'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Beate Teresa Hanika
|title=Learning to Scream
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Malvina is thirteen years old, the youngest of three children in a dysfunctional family. Her father is a very grumpy teacher, with little understanding of children, whilst her mother seems to suffer permanently from migraine. She has a good friend, Lizzy, and they play together as much as they can, united in their dislike of the 'boys from the estate'. Her grandmother died last year, leaving her granddad on his own and it's Malvina's job to go and visit him and take him his meals. The family think this is a great arrangement because they know how much Granddad loves Malvina and looks forward to her visits. There's a problem though. Malvina doesn't like going, particularly on her own. Granddad kisses her on the mouth.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849390606</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Shaun Hutson
|summary=This collection of nonsense poetry takes in all sorts of subjects, from wannabe magicians to armpits, and from failed cowboys to a girl with springs for feet. It's all very silly, all very nonsensical, and good fun. A proportion of profits are being donated to [http://www.beatbloodcancers.org/ Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research].
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956503527</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tony Bayliss
|title=Past Continuous
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The author's note tells the reader that this book 'was inspired by the suicide of the author's son.'
Chapter 1 opens with the reader being in no doubt that the schoolboy Matthew has a knack with computers. He's a bit of a whiz-kid. He's also shy and tongue-tied which makes him a bit of a loner as well. He stands out at school for all the wrong reasons but he's coping with it - just. And early on in the book we meet Sophie. She's a big part of this book. She's around Matthew's age. She is bright and clever. Her adoptive parents would probably say that she's too clever for her own good.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907230173</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lloyd Jones
|title=Hand Me Down World
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Ines – although it's a little while before we know her by that name – has quite a story to tell, but we don't hear it from her. We listen to the stories told by people who knew her. They might have worked with her at a hotel on the Arabian Sea or in Tunisia. They might have known her name, but nothing quite so personal as her birthday. She was a good worker, used to anticipating what the guests would need but otherwise being invisible. This might have gone on indefinitely, but she met Jermayne, black like Ines, who taught her to swim. He also gave her what she thought was love and a child, which he then abducted. Ines' story is her journey to Berlin to retrieve her son.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848544782</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sharon Owens
|title=A Winter's Wedding
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Decluttering: it's a great thing to do, you know. You clear space and you give yourself emotional energy when you get rid of things which you don't need. Take stuff to a charity shop and it's an all-round winner for everyone. That's what Emily did when she began to clear out her flat. Her friend Augusta had given her quite a few gadgets which she knew that she would never use. And it was at the charity shop that she met Dylan. His sister ran a charity which rescued horses and Dylan was helping out between jobs. Now, there's something which you need to know about Dylan. He's perfect. He's thoughtful, considerate, loyal and honest. Yes – he's ''that'' perfect.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141028580</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sam Hayes
|title=Someone Else's Son
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens with Carrie Kent. Successful television presenter and mother of teenager, Max. Ms Kent immediately comes across as hard-headed, business-like, aloof and rather distant but that's the whole point, of course. Very good at her day job. But as a mother? Her television show is a reality programme, dealing with well, basically the dregs of society: single, young mums, drug addicts etc. Carrie knows that these people keep her in designer shoes and bags but she keeps them at arm's length. She wouldn't want to catch something. Carrie sails through her life with a self-satisfied smile on her face. You can just tell.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755349873</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Charles Margerison
|title=Amazing Women: Inspirational Stories
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=The cover of this book tells the reader that these short ''bioviews'' or biographies can be read in 10 mins or so. This is one of a series within ''The Amazing People Club'' courtesy of the ''Amazing People Team''. There is a rather fulsome ''Author's Note'' followed by a one-page introduction. I was immediately struck by the fact that, given the various feats of these women, I was anxious to read about them - and not about Dr Margerison. Less is more. He goes on to say (by now I'm getting a bit tired of the smiling Margerison) that 'The stories are inspirational and can help you achieve your ambitions in your own journey through life.' All of this and especially that last sentence sits rather uneasily with me, I'm afraid.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1921629940</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kate Maryon
|title=Glitter
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=You'd think, seeing Liberty Parfitt's life from the outside, that she'd be blissfully happy. She has everything money can buy, she loves life at her expensive boarding school and she has a wonderfully close friend. But she is not content. Her academic grades are not good, and her father clearly prefers her hard-working and successful older brother Sebastian, who is at the same school. He wins all manner of prizes, but the only area in which she shows any talent is music, a subject her father will not allow her to study. Her mother died when she was only nine months old, and Liberty imagines her life would be very different if she had a loving mother to balance her father's criticisms. And then utter disaster: the family loses every penny they own, she is whisked away from school without warning and taken to a dreary little flat where she has to cope not only with her own sadness and sense of loss but also with a father sinking deeper and deeper into depression.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007326289</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kenneth Steven and Jane Ray
|title=Stories for a Fragile Planet: Traditional Tales About Caring for the Earth
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Stories for a Fragile Planet is a wonderful anthology of stories from long ago and also from the present. The stories come from far and wide – from China to Alaska. They all seem to involve brave characters that care greatly about their environment and who are prepared to do things differently whether it is looking after a blackbird's nest for days until the eggs hatch or caring for a young lion cub who would otherwise die. There are ten stories in total and each one is short but self contained with a very satisfying conclusion. Each one can easily be read in a single sitting and would make ideal bedtime stories for slightly older children.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0745961576</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael White
|title=The Art of Murder
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Detective Chief Inspector Jack Pendragon has had a lot of experience of murder but he's never experienced anything like the one he was called to on a wintery January morning in Whitechapel. The man is horribly mutilated but he's held up in a chair and the scene has been set as a nod to the surrealist painter, Magritte. This is art as murder.
Back in Whitechapel in the 1880s the man who was probably the most famous murderer of them all. He's planned the murder of four local prostitutes with the bodies being horribly mutilated. Four, he feels, is a satisfyingly balanced number. This is murder as art.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099551446</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brooke Morgan
|title=Trapped
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ellie Walters is 36, divorced and keen to start a new life away from her cheating and control-freak ex-husband. Fulfilling a life-long dream, she decides to take her 15-year-old son, Tim, to live with her in the small town of Bourne. As she soon becomes good friends with her next-door neighbour, Louisa Amory, Ellie finally feels she is making a life of her own. She begins to feel a sense of freedom and independence but for how long? When strange events start occurring Ellie is forced to face some painful and guilty memories connected to a tragic accident nineteen years ago; memories which she would rather forget. It is clear that someone has discovered her well-kept secret and is reluctant to let her forget about it. As a campaign of terror against Ellie unfolds she must come to terms with what happened all those years ago and try to discover who her tormentor is. Vulnerable and afraid, she relies on Louisa's friendship to help her through the ordeal. However, when a misunderstanding causes a rift between Ellie and Louisa's son, Joe, the women's friendship is threatened. Alone and afraid, she suddenly finds herself trapped in a nightmare from which she must do all she can to escape.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099536285</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Megan Rix
|title=The Puppy That Came For Christmas and Stayed Forever
|rating=4
|genre=Pets
|summary=Megan Rix and husband Ian took on two massive challenges at the same time. Their failure to conceive a child became something of an issue with Megan being, as she herself said 'north of forty'. Time was passing quickly and it looked as though IVF was the only option if they were to have the long-for child. It's time-consuming and traumatic. At the same time the couple became involved with a charity which provides helper dogs for people with disabilities. Puppies come to a family for six months to do their basic training and then move on. And that was how Emma, a soft, sweet-natured, adorable puppy came into their lives. Predictably, they fell in love with her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951062</amazonuk>
}}
