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<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 -->{{newreview <!-- remove 10/9 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Stuart Burrell1635866847|title=Twelve Times To The Max: One Man's Journey to, Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Recollections of, Setting Twelve Verified World RecordsTerry Barlin Vesci|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyLifestyle|summary=The first of Stuart BurrellIt's world recordsstrange, wellthe things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the first two, actually, as heauthor's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's not a man to do things by halves, came about by accidentpicture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There had been 's a plan to raise recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some money for difficulty!!) Then I started reading the Children book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in Need Charity and quite late on the people who were margins are sanctioned. You get to have been fold down the main attraction got a better offer and Burrell is corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a man to let people downproblem. What could be done to bring people I ''loved'' this book already.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the Before and raise some money? Most of us would have thought of jumble sales After|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Elk and cake bakesMab are best friends, or more than that even, but Burrell had made their friendship is a hobby of escapology and idea of once in a sponsored escape had life breathed into itlifetime connection. On 3 November 2002 he went for They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the Fastest Handcuff Escape world record time. But then chance brings them back together, and immediately afterwards Most Handcuffs Escaped in One Hourthey are inseparable. Both were successful Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and more than £300 was raised for Children in Needtheir friendship, together.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>154712251X</amazonuk>1471196585

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Susan Duxbury-Neumann1787333175|title= What You Don't Have the Germans Ever Done for Us?: A History of the German Population of Great Britainto be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating= 45|genre= HistoryPopular Science|summary= The adapted Monty Pythonesque rhetorical question takes some time I was tempted to provide read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a full answerglorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You 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 did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this slim setting but useful volume does so very wellthe laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445664860</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Holly HepburnMariana Enriquez|title= The Picture House by the SeaA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating= 45|genre= Women's FictionShort Stories|summary=So as another typically dreary British summer Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is drawing 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 a closean urban planning mishap, I found myself craving an overcrowded homeless shelter and a fix crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of literary sunshine and sea kissed romance. In such a mood it was then, her characters are so plausible that I came across the cover for ''The Picture House by the Sea''. Perfect blue skies, glistening sea, supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a beautiful Art Deco building and to top it off an old fashioned ice-cream cartsimilarly tangible texture. Consider me sold!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471161714</amazonuk>1803511230

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyreOnyi Nwabineli|title=Pug-a-Doodle-Do!Allow Me to Introduce Myself

|genre=CraftsGeneral Fiction|summary=I was reading a book so utterly different Anuri spent her childhood on display to this the other dayworld, it has thanks to bear mentionher step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. It was an exceedingly academic book about graphic novels Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and comics for the YA audienceto get her life back, and it featured an essay picking up on the way books like the fill-in-bitssuing her step-yourself entries in the Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries series (such as [[Dork Diaries: How mother to Dork Your Diary by Rachel Renee Russell|this one]]) let you interact with take down the franchise, and also to create your own contentabout her. There was some weird high-falutin' academic language Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to describe such books – but you know what? I say (redacted) to that – let's just hang it start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and have funreceiving money from them for doing so. And this bookMost importantly, spinning off from the four books this partnership has so far been responsible forshe is desperately worried about her little sister, who is certainly a provider the new focus of thatOphelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192764047</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy Strong and Jamie SmithDavid Chadwick|title=Nellie Choc-Ice, Penguin Explorer (Little Gems)Headload of Napalm

|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyThrillers|summary=Meet Nellie Choc-IceIt's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Thus named by her grandparents (and grandparents have Hicks is a habit in this book Mojave desert town of making unusual names for their grandchildren, whichever species they belong to), she is a pretty little Macaroni penguin, complete few thousand people with pink feet, bright yellow eyebrows its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a woolly hat with the world's biggest pompom on the endsignificant drive away. She has a habit of going exploring and finding out what's over the next ridge Not much happens in the ice, Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the nextmain local employers but otherwise, there's not much of note other than dive bars and the nextJoshua trees. But when disaster happens and the ice she is on Life is knocked off Antarctica by a submarinequiet, even she can have no idea as to where she will end up…until....|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781127212</amazonuk>B0D321VJ76

