Changes

|isbnauthor=1409181669James Baldwin|title=The Maidens|author=Alex MichaelidesGiovanni's Room|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction |summary=Mariana was convinced that Professor Edward Fosca had committed two murders and looked likely to get away with them both. She needed to think carefully about what she knew and decide how she should proceed. Everything - or so she thought - had begun with the death of Tara Hampton on the Paradise nature reserve in Cambridge. She'd been brutally stabbed and Mariana'Giovanni's nieceRoom'' follows the narrator David, Zoean American man living in Paris, had telephoned her as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in distressa gay bar. Tara had been her best friend and she was struggling While David is engaged to cope. Mariana wasn't ''entirely'' happy about having to go to CambridgeHella, who is travelling in Spain, the real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but she caught the first fast train from King's Cross. Mariana and Zoe were close and had been made all the more so by the death of Mariana's husband, Sebastian, in a swimming accident on Naxos some fourteen months earlierdeeper conflict within himself. Zoe had been their surrogate daughter after the death of ZoeIt is David's mother crippling shame and Mariana's sister, Elizadenial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|isbn=0141186356

|author=Maisie ChanAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=Danny Chung Does Not Do MathsWild East

|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=Danny Written in verse, this is eleven years Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old, boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and what he really, really loves to do is drawstart at a mostly white school. He creates fantastical comics, whilst his best friend Ravi adds the words. DannyThe move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's dadsafety after a tragic event, howeverand so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, wants Danny to concentrate on his mathsa new school, and forget about the drawing, because he says nobody can make a living from drawing! keep himself out of trouble. At least Danny has his own roomHe listens to music constantly, where he can draw in secret and in peacehas always dreamed of being a rapper. But then one day his parents tell him they have a surprise for himnow, and in this surprise turns out to be new school, his grandmother who has come over from China teacher encourages him to live with them, and who will not only be sharing Danny's bedroom but she will also be sleeping on the top bunk part of his bunk bed! Danny is horrified! His Nai Nai (grandmother) speaks no Englisha poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and Danny finds himself forced into being her babysitterpoetry, and showing her around the town. Poor Danny, stuck on a maths project, frustrated with his bedroom situation, power of creativity and then he even has a falling out with Ravi..crafting your words.how on earth will things ever get better?!|isbn=180078001X0241645441

|authorisbn=Terry Miles1635866847|title=RabbitsThe Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

|genre=Science FictionLifestyle|summary=Welcome to It's strange, the world of The Game. Or should things that make you ''immediately'' feel that be this is the game, book for while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this bookyou. It Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion''s also called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structure, and to I visited the average person no obvious entry pointauthor's [https://www. A bit like the game of life thenpinelavenderfarm. Yes, this is the game com/ website] and there's a picture of life for a certain tribe slice of people – chocolate cake on the fan of homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the conspiracybook, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the computer game, the hack from the darkest book and I was told to make a mess of websit. People like our hero, K, named like that Notes in the least Kafkaesque manner possiblemargins are sanctioned. K and his bezzies are trying You get to be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things fold down the most unique corners of high score boards, for the lists pages. You suspect that smears of who has successfully won the game are butter would not be a problem. I ''loved'' this book already.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the most peculiar places, Before and After|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Elk and Mab are still very shortbest friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. However this time it They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's differentcontact details at the time. This time the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal But then chance brings them back together, the most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwisethey are inseparable. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's even being played Something has happened though, something terrible and how his loved ones might be kept safetragic, he is only to find out that the line between observing and learning about the gamenow they must work through their grief, and playing ittheir friendship, is a very thin one indeed..together.|isbn=15290169321471196585

|authorisbn=C J Carey1787333175|title=WidowlandYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=45|genre=General FictionPopular Science|summary=ItI was tempted to read 's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going You Don't Have to Moscow be Mad to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to LondonHurt}}, parading around a bit, and watching over glorious mixture of insight into the sanctioned return to workings of the throne of Edward VIII with his wifeNHS, Queen Wallishumour and autobiography. For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn''You Don't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on Have to be Mad...''promised the mainland''. But this is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of that gender into a caste system, ranging same elements but moved from high-brow office bigwigs physical problems to the drudges, mental illness and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widowswork of a psychiatrist. Female literacy is actively discouraged. And I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, setting but the laughter is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of directed at a situation rather than a person and it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint. That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, always delivered with their potential to spoil Hitler's visitempathy and understanding.|isbn=152941198X

