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{{newreview
|title=The Forgotten Friendships, Hidden Stories and Lost Loves found in Second-hand Books
|author=W B Gooderham
|rating=5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=I have found many strange and unusual things in second-hand bookshops. I have done one or two strange and unusual things in them as well, but that's a different story. Twice now I have managed to find a second-hand book, completely signed and dedicated by the author, yet discarded by the recipient, and have been able to present the author with the edition at hand and get it re-dedicated. (If I'm not mistaken, the discarders were a neighbouring babysitter, and a teacher of the author's children.) I'll admit that's rarefied, however, and on the whole the scribble you find in second-hand books is from the person who bought it, and gave it as a gift, not the person who wrote it. But even so, the dedication of the donor can be immensely fascinating and open to all kinds of interpretation, as these examples show perfectly clear.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593072847</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=Saffron's husband, Joel, was stabbed in the street eighteen months ago and no one has ever been arrested for his murder. It's hard for Saffron and her two children, Pheobe and Zane, to live with what happened but somehow they have to find a way of getting on with their lives; lives that no longer have Joel in them. It's hardly surprising that they struggle on a daily basis and it all culminates when Saffron is called into school to discuss fourteen year old Pheobe. Saffron doesn't know how to deal with the situation especially as her daughter won't talk to her. On top of all that, Joel's killer is still out there somewhere and that makes her scared for all her family's safety.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780875002</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|title=The Ransom of Dond
|author=Siobhan Dowd
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
Siobhan Dowd wrote just four novels before she died from breast cancer in 2007. All four novels were wonderful and yet they weren't Siobhan's sole legacy to us. Patrick Ness took an idea of hers and, together with artist Jim Kay, turned it into [[A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness|A Monster Calls]], which won both the Carnegie and Greenaway prizes. And now we have ''The Ransom of Dond'', Siobhan's last story.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857560905</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|title=The Circle
|author=Dave Eggers
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Following a string of recent scandals, the government this month announced that secret cameras could be introduced into care homes in the hope of improving patient care. The theory being that constantly recording staff would prevent any inappropriate behaviour from those in positions of authority. Could such surveillance possibly work? And if it did would any potential rewards be outweighed by the threat to privacy of both the patients and the wholly innocent staff who become caught up in the snooping? It's this question of surveillance over privacy that is central to 'The Circle', the new novel from Dave Eggers.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241146488</amazonuk>
}}