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sally NichollsTom Percival|title= Things A Bright Girl Can DoThe Wrong Shoes|rating= 45|genre= TeensConfident Readers|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes'Things a Bright Girl Can Do, he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn' tells t have enough money for even the story most basic of three teenage girlsthings like food, all of whom are fighting for women's suffrage, despite coming from very different backgrounds. Thereand his dad can's Evelyn, an upper-class girl expected to marry t work because he lost his job at a young age, Maythe college, was working a middlecash-in-class girl with hand job on a building site and had an opinionated Motheraccident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and NellWill's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a working-class girl who does what she can to help her large family scrape bytiny amount of hope. The novel chronicles both their contributions He is good at art, and clings to the fight for suffragemoments of joy when he is drawing, and that feel like a light at the way their lives change when World War One beginsend of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783445254</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Neil WhiteSylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title= From The ShadowsJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating= 4.5|genre= Crime|summary= IBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury'm apartments - when they discovered the bones of a bit old-fashioned and therefore not child beneath a great fan of stories that can't keep their timeline straightdoorway. There was no skull. I'll go Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with a prologue – even if itDCI Harry Nelson. It's becoming a bit of clichéd way of creating a mystery at the beginning of a story – difficult as Ruth knows, but switching between Nelson doesn'now' and 'a fortnight ago' – just feels a little lazyt, that she is pregnant with his child as a way result of creating tension when all else failsthe one night they spent together some three months ago. That, howeverHer condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is my only little gripe about ''From The Shadows'' and I admit, whether I like it or not, it does more or less workprone to sudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785760920</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa PappJoan Didion|title=Madeleine Finn and the Library DogThe Year of Magical Thinking

|genre=For SharingAutobiography|summary=Madeleine Finn doesn't like to read - not anything. ItThis book is Joan Didion's not really her fault, you know. Her teacher tries to encourage her, but some heartbreaking autobiographical account of the other kids giggle when grief she makes mistakesendured following her husband's sudden death. And they pull faces of the type which would have given me my head in my hands to play with when I was Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a child. The words just don't seem beautiful and necessary resource to come out right for herhelp people feel less alone. The other children are getting gold stars (I've ''never'' liked that system) but all Madeleine gets is Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and delusion and makes them utterly normal, lends them a heart sticker which tells her human face to keep trying. She's got plenty of those. All week she tries her best but doesn't get the star she longs forwear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910646326</amazonuk>0007216858

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rose Blake0008551324|title= Going to SchoolThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre= For SharingCrime|summary= At It's unusual for anyone from 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 Hardie family to start school for approach the first time police. Neither side likes or has any respect for slightly older children making the transition other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to Junior Schooltell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This vibrant person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and cheerful picture book contains to get an early parole date. Not much in both text to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and images she's even prepared to do the other thing that would be useful and encouraging for anxious children Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and equally anxious parentsanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847808980</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mathieu Reynes, Valerie Vernay and Jeremy Melloul (translator)1739526910|title=Water MemoryWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley

|genre=Graphic NovelsGeneral Fiction|summary=Despite the title, it seems at first the memories here are much more earthy, for Caroline has brought her young daughter to the place she herself left as ''One year after a toddler. The move has been caused by a break-up, and itsuicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's just the two of them in the family unitlife, making a fresh start (with the help of a kindly old neighbour) he arrives in an old house on a promontory of the Brittany coastunfamiliar Devon town to recover. Young Marion soon discovers the clifftops are peppered Living with strange standing stonesan unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of reconnecting with even stranger figures, initials and dates carved on to themeverything he has lost. She also soon works out there is a way to get across a causeway at low tide to the local lighthouse, manned But as it is by a gruffthose tentative plans falter, surly old man. But while Caroline's beginning anew starts with he becomes swept up in a nice local jobworld of unlikely friendships, things are slowly getting more creepymobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities. 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?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1941302432</amazonuk>'

