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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 find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
  
==New Reviews==
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==The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]].'''
 
  
'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
__NOTOC__
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
 
|title=A Little Bit of Winter
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=We [[Rabbit's Wish by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell|already know]] that Rabbit and Hedgehog are best friends despite the fact that Rabbit is awake all day and Hedgehog is awake at night.  Now there's going to be a new challenge for the friendship. It's nearly winter and Hedgehog is ready to go to sleep until spring but Rabbit will be awake and coping with the worst that the weather can throw at him - and trying to find food even when the ground is covered in snow.  Hedgehog has a request - he'd like Rabbit to save him a little bit of winter because he doesn't know what it's like.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0862649986</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
|author=Adam Blake
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{{Frontpage
|title=The Demon Code
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|isbn=0241636604
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|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
 +
|author=Gary Stevenson
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
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|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Inside, things are better for the reader, but less so for former Detective Sergeant Heather Kennedy.  She's just punched the first and only client of her private security business, who was supposed to be her link to other clients.  Someone from her past, Emil Gassan, keeps calling to talk about a case she handled while she was with the Police and which resulted in her being thrown out of the force.  She's also struggling to cope with the fact of her father's death a year previously, as well as failing to move on from catching her partner Isobel cheating on her.
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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 Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank.  Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751545783</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Christopher William Hill
 
|title=Tales from Schwartzgarten: Osbert the Avenger
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Schwartzgarten is an odd place. Oh, it has all the usual stuff, like banks and libraries and palaces and glue factories, but it also has a somewhat excessive fascination with the gruesome and gory. This is due in large part to the fact that the city was embroiled in civil unrest, assassinations and battles for over two hundred years, and in consequence the cemetery where Nanny takes Osbert for his daily walk is a quarter the size of Schwartzgarten itself. Roads have names like Bone-Orchard Street, and the Old Town is rife with cut-throats.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408326353</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Oliver Jeffers
 
|title=This Moose Belongs To Me
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Wilfred owns a moose. His moose’s name is Marcel and most of the time Marcel follows Wilfred’s rather lengthy rules on how to be the perfect pet. However some of the rules are rather too demanding for an independent moose and Marcel develops a tendency to take Wilfred on very long walks. One day on a particularly lengthy walk they meet an old lady who greets Marcel enthusiastically, 'Rodrigo! You’re back!' Does the moose really belong to Wilfred? How can he prove that Marcel is his perfect pet?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007263872</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Leanne Egan
|author=Kate Cann
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|title=Lover Birds
|title=Witch Crag
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Kita lives in a hill fort as part of the sheepmen community. Life since the Great Havoc has been hard and brutish. There are few survivors from the time of technology and nature is gradually retaking the land. There are often droughts and both food and water are often in short supply. For the sheepmen, it's all about survivial. Food, what there is of it, is bland. Days are filled with grinding hard work. Relationships are frowned on. Women are treated like chattels. Although they have an alliance with the horsemen, other groups are avoided and disliked - the farmers, those who live in the ruins of the Old City.
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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 sheEven though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had a good kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140710702X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=000862657X
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Penny Junor
 
|title=Prince William: Born to be King: An Intimate Portrait
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=Prince William is one of the few people who genuinely needs no introduction.  He's been in the public eye since his birth and the interest is certain to increase rather than diminish as time goes by.  On the other hand he ''is'' only thirty.  Is there really going to be enough to warrant a book and will it be anything more than an attempt to cash in on his marriage in 2011 and the current interest in all things royal engendered by the Queen's Diamond JubileeYou can see that I was something of a reluctant reader - my sympathies are republican rather than royalist and in addition Penny Junor is known to be a supporter of Prince Charles in what can be described as the War of the Waleses.  Was this ''really'' going to be a book which I would enjoy?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444720392</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Halina Wagowska
 
|title=The Testimony
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=The Holocaust must have been particularly horrendous for the young survivor. Halina here says how she had barely three years of schooling before the events of the Final Solution took over, and her life was changed for ever.  It was a life a little different to those around her – a nanny who took her to a cathedral and brought her home full of the Catholic anti-Semitic sentiment. Religion and its effects were of little consequence – she was more worried that those seeing a photo of her and a dog had more admiration for the look of the dog than of her.  But things were only to change for the worst – existence in the Lodz ghetto, and later, the death camps.  This book is just not arch enough to be too structured and self-aware, so when Halina sees those by tram travelling through the ghetto and wonders what the life of the gentiles on it is like, this only provides one small glimpse of how her life turned into one of those thinking of and helping others, with special affinity for those in minorities everywhere.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1742703577</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sally Rooney
|author=Sarah Herman
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|title=Intermezzo
|title=The Classic Guide to Famous Assassinations (Classic Guides)
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you ever wanted to know the details of famous assassinations, this is almost certainly the book you've been waiting for. In an easy to read style with lots of bullet points and box-outs, Sarah Herman talks us through history's most famous killings and failed attempts. Starting with Greek and Roman times, subsequent chapters move through religious and royal victims, revolutionaries, Russians and American politicians.
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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>1780950144</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571365469
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1009473085
|author=Mij Kelly and Mary McQuillan
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|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024
|title=A Bed of Your Own
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|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
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|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Suzy Sue has brushed her teeth, picked up her teddy and clambered into her bed. She is ready to fall asleep any moment until she realises that something is not quite right:
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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 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.
 
