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{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingisbn="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->1394159544<!-- Fry -->|title=Recycling for Dummies|-author=Sarah Winkler| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"5|genre=Lifestyle[[image:Fry_Mythos.jpg|left|linksummary=https://www''Recycling one ton of plastic can save up to 16.amazon3 barrels of oil.co.uk/gp/product/0718188721?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0718188721]]''

| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Mythos: If you send an apple core to landfill, it will take between 6 months and 2 years to decompose. A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry]]===glass bottle will take up to 1 million years.

[[imageAs a just-post-WWII baby, I faced a dilemma:5starreducing, reusing and recycling is part of my DNA. NEVER throw away anything that might ''possibly'' come in handy now or in the future.jpg|link=Category NEVER buy anything if you can cobble together something that would serve the purpose. Almost everything can be used one more time and any purchase must pass the test of 'Is this absolutely essential?' On the other hand, I suspected I was guilty of wishcycling:assuming that something must be recyclable (toothpaste tubes - I'm looking at you) and dropping it in the kerbside bin. Yes, I could go searching on the internet - and get conflicting advice - but what I needed was a recycling bible.s}}{{{Frontpage|isbn=1913750353|title=Britannica's Word of the Day|author=Patrick Kelly, Renee Kelly and Sue Macy|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=''Britannica's Word of the Day'' has a sub-title: ''366 Elevating Utterances to Stretch Your Cranium and Tickle Your Humerus'' which probably tells you all that you need to know about this brilliant book. It starts on January 1st with ''Razzmatazz'', tells you how to pronounce it (''raz-muh-TAZ''), gives you a definition and then includes the word in a sentence so that you know how it should be used. You also get an engaging and frequently amusing illustration too. I don't think I've ever encountered a word which uses the letter Z four times before!}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category{{Frontpage|isbn=suppl_stafl|title=Supply Chain 20/20:A Clear View on the Local Multiplier Effect for Book Lovers|author=Kim Staflund|rating=4.5|genre=Reference|Reference]]summary=So, [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]you've finished writing your book and you think the hard work is all done? You're convinced that all you need to do now is get it published and the money will start rolling in?

The Greek Myths are, arguably, Wrong and wrong again. You presumably wrote the greatest stories ever told. So old book because you wanted to - and influential they cast you had a shadow over western tales and traditions, yet remain relatable and readable millennia latertalent for delivering the written word. You knew your subject back to front. Here comedian, actor, television presenter, actor and author Stephen Fry brings his considerable talent Now you're going to have to get to these special stories and recreates them grips with a witthe book supply chain, warmth which even parts of the publishing industry believe to be wrong but it's too difficult to change and humanity that brings them into no one wants to be the modern age whilst still giving the honour and respect that such ancient and influential stories deservefirst to try. [[Mythos: A Retelling Then, when you ''finally'' have a copy of the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry|Full Review]]book in your hands, you're going to have to work out how to sell it - because it ''is'' going to be down to you.}}

<!{{Frontpage|author=Frederic Gros|title=A Philosophy of Walking|rating=5|genre= Politics and Society|summary= I confess I picked this one up from the library in my pre-- Higashida -->lockdown forage of random stuff. Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the pages I have marked and return to its varying wisdom when I need to. Some books draw you in slowly. This one had me in the first two pages, wherein Gros explains why ''walking is not a sport''.|isbn=1781688370}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=1788037812| styletitle="widthThe Fraternity of the Estranged: 10%; verticalThe Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-align: top; text-align: center;"1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=5[[image:Higashida_Fall.jpg|leftgenre=Biography|linksummary=httpsOriginally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men://wwwEdward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis.amazonExploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the scientific understanding of homosexuality, and beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.co.uk/gp/product/1444799088?ie}}{{Frontpage|isbn=UTF8&tag1912242052|title=thebookbag-21&linkCodeO Joy for me!|author=as2&campKeir Davidson|rating=1634&creative3|genre=6738&creativeASINArt|summary=1444799088]]'' Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, not because he had to for work, as a miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and adventure. His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, changed our view of the world''.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1072549271| styletitle="verticalThe Simple Act of Self-alignPublishing With Amazon: top; textA Simple Step by Step Guide|author=Georgianne Landy-align: left;"Kordis|rating=4.5|genre=Business and Finance|summary=I frequently meet authors who are struggling to be published by the traditional houses, but when I suggest self-publishing they explain that they don't have the big bucks required to go down that road with Author Solutions or Matador or their like. I then ask if they've considered Kindle and the answer is, inevitably, that they wouldn't know where to start. I can empathise with that. Despite having used a computer for about thirty years, running most of my life ''and'' a website online, I'm still nervous when it comes to starting something new. I like someone to hold my hand as I go through it for the first time. That was why I was very interested when ''The Simple Act of Self Publishing With Amazon'' came across my desk...