I have some questions for you, by Rebecca Makkai

Almost 25 years after graduating, film academic and podcaster Bodie Kane has returned to her East Coast boarding school Granby. With her troubled and tragic background in Indiana , she was a misfit at the preppy school but used it as a step to a better life. Ostensibly there to teach a couple of short courses, Bodie finds herself digging into a tragedy that happened in her Senior year. A student was murdered, but was the right man convicted? The ‘you’ Bodie has questions for is a former teacher, whom she has come to realise had an inappropriate relationship with the dead girl. This second person narrative is an odd device, which jars at times but becomes clearer as the book concludes. While stirring up a hornet’s nest at the school Bodie also has to deal with dramas that affect her failed marriage, current ambiguous relationship and her work. It turns out she needs to reassess a lot of what she thought she understood about her time and her peers at Granby. There is a lot going on in this book, which weaves together a twisty whodunnit with themes of memory and loss, true crime podcasting as entertainment and alternative policing and the frustration of trying to achieve justice. Throughout the whole is a thrumming anger at the constant and seemingly acceptable levels of violence against women that permeates the whole of society. Bodie is a deeply flawed and compelling everywoman, who has some very important questions for everyone, including herself.

Asteroid City (2023), directed by Wes Craven

A movie within a play within a TV show, it tells the story of a playwright, his play and some of the players. A crater where an asteroid hit the earth millennia ago is a minor tourist attraction for a tiny desert town. In 1955 it is hosting a junior space camp for young science achievers, which is interrupted by a strange visitation that traps all visitors in a military quarantine. The story within a story contains teen romance, troubled parent-child relationships and alien visitation within its typically Anderson absurdism. Mildly amusing, dialogue-heavy, with rapid and sometimes clever wordplay, the film is completely bonkers but quite entertaining. Tom Hanks, Scarlet Johansen, Steve Carell, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton and Adrien Brody are just a few of the stellar ensemble cast, with Margot Robbie and Jeff Goldblum featuring in cameos. The film references both Roswell and Nevada nuclear testing in a manner that sends up the public – and Hollywood - obsession with them. Chuckleworthy rather than laugh out loud, the wordiness wears and the quirky is in overdrive in a movie that is visually sumptuous but pretty forgettable.

Winter’s Gifts, by Ben Aaronovitch

A lake is the only body of water in this latest Rivers of London tale, which moves away from Europe to the US and Peter Grant’s FBI contact. Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds is called to the wilds of Wisconsin by a report of ‘unusual activity’ from a former agent. She finds an extreme weather event has destroyed selected parts of the town and her informant is missing. A terrible force has awakened that is linked to historic events and threatens death and destruction unless Kimberly can find a way to stop it. She needs to identify who is an ally and who is an enemy, including the local indigenous spirits. Aaronovitch’s blend of horror, humour and romance transfer well to North America, tapping in to Indian culture for the supernatural elements of this short, sharp tale. It's good to find out more about Kimberley and interesting to see how a big C Christian deals with magic. But she’s not Peter, so hopefully future stories will return to the UK.

The Bookbinder of Jericho, by Pip Williams

A companion tale to the Dictionary of Lost Words, set in the same world but a little later, this story again focuses on the frustrations of smart women denied opportunities. Peggy and her twin Maud live on a riverboat in the Oxford district of Jericho and work in the bookbinding section of Oxford University Press. Peggy is hungry for books and all they offer but feels she must look out for her sister, who is neurodivergent and potentially vulnerable. The outbreak of WWI sees new possibilities for both sisters as refugees and soldiers flood the town. But will Peggy have the courage to pursue her ambitions and can she allow her sister the independence she needs to grow? The novel provides an interesting picture of the home front of WWI from the perspective of working class women. Williams has clearly done the research and unfortunately overshares the results in places, where the intricate technicalities of bookbinding can drag on. But it is enjoyable to follow Peggy and Maude strive to overcome the obstacles of class and gender and make some devastating choices between heart and head.

