Selected poems 1971-1982 (Pamela Brown 1984)

I found this in Gleebooks second hand shop just when I was needing some poetry. It has a high-strung introduction from Kate Jennings.

Salt (Phillip Noyce 2010)

Angelina Jolie in the role Tom Cruise rejected. Despite at least one piece of gross illogicality, this was tremendous fun. Of course we'll never know what it would have been as a TC vehicle, but AJ is fabulous. There may be sequels.

Boy (Taika Waititi 2010)

Once Were Warriors as domestic comedy, only much better than that makes it sound, with a Michael Jacksonesque haka epilogue.

TV: Criminal Justice (Peter Moffat 2008, 2009)

We've now seen two seasons of this brilliant, one-writer UK miniseries, each shown in two weekly parts by the ABC. The title is a pun. It was weird but nice to have Sophie Okonedo, last seen in Doctor Who, play a key role in the second season, and Matthew Macfadyen create a character who was superficially attractive, but vile.

The City and the City (China Miéville 2009)

My Book Group's next title.

Dementia Blog (Susan M. Schultz 2008)

Recommended by a poet who visited Me Fail? I Fly! Blogging, poetry, dementia – it's got everything.

TV: Offspring (Imogen Banks, John Edwards 2010)

Very promising first episode, written by Debra Oswald.

Recorded: Tangle Series One (Imogen Banks, John Edwards et al 2009)

High quality domestic drama.

Belvoir Street: Gwen in Purgatory (Tommy Murphy 2010)

From the writer of Holding the Man, a piece about a 90 year old women, a son, a daughter, a grandson and a Nigerian missionary priest. A man in the row behind us said, 'It was just like a night at home.' One of his companions said, at the same time, 'Everything in that  has happened to us.' I doubt if either of them was literally true, but that was the uncanny effect. Especially for people of Irish Catholic heritage.

Peepli [Live] (Anusha Rizvi & Mahmood Farooqui 2010)

We saw this in a full theatre with an audience, an experience I recommend. The film itself is just wonderful, very funny and heartbreaking at the same time. It reminded me of P Sainath's journalism pieces collected in his book Everybody Loves a Good Drought. I wouldn't be surprised if the writer-director drew inspiration from that book.

The Meaning of Everything (Simon Winchester 2003)

This has been on our bookshelf for a while. I loved Simon Winchester's Krakatoa, and felt guilty having read Ammon Shea's fairly silly book on the OED but not this. So here goes.

Rocky & Gawenda (Michael Gawenda 2009)

Lent to me because it combines dog-walking and blogging.

Reading the OED (Ammon Shea 2008)

Someone saw this on special at Gleebooks and thought it looked like my kind of book.

South Solitary (Shirley Barrett 2010)

I hated the way Shirley Barrett's first film patronised its characters, and went to this as one of those going-to-the-movies-in-a-group compromises. I loved it, especially once it developed into a two-hander with Miranda Otto and Marton Csokas. The island setting is wonderful and all the filming in an actual old-style lighthouse likewise. One of our group came out furious that actual money had been spent on something she thought was so universally poor. I have no idea what her problem was

Lyric Theatre: West Side Story (Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim 1957)

We had great seats. The dancing and singing were great. Even with the understudy playing Tony, it was a most satisfactory outing. The all-in-white, utopian 'Somewhere there's a place for us' ballet, not in the movie, had me weeping.

Me and Orson Welles (Richard Linklater 2008)

A magical performance by Christian McKay as Orson Welles makes this a joy. It's the romance of theatre, effortlessly incorporating its ruthlessness.