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==The Best New Books==
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{{Frontpage
|author=Paul B Preciado
|title=Dysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''It is never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood''
Through this hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to the new generation, a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. Rather, it is the proportional, valid response to ''the epistemological and political crack we are living through, and the tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'Read [[Forthcoming Publications' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The whole text is framed against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, or as ''pangea covidica''. Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to ''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''. |isbn=1804271454}}{{Frontpage|author=Samantha Harvey|title=Orbital|rating=4.5|reviews genre=General Fiction|summary=In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital'', a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the lives of books a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a wholly new light.|isbn=1529922933}}{{Frontpage|isbn=295967572X|title=Pale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Our unnamed narrator is about to be published]]begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and what the purpose of this journey is, is uncertain. Django found the tickets ''on the floor somewhere'' and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the past as the pair travel to the station by coach and the train is a steam locomotive.<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Peter Papathanasiou0008551324|title=The StoningDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=34.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=In a town sleazy enough It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to make sh*tholes elsewhere look glamorous in comparison, a teacher approach the police. Neither side likes or has been transported across town at night any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in a shopping trolley, prison and shehe's been taped prepared to tell the police where the body of a tree missing person is buried and she's had rocks bowled at who was responsible for her as if she were the world's tallest cricket stumpsdeath. When she's discovered by the town gossip everyone This person, including the local copshe promises, are quite confident the culprit has come from the immigrant detention centre the place is reluctantly home to. An arson attack on that shows the feeling – someone big and it's only fair, is the general opinion, for will be worth the occupants are often setting their own fires in protest at their conditionspolice doing what he wants. Cue And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the arrival remainder of George Manolis, a higher rank from the city, his sentence and to sort everything outget an early parole date. Because such an aggrieved Not much to ask, insular community is really going it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to welcome a Greekdo the other thing that Hardie demanded -heritaged city boy laying down the law.make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening..|isbn=1529416973
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B08Z8BMZ7HJon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=The Mystery of Healing|author=A P McGrathVaim
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)Literary Fiction|summary=We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era and he's the physician on duty at the munus - the games put on for the amusement of the populace. The remuneration isn't high but the work gives the doctor a feeling of virtue and hones his skills: Solon 'All was strange'wants'' the warriors to live. It's quite a spectacle: .. This haunting phrase encapsulates the magistri are the charge hands and when we first see thempervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, they're sprinkling gold dust onto the lions' manes to make them look a fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more impressive. The sagitarii are the archers real for Jatgeir and the beastiarii are the condemned criminals who are going to fight for their lives with the wild animals. TodayEline, it's two of the crocodilesprotagonists caught in its melancholic current.|isbn=1804271829
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall1035043092|title=The Beatryce ProphecyKilling Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=I can''Stories t have joy and surprises in them'been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a new life on Orkney. It', s been seven years since we are told here. And none more so than in this wondrous storyheard from him, which feels an instant classic but he's now living with the freshness Willow Reeves and the agelessness it has in equal proportion. We start with a group of monkstheir young son, James, as well as Cassie, the Order daughter of the Chronicles of Sorrowinghis former partner. Willow's also his boss, and the demonic goat that loves nothing more than upendingshe ''should'' be on maternity leave, trampling on and biting the poor Brothers. Things change drastically but when the beast takes body of a totally maternal approach to a homeless girlpopular islander, Archie Stout, is found, one who has survived some trauma that has blocked her past from her memory. Elsewhere sits a King in his castle, desperate to find the girlaftermath of a storm, for it is prophesied that a young child she can unseat the throne and cause great change't resist getting involved. Who foretold that revolution but He'd been battered about the Order of the Chronicles head with a Neolithic stone - one of Sorrowing? But how can a simple, amnesiac lass ever prove pair - which had been stolen from a threat to anyone?|isbn=1529500893museum.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09FFJF8YSThea Lenarduzzi|title=You Can't Wear Panties! (No More Nappies!)|author=Justine Avery and Kate ZhoidikThe Tower|rating=3.5|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=''For How unctuous are the bigfats of another's life, grownup girls out there, the potty masters how dizzying their sugars in training, "You Canour bloodstream''t Wear Panties!" is a cry (the big-girl kind!) of toilet triumph and persevering panty pride.''