Happy Valley season 3, BBC

Halifax police sergeant Catherine Cawood is seven months from retirement when this final season opens, with plans for travel. Six years after season 2, her grandson Ryan is now 16 and has some anger issues, but generally the family seems to be in a good place. Discovery of a body links a murder to Ryan’s father, Tommy Lee Royce, serving a life sentence for his crimes against Catherine and others. This leads to a shocking discovery of betrayal that threatens to rip apart the Cawoods. The murder is also linked to a local crime lord with political ambitions, a dodgy pharmacist and Ryan’s abusive PE teacher. Sarah Lancashire and James Norton are pure class as Catherine and Tommy, with a fantastic supporting cast and top notch writing. The underlying theme of men’s violence against women is depressingly real, but there are lighter moments and all six episodes are a celebration of Catherine’s strength and grace. It ends in many tears but justice is done and seen to be done, which is all anyone could hope for.

Other Birds, by Sarah Addison Allen

Other birds are those that don’t flock together and there are plenty of those at Dellawisp, a block of five small apartments on Mallow Island, South Carolina, named for the strange little avians that live in the ground of the former stables. Zoey has inherited the studio apartment from her mother and plans to spend the summer there before starting college in Charleston. One of the residents dies at the start, which, along with Zoey’s advent, sparks major changes for the lives of the others. One or more of poverty, neglect, abuse, mental illness, addiction and violence dogged all their childhoods and have indelibly affected their adulthoods. But hope and kindness, as well as a connection to the spirit world, offer the chance of a better future. Allen’s trademark blend of whimsy and darkness applied to human relationships, provides a tale of depth and wisdom filled with both sadness and delight. Although in familiar territory, emotionally, geographically and culinarily, this novel stands alone from her previous works. It creates a whole new world in which it is possible to imagine further linked stories and characters. Here’s hoping.

Duck a’ l’Orange for Breakfast, by Karina May

Maxine is having a bad run. Diagnosed with a brain tumour and scheduled for surgery, before she can tell her long-term partner, Scott, she discovers he has been cheating – at Christmas. In the safety of her best friend’s flat Max soothes her broken heart and distracts from her upcoming operation with a Tinder flirtation. She has no intention of taking it offline and enjoys a few weeks of competitive cooking from Scott’s family recipe book – project ‘fork him’. Elements of this novel are both entertaining and interesting and it is fabulous for foodies. The brain tumour aspect is poignant and believable and the portrait of the dreadful stand-up comedian is amusing. It reinforces a theory heard recently about how horrible they are to date. But the plot rests on too many unlikely coincidences and the new love interest has little credibility. This makes the final third a bit of a yawn, basically down-to-earth Greek wins over pretentious French – in food and in life.

Barbie (2023), directed by Greta Gerwig

All is perfect in Barbie World, where every night is girls’ night, until stereotypical Barbie is suddenly besieged by dark thoughts and flat feet. She must travel to the real world to repair the damage or risk becoming a weird Barbie with major malfunctions. But patriarchy rules the real world, which is not what Barbie expected, and it gives Ken some really bad ideas to take back home. Mothers and daughters are at the heart of this film, which makes some nice points about feminism and patriarchy and has some very funny jokes. It also features some odd, unnecessary patches, such as an extended Ken dance sequence and Will Ferrell’s entire storyline as Mattel’s CEO. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are great as Barbie and Ken and the strong supporting cast features scene stealing performances from Michael Cera as Alan and Kate McKinnon as weird Barbie. Several of the talented cast of TV series Sex Education bob up, including Robbie lookalike Emma Mackey. Helen Mirren’s wry and knowing narration underpins the whole and the random insertion of actual discontinued Mattel toys, such as pregnant Midge and sugar daddy Ken is a hoot. The mood is uneven, with the fun at times threatening to veer off into mawkish sentimentality, while the off-beat ending is apparently there only to serve the final punchline.