'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Alice LaPlante
|title=Turn of Mind
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=This is a beautifully-presented book with its eye-catching front cover and poetic title. Jennifer has had a busy and fulfilling professional life as a well-respected medical surgeon. Until now. She's gradually losing bits of her mind to Alzheimer's. Her family is supportive and keep popping in on a regular basis plus there's now a live-in carer, Magdalena, so that daily life and daily chores are just about covered.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846554632</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jose Saramago and Margaret Jull Costa
|summary=Russell knows that his band is going nowhere, and the prospect of a life consisting only of a grim day job and some depressing creative exercises is getting him down. But when Josh turns up with a potential way out, it's not quite the way Russell, or any of the other band members, would have envisaged.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531879</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rebecca Elliott
|title=Zoo Girl
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Zoo girl was not what I expected. I was anticipating your average rhyming story aimed at preschoolers with the usual obsession over zoo animals. What I got was a very deep, moving tale aimed above the usual picture book age that will resonate with people who read it from children to adults.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>074596270X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Dickie
|title=Blood Brotherhoods: The Rise of the Italian Mafias
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=There can be few people who are unaware of the 'mafia' particularly as the word is used as a catch-all to cover the Italian criminal fraternity – and by extension the off-shoots which have spread throughout the world – but the south of Italy has three major mafias. Sicily is the birthplace of and home to Cosa Nostra, whilst Naples and its hinterland hosts the camorra. In Calabria, possibly the poorest region of Italy, you'll find the 'ndrangheta. There are plenty of myths and legends about the birth of the criminal organisations, but Professor John Dickie has looked at their early history from 1851 through to the liberation of Italy at the end of the Second World War. He looks at their rituals and their methods and much of what you will read has been a secret until now.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340963921</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anna Gavalda
|title=Breaking Away
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Garance is on her way to a family wedding. In the car with her brother and his wife she thinks about all her siblings, what's happened in their lives and who they have all become. Throughout the journey she finds herself bickering constantly with her sister-in-law who always rubs her up the wrong way, and for the first time Garance senses some tension from her brother too who is usually calm and collected at all times. Is everything okay in his life or is his wife finally beginning to wear his patience thin? They take a detour en route to pick up another sibling, much to Carine's annoyance, and then on reaching the wedding there's a surprise in store for all of them as the four siblings find themselves on an unplanned escape, together once again, rediscovering their youthful selves in a fun, brief break from their real lives.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906040400</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nick Butterworth
|title=Tales From Percy's Park: Percy's Bumpy Ride
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=At the start of 'Percy's Bumpy Ride', all the park animals are puzzled by the strange noises coming from Percy the Park keeper's workshop. They cannot guess what Percy is up to, but soon all is revealed when the doors open and Percy drives out on a spanking new machine. It's a new lawn mower and when Percy claims that it will help him fly around the park he is not joking. He and the animals roar around the park cutting the grass speedily and efficiently. However, before long the mower literally takes off and it looks as if they are all heading for a nasty accident until some very friendly sheep help to soften their landing. Percy decides that maybe his exciting new mower is perhaps not up to the job of keeping the park's grass in trim, but luckily, the sheep have given him another idea...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000715514X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Daniel Suarez
|title=Freedom
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=A short while ago, I read Daniel Suarez's debut novel [[Daemon by Daniel Suarez|Daemon]], which was a gripping technological thriller. It may not have been a terribly original idea, but it was well written if a little lacking in character building and it did seem to end a little abruptly. The reason for this abrupt end now becomes clear, as there is now a sequel, ''Freedom™''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857381229</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rosie Thomas
|title=The Kashmir Shawl
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Mair Ellis and her two siblings are busy clearing out their parents' house shortly after their father's death, when Mair comes across an old package in a chest of drawers. Unwrapping the parcel from its tissue paper, Mair discovers an exquisite and expensive, hand woven Indian shawl from Kashmir, intricately woven and full of wonderful colours. Falling out of the shawl is an envelope containing a lock of hair, adding to its already mysterious nature.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007285965</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alison Weir
|title=The Captive Queen
|rating=3
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Vaclav and Lena are both children of Russian immigrants, growing up in Brooklyn. Vaclav dreams of becoming a fantastic magician, with his friend Lena as his assistant, and as children they practise their routine together, making lists of the things they'll need, the costumes they will wear and the tricks they will perform. Vaclav is confident and happy, but Lena is quiet, withdrawn and struggles with speaking English. Yet Vaclav believes, always, that they are destined to be together. Even when Lena disappears one day and is gone from his life for many years still he hopes that, somehow, he will find her again.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020443</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Haley Tanner
|title=Vaclav and Lena
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Vaclav and Lena are both children of Russian immigrants, growing up in Brooklyn. Vaclav dreams of becoming a fantastic magician, with his friend Lena as his assistant, and as children they practise their routine together, making lists of the things they'll need, the costumes they will wear and the tricks they will perform. Vaclav is confident and happy, but Lena is quiet, withdrawn and struggles with speaking English. Yet Vaclav believes, always, that they are destined to be together. Even when Lena disappears one day and is gone from his life for many years still he hopes that, somehow, he will find her again.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020443</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jon Blake
|title=69ers: A Novel About the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival of Music
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the summer of 1969, as Thunderclap Newman proclaimed in their one and only musical claim to fame, there was something in the air. The alternative generation were talking about the recent Woodstock Festival in America, and eagerly looking forward to what promised to be a similar gathering, albeit on a smaller scale, at the Isle of Wight at the end of August, where Bob Dylan was headlining.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908105658</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alex Kershaw
|title=To Save a People
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat of Jewish ancestry, was without doubt one of the heroes of the Second World War. This book, by one of the war's foremost modern historians, tells the story of his humanitarian work which began with his posting to Budapest in July 1944.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099539136</amazonuk>
}}
