Changes

<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crimenon-fiction, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page. We can even direct you to help for [https://www.easywritingservice.com/custom-book-review/ custom book reviews]! Visit [http://www.everychildareader.org www.everychildareader.org] to get free writing tips and [http://www.genecaresearchreports.com www.genecaresearchreports.com] will help you get your paper written for free.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

 '''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeremy Strong and Jamie Smith1635866847|title=Nellie Choc-Ice, Penguin Explorer (Little Gems)The Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyLifestyle|summary=Meet Nellie Choc-Ice. Thus named by her grandparents (and grandparents have a habit in It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book of making unusual names for their grandchildrenyou. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', whichever species they belong to), she is a pretty little Macaroni penguin, complete with pink feet, bright yellow eyebrows I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and a woolly hat with the worldthere's biggest pompom a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the endhomepage. She has a habit of going exploring I don't eat cakes and finding out whatdesserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's over the next ridge a recipe in the icebook, and which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the next, book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the nextmargins are sanctioned. But when disaster happens and You get to fold down the ice she is on is knocked off Antarctica by corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a submarine, even she can have no idea as to where she will end up…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781127212</amazonuk>problem. I ''loved'' this book already.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sally NichollsJenny Valentine|title= Things A Bright Girl Can DoUs in the Before and After|rating= 45|genre= Teens|summary=''Things Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a Bright Girl Can Dotrip out but unfortunately they don't get each other' tells s contact details at the story of three teenage girlstime. But then chance brings them back together, all of whom and they are fighting for women's suffrage, despite coming from very different backgroundsinseparable. There's Evelyn Something has happened though, an upper-class girl expected to marry at a young age, May, a middle-class girl with an opinionated Mothersomething terrible and tragic, and Nell, a working-class girl who does what she can to help her large family scrape by. The novel chronicles both now they must work through their contributions to the fight for suffragegrief, and the way their lives change when World War One beginsfriendship, together.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783445254</amazonuk>1471196585

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Neil White1787333175|title= From The ShadowsYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating= 4.5|genre= CrimePopular Science|summary= Iwas tempted to read 'm a bit old-fashioned and therefore not a great fan of stories that can'You Don't keep their timeline straight. IHave to be Mad to Work Here''ll go with a prologue – even if itafter enjoying Adam Kay's becoming first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a bit glorious mixture of clichéd way insight into the workings of creating a mystery at the beginning of a story – but switching between 'now' NHS, humour and 'a fortnight ago' – just feels a little lazy, a way of creating tension when all else failsautobiography. That, however, is my only little gripe about ''From The ShadowsYou Don't Have to be Mad...' ' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. I admit, did wonder whether I like it or not, was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it does more or less workis always delivered with empathy and understanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785760920</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa PappMariana Enriquez|title=Madeleine Finn A Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the Library Dogsupernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture. |isbn=1803511230}}{{Frontpage|author=Onyi Nwabineli|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself

|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Madeleine Finn doesn't like Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to read her step- not anything. Itmother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's not really her faultchildhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, you knowmonetary gain. Her teacher tries Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to encourage get herlife back, but some of suing her step-mother to take down the other kids giggle when she makes mistakescontent about her. And they pull faces of the type which would have given me my head in my hands Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to play with when I was a child. The words just don't seem to come out right start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for herdoing so. The other children are getting gold stars (I've ''never'' liked that system) but all Madeleine gets Most importantly, she is a heart sticker which tells desperately worried about her to keep trying. Shelittle sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's got plenty of thoseonline empire. All week Can she tries save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her best but doesn't get the star she longs for.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910646326</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Rose Blake|title= Going to School|rating=4|genre= For Sharing|summary= At the start of a new school year parents often ask for recommendations for books that would help make things a little easier for those about to start school for father at the first same time or for slightly older children making the transition to Junior School. This vibrant and cheerful picture book contains much in both text and images that would be useful and encouraging for anxious children and equally anxious parents.?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847808980</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mathieu Reynes, Valerie Vernay and Jeremy Melloul (translator)David Chadwick|title=Water MemoryHeadload of Napalm

|genre=Graphic NovelsThrillers|summary=Despite the title, it seems at first the memories here are much more earthyIt's September 1973 in Hicks, for Caroline has brought her young daughter to the place she herself left as a toddlerCalifornia. The move has been caused by Hicks is a break-up, and it's just the two Mojave desert town of them in the family unit, making a fresh start (few thousand people with the help its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a kindly old neighbour) significant drive away. Not much happens in an old house on a promontory of the Brittany coastHicks. Young Marion soon discovers the clifftops are peppered with strange standing stones, with even stranger figures, initials A silver mine and dates carved on to them. She also soon works out there is a way to get across a causeway at low tide to defence contractor are the main local lighthouseemployers but otherwise, manned as it there's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is by a gruffquiet, surly old manuntil.. But while Caroline's beginning anew starts with a nice local job, things are slowly getting more creepy. Large sea creatures are beaching themselves, the stones' imagery is found in even stranger places - and the lighthousekeeper seems to hold darker secrets. What memory could possibly be in this storm-drenched land?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1941302432</amazonuk>B0D321VJ76

