'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=David Mitchell
|title=The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary='The belly craves food, the tongue craves water, the heart craves love, and the mind craves stories.'
This is the book to satisfy that last craving. It is rich in stories from the graphic opening chapter to the poignant closing lines. Everyone has a tale to tell and even minor characters are fleshed out with histories that amuse, horrify or enthral. Their stories made me think about how sometimes what at the time seems to be an insignificant choice can define the course of a life. Here the characters’ choices unleash a cascade of consequences.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340921560</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mark Griffiths
|summary=Things weren't going too badly for Patrick Oxtoby. He's intelligent and did well at school. Then his Gran died. He started getting pains in his shoulder and things rapidly went downhill from there. He drops out of university to become a mechanic. By the time we meet him as a 23-year-old, he's become a loner who cannot communicate his feelings and who cannot seem to fit himself into society. Now his fiancee has left him (and you can see her point) and he finds himself in a seaside boarding house in an unnamed English town, hoping to start a new life. Then, one night he commits an act of violence (you can see it coming) and his life goes from bad to awful.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184767383X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lisa Jewell
|title=After the Party
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=It's been eleven years since Ralph and Jem finally became an item at the end of Lisa Jewell's first novel Ralph's Party. After buying a house in South London and having two children their once exciting, romantic and crazy relationship has gradually become consumed by responsibility and domesticity. Jem has become bogged down with motherhood and running a home and just wishes Ralph would help out a bit as she struggles to start working again. Ralph, unsure of his role in the family, has gradually drifted away both physically and emotionally from Jem and his children, preferring to spend as much time as possible painting in his studio.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846055733</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lawrence Hill
|title=The Book of Negroes
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Although this is a work of fiction, the whole distasteful and deeply upsetting subject of slavery is a fact, therefore, at times I felt as if I were reading a true account.
The narrative goes back and forth, starting with Aminata (or Meena as she is usually called) as a relatively old woman (what we would call middle-aged). She's in London, far from home, but she's there for an extremely important reason. The powers-that-be need her to tell her story, as a slave over many years. The hope is that other Meenas will not have to suffer the same fate. On a lighter note (and they are few and far between) Meena gets to visit some London schoolchildren. They think that she eats elephant. She is able to laugh at their naivety.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552775487</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Buchan
|title=Sick Heart River
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This was a surprise for me. It’s rare for a book to come to my attention from the reviewing gods that’s a rerelease of a 1930s novel, and one that surfaced a couple of years ago now. But when it strikes me as startlingly Conradian, updated for the times, and perfectly able to stand alongside one of literature’s greats, then it’s just a sign those reviewing gods are on the ball.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184697030X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mark Marshall
|title=Little Tiger's Big Holiday
|rating=3.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Little Tiger is going on holiday. Whatever will he need? Well, flying goggles, obviously. A parachute is a must. Who goes anywhere without stilts? Oh, and a helmet, in case he goes in a racing car. Item by item, his suitcase gets more and more full. His holiday sounds like it's going to be an amazing adventure.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186233773X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lynne Rickards and Lee Wildish
|title=Jacob O'Reilly Wants A Pet
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Like many young children, Jacob O'Reilly Wants A Pet. He'd love a dog. A cat would be great. Ooh, what about gerbils? Or an iguana? He's desperate for an animal to look after, but mum and dad don't fancy the idea. Then they suggest that he start a pet-sitting business, and all hell breaks loose...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034098838X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Sartof
|title=River of Judgement
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Finn Jackson is an oilman, an engineer and he's developed a new way of extracting oil which doesn't ravage the countryside in the way of traditional methods. He's set up a company to take advantage of this along with his friend Aaron Philips, who's the money man. He's short of an operations manager – and has been for a while – after the tragic death of Shufang Su in a site accident. She was a geologist but had apparently flouted safety regulations and you know that there are going to be repercussions from her death.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956415202</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Catrine Clay
|title=Trautmann's Journey: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup Legend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary='You have to learn to be hard men, to accept sacrifice without ever succumbing'. Such did Hitler say at the Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies in the 1930s. He probably did not have in mind playing in goal at a FA Cup final with a broken neck, such is the lifetime of difference between the two references. But that lifetime, as packed and varied as it was, is in the pages of this ever-interesting and swiftly-devoured book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082884</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rachel Hawkins
|title=Hex Hall
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Sophie Mercer has been sent to a boarding school for monsters after a little love spell goes horribly wrong. Hecate Hall has been set up 'to protect and instruct shapeshifter, witch and fae children who have risked exposure of their abilities'.
As in any good school story, she soon makes new friends and enemies. Her room mate is a 15 year old vampire with an obsession with everything pink, and Sophie must struggle to hide her disgust at Jenna’s blood consumption, as they quickly become good friends. She faces more difficulty with a trio of glamorous witches. Anna, Chaston and Elodie hate Jenna and they are frequently sarcastic and nasty at Sophie’s expense. At the same time though, they approach her to join their coven, and her reluctance to get involved makes her more unpopular.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387225</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gervase Phinn
|title=Road to the Dales: The Story of a Yorkshire Lad
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=As a teacher currently anticipating (I won't say looking forward to!) an OFSTED inspection, school inspectors aren't generally my favourite people. I'll make an exception for Gervase Phinn, though, as he's entertained me for many hours with his previous books on his time in the Dales doing the job. I was expecting his memoirs of his childhood to be equally entertaining – and feel slightly letdown, if I'm honest.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718149114</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Pattie Boyd and Penny Junor
|title=Wonderful Today: The Autobiography of Pattie Boyd
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Pattie Boyd will always be remembered for one unique, extraordinary claim to fame. She became the wife of arguably the two most famous and revered rock guitarists of the era, George Harrison and Eric Clapton, and thus inspired three of their compositions which became three of the age's seminal love songs, namely 'Something', 'Layla', and 'Wonderful Tonight'.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755316436</amazonuk>
}}