I’ve had this in my digital library for a really long time, I’m not sure what prompted me to pick it up in the first place. It was a good read, the kind of young adult book that puts teenagers in more adult situations (although the trainee police thing was a believable setup) and then you find they bring their own solutions that the adults would never have been able to do. I also liked the way this was written, Chris Ould has done a lot of TV work, and this felt very scenic - each chapter a snapshot of a scene before moving on to the next.

First of the tenth doctor stories, I listened to the audiobook of this because it was read by the lovely David Tennant. Nothing better than hearing more from my favourite Doctor! The story was good too, I love it when there’s an element of time travel - seeing the stone in the future makes them go back to the past and all the ramifications of that. Plus the idea of the robot genie wish-granter was brilliant, you have to be so careful with what you wish for!

This is a good story but it’s quite drawn out towards the end. At first you wonder how these two are going to intertwine, when the big showdown will be, but then things turn a bit more sentimental, a bit more weepy. I didn’t enjoy the end as much as the start but it’s a well-told emotional tale that wraps up nicely.

Sam Neill’s surprise autobiography, written hurriedly during treatment for cancer, is a breath of fresh air. Upfront, Sam admits to writing this only for himself, so it’s a journey through disjointed memories and moments in time, thoughts about relationships and friends and the acting world and what it means to be human. I really liked it, especially the pragmatic way Sam deals with awkward moments and knowing/meeting cancelled people.

This was an interesting thriller, well written, and the way it dipped back and forth in time kept me hooked and turning the pages to see what happened. The characters didn’t really leap out at me but I kept pushing on towards the big twist at the end. It was a shock, and a good twist, but then I feel like it didn’t play out as best it could. A good read though.

I love this blog post from Duolingo recommending ways to increase your language learning by utilising your television and its various audio/subtitle options. The post runs through the different scenarios you can try to help boost your listening and reading skills, for example, audio in your own language and subtitles in the language you’re trying to learn, or vice versa. Or the pro option, audio and subtitles in the language you’re trying to learn.

After realising last week that I wasn’t listening to the Liz Phair album Mr C had suggested, I had to tune in again making it two Liz weeks in a row. Thankfully, this one was a lot better and I can understand now why it was the chosen album. It’s a lot more accomplished than the first one, perhaps a lot more mainstream which makes it better in my eyes potentially not so for the critics. Liz is not afraid of laying it all on the table, I was surprised at some of the explicit content, but they’re good songs that stand the test of time.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this album so it was a pleasant surprise, pretty good from start to finish, although quite hard to describe. Some fabulous guest vocalists, including the incredible Stevie Nicks! Each song is quite different but it works together as a whole, it’s probably not something I would seek out but I quite enjoyed the process of listening.

This got off to a slow start, but I really started to get into it and loved it by the end. The story is a handful of characters ending up living in a house together and the many misunderstandings and mistaken assumptions that happen as they navigate beginning and ending various relationships - your standard romcom stuff but done very well.

Oh wow, I really loved this book. I listened to the audiobook read by the author, so enjoyed Fern’s amazing accent throughout, but it was the content that really shone. The way Fern describes what she’s faced and been through before and after a late autism diagnosis and her difficulties with her family, and how she interacts with the world… it’s brilliant and funny and moving and startlingly honest and just wonderful.

This is a charming enough movie but it’s just so in the shadow of Mary Poppins, it was intended as a replacement for if that fell through and it feels like an understudy from start to finish. That said, I do remember some of the songs quite fondly and my word, Angela Lansbury carries the whole thing off in style, so I don’t dislike it. I can’t quite believe how little recollection I had with regards to it being about the war… that’s the driving point of the whole plot!

Apple launched a separate music app for Classical music this week, dedicated to the classical music genre, whilst continuing to work with your existing Apple Music subscription. I think this is an interesting idea, and if I hadn’t been taking a pause from monthly challenges then 30 days of classical music could very much have been on the cards.

I love this project Diaries of Note which is reproducing one diary entry from the past for each day of 2023, featuring well known writers such as Beatrix Potter and F. Scott Fitzgerald, people you may not know as writers such as Louis Theroux and Andy Warhol, and then, of course, lots of people you’ve not heard of at all.

