After a brief biography of the author and how she came to her current position of authority, we dive right into a fantastic guide on keeping your home spic and span. There’s a lot of focus on home made solutions, and fab step by step pointers for daily upkeep, spring cleans, and special occasions. It’s not exactly a book you’d sit and read from start to finish, but definitely one to refer back to with plenty of checklists to keep you on track.

I missed this when it came out last year, but James May’s adventures around Japan are an absolute must watch. Apparently this show was pitched to the BBC originally but they never made it, leaving Amazon to pick up the tab for a six-episode stint around the many islands of Japan. James May makes a brilliant host for this show, the premise being that he loves Japan but has never quite been able to explain why and wants to find out what it is that makes this country tick. He’s joined in each episode by a local guide, and rather than the usual situation where they just translate and point out local landmarks, these guides get fully involved and really give James a hard time. Particularly in the first episode where James’ lack of skills in a competitive snowball fight are very quickly pounced upon by his guide, but also in the giant robot fight, and in every activity that he and Yujiro participate in.

You know what you’re getting with a Boyz II Men album, and this was their debut, showcasing those great vocals, wonderful synchronicity, and amazing rhythm, all the way through. Apparently the album initially shipped without End of the Road on it but it was added in later re-releases, so I listened to it without. Even without that most famous of songs, it’s still a really solid album.

Wahey, this is such a good album. Great tunes and good lyrics as always - a bit more serious in tone than the previous album, and dipping into weightier subjects, but still with the engaging and powerful feeling that draws you in right from the start. I don’t think it’s quite as good as the previous album, which is a proper classic and favourite, but it’s certainly a highlight of what has been a pretty poor year so far.

Obviously this is the basics of math, aimed at kids, but actually there was some interesting stuff in there - like how to measure the earth, and how measuring time evolved over the centuries. Stacked full of great pictures and illustrations, diagrams, puzzles and experiments to try at home, this is a really good way of showing the importance of maths to someone maybe more reluctant to learn about it.

It was hard to know what to expect from this movie - the trailer made it look fun-filled but bizarre, how could they make a story out of this? And I heard mixed reviews heading into it. But actually, the story did make sense structurally, which was a bonus. The cast were brilliant, and worked really well together. Jodie Comer can do no wrong, let’s be clear.

I read that John Le Carré wrote the Smiley character as a direct response to Bond, making him chubby and kinda boring, and one that goes through the motions to get the job done, rather than getting the drinks and the girls and the rock and roll side of things. Despite that, it’s still a really good espionage thriller - a suicide that was actually a murder, several attacks on our hero, plus quite a lot of time spent at the theatre. I really quite liked it. Although I think I do like Bond better, I’ll be interested to read more of this Smiley chap.

Jeffery Deaver has written quite a few of these Amazon Original short stories - more than I had thought - and it’s very interesting working through them. He’s an expert at writing stories with excellent twists and it’s always a lot of fun trying to guess which way things are going to go. I enjoyed this book, didn’t have a clue what the ending was going to be, and although it felt a little bit out there, probably not too believable, it was well plotted and uncovering the puzzle a piece at a time was great.

I’ve gained access to a few kid’s books recently, because I am, at heart, a big kid myself. And particularly when it comes to science, this is probably about my level. But it’s a super simple, colourful book, with some great facts about food that will keep kids interested, as well as some experiments to try in the kitchen to boggle the mind. Mostly, though, it’s a good base introduction to the building blocks that would hopefully help kids make good food choices in the future.

This is a really beautiful book, although actually quite hard to read in places as Emma really suffers over the course of the year. The diary is split into months, starting in the autumn/winter period, and we travel with Emma as she goes for walks in the countryside, really delving into the nature that surrounds her to try and help or maintain her mental health.

This is such a blast from the past. I reckon this might have been one of the first audiobooks I listened to when I was a kid. I don’t know why or what made me choose it, but I vividly remember the opening lines. It might also be why I’m so fond of Tony Robinson, as he’s clearly a voice from when I was younger.

Right, we’re in it now, aren’t we? The first proper week of people dancing and showing us what they’ve got. What an incredible show it was, a bonanza of lights and colour, banging tunes and of course buckets and buckets of glitter. I think we say this every year, but the standard seems so high? I don’t think there was a single dance that was cringey and unwatchable, and there’s usually always one. But let’s revisit dance by dance and see what predictions we can make.

I sort of had to split this book into two things as I was reading - one was the memoir of what Mark did, and one was the manifesto of freeconomic living. The two elements worked very differently. As a memoir, it’s brilliant. Mark is open and honest, upfront about the challenges of living like this, about his thoughts and doubts, and experiences along the way. It’s an interesting idea and one that is worth thinking about, so raising the profile of the problems money causes is great.

