Changes

<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crimenon-fiction, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page. We can even direct you to help for [https://www.easywritingservice.com/custom-book-review/ custom book reviews]! Visit [http://www.everychildareader.org www.everychildareader.org] to get free writing tips and [http://www.genecaresearchreports.com www.genecaresearchreports.com] will help you get your paper written for free.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

 '''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gillian Tindall1635866847|title= The Tunnel Through Time: A New Route for an Old London JourneyLavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryLifestyle|summary=This It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book traces for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the course author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of historical journeys across chocolate cake on the city in time homepage. I don't eat cakes and space, examining how the areas above the new Crossrail route, the largest building project currently under construction desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in Europe offering high speed links across London, have changed over the centuriesbook, which I'm avoiding with destruction some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and renewal being I was told to make a constantly recurring process mess of it. Notes in the city's historymargins are sanctioned. It is a fascinating, compellingly readable exploration through You get to fold down the historical highways and byways corners of pages. You suspect that smears of the metropolisbutter would not be a problem. I ''loved'' this book already.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587793</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Ryan GraudinJenny Valentine|title= InvictusUs in the Before and After|rating= 4.5|genre= Teens|summary= It's the 24th century Elk and human beings have cracked the secret of time travel. Farway Gaius McCarthy Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is 17 and dreams of following a once in his mother's footsteps as a Recorder for the Corps of Central Time Travellerslifetime connection. If he succeeds, he is determined to track down Empra, who disappeared They meet as children one day on a mission when her son was just 7trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But Farway tanks his final exam then chance brings them back together, and his ambitions seem crushedthey are inseparable. He's given another chance by Lux Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, a black marketeer who employs teams of rogue time travellers to plunder the past of its artifacts - artifacts that fetch fortunes in credits in the Central Time worldtogether.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1510102868</amazonuk>1471196585

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Raymond Williams1787333175|title= Culture and Society 1780-1950You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating= 45|genre= Politics and SocietyPopular Science|summary= From 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 last decades workings of the eighteenth century NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the final words work of modernism, a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this book tracks societal changes through exploring five key words: industry, democracy, class, art setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and culture. The meanings of such things, their essence, changes as per their use it is always delivered with empathy and the era in which their implications were consideredunderstanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784870811</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 5/9 -->Frontpage|author=Hesene Mete Mariana Enriquez|title=Sinful WordsA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=45|genre=Literary FictionShort Stories|summary=When we meet himMariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, Behram is a student at the school achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of theology. He loves God with a passion and has a determination to live a life dedicated ''to'' God and disused refrigerators due to live by His rules. He rents a property from Lulu Khan and his wifean urban planning mishap, Lady Geshtina and Khan invites Behram to his own home for a visit. It's a delightful place an overcrowded homeless shelter and the wealth of the couple is obvious as is their standing within the local community: Lady Geshtina's late father is buried in what amounts to a mausoleum, but it's not crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all this which enchants Behramwithin Argentina. The couple have twin children and Behram is taken, enthralled by circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the daughter, Naginasupernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524682527</amazonuk>1803511230

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susanna GregoryOnyi Nwabineli|title=The Habit of Murder: The Twenty Third Chronicle of Matthew BartholomewAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=It was 1360 and Michaelhouse was in dire financial straits: they could last a little longer but not that long. Then it seemed that a lifeline might have been thrown Anuri spent her childhood on display to them when they heard that the wealthy Elizabeth de Burgh world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of the Suffolk town of Clare was dead Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and it was possible that The Lady, as she was knownbasically, had left them a legacymonetary gain. It seemed that the best thing Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to do was regain her confidence and to go get her life back, suing her step-mother to Clare to claim take down the money (or content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to try start her PhD, undergoing therapy and prove that it had been ''intended'' secretly abusing people online and should therefore be paid) with all hastereceiving money from them for doing so. The real mission could be concealed behind Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the bald statement that they were there to attend the funeralnew focus of Ophelia's online empire. Matthew Bartholomew was one of Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the contingent from Michaelhouse.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751562637</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= M A BennettDavid Chadwick|title= S.T.A.G.SHeadload of Napalm|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensThrillers|summary=It''One weekend. Three deadly activities''s September 1973 in Hicks, California. Greer MacDonald Hicks is a new student at the prestigious St Aidan the Great Boarding School, known to Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its exclusive pupils as Snearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away.TNot much happens in Hicks.A.G.S. It is silver mine and a school where technology is absent, defence contractor are the teachers are replaced by friarsmain local employers but otherwise, there's not much of note other than dive bars and a group of elite students –known as the Medievals – run the schoolJoshua trees. When Greer inexplicably receives an invitation from the Medievals to spend a weekend at the stately home of Henry de WarlencourtLife is quiet, the most popular boy at school, she is too curious decline such an invitationuntil.. But little does Greer realise that there is more to the weekend than she initially understands. Ultimately she and the other two students who have been invited must come together to uncover the truth about the infamous Medievals, and the blood sports they have been chosen to take part in.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471406768</amazonuk>B0D321VJ76