A week or so ago, the final episode of the first season of Shrinking was released and it wrapped up what has been an incredible series of television. This show, inevitably linked to Ted Lasso thanks to creators Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, focused on the life of a therapist who was in the grieving process as his wife had just died… and of course the friends and family that surrounds him.

This is a good twisty thriller, wherein a face from the past comes into Beth & Jay’s life and causes chaos. I like how it was structured, lots of short chapters dipping into the various points of view and gradually moving the story along and leading towards a couple of last minute twists that I didn’t see coming, even though I should have! A good read!

I mentioned in my wrap-up of the March challenge that I’m taking a pause on these monthly endeavours, because there are only so many hours in the day. That’s part of it: I don’t know why I assumed time would just keep expanding to allow me to add hobby after hobby. But there is more to it than that… in having to pause the project, it really proves what a success it has been.

This album was a bit of a mistake, it turns out. I didn’t enjoy listening to it the first time round and when Mr C asked after it, he was surprised that I hadn’t liked it. Then it turns out this wasn’t the specific Liz Phair album he’d wanted me to listen to, so next week I’ll be doing the correct one! On the second listen, this was better, but I’m still not sure I was totally sold. It’s a kind of mix between Alanis and Sheryl Crowe, but not as good as either of them.

First listen through on this, I didn’t like it. I don’t know if it was because I was in a bad mood (I didn’t like either of this week’s albums first time through), or if this is a bit of a grower, but definitely it was the second listen that really started to open it up. It’s a different kind of mood to the Depeche Mode of old, they’ve been through a lot recently! I’ll have to listen a few more times and perhaps report back!

I whipped through this in super quick time, it wasn’t a particularly complex book or story but I just had to know what was going to happen. The characters were good, quite believable and in difficult situations, but some of the chapters were a bit drawn out where we’re really just waiting to know what has happened and where it’s going. It kept me turning the pages though so definitely worth a read.

This is a musical I’ve watched so many times before but not for a long while now. I’d forgotten some of the finer details of the movie but the rhythms of it are still so clear to me. I knew as well going into this that I’d spot some things that younger me didn’t realise which is always fun.

My challenge for March was to read the front page of the Financial Times website every day, and see what interested me, read through some of the articles and generally get a bit smarter. I’ve talked already about how surprised I was at the variety of content for what is originally a newspaper about financials and economies, and that continued as a pleasant surprise as the month went on.

Lovely Mindy Kaling wrote a handful essays as Amazon Originals and these are bundled together in a collection, which I listened to the audiobook version of. Kaling naturally reads them very well and they’re brilliantly constructud with humour and honesty and a point of view baked right in. Most of the subjects were a surprise too, I didn’t know Kaling was a single mother and by design, and I didn’t realise she had more introvert tendencies and was exhausted by people the same way many of us are. It was really a breath of fresh air and left me wanting more!

I read this almost immediately after finishing the TV adaptation on Apple TV+ to see how it fitted. The creaters of the show said if there had been a third series it would bridge the gap to the book/film, so I wanted to understand where we are in the timeline. Actually, I wish I hadn’t bothered. The book is well written, obviously, and it’s an interesting idea that sparked a few imaginations. But I didn’t enjoy it, the father character does everything with no explanation why and is way more obnoxious and presumably struggling with his mental health. The mother has no name at all and is really a simpering background character until the last few pages. It’s all sort of without purpose and ultimately really grimy and depressing. The TV show was much better!

I have always, always been a cheerleader for blogging in any form. I think the spirit of sharing things, writing things down, just having an outlet and tiny corner of the web for yourself is a brilliant and important thing. In the past, I’ve come up with challenges to help encourage people to read and comment on blogs, and taken part in other experiments to share thoughts and feelings about various topics. Ultimately, I talk too much and I want to encourage other people to do the same!

This is a good album, exactly what you’d expect and want from a Goo Goo Dolls album. This one came up after watching the penultimate episode of Shrinking, where the teenager asked what a Goo Goo Doll even is. It’s still a great question. I don’t think this particularly stands out and ultimately isn’t going to make a top ten list, but it’s a good listen and nice to have on in the background.

