134,727
edits
Changes
no edit summary
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews]] at TheBookbag.
Want to find out learn more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
==The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529148251Paul B Preciado|title=Misfits: A Personal Manifesto|author=Michaela CoelDysphoria Mundi|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''How am I able It is never too late to be so transparent on paper about rape, malpractice and poverty, yet still compartmentalise? It's as though I were telling embrace the truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.revolutionary optimism of childhood''
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Samantha Harvey|title=Orbital|rating=4.5|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 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=00084336311529922933}}{{Frontpage|isbn=295967572X|title=Next of KinPale Pieces|author=Kia AbdullahG M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=It was Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and what the sort purpose of thing that happened every daythis journey is, although not to Leila Syedis uncertain. SheDjango found the tickets ''on the floor somewhere''d never driven her nephew, Max, and has persuaded our narrator to school before accompany him. Why not? Not much else is clear either - but his father, Andrew Hanson, had rung her we are probably in a panic. He was supposed to be taking Max to school but he'd been called into work and the delay in getting there could lead past as the pair travel to financial losses. As the school was only five minutes out of Leila's way, could she drop him off? Of course, she could station by coach and a sleeping Max was duly strapped into the back of her car. On the way Leila took train is a phone call - there was panic at her work too, with a problem which could put a multi-million-pound contract at risksteam locomotive.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Oliver Greeves0008551324|title=Nelson's FollyThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=24.5|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=The story of Admiral Nelson – who never actually achieved that rank, but only ascended It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to Vice Admiral – approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is one of the best known struggling in English history. Despite our history teachersprison and he' best efforts there are very few battles that most s prepared to tell the police where the body of us can namea missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. Dunkirk This person, Battle of Britainhe promises, Hastings…if we live in is someone big and it will be worth the north then Flodden, Bannockburn, Culloden…it probably takes police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an interest in maritime things open prison to know of serve the Battle remainder of the Nile his sentence and the siege of Malta…but just about every English person knows about Trafalgarto get an early parole date. They may not know where it Not much to ask, is and what it was about, but we know (if only from the Square ? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the Column) other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that it was a mighty victory DS Max Craigie and that Nelson was in commandanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|isbn=0645023701
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Justine Avery Jon Fosse and Naday MeldovaDamion Searls (translator) |title=Everybody Toots! (Everybody Potties!)Vaim
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary= Toots, trumps, farts''All was strange''. Whatever your word for them, find us a child that doesn't find them irresistibly funny. Funny to talk about and joke about, that is. But horribly embarrassing if you let one go at This haunting phrase encapsulates the wrong time. In classpervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, say, when everyone will hear it and everyone will laugh. At you. Justine Avery's latest entry a fictional fishing village in her ''Everybody Potties!'' series takes aim at any shame associated with tooting and gently Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and calmlyEline, with two of the familiar humour attached, explains that tooting is perfectly normalprotagonists caught in its melancholic current. Everybody does it: ''Everybody Toots''!|isbn= B09C2RVJ2W1804271829}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17841652631035043092|title=Invite Me InThe Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Emma CurtisAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Martin CurranI can's wifet have been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Eliza knew that she had Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to be home to make his lunch for one o'clock start a new life on the dot, despite the fact that she was actually painting one of their properties prior to it being letOrkney. If she didnIt't get homes been seven years since we heard from him, there would be trouble. There was some excuse: Martin was a paraplegic but he's now living with Willow Reeves and confined to a wheelchairtheir young son, James, as well as Cassie, but don't be too quick to be understandingthe daughter of his former partner. He was Willow's also a very unpleasant person: he once told Eliza his boss, and she ''youshould're good at being a disappointment''. All this was in Eliza's mind be on maternity leave, but when she first met Dan Jones who arrivedthe body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, unannouncedis found, at in the flat just as Eliza was aftermath of a storm, she can't resist getting involved. He'd been battered about to leave: he wanted the lease head with a Neolithic stone - one of flat 2, 42 Linden Road and he was desperate to get in before it was advertised as being availablea pair - which had been stolen from a museum.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1784742775Thea Lenarduzzi|title=A Change of Circumstance (Simon Serrailler)|author=Susan HillThe Tower
