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{{Frontpage
|author=Joe ThomasAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=White RiotWild East|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school. The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words.|isbn=0241645441}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1635866847|title=The Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeLifestyle|summary= Whenever anyone writes fiction about politics It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's always a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the danger of making it too reactionary; too rawhomepage. Knee I don't eat cakes and desserts -jerk observations and hot takes but I wanted that doncake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, which I't age well or properly capture m avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the spirit book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the momentmargins are sanctioned. It takes a truly talented writer to be able You get to capture fold down the zeitgeist corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a particular event or era of political historyproblem. I ''loved'' this book already. Austerity Britain, }}{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the student riotsBefore and After|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, Donald Trumpor more than that even, Brexit – so much of what their friendship isa once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has beenhappened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, written in together.|isbn=1471196585}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787333175|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the immediate aftermath workings of these phenomena has been proven by time the NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be frothy Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and insubstantial and ultimately not particularly powerful or incisivethe work of a psychiatrist. Inevitably (and perhaps disappointingly I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for people who do enjoy fiction of humour in this nature), setting but the best writing about current political events laughter is that which directed at a situation rather than a person and it is written when the events in question are no longer current and when time always delivered with empathy and experience has afforded the writer the benefit of a more objective viewunderstanding.|isbn= 1529423376
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{{Frontpage
|author=Heather FawcettOnyi Nwabineli|title=Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of FaeriesAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar Anuri spent her childhood on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulouslydisplay to the world, thanks to write her lifestep-mother Ophelia's workincreasingly popular presence on social media, the very first encyclopaedia where she posted every step of faeriesAnuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Whilst Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is brilliant at research slowly trying to regain her confidence and speaking to faeriesget her life back, she is not so good with peoplesuing her step-mother to take down the content about her. So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she Anuri is not sure what she has donebattling alcoholism, nor how failing to redeem herself start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and put her final investigations receiving money from them for her book back on the right trackdoing so. Enter Wendell BamblebyMost importantly, she is desperately worried about her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival little sister, who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emilyis the new focus of Ophelia's frustrationonline empire. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the faerie folk around Hravsniksame time?|isbn=03565191200861546873
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1848458436David Chadwick|title=Just the Nicest Couple|author=Mary KubicaHeadload of Napalm|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=It''The whole thing has spiralled out of controls September 1973 in Hicks, turning into someone I'm notCalifornia.'' ''Just the Nicest Couple'' Hicks is the story a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of two couples: Christian LA and Lily Scott, and Nina and Jake HayesLas Vegas both a significant drive away. The connection between the two is that Lily and Nina teach Not much happens in the same school: Nina teaches English Hicks. A silver mine and Lily covers high school algebra. The couples have mixed as a foursome defence contractor are the main local employers but itotherwise, there's not a regular thingmuch of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Christian Life is a market research analyst and Jake is a neurosurgeon: they don't have much in common except their wivesquiet, until.. Lily hasn't said anything yet, but she's pregnant. She has a lengthy history of miscarriages so she doesn't want to tempt fate by making the knowledge public.|isbn= B0D321VJ76
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1914585402Tom Percival|title=Dashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F RossThe Wrong Shoes|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=I reviewed David F RossWill's book [[Therelife is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|Theret have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can's Only One Danny Garvey]] t work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a couple of years back building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful dad are separated, and affecting it wasWill's life seems bleak in every direction. It was And yet, he still has a gripping, emotionally wounding readtiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and rereading my review clings to the moments of it my main takeaway was joy when he is drawing, that I might not have lavished enough praise on itfeel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=178563335XSylvie Cathrall|title=Sea