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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]]?<br>
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There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews]] at TheBookbag.
  
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Want to learn more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
  
'''Are you looking for hidden treasure? Then click [[Adventure Island Book Three|here]]'''
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==The Best New Books==
  
==New Reviews==
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'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]].'''
 
  
'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
__NOTOC__
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529077745
|author=Chris Cleave
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|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)
|title=Gold
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|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Novels that feature sport often put people off reading them, particularly if you are not au fait with the sport in question. However, while the characters in Chris Cleave's ''Gold'' are athletes, specifically cyclists aiming for the 2012 London Olympics, it's more about the characters themselves. In fact, if you are looking for a book to read to avoid the brouhaha of the Olympics this year but still want to get a taste of what all the fuss is about, this would be a superb choice.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340963433</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jonathan Lee
 
|title=Joy
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Very stylish, observant and oh so spiky, this is an incredible, often uncomfortable novel that you just can't put down.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020427</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Pamela Fudge
 
|title=Turn Back Time
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Charles and Tessa have managed reasonably well since their divorce.  Both adore their daughter, Megan and would agree that the other is a good parent - that is if they ever had any contact with each other other than the occasional text or email.  Just before Megan is due to go to university Charles sends a message to Tessa via Megan. He has something which he needs to discuss with her and thinks that they should meet.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709098448</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Martin Kohan
 
|title=School for Patriots
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=There's a fair chance that if you pick up a South American novel, it's going to score quite highly on the 'seriously odd' scale. Martín Kohan's School for Patriots, translated by Nick Caistor, doesn't disappoint in that regard. The main character, María Teresa, is an innocent, shy teaching assistant at a Buenos Aires school that is run on military academy style discipline. The running of the school is itself something of a surprise but that's not what makes this strange. What ramps up the 'odd' factor here is that she spends vast amounts of this short novel hiding in the boys' loo, ostensibly to catch young boys smoking despite there being no evidence that any student has contravened this rule in this location. One might say she has nothing to go on. Then again, best not in the circumstances.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687438</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Daniel Silva
 
|title=Portrait of a Spy
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Gabriel Allon and his wife, Chiara, decide to rent a nice little Cornish cottage; the perfect hideaway in which to renovate art.  A rosy domestic picture that, as any spy thriller aficionado will tell you isn't going to last longIt lasts, in fact, as long as it takes some middle-eastern terrorists to bomb Paris and Copenhagen and then move on to London's Covent GardenGabriel and Chiara are there, about to have lunch, but Gabriel is unable to concentrate on the menu and just let things happenMr and Mrs Allon end up being dragged back into the day job as they and their multi-national colleagues brandish a spectrum of experience and talent in order to take on a rogue Yemeni cleric who, embarrassingly enough, had been supported by the Americans.
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|summary=A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teensThe dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned upD I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe SpencerSome 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>000743331X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1399613073
|author=Alonso Cueto and Frank Wynne (translator)
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|title=Moral Injuries
|title=The Blue Hour
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|author=Christie Watson
|rating=5
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Adrian Ormache, middle class Peruvian lawyer, has a beautiful wife, two daughters of the sort to make any parent proud and a comfortable lifestyleHis parents divorced when he was small so, as he lived with his mother, he has fragmented memories of a gruff, distant dadDespite his father's aloof, dictatorial manner, Adrian has always comforted himself with the fact he played a useful role as a land-bound naval officer, fighting Senderista terrorists for the good of PeruAfter the death of his mother everything changesAdrian finds documents that lead him away from his beliefs, towards a truth that will shatter more than his father's image.
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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 doctorAnjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GPWhen we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy.  We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequencesTwenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friendsThis time, it's their teenage children who are involved.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434019410</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241636604
|author=Mark Devine
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|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
|title=Dragon of Life Book 1: Raining Truth
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|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=Autobiography
|summary=When we first encounter Luke Whitaker he is - he tells us - a disembodied spirit placed in this part of the heavenly kingdom so that he can remember his life and emotions exactly as they were livedI don't know about you, but I'd find that rather unpleasant and decidedly embarrassing.  Luke Whitaker recognises that there are parts of his life which he'd rather remove from the record, but acknowledges that he can'tWe join him in 1967 in Seattle and he's on his way to Honolulu.  When he sets off he doesn't realise quite how momentous the trip is going to be.
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|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary StevensonA hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injusticeThere was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of EconomicsStevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envyHe also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupidIt was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with CitibankEventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>098501640X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Antonin Varenne and Sian Reynolds (translator)
 
