A recent episode of Note to Self highlighted a really interesting concept that they’re unfortunately calling the ‘Lonely Web.’ The idea is that for all the popular social media posts that get hundreds of views every day, there are those that don’t get any visits at all. It’s an interesting listen, if a little hamfisted at times - you sort of get the feeling that it’s not a huge issue, particularly as not everyone is out there to be famous, and there’s an awkward moment at the beginning where Manoush only just manages to remember there’s a world outside of America. Nevertheless, it’s a thought-provoking podcast with great production values.

A new trailer for the third installment of the Star Trek reboot was released recently and it looks quite a lot like the previous two! This time, however, it’s co-written by Simon Pegg and directed by Justin Lin, who played a big part in getting me hooked on the Fast and Furious franchise (something I’m still not totally over!)

This was an interesting concept for a story - a girl narrowly escapes being the victim of a serial killer and spends some time trying to rebuild her life, only to find that he’s still after her. It has all the elements that should make a thrilling read, but I have to say, the actual murderer didn’t quite have me convinced.

It’s not every day you open up the app store on your phone to discover that Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has released an alarm clock app to help you wake up and set your goals. Turns out that was a really good day. The Rock Clock does exactly what it says on the tin, it’s an alarm clock which pushes you to reach a specific goal (ie. wake up early, or write that screenplay), and the alarm sounds feature the Rock’s beautiful voice giving encouragement.

A short novella in the Jessica Daniel series, this story brings back the side character who has appeared only occasionally in the main novels - Hugo the magician. I feel like the author enjoys this character far more than I do, but with that aside, it is always interesting to see how the aspects of magic relate to crime - ie. deception, distraction, and all that goes with the art of sleight of hand.

I properly loved this album, so much that I listened to it twice straight through, and was then humming Fast Car for the rest of the week. Brilliant, lyrical, moving. I love it, although it did open my eyes to why some people aren’t such fans of Boyzone. Oof.

I liked this far more than I expected. It was the perfect mix of pop and RnB – a lot of it reminded me of the RnB from the 90s, which is my era of music. I also really enjoyed the bonus Macy Gray!

I really love this music video for Sweet Lovin’ by Sigala. The song itself is your standard dance number, but the video takes it a step further with roller skates that issue smoke from the back. I want some! What is really fab about the whole thing is when more skaters join the fun towards the end of the video, creating a sort of roller skating version of the Red Arrows. This must have been a lot of fun to film.

I’ve read this before, a long time ago, and it was interesting dipping into it again. I remembered it as I do so many of Harris’ books - full of warmth and sumptuous descriptions, moving passages with vivid images, and of course, plenty of food. What I hadn’t quite expected, and this is foolish, of course, is just how much chocolate there is.

I’ve had to skip a few of the 87th Precinct series because the books aren’t available in a Kindle version, but that’s not too much of an issue as time moves slowly in these novels. All the main characters are there, but most are only referenced as this one revolves around Carella and Meyer dealing with a particularly tricky case.

The second book of an epic Follett trilogy, Winter of the World encompasses the build up and events of World War Two plus the horrifying end and aftermath of the fighting. I feel like this book didn’t quite have the same impact as the first, but that was mostly down to how much ground it had to cover.

This entry in the Jessica Daniel series is slightly different from the others which makes it a refreshing break from the slightly more formulaic crime series drama. Jess is dealing with a lot of emotions and working through grief from several different traumas, and uses her situation to infiltrate a cult and find out what sinister secrets they have.

Good album, great guitars and interesting lyrics. Confident I was missing important song meanings but I liked it anyway. Only concern is the singles stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Some good bits here and there, very well produced, but ultimately I just found it quite boring. It was a slog to get through it a second time.

I’ve been vaguely aware of Kurt Wallander’s morose tales, seen promotional shots of the TV show but never actually read or watched anything yet. I quite enjoyed the story, if you can enjoy such a horrific crime being investigated by such a depressing character.

One of Ken Follett’s epic sprawling saga’s begins with many different characters and families dealing with the descent into the First World War, the horrifying action itself, and the beginnings of the aftermath. I really enjoyed the soap opera style drama, who is in love with who, and how they twist in and out of each other’s lives.

Really enjoyed this album, so very indulgently eighties. Fine balance between guitar rock and country music, but great songs, catchy melodies, and some anthems you can roar.

An odd album, with a hugely eclectic mix of songs from pure R&B Destiny’s Child style to the more lilting Hawaiian guitar ballad. Quite fun, and lots of positive messages, but there’s no flow making it a jarring and jittery experience.

