Happy pop culture new year everyone! – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Here’s to more movies, books, songs, TV shows, cartoon and comic strips and so much more in 2019!

UPCOMING READS: The Name Game by Beth O’Leary

(courtesy Beth O’Leary newsletter) A fresh start is waiting for Charlie Jones.But another Charlie Jones wants it too… The Isle of Ormer: population 500, soon to be 501. Charlie Jones has landed on the island to embark on her brand new life. As the manager at Ormer’s only farm shop, Continue Reading

Funny, tender, goofy – Catherine O’Hara lit up the screen every time she showed up (curated article)

(New York, NY – June 09, 2019: Catherine O’Hara attends the 73rd Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall / via Shutterstock) Article by Ben McCann, Adelaide University (The Conversation) Catherine O’Hara, the beloved actor and comedian who has died aged 71, occupied that rare position in contemporary screen culture: Continue Reading

Movie review: Addition

(courtesy Village Cinemas) There is a very real gnawing sense when you are caught in the midst of dealing with mental health issues where you wonder if you have any agency in this at all. Your therapist will say you do, and as a grown-up who makes decisions all the Continue Reading

Witness how became He-Man … trailer lands, by the power of Grayskull, for Masters of the Universe

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTTen-year-old Adam Glenn (Nicholas Galitzine) crash-lands on his mother’s home planet Earth, separating him from his ancestor’s Power Sword of Grayskull. Two decades later, he takes his sword back and bears the mantle of He-Man as he battles for his home planet, Eternia, fighting against the evil Continue Reading

Book review: Lost in Time by A. G. Riddle

An escapee from the depth of this reviewer’s TBR – 2026 is supposed to be the year of the much-neglected reads though so far 13 new books have been bought so who knows who well this will go – Lost in Time by A. G. Riddle comes with a doozy Continue Reading

The mystery is afoot … Thoughts on Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials

(courtesy IMP Awards) In the grand scheme of things that relax, soothe and put your soul at ease, crime, particularly of the murderous variety, should not rate all that highly. Surely after all the murder of someone can not come remotely close to putting anyone into a chilled state? Likely Continue Reading

Book review: The Greatest Possible Good by Ben Brooks

(courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia) What does it mean to live a good life? We all have airily vague ideas of what that might entail from doing good to others to treating people with kindness to not using plastic and prioritising people over digital obsession. But it’s wide and open Continue Reading

Movie review: Train Dreams

(courtesy IMP Awards) Grief is rarely a beautiful thing. What it mourns often is, a time or a person or a place that so captured our hearts that its absence is mourned because the loss of its beauty, of its specialness, is too great to ever be replaced; but grief Continue Reading

It’s time to raise the curtain again … trailer lands for The Muppet Show 2026 special

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTIt’s time to raise the curtain on The Muppet Show, a highly-anticipated special event with a special guest star and Executive Producer and guest star Seth Rogen. Kermit, Miss Piggy and the beloved Muppet gang are back with a brand-new special event. Music, comedy, and a whole Continue Reading

Book review: Café Puccini by Tony Matthews

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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