 
''I'm squished. I'm squashed. I'm uncomfy! she said.<br>
 
''I think there's something wrong with my bed.''
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340999284</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Max Boucherat
|author=Harriet Ziefert and Liz Murphy
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|title=ABC Dentist: Healthy Teeth from A to Z
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary=I hope that children are not as fearful of going to the dentist as used regularly to be the case, but even those who are unworried will benefit from this useful book directed mainly at the five to ten age group, although I'm sure that older children will find it of interest too.  The ABC format might suggest a younger age range, but don't be fooled!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1609052749</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Martin Davies
 
|title=The Year After
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Captain Tom Allen is home from World War I.  Whilst waiting to be demobbed, he receives an invitation to attend the annual Christmas house-party at Hannesford Court, the stately home of Sir Robert and Lady Stansbury.  He used to look forward to it before joining up and so decides to attend again, but everything has changed.  The Stansbury's heir, Harry, and son-in-law, Oliver, were killed and second son, Reggie Stansbury, remains in a nursing home with no legs and dwindling self-respect.  Whilst coming to terms with the devastating realisation that he's one of the very few men in their set to return alive and entire, Tom remembers pre-war Hannesford and the night when his friend Professor Schmidt died at such a gathering.  Everyone believes it was unsuspicious but gradually things are coming to light that hint of hidden secrets.  Along with her Ladyship's former companion, Anne (who has issues of her own), Tom decides to investigate as truths are exhumed, making him doubt whether those happier times were as idyllic as he remembers.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980443</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Leo Timmers
 
|title=The Magical Life of Mr Renny
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Our story begins with the words ''This is not an apple'' below a painting of a bright green, juicy-looking apple.  The apple in question has been painted by Mr Renny who is such a good painter that whatever he paints looks just like the real thing.  Unfortunately for Mr Renny though, no-one wants to buy his paintings from him and so one day, a mysterious man in a bowler hat comes along and offers Mr Renny the chance to have everything he paints become real.  Will this be the making of Mr Renny?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1877579203</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tammara Webber
 
|title=Easy
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Jacqueline gave up her dreams of becoming a classical musician to follow her boyfriend Kennedy to college. When he dumps her, it hits her hard – so hard she starts skipping classes and, as a result, failing economics. Dragged out to a party by her friend to help her get over the break-up, instead she faces terror as her ex’s friend Buck tries to rape her. A mysterious stranger, Lucas, intervenes to save her, and when she realises they share economics, she starts to wonder whether he could take her mind off Kennedy. She’s also receiving e-mail tuition from an older student she’s never met, who seems to be flirting with her. Soon, though, she realises that Buck hasn’t forgiven her for escaping his attentions, and she’s forced to try to find the courage to take a stand against him.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141347449</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Clare Balding
 
|title=My Animals and Other Family
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Clare Balding was born into a racing family - her father, Ian, was the trainer of Mill Reef who won the Derby in 1971, the same year that Clare was born.  Whilst her father would never forget the year that his horse won the Derby he would usually fail to remember that it was also the year of his daughter's birth. Horses came first and they were the priority in Ian Balding's life: the family had to adjust accordingly. He was a gifted and successful trainer who understood the animals in his care and his record, including Mill Reef's Derby success speaks for itself.  Clare's childhood was separate from the life of the racing stable but she inherited her family's love of animals.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670921467</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=A B Saddlewick
 
|title=Monstrous Maud:Big Fright
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Monstrous MaudFed up with her pink and perfect sister, and the boring, do-goody types she suffers at school, she is not too disappointed when she and her pet rat – are expelled, and forced to attend a very different institutionRotwood School is a veritable hell-hole for anyone else, with maggoty food, and all the stereotypes of horror fiction as the pupils.  Maud being so monstrous – fits in perfectly – or at least she would if she is allowed to stay…
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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 lonesomeWhat could possibly go wrong?  Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world.  But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky.  For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of 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>1780550723</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008666482
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Fyodor Dostoyevsky
|author=Bonnie Nadzam
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|title=White Nights
|title=Lamb
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
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|genre=Short Stories
|summary=David Lamb is anchored to his life by his career, his affair-ridden marriage and caring for his father. Over time, his wife divorces him, his father dies and his employers insist he takes a period of enforced leave.  So what's left?  There is just one constant remaining: his friendship with Tommie who, he feels, would be an ideal holiday companion.  He suggests that they both take a short trip as it would do them both good and Tommie agrees eagerly.  The adventure then begins in the form of a journey to a beautiful, remote cabin.  David is 54 years old and Tommie?  She's 11.
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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>0091944317</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241619785
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008385068
|author=Karen Engelmann
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|title=The Midnight Feast
|title=The Stockholm Octavo
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|author=Lucy Foley
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary=As a Customs and Excise 'Sekretaire' in 18th century Stockholm, Emil Larsson has all he needs: professional respect, a bachelor's lifestyle and a table at Mrs Sparrow's gaming house whenever he fancies his luckContrastingly, his superiors at work feel he's missing a certain something.  In order to climb further up the career ladder (maybe even to maintain his current position) Emil needs to marryHis manager believes this so fervently that there's a deadline for the weddingEmil panics but Mrs Sparrow offers to lay an 'Octavo', a fortune-telling spread of eight cards to guide him to the eight people who will ensure his successHowever, not all goes to plan as, over the eight nights it takes to complete the Octavo, it becomes apparent that the prediction isn't for Emil's future, but has become an Octavo to save the whole of Sweden.
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|summary=It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor.  It's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are 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 friends.  Old scores are going to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444742698</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=James Baldwin
|author=Nick Coleman
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|title=Giovanni's Room
|title=The Train in the Night: A Story of Music and Loss
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
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|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Picture the scenario.  You have always been passionate about music, with a catholic taste which embraces classical, soul and heavy rock with a bit of everything in between, and your job is that of an arts and music journalist. In your mid-forties you wake up one morning to find your whole world changed overnight by Sudden Neursosensory Hearing Loss.  It has a devastating effect on your balance when subjected to any kind of sound, whether it is an aeroplane overhead, the roar of the crowd at a football match, or the music which you once adored with every fibre of your being. Your head is filled with tinnitus, like a very poorly-tuned radio which lacks an off switch.
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|summary=''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, the real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224093576</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0141186356
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rod Campbell
 
