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!

(courtesy IMP Awards) In an age where everything feels more than a little serious and there’s nothing, it seems at least, but doom and freaking gloom, then we should all give thanks for franchise such as a Enola Holmes which, on its third sprightly outing, proves there’s great diversionary and Continue Reading

Graphic novel review: Strange Bedfellows by Ariel Slamet Ries

This graphic novel was read at Kalimna, Yeranda Cottages, August 2026 The power of human connection is a recurrent theme in human storytelling for one very good reason. While we are very much individuals and should always be firstly defined by who we are alone, it’s an undeniable truth that Continue Reading

New releases August book review: Queenie is Working on it by Candice Carty-Williams

(courtesy Hachette Australia) Some seven years ago when I had the great fortune to read Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, it became quickly apparent that here was a protagonist I was going to really love … A LOT. Queenie was everything you could want in a leading character, so much so Continue Reading

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S4 review: “Level-Five Transporter Accident”(E5) + “Off-Hour” (E6)

(courtesy Memory Alpha) “Level-Five Transporter Accident” Now here’s some fun! Star Trek meets the Muppets in an episode which demonstrates once again that Strange New Worlds is more than happy to go there, and with gusto and fierce imagination into the sort of places many other sci-fi series fear to Continue Reading

New releases August book review: Every Time She Wakes by Petronella McGovern

(courtesy Allen & Unwin – Australia) If you ever have the opportunity to go to a book launch of any kind, even it features a genre that usually doesn’t trouble the heaving shelves off your overstacked TBR, then you must go. Not only will, of course, have the great pleasure Continue Reading

Movie review: The Dog Stars

(courtesy IMP Awards) When I read The Dog Stars by Peter Heller, the novel on which the great Ridley Scott’s latest movie is based, I was struck by how forcefully hope sat at the centre of a post-apocalyptic tale of a world brought to its civilisational knees by a virus Continue Reading

New releases August book review: Everything that is Beautiful by Louise Nealon

This novel was mostly read at Kalimna, Yeranda Cottages, Main Creek (Dungog) NSW, August 2026 Secrets can usually only stay secrets for so long. Somehow, some way, what was holding them in place far away from public gaze and collective knowledge corrodes and falls away and the truth outs, unable Continue Reading

Some friendships are bulletproof: Thoughts on Ride or Die

(courtesy IMP awards) Even if you are a Woman of a Certain Age (and yes, this is directly referenced in the show; I will leave you to work out exactly how), or even a Man of you know, you will still likely be familiar with the phrase “ride or die”. Continue Reading

New releases August book review: I Love the Whole World! by Victoria Hannan

This novel was read at Kalimna, Yeranda Cottages, Main Creek (Dungog) NSW, August 2026 The title of this remarkable novel is your first indication that there is something special in the offing. I Love the Whole World! may sound like the exuberant, chemically-adjusted and enhanced exclamation of someone at a Continue Reading

Graphic novel review: Star Trek: Lower Decks – Second Contact by Ryan North / Derek Charm / Jack Lawrence

This graphic novel was read at Kalimna, Yeranda Cottages, Main Creek (Dungog) NSW, August 2026 The streaming version of the series may be dead and buried but thank goodness the graphic novels are not. Star Trek: Lower Decks remains alive and comedically well in a series of graphic novels including Continue Reading

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