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susi OsborneTom Percival|title=Angelica StoneThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=IWill'd say that Angelica Stone was known as Angel to her friendss life is difficult, but she's not big on friendsin a multitude of ways. She He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the sort most basic of background you dread hearing about: sexually abused as a childthings like food, grabbed by the care system and didnhis dad can't so much fall through work because he lost his job at the cracks as escaped its clutches college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and then had to learn how to copean accident. She's been told Throw into that mix the fact that she's taintedhis mum and dad are separated, that she ruins every relationship without intending to and that sheWill's best staying away from 'decent' peoplelife seems bleak in every direction. One And yet, he still has a tiny amount of her jobs hope. He is working in a supermarket good at art, and it's there clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that she meets Lola Moriarty and ''she's'' feel like a completely different kettle light at the end of fisha long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1911320947</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jamie FordSylvie Cathrall|title= Love and Other Consolation PrizesA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating= 5|genre= Historical Science Fiction|summary=At the World's Fair in 1962, it seems that all eyes There are focused on the future. The Space Needle dominates the landscape, filling people with anticipation about things few greater joys than a book which lives up to comea compelling premise. One visitor, however, has his mind firmly focused on the past. Ernest Young is helping his daughter Ju-ju with a story she And this is writing for her newspaper; a story about a young immigrant boy who was given away as a prize in a raffle at the World's Fair in 1909one of them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749022752</amazonuk>0356522776

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Virginia Macgregor1786482126|title= Before I Was YoursThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionCrime|summary= Rosie can see clearly her future family Builders were demolishing an old house in her mind. And when that doesnNorwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 't happen, she adapts. So maybe she wonluxury't carry apartments - when they discovered the baby inside her, but that lovely blonde girl at the adoption event could be their new daughterbones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Yes Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, she looks like she belongs to them alreadyDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's meant to be. Except it's not. Rosie and Sam dondifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't get to have , that she is pregnant with his child as a genetic child result of their own, and the one night they don't get to adopt the perfect blonde girlspent together some three months ago. They end up with the exact opposite: a boy from Kenya with a peculiar back story and an ardent wish Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to be adopted. As optimistic as Rosie and Sam try to be, this isn't quite what they pictured or hoped forsudden bouts of sickness. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751565229</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kaye UmanskyJoan Didion|title=The Pongwiffy Stories 1: A Witch Year of Dirty Habits and The Goblins' RevengeMagical Thinking

|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=Meet Pongwiffy. She must be the smelliest, ugliest, most slurpy, non-house-cleaning and all-round disgusting witch out there. SheThis book is Joan Didion's forced to live alongside heartbreaking autobiographical account of the noisiest, most stupid Goblins around, and itgrief she endured following her husband's with great reluctance sudden death. Books that anyone ever comes shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and necessary resource to visit – help people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and delusion and when they do they get acclaimed as her best friend. And she doesn't even have a familiarmakes them utterly normal, either. She is lends them a hopeless personhuman face to wear. But when said 'best friend' forces her to advertise for a familiar, nobody could expect what turns up…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471167380</amazonuk>0007216858

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J R Wallis0008551324|title= The Boy With One NameDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Jones It's 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 the boy with one name, snatched as an infant from his loving parents by a Badlander called Maitland, struggling in prison and he only longs 's prepared to be tell the police where the body of a normal boy missing person is buried and have his family backwho was responsible for her death. One night This person, he promises, is someone big and Maitland are on patrol it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and come across to get an ogre 'moon-bathingearly parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn' Things dont think so and she't go quite s even prepared to plan; enter: Ruby, a foster child on do the run, other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is desperate to be part of the Badlanderkept well away from what's world, despite its dangers and terrorshappening. Along with a talking gun, a miniature fire breathing black dog, an old camper van, and a hefty sprinkling of magic – you're sure to be taken on one hell of a ride.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147115792X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jason Rekulak and Kim Smith1739526910|title=The X-Files: Earth Children are Weird. A Picture BookWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley

|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=We know that Dana Scully and Fox Mulder didn't know each other as children, for they met much later on, at work for the FBI. But if they had'One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's life, they may well have camped out he arrives in the back yardan unfamiliar Devon town to recover. They made have read scary stories to each otherLiving with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, but one thing is for sure – Mulder's imagination would have seen aliens everywherehe dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. He would have seen mystery in the deep impression in the yardBut as those tentative plans falter, horror he becomes swept up in the shadowsa local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and the unexplained in any vaguely mysterious noisesurprising romantic possibilities. For that's what happens on the pages of this picture book – but that's not ''all'' that happens – the truth is something much more peculiar…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1683690273</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tom Lloyd0008405026|title= Princess of BloodA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating= 4.5|genre= FantasyCrime|summary= Toil – unpredictable It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and dangerous even for an assassinthe investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, now wears it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the Princess positioning of Blood on the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her jacketboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Mercanery Lynx still has his doubts about her – but a new mission What looked as though it was going to escort be an open-and-shut case is now a dignitary soon throws the old team back togethercomplex double murder. Travelling to an ancient city Kerrigan is convinced that conceals a mysterious labyrinth, the situations go from bad to worseexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, with new threats and worse horrors on every cornerUna Burt) are less convinced. The group argue and bicker as they go along – but will they be too concerned with their own disputes to see the far blacker evil that threatens to surround them?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473213207</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Andy Weir1529077745|title= ArtemisThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating= 34.5|genre= Science FictionCrime|summary=Welcome to Artemis, A man walking his dog in the first city on early morning discovered the moon. A powerhouse for the rich and body of a once man in a lifetime trip for earth touriststhe park near Rosebank, and also a place a small community of citizens call care homefor troubled teens. Jazz Bashara is The dead man was Josh - one such citizen. She came of the care workers who was due to Artemis with her father aged six, it's work a shift the only place she's ever known night before but she wouldn't say she's flourishingwho had never turned up. In fact, D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the phrase most often used to describe Jazz murder - but her only clue is a waste the disappearance of one of talentthe residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Jazz lives in Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the low end of town, sleeping on a bunk, using a shared bathroom, which death but Vera thinks this is all unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she can afford through her job as a porteradored Josh. However, Jazz dreams above all else of being rich and to this end, She knows that she has set up a side business of illegal smuggling activity. When one of Jazz's regular clients wants her to step up from petty criminal to major criminal for a handsome reward, it is just too tempting find Chloe to refuse. What Jazz doesn't know is all the facts behind discover what she is being asked happened to doJosh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091956943</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty- remove 1/9 -->five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.}}{{Frontpage|authorisbn=Parrain Thorance0241636604|title=The French Cashew TreeTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5

|summary=The place isn't given If you were to bring up an image of a namecity banker in your mind, but we can work out that ityou's in re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the Caribbean pin-stripe suit and it's here that Parrain Thorance had an idyllic childhood with his parentsbackground is the East End, brother and sister until where he was eight years oldfamiliar with violence, poverty and injustice. It There was then that his mother died suddenly and the family was broken up: his brother and sister went to live with an aunt and Parrain stayed with no posh public school on his father CV - but an aunt and uncle moved into he had been to the family homeLondon School of Economics. The aunt Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his father's sister - ability at what was fine, but Parrain and her husband never essentially, a card game which got onhim an internship with Citibank. The easyEventually, generous days of childhood, sitting under the titular French Cashew Tree might still be there superficially, but paradise would never be untainted againthis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524681458</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Barney ShawLeanne Egan|title= The Smell of Fresh RainLover Birds|rating= 4.5|genre= Popular ScienceTeens|summary= The Smell of Fresh Rain attempts to open our minds When new girl, Isabel, moves to the power and potential Lou's hometown of our sense of smellLiverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. Barney Shaw A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, a man armed but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with only a powerful curiosity her, and boundless enthusiasm sets out to understand this ever elusive sense that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it? Because Lou is straight, isn't she? Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and to explore ways to interpret smells in an accessible she's never had a good kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and simple way. His journey takes him from boatyards wanting to markets via Harrods and his childhood home to uncover the meaning behind everyday scents and to distil the apparently complex nature of smell into language which hang out with her because fighting with her is accessible fun, and satisfying.she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785781138</amazonuk>000862657X

