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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= Merinda D'Aprano
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==The Best New Books==
|title= The Essential Guide to Your Prep School Journey (Head Teacher in Your Pocket)
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|rating= 4.5
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'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
|genre= Lifestyle
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|summary= As you might have gathered from the title, ''The Essential Guide to Your Prep School Journey'' is pitched at parents who intend on using the private sector to educate their children. And clearly, these are the parents who will benefit most from reading the book. However, there is a great deal of general advice within its pages which will prove helpful even to parents whose children will be travelling through the state sector. So if this is you, don't discount this book immediately. Such advice includes ''Why is reading so important?'', ''How can I promote a brave learner?'' and ''Is the internet safe for my child?'' - you can see that these are universally applicable topics and topics that all parents appreciate advice about.  
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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993550304</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
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|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
|author= Rachel Hore
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|author=James Baldwin
|title= The House on Bellevue Gardens
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|title=Giovanni's Room
|rating= 4
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Women's Fiction
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|genre=Literary Fiction  
|summary= Leonie was left a large, somewhat run-down London house by a friend, some years previously. She's an artist, and something of a bohemian, and lets out rooms at low price to people in need. There's Peter, who occupies the basement and lives in squalor, which - occasionally - she tries to clean up. There are also an elderly Indian couple, Hari and Bela, who have been there for some time, and a young and rather shy man called Rick who is writing a graphic novel.  
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471130789</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0141186356
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Anakana Schofield
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|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|title= Martin John
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|title=Wild East
|rating= 4
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Literary Fiction
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|genre=Teens
|summary= I had heard much about this novel before I read it for review, by which I mean I had heard it was profane, strange and had a daring subject matter accompanied by elements of humourI have to say that whilst I agree it is certainly profane and strange and incredibly innovative, I didn't find much humour in it at all.
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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 rapperBut 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908276665</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241645441
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Sophy Henn
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|isbn=1635866847
|title= Pass It On
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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
|genre= For Sharing
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|genre=Lifestyle
|summary= A small girl wakes up one morning, yawns in the morning sun and then bounces through the day finding joy in everyday situations and encouraging those around her to enjoy them too. Even on gloomy grey days she has the happy knack of finding something to smile about. This is most definitely a ''glass half full'' little person. By the end of book the reader probably will be too!
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0723299862</amazonuk>
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}}
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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
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|genre=Teens
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|summary=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.
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|isbn=1471196585
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1787333175
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|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
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|author=Benji Waterhouse
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|rating=5
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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 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Edith Morley
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|author=Mariana Enriquez
|title=Before and After: Reminiscences of a Working Life
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|title=A Sunny Place for Shady People
|rating=4
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|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
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|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Edith Morley was born in Bayswater in 1875 and wasn't overly keen on being a girl, although she found the late Victorian conventions restrictive rather than repressive.  Her descriptions of the life which young women (or even women of any age) were expected to lead is exceptional in the way that it shows the tedium and the limitations.  She had one great good fortune in that her father (a surgeon-dentist) and well-read mother believed in the benefits of a good education for boys ''and'' girls. After spending two years in Germany as part of her education she went on to get an 'equivalent' degree from Oxford University (which is all that was available to women at the time) and then to become the first female professor in England in 1908, at Reading University.
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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>1909747165</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803511230
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Adrian Tchaikovsky
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|author=Onyi Nwabineli
|title=The Tiger and the Wolf (Echoes of the Fall)
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|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Maniye is a girl torn between her mother's tribe, the tiger people and her father's wolvesShe has always known her father and wolf chieftain killed her mother as soon as Maniye was born but she has only just discovered his purpose for Maniye's lifeThere is only one alternative for her: to run away, taking Hesprec the snake and proposed wolf blood sacrificeAlthough what she hasn't reckoned on is just how much she has to learn, her father's determination and the dogged perseverance of Broken Axe, lone wolf and hired killer. She also seems to be running towards a world on the verge of a horrific war as Maniye places herself between a rock and a very hard place indeed.
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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>0230770061</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0861546873
|amazonus=<amazonus>0230770061</amazonus>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=A K Benedict
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|author=David Chadwick
|title=Jonathan Dark or The Evidence Of Ghosts
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|title=Headload of Napalm
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Maria King sits by the Thames mudlarking - sifting through the washed up treasures - on a regular basis. Only today she finds a ring in a box with 'Marry me Maria' on the lid in braille. Blind from birth and now blind by choice, the words can be for no one else but Ms King.  However a greater surprise awaits inside the box: the ring is still on a finger belonging to the last girl who received such a proposal.  DI Jonathan Dark is assigned to the case, not realising what he's taken on or the sort of help he'll need to call on. The dead are all around him, his plan is not to let Maria join 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>1409144550</amazonuk>
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|isbn= B0D321VJ76
|amazonus=<amazonus>1409144550</amazonus>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Mary Paulson Ellis
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|author=Tom Percival
|title=The Other Mrs Walker
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|title=The Wrong Shoes
|rating=4
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|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=''A photograph. Six orange pips sucked dry. A Brazil nut with the Ten Commandments etched into the shell. An emerald dress dripping with sequins.'' This is the legacy of Mrs Walker, who died alone in a freezing Edinburgh flat, drinking her final glass of whisky. Nylons wrinkling at the knee, white hair hair dyed red, scratches on her cheeks, hollow bones and a liver like paste. Who was Mrs Walker and why did she die alone?
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|summary=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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447293908</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Lauren Johnson
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|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|title= So Great a Prince: England and the Accession of Henry VIII
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|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating= 4.5
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|rating=5
|genre= History
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= King Henry VII, whose victory at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 brought the curtain down on the Wars of the Roses, brought peace and stability to a divided country, but his last few years were marked by corruption and repression. When he died in 1509, there were hopes that his eighteen-year-old heir, now Henry VIII, would mark the end of medieval England and the start of a new era.  The age of Protestantism and the Renaissance would indeed fulfil these aspirations.  Lauren Johnson's book examines in fascinating detail the transitional year between the old and the new.
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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>178185985X</amazonuk>
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|isbn= 0356522776
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Mona Awad
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|isbn=1786482126
|title= 13 Ways of Looking At A Fat Girl
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|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)
|rating= 4
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|author=Elly Griffiths
|genre= General Fiction
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|rating=4.5
|summary= Liz is fat. Not just plump or chubby or, as my director often describes people, ''bubbly'', but full on, capital F fat. It's perhaps one of the frustrations of this book that we never get a number, because she's clearly obsessed with what the scale shows, but won't share that reading.
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|genre=Crime
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0143128485</amazonuk>
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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.
 
