(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) In this postmodern, mash-up obsessed, creatively synergistic digital age of ours, it’s fun to see what really imaginative people will do when they mix their own highly original ideas with an existing, much-loved story. Case in point is The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland by Carys Continue Reading
aussiemoose
I am an extrovert gay man living in Sydney who loves Indian food, current affairs, music, film and reading, caramel anything, and a beautiful guy called Steve who makes every day a delight. I am trying to get two novels in a trilogy ready for e-publication, love my iPhone & iPod, and am secretly Canadian in my soul. Life is fun, exciting and joyful and I aim to make the absolute most of it!
Festive book review: The Nine Lives of Christmas by Florence McNicoll
(courtesy Hachette Australia) Christmas is popularly thought of as a magical time of second chances. It often doesn’t feel that with all the rush and busyness and the general furious exhaustion and angst of life seeming to reach a tinsel-draped fever pitch, but in The Nine Lives of Christmas by Continue Reading
All the hope and hilarity you could want: The heartwarming story of Elmore the Christmas Moose
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) We’ve all been there. A great job presents itself, we know we can do it so we throw everything into landing it, only to discover that maybe it wasn’t the right fit after all. But is that the end of the story always? Not necessarily; sometimes Continue Reading
Festive movie review: The Merry Gentlemen
(courtesy IMP Awards) If you’ve watched a Christmas film or two, and this reviewer has seen a considerable share of them, then you’ll quite familiar with the idea that when things go wrong in your life, your automatic first thought is to hightail it back to your hometown. Nothing unusual Continue Reading
Festive book review: Christmas at the Island Hotel by Jenny Colgan
(courtesy Hachette Australia) Jenny Colgan’s books always feel like you’re falling into the embrace of an old and trusted friend, whose very presence makes all the terrors and troubles of the world dim, and then go away. That’s especially so when you return to one of the many series she Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #118: Five songs I love from Heartstopper S3 by beabadoobee, Baby Queen, Tom Odell, Griff + Angie McMahon
(courtesy Netflix) For anyone who’s ever struggled to make their authentic way into the world as a young adult because they didn’t match the world’s very restrictively narrow idea of what a person should be sexually, Heartstopper has been a liberating revelation. Warmly inclusive and funny and heartfelt to a Continue Reading
Shaun the Sheep goes charitably festive: The Knit Before Christmas support Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day
(courtesy Aardman) SNAPSHOTAs the woolliest day of the year approaches on Thursday 12th December, our favourite Mossy Bottom Farm residents can be seen preparing for the big day. With snow falling, festive tunes playing and Christmas decorations at the ready, Timmy’s excitement grows, and the barn calendar shows the woolliest day Continue Reading
Movie review: Gladiator II
(courtesy IMP Awards) Sequels are tricky things to pull off. Not only are you battling against the fearsomely rose-tinted power of nostalgia, but you are trying to engender the same emotional response and devotion that the original garnered but without the full force of novelty and with a need to Continue Reading
Festive book review: Christmas Ever After by Jaimie Admans
(courtesy Boldwood Books) Enemies-to-friends is a fairly standard trope in romantic comedies, festive or otherwise. So, the fact that Christmas Ever After by Jamie Admans features it should not as an almighty Santa-loving surprise; what is interesting is how effectively the author this well-worn genre element to give her rom-com Continue Reading
Birthday movie review: Spellbound
(courtesy IMP Awards) We all want a happy ever after. But what about if that happy ever after doesn’t quite work as you think it will; what do you do then, when expectations are dashed, even if it’s in a good but different way? That’s the great dilemma facing Princess Continue Reading