==General fiction==
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{{newreview
|author=Mari Strachan
|title=The Earth Hums in B Flat
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Choosing a child as the viewpoint character of a novel requires confidence and imagination. To succeed is to convince the reader of events at two levels – the child's world within the adult world surrounding her. The very best novels about childhood, like say Harper Lee's classic, 'To Kill a Mockingbird', also reflect a wider cultural truth. In 'The Earth Hums in B Flat', a claustrophobic Welsh village is both protection and straitjacket as the characters struggle to cope with their family secrets. If that sounds a bit tacky, fear not, because the viewpoint character, Gwenni, is all whippet and sharp corners.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847673058</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brady Udall
This is a big book in many respects. It's a classic, glossy 'coffee table' edition; it's a big, satisfying read and it's a multi-layered book in that it covers many current-day topics which have their roots in history. In fact, this book is so multi-dimensional that, you could argue, there are several books within this book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230743633</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Karan Mahajan
|title=Family Planning
|rating=2
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Mr Rakesh Ahuja is Delhi's Mister of Urban Development and so far, has managed to do well in his career. However, his family life is beginning to take over - he already has thirteen children and a fourteenth is on the way. The eldest, Arjun, now a teenager was born to Mr Ahuja's first wife, but up til now, Arjun is unaware of this fact. Sangita Ahuja, the long-suffering wife, is aware that her relationship with Arjun may never be the same again. Meanwhile, Arjun is only interested in one thing - how to attract the attention of the gorgeous girl on his school bus. What will happen to the family when Mr Ahuja finally tells the truth?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523299</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jed Mercurio
|title=American Adulterer
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I've often wondered how history would have viewed Jack Kennedy if he'd died a natural death rather than by an assassin's bullet. As an extension of that I've also thought that he might not have lived that much longer had nature been allowed to take its course. He's one of the most-written-about Presidents of all time and finding a new angle – even a fictional one – is not easy, but Jed Mercurio has looked at Kennedy's adult life through the prism of his sexual peccadilloes and his health.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099515873</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tim Pears
|title=Landed
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I have hesitated to write this review because, truthfully, I am not ''entirely'' sure that I know what happened at the end. I read it all. I actually read the end several times. And then I skipped back to the middle, just to check something, before trying the end again. I have decided to just believe in what I ''think'' happened, and since I don't want to spoil it for other readers then I don't have to make a complete fool of myself writing down what it is I think! And actually, that mysteriousness is part of the charm of the story. So, slight confusion aside, I still gave this book four stars, and this is why...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020079</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Laila Lalami
|title=Secret Son
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''Secret Son'' is the story of Youssef El-Mekki, the slum-dwelling teenage son of single mother Rachida. Youssef has always been told that his father is dead, so when he finds out his mother has lied to conceal the fact that he was born out of wedlock, he plunges headlong into an identity crisis. He tracks down his real father, a wealthy businessman called Nabil Amrani who is surprisingly enthusiastic about his illegitimate son's arrival. Nabil has recently fallen out with his daughter and he seizes this opportunity to mould Youssef into the obedient son he has always wanted.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918296</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Samuel Bonner
|title=Playground
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Jonah grew up in London but his mother, getting increasingly worried about social disintegration and increasing crime, has moved them up to Nottingham. Jonah is a bright lad and halfway through a media course, but he's finding it difficult to fit in. He's also finding the new racial mix a problem - there's palpable tension between black and brown-skinned people on campus, and he often feels alienated and a bit like a fish out of water.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1902835190</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joan Brady
|title=Venom
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=David Marion isn't used to finding hitmen standing at his front door, though you wouldn't be able to tell that such a thing might be true, given the speed and competency with which Marion dispatches said hitman and then disappears, seemingly, off the face of the Earth.
Dr. Helen Freyl is a physicist working for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. She is also, up until his disappearance, David Marion's sometime lover and is grief-stricken to the point of distraction by his sudden absence from her life, as she believes him to be dead.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0743267907</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jo Brand
|title=The More You Ignore Me
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Alice is growing up in a cottage in Herefordshire with her gentle, hippy father and her mother, Gina, who spends her days standing around like a chain-smoking zombie because she is kept on medication and has been for years. Gina's first psychotic episode occured after Alice's birth. Then there was the episode Alice remembers, the day her mother climbed onto the roof, naked, holding Smelly the hamster, and refused to come down. From that day, the old Gina, boisterous and unconventional as she was, fell silent under the numbing impact of constant medication. Jo Brand tells the story of how Alice coped with the loneliness and worry of growing up with an ill mother. Most importantly, as I'm sure the teenage Alice would see it, we are shown the birth and life of her obsession with Morrissey of The Smiths. In his music she finds escapism and comfort and in him she finds a figure to adore. Her friends can't understand her fixation and her mother understands fixation a little too well (the local weatherman having been the object of one of her fervent obsessions). Morrissey sings with such sensitivity and angst that surely, Alice thinks, if she could just meet him and tell him her story he could help her and she could help him...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755322320</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chris Mullin
|title=A Very British Coup
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=No one had anticipated that Labour would win the election, not least because the party leader was Harry Perkins, a former steel worker. His manifesto included promises to remove all American bases from British soil, public control of finance and the dismantling of media empires. There were a few other things too – but they'll do for starters. The establishment – to a man – was appalled. Press barons, media stars, bishops and civil service mandarins knew that, for the good of the country (not themselves, ''of course'') something had to be done and ''obviously'' the end would justify whatever means they had to take to achieve their aims. Harry Perkins had to be removed from office.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687403</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rachel Heath
|title=The Finest Type Of English Womanhood
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It was just after the end of the Second World War and seventeen year old Laura Trelling was at a loose end in her Sussex village. She didn't really fit in with the other young people and her eccentric parents were becoming more and more isolated, to the extent that Laura was embarrassed by their carelessness of her welfare. A chance encounter with Paul Lovell was to change everything and before long she was on her way to a South Africa not yet burdened with apartheid.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532743</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Bobbie Darbyshire
|title=Truth Games
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The central theme in this book is sex - and lots of it. We're introduced to a group of mainly twentysomethings and thirtysomethings. Men and women. Most of them are attractive and hold down glamorous jobs and careers. All in rude health, with wonderful social lives and trendy homes. They all appear, on the surface, to be a bunch of shiny, happy people. What on earth could be missing?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905614721</amazonuk>
}}
