'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
{{newreview
|author=Peter Ackroyd
|title=Wilkie Collins
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=While Peter Ackroyd has published some extremely long books over the last few years, he has also been responsible for some commendably concise volumes as well. This life of the Victorian novelist is one of the latter, the latest in his series of 'Brief Lives', which have also included Chaucer, the painter Turner and [[Poe by Peter Ackroyd|Edgar Allan Poe]].
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099287471</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=Bullied by his classmates at school, harassed by his parents at home, and weighing over 400 lbs, Butter really has very little to keep living for. And so he decides to stop. Living, that is. But he’s not going to throw his not unsubstantial frame under a bus, or jump off a cliff. He’s going to do what he does best – eat.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571294405</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sally Gardner
|title=Three Pickled Herrings (Wings and Co 2)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
Emily Vole and the rest of the team at Wings and Co Fairy Detective Agency are worried. They have been open for five months and have not had a single case to solve. Then Sir Walter Cross dies in strange circumstances; shooting into the sky in a cloud of purple smoke before falling to his death. Shortly afterwards they receive more tales of bad luck and disaster from Mr. Rollo the tailor and the Smith family who have been preparing for their daughter Pandora’s wedding. Suddenly Emily, the Fairy Detectives and of course, the remarkable talking cat, Fidget, find themselves with not one but three cases to solve. Are Wings and Co. up to the task? Of course they are!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444003739</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Barrowman and Carole E Barrowman
|title=Bone Quill
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Twins Matt and Em Calder have both their mother's Animare gift of bringing paintings to life and their father's telepathic Guardian gifts. This makes them an unknown to the Guardian Council - some of whom would have the twins bound, their powers trapped forever.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780550316</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=William Palmer
|title=The Devil is White
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Just off the West coast of Africa is the island of Muranda. It is uninhabited, but previous attempts at settling it mean there are buildings available for use. There is wild game for hunting, fruits on the trees and the climate suggests that the land could be cultivated. A group of gentlemen, not liking the slavery rules they are living under in late Eighteenth Century England, have an idea of claiming this island as a kind of Utopia where there are no slaves and everyone lives in comfort and equality.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224096826</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tamsyn Murray and Judi Abbot
|title=Snug as a Bug
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=When George looked out the window at the rain, he was a bit reluctant to go out. That was until his mum told him that they would be taking lots of extra cuddles that would keep him lovely and warm. In fact, he would be as 'snug as a bug rolled up in a rug'. Added to that he would be 'like two cosy bats in thick woolly hats' and even 'as hot as three pigs in big purple wigs'. This list of how snug he will be keeps being added to all the way up to ten when Mum tells George that he will be 'tucked up like... Ten toasty geese all sharing one fleece'.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857071092</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Richard Mabey
|title=Turned Out Nice Again: On Living With the Weather
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=After many years of discussion of climate change it's easy to assume that this is a book about ''climate'' but it's not - or only indirectly. It's about how we live with ''weather'' and our reactions to it and climate comes into the discussion only as an examination of our reaction to the changes. You might have heard the essays which were broadcast in a five part BBC Radio 3 series ''Changing Climates'' which ran in February 2013, but as always with Richard Mabey, his words warrant thought and examination which can't be accommodated by the spoken word.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250529</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Naima B Robert
|title=Black Sheep
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Sixteen-year-old Dwayne is a badman – a wannabe rapper who hangs around with other gang members and doesn't see any future in education. Misha, high-flying university-bound daughter of a local councillor, should have nothing in common with him, but when they meet there's an undeniable attraction, and they start to date in secret. Misha makes Dwayne want to be a better person – but with his old life tempting him back at every turn, can he make a break from it, or will he be drawn back in?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847802354</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James P Blaylock
|title=Lord Kelvin's Machine
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=On a dark and rainy night, a weary but determined Langdon St. Ives rides out in hot pursuit of the villain who is holding his wife, Alice, captive. Catching up with his nemesis on the road, the resulting standoff between the two ends with St. Ives witnessing the cold-blooded murder of his beloved, shot in the head at point blank range whilst pinned under the wheels of a carriage. It is a scene that will play out again and again in his mind, driving him to the brink of madness and desperation. There appears, however, to be a glimmer of hope in the form of a mysterious machine in the possession of the Royal Academy of Science; a machine that may hold the secret to time itself. Is it possible for our hero to harness the power of Lord Kelvin’s Machine and rewrite history?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857689843</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Meagan Spooner
|title=Skylark
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Lark's city is run on magic - they've found a way to use it like electricity, it powers everything. This magic comes from teenagers. When a child comes of age they find their magical power, which is then harvested. Once this is done, your magical abilities have gone. However, there are stories about people who are Renewable, there magic just keeps coming back. Someone like this would be invaluable to society, and unfortunately for Lark, this is exactly what she is. Determined not to be a slave, and having been tortured by the government for her powers, she escapes (with the help of another Renewable who is a prisoner of the city) and leaves. She begins her journey to find others like her - Renewables - her only clue to 'follow the birds'.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552565563</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael Jago
|title=The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris, volunteered to serve in the army at the outbreak of the Second World War, but his sight prevented front-line service and he joined MI5. Prior to this he’d been a journalist, working on the '’Hull Daily Mail’’ before moving to Fleet Street. He found a natural home in MI5 and a considerable talent for interrogation. At a time when spies are thought of as being flamboyant, he was the opposite - a small, bespectacled man who could easily blend into the background. His greatest skill was that he was a patient listener. [[:Category:John Le Carre|John Le Carre]] has said that nobody who knew John and the work he was doing could have missed the description of Smiley in his [[Call for the Dead by John le Carre|first novel]]. Le Carre was a junior colleague in MI5.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849545138</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gemma Malley
|title=The Disappearances
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''The Disappearances'' opens a year after Evie and Raffy escaped from the City. They have begun a new life in the Settlement - Raffy farms and Evie sews and this kibbutz-like living is like balm in comparison to the ultra-controlled, denunciation environment they left behind. But Raffy's jealousy won't leave him and it's threatening to ruin the couple's precious, new-found peace. Back in the City, Lucas is finding that switching off the System hasn't been the panacea he thought it would be. His people are lost without the rigid controls they had lived under for so long. And to make matters worse, the City's young people are disappearing.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00A4YZWJ6</amazonuk>
}}
