(courtesy Hachette Australia) Reading Heather Fawcett’s lustrously beautifully, funny and charming series centred on dryadologist (someone who studies fairies) Emily Wilde is to be transported to a rich world which is lightly escapist and darkly foreboding all at once. Her previous novels in the series, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries Continue Reading
The new face of investigation: Thoughts on High Potential (S1, E1-4)
(courtesy IMP Awards) TV should be, in a perfect world, one of those leisure pursuit that doesn’t demand a lot of you. It is, after all, something that you do to escape the pressures of everyday living; but in recent years, with the rise of a wealth of brilliantly produced Continue Reading
Book review: The End and Everything Before It by Finegan Kruckemeyer
(courtesy Text Publishing) We are defined and connected by stories. That may seem self-evident but it’s not until you drawn into a poetically rich novel like The End and Everything Before It by Finegan Kruckemeyer that you come to understand, even just a little, how what we are told and Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: The emotion and adventure of “Lost in the Sky”
(courtesy IMDb (c) Kojan Film) SNAPSHOTAfter a long search in a strange galaxy, a lone rescue robot locates a surviving astronaut, but must reach her before she’s consumed by a looming black hole. A live-action space adventure created entirely with practical effects using a water tank, a real robot and Continue Reading
Book review: Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2025. Fantasies are often seen as a warm and fun, sometimes a little (or a lot) naughty way to take a step back from everyday life. All the things that normally worry or concern us are put Continue Reading
Mini-mass of movie trailers: Jurassic World Rebirth and The Fantastic Four: First Steps
(via Shutterstock) A new year and a metric ton of new films! While we are currently awash in some very fine arthouse/indie films thanks to the overspill from awards season, which is in full swing, it’ll soon be time for blockbusters and plenty of them. Two that debuted this week Continue Reading
Book review: Ishq and Mushq by Priya Basil
This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2025. In a perfect world, and we all know that’s not where any of us are fortunate to live, you would grow up untroubled, fall in love, make a family of whatever diversity and shape reflected who Continue Reading
Movie review: Queer
(courtesy IMP Awards Finding somewhere to belong, and just as importantly, someone to belong to, is one of the great drivers of what it means to be human. We need, crave and desperately desire connection, and when we find it, there is joy and contentment in abundance … but when Continue Reading
From long shot … to a big shot: Underdogs hilariously try to make a go of it in Running Point
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTWhen a scandal forces her brother to resign, Isla Gordon (Kate Hudson) is appointed president of the Los Angeles Waves, one of the most storied professional basketball franchises – and also her family business. Ambitious and often overlooked, Isla will have to prove to her skeptical brothers, Continue Reading
Book review: The First Murder on Mars by Sam Wilson
(courtesy Hachette Australia) There’s a lovely, and surprisingly enduring, romantic idea that if you could just take humanity away from its usual surroundings that somehow we’d suddenly morph into thoughtful, more caring and emotionally and intellectually advanced beings. It’s borne from that post-World War Two optimism, now being sadly and Continue Reading