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}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Jenny Colgan
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|author=Joan Didion
|title=The Little Shop of Happy Ever After
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|title=The Year of Magical Thinking
|rating= 4
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Women's Fiction
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|genre=Autobiography
|summary= I loved the introduction to this book. It explains that it's a story for readers who love books, and outlines with light humour the places where the author recommends settling down with a good book. I related strongly to the idea of reading in bed, and forgetting who is who as I drop off to sleep; this is my usual mode. Travelling is also, in my experience, an excellent time to read. I don't read in the bath - and the author's description of books drying out on radiators conjured up a depressing image - but I enjoyed all her other suggestions.
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075155393X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0007216858
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Clare Donoghue
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|isbn=0008551324
|title= Trust No One
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|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)
|rating= 4
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|author=Neil Lancaster
|genre= Crime
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|rating=4.5
|summary= They're an ordinary family, by modern standardsRichard and wife Nicola have split up, but are on reasonably amicable termsThe kids stay over with their Dad often enoughHe makes time for them and their friendsOk, so fourteen year old Harvey is dyslexic and has been diagnosed as having  ADHD.  He's also got a quick temper.  But he's very protective of his little sister, 12-year-old Olive.
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|genre=Crime
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447284291</amazonuk>
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|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the policeNeither 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.
 
