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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life 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, & self-published 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|plus 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.</metadesc>

There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: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' reviews at TheBookbagll want to read here.Dig in!

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==New There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews==}}'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]]at TheBookbag.'''

'''Read Want to find out more [[FeaturesAbout Us|new featuresabout us]].'''? __NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Morag Joss|title=The Night Following|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Distracted by the discovery that her husband has been having an affair, a middle-aged woman loses concentration while driving along a quiet lane, killing Ruth Mitchell, an elderly cyclist. The woman doesn't wait for the police to arrive; she goes home and parks her car in the garage where she smashes it almost beyond recognition. When her arrogant husband sees the damage he believes it's been done to punish him and he packs his bags. After a few days the woman goes to the home of the dead woman; she doesn't go to the door, but from a hidden spot nearby she can see the widower, an elderly gentleman who is clearly not coping well. Wracked with guilt, the woman makes a decision: the only way she can atone for her actions is to step into the shoes of the dead woman.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715638815</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nigel McCrery|title=Tooth and Claw|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Another serial killer is on the loose, and yet again the police have failed to connect the deaths. Carl Whittley has just tortured a glamorous TV presenter to death - leaving a singularly gruesome tableau - and blown a hapless commuter to smithereens at a railway station. He's planning his next murder already, secreted away in the shed at the bottom of the garden of the house he shares with his invalid father. Carl is embittered and lonely - with his mother living away and pursuing a career as a forensic psychologist, there's only him to take care of his severely disabled father: to change the colostomy bag, to cook, to clean, to, well, just to bear it, really. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847248071</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Nick Hornby|title=An Education: The Screenplay|ratingBest New Books=5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Adroit marketing? Well, yes. ''An Education'' has been published, of course, to coincide with the film's general release in the UK. Hardly surprising since our national appetite for nosiness seems insatiable and cosy background details prop up every telly series and film these days. As well as the screenplay, Nick Hornby has provided an introduction and diary of the film's successful premiere at the Sundance Festival in Utah. Beyond trivia, I think this fascinating little book presents an excellent 'how to' guide for wannabes from one of Britain's most respected screen and novel writers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141044748</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=The Harvard Lampoon|title=Nightlight'''Read [[:Category: A Parody of Twilight |rating=3.5|genre=HumourNew Reviews|summary=Most people will have heard of the worldwide phenomenon that is [[Twilight new reviews by Stephenie Meyer|Twilightcategory]]. The books by Stephenie Meyer and the film have made a legend of the romance between vampire Edward Mullen (Robert Pattinson plays the movie role) and teenage schoolgirl Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849013330'''</amazonukbr>}}

{{newreview|author=Kate Elliott|title=Traitors' Gate (Crossroads)|rating=4|genre=Fantasy|summary=Kate Elliott's ''Crossroads'' series has so far come in large, slightly off-putting chunks. They've been decent reads, by and large, with a huge cast of wonderfully drawn characters, but the sheer size and slow pace of Read [[:Category:Features|the action has meant I didn't enjoy them as much as I may otherwise have donelatest features]]. ''Traitors' Gate'', the third in the sequence is different in only one aspect; the character development is still there, the huge page count is still there, but the pacing is a lot better.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498351</amazonuk>}}

'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley JacksonOnyi Nwabineli|title=The Haunting of Hill HouseAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5

|summary=There was a time before Stephen King. There was time before ''The ShiningAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her 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. There was a time when 'horror' was not rooted Now Anuri is in bloodher twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, guts suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and goresecretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. I owe a slight apology to Mr KingMost importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, because along with who is the gutsier side new focus of the genreOphelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, I will own that he is a master and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at suspense.the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141191449</amazonuk>0861546873