|title=Bed of Nails
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=When you're a policeman in Paris and your involvement in office politics takes a turn for the worse, you could end up in charge of suicidesThat would make it your job to cope with all the jumpers, the pill-takers, the apparent suicide with two types of bullet through his head - even the naked men running into the flow of traffic around the ring-roadYou might not get the case of the American junkie who dies performing a pierced-man act in a seedy clubNo, looking into that is that man's closest friend, John, fresh from living in the French wilds as an outdoorsmanBut in a Paris where cause of death can be so bizarre, a reason for death can have very far-reaching consequences...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050370</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Leanne Egan
|author=Kristyna Litten
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|title=Lover Birds
|title=Chickens Can't See in the Dark
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=When a little chick called Pippa hears her teacher, Mr Benedict, say:
 
 
''As sure as eggs is eggs, chickens can't see in the dark.''
 
 
she is extremely disappointed. She thinks that not being able to see in the dark is a terrible thing and desperately wants to prove her teacher wrong. There are a number of characters who might be able to help such as the wise Mr Owl or Miss Featherbrain who runs the library. The only problem is that they all laugh at Pippa and reinforces the notion that chickens can't see in the dark.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192756796</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jon Grahame
 
|title=Reaper
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Ex-cop Jim Reaper gave up on living after his fourteen-year-old daughter was raped and committed suicide. To make matters worse, her attacker is let out of jail after serving only three years. Reaper comes up with a plan to end him, and to end his own miserable life in one move. Only the world has other plans with him.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905802528</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sally Nicholls
 
|title=All Fall Down
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=
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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?
It’s the summer of 1349. Isabel lives her young life as a villein, tied to the land which the family rents from the Lord of the small village of Ingleform in Yorkshire. Leaving is not an option. Life as a villein is hard, but nothing has prepared Isabel for the all-consuming Black Death decimating everything in its path as it sweeps across Europe. But when the plague runs riot across all of Britain, finally reaching her town, life there is devastaed. It seems the world will end in a wave of fear, pestilence and horror.
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|isbn=000862657X
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407121723</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sally Rooney
|author=Miranda France
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|title=Intermezzo
|title=That Summer at Hill Farm
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=If you were to pass Hill Farm you would think it the perfect country idyll with lambs in the fields, children playing and the farmhouse nestled in the folds of the hills.  The truth though is different.  Farmer Hayes loves the land, but he's no farmer.  His wife is neglected and it's not that long since Isabel miscarried her fourth child.  She loves her children but she's not a particularly good housewife - or wife.  She and Hayes were rather bounced into marriage by her aging and doting parents.  Now she's trapped in a house with death-watch beetle and a husband who is struggling to keep the farm going.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555131</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Izy Penguin
 
|title=Grandma Bendy
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Grandma Bendy is definitely not like other grannies:
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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.
 
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|isbn=0571365469
''She is incredibly bendy.''<br>
 
''She had twisty, twizzly arms''<br>
 
''and super, stretchy legs.''
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848860773</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Matt Dickinson
 
|title=Mortal Chaos: Deep Oblivion
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Based on the concept that something as small as the beating of a butterfly's wings can set in motion an intricate series of interconnected events, involving people around the globe, ''Deep Oblivion'' narrates a day in the life of a security guard, a homeless girl, a fireworks expert, a cruise ship captain, a monk, a missionary, a brutal military commander, and a couple of professional thieves, all of whom are somehow linked.  Those who are familiar with the series know that it ends with a massive pay-off, and you will not be disappointed by the chaos and destruction of the conclusion. Many characters die, and even among those who survive very few are left unchanged.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192757156</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Fannie Flagg
 
|title=I Still Dream About You
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=
 
At the age of 60, Maggie Fortenbury's glory days seem to have passed her by. An ex-Miss Alabama, she headed for the fame she dreamt of in 'the Big Apple' and ended, instead, making disastrous life choices that took her along a different route.  However she had made one good decision: to work for the diminutive Hazel Whisenkott, midget and founder of Red Mountain Realty. Now, as Hazel is dead, and despite her friendship with her colleagues (obese, optimistic Brenda and moaning Ethel), suicide seems the next logical step.  It has to be done correctly as Maggie comes from an era when you wouldn't want to let anyone down or any commitment unfulfilled.  Therefore picking her final day becomes increasingly difficult when other things get in the way, including a troupe of Whirling Dervishes.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555484</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Victoria Eveleigh
 
