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<metadesc>Book review site, with books from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and children's books plus author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>
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<metadesc>Expert, full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, non-fiction, children's books & self-published books plus author interviews & top tens.</metadesc>
<h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>
 
Hello from The Bookbag, a book review 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.
 
  
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews at TheBookbag.
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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!
  
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]?
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==Reviews of the Best New Books==
 
  
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]]. '''<br>
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There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews]] at TheBookbag.
  
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''<!-- Remove -->
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Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
{{newreview
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|author=Lina Wolff and Frank Perry (translator)
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==The Best New Books==
|title= Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs
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|rating= 5
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'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
|genre= General Fiction
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|summary= Upstairs, a flat where mother and daughter struggle from pay cheque to pay cheque; downstairs, the love nest of a dying writer and her last of many conquests. Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs is a multilayered testimonial to the writer, the eccentric Alba Cambó, gathered by Araceli, the teenager upstairs. Through Araceli's bird's-eye view, anecdotes unfold as told by lovers, business acquaintances (often both – for with Alba Cambó you can never know), and the short stories of Cambó herself.
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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908276649</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0008385068
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|title=The Midnight Feast
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|author=Lucy Foley
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|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Thrillers
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|summary=It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows.  The Manor was her ancestral home and she's converted it into an impressive retreat for the wealthy and famous.  Her husband, Owen, was the architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the site.  The heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends.  Old scores are going to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found.
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Changers, Book One: Drew
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|author=James Baldwin
|author=Allison Glock-Cooper and T Cooper
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|title=Giovanni's Room
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''Some teenagers worry about who they'll wake up next to. Others worry about who they'll wake up as...''
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|summary=''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 gay bar. While David is engaged to Hella, who is 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.
 
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|isbn=0141186356
Ethan, who is 14, is just hoping to wake up in time to begin his high school career in a brand new town. Imagine his shock when he wakes up AS A GIRL. What the what? How can this happen? It turns out that Ethan, now Drew, is a Changer, one of an ancient race of humankind, and he will undergo not one, but THREE more such changes - one for each year of his time at high school. Drew's parents are overjoyed at their offspring's transformation but Drew is not happy at all.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349002428</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=River of Ink 1: Genesis
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|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|author=Helen Dennis
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|title=Wild East
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=''Some people believe that when you drown, your whole life flashes before you. The boy in the river saw only bottles, driftwood and the dented licence plate of a foreign car. Not his life. But he knew for certain that he was drowning.''
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|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.
 
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|isbn=0241645441
But River Boy doesn't drown. He holds on. And when he washes up on the banks of the Thames, something propels him to St Paul's Cathedral, where Reverend Solomon finds him, drenched, bedraggled, wild-eyed and wordless. After several days in hospital, River Boy remains unable to find his voice. Or his memory. Who is this boy? Why was he in the Thames? Will anyone claim him? What are the strange signs he obsessively draws?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144492043X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Maria Turtschaninoff and Annie Prime (translator)
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|isbn=1635866847
|title=Maresi (The Red Abbey Chronicles)
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|title=The Lavender Companion
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|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
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|genre=Lifestyle
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|summary=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 a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage.  I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally.  (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it.  Notes in the margins are sanctioned.  You get to fold down the corners of pages.  You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem.  I ''loved'' this book already.
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Jenny Valentine
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|title=Us in the Before and After
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Despite the name, there is nothing masculine about the island of Menos at all.  Apart from a few male farm animals and birds, everything is feminine – the island is a rugged mountain land, home to only one abbey where everyone is female, and worshipping a female holy trinity – one Mother Goddess in three ages of lifeThe novices there are on the cusp, in several ways – of girls turning to women, of students turning to Sisters, of people learning what the religion means for them starting to practise it with a duty to othersAnd, of course, they are on the border between the past that took them to the abbey and what could come if they ever leave.  Maresi comes from a family that lost one daughter through famine, and the inability to support themselves.  New girl Jai, who has latched on to Maresi like her shadow to learn the ropes, has come from a place even darker – but whose future might be more blackened by darkness is for you to discover, in this trilogy-opening fantasy.
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|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connectionThey meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the timeBut then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable.  Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782690913</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1471196585
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Colleen Jacey and Zed Jacey
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|isbn=1787333175
|title=Odd Job Frog
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|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
|rating=4.5
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|author=Benji Waterhouse
|genre=For Sharing
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|rating=5
|summary=''I'm bored'', said Frog.  ''Bored, bored, '''BORED.''' ''
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|genre=Popular Science
 
