|summary=I can hardly believe this is the eighth book about Scotland Street, and it's so nice to just pick up where we left off and discover what's been happening to all our friends. This time we have Angus and Domenica's wedding, Cyril's adventures whilst they're away on their honeymoon, Bruce encounters a rather strange gentleman and of course there's plenty of Bertie to entertain us!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972329</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael Palin
|title=The Truth
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Keith Mabbutt was at one of those points in life when everything seemed to be changing. His marriage was on the rocks. His relationship with his children was not good. He knew that he was a writer - he had a British Gas Award to prove it - but the investigative journalist which he once was had been replaced by someone who did corporate vanity projects. He skated over the unpalatable and accentuated what there was that was positive and he was paid passably well for doing it. When he was offered the chance to write a biography of Hamish Melville, the influential humanitarian activist, he seized the chance and not just because the money on offer was beyond his wildest dreams.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297860216</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Steven Amsterdam
|title=What the Family Needed
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Steven Amsterdam's first novel [[Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam|Things We Didn't See Coming]] won several awards including The Guardian First Boom Award. His second book, 'What the Family Needed', is similar in that it too contains a large dose of the strange, yet it doesn't quite work as well. The book is centred around the families of two sisters, with each member having their own chapter told at different stages of their lives. In each one the various family members are facing problems of some sort or other and each mysteriously achieves some sort of super-power that they 'need' to partly overcome these, although not always with the desired results. From early on, the reader suspects that Alek, elder sister Natalie's younger son who appears as an imaginative kid when we first meet him, is at the heart of the weirdness and sure enough he has the final chapter in the book. Just don't expect everything to be explained.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846555809</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Andrey Kurkov
|title=The Milkman in the Night
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you're going to go sleepwalking, there are better places to do so than in Kiev in the grip of its usual snowy, cold and bleak winter - even if there is a lovely blonde at the end of your journey. Semyon is living this reality, unaware of the strange consequences, just as others around him are unaware of the strange consequences of their actions - such as the airport security men who purloin some impounded drugs and test them on the cat. We also have a young single mother selling herself - just not in that way - commuting into a capital where some are rich enough to try and stave of ageing, and to cheat death in various ways...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548860</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Simon Rich
|title=What in God's Name
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In ''What in God's Name'', Simon Rich imagines Heaven Inc as a corporate entity, with all the dysfunctional trappings of many a large company. At the head of the operation, as you might expect, is God, although he seems to have lost his interest in planet Earth and certainly in the operation of heaven. In fact, he'd rather be watching the religious channels on satellite television or opening a restaurant. Although he would like to see rock group ''Lynyrd'' ''Skynyrd'' re-form before he's done with the planet. In fact the only two who really care about what goes on down here are a workaholic angel named Craig who works in the Miracles Department and the recently promoted Eliza who has been labouring away, somewhat fruitlessly it seems, in the Prayers Department. When Eliza finds that her work on preparing prayers for God has been for nothing, her anger threatens the end of the world, unless Craig and Eliza can help a couple of hopeless humans find love with each other.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846688485</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jon Canter
|title=Worth
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Richard, an Ad man, and Sarah, a city lawyer meet, get married, and decide to leave London behind for an idyllic country life instead. He’ll do some drawing, maybe look into illustrating. She’ll do voluntary work. They will start to Enjoy Life a bit more. They will become Better People. They will be the envy of all their friends still toiling away in the big smoke.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546825</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Melanie Gideon
|title=Wife 22
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Alice and William Buckle have been married for quite a few years and have two teenage children and a dog. With their busy lives, they end up having little time for each other and rarely get the opportunity to talk about the things that matter. In order to do something about her feelings of discontent, Alice googles 'happy marriage?' and although there seem to be no magic secrets for success, a little later she is invited to take part in an online survey about modern marriage. She is given the label, Wife 22, and is assigned to her caseworker, Researcher 101, who sends her questions periodically, and is also available through email to answer any queries. Alice soon enjoys being able to pour her heart out through the questions that she has to answer but also finds that she is becoming more than a little attracted to her faceless caseworker. They start chatting through facebook and Alice finds it quite exciting to mildly flirt with her new friend. However, the more she does so, the more disgruntled she becomes with her own husband. There comes a point though where Alice has to decide whether to take things further and if she does, what will become of her marriage?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007481772</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ivo Stourton
|title=The Book Lover's Tale
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Matt will admit that his writing career failed, and so he had to join his wife in interior design, where he can use his love of books to arrange - at a cost - the contents, design and most importantly the colours, of upper class people's home libraries for them. He'll concede that it's a good way to get into the houses, and beds, of rich women, such as his latest flame, Claudia. But why is this, his confession, talking of murder?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552773875</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Heather Gudenkauf
|title=One Breath Away
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Mrs Oliver has spent her life in the classroom. Educating. Guiding. Nurturing. But on the last day of term all she really wants is to get to the afternoon bell without any drama. A gunman walking in to her classroom really does not fit in with her plans.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848451326</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Timeri N Murari
|title=The Taliban Cricket Club
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=We all know, or think we know, how oppressive life was for Afghans, particularly Afghan women, under the Taliban regime, but when you read this novel, boy do you get a sense of how tough it really was.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1742378846</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kerry Hudson
|title=Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Janie Ryan is born into a definitely underprivileged family. Despite a mother who tries to make the right decisions, growing up becomes a fight for survival (both figuratively and literally) as Janie encounters social services, tough schools, domestic violence and an array of 'uncles', all promising a better future that seems as tangible as the holy grail.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186399</amazonuk>
}}