|title=Katy's Pony Surprise
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=We've been with Katy Squires for a few years now.  We first met her in [[Katy's Wild Foal by Victoria Eveleigh|Katy's Wild Foal]] when she discovered a new-born foal on snowy Exmoor.  Co-incidentally it was Katy's birthday and the foal would be Trifle.  It's not difficult to guess how things went in [[Katy's Champion Pony by Victoria Eveleigh|Katy's Champion Pony]], but it was great to see Trifle ''and'' Katy growing and maturing together.  We've now come to the final part of this lovely trilogy and it's another that's going to be loved by the pony-mad tween girl.  Even if you're not keen on horses and ponies it's still going to be a good read.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444005537</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1009473085
|author=Sax Rohmer
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|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024
|title=Fu-Manchu - The Hand of Fu-Manchu
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|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Nayland Smith has summoned the loyal Dr Petrie back from Egypt to the familiar setting of London. The streets of the capital have seen much terror in the early 20th century, but with Fu-Manchu dead, surely the worst is over? Not so… for the agency of the Si-Fan, the doctor's masters, still lurk. Can Smith and Petrie put an end to their terror once and for all?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857686054</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Fiona McGregor
 
|title=Indelible Ink
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Once wealthy, middle class Australian suburbanite Marie King never thought she'd be starting a new life at 59 but here she is, divorced and having to sell the marital home.  Unfortunately, attached to the marital home is the marital garden into which Marie didn't only give life but also pour her own life.  However, Marie tries to be positive and decides that if she's going to be a new person, she may as well go the whole way.  This means tattoos (much to her offsprings' horror) and an unlikely friendship with tattooist Rhys.  With that comes the realisation that the privileged suburb of Mossman isn't all there is to Sydney.  There's much more to the city, and indeed herself, than she first thought.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857894129</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Barry Fantoni
 
|title=Harry Lipkin, Private Eye: The Oldest Detective in the World
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
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|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Harry Lipkin may not be the fittest private investigator in Florida once you take into account his indigestion and his arthritis, but at 87 he's definitely the oldest.  Despite this he still manages to make a steady living, picking up the little jobs that don't interest the police and Norma Weinberger's problem comes into that category.  Small but expensive knick-knacks seem to be going missing from around the house so could it be a light-fingered member of staffThe suspects (the gardener, the butler, the maid and the chauffer) each have their own story and motive, leaving Harry to get the four down to a short list of oneA task that's perhaps a little harder than it sounds.
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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 youIf that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous 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>1846972272</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ruth Eastham
 
|title=The Messenger Bird
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Three days before Nathan's thirteenth birthday, his father, who works for the Ministry of Defence, is arrested for leaking top secret information to the enemy and causing the deaths of British soldiers. As he is dragged into a police car, he manages to mutter a few words to Nathan, asking him to follow a trail of clues and solve the mystery which will prove his father's innocence. But he urges Nathan to trust absolutely no one. He must not even confide in his mother and sister, because telling them will put them in danger too. Frightened, weary and confused, Nathan must use every ounce of his courage and ingenuity to save his father.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407124617</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Mark Lingane
|author=Danny Miller
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|title=Chimera
|title=The Gilded Edge
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=London: 1965
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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.''
  
These were the dark days, when the Krays had yet to be brought to justice and the underworld in London was based on protection rackets and armed robberies.
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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.''
  
These were the days when a politician getting caught with a call girl was a national scandal and generated genuine fear and outrage rather than a few front page headlines soon forgotten. The headlines generated then are still quoted now.  
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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>1849016917</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=Roddy Doyle
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|isbn=B0DNVWMYP2
|title=A Greyhound of a Girl
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Mary's life seems full of grief at the moment. Her grandmother, whom she loves dearly, is dying in hospital, and at the very moment when she needs the comfort of a good friend, her bestie Ava has had to move away. But unlike many young fictional heroines, Mary has a strong and loving family to support her, and it is with them that she shares this glorious adventure.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407129341</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Max Boucherat
|author=Karen McCombie
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|title=You, Me and Thing: The Legend of the Loch Ness Lilo
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Ruby lives next door to Jackson and although he can be somewhat annoying, being a boy, they share a BIG secretAt the bottom of their garden lives a Thing. There's no other way to describe it really, but Thing can be cute, funny, adorable - and something of a liability when it decides to do a little magicYou see, when Thing gets upset (which happens quite frequently - the world can get very confusing when you're only a little Thing) its magic spells are not completely reliable, which is why Ruby and Jackson went to a pool party and found themselves face-to-face with a giant inflatable monster.
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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 worldBut first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky.  For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tamperingWhen malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571272614</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008666482
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Fyodor Dostoyevsky
|author=Jenny Valentine
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|title=White Nights
|title=Iggy and Me and the New Baby
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Flo's little sister Iggy seems to have just one thing on her mind at the moment and that's babies.  She's desperate for Mummy to have another baby but Mummy says that two are quite enough - 'one under each arm in an emergency'.  Actually, Iggy has something else on her mind too. She ''longs'' to grow.  At one point she was the smallest in her class - which meant that she was the smallest child in the school. She will do anything to grow - however odd it might seem to everyone else!
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007463545</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241619785
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008385068
|author=H A Goodman
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|title=The Midnight Feast
|title=Breaking The Devil's Heart: A Logic of Demons Novel
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|author=Lucy Foley
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=In this afterlife, Heaven is pretty much hands off. Angels whisper sweet nothings into human ears but don't go much further than that. If the living don't act on Heaven's advice, the angels simply practise what you might call courageous restraint. Hell, on the other hand, is much better organised. Set up like a sizeable corporation, its demons are purveyors of the Formula and relentless targets push the demons into becoming exceedingly effective - and dodgy - salesmen. Drink too much of the Formula and you're in big trouble - sinning all over the place.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B007T0BDVE</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jeff Norton
 