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|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 workings of the 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 work of a psychiatristI did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.  
And you can see he is: chin on elbow, elbow on knee and, dare I say, a slightly ''sulky'' expression on his face.  He's not happy.  Mouse has the right of it, with his hammock slung in the cornfield, but Frog has made up his mind.  He's off to the city which is full of exciting thingsAnd it is.  Everywhere he looks there are wonderful things to do, but there's only one snag.  They all cost money.  And as he hasn't got any he's going to have to get a job.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784622729</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Stacy Schiff
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|author=Mariana Enriquez
|title= The Witches: Salem 1692
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|title=A Sunny Place for Shady People
|rating= 5
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|rating=5
|genre= History
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|genre=Short Stories
|summary= Like most people I know the story of Salem through the very particular lens of _The Crucible_.  That particular lens was the very current witch-hunt that was going on at the time.  Arthur Miller's play is rightly seen as an allegory of the McCarthyism in 1950s America – but having read Schiff's more academic approach to the source tale, it's easy to see that Miller's drama is much more about the hunting down of the 'red menace' than about what might have happened in New England two hundred and fifty years earlier.
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|summary=Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147460224X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803511230
 
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}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Danielle McLaughlin
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|author=Onyi Nwabineli
|title=Dinosaurs on Other Planets
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|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Seeing as this book is clearly a talented author hitting the ground running, I will dispense with any major preamble.  We start with a tale of a daughter affected by the emotions of her parents as they separate – and the influence of a certain school-teacher – from the mother's point of viewAn ancient input shows how alien, and the modern day domesticity how regular, the isolation of a woman can feel, as events are peppered by minor acts of destructionBut men can be alienated too – especially one, a reluctant guest at a party for children hosted by someone he once had an affair with – he feels the new form of this influence in the light of another one he has had to try and abandon'All About Alice' – that's what the title character wants to say but has nobody to speak it to, but is it her – mid-40s and single, living with her father – that is most removed from her dreams or her old friend and now child factory, Marian?  And we complete a lap of the calendar with the wintry tale of a man unable to tell his work superiors of the problems he faces at home – a new home, recently built like so many one sees while driving round Ireland.
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|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gainNow 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 take down the content about herAnuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing soMost importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire.  Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473613701</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0861546873
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Stephen Hunt
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|author=David Chadwick
|title= Foul Tides Turning
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|title=Headload of Napalm
|rating= 3.5
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Fantasy
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary= The people of Weyland always believed the slavers' raids, which destroyed families and homes like a natural disaster, were a misfortune that couldn't be averted. But it wasn't true. Their King, King Marcus, had struck a deal – sacrificing his people in exchange for technology and political power. But now, everyone knows. Jacob and Carter Carnehan escaped the slavers, returning home with the truth, the true King, and a Princess as their hostage. Their purpose was to avoid war – but instead the truth prompts a civil war, and an invasion force gathers to reclaim the princess. Once again, Jacob and Carter will be separated – and this time they'll be fighting for something bigger than both of them…
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|summary= It's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, there's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until....
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575092106</amazonuk>
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|isbn= B0D321VJ76
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jennifer Gray and Hannah George
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|author=Tom Percival
|title=Chicken Mission: Chaos in Cluckbridge
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|title=The Wrong Shoes
|rating=4
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Chickens are not supposed to live in cities, but they do because humans have got small coops in so many of their gardensFoxes are not supposed to live in cities, but they have gone there anyway in search of anything to eat – which can include the chickens.  Lethal, gigantic cobra snakes are not supposed to live in cities, but one, called Cleopatra that has been a huge enemy to chicken-kind for years, has escaped from the city zoo and is on the looseYou might think that the Elite Chicken Squad could sort out the fox problem if they went to town – after all, they have done so twice before now – but things would be a lot different if by some chance the wily foxes got into cahoots with the cobra… And things would have a lot more urgency if Cleopatra happened to be ready to lay a large clutch of her eggs – which she is…
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|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of waysHe 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 most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accidentThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope.  He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571298311</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Roger Moorhouse
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|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|title=The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941
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|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=3.5
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|rating=5
|genre=History
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Before WWII started, you didn't really have peace.  Tensions had hardly settled down since the Great War, and there had been conflicts several times since, particularly in what would become the Theatre of War in eastern Europe. Nazi Germany and the Soviet regime were already at loggerheads, with the former supporting Japanese aggression in eastern Asia.  They were bedfellows in evil, but very much on opposing sides.  But with things stirring like never before under Hitler's expansionist activities, and despite numerous instances of this side talking to that potential enemy about the other, Nazi and Communist seemed to be firm foes.  Both had publicly been denouncing the other – the Soviets deeming Nazis one side of the same corrupt, capitalist coin as us Brits, the Hitlerites already equating Communism with Jewry.  But from under that period when the sides were ''pouring buckets of shit on each other's heads'' (sorry for the language, but it’s me quoting Stalin, believe it or not) came an extraordinary Pact – one of a handful in fact, that deemed Germany and Russia non-aggressors and collaborators,  - just in time for them to share Poland between themselves.  The initial document was short, but had an impact to affect 50 million people then, and many millions now – and yet it's hardly been the subject of a full look before now.
