ENTERTAINMENT

THERE LITERALLY IS SOMETHING FOR ALL TASTES IN THIS ISSUE’S SELECTION BY KAITLYN BUNCE. FROM PINK’S RAW, HONEST LYRICS ON HER NEW ALBUM, TO A GRIPPING FASTPACED DAN BROWN THRILLER AS WELL AS THE NEW STAR WARS EPISODE. ENTERTAINMENT GUARANTEED. MULTIPLE GENRES

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Star Wars: The Last Jedi (also known as Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi) is the second film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens – and it will be followed by Episode IX slated for release in 2019. Little is known about the storyline – other than it picks up exactly where The Force Awakens ends off... Since Walt Disney Studios bought Lucasfilm in 2012, there has been a rejuvenation in the science fiction franchise and this movie reunites the cast from previous movies, including Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher from the original films, along with modern stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Lupita Nyong’o. Once thing is guaranteed, the action will be fast and furious but good will prevail over evil – with a cliffhanger at the end!

JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE This film takes place 20 years after the events of the original 1995 film which starred the late Robin Williams, giving it a more modern twist. When cleaning out a school’s basement while serving detention, four teenagers find a vintage video game version of Jumanji and get sucked into its jungle setting. They also become their avatars inside the game and the only way out is to play along and finish it. The cast is stellar, including Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Nick Jonas.

WONDER August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from attending a mainstream school – until now. He’s about to start fifth grade at Beecher Prep, and if you’ve ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. Auggie’s just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face, but can he convince his new classmates that he’s just like them, despite appearances? The movie is based on a New York Times bestseller and the cast includes Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and veteran actor Mandy Patinkin.

American rock band Weezer has described American Daydream as “the Beach Boys gone bad”.

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PACIFIC DAYDREAM WEEZER American rock band Weezer have described Pacific Daydream , their eleventh studio album released under the Atlantic Records and Crush Management label, as “the Beach Boys gone bad”... since they decided to tackle more ‘mature topics’. They found the songs to be like “reveries from a beach at the end of the world – as if the Beach Boys and The Clash fell in love by the ocean and had one hell of an amazing baby!” With descriptions like that, fans can only look forward to this release , even though the lead single “Feels Like Summer” was released in March and the promotional single “Mexican Fender” dropped in August. Following on from the 2016 White Album, the plan was originally to title this release the Black Album but ultimately, finding inspiration in an ancient Chinese proverb by Zhuang Zhou, it was titled Pacific Daydream. Whatever it’s called... it’s awesome,” is what guitarist Brian Bell had to say.

BEAUTIFUL TRAUMA PINK Pink’s emotional honesty sees her pen lyrics which resonate with her pop-rock audience – especially ‘Perfect’ aimed at a female teen audience struggling to fit in and conform. Interestingly, only Madonna registered more play than Pink in the UK during the entire 2000s decade. The first single from her new album Beautiful Trauma, a track called ‘What About Us’, has already received extensive airplay and thousands of downloads. This album, her seventh to date, is her first in five years – but it’s been a busy five years with the singer, songwriter and actress collaborating with numerous other artists during this time. “I could not be more excited right now,” she wrote on Instagram, where she announced the release of Beautiful Trauma as well as the new single.

SONGS OF EXPERIENCE U2 Irish rock band U2 are a phenomenon and Songs of Experience is their 14th studio album, due for release on December 1. Apparently the concept is that Songs of Experience picks up where the group’s 2014 Songs of Innocence album chronicling their musical adolescence in Ireland in the 1970s, left off. Songs of Experience was first mentioned by Bono on the day that Songs of Innocence was released in 2014. He began song-writing while recuperating from a serious bicycle accident and even while touring, U2 worked on the album, laying down tracks in a mobile studio. Originally slated for release last year, the group decided to delay things because of the global political landscape, preferring it to reflect the mammoth changes taking place by waiting instead.

ORIGIN DAN BROWN Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend the unveiling of a discovery that “will change the face of science forever”. The evening’s host is his friend and former student, Edmond Kirsch, a 40-year-old tech magnate whose dazzling inventions and audacious predictions have made him a controversial figure around the world. This evening is to be no exception: he claims he will reveal an astonishing scientific breakthrough to challenge the fundamentals of human existence. But Langdon and several hundred other guests are left reeling when the meticulously orchestrated evening is blown apart before Kirsch’s precious discovery can be revealed. With his life under threat, Langdon is forced into a desperate bid to escape.

The fifth in the Robert Langdon series that began with The Da Vinci Code. UNSTOPPABLE: MY LIFE SO FAR MARIA SHARAPOVA This is Maria Sharapova’s fearless autobiography, telling her story from her roots in the small Siberian town her parents fled to after the Chernobyl disaster, through her arrival in the United States with nothing and her phenomenal rise to success – winning Wimbledon as a teenager – to the disasters that threatened her career and her fight back. Here the five-time Grand Slam winner gives us candid insights into her relationship with her father; the truth behind her famous rivalry with Serena Williams; the injuries and suspension controversy that threatened to end it all; and her recent battle to get back on court. Told with the same combative, no-holds-barred attitude as her game, it’s a story of crazy luck, mistakes, rivalries, sacrifice, survival and, above all, the constant, unwavering determination to win. MIDNIGHT AT THE BRIGHT IDEAS BOOKSTORE MATTHEW SULLIVAN Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs – the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves. But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has inherited his meager worldly possessions. But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia? As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long-buried memory from her own violent childhood. Bedazzling, addictive and wildly clever, Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a heart-pounding mystery that perfectly captures the intellect and eccentricity of the bookstore milieu. 3 DISCLAIMER: All books featured here are supplied by Penquin Random House South Africa