|title=MetaWars: The Fight for the Future
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Welcome to the world of Web 4.0 - a totally immersive world of virtual reality, jacked into your spine, and the perfect place to escape, live and work - as opposed to the near-Apocalyptic conditions on Earth, with global warming, over-population and anarchic ruin everywhere.  Jonah uses the Metasphere to go to school by day, and his rollerskates to try and win race prize purses by nightBut the world is about to turn upside down for him.  For the inventor of Web 4.0, who alone can control and profit from this other reality, is out of prison, and the 'terrorists' against him are stepping up their activities too.  Secrets in both worlds will conspire to drag Jonah in, but in an existence where you can be killed virtually or IRL and they both have the same result, the danger he faces is only going to mount up...
+
|summary=It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The ManorIt's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promised.  It'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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408314592</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Michael Ridpath
 
|title=Meltwater (Fire and Ice)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=A group of internet activists decided to base themselves in Iceland whilst they prepared their latest exposé.  This time it was a video of a purported Israeli attrocity which needed verifying and preparing for publication.  All would have been well - or as well as such things ever are - if one of the group hadn't been murdered on a visit to a volcano.  It was a volcano which caused the second problem - not the erruption of the small, pretty one which the group had visited with fatal consequences, but the big, ugly one which no one could pronounce and which disrupted air traffic all over Europe in the spring of 2010Yes.  That one.  Eyjafjallajokull meant that travel too and from Iceland was exceedingly difficult ''and'' it disrupted the investigation of the murder.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085789644X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sylvie Nickels
 
|title=The Other Side of Silence
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Pippa Eastman went to Australia to get away from her domineering father, the historian Joseph Eastman and it was there that she met Jude, the son of two Ten Pound Poms.  Their relationship was good, but not exactly committed on either side.  It was about having fun.  Familial ties were surprisingly strong though and when Joseph Eastman developed Alzheimer's Disease Pippa returned to the UK to care for him.  Slightly to her surprise, Jude followed her - determined to track down the alcoholic father who had left him and his mother in AustraliaIt's only after her father's death that Pippa finds herself in search of her father's life - and trying to establish that he wasn't a murderer.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781762686</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Joseph Delaney
 
|title=The Spook's Blood: Book 10 (Wardstone Chronicles)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=One might've thought that having bound The Devil in a massive underground pit and cut his head off, life would become a little easier for Thomas Ward, Spook in-training. Although the Fiend has undoubtedly been weakened, he has many loyal servants set on putting him back together so that he can reap terrible eternal vengeance on the few brave enough to fight him. While witch assassin Grimalkin, a dark and unlikely ally, evades the Fiend's minions and keeps his head separate from his body, it is up to Tom, Alice and The Spook to work out a way to destroy him permanently. But Grimalkin cannot run forever, and the Fiend's most powerful servants are encircling Tom and his allies, forcing them to fight with everything they have, just to survive.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370331818</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss
 
