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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crimenon-fiction, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page. We can even direct you to help for [https://www.easywritingservice.com/custom-book-review/ custom book reviews]! Visit [http://www.everychildareader.org www.everychildareader.org] to get free writing tips and [http://www.genecaresearchreports.com www.genecaresearchreports.com] will help you get your paper written for free.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

 '''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1635866847|title=The Lavender Companion|author=Alice Hemming Jessica Dunham and Julia SealTerry Barlin Vesci|rating=4.5|titlegenre=Lifestyle|summary=Bamboo It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I Wish wanted that cake viscerally. (Early ReaderThere's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I ''loved'' this book already.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the Before and After

|genre=For SharingTeens|summary=With two stories Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one book, thereday on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's plenty to like about this simplecontact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and funny, early readerthey are inseparable. The first story Something has happened though, Bamboosomething terrible and tragic, deals with a cheeky panda who has run off to hide. Where can he be? The second story is about a wishing well which is granting wishes leftand now they must work through their grief, right and centre! Evaluated as a red level booktheir friendship, it sets itself as being about the right level for those around the end of their reception yeartogether.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848862512</amazonuk>1471196585

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Naomi Hamill1787333175|title= How You Don't Have to be a Kosovan BrideMad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating= 5|genre= Women's FictionPopular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''How You Don't Have to be a Kosovan BrideMad to Work Here''after enjoying Adam Kay' recounts tales of two womens first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, who are of a similar age and live in Kosovo, one glorious mixture of insight into the world's youngest and most unstable countries, in the aftermath workings of the Balkan war. The first girl, the Kosovan Wife, follows the archaic, traditional path that has long been the norm for women from her country - she marries before she is twentyNHS, humour and soon produces childrenautobiography. The second girl follows a starkly different path - returned ''You Don't Have to her parents after a disastrous wedding night, and thus labelled be Mad...'' promised the Returned Girl, she scorns tradition, same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and studies endlessly until she is accepted into university, where she discovers the distinctly modern, Western world work of political activisma psychiatrist. The girls' stories are interwoven with both Kosovan folk tales and memories of the recent war, really giving readers a feel of what I did wonder whether it is like was acceptable to call such an unstable place home. This be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is undoubtedly directed at a political book, with distinctly feminist undertones, but situation rather than a person and it is also thoroughly enjoyable, always delivered with empathy and beautifully written to bootunderstanding. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630950</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sarah Brennan and Jane TannerMariana Enriquez|title= Storm WhaleA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating= 5|genre= For SharingShort Stories|summary= This Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is one of the most beautiful picture books that I have read for a while. ''Bleak was the day and the wind whipped downWhen I and my sisters walked to town…'' So begins disturbingly real, achieving this story uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of three sisters who set off disused refrigerators due to walk to the beach together in this stunning an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and rather special picture booka crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The cover illustration is reminiscent circumstances of traditional family holidays depicting three girls, hand in hand and wearing sunhats disappearing over sand dunes on their way to the beach. The story then departs from a typical seaside theme as her characters are so plausible that the sisters find supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a stranded whale on the beach and spend the day in desperate attempts to save itsimilarly tangible texture. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910646253</amazonuk>1803511230

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Roald DahlOnyi Nwabineli|title= FearAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesGeneral Fiction|summary=Do you enjoy being scared? Featuring fourteen classic spineAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-chilling stories chosen by Roald Dahlmother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, these terrible tales where she posted every step of ghostly goingsAnuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-on will have you shivering mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with fear as you turn her father at the pages.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405933216</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Roald DahlDavid Chadwick|title= WarHeadload of Napalm|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesThrillers|summary=In warIt's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are we at our heroic best or our cowardly worst? Featuring the autobiographical stories from Roald Dahlmain local employers but otherwise, there's time as a fighter pilot in the Second World War as well as seven not much of note other tales of conflict than dive bars and strifeJoshua trees. Life is quiet, Dahl reveals the human side of our most inhumane activityuntil....|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405933194</amazonuk>B0D321VJ76

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chloe SeagerTom Percival|title=Editing EmmaThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Emma Nash Will's life is difficult, in a typical 16 year old with all the insecurities and obsessions that come with this agemultitude of ways. When He is bullied because he has 'the love of her life wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can'ghosts'' her (i.e. breaks up with her by acting as if she t work and doesn't exist)have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, she spends and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the summer moping college, was working a cash-in her pyjamas-hand job on a building site and had an accident. However Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, September arrives all too soon bringing with it the start of Sixth Form and a resolution to make some important Will''edits'' to her s lifeseems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. This includes e-tweaking herself with disastrous He is good at art, and often hilariousclings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, consequencesthat feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. The whole experiment And this is recorded in Emma's private blog: a blog that she might just regret ever writingone of them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0008220972</amazonuk>0356522776

