'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=Philip Ardagh
|title=Trick Eggs and Rubber Chickens: Grubtown Tales
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=If you haven't been to Grubtown before, then feel welcome. As newly arrived lorry driver John Jones finds out, it's a place of exceedingly silly names for people – Blue-Ridge Handheld my favourite so far – and exceedingly silly things happening for exceedingly silly reasons. One of those silly things is John Jones arriving into town with a giant octopus on the back of his lorry – a real, live one, destined for the brand new aquarium and carwash. Another, coinciding, silly thing, is the mayor having a huge festival day for the opening of his new home, which he has just finished knitting.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571247938</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Elif Shafak
|summary=Flicking through the channels on the TV the other night I stumbled across an interview with George Bush's former Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove. After witnessing an especially cringe making hip hop turn at the Washington Correspondents' Dinner (if you haven't seen it take a look at [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln5RD9BhcCo here]. It really is jaw droppingly awful) attention turned to weightier matters, most notably Guantanamo Bay and the war on terror and the Bush administrations response to Hurricane Katrina.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144841</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jim Carrington
|title=Inside My Head
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Zoe has moved from London to rural Norfolk - her parents are expecting a late baby and they want to downsize, get out of the city, and live in a more sustainable way. Unsurprisingly, Zoe isn't big on this plan. Wrenched from her school and friends, and the vibrancy of the capital, she's convinced that her life has just taken a socking great turn for the worse.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802716</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brian Ruckley
|title=Fall of Thanes
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The Godless world is descending into a kind of insanity. All order is breaking down and members of both the True Bloods and the Black Road are fighting amongst themselves. There is rioting in the streets and the armies of both sides have taken to mindless slaughter rather than organised conquest. Under Aeglyss' command, the Black Road armies are strengthening and his power is increasing as his body weakens. His control of the Shadow Chancellor is a step towards ending the rule of the Thanes by murdering the greatest among them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841494410</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Wendy Law-Yone
|title=The Road to Wanting
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=We first meet Na Ga in her hotel room in Wanting, on the Chinese side of the border with Na Ga's native Burma (or Myanmar for the more geographically pedantic, although Burma is used throughout this book). She is attempting to commit suicide, but is interrupted by news from the hotel receptionist who tells her that her guide across the border, Mr Jiang, has just committed suicide himself. You might by now have the impression that this is not a cheery kind of book, and you'd be right up to a point, although it's certainly not without its light touches. In fact it's often quite beautiful, which makes the exposure of the seedier side so much more shocking.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184086</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sue Eckstein
|title=The Cloths of Heaven
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=We're in West Africa in the early nineteen nineties. There's the usual mix of expatriates and diplomatic staff doing their best to do their best whilst still making the most of the freedoms such a life gives. Isabel is married to iconoclastic photographer Patrick Redmond and copes better than most wives would with her husband's fixation with pendulous black breasts. There is gossip though. The High Commissioner and his wife Fenella are both involved in illicit affairs, with more or less discretion.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954930983</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Emily Bearn
|title=A Seaside Adventure (Tumtum and Nutmeg)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=There's something very comforting about returning to a story with familiar friends and this latest in the Tumtum and Nutmeg series does not disappoint. Our brave little mousey friends are heading off for some new excitement, this time travelling by train to the seaside to keep an eye on Arthur and Lucy who have been sent to stay with their Uncle. Nutmeg is sure it won't be any bother, but Tumtum suspects they may well end up on another adventure!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248203</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Assaf Gavron
|title=Croc-Attack
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Eitan Enoch is known as Croc to his friends. There's a good reason but it's about to become rather more famous than Croc would like. It's begins on the morning that he takes his regular bus to work – the Little Number 5 – and a fellow passenger worries about the dark-skinned man with a suit bag who's sitting at the front. Just before Croc gets off at his stop he asks why people are so paranoid and wonders whether it's impossible for dark-skinned guys with suit bags to get on buses any more.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007327463</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Roddy Doyle
|title=The Dead Republic
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Henry left in 1922, after the Irish Civil War. It is now 1951. After his long exile, nothing is as he expected. He revisits an old home to find no trace that a house ever stood there. The project that has brought him back is not as he expected. The Quiet Man will be a hugely successful film for John Ford, but the life portrayed in it is not Henry Smart's life, and the portrait of Irish politics and everyday life in the film is not one he recognises. In his late 40s, he feels he is an old man already, alone with his memories of the wife and family he lost.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090097</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Craig Robertson
|title=Random
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=A man is planning his first murder and he's doing it with some care. We'll gradually realise that he's been making preparations for some time but the oddest thing is that this murder must be completely random. He mustn't be diverted from his chosen system even if the person who is selected is someone he would rather not kill. It's not a whodunit – for the killer tells us the story as it progresses – or even a 'why did he do it' as even that will become obvious, but the suspense is in whether or not he will get caught.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847377297</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joe Friedman
|title=Boobela and Worm Ride the Waves
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
Boobela is a girl who is just like any other little girl, except for the fact that she isn't little - she's a giant. Worm is her best friend (he actually is a worm) and he rides around in a box she straps to her shoulder. This outing sees them visiting some underground caves and learning to surf, amongst other adventures.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842556819</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Heather Gudenkauf
|title=The Weight of Silence
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=On a hot August morning in the small town of Willow Creek, Iowa, Calli Clark and Petra Gregory are reported missing. They are both seven years old, live in the same street, and are the very best of friends. Calli has suffered from selective mutism from the age of four when she witnessed a traumatic event in her home. As a result Petra has become Calli’s voice, speaking for her and is even able to tell others what Calli is thinking.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303691</amazonuk>
}}