|title=Dear Zoo Touch and Feel
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=[[Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell]], the original lift the flap story, is one of our most favourite books.  If asked I would give it 5 stars, 6 stars, maybe even 10 stars!  It's incredibly readable, interactive and a fun story to share over and over and over again.  Now the story has been modernised to give each page a sensory patch, where you and baby can touch and feel the different animals.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230757871</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|author=Prue Leith
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|title=Wild East
|title=Relish: My Life on a Plate
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Prue Leith was born in South Africa, the daughter of a prominent actress who was considered 'dangerously liberal' in her views on race.  Prue was largely unaware of the horrors of apartheid and had a privileged lifestyle.  She came to London in the early sixties but still retains an awareness of colour as a legacy of her childhood.  What didn't come from her childhood was her love of cooking - she drifted into catering almost accidentally but went on to set up a very successful catering company and then to open Leith's Restaurant .  Her cookery school and regular food columns in national newspapers followed soon after.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857384058</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=John Marsden
 
|title=The Third Day, The Frost (The Tomorrow Series)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Narrator Ellie and her friends are carrying on with their resistance efforts against the invaders and hit on a stroke of luck as they discover their old comrade Kevin working on a nearby farm. A daring rescue attempt succeeds, and he's brought back into the fold. He's also learnt something of explosives, and is able to help plan the group's most audacious attack yet. But with security higher than ever, can they pull it off, and at what cost?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857388754</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sarah Rees Brennan
 
|title=Unspoken
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Kami Glass, intrepid journalist in the making, has always been used to being an outsider. She might have a best friend and run the school paper, but she also talks to a boy in her head. A boy who talks backThough her imaginary friend has lost her real friends in the past, Kami is quite happy with her life as it is. As long as she doesn't get caught staring into space as she conducts conversations with him in her mind too often, things are pretty good.
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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 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>0857078070</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241645441
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1635866847
|author=Helen Stephens
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|title=The Lavender Companion
|title=How to Hide a Lion
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|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
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|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Lions - dangerous? Pah. They're so gentle that a little could have one as a pet. That's exactly what Iris does when a lion wanders into town. Her parents wouldn't see things as she does, so Iris decides to hide the lion around the house.
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|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>1407121618</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gwen Millward
 
|title=Bear and Bird
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Bear and bird are best friends. They do everything together. They work together, play together, collect firewood together. However, one evening, Bird burns all the firewood, so Bear sighs and heads out to collect some more. When he doesn't return for hours, Bird worries, and heads out to find his best friend.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405254270</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kate Willis-Crowley
 
|title=Mary Had A Little Lamb
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Mary Had A Little Lamb is a much-loved nursery rhyme. We all know the story of its fleece as white as snow, and that it followed Mary to school one day. Kate Willis-Crowley takes the nursery rhyme, and presents it in its purest form. There's no twist, no unusual rewriting, it's simply the sweet rhyme of a girl and her lamb that is familiar to all.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340999764</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Jenny Valentine
|author=Marilyn Kaye
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|title=Us in the Before and After
|title=White Lies and Tiaras
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Alice has been invited to a wedding, but she’s not that excited by this news. The groom is her childhood sweetheart, Jack, but since she’s moved on (sort of) and has a new boyfriend (sort of) there’s no real reason for her not to go. After all, the wedding is in Paris, and her best friend Lara, Jack’s cousin, will also be there. They’ve both been invited with plus-ones so Alice can take Cal, and Lara can bring Harry, and they can have some fun in the French capital when they’re not expected to be doing family-and-friend stuff with the wedding party.
+
|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connectionThey meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the timeBut then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable.   Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144490311X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1471196585
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Christine Nostlinger
 
|title=The Factory Made Boy
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Mrs Bartolotti has a rather bad habit of ordering things...things that she usually doesn't needOne day a large parcel arrives in the postMrs Bartolotti can't think what it can be. What has she ordered recently?  She thought she'd been very good!  When she opens it she finds, inside, a perfect factory-made little boy - she definitely never ordered a little boy!  Conrad and Mrs Bartolotti soon grow to love each other, but what will they do when the factory realises the mistake they've made and attempt to reclaim their goods?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849394830</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1787333175
|author=Rose Lagercrantz and Eva Eriksson
+
|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
|title=My Happy Life
+
|author=Benji Waterhouse
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=When Dani can't sleep she doesn't count sheep, she counts all the times that she's been happy!  And Dani has been happy a lot of times.  She's happy because she's about to start school, though she's nervous about making new friends.  But then she meets Ella, and Ella becomes the very best friend she could ever have wished for.  They have so much fun together, but then one day Ella tells Dani that she is moving house, and suddenly Dani isn't happy any more.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1877467804</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Yrsa Sigurdardottir
 
