'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Andy Bounds
|title=The Jelly Effect: How to Make Your Communication Stick
|rating=4.5
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=This book has lots of glowing praise written all over the covers. Such lines as 'Andy Bounds taught me more about effective presenting than a lady who'd previously taught two US Presidents.' Unsurprisingly, my expectations were sky-high. But will the book deliver? I have to say at the outset that I didn't particularly take to the title (although original and presumably unforgettable). I found it detracted at first glance and didn't do the book any initial favours. And although it is explained in full I still felt it light and an Americanism too far. But that's just my personal opinion. That aside, I was keen to start reading, see what all the fuss was about ...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857080466</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Emma Donoghue
|summary=In the current economy, lots of people are trying to make ends meet in their own ways. Not since the days of Brownie badges has the word ''thrift'' been bandied around so much, but now it's not so much about saving money as it is about surviving. Actually, maybe it always was, but the Guiding Association thought a jolly piggy bank was a more appropriate badge emblem than a depressed family collapsed in front of their Sky TV with their supermarket-own curry struggling to fill the void left by a regular take away. What we all need is a return to the good old days, when life was simpler and people happier, the days when you didn't need to clear half an hour in your diary to navigate the olive aisle of the supermarket, and when you ate what was fresh and local, not because it was cheap or you were in the mood, but because it was all they had.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099521121</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Pam Bachorz
|title=Candor
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=The children of Candor know how to behave and the children of Candor stick to those rules:
''The great are never late.''<br>
''Healthy breakfasts make for smart minds.''<br>
''Academics are the key to success.''<br>
''Always be courteous.''
In Candor, everyone is happy. There is no crime. There are no tantrums. There is just respect and cooperation. It is a harmonious place that people from the outside desperately want to relocate to.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405250275</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Carol Richards
|title=Columbanus: Poet, Preacher, Statesman, Saint
|rating=4
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=Richards is at pains to point out straight away that the reader mustn't confuse Columbanus with Columba of Iona. She informs us that the latter did not travel extensively but the former, the subject of her book, did travel throughout parts of Europe. She gives her subject a terrific introduction on the cover, describing him as 'poet, preacher, statesman, saint.' And then goes into much more detail about these areas of his life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845401905</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Adam Phillips
|title=On Balance
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Essential for a tightrope walker, prized as an intellectual objective, balance is generally considered something to which we can aspire. We praise someone who makes a balanced decision, we envy people who have a 'good work/life balance' we offer an opinion 'on balance' to demonstrate that we have considered various arguments and options.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241143888</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Diana Evans
|title=The Wonder
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Lucas and Denise have been brought up by their grandmother on a canal boat in west London, after the death of their parents. Now they are in their 20s, and their grandmother Toreth is gone. Denise is a practical and responsible young woman, getting on with her job as a florist, but her younger brother Lucas is a dreamer, still trying to establish what he wants to do with his life, and increasingly distracted by trying to find out more about his identity, about who his parents were, especially his father.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099479052</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael Rosen
|title=Michael Rosen's Big Book of Bad Things
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=When he was little, Michael Rosen's dad remembered all the bad things he'd done and reminded him of them when appropriate, so Michael imagined he'd written them all down in a Big Book of Bad Things. Here he presents the eponymous poem, as well as many many other tales of childhood, from the horrors of being a second late to school, to making a raft, to going to a café. Some bad, some sad, some quirky, some funny, some touching, some light-hearted, all wonderful.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141324511</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Edward Hardy and Deborah Allwright
|title=Martha, No!
|rating=3.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Martha Felicity Molly-Anne May gets through nannies faster than most kids get through... well, everything. She's a bit of a handful is our Martha, always doing what she shouldn't, and running her nanny ragged. Her day is, unsurprisingly, peppered with cries of ''Martha, noooo!''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405240784</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Andrews
|title=The Economist Book of Isms
|rating=4
|genre=Trivia
|summary=I'm assuming all readers of this book, and this review, will know the meanings of the words racism, atheism and Communism. But how about Orphism? Nestorianism? Vorticism? Or the exact difference between egoism, egotism, and egocentrism? I'll confess to ignorance on all of that second trio of words before reading this book, but was fascinated to find out what they were. (Orphism is a religion originating in 6th or 7th century BC Greece based on the poems of Orpheus, who returned from Hades. I'll leave you to find out the definitions of the other two yourself!) Similarly, I was aware of all three of that final trilogy, but am not sure I even knew there '''was''' a difference, let alone that I'd have come close to being able to actually define them all as this volume does.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682983</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Trent Jamieson
|title=Death Most Definite
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=As soon as I read the blurb on the front cover of the book, I gained a pretty good idea of the tone and style. 'Reaping - it's a grim job but someone's got to do it.' This book is a little bit quirky, a little bit out of the ordinary. I was keen to start reading.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498599</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rebecca Farnworth
|title=A Funny Thing About Love
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=When the reader first meets Carmen Miller she is struggling to cope with the breakup of her marriage whilst not really enjoying her job as a comedy agent. Her boss always seems to find fault with her and she soon discovers that her ex husband's girlfriend is pregnant which comes as quite devastating news. The only thing that lightens up her days is the flirtatious banter that takes place between herself and her colleague Will. The problem is though that she is afraid of taking things further and eventually being hurt as she knows too well what that is like.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099527189</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ron Rash
|title=Serena
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The reader is introduced to one of the two main characters straight away. George Pemberton. But everyone (even his new wife) calls him simply Pemberton. He's faced with an awkward and at the same time delicate situation and deals with it - with violence. No one seems too bothered, not even the local sheriff.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847674887</amazonuk>
}}
