'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Thierry Jonquet
|title=Tarantula: The Skin I Live In
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In a large French country house, an expert in facial reconstruction surgery keeps a beautiful woman locked up in her bedroom. He placates her with opium, but barks orders through hugely powerful speakers and an intercom. She tantalises him with her sexuality, which he tries to ignore, except for when he seems to abuse it in a sort of S/M way when he does let her into society, as he forces her to prostitute herself. Elsewhere, a young, inept bank robber holes himself up in a sunny house, waiting for the heat to die. And finally, a young man is held chained up in a cellar at the hands of an unknown possessor.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687942</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jim Butcher
|summary=In the early part of the Second World War there was a lull, when hostilities didn't really seem to get going – the so-called Phoney War. Some Londoners, who'd left the capital in the expectation of early bombing raids, began drifting back and there were still those who thought that peace could be negotiated – that we could stay out of the fight. Chief amongst those outside of the political classes who supported this view was the American Ambassador, Joseph Kennedy. Kennedy was, perhaps fortunately but not unusually, out of the country when one of the staff at the residence was murdered and her body fished out of the Thames.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848766572</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lara Chapman
|title=Flawless
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Sarah Burke has everything. Model looks and body, straight A grades and a best friend who would take a bullet for her. The one thing she doesn't have is a normal sized nose. Hers is massive. So, Sarah is forced to hide behind a fake confidence that pushes people about to defend herself from the bullying that her nose attracts. Plus, a mother who leaves nose job leaflets in her room, bags and on the kitchen table with her breakfast.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408819619</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Siddhartha Deb
|title=The Beautiful and the Damned: Life in the New India
|rating=4.5
|genre=Travel
|summary=This book immediately caught my eye with its terrific front cover. A picture says more than a thousand words ... But I was conscious that, as a work of non-fiction, it may be full of rather dry facts and figures that I was going to have to plough through with grace and patience. Couple that with, in my opinion, most of the Indian writers that I have read, have in my experience been unnecessarily wordy and flowery (and exasperating) choosing to use fifteen words when one or two would be nicely. So, a little bit of trepidation as I open the book. The first thing to strike me is the intriguing contents page. As Deb is going to concentrate on a mere handful of individuals I'm not going to feel bombarded by hundreds of different stories vying for space on the page. Good start.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917303</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Buchan
|title=Greenmantle
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I'm told that Buchan is still widely read. Really? "John Buchan? Oh yes, he wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps"… and that's as far as most of us get. Let's be honest most of us only know that one from the many film versions, just about all of which take huge liberties with the original plot.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971977</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nathaniel Philbrick
|title=The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Big Horn
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=I have to admit that I was rather underinformed about Custer before reading this book; I knew that he was killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn and that opinion seemed to be split on whether he was an arrogant and over-confident commander or a dashing and brilliant one. From reading this admirably even-handed account, not just of his famous Last Stand but also of the events leading up to it, I found out a huge amount about him and the other personalities involved in his defeat.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099521245</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kit Berry
|title=Solstice at Stonewylde
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Yul's odyssey culminates in an epic final conflict and destiny appears to be on his side. The Villagers are ready to rise against the oppression that Magus has built upon them so skilfully over the years that they weren't consciously aware of it until recently. However, Magus is still a brutal force to be reckoned with and he is more dangerous than ever in his desperation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575098872</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Elizabeth Noble
|title=The Way We Were
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=When Susannah comes across her old flame Rob at her brother's wedding, she instantly remembers all of the things that she loved about him. She cannot stop thinking about him and by doing so it makes her see her partner Doug in not such an attractive light. Doug pays her very little attention and often does not include her in his plans with his children. They seem to merely co-exist rather than share a life together which causes Susannah to become more and more dissatisfied, especially when she compares him with Rob. Although Rob has recently married, he starts meeting with Susannah in London on a regular basis and the flame is soon rekindled. However, they know that if they take things further, other are bound to get hurt.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043113</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ellen Feldman
|title=Next to Love
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Babe, Grace and Millie are three American girls who have grown up together. Now young women each marry their sweetheart just as America becomes involved in the Second World War. But on a fateful day in 1944, sixteen telegrams arrive from the War Department bringing death to the locals, including Grace and Millie whose husbands have both been killed. Babe seems to be the lucky one as her husband, Claude, returns from the War, but in truth he will never be the same man again.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330544500</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jeri Smith-Ready
|title=Shift
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=You might be thinking the worst problem a modern-day American girl could have is her rock-star-in-waiting boyfriend dying, and coming back as a ghost that she and those younger than her can see because of some untold event in the past, but suffering when he gets malevolent and becomes a shade, which means she has to help him move on before he's locked up in limbo. That's because you're not factoring in the last boy born before her, who can't see but is utterly repellent to ghosts, but who she's just about to fall in love with when her late love turns up again, this time with a strangely solid, corporeal form...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857071866</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marcus Gray
|title=Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling
|rating=4.5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=When I began reading these 500 pages or so, my initial feeling was – how could anybody write a book THIS long on one album? Soon, it became clear that I had been slightly misled by the title. Although 'London Calling', long feted as the best LP (now a CD, naturally) ever made by one of punk's most seminal groups, is the focal point, this volume also charts in detail the history and development of the Clash to that point, their subsequent career (and decline), and their legacy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099524201</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ira Levin
|title=Rosemary's Baby
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A young couple find the beginnings of a dream life together in a new apartment in a New York building that a friend says is a hotbed of death and misfortune. But it seems perfect. His job prospects as an actor have never been better, and they're quickly accepted into the elderly community of their neighbours. What's more, she - Rosemary - gets pregnant. Nothing can go wrong, can it? None of this happiness and hope can come at a dreadful cost - can it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015880</amazonuk>
}}