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rob Biddulph0008405026|title=KevinA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Sidney Gibbons is always in trouble It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and, the investigation ground to make matters worsea halt. Now, he insists on blaming the mess he makes on his invisible friend – Kevin. Thisher mother, howeverHelena, changes when Sidney actually meets Kevin and discovers what her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it is looks like to be on a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the receiving end positioning of bad behaviourthe bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. In What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a magical world of make-believe, Sidney finally comes to realise complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that hethe explanation lies in Rosalie's been selfish and resolves to put things right for both his invisible chum and his very own mumdisappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008207410</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elena Lappin1529077745|title=What Language Do The Dark Wives (D I Dream In?Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=Speaking many languages fluently seems close to A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a superpower to most of us. Elena Lappin's memoir is about how she came to be at home man in five or more languagesthe park near Rosebank, and what effect this has on her identitya care home for troubled teens. Her family's history and The dead man was Josh - one of the emigrations that led care workers who was due to her learning so many languages are caught work a shift the night before but who had never turned up with European events. As a child she moved from Russia D I Vera Stanhope is called in to Czechoslovakia and from there to Germanyinvestigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Elena Some people believe that Chloe was encouraged by exchange holidays abroad to learn French and English too. Then she chose university in Israel and learnt Hebrew. So just responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the rest of us might pick up bits of furniture or books from our various homes, Elena picked up a language every timegirl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. A clever member of an intellectual household, with parents who were translators and writers, there never seems She knows that she has to find Chloe to have been great effort involved in acquiring languages, it just discover what happenedto Josh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844085783</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Heather Alexander and Andres Lozano1399613073|title=Life on Earth: Dinosaurs: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps!Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction Thrillers|summary=I was Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a big fan quarter of dinosaurs a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when I was you aim to be a nippercardiothoracic surgeon. Since then Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the science regarding them has evolved leaps group and boundsshe becomes a GP. WeWhen we first meet them they've got in touch with them perhaps being feathered, re at a drug and have assumed colours alcohol-fuelled party and noises they made – we can even extrapolate from their remains what their eyesight, hearing and so much more may have been likeit's going to end in tragedy. But science will never stop, and We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the next generation consequences. Twenty-five years later there will need to be on board with the job of discovering them, analysing them, and presenting them to a world an eerily similar event that never seems to get enough of will impact the nasty, superlative beasties of Hollywood renownthree friends. As you're the kind of person to ask questionsThis time, you may well ask it'how do you get that next generation ready for s their place in the field and in the laboratory?' I would put this as the answer – even if it is made itself of a hundred questionsteenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847808972</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Angela Marsons0241636604|title=Dead Souls (D I Kim Stone)The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson

|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=It was If you were to bring up an image of a field tripcity banker in your mind, but you're unlikely to be honest a lot think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the students didn't really look all that interested in pin-stripe suit and his background is the excavation East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and Dr A really rather hoped that none of them would go into forensicsinjustice. There was more excitement when the skull was discovered no posh public school on his CV - but at that point he had been to the students were quickly escorted from the scene and D I Kim Stone came on site to begin her investigationLondon School of Economics. Unfortunately D I Tom Travis from the neighbouring force also arrived Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with the same intention: the burial site was right on the border between the two forces and no one was quite certain where one ended and the other begannumbers which most of us can only envy. Stone assumed He also realised that it would most rich people expect poor people to be her case and stupid. It was shocked and bewildered when she found that it his ability at what was to be run as , essentially, a joint investigationcard game which got him an internship with Citibank. She nearly refused: she and Travis had historyEventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786811618</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Heather Alexander and Andres LozanoLeanne Egan|title=Life on Earth: Jungle: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps!Lover Birds

|genre=Children's Non-Fiction Teens|summary=We're constantly being asked to save something. Save the hedgerowsWhen new girl, save the elephantIsabel, save our seas. Theremoves to Lou's absolutely nothing wrong with any of those goals – some hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves them are larger than the others, and more demandinghating each other, but they are all worthy. But seeing as it's (a) the largest land feature we need to saveLou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and (b) itthat's the most worthwhile to savedefinitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, why not just go for the jugular – and try and save the Amazonian rainforestisn't it? Forget jugularBecause Lou is straight, youisn'll be saving the jaguar; you'll be protecting the source t she? Even though none of a lot of our foodher relationships with boys have gone very well so far, spices and medicines – and when did she's never had a hedgerow near you have almost fifty different species good kiss with any of ant on a singular treethem? The first step So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to saving anything hang out with her because fighting with her is to understand itfun, to let us appreciate itand she definitely just hates Isabel, and this primer is how we get in touch with whatdoesn's important about jungles so we can deem them worthwhile.t she?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847809014</amazonuk>000862657X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rob Biddulph1009473085|title=Sunk!The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)

