'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Donald Spoto
|title=Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford
|rating=3.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Thanks to the memoir 'Mommie Dearest' by her adopted daughter Christina, the enduring image of movie star Joan Crawford is one of an alcoholic, sadistic monster. Spoto clearly believes that this portrait is a gross exaggeration, and is at pains to rectify the balance. Having previously written biographies of Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe among others, he clearly knows the subject of cinema inside out, and has written a very thorough chronicle of Crawford's career. The impression the reader is left with, however, is that in looking at her family life and art he has perhaps striven too far to present her as a person more sinned against than sinning, a legendary talent, beauty and above all a grossly maligned adoptive mother.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091931274</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Charlotte Haptie
|summary=It's 1611 and young Hannah's life in Plymouth is anything but exciting. She has a horrid elder sister to deal with, and is jealous of her brother Jacob's career aboard a merchant ship. Realising the life her parents have mapped out for her as wife to a man she loathes is not for her, Hannah decides to take action and control of her own destiny. Soon she runs away from home, disguising herself as a boy and stowing away on one of the ships under her brother's command.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931291</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Antoinette Van Huegten
|title=Saving Max
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The one-page Prologue sees us at the scene of the crime. Two teenagers and a lot of blood - one of whom will not survive. Seems like an open-and-shut case - but is it? We then go back in time to a medical consulting room in downtown New York. Hot-shot lawyer and time-pressed, single mum Danielle is trying to understand her severely disabled son. Even allowing for the normal teenage angst and racing hormones, things are not good at home. She knows it. Max knows it. And the medical profession at large, know it. Something needs to be done before things get out of hand.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304086</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Harry Leslie Smith
|title=1923: A Memoir
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Harry Leslie Smith was born in 1923. If you're wondering about the title – that's the explanation – and although it's when Harry began his life it's not where his story began. He takes us back some years before to his father's family with its roots in mining and a sideline in running a pub which was to make them comfortable if not wealthy. Harry's father was middle-aged when he got involved with Lillian, a teenage girl. Unsurprisingly his family were not impressed or welcoming when the pair married because a child was on the way. Albert Smith expected that he would inherit the pub when his father died, but it passed to his uncle and so began a life of disappointment for Albert and Lillian.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1450254136</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Aidan Chambers
|title=The Kissing Game
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=You don't see that many short story collections in YA circles. But when they do appear, you often wonder why there aren't more of them. And this is absolutely the case with The Kissing Game. Ranging from short pieces of flash fiction to "proper" short stories, each one will incite, surprise and stimulate.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370331974</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Arianne Cohen
|title=The Sex Diaries Project
|rating=4
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=It's often said 'there's nowt so queer as folk'. Surely this should be qualified as 'there's nowt so queer as folks' sex lives'. Arianne Cohen has made a major online database of testimony from people about their thoughts regarding sex - having it, not having it, having it with whom they're with, having it with those whom they're not with. And in every sense, the results can be exceedingly queer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091939356</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jana Oliver
|title=The Demon Trappers: Forsaken
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=You know that old saying, 'never judge a book by its cover', I'm guilty of it. I always fall into the trap – if the cover isn't amazing I pre-judge. And that's exactly what I did when this book landed on my doorstep – I took one look at the broody vamp looking girl on the cover and thought 'emo'. How wrong I was.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330519476</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Keith Richards
|title=Life
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Nearly forty years ago, Keith Richards was considered the next most likely rock'n'roll star to succumb to drugs. The man has defied all the odds in staying alive, and continuing to do what he has been doing for almost half a century. In the process, he has earned the sometimes grudging, sometimes unqualified respect of those who would once never given him the time of day.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297854399</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Daniel Lezano
|title=Getting Started in DSLR Photography
|rating=4.5
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=The magazine-style layout of this 'magbook' (an ugly, but apt, term for the format) lends itself particularly well to the subject in hand, not least as the glossy pages beautifully illustrate the effects on the photographs that the publishers are showing. It's published by the team at 'Digital SLR Photography' magazine and it reads like a collection of the most useful articles published therein, particularly for the novice to SLR photography.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907232877</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=M C Beaton
|title=Travelling Matchmaker: Belinda Goes to Bath
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Miss Hannah Pym was a housekeeper until recently but has now received a legacy which lifts her out of the servant classes and enables her to fulfil her long-held wish to travel. It might be winter but Miss Pym is taking the stagecoach to The Bath (as the upper classes call the city) just for the adventure. The company in the stage is joined by an obviously well-bred young woman, Miss Belinda Earle who, accompanied by her companion, is being sent in disgrace to stay with her aunt.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014809</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brian Falkner
|title=Brainjack
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Sam comes to the attention of the CDD (Homeland Security's Cyber Defence Division) when he crashes the entire American internet network because he wants a top spec laptop and one of those super-cool new neural headsets, but doesn't have the money to buy them. Thinking he's been given a hacker network initiation test, Sam then successfully penetrates the White House's security system. It's all the CDD needs to know, and Sam finds himself sprung from federal custody and recruited.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406329061</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Edward B Barbier
|title=Scarcity and Frontiers: How Economies Have Developed Through Natural Resource Exploitation
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=Scarcity and Frontiers is an ambitious, fascinating book that examines how the world's economies have developed by exploiting natural resources. Throughout history, states have responded to natural resource scarcity by developing new frontiers, hence the title. The book begins with the development of agriculture along the banks of the Nile and runs right through to the present day, finally questioning whether we are entering a new era of natural resource scarcity.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521701651</amazonuk>
}}
