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Hello from The Bookbag<metadesc>Expert, a full book review site, featuring books reviews from all the many most walks of literary life ; fiction, non- [[: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. Itchildren'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 & self-published 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 plus author [[:Category:Interviews|interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Features]] page.</metadesc>
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{{newreview|author=Daniel Kehlmann |title=Me and Kaminski|ratingThe Best New Books=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=After reviewing several long books, it's been refreshing to read such a fluent yet pared down story as 'Kaminski and Me'. In it, Sebastian Zollner, the obnoxious main character, shoves himself forward in a desperate attempt to research a best seller which will re-ignite his career as an art critic. Kaminski, the proposed subject, was a fashionable painter long ago, but now, ancient and chronically ill, has virtually slid into oblivion. So the second-rate writer is on a loser unless he can dig up some juicy details to hook the art world and general public.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Louis Barfe|title=Turned Out Nice Again'''Read [[:Category: The Story of British Light Entertainment|rating=4|genre=EntertainmentNew Reviews|summary=Light entertainment is often looked down upon, as if it's a bit naff, tepid and ignorablenew reviews by category]]. What's often forgotten is that it's hugely popular, enjoyable and much of it is of the highest quality. Louis Barfe's Turned Out Nice Again tells the complete story of British light entertainment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonukbr>}}
{{newreview|author=Jim Helmore and Karen Wall'''Read [[:Category:Features|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Marvin is entering the Great Grislygust Grow-Off, but just like him, his tomatoes arenlatest features]].'''t growing very big. He takes the only sensible course of action: he sings his tomatoes a song. The results are spectacular. Victory is surely within his grasp.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>}}
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joseph Delaney Onyi Nwabineli|title=The Spook's Stories: WitchesAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary='Warning: Not Anuri spent her childhood on display to be read after darkthe world,thanks to her step-mother Ophelia' are the only words s increasingly popular presence on the back social media, where she posted every step of ''The SpookAnuri's Stories''childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and on to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the inside flapcontent about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, 'The Times' warns us that this book is 'seriously scary'.failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so..  The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamely Most importantly, thoughshe is desperately worried about her little sister, with a story about a young Spook (a sort of monster-hunter) who falls in love with a witch and is forced to bear the consequences when the witchnew focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister comes to stay , and perhaps herself and exhibits a taste for her relationship with her father at the neighbor-children.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa UngerDavid Chadwick|title=Die For YouHeadload of Napalm|rating=34.5|genre=CrimeThrillers|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married to successful video game designer Marcus RaineIt's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Or so she thinks. But when her husband fails to return from work, she realises something Hicks is wronga Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Going to his office to try to find out what Not much happens to him, she gets attacked and ends up in hospital, while his co-workers are killedHicks. Things get worse for her, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, A silver mine and the man she married was using a false identity. Infuriated by defence contractor are the betrayalmain local employers but otherwise, and the realisation that shethere's been living a lie for the past five years, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and sets out to find her husband not much of note other than dive bars and work out why he lied to her for so longJoshua trees. Ignoring police warningsLife is quiet, she delves deeper and deeper into a nasty underworld, and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything she could have plotted in one of her novelsuntil....|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>B0D321VJ76
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa McMannTom Percival|title=WakeThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Janie is seventeen and studying hard for college. SheWill's also working lots of hours at a local nursing home to earn money for college as it's unlikely her alcoholic mother life is going to provide much difficult, in the way a multitude of resourcesways. College He is Janiebullied because he has 's only chance at a life better than the one shewrong shoes's lived so far , he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and so you his dad can't blame her for being so singlework because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-minded in -hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the pursuit of her goal. Only one thing stands fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in her wayevery direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaclyn Moriarty Sylvie Cathrall|title=The Spell Book of Listen TaylorA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Listen Taylor's father has just moved in with his girlfriend and they There are adopted into the Zing family, with all of its delightful eccentricities and unusual behaviour – the Zings meet every Friday night for dinner and then disappear into the garden shed to work on the 'Zing Family Secret'. Marbie Zing is terrified of doing something wrong and losing Nathaniel and Listen. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with her home life, and her daughter's year two teacher is coming to terms with few greater joys than a break book which lives up. The stories of these people come together to create a tale compelling premise. And this is one of life, love, and ultimately, what being part of a family meansthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=F G Cottam0008517061|title=The Magdalena CurseDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=2.54|genre=HorrorCrime|summary=Mark Hunter is Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the sort future of father who would do anything for his son. After losing life with his wife vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a tragic accident, his surviving son Adam has become lot of compromise: does Jake give up his whole world. And Adam is an exceptional child – beautiful, incredibly smart off-grid and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he's been channelling the voices of the dead. Plagued by horrific dreams, able relaxing life to speak Russian move in the hours after he wakes, drawing occult symbols when he doodles, Hunter believes Adam with Livia or does Livia move to be possessed. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is sceptical, until the future she meets Adam, wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and witnesses putting the horrors future on the poor boy endures for herselfback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jon Berkeley1786482126|title=The Lightning Key Janus Stone (Circus TrilogyDr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=I shall start with a word of advice. When you're being hounded by a circus master, and a magician, for Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the soul of a tiger thatsite was going to hold seventy-five 's contained in a tigerluxury's egg that's contained in apartments - when they discovered the brain bones of your teddy bear, and your best friend - a fallen angel - is trying her best to make sure the other angels do not turn on you in child beneath a big way - then you're probably living the third book in doorway. There was no skull. Was this a fantasy trilogyritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Still - never mindIt's difficult as Ruth knows, the angelbut Nelson doesn's efforts will involve you entering t, that she is pregnant with his child as a dream world result of flight and cloud cities, the chase after your enemies one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will take you across the world to desert oases and backbe obvious before long, and friends new and old will be on board not least because Ruth is prone to helpsudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Townsend0008551324|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. It's not quite how life was supposed to turn out. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniform, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believe, and desperately attempting to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needs. And yet, the worst is still to come. Think a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – it's going to be a tough year for the Moles, and there's little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back and watch his life spin out of control around him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Lauren Kate|title=FallenNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=A 17 year old girl at a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boy, who sheIt's immediately drawn unusual for anyone from the Hardie family toapproach the police. He seems determined to either ignore her Neither side likes or be outright rude has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for herdeath. This person, until he saves her lifepromises, is someone big and it will be worth the two police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of them end up drawn togetherhis sentence and to get an early parole date. This isn Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't Stephenie Meyerthink so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similaritiess happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gareth Hinds0008405026|title=King LearA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=35|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime|summary=Hound me out of town in 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 a most appropriate manner, but I do not like King Learhalt. For meNow, her mother, even as a trained actorHelena, the language is too dense and richher father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the set-up too archly unfeasible to create positioning of the great tragedy bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it's thought was going to bean open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. To my mind Kerrigan is convinced that the acclaim and esteem explanation lies in which itRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's held is only mirrored by its own over-longboss, over-blown blusteringUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Theroux0571379877|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in CalcuttaThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Set in India, familiar territory for Theroux, ''A Dead Hand'' tells the story of a travel writer suffering from writer's block (also known as 'dead hand') until Edward Jevons is a chance letter from an American exworking-patclass young man, the mysterious Mrs Ungerobsessed with his upper-class friends, relating a story of a mystery of a dead body in a hotel leads him to release his creativity in very unexpected ways. The story is more about obsession Robert and infatuation than it is about the mystery itself as the narrator falls under Mrs Unger's Tantric charmsStanza. But does she have more to hide than she Robert's letting on?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Toby Lester|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest Map|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=In 2003 a map was bought for $10 million, the highest price ever paid publicly for a historical document, by the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public displaytheatre director. No ordinary map, this is sometimes described as AmericaHe's birth certificate. It is the sole survivor of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th centuryalso self-obsessed, and was discovered by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901. The sale and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired to discover moredemanding, handsome and this book is the result.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steven Lowe entitled and Alan McArthur |title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide uses Edward to Unremitting Global Misery|rating=3|genre=Humour|summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floorrun errands for him.'' Surely that is the wackiest, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and all it has done for the worldhe's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. You wonMost men in Robert't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses s position would stay away from these authors, instead with quite Stanza or tell Edward that a potty mouth on relationship had begun between them they will lambast the modern world, the entire banking system, all those who failed to see it coming, and those millions just seemingly waiting for us all to revert to high-interest, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get back on the expenses train, and back up the rich lists.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Andy Stanton|title=Whatbut he's For Dinner, Mr Gum?|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns her back, and leaves the town of Lamonic Bibber for a day at the seaside, Mr Gum falls out with his best friend, causing carnivorous carnage all over the place. Meat not like most men: Edward is getting thrown around like it's going out of fashion, and we have left to doubt whether Polly and her companions can ever utilise stumble upon the power two of love and put things to rights. Especially as this book does not contain them kissing in a magic unicorn called Elizabethdark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Loose WomenJo Callaghan|title=Here Come the GirlsLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Home and FamilyCrime|summary=This When a man is found crucified on the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV seriestop of a hill in Nuneaton, ''Loose Women''. Just as promised on DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the covercase alongside her sidekick, this book is an entertaining night with the girlsAI detective Lock. It turns out that they're just like uss their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. The faces are already familiar and even if you don't know them yet But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with nine contributors, you'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of the celebrity facesunwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. The women are universally warm-hearted and supportive: there Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will be many a lonely woman who reads this book Kat find herself taken off the case and feels as if she sat down with , potentially, out of a group of friends for the evening.