Ah, this is a great album. I feel like I didn’t even know who Jordan Davis was but I did know a couple of the songs and they’re great. Next Thing You Know just drags you along with it, through a well-lived life, and of course Buy Dirt gets stuck right inside your head. But all the other tracks follow the same pattern: great country songs, traditional themes of drinking and looking for love, and ultimately making the most of what you’ve got.

This was surprisingly good. I never got round to watching the Netflix adaptation, even though people were raving about it. I probably will now, having read the book. It’s just an interesting story following the coming-of-age difficulties of a young chess prodigy as she fights to first get access to the game, then to break through because of her gender and her age, and then to battle her own demons to try and get to the top. The chess sections are meaningless to me as someone who can only just about tell you what the different pieces are called, but still it remained engaging which is a difficult thing to do. And I loved the ending, that sometimes reaching the pinnacle isn’t everything and you want to just go back to the simple pleasures that got you into it in the first place.

I just finished reading the Bono memoir Surrender and it felt like exactly the right time to invest in this Disney original documentary. It’s really good. It takes a while to get going and you have to sort of get on board with the fact there isn’t a huge point to this documentary. There’s no over-arching theme. It’s just Dave Letterman bumbling into a city for the first time, getting shown around by amazingly creative musicians, and learning more about where U2 have come from, where they think they are and where they might be going next.

It’s taken me a while to get through this. I read a physical copy of this book and although that’s not my preferred format, it worked for this one. This is long and uncompromising, Bono has things to say and he’s going to say them in his own way and in his own time. He works through some difficult things, but always comes out the other side with a lesson learned.

Even though the time and inspiration to watch films (particularly new ones) is still eluding me somewhat, I’m starting to feel just a shimmer of excitement about what’s upcoming. These quarterly sneak peeks at the fresh releases are helping no end, and this quarter feels quite blockbuster heavy. Let’s see what we’ve got in store.

After the last book ditched the traditional formula of the gang going camping somewhere and stumbling upon a conspiracy, this one was back to the more comfortable pattern - although with some tweaks. It was fun to have George and Anne on their own for a bit, camping out together and battling over whether it’s any good to be having all these adventures or not. I did think the reason for going off was a bit weird (people laughing at a dog with a cone on, what’s wrong with that?) but after that, it was your regular Famous Five adventure!

There’s something to this movie, it’s great to see confident kids running around knowing so much about computers and nerds ruling the roost. But it just doesn’t quite work. In trying to make hacking and typing on a computer interesting visually, they’ve gone just a bit over the top so it was eye-rolling instead of eye-popping.

If you’ve been following along my musical album odyssey over the past few months, you’ll have noticed that a lot of inspiration for the choices recently has come from the time shifted repeats of Top of the Pops that are available via the BBC. Currently they’re airing episodes from 1994, and I’m loving (almost) every minute of it.

I love a bit of reggae so this was a nice album to listen to, and a change from the pop & country that I tend to lean towards. In a change to most albums, this one peaks in the middle, with It Keeps Raining’ and Dedicated being the two tracsk best known and standing out from the rest, but all of it is good… except the slightly odd instrumental reprise at the end. The full track again with no words… why?

I really liked this album. You’re never quite sure what to expect with Miley, and this one was the more chill Miley that we know from tracks like Malibu. It’s an homage to learning to love yourself when you’re not quite being lucky in love, but it’s uplifting, not depressing. It’s definitely a certain vibe, you wouldn’t want to listen to this to pep you up ahead of a night out, but if you’re in the right mood, it’s top dollar.

Very interesting premise, this one, in which the TARDIS crew visit a planet that has banned fictional thinking. Facts or it didn’t happen. I can almost feel the inspiration moment that happened for the author - knowing that creativity and evolution of a civilisation can only happen when people are allowed to dream and think and create. What happens when all that stops? Good story, acceptable levels of danger and a happy ending.

I saw this on Kottke a while back and really wanted to share - Wonders of Street View - a super simple site designed by Neal that just shows you random pictures from Google Maps. It’s one of those things that can suck you in and take up far more of your time than you want, so do be careful before clicking the link… but once you do, it’s a lot of fun.

