A solid nautical adventure, it’s fun following Hornblower around, even if he does get a bit above his station at times! Confidence, rather than arrogance, though. This book also contains the interesting difficulties of a captain who is unstable, and the real consequences and terror that surrounds mutiny - even if it’s the right thing to do. I felt like the book came to a weird end, with Hornblower on shore, dealing with the day to day life of a non-naval existence… until the threat of war returned right at the end, almost like a cliffhanger! On to the next book!

This is a good thriller, plenty of suspense and twists and turns and I certainly didn’t see the end coming. I guess the only problem with it is it takes a long time to get where it’s going, and the characters aren’t particularly likeable, so it’s a long time to spend in their company. I did like that they are four women who have vastly different experiences of life and are at different stages, but still trying to keep their friendship alive… for as long as they can, even if that doesn’t last the weekend!

Brilliant, brilliant movie. Obviously it has that equality revolution vibe that makes it an incredible watch. But what I really loved about it is that none of the characters are perfect, they don’t just get everything they want, it’s not just a clean fight to the finish. They fight, they make mistakes, they’re insensitive to each other, they really are just teenagers trying to find out what they stand for. A really beautiful watch.

I didn’t know that I knew so many of Pat’s songs - mostly I started being aware of her from Pitch Perfect. It surprised me how rocky the whole album is, I really liked it! Although, on the flip side, there’s a cover of Wuthering Heights and it’s fine but I don’t know that anyone should bother doing a cover of that when Kate Bush nailed it first time. Otherwise, though, a really strong rock album!

Brilliant album! Honestly I hadn’t heard of Cam before I dived in but I did know some of the singles. I actually thought Diane was by Little Big Town so that was confusing, but I love that it’s on this album - and that it’s the other side of the Jolene story. Lots of good songs on here, great modern country sounds, and Cam has a lovely voice.

This is such a subtle, calm, slice of life style book - a series of letters that detail the mundanity of real life. Although it’s not quite real life, this is still high art London with people that can afford nannies and have Alan Bennett as a neighbour. But still, the best part of the book is the snippets of conversation between Nina and the family she has become a part of - the boys, the sarcastic mother, the intellectual neighbour, and her future husband. It’s nice to see her evolving to become a student, too, whilst still keeping strong bonds with the family.

This is an enigma of a movie - I have never know a film that I loathed so much and yet had something so wonderful in it, yes, I’m talking about Death. Every scene that Death is in is brilliant, he’s a fab addition to the movie, but it just means that every scene he’s not in is a disappointment.

If you’re in the mood for some of that wonderful late 90s/early 00s mindless action, then this is exactly the right film. Jason Statham doing some awesome work as an audition piece for Fast & Furious later - driving fast cars, participating in some wonderfully choreographed fight scenes, saving the feisty girl, whilst people keep trying to blow him up.

I thought I’d like this far more than I did. Vince Clarke is a musical idol to me and I love the vocals of Alison Moyet, so together they must make magic, right? And it’s fair to say that Only You is up there with one of my favourite songs of all time. Unfortunately, the rest of it wasn’t quite so good.

Good album, this one. One of those pretty steady country albums that’s very listenable. A couple of the tracks stand out, Kinfolks is good, and Breaking Up is doing the rounds at the moment. I do think that song would be better if he said easier rather than easy. Breaking up is never easy, is it? Also I was rather nervous about a song called Body Like a Back Road but thankfully it was just about knowing it as well as you know all those country roads in your hometown. Phew!

Good film this, considering the premise is two grumpy old men not speaking to each other. But it’s surprisingly moving in places, occasionally funny, and a really good story underneath about a struggling community trying to survive against all the odds.

Mixed feelings about this one. It’s a really good thriller, well written, and you do spend quite a lot of the time wondering what on earth is going on and about to happen. When the real twists and turns started happening, it felt a bit unbelievable at first but then weird things happen on the dark web. I suppose at heart it was a bit like that Black Mirror episode where people end up doing things they don’t want to because otherwise they face exposure of some other wrongdoings.

