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 the many walks of literary life - fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of 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>
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.
+
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]]?
+
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]]
  
==New Reviews==
+
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews]] at TheBookbag.
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]].'''
 
  
'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
+
Want to learn more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
__NOTOC__
+
 
{{newreview
+
==The Best New Books==
|author=Francisco X Stork
+
 
|title=Marcelo in the Real World
+
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
 +
 
 +
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1529077745
 +
|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)
 +
|author=Ann Cleeves
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Marcelo has spent his childhood and the majority of his teenage years at Paterson, a private school that caters specifically for those with disabilities, providing them with a protected environment where they can learn at their own rate and feel accepted. However, his father Arturo feels that it is time that Marcelo experiences the ''real world'' and really challenges himself. Using the promise of a senior year spent at Paterson rather than a public school, Arturo coerces Marcelo to take up a small position for the summer in the law firm that he owns. In the firm, Marcelo is forced to interact regularly with a plethora of different personalities, and while some prove to be enjoyable company, others leave him feeling confused and distressed. Things really come to a head when he is forced to make a momentous decision, one that requires him to either ignore his conscience, or end up betraying his father and by extension himself; it is not a decision that is logical, and will require Marcelo to not only empathise with others, but also understand what makes himself tick.
+
|summary=A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens.  The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer.  Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407121006</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1399613073
|author=Karen Harper
+
|title=Moral Injuries
|title=The Queen's Governess
+
|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Kat Ashley isn't a name one usually associates with the Tudor era, but just like the more famous characters of the period, she has her own fascinating story to tell, a story which this book captures perfectly. As Thomas Cromwell's spy, Anne Boleyn's confidante and later Princess Elizabeth's governess, Kat Ashley certainly knew the Tudor court well and it is through her fictional diary entries that the reader is invited to know the dazzling, yet dangerous Tudor court too.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091940419</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0241636604
|author=Sally Gardner
+
|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
|title=Snow White
+
|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Having read many retellings of Grimms' tales, it is refreshing to read one that expands the story familiar into six short chapters while remaining faithful to the original narrative. Gardner adds some detail to the story (the Seven Dwarfs try to protect Snow White by inventing some alarm systems to warn of the queen's approach, and Snow White is making an apple pie when the queen disguised as an old woman arrives with the poisoned apple) but does not remove or prettify the more violent aspects of the story; the huntsman kills a deer and persuades the queen that its heart is Snow White's, and the queen is ''smashed to smithereens'' on rocks as she tries to escape from the dwarfs The prince arriving and Snow White returning to life after the piece of poisoned apple is jolted from her mouth is the resolution to the story, but the dwarfs being the guests of honour at the wedding is a nice touch.
+
|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 EconomicsStevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy.  He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid.  It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank.  Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444002430</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Leanne Egan
|author=Andrew Wheen
+
|title=Lover Birds
|title=Dot-Dash To Dot.Com
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Teens
|genre=Popular Science
+
|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?
|summary=You know exactly what you're getting when you read the summary of Andrew Wheen's ''Dot-Dash To Dot.Com''. ''How Modern Telecommunications Evolved from the Telegraph to the Internet'' sums it up perfectly. This is a history of technology and the people involved in creating that technology. It serves as a primer for anyone with an interest or need to know about telecommunications.
+
|isbn=000862657X
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441967591</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Sally Rooney
|author=Paula Leyden
+
|title=Intermezzo
|title=The Butterfly Heart
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=5
+
|genre=General Fiction
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|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.
|summary='The Butterfly Heart' takes place in Zambia, the beautiful 'butterfly heart' of Africa. The story is told through two voices: Bul-Boo, a young girl who lives with her family and twin sister Madillo, and Ifwafwa, the Snake Man. He is old and wise and has the unique ability to communicate with snakes. The twins' lovely and gentle friend Winifred is in trouble. Her father has died, and his brother has arranged for her to marry his friend, a man old enough to be Winifred's grandfather. Winifred seems resigned to her fate, but Bul-Boo is determined to do something, and in desperation, the twins turn to Ifwafwa.
+
|isbn=0571365469
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406327921</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1009473085
|author=Rodney Bolt
+
|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024
|title=As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil: The Impossible Life of Mary Benson
+
|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Since I hadn't previously heard of Archbishop Benson, let alone his wife, I must commend the title, cover and advertising of this book. All of the above provided an accurate and irresistible glimpse of the biography within, and I wasn't one whit disappointed in my choice.
+
|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>1843548615</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Mark Lingane
 +
|title=Chimera
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Science Fiction
 +
|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.''
  
