Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
 
Line 1: Line 1:
<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>
+
<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 site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page. We can even direct you to help for [https://www.easywritingservice.com/custom-book-review/ custom book reviews]! Visit [http://www.everychildareader.org www.everychildareader.org] to get free writing tips and
 
[http://www.genecaresearchreports.com www.genecaresearchreports.com] will help you get your paper written for free.
 
  
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews at TheBookbag.
+
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]]? __NOTOC__
+
Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''],  [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''],
 +
[[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram''']  and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]]
  
==Reviews of the Best New Books==
+
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews]] at TheBookbag.
 +
 
 +
Want to learn more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
 +
 
 +
==The Best New Books==
  
 
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
 
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''<!-- Remove -->
+
 
{{newreview
+
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
|author= Henrietta Rose-Innes
+
{{Frontpage
|title= Green Lion
+
|isbn=1529077745
|rating= 4
+
|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)
|genre= General Fiction
+
|author=Ann Cleeves
|summary= The opening of ''Green Lion'' is an apparently simple premise; a young South African man, Con, is tasked with picking up the belongings of an old friend, Mark, who is lying in a coma in hospital. Mark worked at a small zoo with a rare black-maned lioness, who mauled him and caused the coma. However, as the story unfolds, Rose-Innes reveals an unflinching embrace of the messiness of human and animal life, and their troubled interactions.  
+
|rating=4.5
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910709255</amazonuk>
+
|genre=Crime
 +
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Tim Akers
+
|isbn=1399613073
|title= The Iron Hound
+
|title=Moral Injuries
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Christie Watson
|genre= Fantasy
+
|rating=4.5
|summary=Ruling with an iron hand, the Church has eliminated the ancient pagan ways. Yet demonic gheists terrorise the land, hunted by the Inquisition, while age-old hatreds rage between the north and the south. Three heroes Malcolm and Ian Blakeley and Gwendolyn Adair must end the bloodshed before chaos is unleashed.
+
|genre=Thrillers
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783299509</amazonuk>
+
|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
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Gerard Cheshire
+
|isbn=0241636604
|title= A History of Victorian Postage
+
|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Gary Stevenson
|genre= History
+
|rating=4.5
|summary=Although we think of postage and the sending of letters as a specifically Victorian innovation, its roots go far deeper than that. This book, which surveys a much broader time frame than the title might suggest, presents us with an admirably concise picture of its development up to its full fruition in the mid-nineteenth century.
+
|genre=Autobiography
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445664372</amazonuk>
+
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Georgiana Deutsch and Ekaterina Trukhan
+
|author=Leanne Egan
|title= 10, 9, 8... Owls Up Late! 
+
|title=Lover Birds
|rating= 4.5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre= For Sharing
+
|genre=Teens
|summary= It's tough being a mother owl. Rather than just one or two rambunctious little ones to calm down ready for bed, she has ten of them! And there's so much going on in her tree that she must sometimes despair of ever getting them to sleep. But gradually, one by one, the owlets' eyes begin to droop and they make their way to their comfy little nest until at last . . . zzzzzz!
+
|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>184869704X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=000862657X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Isabel Otter and Maxime Lebrun
+
|author=Sally Rooney
|title=My First Wild Activity Book
+
|title=Intermezzo
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
+
|genre=General Fiction  
|summary=You sit down together as a family and ask your child what they would like to read from your bulging bookcase. Will they choose the timeless classic that you yourself read as a child?  Perhaps they will pluck for a modern tale with its dayglo colouring and storyline based around pants?  Nope.  Neither of these. All you will hear is ''Stickers!''  Your child would rather play with a sticker activity book than read with you, so best make it a worthwhile sticker activity book.
+
|summary=Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848575726</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0571365469
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jenny Oldfield
+
|isbn=1009473085
|title=Storm Cloud
+
|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024
|rating=4
+
|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
+
|rating=5
|summary=Kami Miller was invited to stay at Wolf Ridge Farm, the home of her best friend Macy Lucas, for the summer.  They were both going to be working as real cowgirls and there was a herd of 300 cows to be brought back from the mountains to the ranchIt wasn't going to be easy work, particularly as Macy's father was recovering from an accident and couldn't rideAll the pressure of running the ranch has fallen on Macy's brother, Wes - and he's not coping wellKami's upset that he's taking it out on one of the young colts, Storm Cloud, but what can she do about it?
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781126895</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 youIf 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 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Clare Donoghue
+
|author=Mark Lingane
|title= The Night Stalker
+
|title=Chimera
|rating= 4.5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre= Crime
+
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=DI Mike Lockyer and his preferred sidekick DS Jane Bennett are back – but this time not on home turf. Lewisham's finest are sent to the country for this outing. There's been a death down in Somerset. It's not the sort of thing you'd expect the regional murder squad to get involved in, it looks like a hit-and-run on a remote road in the Quantocks, probably just some drunk driving a big four-by-four who didn't even know he'd done it.
+
|summary=''The survivor stumbles forward, her steps echoing in the oppressive silence. Her heart pounds like a jackhammer. She doesn’t know where she’s heading. All she remembers is running. Terror chasing. Everything lost.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447284747</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
+
''Broken and fragmented recollections tumble around her head. Fear courses through her body. Her breaths come in shallow, ragged gasps as desperation claws at her throat. Dehydration consumes her, and a raging thirst feels unquenchable.''
{{newreview
+
 