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jill Tomlinson and Paul HowardDavid Chadwick|title=The Penguin Who Wanted To Find OutHeadload of Napalm

|genre=For SharingThrillers|summary=Otto It's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the penguin lives on his fathermain local employers but otherwise, there's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until....|isbn= B0D321VJ76}}{{Frontpage|author=Tom Percival|title=The Wrong Shoes|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Will's feet at the bottom life is difficult, in a multitude of the worldways. Heis bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes's an inquisitive little thing , he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and wants to know why they havendoesn't fallen off have enough money for even the world. His most basic of things like food, and his dad explains that they woncan't Because I say sowork because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Otto Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and his friend Leo gradually expand their horizons from their fathersWill' feet - they meet other penguin chickss life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, get and clings to know their aunts who watch them the moments of joy when their fathers are awayhe is drawing, and eventually grow feathers so they're big enough to toboggan on their bellies and swim in that feel like a light at the seaend of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140523041X</amazonuk>1398527122

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ryan David Jahn Sylvie Cathrall|title=Acts of ViolenceA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=Kat Marino is stabbed on her way home from work. All she wanted was There are few greater joys than a hot bath after book which lives up to a hard day's workcompelling premise. From And this point the novel skips nimbly from is one neighbour to the next, all of whom are absorbed in their own dilemmas. There is the draftee with a sick mother, the nurse who thinks she has run over a baby, the woman who suspects her husband of cheating and others. We are shown what these characters were doing that evening, and how these events drag through to the morning. We are shown how in the midst of their own interesting, poignant and dangerous concerns a woman is stabbed in the courtyard onto which all their windows look, through which windows they witness the attack, and how these people did nothingthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230743595</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Josh Lacey0008517061|title=Two Tigers on Death in a StringLonely Place|author=Stig Abell

|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Ben's not too keen to be sharing Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his bedroom with his half-brother, Frankrustic life at Little Sky. But you don't have to be There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the hero future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a detective adventure such as lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this book to know that as Frank's mother has vanished from is the face of the Earth, Ben will let it lie - future she wants for a while. herself and her daughter? Nor is it too surprising to see For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the four Misfitz together, future on another case, as they go on the hunt for the missing womanback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407109782</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julia Williams1786482126|title=Last ChristmasThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths

|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=With Christmas fast approaching, what better way of getting Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the spirit site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of things than by reading a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this excellent book a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that captures the joys and stresses she is pregnant with his child as a result of the festive season so well? The reader follows four different people – Catherine Tinsall and her husband Noelone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, Marianne Moore and Gabriel North. Each of these characters have their own reasons for not really looking forward least because Ruth is prone to Christmas (mainly because of the experience sudden bouts of last Christmas) and these reasons slowly become apparent to the reader as the story progressessickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847560865</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nigel McCrery0008551324|title=Core of EvilThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5

|summary=Violet Chambers becomes Daisy Wilson through an aromatic cup of tea, flavoured with Christmas roses. It'"There are all kinds of horrible things in s unusual for anyone from the Christmas rose," she said, watching Hardie family to see whether Daisy could still hear herapproach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. "Helleborin But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and hellebrin are both like digitalis, which I've also used before, but therehe's saporin prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and protoanemonin as wellwho was responsible for her death. It's a very nasty cocktail This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants."'  And now Daisy has met her rather sticky - what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and graphically effluent - endto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, and Violet has become Daisy, Daisy sets her sights on a is it? The new town, a new identity Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and, most importantly, a new victim. Daisy has problems with her memory she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - the identities go back so far make certain that sometimes she can barely remember DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is she is now, let alone all the whos shekept well away from what's been before, and most certainly not the who with whom she beganhappening. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847243843</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der Kiste0008405026|title=Jonathan Wild: Conman and CutpurseA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=Born towards the end of It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the seventeenth century Jonathan Wild was investigation ground to become the eighteenth century's most famous criminala halt. Now, her mother, Helena, plying his trade and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a rather curious fashion. He was born in Wolverhampton of parents described as ''mean straightforward murder/suicide but honest'there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. It seems likely that he first travelled to London What looked as the servant of a lawyer where he though it was eventually going to settle, leaving his wife be an open-and child to fend for themselves-shut case is now a complex double murder. It was whilst serving a term of imprisonment in Wood Street Compter Kerrigan is convinced that he mixed with the cream of Londonexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's criminal underclass and learned the rudiments of his tradeboss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848682190</amazonuk>