Defences|author=Hilary TaylorA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=When we first meet Rachel Bird she's There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a trainee vicar, sitting compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in on a PCC meeting and wondering why theyNorwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury're held apartments - when you need to pick they discovered the children up. Her husband, Christopher, collects six-year-old Hannah and her elder brother, Jamie, whilst Rachel holds bones of a child beneath a sobbing parishionerdoorway. Thelma's daughter-in-law won't let her see her grandsonThere was no skull. Holthorpe, on the Norfolk coast, is Was this a lovely placeritual killing or murder? Inevitably, but Rachel is struggling to develop a real bond Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with the parish - and sheDCI Harry Nelson. It's in awe of the vicar, Gaildifficult as Ruth knows, but then sheNelson doesn's been doing the job for more than thirty years. Rachel and Christopher hoped t, that she is pregnant with his child as a walk on result of the beach would do them one night they spent together some good - it was stormy but it was probably what they neededthree months ago. And then Hannah went missingHer condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Hadeer ElsbaiJoan Didion|title=The Daughters Year of IzdiharMagical Thinking|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyAutobiography|summary= Drawing inspiration from Egypt, This book is Joan Didion''The Daughters s heartbreaking autobiographical account of Izdihar'' explores the lives of two women who could not be more different, yet find themselves fighting for the rights of women and weavers – those with magical abilities - in a society pitted against them. Nehal, born into the upper class, wishes to attend the Weaving Academy to learn to control grief she endured following her abilities and then join the military, but instead she is forced into an arranged marriage with Nicohusband's sudden death. Giorgina Books that shed light on the other hand did not have taboo topics like death are such a privileged upbringing like Nehal and feels great pressure to provide for her family beautiful and maintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of the Daughters of Izdihar – a group campaigning for women's rights. Giorgina also happens necessary resource to be in love with Nicohelp people feel less alone. What follows is a story of an unjust societyDidion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, filled with hypocrisy denial and delusion and crueltymakes them utterly normal, from which blossoms lends them a group of admirable women fighting for their rights and overcoming their personal obstacleshuman face to wear.|isbn=03565204710007216858
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sarah Todd TaylorAlba de Cespedes |title=Alice Eclair, Spy Extraordinaire! A Spoonful of SpyingForbidden Notebook
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=[[Alice Eclair, Spy Extraordinaire! A Recipe for Trouble by Sarah Todd Taylor|Last time around]], Alice Eclair had to prove herself as a spy and as a master at all things French and fancy and fondant, as the only way to save the day involved being This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an expert baker air of suspense and icer on tension from the French railways. Heremoment our protagonist, we start on a bateau-mouche in ParisValeria Cossati, and even though the espionage isn't a complete success it proves to Alice and purchases her handlers that things are afoot. And there will never be more feet than at the World's Fairforbidden notebook, reviving the huge expo that gave the city and learns about herself in the Eiffel Tower most intimate and this time showing all her interwar glories off to the world. Once again Alice will have to present the front to the world of being a humble yet world-class cake decorator, while seeking out cluesrevealing ways. At stake? Pioneering flight technology that the enemy just cannot be allowed to smuggle out…|isbn=18399409721782278222
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{{Frontpage
|author=Amanthi HarrisOttessa Moshfegh|title=Beautiful PlaceMy Year of Rest and Relaxation|rating=53
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= PadmaAt best, this novel is a young Sri Lankanscathing critique of modern society and reveals the fragility of human relationships; at worst, has returned to it is the Villa Hibiscus on the southern coast cynical, predictable and slightly trite tale of her home countryan unlikeable protagonist. This is unlikely heroine, a place she spent slim, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her formative years. It twenties is not a place she was born intodisillusioned with the world, but the one she thinks of as home. How she came resolves not to be at the Villa, how lose sleep over it became her home: in fact, and the machinations that have flowed through her life ever since she first arrived there provide the ''score'' for this gentle and yet subtly violent novel. Padma's present fails to escape solution lies in her past and much like the musical score of a film, that strand weaves its way through everything that happens at the Villahibernation.|isbn=17846319301784707422
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Nigel Baines0008551324|title=A Tricky Kind of MagicThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Set against the backdrop of DublinIt's drag scene, ''Death unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in Heelsprison and he'' tells s prepared to tell the police where the story body of Fi McKinnery a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her best frienddeath. This person, Robynhe promises, who is about to debut as drag queen Mae Bsomeone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. What And what he wants is meant to be a night of excitement soon takes a downward turn when fellow drag queen, Eve, takes transferred to an open prison to serve the stage remainder of his sentence and to mock Mae Bget an early parole date. As if the night could not get any worse Not much to ask, when Fi heads home she discovers Eve dead in a gutter. Fi is adamant that Eve was murdered, yet the drag community, it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and the Guards, accept it as an accident. Fi takes it upon herself she's even prepared to solve do the mystery as she fears for her friends, but instead ruins relationships as she delves deeperother thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=18004652701739526910|title=The Lensky ConnectionWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Conrad DelacroixGlen Sibley
