'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Alice de Smith
|title=Welcome to Life
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's the 80s. Freya is 14 and an only child. She lives with her parents in Cambridge. So far, so normal. Except... Freya's home life is slightly a-typical. She's on first name terms with the parental figures (no affectionate ''Mum'' or ''Daddy'' here) and is under the distinct impression that they spend their days imagining life without her. Her best friend is a middle aged housewife on whose son she has a rather too obvious crush. Her mother communicates with her through lists and shows her affection in the oddest ways. Her father has just moved his business associate in, but he's not just sleeping in the spare room.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843549840</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Simon Cheshire
It's not enough to find out you're a clone and to have both a renegade scientist and a fundamentalist terrorist group trying to kill you. Oh no. Because when MI5 and the FBI relocate you, they condemn you to living thousands of miles away from the only other person in the world that might understand what you've been through. It's safer that way, apparently.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387632</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tony Fitzjohn
|title=Born Wild: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Passion for Lions and for Africa
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Maybe it's just my rock-chick nature but "Born Wild" feels a little clunky as titles go. Surely it should have been "Born To Be Wild"? Perhaps that phrase has been copyrighted and wasn't available. Or maybe Fitzjohn was deliberately referencing Joy Adamson's book "Born Free" – since much of the early part of his own time in Africa was spent with her husband George. "Born To Be Wild" would have been more accurate as well. Many of the animals we meet weren't born wild at all – though a good few of them got to live out the remainder of their days and die that way.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918911</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mary Roach
|title=Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in Space
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Space is big. Really big. And it's a long way away, too. I mean, I'm having enough trouble deciding what to pack for a year in Africa. I'd be hopeless if I were off to Mars. But then, no-one's written a book on what to stick in your suitcase for Sierra Leone. And Mary Roach ''has'' written a book on what to take to the red planet...
Except, this is so much more than a shopping list. This is the definitive inside scoop for anyone who has ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in a world that is, well, out of this world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851687807</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Judith Summers
|title=The Badness of King George
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=People know how to get round me: they offer me a book and then say 'It's about a dog' and like Pavlov's canine I say 'Oh, lovely'. And so it was with The Badness of King George. George is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and I have to quibble with the title – superb as it is – because George is not bad. If anything he's badly done by as Judith Summers, plagued by empty nest syndrome when her son goes to university, decides to foster rescue dogs. Poor George has absolutely no idea what she's let him in for. And nor has Judith.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141046473</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Celine Kiernan
|title=Moorehawke Trilogy: The Crowded Shadows
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=At the end of [[The Poison Throne (Moorehawke Trilogy) by Celine Kiernan|the first book]] of the Moorehawke Trilogy, The Poison Throne, Wynter Moorhawke, her childhood friend Razi, and her romantic interest Christopher were all desperately
trying to find Razi's half-brother Alberon, whose father Jonathon appeared to be driven insane. I thought I knew exactly what to expect from this second novel in the sequence, but was thrown sideways by the massive detour taken.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184149822X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Richard Conniff
|title=Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff with Animals
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=This isn't quite the book it seems. From the subtitle, I inferred a memoir or autobiography. Instead Richard Conniff has chosen twenty-three of his journal articles to reprint from a clutch of prestigious magazines, including ''National Geographic'' and ''Smithsonian''. Taken together, they illustrate his wide range of interests in the animal world. While this glimpse of some of the most peculiar creatures on the planet makes for fascinating reading, it's definitely not a book to be galloped through in a single sitting.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393304574</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brent Weeks
|title=Lightbringer: The Black Prism
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Gavin Guile is the Prism, the only person able to split light into its entire spectrum of colours, which makes him the most powerful man in the world. Peace between the seven Satrapies relies on his power, his charm and wit. And a fragile peace has been maintained for the past sixteen years, since the False Prism War that devastated the world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184149903X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Pippa Funnell
|title=Tilly's Pony Tails: Parkview Pickle, the Naughty Show Pony
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Here at Bookbag Towers we first met Tilly Redbrow in [[Tilly's Pony Tails: Neptune the Heroic Horse by Pippa Funnell|Neptune the Heroic Horse]]. Tilly's back home from her holiday in Cornwall and back at the Silver Shoe Riding Stables as often as she can be – which is before school, after school and every minute she can be at weekends and in the holidays. There's a lot of excitement at the stables when they find out that a new show pony is moving in. Parkview Pickle is a real beauty, although perhaps a little bit on the plump side and with a rather nervous rider and the ultimate pushy parent.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444000837</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Whitley
|title=The Children of the Lost
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Mark and Lily have left Agora and they have no idea what to expect from the land beyond the city walls. They have been brought up within a rigid system based on barter in a city where everything can be traded: goods, services, people, even emotions are up for sale. They have also been taught that outside the city walls is a wilderness, with no civilised life. Do bear in mind here that their idea of civilisation is Agora…They are ill equipped to survive, and immediately make things worse by arguing with one another. Mark is furious with Lily for her part in their banishment and his actions lead to Lily being placed in great danger.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141330120</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Julian Lees
|title=The Fan Tan Players
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The story opens with a vividly described cyclone in 1920s Macao. I found Lees' writing was such in the opening chapter that it felt almost apocalyptic. The loss of life, the damage to property and ... 'sounds of the surf regurgitating gurgling carcasses of belly-bulging cows.' I couldn't help but think of the real-life tragedy unfolding in Pakistan. I felt a bit queasy when I was reading this, to tell you the truth.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905207492</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sandra Wilson
|title=The Wrong Miss Richmond
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Mr Richmond had been married twice. From his first marriage he had a daughter, Christina and another daughter, Jane from his second marriage. Christina is quiet, sensible, bookish and, in her mid-twenties, with no expectations of matrimony. Jane, or the other hand, is the heiress of her mother's fortune, just a little wild and loves the bright, society life. That's probably not unreasonable as she's not yet twenty and whilst the girls are chalk and cheese they love each other dearly. Christina is pleased when Jane makes a good match – she's to marry Lord St Clement – until she meets her lordship, when she realises that her heart might not be quite so hardened to emotion as she thought.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090005</amazonuk>
}}