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<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>
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<metadesc>Expert, full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, non-fiction, children's books & self-published books plus author interviews & top tens.</metadesc>
Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.
 
  
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews at TheBookbag.
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Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in!
  
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]?
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There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews]] at TheBookbag.
  
==New Reviews==
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Want to learn more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]].'''
 
  
'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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==The Best New Books==
__NOTOC__
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mark Birchall
 
|title=Copy Cat
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=''Copy Cat'' begins with the reader being told that:
 
  
''Cat was small and Dog was big;''<br>
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'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
''and whatever Dog did, Cat did too''.'
 
  
We soon learn that this involves very exciting activities such as dinosaur hunting, balancing on a high wire, digging for pirate treasure and deep sea diving. Although it is perfectly understandable that Cat should want to join in all the fun, Dog does start to get fed up with him always tagging along. That is why, when she decides to explore Space, she makes sure that there is only room for one on her spaceship. You can imagine her annoyance though when Cat shows up in his own spaceship and this leads to her telling him off for being such a copycat.
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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846433673</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0008405026
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|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
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|author=Jane Casey
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|rating=5
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|genre=Crime
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|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night.  She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed.  Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder.  Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529077745
|author=Jill Newton
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|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)
|title=Don't Wake Mr Bear!
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|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
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|genre=Crime
|summary=Dormouse is the leader of the woodland orchestra, and it is time for the lullaby of the forest to beginSoftly, gently the animals play and off goes Dormouse to hibernate for the winter, departing with the strict instruction ''remember, WHATEVER you do, don't wake Mr Bear!'' It's not hard to guess what happens next, is it?!
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|summary=A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens.  The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned upD I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405249668</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1399613073
|author=Susan Casey
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|title=Moral Injuries
|title=The Wave: In Pursuit of the Oceans' Greatest Furies
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|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Sport
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary=They're powerful enough to capsize unsinkable ships, wrench oil rigs from their moorings and can destroy vast swathes of coastal regions, flattening everything in their path and killing thousands of people in the process. So what is it that makes some men, and it is mostly men, go in search of these oceanic monsters? That is what Susan Casey tries to find out in this engaging, often awe inspiring and sometimes terrifying look at the world of big wave surfing.
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|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon.  Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor.  Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP.  When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy.  We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences.  Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends.  This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531763</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241636604
|author=John Yeoman and Quentin Blake
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|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
|title=Beatrice and Vanessa
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|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
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|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Beatrice (the sheep) and Vanessa (the goat) live together on a farm, staying in the same field, looking out at the same view, and talking together about the same things day after dayOne day they find they've run out of things to say, so they decide to take a holiday together.
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|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary 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>1849392692</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
 
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|author=Leanne Egan
{{newreview
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|title=Lover Birds
|author=Damian Dibben
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|rating=4.5
|title=The History Keepers: The Storm Begins
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=''Imagine if you lost your parents. Not just in place, but in time''
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|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?
 
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|isbn=000862657X
Scary, huh? But this is exactly what happens to Jake Djones (silent D, dears). Believing his parents have gone to a bathroom convention, he's carrying on as usual until they get home. But then he's abducted on his way home from school and taken to a secret base hidden beneath the Monument in London. Jake discovers that his parents have kept a secret from him: they are secret agents working for the History Keepers, working to prevent evil villains from tampering with history itself, and they have gone missing in sixteenth century Venice. B
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857530534</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sally Rooney
|author=Kallie George and Abigail Halpin
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|title=Intermezzo
|title=The Melancholic Mermaid
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Maude is a mermaid who was born with two tails. Her parents tell her it makes her special, stronger and faster, but amongst the other mermaid children it makes her an outcast. She is lonely, and she longs for a friend.  Feeling sorry for herself one day she isn't paying attention and she is captured by a fisherman who sells her to a circus. On the same day that Maude was born, Tony was born in a cottage by the sea.  He has webbed hands and, like Maude, is teased at school and left lonely and sad. His parents send him to live with the circus, believing he will be accepted and happy there but Tony is still lonely and he misses the sea.  But then one day he is put in charge of a new attraction for the circus.  A mermaid with two tails...
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|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>1897476531</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571365469
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1009473085
|author=Neil Griffiths and Janette Louden
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|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024
|title=Sock It!
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|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|rating=3
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|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
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|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Sock It! is a bit like ''Pants'' by Nick Sharratt, which makes it more of a long entertaining rhyme than a story as such. Because of this I'd say it's one to read together with your child when you want a bit of fun, as opposed to a bedtime story, as it has a very loud feel, with bright illustrations and silly rhymes to make kids giggle and want to join in.
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|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''.  If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for you.  If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous yearsIt's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics.  ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different 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>1905434820</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Joanna Philbin
 