|author=Louise BeechOnyi Nwabineli|title=This Is How We Are HumanAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5

|summary=Veronica is a devoted single mother Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her sonstep-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, Sebastian - but where she can't give him everything he wants. Sebastian has decided that itposted every step of Anuri's time childhood for him sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to have sextake down the content about her. But as an autistic 20 year-old Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, that's easier said than doneundergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. And it Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's starting to cause them both problemsonline empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|isbn=19131937130861546873

|isbnauthor=B093VPBL5LDavid Chadwick|title=Cape Henry House|author=Jolly Walker BittickHeadload of Napalm|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary=Meet Bosner, or, to give him his full titleIt's September 1973 in Hicks, Petty Officer Third Class BosnerCalifornia. We never really find out if he has Hicks is a first name: there's merely Mojave desert town of a hint that he had the nickname 'Secretary' at one point. He's simply Bosner to one few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and allLas Vegas both a significant drive away. When we first encounter him he's exploring his memories of 2008 when he was a greaser on helicopters (or helos, as they were called) at a naval establishmentNot much happens in Hicks. The hours could be long A silver mine and he was often working nights a defence contractor are the main local employers but at the age of twenty-oneotherwise, there was always a way to work some fun (think drinking 's not much of note other than dive bars and eating) into his dayJoshua trees. Life is quiet, until....|isbn= B0D321VJ76

|author=Hannah WhittenTom Percival|title=For the WolfThe Wrong Shoes

|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=In RedWill's familylife is difficult, the first daughter becomes queen, and the second daughter becomes in a sacrificemultitude of ways. To Red He is bullied because he has 's misfortune, she is the second daughter. Sent alone into the woods with nothing but the cape on her backwrong shoes', Red knows what to expect: within he has the woods is a wolf, wrong shoes because his dad can't work and he is doesn't have enough money for even the one who will decide the fate most basic of their kingdom. If she is not a worthy sacrificethings like food, the monsters and his dad can't work because he keeps contained to lost his job at the woods will be releasedcollege, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fabled kings fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the stories gostill has a tiny amount of hope. But when Red enters the woods He is good at art, expecting nothing more than and clings to be killed within the hourmoments of joy when he is drawing, she finds that feel like a light at the legends are lies. The wolf is not end of a monster—he's a manlong, dark tunnel.|isbn=03565163691398527122

|author=M G LeonardSylvie Cathrall|title=TwitchA Letter to the Luminous Deep

|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=Twitch There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is a boy who loves birdsone of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4. He keeps pigeons at home, and chickens, and even has swallows nesting 5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in his bedroom! His time spent watching and helping birds is easy compared Norwich - the site was going to that hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of his time in schoola child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. But things are about to change for Twitch in all aspects of his life as there is Was this a dangerous bank robber on the runritual killing or murder? Inevitably, and itDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's possible difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that the missing bank haul she is hidden somewhere in Aves Wood, the place where Twitch has pregnant with his secret hide and that he knows like child as a result of the back of his hand! one night they spent together some three months ago. Can Twitch solve the mysteryHer condition will be obvious before long, and find the missing millions?|isbn=1406389374not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.

|isbnauthor=1838853804Joan Didion|title=The Cursed Girls|author=Caro RamsayYear of Magical Thinking|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary=Megan MelvickThis book is Joan Didion's earliest memory is heartbreaking autobiographical account of her fourth birthday: the grief she followed endured following her grandfather down to the pond, only to find that hehusband'd hanged himselfs sudden death. Twenty years later she's back home again Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and this time the occasion is no necessary resource to help people feel less sadalone. She's there to say her final farewells to her sisterDidion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, Melissa, who is dying of anorexia. As she dies, Melissa whispers 'sorry' to Megan but what did she mean? There were lots of things, minor denial and delusion and major cruelties, for which Melissa might have been sorry - or was it even a question? Was she asking if Megan was sorry for sleeping with Melissa's husband, Jagomakes them utterly normal, on their wedding day? The Melvicks might seem to have everything - Ivan Melvick was Lord Lieutenant of the County and money was never in short supply - but there did seem to be lends them a curse. In addition human face to Melissa's health problems, Megan was deaf and their mother, Beth, had left suddenly three years beforewear. Would she come back for her elder daughter's funeral?|isbn=0007216858

|isbnauthor=0241400120Alba de Cespedes |title=The Girl Who Died|author=Ragnar Jonasson and Victoria CribbForbidden Notebook

