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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crimenon-fiction, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page. [https://ewritingservice.com/ Ewritingservice.com] is the custom writing service thousands of students trust all over the world. [https://myhomeworkdone.com/ My Homework Done] is your best choice among those websites that do homework for you.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

 '''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Luke Dittrich1635866847|title= Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness The Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Family SecretsTerry Barlin Vesci|rating= 4.5|genre= Popular Science, BiographyLifestyle|summary= Luke Dittrich seeks to shed light It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the man behind homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the initialsbook, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in doing so, uncovered quite the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a bit more than he expectedproblem. I ''loved'' this book already.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099571862</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sita Brahmachari and Jane RayJenny Valentine|title=Worry AngelsUs in the Before and After|rating=45|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyTeens|summary=Amy-May was devastated when her parents split up: she Elk and her mother left the delightful seaside cottage where the waves had sung her to sleep and moved into Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a 'garden flat'. That didn't mean that it had once in a garden, just that it was on the ground floorlifetime connection. They didn't have meet as children one day on a lot of possessions as the bailiffs had taken most of them. Her father was living in another old cottage now and hopefully he'd be able to set up his kiln, trip out but he wouldnunfortunately they don't be able to home-school Amy-May. The alternative was Sandcastles Secondary School but the rather nervous Amy was considered to be too get each other''anxious'' to start s contact details at the school full time. As a gentle introduction to schooling she went to Grace's art school insteadBut then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178112695X</amazonuk>1471196585

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cassandra Parkin1787333175|title= The WinterYou Don's Childt Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating= 5|genre= ParanormalPopular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''A modern Gothic tale You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of twisted lovethe NHS, secrets humour and hauntings'' it says on the coverautobiography. I'll go along with that. Suzannah Harper doesn'You Don't believe in life after death or gypsies being able Have to tell be Mad...'' promised the future, same elements but that hasn't stopped her spending a fortune on psychics moved from physical problems to mental illness and fortune tellers in the desperate hunt for her sonwork of a psychiatrist. Joel has been missing I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for five years. He skipped out of school one day after an argument humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at home a situation rather than a person and has not been seen sinceit is always delivered with empathy and understanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785079034</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clare Foges and Al MurphyMariana Enriquez|title=Bathroom BoogieA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=45|genre=For SharingShort Stories|summary=Every day I leave the house with the feeling Mariana Enriquez writes horror that I left it in a pretty tidy stateis disturbingly real, but achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on my return some things always seem out gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of placedisused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. This is especially true The circumstances of my bathroom. Why is there toothpaste on her characters are so plausible that the mirror, supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a flannel on the floor? It would appear that I may not actually be to blame and that when I'm at work all the bathroom items come out for a boogiesimilarly tangible texture. Will I ever catch them in the act?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571337317</amazonuk>1803511230

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Mark AlderOnyi Nwabineli|title= Son of the NightAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating= 4.5|genre= FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=In [[Son of Anuri spent her childhood on display to the Morning by Mark Alder|Son of the Morning]], author Mark Alder plunges the reader into a chaotic, dangerous world, taking them back thanks to the turbulent reign her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Edward III Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and the dangers of the Hundred Years War, basically, monetary gain. Adding elements of fantasy Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and theology to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the mixcontent about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, Alder created an intriguing read which undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is continued in ''Son desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of the Night'Ophelia's online empire. With Lucifer Can she save her sister, Satan, God, Devils and Angels interacting perhaps herself and her relationship with a cast of real and well researched characters, Alder continues his exploration of her father at the Hundred Years war whilst rather incredibly keeping his readers as educated as they are entertained.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575115203</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kenneth Grahame David Chadwick|title=Headload of Napalm|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary= It's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Robert IngpenLas Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, there's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until....|isbn= B0D321VJ76}}{{Frontpage|author=Tom Percival|title=The Wind in The WillowsWrong Shoes|rating=45

|summary=Kenneth GrahameWill's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes'The Wind in , he has the Willowswrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn' was one of t have enough money for even the defining books most basic of my childhood things like food, and more than sixty years after I first read the book Ihis dad can've just recently passed it onto another young reader. Since t work because he lost his job at the book college, was first published working a cash-in 1908 there have been some notable illustrators: Paul Bransom provided illustrations for -hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the 1913 editionfact that his mum and dad are separated, Ernest H Shepard (perhaps better known for his illustrations of and Will''Winnie the Pooh'') s life seems bleak in 1933every direction. And yet, Arthur Rackham (possibly the leading illustrator from the golden age he still has a tiny amount of book illustration) in 1940 hope. He is good at art, and Robert Ingpen who illustrated clings to the centenary edition moments of ''The Wind in joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the Willows''end of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786751062</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon JenkinsSylvie Cathrall|title=Britain's 100 Best Railway StationsA Letter to the Luminous Deep