I finished reading the John Grisham novel just a week or so ago and realised there was bound to be a film adaptation, so quickly sourced it. This film was brilliant and packed full of stars, so I’m surprised it’s not more famous than it is. It’s slightly different to the book, but mostly sticks quite rigidly to the source material - if you overlook the fact that the trial in the book is brought against the tobacco industry rather than guns.

Obviously Joy Division and New Order have a huge place in music and culture, so it seemed only right to go back to the beginning and listen to the first album. I have to admit, though, I found this album to be a bit of a nothingness. It was fine, and while I was listening it was ok, but I didn’t think any of the songs were particularly special and despite having listened twice, I couldn’t really tell you anything about it. I know we go on to better things from here, though, so look forward to that.

It feels a bit late in Buckingham’s career to have a self-titled album, that’s usually a first album kind of thing! I hadn’t intended on listening to this the moment it came out but I sort of fell into it, devouring the album very quickly. It starts off really well but then feels like it falls of a cliff towards the end. It has vibes of current Paul McCartney, which is not a particular favourite of mine. The first few songs are worth a listen though.

What a fabulous memoir this is. Gene Kranz talks of his early days but the bulk of the book is a play by play of every NASA mission he was involved with, from the very early days of Gemini, the tragedy of the first Apollo mission, and the success of returning Apollo 13 to earth. Through it all, Kranz is happy to admit where the teams did things right or wrong, and has that clear scientific analysis of each adventure. Occasionally, it’s a little too technical and I lost a sense of exactly what was going on, but you soon get pulled right back in when the drama and bravery of these incredible missions hits you.

I don’t remember which was the first Pitch Meeting video I watched, but I do know that ever since then, I’ve been obsessed. Ryan George, of the TV and film site ScreenRant, creates and features in these incredible videos that recreate what might have happened in the pitch meetings for a variety of different films. They are ridiculous and hilarious and, more than anything else, always completely spot on. A few times over the past few years of writing Film Watch posts, I’ve wondered what on earth could have happened in the pitch meeting for the odder movies I’ve seen - now I don’t need to wonder any more.

This was such an odd read. It’s a reliably good legal thriller from John Grisham, but the structure of it is a little different. There doesn’t really seem to be a protagonist, just all the various parties of a particularly odious trial, and everyone behaving quite badly. That makes it a little bit difficult to get fully invested in the story, to have someone to latch on to and root for.

Like many people, I spent some of my lockdown time in the garden: digging, planting, weeding, wondering, waiting. It seemed like a sensible thing to do, we weren’t allowed to go on any grand adventures, so why not go on a bit of a journey closer to home? I’ve tried growing things before, my so-called Great Gardening Adventure that resulted in a couple of tomatoes, a withered cucumber, and some strawberries that were brought back from the brink by strong advice from my mother.

In 2019, I wrote a quick post after every week of Strictly Come Dancing. Last year, I wrote absolutely nothing about the show, even though the fantastic Bill Bailey won it and I spent the entire two and a half hours of the final crying at everyone being so emotional. This year? Who knows, maybe something in between? It seems about time to dust off the glitterball on the blog though, and have my say over the launch show that took place this past weekend.

I used to be an incredible podcast fanatic, but my interest has waned steadily over the past few years. The prevalance of celebrities picking a genre and talking to other celebrities about it got boring for me, so I moved on to audiobooks and music instead. The other trend that seemed to be a move in the wrong direction for podcasts was the silo effect - exclusive podcasts to various platforms, Audible being one of the main players in that space.

Aaliyah’s music hasn’t been available on streaming before, so as soon as it was I wanted to grab the opportunity to listen. I know a few of her songs, but none from this album, so starting from the beginning was a bit of an education. She has a wonderful voice and the 90s R&B is right up my street. The R Kelly influence is a bit uncomfortable, but that’s not Aaliyah’s fault. Can’t wait to get to the next one.

Yay, another good album, the year is really starting to pick up! It took a couple of listens to get into this but it’s got the good beats you’d expect of an Imagine Dragons release. There’s no thumping anthem like Thunder, which is a shame, but a lot of catchy tunes nevertheless. I’m still trying to get It’s Ok out of my head. The only downside, really, is the lyrics feel a bit… weak, but I can live with that for some good songs.

An incredible movie. It’s a hard watch because the entire time you’re getting to know and understand these characters with the foreboding that something bad is going to happen… which obviously reflects the reality of living on these streets. As a film, it’s surprising how well it works because there’s no real driving force of a plot, just the unravelling of these characters lives as they try and cross from boyhood to adulthood.