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}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Deborah Bee
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|isbn=1739526910
|title=The Last Thing I Remember
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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=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Contemporary writers are mining a rich seam of psychological thrillers and, within this genre, I seem to be particularly attracted to stories featuring comatose protagonists. Comatose protagonists? Isn't that a contradiction in terms? True, you do normally expect a protagonist to, well, do something. And Deborah Mee's heroine Sarah does nothing at all, other than listen, and try and remember, from her unconscious state. In her narrative she offers us nothing more than fractured memories and snippets of conversations from around her bedside. Yet with these meagre tools she helps the reader build up a vivid picture of what is happening around her, of her own character, and of the events leading to her hospital admission. As a reader you gradually piece together what made Sarah what she is today. At first you see an apparently successful career woman in a loving marriage but, as layers are gradually removed, what lies beneath becomes apparent. Sarah's controlling husband has a sinister brother who comes to sit by her bedside, while her toxic mother wages an ongoing war of words with Sarah's spineless father... At times I wanted to weep for what happened to Sarah; at other times I wanted to scream at her for letting it happen.
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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>B0196P0S4W</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Sharon Guskin
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|isbn=0008405026
|title= The Forgetting Time
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|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|rating= 5
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|author=Jane Casey
|genre= General Fiction
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|rating=5
|summary= Janie is a single mother, living in New York with her pre-schooler Noah. It's just the two of them, so it's rather disconcerting when Noah screams out in the night, calling for his ''real mom'' and asking when he can go home. Night after night this happens. There's other things, too. He hates water and regularly goes to nursery stinky because his mother simply cannot get him in the bath. He has the odd bizarre turn of phrase that comes out, far beyond what one might expect for a child of his age. He knows certain things, too, without anyone understanding how he picked up this knowledge, whether it be the names of different reptiles or the plot of books he's never read.
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|genre=Crime
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509806792</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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alan MacDonald and David Roberts
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|isbn=1529077745
|title=Fame! (Dirty Bertie)
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|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)
|rating=4
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|author=Ann Cleeves
|genre=Confident Readers
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|rating=4.5
|summary=Book eleventy-thump in this series, and there is still no let-up in the situations that Dirty Bertie can be clumsy in, have a naughty approach about, or be accident-prone throughoutAnd while these three short stories may not be everyday circumstances, they have a universal recognition for the very young target audience – probably the seven-to-tensSo we have Bertie successfully apply for a part in a TV presentation – only to find it crosses a line; we see him get taken fishing, only for him to be bored and therefore naughty (and therefore successful, of course); and we have him and his friends trying to play as Robin Hood, only to find the sharing-out bit that normally follows the robbing just that bit too hard…
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|genre=Crime
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847156665</amazonuk>
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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 teensThe dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned upD 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Roger Hargreaves
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|isbn=1399613073
|title= Mr Men Adventure with Dinosaurs
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|title=Moral Injuries
|rating= 5
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|author=Christie Watson
|genre= For Sharing
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|rating=4.5
|summary= The Mr Men and Little Misses are branching out. No longer content with simple stories focussing on just one character, they're getting together with their friends for bigger and bolder adventures. Of course it would be Little Miss Curious who, in a curious way, finds the footprint to begin with. She turns to Mr Clever to find out what it is and, being clever, he tells her immediately: it belongs to a dinosaur. How exciting! The pair, along with some friends, set out to find the dinos.
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|genre=Thrillers
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405283033</amazonuk>
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|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-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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Tom Huddlestone
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|isbn=0241636604
|title=The Nest (Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space)
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|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
|rating=4
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|author=Gary Stevenson
|genre=Confident Readers
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|rating=4.5
|summary=The risk continuesHaving faced great danger in their search for knowledge about their kidnapped, explorer parents, Milo and Lina are tracking a rebellious radio broadcastBut once again you can probably bet your life on their quest taking them into great danger, and in a mysterious world of bizarrely crashed spacecraft and wild life, danger is certainly around…
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|genre=Autobiography
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140527994X</amazonuk>
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|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 StevensonA 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 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Cavan Scott
+
|author=Leanne Egan
|title=The Snare (Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space)
+
|title=Lover Birds
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Teens
|summary=Milo and Lina are used to haring around the universe, but never quite like this… They have seen their parents kidnapped by the Empire, in need of the adults' knowledge from exploring as scientists in the Wild Space area. They are hastening to the watery planet Thune to seek help, but unknown to them, they may be heading not so much away from the fire but towards a right frying-pan…
+
|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>1405279931</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=000862657X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero
+
|isbn=1009473085
|title=Modesty Blaise - Ripper Jax
+
|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024
|rating=4
+
|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|genre=Graphic Novels
+