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|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099571897</amazonuk>
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|isbn= 0356522776
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Melissa Keil
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|isbn=1786482126
|title=The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl
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|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)
 +
|author=Elly Griffiths
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Crime
|summary=Alba and her friends have just finished high school. Now they must decide what to do with the rest of their lives. Move to the city? Enrol at university? Get a job and make a life in their rural Australian backwater? Pair off? Stay single? Alba herself must decide whether or not a career in art and comic books is possible. And if it is, is it worth leaving a happy life and a friendship group for? It's a frightening choice. Is she good enough? And in any case, the friendship group might disappear whatever she decides. Because each member of it has the same choice before them.
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|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull.  Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago.  Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847156835</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Joan Didion
|author=L C Tyler
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|title=The Year of Magical Thinking
|title=A Masterpiece of Corruption (A John Grey Historical Mystery)
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|rating=4.5
|rating=5
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|genre=Autobiography
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|summary=This book is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of the grief she endured following her husband's sudden death. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and necessary resource to help people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and delusion and makes them utterly normal, lends them a human face to wear.
|summary=1657: John Grey, law student at Lincolns Inn, receives a meeting invitation that doesn't seem to be meant for him. Unfortunately he still goes to the meeting and ends up accepting a mission to kill Oliver Cromwell. He has two problems with this: first he likes a quiet life and secondly he likes Oliver Cromwell.  In fact he already works for Oliver's spymaster, Thurloe. The life expectancy of a double agent isn't that long and that's without reckoning on the intervention of Aminta!
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|isbn=0007216858
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472114965</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008551324
|author=Paula Brackston
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|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)
|title=The Silver Witch (Shadow Chronicles)
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|author=Neil Lancaster
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
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|genre=Crime
|summary=Ceramic artist Tilda moves to the house she and her husband envisaged their lives together in the wilds of WalesUnfortunately, due to his tragic death a year ago, Tilda must move in alone and build a different lifeIn the same location a thousand years earlier Seren serves Prince Hywell as his village's seer and shamanLife isn't easy for her either.  She has enemies, some a lot closer than the traditional threat from the Anglo Saxons.  Although centuries apart these two women's lives will come together with connotations for all who love them and a deadly force that could go beyond that.
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|summary=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 struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her deathThis person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wantsAnd what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole dateNot much to ask, is it?  The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472150651</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Mary Gibson
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|isbn=1739526910
|title=Gunner Girls and Fighter Boys
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|title=Where I've Not Been Lost
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|author=Glen Sibley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''Gunner Girls and Fighter Boys'' is the latest book in Mary Gibson's Bermondsey series. This time, the Lloyd family take centre stage: Mum, Dad, son Jack and daughters May and Peggy. War is raging in Europe and Bermondsey is not immune from daily onslaught of bombs. A tragic event one night changes everything and home-bird May decides to fly the nest in order to participate in the war effort. The war will leave no-one unscathed; the strongest hearts can be paralysed by fear and the unlikeliest of people can emerge as heroes.
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|summary=''One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's life, he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up in a local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178185596X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Becca Fitzpatrick
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|isbn=0008405026
|title=Dangerous Lies
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|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|rating=4
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|author=Jane Casey
|genre=Teens
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|rating=5
|summary=Whisked into the witness protection programme, 17 year old Estella's life is turned upside down. She's torn away from her long-term boyfriend and forced to abandon both her friends and her identity. Leaving city life behind her, she's convinced there is no way she will be able to adapt to Thunder Basin, Nebraska. But, then, she hadn't expected to fall for the boy next door.  
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|genre=Crime
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471125084</amazonuk>
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|summary=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 a halt.  Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious.  What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Terry Deary
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|isbn=1529077745
|title=Ghost for Sale
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|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)
 +
|author=Ann Cleeves
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
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|genre=Crime
|summary=When Mr and Mrs Rundle see an advert in the paper for a wardrobe for sale, complete with ghost, Mrs Rundle decides that they absolutely ''must'' have it!  They own The Dog and Duck Inn and Mrs Rundle feels that addition of a ghost will add interest to their Inn and bring them custom.  The arrival of the wardrobe certainly shakes things up for the Rundles, though perhaps not in the way they'd imagined!
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|summary=A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens.  The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up.  D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer.  Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178112518X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mary Hoffman and Christina Balit
 
