(courtesy BBC) To commemorate Doctor Who‘s 60th anniversary – the show premiered on 23 November 1963 with William Hartnell in the role of the eponymous Time Lord – the BBC released three specials in late 2023. These specials, “The Star Beast”, “Wild Blue Yonder”, and “The Giggle”, not only brought Continue Reading
Graphic novel review: Heartstopper volume 5 by Alice Oseman
(read at Pindari cabin, Yeranda Cottages, Dungog, 2-9 January 2024) Charlie and Nick are in love. Really and wonderfully, deeply and assuredly in love, and free from does-he, doesn’t-he vibes of earlier volumes of Heartstopper where the attraction was clear but the certainty of connection was not, the two guys Continue Reading
Book review: The Map of William by Michael Thomas
(read at Pindari cabin, Yeranda Cottages, Dungog, 2-9 January 2024) Every one of us reaches at a point at the start of our adult lives where many of the childlike things that defined us fall away or are transformed and we have to reckon with what it means to be Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: The wondrous discovery of The Dandelion (Little Margo Stories)
(courtesy YouTube (c) Little Largo Stories) As we get older, we all too often lose sight of what it is to discover something for the first time. All that wonder and thrill of discover ebbs away and we’re left feeling like we’ve seen it all before and that nothing will Continue Reading
Book review: All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells
(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) One of the things that daunts many readers, including this reviewer, in an age of content plenty and time paucity, is embarking on a series of books, especially a lengthy of one of say, nine books. It’s not that the narrative arc doesn’t enthrall with its Continue Reading
Movie review: Migration
(courtesy IMP Awards) Life can be a LOT. In many ways, that’s a good thing, with all the thrilling possibility and hope that offers us for great adventures, wondrous discoveries and amazing experiences; sometimes though it can all be too much, and because of trauma or anxiety or a host Continue Reading
Mini-mass of movie trailers: IF, Which Brings Me to You, Kung Fu Panda 4, Dune Part Two and Self Reliance
(via Shutterstock) Another year, another mass of amazing movies coming our way! Will we have time to watch them all? Likely not. But will we attempt to watch them all anyway? Abso-cinematically-lutely! These five films all have a bit of weirdness and whimsy about them, and while life can feel Continue Reading
Do readers dream of running a bookshop? Books about booksellers are having a moment – the reality can be less romantic
(Photo by Fahrul Azmi on Unsplash) This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. My mother and I wanted to open a bookshop. We signed up for a CAE course, which was cancelled when the bookseller who ran it went out of Continue Reading