Some of our favourite reads from last year...

      The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

Last of the trilogy and one of my most eagerly awaited books of my life, when I said to people I was reading a book about vampires, witches and daemons nobody believed me as I love my crime books so much. This trilogy is a must for anyone who loves a great love story, it touched my greatly, the books are not for the faint hearted, each offering is the size of a garden shed but so well worth the read.

Click to reserve The Book Of Life by Deborah Harkness

Before I go to Sleep by S. J. Watson

I enjoyed this read so much and the thing I liked best was that it made me think about that situation every time I put it down, there were brilliant characters, a fantastic plot and best of all, a terrific twist. A great read, I haven’t watched the film, truthfully I don’t think I would but I recommend the book for sure.

Click to reserve Before I go to Sleep by S J Watson or Before I go to Sleep audiobook

Blood Magick by Nora Roberts

Again a last part of a trilogy I really enjoyed and eagerly awaited the last part of this year. This series is like all Nora’s books, it has beautiful women, jaw-droppingly handsome men and they’re all lovely. This works for me and I looked forward to the book as these stories wrap around me like a cashmere blanket on a cold winters day. Wonderful.

Click to reserve Blood Magick by Nora Roberts

Plus a DVD...

Batman: The Dark Knight Rises (DVD)

Not much I can say against the caped crusader, I loved the Christian Bale Batman films, I thought Bane was one of the best baddies ever although it was a hard decision between him and Heath Ledgers Joker. Not a current film but I finally got round to watching it and I’m really happy I did.

Click here to reserve The Dark Knight Rises

Avengers Assemble, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises

I have to say that I was beginning to think that you could have too many comic-book hero films until I saw three films in recent months all of which blew me away in their own quite different way - Avengers Assemble, The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spiderman.

I loved the first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man films and thought they had probably taken it about as far as it was possible to go (witness film 3!). Not true - this is absolutely brilliant - a fantastic story-line with just the right amount of action without going too far down the road of over-relying on CGI rather than plot. Importantly to me young British actor Andrew Garfield plays Spidey this time (I thought he was amazing in Red Riding) and I do like a proper actor playing my super-heroes!!

Robert Downey Jr is enough to make me try most films but I didn't really have massive hopes for the Avengers Assemble film and I just put it on one Saturday evening when really I was too tired to watch a film and wanted to watch something that I didn't care if I fell asleep while watching it. I know, I know - what an interesting and dynamic Saturday night-life I must have! Ignoring that thought I have to say that again this was fantastic - quite a bit more comedy than Spider-Man or Batman but oh my god the action!

The main criticism I'd heard about this was that you couldn't tell what the main villain Bane was saying due to his Hannibal Lector style face mask but I really don't understand that - I could understand him just fine (again a young British actor giving gravitas to a role - this time, Tom Hardy beefed up just like in Bronson). This is a very long film (160 mins) but it flew by. I just love how dark and grim these films are - far more my thing than the camp sixties TV show or indeed the Tim Burton versions although Batman Returns was pretty cool at the time. A fitting end to the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy although for me nothing could beat the The Dark Knight but I did see that at the cinema and it's difficult to follow that Heath Ledger performance as The Joker!