'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Sonia Faleiro
|title=Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars
|rating=4.5
|genre=Travel
|summary=In 2005, there were 1,500 dance bars in Bombay, so called because they employed women to dance to popular music. Bar dancers could earn a lot of money compared to women in other traditional female jobs outside the sex industry, such as cleaners. Many of them also slept with men for money, but because her job was dancing not sex, a bar dancer could also see herself as infinitely superior to sex workers, whether street prostitutes, those working in brothels or call girls.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857861697</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marius Brill
|summary=Magic has been banned by the Queen since a magician called Marius Grange killed the King thirty years before. All the old magical families have been exiled, Lily's father has been sent to prison on the mainland for protesting against the decree, and their servants have to be paid extra wages to stay on the island where Lily, her sister Georgie and their mother now live.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408313499</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sam Gayton
|title=The Snow Merchant
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Imagine if you had never seen snow. What would you feel as it whirled and floated across the air, and landed on your outstretched hand for the very first time? Look out of the window and see how it has transformed the cold, muddy streets, how it has made the ordinary beautiful and the mundane astonishing. This is the delight which is presented to twelve-year-old Lettie at the beginning of this charming, whimsical tale. But just as snow can disrupt or even kill, danger and death seek Lettie.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393710</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joan Leegant
|title=Wherever You Go
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Religion kicks off this book, even before the first page. The title is from a passage from the Book of Ruth. The only female central character, Yona is travelling from her home in America to visit her sister and large family. She's not really looking forward to it. She's nervous. The two sisters live very different lives and haven't seen each other for a decade. Leegant tells us all about the massive rift in their relationship.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393339890</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Charles Frazier
|title=Nightwoods
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=If you have read Charles Frazier's 'Cold Mountain', or indeed seen the film, then you'll have a fair idea what to expect from his latest offering - 'Nightwoods'. As with 'Cold Mountain', the landscape of the Appalachians is the dominant character, this time set in the 1950s. He even manages to get his requisite bear into the story although thankfully it fares rather better than the unfortunate beast in his first book. The dark, oppressing majesty and beauty of the mountains and woods pervades the whole story.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444731246</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
|title=Unusual Uses for Olive Oil: A Von Igelfeld Novel
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=
Following on from ''The 2½ Pillars of Wisdom'' which was a compilation of three shorter volumes, this book sees Professor Dr Von Igelfeld still dealing with his academic colleagues but also with the prospect of a love interest, a recently widowed lady, Frau Benz, who has inherited the large Schloss in Regensburg. Is love in the air? Or will his arch rival, Unterholzer interfere once again?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316027545</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kate Brian
|title=Precious Babies: Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting after Infertility
|rating=5
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=
There are lots of avenues of support for those dealing with infertility, but what happens if you do finally get pregnant? You're still dealing with the scars, both emotional and physical that infertility can leave behind, but it might seem callous to ask for help from other friends from your support network who themselves aren't yet pregnant. This book aims to be a helpful guide that discusses everything from pregnancy to birth to parenting after birth in the light of your history with infertility.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954019</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mackenzie Crook
|title=The Windvale Sprites
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The 'hurricane' of 1987, that Michael Fish famously dismissed while it was en route, brought a lot of destruction, that we know. But what hasn't been known before now is that it also brought a dead body to Asa Brown's attention - the dead body of a fairy. Looking into things at the local library the lad finds more and more clues that a local eccentric, two hundred years previously, had been the only other person to know of the sprites' existence. But what the clue trail leads to, Asa would never possibly suspect...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571240712</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chris Priestley
|title=Mister Creecher
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Ooh, ooh - two Frankenstein-related books one after the other! More of that in the further reading at the end. ''Mr Creecher'' isn't a retelling, a sequel or a prequel; it's an interlude, set midway through the events of Mary Shelley's novel.
It's Regency London, the Industrial Revolution is beginning to crank up, and Billy is an orphan and pickpocket trying to survive in the grimy streets. About to rob what he thinks is a corpse, Billy is set upon by some acquaintances to whom he owes money. Before Fletcher's knife prises out Billy's eye, the corpse - not a corpse at all, in case you didn't guess - comes to his rescue. This huge, shambling man is not a pretty sight. But he has a job for Billy. Mr Creecher has come to London on the trail of Victor Frankenstein, with whom he has a bargain. And he needs Billy to follow Frankenstein to make sure he doesn't renege on the deal.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408811049</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Hugh Jefferies
|title=Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue 2012: Commonwealth and Empire Stamps 1840 - 1970
|rating=5
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=Each edition of the 'Gibbons Commonwealth' catalogue of the sterling era, which covers the era of pounds, shillings and pence up to the end of 1970 with a few exceptions, sees several changes. The 114th edition is no exception. Reflecting market trends and demand during the previous few months, many price increases affecting almost all areas and periods have been made, including the more modestly priced items as well as some of the 'blue chip' pieces. One of the latter now makes history, as following the recent sale of an 1847 'Post Office' Mauritius 2d blue, this and its 1d red partner become the first stamps in the Gibbons catalogue to be priced at £1,000,000 or more. As we are told in a note underneath the listing, most known surviving examples are now in permanent museum collections.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852598130</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nigel Jones
|title=Tower
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=If you had to name one particular artefact which personifies the history of England, it would be hard to choose anything more appropriate than the building which has at various times been a castle, a palace, a prison, a torture chamber, and execution site, an armoury, and is now the most visited tourist attraction in the nation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091936659</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Cathy Brett
|title=Verity Fibbs
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Verity Fibbs is the daughter of fashion designer Saffron Fibbs. Saffron's brought her up on her own and made a pretty good job of it without a lot of input from Verity's 'bio-dad'. Verity's used to the celebrity lifestyle although Saffron does her best to keep her feet firmly on the ground, with or without coffee suede boots. The latest buzz is that Saff and Eden Greenfield are dating – it's even trending on Twitter – and Verity is getting texts asking if the fashion magnate is going to be her new Dad. When Vee wants to retreat from all this she plays an online game called Demon Streets, although she's ''obviously'' not addicted. Before long she's going to find that she's playing the game against a real, live villain.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755379470</amazonuk>
}}