This was a change from the normal adventures that this gang get up on, this time they are very much based at home at Kirrin Cottage and the trouble comes to them. A good half of the book is based around their new visitor Berta and getting her settled in, appearance changed, and witness protection set up. The second half of the book is chasing after the kidnap that eventually happens and you do think the kids should probably leave it to the police but they do manage to scrape together an effective rescue - hooray!

Although this has all the tropes you associate with the Famous Five at this point, it does stand out as a good read. The gang do end up on a mysterious moor, they do face off some travellers who are committing crimes, they do meet another kid who initially winds them up the wrong way but ends up being a friend, and together they all manage to bring the perpetrators to justice. Not fresh but fun anyway.

I love this post from The Guardian last week that looks at a handful of artists behind the biggest theme tunes of the last couple of decades - how their songs were chosen, the impact it had on their careers and the legacy they have been left with.

Loved this. I listened to the audiobook so it had an intro from Tim Peake and then was read by Robin Ince. This is structured around questions that Peake has answered throughout his career as an astronaut and covers the entirety of training to get to the position of astronaut, and then every inch of a trip into space, living on the international space station, and returning back to earth. There were all kinds of details I wouldn’t have thought of asking and have never heard talked about elsewhere, and it was absolutely fascinating. Just a shame that Peake didn’t read the whole thing himself as I think that would have been better.

Procrastination can be a bit of a problem when you’re trying to get something done, and focusing on one task at a time can be a challenge in this world full of endless distractions. There are lots of apps out there that can help with focusing, lots of timers and distraction-less environments and that kind of thing. My chosen one is the Bear Focus Timer, because Tom the bear is just adorable.

Somehow, even though each of the prequel books for the Inspector Frost series don’t fill me with joy, I can’t stop reading them. I love the Frost character, but in this book he doesn’t come across very well - all that scrapping around on people’s sofas and being generally unhealthy and unkempt, it just doesn’t strike very well. He has his moments of brilliance but the other characters are given more chance to shine. A good read, but not one of the best.

Like many others, I’ve been intrigued by the high concept building The Line in Saudi Arabia, and have been keeping an eye on its progress. I really thought it would just be a concept piece and never come to anything, but lo and behold, the building teams have actually broken ground and started work on the 170km long building. This video from Two Bit da Vinci sums up the project so far and adds some really interesting thoughts and questions about the next steps.

I’ve been talking quite a lot recently about programming on Disney+ and that’s because of all the streaming services around at the moment, they have some of the most high profile shows alongside some hidden gems. That’s because they are such a behemoth, the vast array of franchises Disney has under its banner is something to behold. As it is at the forefront of my mind right now, for whatever reason, it’s worth a second entry in the ongoing series Christine Reviews the Streaming Services.

Yay for The Pretenders! This is their second album, as you can tell from the title, but they’ve found a good sound, a great groove and it’s instantly recognisable as Pretenders - even if that first track is a bit weird. But as a whole, it’s a brilliant listen, with Chrissie Hynde’s incredible voice and unique energy.

I really liked this album, Dierks doing what he does best with some solid country tracks. Some stand out more than others, the singles and the guest appearance from Ashley McBryde, but it was majority all good. The final track was a bit of a disappointment because it’s just too much noodling, too long, and, for me, an off-key end to what would otherwise be a great album.

The trouble with not watching many films is that it puts pressure on the ones you do watch to be good - I was expecting this to be pretty bad, considering it’s a clear rip-off of Big and the trailer looked fun in a messy way. It was actually brilliant! Yes, there is the obvious Big comparison, although this one is about the choices you make rather than just the fact that being an adult sucks.

I’ve been reading the Financial Times for about ten days now. I mean, I say reading it which sounds very grandiose but it’s more like scanning the homepage for interesting topics. There have been a couple each day, although naturally the weekend is quieter than during the week. I’ve been surprised at the variety, though, with lots of culture stuff that’s interesting, TV reviews, and even recipes! Plus all the expected economic talk as well, of course.