|title=Diary of a Spider
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=It's not an easy life being a spider. You have to avoid vacuum cleaners, daddy longlegs, and people with big shoes. There are good things too: you get to have fun with your best friend, Fly, and spend time with your loving family. ''Diary of a Spider'' takes us through a few months in the life of a young spider, taking in the fun and adventure.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007455925</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=James Baldwin
|author=Jude Morgan
+
|title=Giovanni's Room
|title=The Secret Life of William Shakespeare
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Literary Fiction  
|summary=Books about Shakespeare vary hugely both in terms of approach and quality. Some focus on historical fact, while others play rather more loosely with the romance of his life. Fortunately for readers, Jude Morgan's books are rather more reliably excellent. What's more, he has a track record of fiction that concerns great writers, having previously tackled the Brontës (''The Taste of Sorrow'') and the romantic poets (''Passion''). So my expectations were already quite high coming into his ''The Secret Life of William Shakespeare'' - expectations that he has again surpassed.
+
|summary=''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, the real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755358228</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0141186356
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|author=Tom Slaughter
+
|title=Wild East
|title=Boat Works
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Imagine seeing just a little bit of a boat.  It's not enough for you to decide whether it's big or small, or what it does, but on the opposite page there's another clue.  'I have two oars' - and there they are for all to see.  But look more closely.  You can fold that second page out for yet another clue: 'I have a rope which ties me to the dock' and there's the rope, strong and hairy, with a complex knot.  Now you can fold out the second clue to reveal that his is a rowboat, by the name of Nelly, tied up at the dock. Neat, eh?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1609052153</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jeremy Bullard
 
|title=Life On The Line
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Jeremy Bullard began his working life as a Chartered Accountant but eventually realised that the most exciting part of the day was his journey to work on his moped.  Next came a spell as a IT Consultant into which he put heart and soul and only just escaped with his sanity.  A mental breakdown and a spell in The Priory convinced him that he had to rethink his life choices and high on the list was a long-distance trip on a motorbike.  The first two trips - from London to Cape Town and the reverse - were aborted and we join him as he attempts his most ambitious journey.  He's heading from New York to the very south of South America.  Oh, and he's taking in the Galapagos and Easter Island.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956968309</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jane Johnson
 
|title=The Sultan's Wife
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
+
|genre=Teens
|summary=Alys Swann is leaving her native Holland to accomplish the marriage her mother arranged for her in London.  Alys's parents are English but fled to Holland when her late father discovered he was on the wrong side during the English Civil War.  The trip turns out to be more adventurous than Alys would like as she's kidnapped by pirates and delivered to Moroccan potentate Sultan Moulay Ismail who's a little mentally unstable (and that's an understatement).  His plan for her is as a welcome addition to his globally sourced harem.  There she meets Nus-Nus, eunuch and the Sultan's scribe, who has problems of his ownA local apothecary dies in a most unnatural way and Nus-Nus seems to be the only suspect.  The royal court has always been a dangerous place but, for Nus-Nus, and indeed Alys, staying alive has suddenly become more of a challenge than it seemed before... and that's saying something.
+
|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school.  The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of troubleHe listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapperBut now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918008</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241645441
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jason Dean
 