{{newreview
+
''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.''
|author=Nigel Hamilton
 
|title=American Caesars: Lives of the US Presidents, from Franklin D Roosevelt to George W Bush
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=The premise is simple: take twelve men (and unfortunately they are all men, but that's not the author's fault) who have achieved high office and look at each of them. Firstly, take a look at the road to the high office, then how they performed once they reached their goal and finally a look at their private life. Suetonius did it first when he wrote ''The Twelve Caesars'' and now Nigel Hamilton has taken the same journey with ''American Caesars'', a remarkably in-depth look at twelve consecutive American presidents from the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, starting with Franklin D Roosevelt and finishing with George W Bush.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520419</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
''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.''
|author=David Bedford and Julian Russell
 
|title=Bouncy Bouncy Bedtime
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=At the very start of this book it is bedtime, but before going to sleep, the author asks the young reader:
 
  
'Have you ever wondered what the animals do?<br>
+
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.
Do they go to bed like me and you?'
+
|isbn=B0DNVWMYP2
 
 
and then we are asked to imagine...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405257423</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Max Boucherat
|author=John Hegley and Neal Layton
+
|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|title=Stanley's Stick
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Stanley loves his stick and carries it everywhere. He loves to play with it and finds all sorts of uses for it. Forget all those expensive plastic toys; the stick is the best toy he could have. (It is nice to see a child in a book playing with something that doesn’t cost money).
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340988185</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Josh Lacey
 
|title=Island of Thieves
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=While Tom's parents have their first childless holiday in decades, our hero is supposed to be staying at his uncle Harvey's flatUnfortunately his uncle is a roustabout adventurer, and with a clue to a treasure's location is himself going to Peru to seek the rest of the map.  When Tom invites himself along he has no idea Harvey is already wanted by Peru's biggest criminal, nor what this impetuous decision will lead too...
+
|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 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>1849392455</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0008666482
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Fyodor Dostoyevsky
|author=Kjartan Poskitt and David Tazzyman
+
|title=White Nights
|title=Agatha Parrot and the Floating Head as Typed Out Neatly by Kjartan Poskitt
+
|rating=5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Short Stories
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|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.
|summary=Agatha Parrot lives on Odd Street, which is appropriate since her story is rather an odd one. Part school drama, part slapstick farce this is a funny, ridiculous romp of a story!
+
|isbn=0241619785
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140525596X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008385068
|author=Laura Barella
+
|title=The Midnight Feast
|title=The Little Mermaid
+
|author=Lucy Foley
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=I've always found the story of the Little Mermaid to be a rather strange choice for a toddler's picture book since it doesn't have the expected happy endingOf course that means that usually the ending gets altered, to make it palatable for little onesThis particular retelling for younger children is unusual as it steers clear of a romantic happy ending in Disney-style and actually ends on quite a solemn, sad note.
+
|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 siteThe 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846433258</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=James Baldwin
|author=Carol Thompson
+
|title=Giovanni's Room
|title=Snug!
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|genre=For Sharing
+
|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.
|summary=What makes you feel snug?  Tucked up like a bug in a rug?  Being as snug as a mole in his underground hole?  This story looks at all different ways that make us feel cosy and warm.
+
|isbn=0141186356
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846433738</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|author=Neil Griffiths and Vicki Leigh
+
|title=Wild East
|title=The Scarecrow Who Didn't Scare
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Farmer Wallace makes himself a scarecrow, but the crows and rabbits and mice take no notice of it, eating the seeds and shoots and ears of corn so that when the farmer comes to harvest his crops he finds nothing.  He throws his scarecrow into the hedge in a temper and there poor scarecrow lies...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905434928</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Simon Schama
 
|title=Scribble, Scribble, Scribble: Writing on Ice Cream, Obama, Churchill and My Mother
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=The collection has been divided into reader-friendly sections named, for example - ''Travelling, Testing Democracy, Cooking and Eating'', to name but three.  As a professor of Art History, it shouldn't come as a surprise that there's also a rather chunky section on Schama's thoughts on the art world.  Politics also is a centre-stage subject.  Each article is headed with where it first appeared and the numerous Guardian pieces may be well-known to some.  So I suppose you could say that this is second time around, for those who missed the first publication.  Not a bad thing at all when the writing is as good as this, I'd say.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546655</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alyxandra Harvey
 
