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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]].'''<{{Frontpage|isbn=1635866847|title=The Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci|rating=4.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=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 wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!-- Remove -->!) 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.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rob BiddulphJenny Valentine|title=Us in the Before and After|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=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 day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.|isbn=1471196585}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787333175|title=Sunk!You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse

|genre=For SharingPopular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here''Hoist after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the Colours! Set workings of the Sail! ItNHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don's time t Have to hit the treasure trailbe Mad...'' Penguin Blue promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and his friends are prepared to sail the seven seas in search work of gold but they become unstuck when a rip psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in their ship means they're suddenly SUNK! Luck this setting but the laughter is, however, on their side and they find directed at a handy desert island in the nick of time. Here they make situation rather than a special new friend person and it is always delivered with empathy and ultimately find a treasure that's worth much more than goldunderstanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008207402</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 6/9 -->Frontpage|author=Keith DevineMariana Enriquez|title=Wilderness of IceA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=45|genre=FantasyShort Stories|summary=Hans Schröder was not best pleased to be going to the Nazi party headquarters in Alexanderplatz, Berlin. It was a snowy night in December 1937 and even then Heinrich Himmler of the SS Protection Squadron had something of a reputation. Schröder know Mariana Enriquez writes horror that his beliefs were not completely in tune with those of the party hierarchyis disturbingly real, but achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on this occasion it was gritty realities: her settings include an order which would find him leading an expedition to Tibet in search abandoned field full of the yeti: Hitler and Josef Mengele were keen disused refrigerators due to see if improvements could be made to the master race an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and the thought of a humanoid with amazing capabilities was too tempting to dismisscrime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. In January 1938 The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the expedition was on its way via Transylvaniasupernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524681857</amazonuk>1803511230

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Gillian TindallOnyi Nwabineli|title= The Tunnel Through Time: A New Route for an Old London JourneyAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryGeneral Fiction|summary=This book traces Anuri spent her childhood on display to the course world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of historical journeys across the city in time Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and space, examining how the areas above the new Crossrail routebasically, the largest building project currently under construction monetary gain. Now Anuri is in Europe offering high speed links across Londonher twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, have changed over suing her step-mother to take down the centuriescontent about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, with destruction undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and renewal being a constantly recurring process in receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the citynew focus of Ophelia's historyonline empire. It is a fascinating Can she save her sister, compellingly readable exploration through the historical highways and byways of perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the metropolis.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099587793</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Ryan GraudinDavid Chadwick|title= InvictusHeadload of Napalm|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensThrillers|summary= It's the 24th century and human beings have cracked the secret of time travelSeptember 1973 in Hicks, California. Farway Gaius McCarthy Hicks is 17 a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and dreams of following Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in his motherHicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, there's footsteps as a Recorder for the Corps not much of Central Time Travellersnote other than dive bars and Joshua trees. If he succeeds, he Life is determined to track down Empraquiet, who disappeared on a mission when her son was just 7until.. But Farway tanks his final exam and his ambitions seem crushed. He's given another chance by Lux, a black marketeer who employs teams of rogue time travellers to plunder the past of its artifacts - artifacts that fetch fortunes in credits in the Central Time world.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1510102868</amazonuk>B0D321VJ76

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Raymond WilliamsTom Percival|title= Culture and Society 1780-1950The Wrong Shoes|rating= 45|genre= Politics and SocietyConfident Readers|summary= From Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the last decades of wrong shoes', he has the eighteenth century to wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the final words most basic of modernismthings like food, this book tracks societal changes through exploring five key words: industryand his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, democracywas working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, classand Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art , and culture. The meanings clings to the moments of such thingsjoy when he is drawing, their essencethat feel like a light at the end of a long, changes as per their use and the era in which their implications were considereddark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784870811</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreview <!-- remove 5/9 -->Frontpage|author=Hesene Mete Sylvie Cathrall|title=Sinful WordsA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=When we meet him, Behram There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is a student at the school one of theologythem.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4. He loves God with a passion and has a determination 5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to live a life dedicated hold seventy-five 'luxury'to'' God and to live by His rulesapartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. He rents Was this a property from Lulu Khan and his wiferitual killing or murder? Inevitably, Lady Geshtina and Khan invites Behram to his own home for a visitDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a delightful place and the wealth result of the couple is one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious as is their standing within the local community: Lady Geshtina's late father is buried in what amounts to a mausoleumbefore long, but it's not all this which enchants Behram. The couple have twin children and Behram least because Ruth is taken, enthralled by the daughter, Naginaprone to sudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524682527</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susanna GregoryJoan Didion|title=The Habit Year of Murder: The Twenty Third Chronicle of Matthew BartholomewMagical Thinking|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)Autobiography|summary=It was 1360 and Michaelhouse was in dire financial straits: they could last a little longer but not that longThis book is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of the grief she endured following her husband's sudden death. Then it seemed Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a lifeline might have been thrown beautiful and necessary resource to help people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and delusion and makes them when they heard that the wealthy Elizabeth de Burgh of the Suffolk town of Clare was dead and it was possible that The Lady, as she was knownutterly normal, had left lends them a legacy. It seemed that the best thing human face to do was to go to Clare to claim the money (or to try and prove that it had been ''intended'' and should therefore be paid) with all haste. The real mission could be concealed behind the bald statement that they were there to attend the funeral. Matthew Bartholomew was one of the contingent from Michaelhousewear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751562637</amazonuk>0007216858