{{newreview <!-- remove 1/9 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Anthony Christian Wright1009473085|title=The Universe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Life but Not EverythingTom Egerton (Editors)|rating=3.5|genre=Spirituality Politics and ReligionSociety|summary=I often wonder - usually after Sometimes it's simpler to explain a moment of shaking my fist at the news on TV - book by describing what my manifesto for life it ''isn't'' and society would look like were I that applies to write it down''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. I have all sorts of thoughts If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about these thingswhat ''really'' happened on certain occasions, from then this isn't the metaphysics of book for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who we are and where we come from, right down thinks Johnson should return to detailed critiques of quite insignificant government policiespolitics. I ''The Conservative Effect''ve never done such is an exercise entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co- mostly because I lack editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the timecoalition took over in 2010, the patience changes that occurred and the diligence required. It seems like an enormous tasksituation in 2024.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524682012</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth Dale and Giusi CapizziMax Boucherat|title=Cool Duck and Lots The Last Life of Hats (Early Reader)Lori Mills

|genre=Emerging Confident Readers|summary=Children are a little like Pokemon; you may not be able We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to house them pop in a Pokeball, but they are always evolvingbabysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. Your little kiddo may have spent the first couple of years or so intent What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to sit log on your lap and listen to you read Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a storyhit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, but at some point they are going to want to read themselvesand then she finds something even more spooky. This is not For the moment server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to lend them your copy enter shows signs of ''Lord of the Rings'' as their own first books will actually be simpler stories than the books that you have shared togethertampering. You need to know your ducks When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and your hats before you can tackle what on Earth her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a Gruffalo is.girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848862490</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Wes StuartFyodor Dostoyevsky|title= My Name is SamWhite Nights|rating= 45|genre= Science FictionShort Stories|summary=Who is the real enemy? This is the question which confronts Sam, the champion of the Sereia As always in their cosmos-spanning war with the GibbusDostoyevsky, and the main character in this story. Sam is an unimposing boy who has no past and no memory of who he work is, yet he possesses extraordinary abilitiessublime. He One is also Earth's last hope for salvation from the Gibbus who, in seven days, will destroy the planet and everyone on it. This never left wondering what a character is not his choice however: that is the decision of the alien Sereia, his mentors thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and guides, as he is forced to confront this hazardous task. They have their own reasons for wanting Earth to be saved, but are too weak to challenge the Gibbus themselvestemperaments with remarkable clarity. In their search for a human champion they find the unlikely and ill-prepared young boy, Sam – but this child is not quite as he appears…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1540504506</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Juan-Tomas Avila Laurel0008385068|title= The Gurugu PledgeMidnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary FictionThrillers|summary= Juan Tomas Avila Laurel, one of Equatorial GuineaIt's best-known dissident writers, is an author who deserves to be read midsummer on the world overDorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promised. With It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. The Gurugu Pledge, heManor was her ancestral home and she's captured a converted it into an angry impressive retreat for the wealthy and incredibly urgent slice of famous. Her husband, Owen, was the migrant experience – a snapshot architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the dangers faced by those crossing site. The heat is oppressive and amongst the African continent in search of the barbed wire fences at Melilla- the Spanish enclave on the North Eastern tip of Moroccoguests are enemies as well as friends. Old scores are going to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908276940</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony HorowitzJames Baldwin|title=The Word is MurderGiovanni's Room

|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction |summary=An attractive''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, well-heeled woman enters a classically-minded funeral parlour an American man living in LondonParis, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, and makes plans for her own funeralan Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. Within just a few hoursWhile David is engaged to Hella, she's had lunchwho is travelling in Spain, engaged with business affairs – and been killed the real tension in her own homethe novel arises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. Could anyone have foreseen the service to have been needed so quickly? ThatIt is David's the initial premise crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|isbn=0141186356}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD|title=Nowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=In a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of this thrillerevery preparation, this most intriguing mysterydown to the last detail. Some last reflections, and if you want then he says goodbye to read it – which is something you really should do – with no surpriseshis wife, you should not read the bookworld, and his life. It's blurb, or even the authorial biography, and perhaps not even the followinghorribly sad. Just go At work in blindher shop, his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and wait for the surprises – that startailing mother, as it happens, with chapter two…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780896840</amazonuk>who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a while before Diana realises what Patrick has done.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neal Zetter and Chris WhiteVirginie Despentes|title=Here Come the SuperheroesKing Kong Theory