}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Higashida_Fall|title=[[Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight: A Young Man's Voice From the Silence of Autism by |author=Naoki Higashida and David Mitchell]]==|rating=5 [[image:5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]], [[:Category:Home and Family|Home and Family]] summary=Naoki Higashida was only 13 years old when he wrote the international best-seller ''The Reason I Jump''. The book was popular because it gave a rare glimpse into the workings of the autistic mind, as told from the unique perspective of a teenager with non-verbal autism. Naoki communicates by using an alphabet grid, or by tracing letters on the palm of a transcriber. Despite this slow and laborious method of writing, he has published several books in his native Japan, and manages to give public presentations to raise awareness of his condition. Fall Down 7 Times Get up 8 reintroduces us to Naoki as a young adult in his 20s and explains how his perspectives on life have changed since writing his first book. [[Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight: A Young Man's Voice From the Silence of Autism by Naoki Higashida and David Mitchell|Full Review]]}}<!-- Mahnke -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=Jenkins_100| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations[[image:Mahnke_Lore.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1472251652?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCodeauthor=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1472251652]] Simon Jenkins| stylerating="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"5|===[[The World of Lore, Volume 1: Monstrous Creatures by Aaron Mahnke]]==genre=Art [[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]]In the mid-twentieth century, [[:Category:Spirituality the railway was something which harked back to the Victorian age with trains being supplanted by cars and Religion|Spirituality and Religion]] Every countryplanes, every townbut steam was being replaced by oil, every village has a folktale – a story passed down through generations that often focuses on the dark even then and unexplained. No matter how in the modern world moves on, there's a still a part of everyone that twenty-first-century oil is vulnerable giving way to a good taleelectricity. From ghosts to werewolvesIt's cleaner, by way of wendigos more environmentally friendly and elves, author Aaron Mahnke delivers the reader legends from stations which we'd all over the worldrushed through as quickly as possible, keen to escape their grime, whilst examining how they've become part of our collective imaginationswere restored and became places to be admired, still striking fear into the hearts of many of us todaypossibly even lingered in. Simon Jenkins has chosen his hundred best railway stations. [[The World of Lore, Volume 1: Monstrous Creatures by Aaron Mahnke|Full Review]]}}<!-- Fowler -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=Taylor_Owls| styletitle="widthOwls: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Guide to Every Species|author=Marianne Taylor|rating=5[[image:Fowler_Forgotten.jpg|leftgenre=Animals and Wildlife|linksummary=https://wwwI feel like I am being watched. A huge pair of piercing orange eyes are staring right at me, locking me into their gaze. In contrast with the hardness of the deep-amber eyes, soft grey feathers fan out into the surrounding area, intricate, detailed and beautiful. An enigma; harsh and gentle at the same time, the owl is beckoning the reader to turn the pages and take a closer look inside.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1786484897?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1786484897]]}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"JVDK_ELO|title===[[The Book of Forgotten Authors Electric Light Orchestra: Song by Christopher Fowler]]==Song|author=John Van der Kiste [[image:5star.jpg|linkrating=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] ''Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder''. It makes people think you're dead4.5|genre=EntertainmentThere's truth |summary=My memories of pop music in that statementthe early sixties revolve around guitars and drums, you know, but there's a conundrum when sometimes the piano with only occasional excursions into strings and brass. Pop music rarely stands still and itwasn's applied t long before the basic instruments were seen as constraints and The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys began to authors. Shakespeare is dead: Dickens is deadexperiment, but we haven't buried what with other groups following where they've written: that lives on untilled.Amongst these groups was The Move and their lead guitarist and songwriter, Roy Wood.. when? Is it until fashion decrees that they should be no Wood wanted to develop the group's sound by adding more? Or is it, as in instruments but was prevented from achieving what he wanted by cost limitations and because the case rest of some childrenthe group didn's authors that they are on life support through licensing deals and astute marketing? Christopher Fowler has unearthed (exhumed?) ninety nine authors who were once hugely popular, but whose works have disappeared, sometimes quite literallyt really share his enthusiasm. [[The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler|Full Review]]}}<!-- Hendrix -->|-{{Frontpage| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Hendrix_PBHell.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1594749817?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1594749817]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|==title=[[Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction from the '70s and '80s by |author=Grady Hendrix]]=|rating== [[image:4.5star.jpg5|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] summary=Demonic possession, murderous babies, man-eating moths… for these books, no plot was too ludicrous, no cover art too appalling, no evil too despicable. Now horror author Grady Hendrix risks his soul and his sanity (not to mention the reader's!) to relate the true, untold story of a fascinating and often forgotten era in publishing.