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=When we first meet Major Valeri Grozky, it's June 1995 and he's at the Serafimov Cemetry in St Petersburg. He's One year after a pallbearer for his elder brother, Timur, whose death was drug-related. Valeri and Timursuicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's father, Ketolife, is also a pallbearer and he's disgusted by what arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. Living with an unexpected housemate at his son had become. Valeri thinks differently: former manager’s holiday home, he's determined to make his own stand against organised crime and avenge Timur's death. Within a matter dreams of months, his obsession will have cost him his marriage to Marisha and created a dubious link reconnecting with Natassja Petrovskaya, a journalisteverything he has lost. She's determined to expose any and all corruption - and she's less concerned than she ought to be about her own safety. To herBut as those tentative plans falter, he's becomes swept up in a good sourcelocal world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities. For him, it's a way to get information published, which wouldn't otherwise be possible.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=13997022890008405026|title=A World of Curiosities Stranger in the Family (Chief Inspector GamacheMaeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Louise PennyJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=After a harsh winter, the tiny Canadian village of Three Pines is enjoying the arrival of springIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. But something is worrying Chief Inspector Armand Gamache She was never found and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québecinvestigation ground to a halt. Gamache had offered help to a young woman after the murder of Now, her mother: he'd been less certain about , Helena, and her charismatic brotherfather are dead in their bed. For Jean-GuyInitially, it had always been looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the other way aroundpositioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Now they're both in the village What looked as though it was going to be an open-and neither can fathom what's happening-shut case is now a complex double murder. Armand will soon find Kerrigan is convinced that theythe explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent're not just in Three Pines but in his home and in his lifes boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0BHR8KWSKJo Callaghan|title=Dukkha|author=Martin HydeLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=HorrorCrime|summary=Sam wakes up chained in When a basement. He rails against his captor and man is found crucified on the injustice top of his imprisonment? Why? a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It''Why?'' s their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But of coursewhen there is a second body found crucified a few days later, he knows why. Sam Kat is an erstwhile drug dealer who escaped this down suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and dirty life by going to a retreat and emerging as very high profile case that draws a neophyte Buddhist monklot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Recently returning Will they be able to join solve the community case in his old neighbourhoodtime, he knew his past would be hard to escape but he hadn't imagined it exploding into this new life in quite such or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a violent fashion.career?|isbn=139851120X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09XWSXSKY1529077745|title=Maestro Orpheus and the World ClockThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Robert Penee and Joanne GrodzinskiAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Frederick (or Fred, but never Freddy, please) couldn't sleep. A tune, rather like man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the ticking body of a clock was playing over and over man in his mindthe park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. It happened every time he came The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to visit his grandfatherwork a shift the night before but who had never turned up. He hadn't really wanted D I Vera Stanhope is called in to come; after allinvestigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, he's ten now and all those fourteen-year-old clocks don't appeal to him anymoreChloe Spencer. ''Who needs old clocks anyway? All they do is tell the time. And time isn't good for anything...'' And Some people believe that Chloe was why he was looking at responsible for the clock beside death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the bed. It was nearly twelve ogirl'clock but at midnight the clock chimed only six timess diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. There was nothing for it but She knows that she has to go and find grandad - but where was he? And why had all the clocks stopped at twelve o'clock?Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=37562287111399613073|title=CDC: The happy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'Moral Injuries|author=Hans BodmerChristie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryThrillers|summary=''The history of Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the development first day of IT could fill books medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of several hundred pagesa century.'' Author Hans Bodmer Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is quite right about thata perfectionist and a trauma doctor. He has chosen to tell us about Anjali is the short, but explosive, history free spirit of the Control Data Company, CDC, for whom he workedgroup and she becomes a GP. It When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's a fascinating talegoing to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, told in a mixture of technological summary and wry anecdoteit's their teenage children who are involved.