|summary=[[:Category:Stieg Larsson and Reg Keeland (translator)|Stieg Larsson]] would not have known Anders Breivik, but if they'd coincided you can be damned sure he knew all there was to know about him. Larsson and his journalist colleagues were working to condemn the far-right activities throughout Europe, and open the truth about the right-wing Swedish parties to his audience, and here is constant proof he knew an awful lot about his awful subject. In just the first two, powerful, short essays here he brings terrorism in the UK, Italy and Oklahoma to his home audience, and discusses Swedish extremism in its light; showing the liberal laws in Sweden that allowed the extremists to be seen as too much on the straight and narrow, too mainstream, and even able to enter parliament. The idea of 'it couldn't happen here' gets blown out the water, and as we've seen that is relevant to us everywhere.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857051342</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alain Badiou with Nicholas Truong
|title=In Praise of Love
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary='Love encompasses the experience of the possible transition from the pure randomness of chance to a state that has universal value. Starting out from something that is simply an encounter, a trifle, you learn that you can experience the world on the basis of difference and not only in terms of identity.' In other words, when eyes look and worlds collide, the process of alteration that follows, is love. 'It is absolutely true that love can bend our bodies and prompt the sharpest torment. Love, as we can observe day in and day out, is not a long, quiet river.' But it is not designed to be that way - just as a record is a lump of plastic before music has been carved on it, love is just a transaction if all the chance has been ironed out of it - as perhaps by an Internet match site questionnaire.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687799</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Naomi Benaron
|title=Running the Rift
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Jean Patrick Nkumba has a sheltered, comparatively privileged upbringing in Rwanda. Although far from opulent, life in the school compound where his father is headmaster is safe and Jean Patrick is loved and encouraged by his family to aim high both at school and in his passion for running. Despite being of the Tutsi tribe, he has also been encouraged to think of himself as Rwandan first, a nationality and ethos encompassing the rival Hutus. However not all feel the same and a series of tragic events lead to world news and personal hell. For this is the land where, in 1994, 800,000 people would be killed during a mere 100 days.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851689214</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mary Beard
|title=All in a Don's Day
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Mary Beard's latest collection, 'All in a Don's Day', of her assembled blog pieces from 2009 until the end of 2011, covers similar concerns to her previous selection, [[It's A Don's Life by Mary Beard|It's a Don's Life]]. Professor Beard is a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge and became Classics Professor at there in 2004. She is also an expert in Roman laughter, an interest which she fully indulges in the pages of her TLS blog. In her latest collection she bemoans the parlous current state of both Education and the Academy, and makes witty observations on matters as various as television chefs, what and how to visit in Rome and the art and worth of completing references in an age when only positive things may be said about postgraduate job-seekers.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685362</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Madeleine Tobert
|title=The Sea On Our Skin
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary='Amalie Matete woke up alone on the first day of her life as a married woman…her battered body…the bruises on her thighs'. Amalie had scarcely been prepared for this. Only sixteen, she'd spent all of her time in the village and was marrying a stranger, a man who had seen her only once. But she was lucky. With no father to give her away, she was lucky to be being married at all, her mother tried to tell her. On her wedding day Amalie had been frightened by the storm. It was a bad omen she said. Just a storm, her mother said.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444734113</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rosy Thornton
|title=Ninepins
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Laura lives deep in the Cambridgeshire Fens with her daughter Beth and at the time that we meet them she's just coming up to her twelfth birthday. Her father has remarried and now has three young sons, but mother and father decided early on that they would have cordial relations for Beth's sake - and the habit has stuck. Money from Beth's father is a little hit and miss, so Laura has been in the habit of letting out the pumphouse - once a drainage station - to students, but this time its occupant is Willow, who is seventeen years old and who has been in care. It takes a while for her history to emerge, but her mother was a hippy with no sense of responsibility and it ''seems'' that Willow might have been guilty of arson.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905207859</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alexandra Singer
|title=Tea at the Grand Tazi