|genre=ReferenceScience Fiction|summary=In the mid twentieth century the railway was something There are few greater joys than a book which harked back lives up to the Victorian age with trains being supplanted by cars and planes, but steam was being replaced by oil, even then and in the twenty-first century oil a compelling premise. And this is giving way to electricity. It's cleaner, more environmentally friendly and the stations which we'd all rushed through as quickly as possible, keen to escape their grime, were restored and became places to be admired, possibly even lingered in. Simon Jenkins has chosen his hundred best railway stationsone of them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>024197898X</amazonuk>0356522776

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Baker1786482126|title=Eloise UndercoverThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary= Eloise has a wonderful life with her two best friends, Albert and Maddie, until Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the German soldiers start site was going to arrive and everything changes. Nazihold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments -occupied France is not when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a place Eloise wants to bedoorway. Maddie and her family are taken away and Albert starts to act very strangely There was no skull. Then her father disappears Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Eloise is lost until she discovers her father has been working for the resistance and there might It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, if that she is brave enough, pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be a way to rescue him obvious before he's deported long, not least because Ruth is prone to Germanysudden bouts of sickness. She now has hope and a plan. But will the resistance let a twelve year old schoolgirl join them?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910611131</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Nalini SinghJoan Didion|title= Silver Silence A Psy-Changling Trinity NovelThe Year of Magical Thinking|rating= 4.5|genre= ParanormalAutobiography|summary= Jump straight into This book is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of the grief she endured following her husband's sudden death. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a rich beautiful and diverse universe at this designated jumping on pointnecessary resource to help people feel less alone. Visit a world of humansDidion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, changelings denial and Psy. The world the books have set in has faced a dramatic change delusion and makes them utterly normal, lends them a new world-order of peace has been declared. The peace is painful and not universally lovedhuman face to wear. Into this world a bear falls in love with an emotionless Psy – how'd ya reckon it'll turn out?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473217571</amazonuk>0007216858