  {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=K M Grant0571379877|title=Paradise Red (Perfect Fire Trilogy)The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=We are back in the south of France for the third Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and final timeStanza. In one corner, the Robert'French', with King Louis and his henchmen rampaging through, warring in the name of peaces a theatre director. In another cornerHe's also self-obsessed, the local peopledemanding, struggling in the harsh environment handsome and entitled and none too pleased uses Edward to see their corner of the world the location run errands for religious wars, him. Edward has been in love with the Cathar Stanza since their university days - and he''heretics'' also presents drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. The lines are drawn, Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a realistically convoluted way, and this book will see one of our heroes cross one such line, just as other people make their own momentous decisions. It will take all relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the narrative skills two of the land itself to get the story across to usthem kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247075</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Camilla NoliJo Callaghan|title=The Mother's TaleLeave No Trace

|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=''It When a man is early evening. I am suckling my infant son… We are picture perfect. Madonna and child''.  No doubt about it: found crucified on the top of a new mother totally smitten with hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her son. Zach is adorable. Quiet. Undemanding. A happysidekick, generally relaxed, childthe AI detective Lock. Gorgeous.  But Zach isnIt't her s their first-bornlive case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. First But when there was Cassieis a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. A child who entered Will they be able to solve the world screaming case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and has since learned exactly what power she can wring with such lungs. Not yet two years old, Cassie adores her fatherpotentially, but even him she manipulates. Her mother she terrorises.out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409101584</amazonuk>139851120X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=AQA 633361399613073|title=More Brilliant AnswersMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=TriviaThrillers|summary=If you've got 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 question bonus when you can text those nice people at AQA 63336 and they'll do their best aim to provide you with be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a prompt perfectionist and accurate answera trauma doctor. Over Anjali is the free spirit of the last five years group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they've answered some twenty million questions re at a drug and each autumn they publish a book with the best alcohol-fuelled party and most interesting of the yearit's answersgoing to end in tragedy. ThereWe don's some fun to t know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be had in this yearan eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's booktheir teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683262</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick O'Brien0241636604|title=You Are The First Kid On MarsTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson

|genre=For SharingAutobiography|summary=It is If you were to bring up an image of a scicity banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-fi future of no danger whatsoeverstripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with no technological breakdownviolence, poverty and injustice. There was no fatal meteor strike, posh public school on his CV - but that he had been to the London School of course Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only to be expected for this marketenvy. I say it more He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to highlight how well the book has been illustratedbe stupid. Digital airbrush techniques and more have taken the antiseptic sheen off the whole experienceIt was his ability at what was, essentially, but have still allowed for a great detail in the machinerycard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, and also this turned into permanent employment as a lovely warmth in the face of the lad we're empathising withtrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399246347</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Naylus1035021803|title=The DresskeeperAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Things are pretty grim for PickyIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She is thirteen years old, being bullied at school, and has to spend 's back now because of a request for help from her weekends helping her singlebeloved aunt, working mum to take care of her little brother and her senile grandmotherCarole. One evening, at her GranFreya's former mentor and Carole's houseclose friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, she goes up into to say the attic and tries on an old dress that she finds inside an old chestleast. The dress turns out Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to be magicthe village: Arthur, and she suddenly finds herself back in 17th Century Londonfeels, struggling with a strange man who is calling her 'Amelia' and is trying to kill let herdown badly. Picky ends up embroiled Even though they were in Amelia's 17th century life business together as antique hunters, she tries has not felt able to find out be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the truth rebound from the love of who is attempting to murder herlife, at the same time as trying to avoid arousing suspicion with her strange behaviour whenever she returns to the present daywho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956122280</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=John Abbott Nez |title=Cromwell DixonI's Sky-Cycle|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Meet Cromwell Dixonve heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. He's Well, I must confess that there have been more than a real tinkerer, forever few decades of technology in a barn or somewhere building something manically unusualmy lifetime. Luckily - although his long-suffering mother may disagree I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that word it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - hefrankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I's around at m reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the birth of powered flightlatest conspiracy theorist. Will his plans for I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a pedalled air machine work?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399250417</amazonuk>way I could understand.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue MoorcroftSunny Singh|title=Starting OverHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionThrillers |summary=The story opens when Tess bumps her old reliable car into Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a breakdown truckterrorist group. That's rather convenient Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, since she isn't hurtthere is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the guy driving it is able hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to tow her care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to his garagebe cowed by events, and then give keeps on venturing out of her a lift room to try to capture what's happened through her new homephotography. Naturally, since this is Although they only ever talk over the 'chick-lit' genrephone, Tess their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and the truck-driver, who goes they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the unlikely name of Ratty (an abbreviation of his surname) feel mutual antipathy of the sort that's clearly going to lead, sooner or later, to strong attractionterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906931224</amazonuk>086154742X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Beard1529153298|title=It's A Don's LifeThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|genre=LifestyleGeneral Fiction|summary=Professor Mary BeardIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, feisty Cambridge classics donhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, keeps an eye open for architectural detail wherever she goesthough. Women have been disappearing. Even on holiday Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she notices 's overheard that her father wants to move the changing urban landscape and records interesting parallels with ancient cities in her sparky blogfamily 'Down South'. She When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is engaged in writing a detailed history of Pompeii and suddenly realisesfrightening, whilst perambulating the backstreets of the Mexican city of Oaxacanforeign place, that this is exactly what Pompeii must have been likebest avoided. She observes the low rise shops For Miv, dirt tracks across dusty streets and the close juxtaposition of rich and poor. Impressive portals of grand residential properties tower above humble workshops, and this prompts move would mean leaving her into imaginative reconstruction. In her blogbest friend, from which this intriguing book is culledSharon, and she tells us about just how Oaxacan encourages her 'll do anything to ponder again the curious cart ruts of Pompeiiprevent that. She even finds walls splashed with political slogans that are just like Roman ''dipinti''. Indeed, here in Mexico, s not worried about the local library displays an edifying message in Spanish which originates in Cicerodangers or that her Mum's speech in his Pro Archia, ''Science and letters are the nourishment of youth and the diversion of old agestopped talking - to anyone.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682517</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Tremayne1398524085|title=The Loveday ConspiracyHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=Trevowan Manor has been the home of the Loveday family for generations. It will still be owned by a Loveday Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but St John Loveday lost the house on the throw of a dice before killing himself – and now his cousin Tristan has the housenever turned up. St John's twinHer children, Adamsons Niall, vows that he will punish the man responsible. Amelia has been forced from Trevowan Paul and Ollie and is now living in a cottage with the other dispossessed womenher daughter, Etty. As if this wasn't enough of a problem, her son from are all worried but - strangely - her first marriagehusband, RichardAlec, has become even more than wayward and Amelia is forced to make a difficult choicenot.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347676</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Julian Barnes|title=Staring at the Sun|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Jean's first Incident involved Uncle Leslie Shortly afterwards, hyacinths Etty and golf tees. It's perhaps best forgottenGreg, but Jean doesn't forget. Uncle Leslie figures large in her life - mostly on find the golf course - until the War comes and he runs away to America. Hebody of Greg's replaced by Tommy Prosserfather, a grounded pilot who once saw the sun rise twice in one day and excites as many questions in Jean as he ever answers. Tommy is replaced by Michael, a policemanDuncan Ackerley, whom Jean eventually marries. He doesn't know why minks are excessively tenacious of life and he doesn't much care. But Jean does. She cares much less for the Dutch cap that Michael sent her off to obtain before the wedding and much less again for their rather disastrous adventures in the bedroom. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540096</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alexandra Bruce|title=2012: Science or Superstition|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=The fuss about 2012 has not started just recentlyriver. The first book to feature the story It was from a Yale professor, in 1966. We've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuh, an easy assumption for the Maya creation myth. But as the crunch date of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice police to make that year - nears, it's becoming a very big story indeed. Even though it sounds absurd - the end of a 5,125-year long cycle of the Maya calendar, which started on August 13th, 3114BCE - or was judged to start Duncan had murdered Charlie and then, committed suicide when they came across this concept a couple of thousand years into that period. Surely they he couldn't predict stand the future from their guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there'primitive' state s little else they can do but get on with such accuracy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934708283</amazonuk>their lives and wonder about what really happened.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeff Kinney1035906708|title=Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog DaysDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=It is a truth universally acknowledged that school summer holidays are We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only enjoyable if you want moved to enjoy summerAthens when she was thirteen. Greg here doesnHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas't want to notice make it, and would prefer to spend his days curtains drawn, face glued to late night TV or a computer game, hand either clicking away at a controller or shovelling more manageable in snacksthe States. The last thing he needs, then, is his When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother, on a ''family togetherness'' trip, who mercilessly exploited her and on a budgetmade no secret of her preference for her elder sister, with bad ideas of what Greg should be doing insteadJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327650</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rick YanceyChristopher Edge|title=The Monstrumologist: The Terror BeneathBlack Hole Cinema Club

