As always, I’m far too old to read these Jacqueline Wilson books really, but I do so love them. This one tracks the unhappy Stella who has to go to summer camp whilst her mum heads off on honeymoon with Stella’s new stepdad. She doesn’t want to go, and is prepared not to enjoy herself, but of course, gradually, she sees there are good things about the camp - even if it is a bit of a dump!

I inadvertently read Chris Stewart’s other memoir - early reminiscing about life at sea - before finding this, the story that made him a writer. In Driving Over Lemons, we are firmly land-locked, with Chris heading from an albeit already eclectic life in the UK (drummer with Genesis, sailor, sheep-shearer) to a self-sufficient farmer in the heart of Spain.

I really enjoyed this book, a crime thriller set in a very small town where everyone knows everything about everyone else. I hate that kind of thing, but for a murder mystery, it makes for a brilliantly claustrophobic environment. The book tracks the hunt for the perpetrator of a heist, in which two security guards driving a money truck wind up dead.

This film solved all the problems that we had with Ex Machina, in that most (not all but a sizeable proportion) of Hollywood films about AI and robots involve them going rogue, taking over the planet, regardless of the human beings. Here, we had a robot actually saving the humans it interacted with, being for good rather than for evil.

Now I have an even greater understanding of what Austin Powers is all about. The volcano, the space stuff, the minions on their little buggies, and of course, Blofeld, everything was recognisable, but this time the original concept rather than the spoof. I loved it. Rather than in previous outings, where there have been bizarre directing decisions (sped up footage being the main culprit), this one was all believable, if somewhat Thunderbirds in places.

As with most kids films, I was glad this was relatively short, as it was utterly exhausting. Total fun and chaos from start to finish, it was endlessly entertaining. Jim Parsons was basically Sheldon but in actual alien form, and Rhianna appeared to be a kid version of herself - from Barbados, and providing all of the music (too much, to my mind).

I really enjoyed this - the story of a rogue ex-military man, somewhat like Jack Reacher, taking on terrorists in the midst of rural America. It took me a while to get used to the tone, very cold and clinical, and also to the switching between first and third person, but once I settled in, it was gripping.

An interesting little tale, one that covers the horror of a twin searching for his sibling in the hopes of spending more time together, whether it is in this life or the next. I felt it was a little bit clunky to start with, setting up each character in small town America style, and dragging out the fact that Kara and Marissa were the one and the same person, when that bit was quite clear from the start.

I really enjoyed this one. I said Goldfinger was the best Bond film of the series up to that point, and I think this one pipped it all over again. There was, perhaps, slightly too much diving, but it was a good story, and the plane stuff was great. I didn’t quite understand all the action at the clinic - it wasn’t clear why people were after Bond when they didn’t know who he was yet. And what happened to that guy in the steam machine - is he still there?

Honor Blackman was so awesome, a feisty pilot with judo skills, taking no nonsense from anyone - it seems completely ridiculous that a quick fumble in the hay with Bond (which was a little bit rapey, it has to be said), would change her mind to such a degree. He’s good, sure, but that good?

Totally brutal but brilliant. Alzehimer’s is such a tough disease and watching the gradual descent of anyone, let alone someone so young and so talented, was intensely hard to watch. It was also interesting to see how the family reacted, how the ‘wayward’ daughter was eventually the one that stepped up, how the situation with regards to hereditary diseases can throw a family into turmoil.

I really wasn’t looking forward to watching this one. I’d seen it panned by various critics and fans across the internet, and whilst I usually try to keep an open mind, it was hard after seeing the trailer and some of the reactions to the movie. However, it’s Mila and Channing, a great cast, and the Wachowskis, so maybe it was worth a shot?

A surprising hit, this one. I thought it was going to be another of those comedies that is trying too hard and misses the mark. It wasn’t perfect, but it was funny throughout and actually did make me care about the characters, which is all you can ask for really.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. On the good side, it was a unique idea, a new story and a new set of twisting plotlines, and it was well written to keep the pages turning without getting frustrated along the way. On the other hand, it was an uncomfortable read, abuse of illegal immigrants and patients under the care of a mental institution, leaving you feeling helpless and angry.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with Cake, knew that Jennifer had received commendations for her work on it, and that it was an indy film about chronic pain - that didn’t sound too riveting, but as always with this type of film, the genius is in the characters and the subtle moments of drama.

The good thing about this film is that it seemed new and unique, a fresh idea with what could have been interesting characters. The combination of ambitious family guy, hoping to retire guy, and sweet but simple guy was interesting but somehow they didn’t quite gel as I would have hoped.

This is the brief story of an English RAF pilot who is taken prisoner on a remote South Pacific island by the Japanese. He’s lucky enough to have a friendly captor, and makes something of a life for himself on the island, following the final moments of the second world war from the point of view of the Japanese.