|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Una was not thriving in Reykjavik: it was some years since her beloved father had committed suicide without leaving any explanation This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and since then she'd given up her medical studies and retrained as a teacher. She was thirty years old and money was tight. Her friendtension from the moment our protagonist, SaraValeria Cossati, showed purchases her an advert for a job forbidden notebook, and learns about herself in Skalar on the Langanes Peninsula. There were only ten people in the village but a teacher was required for two children: a salary would be paid most intimate and accommodation provided. Una was the only applicant and the job meant that she could let her flat in Reykjavik and, hopefully, save some money over the winter which her contract coveredrevealing ways.|isbn=1782278222

|isbnauthor=1846975719Ottessa Moshfegh|title=For Any Other Truth (DCI Jim Daley)|author=Denzil MeyrickMy Year of Rest and Relaxation|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=We learn that MI5 At best, this novel is having its problems with environmental terrorists supergluing themselves to awkward places. But that's Londona scathing critique of modern society and reveals the fragility of human relationships; at worst, isn't it? What's happening in Kinloch? When a light aircraft crash lands at Machrie airportis the cynical, DCI Jim Daley predictable and his colleagueslightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonist. This unlikely heroine, Acting DI Brian Scotta slim, head off for attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the airport straight away. It soon becomes evident though that both occupants of the plane were dead before take off. How could that be? The sort of tech which would make that possible isn't available world, but resolves not to the paying publiclose sleep over it: in fact, her solution lies in her hibernation. And why have the man no identification on them - or even labels in their clothes?|isbn=1784707422

|authorisbn=Richard Brook0008551324|title=Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to LifeThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster

|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary= I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and sometimes books choose usIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. In my case, this Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is one struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of the lattera missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I'd have skimmed it This person, found some of it interestinghe promises, but is someone big and it would not have 'hit home' in will be worth the way that it does nowpolice doing what he wants. I believe it came And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to me not just because I was likely serve the remainder of his sentence and to give it a favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's uget an early parole date.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly Not much to ask, so there is a predisposition towards expecting to like the book, even if it ? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't always turn out think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that wayHardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what'' ] – but also because it is a book I needed to read, right nows happening.|isbn=1800461682

|isbn=B095CY7NBN1739526910|title=Autumn CampWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Barry FowlerGlen Sibley

|summary=It was to be ''One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician BrianO’Malley's last camp. He'd founded the organisation some four years ago and had done all the organisation since but he was leaving school and the time had come to hand the reins to someone else. The obvious person was Gary, who'd always been the fun element of the camps and Brian had said that on this camplife, Gary should act as the leader and he'd just be there arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to observerecover. The problem Living with this was that Gary wasn't really an organiserunexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, an administrator if you likehe dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. He was the entertainerBut as those tentative plans falter, the person who basked he becomes swept up in the spotlight and made things fun - so Brian stepped in and did the organising. He handed the camp over - a local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and then took it backsurprising romantic possibilities. And Gary determined to have his revenge. This should have been ''his'' camp.

|isbn=194812467X0008405026|title=The Farm Shop|author=Devon Avery, Justine Avery and Ema Tepic|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Kirelle and her best friend Sam the cat decide to go for a walk. Kirelle is dressed for all weathers A Stranger in her bright yellow wellies and Sam is perfectly turned out as ever in his smart grey fur coat. As they walk to the top of the hill, they see a big barn with a sign outside. It's a farm shop! But this is a farm shop with a difference: all the stallholders and customers are farmyard animals. There are sheep and ducks and cows, goats and chickens, and even some mice. Excited, Kirelle and Sam go shopping. What will they buy?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008404925|title=The Killing KindFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)

|summary=Difficult clients were nothing new It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to barrister Ingrid Lewis but John Webster came as something of a surprisehalt. After allNow, her mother, it was Helena, and her cross-examination of the 'victim' which saved him from a lengthy prison sentencefather are dead in their bed. HeInitially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there'd been accused s something about the positioning of stalking the woman but it didn't take long to establish bodies that - if anything - makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was the other way around. Soon Ingrid never seemed going to be free of John Webster an open-and then she came to see him as -shut case is now a threat and was forced to remember complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the police officer at his trial had told her that this was the best chance theyexplanation lies in Rosalie'd had to put Webster away for a long times disappearance: he was a very dangerous manothers (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.

