Open main menu

Changes

no edit summary
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
 
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1788360737James Baldwin|title= Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism|author=Alexander AdamsGiovanni's Room|rating=24.5|genre= Politics and SocietyLiterary Fiction |summary= Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made ''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 vacuumgay bar. It While David is made by people. Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes engaged to modifying the social environment Hella, who is travelling in which he develops’’. ThereforeSpain, all art must be political, even implicitly. Alexander Adams the real tension in the novel arises not from his new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in infidelity but from the Era deeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and denial of Postmodernism’ is adamant his sexuality that art is freer when it is art for art’s sake. The recent trend of so-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a more globalist and progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believesultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|isbn=0141186356
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1408712172Ashley Hickson-Lovence|title=The Cliff House|author=Chris BrookmyreWild East|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersTeens|summary=''Many of them didn't know each otherWritten in verse, one of them didnthis is Ronny't know anybody, including Jen, one of them quite possibly hated hers story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and two of them definitely hated each otherstart at a mostly white school. What could possibly go wrong?'' ThatThe move is initiated by Ronny's the round-up mum who is worried for JenRonny's hen party which is safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to take place on Clachan Geal an island just south of Barra. They're all staying settle in The Cliff Housea new town, hosted by Laurena new school, and it's the utmost in luxury living but then Jen can afford itkeep himself out of trouble. She's just sold her muffin business for millions but is staying on He listens to run it. She's got her doubts about the long weekend: fiance Zaki Hussain music constantly, and has been acting always dreamed of being a little strangely of late and wouldn't explain to her what the email he was hurriedly deleting was aboutrapper. Added to thatBut now, in this new school, he's just about forced her his teacher encourages him to bring his sisterbe part of a poetry writing workshop group and, Samiraslowly, whom Jen's never met, on Ronny begins to see the tripconnections between rap and poetry, on and the grounds that she's been stuck at home with newborn twins for the last six months power of creativity and desperately needs the breakcrafting your words.|isbn=0241645441
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17883607021635866847|title=Charles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised BiographyLavender Companion|author=Edzard ErnstJessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyLifestyle|summary=For over forty yearsIt's strange, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapiesthe things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''Charles, The Alternative PrinceLavender Companion'' critically assesses , I visited the Princeauthor's opinions, beliefs [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and aims against the background there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the scientific evidencehomepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated 's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and his relentless promotion I was told to make a mess of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the reputation corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a man who is proud of his refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to his ambitionsproblem. I ''loved'' this book already.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Will CarverJenny Valentine|title=The Daves Next DoorUs in the Before and After|rating=45|genre=General FictionTeens|summary= Five strangers come together 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 moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest day on a London tube linetrip 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. As Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their fates overlapgrief, the story is told in backwards orderand their friendship, leading up to the fateful momenttogether.|isbn= 19145851861471196585}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291257901787333175|title=The Family RemainsYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Lisa JewellBenji Waterhouse|rating=45|genre=ThrillersPopular Science|summary=In July 2019I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, Jason Mott was mud larking on a glorious mixture of insight into the banks workings of the River Thames when he came across a bag of what appeared NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be human bonesMad.. Detective Inspector Samuel Owusu and Saffron Brown from forensics were there to investigate. The bones were indeed human: a young woman had been killed by a blow to '' promised the head many years ago - probably as long as twenty-five - same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the bones had not been in the river longer than work of a yearpsychiatrist. There I did wonder whether it was no identification acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the bag contained vegetation, some of which was quite unusuallaughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jennifer MasonOnyi Nwabineli|title=Partitions of UnityAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= Here at Bookbag TowersAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, we first met Elizabeth Cromwellthanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, dominatrix where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and unintentional detective , basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when her twenties and she investigated is slowly trying to regain her confidence and unravelled a series of disappearances. In ''Partitions of Unity''to get her life back, she sets suing her mind step-mother to solving a murder.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=B09LQR9FRF0861546873