At first glance, this one seems like it’ll be a bit of a low-budget sci-fi thriller but it actually stood up to the Film Watch test far better than I thought it would. The special effects were almost perfect, the location stunning (I HAVE to stay in that hotel at some point), and the high tech stuff completely believable. Domnhall was good, redeeming himself from the About Time nonsense, and although slow-paced, the film was never really boring.

The story is pretty simple but the film never gets boring. Even though there are moments where you’re just watching minutes of drumming, it’s still intense and worthwhile at every stage. I thought Miles and J K put in some fantastic work, all that sweating and shouting and bleeding. The obsessive nature of both was clear and portrayed really well, sometimes so that you felt sorry for them, and at other times despised them for their actions.

Another film that delves into the history of black and white America, Selma felt like a solid but unspectacular addition to the pile. There seem to have been a lot of films like this recently, and this one was certainly very good but it didn’t stand out particularly.

There’s a hundred words to describe this, artsy, indie, kookie, weird and wonderful, but really you just have to watch it to get the full impact. Poots tells the tale with an incredible accent that I spent the rest of the night imitating, and the footage flips between her current day narration and the Instagrammed story unfolding.

A comedian’s tale of one tour through England (and Ireland), ruminating on the differences and similarities of each stop and deciding what is to be made of national identity and stereotypes. There are some pretty hefty themes in the book, surprisingly, but they’re handled well, with great points that spark interest and are thought-provoking for future topics of conversation.

As a celebrity, Portia de Rossi’s battle with anorexia and bulimia was well documented by the paparazzi, but here you get to understand the real story behind her struggles with self-esteem, weight and diet, as well as coming to terms with her own sexuality. I’ve got mixed feelings about the book - it’s engrossing, I couldn’t put it down, and it’s intensely honest but is that to a fault?

Making up for everything bad about Blackhat, Focus was a fabulous fun ride. I love a good con film and this had all the right elements - clues dotted here and there to keep you guessing, and the big fantastic reveal in which you realise you got it all wrong.

It’s an interesting premise, this one, but it didn’t quite deliver on what could have been a great story. As the title suggests, there’s a serial killer on the loose - but the victims are all bad types who ‘deserve’ it. We follow the detective trying to figure out who’s behind it, as well as the security firm that he calls in to help crack the case.

Production values were shockingly bad. The overdubs were awful. In fact, there were bits of the subtitled Chinese conversations that were also dubbed but not well - as though we weren’t meant to notice because we should have been too busy reading.

However, the good stuff was great. Having seen the first, it was wonderful to catch up with old friends, Sonny’s infectious manner took over once more, and almost every line he came out with should have been on an inspirational poster. The hotel inspector situation was fun, if a little predictable, and Richard Gere and Tamsin Grieg made good additions to the cast. It was also fun to boo the pantomime villain of Nighy’s ex-wife, and watch the burgeoning relationship with Celia Imrie and her driver.

The second of the James Bond films clearly had a higher production value than the first, and it felt like it weaved the story better - but unfortunately the story wasn’t as strong as its predecessor. The twists and turns of who is on which side weren’t as interesting as they could have been, but there was far too much opening and closing of doors on the train.

I was worried about this one, because for reasons I haven’t quite got to the bottom of, some military films I can watch and some I just can’t. This got off to a seriously slow start, to the point where they clearly thought we had all day, but it gradually got interesting, if going a bit too Hollywood in places.

Following the investigation of a serial killer who is tracking down prostitutes and trying to save their souls, this story takes the slightly different tack of an outsiders point of view, rather than the detective. This time, we’re coming at it from a therapist’s angle and that gives it a slightly fresher take on the traditional crime thriller.

I like reading about people upping sticks and moving to a new country for a fresh take on life, but this one had the balance of the new French abode being a summer home rather than a full time lodging. Visits at least twice a year describe how the rickety old house is gradually whipped into shape, and how the family and their many visitors fall in love with the place - and the surrounding villagers as well.

To celebrate some exam success this week, I was whisked off to the Apple store to purchase some Beats goodies - bluetooth in-ear headphones, and their mini portable speaker, the Beats Pill. Both are a lot of fun, however it was an impromptu off-the-shelf purchase that has turned out to be the real revelation. I’m always keen on gadgets that make photography more accessible. In this day and age of leaving the house with powerful photographic equipment tucked in your pocket, adding peripherals can make things even better. One of my key criteria though, is that they shouldn’t make you and your camera any less portable.

I quite enjoyed Dawn French’s first book about a family working through some drama, told from various points of view and in very different voices. Oh Dear Silvia takes a similar form - each chapter from the point of view of a different character - but the story is vastly different. Anchored around the hospital bedside of Silvia, who is in a coma after falling from a balcony, the characters talk to her, tell their tales, and gradually the story comes together.

