I was very intrigued to read this story, which was initially published in a serialised form in a Scottish periodical, but is now bundled together to read straight through as a book. McCall Smith’s usual style of fascinating characters winding in and out of each other’s lives is on full display, and this time centres around a flat share in Scotland Street.

My feelings about this film are mostly not that positive, but here’s a breakdown of some of the main points - the good ones first: I love the concept - repercussions from superhero destruction have been a bugbear of mine for a while so it’s good to see that addressed, and that it causes its own problems as well.

Really enjoyed this book, a different sort of story to those that Nicci French usually produces. The murders at first almost seem incidental, you know that they are connected but it doesn’t seem clear how. Gradually, you can start guessing at who might have committed it, but it’s hard to pin the blame in the right direction.

I’ve not enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes stories that barely feature the man himself, so I was trepidatious about reading this one. However, thankfully, it is still a fascinating book, particularly as Mr Jones was essentially training himself up to be as astute as Holmes, so we still got some of those baffling deductions to enjoy.

Interesting book this, telling the story of three very different women who are targeted by a psychopath killer. I quite liked that it differed from other Nicci French books in that the police were quite significantly involved in the stories, they didn’t just dismiss the problem as they quite often do in these books. Having said that, they still didn’t do a very good job!

I was worried about listening to this because Pompeii is such a storming tune, how can you expand on the brilliance of it? I needn’t have worried, the rest of the album is great too. Whilst it doesn’t quite match up to the opener, it’s still full of drums and drama, intriguing lyrics and the intensity to carry you through to the end.

Great to hear Britney again, although this is a very mixed album – some of it is great but some is quite awful. Private Show, whilst catchy, is probably everything wrong with music at the moment! But still, there are some good songs and taken as a whole it shows how adaptable Britney is, and how she can move with the times.

The film has an intriguing concept and it’s got some great ideas in there, but I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I wanted to. The first half, in particular, was incredibly hard to watch - so much violence with so little provocation, and not a lot of story progression.

Criminal is part of the Radiotopia network, a selection of well-produced shows from hosts that all have wonderfully smooth and captivating voices. I have listened to a few of them over the weeks and months, and Criminal is one of the few that has stuck. They describe themselves as a podcast with a different take on crime. This, from the about page: Criminal is a podcast about crime. Not so much the “if it bleeds, it leads,” kind of crime, but something a little more complex. Stories of people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.

Dev Patel does a great job with the impatience and frustration of someone who just wants to get his work out there, and I really enjoyed Jeremy Irons awkward but not bumbling characterisation. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of either of these guys, they seem so crucial.

I think Harry Potter & the Cursed Child was the first book that I pre-ordered, waited for midnight for the download to begin, and started reading that very same night. I didn’t finish it in one go, but was done by lunchtime the next day, and my feelings on it veer from one direction to the next depending what mood I’m in. I did love the story, because seeing how the next generation interact with each other is fascinating, and throw in elements of time travel, and I’m on board.

Mr C has been wanting me to watch this for a while but my background in music wasn’t good enough to make it worth while. With my album adventure upping my musical knowledge, we figured now was as good a time as any. I was nervous about the film, as I am with any that I know people have expectations about, but as soon as I realised it was set in Dublin, I was keen.

It’s lovely to read the source material for the film adaptation of this book, but I wonder if it didn’t taint my experience somewhat. I love the film enormously, and the characters are so vivid and wonderful that it was hard to see them split amongst several other characters in the book. There was a more sprawling cast in the book, which left me veering about a little bit.

An interesting one this. I picked it up in a ‘start a new series’ sale and was interested to see how it would differentiate itself from other action and adventure books. It certainly did that! It stands up well in terms of the writing, the characters and the way the action unfolds, but it didn’t quite hold together for me.

I knew nothing about this book when I picked it up to read, I suspect even it might have been the cover that tempted me to buy it. I’m so glad I did, though, because it’s an intriguing little mystery of a book full of bizarre but fascinating characters.

Good album, I love Jay-Z’s style and he’s surrounded himself with a good variety of guests here. The Justin Timberlake track is a stand out one for me, but otherwise I’m not sure this is a total classic. Quite a lot of Beyoncé squeezed in, too. Good listen overall.

You have to love Dolly Parton, she has a voice that is both powerful but also stacked with emotion and oftentimes seeming quite vulnerable. There’s just something about her voice and her songs that draws you in. The album also features her full set from Glastonbury, as sort of a second half, so that’s an absolute bonus!

