'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Sophie Page
|title=To Marry A Prince
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Bella Greenwood has just been away on a tropical island doing an eco-job for a man she though she rather fancied. She returned home when she realised that she was being taken for a mug and when it came down to it she didn't really fancy the man that much either. Getting back into the swing of things is a little difficult though – he mother and step-father have a full house and can't take her in. Her father is up a mountain somewhere and she's just thankful that her friend Lottie is prepared to take her in at short notice – and to take her to a posh party.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099560453</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Hugh Bowring
|summary=Ana has grown up mostly in Portugal, but now lives in Dublin where she teaches film studies and is writing her PHD. However, she was born in Anglola (then a Portuguese colony), the result of an extra-marital relationship of her father, who then adopted her with his wife. When her adopted mother, Helena, dies, she decides to trace her birth mother in Angola, where her brother now lives, but has nothing much to go on but a photocopy of a photograph of two Angolan girls, one of which may, or may not, be her mother, and a name: Solange Mendes. We follow Ana as she attempts to trace her real mother while in alternating chapters exploring her parents' developing relationship and ultimately how her unusual past evolved.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687810</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Neil Griffiths and Judith Blake
|title=Itchy Bear
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Poor bear has an itch. An all-over sort of itch. And everywhere he goes to try and have a good scratch it seems he's disturbing someone! Will he ever find anywhere for a satisfying scratch?!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905434111</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Giles Milton
|title=Wolfram: The Boy Who Went To War
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Giles Milton's daughter was set the task of designing an heraldic shield which represented the most important elements of her family's history. Aware that one of her grandparents is German she included the only German symbol which she knew: a Swastika. It was this incident, which was an awkward mixture of funny and disquieting which brought about 'Wolfram: The Boy Who Went To War'. It's the story of Giles' father-in-law, Wolfram Aïchele, who was nine years old when Hitler came to power and who found himself caught up in a situation which was none of his making and didn't accord with his own beliefs. He was a man who wanted to be a sculptor or to paint, but he was forced to become a soldier.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340837888</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Camilla Gibb
|title=The Beauty of Humanity Movement
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The novel opens with an elderly man as he scrapes a meagre living in Vietnam. He is really dirt-poor but I could tell that he still had his pride. He's not afraid of hard work. In fact, gruelling days of labour and very early risings have been the norm for him since he was a young boy. His passion is cooking. Nothing is too much trouble in order to create his famous Vietnamese noodle soup. And there's a terrific line on the back cover which says 'They say that the history of Vietnam can be found in a bowl of pho and Old Man Hu'ng makes the best in all Hanoi'. We get some background on Hu'ng and discover that his life has been hard, very hard. But he doesn't complain, it's simply not in his nature. Such is the pull and the draw of Gibb's lovely, lyrical writing that I was drawn right into the life of this enchanting elderly man right from the start of the book. Gibb feeds us tiny morsels about Vietnam on a regular basis: the culture, the people, the troubled history for example, but it's written in such effortless prose that it's a joy to read. And her descriptions are so apt, so poetic and so original (but without being in your face) that it all shines on the page. I gobbled it all up.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848877935</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Guy Andrews
|title=The Ultimate Guide to Bicycle Maintenance
|rating=4.5
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=This book seemed like the answer to my husband's prayers. I've had a beautiful Gary Fisher urban bike for about ten years, but shamefully, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've even cleaned it. Well-used it certainly is, but I must confess to leaving all the maintenance to aforementioned husband. Having conceded that in this day and age I ought to be more independent that that, I dived into this book with great expectations for a fairer future …
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907232362</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chris Van Allsburg
|title=The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Thirty years ago, Harris Burdick walked into a book publisher's office with samples of his work. He had fourteen stories ready for publication, but just brought one picture and caption from each. Burdick was never heard of again. The publisher spent many years trying to track down Burdick, showing the pictures to people - many of whom were inspired to write their own stories. (Shh about ''The rights of Chris Van Allsburg to be identified as...'').
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184939279X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=K M Grant
|title=Belle's Song
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Chaucer was a fascinating bloke. Not only did he write the famous Canterbury Tales, but he also found the time and courage to be a spy for the king at a time of civil unrest and political intrigue in Britain. So a story set during one of his journeys, one which combines his secret work and some of the more memorable characters from the tales, is an intriguing proposition, metaphorically as well as literally. Add a dreamy, motherless girl whose guilt at causing her father's accident only reinforces her tendency to self-harm and obsessive behaviour, and a cracking good plot emerges.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849164088</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alma Katsu
|title=The Taker
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When Dr Luke Findley begins his nightshift at Aroostook County Hospital in St Andrews, Maine, things are quiet until Lanny McIlvrae is brought in by the police. Lanny is covered in blood and claims she has killed a man and left him in the woods. Desperate to escape, Lanny quickly asks for Luke's help, but he is not sure at first, so Lanny decides to tell Luke her life story, a story that begins in the early Puritan settlement of St Andrews in 1809 and spans nearly two hundred years, taking Lanny from her home to Boston and beyond. A story that is rich, imaginative and entirely authentic, filling the majority of the novel, and there wasn't a moment when I questioned her reliability as she tells Luke everything, chapter by chapter, as he helps her to escape, slowly drawing him and the reader into her world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846058171</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tom Fordyce and Ben Dirs
|title=We Could be Heroes: One Van, Two Blokes and Twelve World Championships
|rating=5
|genre=Sport
|summary=Meet Ben Dirs. Apart from having one of the most unfortunate names on record, he’s a fairly laid-back guy whose daily breakfast consists of two cigarettes. Compared to Dirs, his BBC colleague Tom Fordyce – a keen amateur triathlete – looks like Daley Thompson in his prime. But Tom’s ambition of winning a world
championship is still completely unachievable, surely? You don’t go from BBC blogger to 100m champion, football World Cup winner, or even the number 1 snooker player on Earth, after all. On the other hand, there are some more obscure Championships out there… could these two unlikely heroes make their dreams come true, and be recognised as the best shin kickers in the world? Not if Rory McGrath has anything to do with it! In addition to the Cotswold Olympicks and their shin-kicking, Dirs and Fordyce try snail racing, wife carrying, nettle eating, and many more weird and wonderful events. The only thing they have in common is the humour which the pair see in all of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230736157</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Szalay
|title=Spring
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Narrated from a variety of points of view, ''Spring'' relates the relationship of James and Katherine. He is an often failed entrepreneurial character who falls for the charms of Katherine, currently working in a London luxury hotel as an interim job, and separated from her photographer-husband. The problem for James is that Katherine is only interested in the pursuit of that perfect happiness scenario and so analyses her feelings constantly - much to the distress of James. But this is a lot more than a 'males don't understand females' tale.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224091263</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Amy Chua
|title=Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Amy Chua has firm beliefs about parenting. She brought up her two daughters, Sophia and Lulu, using a strict set of rules – including no sleepovers, no playdates, no school plays, no choice of extra curricular activity, no grades less than an A, and no being less than the number 1 student in any 'academic' subject. Then there's the piano and violin practice… On hearing she called her
daughter Sophia 'garbage', an acquaintance of hers burst into tears. The thought of praising one of the girls for getting a B, as many American parents do, would no doubt have a similar affect on Chua. Mother – or monster?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408812673</amazonuk>
}}