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= M A Bennett0008551324|title= The Devil You Know (D S.T.A.G.SMax Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensCrime|summary=It''One weekends unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Three deadly activities'' Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. Greer MacDonald But Davie Hardie is a new student at struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the prestigious St Aidan police where the Great Boarding School, known to its exclusive pupils as S.T.A.G.S. It is body of a school where technology missing person is absentburied and who was responsible for her death. This person, the teachers are replaced by friarshe promises, is someone big and a group of elite students –known as it will be worth the Medievals – run the schoolpolice doing what he wants. When Greer inexplicably receives And what he wants is to be transferred to an invitation from the Medievals open prison to spend a weekend at serve the stately home remainder of Henry de Warlencourt, the most popular boy at school, she is too curious decline such his sentence and to get an invitationearly parole date. But little does Greer realise that there Not much to ask, is more it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the weekend than she initially understands. Ultimately she other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and the other two students anyone who have been invited must come together to uncover the truth about the infamous Medievals, and the blood sports they have been chosen to take part inworks with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471406768</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Susi Osborne1739526910|title=Angelica StoneWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating=4.5

|summary=I'd say that Angelica Stone was known as Angel to her friends, but she's not big on friends. She has the sort of background you dread hearing about: sexually abused as One year after a child, grabbed by the care system and didn't so much fall through the cracks as escaped its clutches and then had to learn how to cope. Shesuicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's been told that she's taintedlife, that she ruins every relationship without intending he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to and that she's best staying away from 'decent' peoplerecover. One Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of her jobs is working reconnecting with everything he has lost. But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up in a supermarket and it's there that she meets Lola Moriarty local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities.''she's'' a completely different kettle of fish.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911320947</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jamie Ford0008405026|title= Love and Other Consolation PrizesA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating= 5|genre= Historical FictionCrime|summary=At the WorldIt's Fair in 1962, it seems that all eyes are focused on the futuresixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. The Space Needle dominates She was never found and the landscape, filling people with anticipation about things investigation ground to comea halt. One visitor Now, howeverher mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, has his mind firmly focused on it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the pastpositioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Ernest Young What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is helping his daughter Ju-ju with now a story she complex double murder. Kerrigan is writing for her newspaper; a story about a young immigrant boy who was given away convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as a prize in a raffle at the WorldDerwent's Fair in 1909boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749022752</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Virginia Macgregor1529077745|title= Before The Dark Wives (D I Was YoursVera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionCrime|summary= Rosie can see clearly her future family A man walking his dog in her mind. And when that doesn't happen, she adapts. So maybe she won't carry the baby inside her, but that lovely blonde girl at early morning discovered the body of a man in the adoption event could be their new daughter. Yespark near Rosebank, she looks like she belongs to them alreadya care home for troubled teens. It's meant The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to bework a shift the night before but who had never turned up. Except it's not. Rosie and Sam don't get D I Vera Stanhope is called in to have a genetic child investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of their ownthe residents, and they don't get to adopt fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the perfect blonde girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. They end up with the exact opposite: a boy from Kenya with a peculiar back story and an ardent wish not She knows that she has to be adopted. As optimistic as Rosie and Sam try find Chloe to be, this isn't quite discover what they pictured or hoped forhappened to Josh. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751565229</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kaye Umansky1399613073|title=The Pongwiffy Stories 1: A Witch of Dirty Habits and The Goblins' RevengeMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson

|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=Meet PongwiffyOlivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. She must Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the smelliest, ugliest, most slurpy, non-house-cleaning free spirit of the group and all-round disgusting witch out thereshe becomes a GP. SheWhen we first meet them they's forced to live alongside the noisiest, most stupid Goblins around, re at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's with great reluctance that anyone ever comes going to visit – and when they do they get acclaimed as her best friendend in tragedy. And she doesnWe don't even have a familiar, eitherknow who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. She is a hopeless personTwenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. But when said This time, it'best friend' forces her to advertise for a familiar, nobody could expect what turns up…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471167380</amazonuk>s their teenage children who are involved.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J R Wallis0241636604|title= The Boy With One NameTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating= 4.5|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=Jones is the boy with one name, snatched as If you were to bring up an infant from his loving parents by image of a Badlander called Maitlandcity banker in your mind, he only longs you're unlikely to be a normal boy think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and have his family back. One nightbackground is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and Maitland are injustice. There was no posh public school on patrol and come across an ogre 'moonhis CV -bathing.' Things don't go quite but he had been to plan; enter: Ruby, a foster child on the run, who London School of Economics. Stevenson is desperate bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be part of the Badlander's worldstupid. It was his ability at what was, despite its dangers and terrors. Along with a talking gunessentially, a miniature fire breathing black dog, card game which got him an old camper vaninternship with Citibank. Eventually, and this turned into permanent employment as a hefty sprinkling of magic – you're sure to be taken on one hell of a ridetrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147115792X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jason Rekulak and Kim SmithLeanne Egan|title=The X-Files: Earth Children are Weird. A Picture BookLover Birds