|author= Nicola Pryce
+
''There must be a way out. As she moves through the foreign area, memories begin to gel. Disaster had ploughed through her life—not just hers, everyone’s.''
|title= The Captain's Girl
+
 
|rating= 4
+
As our survivor struggles to orient herself, she's guided by a robot, which looks human-made, but she can't be sure. It says it is. It says she must try not to injure herself. Guided to an interview with an eerie, terrifying group of aliens, she desperately tries to make sense of flashes of memory - environmental degradation, deals done and then betrayed, horrifying rituals covering desperate attempts to survive - and to attempt to explain how she came to be here, apparently the last human being alive.
|genre= Historical Fiction
+
|isbn=B0DNVWMYP2
|summary=Last year, Bookbag reviewed, and thoroughly enjoyed, [[Pengelly's Daughter by Nicola Pryce|Pengelly's Daughter]], a swashbuckling historical romance set in picturesque Cornwall. Now we have the pleasure of reading the much-anticipated sequel. This time, the story focuses on a neighbour of the Polcarrow family, Miss Celia Cavendish, who has been engaged to a cruel man that she does not love. One fateful night, she runs away to the Polcarrow house to beg them for help, and the pivotal events of that night have far-reaching consequences for all involved.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782398856</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= C Robert Cargill
 
|title= Sea of Rust
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= Science Fiction
 
