Nobel Prize winning Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa has long been interested in Latin American politics and history. His 1969 novel Conversations in the Cathedral explored the dictatorship in Peru in the 1950s and his 2000 novel The Feast of the Goat is about the assassination of Dominican strongman Rafael Trujillo. Which brings us all…
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is so much riotous fun – a zany hoot. The 36-year wait for the sequel to the beloved Beetlejuice has well and truly been worth it. Just seeing Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara “doing their thing” again is joyful. I relished the addition of Jenna Ortega as the third-generation member of…
I first came across Lauren Chater through her cookie-themed book reviews at The Well Read Cookie and started following her writing journey. I was mildly envious when she went on a research trip to Estonia, excited when I heard that her historical novel The Lace Weaver was accepted for publication, and thrilled when I received a copy for review….
What a special show: the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at its glorious best and four popular and talented singers in fine voice showcasing the incomparable Billy Joel. The sound is magnificent. The experience unforgettable. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s catalogue is remarkable. Thirty-three top 40 hits in the US. Record sales exceeding 160 million…
Twenty-five years ago Kazunori Yamauchi created the world’s most accurate car racing simulation game: Gran Turismo. He and his team had spent five years perfecting it. Video gamers quickly became obsessed. Then UK marketing executive for Nissan, Danny Moore had a crazy, but revolutionary idea. In Neill Blomkamp’s movie Gran Turismo, Moore (Orlando Bloom), convinces…
Slapstick humour characterises a little staged and decidedly different style of saints and sinners musical. Victorian Opera’s Happy End is set in America in 1919. The storyline sees the Salvation Army come face to face with gangsters. The hoodlums gather in Bill’s Beerhall, named after the man who strikes fear into others’ hearts. Bill Cracker (Adam Murphy) arrives…
If you’re a crime fiction fan, especially of the hard-edged variety, and you haven’t read anything by Tony Cavanaugh yet, let me suggest you rectify that quick-smart. I was introduced to Cavanaugh’s writing with The Train Rider last year, and while I found it “a disturbing read” with “violent, sickening crime”, it was still a cracker. His latest…
Family connections drive Tim Brown’s Australian-set drama Buckley’s Chance. Following the death of his beloved father, New York teen Ridley (Milan Burch) and his mother Gloria (Victoria Hill) travel across the world to spend time with the grandfather he has never known. Gloria hopes that the change of scenery and the new environment will help…
I was really curious about Slender Man. Not that I expected anything spectacular. But the photos with this cult figure, which popped up on the internet, were rather intriguing. Not really scary but mysterious. A faceless figure with disproportionate limbs who appears in the background while observing children playing. A kind of Pied Piper of…
Under the pseudonym Dr Seuss, Theodore Geisel wrote over 40 books. He’s one of the best-selling authors of children’s books ever. Many of them have provided material for the screen. But live action versions of Seuss’s tales are a bit of a mess, as demonstrated by the awful 2003 film The Cat in the Hat…