{{Frontpage
|author=Nick Lake and Emily GravettClaire-Louise Bennett|title=Locked Out LilyBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Lily isEverything in this book, however sweet or wasseemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, or has beenusually a symbol of intimacy and closeness, very illbecomes evidence of love lost. When the narrator cries out internally, ''come over here and to give her parents relief shekiss me,'s been told to stay with her grandma for a few days. The parents need the relief as Lily's baby sibling it is just about to be born – less an invitation than a child Lily swears she hates already and wants nothing desperate attempt to do withconfirm her emotional numbness. But on tracking back home for word The imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, her parents (and her plush toy so she can sleep) she finds stonyex-eyed simulacra of her parentspartner, and the babe-in-arms, already installed. These devilish interlopers need to be ousted to get the family back intact, even if it's not the family Lily wants – and all a ghost she has conjures to help test her in the task are some talking animals – Crow, Mole, Mouse and Snakedetachment.|isbn=14711948331804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Greg James and Chris Smith0008405026|title=The Great Dream RobberyA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=MayaIt's father is 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 professor who invented an amazing dream machinehalt. But something went wrong Now, her mother, Helena, and now he can't wake upher father are dead in their bed. Or at least Initially, thatit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's what Maya has been toldsomething about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. In a rather strange dream one night Maya makes a new friend, and discovers that the only way What looked as though it was going to save her dad may be by being asleep. Cue one madcap action adventure story where dreams an open-and reality collide-shut case is now a complex double murder...really...and there Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's everything from llamas and bananasboss, dream machines made from hairdresser cast-offs, to a talking cat called Bin Bag!|isbn=024147051XUna Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1800464495Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title= 100 Ways in 100 Days to Teach Your Baby Maths: Support All Areas of Your Baby’s Development by Nurturing a Love of Maths|author=Emma SmithThe Other Girl|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionAutobiography|summary=''Babies seem to be We were born with an amazing number sense: understanding shapes in from the womb, being aware of quantities at seven hours old, assessing probability at six months old, and comprehending addition and subtraction at nine months oldsame body. I've never really wanted to think about this.''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15293793851529077745|title=The Madness of Crowds Dark Wives (Chief Inspector GamacheD I Vera Stanhope)|author=Louise PennyAnn Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=In A man walking his dog in the Canadian village early morning discovered the body of Three Pinesa man in the park near Rosebank, we're posta care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh -pandemic: one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the scars are still there night before but life is starting to get back to normalwho had never turned up. The villagers are beginning to return D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the Bistro and disappearance of one of the Aubergeresidents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. They're visiting each other's homes and having friends and relatives to stay. A young Sudanese woman who has been nominated Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the Nobel Peace Prize death but Vera thinks this is one such visitor and unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she soon proves adored Josh. She knows that not all saints are necessarily pleasant people she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to be around - a bit like Vincent Gilbert, known in the village as the Asshole SaintJosh.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn= B09F4CTKJRB0FK5LHKD9|title= Flights for FreedomThe Colour of Memory|author= Steven BurgauerChristopher Bowden|rating=4.5|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=It's the later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is been three years since we last reviewed a young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canadabook by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, the first so we were very glad to be attached to the RAF and the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combatsee a new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. But before that can happenLike all Bowden's stories, Petrol has to master flying there's a mystery at the notoriously difficult heart of ''The Colour of Money''. We like this running theme in an author's work - take a mystery but majestic Sopwith Camelgive it different flavour and atmosphere each time.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Olga Tokarczuk|title=House of Day, House of Night|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''What's the good of a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in it?'' The title of this spellbinding work, ''House of Day, House of Night'', somewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the small, subtle changes which govern our lives, like the shift from day to night, however quotidian, causing chaos. But, the constant in that image is the house, stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is perceived.|isbn=1804271918}}{{Frontpage|isbn=183885410XhenleyA|title=The Dark RemainsUltimate Obsession|author=William McIlvanney and Ian RankinDai Henley|rating=3.54
|genre=Crime
|summary=Bobby Carter was Ex-DCI Andy Flood has been a lawyer Private Investigator for some time now, and consigliere to one of the major crime families in nineteen seventies Glasgowhe should be doing quite well financially. DC Jack Laidlaw is on the CID team charged with the investigationUnfortunately, his daughter's defence against a murder charge drained his savings. I say His wife, Laura, has been trying to persuade him to retire - ''maybe go travelling or go on the teamcruises. That's what 'ordinary people do' but Laidlaw never really seems to be a part of it. He does his own thing, goes his own way and ''The Dark Remains He'' uncovers s not been entirely up front about the truth state of why Bobby Cartertheir savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to take his case, it's body was found behind one the thought of the money he could make that convinces him that this is a miscarriage of Glasgow's seedier pubsjustice that he really should put right.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19424102551836284683|title=Tokyo Zangyo (Detective Hiroshi)The Big Happy|author=Michael PronkoDavid Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeDystopian Fiction|summary=''Zangyo: overtime work, often unpaid''Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other!