|title=Haunting Violet
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Violet Willoughby is the daughter of one of England's foremost mediums. With her mother in high demand, she follows her, assisting in her work as she puts the cream of society in touch with their dear departed. Of course, it's all fake. Violet has spent seven years helping her mother con the gullible into believing she has real psychic powers, so Violet herself certainly doesn't believe in ghosts. Which makes it all the more surprising when one appears to her…
+
|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.
 
+
|isbn=0241645441
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408811316</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1635866847
|author=Siddhartha Sarma
+
|title=The Lavender Companion
|title=The Grasshopper's Run
+
|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=India 1944, and the Japanese are coming. In a brutalopening, we see the inhabitants of a small village get massacred, and the brutal killing of Uti, grandson of the leader of the tribe who live there. His best friend Gojen escapes, as he's in school far away. On hearing of the tragedy, the youngster swears revenge, and embarks on a journey which will take him across his country in search of the man responsible for his friend's death.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408809400</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Yvonne Woon
 
|title=Dead Beautiful
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Renee is a normal school girl living in sunny California. On her sixteenth birthday she is drawn to the woods by her house. There she finds the dead bodies of her parents, surrounded by scattered coins, and shreds of cloth in their mouths. The police say they both died from a heart attack, but Renee isn't convinced — something more sinister must be going on.
+
|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you.  Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it.  Notes in the margins are sanctioned.  You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem.  I ''loved'' this book already.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409530248</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Han Kang
|author=Ruth Dugdall
+
|title=The Vegetarian
|title=The Sacrificial Man
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Synchronicity?  Is that what they call it, when unconnected events chime with each other in unavoidable significance?  Maybe it is just the human need to see patterns and make connections where there are none, but it's still weird when it happens. In a week that saw a storyline in ''Emmerdale'' echoed in a very personal documentary by Terry Pratchett considering the possibility of choosing the nature and time of  his own end, I found myself reading 'The Sacrificial Man'.  
+
|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>1908248009</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1803510056
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Jenny Valentine
|author=B R Collins
+
|title=Us in the Before and After
|title=Gamerunner
+
|rating=5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=The Maze is more than just a role-playing game. Rick is one of the many who immerse themselves entirely in the game, and essentially live their life in its virtual reality. He is one of the lucky ones. Thanks to the fact that his guardian, Daed, is the mind behind the Maze and is employed by the powerful and merciless firm Crater, Rick has lived a protected life, one spent inside the thick walls of the multi-storeyed headquarters of Crater. He has never had to go outside and live a life of extreme poverty under the constant threat of gangs or, even worse, the lethal acid rain that is a part of the intensely polluted atmosphere.
+
|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>1408806487</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1471196585
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1787333175
|author=Roy Jacobsen, Don Bartlett (translator) and Don Shaw (translator)
+
|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
|title=Child Wonder
+
|author=Benji Waterhouse
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Popular Science
 +
|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.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Mariana Enriquez
 +
|title=A Sunny Place for Shady People
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=1961 was a year of change, a time, as Jacobsen puts it, ''when men became boys and housewives women''.  At the outset Finn and his mother are leading a quiet, rather timorous life in a working class Oslo suburb. Then change overwhelms them, not through world events, but in the form of a mysterious child who is Finn's half sister.  Linda is not like other children and Finn's attempt to deal with her impact on his family is the central thread in this quintessential story of growing up.
+
|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>0857050184</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1803511230
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Onyi Nwabineli
|author=Julia Jarman and Guy Parker-Rees
+
|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself
|title=Ants in Your Pants!
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
+
|genre=General Fiction
|genre=For Sharing
+
|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?
|summary=Leopard is having a birthday party but he has very clear ideas about who should and shouldn't be invited. Specifically, he doesn't want to invite
+
|isbn=0861546873
Aardvark - I really wondered what the poor animal had done to be so maligned. Aardvark isn't really too bothered, but Big Ant is very offended, and he brings all his friends to bite the party guests' bottoms. Who will come to the rescue and save Leopard's party? Why, Aardvark of course. There is a moral here - don't exclude people from your party because they're not cool enough.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408305259</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=David Chadwick
|author=Richard Scarry
+
|title=Headload of Napalm
|title=Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Thrillers
|genre=For Sharing
+
|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....
|summary=This new edition of Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever includes eleven
+
|isbn= B0D321VJ76
stories about the inhabitants of Busytown.  These "people" are drawn as various animals, and many of them appear in several stories. The local policeman, Sergeant Murphy is a dog wearing a helmet, riding round on a motorbike, and he is kept busy investigating everything from theft to talking bread. He is often assisted by his friends Huckle (a cat) and Lowly (a worm).
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007413556</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Tom Percival
|author=Chris Higgins
+
|title=The Wrong Shoes
|title=He's After Me
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
+
|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction.  And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
Anna's father has run off with a younger woman, the hated Jude. Her mother is a wreck because of it. Her little sister Livi is going off the rails and running with a bad crowd. All this mayhem is anathema to Anna, who is a reserved, cautious and hardworking girl with an ambition to study literature at university. If this is what unrestrained, rampant emotions result in, then Anna's having none of it. She's never been in love and in many ways she sees this as a blessing.
+
|isbn=1398527122
 