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Fiona Parashar David Chadwick|title=A Beautiful Way to Coach Headload of Napalm|rating=4.5|genre=Business and FinanceThrillers|summary= So what am I doing reading this bookIt's September 1973 in Hicks, using this book, and being audacious enough to review it? Truth California. Hicks is I bought it out a Mojave desert town of curiosity. I was at an on-line launch for the book a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Fiona’s description of her Vision Days appealed to meLas Vegas both a significant drive away. I wanted to see if there were things Not much happens in there that I could use with someone I am currently helping / supporting / trying to mentor – without committing them to Hicks. A silver mine and a full daydefence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, which I know would send them scurrying for their burrowthere's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. I also wanted to see if I could give myself a Vision DayLife is quiet, to bring me away from their vision and back to my ownuntil....|isbn=103211603XB0D321VJ76
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1913750353Tom Percival|title=Britannica's Word of the Day|author=Patrick Kelly, Renee Kelly and Sue MacyThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=''BritannicaWill's Word life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the Day'wrong shoes' , he has a sub-title: the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn'366 Elevating Utterances to Stretch Your Cranium t have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and Tickle Your Humerus'' which probably tells you all that you need to know about this brilliant book. It starts on January 1st with ''Razzmatazz'his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, tells you how to pronounce it (''razwas working a cash-muhin-TAZ''), gives you hand job on a definition building site and then includes had an accident. Throw into that mix the word fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a sentence so that you know how it should be usedtiny amount of hope. You also get an engaging He is good at art, and frequently amusing illustration too. I don't think I've ever encountered clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a word which uses light at the letter Z four times before!end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A C WiseSylvie Cathrall|title=HookedA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=It’s been twenty-two years since Captain Hook, now going by just ‘James’, has been in Neverland. Living There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a new life in London, he has never completely escaped his pastcompelling premise. But now he senses the edges of the beast circling around his life in London, and when suddenly he finds himself face to face in the street with Wendy, he knows that the line between And this world and Neverland is growing thin. The beast is finally coming to get him, and in the process will pull Wendy and her daughter Jane back into their past once againone of them.|isbn=17890968390356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17873017451786482126|title=Confidence|author=Denise Mina|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=We're back in the world of podcasters Anna and Fin, whom we first met in [[Conviction by Denise Mina|Conviction]]. It was Anna who'd organised the 'family' holiday: her ex, Hamish, is now with her best friend, Estelle and her children are living with them. Fin The Janus Stone (who was married to EstelleDr Ruth Galloway) is there too and it was Anna who invited his girlfriend, Sofia. It's not long before everyone realises that was a bad mistake. Sofia's difficult and with everyone trapped inside their holiday accommodation - a lighthouse, in a storm - she begins talking about Anna's past, including her real name and the rape. This was something which Anna had intended to tell the girls - twelve-tear-old Jess and ten-year-old Lizzie - when the time was right. And this wasn't the right time.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=178763566X|title=Listen to Me|author=Tess GerritsenElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=We're Builders were demolishing an old house in Boston with Amy. When she set out for university this morning it was a spring day and she wore her new, butteryNorwich -leather pumps but as she comes out of the library she knows that they're site was going to be ruined hold seventy- and unsafe five 'luxury' apartments - in when they discovered the snow that's now fallingbones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. As she crosses the road Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, a car comes out of nowhere and hits herDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It 's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't stop. Two months later, we're that she is pregnant with Angela Rizzoli, mother of Detective Jane Rizzoli, and his child as a keen defender result of the suburb of Revere, north of Boston, where she livesone night they spent together some three months ago. Nothing gets past her and whilst her boyfriend, Vince Korsak Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is in California, looking after his sister, she has the time prone to watch what's happening in the neighbourhood. The people who are moving in at no 2533 have aroused her suspicionssudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008395632Joan Didion|title=One Last Secret|author=Adele ParksThe Year of Magical Thinking