|isbnauthor=0008395594Jo Callaghan|title=Both of You|author=Adele ParksLeave No Trace

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=You could be forgiven for thinking that Leigh Fletcher has it all: great husband and two gorgeous stepsons whom she adores. Then, one MondayWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, she went DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to work and never came home. Markthe case alongside her sidekick, Oli and Seb are shatteredthe AI detective Lock. Well, Mark and Seb are but OliIt's sixteen and at the stage where he thinks boredom is his best looktheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. He's been But when there is a second body found crucified a bit off few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with Leigh for a while but she put it down to him growing up potential serial killer and starting a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to become independenttheir AI Future Policing project. Seb's only twelve Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and Leigh's absence hits him hard. Then Daan Janssen, potentially, out of a wealthy Dutch businessman, reports his wife, Kai missing. She too has vanished without trace.career?|isbn=139851120X

|isbn=14736857451529077745|title=Unbreak Your HeartThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Katie MarshAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=When Beth Carlyle and Simon Withers first met they were on opposite ends A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of an angry exchange - wella man in the park near Rosebank, Simon a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was angry and Beth Josh - one of the care workers who was doing her best due to apologise for having knocked Simon's son, Jake, off his bike. He wasn't hurt work a shift the night before but Jake has historywho had never turned up. He has HLHS D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - that's Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome for those but her only clue is the disappearance of one of you who are not ''au fait'' with your medical acronymsthe residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. When he Some people believe that Chloe was born, responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the left side of his heart hadngirl't developed properly and he needed open-heart surgery when he was a few days olds diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. So, Simon She knows that she has every right to be over-protective particularly when someone isn't looking where they're drivingfind Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.

|authorisbn=Louie Stowell1399613073|title=OtherlandMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary= Myra Olivia, Laura and Rohan are like Yin Anjali met on the first day of medical school and Yang – Myra their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is loudruthlessly ambitious, bright which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and hates rules, while Rohan a trauma doctor. Anjali is very polite, serious the free spirit of the group and worries about the tiniest thingsshe becomes a GP. Their only connection? Being born When we first meet them they're at a drug and briefly dying at the same time at the same hospital on Midsummeralcohol-fuelled party and it's day. And so, every year their families get together going to celebrate the two's birthday/deathdayend in tragedy. But when Rohan We don's little sister Shilpa is taken by t know who suffered the tragedy or the fairy queen, they must journey to consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the Otherland, a magical realm full of fairiesthree friends. This time, vampires, dragons, and Gods. Itit's going to be the worst night of their livesteenage children who are involved.|isbn=1788000463

|isbn=walker140241636604|title=The Coldest Case (Trading Game: A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)Confession|author=Martin WalkerGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=It was when he saw Elisabeth DaynesIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you' work in the prehistory museum at Les Eyzies that chief re unlikely to think of police Bruno Courreges had someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the idea which he thought might help pin-stripe suit and his bossbackground is the East End, chief of detectives Jalipeauwhere he was familiar with violence, known as J-J, to solve a case that had haunted him for thirty yearspoverty and injustice. The body of a young male There was found in the woods no posh public school on his CV - but he was never identified and his killer never brought had been to justicethe London School of Economics. What if an artist could recreate the face from the skull and the resulting publicity be used to identify the young man? JStevenson is bright - extremely bright -J calls the skull 'Oscar' and he has a picture on his door: he sees it every time he leaves his office: he doesn't want facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to forget Oscar until be stupid. It was his killer has been brought to justiceability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.

|authorisbn= Martha LeighB0DB64PYV5|title= Invisible Ink: A Family MemoirThe White Rose|author=Dave Baines|rating= 54|genre= BiographyDystopian Fiction|summary= Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentricIn 2033, immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his typewriter superstorm known as he edits the complete correspondence of White Rose devastates the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his lifeNorthern Hemisphere. And it's work. Her mother is not a concert pianist who practises for hours every daystorm that gathers, wreaks havoc, then dissipates. Neither parent is hugely interested in Instead, it hovers across half the practicalities of life. There is love in the house but also darker undercurrents that a child does Earth with its octopus-like tentacles, not fully understand but knows is theregiving up and never going away.|isbn=1800460384

|author=Darren ShanLeanne Egan|title=Archibald Lox and the Slides of Bon Repell: Archibald Lox series, Volume 2, book 2 of 3Lover Birds