|title=The Wrong Man
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=Ex-marine James Bishop worked for an elite protection companyThe idea behind his last mission was to protect multi-millionaire Randall Brennan and his daughter Natalie but, instead, he found himself framed for murder.  Who?  Why?  These why may be questions that need answering but that's not going to happen whilst he's serving a life sentence.  However, where Bishop is concerned, that's only a minor blip compared to the task ahead.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755382692</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1635866847
|author=Garth Nix and Sean Williams
+
|title=The Lavender Companion
|title=Troubletwisters: The Monster
+
|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=This book really should be required reading for anyone charged with bringing up children with magical powers — especially if they've already saved the world a time or two. In a nutshell, it shows what happens when you answer all the said young people's questions with some vague promise to explain everything when the time is right. As if that's going to satisfy them.  
+
|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>1405258632</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Han Kang
|author=Alex Brummer
+
|title=The Vegetarian
|title=Britain for Sale
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Business and Finance
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Buy British, we're constantly told, and many people do - the French, the Germans, Qataris, Chinese...  If you want to buy British you'd be hard pressed to use a British electricity company, the people shifting North Sea oil to you might be foreign, the trains near you may be foreign-operated, and so much of what's in the shops you buy from would of coursed be sourced from abroad, and shipped through foreign-owned ports. Whether or not the country is going to hell in a handcart, it's moving in piecemeal stages to exterior business interests, and the British citizen gets the worst of the deal.
+
|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>1847940757</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1803510056
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Jenny Valentine
|author=Michael Morpurgo
+
|title=Us in the Before and After
|title=Sparrow: The Story of Joan of Arc
+
|rating=5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Teens
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|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=Joan of Arc knows she's special. She knows that she has been chosen to save France - the voices tell her so. But she also knows that she has a lot to do to convince the Dauphin and the noblemen who protect him that it's time to make a stand for their country. Can she become a heroine?
+
|isbn=1471196585
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007465955</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1787333175
|author=William Nicholson
+
|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
|title=The Golden Hour
+
|author=Benji Waterhouse
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
+
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Maggie is nervous about committing to a live-in relationship, terrified by the idea that there must be something better out there. Dean is terrified of losing the love of his life and old Mrs Dickinson is just, well, terrified. Henry is frustrated by rabbits in his garden, Alan is frustrated by work, and Liz is frustrated by old Mrs Dickinson, who is her mother...
+
|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.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849163936</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Mariana Enriquez
|author=Claire Merle
+
|title=A Sunny Place for Shady People
|title=The Glimpse
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Ana's Dad helped invent the DNA test that helps to divide Society into two categories: Pures and Crazies. Pures are people who are 'normal', and Crazies are people who carry genes for depression, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. Having lived as a Pure all her life, when Ana finds out her test was wrong her world falls apart. Now, marrying Jasper, a Pure-boy, is her only chance of a normal life. But will Jasper still want her now she's a Crazy?
+
|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>0571280536</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1803511230
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Onyi Nwabineli
|author=David Vann
+
|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself
|title=Dirt
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We're back in the mid-nineteen-eighties in a suburb of Sacramento and Galen lives with his mother on the family walnut farm.  The farm's not what it was, largely having been left to its own devices since the death of Galen's abusive grandfather some years beforeGalen's ''father'' is something of an unknown quantity - his mother won't even discuss who he was or tell Galen anything about him, but then she's able to shut her mind to most things which she finds unpleasant.  ''Her'' mother has been moved from the farm to a nursing home - she's still quite active but her memory is goingSuzie-Q's sister, Helen is determined to get her hands on the family money for the benefit of her seventeen-year-old daughter, Jennifer.
+
|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gainNow Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her.  Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so.  Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire.  Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434021962</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0861546873
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=David Chadwick
|author=Rachel Hartman
+
|title=Headload of Napalm
|title=Seraphina
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=The Comonot Treaty is approaching its 40th anniversary but the state of play between humans and dragons is still parlous. The people in Goredd still revile and distrust the dragons who walk among them in human form. For the dragons, humans are like cockroaches - easily crushed individually, but surprisingly resilient when they band together. Humans are impulsive, emotional. Dragons are impassive, logical. It's not an easy fit and the fragile peace is at risk after the murder of a Goreddi prince. Dragons are suspected of the 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....
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857531565</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B0D321VJ76
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Tom Percival
|author=Todd H Doodler
+
|title=The Wrong Shoes
|title=Bear's Underwear Mystery: A Count-and-Find-it Adventure
+
|rating=5
|rating=3
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|genre=For Sharing
+
|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 accidentThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction.  And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hopeHe is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
|summary=Bear receives a mysterious message: 'Follow the trail of underwear. Find all TEN and you'll be THERE'.  He's delighted to be involved in a mystery and goes off hunting for the white pair which is number one.  Once they are found he's off in search of the pair with blue stripes, then the pair with green spots, another in purple plaid and so on...  Each page has a number tab for extra fun.
+
|isbn=1398527122
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1609052048</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tony Robinson
 
