|summary=As he has done before on several occasions, Peter Carey offers us two parallel stories in his intriguingly titled 'The Chemistry of Tears'. The two elements of the title reflect that this is a book about grief, but also about science. It's also a book about human's relationship with machines and dependence that we have grown to have on them, and the ugliness of life and the beauty of, at least some, machines. In one strand of the story, Catherine is a modern day horologist working in a London museum whose world is shattered by the death of a married colleague with whom she was having an affair. Put to work on restoring a mysterious clockwork bird, she discovers the journals of Henry Brandling, the nineteenth century wealthy man who commissioned the construction of the toy for his consumptive son.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057127997X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Laurent Binet
|title=HHhH
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=First, the title. ''HHhH'' is short for ''Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich'' - Himmler's brain was called Heydrich. In other words, it's not a case of 'behind every great Nazi there's a greater woman', but behind Hitler's own deputy was a major strength to the party. Reinhard Heydrich was the ruler of what practically corresponds to the Czech Republic, led the SS and more, and bossed the workings of the Final Solution. Any good biography of this compelling character in those interesting times - given too the subplot of those who would assassinate him - is bound to be an excellent history book. But, despite this getting a high rating, this isn't one. Why not? The author says so.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846554799</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=EL James
|title=Fifty Shades Darker
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Not a lot of time has passed since the [[Fifty Shades Of Grey by EL James|first instalment]] of Ana’s adventures with the man she calls Fifty Shades. Perhaps unusually for a follow up it’s not months or years later, in fact just a few days have gone by. Lots of things have changed, though. Successful businessman Christian is still our tortured hero and Ana, now in her first proper job, remains our befuddled heroine but they’re not Christian-and-Ana any more having parted ways at the end of book one. At the same time, a lot has stayed the same. They’re not having quite as much dirty sex as they were but the tensions are still there. He’s still incapable of letting her get on with things without interfering (you’ve got to love a guy who buys the company you work at, just to keep an eye on things). And he still has, let’s say, particular preferences when it comes to his bedroom antics. So, it seems, does Ana. With what were increasingly becoming her regular nocturnal activities now off limits, she’s started craving them. Craving things she didn’t know were possible a month or so ago. Craving things she’s aware nice girls wouldn’t…unless it’s all one big unspoken secret in the sisterhood. Craving things that, let’s be honest, a massive number of readers probably quite fancy themselves after the literary foreplay that was book 1.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099579928</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Peggy Rathmann
|title=Good Night, Gorilla
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=When it's bedtime at the zoo the zookeeper goes round all the animals and wishes them 'good night'. What he doesn't realise is that the crafty gorilla has gently lifted the zoo keeper's key ring from his belt and is opening the cages. All the animals - Elephant, Lion, Hyena, Giraffe and Armadillo are tiptoeing along behind the zookeeper as he leaves the zoo and goes home to bed, completely unaware that he has all his friends with him. In fact - it's not until his wife wishes him good night and receives a lot more replies than she was expecting that the animals are found out. I'm not going to tell you the rest of the story because I want you to enjoy it for yourself.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405263768</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tony Ross
|title=I Don't Want to Wash my Hands (Little Princess)
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=The Little Princess is always getting her hands dirty whether it's by playing in the palace garden, stroking Scruff, the dog or going on her potty. Whenever she does any of these, there's always someone there to tell her to wash her hands. Now, as the Little Princess never likes being told what to do, she does not take kindly to this hand washing business and she demands to know why. However, when the level-headed maid, who never puts up with any of her nonsense, tells her about all the germs and nasties and horrible things that could make her ill, she is soon found rushing to the hand basin at every opportunity. Not only that, she starts insisting that everyone else always washes their hands too.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393990</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Christobel Kent
|title=The Dead Season: A Sandro Cellini Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's August and Florence feels hotter than it usually does in August - if that's possible. Businesses are shut up as anyone who can migrates to the coast, but Sandro Cellini isn't one of them. He used to be a policeman but he's now a private investigator but even this business is running very slowly. All he has to work on is the case of a young and very pregnant woman whose fiancé is missing. The manager of the local Bank won't be holidaying either - his body is discovered in the shrubbery on a normally busy roundabout - and it looks as though it's been there for a few days. Then there's a coincidence: it seems that the missing fiancé and the dead Bank manager both had the same name.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843549522</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
|title=Mayfly Day
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=''Here is Mayfly.''<br>
''It is her first day on earth.''<br>
''It is also her last''
This is the way that this wonderful book starts and the reader is left in no doubt that a mayfly's life is quite an extraordinary one. We go on to discover all the amazing things that the mayfly is able to see and do in this one special day. It will see eggs hatch, lambs trying to stand, taste honey on plants and feel the warmth of the sun as well as the summer rain. These are just some of the things that the mayfly will experience in this one remarkable day. The day ends with the mayfly laying her own eggs and leaving them to hatch.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842706063</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Veronica Roth
|title=Insurgent
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=''Insurgent'' (clever title, you'll see) begins right where [[Divergent by Veronica Roth|Divergent]] left off. The social structure of Tris's world is beginning to fall apart. After the Erudite simulation attack on the Abnegation, the factions are in disarray. The Dauntless are split - half providing the military muscle for the Erudite and the other half seeking alliances with the other factions. But Amity insist on remaining neutral in the hopes of avoiding further conflict and the Candor don't have anything to bargain. The few remaining Abnegation are refugees. But there is another group - the factionless - who may hold the key to defeating the Erudite.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007442920</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mandy Sutcliffe
|title=Belle & Boo and the Birthday Surprise
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=What a lovely story! Belle and Boo are always together. Belle is a little girl and Boo is her rabbit. One day Belle is very busy preparing for a birthday. Together they make a card, and some cakes, and set up a picnic in the garden. But who's birthday is it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408316080</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tessa Hainsworth
