Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]__NOTOC__ <!{{Frontpage|author=Onyi Nwabineli|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri'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-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 her father at the same time?|isbn=0861546873}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin- Remove sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|isbn=0861547438}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1471180158|title=Maybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the more you read, the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice ->she's a frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. It was going to come to a head.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CKD1L5JL|title=Radio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the forest, broadcasting the strange, wild and rarely heard voices he encounters.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Marsh|title=A Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|isbn=1035401614}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0BC3YTCMR|title=Good Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=''This story is not for everyone.''

{|classLavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo -"wikitable" cellpadding="15" people were afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. <!She had a crush on seventeen-year- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. She went to his house and he raped her. In shock, she even allowed him to give her a lift home.}}

<!{{Frontpage|isbn=1472263936|title=The Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the family's maid, Dina, but was wary - Gayle and frightened -of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes ->inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.}}{{Frontpage|-author=Dean Koontz| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"After Death|rating=3*[[image:Gayle_Man.jpg|leftgenre=General Fiction|linksummary=https://wwwMichael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything.amazon ''Everything''.co Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.uk/gp/product/1473608988?ie|isbn=UTF8&tag1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=thebookbag-21&linkCodeB0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=as2&campWilliam Frank|rating=1634&creative4|genre=6738&creativeASINGeneral Fiction|summary=1473608988]]The village is isolated and poor. It's surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and that is the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man is tolerated. }}

| style="verticalTold from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the 24-year-align: top; textold narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-align: left;"consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|isbn=0861546490}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008506337|title=The Garnett Girls|author=[[The Man I Think I Know by Mike Gayle]]Georgina Moore|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a glittering career. In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''.

[[image:5starThen Richard left them.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]

James DeWitt {{Frontpage|isbn=1914585402|title=Dashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. It was a gripping, emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.}}{{Frontpage|author=Lucy Ashe|title=Clara and Olivia|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Danny Allen Olivia are both men in their early thirties whose lives havensisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, on the inside. And not on stage, either. Because there's a lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't taken them where they were supposed to gocome from the classroom. A stage presence, a charm, a ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a hard-worker, and a star. At |isbn=0861544080}}{{Frontpage|author=Heather Fawcett|title=Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Emily Wilde is an all time low time for both of themexpert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, the two men reconnect and slowly find theyresearched meticulously, to write her life're exactly what s work, the other needsvery first encyclopaedia of faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. Together So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, they help each other she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put their lives her final investigations for her book back togetheron the right track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's frustration. This But why is a beautiful story about friendship he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|isbn=0356519120}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398515388|title=The Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and what Alison Watts (translator)|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=First of all, it really means to help another personwas the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. [[The Man I Think I Know by Mike Gayle|Full Review]]fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.}}

<!-- Butland -->{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Bowden|title=Mr Magenta|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's life, carried out by her nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a little bit of indulgence to a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to him an obligation to find it all out. |isbn= B0B6Z9VJDW}}{{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|-title=Partitions of Unity| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and unintentional detective in [[imagePreposterous:Butland_CuriousAn Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and unravelled a series of disappearances. In ''Partitions of Unity'', she sets her mind to solving a murder...jpg|linkisbn=http://wwwB09LQR9FRF}}{{Frontpage|author=Will Carver|title=The Daves Next Door|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a London tube line.amazonAs their fates overlap, the story is told in backwards order, leading up to the fateful moment.co.uk/dp/785764403/ref|isbn= 1914585186}} {{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|title=Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=nosim?tag4|genre=thebookbagGeneral Fiction|summary=''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-21]]of-the-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...''

| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae by Stephanie Butland]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] Ailsa Rae has been sick her whole life, and just as she was edging closer to death she finally, finally got the call that she needed, that a heart was available for her to have a transplant. Previously she had felt so helpless that she had used her blog to make decisions for her, running polls amongst her readers to decide on her actions. But with her new heart, she has been given a new life. Can Ailsa manage to start to live on her own, and will her mother let her do that? [[The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae by Stephanie Butland|Full Review]] <!-- Smart -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1999999908.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999999908/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[My Turn Will Come by E G Smart]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]] Things are changing in the pharmaceutical research company, CooksonPalmer. With the retiring boss on his way out, a new CEO is on his way up the ladder to that post. But bad man Steven Langham knows, because he bugs the offices in his path to glory, that good guy and ex-researcher James Truman has got the job. That decision, as the prologue (and the blurb) proves, can lead to a lethal amount of jealousy – but can nice-guy James get revenge, even from the other side? [[My Turn Will Come by E G Smart|Full Review]] <!-- Mohamed -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1784631426.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784631426/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Falling Leaves by Stefan Mohamed]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]],  When your best friend vanishes, how can you begin to move Move on? How can you live your life not knowing whether they're okay? And what would you do if they reappeared in your life? – all questions that Vanessa faces every day, even seven years after her best friend Mark vanished. When he reappears, she's shocked not only by his presence back in her life, but also by the fact that he hasn't aged a day – for him, no time has passed since his disappearance. Shocked, confused and emotionally reeling, Vanessa must return to her home town in order to help Mark find the answers he so desperately craves. But what's waiting for them is far more surprising than either of them could ever have dreamt… [[Falling Leaves by Stefan Mohamed|Full Review]] <!-- Santorella -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788038096.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788038096/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dyed Souls by Gary Santorella]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Newest Graphic Novels Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] The USA, early 1980s. Charlie (or Charles, if he's feeling belligerent, and he often is) is being taken back to his home by his drop-out, slutty mother. The home is called a Cottage, and while the book doesn't guide us to understand it perfectly, it seems to mean he has a private room in a large self-contained bungalow, on a gated compound with round-the-clock adult supervision. There's a paddock with horses for the kids to ride, their own school – and all the adults are armed with Thorazine to calm the kids down. Charlie, despite his obvious bookish intelligence, is struggling to get to grips with why and how he's ended up where he is, but it must have something to do with his single parent mother being violent, and the fact he is no longer allowed to stay with his grandfather. This book is a slightly woozy look at his thoughts, as he tries to build a relationship with a girl in a different Cottage, and work out his lot. He certainly has a lot on his plate for a thirteen-year-old. [[Dyed Souls by Gary Santorella|Full Review]] <!-- Simsion -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473675405.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473675405/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] When I read the blurb for this book, I found myself instantly interested in its premise of two people trying to start their lives again following serious life changes. The book did not disappoint. [[Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist|Full Review]] <!-- Forman -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Forman_Lost.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471173720/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''I Have Lost My Way'' tells the story of three individuals who have each lost something important to them leading to them losing their way. Freya has lost her voice, Harun has lost his love and Nathaniel has lost everything. However, these three elements do not give justice to the extent of what each character has lost. In this expertly written novel, Gayle Forman writes about how these three dissimilar individuals each came to lose what was most important to them, causing them to all meet one fateful day in New York City. [[I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman|Full Review]] <!-- Schimmelpfennig -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857057014.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857057014/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] First, forgive me if I don't refer to this book with its full title often. It's pointedly precise, accurate, and rather ungainly – when in fact the book it describes has only the former two attributes in any quantity. What happens in January is that a wild wolf walks across the frozen river separating Poland and eastern Germany. Which means that, when the book starts properly, mid-February, it has had time to get a lot closer to Berlin – within 80 kilometres, to be precise, for that is the road marker where one of our main characters sees it. He is trying to get back to work in Berlin for the first time in a month, and to be with his girlfriend, not knowing she has had an infidelity while he was away. Also fancying the bright lights and big city are a teenaged pair of love-birds, the boy and girl next door to each other in an eastern village, who flee an unhappy lot on the off-chance of a better one. You just know there is a chance that these characters – human and lupine alike – are sucked into one combined narrative, but you won't know quite what that will entail…[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Banks -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Banks_W.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/ISBN/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[W by John Banks]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] On the slopes of Mt Hood in Oregon, an 1000-year old Viking is discovered frozen - three thousand miles further west than any previously known Viking exploration. Josh Kinninger is inspired by the Viking discovery - three personal catastrophes having left him angry, unmoored and with his world in turmoil. Beginning a journey westward, he's filled with a desire to wreak vengeance on the individuals he finds morally corrupt. [[W by John Banks|Full Review]] <!-- Hepworth -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473674239.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473674239/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Pleasant Court is a cul-de-sac a few minutes from the beach in Melbourne. Kids play in the street and it's the sort of place people aspire to. Certainly that's how the families who live there feel and there's a good sense of community. Ben and Essie are glad that Essie's mother is living next door as Essie had a mental breakdown three years ago when her first daughter was having difficulty sleeping. Mia's come through that stage, but now there's Poppy, who's been the perfect baby for the first six months of her life, but is just starting to be difficult. Ben, in particular, is pleased that he can rely on Barbara to keep an eye on the situation whilst he's out at work. [[The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth|Full Review]] <!-- Walton -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Walton_Ask.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788038053/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Ask For Blues by Malcolm Walton]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:Entertainment|Entertainment]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Malcolm Walton's book is clearly a memoir about his introduction to the Trad Jazz scene of the late 1950's and early 1960's, but he has chosen to write it in the form of a novel, claiming in his prologue that this would give the book a different approach to the music memoir. His protagonist 'Martin' takes on Malcolm's mantle, and begins with his first discovery of the Salvation Army band with his grandfather. This catapults him into a love of music, initially taking piano lessons, and later delving into his true love – the trumpet. [[Ask For Blues by Malcolm Walton|Full Review]]<br><!