Most of the reviews I saw of this were less than positive but it has such a good cast I couldn’t resist giving it a peek. Really shouldn’t have bothered. Not sure how so many awesome people can make something that is so dull and unfunny.

I can’t say that I particularly wanted to watch this one, and was pretty conflicted right up until we pressed play. When everything was kicking off between Sony and their hackers, I sort of fell on the side of those thinking it was unwise to make a film about a current world leader who is unpredictable at best.

Everything about this adventure sounds terrifying - canoeing from the source of the Congo river in Zambia, through to where it meets the Atlantic Ocean in the DR of Congo, through hippo and crocodile infested waters, passing by villages where white faces are understandably treated with suspicion but also with a gun, and generally surviving on rice and fish.

I can’t think that I would have read this if it wasn’t for the film, and oddly I’m glad that I saw the movie first. It really helped to have images of the characters in my mind already, as I think I would have struggled to place them otherwise. But as I did have that image, it was an enjoyable read.

I wasn’t particularly bothered about reading this one until I saw the trailer for the film and thought I should probably read the source text before indulging in the big screen version. I’m not sure it was the best decision as the book didn’t sell the story to me at all.

Taken is a film series we have something of a love/hate relationship with. Many people make fun of the first film, but I really loved it. Kick-ass action, and those particular set of skills which really set Liam Neeson off in a new direction. The trouble being, of course, that since then he’s done barely anything but have those skills and it’s not really bringing about anything new.

Having completed the X-men trilogy, there wasn’t really a need to squeeze this film in before starting on the reboot trilogy, but somehow we still wanted to watch everything in the order it came out. So, it was to Wolverine’s back-story that we went, and I quite liked it. I know that Hugh Jackman has said he wasn’t really a big fan of how this one turned out, and I can see that if he was hoping it would be totes emosh then it didn’t quite hit the spot… but for an X-men movie, I thought it was exactly right.

I was surprised with how much I enjoyed this one, although it had bonus John Goodman in it, so it was bound to be a hit. Marky Mark was great, I can’t say I related to his gambling side, given that I wouldn’t bet more than a tenner on anything, and his teacher side was downright terrifying. Somehow I still liked him though and wanted him to succeed.

It took me a while to get into this one, I couldn’t quite figure out why we were following a detective that had all but solved his case, alongside a woman bitter about the sexism in her office. It was a slow start but once things came to a head and our hero Jane Tennison took over the investigation, it was far more interesting.

This book accompanies the TV series of the same name, with Karl Pilkington discovering the highs and lows of what makes people happy, why they do certain jobs, and how various cultures deal with death. I haven’t actually seen the TV show, and only picked up the book as it was in a sale, but I have previously enjoyed the Ricky Gervais podcast with Pilkington’s wry look at life, so thought it would be interesting.

When I could concentrate long enough to watch the film, I really liked it. The audacity of Frank and how ridiculously easy it was for him to get away with his tricks - it’s that age old thing of just having the confidence so that everyone else believes you too.

From the trailer, I thought this was a fun little film, very much like Kick-Ass except for spies, but I hadn’t anticipated the great story and the self-awareness that made it what it was. Packed full with a fantastic cast, some great cameos, and plenty of little inside jokes and secrets, it grabs you right from the start and pulls you in.

I knew I was going to love this film, having watched the trailer a gazillion times and giggled to myself at the big, puffy, Michelin-man style Baymax trying to squeeze through a gap far too small for him. I’m glad I wasn’t disappointed, as there’s always the possibility that kids films don’t work for adults too - thankfully, this was brilliant.

This is the story of a former technology security officer who is called back from a yoga retreat in the Bahamas to investigate the potential undoing of a young startup company about to undergo its IPO. There are a lot of technical parts to this story that make it quite unwieldy and difficult to follow in places. There’s also a bit of a mismatch between which parts are explained and which aren’t.

As a film to watch after some pretty serious endeavours recently, this was perfect. Teen movie, girls being bitchy to each other, some great one liners and jokes, and generally a lot of fun to be had. It’s not perfect, but you can see why it has the same cult status as Clueless - a film of a very similar nature.

This book in the 87th Precinct series raised the stakes a little. Rather than one murderer or a single crime to solve, this one was a series of connected incidents that were leading towards a huge plot to rob a bank. Seeing the cops struggle to connect the dots was both frustrating but also intriguing - would they get there in time?

I put this one off a little, knowing that it was going to pull at the heart-strings, but it couldn’t be denied forever. And of course it did, I cried for about twenty minutes - although oddly my tears came halfway through rather than at the end. Whereas this was clearly a love story about Jane and Stephen (based on her book, it kinda had to be), I was more interested in the biopic side. Thus the scenes where you can see him fighting but having to come to terms with his diagnosis, and his limits, that’s what got me.