|title=Celebriteens: In the Spotlight
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Girls usually get together because they've got something in common and for Lizzie, Carina and Hudson it's their famous parents.  Lizzie's mother is a supermodel and even in her thirties she's still one of the most beautiful women in the world.  Lizzie's – not.  Well, she's not exactly ugly but compared to her mother (and she always is) she just doesn't come up to scratchCarina's dad is a rich (''very'' rich) businessman and he's determined that C (as she's known) is going to join the company and eventually take over.  Carina has other ideas.  Hudson wants to make music and you might think that having a pop diva for a mother is a good start, but Hudson's style is different and her mother can't accept that.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407121200</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Helen Grant
 
|title=Wish Me Dead
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Rural Germany, in modern timesSteffi and her five friends lark about in a deserted building to summon a witch and get her to kill a local celebrity - who does indeed die. When a repeat attempt gifts a decent amount of cash to Steffi it becomes clear she is alone in having her wishes granted.  So what will happen when she wishes for the town hunk - hasn't Steffi heard to be careful what you wish for?  But how on earth can things get so bad she feels her story deserves *that* title?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141337702</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Mark Lingane
|author=Steve Webb and Katharine McEwen
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|title=Chimera
|title=Tigerbear
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=I'm a sucker for a good bedtime story and to me ''Tigerbear'' is just that. With the perfect tone for a bedtime read, a small amount of adventure, a nice rhyming pattern and friendly illustrations, I can see this book sending many children off to sleep to have their own adventure in years to come.
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|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>184939007X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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''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=Jamil Ahmad
 
|title=The Wandering Falcon
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary="In the tangle of crumbling, weather-beaten and broken hills, where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, is a military outpost…"  Thus begins the tale of Tor Baz, the Black Falcon.   To this desolate place come two wanderers, a man and a woman seeking refuge.  
 