|title=Tony Robinson's Weird World of Wonders: Romans
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary=You could be mistaken for thinking [[:Category:Tony Robinson|Tony Robinson]] had written books like this before, for he was doing 'Horrid History'-style TV programmes before the official ones were madeThis series fits so well into his erudite yet family audience-friendly manner, and this second book takes us in a primary school curriculum-suiting way into the world of RomeA lot is in these books, from trivia for all ages (I didn't know, or had forgotten, that all those Julius Caesar reliefs and statues are of him in a wig as he was bald), to the delectable gross-out (the posh man's cuisine) to the foregrounding of the obvious difference between them and us (in a word, slavery).
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330533894</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|author=Diana Hendry
+
|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|title=The Seeing
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=It's 1956 when Natalie comes storming into the quiet seaside town of Norton and slap-bang into Lizzie's life. Natalie is from the wrong side of the tracks and reserved, well-to-do Lizzie is immediately drawn to this unconventional girl who wears her poverty and neglect like a badge of courage. As the two girls grow closer over the summer, Natalie reveals a shocking secret - her odd younger brother Philip has the gift of second sight and can see "left over Nazis" lying in wait, ready to start another war when the time is right. Natalie says it's up to the three of them to rid Norton of these LONs.  
+
|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>037033213X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= 0356522776
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1786482126
|author=Tony Robinson
+
|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)
|title=Tony Robinson's Weird World of Wonders: Egyptians
+
|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=You could be mistaken for thinking [[:Category:Tony Robinson|Tony Robinson]] had written books like this before, for he was doing 'Horrid History'-style TV programmes before the official ones were madeThis series fits so well into his erudite yet family audience-friendly manner, and this launching book takes us to the strangest of worlds - yet one only a museum visit away, that of the ancient EgyptiansA lot is in these pages - complete with adult stuff glossed over (just how in-bred '''were''' those Ptolemys?!), the gross-out being relished (making mummies, and some alleged Egyptian medicines) and the obvious differences between them and us foregrounded so we can empathise with them (and at the same time remember it's harder for most of us to sleep on our roofs than they would have found it).
+
|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 skullWas this a ritual killing or murder?  Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry NelsonIt'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>0330533878</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Joan Didion
|author=Bill Ridgers (Editor)
+
|title=The Year of Magical Thinking
|title=The Economist Book of Business Quotations
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Autobiography
|genre=Business and Finance
+
|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.
|summary=It's not so much a book of business quotations as a book of business aphorisms.  There's a prime example on the dust cover: J Paul Getty's 'My formula for success? Rise early, work late, strike oil.'  It's arranged alphabetically by subject matter from Accountants and Accountancy ('Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions' A A Latimer) through to Work-Life Balance ('For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.' Lily Tomlin).  Most entries are short and pithy and few run to as much as half a page.
+
|isbn=0007216858
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685931</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008551324
|author=Daniel Glattauer
+
|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)
|title=Love Virtually
+
|author=Neil Lancaster
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=When Emmi sends and email to cancel a magazine subscription, she has no idea what a slight typo in the email address will lead to – a life-changing, potentially marriage-wrecking, all-consuming online love affair with the man whom she emails in error. What starts as an insignificant, casual message quickly becomes something much more important to both her and Leo as two people who have never met start to share their secrets and wishes, dreams and fears with each other, not just because they can but, it seems, because they have to.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050958</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Wiesner
 
|title=The Three Pigs
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Everyone knows the story of the Three Little Pigs, but in this version, when the wolf comes along and huffs and puffs, he actually blows the little pigs right out of the story. In fact, they float across a number of pages before eventually ending up in the middle of ''Hey diddle diddle!'' However, they don't find this nursery rhyme to their liking so they move on to a story about a prince who kills a dragon. Having just escaped from their own dangerous enemy, the three pigs realise that they can't possibly leave the dragon to be slain, so they take him with them right the way back to their own story where, with the help of their new friend, they definitely don't allow the wolf in.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849394059</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0241678412
|author=Matthew Crow
+
|title=The Proof of My Innocence
|title=My Dearest Jonah
+
|author=Jonathan Coe
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Jonah and Verity start to write to each other as part of a pen-pal schemeThey may only meet on paper but, as they reveal themselves and their pasts through their letters, they become the only constant in each of their existences, and what existencesJonah has a troubled past (to put it mildly) including a stint in prison and a father serving a life sentenceVerity is the product of working class parents with aspirations which she has failed or refused to meet, splitting her working life between the local coffee shop and the local strip joint.  Their futures begin to appear a lot brighter than their pasts but then clouds gather to prove that appearances can be deceptive.
+
|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 nothingThe situation improves when 'Uncle' Chris comes to stay and introduces Phyl to his adopted daughter, RashidaChristopher Swann (described by some as a lefty blogger) is investigating a think tank which originated at Cambridge University in the 1980sIt plans to push the government in a more extreme direction and is ready to act.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908248254</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|title=Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?
|author=Victoria Lamb
+
|author=Claire Dederer
|title=Witchstruck
 
 
|rating=3
 
|rating=3
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Meg Lytton comes from a family of witches. Her mother, who died in childbirth, renounced her gift in order to marry. But Meg's Aunt Jane continued to practise and has taught Meg to hone her skills. Sent to serve the Princess Elizabeth - in confinement at Woodstock, suspected of treason against her sister - Meg soon finds that her royal mistress has a strong interest in the occult and encourages her to continue. Elizabeth is beset by danger and must tread a delicate path through intrigues and religion. Meg, too, walks in peril. The ruthless witchfinder Marcus Dent has taken an uncomfortably close interest in her and if he were to discover her secret, he would send her straight to her death.  
+
|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>055256611X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1399715070
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Siobhan Rowden
 