|title=I Remember You
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
+
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Too often, people – such as myself – refer to a book as being a rollercoaster read, mostly down to a simply topsy-turvy plot.  But this is the true embodiment of a white-knuckle ride.  It has the anxiety of the queue as we watch three people – a couple and another young woman – get ferried across the fjord to one of western Iceland's most remote outposts, with the aim being to renovate an old building as a guesthouse.  There's the crunch of the roll-cage protection bars locking us in as we find that something very malevolent is hiding in the tiny settlement.  And just as the car starts we might be seeking in vain the relieved thumbs-up from those leaving the ride, telling us all is well and all survived.
+
|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>1444738496</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gregory Hughes
 
|title=Summertime of the Dead
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Yukio lives with his grandmother in Tokyo. He enjoys school, practising kenzo, and hanging out with his two best friends, twins Hiroshi and Miko. They do everything together - swimming, shopping, eating, even visiting nuns. But then the yakuza - the Japanese mafia - come into their lives. And Hiroshi and Miko are dead - blackmailed and tormented, they take their own lives. Filled with grief, Yukio vows revenge...  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780875525</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Mariana Enriquez
|author=G Willow Wilson
+
|title=A Sunny Place for Shady People
|title=Alif the Unseen
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
+
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Alif lives under an alias and he has a good reason for that: he's a hakinista in an Arabian oil producing country that, to put it mildly, doesn't encourage free speech.  He sells IT know-how and wizardy to any covert organisation that works against the government, their agenda unimportant as long as the aim is the downfall of their oppression.  But all that's about to change as Alif falls in love and, as it's the wrong girl at the wrong time, is spurned.  His response to this romantic let down is to create a computer programme that will identify her internet activity by her individual typing pattern.  Unfortunately what works for him also works against him.  It's captured by the notoriously dangerous government censor 'The Hand' who also wants Alif and his hidden network of colleagues.  Now Alif runs to preserve his life and those who have trusted him, his only possession an ancient manuscript from his former love.  Just a book, albeit one that's accompanied by myths and old wives' tales rendering it irrelevant a logical world. However, sometimes the most desperate of times requires more than logic and, sometimes, a mere book of stories may be more than it seems.
+
|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>0857895664</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1803511230
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Onyi Nwabineli
|author=David Croydon
+
|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself
|title=The Unprincipled: The Unvarnished Truth About Running a Marketing Agency - from Start-up to Sell-out
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
+
|genre=General Fiction
|genre=Business and Finance
+
|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 herAnuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so.  Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire.  Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?
|summary=In 1985 David Croydon and a couple of his colleagues were in employment but they were spending some of the working hours setting up their own company which would be in competition with their current employers. All's fair in love and the world of sales promotion and Marketing Principles was born the following yearThe title of the book is taken from the in-house newsletter published twice a year by their creative department to debunk anyone who worked for the agency and judging by what David Croydon has to say they must have had a lot of material to choose fromIf I had to pick one word to describe this book it's ''scurrilous'', so if the title of the book suggests that the content might be rather dry, then think again.
+
|isbn=0861546873
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0953685063</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=David Chadwick
|author=Michael Cobley
+
|title=Headload of Napalm
|title=The Ascendant Stars
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Thrillers
|genre=Science Fiction
+
|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=''Space Opera has never been in more capable hands'' is the Guardian quote that concludes the blurb for this, Cobley's wrap up part of the ''Humanity's Fire'' trilogy that started with [[Seeds of Earth (Humanity's Fire) by Michael Cobley|Seeds of Earth]] and continued through [[The Orphaned Worlds (Humanity's Fire) by Michael Cobley|The Orphaned Worlds]]. It's hard to disagree, but it's also hard to get away – on this evidence – from the fact that Space Opera might be closer to Soap than Classical, when it comes to opera classification.
+
|isbn= B0D321VJ76
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496367</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Tom Percival
|author=Lucy Hawking and Stephen Hawking
+
|title=The Wrong Shoes
|title=George and the Big Bang
+
|rating=5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=John Lloyd's First Rule of the Universe is that it must contain three things – entropy, trouble, and mis-sold PPI claim adverts.  However this book only contains one of those – troubleEric is using the Large Hadron Collider to delve into the secrets of the universe and the first micro-seconds of its existence, but he has trouble in the shape of Luddite people who think his experiment will cause the end of our solar system.  He has his super-computer, Cosmos, which is able to transport him and his daughter Annie and the kid next door, our hero George, anywhere they desire throughout the universe, but there's only trouble when two of them are discovered larking about on the moonAnd, as we've come to expect – this being the closing book of a trilogy – there is an evil scientist somewhere who is just intending to cause a different kind of trouble – making the big bang in the title something you might not have initially expected.
+
|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of waysHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident.  Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction.  And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hopeHe is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552559628</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|author=Michael Gerard Bauer
+
|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|title=Don't Call Me Ishmael
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Fourteen-year-old Ishmael Leseur is a loser. He can't help it - how is he meant to survive with a name that school bully Barry Bagsley can twist into Fishtail Le Sewer, Fishwhale Manure, or even worse combinations? He's so fed up of being bullied that when the nerdy James Scobie moves to his school, he almost welcomes the arrival of a new target for Bagsley's scorn. But Scobie doesn't fear anything. With his help, and that of Miss Tarango, the new English teacher, can Ishmael learn to stand up for himself?
+
|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848776837</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= 0356522776
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Daniel Coyle
 
