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Books

Book review: Café Puccini by Tony Matthews

Posted on January 27, 2026January 21, 2026 by aussiemoose

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. If we’re honest, most of us live in fairly ordinary, decidedly unexciting cities or towns where everyone is as reasonably straight down the line as you can expect the contrarily idiosyncratic human race to be. They Continue Reading

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Book review: Outlaw Planet by M. R. Carey

Posted on January 24, 2026January 22, 2026 by aussiemoose

What an extraordinary story. As you reach the end of Outlaw Planet by M. R. Carey, one of the finest contemporary voices working in science fiction and fantasy, you will be consumed by the idea that here is one of the very best and most human stories you have ever Continue Reading

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Book review: Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson

Posted on January 23, 2026January 21, 2026 by aussiemoose

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. At first glance, a novel premised on the idea that one man, moving across America over some decades, managed to start, and crucially, abandon, four families, who then seek to unite many years later via a Continue Reading

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Book review: Bookish by Matthew Sweet

Posted on January 20, 2026January 19, 2026 by aussiemoose

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. In the usual course of pop culture back and forth, a TV or streaming show would be watched in that medium, and then, the eager viewer would turn, if they were so inclined, to the book Continue Reading

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Book review: The Naked Neanderthal by Ludovic Slimak

Posted on January 17, 2026January 16, 2026 by aussiemoose

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026 It is perhaps inevitable that we filter everything we see through our well-entrenched worldview. Try as we might to look beyond what we intrinsically know and understand, and it is to course possible to do that, Continue Reading

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Book review: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

Posted on January 16, 2026January 15, 2026 by aussiemoose

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. What a magical story is contained in the novella-length pages of Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newtitz. Set in a post-apocalyptic mid-21st century California, which has just won its independence after a brutal war with an insidiously Continue Reading

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Book review: Soyangri Book Kitchen by Kim Jee Hye

Posted on January 13, 2026January 11, 2026 by aussiemoose

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. If you’re a book lover, you will be well acquainted with the magical power of bookstores to soothe the stressful soul, to calm the rapidly beating heart and to make you feel like all the things Continue Reading

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Book review: Best Summer Ever by Heidi Swain

Posted on January 6, 2026January 2, 2026 by aussiemoose

(courtesy Simon & Schuster) If the festive season is all about love and renewal, then novels set in summer are all about the capacity of a time of sunshine, outdoors activity and time with friends and family in relaxed setting to recharge the soul and give you a brand new Continue Reading

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New Year’s Eve book review: New York, New Year, New You by Rachael Bloome

Posted on January 1, 2026January 2, 2026 by aussiemoose

(courtesy Secret Garden Press) The idea that you can reinvent yourself if you just find the right inciting incident is a seductive one. It defies the idea that who we are at any one point in time is the only person we will ever be, and encourages us to dream Continue Reading

Posted In BooksTagged In Christmas 2025, New Year's Eve

Conquering the TBR like a mountaineer: My top 25 books of 2025

Posted on December 27, 2025December 12, 2025 by aussiemoose

(via Shutterstock) I can overstate how much reading means to me. It makes commutes feel fleeting and full of characters and events and excitement it would otherwise meaningfully lack. It fills my stressy moments with such a profound sense of escapist release. And it dials down my anxiety and sense Continue Reading

Posted In Books, Comics, Graphic novel

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Recent Posts

  • Movie review: Bon Voyage, Marie (On Ira) AFFFF26
  • Book review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Toward the Night by James Swallow
  • “The most important thing is to be yourself.” The endearing trailer for The Other Bennet Sister
  • Movie review: The Pout-Pout Fish
  • Book review: Lie With Me by Philippe Besson

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RSS SparklyPrettyBriiiight

  • Movie review: Bon Voyage, Marie (On Ira) AFFFF26
    (courtesy IMDb) Saying a final goodbye to anyone you love who is dying is one of the hardest things you can do in life. But it becomes even more devastating when it arrives out of nowhere, which is precisely what happens in Bon Voyage, Marie (On Ira) when a lovingly Continue Reading
  • Book review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Toward the Night by James Swallow
    (courtesy Simon & Schuster) Novels based on the characters in TV shows or movies either go one of two ways – they absolutely nail the characters and evoke a perfect sense of time and place that makes the story feel like a televisual sprung to life on the page or Continue Reading
  • “The most important thing is to be yourself.” The endearing trailer for The Other Bennet Sister
    (courtesy YouTube (c) BBC) SNAPSHOTThe first part of the series follows the events from Pride and Prejudice from Mary Bennet’s point of view, before the story departs to follow Mary as she travels to London & the Lake District. The overlooked sister from the big Bennet family has a romantic Continue Reading
  • Movie review: The Pout-Pout Fish
    (courtesy IMP Awards) Based on the book of the same name by Deborah Diesen with art by Dan Hanna, The Pout-Pout Fish is of those films that comes with a fairly simple premise but which becomes so much more thanks to clever writing and some mischievously inventive animation. Adapted from Continue Reading
  • Book review: Lie With Me by Philippe Besson
    (courtesy Penguin Books Australia) While it’s an immutable fact that we exist in the here and now, for better or worse, we are always living in the past to some extent. It’s impossible not in many ways since who we were and what we did are intrinsically woven into the Continue Reading
  • It’s time to move on … Thoughts on Shrinking S3, E1-6
    (courtesy IMP Awards) I am lucky to have a wonderful family. Well, “Congratulations you!” might well be the response from most people but what on earth does this have to do with a review of the first six episodes of Shrinking third season? As it turns out, quite a lot Continue Reading
  • Why is he in space? Behind-the-scene sneak peek of Project Hail Mary
    (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, Continue Reading
  • Book review: Escape to Seahaven Bay by Nicola May
    Recovering from great trauma is never easy. It’s there in the word really; “trauma” even sounds hard and brutal, and so it stands to reason, that moving on for it will not be quick, easy or trouble-free. For a book devoted to the wondrous idea of second chances, Escape to Continue Reading
  • The short and the short of it: What is life without social media? Quiet Life asks the question
    (courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTA social media meltdown forces Geoffrey to reassess his life and values. Quiet Life was awarded the BAFTA for Short Form at the BAFTA Television Awards 2025. (courtesy BBC YouTube) You’re barely into the approximately 11-minute delight that is Quiet Life, directed by Rith Pickette to a screenplay Continue Reading
  • Movie review: She’s the He! #MGFF26
    (courtesy IMDb) Identity cuts to the core of who we are as people. But for something so intrinsic to our sense of self and expression, identity is often twisted into all sorts of unrecognisable shapes by societal pressure, familial expectations, bullying and bigotry and even our personal journeys to figuring Continue Reading
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