My Top 5 Leaps of 2013

I enjoy putting together my annual leap list, mainly because it serves as a way of highlighting some of the places to which I've travelled and the things I have done. After a lack of leaps in the leap year last year, I jumped right back in this year and had plenty to choose from.

1. Paradise leaped. Tamarindo, Costa Rica. After several years of waiting and planning, I finally made it to Costa Rica this year and had an awesome time. And of course, there were plenty of great leaps. It was hard to choose just one (and this leap at the foot of the Arenal volcano came a close second), but the infinity pool at our hotel near Tamarindo was pretty paradisiacal.

2. The Game of Thrones leap. Dubrovnik, Croatia. With its stunning Mediterranean views and handy city walls, Dubrovnik proved a particularly lucrative place to leap. I just need to remember to wear better footwear next time. The things we do for art...

3. The arty leap. New York, USA. Speaking of art! I only managed one trip to New York this year, but it was a good one. In City Hall Park, there was a series of sculptures in the Lightness of Being series, which were just asking for a good leap. Naturally, I obliged.

4. The Dreaming Spires leap. Oxford, UK. So apparently my father was the last person to discover that all of those Oxford postcards featuring the gorgeous Dreaming Spires were taken from the top of South Park. It didn't stop us from taking a few celebratory leap photos.

5. The highest leap. London, UK. When I took a tour that allowed me to climb over the top of the O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome), I was convinced that they wouldn't let me leap at the top, but apparently leaping is totes legit, as long as you don't go too close to the edge.

Runner-up: The coldest leap. London, UK. As all of the above leaps feature beautiful sunshine, I'm allowing myself a bonus entry on this year's list to remind me that London had a pretty horrific winter at the beginning of this year. The snow and the cold didn't keep some of the members of the nascent SoLoDo Running Club from running and, in my case, leaping, on a particularly inclement Saturday.

My Top 5 Books of 2013

With my longer commute to work, I've managed to up my reading volume again there, reading 139 books this year, a lot more than in 2012. This number includes the 14 I re-read as part of my resolution to revisit favourite books and films more often. Although the list as a whole is pretty varied, a number of themes recur in the top five and in some of the books that almost made my shortlist. And there are a lot of thrillers — especially legal and crime thrillers — on the list, a) because I enjoy the genre and b) because of the books available in the Southwark library system. So, here are my top five books:

1. The Heart Broke in by James Meek. I work for a major science journal and so part of the fun of The Heart Broke in for me was all of the references the UK scientific research. The protagonist, Bec, is a talented young malaria researcher and her brother Ritchie a former rock star turned TV producer who seems to be cheating on his wife with a young teenage girl. The novel tells the story of the dysfunctional relationship and rivalry between Bec and Ritchie, and is lively, engaging and touching.

2. How To Be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman. A haunting and subtle work that tells the story of Marta, a housewife in an unnamed Scandinavian country, whose dark past seems to be coming back to haunt her. But can we trust her version of events given that she seems, at the very least, to be suffering from an intense form of post-traumatic stress disorder, which concerns her husband and son greatly? I do like dark mystery-thrillers like this (as evidenced by #4 and #5 on this list), but Chapman's writing is highly compelling.

3. The Darlings by Cristina Alger. Alger is hardly breaking new ground with her tale of Wall Street woes in the financial crisis, but her tightly plotted novel, which takes place over the Thanksgiving weekend of 2008, sees the titular Darling family — darlings only by name — facing a tragedy that threatens to make their seemingly enviable existences come crashing down around them. None of the characters is likeable, from the imperfect hedge-fund-manager patriarch Carter, to his trophy wife Ines, their elder daughter Merrill and her husband Paul, whose gratitude at being offered a job with Carter during the recession soon slips away as the family's downfall begins. Sometimes this is a problem, but I enjoyed Alger's novel, with its notes of McInerney and Easton Ellis. A good, solid, cautionary New York tale.