We haven’t seen the original Cloverfield film, and having seen trailers of it, the found footage nature of it doesn’t really appeal to me anyway. This one, however, seemed much more interesting so we were keen to give it a go. John Goodman doing a turn as the creepy guy in a bunker was brilliant and terrifying at the same time. And I absolutely loved how kick-ass Mary Winstead’s character was, resourceful and clever, brave without being irritating.

I wasn’t expecting much from this Olympics, I’ll be honest. It felt like there was no way Team GB could live up to their amazing performance at the home games in London, there was so much talk of drug cheats and athletes being banned, several athletes opting not go due to potential Zika/health problems, and on top of all that the concerns that Rio would be able to pull it all off without a hitch anyway.

I listened to the audiobook of this, read by the excellent Rory Kinnear, who embodied the spirit of Bond really well. The clipped way the story is told is at first a little jarring but it soon gets you into the protagonist’s head - Bond has to live his life like that, constantly surveying, assessing danger, short, sharp movements to stay alive.

At the start, there were a lot of people to try and place, link together, and keep track of, so it felt like it was going to be hard work. But the main bulk of the film only requires a handful so it’s much easier to follow. I loved that it was, for the most part, playing out in real time, which added proper tension and drama to the situation. Quick decisions were required, and you could feel the vital seconds ticking by as discussions continued.

Danny Wallace’s novels follow the pattern he set for himself as a non-fiction writer, in that characters go on bizarre adventures and learn meaningful life lessons along the way. Charlotte Street was about following the clues from a set of photographs, Tom Ditto is about following people themselves.

The continuing saga of the Clifton and Barrington families this time took on a more vicious vibe, as it was revenge and retribution all the way. Having discovered the outcome of the last cliffhanger, it was clear we were just going to wend our way towards another, and naturally the events in between each were of the page-turner variety.

An interesting idea for a book, this. It’s simply a collection of interviews with Scottish crime authors, transcribed to provide insight into their motivations, their writing processes, and what they think of the genres their books are considered to be in and out of.

Loved this album, it was so wonderfully of the 90s. It also reminded me of the scene in Ted where he talks about the vowel songs of that era. A-E-I-O-U! Fab stuff anyway, mostly upbeat pop rock, catchy lyrics, right up my street.

I listened to this purely because they made an appearance on Nashville, and found it to be just a bit too country for me. However, there were some good songs on there (and some not so good, what is up with Ship-faced?) So many alcohol references, too, I felt drunk just listening!

I recently stumbled across an old note I made, after listening to an episode of Inside Science from the BBC. It’s a fantastic space quote about setting up lunar fuel depots, discussing the prospect of solving the problem whereby you need to take off from Earth with all the fuel to get where you’re going. If you can break that barrier, more remote areas of space become possible. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

This book followed in the same fashion as the previous Clifton Chronicles, and was just as gripping - following the fortunes of various family members as they dip in and out of each other’s lives. It was fun reading about the squabbles of siblings, although I was less interested in the machinations of Giles attempting to retain his seat as MP.

The second in the Clifton Chronicles trilogy picks up exactly where the previous book left off, and follows a similar pattern: tracking the movements of each character before moving onto another, revisiting some previous events before moving the story along.

Was worried about listening to this one, it’s so highly regarded. Luckily, I quite liked it although some of the tracks verged into too much screaming, which I can’t stand. The more sedate tracks are brilliant, though, and there’s a clear and moving talent there.

More pop than indie rock, I really enjoyed this album. Although there’s a similarity to other bands, it stands out because of its nostalgic feel – the first half of the album is very 80s, and the second half sounds like it has been plucked straight from the 90s, and both are a lot of fun to listen to!

I was looking for a fiction book about ballet and this one popped up at exactly the right time. It traces the interweaving lives of several ballet dancers, male and female, plus their extended friends and family. The book moves forward through time quite rapidly, but then dips back again and again, so that each time you learn more about events.

It felt like the film grew and grew on me as we watched. You have to really stick with it at the start because she’s not a nice character at all, even knowing what happened to her. But, just as she herself goes on a journey, she drags you along with her and I grew to love the character and the story, and really started rooting for everyone involved until I was super caught up and emotional about the whole thing!