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Seeking solitude, peace to paint, and solace from a failed relationship, Maia finds a job assisting the Historian, a shadowy academic, in return for life in the centre of Marrakesh. And with her duties light, she sets off to explore her surroundings, attempting to examine the women in this culture. But as a European female she is treated as an item of sexual prey by the men, and ostracised by the women, so she finds herself isolated and alone.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908248238</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=EL James
|title=Fifty Shades Of Grey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When college student Ana steps in at the last minute to cover an interview of a local tycoon for the uni paper, she never imagines how what is supposed to be a one off meeting will change her life completely over the months to come. She has no plans or expectations to see him again, but Christian Grey knows what he wants and takes great pains to get it, so with Ana now next on his list of target acquisitions, she has very little hope of escaping unscathed. Swiftly realising that he is not your average wealthy bachelor, Ana falls head first into a foreign and confusing new world she has no clue how to navigate. With pressure on to sign on the dotted line or leave and never return, Ana has to decide how far she’s willing to go to follow her heart, and when she should listen to the screaming voices in her head instead.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099579936</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Christobel Kent
|title=A Fine and Private Place (Sandro Cellini)
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Sandro Cellini isn't too impressed with life as a private investigator and it's a big change from being in the police force. Somehow trailing a schoolgirl on the orders of her father who thinks she's mixing with bad company wasn't quite how he'd seen his life working out. His wife, Luisa, is recovering from cancer, but it seems to have changed her attitude to life and when she announces that she's going to New York on a business trip with her boss Cellini worries that he's going to lose her. Then another case comes up and it's one which stirs some memories. Doctor Loni Meadows has been discovered dead after what seems like a tragic motor accident but her husband isn't convinced and he'd like Cellini to investigate.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843549514</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ali Sparkes
|title=Lizard Loopy
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
There has been a SWITCH. In the first season of these books, it was Josh and not Danny who preferred to turn into other animals, even though they were mostly creepy-crawlies and bugs. Josh likes that kind of animal, as much as all wildlife, and however many times they nearly got eaten, or ate something revolting themselves, or suffered loss of control of their brain, or did something slimey and disgusting, or even changed sex, Josh was more up for it. Here, however, Danny is more keen - now the science has evolved so they can become reptiles, he can't wait to be a cool-dude alligator
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192732366</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dan Wells
|title=Partials
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Since the Break, no baby has lived longer than three days. Scientists have studied every baby to try and find a cure, but with no luck. The human race is on the verge of extinction after the Partials (genetically engineered soldiers who were made to fight for humans) turned on their makers and released the deadly virus that has wiped out most of the population. For those lucky to survive, they now spend their time trying to cure the virus that kills every baby.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000746522X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Shelley Coriell
|title=Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=After being crowned Mistletoe Queen, Chloe Camden should be on top of the world, and more popular than ever. A jealous friend can't cope with her success, though, and trashes her reputation, leaving her a sudden social outcast. When her new guidance counselor tells her she needs to change her junior independent social project, Chloe is forced into a school radio station which is on its last legs, run by a bunch of losers who she'd never even have spoken to before. Taking a risk which could either kill or save the station, Chloe is thrust into a position as host of a new chat show. Will the risk pay off? Will Chloe find a new circle of friends?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1419701916</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Catherynne Valente
|title=The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=September has grown tired of life in her parents’ boring Nebraska home. She is twelve years old, ''somewhat grown and somewhat heartless'' and she is dreaming of adventure. So when a friendly Green Wind and a flying Leopard of Little Breezes blow past one morning, inviting her to Fairyland, of course she accepts. Upon arriving, September finds that Fairyland is under the iron rule of the cruel and relentless Marquess. But September is bright and bold and fearless; and she has certainly read enough books to know what a girl on a quest must do. September must fix things, and put everything back the way it should be. September makes her way across the strange and wonderful (and dangerous) Fairyland-scape with a book-loving Wyvern (a Wyverary) and a Marid boy named Saturday. Making new and very odd friends, many, many mistakes, losing both her shoes and her shadow, September wends her way with courage, adventure, a very special spoon and a key that never loses sight of her… And she finds so much more besides…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780338333</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Neil deGrasse Tyson