The trailer for this didn’t look great, but I was interested in the huge number of people making cameos, so figured it was worth a go. It was oddly compelling, but if I’m honest, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there were better things to be watching, and that it wasn’t going to be an overall good film. So although we got past the twenty minute rule, when a technical glitch forced a restart after half an hour, we restarted another film instead.

I’m always interested in new and helpful ways of tracking your health and fitness data, but well aware of the perils of getting obsessed with it. It needs to be a guide rather than the be all and end all of everything. That’s why the Gentler app caught my attention - advertising “better control of your well-being” by turning data into more human and accessible insights. It has all the usual information, workouts done, calories burned, time spent on activities, but it presents tham in a useful way. It also gives you hints and tips about the direction you might want to take it - “you did a great run today, why not try a longer one tomorrow?” sort of thing. I do like a bit of a nudge and guide about what to do next.

This is one of those movies where you know what you’re getting - a low-budget, low-key, heart-felt story about some local people with a big dream overcoming hurdles and doubt and getting a good result by the end. On that side, it was brilliant, and Toni Collette really did a fantastic job as Jan - visibly lightening as the movie went on and she found a bit of spark in her life again.

There are a lot of books out there that have jumped on the 100 objects bandwagon, but I think this is a particularly good one. It’s published in consultation with the Imperial War Museum, so all the objects are things that can be found in the museum itself. Each item tells its own tale, but the structure works well for detailing the events of the war as it unfolded, mostly in chronological order but dipping back and forth where necessary.

Palin’s journey this time takes some sandy footsteps through the world’s most famous desert. It’s an interesting premise and visits some fascinating places - not all steeped in sand, obviously, but quite a lot of them featuring soaring temperatures and desperate poverty. This book also chronicles how the journey took place at the same time as 9/11 was happening on the other side of the world.

As ever, Harley Quinn stole the entire show. There was about ten minutes in the middle where we might have been enjoying it, but then there was always something to ruin it - bad characters, graphic violence, and my god that starfish at the end was ridiculous. And so much to do with eyes. Bleurgh.

When I want something a bit more relaxing to watch, I dip into Dawson’s Creek on Netflix. Maybe relaxing isn’t the right word, all those hyperbolic teenagers making a drama out of a molehill, but it’s a comforting treat regardless. The only problem with it is, up until this past week, the theme tune was Run Like Mad rather than the correct I Don’t Want to Wait by Paula Cole. Never has the Skip Intro button been more appropriate.

I really don’t know anything about the Beastie Boys except how well regarded they are in the music industry and of course specifically the hip-hop genre. One of the first, apparently, to make the kind of music they did. So, it was about time I gave it a listen, and broadly speaking I liked it. It’s one of those albums that is a lot for me to listen to in one go - a bit of a headache by the end. But for the most part, I liked it. Some of the lyrics and general vibes are a bit outdated but it’s inventive and catchy and powerful, so I can see why they get the respect they do.

Yay, loved this! If I’m honest there haven’t been a lot of stellar albums this year but this latest from CHVRCHES is going straight on the list. Great songs, great length, it sweeps you in and envelopes you in their synth-electro-pop fun. One notable thing was how much stronger Lauren’s accent was compared to the previous album - not sure if that was intentional or not, but I really liked it.

And so it was over. The pacing of this movie felt weird because obviously they wrapped up the dragon cliffhanger from the previous movie in the first ten minutes, and then got on with the finale. And by the end, rather than dragging on and on and on as we did in part three of LotR, it just ended with quite a lot of questions left unanswered. So weird.

This was a step up from the previous film, a lot more entertaining, and mercifully, the movies are just getting shorter as we move through this trilogy. I was very surprised at the return of Legolas, because he certainly wasn’t mentioned by name in the source material, but I think he and the new character of Tauriel added a lot to the chemistry of the characters.

Wow, this was a really boring film, arguably the worst of the lot so far. I always knew there would be some stretching out of plot, given we’re milking three films out of one slim-line book. But this was beyond a joke. It was a full 45 minutes before they even started walking, and walking is usually the worst bit… this time I was happy they’d finally got out of Bag End. For a moment, when they were chatting on about the party at the beginning, I was worried we were just going to watch the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy again just from a different perspective.

I actually thought this film was really good, probably the best of the three, until the ending when it was so drawn out, I really just needed it to be over. In fact, from start to finish, there’s probably a really good two and a half hour movie in here, it’s just elongated in the worst way to drag on over three hours.