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary=Natalya This book is an escort. Well, her nameJoan Didion's not ''actually'' Natalya: that's her professional name but it is a nod to heartbreaking autobiographical account of the grief she endured following her Serbian heritage. Shehusband's actually thirty-one-year-old Teodora Dziewulski, usually known as Dora Wulskisudden death. If you're thinking of 'escort' as being Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a polite description of a prostitute, run by a pimp, who's turning tricks beautiful and necessary resource to fund a drug habit, forget ithelp people feel less alone. Dora is a professional in all senses of the word. She has an agentDidion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, Elspethdenial and delusion and makes them utterly normal, who takes 30% of her income and deals with the payments but checks out the clients to see that Dora is going to be safe. Dora describes herself as lends them a self-employed clairvoyant human face to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customswear. |isbn=0007216858
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=David SolomonsAlba de Cespedes |title=A Beginner's Guide to Ruling the GalaxyForbidden Notebook
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Gavin is being followedThis Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the moment our protagonist, seemingly constantlyValeria Cossati, by the new (very annoying) girl at school. Only this is not your typical boy meets girl story. Because in this instance, the girl in question is Nikipurchases her forbidden notebook, and she is a galactic princess (no, really, she is!) So what will Gavin do when he becomes embroiled learns about herself in a situation where, potentially, Earth the most intimate and everyone on it will be blown to smithereens, all because of Niki?revealing ways.|isbn=08576399351782278222
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alex CotterOttessa Moshfegh|title=The Mermaid CallMy Year of Rest and Relaxation|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Vivien knows that mermaids don't exist. But she also knows they have to exist – at least in the public eye. For there would be nothing to Lake Splendour – At best, this novel is a far northern English resort – without them. A hundred years scathing critique of modern society and change ago, two teenaged girls allegedly spent months with mermaids, but were forced to return to help out with reveals the Great War effort. They also showed female emancipationfragility of human relationships; at worst, which helped create it is the town's tourism industrycynical, now faded predictable and falling apart but once a feminist success storyslightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonist. AliceThis unlikely heroine, a slim, attractive and newly orphaned girl who stumbles into Vivien's gran's tourist shop one day, knows she certainly wants mermaids to exist – she thinks her family's black sheep died searching for them, or else was just too successful in her hunt. When the shy, doubting Thomasina that twenties is Vivien collides disillusioned with the exuberantworld, gung-ho Alicebut resolves not to lose sleep over it: in fact, what on earth – or perhaps her solution lies in water – will they find?her hibernation.|isbn=18399419011784707422
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17398051000008551324|title=Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of warThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Andrew MarchNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary= It''Loving s unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the Enemy'' tells police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew Marchother. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's grandparents, who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went prepared to Dresden to teach in tell the police where the early days body of the Nazi regime in the 1930sa missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. Fred This person, he promises, a sensitive is someone big and thoughtful man, had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against it will be worth the growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the timeremainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Fred Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's attempts even prepared to separate individual people do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from ideology werenwhat't universally successful but he did make friendships and connections that lasted for a lifetimes happening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0B575J99N1739526910|title=Beneath the PorticoesWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Brooke AdamsGlen Sibley|rating=4.5|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Elizabeth Miller was thirty-four and a teacher at ''One year after a prestigious girlsuicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's school life, he arrives in York. It was ''comfortable'' but she longed for something more in life. She'd ''still not found the right vocation nor met the right man'' and now was the time an unfamiliar Devon town to make a changerecover. She needed challengesLiving with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. There was a little trepidation when she applied for the professoressa job But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up in Bologna. After a telephone interviewlocal world of unlikely friendships, she was offered the position mobile discos and it wasnsurprising romantic possibilities.''t long before she was exploring the beautiful city. There were some natural doubts before her first class but it went surprisingly well.