|genre=For SharingPolitics and Society|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''Hoist . If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the Colours! Set inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the Sail! book for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's time a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to hit the treasure trailpolitics. ''The Conservative Effect'' Penguin Blue is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and his friends are prepared to sail co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the seven seas in search state of gold but they become unstuck the nation when a rip the coalition took over in their ship means they're suddenly SUNK! Luck is2010, however, on their side the changes that occurred and they find a handy desert island the situation in the nick of time2024. Here they make a special new friend and ultimately find a treasure that's worth much more than gold.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008207402</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 6/9 -->Frontpage|author=Keith DevineMax Boucherat|title=Wilderness The Last Life of IceLori Mills|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=Hans Schröder was not best pleased We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to be going herself – no neighbour to the Nazi party headquarters pop in Alexanderplatz, Berlinbabysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. It was What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a snowy night in December 1937 blanket fort, she has one main intention, and even then Heinrich Himmler of that is to log on to Voxminer, the SS Protection Squadron had something of world-building, critter-collecting game that is a reputationhit in Lori's world. Schröder know But first Lori has a tiny inkling that his beliefs were not completely in tune with those of the party hierarchy, but on this occasion it was an order which would stormy night doesn't find him leading an expedition to Tibet in search of herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the yeti: Hitler server she and Josef Mengele were keen to see if improvements could her bestie and nobody else should be made able to the master race enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the thought of game has been doctored – well, where is a humanoid with amazing capabilities was too tempting girl to dismiss. In January 1938 the expedition was on its way via Transylvania.turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524681857</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Gillian TindallFyodor Dostoyevsky|title= The Tunnel Through Time: A New Route for an Old London JourneyWhite Nights|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryShort Stories|summary=This book traces the course of historical journeys across the city As always in time and spaceDostoyevsky, examining how the areas above the new Crossrail route, the largest building project currently under construction in Europe offering high speed links across London, have changed over the centuries, with destruction and renewal being a constantly recurring process in the city's historycharacter work is sublime. It One is never left wondering what a fascinating, compellingly readable exploration through the historical highways character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and byways of the metropolistemperaments with remarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099587793</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ryan Graudin0008385068|title= InvictusThe Midnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensThrillers|summary= It's midsummer on the 24th century Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend and human beings have cracked the secret of time travelsplendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. Farway Gaius McCarthy is 17 The Manor was her ancestral home and dreams of following in his mothershe's footsteps as a Recorder converted it into an impressive retreat for the Corps of Central Time Travellerswealthy and famous. If he succeeds Her husband, he Owen, was the architect and work is determined to track down Empra, who disappeared still ongoing on a mission when her son was just 7parts of the site. But Farway tanks his final exam The heat is oppressive and his ambitions seem crushedamongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. He Old scores are going to be settled and it won's given another chance by Lux, t be long before a black marketeer who employs teams of rogue time travellers to plunder the past of its artifacts - artifacts that fetch fortunes in credits in the Central Time worldbody is found.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1510102868</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Raymond WilliamsJames Baldwin|title= Culture and Society 1780-1950Giovanni's Room|rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and SocietyLiterary Fiction |summary= From the last decades of the eighteenth century to ''Giovanni's Room'' follows the final words of modernismnarrator David, this book tracks societal changes through exploring five key words: industryan American man living in Paris, democracyas he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, class, art and culturean Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. The meanings of such thingsWhile David is engaged to Hella, their essencewho is travelling in Spain, changes as per their use and the era real tension in which their implications were consideredthe novel arises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784870811</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreview <!-- remove 5/9 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Hesene Mete B0DGDJRHYD|title=Sinful WordsNowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=When we meet himIn a quiet suburban house, Behram Patrick is a student at making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of every preparation, down to the school of theologylast detail. He loves God with a passion and has a determination to live a life dedicated ''to'' God Some last reflections, and then he says goodbye to live by His rules. He rents a property from Lulu Khan and his wife, Lady Geshtina the world, and Khan invites Behram to his own home for a visitlife. It's a delightful place and the wealth of the couple is obvious as is their standing within the local community: Lady Geshtina's late father is buried horribly sad. At work in what amounts to a mausoleumher shop, but it's not all this which enchants Behram. The couple have twin children his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and Behram is takenailing mother, enthralled by the daughter, Naginawho needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a while before Diana realises what Patrick has done.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524682527</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susanna GregoryVirginie Despentes|title=The Habit of Murder: The Twenty Third Chronicle of Matthew BartholomewKing Kong Theory