  
Refuge is denied them, since it places duties that the fort commander cannot accept, but instead he offers them shelter from the wind of a hundred and twenty days.  For as long as they want it. Shelter, and food.
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''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.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241145155</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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.
|author=Simona Sanfilipo
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|isbn=B0DNVWMYP2
|title=Rapunzel
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=A poor villager and his wife are expecting a baby. However, when the man steals some rapunzel from a witch's garden and is caught, she insists that she be given the baby when it is born. That baby turns out to be a girl called Rapunzel, and as she grows up she is imprisoned in a tall tower by the witch. Her hair grows incredibly long and the witch uses this as a means of reaching Rapunzel in her room at the top. A passing prince hears her sweet singing and seeing what the witch does, also calls to Rapunzel to let down her hair. They form a friendship but before the prince can help Rapunzel to escape, the witch discovers what has been going on and cuts off Rapunzel's hair and banishes her to a lonely desert. The prince searches for her, albeit rather hazily, as he has lost his glasses. Will he find her so that they can live happily ever after? Well it is a fairy tale so what do you think?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846432499</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Max Boucherat
|author=Caro King
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|title=Kill Fish Jones
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=There are plenty of books around where the main character has to escape the murderous clutches of a magical or supernatural being. There are even a few which look at things from the demon's point of view. But it's rare to find a book which not only recounts the adventures of the intended victim, but also presents the demon as a complex and sympathetic personality in his own right. And which, as a bonus, allows the demon to grow as a character during the course of the story. A difficult challenge for any writer, but 'Kill Fish Jones' by Caro King manages to pull it off with panache and humour.
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|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>0857381466</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008666482
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Fyodor Dostoyevsky
|author=Jean Ure
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|title=White Nights
|title=Skinny Melon and Me
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|rating=5
|rating=4
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|genre=Short Stories
|genre=Confident Readers
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|summary=As always in Dostoyevsky, the character work is sublime. One is never left wondering what a character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and temperaments with remarkable clarity.
|summary=After Mrs James at school suggests writing a diary is a healthy and cathartic activity, Cherry decides to chronicle her own life. She's of the view that her mental cupboard is in definite need of a good clear out. This is not an entirely surprising view: Cherry's parents went through an acrimonious divorce and things were just getting back to normal when Slimey Roland appeared. Can you believe it, but Cherry's mother only went and married this chinless wonder! And then she moved him in. And then she reneged on her promise to buy Cherry a dog because Roly had ''allergies''!
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|isbn=0241619785
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000742485X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008385068
|author=John Hart
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|title=The Midnight Feast
|title=Iron House
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|author=Lucy Foley
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Hart is already a best-selling author so he has a lot to live up to with his latest book.  At over 400 pages it's a big, meaty read.  The story opens with Michael, now an adultIn his prime, with the woman he loves and about to become a father:  life is looking very rosy indeedHe thinks that he's left his shady past behind him foreverHe's wrongHart gives his readers a little background info on Michael, the central character, just enough to whet our appetitesIt worked for me and I was eager to keep turning the pagesAt the start of the book there's a definite sense of something catastrophic about to happen and that it involves Michael in some way.
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|summary=It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The ManorIt's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promisedIt's all headed up by Francesca MeadowsThe 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 friendsOld scores are going to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848541791</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=James Baldwin
|author=Anthony Burgess
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|title=Giovanni's Room
|title=A Clockwork Orange
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|rating=4.5
|rating=4
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|genre=Literary Fiction  
|genre=Literary Fiction
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|summary=''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, the real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.
|summary=A Clockwork Orange comes under the heading of "books you feel you ought to have read by now". Mostly these are books that you don't necessarily want to read, but are considered such classics that an inability to pass any kind of comment upon them suggests a gaping hole in your education.
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|isbn=0141186356
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951445</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|author=Charlotte Frost
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|title=Wild East
|title=Sir William Knighton: The Strange Career of a Regency Physician
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|rating=4.5
|rating=3
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=Sir William Knighton came from humble beginnings: in later life the memories of his mother selling butter and eggs from a market stall would frequently be brought up and it was never to illustrate just how well he'd done.  The fact that he became a physician would normally be quite an achievement, but his baronetcy and fame didn't come from his work as a physician but from his less well-publicised work for George IV.  Although his work at court would span just over a decade it was far from being what he wanted to do – and for the most part it would not bring him a great deal of happiness. At the end of his career as a physician he simply wanted to retire to his cottage in the country - but found himself unable to desert a king who had become dependent on him.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755213017</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alison Bruce
 
|title=The Calling
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=The story's location is in and around Cambridge and we get the blow-by-blow account as DC Goodhew meets the different members of Kaye's family in order to build up a picture of her recent comings and goings.  Kaye's mother seems particularly upset.  A nice and effective touch by Bruce is that each chapter heading is simply that day's date.  Kaye disappeared in March 2011 so that the reader feels a sense of the  clock ticking - and still no Kaye.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849012040</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Neil Griffiths and Janette Louden
 
