'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Allegra Goodman
|title=The Cookbook Collector
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''The Cookbook Collector'' is all about emotions. Concentrating on two, young, American women who are vastly different in many areas of their lives and also on their outlook on life, Goodman digs deeper to find out what makes them tick - what makes them get up in the morning.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848875398</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
landings and the Civil War battles, a timeline for each major period (Middle Ages, Tudors, Stuarts, Georgians, Victorians and Twentieth Century) and some gorgeous illustrations by former Kate Greenaway winner PJ Lynch.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406311928</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lucy Christopher
|title=Flyaway
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Isla has a wonderful relationship with her father. He is the kind of man, she says, who would never tell her to come in out of the rain, because he would be out there too, enjoying the pleasure of jumping in puddles. But his heart is weak, and when he collapses and has to be rushed into hospital, Isla is bereft.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190529476X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=F Scott Fitzgerald
|title=The Great Gatsby
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary='No — Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0140620184</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Craig Smith
|title=Cold Rain
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Life was pretty good for Dr David Albo. He'd just had fifteen months away from his job as an associate professor of English at a university in the mid-western USA. He lived on a plantation-style farmhouse with a beautiful and intelligent wife and a step-daughter who adored him. He was even going back to work in the expectation that he might well be offered a full professorship in the not-too-distant future and just to put the icing on the cake he's been clear of alcohol for two years. Yes; life was very good.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190580234X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jandy Nelson
|title=The Sky is Everywhere
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary='There were once two sisters who were not afraid of the dark because the dark was full of the others voice around the room...'
But now there's only one, because 19 year old Bailey has died and her
17 year old sister Lennie is left alone in her grief, apart from her
Gram and Uncle Big.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406326305</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anna Gavalda
|title=Consolation
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We meet Charles, the main character right at the start. And straight away, it's no secret that, as a middle-aged professional (he's an architect and a successful one at that) he's jaded. Been-there, done-that and got-the-bloody-tee-shirt just about sums him up pretty well. He's acquired (somehow) a beautiful, witty and clever partner and also a step-daughter whom he adores. As the story deepens, I soon acknowledged that the step-daughter seems to be about the only true love in his life. He's luke-warm about the rest of his family and that includes his partner and his ageing parents. Is this man going through some mid-life crisis, would be an obvious question to ask.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531925</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael David Lukas
|title=The Oracle of Stamboul
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The book is set in the Ottoman Empire and the reader is given a potted history of those times,. Wars, troops, Rome and the Byzantines all get a passing mention ... and a baby called Eleonora is born. Sadly, her mother does not make it and it's left to her father to bring her up. He struggles and decides the best thing for himself, but more importantly, for his young daughter, is to enter into a marriage of convenience with a member of his extended family. Domestic life rumbles along, but underneath the surface, things are brewing ...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755377702</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Irfan Master
|title=A Beautiful Lie
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Bedridden with cancer, Bilal's bapuji, or father, doesn't realise how far the plan for the Partition of India has progressed. Bilal has kept the news from him as he was worried that it would kill him – but when he accepts that death is imminent, Bilal swears to at least save him the pain of having his heart broken before he passes away. Along with his friends Chota, Manjeet and Saleem, Bilal swears to stop him from ever finding out. 1947 India, though, is a dangerous place for everyone, and there are people in their town who don't think that Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus should be doing anything together.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408805758</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Eric Siblin
|title=The Cello Suites: In Search of a Baroque Masterpiece
|rating=3.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=At the end of the 20th century Eric Siblin was a rock and pop critic for the 'Montreal Gazette'. This, he says, was, a job which filled his head 'with vast amounts of music, much of which I didn't want to be there'. Aware that there were vast horizons crying out to be explored, he went out one night to hear a recital from the Boston cellist Lawrence Lesser, featuring the solo cello suites of Bach. The contrast between hearing one solitary performer playing a simple wooden cello for an audience a fraction of the size could have hardly been more different to the stadium style gigs he had been covering regularly until then. About three years earlier, he had reviewed a show by U2, noting that for the 52,000 fans who attended and 'wanted to see more than four Lilliputian musicians making huge noises...technology blew everything out of proportion.' The inevitable hate mail soon rolled in.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546787</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rekha Waheed
|title=My Bollywood Wedding
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Maya Malik set her heart on a big, glamorous wedding to Jhanghir Khan but organising it was difficult as the groom-to-be was working as a doctor in New York and Maya was arranging the wedding in London. Maya's family are rich, but Jhanghir's family are – seriously so – and this is only part of the tensions which looked to be on track to derail the wedding. There's a sister-in-law who's determined to take over all the arrangements – without disguising her dislike of Maya – and a George-Clooney-lookalike cousin whom Maya finds far too attractive for her own good. And Jhanghir? Well, he's a man. He's busy and he's not that good at communicating. Is there any wonder that Maya begins to wonder if she's doing the right thing?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755356144</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=J P Buxton