|genre=For SharingTeens|summary=We know that Dana Scully and Fox Mulder didn't know each other as childrenWhen new girl, for they met much later onIsabel, at work moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for the FBI. But if they had, they may well have camped out in the back yardeverything around her. They made have read scary stories to A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but one thing Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it? Because Lou is for sure – Mulderstraight, isn's imagination would have seen aliens everywhere. t she? He would Even though none of her relationships with boys have seen mystery in the deep impression in the yard, horror in the shadowsgone very well so far, and the unexplained in any vaguely mysterious noise. For thatshe's what happens on the pages never had a good kiss with any of this picture book – but thatthem? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn's not ''all'' that happens – the truth is something much more peculiar…t she?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1683690273</amazonuk>000862657X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tom Lloyd1009473085|title= Princess of BloodThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating= 4.5|genre= FantasyPolitics and Society|summary= Toil – unpredictable Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and dangerous even that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an assassin, now wears easy read which will deliver the Princess of Blood inside story about what ''really'' happened on her jacket. Mercanery Lynx still has his doubts about her – but a new mission to escort a dignitary soon throws certain occasions, then this isn't the old team back togetherbook for you. Travelling to an ancient city If that conceals a mysterious labyrinth's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, the situations go from bad to worse{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, with new threats can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and worse horrors on every cornershould be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The group argue 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 bicker co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as they go along – but will they be too concerned with their own disputes to see the far blacker evil 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 threatens to surround them?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473213207</amazonuk>occurred and the situation in 2024.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Andy WeirMax Boucherat|title= ArtemisThe Last Life of Lori Mills|rating= 34.5|genre= Science FictionConfident Readers|summary=Welcome We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to Artemisherself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, the first city on the moonher lonesome. A powerhouse for the rich and a once What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a lifetime trip for earth touristsblanket fort, she has one main intention, and also a place a small community of citizens call home. Jazz Bashara that is one such citizen. She came to Artemis with her father aged sixlog on to Voxminer, it's the only place sheworld-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's ever known but she wouldnworld. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't say find herself entirely on her own, and then she's flourishingfinds something even more spooky. In fact, For the phrase most often used to describe Jazz is a waste of talent. Jazz lives in the low end of town, sleeping on a bunk, using a shared bathroom, which is all server she can afford through and her job as a porter. However, Jazz dreams above all bestie and nobody else of being rich and should be able to this end, she has set up a side business enter shows signs of illegal smuggling activitytampering. When one of Jazz's regular clients wants malevolent eyes spark up on her to step up from petty criminal to major criminal for a handsome rewardphone screen, it is just too tempting to refuse. What Jazz doesn't know is all and her safe place in the facts behind what she game has been doctored – well, where is being asked a girl to do.turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091956943</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreview <!-- remove 1/9 -->Frontpage|author=Parrain ThoranceFyodor Dostoyevsky|title=The French Cashew TreeWhite Nights|rating=45|genre=AutobiographyShort Stories|summary=The place isn't given a nameAs always in Dostoyevsky, but we can the character work out that it's in the Caribbean and it's here that Parrain Thorance had an idyllic childhood with his parents, brother and sister until he was eight years oldis sublime. It was then that his mother died suddenly One is never left wondering what a character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and the family was broken up: his brother and sister went to live temperaments with an aunt and Parrain stayed with his father - but an aunt and uncle moved into the family home. The aunt - his father's sister - was fine, but Parrain and her husband never got on. The easy, generous days of childhood, sitting under the titular French Cashew Tree might still be there superficially, but paradise would never be untainted againremarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524681458</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Barney Shaw0008385068|title= The Smell of Fresh RainMidnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley|rating= 4.5|genre= Popular ScienceThrillers|summary= The Smell of Fresh Rain attempts to open our minds to It's midsummer on the power Dorset coast and potential of our sense of smellguests gather at The Manor. Barney Shaw, a man armed with only a powerful curiosity It's their opening weekend and boundless enthusiasm sets out to understand this ever elusive sense splendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. The Manor was her ancestral home and to explore ways to interpret smells in she's converted it into an accessible impressive retreat for the wealthy and simple wayfamous. His journey takes him from boatyards to markets via Harrods Her husband, Owen, was the architect and his childhood home to uncover work is still ongoing on parts of the meaning behind everyday scents site. The heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. Old scores are going to distil the apparently complex nature of smell into language which be settled and it won't be long before a body is accessible and satisfyingfound.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785781138</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 1/9 -->Frontpage|author=Anthony Christian WrightJames Baldwin|title=The Universe and Life but Not EverythingGiovanni's Room|rating=34.5|genre=Spirituality and ReligionLiterary Fiction |summary=I often wonder - usually after ''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a moment of shaking my fist at the news on TV - what my manifesto for life and society would look like were I gay bar. While David is engaged to write it down. I have all sorts of thoughts about these thingsHella, from the metaphysics of who we are and where we come fromis travelling in Spain, right down to detailed critiques of quite insignificant government policies. I've never done such an exercise - mostly because I lack the time, real tension in the patience and novel arises not from his infidelity but from the diligence requireddeeper conflict within himself. It seems like an enormous taskis David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524682012</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Dale and Giusi CapizziB0DGDJRHYD|title=Cool Duck and Lots of Hats (Early Reader)Nowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone|rating=4.5|genre=Emerging ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Children are a little like Pokemon; you may not be able to house them in In a Pokeballquiet suburban house, but they are always evolvingPatrick is making his final plans. Your little kiddo may have spent the first couple A meticulous man, he makes sure of years or so intent every preparation, down to sit on your lap the last detail. Some last reflections, and listen then he says goodbye to you read a storyhis wife, the world, but at some point they are going to want to read themselvesand his life. It's horribly sad. This At work in her shop, his wife Diana is not the moment to lend them your copy of ''Lord of the Rings'' as their own first books fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and ailing mother, who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will actually be simpler stories than the books that you have shared together. You need to know your ducks and your hats a while before you can tackle Diana realises what on Earth a Gruffalo isPatrick has done.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848862490</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Wes StuartVirginie Despentes|title= My Name is SamKing Kong Theory|rating= 4|genre= Science FictionAutobiography |summary=Who ''King Kong Theory'' is the real enemy? This is the question which confronts Sam, the champion of the Sereia in their cosmosa hard-spanning war with the Gibbushitting memoir and feminist manifesto, and the main character which can be seen as a call to arms for women in this storya phallocentric society broken at its core. Sam is an unimposing boy who has no past and no memory of who he is, yet he possesses extraordinary abilities. He is also Earth's last hope for salvation from the Gibbus who, Originally written in seven daysFrench, will destroy the planet and everyone on it. This is not his choice however: that book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the decision complex prism of the alien Sereia, his mentors her varied life: from rape to sex work and guides, as he is forced to confront this hazardous taskpornography. They have their own reasons for wanting Earth to be savedThough these discussions are intertwined, but are too weak to challenge the Gibbus themselves. In their search for a human champion they find placement within the unlikely and ill-prepared young boybook can feel somewhat disjointed, Sam – but this child is not quite a reflection of their original form as he appears…independent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1540504506</amazonuk>191309734X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Juan-Tomas Avila LaurelJames Baldwin|title= The Gurugu PledgeGiovanni's Room|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= Juan Tomas Avila Laurel, one of Equatorial Guinea''Giovanni's best-known dissident writersRoom'' follows the narrator David, is an author who deserves to be read the world over. With The Gurugu PledgeAmerican man living in Paris, as he's captured a navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an angry and incredibly urgent slice of the migrant experience – Italian bartender he meets in a snapshot of gay bar. While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, the dangers faced by those crossing the African continent real tension in search of the barbed wire fences at Melilla- novel arises not from his infidelity but from the Spanish enclave on the North Eastern tip deeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and denial of Moroccohis sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908276940</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony HorowitzAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=The Word is MurderWild East