 
And then she meets Jem.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034099701X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|author=Neil Griffiths
+
|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|title=Mrs Rainbow
+
|rating=5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Science Fiction
|genre=For Sharing
+
|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
|summary=Mrs Rainbow lives in Rainbow cottage, an amazing brightly coloured country cottage.  On the inside every room is a different colour, whilst Mrs Rainbow herself wears colourful outfits and dyes her hair amazing shades from beautiful blonde through to peacock green!  One day, however, she receives a visit from the local planning councillors and is told she must paint her house to match the rest of the village...grey!
+
|isbn= 0356522776
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905434936</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1786482126
|author=Salman Rushdie
+
|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)
|title=Luka and the Fire of Life
+
|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Back in 1990, Salman Rushdie followed up his controversial 'Satanic Verses' with a book dedicated to his then nine year old son, Zafar, called 'Haroun and the Sea of Stories'. Now, his second son, Milan, finally gets a book of his own, although he had to wait until he was 13 for his father to get around to it. 'Luka and the Fire of Life' is very much a follow up to 'Haroun' and it is certainly helpful, although not necessary, if you have read that book as many of the events in the first book are referred to here.
+
|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway.  There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder?  Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago.  Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555328</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Joan Didion
|author=Karen Abbott
+
|title=The Year of Magical Thinking
|title=A Father For Daisy
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Beatrice Rossall found herself in a difficult position.  Her widowed father was an elderly vicar who took in a young unmarried girl who was expecting a baby.  Soon after the baby's birth the mother died and Bea's father died not long after, leaving Bea in charge of Daisy who was only a few weeks old and with the prospect that she would have no home within a matter of days.  She couldn't get work because of Daisy – with a lot of people believing that she was Daisy's mother – but she wasn't going to let Daisy go to the workhouse.  At the end of the nineteenth century this wasn't a good position to be in.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709092415</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Barbara Sinatra
 
|title=Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank Sinatra
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Barbara Blakeley, born in 1926, was married firstly to Robert Oliver, an executive, with whom she had a son, and secondly to Zeppo Marx. But it was the already thrice-married and thrice-divorced Francis Albert Sinatra, whom she had idolized as a singer for a long time, with whom she would make her most enduring marriage, and vice versa.  They tied the knot in 1976, and stayed together until his death in 1998.
+
|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>0091937248</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0007216858
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008551324
|author=Chima Njoku-Latty
+
|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)
|title=Thoroughly Modern People: The Long Way Home
+
|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=2.5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=The front cover graphics are good: interesting and refreshingly modern and when I opened the book I liked the easy-on-the-eye print format.  And I think that's where my positive comments endThe back cover blurb says that this book is  ''A beautifully moving story.''  I found it neither beautiful nor moving, I'm afraid.
+
|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 dateNot much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956600107</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0241678412
|author=Britta Teckentrup
+
|title=The Proof of My Innocence
|title=The Wheels on the Bus
+
|author=Jonathan Coe
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=I doubt that there are many parents who've not sung ''The Wheels on the Bus'' to their child at some pointI've heard it chanted in an attempt to get a fractious child to settle and I've often wondered why it is that no one seems to know all the wordsMost parents never seem to get past the wheels going round and round but Britta Teckentrup has produced a book with cut-outs to take us through all the words as all the animals take the bus to the playground.
+
|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 AirportAll those ideas of becoming a writer seem to have come to nothingThe 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408314401</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Catherine Bruton
 