And learn the true-life tales of the writers, artists, and publishers who gleefully violated every literary law but one – never be boring. [[Paperbacks from Hell}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Browne_Many|title=The Many Faces of Coincidence|author=Laurence Browne|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Browne does not mislead with this choice of title; he does without a doubt explore the many faces of coincidence.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1903385679|title=The 100 Best Novels in Translation|author=Boyd Tonkin|rating=3.5|genre=Reference|summary=Consider, if you will, translated fiction. Some say it's impossible – that if a book was so good in one tongue it could never survive being put into another. Samuel Beckett must have laboured over ever syllable and ''Breath'', but he could translate his own works, and other equally complex pieces can cross borders. It's a market that has actually doubled in sales volume between 2000 and 2016 (thanks, ''Millennium Trilogy''). Novels, in particular, in translation, are – as the introduction here so smartly puts it – ''a privileged means of passing border posts, a sort of universal passport issued by that Utopian state, the Republic of Letters''. We here at the 'Bag regularly try and give equal credit to the translator, without whom we wouldn't be reading what we have in our hands. But all that said, do we really need one of those list books about the subject? I got given a book the other year detailing 1001 places to go to before I die, and I might even then have missed out a zero. It would take as long as a fortnight's holiday to wade through, and even though this is not as long as your typical Bolano housebrick, it's not a short thing. Should it take our time?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Fry_Mythos|title=Mythos: A History Retelling of the Myths of Horror Fiction from Ancient Greece|author=Stephen Fry|rating=5|genre=Reference|summary=The Greek Myths are, arguably, the greatest stories ever told. So old and influential they cast a shadow over western tales and traditions, yet remain relatable and readable millennia later. Here comedian, actor, television presenter, actor and author Stephen Fry brings his considerable talent to these special stories and recreates them with a wit, warmth and humanity that brings them into the modern age whilst still giving the honour and respect that such ancient and influential stories deserve.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Mahnke_Lore|title=The World of Lore, Volume 1: Monstrous Creatures|author=Aaron Mahnke|rating=4.5|genre=Reference|summary=Every country, every town, every village has a folktale – a story passed down through generations that often focuses on the dark and unexplained. No matter how the modern world moves on, there'70s s a still a part of everyone that is vulnerable to a good tale. From ghosts to werewolves, by way of wendigos and elves, author Aaron Mahnke delivers the reader legends from all over the world, whilst examining how they'80s by Grady Hendrixve become part of our collective imaginations, still striking fear into the hearts of many of us today.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Fowler_Forgotten|title=The Book of Forgotten Authors|author=Christopher Fowler|rating=5|genre=Reference|Full Review]]summary=''Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder''. It makes people think you're dead.

<!-- Jenkins -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Jenkins_100.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/024197898X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=024197898X]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[BritainThere's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]]truth in that statement, [[:Category:Art|Art]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] In the mid twentieth century the railway was something which harked back to the Victorian age with trains being supplanted by cars and planesyou know, but steam was being replaced by oil, even then and in the twenty-first century oil is giving way there's a conundrum when it's applied to electricityauthors. It's cleanerShakespeare is dead: Dickens is dead, more environmentally friendly and the stations which but wehaven'd all rushed through as quickly as possible, keen to escape their grime, were restored and became places to be admired, possibly even lingered in. Simon Jenkins has chosen his hundred best railway stations. [[Britaint buried what they's 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins|Full Review]] <!-- Taylor -->|-| style="widthve written: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Taylor Owlsthat lives on until.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/178240404Xwhen? Is it until fashion decrees that they should be no more?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=178240404X]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Owls: A Guide to Every Species by Marianne Taylor]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]]Or is it, [[:Category:Animals and Wildlife|Animals and Wildlife]] I feel like I am being watched. A huge pair as in the case of piercing orange eyes some children's authors that they are staring right at me, locking me into their gaze. In contrast with the hardness of the deepon life support through licensing deals and astute marketing? Christopher Fowler has unearthed (exhumed?) ninety-amber eyesnine authors who were once hugely popular, soft grey feathers fan out into the surrounding areabut whose works have disappeared, intricate, detailed and beautiful. An enigma; harsh and gentle at the same time, the owl is beckoning the reader to turn the pages and take a closer look inside... [[Owls: A Guide to Every Species by Marianne Taylor|Full Review]] <!-- Browne -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Browne_Many.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.cosometimes quite literally.uk/dp/1845409159/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Many Faces of Coincidence by Laurence Browne]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Popular Science|Popular Science]] Browne does not mislead with this choice of title; he does without a doubt explore the many faces of coincidence. [[The Many Faces of Coincidence by Laurence Browne|Full Review]] <!