|title=The Curse of the Bogle's Beard
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=This is the book that takes the disgusting granny stereotype to its farthest lengths. Barnaby's gran is fond of purple to look queenly, digs her nose in his ear when she talks to him, and is rather hairy, very burpy and incredibly bossy. She also has nothing good to say about her daughter's choice of husband - Barnaby's father - who has decided to ignore the invitation to inherit the family's pickled vegetable factory and has in fact vanished.  Could an old diary Barnaby's found of someone's very brave and very beetrooty life hold a clue?  Will Barnaby overcome his nerves to explore Nan's mansion on his own?  And quite how far will she go at preserving certain things?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407124897</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1739526910
|author=N K Jemisin
+
|title=Where I've Not Been Lost
|title=The Killing Moon: Dreamblood: Book 1
+
|author=Glen Sibley
|rating=4
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Ehiru is a Gatherer. He visits those who are dying to help them pass away peacefully. He sends their souls to a safe place for eternity, while taking their dreamblood to heal others. Most people in his city, Gujaareh, are happy with this. Then he Gathers a foreigner who's unwilling, and claims that the order of priests he belongs to are corrupt... could this barbarian be correct?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500764</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Debbie Singleton and Holly Swain
 
|title=The King who Wouldn't Sleep
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=
+
|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.''
'Many years ago, in a palace far across the sea, there lived a king, a queen and, of course, a beautiful princess'.
 
 
 
In fact the princess is so beautiful and the king loves her so much that he resolves to watch over her every single day and night until he is able to find her the perfect suitor. In true traditional tale style, princes travel from far and wide to try and win the hand of the princess and, more importantly, the approval of the king. Unfortunately, even though there are all sorts of princes – tall, short, strong, weak, blond, bald and so on – not one is good enough for the king's much loved daughter.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849390061</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008405026
|author=Julia Green
+
|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|title=Tilly's Moonlight Fox
+
|author=Jane Casey
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=
 
It's a difficult time for Tilly. She's just moved house, losing contact with her best friend as a result, and now her mother, who is expecting a baby, is too ill to leave her bed or even spend much time with her. Tilly is a sensitive, generous girl who tries hard not to get in the way or be a nuisance because she understands that her father needs to give all his time to his wife, and to sorting out their new home. Lonely, unhappy and frightened by all the bewildering things that are happening, she finds herself thrown back on her own company, unable to share her worries.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192757911</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Quintin Jardine
 
|title=Funeral Note: A Bob Skinner Mystery
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=When a man's body was exhumed from a shallow grave in Edinburgh the initial reaction was that it was murder - I mean, why else would you dispose of the body in that way? But then, why would you bury it with obvious care and tell the police where it's buried?  When the postmortem showed that the man had died from natural causes it seemed that it was case closed - but Chief Constable Bob Skinner didn't always think in straight lines.  He had more pressing problems to deal with thoughIt seemed obvious that an Inspector on his force was corrupt and on the personal front it looked as though his marriage was heading for the rocks.
+
|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 murderKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755356969</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Alan Clark
+
|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD
|title=Rory's Boys
+
|title=Nowhere Man
|rating=5
+
|author=Deborah Stone
|genre=Humour
+
|rating=4
|summary=Rory Blaine, grandson of Lady Sybil Blaine is gay, free, single and loving it, as he tells himself a dozen times a day.  He may be middle aged but he's still got it. He's a partner in a successful advertising firm and so, so over having been thrown out of home when he was a teenager; yes, over it – totally and completely.  When he hears his grandmother is dying, he decides it's time to remind her (and her considerable wealth) of his existence. The tardy but intensive attention seems to pay off when he's left the ancestral pile. But the stately home wasn't left to him quite in the way that he thought.  There are so many strings attached it resembles a marionette: if he wants to keep it he must transform it into the first retirement home for elderly gay gentlemen and he also seems to have acquired his first resident, whether he's wanted or not.
+
|genre=General Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906413886</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=Helen Simpson
 
|title=A Bunch of Fives
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|summary=I will come straight out with it at the top of this review and state that I am a big fan of Helen Simpson. So this book, which is a selection of five stories from each of her five collections, is right up my street.  All I’ve got to do now is convince you that you need to read it too!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099561573</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!

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Review of

The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope) by Ann Cleeves

4.5star.jpg Crime

A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh. Full Review

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Review of

Moral Injuries by Christie Watson

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved. Full Review

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Review of

The Trading Game: A Confession by Gary Stevenson

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

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

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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

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

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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

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