|title=Queen Guinevere and Other Stories from the Court of King Arthur
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=I always enjoy a story with a feisty heroine, so the prospect of a whole collection of stories telling me about the women behind the men in the Arthurian legends definitely had an appeal to me!  Taking Malory's ''Le Morte D'Arthur'' for inspiration, as well as other historical texts depicting the legends, Hoffman tells us her imagining of what it was like to be married to Arthur, the other women connected to Lancelot and Sir Gawain, and ultimately why the fellowship of the round table really fell apart.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184780716X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Julian Gough and Jim Field
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|isbn=1399613073
|title=Rabbit and Bear: Rabbit's Bad Habbits
+
|title=Moral Injuries
 +
|author=Christie Watson
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=When Bear wakes up early from her hibernation, she decides that if she can't sleep then she might as well do something which she's always wanted to do - build a snowmanIt's whilst she's doing this that she meets Rabbit, who tells her that he's an Expert in GravityWhatever he is, it doesn't seem to make him particularly happy as he never smiles and isn't exactly big on funBut there are avalanches around as well as hungry wolves and Rabbit soon comes to the conclusion that it's good to have a friend on your side - even if you have just stolen their food.
+
|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 doctorAnjali 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 tragedyWe don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequencesTwenty-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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444929313</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Chris Packham and Jason Cockroft
+
|isbn=0241636604
|title=Amazing Animal Journeys
+
|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
 +
|author=Gary Stevenson
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=It's only relatively recently that man has actually moved home at certain points of the year to take advantage of the weather or the availability of food, but wild life has been doing it for much longer and every year billions of animals move from one part of the planet to another - that's birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insectsThis is known as migration - and it's a real pleasure to see it used other than in the context of sensationalist newspaper headlinesWildlife expert Chris Packham has written this introduction to the subject and it's been beautifully illustrated by Jason Cockroft(He's the man who did the cover artwork for the final three Harry Potter books!)
+
|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson.  A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injusticeThere was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of EconomicsStevenson 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 ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank.  Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405277459</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Jo Walton
 
