Of course, when I said real films what I meant was grown-up films. It’s not that I think animated films aren’t real. So, I guess it could be considered something of a failure that I’m back this week with another animated feature but I think this one’s okay. After all, the latest Pixar release is a far cry from the random stuff that keeps popping up on Netflix these days. I’ve always been a big Pixar fan, so I knew that I had to check this one out as soon as possible.

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Book Review – Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’m really happy with how all of my reading at the moment. I don’t know whether it’s just that I’m coming out of a very recent slump or that I’m just reading better books. Whatever it is, I’m very pleased with how it’s all going. I’m not necessarily as fast as I normally am but I’m definitely inspired by the novels I’m finishing. The latest one was a book club pick but also a book that I’ve wanted to read for ages. Longer than I actually realised. When I was about halfway through the paperback version, I realised that I had bought a Kindle copy of this book in 2016. So, I’ve been meaning to read this for 5 years and had forgotten all about it. My Kindle is full of books like that. Ones that I buy when they cost 99p but forget about moments later. At least I can finally cross one off the my list of unread ebooks.

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Tuesday Review – Baby Done (2020)

films, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I think this week is going to be a busy book week so I considered not doing a Tuesday Review again. However, I knew that if I avoided it today then I’d set a precedent that would allow me to miss it whenever I wanted. Considering that I’ve gone from reviewing 2 films a week, it wouldn’t be long until I was only posting book reviews. I’m reading more now than I ever have but I’d still only be reading enough for 2 reviews a week. It’s quite a step down from doing 5 a week in 2020. So, I decided to stop complaining and watch a damn film this weekend. This is one I was interested in watching as soon as I watched the trailer. I like Rose Matafeo and Matthew Lewis is obviously pretty cool. Then there’s the fact that it has Taika Waititi’s seal of approval. Surely it had to be worth a watch?

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