4. The Twins by Saskia Sarginson. This isn't the only book I've read this year which deals with a dark complex relationship between two sisters or friends who were once close but have been driven apart (Lucy Clarke's The Sea Sisters and Alex Marwood's The Wicked Girls both tread similar ground), but Sarginson's novel was the one that stayed with me the most. It tells the story of Viola and Isolde, twins raised in the 1970s by their hippy mother, who have since become estranged because of events that unfold gradually as the story progresses.

5. The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. Morton's novels tend to follow the same structure: a present-day woman finds something that makes her realise that her mother or grandmother has been keeping a huge secret for many decades. But this doesn't make them all that predictable and she certainly spins a good yarn. The Secret Keeper sees middle-aged actress Laurel dipping back 50 years to a strange incident in her past and then digging deeper into the mystery of her now elderly and infirm mother's life during World War Two.

Token non-fiction: Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise. I read so much science for my job that I only tend to read a handful of non-fiction books. This year, it turned out that most of them had a scientific bent, but Silver's book kept my inner stats geek happy and entertained. Spanning many disciplines, Silver highlights the power of prediction throughout everyday life. A fascinating and informative read.

And here is my full 2013 reading list:

• White Noise — Don DeLillo
• The Liar's Lullaby — Meg Gardiner
• In the Name of Honour — Richard North Patterson
• Arthur and George — Julian Barnes
• No Safe Place — Richard North Patterson
• The Periodic Tales — High Aldersey-Williams
• Mildred Pierce — James M. Cain
• 1974 — David Peace
• A Perfectly Good Family — Lionel Shriver
• Dark Lady — Richard North Patterson
• Miss Wyoming — Douglas Coupland
• Game Control — Lionel Shriver
• Human Traces — Sebastian Faulks
• The Darlings — Cristina Alger
• State of Wonder — Ann Patchett
• City of God — Paulo Lins
• This Is Paradise — Will Eaves
• A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapter — Julian Barnes
• What I Loved — Siri Hustvedt
• The Expats — Chris Pavone
• Gravity's Rainbow — Thomas Pynchon
• Brightness Falls — Jay McInerney
• Embassytown — China Miéville
• Underworld — Don DeLillo
• The Innocents — Francesca Segal
• The Book of Life — Stuart Nadler
• The Shoemaker's Wife — Adriana Trigiani
• Tuesday's Gone — Nicci French
• Run — Ann Patchett
• The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared — Jonas Jonasson
• How To Be a Woman — Caitlin Moran
• The Cloud Atlas — David Mitchell
• I Capture the Castle — Dodie Smith
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower — Stephen Chbosky
• The Psychopath Test — Jon Ronson
• Prophecy — SJ Parris
• Life After Life — Kate Atkinson
• The Newlyweds — Nell Freudenberger
• When Christ and His Saints Slept — Sharon Kay Penman
• Best Kept Secret — Jeffrey Archer
• Accidents Happen — Louise Miller
• Night Watch — Linda Fairstein
• The Safest Place — Suzanne Bugler
• The Heart Broke in — James Meek
• Shine — Lauren Myracle
• Eyes of a Child — Richard North Patterson
• Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures — Emma Straub
• Alys, Always — Harriet Lane
• A Happy Marriage — Rafael Yglesias