I know of this for being an important and influential work but I never had to read it at school and so it sort of passed me by. Having now read it, I can see why it’s gained such status, but I can’t say I particularly enjoyed reading it. It’s such a sad story, a depressing start to life followed by an even worse adulthood!

We haven’t really been in the mood for films recently, but after a long day it was time for something a little mindless and a lot funny. That perfectly describes this film, it really doesn’t take much brainpower to keep up, it’s not particularly long, and it’s not particularly clever. But in places, it is extremely funny.

The second memoir from Michael J Fox focuses on his post-acting career and his efforts to create and sustain a foundation hunting for a cure for the Parkinson’s disease that afflicts him. I found this book marginally less interesting than the first, because politics and political wranglings are not my cup of tea, but it was still fascinating to read just how much work goes into something like running your own foundation.

Incredible voice, relaxed sound with important messages. Slightly odd transitions between songs, but otherwise a really nice listen.

Just as with Coldplay’s album, this one was a lot more positive than previous editions – but thankfully it wasn’t over the top with cheeriness. I have loved Travis in the past so it was lovely to hear them again.

Having accidentally read the second book in this series before the first, I was keen to see where it all began. It only took a few minutes for the characters to come flooding back, although the situation was quite different in this first outing. Naturally, they are coming together, getting to know each other, having their first adventure, and it’s fascinating to see how it began.

Love this. I’ve always had a soft spot for Chrissie Hynde, probably starting when she appeared on Friends. Really good album, bouncy and foot-tapping rock with fabulous vocals.

Just beautiful, with that lovely Nordic sweeping feel to things. You can just picture the music over a beautiful fjord or Icelandic landscape scene. Great as background music or for weekend relaxation.

I pick and choose my way through Desert Island Discs, but the wonderful thing about it is the timeless nature of all the interviews. The BBC have made the full archive available indefinitely, so you can listen to anyone at any time. I subscribe to the podcast, but often don’t get around to listening until well after the interviews have been aired. I just recently listened to Dame Judi Dench’s show, and fell even more in love with her than I already was. Rather than joyously recounting stories for each of the brilliant songs on the list, Dame Judi gradually comes to the realisation that all her songs are actually quite depressing. It’s really fun to hear, as each track passes by, Judi’s reaction that she maybe should have taken a look at the eight songs as a whole.

It feels like a short album, just nine songs, but every single one is perfect. The BFF relationship with Paul McCartney boggles my mind a bit, but Thriller makes up for everyone and everything. Could be one of the best songs ever, I reckon.

It felt like an incredibly long wait, but finally, a couple of weeks ago, I got to see the new Star Wars film. Actually, it emerged onto my chosen digital media platform about four months after it graced the cinema screens, so whilst it felt like the anticipation went on forever, that window is thankfully getting smaller. I managed to avoid all but the most obvious spoilers - and for the most part they were things that only made sense after you’d seen the film anyway. (There are no spoilers in this post, btw.)

Really good album, even better on the second time around. Bit over the top in terms of adult content in places, it does feel like she’s still trying to shed the Disney image. But otherwise good, catchy, upbeat and modern songs.

I didn’t actually watch the TV show that is associated with this book, but I do like Lucy Worsley so dipped into this on a cold, rainy day. That’s fitting for the genre, as this non-fiction piece charts how the great British public became hooked on murder mysteries, found detective stories impossible to put down and eventually turned to the TV to fill our whodunit needs.

It feels like forever we’ve been waiting for this to be released in iTunes. After vaguely pondering the idea of going to the cinema to see it to avoid spoilers, we somehow managed to avoid anything remotely like a spoiler. I saw a couple of things here and there but until you’ve seen the film they don’t really mean anything. So, thankfully, went into this fresh and oh so excited.

Brilliant rock tunes, catchy, sing-a-long greatness with some heart-wrenching moments in there too – I can totally see why it was made into a musical. The structure of the album confuses me though, with some songs back to back on a single track.

Better on the second listen, the first couple of songs are great, but the rest doesn’t feel quite so strong. I like that they experiment and don’t just go for middle of the road tunes, but they don’t all work – oof, Ratchet Behaviour.

I knew I wanted to watch this one, it’s Tom Hanks after all, but I had forgotten the trailer and didn’t really know what it was about. None of that mattered because the story grabs you with a simple start, and draws you along as things get more and more complex until the dramatic conclusion.