|title=The Little Book of Talent
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|summary=When you want - or need - to master a new skill you'll be told to practice, but there's not always a lot of advice around on ''how'' to practice.  Sometimes it's that hint about how to practice more effectively, how to approach the skill from a different direction which makes all the difference.  Daniel Coyle has fifty two tips - most of which can be applied to just about everything from improving your golf swing to success in the business world.  The tips are short - all fifty two are covered in about a hundred and twenty pages - easily read and simple to put into practice.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847946798</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Paul Dowswell
 
|title=Eleven Eleven
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=It's 2am in Paris on Tuesday 11th November 1918. Negotiations for ending World War I are almost complete and both sides will announce the Armistice at 11am. But the people actually fighting the war don't know that yet...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408826232</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1786482126
|author=Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul
+
|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)
|title=Winnie's Dinosaur Day
+
|author=Elly Griffiths
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Winnie and Wilbur are always happy to queue up with everyone else to visit their favourite museum. There are so many things to look at and play with but best of all is the dinosaur room. Winnie is fascinated by the dinosaurs and tells Wilbur that she would love to see a real one. One time when they visit, they discover that it is actually Dinosaur Week and that there is an exciting competition to make a model or draw a picture to show what the museum's dinosaur skeleton would have looked like when it was alive.
+
|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull.  Was this a ritual killing or murder?  Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson.  It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192794019</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Joan Didion
|author=Mario Ramos
+
|title=The Year of Magical Thinking
|title=I Am So Strong
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=There's no hiding the fact that the wolf is a bully.  After he's had his meal (obviously it was a good one) he goes for a walk in the woods to aid the digestion and to find out what everyone thinks of him. First he meets a little rabbit, who agrees that the wolf is the strongest around here.  Full of the joy of being him he strides on and gets pretty much the same response from Red Riding Hood, the three little pigs and the seven dwarfs.  In fact this must be the best day ever for the wolf - until he meets 'the little toad of some sort' and finds that he's met his match.  I'm not going to tell you how - you'll have to read the book to find out!
+
|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>0958278776</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0007216858
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tera Lynn Childs
 
|title=Sweet Venom
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Grace is the new girl in San Francisco, who can't understand why she's seeing weird creatures whom no-one else seems to notice. Gretchen is an experienced monster-hunter. Greer is a socialite. The three of them look eerily alike - what's their connection, and can this mismatched trio of teens defend the world from the demons who seem to be appearing with ever-increasing frequency?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848779321</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008551324
|author=Shirley Harrison
+
|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)
|title=Sylvia Pankhurst: The Rebellious Suffragette
+
|author=Neil Lancaster
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=To some extent, the history of the suffragettes was also the history of the Pankhurst family.  Sylvia, born in 1882, was the second daughter of Dr Richard and Emmeline Pankhurst, and one of three sistersThe family had always been heavily politicised, Richard being a founder member of the Fabian Society alongside George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells, and the children had quite an austere upbringing.  When their father’s health took a sudden turn for the worse in 1898, Emmeline and eldest daughter Christabel were abroad on business and Sylvia was left in charge of her younger siblings as well as having to nurse him, taking the full force of the shock when he died in her arms.  With his passing the family were left strangely detached from each other. His widow became heavily involved in public work and political agitation, an increasingly remote mother from the young children who needed her.
+
|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the policeNeither 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 wantsAnd what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole dateNot much to ask, is it?  The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780950187</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Pamela Hartshorne
 
|title=Time's Echo
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Grace Trewe has temporarily moved to York to sort out the affairs of her godmother, Lucy, who died suddenlyAfter surviving the Indonesian tsunami the previous Christmas, Grace has decided to live life to the full and plans more travelling once Lucy's house is soldShe hasn’t a care or a tie in the world, as long as she doesn't remember little Lucas back on that Christmas beach.  As it turns out, that's not the only thing she needs to avoid.  Strange, horrific dreams disrupt her sleep and vivid daydreams start to attack her waking moments as 21st century York keeps fading to be replaced by its 16th century streets.  Grace will be fine though; it's just stress and her oddly acquired knowledge of the past is just a coincidence, or so says seemingly kindly neighbour, historian and single father Drew. Meanwhile, 500 years before, there was a woman named Hawise who met a terrible death…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>033054425X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1739526910
|author=Amanda Jennings
+
|title=Where I've Not Been Lost
|title=Sworn Secret
+
|author=Glen Sibley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A year ago Anna Thorne was found dead after presumably falling from the roof of her school after drinking vodka. Twelve months later, her parents, Kate and Jon, and her sister, Lizzie, are still trying to make sense of and come to terms with what has happened. They each have their own way of dealing with their grief which, rather than uniting, serves to isolate each of them. Ultimately, they are becoming three sad strangers living under the same roof.
+
|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>184901969X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008405026
|author=Keren David
+
|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|title=Another Life
+
|author=Jane Casey
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Ty's cousin Archie, son of two top lawyers, has managed to get himself expelled from another boarding school. He wants to be back in London, spending time with his friends and with his cousin. But with Ty struggling to cope as he's sentenced to a spell of time in a Young Offenders Institution, Archie tries to find out more about his cousin's past.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847802869</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sophie Jordan
 
