'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Melissa Wareham
|title=Take Me Home: Tales of Battersea Dogs
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Melissa Wareham always wanted a dog but her parents would never allow it and she didn't get good enough exam results for her next option – becoming a vet. Not one to be deterred she joined the staff at Battersea Dogs Home, first as a kennel maid and eventually as the head of rehoming. 'Take Me Home' is the story of some of the highlights of her life at the home and some of the dogs which she met whilst she was there.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849413924</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Stanley Gibbons
|summary=Set in England in 1192, the novel is full of details of life in this period, and resists the temptation to get overtly bogged down in excessive political detail, which makes this a very accessible read to those (like myself) who are not too knowledgeable about this particular historical period. Returning from the Crusades, Richard is forced to leave his family and atone for the sins which he believes has lead to him being afflicted with leprosy. Undertaking a quest to his grandmother's nearby cousin (who is childless, so grandmother wants Richard to present her case for inheriting his lands), Richard finds refuge here. This point struck me as odd - almost jarring in it's unlikelihood. Not only does Richard find help/support/refuge here (whilst remaining unknown to all except the cousin and his wife), but he's virtually welcomed with open arms. Would an itinerant leper be treated in this way? It did add a note of discord to the narrative - as if the quest for inheritance was more important that his trials as a leper.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905802366</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dan Abnett
|title=Primeval: Extinction Event
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=There are rifts in time and space that allow for prehistoric animals to enter our modern world, and it's up to Professor Nick Cutter and his team to track them down and send them back. It's a manageable job, until two animals best described as "demon pigs" hit Oxford Street in London. Cutter feels his days might be easier if he had anyone to share his hush-hush scientific secrets with. Little does he know he's about to be forced to do that, and face something much worse, when his Russian counterparts come demanding help.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857680625</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lulu Taylor
|title=Beautiful Creatures
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Everyone has heard of the Beaufort twins Octavia and Flora, but few have ever seen them, and on the night of their twenty-first birthday party the girls are finally launched into society amongst a crowd anxious to see the two girls who are about to inherit a vast fortune. Octavia and Flora have been kept out of the public eye for their entire young lives by their aunt Frances after their father died and their mother seemingly abandoned them. Now that the girls have come of age Frances has no choice but to hand over the girls' vast inheritance from their father and take a step back from running their lives.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099550458</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sean Gibbons
|title=Sleeper Agent
|rating=3
|genre=Teens
|summary=Zach has been in contact with aliens for some time. They've been beefing up his mental and physical abilities so that he can fulfill his destiny as the saviour of civilisation in the inevitable Vrotogore invasion. His friends don't know this, though, and so his girlfriend Cass has become his ex. She's fed up with his frequent and unexplained absences, and has taken up with Jeremy, a particularly unpleasant character with some quite revolting habits and an exceedingly aggressive manner. Then there's Hooper - a geeky genius inventor who likes a drink more than is strictly good for him.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>9781921456152</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jon McGregor
|title=Even the Dogs
|rating=3
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=I loved Jon McGregor's previous two novels, 'If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things' and 'So Many Ways to Begin'. They're both lyrical, poetically observed works so I was really looking forward to reading his latest book. It is, unfortunately, quite a different sort of story...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408809478</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tom Cox
|title=Talk to the Tail: Adventures in Cat Ownership and Beyond
|rating=4
|genre=Pets
|summary=Are you a cat person weaned on [[Dewey: The True Story of a World-famous Library Cat by Vicki Myron and Brett Witter|Dewey the library cat]], or Marilyn Edwards' rural tales or Doreen Tovey's precious Siamese stories? Do you enjoy cosy, slightly twee reminiscences of much loved felines? If so, look away now… 'Talk to the Tail' is that rare bird: a cat eulogy written by a man. As such it features rather more incidents involving fights, bottom washing, urine stained rugs and feline sexual exploits than your average book about cats. O.K. I'm exaggerating slightly, but reader be warned; the mad cat man is a different beast to the mad cat woman. It's less furry babies and more furry nightmares.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184737817X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Simon Thirsk
|title=Not Quite White
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The story alternates between the two main characters: Welsh Gwalia (that's a she, by the way) and English Jon Bull (and you get an idea of the fun Thirsk has with his names and also characters) as the two meet up for the first time. Lots of Welsh names such as Gwenfer and Gwenlais and also lots of (mainly) unpronounceable place names including the glorious - wait for it - Llanchwaraetegdanygelyn. Thirsk has also scattered Welsh vocabulary all over the place: but many of the words are easily understood (Anti for Auntie and Yncl for Uncle etc) so you don't really have to keep referring to the comprehensive Appendix, unless you want to.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184851199X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Frank Tallis
|title=Death and the Maiden
|rating=3
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=Just to clear the confusion out of the way, this book has nothing to do with the novel of the [[Death and the Maiden by Gladys Mitchell|same name]] by Gladys Mitchell. Both take their name from an early Schubert piece, in which Death entices the Maiden to leave the world of men. The maiden resists. It was a common enough theme at the time: the death of beauty.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846053579</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Burnside
|title=Waking Up In Toytown
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=After years of alcoholism and borderline insanity, John Burnside decides to become normal. This involves moving to Surrey, working in an office and settling into a numbing daily routine he hopes will prevent him drifting back towards bad habits. These memoirs chronicle the failure of his bid for normality and subsequent disillusionment with the project. It's a solipsistic account but the writing is powerful and it draws you in.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507838</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rhiannon Lassiter
|title=Ghost of a Chance
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Eva Chance is used to being ignored by her family, apart from her frail grandfather, who she adores. So she's barely even surprised when they don't set a place for her at a dinner party. But when nearly everyone is ignoring her she grows increasingly concerned – and that's when she realises she's dead. Can she solve the mystery of her murder before either malevolent ghosts or human criminals can do any more damage to her family, aided only by Kyra, who bullied her when she was alive, Kyra's brother Kyle, and a ghost called Maggie she may or may not be able to trust?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192755625</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Simon Morden
|title=Equations of Life
|rating=3
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=It's a book that is certainly not short of action. We are not told what the Armageddon event was, although aspects of it are hinted at. Perhaps that will become explained later in the series. What we do know is that it has wiped out Japan, and one of the first victims of the event in London appears to have been the Congestion Charge as it is now a heaving metropolis with gridlock traffic (although this and the masses of people seem to mysteriously evaporate as the story unfolds).
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184149948X</amazonuk>
}}