|title=I Am The Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=In the Dark Ages, Tog is brought up by a woodcutter. Strangely, he's being taught rather more than you'd expect a woodcutter's apprentice to be learning, including how to read and write Latin. Why?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340970057</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Margaret Leroy
|title=The River House
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Ginnie Holmes is a child-psychologist, working to help children and young people damaged by what they have experienced or what they have seen. She is also the mother of two typical, happy teenage daughters – one just about to leave for university the other, trying hard not to work for her GCSE's. Her life is outwardly as near perfect as it gets. Her husband is a successful academic. She has a solid circle of friends old and new. The cottage by the river might be whimsical rather than elegant but it suits her and in the right light and the right company it is charming.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304094</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Katherine Rundell
|title=The Girl Savage
|rating=3
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In Zimbabwe, Nice Will Silver has lived all her life with her father Nice William Silver, his employer Nice Captain Browne, and her friend Nice Simon. But when Nice Captain Browne falls in love with Nasty Cynthia Vincy, Nice Will is uprooted from her roots and sent to an English boarding school, run by Nice Miss Blake and her assistant Nasty Mrs Robinson. How will she cope?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571254314</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Edward Pearce
|title=Pitt the Elder: Man of War
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham, and Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768, has come down to us through the ages as the great eighteenth century equivalent of Winston Churchill, one of the great men of the British Empire in its earlier days, and the man who led England triumphantly through the Seven Years War of 1756-63. During the 'year of victories' in 1759, Quebec was captured, the combined English and Prussian forces defeated the French at Minden, and the army won a famous victory at Quiberon Bay. For this, Pitt took – or was accorded by generations of historians – much of the credit.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951433</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Julie Kagawa
|title=The Iron Fey: The Iron King
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Meghan Chase has always found her life slightly odd. She's never fitted in at school, where bullies relentlessly target her, nor at home, where her family always seem slightly surprised to find her there – except her little brother, Ethan, they barely remember her as soon as she leaves the room. Her only friend in the world is Robbie, her happy-go-lucky next door neighbour, who can always make her laugh. Meghan thinks turning sixteen will signal a change in their fortunes – she'll be able to drive, get them out of hickville once in a while.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304345</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tracy Kidder
|title=Mountains Beyond Mountains
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Dr Paul Farmer has dedicated his life to helping the poorest and neediest in society. He works tirelessly to help people less fortunate than him. ''Dedicated his life'' and ''works tirelessly'' - phrases we've heard many times about many wonderful people, but when reading ''Mountains Beyond Mountains'', you'll realise there's not a shred of hyperbole about these claims. Farmer began working with tuberculosis and AIDS patients in Haiti, and then worked with them, and worked for them, and worked with them, and worked for them, and worked with them. In an area where treating the disease is just one part of the problem, where poverty is rife, he has transformed an area, saved countless lives, and made an incredible difference to many people. [http://www.pih.org/ Partners In Health], the healthcare organisation he set up with his colleagues, takes this work worldwide.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684315</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Linda Press Wulf
|title=Crusade
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=The Children's Crusade is one of those extraordinary stories of the Middle Ages which have caught the imagination of historians and preachers. A young shepherd, who believed he was called by God to save the city of Jerusalem, managed to collect together an enormous horde of children and lead them all the way to the southern coast of France. There, he assured them, the seas would part; they would march straight to the Holy Land and take back the city where Jesus had died. It is hard to say how much or how little of this story is true as records are sketchy — after all, the children concerned were mostly illiterate — but the spectacle, hardship and faith of the enterprise make for a dramatic tale.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804840</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=D E Meredith
|title=Devoured
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=It is the 1850s, and religion and science are at war. Hatton and Roumonde carry out investigations in the morgue, and even at crime scenes, but their findings are seen as of little value in Victorian England. Indeed, to many of their colleagues, what they do to the human body is downright blasphemous. They struggle on, sending begging letters to rich patrons so they can buy equipment, and trying to persuade the police to accept the findings of their autopsies, but they make slow progress. In this engrossing case, their efforts are rewarded and they are called in by Inspector Adams of Scotland Yard to help with the murder of Lady Blessingham, who has had her head smashed in with a fossil. This immediately plunges them into a series of murders, each more bizarre and horrible than the last, which are all connected to theories of evolution and the creation of the world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>031255768X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Molly Carr
|title=A Study in Crimson
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=As soon as I read the blurb on the back cover I thought there's no doubting that this book is going to be one of those delightful romps, shall we say. Carr takes the famous and much-loved and much-read detective Holmes along with his trusty, if rather dull and plodding side-kick Watson and decides to have a bit of fun. But will it work?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685405</amazonuk>
}}