Christmas 2026 – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

Christmas preview: Love From Christmas Tree Farm by Jo Thomas

Posted on August 21, 2026August 15, 2026 by aussiemoose

(courtesy official Jo Thomas Facebook page) SNAPSHOTGwen has lived at Christmas Tree Farm for many years. It’s where she’s built a life, a business and a place to call home. But after her beloved husband Paddy dies, it’s time to downsize and move on. But when nine-year-old Willow, a distant Continue Reading

Christmas movie preview: Violent Night 2

Posted on August 19, 2026August 17, 2026 by aussiemoose

(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTIf you’re nice, you get presents from the Big Guy. If you’re naughty, you get justice. In 2022’s bare-knuckle holiday sensation, Violent Night, an embittered Santa, armed with lethal combat skills, took out a team of mercenaries to rescue a girl & her family. Now, not-so-jolly Saint Continue Reading

Christmas preview: Joy to the World by Beth Moran

Posted on August 18, 2026August 15, 2026 by aussiemoose

(courtesy official Beth Moran Facebook page) This Christmas, the nation’s favourite life coach is in desperate need of a little holiday magic. Alex Nixon has built a glittering TV career teaching clients how to win at life. But when a disastrous viral awards speech reveals that she has zero friends, Continue Reading

Christmas preview: The Secret Holiday Kiss (The Secret Bookshop #3) by Cressy McLaughlin

Posted on August 7, 2026August 7, 2026 by aussiemoose

(courtesy official Cressy McLaughlin newsletter) SNAPSHOTIn a seaside village, where the winter sunset meets the sea, Daisy is coming home … When her perfect life falls apart, Daisy returns to Mistingham, determined it’s a temporary stop until she can find her feet again. She hasn’t counted on the community’s irresistible Continue Reading

Christmas preview: Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol – a new take on a classic festive story

Posted on July 28, 2026July 24, 2026 by aussiemoose

(courtesy First Showing) SNAPSHOTThis November, Johnny Depp is Ebenezer Scrooge. “A stingy, penny-pinching, cantankerous, lonely old man whose sheer miserly nature leads him to despise Christmas & all things which engender happiness.” The name you know, the story you don’t. From director Ti West – a Christmas fantasy set in Continue Reading

Christmas 2026 book preview: Stay Another Christmas by Phillipa Ashley

Posted on July 3, 2026July 2, 2026 by aussiemoose

(courtesy Phillipa Ashley email) SNAPSHOTThe perfect festive Lake District escape from bestselling author Phillipa Ashley. After a life-changing accident, Katie’s plan for Christmas is simple: rent a spectacular island house in the Lake District, gather the people she loves, and enjoy snowy walks, crackling fires and the promise of a Continue Reading

Her fresh start is just getting started … Thoughts on Leanne 2

(courtesy Leanne Morgan Comedy Instagram) Moving on with your life after a traumatic event is always going to be a challenge, and not simply in the immediate aftermath. In season 1 of the Chuck Lorre sitcom, Leanne, we see the eponymous protagonist of this gentle comedy, played by stand-up comedian Continue Reading

Sci-fi September book review: Moss’d in Space by Rebecca Thorne

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) One of the most enduring motifs in space operas is the idea that a renegade, diverse bunch of people, all of good heart and relatively pure soul, which is rare in a rough-n-tumble, dog-eat-dog galaxy, can find each other, come together, forge a found family against Continue Reading

Movie review: Enola Holmes 3

(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