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{{newreview
|author=Keith Hern
|title=Zimbabwe in Pictures
|rating=3
|genre=Travel
|summary=I'm a bit of an amateur photographer, and since the advent of digital cameras I always come back from holidays with thousands of photos, over-excited by the fact that I am no longer limited to 24 or 36 exposure films! I enjoy, therefore, flicking through photography books, to see the images that have captured someone else's imagination and to see if I can pick up any interesting framing ideas, or subject settings.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685707</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Judy Bartkowiak and Carolyn Fitzpatrick
|summary=Avery's parents have been murdered, they’ve been literally torn apart, and Avery saw the whole thing. But her minds blocked it out, all she remembers is seeing something inhumanly fast, flashes of silver, and blood, lots of blood. Whatever killed her parents is still out there, and is trying to kill her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140881398X</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde
|title=Sleights of Mind
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=I have a passing interest in both magic and neuroscience. Not only am I ''quite'' the hit with the ladies, but I was also very keen to read ''Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Brains''. Husband and wife team Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde work at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona, and as a way of promoting their field of visual neuroscience, developed the [http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com/ Illusion of the Year contest]. From this, they slipped into the world of magic, investigating, discussing and researching the neuroscience of magic with James Randi, Mac King, Teller (of Penn and...) and Johnny Thompson.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683890</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Patricia Elliott
|title=The Traitor's Smile (Pimpernelles)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Usual spoiler warning for [[The Pale Assassin (Pimpernelles) by Patricia Elliott|Pimpernelles book one, The Pale Assassin]]: at the end of that book, heroine Eugenie and love interest Julien had escaped the French Revolution but been forced to leave behind Eugenie's brother Armand to face the wrath of the government over the failed attempt to rescue the King. Eugenie is being followed by Guy Deschamps, who she still trusts, despite Julien's duel with him at the end of the first book, not knowing that he's working for the Pale Assassin himself Raoul Goullet.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340956771</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Kate Griffin
|title=The Neon Court
|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Matthew Swift, the Midnight Mayor ostensibly in charge of things magical about and within London, is in trouble. He wakes from a summons in a burning tower block, with an associate he'd rather not be with. In their escape a person dies. Only this death is set to cause out-and-out war between two legendary magical clans, the Neon Court and the Tribe. How can Swift be diplomatic enough for both sides? How can he resolve the matter without some form of guilt? And how can he find the time, when something has peppered London with cryptic 'Bad Wolf'-style graffiti, word is out the person he woke with is a fabled Chosen One everyone will slaughter for, Swift is beset with everyone he wants to meet being blinded by his enemies, and something has forced London into perpetual night?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499013</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{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
|author=William Hussey
|title=Witchfinder: Gallows at Twilight
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=After turning from horror comic geek to a cloned Witchfinder and saviour of humanity in the space of a few short weeks, Jake Harker's magic is understandably depleted. Try as he might, the blue light fails to ingite in his hand. But Jake has no time for recuperation or for coming to terms with the loss of his mother. His father is dying, hexed by the evil witch Marcus Crowden. And the Demon Father is at large, summoning a universal coven that will threaten everything Jake has already fought to save.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192731912</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Helen Lowe
|title=The Heir of Night
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=If Night falls, all fall, so says the old legend. Oldest, first and greatest of all the Derai Houses on the Wall, the house of Night is proud of its role as holders of the Keep of the Winds, primary defence on the Shield Wall of Night – a range of mountains that separates the lands of the original inhabitants of the planet the Derai know as Haarth from the regions of the Dark Swarm that threaten Derai and Haarth-folk alike.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500004</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Christopher Isherwood
|title=Diaries Volume 1
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In January 1939 Christopher Isherwood left England for America in the company of poet WH Auden. This hefty volume covers his diaries from that date until August 1960, when he celebrated his fifty-sixth birthday. A 49-page introduction setting out the background leads us into the entries, which are divided into three sections – The Emigration, to the end of 1944; The Post-war Years, to 1956; and The Late Fifties. After these we have a chronology and glossary, or to put it more accurately a section of brief biographies of the main characters mentioned, these two sections comprising over a hundred pages altogether.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555824</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=John Saunders
|title=The Vernham Chronicles
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
|summary=Set amidst the rolling British countryside around Vernbury Vale is the little village of Vernham. Anyone who lives in a village will recognise it immediately, with its cobbled streets and Tudor buildings. There was some damage during the war (which might, or might not have been down to a lighthouse folly constructed by a local landowner on his lake) but the gaps have been filled with some beautiful, er, mock Tudor buildings. Almost unique and nearly beautiful as the village is, it's not the star of The Vernham Chronicles. The stars are the people who live in Vernham.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907499598</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Jonathan Maberry
|title=Rot & Ruin
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=It's been fourteen years since First Night and the zombie apocalypse. Those humans who survived the disease that created the undead live in pocket communities, fenced off from the horrors of the outside world. Resources are scarce and all citizens must find a job as soon as they turn fifteen, else their rations are cut in half. Benny Imura has just turned fifteen and so he needs work badly. He tries out as a locksmith, a fence technician, a portraitist and a carpet coat salesman. Nothing works out and so Benny has no option but the last resort - an apprenticeship in the family business of zombie hunting, under the tutelage of his older brother Tom.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857070959</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Elizabeth Ashworth
|title=The de Lacy Inheritance
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Set in England in 1192, the novel is full of details of life in this period, and resists the temptation to get overtly bogged down in excessive political detail, which makes this a very accessible read to those (like myself) who are not too knowledgeable about this particular historical period. Returning from the Crusades, Richard is forced to leave his family and atone for the sins which he believes has lead to him being afflicted with leprosy. Undertaking a quest to his grandmother's nearby cousin (who is childless, so grandmother wants Richard to present her case for inheriting his lands), Richard finds refuge here. This point struck me as odd - almost jarring in it's unlikelihood. Not only does Richard find help/support/refuge here (whilst remaining unknown to all except the cousin and his wife), but he's virtually welcomed with open arms. Would an itinerant leper be treated in this way? It did add a note of discord to the narrative - as if the quest for inheritance was more important that his trials as a leper.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905802366</amazonuk>
}}