• The Imperfectionists — Tom Rachman
• e — Matt Beaumont
• The Trouble with Alice — Olivia Glazebrook
• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel — Deborah Moggach
• The Shadow Dancer — Tom Bradby
• The Rules of Civility — Amor Towles
• The Day of the Lie — William Brodrick
• The Storyteller — Jodi Picoult
• The Lost Daughter — Lucretia Grindle
• The Chemistry of Tears — Peter Carey
• Little Children — Tom Perrotta
• Silent Witness — Richard North Patterson
• The Birth of Venus — Sarah Dunant
• The Palace of Illusions — Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
• The Secret Keeper — Kate Morton
• The Technologists — Matthew Pearl
• The Red Book — Deborah Copaken Kogan
• The Soldier's Wife — Joanna Trollope
• The Sea Sisters — Lucy Clarke
• The Art of Leaving — Anna Stothard
• A Gathering Storm — Rachel Hore
• The House of the Wind — Titania Hardie
• The Great Gatsby — F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Tipping Point — Malcolm Gladwell
• When God Was a Rabbit — Sarah Winton
• The Night Circus — Erin Morgenstern
• Snow White Must Die — Nele Neuhaus
• The Deception Artist — Fayette Fox
• The Diaries of a Fleet Street Fox — Fleet Street Fox
• The Bat — Jo Nesbo
• The Salt Road — Jane Johnson
• The Engagements — J. Courtney Sullivan
• The Princess Bride — William Goldman
• The Shining Girls — Lauren Beukes
• Five Days — Douglas Kennedy
• The Good Parents — Joan London
• Waiting for Wednesday — Nicci French
• How To Be a Good Wife — Emma Chapman
• Orange Is the New Black — Piper Kerman
• The Ice Princess — Camilla Lackberg
• The Song of Achilles — Madeline Miller
• 1977 — David Peace
• Final Jeopardy — Linda Fairstein
• The Silver Linings Playbook — Matthew Quick
• The White Princess — Philippa Gregory
• The Book of Summers — Emylia Hall
• The Preacher — Camilla Lackberg
• 1980 — David Peace
• 1983 — David Peace
• Summerland — Elin Hilderbrand
• Silent Mercy — Linda Fairstein
• The Stonecutter— Camilla Lackberg
• The Thousand Summers of Jacob De Zoet — David Mitchell
• The Signal and the Noise — Nate Silver
• Almost English — Charlotte Mendelson
• The Racketeer — John Grisham
• House of Cards — Michael Dobbs
• Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore — Robin Sloan
• The Silent Wife — ASA Harrison
• Expo 58 — Jonathan Coe
• The Twins — Saskia Sarginson 
• Killer Heat — Linda Fairstein
• The Wicked Girls — Alex Marwood
• Revenge Wears Prada — Lauren Weisberger
• The Hidden Child — Camilla Lackberg
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay — Michael Chabon
• The Bookstore — Deborah Meyler
• Burial Rites — Hannah Kent
• The Lost Boy — Camilla Lackberg
• The Emperor's Children — Claire Messud
• Brick Lane — Monica Ali
• Bleeding Edge — Thomas Pynchon
• MaddAddam — Margaret Atwood
• Death Dance — Linda Fairstein
• Against a Dark Background — Iain M. Banks
• The Stranger — Camilla Lackberg
• Black Chalk — Christopher J. Yates
• The Reunion — Amy Silver
• The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls — Anton DiSclafani
• Bird Sense — Tim Birkhead
• Time and Chance — Sharon Kay Penman
• Loss of Innocence — Richard North Patterson
• The View on the Way Down — Rebecca Wait
• The Drowning — Camilla Lackberg
• Under the Same Stars — Tim Lott
• Black Sheep — CJ Lyons
• Lethal Legacy — Linda Fairstein
• Into the Darkest Corner — Elizabeth Haynes
• The Distant Hours — Kate Morton
• The Chocolate Money — Ashley Prentice Norton