|summary=Have you ever watched the ''Terminator'' movies or some similar 'Robo-geddon' franchise and wondered what would have happened if the robots had actually ''won?'' Well wonder no more, because ''Sea of Rust'' hinges on that exact premise; a world where the robots have wiped out every living thing from planet earth. Only artificial life remains; there is no trace of organic matter anywhere, since the robot uprising that devastated the planet. Now two huge mainframes compete for world domination: CISSUS and VIRGIL. They capture robots and turn them into drones; uploading their minds into a hive consciousness. The few remaining bots are called 'freebots,' and inhabit a desert called the Sea of Rust, where they do what they can to survive, including cannibalising other bots for spare parts.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473212782</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Michelle Robinson and Claire Powell
+
|author=Max Boucherat
|title=Have You Seen My Giraffe?
+
|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Imagine, if you will, a world in which you no longer win goldfish at the fair, but you could potentially be coming home with a giraffe!  This is the situation that the family in this story find themselves in, and it turns out that having a giraffe in your house may not go down too well with your parents!
+
|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>0857075993</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008666482
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
+
|author=Fyodor Dostoyevsky
|title=A Time of Love and Tartan
+
|title=White Nights
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
+
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Here we are, back on Scotland Street, eager to see what everyone (especially Bertie…) has been up to!  This is now the twelfth book in the Scotland Street series which is remarkable. That a serial novel has such momentum, and that the characters within have become so very familiar to AMS's loyal readers, is a testament to his skills as a writer.  This time around our nerves are on edge as Pat ventures back towards a relationship with the dreadful Bruce!  Surely she'll see sense...won't she?!  Matthew, of all people, is in trouble with the police, Irene is busy planning a PhD, and Bertie?  Could there be a happy ending for Bertie in the air?
+
|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>1846973821</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241619785
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Martin Edwards (editor)
+
|isbn=0008385068
|title= The Long Arm of the Law
+
|title=The Midnight Feast
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Lucy Foley
|genre= Crime
+
|rating=4.5
|summary= When we think of the 'golden age' of crime fiction, we think of the brilliant amateur forever putting the official P.C. Plod to shameMiss Marple, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Father Brown and so on.  I'll admit to being a fan of all of those, but they aren't the whole story.  The other side of the coin shows the official police doing their job and getting their man.  
+
|genre=Thrillers
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712356878</amazonuk>
+
|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 famousHer 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Katy Colins
+
|author=James Baldwin
|title= Chasing the Sun
+
|title=Giovanni's Room
|rating= 4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre= Women's Fiction
+
|genre=Literary Fiction  
|summary= Author Katy Colins became Britain's most famous jilted bride when the true story of her subsequent lonely hearts backpacking trip went viral, before becoming a romantic comedy book series with this the latest one.  
+
|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>0008202192</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0141186356
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Emilia Dziubak and Przemyslaw Wechterowicz
+
|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|title=The Secret Life of a Tiger
+
|title=Wild East
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Teens
|summary=If David Attenborough has taught us anything is that a lot goes on in the natural world that we are unaware of.  Animals will hunt in interesting ways, or find a mate using secret dances, but did you know that Tigers sometimes sneak up on apes and give them new haircuts?  You will be amazed with the revelations found in Emilia Dziubak and Przemyslaw Wechterowicz's book, but I am not convinced that this kid's book is based on facts.
+
|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 troubleHe 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>191027724X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241645441
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Steve Martin and Essi Kimpimaki
+
|isbn=1635866847
|title= Scientist Academy: Are You Ready For the Challenge?
+
|title=The Lavender Companion
|rating= 5
+
|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
|genre= Children's Non-Fiction
+
|rating=4.5
|summary=Kids seem to have an innate curiosity about the world around them. They are constantly asking ''How?'' and ''Why?'' Curious kids and budding scientists are going to love the new ''Scientist Academy'' book by Ivy Kids, which is filled with practical experiments and fun activities with an educational twist.
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178240502X</amazonuk>
+
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Han Kang
|author= Jess Richards
+
|title=The Vegetarian
|title= City of Circles
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Fantasy
 
|summary= Danu is a tightrope walker who is mourning her parents, after a disease has ravaged the circus where she grew up. Her mother has entrusted her with a locket that hides a secret. Over the years, Danu pushes away her grief and develops elaborate and successful high-wire acts with Morrie, a charismatic hunchback who wants to marry her. When the circus returns to Danu's birthplace, Matryoshka, Danu is enchanted by the temples, spice mists, and pleasure seekers within the intoxicating outer circle district. Here, she finally gains the courage to open her mother's locket, and discovers the name of a stranger who lives behind the locked gate of the Inner Circle. Fated to remain in Matryoshka, Danu attempts to resolve this mystery. Will she and Morrie ever be reunited, or will something far more unexpected be waiting for her in the mysterious heart of the city?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473656680</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Peter Bently and Charles Fuge
 