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241425425Sally Rooney|title=The Man Who Died Twice|author=Richard OsmanIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction |summary=Elizabeth Best was a little surprised when she received Sally Rooney has studied the letter. It came from a man whose body she had helped to pull from the Thames chessboard of life and who had never existed but then this is the sort something of conundrum which retired spies have to deal with on a regular basisgrandmaster at putting it into words. When she visits Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the sender of many relationships woven into this story, the letter (he's moved into central one for readers to unravel is the Cooper's Chase Retirement Village) it comes as no surprise that it's someone with whom she has a long professional history - fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and who used to be her husbandPeter Koubek. He's made Ivan, a bad mistake - something to do socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with a mask being removed within the range of a CCTV camera on a raidhis older brother Peter, a missing twenty-million pounds successful lawyer living in diamonds and a few death threatsDublin. HeFollowing their father's now in hiding passing after a long battle with a young woman called Pollycancer, whothe brothers's his MI5 handler as well as being an incompetent waitressalready strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Andrew Sharp1036916375|title=The Chef, the Bird and the BlessingJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary= Chef Mlantushi - Mozzy to his employer - ''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is, a collection of memories and reflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in his mindand around Liverpool. Some are factual, such as the head chef family history of a safari business catering to VIP guests in an unnamed African countrysea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Mozzy is earnest and dedicated to his task and he puts all of himself Other stories blend seamlessly into creating fine cuisine dishes for the guests at BODwhat-might-W safaris but his dream is have-been. It's a book to settle into and allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to become think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the head chef of blitz that was a restaurant constant factor in London or a big American cityMcArdle's early years. Even to win a Michelin star. He is thwarted in this ambition by his boss, Mr Bin (Ben to you and me) who incurs Mozzy I's disapproval for his scruffy ways, his uninterest in his guests d never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the all- shock, horror - his allowing of bush animals into the houseclear was sounded.|isbn=B09926MK8H
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Alex Foulkes1836285493|title=Rules for VampiresThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Eleonore Von Motteberg (or 'Leo' for short) Will is a Vampire. She drinks bloodkeen player of video games, she sleeps during the daya conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and she can Grimwalk (turning into a flock supportive friend. But most of bats to travel aroundall, although not all of them remember to come back)he is an aspiring writer. Pretty cool stuff. NowEnglish is his favourite lesson at his school, on the night of her hundredth birthnightMarlowe Park, she has to go out and hunt her first humanone at which he excels. HoweverThis hasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, instead and she ends up killing two humans by accident and burning down an orphanage. Oops! And has suggested to make things worse, the ghosts of one of the orphans Will and the evil master his mum that he spends a couple of the orphanage come back to haunt her. Soafternoons a week at a different school, not only does Leo have to team up with the friendly ghost Minna to stop the ghost of the Orphanmaster before he becomes unstoppably powerfulStation Road, she has to do it all while hiding it from her familywhere his ability might be better extended. Did I mention vampires and ghosts hate each other? Yeah, there's a reason why there are rules for vampires…|isbn=147119955X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Tori Bovalino1009473085|title=The Devil Makes ThreeConservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=TeensPolitics and Society|summary= Working all summer in her boarding schoolSometimes it's library is the last thing Tess Matheson wants simpler to do — especially when she gets explain a request for over a hundred books book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that she has applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver herself. What makes it worse is the man who requested inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the books: Mr Birchbook for you. The boarding school If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's headmasterbook, {{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 man Tess hates. As series which looks at the impact a petty act of revenge for making her find government has made and deliver such a large request, Tess sticks postco-it notes on each of editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the books, scribbled with most important. This book follows the ugliest insults she can think well-established format: a series of. They're never meant to reach him, experts from various fields review the state of course. Her plan is to get her anger out like thisthe nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or it would be, if someone hadn't delivered them for herthe situation in 2024.|isbn=1789098130