|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse Autobiography |summary=I'm quite sure you're well aware of the spate of superhero movies doing the rounds these days, with any King Kong Theory'' is a hard-hitting memoir and every star of the comics page seemingly on the big screen – and the small. They're everywherefeminist manifesto, and their numbers are only growing. But here is which can be seen as a unique chance call to meet arms for women in a few more – Mega Slug, Micro Girlphallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, Magnetic Me, Sister Speed – even one calling himself the Ultimate Superhero. But we're not meeting them book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a well-established comic universe, or with some horrid woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and convoluted back storypornography. NoThough these discussions are intertwined, we're being introduced to them all in their placement within the format book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of verse – and for the young superhero and/or poetry fan this clearly has an instant appealtheir original form as independent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909991465</amazonuk>191309734X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter SchossowJames Baldwin|title=Where is Grandma?Giovanni's Room|rating=4.5|genre=Emerging ReadersLiterary Fiction |summary=Meet Henry. He''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a young lad being taken by a nanny gay bar. While David is engaged to hospital to check up on his grandmaHella, whois travelling in Spain, the real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|isbn=0141186356}}{{Frontpage|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence|title=Wild East|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Written in having had an accidentverse, 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. ItThe move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a shametragic event, then, that said nanny is and so busy yacking into her phone Ronny finds himself trying to look after himsettle in a new town, a new school, for he ends up going off on his own adventure and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to find his granmusic constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. And what an adventure – babies being bornBut now, people with stomach problemsin this new school, chemohis teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, beans stuck up their nose… all life is here in this hospitalslowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and both that poetry, and the lad's mishap are clearly power of creativity and very pleasantly conveyedcrafting your words.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1776571541</amazonuk>0241645441

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrea Beaty and David RobertsAlba de Cespedes |title=Iggy Peck's Big Project Book for Amazing ArchitectsForbidden Notebook

|genre=Children's Non-Literary Fiction|summary=Out This Italian work of all feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the things I wanted to be as a childmoment our protagonist, an architect was not one of them. Which is a shameValeria Cossati, perhaps – I might have had a few Prince Charles-friendly ideas under my beltpurchases her forbidden notebook, and even if I hadn't exactly progressed at that I might have been more at ease at those stupid team-bonding 'build-a-this-or-that' exercises you are sometimes forced to undergo as an adult. I never knew I would ever hold any importance learns about herself in my ability to draw buildings, conceptualise towns the most intimate and create model structures of my own creations – partly because I knew I had no abilityrevealing ways. But for the likes |isbn=1782278222}}{{Frontpage|author=Ottessa Moshfegh|title=My Year of Iggy PeckRest and Relaxation|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=At best, the whole idea this novel is never in doubt – he spends his entire time thinking a scathing critique of buildings modern society and how to improve on reveals the ones he knows. And sofragility of human relationships; at worst, for it is the duration cynical, predictable and slightly trite tale of your engagement an unlikeable protagonist. This unlikely heroine, a slim, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with these pagesthe world, will youbut resolves not to lose sleep over it: in fact, her solution lies in her hibernation.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1419718924</amazonuk>1784707422

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Matthew SmithJo Callaghan|title= The WakingLeave No Trace|rating= 54|genre= Literary FictionCrime|summary=Isabel SykesWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, 23, recounts the recent attempt she made to come DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to terms with the loss of case alongside her mothersidekick, the acclaimed but psychologically disturbed novelist Marianne SykesAI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Marianne died in an unexplained house fire But when Isabel was ten. Inspired by the appearance of Imogen Taylorthere is a second body found crucified a few days later, an enchanting young woman who wants to write Kat is suddenly struggling with a PhD on her mother's work, Isabel plunges into the depths of her past potential serial killer and an intense new friendship. After discovering a very high profile case that Imogen is not who she seems draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be, Isabel must face the darkest moments from her childhood in order able to protect her family from more tragedy. She receives unexpected help from beyond solve the grave: case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the strangecase and, glittering fragments potentially, out of her mother's last, unfinished work, 'Midnightsong'.a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0995654158</amazonuk>139851120X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ruth EasthamB0DB64PYV5|title= The Warrior in the MistWhite Rose|author=Dave Baines|rating= 4|genre= Confident ReadersDystopian Fiction|summary= Fracking is In 2033, a big issue in some parts of superstorm known as the country, particularly in White Rose devastates the north, and for Aidan, Northern Hemisphere. And it means 's not only the destruction of the countryside he loves but a huge change in his life. Once they start blastingstorm that gathers, his dad will lose his job caring for a rich landowner's horseswreaks havoc, and he and Aidan will have to leave their home and their friends to live seventeen floors up in a tower blockthen dissipates. But despite Instead, it hovers across half the protesters' determined efforts the blasting is going aheadEarth with its octopus-like tentacles, not giving up and there is only one small, faint hope – find the tomb of the warrior queen Boudicca, reputedly slaughtered nearby by the Romans in AD 61, so the area can be declared a World Heritage Sitenever going away. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>191134238X</amazonuk>