|title=Home to Roost
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=There seems to be a plethora of books about people who have moved to unusual places, or changed lifestyle in middle age for a variety of reasons. This book features a London family who have moved to Cornwall, and is the third (so far) in a series about their transition.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848093756</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Caryl Hart and Leonie Lord
|title=Whiffy Wilson
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Wilson is a terribly dirty little wolf who never washes, or brushes his hair, or changes his underwear! His mum seems at a loss, demanding that he has a bath or he can't go out to play but Wilson, the naughty wolf, just runs away and hides! It is only when he meets a little girl called Dotty that he does anything about how stinky he is. She thinks he's a monster he's so smelly, and when that makes him feel sad Dotty says they can soon sort things out and takes him home for a bath!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140830919X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jo Empson
|title=Rabbityness
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Rabbit is a very rabbity rabbit. He loves doing rabbity things like hopping and jumping, washing his ears and burrowing. He also likes doing unrabbity things too, like painting, and making music, filling the woods where he lives with music and colour! But one day, Rabbit disappears. Where has he gone? The other rabbits find everything has become grey and silent without Rabbit. They find that Rabbit left behind some gifts, lots of things to make colour and music with. Together they all begin to discover that they enjoy doing unrabbity things, and that doing these things makes them think of Rabbit and they feel happy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846434823</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael Morpurgo
|title=Outlaw: The Story of Robin Hood
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Have you heard of Robin Hood? Of course you have. Have you heard of Michael Morpurgo? I’m guessing the answer to that one is yes as well. This new version of one of England’s most famous legends, told by one of the country’s most popular authors, is surely a can’t miss prospect, isn’t it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007465920</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ellie Phillips
|title=Dads, Geeks and Blue Haired Freaks
|rating=3
|genre=Teens
|summary=Sadie Nathanson is stunned to get a card from her dad on her fifteenth birthday. Not only has she never met her dad, but to all intents and purposes he doesn't even exist. He was a sperm donor, that's all. In view of this, it's fairly obvious that the card is a mean joke, probably played by her ex-best friend Shonna Matthews. But it makes her start to think about her dad a bit more, and she decides to track him down.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405258195</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anne Tyler
|title=Breathing Lessons
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=This Pulitzer Prize winning novel revolves around 24 hours in the lives of Maggie and Ira Moran as they attend a friend's funeral and make a detour on the way home. As the couple spend the day together they share events from their past that put their present in context. I know this seems a somewhat sparse structure for a story but don't be put off. Somewhere between [[:Category:Anne Tyler|Anne Tyler's]] idea and its execution, something very good happens.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099201410</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Shirley McKay
|title=Time and Tide
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=A ship is wrecked on the coast of 16th century Scotland, the crew gone, the only man on board dying and a windmill lashed to its deck. What happened? What sort of illness does it carry? And, more importantly for the town's people, who gets to keep the windmill? It's a tough one, but university professor and erstwhile lawyer Hew Cullan is on the case.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972183</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jacques Chessex
|title=The Tyrant
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Jean Calmet, teacher of Latin in a lycee of the 1960s in Switzerland, is confronting his father's death. He can hardly be said to be coming to terms with it, for Calmet pere was and remains a crushing force in Jean's life, and although the death would in many similar novels be a release, here his father's cremation serves to batter Jean into a beaten state. His relations with his work, his lover, his students are all suffused with not a sense of loss but a sense of continuing and growing dominance by the ghost of his father. The authoritian presence seems to grow as a spectre rather than diminish through his death.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190473894X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kathleen King
|title=Make and Do: Bake
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=I love the idea of kids cooking. There's going to be mess, probably a bit of waste and you're going to have to bite your tongue an awful lot, but it really is the most amazing fun. Best of all, though - from an early age kids learn that they can go into the kitchen and make something which they can eat. They don't need to go to the shops and buy a ready meal or to a takeaway for junk food. They can make something themselves. It's a life skill.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849154384</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jane Vass
|title=Daily Mail Tax Guide 2012/2013
|rating=5
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=In its annual report H M Revenue and Customs announced that it will shed many more staff by the year 2015 so it's now more important than ever to ensure that you are paying the right amount of tax and that you are claiming all the allowances and reliefs to which you are entitled. I spent most of my working life in HMRC and the dedication and professionalism of the staff is second to none but when resources are spread more thinly it's difficult to say that something will not give. You can, of course, go to the [http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ HMRC] site where you will find a lot of help and information - and it's free. You might wonder then, why you should buy a book which, on the face of it, does the same job?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846686296</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=P J Night
|title=Creepover: Truth or Dare
|rating=4
|genre=confident Readers
|summary=When playing Truth or Dare with her friends at a party, Abby Miller tells them she has a crush on Jake Chilson. When she gets a text in the middle of the night warning her to stay away from him, or else, she can't believe it would be any of them - but nobody else knows. Could it really be the ghost of Jake's ex-girlfriend Sara, who was tragically killed when a car hit her? As more and more strange things start happening to her, Abby wonders whether she believes in ghosts or not...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907411232</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David McKee
|title=Denver
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Denver, who was extremely rich, lived in Berton Manor. He was so rich that he was able to employ a chauffeur, a cook and some gardeners. When he invited friends to dinner he was able to employ more people to serve all of the food. This was very good for the village of Berton as he was paying the people who live there. Not only that, he always did his shopping in Berton, presented prizes at the local school and, at Christmas, dressed up as Santa and handed out presents. It seems quite obvious that many people in the village were able to benefit from his wealth.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393893</amazonuk>
}}