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rob BiddulphTom Percival|title=KevinThe Wrong Shoes

|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=Sidney Gibbons Will's life is always difficult, in trouble a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work anddoesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, to make matters worseand his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, he insists was working a cash-in-hand job on blaming a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the mess he makes on fact that his invisible friend – Kevinmum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. This And yet, howeverhe still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, changes and clings to the moments of joy when Sidney actually meets Kevin and discovers what it he is drawing, that feel like to be on a light at the receiving end of bad behaviour. In a magical world of make-believelong, Sidney finally comes to realise that he's been selfish and resolves to put things right for both his invisible chum and his very own mumdark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0008207410</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elena LappinSylvie Cathrall|title=What Language Do I Dream In?A Letter to the Luminous Deep

|summary=Speaking many languages fluently seems close This book is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of the grief she endured following her husband's sudden death. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and necessary resource to help people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and delusion and makes them utterly normal, lends them a superpower human face to most of uswear.|isbn=0007216858}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4. Elena Lappin5|genre=Crime|summary=It's memoir is about how she came unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to be at home in five approach the police. Neither side likes or more languages, and what effect this has on her identityany respect for the other. Her familyBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's history prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the emigrations that led police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to her learning so many languages are caught up with European events. As a child she moved from Russia an open prison to Czechoslovakia serve the remainder of his sentence and from there to Germanyget an early parole date. Elena was encouraged by exchange holidays abroad Not much to learn French ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and English too. Then she chose university in Israel 's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and learnt Hebrewanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1739526910|title=Where I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating=4. So just as the rest of us might pick up bits of furniture or books from our various homes5|genre=General Fiction|summary=''One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's life, Elena picked up a language every timehe arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. A clever member of Living with an intellectual householdunexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of reconnecting with parents who were translators and writerseverything he has lost. But as those tentative plans falter, there never seems to have been great effort involved he becomes swept up in acquiring languagesa local world of unlikely friendships, it just happenedmobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844085783</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Heather Alexander and Andres Lozano0008405026|title=Life on Earth: Dinosaurs: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps!A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre=Children's Non-Fiction Crime|summary=I was a big fan of dinosaurs when I was a nipperIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Since then She was never found and the science regarding them has evolved leaps and boundsinvestigation ground to a halt. We've got in touch with them perhaps being featheredNow, her mother, Helena, and have assumed colours and noises they made – we can even extrapolate from her father are dead in their remains what their eyesightbed. Initially, hearing it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and so much more may have been likeher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. But science will never stop, and the next generation will need What looked as though it was going to be on board with the job of discovering them, analysing them, an open-and presenting them to -shut case is now a world that never seems to get enough of the nasty, superlative beasties of Hollywood renowncomplex double murder. As you're the kind of person to ask questions, you may well ask 'how do you get Kerrigan is convinced that next generation ready for their place in the field and explanation lies in the laboratory?Rosalie' I would put this s disappearance: others (such as the answer – even if it is made itself of a hundred questionsDerwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847808972</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Angela Marsons1529077745|title=Dead Souls The Dark Wives (D I Kim StoneVera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves

|summary=It was A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a field tripman in the park near Rosebank, but to be honest a lot of the students didn't really look all that interested in the excavation and Dr A really rather hoped that none of them would go into forensicscare home for troubled teens. There The dead man was more excitement when Josh - one of the skull care workers who was discovered due to work a shift the night before but at that point the students were quickly escorted from the scene and D I Kim Stone came on site to begin her investigationwho had never turned up. Unfortunately D I Tom Travis from Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the neighbouring force also arrived with murder - but her only clue is the same intention: the burial site was right on the border between the two forces and no disappearance of one was quite certain where one ended and of the other beganresidents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Stone assumed Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it would be her case and was shocked and bewildered when clear that she found that it was to be run as a joint investigationadored Josh. She nearly refused: knows that she and Travis had historyhas to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786811618</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Heather Alexander and Andres Lozano1399613073|title=Life on Earth: Jungle: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps!Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson

|genre=Children's Non-Fiction Thrillers|summary=We're constantly being asked Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to save somethingbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. Save the hedgerows, save the elephant, save our seasLaura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. There's absolutely nothing wrong with any Anjali is the free spirit of those goals – some of them are larger than the others, group and more demanding, but they are all worthyshe becomes a GP. But seeing as itWhen we first meet them they's (re at a) the largest land feature we need to save, drug and alcohol-fuelled party and (b) it's the most worthwhile going to save, why not just go for end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the jugular – and try and save tragedy or the Amazonian rainforest? consequences. Forget jugular, you'll Twenty-five years later there will be saving an eerily similar event that will impact the jaguar; you'll be protecting the source of a lot of our food, spices and medicines – and when did a hedgerow near you have almost fifty different species of ant on a singular tree? three friends. The first step to saving anything is to understand itThis time, to let us appreciate it, and this primer is how we get in touch with what's important about jungles so we can deem them worthwhiletheir teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847809014</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rob Biddulph0241636604|title=Sunk!The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingAutobiography|summary=''Hoist the Colours! Set the Sail! It's time If you were to hit the treasure trail.'' Penguin Blue and his friends are prepared to sail the seven seas in search bring up an image of gold but they become unstuck when a rip city banker in their ship means theyyour mind, you're suddenly SUNK! Luck unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background isthe East End, howeverwhere he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on their side his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and they find he has a handy desert island in the nick facility with numbers which most of timeus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. Here they make It was his ability at what was, essentially, a special new friend and ultimately find card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a treasure that's worth much more than goldtrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008207402</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 6/9 -->Frontpage|author=Keith DevineLeanne Egan|title=Wilderness of IceLover Birds|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyTeens|summary=Hans Schröder was not best pleased When new girl, Isabel, moves to be going to the Nazi party headquarters in Alexanderplatz, BerlinLou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. It was a snowy night in December 1937 A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and even then Heinrich Himmler that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it? Because Lou is straight, isn't she? Even though none of the SS Protection Squadron her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had something of a reputation. Schröder know that his beliefs were not completely in tune good kiss with those any of the party hierarchythem? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, but on this occasion it was an order which would find him leading an expedition to Tibet in search of the yeti: Hitler and Josef Mengele were keen wanting to see if improvements could be made to the master race hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and the thought of a humanoid with amazing capabilities was too tempting to dismiss. In January 1938 the expedition was on its way via Transylvania.she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524681857</amazonuk>000862657X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gillian Tindall1009473085|title= The Tunnel Through Time: A New Route for an Old London JourneyConservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=This Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book traces by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the course of historical journeys across inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the city in time and spacebook for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, examining how the areas above the new Crossrail route{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the largest building project currently under construction seventh book in Europe offering high speed links across London, have changed over a series which looks at the centuries, with destruction impact a government has made and renewal being a constantly recurring process in co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the city's historymost important. It is This book follows the well-established format: a fascinatingseries of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, compellingly readable exploration through the historical highways changes that occurred and byways of the metropolissituation in 2024.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587793</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Ryan GraudinMax Boucherat|title= InvictusThe Last Life of Lori Mills|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensConfident Readers|summary= ItWe meet Lori on the first evening she's got the 24th century house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and human beings have cracked that is to log on to Voxminer, the secret of time travel. Farway Gaius McCarthy world-building, critter-collecting game that is 17 and dreams of following a hit in his motherLori's footsteps as world. But first Lori has a Recorder for tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the Corps server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of Central Time Travellerstampering. If he succeeds, he is determined to track down Empra, who disappeared When malevolent eyes spark up on a mission when her son was just 7. But Farway tanks his final exam phone screen, and his ambitions seem crushed. He's given another chance by Luxher safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a black marketeer who employs teams of rogue time travellers girl to plunder the past of its artifacts - artifacts that fetch fortunes in credits in the Central Time world.turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1510102868</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Raymond WilliamsFyodor Dostoyevsky|title= Culture and Society 1780-1950White Nights|rating= 45|genre= Politics and SocietyShort Stories|summary= From As always in Dostoyevsky, the last decades of the eighteenth century to the final words of modernism, this book tracks societal changes through exploring five key words: industry, democracy, class, art and culturecharacter work is sublime. The meanings of such things, their essence, changes as per One is never left wondering what a character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their use innermost dispositions and the era in which their implications were consideredtemperaments with remarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784870811</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreview <!-- remove 5/9 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Hesene Mete 0008385068|title=Sinful WordsThe Midnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionThrillers|summary=When we meet him, Behram is a student It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at the school of theologyThe Manor. He loves God with a passion It's their opening weekend and has a determination to live a life dedicated splendid celebrations are promised. It''to'' God and to live s all headed up by His rulesFrancesca Meadows. He rents a property from Lulu Khan The Manor was her ancestral home and his wife, Lady Geshtina she's converted it into an impressive retreat for the wealthy and Khan invites Behram to his own home for a visitfamous. It's a delightful place Her husband, Owen, was the architect and the wealth work is still ongoing on parts of the couple site. The heat is obvious oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as is their standing within the local community: Lady Geshtina's late father is buried in what amounts well as friends. Old scores are going to a mausoleum, but be settled and itwon's not all this which enchants Behram. The couple have twin children and Behram t be long before a body is taken, enthralled by the daughter, Naginafound.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524682527</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susanna GregoryJames Baldwin|title=The Habit of Murder: The Twenty Third Chronicle of Matthew Bartholomew|rating=4|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=It was 1360 and Michaelhouse was in dire financial straits: they could last a little longer but not that long. Then it seemed that a lifeline might have been thrown to them when they heard that the wealthy Elizabeth de Burgh of the Suffolk town of Clare was dead and it was possible that The Lady, as she was known, had left them a legacy. It seemed that the best thing to do was to go to Clare to claim the money (or to try and prove that it had been Giovanni''intended'' and should therefore be paid) with all haste. The real mission could be concealed behind the bald statement that they were there to attend the funeral. Matthew Bartholomew was one of the contingent from Michaelhouse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751562637</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= M A Bennett|title= S.T.A.G.Ss Room|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensLiterary Fiction |summary=''One weekend. Three deadly activitiesGiovanni's Room''. Greer MacDonald is a new student at follows the prestigious St Aidan the Great Boarding Schoolnarrator David, an American man living in Paris, known to its exclusive pupils as She navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar.T.A.G.S. It While David is a school where technology engaged to Hella, who is absenttravelling in Spain, the teachers are replaced by friars, and a group of elite students –known as real tension in the Medievals – run the school. When Greer inexplicably receives an invitation novel arises not from his infidelity but from the Medievals to spend a weekend at the stately home of Henry de Warlencourt, the most popular boy at school, she is too curious decline such an invitationdeeper conflict within himself. But little does Greer realise that there It is more to the weekend than she initially understands. Ultimately she David's crippling shame and the other two students who have been invited must come together to uncover the truth about the infamous Medievals, and the blood sports they have been chosen to take part indenial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471406768</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Susi OsborneB0DGDJRHYD|title=Angelica Nowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone

|summary=I'd say that Angelica Stone was known as Angel to her friendsIn a quiet suburban house, but she's not big on friendsPatrick is making his final plans. She has the sort A meticulous man, he makes sure of background you dread hearing about: sexually abused as a childevery preparation, grabbed by down to the care system and didn't so much fall through the cracks as escaped its clutches last detail. Some last reflections, and then had he says goodbye to learn how to cope. She's been told that she's taintedhis wife, the world, that she ruins every relationship without intending to and that shehis life. It's best staying away from 'decent' peoplehorribly sad. One of At work in her jobs shop, his wife Diana is working in a supermarket fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and it's there that she meets Lola Moriarty and ''she's'' ailing mother, who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a completely different kettle of fishwhile before Diana realises what Patrick has done.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911320947</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jamie FordVirginie Despentes|title= Love and Other Consolation PrizesKing Kong Theory|rating= 54|genre= Historical FictionAutobiography |summary=At the World's Fair in 1962'King Kong Theory'' is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, it seems that all eyes are focused on the future. The Space Needle dominates the landscape, filling people with anticipation about things which can be seen as a call to comearms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. One visitorOriginally written in French, however, has his mind firmly focused on the past. Ernest Young book is helping his daughter Ju-ju with a story she is writing for collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her newspaper; experiences as a story about woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a young immigrant boy who was given away reflection of their original form as a prize in a raffle at the World's Fair in 1909independent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749022752</amazonuk>191309734X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Virginia MacgregorJames Baldwin|title= Before I Was YoursGiovanni's Room|rating= 4.5|genre= General Literary Fiction|summary= Rosie can see clearly her future family ''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in her minda gay bar. And when that doesn't happenWhile David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, she adapts. So maybe she won't carry the baby inside her, real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but that lovely blonde girl at from the adoption event could be their new daughter. Yes, she looks like she belongs to them alreadydeeper conflict within himself. Itis David's meant to be. Except it's not. Rosie crippling shame and Sam don't get to have a genetic child denial of their own, and they don't get to adopt the perfect blonde girl. They end up with the exact opposite: a boy from Kenya his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with a peculiar back story and an ardent wish not to be adopted. As optimistic as Rosie and Sam try to be, this isn't quite what they pictured or hoped forGiovanni. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751565229</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kaye UmanskyAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=The Pongwiffy Stories 1: A Witch of Dirty Habits and The Goblins' RevengeWild East