|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=An attractiveWritten in verse, this is Ronny's story, well-heeled woman enters a classically-minded funeral parlour in London, young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and makes plans for her own funeralstart at a mostly white school. Within just a few hours, sheThe move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's had lunchsafety after a tragic event, engaged with business affairs – and been killed so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in her own homea new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. Could anyone have foreseen the service He listens to have been needed so quickly? music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. That's the initial premise of this thrillerBut now, in this most intriguing mysterynew school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and if you want to read it – which is something you really should do – with no surprises, you should not read the book's blurbslowly, or even Ronny begins to see the authorial biographyconnections between rap and poetry, and perhaps not even the followingpower of creativity and crafting your words. Just go in blind, and wait for the surprises – that start, as it happens, with chapter two…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780896840</amazonuk>0241645441

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neal Zetter and Chris WhiteAlba de Cespedes |title=Here Come the SuperheroesForbidden Notebook

|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse Literary Fiction|summary=I'm quite sure you're well aware This Italian work of the spate of superhero movies doing the rounds these days, with any and every star feminist fiction holds an air of the comics page seemingly on the big screen – suspense and tension from the small. They're everywheremoment our protagonist, and their numbers are only growing. But here is a unique chance to meet a few more – Mega SlugValeria Cossati, Micro Girlpurchases her forbidden notebook, Magnetic Me, Sister Speed – even one calling himself the Ultimate Superhero. But we're not meeting them in a well-established comic universe, or with some horrid and convoluted back story. No, we're being introduced to them all learns about herself in the format of verse – most intimate and for the young superhero and/or poetry fan this clearly has an instant appealrevealing ways.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909991465</amazonuk>1782278222

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter SchossowOttessa Moshfegh|title=Where is Grandma?My Year of Rest and Relaxation|rating=53|genre=Emerging ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Meet Henry. He's At best, this novel is a young lad being taken by a nanny to hospital to check up on his grandmascathing critique of modern society and reveals the fragility of human relationships; at worst, it is the cynical, who's in having had predictable and slightly trite tale of an accidentunlikeable protagonist. It's This unlikely heroine, a shameslim, then, that said nanny attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is so busy yacking into her phone to look after himdisillusioned with the world, for he ends up going off on his own adventure but resolves not to find his gran. And what an adventure – babies being bornlose sleep over it: in fact, people with stomach problems, chemo, beans stuck up their nose… all life is here her solution lies in this hospital, and both that and the lad's mishap are clearly and very pleasantly conveyedher hibernation.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1776571541</amazonuk>1784707422

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrea Beaty and David RobertsJo Callaghan|title=Iggy Peck's Big Project Book for Amazing ArchitectsLeave No Trace

|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=Out When a man is found crucified on the top of all a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the things I wanted to be as a childAI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, an architect was not one of themhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. Which But when there is a shame, perhaps – I might have had second body found crucified a few Prince Charles-friendly ideas under my beltdays later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and even if I hadn't exactly progressed at a very high profile case that I might have been more at ease at those stupid team-bonding 'build-draws a-this-or-that' exercises you are sometimes forced lot of unwanted attention to undergo as an adulttheir AI Future Policing project. I never knew I would ever hold any importance in my ability Will they be able to draw buildings, conceptualise towns and create model structures of my own creations – partly because I knew I had no ability. But for solve the likes of Iggy Peckcase in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the whole idea is never in doubt – he spends his entire time thinking of buildings case and how to improve on the ones he knows. And so, for the duration potentially, out of your engagement with these pages, will you.a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1419718924</amazonuk>139851120X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Matthew SmithB0DB64PYV5|title= The WakingWhite Rose|author=Dave Baines|rating= 54|genre= Literary Dystopian Fiction|summary=Isabel SykesIn 2033, 23, recounts a superstorm known as the recent attempt she made to come to terms with White Rose devastates the loss of her mother, the acclaimed but psychologically disturbed novelist Marianne SykesNorthern Hemisphere. Marianne died in an unexplained house fire when Isabel was ten. Inspired by the appearance of Imogen Taylor, an enchanting young woman who wants to write a PhD on her motherAnd it's worknot a storm that gathers, wreaks havoc, Isabel plunges into the depths of her past and an intense new friendshipthen dissipates. After discovering that Imogen is not who she seems to beInstead, Isabel must face it hovers across half the darkest moments from her childhood in order to protect her family from more tragedy. She receives unexpected help from beyond the grave: in the strangeEarth with its octopus-like tentacles, glittering fragments of her mother's last, unfinished work, 'Midnightsong'not giving up and never going away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0995654158</amazonuk>