|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=So. Having done the impossible and unpicked the lock to the Forgotten CryptWhen new girl, from which the Departed communicate with the MergeIsabel, Archie now has moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel'grop'' to think abouts disdain for everything around her. But before that A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, soirees. Soirees! Archiebut Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, much to Inezand that's amusementdefinitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, doesnisn't even know what one of those it? Because Lou is. But he manages to come through the fancy party unscathedstraight, even after an uncomfortable encounter isn't she? Even though none of her relationships with Kurtisboys have gone very well so far, whose fledgling romance and she's never had a good kiss with Inez was crushed in the first volume any of this series. them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?|isbn=B093J9TF73000862657X

|authorisbn= Adrian Tchaikovsky1009473085|title= Shards of EarthThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating= 45|genre= Science FictionPolitics and Society|summary= Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed, warped into an unrecognisable shape Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by the moondescribing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 -sized aliens known as the Architects14 Wasted Years?''. Humanity is scattered, constantly fleeing as world after world falls to If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the architectinside story about what ''really''s reshaping. Then, just when they had the human race happened on the runcertain occasions, then this isn't the Architects vanishedbook for you. And so If that's what you're looking for, the memories of the war fadesI don't think Anthony Seldon's book, heroes are forgotten{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and humanity begins should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to fracture and fight among themselvespolitics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. Idris Telemmier, It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a man genetically engineered to try government has made and communicate with co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the Architects, does not want to be rememberedmost important. But, when he and This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the crew state of the salvage ship he calls home discover what appears to be recent Architect activitynation when the coalition took over in 2010, suddenly he is thrust back into the spotlight. As he changes that occurred and his allies bounce from star system to star system, chased by alien crime syndicates, human secret police and rich slavers, he slowly begins to realise that the real war is only just getting started…|isbn=1529051886situation in 2024.

|isbnauthor=1848458428Max Boucherat|title=Local Woman Missing|author=Mary KubicaThe Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=Eleven years ago, a man regularly came home to his wife with lipstick marks We meet Lori on his collar and lame excuses as to why he was late - again. His wife was in the habit of going out for a run late at night. It was first evening she's got the only time she had for house to herself when she didn't have – no neighbour to look after her baby pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule- but when she was out she would meet up with a manbreaking eleven year old, grateful for the unquestioning affection he gave on herlonesome. The locality was stunned when Shelby Tebow disappearedWhat could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, seemingly without a traceshe has one main intention, leaving her husband and that is to log on to look after her disabled baby. Ten days laterVoxminer, a local woman and her sixthe world-yearbuilding, critter-old daughter disappearedcollecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. Meredith Dickey was But first Lori has a birth doula tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she'd seemed to be under some strain for the last couple of weeks or sofinds something even more spooky. Her body was eventually found in a seedy motel - it appeared that For the server she'd committed suicideand her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. She left a note saying that When malevolent eyes spark up on her daughterphone screen, Delilah, was and her safe and there was no point place in looking for her.the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?|isbn=0008666482

|author=Nicolas BouvierJenny Lecoat|title=The Japanese ChroniclesBeyond Summerland|rating=54|genre=TravelGeneral Fiction|summary= It never does to start a review Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of a book with a quote from the blurboccupation. During the war, but sometimes itJean's unavoidablefather was arrested for listening to a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of him. Le Monde reviewed this book As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, at some point, with the words ''what and the old master craftsmen would call a masterpiece.'' It war is precisely finally over, their hopes rise thatthey will finally learn what became of him. A masterpiece in But will the sense of the craft as well as the art of writing. I'm going to hesitate to call it 'travel writing' because this is truth come as much a history of Japanrelief, a mythology-primer for or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the Japanese culture as it is a personal response to living and travelling in radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the country. occupation?|isbn=19060110441846976537

|authorisbn=Genevieve Gornichec1529428289|title=The Witch's HeartA Grave in the Woods (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)|author=Martin Walker

|genre=FantasyCrime|summary= A modern and approachable reimagining Because of various property transactions, people were searching for the Norse myths that centres around a witch named Angrboda. She hides in a forest at the edge of the nine worldsgrave but when they found it, remembering nothing of her past life but that fact that she was survived burnt at the stake it came with three times because sets of Odin's wrathbones. Her attempts They dated back to World War II and it fell to live in peaceBruno, howeverthe Chief of Police for St Denis, are quickly thwarted when Loki shows up with her literal heart—the one that was cut from her chest before she was tied to discover the identities of the stake—and refuses to leave her alonebodies and establish whether or not a crime had been committed. After an initial period of mistrust, Angrboda begins As if this isn't enough to fall for Loki's charmsworry about, and the two start an unusual family made of up a halfDordogne River - normally tranquil -dead daughter, a son thatis flowing at record levels. It's a wolf, not just the local autumn rains that have caused the problem: various dams upstream on another river have had to release water and another son that's St Denis faces the possibility of a snakedevastating flood.|isbn=1789097061