It’s taken me a long time to read this as it’s a gorgeous hardback coffee table style book, so I would just dip in and out every now and again. At the heart of it, it’s a week-by-week analysis of how the three Back to the Future films came together, from concept to shooting schedules, to release. There’s lots of great insight, behind the scenes knowledge, and it’s stacked full of great photographs I’ve never seen before.

It took a little while to get into the groove of this film because all the various services have it down as a comedy and it is not funny, not at all. Rosamund Pike plays a dead-hearted woman who cons the elderly out of their assets, until she bites off more than she can chew and comes up against a mafia boss. It’s somehow really interesting and entertaining whilst also raising that difficult question of who to root for when both sides are pretty evil?

I was 100% expecting this to be a twenty minute movie, one we watched and switched off and moved on. It seemed an inoffensive kid’s movie but hey, it’s about a superhero squirrel, it can’t be any good, right? Wrong! It was amazing. It was inspirational and funny and moving and really we had to keep pausing it to consider each amazing line!

Exquisite film, this one. Slow-paced, softly-spoken, not hard-hitting action but gentle drama which somehow manages to heighten the emotions of what could be a boring story (man digs a hole) but actually manages to be an enlightening piece about history and what it means to all of us.

Big brooding bear Justin does his time and tries to make a better life for himself, scooping up an adorable if precocious kid who just wants to live his own style. The challenges they face apart and together make for a fascinating story, and what I liked about it is it wasn’t so much about them growing and becoming better people, but learning how to live in a society that didn’t understand them.

Let’s be clear, Too Many Broken Hearts and Especially For You (added later, I think) are both absolute bops and to start and finish your album with those is a great thing. Unfortunately, everything in the middle is just that standard Stock, Aitken and Waterman pop - fine but almost identical to each other. It makes me want to give Jason a big hug and say, you’ve done some good work here but there’s so much more to come!

Just a good, easy-going album, this one. Enjoyable to listen to but nothing that’s going to stand the test of time. In my head I was expecting it to be more like Sara Bareilles, but actually it’s more upbeat than that, and I think I preferred it.

This book is simply incredible. It’s meticulous and detailed and there’s plenty of science in there but somehow the author makes it brilliantly readable, you don’t want to put it down. At the heart, despite all the politics and technical detail, it’s a story about the people who made poor decisions, who were thrust into the heart of it through no fault of their own, who showed incredible courage in the face of so many unknowns.

In my last post I mentioned that Inside the Factory inspired my purchase of a casserole dish. If you’re not aware, the show features Gregg Wallace and Cherry Healey visiting various factories around the country, sometimes world, to find out how our staples are made. It’s always interesting to see how a factory works, how the weird machines do what they do, and our hosts give us lots of fascinating facts and figures along the way.

I’m always keen to read Robert’s output, initially this was Death In Paradise tie-in novels but this is a standalone book, although perhaps the first of a new series. This time an unlikely group of neighbours get together to solve a mystery, led by the formidable Judith who writes puzzles for a living and has her own history to deal with.

I’ve read a couple of Nora’s non-fiction memoir style books but this is a work of fiction, although it still just feels like Nora sitting you down and telling you a story. It’s a relatively short book and I think that’s good because there’s not a lot of story or plot progression to follow.

I don’t remember buying this book, the follow up to the first in the series from Rosie’s point of view. I don’t know that the first one blew me away but actually I quite liked dipping back into our travelling group, following them this time across the sea to France. Drama and romance are all over the place, but there were some good insights into dealing with grief and how hard it is to try and move on with your life when your heart is left in the past.

This movie is an absolute proof that trailers don’t do justice to full length films. We watched two trailers for this and both of them looked really poor, confusing and not funny. But we thought, you know what, it’s bright, it’s got Kristen Wiig in it, and we have to give it a go as an early rental. I’m so glad we did because it was BRILLIANT.

