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{{newreview
|author=Mark Oaten
|title=Screwing Up
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Like John Profumo and others, Mark Oaten will probably be remembered for the wrong reasons. It was the episode which made him for a while the country's No. 1 paparazzi target, and which as he recounts in his Prologue, when his 'world was crashing down' and it hardly needs recounting in detail. Yet when all is said and done, this is a very lively, readable, sometimes quite poignant memoir from one of the men whose career at Westminster began and ended with the Blair and Brown years. Throughout there is an admirable absence of self-pity.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849540071</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=Welcome back to Weirdsville, sorry Woodsville, the town set in a truly creepy hollow, whose forest contains the greatest concentration of ghosts you'll find anywhere in England. Fresh from vanquishing a ghost army and enabling Emily to pass on to the other side and be reunited with her mother, our four reluctant ghosthunters have a new mystery to solve. Freak accidents have killed four local girls in the last four months, and Charlotte is convinced she will be next. She's the only one left alive from a seance she and her friends took part in, and she is certain that death is stalking her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007258119</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Mini Grey
|title=Three By The Sea
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Dog, Cat and Mouse live together by the sea, each with their own chores to take care of in their own special way. They think that they're happy, but when a stranger turns up from the Winds of Change companny, each of them reassesses their position in their friendship.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224083627</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Fiona Mountain
|title=Rebel Heiress
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Based on the life of a pioneer in the world of butterfly collecting, this novel was an enchanting and enthralling read. Born into a rigorously devout Puritan family, young Eleanor is an anomaly both in her outlook and attitude - and her butterfly collecting interests set her further apart from the more traditional ladies. The prejudices of the times are well explained, and the level of historical detail is sufficient to give the reader a good understanding of the tensions of the period.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848091656</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Kevin Lewis
|title=The Kid: A True Story
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Kevin Lewis grew up on a poverty-stricken London council estate in the sort of home that the neighbours complain about. His mother – inadequate by any measure – hated him more than most of her six children and he was beaten and starved by both of his parents. You might think that Social Services would have stepped in and removed him, but any relief was to be short-lived. Eventually he was put into care but even then the support was inadequate and Kevin found himself caught up in a criminal underworld where he was known simply as 'The Kid'.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014104859X</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan
|title=Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History
|rating=4.5
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary='Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead' sounds like a gimmick, doesn't it? Or, if not a gimmick, then the lessons that you learn when you see how it shouldn't be done. Over the past few years I've read quite a few marketing books and I've generally come away with the thought that they weren't aimed at a business like Bookbag and required far too much control. We're not that sort of people! We want to enjoy Bookbag and we want other people to do the same and we're definitely not in the business of trying to pull in every penny that we can.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0470900520</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=William Nicholson
|title=All the Hopeful Lovers
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I had previously read Nicholson's ''The Society Of Others'' and thoroughly enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading this book. Nicholson writes a modern-day story which is relevant and bang up to date. We first meet Laura and Belinda. Two middle-aged, middle-class wives and mothers. Feeling sort of okay with their lives generally but all too aware also, that the marital 'spark' in their marriages is now a low peep - if there at all. Belinda in particular, knows she is bumbling along in life. She's not sure what to do to make things more interesting in the sex department. A fling would probably help - but would it be the answer?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916388X</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Andy Mulligan
|title=Trash
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Raphael lives in Behala, a slum that's grown up around a landfill site in an unnamed South American country. He's a dumpsite boy - this means he and his family scrape a living by combing through the detritus of richer people's lives. Behala replaced Smoky Mountain, another slum that got so dangerous that landslides killed dozens of people and the authorities closed it. What a home, eh? But Raphael has a smile that lights up his whole face and lifts the spirits of all those upon whom he bestows it. And he has good things in his life - a close extended family, a best friend called Gardo - and an exciting secret.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385619014</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Axel Scheffler
|title=How to Keep a Pet Squirrel
|rating=4
|genre=Humour
|summary=So, how do you keep a pet squirrel? Well, the simple answer is that you don't. They're wild animals and not at all suitable for keeping in captivity, but accepted thinking didn't always run that way. It was whilst he was dipping into ''The Children's Encyclopaedia'' of 1910 that Axel Scheffler came across a small but indispensible guide to obtaining and caring for your pet squirrel. His inventive mind came up with these beautiful illustrations to accompany the text and if you're looking for an amusing gift for an animal-loving adult then this book could well be the answer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571255981</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Russell Foster and Leon Kreitzman
|title=Seasons of Life: The Biological Rhythms That Living Things Need to Thrive and Survive
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary="Seasons of Life" aims to present a rounded picture of the way seasonality affects human life as well as the rest of nature. Covering everything from Seasonal Affective Disorder to the potential for animals to adapt to climate change, this book would be an interesting read for anyone with an enquiring mind and an interest in the natural world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186197969X</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=William Gibson
|title=Zero History
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=It's almost obligatory when writing anything about William Gibson to recall that in an earlier short story, he invented the term 'cyberspace'. Gibson remains at the cutting edge of what is 'cool'. Like most of his books, Zero History is a thriller, but at its core are issues surrounding technology, how we interact with it, branding and marketing. It would be easy to criticise much of his content as being too shallow and concerned with 'nothing' - but then that's part of his point.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919527</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Sally Anne Morris
|title=Vintage Magic
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=With the life she thought was before her ruined by her fiancé's cheating ways, Rose Taylor swiftly leaves her life in London and seeks refuge with her mother Mimi and her sister Lily in the beautiful city of Bath. Reeling from her fiancé's deceptions, now is as good a time as any for Rose to reinvent herself, although she is determined to win her fiancé back. Having always had an eye for clothes, starting a vintage dress shop seems like a perfect idea and soon 'Vintage Magic' is opened.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755354419</amazonuk>
}}