If you love watching this, you'll love reading these: The 100 edition

Who would have thought when it started that The 100, a series originating on The CW about an attractive group of young people who have no parental supervision, was going to be about politics, love, survival, war crimes and more? Certainly not me, but The 100 has proved it's a TV show that is constantly underestimated.

It regularly explores difficult ideas - whether there is ever a right time for torture, if it's okay to sacrifice a few for the survival of the many, what rules matter in a new society and what rules can fall by the wayside, and plenty more.

And of course, The 100 is one of the most feminist programmes on television, something I spoke at length about at the end of season one (here and here). It is chock full of female characters with agency, and its male characters exist on a level playing field with its female characters. In having to recreate society, The 100 as a show has decided to go for all out equality.

The 100 is based on a series of books by Kass Morgan, but if you've read those (and warning, they're very different from the TV show) here are a few books that I think are perfect for fans of the programme.

Book review: The Ecliptic by Benjamin Wood

There are some books you read that you could just talk about endlessly, or write essays about. Benjamin Wood's The Ecliptic is one of those books.

Celebrated painter Elspeth 'Knell' Conroy is on Portmantle, an artists' colony off the coast of Istanbul, where she spend her time trying to create the art that once came so naturally to her. The retreat is rocked by the arrival of Fullerton, a teenage boy who is damaged and in danger, and whose presence on Portmantle affects all its residents, who pour over the mystery of why he is there, and what the link is between him and the lives the residents of Portmantle left behind in England.

This book is just utterly, utterly brilliant. I could, as I said right at the beginning, write essays about The Ecliptic, but I won't, since the best way to experience the full effects of this book is to just read it without knowing too much. 

What I will say is that The Ecliptic is one of my favourite books of the year. It is wonderfully put together, deftly weaving between Portmantle and England, and a few other settings. It's a story about creativity, sacrifice, truth, love and obsession, and it is addictive reading. Full of depth, the story builds like layers of paint on canvas, with the end result a stunning image you suspected was coming, but were never sure of until you stood back and saw all the colours and brushstrokes together.

In short, it's pretty much a masterpiece.

•The Ecliptic is released in the UK on July 2, 2015.

How I got this book: From the publisher, Simon & Schuster. This did not affect my review.

Book review: Notebooks of a Middle-School Princess by Meg Cabot

C'mon, you can admit it, you wanted to wake up one day and discover you were royalty. This would lead to you getting whisked away in a fancy car, to a gorgeous palace full of cool clothes, hundreds of rooms, and a library full of books with secret nooks to read in.

Just me? I don't believe that for a moment. And luckily Meg Cabot will back me up on this. Her Princess Diaries series has already been phenomenally successful, and now she's turned to a slightly younger audience with a new series, starting with Notebooks of a Middle-School Princess.

Olivia Grace is completely normal, living with her aunt's family, going to school everyday, and hanging out with friends. Until one day, she discovers her half-sister is Princess Mia Thermopolis (yes, from The Princess Diaries). Olivia is thrust into life as a princess, but that doesn't mean her old life is behind her, as she soon discovers.

Cabot has created a really likeable, relatable character in Grace, who is smart, funny and talented - she loves to draw, and Notebooks of a Middle-School Princess is full of illustrations, drawn by Cabot, that add an amusing and casual edge to the book, as well as letting us know a bit more about Grace. Cabot presents Grace as a normal teenager, one who is confused when someone she thinks is a friend turns on her, and one who gets excited by every new experience.

Just like The Princess Diaries, Notebooks of a Middle-School Princess is appealing because of the friendly tone, and the fun at the centre of it. That doesn't mean the book doesn't have a serious side. Cabot touches on death and grief, on crime, betrayal, race, and on what it means to be a family, but the way she does this isn't heavy handed, and I think is appropriate to the age group this book is for. Young teenagers won't feel patronised or talked down to, because this book is honest and forthright, without being an issue book, and, to use the word again a number of times, it's fun, fun, fun.

•Notebooks of a Middle-School Princess is out in the UK on May 21, 2015.

How I got this book: From the room of books at work.

Book review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

It's rare that I see a film adaptation of a book before reading the original text, and rarer still that I think the film is as good as the book, but in the case of Kathryn Stockett's The Help, both things are true.

In Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, it seems like nothing is going to change anytime soon. Black maids Aibileen and Minny run the households they work in, bringing up their employers' children, cooking the food that feeds their employers' husbands, and getting absolutely no respect, love or kindness for what they do. Meanwhile, home from college, Skeeter wants to know why her favourite maid has disappeared, and wants to pursue her dream of becoming a journalist. When Skeeter comes up with an idea for a book, she needs to get Aibileen and Minny on board, and together the three of them reveal truths that have stayed behind the doors of Southern houses for a long time.

The Help is a story that touches on two huge issues - race and feminism. While the major milestones of the battle for civil rights are well known, Stockett chooses to focus on the everyday battles black people, particularly women, faced in a segregated society. We get a glimpse, albeit fictionalised, into the very real divide that existed in every aspect of life in Mississsippi in 1962. While Aibileen and Minny carry out the roles of mother, guardian and servant, they hold no power, constantly in fear of being sacked for the slightest perceived infringement.

Avengers: Age of Ultron - a collection of thoughts

Bringing together a host of characters from different films, and doing it coherently, is not easy, but Joss Whedon managed it beautifully in Avengers Assemble.

Now, three years later, the director is back with Avengers: Age of Ultron, where Captain America/Steve Rogers, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Thor, Black Widow/Natasha Romanov, Hulk/Bruce Banner and Hawkeye/Clint Barton battle against Ultron, an AI - created accidentally by Tony Stark - who becomes sentient and determined to gain peace in our time, via murder. Joining the cast of characters are brother and sister Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, better known as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, who find that life is not as black and white as they thought.

Ultron clocks in at a whopping two hours and 21 minutes, and while it's entertaining and enjoyable (it would take a lot for me to hate a Marvel film), it's also bloated, a bit of a mess, and frustrating to watch. Rather than a conventional review, here are a bunch of thoughts about what I loved and what I hated about Ultron, in no particular order. Warning, lots of spoilers ahead.

Book review: Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood

Is talent, a gregarious personality and a way with words enough to make someone who is completely self-obsessed and occasionally violent attractive? I would say no, but Hadley, Fife, Martha and Mary - the four wives of Ernest Hemingway - might have had a slightly different answer.

In Mrs Hemingway, Naomi Wood paints a portrait of the four women who Hemingway married during his lifetime, although they were far from the only four women he had relationships with. Taking in Chicago in 1920, through a hazy, hot summer in the south of France in 1926, and visiting a number of locations and times before heading to autumn in Idaho in 1961, we meet fictionalised (although very well researched and based on reality) versions of Hadley, Fife, Martha and Mary before they know Hemingway, as they turn from lovers to wives, and as Ernest leaves them.

Wood's magic in Mrs Hemingway involves turning Fife, Martha and Mary - all of whom have affairs with Hemingway while he is married - into likeable characters. And Wood casts a further spell by making all four women sympathetic instead of pitiable. As a reader, I could so easily have spent the entire time I was reading wanting to shake all the women for being utterly stupid. Instead, thanks to Wood, I didn't think any of them were silly - they all deeply love Hemingway, in spite of clearly being able to see his faults. Each of them knows what they're getting when they get involved with him. Even Hadley, the first Mrs Hemingway, can see how her husband dazzles people.