|title=A Home Full of Friends
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Bramble Badger was out looking for nuts by the river when the storm broke and he was so cold that he decided to go straight home. On the way he met a trail of devastation: Snuffle Dormouse's house has been squashed by a falling tree. She'd like shelter in Bramble's sett, if he has room.  He's a ''little'' bit reluctant because he thinks his sett is in a mess and there isn't much space or dinner available, but what can you do when a friend is in need?  Next it's Tipper the Toad whose home is full of mud, then Boo the Hedgehog's nest has been covered by leaves.
+
|summary=This novel, winner of the International Booker Prize in 2016 and penned by an author who received the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, is as close to unputdownable as it gets. It more than lives up to the acclaim. The story introduces uncanny characters with fragile, vividly tangible bodies yet unknowable, elusive souls.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144492057X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1803510056
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Hunter Davies
+
|author=Jenny Valentine
|title=A Life in the Day: Memories of Sixties London, Lots of Writing, The Beatles and my Beloved Wife
+
|title=Us in the Before and After
|rating= 5
+
|rating=5
|genre= Autobiography
+
|genre=Teens
|summary= Although I knew the name Hunter Davies before I picked this book up, I was unaware just how pivotal a figure of the Swinging Sixties Hunter Davies really was. Take him, Harold Wilson and a certain musical quartet from Liverpool out of the decade, and you are left with a bit of a vacuum.  
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471161293</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1471196585
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Ellie Irving
+
|isbn=1787333175
|title= The Matilda Effect
+
|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
|rating= 4.5
+
|author=Benji Waterhouse
|genre= Confident Readers
+
|rating=5
|summary= When you're wronged, and you know you've been wronged, it's the worst feeling in the world. When someone takes credit for something you have done, claiming a prize that is rightfully yours, it's a horrible, horrible injustice, and that's the same whether it's a Nobel Prize or simply the blue ribbon (and excessive amounts of dog food) given away at a school science fair. Now parents might tell you that life's not fair, you win some you lose some, or any of a number of clichés, but if your name is Matilda you just can't let it lie. And, when she finds out that her granny was side-lined for a much bigger award, for work she did 50 years ago, she makes it her mission to right the wrong and let the world know exactly what happened.  
+
|genre=Popular Science
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552568376</amazonuk>
+
|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 <!-- remove 24/8 -->
+
{{Frontpage
|title=My Psychosis Story: A Story of Fear and Hope Through Adversity
+
|author=Mariana Enriquez
|author=Emmanuel Owusu
+
|title=A Sunny Place for Shady People
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
+
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=''My Psychosis Story'' recounts Emmanuel Owusu's journey into and eventually out of psychosis. In late 2014, during a visit home for Christmas, he found himself exhausted, anxious and unable to sleep. Symptoms persisted and soon he was suffering from noise sensitivity and intense headaches. Various visits to A&E failed to diagnose a physical cause. Things deteriorated further and possible diagnoses of anxiety and post traumatic concussion  were suggested. And ''still'' things got worse. Eventually,  Owusu's condition deteriorated so far that he was suffering from delusions and hallucinations. An ambulance was called and he was detained - sectioned - under the Mental Health Act in 2015.
+
|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>1524680559</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1803511230
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Kate Ling
+
|author=Onyi Nwabineli
|title=The Glow of Fallen Stars
+
|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=
+
|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 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?
''The Glow of Fallen Stars'' is the second book in Kate Ling's ''Ventura'' series - you can read our review of the first instalment [[The Loneliness of Distant Beings by Kate Ling|here]]. Seren and Dom, together with Ezra and Mariana, have escaped the Ventura, the spaceship on which they have spent their whole lives, and crash landed on the planet Huxley 3. At last, they are away from the stifling authoritarianism of life on board the ship and free to pursue their own lives underneath a real sky, walking on real land.
+
|isbn=0861546873
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1510200185</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Dan Walker
+
|author=David Chadwick
|title=Sky Thieves
+
|title=Headload of Napalm
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Zoya Delarose never quite fitted in at the orphanage and she's about to learn why. Abducted at the end of a school trip, Zoya is knocked unconscious and wakes up in a creaking sky ship in the dead of night. She attempts to escape but when she's caught and brought in front of the ship's captain, Zoya discovers a history and a threat that will change her life forever.
+
|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>0192747010</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B0D321VJ76
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jill Atkins and Barbara Vagnozzi
+
|author=Tom Percival
|title=Peck, Hen, Peck! and Ben's Pet (Early Reader)
+
|title=The Wrong Shoes
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=It probably sounds obvious, but you really shouldn't keep your pet chickens in a bag!  Well, that's what I learned from this book which tells us first the story of Tom who puts his hen in a bag.  The hen pecks through the bag, as hens are wont to do, and escapes!  A simple and somewhat tragic tale!  This is swiftly followed by a story about Ben's pet.  Will it be another hen, I wondered?  No, actually, after several incorrect guesses, we discover that Ben's pet is only a rabbit!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848862482</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alice Hemming and Louise Forshaw
 