Last week, a Le Creseut casserole dish was delivered to my house. You know the ones, top of the range pots and pans that come with the associated price tag. I could tell you the excuses and reasons behind this - spending more time in the kitchen, should have the best tools you can, not spending on a lot else at the moment - but actually there are only two things that led to this purchase:

Ordinarily, I would shy away from this album. Firstly, it’s long, and secondly it has all those pesky interludes in there. But you know what? I really liked it, despite both of those things! The length didn’t feel too onerous which means the songs flowed well and were never dull. And the interludes worked, rather than being a distraction they were an enhancement.

This album is Foo Fighters all over, from the minute it starts you know exactly who you’re listening to. I don’t think there’s anything stand out on there, and to be honest I’ve already mostly forgotten the intricacies of the album. But when I was in the midst of listening to it, it was good!

I liked that in this book we got to see that temper tantrum side of George again, the fact that her uncle needs to use the island for some science that could affect the whole world - but hey, it’s HER island and he didn’t ask permission! It feels like the odds were really elevated in this one, the consequences of the bad guy’s actions could have blown up a whole island and destroyed some neat scientific technology. Blimey.

I really liked this book, it’s basically a guide to being grateful for your body, and just encouraging you to move more, however gently that may be. It builds up to guiding you through some workouts of various levels but I wasn’t so bothered about that bit. I just liked the information on the different types of exercise, what you should be focusing on and how to balance all the relevant areas, including recovery!

This book seems to bring together all the things that I have thought reading the other books - how is it possible these kids are allowed to go off on holiday by themselves like that, why do they always end up running around in caves, and why are the bad people so set on hurting kids for their own means!

It gets going very quickly, instead of filling with lots of theory, the catastrophe is happening and you have to deal with it. And whilst the disaster is always there, in the background, driving the story along, it’s actually about the humanity of the situation.

More and more content is being added to the Apple TV+ streaming service, and I’ve noticed they’ve started increasing their children’s output alongside the adult dramas and films. Recent additions include the acclaimed Wolfwalkers and a new series of Snoopy and Charlie Brown, but one that really caught my eye was Stillwater. Obviously, it was the panda that made me give it a watch, and whilst the show itself is aimed at a younger audience, it is so beautiful, I had to watch the whole thing. Exquisite animation follows three kids through various situations, often requiring their neighbour Stillwater the panda to offer some wisdom and tell them a story that illustrates the moral of the episode.

As someone who has spent quite a lot of time in Les Mills classes, I’m familiar with a lot of Fall Out Boy songs. It’s almost impossible to listen to this album without finding yourself doing bicep curls on auto-pilot. And that shows just how inspirational and uplifting it is. Great beats, great vocals, I just love the whole thing.

I mostly know Celeste from the song Stop This Flame which I adored when it came out. I’m aware that more recently people know her for the John Lewis ad and it’s fair to say that song gives her a great chance to stretch her vocals. That’s the thing about this album, Celeste has an incredible, untouchable voice, it’s powerful but has depth of emotion as well which makes all the difference.

I used to listen to The Archers religiously for a couple of years - blogged about it here too - but dropped away, so it’s been a while now. However, if you’ve ever listened to the serial, you’ll know of David Archer, arguably the current heart of the show. This memoir dips back to before Bentinck got the fabled job on Radio 4, and talks with admirable honesty about the realities and insecurities of being a jobbing actor.

I believe this to be one of those films that isn’t great but earns itself a cult following and is therefore beloved. I can totally see that. I really liked the camaradarie between Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward, and the tone of the movie is great, a little bit horror but quite a lot more comedy.

This weekend, I finished watching the final season of Agents of Shield and it was, as expected, brilliant and moving, hopeful and emotional, and an action-packed time-travelling ride to the end. The first thing to say about it is thank goodness it came to a good conclusion, that for the most part the time-travel story made sense, and it was a happy ever after for almost all of the characters. Phew!

It’s a surprise to me that I haven’t listened to an Aerosmith album in the five years I’ve been doing this album adventure, but hey, with music there’s always more to discover! There are a couple of high profile songs on here, particualrly Cryin’ and Crazy, but the whole thing works together as a great rock album. I don’t know if it grabbed me and set the world alight but this is a really good, solid, rock album and I’m interesting in listening to more!