|rating=5
|summary=Is there any stopping Modesty BlaiseWell, inasmuch as there are only ten stories left that have not been anthologised in these lovely reprints, yes – just three books to go, by my reckoningThat reckoning should be quite accurate, if I can be immodest, for there is a lot that is routine about these storiesThey all had three panels a day, six days a week (with one day's output being less relevant to the story for those papers that didn't carry the comic on weekends), for twenty-one weeks.  But rest assured there is also a lot that is unusual about Modesty and her output, including a never-ending variety to the locations, to the manner of the baddy's crime, and to the action Modesty and her Willie are forced to undertake to win the day. And nobody, but nobody, has undertaken so much action and come out looking so attractive…
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783298588</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 yearsIt'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
+
{{Frontpage
|author=M G Leonard
+
|author=Max Boucherat
|title=Beetle Boy
+
|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|rating=5
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= When Darkus's dad disappears from a locked room in the Natural History Museum, everyone's desperate to discover what happened. However, when no clues are found, the police and the newspapers rapidly lose interest and Darkus is left to solve the mystery. Luckily, he has some very special friends to help him.
+
|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>1910002704</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008666482
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Nick Ostler and Mark Huckerby
+
|author=Fyodor Dostoyevsky
|title= Defender of the Realm
+
|title=White Nights
|rating= 5
+
|rating=5
|genre= Teens
+
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Alfie does not feel like he's the right person to be heir to the throne. He's awkward, bullied and always in the front page of the news for his latest mishap. His brother Richard, as the papers love to remind him, would be much better suited to the part. But when their father the King suddenly dies, ready or not, suitable or not, Alfie is no longer the heir, he is the king and with that defender of the realm. Together with an unlikely ally in the anti- royalist Hayley, Alfie learns his true heritage, protecting the kingdom from all the monsters no one knows exist... Suddenly all the royal duties he'd been expecting don't seem so onerous in comparison. Alfie must quickly grow into the King the country needs, or who knows what will be left of the country?
+
|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>1407164236</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241619785
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Joanna Walsh
+
|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD
|title= Vertigo
+
|title=Nowhere Man
|rating= 4
+
|author=Deborah Stone
|genre= Literary Fiction
+
|rating=4
|summary= The short stories in Joanna Walsh's collection have the overall effect of disparate streams of consciousness of a woman laying bear her very soul, whilst often going about seemingly mundane activities of the ordinary and every day.  The narrative voice appeared to me to be the same woman speaking throughout, playing different roles, though I'm not sure this was meant to be the case. The style of the stories is that of short vignettes, mostly written in a modernist, stream of consciousness style.  Sometimes, the prose appears almost poetic.  
+
|genre=General Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908276800</amazonuk>
+
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Deborah Patterson
+
|author=Virginie Despentes
|title=My Book of Stories: Write Your Own Adventures
+
|title=King Kong Theory
|rating=5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=If you happen to have two children, born five years apart, you can count on having to live through practically four full years of school holidays – and that doesn't include Bank Holidays or teacher training. Weather permitting, that's well over 1,400 days where the impetus is on to take them somewhere, or spend money.  So what better and cheaper place to take them than their own imagination?  And if you can't quite unlock the door that leads there, we can certainly suggest this book.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356355</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=191309734X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=A A Milne and E H Shepard
+
|author=Alba de Cespedes
|title=Now We Are Six
+
|title=Forbidden Notebook
|rating=5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=We can see the signs in [[The House at Pooh Corner by A A Milne and E H Shepard|The House at Pooh Corner]] that Christopher Robin is growing up and now he has school work to do.  But he's a lucky little boy as he has Winnie the Pooh to help him.  Or is he lucky, given that Winnie is also known as 'the Bear of very little brain'?  Actually, Pooh has a message for us in the introduction: he says that he walked through the book one day, looking for his friend Piglet, and sat down on some of the pages by mistake.  He hopes that we won't mind.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405280867</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1782278222
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Kristopher Jansma
+
|author=Ottessa Moshfegh
|title=Why We Came to the City
+
|title=My Year of Rest and Relaxation
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=3
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary='We came to the city because we wished to live haphazardly, to reach for only the least realistic of our desires, and to see if we could not learn what our failures had to teach, and not, when we came to live, discover that we had never died. We wanted to dig deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to be overworked and reduced to our last wit.'
+
|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>0525426604</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1784707422
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Adam Guillain, Charlotte Guillain and Chris Chatterton 
+
|author=Jo Callaghan
|title=Supermarket Gremlins
+
|title=Leave No Trace
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Have you ever wandered down the aisle at your local Super Marché and found some frozen peas in the bread section, or a lonely carrot hanging out with the cerealWhat can be the cause of all the mistakes, spills and wobbly wheels that plague every superstore known to man, women and child?  Incompetent staff and lazy customers dumping stock? Nope, these problems are all caused by the sneaky Gremlins who lurk in every shop.
+
|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 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 projectWill they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405277130</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=139851120X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Rachel Delahaye
+
|isbn=B0DB64PYV5
|title= Jim Reaper Son of Grim
+
|title=The White Rose
|rating= 4
+
|author=Dave Baines
|genre= Confident Readers
+
|rating=4
|summary= It's the age-old story. Boy (Jim) fancies older girl, in a distant, can't-talk-to-her-without-dribbling sort of way. Naturally, Jim won't discuss this with his best friend Will Maggot because by some evil twist of fate, the girl is Will's sister, and everybody knows sisters are definitely off limits. Not that Fiona's given him any encouragement: in fact the only time she speaks to either of them is when she's pointing out what losers they are.
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848124872</amazonuk>
+
|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.
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=A A Milne and E H Shepard
 