This was a bit of a rollercoaster of a movie, the second part of a trilogy so not really a film with a beginning, middle and end. This was all middle. And there were highs (Legolas sliding down stairs on a shield, Gimli being the comic relief, the continuing breakdown of Smeagol) and there were some real lows (I detest endless battle scenes, I’ve never felt the lack of women so deeply, the tree scenes: fun but SO SLOW).

I sort of assumed Kim Wilde was a one hit wonder, Kids in America being a pop anthem but what else? Turns out she’s had a few albums but this was the first. If you like Kids in America, you’ll like the rest of the album because it’s all pretty much the same. It’s good pop but it really does all sound like riffs on the one successful song. There’s a bit of reggae thrown in for good measure, but mostly, it’s much of a muchness.

Another fantastic OneRepublic album, I’ve been looking forward to it for ages. Some of the songs stand out and stick in the mind, Run and Didn’t I are the top two for me. But the whole album works as a whole really well, the usual great anthems and enthusiastic pop that you get from Ryan Tedder and his crew. Top work!

I’ve seen this trilogy before, actually in the days when I used to go to the cinema, and I remember really liking them… although I think that was driven quite a lot by the enthusiasm of the friend I went with. It’s been a long time, though, and I wasn’t sure it would live up to that nostalgia - and I was right, it didn’t. But I did still enjoy it and for a lengthy film with two more to come, it didn’t feel too boring.

Generally speaking, this is actually an okay movie - there are some interesting themes in there, and it’s a different take on the normal superhero, secret identity, saving the world stuff. But it does have problems. The biggest is clearly the tone - what film is it trying to be? It lulls you into thinking it’s a kids movie but then has someone thrown out of a skyscraper window and a monster bite someone’s head off. Then there’s some larking about and school bullying shenanigans and back to kid’s movie, and then they start swearing. It’s jarring and not in a good way.

Once again, my expectations were low for this. Jason Mamoa didn’t have that much to do in Justice League although what we did see was kinda fun. And in the words of Raj Koothrappali ‘Aquaman sucks.’ But actually, in his own, standalone adventure, he didn’t suck. It wasn’t a great film overall - there were far too many legends, quite a few plot holes, and that awful ten minutes of pointless CGI towards the end.

I recently finished watching the second series of Home Before Dark, an Apple TV+ show that is a mystery adventure following a family in a small town. When you try and describe this show in any more detail than that, it starts to sound a bit odd: Well, there’s a ten year old girl who thinks she’s a reporter and digs into a cold case when her family moves back to the small town her father grew up in. Yep, she’s just a kid and she talks to sources and riles up the local police and gets into all sorts of mischief and gets to the bottom of the mystery.

I’ve always been a big fan of Michael Crichton, and I think I must have read this before but I didn’t remember a lot about it as I revisited it via audiobook. The interesting concept of communicating with animals takes centre stage here, alongside a bigger plot regarding a race to the exotic minerals in the middle of the jungle. It’s the traditional Crichton fare, intricate and highly researched details hanging on a thriller of a story. I don’t know that it will take its place as one of my favourite of his books, but it reads well and keeps you guessing, and that’s good enough for me.

I don’t know why it’s taken so long for me to read this, it’s an absolute classic, and for good reason. How beautiful this book is, obviously steeped in the tragedy of the author, and with that mystical aura that surrounds a book published so close to the writer’s death. But beyond that, it’s a gorgeous reminder of celebrating life while you can, seeing the light and the dark in various situations, and written so vividly you feel like you’re almost in the room. A wonderful book.

My expectations going into this one were quite low because, well, because we have watched other DC movies. But of course also because Zack Snyder was so unsatisfied with the job JW did that he had to make a four version instead. But you know what? I thought it was okay. It’s not a patch on any of the Marvel movies but actually as a collection of DC heroes fighting a big bad, it was alright!

I’ve been working my way through Michael Palin’s back catalogue of travel adventures, and if I’m honest, this is the one I was least interested in reading. I don’t know anything about Hemingway or why he’s so important, so a lot of it went over my head. However, I do think it’s a nice idea to follow in someone’s footsteps and dig into the things that made them tick. And Palin is so brilliant, that it doesn’t really matter where he goes, it’s always interesting to read his impressions of the sights, smells and sounds that he stumbles across along the way.

This was better than I thought it was going to be but it took a really long time to get going. The first half hour or so introducing far too many characters was kinda dull but also a lot to process at the same time. And doubly annoying when it seemed like we were only supposed to care about two of the characters anyway. The movie picked up once the action did, and the interactions between Quinn (Margot Robbie absolutely stealing the whole movie, no wonder she got her own spin-off) and Deadshot were good.