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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=Steve Silberman
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==The Best New Books==
|title=Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter about People Who Think Differently
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Reference
 
|summary=''Neurotribes'' is is an ambitious book. It aims to challenge the widely-held perception that autism is a disability, or a developmental delay. One of my favourite quotes from the book is this:
 
  
''One way to understand neurodiversity is to think in terms of 'human operating systems' instead of diagnostic labels... Just because a computer is not running Windows doesn't mean that it's broken.''
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'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
  
This refreshing approach underpins the whole of this ground-breaking work, which is essentially a potted-history of autism from the distant past to the present day. It will fascinate and enlighten anyone with an interest in the subject, or who is affected, directly or indirectly, by the condition. For autistic people, this book represents their roots; their cultural history, and illustrates how far the autistic community have come over the past few decades.
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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760113638</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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|title=White Nights
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|rating=5
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|genre=Short Stories
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|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.
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|isbn=0241619785
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Adam Ford
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|isbn=0008385068
|title=Stars: A Family Guide to the Night Sky
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|title=The Midnight Feast
|rating=5
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|author=Lucy Foley
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|rating=4.5
|summary=If an innovative book and a beautiful piece of art got together and had offspring, the result would probably look a lot like an Ivy Press publication. This publisher never ceases to impress and their books are the kind of ones that you keep to pass onto subsequent generations. With this in mind, I was excited to receive a lovely children's book called ''Stars: A Family Guide to the Night Sky'' for review, which invites families to ''explore the cosmos from your own backyard''. Would it live up to the standard of its predecessors? I was getting starry-eyed in anticipation...
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|genre=Thrillers
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782402764</amazonuk>
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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= Michelle Magorian and Sam Usher
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|author=James Baldwin
|title= Smile
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|title=Giovanni's Room
|rating= 5
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Dyslexia Friendly
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|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= Josh is tired, fed up and feeling put out and ignored. No, he isn't having a tantrum – something big has happened (well, two things actually) and his world has turned upside down. You see ''The Howler'' has arrived and everything has changed and not, so far, for the better. Baby brother Charlie is just seventeen days old and is not only taking up all of his parents' time, but also stopping everyone in the house from getting enough sleep with his constant howling. Will the crying 'ever' stop? And there's worse because the really terrible thing is the baby's arrival meant a very special event had to be cancelled.  
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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>1781125007</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0141186356
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=James Lovegrove
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|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|title=Sherlock Holmes - The Thinking Engine
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|title=Wild East
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
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|genre=Teens
|summary=In this hyper-connected world, it is not difficult to conceive of machines that can answer perplexing questions in the blink of an eye, communicate over a vast network or even seemingly outsmart humans. Of course, in the year 1895, such a machine would be viewed with deep suspicion and curiosity; hailed as a miracle, or condemned as the work of dark supernatural forces. James Lovegrove put this idea to the test in his latest Sherlock Holmes adventure, ''The Thinking Engine'', which pits man against machine in the ultimate battle of wits.
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783295031</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241645441
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Mandi Kujawa and Claude St Aubin
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|isbn=1635866847
|title=Jacqueline the Singing Crow
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|title=The Lavender Companion
|rating=4
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|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
|genre=Emerging Readers
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|rating=4.5
|summary=Meet Jacqueline the crowShe's perfectly happy up in Canada, with a whole forest of trees to choose from, enough to eat, and a whole sky into which she can thrust her birdsong in celebrationShe has, in fact, a lot to crow aboutUntil she hears humans talk of her as drably black, dumb, and ugly to both look at and to hearWhat she chooses to do as a response is a surprise worth discovering in this large format picture book.
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|genre=Lifestyle
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0992150876</amazonuk>
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|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for youBefore 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 sanctionedYou get to fold down the corners of pagesYou suspect that smears of butter would not be a problemI ''loved'' this book already.
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Clive Gifford and Professor Anil Seth
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|author=Jenny Valentine
|title=Brain Twisters: The Science of Thinking and Feeling
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|title=Us in the Before and After
|rating=3.5
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|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|genre=Teens
|summary=Meet the brain.  We all have one.  We all use it (and by 'it' I mean a heck of a lot more of it than the 10% of urban myth) every second of the day.  We engage with different parts of it for balance, catching a ball, memorising a list of moves in controlling a video game character, or understanding things ranging from written instruction to body languageIt's such a vital part of the body, taking up 20% of our glucose fuel intake as well as of oxygen, that understanding of it cannot come at too young an age.  But in this varied and complex book, looking at a varied and complex subject, I do wonder if the right approach has been taken at all times.
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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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782402047</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1471196585