|title= The Philosopher Kings
 
|rating= 3.5
 
|genre= Science Fiction
 
|summary= Twenty years have passed since the Goddess Athene founded the Just City. The god Apollo is still living there, albeit in human form. Now married, and the father of several children, the man/god struggles to cope when tragedy befalls his family. Beset by grief and a need for revenge, Apollo sets sail to find the man who caused him such pain, but discovers something that may change everything…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472150791</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Gary D Schmidt
+
|author=Leanne Egan
|title=Orbiting Jupiter
+
|title=Lover Birds
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Twelve year-old Jack is informed that his parents will be fostering another boy – fourteen year-old Joseph. But Joseph isn't like most fourteen year-olds. He's troubled: the rumour is that he spent time in juvenile incarceration for trying to kill his teacher. And there's something else about Joseph, too: he has a daughter.
+
|summary=When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and 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 she's never had a good kiss with any of 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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783443944</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=000862657X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=A A Milne and E H Shepard
+
|isbn=1009473085
|title=Winnie-the-Pooh's Little Book Of Wisdom
+
|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024
|rating=4
+
|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|genre=Lifestyle
+
|rating=5
|summary=For a Bear of Very Little Brain Winnie-the-Pooh talks an awful lot of sense and we should be honoured that he's chosen to share with us a few of his wise wordsYou see, occasionally (well, an awful lot of the time, if we're honest) we look for wisdom in the wrong places and forget about those who have a very simple approach to life and who may well have discovered the secret of happiness.  Pooh's take on life is very simple and none the worse for that.
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405281278</amazonuk>
+
|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''.  If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the 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 thinks Johnson should return to politics.  ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beastIt's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co-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 coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Jane Fallon
 
|title= Strictly Between Us
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= Women's Fiction
 
|summary= Tamsin and Michelle have been friends for decades. Aside from parents, they're the longest relationship in the book, longer than Michelle and Patrick's marriage, longer than Bea has worked as Tamsin's assistant. All four characters feature heavily, though, in a story that is always moving and never boring.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405917679</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Barbara Delinsky
 
|title=Blueprints
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Everyone - even Jamie MacAfee - thinks that her life is perfectShe's engaged to Brad, a lawyer with her family's building firm and is sure that she'll manage to set a wedding date as soon as work pressure eases upShe's employed by the family firm too, as an architect, and appears as one of the presenters on a television renovation show. Her best friend is her mother who's a master carpenter and the host on the same television show - and Caroline has managed to build up her confidence again after a messy divorce. What can go wrong?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349405042</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison
+
|author=Max Boucherat
|title=Never Evers
+
|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Two English schools, six 14 year-old friends and a ski / snowboarding trip to France. Add a 15 year-old French popstar shooting his latest video and you have the perfect recipe for a light-hearted and funny teen romance.  
+
|summary=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 lonesome.  What could possibly go wrong?  Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky.  For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910002364</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008666482
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Tim Akers
+
|author=Fyodor Dostoyevsky
|title= The Pagan Night
+
|title=White Nights
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Fantasy
 
|summary= The Celestial Church has all but eliminated the old pagan ways, ruling the people with an iron hand. Demonic gheists terrorise the land, hunted by the warriors of the inquisition, yet it's the battling factions within the Church and age-old hatreds between north and south that tear the land apart. Malcolm Blakley, hero of the Reaver War, seeks to end the conflict between men, yet it falls to his son Ian and huntress Gwen Adair, to stop the killing before it tears the land apart – fighting mad gods, inquisitor priests, holy knights, and noble houses in battles of prejudice, politics, and power…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783297379</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jim Quillen
 