|isbn=1788549759152919640X|title=The Distant DeadSuspect|author=Lesley ThomsonRob Rinder

|summary=It The nation's favourite daytime TV presenter, Jessica Holby, was December 1940 murdered live on television and twenty-four-year-old Maple Greenhill had gone out for the evening it seems that there'with her friend Idas only one suspect. He' leaving her three-year-old son, William, at home with her parentss celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and his contract stated that he must not serve anything containing miso to Jessica Holby. She's seriously allergic and carries an EpiPen in case of emergencies. The boy thought that Maple was his sister Everything seemed as normal - it was better for the family than the shame of illegitimacyas normal as they can be in a busy, but Maple had high hopes of putting her life (live television studio - and William's) on Brooks served a better footingragout to Holby. She Her EpiPen was going nowhere to meet her well-to-do fiancé, hoping to persuade him to come be found and meet her family the following weekshe was dead within minutes. Later, her body would be found in the bombed-out home where he had taken herIt was soon clear that this was no accident.

|isbn=15294072490008385068|title=The Perfect LieMidnight Feast|author=Jo SpainLucy Foley

|genre=CrimeThrillers|summary=It was July 2019 's midsummer on the Dorset coast and Erin was happyguests gather at The Manor. She and Danny Ryan were planning a few days away: thatIt's always a dangerous thing to do when you're married to a cop but she was hopefultheir opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promised. They It'd been married for six months and life was good with a decent apartment s all headed up by the sea in Newport, Long IslandFrancesca Meadows. The knock on the door Manor was insistent her ancestral home and when she's converted it was openedinto an impressive retreat for the wealthy and famous. Her husband, Danny's partnerOwen, Ben Mitchell was there with a couple the architect and work is still ongoing on parts of other officersthe site. Danny took one look, turned, walked to the open window The heat is oppressive and jumped to his death from amongst the fourth floorguests are enemies as well as friends. Eighteen months later, Erin would Old scores are going to be on trial for her husbandsettled and it won's murdert be long before a body is found.

|isbnauthor=1523092734Rob Keeley|title=A Women's Guide to Claiming Space|author=Eliza Van CortChildish Spirits: 10th anniversary special edition|rating=54|genre=Politics and SocietyConfident Readers|summary=Around here, we're big fans of children'She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and agains author Rob Keeley.He'' (Alma Derrickss a ball of happy positivity, former CMOhe understands children, Cirque du Soleil RSD) ''To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravely. It is he writes for their pleasure and enjoyment, not to live the life you've always wantedlecture or hector.''

Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, The ''A WomenChildish Spirits's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my deskseries is one of his greatest achievements. Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: itIt's something far more effectivea sequence of ghost stories centring on Ellie, but discussion a stalwart young girl who can cope with anything the spirit world throws at the moment seems to be about how women can be ''protected''. I've always thought that women need to rise above thisher, to be people who don't need protectionand Edward, people who claim their own space. If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.a spoiled lordling and the first spirit Ellie encounters|isbn= 1783064617

|author=Darren ShanKieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Archibald Lox and the Forgotten CryptDungeon Runners: Archibald Lox series, Volume 2, book 1 of 3Hero Trial|rating=4.5

|summary=The second trilogy Meet Kit. Like most of the people in Shan's ''Merge'' saga opens with our herohis world, Archieit seems, back in London in he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the world sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the Bornexit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. It's not been easy Unfortunately for Kit, explaining to his foster parents where the only thing he's seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has beenretired, eaten, or slipping back into ordinary life and forgetting about Inez and his other friends in the Mergea new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, but Archie he has done taken to the goading from the token bully of his best.world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team... well What chance does this friendless, except for visiting veteran locksmith Winston muscle-free-zone have in Big Ben's clock tower actually managing that, and except for fiddling with that sneaky master lock in Seven Dials every time how could he can sneak away.possibly hope to succeed?|isbn=B093H8DPQZ1839945184