It was a good story, but missing some elements (in an unfortunate coincidence with the title), which were then fleshed out with areas of too much detail. Where the kidnapping and underlying plot are great modern situations, there didn’t seem to be quite enough peril, enough haste, much of anything standing in the way of the good guys getting to the answer. There was little doubt over who did it and he quite literally led them to the answers.

It’s exactly because of the recommendations given to me for this book series that I have been reluctant to start - a proper page turner that you can’t put down, is how it was described to me and boy was that an accurate description.

I am confident that someday in the future The Rock, who was once a professional wrestler, will run for president of the United States, and I think that he will win. I have seen with my own eyes the power of The Rock. The Rock is a uniter, not a divider. When the BOP showed Walking Tall, the turnout for every screening all weekend long was unprecedented. The Rock has an effect on women that transcends divisions of race, age, cultural background – even social class, the most impenetrable barrier in America. Black, white, Spanish, old, young, all women are hot for The Rock. Even the lesbians agreed that he was mighty easy on the eyes.

I haven’t read a book in this sort of summer-time holiday read genre for a long time but seeing it was written by the wonderful Celia Imrie, I thought I’d give it a go. I suspect it is aimed at women slightly older than myself, but that didn’t stop it being a fun read - sort of the novel equivalent of the Best Marigold Hotel film.

It was interesting to read this, having watched four series of the television show that it inspired. You can recognise some of the characters and a few of the events depicted within, but for the most part this stands alone as a really good memoir of time inside the prison system.

Liked this album, it’s quite fun pop although it threw me off guard how very similar they sound to Duran Duran. Just ten songs, and none quite live up to the album opener of Take On Me, but that’s an impressive gauntlet to throw down. All good, though.

I have mixed feelings about Rihanna and this album does nothing to change that. Some of it is really good, intriguing pop with great vocals and some solid lyrics and songwriting. Others are way overproduced so that they only serve to distract from Rihanna’s talent rather than enhance it.

This is such a unique idea for a story, and one that really makes you ponder, from the start to the finish. It glosses over some slightly more important questions at the beginning - how did this woman give birth to a full size grown man, and what happened to her afterwards? How did they manage to keep it under wraps for so long?

This came recommended by good friend Lukeh, and as it has Paul Rudd AND Selena Gomez in it, I was on board immediately. It was a great recommendation as I loved the film. It took a little while to understand where it was coming from, not that it got off to a slow start, but just you’re not quite sure where it stands - is it a comedy, drama, how are you supposed to be feeling about these characters and what they’re going through?

It’s the first time in, perhaps forever, that I have stayed up until the midnight release date for a book, but I was so eager to see what happens in the next part of Harry Potter’s story, that I read the first act before finally admitting defeat and getting some sleep. The rest of it was read in just a few hours upon waking, and what a great story it is.

This one was unknown to me, but in the search for something mindless, fun and action-packed after a long work week, we opted for Arnold Schwarzenegger doing what he does best: muscles and unintentional comedy. I was expecting it to be pretty bad, and I can’t argue that it was some brilliant filmmaking, but I did actually really enjoy it. Arnie can’t act but that’s not why we watch him, and he used his ridiculous strength well in this one. The child wasn’t irritating, which helps, and I actually really liked the pilot woman who helped him out.

With his daughter all grown and gone to university, Chris is back with another book of stories from El Valero, the Spanish farm he lives on. There’s no chance of getting lonely, however, as there’s a constant stream of visitors coming in or adventures to be had outside, and we get to hear them all.

Rob Brydon’s autobiography is deliberately set in the period from birth to just as he broke through and become a household name. I admire that, considering the world of autobiographies can be about just spilling the beans on your rich and famous friends.

Interesting one this, a story about aliens farming humans for meat, and following the trails of one particular alien who has to trawl up and down the roads of Scotland in search of hitchhikers who won’t be noticed if they disappear.

I knew far more of this album than I’d anticipated, so plenty to sing along with. Great songwriting skills and lots of interesting instrumentation and sounds to keep each song alive and fascinating.

Wonderful album, soul with real heart, sultry movements and genuinely relaxing vibes. One of the tracks had just a bit too much repetition for me, but it’s a small complaint in a really good body of work.

I’d always wondered about this book but had never really been inclined to read it until the kerfuffle kicked up over the sequel/first draft that was published last year. With my interested piqued, I finally got round to reading it, and what a wonderful book it was. I understand the fuss now, I really do.