-- jvdk -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:JVDK_ELO.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781556008/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Electric Light Orchestra: Song by Song by John Van der Kiste]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Entertainment|Entertainment]] My memories of pop music in the early sixties revolve around guitars and drums, sometimes the piano with only occasional excursions into strings and brass. Pop music rarely stands still and it wasn't long before the basic instruments were seens as constraints and The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys began to experiment, with other groups following where they led. Amongst these groups was The Move and their lead guitarist and songwriter, Roy Wood. Wood wanted to develop the group's sound by adding more instruments but was prevented from achieving what he wanted by cost limitations and because the rest of the group didn't really share his enthusiasm. [[Electric Light Orchestra: Song by Song by John Van der Kiste|Full Review]] <!-- Angell -->|-Frontpage| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Angell_Triang.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1445664577/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Tri-ang Collectables by |author=Dave Angell]]|rating=== [[image:3.5star.jpg5|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] summary=A guide to the trains produced by the Tri-ang company from its inception until the company became Hornby. A very personal guide to the collecting of model trains. [[Tri-ang Collectables by Dave Angell|Full Review]]}}<!-- Chase -->{{Frontpage|-| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Chase_Orchids.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782404031/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Book of Orchids: A life-size guide to six hundred species from around the world by |author=Mark Chase, Maarten Christenhusz and Tom Mirenda]]==|rating=5 [[image:5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] summary=One in seven flowering plants on earth is an orchid: there are 26,000 species in 749 genera. They flourish in remarkable habitats such as deserts and the Arctic circle, in fact , all areas but the most inhospitable. There's a wide range of colours, shapes and scents: they're dramatic, delicate and ingenious in the ways that they've developed not just to survive but to thrive. Tom Mirenda describes them as ''masters of manipulation'' and ''famous for lying and cheating their way to their many evolutionary successes'', yet his love of them is as obvious as his respect for the insight they give us into the processes which shaped our world. He hopes that understanding how that has come about will inspire us to conserve what we have. [[The Book of Orchids: A life-size guide to six hundred species from around the world by Mark Chase, Maarten Christenhusz and Tom Mirenda|Full Review]] <!-- Edwards -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Edwards_Story.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0712356967/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books (British Library Crime Classics) by Martin Edwards]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] It's easy to be confused by the various 'ages' of crime writing: if you've an interest in the genre you'll almost certainly have heard of the Golden Age of Crime, generally acknowledged as being the period between the first and second world wars. 'Classic Crime' on the other hand extends the time frame at either end and covers books published in the first half of the twentieth century. Throughout my adult life there's been just one genre of books which has fascinated me, and that's crime, so I could hardly resist the chance of reading ''The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books'' particularly as the author, Martin Edwards is an accomplished author within the crime genre and an acknowledged expert on the subject. [[The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books (British Library Crime Classics) by Martin Edwards|Full Review]] <!-- DK -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:DK_Childrens.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241286972/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Children's Illustrated Thesaurus by DK]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Non-Fiction|Children's Non-Fiction]], [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] One of the most valuable literary skills which children can learn is how to use reference books. As a child every question which I began with ''how do you spell...?'' would be answered with ''EXACTLY as it says in the dictionary''. This was fine, but the family's Collins Little Gem Dictionary didn't encourage exploration, not least because the font was small and difficult to read. Fortunately those times have now changed and reference book for children are now much more inviting. Not every book comes with a set of instructions but it's worth studying the ''How to...'' section, not least because similar systems are used in other reference books. [[Children's Illustrated Thesaurus by DK|Full Review]] <!-- DK -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:DK_1st.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/024118875X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[First Science Encyclopedia by Dorling Kindersley]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Non-Fiction|Children's Non-Fiction]], [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] I wasn't introduced to 'science' until I was eleven and went on to senior school: I wasn't alone in this, but it really was too late. Thankfully, times have changed and children at primary school are getting to grips with plants and animals, atoms and molecules and even outer space from a very young age. What's needed is a good, basic reference book which will introduce all the subjects and give a good grounding. It needs to be something which would sit proudly in the classroom library and comfortably on a child's bookshelf. ''The First Science Encyclopedia'' would do both well. [[First Science Encyclopedia by Dorling Kindersley|Full Review]] <!