|summary=Grace, a therapist, stumbles upon a young man in the woods who has attempted to commit suicide, and her vocational interests are immediately engaged. The novel takes us through their complex relationship, both its surface routines and day to day moments but also Grace's eventually successful search for the reasons behind Tug's desperation. Ohlin interlaces with this the story of Mitch, Grace's ex-husband, and of Annie, one of her clients, chronicling both their relationship with Grace, but also their network of families and friends, acquaintances and colleagues.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780871104</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jeremy Bullard
|title=Life On The Line
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
|summary=Jeremy Bullard began his working life as a Chartered Accountant but eventually realised that the most exciting part of the day was his journey to work on his moped. Next came a spell as a IT Consultant into which he put heart and soul and only just escaped with his sanity. A mental breakdown and a spell in The Priory convinced him that he had to rethink his life choices and high on the list was a long-distance trip on a motorbike. The first two trips - from London to Cape Town and the reverse - were aborted and we join him as he attempts his most ambitious journey. He's heading from New York to the very south of South America. Oh, and he's taking in the Galapagos and Easter Island.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956968309</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Susie Day
|title=Pea's Book of Best Friends
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Pea isn't too sure about moving from Tenby to London. Instead of starting secondary school with her friend Dot, she'll be by herself. But now that her mum is a best selling author, things are changing, and Pea and her sisters Clover and Tinkerbell will have to adjust. Can she find someone to fill the Dot-shaped hole in her life (and particularly at the desk next to her in lessons?)
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849415226</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Eva Ibbotson
|title=The Abominables
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Oh, this is a lovely, lovely book! It will tug at your heart-strings right till the very last page, and you will quickly grow as fond of these wonderful Tibetan creatures as Lady Agatha was. Agreed, they are very large and clumsy, and extremely hairy, but make no mistake: in this story it is the humans, not the yetis, who are abominable.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407132970</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kerry Hudson
|title=Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Janie Ryan is born into a definitely underprivileged family. Despite a mother who tries to make the right decisions, growing up becomes a fight for survival (both figuratively and literally) as Janie encounters social services, tough schools, domestic violence and an array of 'uncles', all promising a better future that seems as tangible as the holy grail.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186399</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marcus Sakey
|title=The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=A man struggles onto a deserted beach in Maine, United States, after almost drowning but, far from feeling relieved, he realises that something has been left behind – his memory. He finds an unlocked prestige car, a set of dry clothes that fit, some money, a gun and an urge to leave. (I know - if it had been a British beach, I'd have given it 5 minutes before it was empty and the wheels were off! Sorry... I digress...) So, driving to a local motel, he tries to find some glimmer of a past or an identity. The car belongs to a Daniel Hayes, so that's what he'll call himself for now. Then, by coincidence, it becomes more than that; it's becomes the name that the armed police yell as they surround his room. Can a man discover his past whilst outrunning his present? Someone is about to find out.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593069501</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ian Mathie
|title=Dust of the Danakil
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I enjoyed all three of Ian Mathie’s previous books so it’s probably no surprise to find me praising this one too. Already, for me, this writer has set a high bar with his pared, modest prose and authentic descriptions of life as an educated white man with unsophisticated mid-African tribes in the middle of the twentieth century. His everyday life in this book is a perilous adventure – modern travel memoirs seem banal by comparison.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906852138</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ulf Nilsson and Eva Eriksson
|title=The Best Singer in the World
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=There's a boy who loves to sing to his little brother, and his little brother thinks he's the very best singer in the world. He sings him 'You are my sunshine' and 'Jingle Bells' and a made-up song about farts (well, they are boys!) But when it comes to singing or speaking in front of other people - well, that's a different matter. So when he's asked to say a few words at the end of the school concert he finds himself growing more and more afraid. Will he find the courage to stand on stage and end the show?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1877579122</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dan Freedman
|title=Final Whistle
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Jamie Johnson has seen the good and the bad of a football career. He has been to the World Cup finals, he has helped his team win the English premiership and thus taken them to Europe, and things are still on the rise - except he also has a bit of a crook knee from a car crash, and is still only 19. But this being the modern age of football, he might not stay at that club - especially not when (a) Barcelona come calling for his services, and (b) his team need to sell him just to stay afloat. What awaits this young star in the next stage of his life in the big time?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407111442</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michel Houellebecq
|title=The Map and the Territory
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Jed Martin, initially a photographer and later painter, has a singular take on the world and his craft. This novel takes him from obscurity as a reclusive student to fame as the doyenne of the contemporary art scene and in this journey we see exposed both the underlying values but in many ways the essential emptiness of the art world. He is 'taken up', feted and courted by critics and patrons, by those who know nothing but monetary value, and Houellebecq doesn't let any opportunity for a sharp gibe at galleries, art critics and agents go past. The key to Jed's fame is ironically his complete anonymity, and Houellebecq’s creation of the catarrh dribbling agent Marylin who manages Jed’s ‘outing’ is one of the classics of modern satire.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554577</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Helen MacInnes
|title=Above Suspicion
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the summer of 1939 Oxford professor Richard Myles and his wife Frances were preparing for their annual European holiday when they were visited by an old friend who had a request for them. Would they start their holiday in Paris, meet a man there and then continue their holiday as he directed? There was a great deal of tension in Europe and Richard Myles was reluctant to undertake the task, mainly because he didn't want to put his wife at risk. Frances had other ideas, but not even they were above suspicion. At first they were watched but the attentions of some shadowy figures became more pressing as they realised that pre-war Germany was not a comfortable place to be.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781161534</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Oldman Brook