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Colin Thubron0008551324|title= Mirror to DamascusThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre= TravelCrime|summary= Damascus today It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is a monument struggling in prison and he's prepared to her past, to all tell the police where the people body of a missing person is buried and civilisations that helped shape who was responsible for herdeath. In this enthusiastic piece of travel writing This person, he promises, Collin Thubron tells is someone big and it will be worth the tale police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of a city that has seen empires rise his sentence and fallto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, conquerors come is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and go and has lasted for over two thousand years. Itshe's rich in impressive history even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and this book anyone who works with him is rich in impressive detailkept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532298</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Fearne Cotton and Sheena Dempsey1739526910|title= Yoga BabiesWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating= 4.5|genre= For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary= Radio host''One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's life, TV presenterhe arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, fashion designer, author – is there anything Fearne Cotton can't do? Based on the content he dreams of this bookreconnecting with everything he has lost. But as those tentative plans falter, we can undoubtedly add Yogi to the ongoing list he becomes swept up in a local world of talentsunlikely friendships, because itmobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities.''s hard to imagine any other way in which this came into being.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783445645</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Claire Freedman and Jane Massey0008405026|title= Florence FrizzballA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating= 4.5|genre= For SharingCrime|summary= Florence Frizzball has It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the frizziestinvestigation ground to a halt. Now, curliesther mother, most out of control mop of hair you've ever seen! And she longs for smoothHelena, sleekand her father are dead in their bed. Initially, brushable locks it looks like all her friends. As a kid, I remember being chased round straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the garden by my mother, brandishing a hair brush bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and trying to get me her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to sit still and have my frizz sorted out. To say I identified with Florence would be an understatementopen-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. As the tale goes on, though, we see another side to the story. Florence gets what she wants, but when her dream comes true she quickly learns Kerrigan is convinced that maybe she was wanting all the wrong thingsexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, and that actually her frizzball is part of her identityUna Burt) are less convinced. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471144542</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Stuart Maconie1529077745|title= Long Road From JarrowThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating= 4.5|genre= Travel Crime|summary= I cancelled my ''Country Walking'' magazine subscription about A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a year ago and man in the only thing I miss is Stuart Maconie's columnpark near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. His downThe dead man was Josh -one of the care workers who was due to-earth approach and sharp wit belie an equally sharp intellect and work a soul more sensitive than he might be willing to admit. Let's be honest, though, I picked this one shift the night before but who had never turned up because of someone else's review, in which I spotted names like Ferryhill and Newton Aycliffe. Places D I grew up Vera Stanhope is called in. Like Maconie I have no connection (that I know of) to investigate the Jarrow Crusade murder - but when he talks about it being ''a whole matrix her only clue is the disappearance of events reducible to one word like Aberfanof the residents, Hillsborough, or Orgreavefourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl'' then somehow s diary makes it does become part of my history tooclear that she adored Josh. Tangentially, at leastShe knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785030531</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Kieran Larwood1399613073|title= The Gift of Dark HollowMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident ReadersThrillers|summary= This is the second marvellous book featuring the rabbits of EnderbyOlivia, Laura and Anjali met on the delightful young rabbit hero, Podkin One Ear. I love the format first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a story within quarter of a storycentury. The adventures of Podkin in ''The Gift of Dark Hollow'' Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, are told by an old rabbit who has been which is a Bard all his life - bonus when you aim to be a teller of stories and legends from the rabbit world. The Bard has an apprentice, Rue, desperately eager to learn his tradecardiothoracic surgeon. He hangs on every word spoken by the Bard as they travel together to Laura is a perfectionist and a festivaltrauma doctor. Rue Anjali is hungry to learn the art free spirit of story-telling, but also wants to know all about Podkin One Ear, the group and what better way to do this than to hear from the Master himselfshe becomes a GP. The tale he tells Rue (and us) is When we first meet them they're at a gripping drug and scary one, featuring Podkin alcohol-fuelled party and his friends it's going to end in their ongoing battle to overturn tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the ruthless Gormthree friends. This time, and it's their cruel leader, Scramashankteenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571328415</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Phil Allcock and Richard Watson0241636604|title= Clumpety Bump|rating= 4|genre= For Sharing|summary= Clumpety Bump likes apples. Nothing wrong with that, after allThe Trading Game: they're tasty and full of goodness. But you don't get delicious, juicy treats like that unless you deserve them, and naughty Clumpety is a bit too keen on saying ''I can't be bothered'' when his friend Wally asks for help. So, after several disasters, Wally decides he'd be better off leaving Clumpety at home and using his tractor instead. Unfortunately, things don't turn out too well, and our two heroes learn that if you want to be properly happy, other people need to be happy too. Selfishness just makes everyone sad. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848862458</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewA Confession|author=Roger Moore|title=A Bientot...Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5

|summary=The news If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the death of Sir Roger Moore in May 2017 came as a great shock: pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was one of those people you knew would go on for everfamiliar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was just one small glimmer of light in the sadness no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the news that a matter London School of days before his death Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he'd delivered the finished manuscript has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his bookability at what was, ''À bientôt…''essentially, to his publishersa card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Just a few months later Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a copy landed on my desk and I didn't even bother to look as though I could resist reading it straight awaytrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782438610</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jonathan StroudLeanne Egan|title= Lockwood and Co: The Empty GraveLover Birds|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident ReadersTeens|summary= In a world that takes the best and worst of Victorian times (atmospheric fogsWhen new girl, candlesIsabel, mudlarks who scavenge along the banks moves to Lou's hometown of the Thames Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for treasures) and the modern day (leggingseverything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, skinny jeansbut Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, cabs and concrete underpasses) absolutely anything can happen – and that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it does. For fifty years ghosts ? Because Lou is straight, isn't she? Even though none of all kinds her relationships with boys have infested Britaingone very well so far, and as only children and young people can see she's never had a good kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, theirs and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is the task of protecting the adults and ridding the country of the menaces, one by painful one. Lucy, Georgefun, Holly and Lockwood are the members of the smallest and most ramshackle independent agencyshe definitely just hates Isabel, but their constant success (and survival despite forever lengthening odds) is a thorn in the flesh of the elite Fittes Agency, which has acquired almost total control over the whole ghost-bashing business.doesn't she?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552575798</amazonuk>000862657X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kenneth Steven1009473085|title=Winter TalesThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=45|genre=Short StoriesPolitics and Society|summary= Upon opening this Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you are presented with 're looking for an eclectic collection of twelve short stories centred around a common theme of Winter. You are taken around easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the world as book for you read stories set in a variety of places from Helsinki to New York, Germany to Russia. Kenneth Steven cleverly utilises a key component of short stories - If that 's what you 're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read each story and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in one sitting a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co- to his advantage editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as he gives each story an individual focal subjectthe most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, such as bullying, ensuring the changes that you are reading a distinct story every time you open occurred and the booksituation in 2024.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910674508</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= William SuttonMax Boucherat|title= Lawless and the House The Last Life of ElectricityLori Mills|rating= 4.5|genre= Crime (Historical)Confident Readers|summary= Campbell Lawless is back, this time tasked with solving a series of terrorist attacks across We meet Lori on the nation. Is it first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work of the French, as police and public are being led to believejust an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, or someone closer to homeon her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Who can be trusted and what does Roxbury Snuggled in a blanket fort, an innovative inventor previously disgracedshe has one main intention, have and that is to do with the bombs used log on to cause chaos across the country? Employing the services of MollyVoxminer, the effervescent ragamuffin from his previous adventuresworld-building, he sets critter-collecting game that is a hit in motion Lori's world. But first Lori has a campaign tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of subterfuge which uncovers long held secretstampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, skulduggery and her safe place in the desperate yearnings beneath Roxbury's constant invention.game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785650130</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=K J LawrenceFyodor Dostoyevsky|title= The CossackWhite Nights