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291258980008405026|title=Godmersham ParkA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Gill HornbyJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=''If it were not for the casual dereliction of the odd gentlemanIt's duty, there would no women to teach well-bred daughters at all.'' Anne Sharpe was thirty-one sixteen years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park to take up the position of governess to twelvesince nine-year-old Fanny AustenRosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She had no experience of teaching but this was never found and the investigation ground to a case of necessityhalt. Until the death of Now, her mother, Anne had a comfortable life Helena, and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the householdare dead in their bed. When her mother diedInitially, her father cast her off it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and would have nothing more to do with herboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. No explanation What looked as though it was offered but she would receive going to be an annuity of £35 open-and-shut case is now a yearcomplex double murder. Her maidKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Agnes, would receive nothing but was fortunately taken in by some neighboursUna Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Lev Parikian Jo Callaghan|title=Light Rains Sometimes FallLeave No Trace|rating=4.5|genre=Animals and WildlifeCrime|summary= If you’re When a man is found crucified on the top of a writer yourselfhill in Nuneaton, or an aspiring writer, or someone who pretends DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to writethe case alongside her sidekick, then you know that there are unnumbered types of booksthe AI detective Lock. Some you read for fun It's their first live case together, some for distractionhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, some for vicarious emotion, some to learn from in Kat is suddenly struggling with a random way, some for focussed research, potential serial killer and some because they are, broadly speaking, the kind a very high profile case that draws a lot of thing you think you might like unwanted attention to writetheir AI Future Policing project. OrWill they be able to solve the case in time, indeedor will Kat find herself taken off the case and, are actually trying to write.potentially, out of a career?|isbn=1783966386139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=07515815771529077745|title=Lying Beside YouThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Michael RobothamAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Elias Haven murdered A man walking his parents and his twin sisters two days after his nineteenth birthdaydog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. Voices told him The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to do itwork a shift the night before but who had never turned up. Only two people survived D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the carnage murder - Eliasbut her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, who was sent to Rampton, and his thirteenfourteen-year-old brother, Cyrus, who hid in a shed until the police found himChloe Spencer. Twenty years later, Cyrus Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is a forensic psychologist and heunlikely as the girl's been told diary makes it clear that his brother is being releasedshe adored Josh. Can Cyrus forgive the sinner whilst having She knows that she has to find Chloe to live on a daily basis with the results of the crime? Can he bear discover what happened to have Elias living in the same house? How will his lodger, twenty-one-year-old Evie Cormac, cope?Josh.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=140595115X1399613073|title=A Stranger on BoardMoral Injuries|author=Cameron WardChristie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Right from Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the beginningfirst day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, we know this will not turn out wellwhich is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Eight days into Anjali is the trip to deliver free spirit of the superyacht ''Escapegroup and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it' s going to Antigua, all 300 tonnes and six decks will be floundering without power end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the Atlanticconsequences. Those of the crew who are left Twenty-five years later there will be cowering in fear a fellow crew member tries to pick them off, one by one. Some are already dead. They are an eerily similar event that will impact the three days from shore and there is no way of making contactfriends. But letThis time, it's go back to when all this started, in Southamptontheir teenage children who are involved.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=13985086320241636604|title=The Wilderness CureTrading Game: A Confession|author=Mo WildeGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=LifestyleAutobiography|summary=It had been on the cards for If you were to bring up an image of a while but it was the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of eating only wild foodsomeone like Gary Stevenson. The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the best time to startEast End, in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate changehe was familiar with violence, Brexit poverty and a pandemicinjustice. Wilde There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had a few advantages: been to the area around her was London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a known habitat facility with a variety numbers which most of terrainsus can only envy. She had electricity which allowed her He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to run a fridge, freezer and dehydratorbe stupid. She had It was his ability at what was, essentially, a car - and fuelcard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Most importantlyEventually, she had shelter: this was not turned into permanent employment as a plan to ''live'' wild just to live off its producetrader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1635864674B0DB64PYV5|title=Tomato Love: 44 Mouthwatering Recipes for Salads, Sauces, Stews, and MoreThe White Rose|author=Joy HowardDave Baines
|rating=4
|genre=CookeryDystopian Fiction|summary=''Think of it In 2033, a superstorm known as no-whining diningthe White Rose devastates the Northern Hemisphere.'' We know And it's not a fruit rather than a vegetable but the fact storm that so many people get confused just goes to show how versatile the tomato isgathers, wreaks havoc, then dissipates. Then there are all the different typesInstead, not to mention it hovers across half the cultivars - and you begin to understand why Joy Howard says that she hasn't met one she didn't love. I'd argue Earth with her there its octopus- I have no affection for the ones you find in the supermarket ''next'' to the ones labelled 'grown for flavour' to distinguish them from the ones that have obviously just been grown for profit. Personallylike tentacles, I'd prefer a tin of tomatoes to those - not giving up and Howard makes good use of these. She's not at all precious if you get the tastenever going away.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241989027Leanne Egan|title=We All Have Our Secrets|author=Jane CorryLover Birds