|title=The Wizard of Crescent Moon Mountain
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Greybeard is the wizard of Crescent Moon Mountain and when we first meet him he's expecting guests at his home. The first to arrive are three dwarfs, Wattlespalf, Gendralf and Igralf and whilst they might not be the most becoming of creatures they have expertise with some unusual weaponry. Not long afterwards they're followed by Forrester and Stryker. The two young men arrive in human form but the reality, as we'll find out, is that they're shape-shifters. The six thought that the gathering was complete but they're joined by two elves as a result of a dramatic rescue mission. That the two boys survived the snows which surround the wizard's house is surprising enough, but elves have been extinct for thousands of years and Finn and his younger brother Beezle arrive through an accident in time.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848767617</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jose Saramago
|title=Cain
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Death is only the beginning, or so some say, and the first death of one human at the hands of another - Cain's slaying of Abel with what always seemed an unlikely murder weapon - is the start of this excoriating drive through what Cain felt when set against the god that both snubbed his sacrifices and allowed, despite alleged omnipotence, the murder in the first place. Riding a donkey, this Cain takes up life as personal guard and lover to Lilith, but also leaves the Land of Nod for diverse Old Testament locations, where he sees the stories of the golden calf, the tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah and more at first hand. All they ever do is make him realise the gulf between what god is supposed to benevolently embody, and how he acts.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099552248</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Louise Douglas
|title=In Her Shadow
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Hannah has had one nervous breakdown due to unbearable guilt and seems on course for a second. How else can she explain the fact that the still dead Ellen seems to be following her around? It all started two decades earlier...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593070216</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Drew Thomas
|title=Curtains
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Danny is a performer on London’s cabaret circuit, but his hard work isn’t doing much for his status. When he meets Veronica, who promises to make him a star, he never guesses that this might be too good to be true. Rapidly falling in love with her – or so he thinks – soon his life revolves around doing her bidding. But Veronica is a more complex individual than Danny could ever have imagined - and her forcefulness will lead them both down an unimaginable path.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957187807</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sarah Quigley
|title=The Conductor
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Composer Dmitri Shostakovich can block anything out whilst he's writing music: his wife Nina's voice, his children arguing, even the side effects of living in Stalinist Leningrad. However, life is about to become more than an annoying distraction from music as Germany declares war on Russia and gradually initiates what history will come to know as the Siege of Leningrad. Shostakovich then realises, just as gradually, that his music may serve a purpose to sustain his compatriots in the absence of sufficient food and hope. His Seventh Symphony becomes a protest against oppression, but he needs an orchestra to play it and the top musicians have been evacuated to save the country's cultural heritage. He therefore turns to Karl Eliasberg, the aspiring but third rate conductor of a cobbled together orchestra. Music can create miracles but, for Eliasberg and his musicians, being able to play it will be the biggest miracle of all.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190880002X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver
|title=Zero to Hero - Ghost Buddy
|rating=4
|genre=confident Readers
|summary=Billy Broccoli has moved to a new house and school and is anxious about fitting in and making new friends. Things are made more difficult for him because his mum is the head teacher of his new school and Billy is also learning to cope with a new stepfather and stepsister. Just when Billy thinks things could not get any more difficult he discovers a ghost in his bedroom wardrobe. Not just an ordinary ghost either. His own personal ghost is Hoover Porterhouse, a teenage ghost with attitude, who is going to help Billy learn not only how to be cool but also how to deal with the obnoxious school bully. This is the first in a new series by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver and on the basis of this first instalment it promises to be as successful as their popular Hank Zipzer series.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407132288</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ellie Sandall
|title=Copycat Bear
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Mango has a best friend who is an enormous bear called Blue. Mango finds herself getting frustrated as Blue likes to copy everything that Mango does. Will the two friends be able to get along happily?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444901575</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chrissie Keighery
|title=Whisper
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Demi is starting a new school. It's a nervous time whenever this happens - but the reason she's moving is because an attack of meningitis 18 months ago left her profoundly deaf. She's learnt to sign, she's learnt how to deal with the problems that crop up every day - but will she ever learn to accept who she is now?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848775466</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Maureen Stanton
|title=Killer Stuff and Tons of Money
|rating=3.5
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=For some time the bookshelves in the high street have been awash with titles on identifying, valuing and trading in antiques. This is nothing like that. It is basically an account in which the author, a university lecturer in creative non-fiction, shadows dealer Curt Avery as he travels in pursuit of buying and selling antiques across America, setting up his stall or visiting auctions. As he does so he tells her about the pros and cons, the lucky finds and the pitfalls, and what motivates people like him as he seeks to make a living in a precarious but fascinating profession where every day might bring forth some wonderful new (or old) discovery. Before continuing any further, I should stress that this is written very much from an American perspective, so some mental adjustment is required for any reader who has been introduced to the subject by ‘Antiques Roadshow’ and similar other British TV series.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0143121057</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Umberto Eco
|title=The Prague Cemetery
|rating=3
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=If the popular press is to be believed, then those of us who write book reviews do so to show off our own (non-existent) talents as writers whilst trying to condemn the abilities of far greater worth.
Well, not quite.
I would not pretend to have a tiny iota-fragment of the talent that Umberto Eco has. Nor would I seek to decry his latest opus.
On the other hand, I am an ordinary reader – one moreover that enjoyed The Name of the Rose immensely – and I really struggled with ''The Prague Cemetery''. I didn't struggle to get through it. It is actually quite an easy read, if you just read the surface of it. I did struggle to see the point of it. It may well just be me. I put my hands up.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555972</amazonuk>
}}