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Drugs hadn't really been that much 'How unctuous are the fats of a problem another's life, how dizzying their sugars in Lafferton and Detective Superintendent Simon Serrailler had thought of drugs ops as a bit of a waste of timeour bloodstream''. They still were In this compelling novel, to a great extentThea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, but Serrailler knew that something had to be donethe protagonist of this tale. Children Just as young as nine were T's story is being recruited to transport told, the drugs and the operation running story of a second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the county lines was tight. A mule might know the name (although it probably wouldn't be the correct one) daughter of a wealthy family in the person 19th century, who was running him but he certainly wouldndied of tuberculosis after being locked in a tower, captures T's imagination. Annie't know anything about those higher up s fate is, above all, an enticing story to T. It is a story which she consumes avariciously, both in the organisation. The police might catch a few quest for truth and knowledge, and in service of the runners but they'd never get anywhere near those higher upmyth, fable and fantasy. |isbn=1804271799
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09FS89KX9Claire-Louise Bennett|title=Fall On Me|author=Penelope PottsBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=34.5|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary=Life should have been good for Hollie: She was just going into the final year Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, usually a symbol of her veterinary degree intimacy and - three years later - was still working at BB's dinercloseness, becomes evidence of love lost. Bob - When the owner - regarded her fondly: he was a good boss. Hollie had moved in with her boyfriendnarrator cries out internally, Marcus: her mother thought he was great ''come over here and he was doing well in his career. Hollie wasnkiss me,''t quite so certain though: Marcus wanted it is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to control confirm her and most emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of all he wanted this plea is Xavier, her to leave her job at the diner. Then there was the fact that he would be violentex-partner, both a ghost she conjures to test her and to other peopledetachment.|isbn=1804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=John Gwynne0008405026|title=The Shadow Of The GodsA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=The Shadow Of The Gods is It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the first installment of the Bloodsworn Sagainvestigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, set and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the era positioning of the Vikings in the shadow of Ragnarok, when the Gods have battled bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and their bones lie scattered for all her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to seebe an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. This story Kerrigan is convinced that the ultimate explanation lies in High Fantasy, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to the genre, with mythical creatures, archaic language and battles galore. This is a thick bookRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that Una Burt) are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in which our heroes must do battleless convinced.|isbn=0356514218
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09HTWX47XAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Endless Obsession|author=Dai HenleyThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=It's some years since we last caught up with Andy Flood, formerly a DCI in 'We were born from the Met but now a well-respected private investigatorsame body. HeI's married ve never really wanted to Laura, formerly his DS in the Murder Squad but now working in a forensics laboratorythink about this. Flood'' Ernaux's daughters, Gemma work is always very candid and Pippaher tone transparent, have flown but this raw epistolary text must be one of the nest, Pippa most intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to Australiaher sister, from where she has very little contact with the familyhowever, and Gemma to married lifethis letter will never reach her. SheWhy? Because Annie Ernaux's had mental problems since she sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a few months before the vaccine was abducted many made compulsory in France, and 2 years ago but Andy before the author was even born. The large and Laura hope that married life will provide instant void created by the support she needs. Floodjarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's business is going well and process of reckoning with this giant absence in her life, an absence that was why he she has always felt able to turn down the case of Lisa Blackbut often denied.|isbn=1804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Peter PapathanasiouMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=The StoningReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev
|rating=3.5
|genre=ThrillersBiography|summary=In Biographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a town sleazy enough to make sh*tholes elsewhere look glamorous in comparisonvibrant, a teacher has been transported across town at night in a shopping trolleysubjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book, and sheTolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: 's been taped to a tree and she's had rocks bowled at her you write not of real life as if she were the world's tallest cricket stumpsit is, but of what you yourself imagine it to be. When she's discovered by the town gossip everyoneWhom would it help to know how I see this tower, including the local copsthat sea, are quite confident the culprit has come from the immigrant detention centre the place or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is reluctantly home to. An arson attack on that shows the feeling – and it?''s only fair, is the general opinion, for the occupants are often setting their own fires in protest at their conditions. Cue the arrival of George ManolisWell, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a higher rank from the citysubjective account, giving us access to sort everything out. Because how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev in such an aggrieved, insular community is really going to welcome a Greek-heritaged city boy laying down the law..privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=15294169731804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B08Z8BMZ7H1529077745|title=The Mystery Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|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 up. D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of Healingthe 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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn= B0FK5LHKD9|title=The Colour of Memory|author=A P McGrathChristopher Bowden
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era and heIt's the physician on duty been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were very glad to see a new novel arrive here at the munus - the games put on for the amusement of the populaceBookbag Towers. The remuneration isnLike all Bowden's stories, there't high but the work gives s a mystery at the doctor a feeling heart of virtue and hones his skills: Solon ''wantsThe Colour of Money'' the warriors to live. ItWe like this running theme in an author's quite work - take a spectacle: the magistri are the charge hands and when we first see them, they're sprinkling gold dust onto the lions' manes to make them look more impressive. The sagitarii are the archers mystery but give it different flavour and the beastiarii are the condemned criminals who are going to fight for their lives with the wild animals. Today, it's the crocodilesatmosphere each time.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Kate DiCamillo and Sophie BlackallOlga Tokarczuk|title=The Beatryce ProphecyHouse of Day, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=''Stories have joy and surprises What's the good of a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in themit?'' The title of this spellbinding work, we are told here. And none more so than in ''House of Day, House of Night'', somewhat reflects this wondrous storynotion of shifting realities - the small, subtle changes which feels an instant classic with govern our lives, like the freshness and the agelessness it has in equal proportionshift from day to night, however quotidian, causing chaos. We start with a group of monksBut, the Order of constant in that image is the Chronicles of Sorrowinghouse, and stoic against the demonic goat that loves nothing more than upendingancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is perceived.|isbn=1804271918}}{{Frontpage|isbn=henleyA|title=Ultimate Obsession|author=Dai Henley|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Ex-DCI Andy Flood has been a Private Investigator for some time now, trampling on and biting the poor Brothershe should be doing quite well financially. Things change drastically when the beast takes Unfortunately, his daughter's defence against a totally maternal approach to a homeless girlmurder charge drained his savings. His wife, Laura, one who has survived some trauma that has blocked her past from her memorybeen trying to persuade him to retire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. Elsewhere sits a King in his castle That's what 'ordinary people do', desperate '' He's not been entirely up front about the state of their savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to find the girltake his case, for it is prophesied that a young child can unseat 's the throne and cause great change. Who foretold that revolution but the Order thought of the Chronicles money he could make that convinces him that this is a miscarriage of Sorrowing? But how can a simple, amnesiac lass ever prove a threat to anyone?|isbn=1529500893justice that he really should put right.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09FFJF8YS1836284683|title=You Can't Wear Panties! (No More Nappies!)The Big Happy|author=Justine Avery and Kate ZhoidikDavid Chadwick|rating=34.5|genre=For SharingDystopian Fiction|summary=''For the big, grownup girls out there, the potty masters in training, "You Can't Wear PantiesWell!" This is a cry (the big-girl kindmurder mystery unlike any other!) of toilet triumph and persevering panty pride.''