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jenny Broom and Kristjana S Williams
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|isbn=1787333175
|title=The Wonder Garden: Wander through the world's wildest habitats and discover more than 80 amazing animals
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|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
|rating=4
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|author=Benji Waterhouse
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|rating=5
|summary=Is it any wonder that this book calls the outside world The Wonder Garden?  I know things in fiction books, on TV and in games can be fabulous, but can they compete – really – with what nature has presented?  You only need a gate through which to go, and a willingness to explore.  This book provides those gates – there they are, shining luxuriously on the cover of this jumbo-sized hardback.  And in five easy-to-take steps, the rest of the book provides for that exploration, taking us down south in Amazonia, down below the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, and up – to deserts and mountains, via Germany's own Black ForestAnd the trip is nothing if not spectacular to look at.
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|genre=Popular Science
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847806473</amazonuk>
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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.  
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Martin Haake and Georgia Cherry
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|author=Mariana Enriquez
|title=City Atlas: Discover the world with 30 city maps
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|title=A Sunny Place for Shady People
|rating=4
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|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
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|genre=Short Stories
|summary=It's not every time I mention the feel of the book I'm reviewing, but this time it's worth a mention.  This volume has been lavishly presented in a roughened card cover, as opposed to the gloss of others in this format from this publisher, and so looks and feels like an old stamp catalogue. The title image is indeed a stamp, stuck on the centre of the cover.  And just as all stamps the world over are practically the same yet completely different in design, so are the world's cities.  The point of this book is to bring the common elements as well as the unique features of all the world's capitals to the fore, to show that while a city may be a city is a city, their constant variety is what makes each and every one worth a visit.  With that being on the costly side, this is a decent enough substitute.
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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>1847806481</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1803511230
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and LeUyen Pham
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|author=Onyi Nwabineli
|title=The Princess in Black
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|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Emerging Readers
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Princess Magnolia has a double life.  On one hand she has a perfectly prim, proper and pink castle turret to live in, on the other she has a secret escape tunnelOn her head she has a tiara, on her finger a monster alarmHer life is also full of threats – on one side a horrid, blue, goat-eating beastie, on the other a prim and proper visitor intent on finding out if the perfect Princess has any secretsWell we know she has, but will they be discovered – and which is the greater threat?
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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 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 empireCan she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763678880</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0861546873
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Kate Tojeiro
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|author=David Chadwick
|title= The Art of Possible
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|title=Headload of Napalm
|rating= 4
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Business and Finance
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary= As I recently wrote on this website, I started reading management manuals and self-improvement books at a time when my life was not going so great. Since then, it seems that they have continued to drop into my life just as I need them.  I'm sure there's something to the science of "serendipity", which basically means we notice stuff more when it's what we need.
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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>0993236901</amazonuk>
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|isbn= B0D321VJ76
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Rebecca Lim
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|author=Tom Percival
|title=The Astrologer's Daughter
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|title=The Wrong Shoes
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Horary Astrology is an ancient branch of horoscopic astrology in which an astrologer attempts to answer a question asked at an exact time by the construction of a horoscope around itClear as mud?  Yes, me too.  Suffice to say, an horary astrologer would have to be a very gifted individual indeed and Avicenna Crowe's mother, Joanne, is such an astrologer. In fact, her predictive powers have been uncannily exact for her whole life and with such a gift comes an assortment of negative aspects; stalkers and maniacally obsessed clients at the bad end of the scale to, well, worse. Sometimes ''much'' worse…
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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 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>1922182001</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Derek Landy
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|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|title=Demon Road
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|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=4
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|rating=5
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= Amber Lamont was a relatively ordinary 16-year-old, living a pretty quiet, uneventful life; she went to school, had a part-time job, and a decent relationship with her aloof but loving parents. But over the course of just one day everything goes completely to hell. Amber discovers that she can turn into a demon, a genuine, red-skinned, satanic monster, with horns and talons that can rip a human to shreds. Her demon side is the least of her problems, however. For Amber's parents are also demons, and now that her powers have manifested, they are intent on eating her and absorbing her power for themselves. Amber finds herself on the run, travelling the Demon Road across America in a desperate attempt to escape her parents, accompanied by Milo, an enigmatic guardian, who has dark secrets of his own.  
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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>0008140812</amazonuk>
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|isbn= 0356522776
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=C B Calico
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|isbn=1786482126
|title=Dandelion Angel