|genre=ThrillersShort Stories|summary=Daniel Brooking is not what you'd think of as hero material: he's a photographer of some merit and As always in his fifties he has a settled life. It was the disappearance of his assistantDostoyevsky, Ivan Shevchenko, which disrupted everything. It wasn't unknown for him to disappear occasionally, but missing an exhibition was a first for him. He'd been distracted for a few days - and then there were the strange papers which arrived, to be kept safecharacter work is sublime. The authorities, in the form of One is never left wondering what a shadowy senior member of the security services, confirmed the view that Ivan was probably dead, character is thinking or feeling because of some supposed connections Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and temperaments with organised crime and drug dealingremarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1999782704</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Goss and Russell T Davies0008385068|title=Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)The Midnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley

|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse Thrillers|summary=Consider It's midsummer on the DoctorDorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. Just how many birthday It's their opening weekend and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep in touch with even half of his companions? splendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. He would certainly need a few novelty gifts The Manor was her ancestral home and she's converted it into an impressive retreat for some of themthe wealthy and famous. Her husband, sayOwen, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate was the life of a Time Lord architect and that work is still ongoing on parts of some of his friends the site. The heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemiesas well as friends. As luck would have it, he has the space in his TARDIS Old scores are going to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium settled and get himself ready. And if youit won're working on a shorter timescale, with t be long before a shorter lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice body is pretty much the samefound.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785942719</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Zillah BethellJames Baldwin|title=The Extraordinary Colours of Auden DareGiovanni's Room

|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction |summary=Auden has a condition called achromatopsia, which means that he can't see colours. He likes to pretend that it doesn't matter but it does. And Giovanni's Room'' follows the older Auden getsnarrator David, an American man living in Paris, the more it seems to matter. Mind youas he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, so does everything else...... because Auden lives in a near-future Britain an Italian bartender he meets in a world where climate change has taken root. It never rains any moregay bar. Britain, an island with plenty of coastline, While David is doing better than many countries thanks engaged to its desalination plants. But water Hella, who is still rationed and travelling in Spain, the Water Authority Board is now a quasi-government as real tension in the most important and powerful body in novel arises not from his infidelity but from the landdeeper conflict within himself. Water wars have broken out worldwide and AudenIt is David's father is away fightingcrippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848126085</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J Saxena and J ZimmermanB0DGDJRHYD|title=Basic WitchesNowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone

|genre=Spirituality and ReligionGeneral Fiction|summary= Before I started this book I was expecting to be thrown into the world In a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of magic and would know how every preparation, down to levitate by the end of the first chapterlast detail. UnsurprisinglySome last reflections, I was wrong. Howeverand then he says goodbye to his wife, what I was met by was a book that explores the origins of witchcraftworld, teaches you how to dress and act like a witch his life. It's horribly sad. At work in her shop, his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and contains spells ranging ailing mother, who needs extricating from accepting compliments to conjuring up yet another accident. It will be a relaxing Netflix bingewhile before Diana realises what Patrick has done.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594749779</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maja Lunde and Diane Oatley (translator)Virginie Despentes|title=The History of BeesKing Kong Theory