|title=Vanish
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Events have forced Jacinda back into the arms of the Pride. When her mother took her away from them, it was the last thing Jacinda wanted. But now she's back, she wants nothing more than to spread her wings and fly away. But it's not that easy. Severin, leader of the Pride, has her under virtual house arrest. Tamra, Jacinda's twin, is going through some tumultuous changes, and needs the support of the Pride. And there's Cassian - a permanent fixture in Jacinda's life, the one who brought her back to the Pride, who she is beginning to think cares about her for more than just her firebreathing talents.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192756540</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1529077745
|author=Benedict Jacka
+
|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)
|title=Taken: An Alex Verus Novel
+
|author=Ann Cleeves
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Alex Verus, future-diviner and erstwhile Camden magic shop owner has dusted himself off after the rigours of [[Cursed: An Alex Verus Novel by Benedict Jacka|Cursed]] and is good to go once more.  He continues training Luna as his apprentice but all is not completely well.  Alex has been asked to investigate the disappearance of apprentices by Council representative, Talisid.  Now, Alex's involvement with the Council (and indeed Talisid) hasn't always been good for Alex's health in the past, but his commissioning may be a sign of his enhanced reputation and this time there's a note of self-interest: Luna may be the next to vanish.  Alex receives a tip-off that Fountain's Reach (a stately home with a mysterious past) has something to do with it and, as luck would have it, it's also the venue for the next apprentice tournament which Luna has entered.  The investigation begins and hopefully they'll survive to see it through to the end.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500268</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Mark
 
|title=The Dark Winter
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Just a couple of weeks before Christmas Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy was with his young son in the centre of Hull when he was alerted by screaming. The noise was coming from the church and McAvoy so nearly caught the man responsible.  He'd brutally murdered a young girl who had already escaped as the only survivor when her family was slaughtered during the conflict in Sierra Leone.  It's a difficult time for the police with a relatively new team at the Serious and Organised Crime Squad and it's a little while before the links to two other deaths emergeFred Stein had been the sole survivor of the loss of one of the three trawlers from Hull which went down in early 1968He'd been part of a documentary about the loss but had disappeared - off Iceland - in the course of the filming. He was later discovered - dead in a drifting lifeboat.
+
|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 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>0857389181</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1399613073
|author=Kevin Crossley-Holland
+
|title=Moral Injuries
|title=Scramasax: The Viking Sagas, Book Two
+
|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=We left Solveig finally reunited with her Viking father, after a journey that took her all the way from her Scandinavian home to Miklagard (Constantinople). There, her father is in the service of Harald Hardrada, who in turn serves the Empress Zoe. Zoe's court is a dangerous place, full of spies and prisoners and instant punishment by death - for the smallest of transgressions. So Solveig needs to learn fast if she is to persuade Harald to allow her to stay with the Viking guard.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184724940X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
 
|title=Rabbit's Wish
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Rabbit's best friend is Hedgehog but they don't get to spend a lot of time together because Rabbit is awake during the day and Hedgehog is awake at nightOne day Rabbitt made a wish that Hedgehog could stay up all day with him - and it came true, but not in the way Rabbit was expectingThere was a downpour and Rabbit's burrow was floodedThe hill on which he lived was turned into an island as the lake rose higher and higherHis first thought as for Hedgehog and he shouted to see if he was OK - but Hedgehog had worried about Rabbit and he'd swum across to make certain that ''he'' was alrightThey had a wonderful time but Rabbit worried that it was his wish that had caused the problem.
+
|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a centuryOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeonLaura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctorAnjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GPWhen we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy.  We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences.  Twenty-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>1842700898</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD
|author=David Kaiser
+
|title=Nowhere Man
|title=How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival
+
|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
 
|summary=In his introduction Professor Kaiser states that there are three ways in which the west coast hippies have benefited the development of Physics; they opened up deeper speculation into the fundamental philosophy behind quantum theory, they latched on to a crucial theorem of Bell, about what Einstein termed ''spooky'' interactions between particles at a distance. This might otherwise have been totally neglected. Thirdly they propounded a key idea which has become known as the 'no-cloning theorem'. Kaiser tells a lucid account as might be expected from the Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science and department chief in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's program. Incidentally he also provides an engaging insight into the American industrial-military complex and associated institutions like the Californian University at Berkley.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039334231X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Julie Corbin
 
|title=Do Me No Harm
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dr Olivia Somers is minding her own business, trying to raise two kids alone in the wake of her divorce, when everything goes wrong and her son, Robbie, ends up in hospital. It’s hard to work out what really happened, or even if Robbie is giving her the full story, but when there’s a further incident, this time involving a break in at their home, it becomes clear that these are no random attacks, and someone is out to get them. With the help of a friendly (and handsome) detective, Olivia tries to piece together the puzzle to work  who is behind the trouble, and it’s a race against time to figure it out before the next unwelcome surprise from the culprit.
+
|summary=In a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of every preparation, down to the last detail. Some last reflections, and then he says goodbye to his wife, the world, and his life. It's horribly sad. At work in her shop, his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and ailing mother, who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a while before Diana realises what Patrick has done.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340918969</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Virginie Despentes
|author=L C Tyler
+
|title=King Kong Theory
|title=Herring on the Nile
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=A motley crowd of oddball characters (few of whom end up being who they say they are), find themselves as travelling companions on a luxury paddle steamer, cruising up the Nile. And when a murder occurs, it soon becomes clear that only a member of the crew or one of the guests could have done the dastardly deed. A couple of amateur detectives have to work fast to discover who pulled the trigger. Sound familiar?
+
|summary=''King Kong Theory'' is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330472151</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=191309734X
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Alba de Cespedes
|author=The Curtises, James and Nick
+
|title=Forbidden Notebook
|title=Woffles: A Fishy Adventure
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Woffles is a big, shiny black Labrador with a very long, pink tongue and he is one happy dog.  Once he's greeted you with a yodel and a wuff (and I suspect that there might be a generous lick in there too) he'll tell you all about his wonderful life.  What pleases him is that he lives in the countryside - it's very green, you know and there's a complete lack of coffee shops and other things for which he has no time.  He has lots of friends, but his bestie is Pip the Border Terrier and today they're off on an adventure down to the lake which is being restocked for the fishermen.  And - on a boiling hot day what's better than a dip in the lake and using that long tongue to extract a few sandwiches from the fishermen's hampers?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957105800</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kevin Powers
 