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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=In her Author's Note, debut novelist C.B. Calico reveals that ''Dandelion Angel'' was inspired by a non-fiction work, ''Understanding the Borderline Mother'' by Christine Ann Lawson. The four mother/daughter relationships in this Germany-set novel – all marked to some extent by dysfunction, physical and/or verbal abuse, and borderline personality disorder – are based on Lawson's metaphorical classifications: the hermit, the queen, the waif, and the witch. Looping back through her four storylines in three complete cycles, Calico shows how mental illness is rooted in childhood experiences and can go on to affect a whole family.
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|genre=Crime
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0112SC9CA</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= Damian McKinney
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|author=Joan Didion
|title= The Commando Entrepreneur
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|title=The Year of Magical Thinking
|rating= 4
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Business and Finance
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|genre=Autobiography
|summary= It always helps to know the bias of anyone reviewing a book for you, so cards on the table: I am something of a "self-help" / "self-improvement" junkie.  I use both expressions because it's often difficult to know where the boundary between management text books and teach-yourself-a-better-way-to-live books lies.
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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>1909273619</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0007216858
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Walter M Miller Jr
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|isbn=0008551324
|title= Dark Benediction
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|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)
|rating= 5
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|author=Neil Lancaster
|genre= Science Fiction
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|rating=4.5
|summary= Walter M. Miller Jr is rightly placed among the science fiction giants H.G. Wells, Michael Moorcock, and Philip K. Dick in the ''Masterworks'' series, a large selection of genre-defining writers and works at the centre of what is now such a popular and diverse range of literatures, films, and television productions. Miller is considered one of the finest science fiction writers of the 1950s, and in ''Dark Benediction'', fourteen of this author's best short stories are brought together in one collection.
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|genre=Crime
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473211948</amazonuk>
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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 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.
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Joan Aiken and Quentin Blake
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|isbn=1739526910
|title=Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur
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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=For Sharing
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you think about all the many unsuitable items that Mortimer the raven has eaten, from staircases to bowler hats, it's surprising that he's still in as good a shape as he isThis time, Mortimer finds himself left alone with Mrs Jones' sewing machine.  I'm still not sure why Mrs Jones ever lets him out of her sight, since he has an unerring capacity for trouble, yet here we find him, gobbling down the pink material that is intended for Arabel's new dress, swiftly followed by the needle!  When Mortimer eventually discovers the foot pedal that makes the sewing machine go he and Arabel are turfed out of the house and allowed to go across the road to the park where a crowd has gathered around an interesting find in a large hole…
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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>1847806929</amazonuk>
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0008405026
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|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
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|author=Jane Casey
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|rating=5
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|genre=Crime
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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 haltNow, 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= Elizabeth McCracken
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|isbn=1529077745
|title= Thunderstruck
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|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)
|rating= 5
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|author=Ann Cleeves
|genre=Short Stories
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|rating=4.5
|summary= I chose to review this collection of short stories with no prior knowledge of the author's work – often the best way to do it, though I am aware that McCracken's work comes highly commended. After reading these stories, I can see why and I am already looking forward to reading more of her work.
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|genre=Crime
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592975</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 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.
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Eli Horowitz, Matthew Derby and Kevin Moffett
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|isbn=1399613073
|title=The Silent History
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|title=Moral Injuries
 +
|author=Christie Watson
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Science Fiction
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Well, they kept this quiet – for reasons that will become obvious.  A couple of years ago people in America were giving birth to problematic kidsThey (the children) were soon found to be unnaturally quiet – perhaps crying with hunger or pain, but never even trying to 'ooga-wooga' their way into their parents' heartsThey were later found to be completely unable to speak, they could not read and indeed they could not understand anything said to them, or shown them, as an instructionThey were physically unable to parse anything as language, and were in a silent world of their ownBut right about now they and we are combining worlds – schools are being set up, and funds are being made available, and people are coming down on the endless divide as to whether they are just problematic, disabled – or even the blessedIn a couple of years, however, the problems the virus that is causing these people to be born with will be shown to be a major problem – and that is before the kids themselves change.  For they will be able to switch their mental abilities much like a blind man can hear more than the average, and will be able to comprehend body and facial language much more coherently than anyone elseThroughout this timeline, however, people will be working hard to try and study the problem, and put it right – if indeed 'right' is the correct word…
+
|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 centuryOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeonLaura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctorAnjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GPWhen 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 consequencesTwenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friendsThis time, it's their teenage children who are involved.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959286X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Alison Pick
+
|isbn=0241636604
|title=Between Gods
+
|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
|rating=4
+
|author=Gary Stevenson