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure1399613073|title=Fortune CookieMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=Fudge Cassidy Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the Cupcake kid are best friendsfirst day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. If the names remind you of Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a certain film then bonus when you'd aim to be spot on as that's where Fudge's father got the idea froma cardiothoracic surgeon. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge Laura is loud mouthed a perfectionist and opinionated and Cupcake a trauma doctor. Anjali is quiet the free spirit of the group and thoughtful – but the combination worksshe becomes a GP. TheyWhen we first meet them they've just started re at secondary school a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and Cupcake has rather a lot on her plateit's going to end in tragedy. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obviousWe don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Add to this Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that her father couldn't cope with will impact the problems and he now has another familythree friends. ItThis time, it's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not a lot of moneytheir teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenifer Roberts0241636604|title=The Madness of Queen MariaTrading Game: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time the richest and most opulent If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in Europeyour mind, Maria was destined you're unlikely to become the first female monarch in Portuguese historythink of someone like Gary Stevenson. Married to her uncle Infante PedroA hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them)where he was familiar with violence, poverty and became Queen in 1777injustice. A conscientious woman, she There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had the misfortune been to be born in during the 'age London School of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacyEconomics. Instinctively Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a supporter facility with numbers which most of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to state affairsbe stupid. It was his ability at what was, she was no Queen Elizabethessentially, no Catherine the Greata card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, and wore her crown rather reluctantlythis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Hughes1035021803|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime|summary=Well, with a title like that, need I bother with a plot summary? A man It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has a day out in Morecambe, then been back to the next thing he knows heEnglish country village where she grew up. She's in the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array back now because of animals (a bat, a toad, a sea urchin...), all waiting request for... wellhelp from her beloved aunt, somethingCarole. Yup, as you didnFreya't need telling, hes former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dave Eggers|title=The Wild Things|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Maxand the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. When I say he sometimes gets Arthur was the wrong end of reason why Freya had not been back to the stick about adults, or dislikes his mother's new boyfriendvillage: Arthur, or gets a bit feisty when he she feels the need for revenge, I am certainly understating the factslet her down badly. He is a bit of a rascal Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to say be near the man or pursue the leastprofession she loved. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling to After the split, she worked in a strange land cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of roisterous animalsher life, who was murdered) and Freya and ends up installed as their kingJames have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
{{newreview|author=Jeremy Strong|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog |rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=TrevorI've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you's troublesome dog, Streaker, has had three puppiesre eighteen. They were fathered Well, according to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of his Alsatianstechnology in my lifetime. Trevor would ideally like I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to keep them, at least until Christmas, me but his parents have other ideas and put them up for sale. Charlie Smugg declares I'm left with the feeling that heit's entitled to half of the money all getting away from the sale me. Some of the puppiesit is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, but before they can be sold I could research the three puppies go missing in possibilities and the park probabilities and itend up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they's up to Trevor re talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>who could deliver information in a way I could understand.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah Beth DurstSunny Singh|title=IceHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=TeensThrillers |summary=Cassie lives on The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an Arctic research station in Alaskaunnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. She loves Hiding from the ice terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the wilderness hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her remote home and sheroom to try to capture what'd definitely prefer to spend her time on tracking polar bears and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing with s happened through her peers and enjoying college and home comforts back in Fairbanksphotography. However Although they only ever talk over the phone, things aren't all rosy. Cassie's mother died when she was just a baby and she can't their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help feeling a huge hole in her heart. Her scientist father is remote keep safe and unloving and her grandmother left they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very youngterrorists. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain Smyth and Michael Terry1529153298|title=The Wide-Mouthed FrogList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Do you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frogIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? You must have heard it I mean, honestly... It) She's not what's a classic. Itworrying Miv's one that you really need to tell in personfamily, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide openthey've been murdered, but to hopefully spark your memory, the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to a number of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogs, and the frog does his best to disguise who he is whilst saying have 'disappeared'Ooh, you dondoesn't see many of those round here, do you?sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she' Is overheard that her father wants to move the family 'm hardly doing it justice, but itDown South's very cheesy and funny. Anyway When you're from Yorkshire, this Down South is a book of frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that jokeher Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman1398524085|title=Don't Swallow Your GumHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband'''BANG'''s fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. That's the sound of copious urban myths being shot downHer children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. '''BANG'''are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. ThatShortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baselessriver. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn'''CLICK'''t stand the guilt. ThatThe Salter children are not convinced but there's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as little else they can do but get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant bookon with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annie Taylor1035906708|title=VioletDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Violet is a very special hippo. She is extremely small We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but that does not make her adoptive she was born to Greek parents Albert in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and Mavis love only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her any father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the lessStates. However, they are slightly worried When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that Violet has she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a very unusual habit mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of turning pink without warning and her preference for no explicable reasonher elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary DixonChristopher Edge|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=Arthur Transcombe is Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a middle-agedmovie marathon at their local cinema, grey-haired, self-effacing poet. Unremarkable really - on a place that has the outsidenickname of 'The Black Hole'. He hasAll big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, howeverand many, managed to achieve some success with his poems. many snacks! (Being a guest speaker at However, as the Cheltenham Literary Festival movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is no mean feat)very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. He But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is also a babe magnet!going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
{{newreview|author=A J Healy|title=Tommy Storm Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the Galactic Knights|rating=3wrecks.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Tommy Storm. He's Mira, like her mother before her, is one of five teenagers snapped up from around the universe seven who swim out to be a gang of heroic detectives charged with survey the ruins – rescuing EVERYTHING from destructionany survivors and any treasure that lies within. Not just But when the planet, or Council Watch lays a trap to end the solar systemwrecking, or even they capture the galaxy, but EVERYTHING. Nobody seems to know whatisland's leader and Mira's going father. Desperate to cause this destructionsave him from death, or when, but Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and his friends and their ship seem with only coordinates to be guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only people proactively going about saving nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the day. So itheart of the smuggler's a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony who's about territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to kill themsave the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>0008664730
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Graham McCannJames Sherwood Metts|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-ThomasPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=When I was in my early teens, it sometimes seemed as if Terry-Thomas was one of the stars of almost every other five-star British comedy film around. He was certainly one of the most recognizable characters of all with his gap-toothed grin, cigarette holder and inimitable 'Hel-lo!', 'Hard cheese!', and best of all, the angry, 'You're an absolute shower!'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Richard Jay Parker
|title=Stop Me
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoying, but most of us will have had to deal with them. Fortunately, we can hit the delete button and forget about them as quickly as they came. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish on, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I don't. But I wonder how many of us would react if a spam E-Mail actually was a matter of life and death, rather than just claiming to be?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Jeanette Winterson
|title=The Battle of the Sun
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city is Things have been a busy, bustling place. Boats fill the river and people fill bit sticky for the streetsEarthlings. Jack is happy because it's his birthday AI and his present is his heart's desire: an excitable black puppy named Maxautomation have been proceeding apace, whooften replacing jobs they's a ''licking re paid to do and a running other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy in the air and a tail wagging starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and a barking, racingalong with it, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
  {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreMatthew Tree|title=Love and KissesWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Tamsin Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and Katie were just thirteen and worried that they were boring. They'd been best friends since forever chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and were the good girls. Neither missed school, skipped her homework nor had boyfriends. Well, that is, not so far. Up until then Tamsin who had been the boffin head – consistently strong academically and looking forward to going on to universityendless crises of self confidence. All that seemed So Tim applied himself to change when she met Alex. Wellhis studies, when I say 'met' I should perhaps clarify cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and say that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow into her, from the building site where he workedset himself high but achievable ambitions. Oh, and did I mention that he was seventeen, Polish and spoke very little English?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
{{newreview|author=Henry Mintzberg|title=Managing|rating=5|genre=Business Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and Finance|summary=''Study after study the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has shown that managers work at an unrelenting pace'' How truealways wished for magic, though it always makes me wonder whyEllie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a resultsteward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, thereEllie's such a market for bulky management cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and leadership Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and general business books like this one. How does anyone who needs or wants centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to read one ever find communicate with the time to do so? This title actually has an answer to thisdead, by providing two books in one, and it is such putting her at the heart of a simple yet effective solution that I have to start there. You can read this book in one maelstrom of two wayschaos. Option Reeling from one is family secret to read every wordanother, chapter by chapter, cover Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to cover. If you have do as the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readableBriar witches' legacy, not too repetitiveeverything they have sacrificed to survive, and quite thought-provokingis under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>1803364548