It was another good one, great pop rock with some fun tunes from start to finish. Definitely has a lot of value for relistening in the future. The one thing that jumped out at me as I was listening, though, was the band don’t seem to have a sound of their own - I was like, this sounds like One Republic, this one like Bastille, this is totally like Rob Thomas. But of course, they’re great people to emulate, so it’s not a complaint!

I tell you what, the stakes felt a lot higher in this adventure, it wasn’t just about the kids uncovering some kind of plot, but they actually had to save their own Uncle Julian from being kidnapped! Crikey! It gets off to a mysterious start, that imposing building on the top of the hills with scary marshes all around, and the mysteries just continue to deepend. I did feel a bit annoyed about how much effort it took to hide Timothy the dog, but hey, he’s one of the five, so you’ve got to love him!

I’ve been looking forward to watching this for a while, and it didn’t disappoint. At first, I was worried it was another one of those fever dream ideas that wasn’t going to come off, but once it started to gel it was amazing. Tina Fey was great as a curious oddball soul, and somehow Graham Norton as an older hipster pirate type guy totally worked.

I wish I could say that the many lockdowns of 2020 turned me into a domestic goddess with a sparkling clean house and freshly baked goods spilling out of the oven every day. It did not. I, like many people, spent a lot of time in my pyjamas, working too many hours, and watching too much TV. But, I have managed to get in the kitchen for the last couple of weekends, and one of my first adventures of 2021 is homemade granola!

This ended up being a lovely book but it took me a while to adjust to the style of it. It dips back and forth between five characters, very different women, who come together to celebrate the impending wedding of one of them. I liked that. It felt like there was a lot of minute detail, a lot of analysing each woman’s thoughts, and I couldn’t decide how I felt about that. On the one hand, it made things a bit drawn out, it felt like forever before they actually got to Paris. But on the other hand, it really helped to bring these characters to life, highlighting their differences and similarities and bonding them together more.

It’s been about a month that Apple Fitness+ has been out in the wide world and I’ve been using it pretty consistently since then. I wrote some thoguhts when the service initially launched and I thought it would be worth an update. My bottom line feelings haven’t changed: it’s a great addition to my fitness schedule but it doesn’t replace anything wholely. I turn to it when the main aim of my workout is closing my rings because having the visuals up on screen really helps achieve those goals. When I’m after something a bit more intense, Les Mills is still my go to.

Yay for The Bangles! Can’t believe I haven’t done this before! Obviously, the standout songs are there, and I had forgotten about If She Knew What She Wants as well. It’s a good pop rock album that I enjoyed but it’s hard to listen to now and not just want to hear the hits, I guess.

I think I’ve talked before about not being a huge Beatles fan whilst simultaneously respecting everything they’ve done for music. Similar with Paul McCartney in his own right, and this album probably summed it up completely. The good bits were really good, but there was a lot of weirdness on there, and it ended on such a sombre and unexpected note.

We’re in the middle of another lockdown which means opportunities to go outside are few and far between, and that living vicariously through YouTube is the order of the day. I’ve suddenly realised the appeal of those “slow television” videos, particularly where people are just walking around looking at stuff. If you like a bit more content than that, I’ve also found just the thing! Tom Scott has a YouTube channel with a variety of subjects but I’ve really been enjoying his Amazing Places series. He uncovers all kinds of interesting facts about places you wouldn’t even think existed, for example, the latest video about the road used extensively in TV dramas.

At first, I thought the premise of this was going to be unbelievable. Win some random money on a TV contest and go searching for an ex-boyfriend. But actually, when you read it, everything seems entirely possible, and whilst some of the decisions are a bit odd, they also absolutely could happen. It’s a nice journey of self-discovery more than anything, and somehow by visiting the past Rosie can start looking to the future.

It’s always fun when Rose comes home and her mum gets involved in the adventure, and I love Mickey being a reluctant hero all the time - such an awkward love triangle going on there. A good adventure with a sensible ending, and plenty of scope for the Doctor and Rose to go on and do more, as we know they do!