-- Bala -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Bala_Boat.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0385542291/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Boat People by Sharon Bala]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Among the 500 Sri Lankans in a rickety boat making its way to Vancouver Island are Mahindan and his six-year-old son Sellian. When the boat arrives the Canadian authorities take all the passengers into custody, placing the women and children in a separate facility from the men. A gruelling series of hearings will decide on the fate of each individual or family: whether they will be allowed to stay in Canada, or deported back to Sri Lanka. The government fears that up to half of these asylum-seekers may have links to the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist group, so judges are instructed to have a firm hand. [[The Boat People by Sharon Bala|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Kidd -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Kidd_Hoarder.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782118497/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Hoarder by Jess Kidd]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Cathal Flood is an old, belligerent man, living in a filthy, crowded house that was once a family home. When Maud Drennan – underpaid carer and unintentional psychic is employed to look after the ancient Cathal, she assumes she'll just be the next in a long line of short-term dogsbodies for the old man. Instead, Maud finds herself drawn into the mysteries concealed within Cathal's once great house – and as Maud begins to clean and sort the rooms she uncovers secrets about the old man that awaken long-hidden memories within Maud herself. With the aid of her highly glamourous yet utterly agoraphobic landlady and a troop of holy ghosts, Maud must uncover the secrets at the heart of the house – and exactly why they were buried… [[The Hoarder by Jess Kidd|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Makumbi -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Makumbu_Kintu.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1786073773?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1786073773]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''Kintu'' opens with unbridled authority and mercilessness. In just a few pages a man has been hunted down by an angry mob in Uganda. He is then brained with a concrete slab; his woman is left in widowhood and has the hard task of dealing with her man's debt. Blood flows easily, and quickly, when your family's steps are haunted by a curse that spans generations. [[Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Vaughan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Vaughan Scandal.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1471164993?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1471164993]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Sophie had been married to James for twelve years and two children: to be honest she was more than a little bit in awe of him. James Whitehouse was an MP and junior minister: perhaps most importantly he was a friend of the prime minister, so when he had to admit that he'd been having an affair he was confident that some contrition, a public admission that he'd been wrong, that he was not perfect, would soon have his career back on track. And it seemed as though that was the way it was going, until a friend of the 'other woman', parliamentary researcher Olivia Lytton, persuaded her to go to the police. There was no dispute that the relationship had been consensual, but after James had finished the affair there was an incident in a lift in House of Commons and the police and the Crown Prosecution Service were both of the opinion that this amounted to rape. The prosecuting counsel is Kate Woodcroft and she's very determined that Whitehouse is going to be brought to book. [[Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Dean -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Dean Dark.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/178607253X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=178607253X]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dark Pines by Will Dean]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Tuva Moodyson works for a local paper in small town Sweden - there to be near an ailing Mother, but desperate for the big break that will have her moving on to pastures new. Just outside of her town, Gavrik, two bodies lie deep in the forest - brutally murdered and their eyes ripped out. They bring back dark memories for a town that has seen this crime before - and Tuva is desperate to find the killer. At first, she's just out to write a good story - but as the crimes continue she finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the forests outside of Gavrik, filled with stranger characters and dark secrets. Will she find the killer before they find her? [[Dark Pines by Will Dean|Full Review]] <!-- Fry -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Fry_Mythos.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0718188721/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] The Greek Myths are, arguably, the greatest stories ever told. So old and influential they cast a shadow over western tales and traditions, yet remain relatable and readable millennia later. Here comedian, actor, television presenter, actor and author Stephen Fry brings his considerable talent to these special stories and recreates them with a wit, warmth and humanity that brings them into the modern age whilst still giving the honour and respect that such ancient and influential stories deserve. [[Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry|Full Review]] <!-- Curtis -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Curtis_Water.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0995465754/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Something has happened, something very nasty and on a submarine a pregnant elephant is one of only a handful of animals living below the waves. We follow Nerissa Crane, a vet, as she remembers recent events, looks after the animals and falls into a world of intrigue. It is difficult to properly review this book without giving too much away. There will be mild spoilers throughout this right from the start but I will try to avoid the main ones. [[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis|Full Review]] <!-- Hill -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Hill_Strange.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147322117X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Strange Weather by Joe Hill]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Strange Weather is a collection of four short novels all linked by, unsurprisingly, strange and cataclysmic weather. Each novel is distinct and showcases Hill's restrained yet vivid style which takes everyday events and makes them bitingly, acerbically macabre or blindingly beautiful, often switching from one sentence to the next. As Hill himself says ''the beauty of the world and the horror of the world were twined together'', never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beauty. [[Strange Weather by Joe Hill|Full Review]] <!-- Krester -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Krester_Life.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1760296708/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''The Life to Come'' tells the story of several ''interesting'' characters who are all linked by one person: Pippa. The novel is split into five chapters with each one focusing on a different person, from Cassie and her bizarre relationship with Ash to George who has finished his thesis and is in the process of writing his first novel. Pippa, who is also a writer, appears in each of these chapters, in some cases just as a background character. However, what I found most fascinating about this novel was that de Kretser tells the story of Pippa's life through all these various appearances and leaves the reader with a real sense of who she is as a person and having watched her development as a character. [[The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser|Full Review]]  <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}