|title=Buzz and Jump! Jump! (Early Reader)
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=After hearing a mysterious buzzing in the kitchen, mum traps a fly in a jar, but then she hears the buzzing again...what could be going on? Meanwhile, Ken the Kangaroo (who declares himself to be the best at jumping), is jumping everywhere he can. In this red level book, aimed generally at those who have completed their reception year in school, there are two simple, sweet stories in one book, perfect for those who are just learning to read.
+
|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 hopeHe 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>1848862504</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Alice Hemming and Julia Seal
+
|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|title=Bamboo and I Wish (Early Reader)
+
|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=With two stories in one book, there's plenty to like about this simple, and funny, early reader.  The first story, Bamboo, deals with a cheeky panda who has run off to hide. Where can he be?  The second story is about a wishing well which is granting wishes left, right and centre!  Evaluated as a red level book, it sets itself as being about the right level for those around the end of their reception year.
+
|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848862512</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= 0356522776
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Naomi Hamill
+
|isbn=1786482126
|title= How to be a Kosovan Bride
+
|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)
|rating= 5
+
|author=Elly Griffiths
|genre= Women's Fiction
+
|rating=4.5
|summary=''How to be a Kosovan Bride'' recounts tales of two women, who are of a similar age and live in Kosovo, one of the world's youngest and most unstable countries, in the aftermath of the Balkan war. The first girl, the Kosovan Wife, follows the archaic, traditional path that has long been the norm for women from her country - she marries before she is twenty, and soon produces children. The second girl follows a starkly different path - returned to her parents after a disastrous wedding night, and thus labelled the Returned Girl, she scorns tradition, and studies endlessly until she is accepted into university, where she discovers the distinctly modern, Western world of political activism. The girls' stories are interwoven with both Kosovan folk tales and memories of the recent war, really giving readers a feel of what it is like to call such an unstable place home. This is undoubtedly a political book, with distinctly feminist undertones, but it is also thoroughly enjoyable, and beautifully written to boot.  
+
|genre=Crime
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630950</amazonuk>
+
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Sarah Brennan and Jane Tanner
+
|author=Joan Didion
|title= Storm Whale
+
|title=The Year of Magical Thinking
|rating= 5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre= For Sharing
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary= This is one of the most beautiful picture books that I have read for a while.
+
|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.
 
+
|isbn=0007216858
''Bleak was the day and the wind whipped down
 
When I and my sisters walked to town…''
 
 
 