|title=Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=A year or so ago there was a big hoopla about being able to see the International Space Station pass overhead where I live, so I dutifully clambered on to the roof. And indeed it was actually very warming to know I was seeing something manmade, from 250 miles away. As for the chance to see it, its speed of 17,000mph means it orbits the planet every 92 and a half minutes. It gets about. But some of the warmth of seeing it, as well as the achievements that led up to it, and the politics of NASA's five decades - and some of the Newtonian physics involved in it - are all in this volume.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393082105</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=R I Moore
|title=The War On Heresy: Faith and Power in Medieval Europe
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=At the end of the first millennium, Western Europe was a place which had barely ever encountered heresy. It took just a couple of centuries for it to become a major problem in the eyes of church leaders, leading to the persecution of individuals and groups. Was heresy such a fast-growing problem? In this volume, R I Moore provides a thoughtful analysis of the issues and makes a powerful case that many supposed heretics were merely victims of a paranoid church which created propaganda to justify so many deaths.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681960</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ronda Armitage and Arthur Robins
|title=Small Knight and George and the Pirates
|rating=3
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=
Small Knight and George (a little red dragon) live together in an old castle, a rather crumbling old castle that's in desperate need of repair. There's no money to fix things up however, so Mum and Dad Knight decide to send Small Knight off with a treasure map to be a pirate, to get them some treasure so they can fix up the castle!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408312735</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jane Cabrera
|title=Fetch
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Fetch is a little black dog who one day turns up in the village and proves to be very useful to everyone. He fetches things at home for Rosa, he fetches newspapers at the newsstand and parcels at the post office. He's helpful wherever he goes. But one day, Fetch has disappeared...what could he have gone to 'fetch' this time..?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408313871</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Irving
|title=In One Person
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''In One Person'' is a sensitive story of sexual identity, narrated by a bisexual writer who is now in his later years, recalling not only his own coming to terms with his sexuality and attraction to men, women and transgenders while at school in a New England school, but also his later years and the devastating impact of the AIDS virus in 1980s America. At times the content is quite graphic, but John Irving captures the outsider's feelings beautifully in this tale of secrecy in a confusing world of identity.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520962</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Charlotte Betts
|title=The Apothecary's Daughter
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Susannah is an intelligent young woman in her twenties who assists her father in his pharmacy. But the date is 1665 so he's actually called an apothecary, creating herbal remedies from scratch; moreoever this is an era when women did not, generally, do work of this kind. However, London is in the grip of the bubonic plague. So apothecaries must work overtime to produce nosegays - supposedly to ward off evil humours - as well as plague preventative medicine, herbs for poultices, and so on.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954493</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John B Thompson
|title=Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century
|rating=5
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=The publishing industry has been with us since the fifteenth century, but the major changes have manifested themselves in the twenty-first century and John B Thompson, Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge, has taken a detailed look at the state of trade publishing (that's the type of book you're likely to find in your local library or bookshop), the influences which have brought it to that state and the outlook. This might sound rather dry but, trust me, it's not. It wasn't a fast read, but only because there were so many things to think about, prejudices to readjust and information to absorb. I read it over a week - and for a reviewer that's a rare luxury.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0745661068</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ian Irvine
|title=Vengeance: The Tainted Realm: Book 1
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Tali is a slave born of slaves, forced to live and work underground by the brutal Cythonians who, in turn, have also been forced into a subterranean lifestyle. The land above them is Hightspall, rightly theirs but taken over generations ago. Hightspall's occupiers are led by a group of noble houses, which brings us to Rix, the heir to his alcoholic father, the Lord Ricinius. They both live under the thumb of his overbearing mother, Lady Ricinius, but then so do many others.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498289</amazonuk>
}}