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=1786482126|title=Pascal Garnier and Melanie Florence The Janus Stone (translatorDr Ruth Galloway)|titleauthor=Low HeightsElly Griffiths

|genre=General Fiction Crime|summary=Edouard is Builders were demolishing an exemplary example old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a crotchety old man – changing his mindchild beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, and blaming anything and everything – even that decision – on other peopleDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. HeIt's physically fine, apart from one hand disabled by a strokedifficult as Ruth knows, but mentallyNelson doesn't, what that she is pregnant with forgetting his past, assuming too many days are Sundays when they're not and buying too many inappropriate things, he needs child as a nurse – Therese, who has formed an unlikely and almost unwanted couple with him. For Edouard, result of the memory of his wife who died ten years one night they spent together some three months ago is still a little too strong. But this unusual 'family' Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is about prone to be upset by an unexpected arrival, who will stir the emotions and life sudden bouts of their remote house no end…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910477427</amazonuk>sickness.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Liam BrownJoan Didion|title= BroadcastThe Year of Magical Thinking|rating= 4.5|genre= Thrillers Autobiography|summary=When David Callow This book is offered Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of the lead role in a revolutionary new online show, he snatches at the opportunitygrief she endured following her husband's sudden death. Rapidly becoming Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a viral sensation, David is propelled beautiful and necessary resource to stratospheric levels of celebrityhelp people feel less alone. HoweverDidion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, he soon realises the downside of sharing every secret with the world. A prisoner to both his fame denial and delusion and his own thoughtsmakes them utterly normal, David seeks to have the chip removed, only lends them a human face to discover the chilling secret lurking at the heart of MindCast, and the terrifying ambition the show's creator has for himwear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1787199932</amazonuk>0007216858

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess0008551324|title= The Painted Queen: an Amelia Peabody MysteryDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre= Crime (Historical)|summary= Amelia Peabody It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is a no-nonsense lady who endures all manner of murder attempts, kidnappings and sundry other crimes while on various archaeological digs struggling in Egypt with equanimity prison and composure. She he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is either revered or feared (or both) by villains, museum curators, family buried and workmen alike who was responsible for her caustic tongue death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the steel-reinforced parasol she brandishes at police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the first sign remainder of dangerhis sentence and to get an early parole date. And yet Not much to ask, once the evil-doers have been locked up, precious objects returned to their owners is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and all injuries bandaged, she still insists on all 's even prepared to do the decorum of the English abroad: formal dress for dinner other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and only the politest and least contentious topics for dinner-table conversationanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472126823</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Barney Saltzberg1739526910|title= Chengdu Can DoWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating= 4.5|genre= For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary= There's something utterly delightful (and, it must be said, sometimes infuriating, especially when you're in One year after a hurry) about the toddlersuicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's determination life, he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to be independentrecover. Scrambling along using any handy piece Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of furniture orreconnecting with everything he has lost. But as those tentative plans falter, if they don't move fast enough, the family pet as he becomes swept up in a prop, exploring cupboards full local world of the most enticing objectsunlikely friendships, mobile discos and the daily struggle to get as much dinner in his or her own mouth as on the walls – all that requires grit and a refusal to fail which augurs well for the little onesurprising romantic possibilities.''s future. That can-do attitude, so lauded by education, enterprise and big business, is a quality Chengdu the panda has in bucket-loads! |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1484758471</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= John Grisham0008405026|title= The Innocent Man|rating= 4.5|genre= True Crime|summary=Many readers may be drawn by the fact that A Stranger in the internationally bestselling John Grisham is the author here. I however, must admit that although I have enjoyed some of the films based on his books, I have never actually read any of them. This hasn't been due to deliberate avoidance, I just haven't gotten around to it. I was keen then to read this True Crime title and see what Grisham would bring to the table, so to speak.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784759414</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Rebecca Jones|title=The Colouring Book of Cards and Envelopes: Unicorns and RainbowsJane Casey