So begins this story of three sisters who set off to walk to the beach together in this stunning and rather special picture book. The cover illustration is reminiscent of traditional family holidays depicting three girls, hand in hand and wearing sunhats disappearing over sand dunes on their way to the beach.  The story then departs from a typical seaside theme as the sisters find a stranded whale on the beach and spend the day in desperate attempts to save it.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910646253</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Roald Dahl
+
|isbn=0008551324
|title= Fear
+
|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)
|rating= 5
+
|author=Neil Lancaster
|genre= Short Stories
+
|rating=4.5
|summary=Do you enjoy being scared? Featuring fourteen classic spine-chilling stories chosen by Roald Dahl, these terrible tales of ghostly goings-on will have you shivering with fear as you turn the pages.
+
|genre=Crime
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933216</amazonuk>
+
|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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Roald Dahl
+
|isbn=0241678412
|title= War
+
|title=The Proof of My Innocence
|rating= 5
+
|author=Jonathan Coe
|genre= Short Stories
+
|rating=4
|summary=In war, are we at our heroic best or our cowardly worst? Featuring the autobiographical stories from Roald Dahl's time as a fighter pilot in the Second World War as well as seven other tales of conflict and strife, Dahl reveals the human side of our most inhumane activity.
+
|genre=Thrillers
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405933194</amazonuk>
+
|summary=Life after university hasn't worked out quite the way that Phyl anticipated.  She's back home, living with her parents and on a zero-hours contract serving sushi to tourists at terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport.  All those ideas of becoming a writer seem to have come to nothing.  The situation improves when 'Uncle' Chris comes to stay and introduces Phyl to his adopted daughter, Rashida.  Christopher Swann (described by some as a lefty blogger) is investigating a think tank which originated at Cambridge University in the 1980s.  It plans to push the government in a more extreme direction and is ready to act.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Chloe Seager
+
|title=Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?
|title=Editing Emma
+
|author=Claire Dederer
|rating=4
+
|rating=3
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Emma Nash is a typical 16 year old with all the insecurities and obsessions that come with this age. When the love of her life ''ghosts'' her (i.e. breaks up with her by acting as if she doesn't exist), she spends the summer moping in her pyjamas. However, September arrives all too soon bringing with it the start of Sixth Form and a resolution to make some important ''edits'' to her life. This includes e-tweaking herself with disastrous, and often hilarious, consequences. The whole experiment is recorded in Emma's private blog: a blog that she might just regret ever writing.
+
|summary=Dederer sets out to unveil what she calls a ''biography of the audience'' in a deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the old aphorism of separating the art from the artist in the context of contemporary ''cancel culture''. Dederer's work is original and expressive. The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her brilliant mind and onto the page. In particular, the prologue packs a punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the director Roman Polanski, an artist she personally admires for his art, and yet despises for his actions. This model of ''monstrous men'' as she calls them, is consistent for the first few chapters, interrogating the likes of Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Pablo Picasso. Her critical voice is acutely present throughout, never slipping into anonymity and maintaining her own subjectivity, as she holds it so dearly, and a personal, rather than collective voice.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008220972</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1399715070
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Pascal Garnier and Melanie Florence (translator)
+
|isbn=1739526910
|title=Low Heights
+
|title=Where I've Not Been Lost
 +
|author=Glen Sibley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction  
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Edouard is an exemplary example of a crotchety old man – changing his mind, and blaming anything and everything – even that decision – on other people. He's physically fine, apart from one hand disabled by a stroke, but mentally, what with forgetting his past, assuming too many days are Sundays when they're not and buying too many inappropriate things, he needs a nurse – Therese, who has formed an unlikely and almost unwanted couple with himFor Edouard, the memory of his wife who died ten years ago is still a little too strongBut this unusual 'family' is about to be upset by an unexpected arrival, who will stir the emotions and life of their remote house no end…
+
|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>1910477427</amazonuk>
+
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=0008405026
 +
|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
 +
|author=Jane Casey
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Crime
 +
|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 suspiciousWhat looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murderKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
 
|author= Liam Brown
+
{{Frontpage
|title= Broadcast
+
|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD
|rating= 4.5
+
|title=Nowhere Man
|genre= Thrillers
+
|author=Deborah Stone
|summary=When David Callow is offered the lead role in a revolutionary new online show, he snatches at the opportunity. Rapidly becoming a viral sensation, David is propelled to stratospheric levels of celebrity. However, he soon realises the downside of sharing every secret with the world. A prisoner to both his fame and his own thoughts, David seeks to have the chip removed, only to discover the chilling secret lurking at the heart of MindCast, and the terrifying ambition the show's creator has for him.
+
|rating=4
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1787199932</amazonuk>
+
|genre=General Fiction
 +
|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.
 