|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=Meet Pongwiffy. She must be the smelliestWritten in verse, ugliestthis is Ronny's story, most slurpy, non-house-cleaning a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and all-round disgusting witch out therestart at a mostly white school. SheThe move is initiated by Ronny's forced mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to live alongside the noisiestsettle in a new town, most stupid Goblins arounda new school, and it's with great reluctance that anyone ever comes to visit – and when they do they get acclaimed as her best friendkeep himself out of trouble. And she doesn't even have a familiarHe listens to music constantly, either. She is and has always dreamed of being a hopeless personrapper. But when said 'best friend' forces her now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to advertise for be part of a familiarpoetry writing workshop group and, nobody could expect what turns up…slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471167380</amazonuk>0241645441

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=J R WallisAlba de Cespedes |title= The Boy With One NameForbidden Notebook|rating= 4|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Jones is This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the boy with one namemoment our protagonist, snatched as an infant from his loving parents by a Badlander called MaitlandValeria Cossati, he only longs to be a normal boy and have his family back. One nightpurchases her forbidden notebook, he and Maitland are on patrol and come across an ogre 'moon-bathing.' Things don't go quite to plan; enter: Ruby, a foster child on learns about herself in the run, who is desperate to be part of the Badlander's world, despite its dangers and terrors. Along with a talking gun, a miniature fire breathing black dog, an old camper van, most intimate and a hefty sprinkling of magic – you're sure to be taken on one hell of a riderevealing ways.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147115792X</amazonuk>1782278222

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jason Rekulak and Kim SmithOttessa Moshfegh|title=The X-Files: Earth Children are Weird. A Picture BookMy Year of Rest and Relaxation|rating=4.53|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=We know that Dana Scully At best, this novel is a scathing critique of modern society and Fox Mulder didn't know each other as childrenreveals the fragility of human relationships; at worst, for they met much later onit is the cynical, at work for the FBIpredictable and slightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonist. But if they hadThis unlikely heroine, they may well have camped out a slim, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the back yard. They made have read scary stories to each otherworld, but one thing is for sure – Mulder's imagination would have seen aliens everywhere. He would have seen mystery in the deep impression in the yard, horror resolves not to lose sleep over it: in the shadowsfact, and the unexplained her solution lies in any vaguely mysterious noiseher hibernation. For that's what happens on the pages of this picture book – but that's not ''all'' that happens – the truth is something much more peculiar…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1683690273</amazonuk>1784707422

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Tom LloydJo Callaghan|title= Princess of BloodLeave No Trace|rating= 4.5|genre= FantasyCrime|summary= Toil – unpredictable and dangerous even for an assassin, now wears When a man is found crucified on the Princess top of Blood on her jacket. Mercanery Lynx still has his doubts about her – but a new mission hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to escort a dignitary soon throws the old team back case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Travelling to an ancient city that conceals But when there is a second body found crucified a mysterious labyrinth, the situations go from bad to worsefew days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with new threats a potential serial killer and worse horrors on every cornera very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. The group argue and bicker as they go along – but will Will they be too concerned with their own disputes able to see solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the far blacker evil that threatens to surround themcase and, potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473213207</amazonuk>139851120X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Andy WeirB0DB64PYV5|title= ArtemisThe White Rose|author=Dave Baines|rating= 3.54|genre= Science Dystopian Fiction|summary=Welcome to ArtemisIn 2033, a superstorm known as the first city on the moon. A powerhouse for White Rose devastates the rich and a once in a lifetime trip for earth tourists, and also a place a small community of citizens call home. Jazz Bashara is one such citizenNorthern Hemisphere. She came to Artemis with her father aged six, And it's the only place she's ever known but she wouldn't say she's flourishing. In fact, the phrase most often used to describe Jazz is a waste of talent. Jazz lives in the low end of town, sleeping on not a bunkstorm that gathers, using a shared bathroomwreaks havoc, which is all she can afford through her job as a porterthen dissipates. HoweverInstead, Jazz dreams above all else of being rich and to this endit hovers across half the Earth with its octopus-like tentacles, she has set not giving up a side business of illegal smuggling activity. When one of Jazz's regular clients wants her to step up from petty criminal to major criminal for a handsome reward, it is just too tempting to refuse. What Jazz doesn't know is all the facts behind what she is being asked to doand never going away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091956943</amazonuk>