Television Television

 Sporadic TV update time!

1) Weekly Wipe is currently on, cynicism yay! (presume everyone's seen this now, but in case not - www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/feb/10/nathan-barley-charlie-brooker-east-london-comedy)

2) Musketeers has been great so far this series, Marc Warren (ugh) notwithstanding. I only got round to watching last week's (2x05) last night, and I enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than I expected to (based on comments people had made and spoilers I hadn't managed to avoid). Everyone is still incredibly attractive, damn them all. 

3) Call the Midwife has been amazing this series, but also pretty fucking upsetting, frankly. However Patsy is AMAZING and I love her. 

4) I am really enjoying Catastrophe - Sharon Horgan is brilliant in sitcoms and I really love her writing on this one. I adore the relationship between Sharon and Rob in this show (for anyone who's not heard of it, Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney play a couple who meet in London, have a lot of sex, and then decide to make a go of it when Sharon gets pregnant) and it s hilarious. It's all on 4oD if you want to give it a go.

5) The Last Leg is currently on Channel 4 and is as funny as always, although it is still suuuuuper dude heavy which is disappointing (so far this series the only female guest has been Kathy Burke, which was great, and apparently Sarah Millican is going to be on next week). 

6) I have finally got Sky Go sorted out (thank you parents!) and have watched the first 3 episodes of Fortitude which I have really enjoyed so far. I loooooove the atmosphere and the setting and the occasional hints that it might turn into The Thing (it won't, I know this). Everyone is a little bit dodgy so far. 

7) Also on the Sky Go theme, I can now watch Psychobitches properly instead of just the clips on Youtube \o/ oh, the Brontes are the best.

8) Up the Women has also been great this series (second Rebecca Front thing on this list), and I have just remembered that I need to dl some more episodes!

9) Spiral series 5 was fantastic. Gilou and Laure's relationship is the best thing on television - I could watch them forever. Everyone was super attractive and super screwed up this series, but the actual plot was really exciting too. 

I think that's it, though there's a 90% chance I'll come back to edit this entry later when I think of something else I've watched recently. 

Books books books

 I decided a while ago that I would start putting up short reviews of all the books I read, partly so I could actually remember them. I decided to start from the beginning of 2015 and have been piling books up on the sofa for the last six weeks, well done me. 

So, in no particular order:

Gentlemen of the Road - Michael Chabon I really liked this book about two Jewish adventurers who get involved in a rebellion - it was written in a very engaging style, it was funny and I like the adventuring of the main characters. It was pretty short, which was a shame - I could happily have spent more time with the characters. Very Musketeers-y (shut up, that is totally a word). 

Dream London - Tony Ballantyne I made it a grand total of one chapter into this book. It was London-based urban fantasy, which is basically my very favourite genre, but it was so bad. The main character referred to himself in the third person, loads of women want to shag him and men want to be like him, everyone spoke in a weird pseudo-Victorian style for no reason I could see, apart from the main character's ex women were mentioned as whores. Somehow I carried on after that (shouldn't have done) and then a really weird gay character turned up who was an incredibly camp cliche who for some reason kept speaking in alliteration.  Oh and he wanted to shag the main character, of course. 

I have no idea what the London part of the plot was, save that London is changing in some mysterious way. It wasn't well set up and I couldn't dredge up any interest in ploughing on through the stereotypes and the Gary Stu. 

Alex + Ada Volume 1 - Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn This was a graphic novel I really liked. Alex is lonely in the future and his grandmother buys him an android, and the story develops from there. I read the Luna Brothers' Girls years ago and really liked the art style, and this is the same kind of thing. I loved the atmosphere and world building of this and definitely want to keep going with the series.

Room - Emma Donoughue This is our latest book club choice, and it was the one book on the list I didn't want to read, but the popular vote decided it, so I got it out of the library and DAMN it is readable. I mean, DAMN. The main character lives with her son in one room, where they're being kept by the man who kidnapped her seven years ago. It's pretty upsetting - not least because there are multiple cases of this situation in the real world - but the mother character is really strong. I think I got through the book in about two hours. And I could tell I was being emotionally manipulated but I almost didn't care (almost). I don't know, I really liked this book, heartwrenching as it is. Looking forward to the book club!

A Child's Book Of True Crime - Chloe Hooper I have forgotten how this book - about a teacher having an affair with one of her pupils' fathers - ends. I seem to remember losing sympathy for pretty much everyone involved over the course of the book, including minor characters. There was a device of a book within a book, a reimagining of a local murder told for children that didn't quite work (even within book world it wasn't a real book, and this is getting confusing), and I just don't think anyone was as interesting as the author thought they were. 

The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood This book is a brick and I do most of my reading in the bath these days so this took me an absolute age to get through. I enjoyed the story of the Chase sisters but I'm not sure my interest stayed consistent all the way through. It was very well done, and I loved the newspaper articles and the way that the perception of the girls' lives were shown versus the reality.