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15293566600241636604|title=The SanctuaryTrading Game: A Confession|author=Emma HaughtonGary Stevenson|rating=34.5|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary=It was the quiet which woke Zoey If you were to bring up - or, rather, the absence an image of the noise which was a constant city banker in New Yorkyour mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. Here it was silent A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the heat East End, where he was overwhelmingfamiliar with violence, poverty and injustice. When she looked out of the window all she could see There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the desertLondon School of Economics. How did she get here? Zoey was houseStevenson is bright - extremely bright -sitting for Uncle Dan and his two Manx cats and she remembered that she'd been out he has a facility with Franny and Rocco last nightnumbers which most of us can only envy. She knew He also realised that she'd had quite a lot most rich people expect poor people to drink but how could she have got to the desert from New York? be stupid. She had no memory of getting on a plane but as she thought backIt was his ability at what was, essentially, a memory of sirenscard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, flashing lights and of being pushed this turned into permanent employment as a car snagged on the edge of her mindtrader.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Christopher GoldenB0DB64PYV5|title=Road of BonesThe White Rose|author=Dave Baines|rating=3.54|genre=HorrorDystopian Fiction|summary=The Kolyma Highway… In 2033, a superstorm known as the 'Road of Bones'… White Rose devastates the R504Northern Hemisphere. Stretching for over a thousand miles across Siberia, it's one of the world's most notorious routes. For months of the year And it's not a spread of sheet ice suspended above the permafrost surrounding it, while its 'spring' sees it turn into a huge blodge of unremittingstorm that gathers, apocalyptic-level mudwreaks havoc, which dries into rutted, puddly dust. I don't think google streetview updates it very oftenthen dissipates. Built because Stalin wanted so much uranium and other Siberian minerals, and because he wanted to give too many people a lessonInstead, it legendarily cost a life every metre it covers. You can easily find documentaries about it online, but that's a bit rich, for one of our main characters, Felix 'Teig' Teigland, is a filmhovers across half the Earth with its octopus-makerlike tentacles, doing a recce with his cameraman buddy, John Prentiss – who's mostly there to encourage the project to fruition to claw back some of the funds he'd invested in the pair's prior TV projects. They pick not giving up their oh-so-chatty local guide, gain the company of a local beauty, and fetch up at the guide's childhood villagenever going away. And that's where things start to go awry…|isbn=1803361476
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838776184Leanne Egan|title=Her Majesty the Queen Investigates: Murder Most Royal|author=S J BennettLover Birds|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=''The QueenWhen new girl, like the sunrise and the tidesIsabel, was generally a reliable way moves to Lou's hometown of marking time.Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel'' It seemed to begin as a colds disdain for everything around her. Hardly surprising, reallyA misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, as Prince Philip had been suffering for a couple of days but seemed to be getting better. HopefullyLou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, the Queen thoughtand that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, her cold would go the same way. Sheisn'd probably caught t it from one of the great-grandchildren. ? UnfortunatelyBecause Lou is straight, it didnisn't get better she? Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and when the doctor called he diagnosed full-blown flu. she's never had a good kiss with any of them? She So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and the Duke were due to go wanting to Sandringham by train that day but the doctor put his foot down. He'd have preferred that the queen have a few days' bed rest before venturing hang out but had to be satisfied with the thought that they'd go by helicopter the following day. It was annoying: people would be ready for her today because fighting with her is fun, and Her Majesty did not like to disappoint.she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?|isbn=000862657X
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Peter Owen Jones1009473085|title=Conversations with NatureThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Spirituality Politics and ReligionSociety|summary= One of the comments made when I was offered this beautiful Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book for review was by describing what it ''isn't'' and that itapplies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''s not very long. Having If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the book twice overinside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, Ithen this isn'm brought back inescapably to t the Spanish proverb book for you. If that Life may be short's what you're looking for, but it is broad. In this case Idon'm brought to the idea that the length of life is not the point; the point is its depth. Peter Owen Jones dives deep.