ENTERTAINMENT

FAMILIAR FACES AND CHARACTERS CAN BE FOUND IN THE LATEST CROP OF MOVIE RELEASES AND BOOKS – WHILE PATIENT MUSIC LOVERS WILL BE DELIGHTED AT POPULAR ARTISTS’ NEW TRACKS. ON PAGES & SCREENS

DEADPOOL 2 Scarily scarred wisecracking blade wielding mercenary Deadpool is back to battle ninjas, the shadowy yakuza criminals and a pack of aggressive dogs in this action adventure sequel.

Josh Brolin takes on the role of the main protagonist Cable, tasked with kidnapping a prodigiously talented child and Deadpool has to stop that happening – once he’s rounded up all the gluten in the world and sent it into outer space to stop it from hurting people ...

As you can gather, the gags and humour are sickly funny and the action is full on, especially since movie director David Leitch is a former stuntman and is happy to push the boundaries. And another sequel, Deadpool 3, is reportedly already in development.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY In the newly-released Solo: A Star Wars Story , or simply Solo, the American space Western film is centred solely on the morally flexible Han Solo.

Produced by Lucasfilm from a screenplay by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, it is the second Star Wars anthology film, following the 2016 film Rogue One. A stand-alone instalment, set prior to the events of the original 1977 film, it explores the adventures of a young Han Solo and Chewbacca, including meeting Lando Calrissian.

The film stars Alden Ehrenreich as Solo, alongside Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, and Paul Bettany. JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM Four years after the destruction of the Jurassic World theme park, Owen Grady and Claire Dearing return to the island of Isla Nublar to save the remaining dinosaurs from a volcano that’s about to erupt.

The sequel to 2015’s Jurassic World which introduced actor Chris Pratt to the Jurassic franchise, is the fifth to be made.

The characters (reprised by Jeff Goldblum, Bryce Dallas Howard and Toby Jones) soon encounter terrifying new breeds of gigantic dinosaurs while uncovering a conspiracy that threatens the entire planet.

You have an audience cheering you on. Everybody is in your corner. Do your best for them.

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WILDNESS SNOW PATROL Fans of the Northern Irish-Scottish rock band’s music have had to wait a very long two years for the release of this album which was originally slated for 2016. As a result of the musical equivalent of writer’s block by frontman Gary Lightbody, it’s been seven years since the hugely talented group made any new songs available to the listening public. Fallen Empires was their previous album. Their teaser video dropped in March and was eagerly received by fans who appreciated the preview of their typical driving pop-rock beats – this time overlaid with some orchestral flourishes. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine Lightbody said the many types of wildness “can be distilled into two: the wildness of the modern age, all it’s confusion, illogic and alienation and a more ancient wildness. Something primal, alive and beautiful that speaks to our true connectivity, our passion, our love, our communion with nature and each other. This is the kind of wildness the album is centred around. The loss of it.”

BE MORE KIND FRANK TURNER The political zeitgeist of America has provided rich fodder for creative folks. And English musician Frank Turner has reacted to the way the world is with his new album, appropriately titled Be More Kind . The album title itself comes from a Clive James poem, with Turner having reportedly said: “A lot of older, wiser people tend to say things like that, that the things that come out in the wash at the end of a human life are the way you treated the people around you. In the modern world, that’s a lesson that all of us, myself included could do to learn.” The album art is graphic and simple but demonstrates that you can’t punch someone in anger if you’re holding their hand in kindness and love.

CINEMATIC OWL CITY Known for his massive 2009 hit Fireflies, Adam Young has embarked on this 18 track album approaching it like a movie and breaking it down with scenes from his life. The sixth album to be released, Young explains on his website: “It’s a personal narrative, as if a film was made from key scenes throughout my life. “My hope is there’s a way to teach yourself to recognize and appreciate what I like to call, ‘movie magic moments’, so you don’t miss out on them. That’s what the title alludes to. You have an audience cheering you on. Everybody is in your corner. Do your best for them.” EDUCATED: A MEMOIR TARA WESTOVER It’s an international bestseller: a true story of a 16-year-old girl, born to an Idaho-based survivalist family who realises there must be more to life than salvaging junk in her father’s scrapyard. She leaves her family behind, gleans enough education to be admitted to college and then starts a life journey that ultimately sees her earn a PhD from Cambridge!

Westover grew up preparing for the End of Days, watching for the sun to darken, for the moon to drip as if with blood. She spent her summers bottling peaches and her winters rotating emergency supplies, hoping that when the World of Men failed, her family would continue, unaffected. The New York Times Book Review wrote: “The extremity of Westover’s upbringing emerges gradually through her telling, which only makes the telling more alluring and harrowing ... By the end, Westover has somehow managed not only to capture her unsurpassably exceptional upbringing, but to make her current situation seem not so exceptional at all, and resonant for many others With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted, from her singular experience, a universal coming-of-age story, one that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers – the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes, and the will to change it. LOOK FOR ME LISA GARDNER Detective DD Warren and Flora Dane are in a race against time to save a young girl’s life – or bring her to justice. A nail-biting thriller by the international number one bestselling author, Lisa Gardner.

A family home has become a crime scene. Five people are involved: four of them have been savagely murdered; one – a 16-year-old girl – is missing. Was she lucky to have escaped? Or is her absence evidence of something sinister?

Detective DD Warren is on the case, as is survivor-turned-avenger Flora Dane. Seeking different types of justice, they must make sense of the clues left behind by a young woman who, as victim or suspect, is silently pleading, look for me. HOW I LOSE YOU KATE MCNAUGHTON When Eva and Adam fall into bed one Friday night, tired and happy after drinks with friends, they have their whole lives ahead of them. But their story ends on page 12.

That’s no reason to stop reading though, because How I Lose You is a story told backwards – and it’s all the more warm, tender and moving because we know it is going to be interrupted. It’s a story Eva thought she knew – but as you and she will discover, it’s not just the ending of the story that she got wrong. DISCLAIMER: All books featured here are supplied by Penquin Random House South Africa 3