A man spends a romantic evening with a beautiful woman, and thinks: “I’ll grab my binoculars and go into protective mode.” She thinks he’s Cape Fear and gets a restraining order.
Or does she?!
Books
Queen Bee by Jane Fallon – another relatable heroine
BooksSingle mum Laura is recently divorced. Faced with the reality of London house-hunting, she’s renting a granny flat as a stop gap. Her new, temporary digs happen to be in The Close, an exclusive development of McMansions.
Sadie by Courtney Summers review
BooksFollowing the murder of her 13-year-old sister Mattie, Sadie Hunter, 19, vanishes from their Colorado trailer park. Although radio star West McCray questions whether there’s a story in yet another runaway, he’s persuaded to follow the missing girl’s trail by her surrogate grandmother, May Beth.
When to abandon a book?! Top Ten Tuesday
BooksWhaddya mean it’s Wednesday?!
I rarely give up on a book, so it’s been a challenge to come up with a post for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday. I’ve included books I ducked out of before committing, plus those I should have ditched! Just in case you don’t already know, TTT was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010, then moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018.
The latest cinema releases I watched this Christmas
FilmAs it’s a new year, Slow to the Party would like to swiftly wish everyone a Happy 2020!
The weather is depressing, but I’ve bravely left the safety of my bed to catch up with the sorta-latest flicks! Here are my smallish reviews. I’m not calling ’em mini reviews anymore.
Halloween book & movie mash
BooksAt Halloween, a lot of bloggers do horror-themed posts. I’ve always avoided the genre, but something has changed lately, after I binge-watched three seasons of American Horror Story without flinching!
Now that I’m living my best, devil-may-care life, here are the scariest books and films I’ve…encountered recently.
Hollywood vs history: Mary Queen of Scots review
FilmThe CW’s Mary Queen of Scots soap opera Reign took an axe to historical accuracy. Yet beneath the fashion and fantasy, the vital beats were there; Adelaide Kane’s Mary married the Dauphin of France, before returning to a turbulent Scotland as a teen widow.
The top ten books that shaped my childhood
BooksIt’s Top Ten Tuesday again – it happens every week! Today, it’s Childhood Favourites. Here are mine:
Book reviews Sally Rooney – NORMAL PEOPLE are overrated
BooksYou’re in so much pain you pass out. Before you collapse, you’re pondering your unearned cultural privilege and reductive iteration of gender theory. Meet Frances: communist, poet, and narrator of Sally Rooney’s coming-of-age debut set in post-crash Dublin.
Adapt this – top ten books that should be filmed
BooksThis is my first ever Top Ten Tuesday, a book blog meme created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010, moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. “Page to Screen” is this week’s topic. This is a list of books I’ve read, off the top of my head, that I’d like to see adapted/re-adapted, or are being adapted, etc…
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald review
FilmYou’d imagine J.K. Rowling had earned enough goodwill that people might give her the benefit of the doubt. Yet even before the Fantastic Beasts sequel started filming, there was controversy over her support for tabloid-stricken star Johnny Depp, prompting director David Yates to release a statement via his agents Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs…
The Aftermath – book vs Hollywood film review
Books, FilmIt’s “Stunde Null” – zero hour – for a defeated Germany following WWII. Sadly for audiences of The Aftermath, time stands still.
Red Sparrow book vs movie review
FilmJennifer Lawrence stars in this grisly thriller as Dominika, a Bolshoi prima ballerina whose dance career is kiboshed when her clumsy partner (Sergei Polunin from Orient Express) delivers a gruesome, bone-shattering injury during a live performance.
Something in the Water, future movie, Reese Witherspoon
BooksWhile scuba diving on your dream honeymoon, you discover something sinister. Do you a) report it to the authorities b) speed away and pretend it didn’t happen, or c) get in way over your head?
Ma’am Darling by Craig Brown – Picasso wanted to marry Princess Margaret
BooksThe Shoebill is a prehistoric-looking bird that exists in the marshes of East Africa. Scientists know that these intensely private creatures rarely raise more than one chick; a second is insurance in case the older one doesn’t make it.
Netflix 13 Reasons Why – book vs show
Books, TV & NetflixRecently, I read “You Think It, I’ll Say It.” It’s a new book of short fiction by Curtis Sittenfeld, an author whose work often features adult women still seething at the injustices of high school.
Fantastic Beasts: the five crimes of Grindelwald
FilmOne of the great mysteries of the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, was how a movie that gained rave reviews, crossed the $800 million milestone, and gained an ‘A’ CinemaScore came to be considered ‘lacklustre’.
Murder on the Orient Express review – 2017 millennial version
Film“Not another remake!” is a familiar online cry normally accompanied by declarations that Hollywood has run out of ideas.
From page to screen: coming to cinemas soon?
BooksEarlier this year I read Lion, the true story of a little boy who survives the streets of Kolkata before being adopted by an Australian family. Years later, he tracks down his mother in rural India using Google Earth. It became a hit movie, which inspired me to get cracking with more novels destined to reach our screens!
The Girls by Emma Cline review – woozy coming-of-age debut
BooksThe Girls was one of the biggest, most hyped books of 2016. Debut author Emma Cline’s manuscript sparked a bidding war and was optioned by a powerful Hollywood producer before it even reached shelves.