|summary=In late 19th century America, young Will Henry has been the apprentice of the stern, forbidding Dr Warthrop since the death of Lucas and his parentsfriends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, who were also employed by the doctor. The twelve year old boy a place that has seen many things in his service to the monstrumologist - a specialist in monsters - but nothing can prepare him for the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings the doctor the twin corpses nickname of a young girl and the headless creature with fangs in his chest who had tried to feast on her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738546X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stella Whitelaw|title=Midsummer Madness|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=YouThe Black Hole'll like Sophie Gresham. She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright and when the side effects became too much for her she worked behind the scenes. SheAll big movie fans, they's a very good prompt despite the fact that you need to wrap up very warmly re looking forward to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job and most lots of the cast in the theatre company. It's a bit of a shock though when she realises that the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrisonexciting films, the man she helped out when he had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep. many, many snacks! Sophie was a little softer in those days – in the meantime she's had to develop a protective shell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bonnie Greer|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting readHowever, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to grasp. It's best if I start with the author's intentions as set out in her Prologue. It is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Sidemovie starts, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations they very quickly realise that something about Obama, linking it with the musicthis new film format is very different, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rockthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn'n'rollt even imagine. All of theseBut as they lurch from one film genre to the next, she notes, were heard can they figure out what on earth is going on the President's Inauguration Day. ? To them she adds Will they ever get back to the bluescinema, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planet.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreview|author=P J Parrish|title=Dead of Winter|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Loon LakeRosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, Michigan is picture-postcard pretty one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – an idyll rescuing any survivors and any treasure that sits serenely and snugly in lies within. But when the midst of Council Watch lays a pine-peppered winter wonderlandtrap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Louis Kincaid needs Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a little serenity wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in his life and on arrival search of a family secret that lies buried deep in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come homethe sea. Life has not been easy for Kincaid. A troubledWith only nine days to unearth what might save her father, unhappy child as her journey takes her from the watched streets of mixed race, passed around various institutions and foster homes, Louis figures that if he is going foreign islands to put some integrity back into the worldheart of the smuggler's territory, he will need Mira must be determined to wear a badge stop at nothing to do itsave the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>0008664730