{{Frontpage
|author=Nick Lake and Emily GravettSally Rooney|title=Locked Out LilyIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction |summary=Lily is, or was, or Sally Rooney has been, very ill, studied the chessboard of life and to give her parents relief she's been told to stay with her grandma for is something of a few daysgrandmaster at putting it into words. The parents need the relief as Lily's baby sibling Her dialogue is just about to be born – a child Lily swears she hates already gripping and wants nothing to do with. But on tracking back home for word of her parents (and her plush toy so she can sleep) she finds stony-eyed simulacra of brilliantly frustrating, as her parentscharacters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, and the babe-in-arms, already installed. These devilish interlopers need central one for readers to be ousted to get unravel is the family back intactfraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, even if ita socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's not passing after a long battle with cancer, the family Lily wants – and all she has to help her in the task are some talking animals – Crow, Mole, Mouse and Snakebrothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=14711948330571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1036916375|title=Just a Liverpool Lad|author=Greg James Peter McArdle|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of memories and reflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. Some are factual, such as the family history of a sea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the what-might-have-been. It's a book to settle into and Chris Smithallow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the blitz that was a constant factor in McArdle's early years. I'd never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the all-clear was sounded.}} {{Frontpage|isbn= 1836285493|title=The Great Dream RobberyDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Maya's father Will is a professor who invented an amazing dream machinekeen player of video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But something went wrongmost of all, and now he can't wake upis an aspiring writer. Or English is his favourite lesson at leasthis school, that's what Maya has been told. In a rather strange dream one night Maya makes a new friendMarlowe Park, and discovers that the only way to save her dad may be by being asleep. Cue one madcap action adventure story where dreams and reality collide...really..at which he excels.and thereThis hasn's everything from llamas and bananast gone unnoticed by his headteacher, dream machines made from hairdresser cast-offsMrs Howarth, and she has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a talking cat called Bin Bag!|isbn=024147051Xcouple of afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=18004644951009473085|title= 100 Ways in 100 Days to Teach Your Baby Maths: Support All Areas of Your Baby’s Development by Nurturing a Love of MathsThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Emma SmithAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionPolitics and Society|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't''Babies seem and that applies to be born with an amazing number sense''The Conservative Effect: understanding shapes in the womb, being aware of quantities at seven hours old, assessing probability at six months old, and comprehending addition and subtraction at nine months old.2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?'' Did . If you know this? I didn't! How re looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about: what ''really''Maths ability happened on entry to school is a strong predictor of later achievementcertain occasions, double then this isn't the book for you. If that of literacy skills.'s what you' re looking for, I didndon't know this either! I think most parents are aware that giving your children a good start in literacy - reading storiesAnthony Seldon's book, teaching pen grips{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, singing rhymes - gives children can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a solid foundation when they start schoolcompelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. But do we think It's the same way about maths, beyond counting? I don't think we do, seventh book in part because so many 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 us are afraid experts from various fields review the state of maths. But why are we? Most of us use maths the nation when the coalition took over in daily life without realising 2010, the changes that occurred and it follows that giving our children a similar pre-school grounding will be just as beneficialthe situation in 2024.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529379385Jenny Valentine|title=The Madness of Crowds (Chief Inspector Gamache)|author=Louise PennyUs in the Before and After|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=In the Canadian village of Three PinesElk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, we're post-pandemic: the scars are still there but life their friendship is starting to get back to normal. The villagers are beginning to return to the Bistro and the Aubergea once in a lifetime connection. Theymeet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don're visiting t get each other's homes contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and having friends and relatives to staythey are inseparable. A young Sudanese woman who Something has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize is one such visitor happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and she soon proves that not all saints are necessarily pleasant people to be around - a bit like Vincent Gilberttheir friendship, known in the village as the Asshole Sainttogether.