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= B09BG8V3Q6Jenny Valentine|title= Who Needs Nappies? Not Me! (Everybody Potties!)|author= Justine Avery Us in the Before and Seema AmjadAfter|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingTeens|summary= ''Who Needs Nappies? Not Me!'' Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is the latest release a once in the a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other'Everybody Potties!'' series from Justine Averys contact details at the time. This series of fun picture books aims to take the pain out of potty training children But then chance brings them back together, and replace it with some funthey are inseparable. It's a worthy aim Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, as any frustrated parent will tell you. together.|isbn=1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B098FFFBH91787333175|title=SnowcubYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Graham FulbrightBenji Waterhouse|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionPopular Science|summary=Fourteen-year-old Rachel is her schoolI was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's animal rights project leader and she and her friend are producing first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a competition entry to highlight glorious mixture of insight into the way in which human beings exploit workings of the animal worldNHS, humour and autobiography. She gets a great deal ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of support from her family: father Pip Harrison, a lecturer at Imperial College, London, mother Kate and her twin, Nickpsychiatrist. Kate runs I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the family business, laughter is directed at a situation rather than a toy shop called Cornucopia in Putney, which person and it is where we'll meet Rachel's main (if unsuspected) source of information: five soft toysalways delivered with empathy and understanding.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Angharad WalkerMariana Enriquez|title= The Ash HouseA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating= 5|genre= Confident ReadersShort Stories|summary= A new boy arrives at The Ash House. He doesn't know his nameMariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, or why he is there but he is used achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to the systeman urban planning mishap, used to different places an overcrowded homeless shelter and different facesa crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. He meets Dom who names him Sol and sets out to teach him the rules of The Ash House. These rules centre on a variety circumstances of Nicenesses set out by her characters are so plausible that the absent Headmaster. All children must remember their Niceness and complete their chores, working as supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a hive in the smouldering shadows of The Ash House. But soon their easy peace is shattered by the arrival of the Doctor. By the end of the story, lives will be changed forever and The Ash House will never be the same againsimilarly tangible texture.|isbn=19126269771803511230
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Yancey Williams1529934753|title=Crosshairs of the DevilThe Protest|author=Rob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Award-winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski is getting on in years andFor a little while, despite his strenuous objections and thanks to his daughterit looked as though Sir Max Bruce, finds himself living - or imprisoned, from Eddiethe country's point of view - in room 315 of the Garden of Eden nursing homemost famous living artist, with only a trusty nursing aide, Jenkins, for palatable company. Nothing is was not going to keep Eddie from show up for the opening of his stock-retrospective at the Royal Academy. Still, he arrived in-trade the nick of writing thoughtime, so here, for complete with his readerstwo wives and six children, are his wanderings through his life's work.|isbn=0986031658}} {{Frontpage|author=Philip Reeve|title=Utterly Dark and the Face one of the Deep|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In a word, richwhom filmed what happened. There is certainly Being an abundance of riches in this story set on a peculiar island called Wildseainfluencer, you tend to do things like that, British but way west, beyond the Scillies. There are troll people on it, and sea-witches, and legends was fortunate that there was a record of the Dark family that has to keep watch for magical islands and their monster approaching from even further westprotest. Lexi Williams, where no ship dare sail. The current Darks are an intern at the WatcherRA, Andrewe, who has to keep notes grabbed a spray can of activity blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in the Hidden Landsface, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head whilst shouting ''Stop the War''. It seemed to worry about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewebe part of an ongoing series of 'blue-face's foundling daughterattacks, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years agobut this was different. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himself The can had been laced with cyanide, both his sullen brother and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or notSir Max Bruce was dead.|isbn=1788452372
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{{Frontpage