My Top 5 Movies of 2013

Like last year, I made a good start on the film front, helped by attending a preview day for journalists and bloggers, where I got to watch five films in a single day. Again, though, I faded fast and managed only to see 68 movies this year — only a little more than one per week. One of my resolutions for 2013 was to re-watch more of my favourite movies and seven of the films on the list are re-watches. My top five are all rather mainstream this year, partly due to my new South of the River location making visits to independent cinemas a little more long-winded. It was a pretty good year for films, and there are too many runners-up this year to list them all.

1. Gravity. As I noted when I reviewed Gravity, it quite literally took my breath away. I haven't spent as unsettling a 90 minutes at the cinema in a long time, and for once, I felt the 3D was completely justified. Gravity is beautifully shot and features a brilliant performance from Sandra Bullock.

2. Before Midnight. I've long been a fan of Richard Linklater's Before... series but was slightly nervous about whether the third film — which could have been called Before Middle Age — would live up to its predecessors. Darker and more intense than the first two films, Before Midnight is moving but still funny, and shows Ethan Hawke's Jesse and Julie Delpy's Céline as older but not any wiser than their younger selves.

3. Django Unchained. Yes, at almost three hours, Tarantino's latest effort could do with a bit of editing but Django Unchained is his best film in years. It's entertaining and worth watching to see Leo playing a bad guy alone. It's violent, it's bloody and it's bloody funny. Oh, and Christoph Waltz is fantastic.

4. Blue Jasmine. Without wishing to seem repetitive, Blue Jasmine is Woody Allen's best film in years. It is Cate Blanchett's performance as the titular Jasmine, a selfish, self-absorbed drama queen, that will be remembered. It is also a tightly edited film with a great script and cracking ensemble cast.

5. The Great Gatsby. I know, I know. You wait for ages for a good Leonardo DiCaprio and then two come along at once. I'd waited a long time for Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of Fitzgerald's novel to be released and it didn't disappoint. Big, loud and visually stunning, with great music, and some good performances, especially from Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton (Leo was fine, but not at his best). Watch it on as big a screen as possible.

Other films I watched this year (re-watches in italics):

• Die Hard (TV)
• The Impossible
• Catch Me If You Can
• Another Earth (TV)
• Hyde Park on Hudson
• A Late Quartet
• Lincoln
• Hitchcock
• Flight
• Les Misérables
• Zero Dark Thirty
• I Give It a Year
• No
• To the Wonder
• Amour (DVD)
• Lore
• Stoker
• Broken City
• Welcome to the Punch
• Side Effects
• One Day
• Compliance
• Goon (DVD)
• Trance
• Dans la Maison (In the House)
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower (plane)
• Arbitrage (plane)
• Star Trek Into Darkness
• Los amantes pasajeros (I'm So Excited)
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist
• Mud
• Behind the Candelabra
• Man of Steel
• The Internship
• The Bling Ring
• Midnight in Paris
• Breathe In (online)
• Dial M for Murder
• About Time
• The Way Way Back
• What Maisie Knew
• The Italian Job (1969)
• Rush
• Shifty (TV)
• Love Is All You Need (plane)
• In a World
• 360 (TV)
• Don Jon
• The Grandmaster
• Drinking Buddies
• Captain Phillips
• Café de Flore
• Wreckers (TV)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
• Scream
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
• Now You See Me (TV)
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• Elf (TV)
• Never Let Me Go
• Of Gods and Men (TV)
• American Hustle
• Iron Man (TV)

That '70s Showdown

I hadn't heard much about David O. Russell's new '70s caper American Hustle until a few weeks ago and now suddenly it's everywhere. Except that it isn't quite everywhere in the UK yet — it's only showing at the Vue in Leicester Square until its full release on New Year's Day. In a last-minute attempt to boost my somewhat poor cinema attendance this year, I braved the wilds of the West End and even forked out £14.50 for my ticket. As you can expect, my expectations were high, and luckily, I enjoyed American Hustle a great deal.

The film is based on a fictionalised version of the FBI's ABSCAM operation, an effort to crack down on US political corruption in the late 1970s and early 1980s. "Some of these things actually happened," the title card reads. Tee hee. As the film opens, our two anti-heroes — small-time conman Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and enthusiastic, if unorthodox, FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) — are trying to bring down a popular New Jersey mayor, Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) and an assortment of corrupt (or at least corruptible) Members of Congress.

The operation is the result of a deal forged after Richie catches Irving and his business partner Sydney (Amy Adams) in the act of fraud. If Irv and Sydney — usually known by the name of her fraudulent British alter ego, Lady Edith Greensly — can help Richie bring down some big fish, the pair can avoid jail time. Irving soon homes in on Carmine as a potential target and he, Sydney and Richie cook up a wacky sting operation, involving a fake sheikh and a kickstart to the regeneration of the Jersey shoreline, which will bring in plenty of new jobs for locals, as well as a healthy dollop of skimming and other corruption. Richie soon realises he can't succeed without Irving's advice. "That's the art," Irv says. "Becoming someone that people can pin their hopes and dreams on."