|genre=General FictionAutobiography |summary=Bees are ''King Kong Theory'' is a handy symbol of the planet's environmental degradationhard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as you'll know if you've read anything by [[:Category:Dave Goulson|Dave Goulson]] – whose endorsement a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the book is featured proudly on a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the cover complex prism of this Uher varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography.KThough these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays. release of Norwegian children|isbn=191309734X}}{{Frontpage|author=James Baldwin|title=Giovanni's writer Maja LundeRoom|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction |summary=''Giovanni's first Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, the real tension in the novel for adultsarises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. The creatures also provide subtle links between the bookIt is David's three story linescrippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471162745</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Greta Zargo and the Death Robots from Outer SpaceAshley Hickson-Lovence|authortitle=A F HarroldWild East

|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny''No one knew that only three things stood in the way of the complete and utter destruction of the Earth: one elderly parrots story, one eleven-a young black fourteen year-old spelling mistake boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and one intrepid young newspaper-reporter-cum-schoolgirl in search of start at a Big Scoopmostly white school. The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny' Oh my word! What s safety after a prospect! Let me break it down for you. The parrot has only ever learned tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to speak one sentence. The spelling mistake is between great settle in a new town, a new school, and Gretakeep himself out of trouble. Both these things point the alien danger He listens to Earthmusic constantly, and has always dreamed of being a silvery robotrapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the direction power of Greta Zargocreativity and crafting your words.|isbn=0241645441}}{{Frontpage|author=Alba de Cespedes |title=Forbidden Notebook|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the moment our protagonist, who is Valeria Cossati, purchases her forbidden notebook, and learns about herself in the wannabe reportermost intimate and revealing ways. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408869470</amazonuk>1782278222

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Yaba BadoeOttessa Moshfegh|title= A Jigsaw My Year of Fire Rest and StarsRelaxation|rating= 43|genre= Literary Fiction|summary=Sante was At best, this novel is a baby when she was washed ashore in a sea-chest laden with treasure. It seems she is scathing critique of modern society and reveals the sole survivor fragility of human relationships; at worst, it is the tragic sinking of a ship carrying migrants cynical, predictable and refugees. Her people. Fourteen years on she's a member slightly trite tale of Mama Rose's unique and dazzling circusan unlikeable protagonist. ButThis unlikely heroine, from their watery gravea slim, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the unquiet dead are calling Sante to avenge them. A bamboo flute. A golden bangle. A ripening mango which must world, but resolves not fall... if Sante is to tell their story and lose sleep over it: in fact, her solution lies in her ownhibernation. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786695480</amazonuk>1784707422

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Martha Batalha and Eric M B Becker (translator)Jo Callaghan|title= The Invisible Life of Euridice GusmaoLeave No Trace|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary FictionCrime|summary= On When a man is found crucified on the surface, young housewife Euridice Gusmao has it all. A nice-enough, parent-pleasing husband with top of a steady banking jobhill in Nuneaton, two young children upon whom DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to dotethe case alongside her sidekick, an immaculate home complete with maidthe AI detective Lock. That It's all anyone could ever wanttheir first live case together, isn't it? Not Euridicehaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. She has an inexplicable ache inside her for something more, like many of us. Yet each of her pet projects, from a desire to publish But when there is a recipe book to starting second body found crucified a cottage sewing industry in her living roomfew days later, are met Kat is suddenly struggling with scorn from her stern husband Antenor. He wants a wife who doesn't draw potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herselftaken off the case and, whose only domains are her house and her family.potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178607298X</amazonuk>139851120X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jakob Wegelius and Peter Graves (translator)B0DB64PYV5|title=The Murderer's ApeWhite Rose|author=Dave Baines|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersDystopian Fiction|summary=Sally Jones is in clover In 2033, a superstorm known as a mechanic on a cargo ship – when, that is, there is cargo to actually ship. Having needed emergency repairs, the two-strong crew of her and White Rose devastates the Chief are idling in Lisbon, and are given a mysterious and mysteriously overpaid job – Northern Hemisphere. And it's not a job storm that shouldn't go wronggathers, wreaks havoc, but doesthen dissipates. Unfortunately for the ChiefInstead, taking even it hovers across half the first step at writing the wrong sees him arrested for murder. Sally Jones is forced into hiding, which she manages to do Earth with a lovely, kind woman with a hidden talent for singing, and her landlordits octopus-like tentacles, who makes and repairs accordions not giving up and other musical instrumentsnever going away. Life with them seems to be a new form of clover, then, but hints of that past nastiness keep coming back to haunt Sally Jones, especially when there's a suggestion that the alleged murder victim might still be alive… Oh, and did I say that Sally Jones is actually a gorilla?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782691618</amazonuk>