|title=Sneezy Bear
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=At the beginning of 'Sneezy Bear', we meet Bear who is enjoying a soak in the river. Although he would be happy to luxuriate in the water all day, he starts to feel hungry so decides that he needs to go in search of some food. First he spots some tasty looking salmon but just as he is about to grab one, he lets out an almighty sneeze that causes a huge splash which allows all of the fish to escape. Next he spots a cherry tree, but before he can taste the juicy fruit, he sneezes yet again and the cherries explode everywhere leaving nothing to eat.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190543426X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Hiawyn Oram and Satoshi Kitamura
 
|title=In The Attic
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=''I had a million toys and I was bored,'' exclaims the unnamed protagonist of ''In The Attic''. Rather than moaning about his boredom, he does something about it, so he climbs into the attic and into his imagination. He finds little creatures, miraculous worlds, an old engine, and a tiger to be his friend. He fills his day with miraculous and dreamy adventures, then heads back home to report back to his mum.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849392986</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Keris Stainton
 
|title=Jessie Hearts NYC
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=After splitting up with Taylor, Jessie is desperate to forget about him, so her first ever trip to New York is heaven-sent – even if it does mean having to stay with her mother. Emma, her best friend, is equally thrilled to be coming with her. While Jessie is still upset at her mother’s decision to move to America, New Yorker
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|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school.  The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words.
Finn is facing problems of his own with his controlling family. Railroaded into working in his dad's insurance company during his summer holiday, he dreams of being an architect. He's also fallen hard for a girl - who happens to be his best friend's girlfriend. What will happen when these two meet?
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|isbn=0241645441
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408304287</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1635866847
|author=Kate Costelloe
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|title=The Lavender Companion
|title=The Breakfast Club
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|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Billie and her three best friends have grown to love the breakfast club they've formed, meeting every Saturday morning to pass the time and discuss the week they've had. Mario's is the perfect venue for it - so it's a huge shock when they find it's closing down! In addition, Billie's mother is adamant that she shouldn't pursue the career in music she wants more than anything, and Billie can't understand why. Can the girls find somewhere else to spend Saturday mornings, and can they persuade Billie's mum that music is what really matters to her?
+
|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>1444902857</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Han Kang
|author=Tim Thornton
+
|title=The Vegetarian
|title=Death of an Unsigned Band
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Russell knows that his band is going nowhere, and the prospect of a life consisting only of a grim day job and some depressing creative exercises is getting him down. But when Josh turns up with a potential way out, it's not quite the way Russell, or any of the other band members, would have envisaged.
+
|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>0099531879</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1803510056
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Jenny Valentine
|author=Rebecca Elliott
+
|title=Us in the Before and After
|title=Zoo Girl
+
|rating=5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Teens
|genre=For Sharing
+
|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.
|summary=Zoo girl was not what I expected. I was anticipating your average rhyming story aimed at preschoolers with the usual obsession over zoo animals. What I got was a very deep, moving tale aimed above the usual picture book age that will resonate with people who read it from children to adults.
+
|isbn=1471196585
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>074596270X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1787333175
|author=John Dickie
+
|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
|title=Blood Brotherhoods: The Rise of the Italian Mafias
+
|author=Benji Waterhouse
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=History
+
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=There can be few people who are unaware of the 'mafia' particularly as the word is used as a catch-all to cover the Italian criminal fraternity – and by extension the off-shoots which have spread throughout the world – but the south of Italy has three major mafias.  Sicily is the birthplace of and home to Cosa Nostra, whilst Naples and its hinterland hosts the camorraIn Calabria, possibly the poorest region of Italy, you'll find the 'ndrangheta. There are plenty of myths and legends about the birth of the criminal organisations, but Professor John Dickie has looked at their early history from 1851 through to the liberation of Italy at the end of the Second World WarHe looks at their rituals and their methods and much of what you will read has been a secret until now.
+
|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography.  ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatristI did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340963921</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Mariana Enriquez
|author=Anna Gavalda
+
|title=A Sunny Place for Shady People
|title=Breaking Away
+
|rating=5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Short Stories
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|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.  
|summary=Garance is on her way to a family wedding.  In the car with her brother and his wife she thinks about all her siblings, what's happened in their lives and who they have all become.  Throughout the journey she finds herself bickering constantly with her sister-in-law who always rubs her up the wrong way, and for the first time Garance senses some tension from her brother too who is usually calm and collected at all times. Is everything okay in his life or is his wife finally beginning to wear his patience thin?  They take a detour en route to pick up another sibling, much to Carine's annoyance, and then on reaching the wedding there's a surprise in store for all of them as the four siblings find themselves on an unplanned escape, together once again, rediscovering their youthful selves in a fun, brief break from their real lives.  
+
|isbn=1803511230
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906040400</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Onyi Nwabineli
|author=Nick Butterworth
+
|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself
|title=Tales From Percy's Park: Percy's Bumpy Ride
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=At the start of 'Percy's Bumpy Ride', all the park animals are puzzled by the strange noises coming from Percy the Park keeper's workshop. They cannot guess what Percy is up to, but soon all is revealed when the doors open and Percy drives out on a spanking new machine. It's a new lawn mower and when Percy claims that it will help him fly around the park he is not joking. He and the animals roar around the park cutting the grass speedily and efficiently. However, before long the mower literally takes off and it looks as if they are all heading for a nasty accident until some very friendly sheep help to soften their landing. Percy decides that maybe his exciting new mower is perhaps not up to the job of keeping the park's grass in trim, but luckily, the sheep have given him another idea...
+
|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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000715514X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0861546873
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=David Chadwick
|author=Daniel Suarez
+
|title=Headload of Napalm
|title=Freedom
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Thrillers
|genre=Crime
+
|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=A short while ago, I read Daniel Suarez's debut novel [[Daemon by Daniel Suarez|Daemon]], which was a gripping technological thriller.  It may not have been a terribly original idea, but it was well written if a little lacking in character building and it did seem to end a little abruptly.  The reason for this abrupt end now becomes clear, as there is now a sequel, ''Freedom™''.  
+
|isbn= B0D321VJ76
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857381229</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Tom Percival
|author=Rosie Thomas
+
|title=The Wrong Shoes
|title=The Kashmir Shawl
+
|rating=5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of waysHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accidentThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every directionAnd 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.
|summary=Mair Ellis and her two siblings are busy clearing out their parents' house shortly after their father's death, when Mair comes across an old package in a chest of drawersUnwrapping the parcel from its tissue paper, Mair discovers an exquisite and expensive, hand woven Indian shawl from Kashmir, intricately woven and full of wonderful coloursFalling out of the shawl is an envelope containing a lock of hair, adding to its already mysterious nature.
+
|isbn=1398527122
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007285965</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alison Weir
 