|genre=CraftsCrime|summary=IIt've s sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a problem with many colouring books for children: some initial effort goes into the colouringhalt. Now, her mother, Helena, but the chances and her father are that little will be kept on a long-term basis and it's not particularly satisfyingdead in their bed. How much better would it be if the colouring produced something which could be sent to someone elseInitially, who would appreciate that itlooks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's unique and something about the positioning of the bodies that effort makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and care has gone into the card? her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. How much better What looked as though it was going to give be an open-and-shut case is now a child something like complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie''The Colouring Book of Cards and Envelopess disappearance: Unicorns and Rainbowsothers (such as Derwent'' than an ordinary colouring book which will soon be discarded?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1788000897</amazonuk>s boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Dina Nayeri1529077745|title= RefugeThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionCrime|summary= Sinking boats A man walking his dog in stormy seas, national borders boosted with barbed wire, and overcrowded shelters – the media's portrayal early morning discovered the body of seeking asylum focuses on a man in the process in its darkestpark near Rosebank, most dangerous forma care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. What happens after tumultuous journeys and temporary shelter D I Vera Stanhope is not news; and life after decades called in to investigate the new country murder - but her only clue is rarely headline material eitherthe disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. But in Dina Nayeri Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's ''Refuge'', diary makes it is the life after clear that she adored Josh. She knows that takes centre stageshe has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0735219389</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sean Taylor and Kasia Matyjaszek1399613073|title=I am Actually a PenguinMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson

|genre= For SharingThrillers|summary= Do Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you know aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a child who loves to dress up? Well this trauma doctor. Anjali is the perfect picture book for that childfree spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. Quite probably We don't know who suffered the perfect picture book for tragedy or the parent of consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that child toowill impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783704519</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 20/8 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Annie Ingram0241636604|title=Conversations with KammieThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=PetsAutobiography|summary=It was something If you were to bring up an image of a relief when I encountered Annie Ingram city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and her cocker spaniel Kammiehis background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. You see, Annie knows something which has There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been self-evident to me for a long time: dogs are perfectly capable the London School of communicating with humans Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and not just on he has a level facility with numbers which most of ''food!'', ''walk!'' or ''play!''us can only envy. You do require extensive training He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to become fluentbe stupid. It was his ability at what was, but most dogs will be perfectly willing to give their time to teach you and all you have to do is listenessentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and the pair have allowed us to share some of their conversationsEventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785451995</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Non PrattLeanne Egan|title= Truth or DareLover Birds

|summary= After an accident leaves his brotherWhen new girl, KamIsabel, with severe neurodisability, itmoves to Lou's obvious that the lives hometown of Sef and his family will never be the same again. Plagued by feelings of guilt and struggling to cope, Sef turns all his attention to the only way that he might be able to help - money. In an attempt to raise funds for his brotherLiverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's caredisdain for everything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, he enlists the help of Claire. As a volunteer but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at the facility looking after KamIsabel or speaks with her, sheand that's the only person from school that really appreciates just how dire Kamdefinitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn's situation t it? Because Lou isstraight, isn't she? Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and how important it is to get the funding that he needs. Aided by Claireshe's equipment and YouTube know-how, the two create never had a channel where their alter-egosgood kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, Truth Girl and Dare Boy, play an escalating game of Truth or Dare wanting to persuade viewers to donate to their cause. However, £60,000 hang out with her because fighting with her is no small amountfun, and fundraising through YouTube is no easy feat. Just how far are they willing to go for their causeshe definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406366935</amazonuk>000862657X

 {{newreview <!Frontpage|isbn=1009473085|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 -2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010- remove 20/8 2024 -14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co->editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.}}{{Frontpage|titleauthor=High Spirits (Spirits 4)Max Boucherat|authortitle=Rob KeeleyThe Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=4.5

|summary=''Millions of people will die in We meet Lori on the war, Ellie. And itfirst evening she's our job got the house to make sure it happens. That's why our herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work isn't easy.'' And if that's not ominous, I don't know what isjust an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. It's been two years since Ellie's last adventure What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in the spirit world or talked to her frienda blanket fort, the ghost of Edward Fitzberranger. She she has tried one main intention, and that is to do what Viewpoint asked her log on to do and live a normalVoxminer, boring, human life. Mum is still working for the Journeyback historical reworld-enactment company but it looks as though her job won't last much longer. Money is tight and Mum, as everbuilding, critter-collecting game that is stressed. Dad got compensation for his accident, so he is living the life of Riley. Hea hit in Lori's eager to help out but Mum won't hear of itworld. And Ellie But first Lori has a romantic interest in Luke. All in alltiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, things could be better but they could also be worse. No and then she finds something even more spiritsspooky. No more corrupting For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of timelinestampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1788036158</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreview <!-- remove 19/8 -->Frontpage|author=Hawa L CrickmoreFyodor Dostoyevsky|title=Across the Ocean|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=A young cage fighter, Martin Grandson, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder which required a bone-marrow transplant, preferably from a sibling. Only recently he'd been a fit young man, in the prime of life, but now he was suffering from a rare type of bone cancer: without the transplant he would be paralysed for life and might be dead within the next twelve weeks if he didn't receive the transplant within the next fourteen days. Unfortunately Martin's parents had died in a car crash and there were no siblings or other close relatives. His girlfriend, Celia, was not a match.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524666971</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Val McDermid|title=Insidious Intent: (Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, Book 10) White Nights

