'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Jamie Rix
|title=The Incredible Luck of Alfie Pluck
|rating=4
|genre=ConPoor Alfie Pluck. He lives with his two aunts who are grotesquely disgusting, and who call him their Household Drudge. They reminded me of some of Roald Dahl's most appalling creations. Compared to Alfie's aunts, Harry Potter's Dursley relatives are warm and friendly. Alfie is decidedly down on luck.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444001019</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anna Dale
|summary=This heart-warming book tells the wonderful true story of a cat called Dewey. His beginnings were very humble and his life could quite probably have been quite short if it had not been for a fortuitous event that occurred one cold winter morning. Vicki Myron, the chief librarian at Spencer Library in Iowa, heard some very strange noises coming from the book drop box that borrowers used in order to return their books when the library was closed. On opening the box she discovered a small, dirty, shivering kitten and her heart melted. As a consequence, the kitten, which was soon to be named Dewey, was adopted and became the official library cat.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847388442</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Grisham
|title=Ford County
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=When I think of John Grisham I tend to think firstly of lawyers. Well, actually, I think of Tom Cruise first to be honest, and then the whole lawyer thing. I expect surprising twists and long, detailed plots. This collection, however, is a book of short stories so has to work differently. There isn't room within a short story for a lengthy, twisting plot, and so Grisham has to rely on other skills to make them work. My feeling was that some do and some don't. Set in America's Deep South all the stories revolve around a rather mixed bag of characters from Ford County, with the ever-present lawyers but also gamblers, murderers, con artists, drunks and scoundrels.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099545780</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Elizabeth Chadwick
|title=To Defy A King
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=#Set in the traumatic and violent period leading up to the Magna Carta, Chadwick concentrates on the fortunes of two extended families. The Marshals, close to the throne for their expertise, political and military might, and the Bigods, who are directly related to King John, through their half brother Longespee, son of the family matriarch, and John’s father. Banished from Court, and forced to leave her son there, Ida marries Roger and founds a strong patriarchal dynasty. However, tension is never far from boiling point, with the two half brothers tolerating each other at best, loathing each other more often than not, due to their opposing natures.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847442366</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kimberly Greene
|title=My Life on TV
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Sam’s sister, Danni, is a pop star and her mother is Danni’s manager. Dad died before Sam was born, so between the three of them life is quite fraught, particularly as they’re the subject of a reality show which is planned to run for three years. If they manage the full three years the house they live in will belong to their mother, but it all looks to be in jeopardy when Danni decides that she can’t take the pop star life any longer and she’s going to hang up her microphone. Sam’s scared that this will mean they have to leave the house and go back to the days when they had to struggle to pay the rent. There might be a way round it though – what if she was to become a TV star and the reality show could continue?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409508293</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Grant Gillespie
|title=The Cuckoo Boy
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The reader is introduced to twenty-something married couple Sandra and Kenneth. And yes, they suit their names. They are an average couple with an average intellect leading average lives. They are also desperate to become a family unit. Sandra, right from the word go, appears to be a woman living on her nerves. A smooth-running domestic life is top of her agenda ... no matter what. And in that regard, she is insular and narrow-minded. So it didn't come as a surprise when I read between the lines. She wants a baby but not the mess that comes with it. James, a tiny baby is brought into this brittle home.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955460948</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Steven Carroll
|title=The Art of the Engine Driver
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Carroll has chosen a bygone era in the 1950s and also a bygone but much treasured mode of transport, whether it's Australia or the UK. Immediately I'm drawn in to the story. Both the title and book's front cover are arresting and original. The novel centres on one evening in this suburban neighbourhood when all its residents are invited to a celebration party. Carroll see-saws back and forth as he shares the individual lives with us. It is an engaging style.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099537273</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lisa Sanders
|title=Diagnosis: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Medical Mysteries
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Fans of ‘’House, M.D.’’ may recognise the name of Lisa Sanders. She’s the technical advisor to the TV show as well as being the writer of the ‘’Diagnosis’’ column in the New York Times. Many of the stories which appear in the column are recounted in this book, which is a look at the way in which doctors reach a diagnosis and how the method has changed (or not) over the years. I’m not a fan of the hospital dramas which seem to be a major feature of the TV schedules, but I was fascinated by what is, essentially, a series of medical detective stories.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848311338</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joseph Smith
|title=Taurus
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=As the bull goes from paddock to stall in the searing heat of the farm, he feels strangely disembodied - and yet all he feels is his body: his huge bulk; the angles at which he must hold up his heavy head to see what he needs to see; the strange latency that fills him. He watches the skittish grey horse, transfixed and yet repulsed by its grace and fluidity. He observes his captors, the girl and boy siblings and their father, and he allows their goadings to gradually wake him from stuporous apathy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224089978</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Holly Black
|title=The White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Cassel Sharpe dreams of a white cat and wakes up on the roof of his school building, perilously close to a fatal fall. Afraid that he's suicidal or otherwise unstable, his principal sends him home, while the school decides whether or not he can stay on as a pupil. This is completely devastating for Cassel, who is struggling with some major issues. For starters, he's only non-worker in a family of workers. His gloved hands cover useless fingers. His touch doesn't manipulate emotions, remove memories, bring luck, or kill, maim or otherwise injure. Even in a world where working is illegal, it's hard to be the only normal person in your family
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575096713</amazonuk>
}}