|title=The Captive Queen
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Vaclav and Lena are both children of Russian immigrants, growing up in BrooklynVaclav dreams of becoming a fantastic magician, with his friend Lena as his assistant, and as children they practise their routine together, making lists of the things they'll need, the costumes they will wear and the tricks they will performVaclav is confident and happy, but Lena is quiet, withdrawn and struggles with speaking English.  Yet Vaclav believes, always, that they are destined to be together.  Even when Lena disappears one day and is gone from his life for many years still he hopes that, somehow, he will find her again.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020443</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|author=Haley Tanner
+
|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|title=Vaclav and Lena
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Vaclav and Lena are both children of Russian immigrants, growing up in Brooklyn.  Vaclav dreams of becoming a fantastic magician, with his friend Lena as his assistant, and as children they practise their routine together, making lists of the things they'll need, the costumes they will wear and the tricks they will perform. Vaclav is confident and happy, but Lena is quiet, withdrawn and struggles with speaking English.  Yet Vaclav believes, always, that they are destined to be together.  Even when Lena disappears one day and is gone from his life for many years still he hopes that, somehow, he will find her again.
+
|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020443</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= 0356522776
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1786482126
|author=Jon Blake
+
|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)
|title=69ers: A Novel About the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival of Music
+
|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=In the summer of 1969, as Thunderclap Newman proclaimed in their one and only musical claim to fame, there was something in the airThe alternative generation were talking about the recent Woodstock Festival in America, and eagerly looking forward to what promised to be a similar gathering, albeit on a smaller scale, at the Isle of Wight at the end of August, where Bob Dylan was headlining.
+
|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 agoHer condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908105658</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Joan Didion
|author=Alex Kershaw
+
|title=The Year of Magical Thinking
|title=To Save a People
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat of Jewish ancestry, was without doubt one of the heroes of the Second World War.  This book, by one of the war's foremost modern historians, tells the story of his humanitarian work which began with his posting to Budapest in July 1944.
+
|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>0099539136</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0007216858
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008551324
|author=Neil Jordan
+
|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)
|title=Mistaken
+
|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=The front cover photograph and the blurb on the back cover give this book a misty, floaty, ethereal feel.  The story starts at the end, if you get my drift.  The adult Kevin attends a local funeral but he's careful to remain low-key, hidden almost.  Why is that?  And whose funeral is it anyway?  As early as page 6, Jordan's poetic and atmospheric style is apparent in lines such as ' ... close to the line of yew trees, were the massed umbrellas of the mourners, retreating, like so many mushrooms come alive in a fairy-tale forest.'
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848544197</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Helen Humphreys
 
