'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Tea Obreht
|title=The Tiger's Wife
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Téa Obreht's 'The Tiger's Wife' comes with a fair degree of hype from the US, and largely it lives up to it, which is no small achievement. The main story is set in Yugoslavia and explores a young doctor, Natalia, seeking for the truth about her grandfather's death, while on a mission to deliver much needed medical aid to an orphanage in the war-ravaged Balkans. But what sets this book apart is the intricate weaving of reality with the myths and stories of the region. In particular there are two myths that represent a good chunk of the page count: the story of a tiger who has escaped from captivity after the World War two bombing of Belgrade and who has settled near a remote mountain village where Natalia's grandfather is growing up, and who develops a strange relationship with a deaf-mute girl who becomes known as 'the tiger's wife'; and a mysterious story of the 'Deathless Man' whom the grandfather encounters at various points in his life who appears to have the power to foresee others' death without being able to die himself.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297859013</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gary Armstrong and Tim Gray
|summary=A new series about what happens when Britain's most important and secret assets - teenagers with paranormal abilities - get a week's holiday. In book one, Lisa gets involved with kidnapping and assassination attempts. And she only wanted to go shopping at Harvey Nicks!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192756060</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Vivian French and Selina Young
|title=The Kitten With No Name
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=''The Kitten With No Name'' lives under a hedge with his mummy. It's a very big hedge but it's very cosy and The Kitten's mummy has told him that one day, they will all go and live in a new home with someone who will love them both and hug them just the right amount.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444000780</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rachel Hawkins
|title=Hex Hall: Raising Demons
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Raising Demons (published in the US under the title Demonglass) is the second book in a planned trilogy about a teenager who has strong magical powers. This review may contain spoilers for the first book in the series, [[Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins|Hex Hall]]; the book certainly does.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387233</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Edward St Aubyn
|title=At Last
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=In ''At Last'', Edward St Aubyn returns to the Melrose family, the subject of both ''Some Hope'' and of his Booker-shortlisted [[Mother's Milk by Edward St Aubyn|Mother's Milk]]. I confess that I have still not got around to reading the first of the trilogy, but loved ''Mother's Milk'' and found that I wasn't greatly disadvantaged by not having read the previous book. ''At Last'' could also be read as a stand-alone book, but I wouldn't advise this approach. You will miss out on so much that if you are planning on reading it, you really should read at least ''Mother's Milk'' first. This isn't much of an inconvenience as it's a terrific book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330435906</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Deborah Kay Davies
|title=True Things About Me
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Take one benefit office worker; bored, listless, a walking study in destructive human behaviour. Add a recently released, jobless ex-con with a glint in his eye and taste for masochism. Throw all caution to the wind and collide these two ingredients by means of visceral, brutal and almost wordless sex in an underground car park and you have the opening chapters of Deborah Kay Davies's debut novel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847678319</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dr A W Chase
|title=Great Food: Buffalo Cake and Indian Pudding
|rating=4
|genre=Cookery
|summary=Think of a slim, American Mrs Beeton (her cookbook, not her) and you've got a rough idea of the premise of ''Buffalo Cake and Indian Pudding''. It includes recipes for such treats as Minnesota corn bread, popcorn pudding, pumpkin pie and pork cake. The recipes aren't the whole picture, though. Dr Alvin Wood Chase was a travelling salesman as well as an author, so being blessed with the gift of the gab, he peppers his recipes with anecdotes and comments to amuse and entertain the reader.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241950996</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ian Stewart
|title=Mathematics of Life
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Mathematics and biology don't traditionally mix. As science develops, the boundaries between maths and physics, physics and chemistry and chemistry and biology have become more and more blurred. As it is now, biology requires many mathematical techniques, and it's fair to assume that major biological breakthroughs over the next hundred years will also have a strong basis in maths too. Ian Stewart looks at the major steps forward in the history of biology, and the areas where maths is at the forefront of development.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681987</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mary Malone
|title=Love is the Reason
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Lucy Ardle was driving home, wondering what sort of a mood her husband would be in. When she'd left earlier, words had been spoken. She was nearly home when she was overtaken by the fire engine: the house was in flames and it was touch and go as to whether or not Danny would make it. Thankfully Lucy's friend, Carol Black had seen the flames and called the fire brigade or the outcome would have been much worse.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842234161</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michelle Magorian
|title=Goodnight Mister Tom
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's been a long time since I read 'Goodnight Mister Tom' at school. Picking it up again twenty five years later I wondered how good I would find it. I needn't have worried. This wonderful story captured my attention from the very beginning and I became so caught up in Tom and Will's lives that I didn't want it to end. Set during World War Two, William Beech has been evacuated from London and is placed with Tom Oakley, thanks mainly to his proximity to the local church, as Willie's God-fearing mother requested he be close to a church. They seem an unlikely match, the gruff old man who keeps himself to himself and the thin, timid young boy, but there lies the joy of the story, in watching their relationship grow.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141332255</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Meg Wolitzer
|title=The Uncoupling
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dory and Robby Lang had one of those marriages that everyone envies. They're not just lovers, they're best friends too and they never seem to tire of each other. They're both popular teachers at Eleanor Roosevelt High School ('Elro' to those who know it well) where their daughter is a student. It's sometimes difficult to have your parent teaching at your school, but everything seems to rub along reasonably well and Dory was delighted when daughter Willa got a part in the school play. It's ''Lysistrata'' and whilst the drama teacher has to tone it down a little it still the play about the women who refuse to have sex with their men until they call a halt to the war they're fighting.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186216</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rodric Braithwaite
|title=Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=In 1979, the Soviet Union decided to move into Afghanistan, and special forces killed the Afghan president. What was initially planned as a fairly modest expedition which would see them stabilise the government, train up the army and police, and then withdraw within a year, turned into a war lasting nearly a decade which left both the Russian army and the Afghan civilians counting the cost of the intervention and with their lives changed forever. What went wrong, and why has Afghanistan proved such a difficult place for foreign powers – ranging from the British in the 19th century, to the Russians in this book, to the current armies engaged in the country – to get any sort of foothold?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680549</amazonuk>
}}