-- Osborne -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Osborne_Cambridge.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1316504808/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Cambridge Companion to British Black and Asian Literature (1945–2010) by Deirdre Osborne (Editor)]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] This literary companion offers fifteen essays addressing the contribution of black and Asian authors to the British literary canon since 1945. It covers not just fiction, but also poetry, plays and performance works. It sits as a kind of joyful cuckoo in the nest, interrupting the usual narratives of literary waves and movements in Britain that take little notice of any perspective other than the dominant white - and posh! - direction of travel. It's a disparate, varied collection of essays, covering spoken word performance poetry, black British urban fiction, LGBTQ writing, liberationist writing and much more. I was really happy to see children's authors such as Malorie Blackman, Jamila Gavin and Catherine Johnson discussed and respected. [[The Cambridge Companion to British Black and Asian Literature (1945–2010) by Deirdre Osborne (Editor)|Full Review]] <!-- DK -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:DK_Whats.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241228379/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[What's Where on Earth? Atlas: The World as You've Never Seen It Before by DK]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] I dread to think how old the atlas we used when I was a child was, but at least we had one, and I didn't need to go to school or a library to check up on whatever bit of trivia I was seeking. I'm so old a lot of things about it now would be most redundant, but if you choose to risk your arm and buy an atlas for the family shelves that all generations will benefit from, as opposed to relying on electronic and updateable sources of information, then this is the one to have. [[What's Where on Earth? Atlas: The World as You've Never Seen It Before by DK|Full Review]] <!-- Hollick -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Hollick_Pirates.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1445652153/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Pirates: Truth and Tale by Helen Hollick]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] The eighteenth century lived in terror of the tramps of the seas – pirates. Pirates have fascinated people ever since. It was a harsh life for those who went 'on the account', constantly overshadowed by the threat of death – through violence, illness, shipwreck, or the hangman's noose. The lure of gold, the excitement of the chase and the freedom that life aboard a pirate ship offered were judged by some to be worth the risk. Helen Hollick explores both the fiction and fact of the Golden Age of piracy, and there are some surprises in store for those who think they know their Barbary Corsair from their boucanier. Everyone has heard of Captain Morgan, but who recognises the name of the aristocratic Frenchman Daniel Montbars? He killed so many Spaniards he was known as 'The Exterminator'. The fictional world of pirates, represented in novels and movies, is different from reality. What draws readers and viewers to these notorious hyenas of the high seas? What are the facts behind the fantasy? [[Pirates: Truth and Tale by Helen Hollick|Full Review]]  <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|} {{newreview|author= D J Taylor|title= The Prose Factory|rating= 5|genre= Reference|summary= D J Taylor's exploration of writing, reading, publishing and critical reviews spans a century of literary history, discussing everything from Eliot-era modernists and Georgian traditionalists, to the impact of politics, creative writing degrees, reviewers and critics. It is a deep and thorough exploration of the multi-complex influences on English literary life over the past century and the way these have shaped readers' preferences and reading habits. But don't be put off by thinking that this is a dusty, encyclopaedic tome – it is a large book at around 500 pages – but it is accessible and thoroughly readable. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099556073</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der KisteEdwards_Story|title=A Beatles Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Beatles but Were Afraid to AskThe Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books (British Library Crime Classics)|author=Martin Edwards

|summary=You might It's easy to be confused by the various 'ages' of crime writing: if you have thought that just about everything which could be said about an interest in the genre you'll almost certainly have heard of the Golden Age of Crime, generally acknowledged as being the period between the first and second world wars. 'Classic Crime' on the other hand extends the Beatles had been said time frame at either end and certainly covers books published in the first half of the twentieth century. Throughout my adult life, there's been no shortage just one genre of books about what went wrongwhich has fascinated me, what happened to the money and even what went right. But what that's crime, so Icould hardly resist the chance of reading ''ve never seen before is a The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books'miscellany' - all those little facts which are so hard to track down and this particularly as the author, Martin Edwards is where historian John Van der Kiste comes into his own: he's a man with an eye for detail accomplished author within the crime genre and an acknowledged expert on the ability to bring everything together into a very readable whole. It's a wonderful collection of the small factssubject.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781555826</amazonuk>