'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Christie Watson
|title=Tiny Sunbirds Far Away
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''Tiny Sunbirds Far Away'' starts in Lagos but soon moves to the rural, oil producing Niger Delta. This allows Christie Watson's young narrator, 12 year old Blessing, to view the traditional ways afresh. It's a clever device and young Blessing is shocked by the rural conditions after a relatively luxurious life in Lagos with a good school and a modern apartment. But when her mother discovers her father on top of another woman, she takes Blessing and her older brother, the asthmatic Ezikiel, back to her family home.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849163758</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Deirdre Madden
|summary=When Joe Quinn is offered a great job working on the new Metro tunnels, within just a few days, he and his son Arthur have packed up and moved from a peaceful life in Kerry across country to central Dublin.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1856358275</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alan Bradley
|title=I Am Half-Sick of Shadows: A Flavia de Luce Mystery
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=The finances of the de Luce family are in a dreadful state and Flavia's father makes the decision to allow a film company to make use of the family stately home, Buckshaw, as a location. Flavia is in her element with new people to investigate, new processes to mull over and her friendship with Dogger, her father's manservant, to progress. There's obviously something strange going on when the star of the film persuades the director - much against his will - to put on a benefit performance for the village. When there's a snow storm which cuts Buckshaw and many of the residents of the local village off from the outside world - and then a murder - you have the makings of a classic 'locked room' mystery.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409114201</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Claire Tomalin
|title=Charles Dickens: A Life
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Having already written biographies of Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen, among others, to say nothing of a study of Dickens and his mistress Nelly Ternan, Claire Tomalin is admirably qualified to produce a major life of the author to mark the bicentenary of his birth in 1812. (Sadly, she says this will be her last large-scale book).
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917672</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gerry O'Hara
|title=Sherlock Holmes and The Affair In Transylvania
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=I normally start reviews with a brief plot summary, but it seems almost besides the point to do so for a book entitled 'Sherlock Holmes and the Affair in Transylvania'. From those seven words, the reader will have no doubt guessed that this is a Holmes meets Dracula story, and so we may as well move straight on to the burning question – is it any good?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920369</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jeremy Clarke
|title=Low Life
|rating=3
|genre=Humour
|summary=
I'm not a Spectator reader – indeed other than seeing on the shelves I'm ashamed to say that before starting to write this article I knew absolutely nothing about the magazine, its style, ethos or readership. Having (obviously) done the obligatory websearch I know understand that being its editor is considered a reasonable a route to success in the Conservative Party or other public office on a right-wing ticket. A sister publication to The Daily Telegraph, it is quoted as being Atlanticist, usually supportive of Israel, and Eurosceptic in outlook.
This makes me utterly unsuitable as a candidate to review Clarke's book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907595511</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Melanie Welsh
|title=Heart of Stone
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=We're back in the coastal town of Wellow to catch up with Verity Gallant and her pals. Verity has had a marvellous summer spent sailing with Henry but we all know peaceful times are unlikely to last...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385617674</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mark Forsyth
|title=The Etymologicon
|rating=5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=I like words. Words are awesome. End of. But I also like trivia. I like knowing things that perhaps other people don’t, and helpfully passing on this knowledge to them. So a book about word-related trivia is just a win-win, and this one is so good I think we’ll have to call it a win-win-win.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848313071</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Richard Heinberg
|title=The End of Growth
|rating=3.5
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=With the newspapers full of economic doom and gloom the last thing you might want is to pick up a book that reiterates it and then some. But while this book may seem at first glance to be a bit of a downer, it also provides an insight into how things might just work out ok in the end. Yes, they’ll be some big changes – there have to be because the direction we’ve been heading in is just not sustainable – but if we’re willing to adapt, we will survive was the main message I picked up as I flicked through the pages.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570333</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lesley Pearse
|title=The Promise
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Belle has a lovely London life, a good career and a happy marriage. But she has a murky past, and although it’s shaped her kind heart and character, it isn’t something she wants to come face to face with again. But some people are not able to forget the past, for reasons good and bad, and against the dramatic backdrop of the Great War, Belle is about to come face to face with all sorts of things she thought she had forgotten.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718157044</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kerry Young
|title=Pao
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In her Costa Prize short-listed first novel, Kerry Young brings together a huge number of elements that make up a good story. Set in Jamaica, the time period covers 1938 to almost present day, it is the political backdrop of independence and control over Jamaica's assets that informs much of the story. But while the politics of Jamaica resound throughout the book, it's also a very personal story about the life of the eponymous Yang Pao. Issues of race, class, love, family, ambition and business philosophy - Pao's guiding light is Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War'' - are skilfully woven into the mix to make this a great book to curl up with on a cold winter's night.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140881207X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tracey Warr
|title=Almodis the Peaceweaver
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=At the age of five Almodis de la Marche was taken as a hostage - a guarantee of her family's good behaviour - and she remained there until she was of marriageable age. It was all the harder for Almodis as it meant that she was separated from her identical twin. The situation was not hostile although she didn't get on well with her foster mother, Agnes - and never would. Her first marriage was to Hugh of Lusignan and Almodis felt something akin to love for this gentle man, but the sexual relationship between the two was tenuous to say the least and Almodis was determined that she would create her own dynasty. At a time when marriages were put aside if they were not producing the required heirs, Almodis decided that she had to move on. Her next marriage - to Pons of Toulouse - would be more productive but far from happy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907605053</amazonuk>
}}