|author=Erling KaggeAriel Saramandi|title=Walking: One Step At A Time|rating=5|genre= Lifestyle|summary= Those who have read my reviews before will know that how much I loved a book is evidenced by the number Portrait of pages with corners turned, so let me start this one with an apology to the Norfolk Library Service: sorry! I forgot it was your book not mine. In my defence, I will say that as a reader of this type of book there is something connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided it is subtle – I'll allow creased corners, but not scribbles – for the latter we must buy our own copy – which I am about to do as soon as I have finished telling you why). Erligg Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who has walked to the South Pole, the North Pole and the summit of Everest. He knows a thing or two about walking. However, this isn't a travelogue about any of those epic journeys, it is instead a thoughtful exploration of what it means to walk. It is a plenitude of unnumbered essays about walking. There is no 'contents' page and I haven't counted. In small format paperback, each essay is only a few pages long. Perhaps then, better thought of as a meditation rather than an essay.|isbn=0241357705}}{{Frontpage|author=Ian Mark and Louis Ghibault|title=Monster Hunting For BeginnersIsland on Fire
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=Meet Jack. Now Jack knows very little about being fearless and nimble and quickIn this powerful collection of essays, for he's a slight boySaramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the wounds left by colonialism and although he wants for danger and peril and interesting things his dad refuses slavery to let him out of his sightexpose how these legacies still shape modern life. ThatSaramandi describes the country at one stage as 's because Jack's mother knew all rotting'', a blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about monstersby the malignant forces of racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and look what happened to her – she diedgovernmental dysfunction. Luckily or unluckily then, depending on your point Each essay in this collection serves as a kind of viewdiagnostic, a giant ogre will threaten his aunt when Jack's father also goes AWOL, Jack will fluke charting the ogre's death, a dwarfish wizard-type will make him an apprentice monster hunter, and he'll be given a book that tells him all he needs to know about various diseases afflicting the perils he always wanted closer contact with. The book's name? ''Monster Hunting for Beginners''..island state.|isbn=07555019421804271616
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{{Frontpage
|author=Keith GrayPekka Harju-Autti|title=The ClimbersLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary=Sully is the best tree climber in the village. He has whatIt's known amongst the kids as 'reach'eighteenth century, a time of discovery and Britain is expanding its foreign trade. But what happens when a new kid shows up in town? A new kidCaptain Julius Hawthorne, called Nottinghaman experienced Scottish sea captain, who clambers up some of is sent to the hardest trees Andaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with ease? Suddenly Sully is worried that his status is being threatenedson, Peter, and not only thattheir cat, Michi, that his chance they set off on a perilous voyage to name the final, unnamed big tree these faraway lands. The islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the park by being the first to conquer it, might be snatched from his hands. How can Sully stop Nottingham? And will it cost him his best friendislanders' leader, or maybe even all of his friendsAarav, is keen to do so?establish good relations.|isbn=1781129991B0DS1VGHH3
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Emma CarrollHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=The Week at World's EndLili is Crying|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=First, the title. We're published in 1953 in World's End CloseFrench, this novel is a mediocre set of houses, where Stevie (Vie to her friends) finds fun only with the family dog and with the boy over timeless text which wrenches the road. But we could also be at World's End, because something taking a great chunk hearts of the fun away is the fact that the Cuban Missile Crisis is kicking off. The Soviet boats are getting blockaded its readers just as America tries to reduce Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on the risk of nuclear missiles offshore, page and not much else is able to make the news. That saidpositions them elsewhere, Vie has news of her own – Annadisjointed, a secretive young woman hiding in their coal shedtruncated. Anna has, in no short time, taken a strong interest in Like the American airforce base behind the Closelives of her characters, said she'd locate something she wanted and leave, failed to leave, and implied her life was at riskthey are often left tragically incomplete. But surely this bit of intrigue has got nothing to do with what the Cold War is doing miles away?|isbn=05713644381804271675
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de FrestonPercival|title=Julia and the SharkThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=JuliaWill's life is difficult, our pre-teen heroinein a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has been packed off with her parents 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 their cat from his dad can't work because he lost his job at the family home college, was working a cash-in SW England to be lighthousekeepers for -hand job on a summerbuilding 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 the far NE of the Scottish islandsevery direction. Here be VikingsAnd yet, that kind he still has a tiny amount of Scottish islandhope. Dad He is going good at art, and clings to be automating the lantern, which moments of joy when he is his specialist thingdrawing, while mum will be leaving her career in algae behind to hunt that feel like a light at the elusive Greenland shark. And Juliaend of a long, well, she will be homesick and alone – until she suddenly finds company one nightdark tunnel.|isbn=15101077891398527122
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{{Frontpage