|title=Inside Alcatraz: My Life on the Rock
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=It sounds like something from a Hollywood movie. A group of young prisoners make a daring escape from prison and go on the run, cleverly evading capture thanks to quick wits and creative thinking. After managing to cover some distance, the men began to feel ''smart, confident and quite comfortable,'' thinking that they had managed to outwit the police. A rude awakening with gun to the head one morning proved otherwise. The circumstances of their escape meant that their capture would lead to a long incarceration in one of the most notorious prisons in the world: Alcatraz. ''Inside Alcatraz'' is the story of one of those men, Jim Quillen, and his long road to redemption.
+
|summary=As always in Dostoyevsky, the character work is sublime. One is never left wondering what a character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and temperaments with remarkable clarity.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784750662</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241619785
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Tasha Kavanagh
+
|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD
|title=Things We Have In Common
+
|title=Nowhere Man
 +
|author=Deborah Stone
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Yasmin is fifteen and seriously overweight - her capacity for consuming food will amaze and sicken. She's bullied at school and even her own mother finds her just a little bit weird: let's not go into what her stepfather thinks about her. Her father died a while ago, but Yasmin has never really come to terms with his death and still has the feeling that everything would be OK if only Terry was still around. There's a girl in Yasmin's class called Alice and Yasmin is so in awe of her that she stalks her. One day, in the school playground, she spots a man watching Alice as carefully as she does and becomes obsessed by the idea that the man is going to abduct Alice.
+
|summary=In a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of every preparation, down to the last detail. Some last reflections, and then he says goodbye to his wife, the world, and his life. It's horribly sad. At work in her shop, his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and ailing mother, who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a while before Diana realises what Patrick has done.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782115943</amazonuk>
+
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Virginie Despentes
 +
|title=King Kong Theory
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Autobiography
 +
|summary=''King Kong Theory'' is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays.
 +
|isbn=191309734X
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Alba de Cespedes
 +
|title=Forbidden Notebook
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Literary Fiction
 +
|summary=This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the moment our protagonist, Valeria Cossati, purchases her forbidden notebook, and learns about herself in the most intimate and revealing ways.
 +
|isbn=1782278222
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Nora Roberts
+
|author=Ottessa Moshfegh
|title=Stars of Fortune (Guardians Trilogy)
+
|title=My Year of Rest and Relaxation
|rating=5
+
|rating=3
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Sasha suffers from nightmares.  The scary details may vary but the gist of the contents remain the same: the voice of a stranger, the presence of evil and the faces of five people on an island, none of which/whom she knows.  She tries all she can to exorcise the darkness including transferring the faces and locations into her art but even the refuge of her talent and livelihood doesn't work.  In a moment of bravery Sasha discovers the identity of the island and travels to where she knows it will all begin and possibly end.  For there somewhere on Crete the other five wait and the evil materialises along with the events that three goddesses began eons ago.
+
|summary=At best, this novel is a scathing critique of modern society and reveals the fragility of human relationships; at worst, it is the cynical, predictable and slightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonist. This unlikely heroine, a slim, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the world, but resolves not to lose sleep over it: in fact, her solution lies in her hibernation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349407797</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1784707422
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Jo Callaghan
|author=Hugh Bicheno
+
|title=Leave No Trace
|title=Battle Royal: The Wars of Lancaster and York, 1450-1464 (Wars of the Roses Book 1)
+
|rating=4
|rating=4.5
+
|genre=Crime
|genre=History
+
|summary=When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective LockIt's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold casesBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project.  Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?
|summary=Lancastrian Henry VI is an ailing kingPolitically his popularity waivers as he spends English money on apparently fruitless wars in France and physically his poor mental health translates as unreliability and physical weaknessHis queen, Marguerite d'Anjou is determined to shore up any shortfall for the sake of the country and her children but the House of York has other ideas.  And so begins bloody (and rather fascinating) civil war…
+
|isbn=139851120X
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781859655</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B0DB64PYV5
|author=Frances Brody
+
|title=The White Rose
|title=Sisters on Bread Street
+
|author=Dave Baines
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=Julia and Margaret are the Wood sisters, struggling to hoist themselves out of a life of poverty in Leeds just before the outbreak of the first world war. Well, Julia is struggling.  Margaret sees her way out as being through marriage to a rich suffragette's son, Thomas. She's an apprentice milliner and beautiful, but both sisters have a disadvantage and it's one which grows bigger as war approaches: their father is German.
+
|summary=In 2033, a superstorm known as the White Rose devastates the Northern Hemisphere. And it's not a storm that gathers, wreaks havoc, then dissipates. Instead, it hovers across half the Earth with its octopus-like tentacles, not giving up and never going away.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349410704</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}

Latest revision as of 09:14, 30 October 2024

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!