|genre=CrimeShort Stories|summary=When we meet Kathryn McCormick we know that she's got less than three weeks to live. Had Kathryn known that she might have made different choices. I've a suspicion that she might not have wasted time being at the weddingAs always in Dostoyevsky, but it was there that she met her killer. He said his name was David and he was charming, respectful, unwilling to rush anything as he was still getting over the death of his wifecharacter work is sublime. Kathryn was One is never left with the wondering what a character is thinking or feeling that he was still more than a little bit in love because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and temperaments with Tricia. They went on a couple of dates and then David took her to a cottage in the Dales for the weekend. By the end of the weekend Kathryn would be dead in her burned-out carremarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408709325</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Joanna Barnard0008385068|title= Hush Little BabyThe Midnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionThrillers|summary= Babies donIt't break bones for no reasons midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. Something has to happen It's their opening weekend and, normally, someone else will be involvedsplendid celebrations are promised. So when the hospital says Oliver has a broken arm, suspicion lands on his family It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. Could it be his mother? But she The Manor was out all evening, drinking with her old colleagues (hence why ancestral home and she smells of booze when they arrive in A&E). Could 's converted it be his father? Sally left him in charge of their son, but he may have popped out into an impressive retreat for a while (something she doesn't know…yet) the wealthy and if he was out then he too famous. Her husband, Owen, was away from his son at the time architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the crimesite. The heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. Or could it Old scores are going to be his half-sister Martha? She's a responsible teenager most of the time, settled and she would have no reason to harm her baby brother, but thereit won's t be long before a nagging feeling about that night that she just can't shakebody is found.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785030337</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Mary KubicaJames Baldwin|title= Every Last LieGiovanni's Room|rating= 4.5|genre= ThrillersLiterary Fiction |summary= Clara is mother to pre-schooler Maisie and newborn Felix''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, but now she has an Italian bartender he meets in a new label: widowgay bar. Her husband Nick While David is deadengaged to Hella, killed who is travelling in an awful car crash that thankfully spared his daughter's life when Felix is just a few days old. For ClaraSpain, that's the real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from the end of the nightmaredeeper conflict within himself. As she works her way through grief and struggles to carry on for the children, she It is faced with some new worries. Maisie isn't talking much about the accident, but sheDavid's having nightmares that make Clara question the police story crippling shame and denial of events. There are things in Nick's personal possessions his sexuality that are odd, things she has never seen before. What's more, it turns out a lot was going on at Nick's work that he hadn't shared ultimately dooms his relationship with his wife. And, the more she starts to look, the more she wishes she could un-see and go back to how things wereGiovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848456603</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gwyneth ReesB0DGDJRHYD|title=Libby in the MiddleNowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Twelve-year-old Libby has an older sisterIn a quiet suburban house, BellaPatrick is making his final plans. Bella used to be a real confidante to Libby but things have changed since she got a boyfriend. NowA meticulous man, Bella he makes Libby feel childishsure of every preparation, foolish and unwanteddown to the last detail. The close friendship they had shared has gone Some last reflections, and Libby worries that it will never come back. Libby also has a younger sister, Grace. Grace is lovely but it seems then he says goodbye to Libby that Gracehis wife, as the baby of the familyworld, commands all the parental love and attentionhis life. Libby It's horribly sad. At work in her shop, his wife Diana is well fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and truly stuck in the middleailing mother, without who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a role of her ownwhile before Diana realises what Patrick has done.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408852772</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Elif ShafakVirginie Despentes|title= Three Daughters of EveKing Kong Theory

