July 9, 2025 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

(courtesy Hachette Australia) Any good book worth its narrative, world-building salt should be able to hold immersively entranced through every page and exciting twist-and-turn. But some books are created more equal than others in this regard, and Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear, the first book in her White Space series, Continue Reading

Book review: Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear

Book review: The Dead Friend Project by Joanna Wallace

(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) Books that subvert expectations are quite possibly the very best kind. When you first pick up The Dead Friend Project by Joanna Wallace, you might be struck by the quirkiness of the titlenand even the taglines on the front cover and atop the back Continue Reading

Why are the aliens here? Teaser trailer for Invasion S3 suggests someone has figured it out

(courtesy YouTube (c) AppleTV+) SNAPSHOTInvasion follows an alien invasion through different perspectives around the world. In Season 3, those perspectives collide for the first time, as all the main characters are brought together to work as a team on a critical mission to infiltrate the alien mothership. The ultimate apex aliens have Continue Reading

During Christmas in July, I decorated my tree with 5 new pop culture ornaments

(via Shutterstock) Somewhere around five years ago, with Christmas in July gathering in popularity all the time, I decided that I would use the white tree originally bought to display Easter ornaments, to display some Christmas ornaments during the cold winter months in Australia. The wins were many – we Continue Reading

This Christmas in July … I read Confessions of a Christmasaholic by Joss Wood

(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) Christmas romantic comedies aren’t generally the time of stories to break the genre mold. And that’s perfectly okay because what you want, I would in fact argue, you need, from these types of tales is that everything that is broken can be fixed, that the Continue Reading

Take a big swing: Thoughts on Stick (S1, E1-5)

(courtesy IMP Awards) Ostensibly, Stick is all about golf. Watch the trailer and even dive into the first five episodes and you will come across many discussions about why golf matters, how to play it well and what it means to the soul as well as the body. But, and Continue Reading

He’s gone too far! Trailer releases for a feisty and fun Cat in the Hat movie

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOT“Today is going to be THE. BEST. DAY. EVER!” Meet the Cat in the Hat you don’t know! In the whimsical tradition of Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat comes to the big screen in his animated theatrical feature film debut, an all-new, epic adventure with Continue Reading

One last roll of the planetary dice … Project Hail Mary releases its first gripping trailer

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTAstronaut Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) awakens with no memory of himself or his mission. He deduces he is the sole survivor of a crew sent to the Tau Ceti solar system in search of a solution to a catastrophic event on Earth. In his search for answers, Grace must Continue Reading

Book review: Rise and Shine by Kimberley Allsopp

(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) There’s a popularly-held very binary dynamic at work when it comes to love stories. You’re either falling wildly and hopelessly in love with nothing but wine and roses and sunshine through dew drop eyes ahead of you … OR … you have reached the end Continue Reading

This just ain’t his story. It’s our story.” Washington Black makes the leap from book to screen

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTFollows the 19th-century odyssey of George Washington “Wash” Black, an 11-year-old boy born on a Barbados sugar plantation, whose prodigious scientific mind sets him on a path of unexpected destiny. When an incident forces Wash to flee, he is thrust into a globe-spanning adventure that challenges & Continue Reading