|genre=Crime (Historical)Autobiography |summary=It was 1360 ''King Kong Theory'' is a hard-hitting memoir and Michaelhouse was feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in dire financial straits: they could last a little longer but not that longphallocentric society broken at its core. Then it seemed that Originally written in French, the book is a lifeline might have been thrown to them when they heard that the wealthy Elizabeth de Burgh collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the Suffolk town complex prism of Clare was dead her varied life: from rape to sex work and it was possible that The Ladypornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, as she was knowntheir placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, had left them a legacyreflection of their original form as independent essays. 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 |isbn=191309734X}}{{Frontpage|author=James Baldwin|title=Giovanni's Room|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction |summary=''Giovanni'intendeds Room'' and should therefore be paid) follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with all hasteGiovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. The While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, the real mission could be concealed behind tension in the bald statement that they were there to attend novel arises not from his infidelity but from the funeraldeeper conflict within himself. Matthew Bartholomew was one It is David's crippling shame and denial of the contingent from Michaelhousehis sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751562637</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= M A BennettAshley Hickson-Lovence|title= S.T.A.G.SWild East|rating= 4.5|genre= Teens|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny''One weekends story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school. Three deadly activities The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny'. Greer MacDonald is s safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new student at the prestigious St Aidan the Great Boarding Schooltown, known to its exclusive pupils as S.T.A.G.S. It is a new school where technology is absent, the teachers are replaced by friars, and a group keep himself out of elite students –known as the Medievals – run the schooltrouble. When Greer inexplicably receives an invitation from the Medievals He listens to spend music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a weekend at the stately home of Henry de Warlencourtrapper. But now, the most popular boy at in this new school, she is too curious decline such an invitation. But little does Greer realise that there is more his teacher encourages him to the weekend than she initially understands. Ultimately she be part of a poetry writing workshop group and the other two students who have been invited must come together , slowly, Ronny begins to uncover see the truth about the infamous Medievalsconnections between rap and poetry, and the blood sports they have been chosen to take part inpower of creativity and crafting your words.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471406768</amazonuk>0241645441

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susi OsborneAlba de Cespedes |title=Angelica StoneForbidden Notebook

|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=I'd say that Angelica Stone was known as Angel to her friends, but she's not big on friends. She has the sort This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of background you dread hearing about: sexually abused as a child, grabbed by the care system suspense and didn't so much fall through tension from the cracks as escaped its clutches and then had to learn how to cope. She's been told that she's taintedmoment our protagonist, Valeria Cossati, purchases her forbidden notebook, that she ruins every relationship without intending to and that she's best staying away from 'decent' people. One of her jobs is working learns about herself in a supermarket the most intimate and it's there that she meets Lola Moriarty and ''she's'' a completely different kettle of fishrevealing ways.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1911320947</amazonuk>1782278222

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jamie FordOttessa Moshfegh|title= Love My Year of Rest and Other Consolation PrizesRelaxation|rating= 53|genre= Historical Literary Fiction|summary=At best, this novel is a scathing critique of modern society and reveals the World's Fair in 1962fragility of human relationships; at worst, it seems that all eyes are focused on the future. The Space Needle dominates is the landscapecynical, filling people with anticipation about things to comepredictable and slightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonist. One visitorThis unlikely heroine, howevera slim, has his mind firmly focused on the past. Ernest Young attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is helping his daughter Ju-ju disillusioned with a story she is writing for the world, but resolves not to lose sleep over it: in fact, her newspaper; a story about a young immigrant boy who was given away as a prize solution lies in a raffle at the World's Fair in 1909her hibernation.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749022752</amazonuk>1784707422

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Virginia MacgregorJo Callaghan|title= Before I Was YoursLeave No Trace|rating= 54|genre= General FictionCrime|summary= Rosie can see clearly her future family When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in her mind. And when that doesn't happenNuneaton, she adapts. So maybe she won't carry DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the baby inside case alongside hersidekick, but that lovely blonde girl at the adoption event could be their new daughter. Yes, she looks like she belongs to them alreadyAI detective Lock. It's meant to be. Except it's not. Rosie and Sam don't get to have a genetic child of their ownfirst live case together, and they don't get to adopt the perfect blonde girlhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. They end up with the exact opposite: But when there is a second body found crucified a boy from Kenya few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a peculiar back story potential serial killer and an ardent wish not a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be adopted. As optimistic as Rosie and Sam try able to besolve the case in time, this isn't quite what they pictured or hoped for. will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751565229</amazonuk>139851120X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kaye UmanskyB0DB64PYV5|title=The Pongwiffy Stories 1: A Witch of Dirty Habits and The Goblins' RevengeWhite Rose|author=Dave Baines|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersDystopian Fiction|summary=Meet Pongwiffy. She must be In 2033, a superstorm known as the White Rose devastates the smelliest, ugliest, most slurpy, non-house-cleaning and all-round disgusting witch out thereNorthern Hemisphere. SheAnd it's forced to live alongside the noisiestnot a storm that gathers, wreaks havoc, most stupid Goblins aroundthen dissipates. Instead, and it's hovers across half the Earth with great reluctance that anyone ever comes to visit – its octopus-like tentacles, not giving up and when they do they get acclaimed as her best friendnever going away. And she doesn't even have a familiar, either. She is a hopeless person. But when said 'best friend' forces her to advertise for a familiar, nobody could expect what turns up…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471167380</amazonuk>