|title=The Reinvention of Love
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary='The Reinvention of Love' is one of those stories that is so bizarre and strange that it could only be based on factual events. Essentially it is a good, old-fashioned love triangle set mostly in Paris in the period from the 1830s to the 1860s; a world where fighting duels is a commonplace event. The triangle features the great French literary writer Victor Hugo, his wife Adèle and the altogether strange critic Charles Saint-Beuve who narrates much of this story, with brief breaks for Adèle's side of events and some letters written by the Hugo's youngest daughter, also called Adèle (but let's call her, as she was known to her family, Dédé to avoid confusion).
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687985</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Nat Lambert and Andrea Petrlik
 
|title=Colours Sticker Activity Book
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=It's lovely to find a book – and even better to find a series of books - which allow parents and children to do something constructive together.  The first book which we looked at was ''Colours''.  On each double page spread there are plenty of things to talk about with your child, stickers to find and put in the appropriate spaces and then a game or an activity to complete.  You'll find songs to sing, pictures to colour in and join-the-dot pictures to complete. There are even some smiley faces so that you can reward your child for what they've achieved.  They're suitable for the three plus age group and will be enjoyed by both boys and girls.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849562938</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Krystyna Kuhn
 
|title=The Game
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Meet Julia and Robert.  They're siblings on their way to Grace College, an exclusive campus stuck up in the Canadian wilderness.  It's a rum place, set by a lake under lowering mountains.  It's a place of sudden night-time blackouts, unexpected screams through the dark, mysterious parties clandestinely held out of sight, and pupils declaring it all 'evil', but what is student prank and what is due to something more sinister?  And what could Julia and Robert possibly be running from to force them to this strange end of the earth?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907410562</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Wesley Stace
 
|title=Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary="Nothing in recent fiction prepared me for the power and the polish of this subtle tale of English music in the making, a chiller wrapped in an enigma [New Statesman]"
+
|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.
 
 
"His handling of dry comic dialogue and cynical affectation is reminiscent of P G Wodehouse… an intelligent, fun and thoughtful piece of fiction [Independent on Sunday]"
 
 
 