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Russell Celyn JonesJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Planet Storyland

|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=Pwyll rules Things have been a medieval-style fiefdom in a post-climate change Walesbit sticky for the Earthlings. Life is different in many ways - thereAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism re paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and horsepower is the main means starting to think of transportother, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. But in many ways it's Life was pretty much the same - people still fight one anothershut down and, towns still have sink estatesalong with it, rich boys still have too much time all the many daily social interactions on their hands and precious little meaning in their liveswhich they depend so heavily. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>1736128426

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Owen SheersMatthew Tree|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)We'll Never Know

|summary=In the old taleTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, Branwen is the sister a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of Bendigeidfran - the giant King being exceptional at any of Britain. She marries the King of Ireland, who doesn't treat her well. She manages to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling his artistic passions all failed miserably and war and killings ensue. In this new tale, a young girl has just walked away from her brothers who, in the wake had endless crises of the devastating foot and mouth outbreak, are despoiling their heritage by rustling and illegally slaughtering sheepself confidence. She meets an old man who tells her a story involving the superstitions about the ravens in the Tower of London, propaganda work during World War IISo Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and an equally doomed love affairset himself high but achievable ambitions. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115030</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8

{{newreview|author=Jennifer Bohnet|title=Follow Your Star|rating=3.5|genre=WomenWithin a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's Fiction|summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left Monaco. She'd been engaged to , a Formula 1 racing driver family of witches who protect the town and had lived the life of wider world from the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all thatDarklands. The accident could have killed Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her fiancé family for generations and as such since she lost was young, her driving licence because of training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the alcohol she'd consumed. Her slow recovery was hindered by Briar Witch, the end of her engagement but shetown's found some contentment in being a nanny to two young childrenleader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. When As challenges come her friend way left, right and employercentre, VanessaEllie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, remarries putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and takes an extended honeymoon in the Amazon Nanette is asked determine what to take do as the children back Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to Monaco where their father livessurvive, is under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>1803364548

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J R Stephenson1529900360|title=Crooked JusticeThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=2.54|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Meet Barry Johns. YouIt hadn'll see him coming - het been Lt Milo Sturgis's five hundred pounds if fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he's an ouncefelt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. Just don't ever lend him money His assertions that there were only open-and- he wonshut cases which didn't pay it back. A businessman with a share need the help of a nightclub on Cyprus, he goes there psychologist only worked for a customary breakwhile. Finally, and finds his sort-of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the bar dancerman she loved needed. He manages to tread both on The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the toes swimming pool of his local colleague and some Greek rivalsa remote property in Bel Air. And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to pack up an extremely rich man and shut up. Itit's a big stone that hides him, but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn it and get their revengenot the Italian.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk> But which of them was the primary target?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Baker1529395224|title=They've Got Your NumberLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=If you are Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the slightest bit paranoid, worry strain that being on-call put on his father''Big Brother'' is always watching or like to believe that you are not s life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a number, but family friend who was a free man (or woman), then vet and was convinced this may not be was the book job for youhim. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as it will do nothing to dispel any of those worrieswith so many students - been his dream since he was a child. Ifanything, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanityhe' sounds like one of the sexiest things ever, and are chomping at the bit d wanted to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to saya professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rebecca Tope0861541774|title=Fear in the CotswoldsA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows

|summary=Thea Osborne is a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves into their homes and looks after their animals and the property. This time itDCI Domenic Jejeune's winter close friend and she's spending former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a month short holiday in the Cotswold village of HampnettSingapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. It wouldn't be Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a job for all of us but Thea delights in getting to know the local people knife - and the areahe killed a Ghurka. In the past she's also been involved with the police in solving various cases Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but it looks as though evidence came to light that suggested that he might have come planned to an end as murder the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbledman. For Now he could be facing the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish one - when she finds footsteps in the snow which lead to a body in a nearby fielddeath penalty. When the Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police finally arrive the body has disappeared force could provoke a diplomatic incident and the police obviously wonder if shewouldn's imagined it t help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Tad Tuleja|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases|rating=3|genre=Home and Family|summary=Take a look at the cover design of this book, and you'd be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken part in our English language since whenever they crossed over from their original homes. But the title is definitely honest, for this is a dictionary book first, for reference, and a browser for the trivia buff second.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne RiceAlexander McCall Smith|title=Angel TimeThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=24.5