|title=The Yellow Birds
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Daniel Murphy ('Murph') is 18, in the American army and about to embark on his first tour of duty in Iraq.  By his side is John Bartle, three years older and more experienced in the army.  However neither of them has any notion of the sort of life or job they will face when they get there.  The fighting is dirty, unpredictable and not set out in any text book.  Their commanding officer, Sergeant Sterling, is sadistic and without any apparent humanity.  But everything will be alright: Bartle has made a promise to Murph's mother, a promise that will ricochet from the US to Iraq and back again.
+
|summary=This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the moment our protagonist, Valeria Cossati, purchases her forbidden notebook, and learns about herself in the most intimate and revealing ways.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444756125</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1782278222
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Bruce Macbain
 
|title=Roman Games (Plinius Secundus)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime (Historical)
 
|summary=Sextus Ingentius Verpa isn't the most popular person in Rome.  He may be a high ranking politician with the Emperor Domitian's ear but this also means he's a spy, ambitious and not always using his power and position for good.  When Verpa is discovered, unceremoniously and repeatedly stabbed in his well-guarded bedroom, there are many who sigh with relief.  However, the murderer must still be found and so Domitian appoints Gaius Plinius Secundus (or Pliny the Younger as history will dub him) to investigate.  Pliny isn't a natural but reluctantly takes on the task because Domitian says so; Pliny has no choice.  Domitian also says that the culprit must be found before the end of the Roman Games, giving Pliny 15 days.  Over these 15 pressurised days he'll dig into Rome's filthy underbelly of cults, prostitution and other things he wasn't expecting, including practically adopting his own, personal rude poet.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908800364</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Ottessa Moshfegh
|author=Ian McEwan
+
|title=My Year of Rest and Relaxation
|title=Sweet Tooth
+
|rating=3
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Ian McEwan's ''Sweet Tooth'' is part spy novel but more a love story and a tale of deception and half truths. It's also, more subtly, a book about the power, role and importance of fiction. Set in the 1970s, with frequent musical and political references to the UK at that time, Serena Frome is a beautiful, Cambridge-educated daughter of an Anglican bishop with a taste for unsuitable romances. From an early affair with a man who turns out to be homosexual, to an affair with an older lecturer she moves on to a surprise job at MI5 where she had a crush on one of her bosses, again and awkward, repressed and unattractive individual before encountering talented author Tom Haley as part of her job with whom she once again falls in love. Few of these men are what they seem, and neither for that matter is Serena when she has to hide her job from Haley.
+
|summary=At best, this novel is a scathing critique of modern society and reveals the fragility of human relationships; at worst, it is the cynical, predictable and slightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonist. This unlikely heroine, a slim, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the world, but resolves not to lose sleep over it: in fact, her solution lies in her hibernation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224097377</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1784707422
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Crystal
 
|title=Spell It Out: The Singular Story of English Spelling
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|summary=Are you a speller? I must confess I'm not much of one myself, so the main thing I was after from this book was an insight into the peculiarities of English spelling, and some hints and tips for remembering the rules. Oh, and a fun, entertaining read at the same time (this is Crystal, after all).
 
 
 
I was not disappointed.
 
 
 
(Even if I can still only spell disappointed with the help of my spellchecker)
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685672</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Jo Callaghan
|author=Susan Hill
+
|title=Leave No Trace
|title=The Betrayal of Trust: A Simon Serrailler Novel
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=After the wettest summer for a hundred years we'll all be familiar with what happened in Lafferton.  Heavy rain caused a landslip on the moors, blocking the nearby road.  Thankfully, what we're not familiar with was the presence of a shallow grave and the skeleton of a teenage girl.  The sharp eyes of one of the forensic team spotted that something wasn't quite right in another area - and a second grave was revealed.  It was easy to identify the first body - the young girl had gone missing from the town sixteen years before - but the second body proved more difficult.  And, in a time of financial cuts and staff shortages it's down to Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler to tackle the cold case on his own with just a little help on the new murder case.
+
|summary=When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective LockIt's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing projectWill they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099499347</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=139851120X
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Richard Fitzpatrick
 
|title=El Clasico - Barcelona v Real Madrid: Football's Greatest Rivalry
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=Nothing divides opinion quite like football and no-one expresses their joy and disappointment like football fans.  For many fans, the most important matches of their entire season are the ones against their local rivals; the derby matchesEnglish football has a number of these, but only the matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain have elevated themselves above mere derby status and earned their own name: ''El Clásico'' – the Classic.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408158795</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Roger Fisher and William Ury
 
|title=Getting To Yes
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|summary=Negotiation is a tough thing, but given how often we do it (for many people, there are things to negotiate on a daily basis) you’d think we’d be better at it. This book starts with the line ''Like it or not, you are a negotiator'' and that’s the bare truth of it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847940935</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Dougal Trump
 
