'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Steve Voake
|title=Hooey Higgins and the Shark
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=A shark has been spotted in Shrimpton-on-Sea's bay. The local chocolate shop has a mahousive egg for sale for £65. Hooey Higgins decides to capture the former so he can charge admission and buy the latter. He's helped out on his adventures by Twig and Will, whilst they all hope they won't fall foul of the big bully Basbo.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406322342</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=It's rural France, and 2000 is barely begun, when hunters come across a spread of human corpses in the mountains. Several families, all in the same cult, seem to have killed themselves on their path to wherever. If so, this is a problem, for the last time it happened, in Switzerland a few years previous, nobody could work out why – and who was there to dispose of some of the evidence. This isn't a problem for the policeman involved, as he fell desperately in love with the investigative judge in collaborating on the initial case. Combining again, they see a link with everybody involved in both cases, a famous conductor /composer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408807041</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Liz Kessler
|title=Philippa Fisher and the Dream Maker's Daughter
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Since her fairy godsister Daisy went back to ATC - fairy high command - and moved on to other missions, Philippa Fisher has felt rather lonely. Her parents are as oddball as ever, wandering through life with the kind of benign muddleheadedness that makes them loveable, but more than a tad inattentive. They haven't really picked up on the fact that Philippa's human best friend has moved away and lost touch, or that she hasn't yet found a group of friends at secondary school. She misses Daisy like mad.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842557831</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marina Hyde
|title=Celebrity: How Entertainers Took Over The World and Why We Need an Exit Strategy
|rating=3.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=I have what is perhaps a regular-sized interest in A and B-list celebrities. I can name the off-spring of many an actress, tell you who the spokespeople for certain brands are, write a list of celebs with publicly declared devotions to certain religions, even win the odd pub quiz thanks to knowing the birth names of various performers. I know all sorts of things about this rather small subset of society, but I know the ''what'' more than the ''why'', and that's exactly the problem, according to this book. After all, if more of us sat down to wonder about what it actually ''is'' that the likes of Geri Halliwell and Nicole Kidman bring to the UN, we might seriously question how and why they ever got involved in the first place.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532050</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marilyn Chin
|title=Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen: A Manifesto in 41 Tales
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen (oh, how I love that title!) will almost certainly not be to everyone's taste, but I confess that I loved its originality, boldness, sassy style and the humour of it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144612</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Laurie Graham
|title=Life According to Lubka
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Buzz Wexler is at the top of her game, working in music PR with all the latest up and coming Urban music bands like Grime Beat and Evil Marsupial. She's forty-two years old but is still out every night, drinking, eating very little and seemingly surviving on a diet of chemical mood enhancers. One day, however, she is called into her manager's office and assigned a tour with a 'World Music' group, the Gorni Grannies, a group of elderly women from Bulgaria who sing together. Buzz finds her life in the fast lane is brought to a sudden halt, as she tries to control a group of elderly ladies touring England who think that lifts are powered by black magic and that Poundland is the best shop ever invented. Yet this is just the beginning of a whole new life for Buzz.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161828</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Debbie Elliott
|title=Tesla & Twain
|rating=3
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=History remembers nineteenth century inventor Nikola Tesla as a mad scientist, and he did indulge in some very peculiar experiments, most notably the directed-energy weapon, or death-ray, as the press of the time gleefully dubbed it. But the truth is that his work was of groundbreaking importance: he developed the electrical alternating current and the AC motor, and much more. The average person probably has a better awareness of Samuel Clemens - who wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn under his pen name Mark Twain, and who was known as one of the foremost satirists of his day. But perhaps they don't know that Twain was fascinated by scientific inquiry, or that these two seemingly disparate men were great friends.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906146756</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sylvie Nickels
|title=Long Shadows
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We first met Minkie and Mike in [[Another Kind of Loving by Sylvie Nickels|Another Kind of Loving]] when Mike, a reporter in war-torn Sarajevo rescued Jasminka from an orphanage and brought her back to leafy Oxfordshire. He and his wife, Sara, fostered the girl, who was known as Minkie because few people could pronounce her real name. They gave her love, security and the opportunity to turn into a beautiful, confident young woman, but whose heart was torn between the family who had done so much for her and her native Sarajevo.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0951867024</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lawrence Osborne