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersTeens|summary=Harold Gentle advertised When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for live-in help as he was failing to cope at Willowmead House on his owneverything around her. His advert was fairly specific: he was a retired lawyer needing help A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but he also spoke 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 straight, isn't she? Even though none of the ability to cook her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had a good steakkiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, enjoy decent wine and be free from any food fadswanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?|isbn=000862657X}}{{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: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. The first person who came to If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the house was Francoiseinside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, a French woman in her early twenties, who fit then this isn't the bill perfectlybook for you. She got the job but Francoise didnIf that's what you're looking for, I don't know about the advert: she was there think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for a completely different reasonthose tumultuous years. Emily Gentle is HaroldIt's daughter a compelling read and she came should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to Willowmead House because she was running away from a problem in Londonpolitics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. EmilyIt's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a midwife government has made and her last shift had seen her lacking concentration 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 a complaint had been madethe situation in 2024.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Ewald Arenz and Rachel Ward (translator)Max Boucherat|title=Tasting SunlightThe Last Life of Lori Mills
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=Sally is We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a teenager who blanket fort, she has run away from an anorexia treatment clinic. She just wants spaceone main intention, and for people that is to stop questioning herlog on to Voxminer, tiptoeing around herthe world-building, and trying to fix her without ever truly understanding hercritter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. She finds But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on some farmland with a woman called Liss who is in her forties own, and seems to live alonethen she finds something even more spooky. Liss is unlike any other adult Sally has ever met. She just accepts Sally as For the server she is, giving and her a room to sleep in, bestie and the space nobody else should be able to just beenter shows signs of tampering. As they work together When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the farmgame has been doctored – well, where is a closeness develops between them, becoming a beautiful, powerful friendship.girl to turn?|isbn=19145851430008666482
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jennifer MasonJenny Lecoat|title=Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell MysteryBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed occupation. During the 2004 Olympicswar, a womenJean's track coach with father was arrested for listening to a yen banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-years for news of-him. As the-art S&M dungeonBritish finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, a man serving a life sentence in Alabamaand the war is finally over, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgiatheir hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him...'' This is just But will the truth come as a sample of the cast of characters and settings in Preposterous. As you can seerelief, some keeping up or will be required! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this...it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?|isbn=B09STS96HS1846976537
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Will Brooker1529428289|title=The Truth About Lisa Jewell|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of A Grave in the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will BrookerWoods (A Bruno, one Chief of the thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the two meeting each other, as well, and shows how 2021 drew the two closer and closer together. The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the words of her latest book she was reciting, and her being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author events I get to attendPolice Novel), but pulled Brooker, a professor of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the published author's life, working to make a success of the latest title, and struggling with the next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is the result.|isbn=1529136024}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1801109265|title=The Companion|author=Lesley ThomsonMartin Walker|rating=54
|genre=Crime
