The Night Bookmobile (Audrey Niffenegger 2010)

From the Book Club, by the author of The Three Incestuous Sisters.

The girl who kicked the hornet's nest (Daniel Alfredson 2009)

I find it hard to say what kept me watching this, as the story unfolds with no surprises and very little real suspense, no particular insight into anything. Is it perhaps that the Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace are both mesmerisingly inexpressive most of the time, so any flicker of change is thrilling. The only question that really engages me afterwards is where to put the apostrophe in the title. Actually, that's not fair: the image of a gaggle of blandly respectable, ailing old men as blackhearted villains is the real take-home for me.

STC: In the Next Room (Sarah Ruhl 2009)

'Utterly beguiling', according to the STC's website, I agree. This was a great start to our subscription for 2011.

Wolf Notes (Judith Beveridge 2007, 2010)

When Heat ceased publication my subscription hadn't run out, and Giramondo gave me this book of poetry in lieu of one more issue.

Freedom (Jonathan Franzen 2010)

I feel ever so slightly bullied into reading this. It's going to have to work hard to win me over.

TV: Chinatown (Roman Polanski 1974)

I'm not sure my life is improved by seeing this again, but it's still good. Great cars, and an amazingly young, thin, handsome, relatively unmannered Jack Nicholson.

Hereafter (Clint Eastwood 2010)

Clint Eastwood, Matt Damon, Cécile de France, Peter Morgan and Frankie and George Maclaren are all brilliant in this. Among others. My only misgiving is that it did seem to be taking seriously some almighty nonsense. (I was put off the TV series Medium when a friend told me that it was based on a woman who seriously claimed to converse with the dead: I had a similar unease here, but it remained an unease rather than revulsion because the human stuff was so convincing in so many ways.)

Of Mutability (Jo Shapcott 2010)

I bought this with a gift voucher I was given for Christmas. It won the over-all Costa prize.

Heat 24: That's it, for now

The end of Heat as we know it, this issue breaks with tradition and allows Ivor Indyk the editor, to speak to us directly at last.

DVD: Please Give (Nicole Holofcener 2010)

I remember thinking when I saw an earlier film by Ms Holofcener that she was like a gentile Woody Allen, a main difference being the pace. Well, I agree with myself. This was an excellent alternative to an unpromising night on TV, much more thoughtful, and funnier, than its lukewarm reviews would indicate.