To complicate matters further, Sydney seems to be into Richie, when she is also Irving's lover. Meanwhile, Irving is married to Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), a trashy, sunbed-obsessed real housewife of Jersey Shore. Confused? Well, it is the '70s. Irv wants to leave Rosalyn but she threatens to report all of his dubious businesses to the authorities if he tries to divorce her, and she also uses her young son, whom Irv has adopted, as leverage.

And it's all a jolly entertaining caper. Although it has been billed as a drama comedy, I wouldn't say it's especially laugh-out-loud funny, but there are some great lines, such as when Irv describes Rosalyn as, "The Picasso of passive-aggressive karate," and of course there are plenty of tee hees when Carmine gives Irv a microwave, or a "science oven." Oh, and the scene where Richie and Sydney are talking on the phone, each wearing their own set of curlers. How '70s.

It's the performances that hold the film together, though, and as ever with David O. Russell, his old favourites are all reunited here. Bale, drawing on his role in The Fighter, perhaps, is excellent and almost unrecognisable as the overweight but confident Irv, whose elaborate combover takes ages to assemble each morning. Adams surely deserves an Oscar for best-supported actress given her character's penchant for v-neck dresses whose necklines dip down to her stomach. Until her character gets a perm, she also wins the award for best hair, although there isn't much competition. Lawrence's character doesn't appear much in the first half but comes into her own in the final act, effing and blinding and generally being the polar opposite of Katniss Everdean. Cooper was fine too, although didn't stand out as much as the other leads. American Hustle also has an impressive supporting cast, including Louis C.K. as Richie's long-suffering boss and an uncredited cameo by Robert De Niro as a Mafia boss.

Merry M40 Christmas

For the first time in several years — and for the first time intentionally for almost a decade — I'm spending this Christmas in the UK, but there has still been plenty of travelling, from London to Oxford and then up to the Black Country and back to see my extended family. Sunday night was spent in the Walsall Premier Inn — where you get a discount for a room with a 'view' — before spending yesterday, which would have been my grandfather's birthday, with my grandma.

We did manage a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant called Portobello in Aldridge. My rocket, mozzarella and prosciutto salad was great and the pizza was pretty decent too.

On the way home, we fought through the gales and made a stop at Bicester Village, where the heavens opened while I was in the process of buying a cheap Samsonite suitcase. I stand by my previous advice that pre-Christmas is the best time to go to Bicester, although the severely inclement weather may have helped to ward off the crowds yesterday.

This morning, though, it was gloriously sunny if still chilly and somewhat windy. Some of us made it out to Christchurch Meadow for a run, roping some Harry Potter fans who had hoped to see the Hogwarts Great Hall into taking endless leaping photos of us.

Later, we went to Blenheim Palace to work up an appetite for lunch. It was the perfect day for a brisk walk around the lake, before heading into Woodstock for a 'light bite' at the Star. My 'skinny' burger with avo, salad and sweet potato fries but no bun, was tasty, although probably not that skinny.

This evening, we will have our big family Christmas dinner at home in the Shire, before heading back up the M40 tomorrow for more Black Country festive celebrations. Bon Noël, tout le monde!

Bex's London Food and Drink Awards: 2013 Edition

With less than a fortnight of 2013 remaining, it's time for the first of my end-of-year round-ups. Today I've chosen my London food and drink favourites of the year. I've had some great culinary experiences in London this year — surprisingly, not all involved burgers! Like last year, these places are new to me this year although not all of them are new. I'm no foodie, so as usual, I've stuck mainly to my specialist subjects.

1. Best macchiato: Association Coffee (City)
I have just one problem with Association Coffee, on Creechurch Lane, near Aldgate station: its opening hours mean that I only get to visit on a somewhat long-winded journey into work. With coffee from a range of London suppliers, the macchiato is always excellent, and I've also had some great Aeropress brews. Plus, the decor is great and the staff are friendly and very knowledgeable, so it's a great place to hang out. Please start opening at the weekends, Association, or open a branch in King's Cross!
Runner-up: Allpress

2. Best brunch: Bea's Diner (Bermondsey)
Pancakes: check. Maple bacon with extra maple syrup: check. Bottomless coffee: check. Yes, Bea's Diner, under the arches of Druid Street, near Tower Bridge Road, really is the perfect venue for a cool brunch while the trains rumble overhead. They also do movie nights!
Runner-up: The Hangover Club