Just two of the previous reviews that adorn the back cover of 'Charles Jessold…'
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546574</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0241678412
|author=Robin Tzannes and Korky Paul
+
|title=The Proof of My Innocence
|title=When Chico Went Fishing
+
|author=Jonathan Coe
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Chico wants to go fishing with his father very much, and begs him, but dad says no, he will make too much noise and scare away the fish. In the end, Chico sets out to go fishing on his own, and he does really well. This is a very simple story. It is accompanied though by fascinating, detailed illustrations. In fact, it is billed as a Korky Paul picture book, one in which illustrator Korky Paul has done the drawings. I think this is really interesting as often illustrated children’s books are sold on the basis of the author of the text.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729942</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|title=Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?
|author=Elisabeth McNeill
+
|author=Claire Dederer
|title=East of Aden
 
 
|rating=3
 
|rating=3
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=It was said that something strange happened to women when they went east of Aden. The normal rules of behaviour seemed to have been left at home and anything – well just about anything – seemed to go. Back in the early nineteen sixties three women met in Bombay. How would they fare in the hot climate?  It wasn't just the women who changed when they went out to India, either.  How would the husbands of Jess, Joan and Jackie cope when sex seemed to be freely available wherever they looked?
+
|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>0709092458</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1399715070
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1739526910
|author=Richard Byrne
+
|title=Where I've Not Been Lost
|title=This Book Belongs To Aye-Aye
+
|author=Glen Sibley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Aye-Aye goes to Miss Deer's Academy For Aspiring Picture-Book Animals. Dontcha just love that concept? He's desperate to be in a book of his own, but he's not quite ready yet. Miss Deer announces that there's going to be a very special prize for the most helpful animal of the week. However, as the week goes on, the parameters of the competition seem to change, and the Rabbit Twins are up to their usual cheeky shenanigans.
+
|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>0192756192</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jan Ormerod and Lindsey Gardiner
+
|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD
|title=The Animal Bop Won't Stop
+
|title=Nowhere Man
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Deborah Stone
|genre=For Sharing
+
|rating=4
|summary=The words are easy to read aloud and would be fun, perhaps, to share with a small group of co-operative pre-school children and try out the suggested movements. If you want to get your kids dancing, this might not be the best choice at bedtime, and my boys are a bit wary of directed activity (so we exercise them in the park).
+
|genre=General Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019278014X</amazonuk>
+
|summary=In a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of every preparation, down to the last detail. Some last reflections, and then he says goodbye to his wife, the world, and his life. It's horribly sad. At work in her shop, his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and ailing mother, who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a while before Diana realises what Patrick has done.
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Vincent Caldey
 
|title=A Good Clean Edge
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=After an acrimonious divorce, Vincent chooses to stay with his father and not his mother and sister. As his father works away much of the time, they go to live with Vincent's grandparents, who run an undertaking business. Vincent, a reserved and sensitive child, is being bullied on his way in to his new school by Frankie Lennox from the grammar school, who goes so far as to threaten Vincent with a knife.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408313022</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}

Latest revision as of 10:00, 26 December 2024

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Review of

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

5star.jpg Crime

It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. Full Review

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

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Review of

The Trading Game: A Confession by Gary Stevenson

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader. Full Review

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Review of

Lover Birds by Leanne Egan

4.5star.jpg Teens

When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it? Because Lou is straight, isn't she? Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had a good kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she? Full Review

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Review of

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

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Review of

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

5star.jpg Politics and Society

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

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Review of

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

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Review of

The Last Life of Lori Mills by Max Boucherat

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn? Full Review

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Review of

White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

5star.jpg Short Stories

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

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Review of

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

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

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Review of

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

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

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Review of

Wild East by Ashley Hickson-Lovence

4.5star.jpg Teens

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

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Review of

The Lavender Companion by Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

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

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Review of

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

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Review of

Us in the Before and After by Jenny Valentine

5star.jpg Teens

Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together. Full Review

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Review of

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

5star.jpg Popular Science

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

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Review of

A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez

5star.jpg Short Stories

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

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Review of

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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

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Review of

Headload of Napalm by David Chadwick

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

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

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Review of

The Wrong Shoes by Tom Percival

5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

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Review of

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

5star.jpg Science Fiction

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

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Review of

The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway) by Elly Griffiths

4.5star.jpg Crime

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

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Review of

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

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

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Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Crime

It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. Full Review

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Review of

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

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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

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Review of

Where I've Not Been Lost by Glen Sibley

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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

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Review of

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