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary= Alison Pick's paternal grandparents escaped Czechoslovakia just before the Holocaust by bribing the Nazis for visas to Canada; the rest of the family died in Auschwitz. They spent their whole lives trying to pass as Christians, and Pick's father, too, was reluctant to have anything to do with Judaism. Pick only learned he was Jewish through a conversation overheard when she was 11.
+
|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472225090</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Joan Aiken and Quentin Blake
+
|author=Leanne Egan
|title=The Spiral Stair
+
|title=Lover Birds
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Teens
 +
|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?
 +
|isbn=000862657X
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1009473085
 +
|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024
 +
|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=I'm rather fond of Arabel and MortimerI like the outlandish situations that they find themselves in, and the way Joan Aiken wrote the stories without speaking down to her readers in any way, inserting humour for the grown ups reading them tooHere our terrible twosome have been sent to Uncle Urk at the zoo whilst Mr Jones is in hospitalAunt Effie, however, has little patience for a noisy ravenWill Mortimer land them both in trouble?  Or will they somehow manage to save the zoo from a scurrilous animal-stealing plot?
+
|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847806945</amazonuk>
+
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Max Boucherat
 +
|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
 +
|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 lonesomeWhat 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 worldBut 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 tamperingWhen 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?
 +
|isbn=0008666482
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jacqueline Wilson
+
|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD
|title=Katy
+
|title=Nowhere Man
 +
|author=Deborah Stone
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= Eleven year-old Katy Carr is a tomboy who, despite her best intentions, is always getting into trouble. Lively and adventurous, Katy is very much the leader of her five younger brothers and sisters until an accident damages her spine and she finds herself confined to a wheelchair. Suddenly Katy's life is turned upside down and she has to learn the most basic things all over again, to redefine her role in the family, and find a new meaning in life.
+
|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>0141353961</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom
+
|author=Virginie Despentes
|title=Dino Dinners
+
|title=King Kong Theory
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ask most children if dinosaurs are cool and you will get an emphatic – Yes!  The thought that giant looming monsters once roamed the Earth, fighting and eating eat one other, sounds exciting.  It is important to encourage this enthusiasm and there are loads of books that are full of dinosaur facts, but are there any full of dinosaur fun as well?
+
|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>1847806651</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=191309734X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jenny Downham
+
|author=Alba de Cespedes
|title=Unbecoming
+
|title=Forbidden Notebook
|rating=5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Three women. Three sets of secrets about to be laid bare.
+
|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.
Katie lives with her learning-disable brother Chris and her rather controlling mother. They've recently moved to her mother's childhood town after Katie's father got a girlfriend and a new baby. Katie, a hardworking and dutiful girl, is halfway through her AS levels when everything - and I mean everything - goes wrong. First up, Katie kisses her best friend Esme. Esme rejects her and, worse still, tells all the mean girls at school what happened. They miss no opportunity to mock and name call. And then a phone call one night brings Mary into their lives...
+
|isbn=1782278222
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910200646</amazonuk>
+
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Ottessa Moshfegh
 +
|title=My Year of Rest and Relaxation
 +
|rating=3
 +
|genre=Literary Fiction
 +
|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.
 +
|isbn=1784707422
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Tom Claver
+
|author=Jo Callaghan
|title=Hider/Seeker
+
|title=Leave No Trace
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Harry Bridger is an ex-policeman who now makes his living helping people disappear. His clients aren't always whiter than white, but when a wealthy woman fleeing domestic violence asks him to help, his chivalrous instincts override the doubts that lurk in the back of his mind. A few things about Angela Linehan don't chime right but she's been vouched for by an old friend and Harry's basic decency won't allow him to leave a woman and her child in danger. And there's another advantage to helping Angela. It brings Harry back into the orbit of his ex-wife Bethany. And Harry would do almost anything to redeem himself in her eyes.
+
|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 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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00WG9GGLA</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=139851120X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Ursula Dubosarsky
+
|isbn=B0DB64PYV5
|title=The Red Shoe
+
|title=The White Rose
|rating=5
+
|author=Dave Baines
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|rating=4
|summary=They may be quite far apart, but three houses in a row in the rural suburbs of 1950s Sydney contain some incredibly unusual people. In one, a solitary old man of very few words, shuffling to the end of his days, but brandishing a Japanese sword he's purloined after WWII, and with a gun in the corner of his lounge.  In the middle, a family of five, with a father figure suffering from PTSD due to the same war, a mother feeling friendless and alone in the isolated time and location, and their three daughters – one of whom has given up on school after an alleged nervous breakdown, the middle one who barely speaks more than the neighbour, and Matilda, our key interest, who likes the idea of spies, and has an imaginary friend who came out of the radio. The third house however might be where the most interesting people live – after all, it had been empty, but now the luxurious building is home to several shady men in suits, who turned up out of the blue in luxury cars, and with at least one gun of their own…
+
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406358746</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= Libba Bray
 
|title= Lair of Dreams
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= Teens
 
|summary= After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O'Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. With her uncanny ability to read people's secrets, she's a media darling. It seems like everyone's in love with New York City's latest It Girl – their 'Sweetheart Seer'. But while Evie is enjoying the high life, her fellow Diviners Henry DuBois and Ling Chan will fight to keep their powers secret.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907410422</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}

Latest revision as of 08:50, 31 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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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

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

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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

0008405026.jpg

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

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

B0DGDJRHYD.jpg

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

191309734X.jpg

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