|title=Bangkok Days
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
|summary=Laurence Osborne has hit upon a bizarre way to save money on dentistry – pay for a month's rent in Bangkok and get his fillings done there, which works out cheaper than dental insurance in America. During the course of many visits to Thailand, he meanders around Bangkok, along with various other motley foreigners, passing through hospitals, brothels and mobile restaurants selling waterbugs.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535971</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=E V Thompson
|title=The Dream Traders
|rating=3
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In the nineteenth century, when European nations are scrabbling to colonise as many territories as possible, a young Englishman sails into Chinese waters seeking fame and fortune. Unlike the rest of his countrymen however, Luke Trewarne refuses to get rich selling opium to the Chinese. All very noble but the fact is that Luke is a passenger on board a ship laden with the stuff and there are Chinese gunships on the horizon.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>070908885X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jim Kelly
|title=Death Watch
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=In 1992, 15 year old Norma Jean Judd disappeared from her home. Eighteen years later to the day, her twin brother Bryan's body is found in the hospital incinerator where he worked. There is no evidence to suggest accident or suicide, and the police quickly treat it as a murder. They not only need to find out who did it, but to work out the link between Bryan's murder and the disappearance and presumed death of his twin sister. The investigation takes them into the family and a nearby hostel for homeless men.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141035986</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alice Taylor
|title=The Village
|rating=3
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Two other authors, [[:Category:Miss Read|Miss Read]] and [[:Category:Rebecca Shaw|Rebecca Shaw]], have already purloined the village for their own. I so wish that the publishers had chosen a more distinctive title for this reprint. It's the Irishness of the memoir that will attract English readers.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863224202</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Janet Mullany
|title=Improper Relations
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Unlucky in love Charlotte Hayden has just lost her best friend and confidante Ann in marriage to the Earl of Beresford. At the wedding she encounters Lord Shadderly, Beresford's best friend, a broodingly handsome man whom she takes an immediate dislike to. Before she knows it Charlotte is caught in a compromising situation with Shadderly and he is forced to propose to her or risk both their reputations.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347803</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Margaret Drabble
|title=The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Imagine the scene: a major publishing house receives the latest pitch for a book. Its basis is a history of the jigsaw, interwoven with a highly personal memoir of an ever so slightly irascible maiden aunt with whom the author partook in the delights of puzzling. Two words save this pitch from oblivion: Margaret Drabble. Faced with the same dilemma in a bookshop, the reader would be wise to follow the publisher's hunch and buy this book - it is a gentle delight from start to finish.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843546205</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Elise Broach
|title=Masterpiece
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Marvin and his family are a kindly bunch. They even get him to go down inside the bathroom sink drainpipe to retrieve a missing contact lens. This is not so difficult when you're a small kind of beetle like Marvin. But when they worry about the standard of birthday presents given to James, the boy of the human family that have unwittingly fostered them, things get very unpredictable. Marvin sees James being given a pen and ink sketching set, and when trying to deliver a special coin to James, falls into making a sketch himself of the view outside the window. A sketch James could never have created - an ink masterwork that makes far too many adult human eyes bulge with surprise, delight - and possibly greed.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406321834</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chris Higgins
|title=Tapas and Tears
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=It's tough being fourteen. You're old enough to be getting to grips with who you are and what you like, but other people – parents, friends, teachers – often seem to think they know better than you do about what's best. Jaime is on the shy side. She's not a huge fan of meeting new people, and she's never strayed far from her mum's side before, so a fortnight alone in Spain is the last thing she wants. But, a school exchange is exactly what she finds herself signing up for and before she knows it, she's bundled off for two long weeks – but will it all be fun in the sun, or, as the book's title seems to hint at, are ''Tapas and Tears'' on the horizon?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340970774</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nicholas Jubber
|title=Drinking Arak off an Ayatollah's Beard
|rating=3.5
|genre=Travel
|summary=closed doors and how people really think, challenging the idea that both countries are defined only by a religious fervour and fundamentalism that is the accepted way of life. At the heart of Jubber's quest is the epic poem of Persian culture, the ''Shahnameh'' which he soon learns all Iranians know and love and in doing so he unearths a vibrant culture that preceded the conversion of Persia to Islam and with it the transformation of Persia into Iran.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818841</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gillian Cross