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0008385068.jpg

Review of

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. The Manor was her ancestral home and she's converted it into an impressive retreat for the wealthy and famous. Her husband, Owen, was the architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the site. The heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. Old scores are going to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found. Full Review

0141186356.jpg

Review of

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

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 gay bar. While David is engaged to Hella, who is 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. Full Review

0241645441.jpg

Review of

Wild East by Ashley Hickson-Lovence

4.5star.jpg Teens

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. Full Review

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Review of

The Lavender Companion by Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

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 website and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I loved this book already. Full Review

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Review of

Us in the Before and After by Jenny Valentine

5star.jpg Teens

Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a 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 happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together. Full Review

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Review of

You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here by Benji Waterhouse

5star.jpg Popular Science

I was tempted to read You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here after enjoying Adam Kay's first book This is Going to Hurt, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the 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 work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding. Full Review

1803511230.jpg

Review of

A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez

5star.jpg Short Stories

Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture. Full Review

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Review of

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for 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 take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time? Full Review

B0D321VJ76.jpg

Review of

Headload of Napalm by David Chadwick

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

It's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, there's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until.... Full Review

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Review of

The Wrong Shoes by Tom Percival

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Will's life 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't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Full Review

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Review of

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

5star.jpg Science Fiction

There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them. Full Review

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Review of

The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway) by Elly Griffiths

4.5star.jpg Crime

Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness. Full Review

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Review of

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

This book is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of the grief she endured following her husband's sudden death. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and necessary resource to help people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and delusion and makes them utterly normal, lends them a human face to wear. Full Review

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Review of

The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie) by Neil Lancaster

4.5star.jpg Crime

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 struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and 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 to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. Full Review

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Review of

Where I've Not Been Lost by Glen Sibley

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's life, he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up in a local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities. Full Review

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Review of

A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11) by Jane Casey

5star.jpg Crime

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 a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. Full Review

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Review of

The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope) by Ann Cleeves

4.5star.jpg Crime

A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh. Full Review

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Review of

Moral Injuries by Christie Watson

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

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-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. Full Review

0241636604.jpg

Review of

The Trading Game: A Confession by Gary Stevenson

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. 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 ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader. Full Review

000862657X.jpg

Review of

Lover Birds by Leanne Egan

4.5star.jpg Teens

When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and 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 she's never had a good kiss with any of 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? Full Review

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Review of

The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024 by Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)

5star.jpg Politics and Society

Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it isn't and that applies to The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what really happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, Johnson at 10, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. The Conservative Effect is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co-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 coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024. Full Review

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Review of

The Last Life of Lori Mills by Max Boucherat

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

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 lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn? Full Review

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Review of

White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

5star.jpg Short Stories

As always in Dostoyevsky, the character work is sublime. One is never left wondering what a character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and temperaments with remarkable clarity. Full Review

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Review of

Nowhere Man by Deborah Stone

4star.jpg General Fiction

In a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of every preparation, down to the last detail. Some last reflections, and then he says goodbye to his wife, the world, and his life. It's horribly sad. At work in her shop, his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and ailing mother, who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a while before Diana realises what Patrick has done. Full Review

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Review of

King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes

4star.jpg Autobiography

King Kong Theory is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays. Full Review

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Review of

Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Cespedes

4star.jpg Literary Fiction

This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the moment our protagonist, Valeria Cossati, purchases her forbidden notebook, and learns about herself in the most intimate and revealing ways. Full Review

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Review of

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

3star.jpg Literary Fiction

At best, this novel is a scathing critique of modern society and reveals the fragility of human relationships; at worst, it is the cynical, predictable and slightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonist. This unlikely heroine, a slim, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the world, but resolves not to lose sleep over it: in fact, her solution lies in her hibernation. Full Review

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Review of

Leave No Trace by Jo Callaghan

4star.jpg Crime

When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career? Full Review

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Review of

The White Rose by Dave Baines

4star.jpg Dystopian Fiction

In 2033, a superstorm known as the White Rose devastates the Northern Hemisphere. And it's not a storm that gathers, wreaks havoc, then dissipates. Instead, it hovers across half the Earth with its octopus-like tentacles, not giving up and never going away. Full Review