3. Best new street food: B.O.B.'s Lobster (check their website for current locations)
I visited B.O.B.'s a couple of times during their Borough Market residency over the summer. This year, London had an amazing summer, when the thought of scoffing a delicious lobster roll — served from a red VW van by the most cheerful staff London has ever seen — washed down with a glass of Prosecco is even more appealing than in today's wintry state. At £11, the lobster roll is also great value. The van has been at Hawker House, but the B.O.B.'s crew are also sheltering in a garage near St Paul's for the winter; check out their website for more info.

4. Best new cocktail: Little Bird's Perfect G and T (Bermondsey)
Nothing says hip London weekend brunch than a Perfect G and T at Little Bird Gin's Maltby Street outpost. Little Bird is a small-batch gin distiller based in Peckham, and their citrusy gin does indeed go perfectly with the pink grapefruit served with the Perfect G and T. Plus it looks so pretty, it's currently the lock screen photo on my iPad!

5. Best new burger: Patty & Bun (Marylebone)
A hotly fought contest, as always: I have eaten a lot of great burgers this year. I'd thought Bleecker St Burger was going to win, but I realised I actually discovered them last year. Still, with the Yanks trying their hand at the London burger market, in the form of Balthazar, Shake Shack and Five Guys, there were plenty of other places to choose from. In the end, though, the Brits had it. You often have to queue at Patty & Bun, but the burgers are awesome, especially the Smokey Robinson burger, which comes with caramelised onions and smokey mayo. They get bonus points for the peanut butter choc ices available on the pudding menu!
Runner-up: Dirty Burger — yes, good burgers crossed the Thames, eventually!

6. Best new restaurant: Grain Store (King's Cross)
Bruno Loubet's new-ish restaurant in King's Cross's Granary Square is the perfect place to celebrate a special birthday. Or an ordinary birthday. Or, you know, a Wednesday. The menu is creative and meticulously planned, the cocktails are top notch, the staff are friendly, and it has a buzzy, cool ambience.
Runner-up: Pizza Pilgrims — great pizza, great service, great prices.

Skating on Wet Ice

It has been dry in London for weeks, so of course it started to rain on the evening we had booked tickets for the Canary Wharf ice rink. It was, at least, quite a mild evening and we all managed without the ponchos offered by the rink staff. I've been to the Somerset House ice rink a few times, but had heard good things about ice skating at Canary Wharf; plus, it's just a short hop on the Jubilee line from Bermondsey. I don't think I've been to Canary Wharf before, and found the underground shopping centre/food court adjacent to the tube station to be a little confusing — I was expecting there to be at least one sign to the rink, but sadly not. But if you head for Waitrose, and then go out through the ground-level doors, the rink is just opposite.

If you've booked tickets online, you don't need to queue outside; just head straight to the skate-hire station. While I waited for the others to arrive, I perused the bling for sale in the shop. Sadly, even though this is Canary Wharf, you don't get to skate in the sparkly, rhinestoned ice skate they have on display; just the regular boring blue skates.

The rink itself is a fairly decent size and has a little 'track' you can follow that takes you under the sparkling trees. This is a nice idea but we were there during the 6.30 pm slot when there were a lot of kids, so the track quickly became bottle-necked.

Skating among the skyscrapers gave the rink a Manhattan feel, though. You could almost be in New York — at the Rockefeller ice rink, if not the Wollman Rink. Although it was pretty busy, it wasn't quite as crowded as some of the more central ice rinks in London can get — next time, I'd probably opt for a later slot.

The other good thing about skating in Canary Wharf is that a wealth of dining options are available when you need some post-skating nourishment. Having skated past Wahaca about 300 times, we couldn't not go there, and a number of refreshing margs and, in my case, some delicious fish tacos, we were ready to take the tube back South of the River.

Canary Wharf ice rink. Canada Square Park, Canary Wharf, E14 5AB (Tube: Canary Wharf). Tickets are £13.50 for adults and £9 for children (plus a 50p booking fee). Website.