'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Neil Forsyth
|title=Why Me? The Very Important Emails of Bob Servant
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Catchy title and catchy front cover graphics. What's not to like? It takes a lot to make me laugh generally, but as I had an initial flick through this book, things looked promising. And I was also thinking that it's a pleasant change to see another location (other than perhaps the predictable Glasgow and Edinburgh) get an airing.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780270097</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=D. J. Connell
|summary=It's such a pleasure to read an Ian Mathie book, so I really looked forward to 'Supper with the President'. No surprises, then, to find this book every bit as delightful, intriguing and informative as his others. Ian Mathie knows exactly how to stitch up a good story; the occasional photographs - proving the stories are not fiction – come almost as a surprise. The books are helpfully illustrated with simple maps placing the stories in geographical context. To me, Ian Mathie is simply the best of the relatively unknown writers I have come across as a reviewer. Interestingly, the two men in my household grab and devour Ian Mathie's books, and I imagine anyone interested in development issues and/or Africa would welcome one or two of his titles for Christmas.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906852103</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Linda M James
|title=How to Write and Sell Great Short Stories
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Having read any number of books about crafting great stories, I thought I had had my fill and that there were no more books left that could bolster my enthusiasm and help me to get on with my writing. In short, I thought the only thing left that could motivate me was, well, me.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846947162</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joe Revill
|title=A Case of Witchcraft
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As Holmes embarks on a journey towards the Northern Isles, we are treated to a comprehensive background of the ways of witches all over the world; all points are pertinent and the history is fascinating as well as necessary. The introduction to the ways of witchcraft demonstrates the worldwide links that will become highly significant later. Revill weaves in the relevant history and all its complications with ease, and the novel flows in spite of having to accommodate this.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920091</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jamie Thomson
|title=Dark Lord: The Teenage Years
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=What would you think, if you met a thirteen-year-old boy who turned up out of the blue and insisted, loudly and colourfully, that he was an evil demon and that he intended to smite you dead or submit you to a thousand terrible torments? Or both? Yup – the kid's nuttier than a fruit cake. Got a screw loose. Several sandwiches short of a picnic. And he's clearly played way too many computer games in his short life. So, despite his threats and protestations, he's got to go into foster care until his real family is found: after all, he can't be left sitting in a car park forever, can he? And once you realise there is no sign of a relative anywhere, well, there's his education to consider.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408315114</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Hari Kunzru
|title=Gods Without Men
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Quite literally at the heart of Hari Kunzru's latest novel stands not a person, but strange geographical feature in the California desert - three large rocks known as 'The Pinnacles'. If you've ever looked at a feature of the landscape and wonder what it has meant to those who have gone before, then you will find a similar stance here. Kunzru's episodic narrative takes in various points in time from 1775 to 2009 all of which centre around this rock structure which has had different meanings for different generations. There are echoes of the past in each new version, but no more than that.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114311X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kevin Gosselin
|title=Hunt for the Blower Bentley
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Connecticut innkeeper Faston Hanks is obsessive. He's very keen on food but it's cars – and particularly old cars – which drive him. This time he's involved in the search for the only one of the fifty Blower Bentleys made which remains unaccounted for. SM3912 was originally purchased by Lord Brougham and Vaux and ownership can be traced to one D H Sessions, after which the trail goes cold. We know something which Faston doesn't know though – the Bentley came into the hands of Stephan Sidlow, who was high up in the APR during World War II, by less than honest means. But then Sidlow was less than honest about which side he was supporting in the war.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920180</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Logan
|title=Lost Christmas
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=We don't usually review novelisations hereabouts. We don't have anything against them but we can't review everything and so novels whose original form is another media altogether fall victim to editorial weeding. But sometimes you just can't resist making an exception. Lost Christmas is coming to your TV screens via CBBC this Christmas and it just looks gorgeous - watch the trailer on the right of this review! And Quercus have given this novelisation - from the film's writer David Logan - an equally gorgeous dinky hardback release with a doubly gorgeous cover.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857387359</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alice Hoffman
|title=The Dovekeepers
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Set in the last desperate days before the Roman siege on Masada (70CE), the lives of four women collide and merge. They are Yael, the daughter of a Sicarii assassin; Revka, the wife of a gentle baker who witnessed her daughters' rape and murder; Aziza, raised as a boy with the skills of a great warrior and Shirah, born in Alexandria to a mother well versed in ancient magic. All four have crossed the heartless desert on separate journeys to arrive at the last outpost against the Roman Legion, where 900 Jews held out for many, many months. Here they have little power and less hope, but each refuses to be a victim. All are harbouring deep secrets about their pasts, as they become the Masada's dovekeepers. With supplies dwindling and certain death drawing near, their uneasy bonds to each other strengthen as their truths are unveiled. They find an uneasy comfort that becomes true loyalty and empowerment. While few in their company survive to recount the tale, their story has lived on to haunt the deepest of memories.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857205420</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chris d'Lacey
|title=Fire World
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=David Rain is an impressionable, imaginative boy who can ''imagineer'' (that is, visualise objects and make them solid). He is a threat to the highly organised society of Co:pern:ica, particularly to the terrifying Aunts who control society on behalf of the Higher, and his parents are blamed for their own faulty emotions, thoughts and abilities, and punished. David is sent to the librarium, the repository for obsolete books, where he meets a mysterious girl called Rosa. She will play a part, along with the beautiful but threatening firebirds and unexpected members of David's own family, in discovering the secrets of the ancient tapestry of the librarium and confronting threatening forces from Co:pern:ica and beyond.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408309599</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jeremy Paxman
|title=Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=In the 21st century, the British Empire may be an anachronism, something for which hand-wringing politicians and church leaders may be ever ready to apologise. Many of us have grown up just as the last imperial remnants were crumbling away. Yet its legacy is everywhere, and for better or worse will always be part of the very fabric of Britain. As Jeremy Paxman demonstrates in this excellent overview, published as a curtain-raiser to his series on the subject, it is never very far away from us. After a period of trying to distance ourselves from it, we seem to be on the verge of coming to terms with the simple truth that it was not so bad as it has sometimes been painted. Moreover, it should be remembered that even if Britain emerged from the Second World War battered and broke, it still possessed sufficient imperial presence to become one of the Permanent Five on the United Nations Security Council.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919578</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tracy Revels
|title=Shadowblood: A Novel Of Sherlock Holmes
|rating=5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=For those picking up a Tracy Revels novel for the first time, she writes Sherlock Holmes fiction with the twist that Holmes is a supernatural being, coming from the Shadows. In the hugely enjoyable romp [[Shadowfall: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes by Tracy Revels|Shadowfall]], Watson discovered this, and was plunged headlong into an adventure involving Titania, Spring-Heeled Jack, voodoo, and various other dark and mysterious beings. That one ended with the good doctor losing his memory of the story – but I was always hoping that was merely a temporary measure, and indeed, it’s not long here before he starts to recall Holmes’ true nature.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920474</amazonuk>
}}