|isbn=1912992418}}t think Anthony Seldon's book, {{Frontpageamazonurl|isbn=1916459943B0BH7SKG2S|title=Squeakily Baby|author=Beth Webb|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Much as mothers love their babiesJohnson at 10}}, there's something they all dread - a squeakily babycan be bettered for those tumultuous years. HeIt's so tired but he can't - or won't - go to sleep: instead, he just lies on his blanket a compelling read and ''wails''. The sea offers should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to helppolitics. It rocks Baby gently and the waves sing ''hush, hushThe Conservative Effect''is an entirely different beast. Think of gentle wavelets falling onto It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a sandy beach government has made and you have co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the sound perfectlymost important. The mermaids join This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in - ''la lou2010, la lay...'' And for a moment it seems to have worked as Baby closes his eyes. Then a seagull '''shouts''' the changes that occurred and we know exactly what's going to happen nextthe situation in 2024.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Robin StevensMax Boucherat|title=The Ministry Last Life of Unladylike ActivityLori Mills
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=May Wong is a long way from We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her family in Hong Konglonesome. She’s stuck What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in her schoola blanket fort, Deepdeanshe has one main intention, and desperate that is to log on to get awayVoxminer, and do something useful to help end the war and to get homeworld-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. She just knows But first Lori has a tiny inkling that she would make the perfect spy! And when she finds this stormy night doesn't find herself turned away by the Ministry, she takes matters into entirely on her own hands, along with a boy and then she meets outside the Ministry, Ericfinds something even more spooky. They both go undercover in a large country house, pretending to For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be evacuees, in an attempt able to prove that someone there is passing secrets to the Nazisenter shows signs of tampering. But there is a lot more going When malevolent eyes spark up on in Elysium Hall than either them have imaginedher phone screen, and suddenly they find themselves her safe place in the middle of game has been doctored – well, where is a murder scene, with even more girl to try to unravel and solve.turn?|isbn=02414298620008666482
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1919635017Jenny Lecoat|title=A Thief to Catch a Killer|author=Kitt TownsendBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=First Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of all, it was the earthquake, deep in occupation. During the ocean floorwar, which created the tsunami Jean's father was arrested for listening to a banned radio and thissoldiers took him away one night, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete leaving Jean and utter devastationher mother waiting for years for news of him. The deaths were uncountableAs the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, and the loss war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of livelihoods was widespreadhim. The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down But will the list of priorities but - six months after truth come as a relief, or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. war? He wasn't a dog person but Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the dog jumped in.occupation?|isbn=1846976537
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291530501529428289|title=Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022A Grave in the Woods (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)|author=Tim BensonMartin Walker
|rating=4
|genre=HumourCrime|summary=Seeking some light relief from Because of various property transactions, people were searching for the current political turmoil which is coming grave but when they found it, it came with three sets of bones. They dated back to seem more World War II and more like an adrenaline sportit fell to Bruno, I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons the Chief of Police for St Denis, to discover the identities of 2022'the bodies and establish whether or not a crime had been committed. As if this isn't enough to worry about, the Dordogne River - normally tranquil - is flowing at record levels. Sharp eyes will have noted that weIt're s not yet through just the local autumn rains that have caused the yearproblem: various dams upstream on another river have had to release water and St Denis faces the cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022possibility of a devastating flood. Who can imagine what there will be to come in the 2023 edition?
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Lisa Gray152919640X|title=The Dark RoomSuspect|author=Rob Rinder|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=What if you knew someone was deadThe nation's favourite daytime TV presenter, because you'd watched them die several years agoJessica Holby, but then you come across a photograph was murdered live on television and it seems that seemed to show their murder happened in a different place and time? This is what happens to Leonard in this storythere's only one suspect. He is an ex-crime reporter for a newspaper, 's celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and since leaving journalism his contract stated that hemust not serve anything containing miso to Jessica Holby. She's found himself seriously allergic and carries an unusual hobby where he finds old, undeveloped rolls EpiPen in case of film and develops them in his own dark room at homeemergencies. One of these photographs turns out to show the murder scene of Everything seemed as normal - as normal as they can be in a young woman he met some years agobusy, live television studio - and who he ''thought'' he had watched die in front of him one night in Brooks served a hotelragout to Holby. He'd felt guilty ever since that night, Her EpiPen was nowhere to be found and lost everything because of it - his fiancee and his career - but now finds himself wondering if she hadn't really died the night she was with him, what on earth actually happened?|isbn=154203535Xdead within minutes. It was soon clear that this was no accident.