|summary=Toby O'Dare The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an extremely efficient hit man with alternative to all the online apps in providing a passion for musicmore personal, history tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and playing his beloved lutelook after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. He's also something Katie is coming out of a lost soul having turned his back on God many years ago. One day while on a 'job' he is visited by an Angel who offers him break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance at redemptionto come home to Edinburgh. Toby agrees And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to become 44 Scotland Street and the Angel's human instrument and help save lives rather than take themIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. He is sent on an assignment to help Katie has no experience in running a Jewish couple accused of murder business, or in 13th Century England.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ian Mortimer|title=1415: Henry V's Year of Glory|rating=5|genre=History|summary=The medievalmatch-making, but Ness has full confidence in fact time-honouredher abilities, view of King Henry V as one of Englandand there's greatest heroes was propagated though not originated by Shakespearealways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, and again more recently to some extent by Olivier's portrayal in film. At least one historian has called him ''the greatest man that ever ruled England''.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>1846976596

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Deborah Gregory0811771741|title=Dancing With The Dead|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=I wanted to read ''Dancing with the Dead'', because I'm interested in family history. The blurb on the back of the book also mentioned Gill – our heroine of the piece – was moving from Bristol (my current home) to Lincolnshire (where I was born and brought up). I felt with all these links, the novel could not fail to interest me – but this was not the case.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewInstaKnits for Baby|author=Miss Read|title=Christmas at Thrush GreenMelissa Leapman

|genre=Women's FictionCrafts|summary=Set in Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the rural village of Thrush Green'long, this book is the latest cosy afternoons in a series surrounding familiar characters. There is front of the feisty Ella Bembridge, who is finally having to admit that old age is creeping up as her eyesight failsfire' variety. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock The projects are concerned about her, but she refuses to accept any help. Albert Piggott has decided itdivided by the time they's time ll take to retire now that his wifecomplete - less than five hours, Nellyfive to ten hours, is a successful cafe owner and can afford ten to take care of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst twenty hours and her husband more than twenty hours. All the projects are arranging the local nativity playattractive, despite a number of setmodern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-backsworthy projects' but that's me being picky. Will everything be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matt and DaveDean Koontz|title=Yuck's Robotic BottomThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=It's concerned me for Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a while that it's relatively easy really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to pick up early readers for girls – princesses, magic soft toyshis home, mermaids and pets abound – but thereit'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 deserve all this bad luck. He is a much smaller choice for boysnice person. A really nice person. It's important too with early readers So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the content delivery to his house is ''interesting'' and reading becomes more than just something which you ''have'' a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to do at school and moves into help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being funa good person. Matt Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Dave have found the answer in YuckHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John E SmelcerAdam Stower|title=The Great DeathMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionConfident Readers |summary='As Western Europeans settled Alaska, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from Murray is supposed to be a pandemic of measleshumble, smallpoxtidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and influenza. No community was spared. In most cases, half well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a villagebad magician's population died within cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a week. In some caseshyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, there were no survivors. It was and the end of an ancient way of life. Natives still refer to catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the dreadful period as the Great Death.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maxine Barry|title=River Deep|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Two young women both have regular back garden, but into a love world of the Thamesfrightening adventure and whiffs. Melisande Ray's beloved hotelThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, the Ray of Sunshine where a troll hunter is on the river bank. It's here that guests come who want expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be pampered and looked after in the way that only the best hotels can do wellhonest, but when Wendell James checks in to the hotel it's not pampering he's looking for. He's buying a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine turned up and he's sussing out the competition. There's something personal in there too – if his new hotel means that the Ray of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonus. There's just a slight doubt in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eye.ll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>0008561249