I enjoyed this story, although it felt like a pretty unusual and somewhat unrealistic situation to start with. Fragile traumatised girl goes to stay with random stranger in the countryside to keep safe? Does that happen? I don’t know but anyway, it set up what was an interesting and almost always threatening story.

Totally forgot about this album, I love it so much, every song is a classic for me. Shania is my original pop country princess – only trouble is I have to be careful where I listen as it’s impossible not to sing along!

Great start to this album, it sounds just as you hope a Pet Shop Boys album is going to be. The middle didn’t thrill me so much, it all seemed to get a bit maudlin and overly familiar. Overall listenable, but not one to add to their classic collection.

This is the second book in a trilogy, chronicling the move out to Spain of former Genesis musician Chris Stewart. It was nice to catch up with Chris and El Valero again, find out more about how things are ticking along in Spain. It was also fun to read about how the success of the first book made things slightly different at home.

This is more the Gwen I know and love. Gloriously irritating, who else could get away with chanting random fruit spellings at you? An eclectic mix of R&B and electric pop with oddities and intricacies to make each listen add something new.

Enjoyed this far more than I thought I would. I like a couple of their songs but wasn’t sure my enjoyment would stretch to a full album. Good, interesting melodies with some fun rhythms – perhaps not groundbreaking but certainly fun to listen to.

I wasn’t expecting to like this one, it’s been rushed to on-demand release and the reviews are awful. I’m not sure we would have watched it if it didn’t have Anna Kendrick in it, but we gave it a go. And actually, I thought it was great! A sweet story of early relationships, figuring out how to be a grown-up which is something I’m still doing! It was quite inspiring - find what you’re good at and do it, or keep looking until you find it.

Whenever I mention one of those counter-top grill type machines, I always say “It’s so good I put my name on it,” because, you know, George Foreman. I don’t really know who George Foreman is but that’s the kind of advertising that really sticks because it’s a catchy line and it was a new idea. I realised, watching quite a lot of TV over the past few sickly days, that you couldn’t get away with this any more. Celebrities are endorsing products left, right and centre, and whilst they might not have actually branded their names right into the goods themselves, they’ve all but sold out in every other way.

I quite enjoy the BBC’s seasons, where they focus in on one particular subject across a majority of their platforms. But the latest one, called Sitcom Season, has me scratching my head. I love a good sitcom, new or old, but part of these plans involve bringing back a whole host of classic comedies and revitalising them for the new generation. For example: “Porridge, the classic prison sitcom, returns nearly 40 years after Norman Stanley Fletcher served his time. The legendary Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who created the 1970s series, will write the one-off special episode, which sees Fletch’s grandson, also known as Fletch, imprisoned for a series of cyber-crimes.”

This is such a lovely film. Simple, heartfelt and heavily character based, it really rolls along nicely. It’s surprising, really, that Robert de Niro’s character doesn’t have much to say other than ‘yes m’am, no m’am’ but he can make such a difference to everyone’s lives.

I haven’t really used iTunes for its intended purpose in a long time. It’s very handy for adding id3 tags to things and it’s a nice way of perusing the store for all its many digital wonders, but in terms of syncing devices and storing my stuff, the iCloud has been far more useful. One of the problems with this strategy, however, is that it meant I couldn’t get my hands on any audiobooks that I’d bought from the iTunes store. Up until now, they have been locked away on the desktop, with no means of getting them onto a phone or other device without using a cable. Whereas with most items, you can look through the iTunes store and see whether you already own it thanks to that little “cloud with an arrow” symbol, audiobooks had no such luxury.

I remember not being particularly enthralled by the third and final book of this series, but it was nowhere near as bad as this mess of a film. The love triangle that I have struggled with up till now just completely disintegrated, I couldn’t see a shred of chemistry between any of the main leads - it was down to Effy and Haymitch to provide the compassion I was looking for!

Zootopia looks like one of those films that is going to be almost unbearably cute. A world of animals of all shapes and sizes, all getting along? Hello! More than anything though, the films many trailers have opened my eyes to the world of sloths - who knew these creatures were so adorable? The way his face lights up at the joke… so… slowly. It’s amazing.

Some really brilliant songs at the start of this album, but it tails off to real downbeat ending. Whereas the ladies are kick-ass at the beginning, they are all loved up and slightly pathetic by the end. And I could barely get through the self-indulgent thank you track at the end.

A good album, listenable and so very Gwen Stefani, but I must admit none of it particularly stood out for me. There’s some great echoes of Madonna, Taylor and maybe even some Selena Gomez which makes it funky and fun but I couldn’t pick a song to recommend.