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|authorisbn=Natasha Hastings and Alex T Smith0008385068|title=The Miraculous Sweetmakers: The Frost FairMidnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley|rating=34.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=It''s midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The River Thames had frozen to death in its sleepManor.'' And thus the Frost Fair could happen – people trading on the completely iced-over river, like our heroine ThomasinaIt's father with his gingerbread their opening weekend and confectionery shopsplendid celebrations are promised. Thomasina will be working the Fair too – but her twin brother wonIt't, as he dies in Chapter Ones all headed up by Francesca Meadows. It The Manor was a tragedy her ancestral home and she feels no small guilt 's converted it into an impressive retreat forthe wealthy and famous. Her husband, and which has made her father a sullenOwen, closed shop – was the architect and her bed-bound mother has spoken not a word – not even opened her eyes, more or less – in work is still ongoing on parts of the four years since, eithersite. But into The heat is oppressive and amongst the dark, frosted London comes Inigo, with supreme magical powers, and a willingness to help Thomasinaguests are enemies as well as friends. Not only can he introduce her Old scores are going to the fantastical Other Frost Fair, using the river surface at night for no end of mystical beasts be settled and characters and their happenings, but he has it won't be long before a unique proposal for Thomasina, which will shake her world to its corebody is found.|isbn=0008496056
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|author=Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams Rob Keeley|title=The Book of Hope Childish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition|rating=54|genre=Politics and Society Confident Readers|summary= The done thing is to read a book all the way through before you sit down to review it. I’m making an exception Around here, because I don’t want to lose any we're big fans of the experience children's author Rob Keeley. He's a ball of reading this amazing bookhappy positivity, he understands children, I want and he writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, not to capture it as it hits melecture or hector. And it The ''Childish Spirits'' series is hitting me. This beautiful book has me in tearsone of his greatest achievements. It's a sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the spirit world throws at her, and Edward, a spoiled lordling and the first spirit Ellie encounters|isbn=024147857X1783064617
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|isbnauthor=1529504767Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=The Christmas Doll (The Repair Shop Stories)|author=Amy Sparkes and Katie HickeyDungeon Runners: Hero Trial|rating=54|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=Susan was very young when she was evacuated from London in 1939 and nervous about how she would be greeted when she got to her final destinationMeet Kit. She needn't have worried though as she went to Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the home sport where a team of Mr warrior, mage and Mrs Russellhealer enter specially prepared, who couldn't have been kinder to her. She even had her own room century- all old, magical mazes, and race to herself. Gradually she relaxed the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and began to enjoy her lifethe points they grant you along the way. SheUnfortunately for Kit, the only thing he'd help Mrs Russell with s seen of the latest race on the baking inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and when it came a new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to Christmas Eve Susan and Mr Russell put the decorations on goading from the Christmas treetoken bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. The best surprise happened the following morning.What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?|isbn=1839945184
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|authorisbn=Lilja Sigurdardottir and Quentin Bates (translator)0008517061|title=Red as BloodDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=When Flosi’s wife goes missingFormer Metropolitan Police detective, all Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the evidence seems to point towards her having been kidnapped. The ransom note tells him not to have any contact future of his life with the policehis vet girlfriend, so instead he enlists the help of AroraLivia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a financial investigator. She manages to persuade Flosi that they will need the help lot of the police, compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and she calls relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her detective friend, Daniel, whom reservations about whether or not this is the future she met when he was investigating wants for herself and her sister’s disappearance. Together, they start to secretly investigate Gudrun’s disappearance, trying not to arouse daughter? For the suspicion of anyone, since they have no idea who moment they’re enjoying life in the kidnappers might be, yet present and putting the more they uncover, future on the more confusing things becomeback burner.|isbn=1914585321
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