February 26, 2025 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

(courtesy Hachette Australia) If you are someone who grew up never quite fitting into the mainstream and feeling distinctly out of place in a world you couldn’t quite figure out, then Alice Franklin’s delightfully thoughtful, Life Hacks for a Little Alien, might be just the read for you. The story Continue Reading

UPCOMING READS … Are you ready for the Best Summer Ever by Heidi Swain

(courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia) SNAPSHOTSummer is in full swing when Daisy drives back into Wynmouth in her almost-clapped-out car, having left both her most recent job and the man her parents thought she was going to marry. Coming home could be just what she needs to move her life Continue Reading

When you get suck in “Plan B”: Following your own path in The ComicShop

(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTMike D’Angelo (Jesse Metcalfe) owns a small comic shop in a Las Vegas strip mall. Though he finished art school and briefly worked as a comic book illustrator, Mike had to resort to what his parents call “Plan B,” building his own business. Having to give up most Continue Reading

Book review: Diving, Falling by Kylie Mirmohamadi

(courtesy Scribe Publications) Reaching a crossroads point in your life is both liberating and hugely disquieting at the same time. In a Hollywood movie, of course, this pivotal moment of existential decision-making would be rendered as an easily demarcated and simply resolved black-and-white inflection point, but real life rarely comes Continue Reading

Mardi Gras Film Festival movie review: Drive Back Home

(courtesy IMDb) One of the most rewarding aspects of watching any film that takes its time with its storytelling is the richness of humanity that often emerges in ostensibly quiet moments. It’s an approach that mirrors life, which for its seismic shifts and momentous twists and turns, often expresses itself Continue Reading

Book review: The Great When (A Long London novel) by Alan Moore

(courtesy Bloomsbury Publishing) Let’s be honest – when it’s not being sensationalist or downright scary (and there’s a lot of that right now courtesy of one very large North American country’s new ruler), the real world can be more a little boring. We get on trains when commuting, we get Continue Reading

Movie review: Captain America: Brave New World

(courtesy IMP Awards) Blockbuster movies are supposed to be big, bold and epic. That’s the whole point of them; to take us into some intensely escapist storytelling that consumes the screen, monopolises all our attention and so subsumes us in a world and a story not our own that we’re Continue Reading

Book review: The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C. L. Miller

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) Quirky crime all too often gets a bad rap from “serious” crime afficionados. It’s often incorrectly viewed as Crime Lite, and while that might be the case with some of the less well-written members of the sub-genre, the reality is that masterfully written cosy crime, of Continue Reading

“That’s all folks!” The hilariously kaboomy fun of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTIn The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck venture to the big screen as unlikely heroes and Earth’s only hope when their antics at a local bubble gum factory uncover a secret alien mind control plot. Faced with cosmic Continue Reading

Valentine’s Day rom-com review redux: While You Were Sleeping

(courtesy IMP Awards) This review was first published on 25 November 2025 Given they’re about love, longing and the good feelings that make life worth living, it’s easy to assume that romantic comedies aka rom-coms are full to the brim with real, actual emotionality, the kind that sears the soul, Continue Reading

Valentine’s Day book review: The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

(courtesy Hachette Australia) Not all romantic comedies (rom-coms) are created equal. Yes, they all share certain near-inviolable tropes and tick a certain set of boxes that guarantee love will win the day no matter what comes against it, but it’s the deployment of these expected elements that influences whether the Continue Reading