|title=Where I Belong
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Khadija - although this is not her real name - is a young Somali girl, sent to Britain by her father. She's supposed to get an education and earn some money and then return, equipped to help bring prosperity to both her family and her impoverished country. She's an illegal immigrant, posing as a sister to Abdi. Abdi is a second generation Somali immigrant. He was born in the Netherlands and came to Britain when he was very young. He feels a connection to the land of his parents, but struggles to make sense of it as he has never been to Somalia. Freya is the daughter of a world-famous fashion designer, Sandy Dexter. She's aware of her privileged status, but she feels lonely and unloved. Her mother's passion for design doesn't leave much room for a daughter, and her father's abiding love for the woman he married makes Freya feel like everyone's second choice.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192755544</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Steve Cole and Chris Hunter
|title=Tripwire
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Felix's father was a bomb disposal expert. He died on Day Zero - the day global terrorism united and destroyed Heathrow Airport, killing countless thousands of innocent people. It changed everything. Bent on avenging his father, Felix has signed up to a training program for the Minos Chapter - a shadowy counter-terrorist unit of underage operatives. He knows the risks if he's successful, but what he doesn't know is that another, even more devasting, Orpheus attack is imminent...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552560839</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Linda Newbery
|title=Lob
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Lob is a Green Man – an ancient nature spirit and garden helper. Can you spot him hiding on the front cover of the book? Lucy believes in Lob, though her Mum and Dad tell her 'it's just Grandpa's story'. When Lucy finally manages to catch a fleeting glimpse of Lob, she is entranced and delighted to share Grandpa's secret. But when Grandpa dies and his home is sold Lucy is heartbroken. She wonders if she will ever see Lob again. What follows is a journey through the seasons tracing Lucy's life after Grandpa's death and Lob's search to find a new garden home.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385610815</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jaclyn Moriarty
|title=Dreaming of Amelia
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=New scholarship students Riley and Amelia are so mysterious that everyone at Ashbury High School is talking about them. Add to that the creepy happenings around school, and Lydia Jaackson-Oberman's PC actually typing its own messages to her, and it seems pretty appropriate that the Higher School Certificate question these teens are answering for much of the book is on Gothic Fiction.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330512889</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Paolo Giordano
|title=The Solitude of Prime Numbers
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''The Solitude of Prime Numbers'' follows the lives of Alice and Mattia from childhood to middle age. Alice is a wilful anorexic, scarred by a childhood skiing accident and an overbearing father. Mattia is an reclusive self-harmer trying to live with the guilt of having been responsible for his disabled twin sister's death. Their paths cross at a school friend's party during a painful adolescence and their lives are destined to intertwine throughout the coming years, despite the chronic awkwardness of their courtship.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552775983</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dorothy Koomson
|title=The Ice Cream Girls
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Poppy and Serena, labelled 'The Ice Cream Girls' by a rapacious press, have their young lives shattered by the man they shared, a teacher in a position of trust, who controlled them in the worst possible ways. The girls are trapped as victims because neither has the assertiveness or maturity to handle the situation. Chance intervenes to escalate an inevitable situation. Now twenty years on, the traumatic events have profoundly affected the emotional stability of each girl, though their lives have taken almost diametrically opposed courses.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443648</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Juli Zeh
|title=Dark Matter
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''Dark Matter'' is translated from German and nothing has been 'lost in translation' here. The lives of two very bright academics are interwoven throughout. Students Sebastian and Oskar are the very best of friends; it's almost as if they share the same heartbeat. However, as they grow into adulthood real life comes along and tends to get in the way. Sebastian settles for domestic bliss. Their friendship cools off, becomes a little tense and strained.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846552087</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lauren Grodstein
|title=A Friend of the Family
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary='A Friend of the Family' is an intriguing and enjoyable read. Set in a wealthy New Jersey neighbourhood, it tells the story of two couples who have been friends for many years. Peter Dizinoff and Joe Stern graduated from medical school together and their wives, Elaine and Iris have known each other for just as long. In many ways their privileged lives have been almost perfect – that is until a shocking event occurs and the two couples react in such different ways that it shatters their friendship and threatens their comfortable existence.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099533359</amazonuk>
}}