|author=Freya SampsonSylvie Cathrall|title=The Last LibraryA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=I am always a little nervous to start a story about a library, since I am a librarian. I always grit my teeth slightly at the thought of the incoming cardigan-wearing, hair in a bun, cat-owning, glasses on a chain stereotypes! In this story, the main character, June, does put her hair in a bun, and she does own a cat (called Alan Bennett), and she has barely any friends and spends her evenings eating the same Chinese takeaway meal once There are few greater joys than a week whilst reading books alone! But I didn't immediately throw the book out of the window, because I found I was interested in June, and why she lived as she did. Her mum used to be a librarian at the village library, but when she got sick, June gave which lives up on going to University and stayed at home to take care of her mum, as well as taking on a job as library assistant at the local librarycompelling premise. And even though her mum sadly died some years ago, she this is still working there, still eating her mum's favourite takeaway meal, and still reading her mum's old books. June is stuck, but little does she know, everything in her life is about the changeone of them.|isbn=183877369X0356522776
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083709821786482126|title=Rock Paper ScissorsThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Alice FeeneyElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=For those who, like me, haven't come across Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the Skelfs before, Isite was going to hold seventy-five 'll risk a quick synopsis of wholuxury's who – although Johnstone does a good job of bringing the backstory in without being heavy handed about it. Skelf isn't some fantastic creature, though it sounds as though it ought to be, it is merely apartments - when they discovered the surname bones of a family of undertakers. Undertakers and private investigators. Dorothy is the matriarch – Californian by birth and instinct, she married a scot and ended up helping to run the Edinburgh undertaking firm that had been in the family for generations. Recently widowed and now involved with child beneath a black Swedish police officerdoorway. Swedish by nationality. Scottish police. Daughter Jenny, 46, is haunted by her still-living husband – a violent escaped prisoner. And grand-daughter is about to graduate with a first-class physics degree and join the academic staff next term.|isbn=1913193837}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1901514978|title= There's a Problem With Dad|author=Carlos Alba|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Life is different for George Lovelace and he can't really understand why. He's always done everything he ought to: steady worker, husband and father - and a father who was always there for school plays and sports daysno skull. So why is he never quite in tune with those around him? Why does he upset people? Why is someone with such Was this a ''good'' mind unable to progress at work ritual killing or to relate to his colleaguesmurder? Why does he make so many breath-taking gaffes? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's almost become a cliche these days to suggest difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that someone who she is pregnant with his child as a little different is 'on result of the spectrum'one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, but George Lovelace has all the symptoms not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of Asperger's Syndrome: high-functioning autismsickness.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Louise CandlishGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=The HeightsAccidentals
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersShort Stories|summary=Ellen doesn't expect to see Kieran that day. She's on site, visiting a client for a lighting consultation when she spies him This collection was truly enchanting in a building across all senses of the way. There are lots of thingsword: spellbinding with its fantastical, lots magical elements and charming in its gentle portrayal of people, you might see when you look out across London, but this isn't one Ellen expected that day or in fact any other daynature and human relationships. Why? Because Kieran has been dead for over two years, Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and Ellen knows this for a factprecisely, because she had her stories structured by a hand in his murderwisdom that appears to want to teach us something about the world.|isbn=14711834831804271470
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00084217140008551375|title=Mrs MarchWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Virginia FeitoNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=The problem began just after Leanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the publication result of George March's most successful novel to datea tragic accident. Everyone but Mrs March (we know She'd looked so happy, too, when she posted her first name only intentions on the last page) seemed to either be reading it or had already done soFacebook. Every day Mrs March went to the local patisserie to buy olive bread but on that particular morning, Patricia asked, Her friends were relieved as she was wrapping the breadjust out of an unpleasant relationship, ''but isn't this it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances in the first time he's based a character on you?'' last year. She mentioned that JohannaAll were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and sensible people. None of the principal character had 'her mannerisms'what a stupid thing to do'explanations applied. Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the fact that Johanna They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is the whore of Nantes - 'certain there's a weak, plain, detestable, pathetic, unloved, unloveable wretchkiller on the loose.''
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