|genre= General FictionAutobiography |summary=Set in Istanbul in 2016, ''Three Daughters of EveKing Kong Theory'' centres on Periis a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a Turkish woman who finds herself thinking back call to her years arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at Oxford University to distract herself from a boring dinner partyits core. Her reminiscing Originally written in French, the book is triggered when she finds an old polaroid a collection of herself, essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her friends Mona and Shirin, and experiences as a woman through the rebellious Professor Azur. Much complex prism of her thoughts revolve around the scandal that prevented her varied life: from graduating from her dream universityrape to sex work and pornography. More of a commentary on religion than a storyThough these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the novel asks many questions about faith - in particularbook can feel somewhat disjointed, Islam - and whether its customs and traditions can be adapted to suit modern lifea reflection of their original form as independent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241978882</amazonuk>191309734X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephan LompJames Baldwin|title=Wilfred and Olbert’s Totally Wild ChaseGiovanni's Room|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-Literary Fiction |summary=Meet Wilfred and Osbert. They're not only the kind to completely flout the rules of the natural history explorer'Giovanni's club they belong toRoom'' follows the narrator David, but when they both spot an undiscovered butterfly togetherAmerican man living in Paris, they are the kind to fight tooth and claw to be the first to lay claim to it aloneas he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, and devil take the other onean Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. What they don't know While David is that the drama that ensues when they're tailing this particular specimen will involve no end of peril – nearly drowningengaged to Hella, almost being eaten by a lionwho is travelling in Spain, crashing a hot air balloon one of them just so happened to have the real tension in the novel arises not from his pocket… This, then, infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. It is a fun David's crippling shame and silly biology lesson – but denial of his sexuality that's only the best kind, surely?ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848696795</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Barney SaltzbergAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=Chengdu Could Not, Would Not, Fall AsleepWild East|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingTeens|summary=The list of entertaining things about toddlers does not include any of the following; throwing food against your recently painted wallsWritten in verse, nappy depositsthis is Ronny's story, or deciding a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to stay up way past their bedtimeNorwich and start at a mostly white school. There are few things more unsettling The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a parent than new town, a toddler used to their routine suddenly deciding new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to stay up way past their bedtime; they scream, they procrastinatemusic constantly, they blub and then finally collapse (and that is just Mum and Dad)has always dreamed of being a rapper. The reason that so many children's books are about settling down But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and going to bed is , slowly, Ronny begins to avoid see the staying up eventualityconnections between rap and poetry, so will a book about an insomniac panda work?and the power of creativity and crafting your words.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1484775651</amazonuk>0241645441

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert NewmanAlba de Cespedes |title= Neuropolis: A Brain Science Survival GuideForbidden Notebook

|genre=Popular ScienceLiterary Fiction|summary=In Neuropolis, the book This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the Radio 4 seriesmoment our protagonist, Newman targets a sub-species of pop-neuroscience that he dubs bro-science – a pessimisticValeria Cossati, purchases her forbidden notebook, denigrating take on and learns about herself in the brain that is based more on macho posing than on research. He sets out to destroy it using proper sciencemost intimate and revealing ways.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0008228655</amazonuk>1782278222

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Libby Walden and Stephanie Fizer ColemanOttessa Moshfegh|title=Hidden World: ForestMy Year of Rest and Relaxation|rating=4.53|genre=Children's Non-Literary Fiction |summary=SometimesAt best, less this novel is more. But a wood doesn't understand thatscathing critique of modern society and reveals the fragility of human relationships; at worst, does it – it just stretches on and on, expanding outwards and outwardsis the cynical, predictable and upwards and upwards – it's quite a galling thing for a young person to understandslightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonist. This book reverts to the very basic detail that will let the very young student get unlikely heroine, a grip on the life slim, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the forestworld, whether they can actually see but resolves not to lose sleep over it for the trees : in fact, her solution lies in real life or not…her hibernation.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848575971</amazonuk>1784707422

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Roald DahlJo Callaghan|title= TrickeryLeave No Trace|rating= 54|genre= Short StoriesCrime|summary=How underhand could you be to get what you want? In these ten tales When a man is found crucified on the top of dark and twisted trickery Roald Dahl reveals that we are at our smartest and most cunning when we set out a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to deceive others - andthe case alongside her sidekick, sometimesthe AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, even ourselveshaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. Here But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, among others, you'll read Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the married couple and the parting gift which rocks their marriagecase in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the light fingered hitch-hiker case and the grateful motorist, and discover why the serious poacher keeps potentially, out of a few sleeping pills in his arsenal.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405933232</amazonuk>139851120X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roald DahlB0DB64PYV5|title= InnocenceThe White Rose|author=Dave Baines|rating= 54|genre= Short StoriesDystopian Fiction|summary=What makes us innocent and how do we come to lose In 2033, a superstorm known as the White Rose devastates the Northern Hemisphere. And it? Featuring the autobiographical stories telling of Roald Dahl's boyhood and youth as well as four further tales of innocence betrayednot a storm that gathers, wreaks havoc, Dahl touches on the joys and horrors of growing upthen dissipates. Among other storiesInstead, you'll read about it hovers across half the wager that destroys a girl's faith in her fatherEarth with its octopus-like tentacles, the landlady who has plans for her unsuspecting young guest not giving up and the commuter who is horrified to discover that a fellow passenger once bullied him at schoolnever going away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933259</amazonuk>