}}
 
}}

Latest revision as of 09:34, 22 December 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!

Find us on Facebook Facebook, Follow us on Twitter Twitter, Follow us on Instagram Instagram and LinkedIn

There are currently 16,126 reviews at TheBookbag.

Want to learn more about us?

The Best New Books

Read new reviews by category.

Read the latest features.

1529077745.jpg

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

1399613073.jpg

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

0571365469.jpg

Review of

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials. 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

B0DNVWMYP2.jpg

Review of

Chimera by Mark Lingane

4.5star.jpg Science Fiction

The survivor stumbles forward, her steps echoing in the oppressive silence. Her heart pounds like a jackhammer. She doesn’t know where she’s heading. All she remembers is running. Terror chasing. Everything lost.

Broken and fragmented recollections tumble around her head. Fear courses through her body. Her breaths come in shallow, ragged gasps as desperation claws at her throat. Dehydration consumes her, and a raging thirst feels unquenchable.

There must be a way out. As she moves through the foreign area, memories begin to gel. Disaster had ploughed through her life—not just hers, everyone’s.

As our survivor struggles to orient herself, she's guided by a robot, which looks human-made, but she can't be sure. It says it is. It says she must try not to injure herself. Guided to an interview with an eerie, terrifying group of aliens, she desperately tries to make sense of flashes of memory - environmental degradation, deals done and then betrayed, horrifying rituals covering desperate attempts to survive - and to attempt to explain how she came to be here, apparently the last human being alive. 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

0008385068.jpg

Review of

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

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

0141186356.jpg

Review of

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Giovanni's Room follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, the real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni. Full Review

0241645441.jpg

Review of

Wild East by Ashley Hickson-Lovence

4.5star.jpg Teens

Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school. The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words. Full Review

1635866847.jpg

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

1803510056.jpg

Review of

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

This novel, winner of the International Booker Prize in 2016 and penned by an author who received the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, is as close to unputdownable as it gets. It more than lives up to the acclaim. The story introduces uncanny characters with fragile, vividly tangible bodies yet unknowable, elusive souls. Full Review

1471196585.jpg

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

1787333175.jpg

Review of

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

5star.jpg Popular Science

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

1803511230.jpg

Review of

A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez

5star.jpg Short Stories

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

0861546873.jpg

Review of

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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

B0D321VJ76.jpg

Review of

Headload of Napalm by David Chadwick

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

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

1398527122.jpg

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

0356522776.jpg

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

1786482126.jpg

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

0007216858.jpg

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

0008551324.jpg

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

0241678412.jpg

Review of

The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe

4star.jpg Thrillers

Life after university hasn't worked out quite the way that Phyl anticipated. She's back home, living with her parents and on a zero-hours contract serving sushi to tourists at terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport. All those ideas of becoming a writer seem to have come to nothing. The situation improves when 'Uncle' Chris comes to stay and introduces Phyl to his adopted daughter, Rashida. Christopher Swann (described by some as a lefty blogger) is investigating a think tank which originated at Cambridge University in the 1980s. It plans to push the government in a more extreme direction and is ready to act. Full Review

1399715070.jpg

Review of

Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People? by Claire Dederer

3star.jpg Politics and Society

Dederer sets out to unveil what she calls a biography of the audience in a deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the old aphorism of separating the art from the artist in the context of contemporary cancel culture. Dederer's work is original and expressive. The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her brilliant mind and onto the page. In particular, the prologue packs a punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the director Roman Polanski, an artist she personally admires for his art, and yet despises for his actions. This model of monstrous men as she calls them, is consistent for the first few chapters, interrogating the likes of Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Pablo Picasso. Her critical voice is acutely present throughout, never slipping into anonymity and maintaining her own subjectivity, as she holds it so dearly, and a personal, rather than collective voice. Full Review

1739526910.jpg

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

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