|title=The House at Pooh Corner
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=The title of the book comes from the first story, in which Winnie and Piglet build a house at Pooh corner for Eeyore, but perhaps the most famous story in this second book is at chapter six, when the game of Pooh Sticks is invented.  We also meet Tigger for the first time and as with the first book [[Winnie-the-Pooh by A A Milne and E H Shepard|Winnie-the-Pooh]] each chapter is a short story in its own right, except for chapters eight and nine which have a degree of continuity as Owl's house is blown down in chapter eight and a new one is found for him at the Wolery in chapter nine. It's still not overly long even if you end up reading both as a bedtime story!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405280840</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Surya Sajnani
 
|title= Pets A Slide and Play Book
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= For Sharing
 
|summary=''Pets'' is two in one, a book and a game, and for little ones who can't or won't sit still long enough for a full story, it's a great way to introduce books while keeping it fun.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1609929152</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Adam Grant
 
|title= Originals: How Non-conformists Change the World
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Popular Science
 
|summary=Did you know that procrastination could actually aid creativity? No? Neither did I, but it's a piece of information that I shall embrace and wield in my defence from here on out, because Adam Grant says it is so. Filled with interesting snippets and fascinating cases, Originals is not just entertaining, but instructive as well. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753556979</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

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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

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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

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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

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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

1009473085.jpg

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

0008666482.jpg

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

0241619785.jpg

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