|title=We Can Be Heroes
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Ben is spending the summer with his grandparents because his mother is ill again. She won't stop going out for runs and is not eating properly. She's gone back to stressing out about having the "right" cutlery and worrying about technology and health hazards. And her beautiful hair has started falling out. Ben's father was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and with his mother incommunicado, he's feeling very lonely indeed.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405256524</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|title=Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?
|author=Anna Burley
+
|author=Claire Dederer
|title=Bipolar Parent
 
 
|rating=3
 
|rating=3
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Anna Burley keeps telling herself that she is a responsible adult now and works on the idea that most people would see her as a normal, well-grounded person.  What people ''don't'' see is the story of her childhood. She wrote it down to get rid of it, to get it out her system and rid herself of those pockets of pain which live under her skin.  She's decided that she's not going to run from it all any longer. ''Bipolar Parent'' is the story of her childhood and the parent who had such an influence in making her into what she is today.
+
|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>1456775332</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1399715070
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1739526910
|author=David McKee
+
|title=Where I've Not Been Lost
|title=Elmer and the Hippos
+
|author=Glen Sibley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=One day, just as Elmer was having a chat with Lion and Tiger, three angry elephants came by.  The hippos had come to live in their river and they were worried that it would be crowded.  Elmer was instructed to go and tell them to go.  Elmer the patchwork elephant isn't like that though.  He went to chat to the hippos and found that they'd come to this river because their river had dried up – and they really did need a river.  Elmer went off to investigate the problem.  Sure enough the hippos' river was completely dry.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184270981X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rachel Renee Russell
 
|title=Dork Diaries: Pop Star
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=When I saw that both the [[Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell|first]] and [[Dork Diaries: Party Time by Rachel Renee Russell|second]] books in this series had already been put into [[Double Dork Diaries: Two Tales from a Not-so-fabulous Life by Rachel Renee Russell|one compendium]], I wondered quite why.  Were they not selling quite as I expected they would, despite their breeziness and simple charms for the beginner reader?  Would the third book prove to be a major change in format, hence an early wrapping-up?  Well, the answers are in here - as are all those assets, and no real surprises or alterations.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857071181</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rebecca Makkai
 
|title=The Borrower
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read the front cover blurb and didn't quite get it  'She borrowed a child.  He stole her.'  I don't mind 'not getting it' in the slightest as it just makes me want to read the book even more. So I was keen to get stuck into this debut novel.
+
|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>0434021008</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008405026
|author=Manuel de Lope and John Cullen (Translator)
+
|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|title=The Wrong Blood
+
|author=Jane Casey
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Although de Lope has written over a dozen novels, this is the first to be translated into EnglishThe cover is as pretty as a picture and screams 'Spanish.' So far, so good.  But I have to admit that on the whole most of the European novels I've read over the last year or so, have fallen short of the mark for meWill this one prove to be different?
+
|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 bedInitially, 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 murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099551853</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=N M Browne
 
|title=Wolf Blood
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Trista is a Celtic warrior girl and seeress. Her visions are always horrifying, full of blood and death. And one of her premonitions tells her she must escape from the tribe who have captured and enslaved her, for their time is running out. Fleeing into the snowy forest, she runs straight into two Roman soldiers and thinks this time the game is surely up. Surely she cannot survive a second time? But one of the soldiers has a secret - he is a shapeshifter. Part wolf, part man, Morcant also has both Roman Celtic blood in his veins and he has never felt truly at home in either world.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140881255X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Isabel Ashdown
+
|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD
|title=Hurry Up And Wait
+
|title=Nowhere Man
 +
|author=Deborah Stone
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ashdown won the Observer Best Debut Novels of the Year with her book [[Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown|Glasshopper]], an excerpt of which is given at the back of this book. I decided to read it first and I must say that I immediately warmed to Ashown's style of writing. She seems to have a knack for down-to-earth language especially with teenagers and young people. So, I was really looking forward to this book but I was also conscious of the fact that it had a lot to live up to. Will she be able to deliver?
+
|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>0956251552</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}

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