(courtesy IMP Awards) It may come as a surprise to those seeing a blog full-to-bursting of Halloween posts this October that this reviewer is not one for horror. That may seem to be a small and niggling liability in a season devoted to horror, both its manifestation and banishment, but Continue Reading
Halloween picture book review: The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt by Riel Nason (writer) and Byron Eggenschwiler (artist)
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) There is an inestimable delight to opening a picture book and falling into a story which delivers imaginative and poetic wordplay and vividly arresting, often gorgeous illustrations; it doesn’t matter whether you are reading them to endlessly eager nieces and nephews (in my case) or simply Continue Reading
New release October book review: Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) We live in an age where people are, with a few notable exceptions, divorced from the natural world, or what’s left of it, around them. We catch our trains, eat at our favourite restaurants and live our concrete-clad, digitally buttressed lives without any sense of the Continue Reading
The Halloween short and the short of it: The haunting impact of Night of the Living Dread
SNAPSHOTWhen a power cut ruins Ruby’s bedtime routine, she finds herself haunted by some unwanted guests. The only way for Ruby to get a peaceful night of sleep is to confront her visitors. (courtesy Laughing Squid) What’s scarier than zombies and vampires and aliens and ghosts and werewolves and any Continue Reading
New releases October review: She Lied First by Dinuka McKenzie
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) A good, no, great crime thriller is always something to be savoured, enjoyed and thereafter, remembered. But for that to happen you need an author who understands that the crime is not the only thing and that for any of it to impact beyond the Continue Reading
Tiny ton of TV and movie trailers 10/26: Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, 12 12 12, Minimum Wage + The Child
(via Shutterstock) The tsunami of viewing possibilities continues, and while all this endless choice used to alarm and unnerve me because how could I possibility get to it all, now I see it as a TBW (To Be Watched) menu of possibility that’s exciting because who knows what I’ll watch Continue Reading
New releases October book review: People Skills by Nina Kenwood
(courtesy Text Publishing) In a world full of hatred, bigotry, violent attacks and simmering intimidation, and that’s on the good days, having somewhere to escape to that also feels like it might just exist in the real world too is an incalculable joy. While romcoms get a lot of stick Continue Reading
Christmas movie preview: The Christmas Switch, A Dog’s Perfect Christmas, Guarding Stars + In a Holidaze
(via Shutterstock) These trailers may be previews of Christmas Still to Come but the year is racing by and soon and very soon they will part of Christmas present. I am especially thrilled to have a new Nordic festive film to watch and while lay on the saccharine sweetness, I Continue Reading
Catch-up movie review: Avatar: Fire and Ash aka Avatar 3
(courtesy IMP Awards) Reviewing a major Hollywood release almost a year after its initial release might seem like an oddly delayed thing to do in our hyper immediate world where the zeitgeist is super focused on something one day and curiously uninterested the next. Truth be told, the delay in Continue Reading
Christmas preview: Bob’s Burgers and the biggest holiday snow fort of all time
(courtesy IMDb (c) 20th Television) SNAPSHOTIn “On the Fort Day of Christmas”, a record-breaking Christmas snowstorm means one thing to the Belcher kids — a record-breaking Christmas snow fort. (courtesy Animation Magazine) I fear with Bob’s Burgers that the TV horse has bolted. For me, at least. Kicking off in Continue Reading