'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Adrienne McDonnell
|title=The Doctor and the Diva
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=We first meet one of the central characters, the successful, young obstetrician Dr Ravell as he mingles with the great and the good Bostonians at a high-level social gathering. His reputation seems to precede him as one guest enthuses 'After nineteen years in a barren marriage ... thanks to you, they had twins.' High praise indeed. And at this gathering he not only meets a future patient, Erika von Kessler, but he is also enraptured by her singing voice. He tries to explain all this but finds it difficult so ends up by saying 'It was not an earthly voice; it was a shimmering.' I loved that line.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751543608</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ann Bonwill and Teresa Murfin
|summary=Some academics produce streams of fantastic concepts and ideas but their attempts at articulating them to a wider reading public stumble into jargon and complexity. Thankfully David Lodge has no such troubles. As a mighty fine novelist ([[Nice Work by David Lodge|Nice Work]], [[Thinks... by David Lodge|Thinks...]], Deaf Sentence and many more) who also has a day job as a professor of English, Lodge is perfectly qualified to deliver a book on the craft of writing an in The Art of Fiction he has delivered one that is informative and enlightening as well as highly entertaining.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554240</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jeanne Willis and Adrian Reynolds
|title=I'm Sure I Saw A Dinosaur
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=When a child in a small seaside town is sure he saw a dinosaur he runs to tell the fisherman. The fisherman tells his mum, who tells the butcher, who tells the baker and so on...Before you know it the whole town are down on the beach, and more and more people are joining them to look for the elusive dinosaur. It seems, for a long time, that the little boy must have imagined it...was there really a dinosaur on the beach?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842708546</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Linda Gillard
|title=House of Silence
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Gwen Rowland was a sensible, cautious kind of girl, but then the only family she'd ever known were all dead from a surfeit of unprotected sex, drink and the sort of drugs that don't come in a child-proof bottle. So – her relationship with an actor was a little out of the ordinary, but they seemed to be friends before they were lovers. The crunch came at Christmas when Alfie said that he was spending it with his family – which would have left Gwen on her own. She did ''slightly'' twist his arm to take her with him and he was obviously reluctant to comply. When they arrived at Creake Hall, home of author Rae Holbrook and her daughters, Gwen sensed a change in Alfie, a lack of warmth towards his family. Then there was the family photo which didn't fit the known facts and the complication of the gardener who said little but was a very good listener.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B004USSPN2</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Annalena McAfee
|title=The Spoiler
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Several things about this novel intrigued me. It is about two female journalists of very different generations. Also, it is set in the recent past – 1997. While newspaper production had been computerised, it was just before internet access at home and work became affordable and accessible to far more people and so became mass media, and newspapers were almost entirely a print medium – newspaper websites were just around the corner. Annalena McAfee has an insider's knowledge of the newspaper world as she was a journalist for many years, and her career included founding the Guardian's review section in its current form.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846554357</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Freya North
|title=Chances
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Sharing a business with ex-lover, Tim, is a disaster for Vita. How can she possibly move on when he's popping into their souvenir shop every day? Though she shed the two-timing love rat from her bed over 12 months before, his presence casts dark shadows on her days. But ridding him from her life isn't a likely option and escaping into her precious classic fiction is sometimes the only way she can ignore her troubled thoughts. She cannot afford to buy his share of the business and she isn't prepared to risk losing 'That Shop' with its delightful trinkets and resident shoplifter!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007326661</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Winshluss
|title=Pinocchio
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Imagine, if you will, Disney's film of Pinocchio had been animated by a crew of artists hell-bent on sabotaging the prospect. Painterly frames of beauty would be rare in amongst gritty, grimy, shadowy images of nightmarish content, which took it upon themselves to break into black and white, or sepia. The prologue might have a character forcing his cat to join in at Russian Roulette. Geppetto would be accompanied in the leviathan, in one of the rare tuneful segments, by a penguin playing the piano. And this after the proud inventor was trying to sell Pinocchio as a prototype robotic super-weapon, just as his wife was putting Pinocchio's most distinctive feature to a most unexpected use...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861661729</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tessa Hadley
|title=The London Train
|rating=3
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Part one focuses on Paul - a rather self obsessed and aimless character, who is less than honest with his family, using various friends to cover up his movements. He has several daughters, and on learning that one is having problems, goes to visit her in London - and ends up staying with her, for several weeks, leaving both his (second) wife, and the mother of this daughter (first wife), completely in the dark as to what is happening. Initially we feel that he is acting in a protective manner towards his daughter, who is struggling to come to terms with her pregnancy - but in fact his motives are far less altruistic, thereby alienating the reader from his tale. The squalor in which her daughter is living, would appal most parents - yet he seems to take it all in his stride, and attempts to join the hippy-style commune - yet more irritation with this deeply flawed character therefore emerges.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090976</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Amber Stewart and Layn Marlow
|title=How Many Sleeps?
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=At the start of this book, a little field mouse, Toast, is really looking forward to his birthday and wants to know 'how many sleeps?' There are still quite a few until the big day, in fact, as his mother tells him, there are too many to start counting! However, before long, when he asks his daily question, he is told that there are 'just enough sleeps to deliver party invitations to all your friends'. Soon after there are just enough sleeps to go and collect party decorations, then to help decorate the cake and then eventually there are only enough sleeps to wrap the party treats, put the candles on the cake and to get an extra special good night's sleep. However, at the same time, Toast's father is anxiously asking how many sleeps until his little boy's birthday, but he does not want it to come too soon as he has an extra special present to make and he is rapidly running out of time. The big question is whether he will finish it in time or will there never be enough sleeps?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192780263</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Bill Larkworthy
|title=Doctor Lark: The Benefits of a Medical Education
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Bill Larkworthy is a pleasant fellow who has lead an eventful, but not world-shattering life. So at the outset it's probably worth saying that this self-deprecating tale won't light many literary fires. If fireworks are what you are looking for, search elsewhere. On the other hand, I always find ordinary people's stories of everyday life fascinating, as well as providing useful background, or what used to be called 'general knowledge', about other parts of the world. Since my general knowledge of the Gulf States is more or less limited to Lawrence of Arabia and current news reports, a little padding won't go amiss. So yes, I did enjoy this read, and I imagine the Saga age group will borrow it in steady numbers from libraries (if they can find one open). It would make a good present for a man of a certain age, which is:
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906852065</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alex Woolf
|title=Chronosphere: Time Out of Time
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=It's the 22nd Century, and finally the ideal gap year is available. Before being forced into a career prescribed him by his big society, Raffi buys his way into the Chronosphere, whereby his body will live in stasis for one minute in general time, while passing a year of sunny hedonism, with sports, shopping, girls and partying in a perfect idyll of mod-cons. But of course all is not well in paradise. His peers have a habit of vanishing without trace, and who knows? - even his newly-found friends may have something to do with it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907184554</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Emma Henderson
|title=Grace Williams Says it Loud
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Grace, aged eleven, is sent to the Briar Mental Institute as her parents can no longer cope with her care. She is befriended there by a young boy, Daniel, who is epileptic and also has no arms after a terrible accident. Together we see the horrors of life in the Briar, and also their slowly growing love affair with each other.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144470401X</amazonuk>
}}