|title=I'm Dougal Trump... and it's not my fault!
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Dougal Trump is worried about dying. You might be surprised that a young boy is already writing (and rewriting) his will, but that's because you haven't met his sister Sibble (it's Sybil! - sorry Sibble), the mysterious creature in the shed, or the even more mysterious person who left the creature there with a note saying 'If it dies so will you.' If you were in his circumstances, wouldn't you be worried about your life expectancy?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447219961</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Carola Hicks
 
|title=Girl in a Green Gown: The History and Mystery of the Arnolfini Portrait
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=The Arnolfini marriage portrait, as it is generally if perhaps inaccurately known, painted by Flemish artist Jan van Eyck, signed and dated 1434, has long been one of the most popular and enigmatic paintings of its time.  Of modest size, a little less than three feet high, it is one of the oldest surviving panel pictures to be painted in oils rather than tempera.  It is also regarded as the first work of art which simultaneously celebrates both middle-class comfort and monogamous marriage.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099526891</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Fiona Dunbar
 
|title=Kitty Slade: Raven Hearts
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Thirteen-year old Kitty Slade is a normal girl in many ways; she bickers with her younger brother and sister, enjoys having fun and watching DVDs. However she is different in one very important way… Kitty can see ghosts. Not only can she see ghosts but she also uses their help to solve mysteries. In the fourth book in this popular series, Kitty and the rest of her family are staying on a caravan site on the Yorkshire Moors when they hear that a local man has disappeared without trace and he is not the first person to do so either. Kitty also learns of a terrifying ghost hound that is said to prey on humans on the bleak moors. Can Kitty solve both these mysteries with the help of the strange ghost called Lupa with whom she forms an uneasy but growing friendship?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408309319</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tracy Borman
 
|title=Matilda: Wife of the Conqueror, first Queen of England
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=Writing the biography of any woman who lived as long ago as the eleventh century, even someone as illustrious as a Queen, is a pretty thankless task.  There will always be huge gaps in the knowledge available.  For example we do not know when Matilda was born, and likewise we do not have a precise date for her marriage, although we do know when she died.  No lifelike images of her are known, though evidence suggests that she was quite short of stature.  In a male-dominated society, there are approximate records of when her sons were born, but not her daughters.  Even more confusingly perhaps, many of the stories passed down to us throughout history are quite probably falseIt is hardly surprising that this appears to be the first full-length life of her yet to appear in English.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099549131</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
 
|title=The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=So, here we are with Isabel Dalhousie in her ninth story, and I'm assuming that you know who she is by now because really, if you don't, then you'd better not start with book number nine and instead you should really go all the way back to the beginning of the series and ''The Sunday Philosophy Club.''  If, on the other hand, you are well acquainted with Isabel then settle yourself down for another good read from the master of gentle, funny fiction.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408704145</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Favel Parrett
 
|title=Past the Shallows
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Harry Curren lives with Miles (one of his brothers) and their widowed father in a small Tasmanian fishing community.  Their mother has been killed in a car accident but life goes on even if it's more damaged and disjointed than before.  Miles still goes out on his father's fishing boat to ensure their income and Harry spends his time at school, outside amusing himself or being with his other brother, Joe, who, for some reason, lives with their grandfather.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848547501</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Charity Norman
 
|title=After The Fall
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=It’s the middle of the night when five year old Finn falls from the balcony at his home in a remote part of New Zealand. Leaving his twin brother and older sister in the care of a neighbour, his mother Martha stays with him as a helicopter races him to the nearest hospital. But as he is rushed into surgery, she is taken to one side for questioning, with first nursing staff then the police and social workers raising concerns. Was Finn really sleep walking, something he is prone to do? But if so, how did he come to have suspicious bruises on one side of his body, not in keeping with how he landed? And if it wasn’t the accident Martha is saying it was, was his mother involved or is she covering for someone?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>174331096X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}

Latest revision as of 09:09, 8 November 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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0241636604.jpg

Review of

The Trading Game: A Confession by Gary Stevenson

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

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

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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

0571365469.jpg

Review of

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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

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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

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

0008385068.jpg

Review of

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

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

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Review of

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

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

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Review of

Wild East by Ashley Hickson-Lovence

4.5star.jpg Teens

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

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Review of

The Lavender Companion by Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

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

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Review of

Us in the Before and After by Jenny Valentine

5star.jpg Teens

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

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Review of

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

5star.jpg Popular Science

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

1803511230.jpg

Review of

A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez

5star.jpg Short Stories

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

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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

1398527122.jpg

Review of

The Wrong Shoes by Tom Percival

5star.jpg Confident Readers

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

0356522776.jpg

Review of

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

5star.jpg Science Fiction

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

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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

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Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Crime

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

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Review of

Where I've Not Been Lost by Glen Sibley

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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

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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

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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

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

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Review of

King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes

4star.jpg Autobiography

King Kong Theory is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays. Full Review

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Review of

Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Cespedes

4star.jpg Literary Fiction

This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the moment our protagonist, Valeria Cossati, purchases her forbidden notebook, and learns about herself in the most intimate and revealing ways. Full Review

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Review of

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

3star.jpg Literary Fiction

At best, this novel is a scathing critique of modern society and reveals the fragility of human relationships; at worst, it is the cynical, predictable and slightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonist. This unlikely heroine, a slim, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the world, but resolves not to lose sleep over it: in fact, her solution lies in her hibernation. Full Review

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Review of

Leave No Trace by Jo Callaghan

4star.jpg Crime

When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career? Full Review