|summary=James Ritchie thought Because of himself as ''a punctual man who was inexplicably never on time'' and he was - as usual - late to pick up his sonvarious property transactions, Wilburpeople were searching for the grave but when they found it, for their 'boys' day out'it came with three sets of bones. These were always days which appealed more They dated back to James than World War II and it fell to Wilbur andBruno, competing the Chief of Police for the boy's attentionSt Denis, his mother, Anna, promised him a roast dinner when he returned. The dinner would never be served, as James and Wilbur are to discover the victims identities of the bodies and establish whether or not a double stabbing on the beachcrime had been committed. The case falls As if this isn't enough to DI Toni Kemp of Sussex policeworry about, the Dordogne River - normally tranquil - is flowing at record levels. SheIt's feeling not just the pressure. You can always tell - she shoplifts Snickers Bars when local autumn rains that have caused the problem: various dams upstream on another river have had to release water and St Denis faces the going gets toughpossibility of a devastating flood.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=152941363X152919640X|title=To Kill a Troubadour (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)The Suspect|author=Martin WalkerRob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=The nation's favourite daytime TV presenter, Jessica Holby, was murdered live on television and it seems that there'Nobody knows what the truth is any mores only one suspect. He'' Bruno Courrèges is the police chief for St Denis s celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and much of the Vézère valley and works closely with Commissaire Jean-Jaques Jalipeau (known as 'JJ'), the head of detectives for the départment of the Dordognehis contract stated that he must not serve anything containing miso to Jessica Holby. TheyShe're not just policemen - they're both deeply committed to the well-being s seriously allergic and prosperity carries an EpiPen in case of this most beautiful part of Franceemergencies. The discovery of an old, stolen Peugeot, crashed and abandoned Everything seemed as normal - as normal as they can be in a ditch wouldn't normally have worried them so much had it not been for the strange bullet, with Russian letters stamped on the base, which they found in the car. Ohbusy, live television studio - and there was Brooks served a golf ball too, which didn't belong ragout to the owner of the carHolby. A golf bag would Her EpiPen was nowhere to be a good place to hide a sniper's weaponfound and she was dead within minutes. Was there going to be an attempt to kill someone, or were the detectives being pushed in a certain direction?It was soon clear that this was no accident.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=02415424050008385068|title=Meredith AloneThe Midnight Feast|author=Claire AlexanderLucy Foley
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary=When we first meet Meredith Maggs itIt's Wednesday 14 November 2018 midsummer on the Dorset coast and sheguests gather at The Manor. It's not left her home for 1,214 daystheir opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promised. SheIt'd ''like'' to: in fact, she so nearly doess all headed up by Francesca Meadows. Her outdoor clothes are on The Manor was her ancestral home and she's even considered which shoes to wear if she's going to catch her train. Then, she can't. She simply can't force herself to leave converted it into an impressive retreat for the safety of her homewealthy and famous. She's fortunate that she has a good friendHer husband, SadieOwen, who visits regularly with her two children, James was the architect and Matildawork is still ongoing on parts of the site. Sadie's a cardiac nurse The heat is oppressive and full of sound common senseamongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. In fact it was Sadie who gave Meredith her cat, Fred. Groceries Old scores are online deliveries going to be settled and thereit won's also an internet-based support group where you'll find Meredith as JIGSAWGIRL, so you can guess what she does in her spare time. Then Tom McDermott arrives. He's from Holding Hands, t be long before a charity which supports people with problems such as Meredith'sbody is found.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09Y451X9KRob Keeley|title= Greetings, aliens!Childish Spirits: (do pop in for tea)|author=Richard F Walker10th anniversary special edition
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary= Around here, we're big fans of children'Anything can happen at s author Rob Keeley. He's a birthday partyball of happy positivity, particularly when the birthday boy is the young Lord of the Manor. But when an eerie signal is picked up in the early hourshe understands children, George and his new girlfriendhe writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, the vivacious Lady Antonia, embark on a quest not to uncover its incredible message. Things get complicated when some total spoilsport lets the cat out of the bag and the world goes into a state of paniclecture or hector.''
Could it be? Could it? Have aliens reached out and contacted Earth? George and Antonia find themselves lifted out The ''Childish Spirits'' series is one of their privileged lives his greatest achievements. It's a sequence of parties and drunken shenanigans and catapulted into ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the spirit world of advanced sciencethrows at her, and Edward, secret agents.a spoiled lordling and politicians hungry for power.the first spirit Ellie encounters|isbn= 1783064617
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Darren ShanKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title= Archibald Lox and the Sinkhole to HellDungeon Runners: Archibald Lox series, book 7 Hero Trial|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= SoMeet Kit. We're back Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the Merge exit, perhaps bothering with the first chapter in treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, the third volume of Darren Shanonly thing he's saga seen of Archibald Loxthe latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a young man who can pick the locks new trio of portals from our world to another, called the ''Merge''questors is needed. Since his last adventure Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, Archie he has persuaded his foster parents into a slightly uneasy truce on taken to the goading from the topic token bully of his regular disappearances. They don't ask too many questions world and Archie has settled stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a fairly peaceful routine of visiting Winstonteam. What chance does this friendless, his lockmuscle-free-picking mentor zone have in the ''Merge'' actually managing that, and showing Kojo, the young guardian, around our world of the Born. how could he possibly hope to succeed?|isbn= B09Z2MTCZD1839945184
}}