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kathryn Fox1529900360|title=Blood BornThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=To give support to a vulnerable gang-rape victimIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers Sturgis was reluctant to drive Giverny Hart to the courthouse ask for his help on the day she is due to testify against the notorious Harbourn brothersdifficult cases. But when Anya arrives at His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the house she finds Giverny close to death and faces help of a psychologist only worked for a battle against time to save herwhile. In the panic Finally, Anya fails to take note of an important clue which might help tell whether it really was suicide or a cleverly staged murder. Worse stillRobin, in trying to save the girlDelaware's lifepartner, Anya has interfered with a crime scene and who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case falls apartdid look simple, though. She blames herself for Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the Harbourn brothers being allowed heir to walk free an Italian shoe empire and only hours later there she is news of another attack. A pair of sisters have been stabbed married to an extremely rich man and raped resulting in it's not the death Italian. But which of one, while them was the other clings to life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</amazonuk>primary target?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Leah Fleming1529395224|title=Remembrance Day|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=In Letting the year 2000 an old lady in a wheelchair watches Cat Out of the unveiling Bag: The Secret Life of the new war memorial in the village square. There's pride in what has been achieved, in the family who are gathered around her and there are memories too. Some are good but many are not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewa Vet|author=Neal Layton|title=Surf's Up (Mammoth Academy)Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Having successfully seen off the rather unpleasant humans Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in earlier volumeshis footsteps, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and Arabella have nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy was convinced this was the job for lots more double periods of Difficult Sumshim. They're supposed to be making presentations about what they did during the holidays too Before long, but Oscar hasnhe was at Liverpool University. It hadn't done any preparation and, frankly- as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he can't really remember what he actually did do with all that free time other than no Difficult Sumsd wanted to be a professional footballer. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb0861541774|title=The Princess Who Had No KingdomA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled by her horse Pretty. SheDCI Domenic Jejeune's very politeclose friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, friendlyhas taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and kind-heartedhe killed a Ghurka. Initially, but she feels like something is lacking because she doesn't have he faced a kingdom charge of her own. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enough, manslaughter but there's always a feeling evidence came to light that suggested that she's not quite he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as good as them because she isnany interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't the princess of anywherehelp Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mij Kelly and Louise NisbetAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made ChristmasPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Mouse doesn't like anyone The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and keeps herself operating as an alternative to herselfall the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Her things are Ness has asked her things younger cousin Katie if she could come and she look after the business, as Ness is too selfish planning to take a trip to Canada to share them get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with anyone elsea bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. One day And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an old man moves in Edinburgh we already love, thanks to Mouse's house. He used to be the happiest man in 44 Scotland Street and the worldIsabel Dalhousie novels, but now he's sadwith some new characters who quickly begin to charm. He's fed up of having given Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, givenbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, given all his life and never got anything back. He just sits quietly there's always her very helpful (and mopes. This makes Mouse miserablerather handsome) neighbour, William, so one day she decides to cheer him up by giving him lend a clementine...hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Bland0811771741|title=The Very Cranky BearInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrafts|summary=Moose, Lion, Zebra and Sheep head into Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a cave collection of knits from toys to get out blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the rain'long, but little do they know that Bear is fast asleep cosy afternoons in therefront of the fire' variety. When The projects are divided by the time they wake him up'll take to complete - less than five hours, he roars at themfive to ten hours, chasing them outside, so they decide ten to cheer him up somehowtwenty hours and more than twenty hours. Zebra paints stripes on him All the projects are attractive, Moose fashions antlers for him modern and Lion sticks a mane of straw on himuseable. Unsurprisingly, this makes Bear even crankier, so it I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's down to Sheep to save the dayme being picky...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kes Gray and Lee WildishDean Koontz|title=Mum and Dad GlueThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingParanormal|summary=A young boy's parents are splitting upBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He's going through the usual emotions that children of divorce go through: worryloses his job, feeling unsurehe loses his fiancee, blaming himselfand his house gets trashed. Oh, angerand someone has delivered a really weird, denialdisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and then trying it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to get them to stay togetherdeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. His method So fortunately for this isn't Benny it turns out that the usual response though: he looks delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for glue being a good person. Spike is going to stick his mum take care of Benny, and dad together. Thankfullywill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he , Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds some wise and kindly advice in the processherself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>1662500491
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clara VulliamyAdam Stower|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To BedMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers |summary=It's Pearl's bedtimeMurray is supposed to be a humble, but she says she's really busy tidy and isn't going friendly cat, one who is able to sleep. She just wants to play and play eat and eat and playsleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. When But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the bear with sticky paws rings catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the doorbellregular back garden, he whisks her away on an amazing but into a world of frightening adventure - although as you might expectand whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, the bear has where a little more energy troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Pearl Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and eventually she does get a little sleepy.he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>0008561249
}}