|isbn=1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn= B09F4CTKJR1787333175|title= Flights for FreedomYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author= Steven BurgauerBenji Waterhouse|rating=4.5|genre=Historical FictionPopular Science|summary=ItI 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 later stages workings of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up NHS, humour and joined the 17 Aero Squadronautobiography. This company was the first US Aero Squadron ''You Don't Have to be trained in Canada, Mad...'' promised the first to be attached same elements but moved from physical problems to the RAF mental illness and the first work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans looking for humour in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying this setting but the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camellaughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=183885410XMariana Enriquez|title=The Dark Remains|author=William McIlvanney and Ian RankinA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeShort Stories|summary=Bobby Carter was a lawyer and consigliere to one of the major crime families in nineteen seventies Glasgow. DC Jack Laidlaw Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on the CID team charged with the investigation. I say ''on the team'' but Laidlaw never really seems gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to be an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a part of itcrime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. He does his own thing, goes his own way and ''The Dark Remains'' uncovers circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the truth of why Bobby Carter's body was found behind one of Glasgow's seedier pubssupernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|isbn=1803511230
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19424102551529934753|title=Tokyo Zangyo (Detective Hiroshi)The Protest|author=Michael PronkoRob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=''Zangyo: overtime workFor a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, often unpaid'' Itthe country's the culturemost famous living artist, isn't it? The hours was not going to show up for which you're paid are really just a statement the opening of his retrospective at the minimum you'll be required to do: you'll work more hours to get the job done and done to the satisfaction of bullies like Shigeru OnizukaRoyal Academy. When Still, he was found dead in front of Senden Central's headquarters in Tokyo there was nothing arrived in the way nick of regret or grieftime, even from complete with his familytwo wives and six children, one of whom filmed what happened. Being an influencer, you tend to do things like that, but it was fortunate that there was a mild curiosity as to whether he'd jumped from the roof record of the building or been assisted in his descentprotest. Gossip revolves around the fact that he left the roof Lexi Williams, an intern at the exact same spot that an employeeRA, Mayu Yamasegrabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in the face, had committed suicide some three years earlierwhilst shouting ''Stop the War''. She'd accused Onizuka It seemed to be part of bullying her and forcing her to work an unreasonable amount ongoing series of overtime'blue-face' attacks, but this was different. The can had been laced with cyanide, and Sir Max Bruce was dead.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241425425Ariel Saramandi|title=The Man Who Died Twice|author=Richard OsmanPortrait of an Island on Fire
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=Elizabeth Best was a little surprised when she received the letter. It came from a man whose body she had helped to pull from the Thames and who had never existed but then In this is the sort powerful collection of conundrum which retired spies have essays, Saramandi seeks to deal with on a regular basis. When she visits intradermally dissect the sender sociopolitical fabric of the letter (he's moved Mauritius, tunneling deep into the Cooper's Chase Retirement Village) it comes as no surprise that it's someone with whom she has a long professional history - wounds left by colonialism and who used slavery to be her husbandexpose how these legacies still shape modern life. HeSaramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting''s made , a bad mistake - something to do with a mask being removed within blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the range malignant forces of a CCTV camera on a raidracism, patriarchy, a missing twenty-million pounds in diamonds environmental degradation and a few death threatsgovernmental dysfunction. He's now Each essay in hiding with this collection serves as a young woman called Pollykind of diagnostic, who's his MI5 handler as well as being an incompetent waitresscharting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|isbn=1804271616
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Andrew SharpPekka Harju-Autti|title=The Chef, the Bird LoveVortex and the BlessingDrakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionFantasy|summary= Chef Mlantushi - Mozzy to his employer - It's the eighteenth century, a time of discovery and Britain isexpanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, in his mindan experienced Scottish sea captain, is sent to the head chef of a safari business catering to VIP guests Andaman Islands in an unnamed African countryhis endeavour. Mozzy is earnest and dedicated to Along with his task son, Peter, and he puts all of himself into creating fine cuisine dishes for the guests at BOD-W safaris but his dream is to become the head chef of a restaurant in London or their cat, Michi, they set off on a big American city. Even perilous voyage to win a Michelin starthese faraway lands. He is thwarted The islands are beautiful and stunning in this ambition by his boss, Mr Bin (Ben to you their scenery and me) who incurs Mozzythe islanders's disapproval for his scruffy waysleader, his uninterest in his guests and - shockAarav, horror - his allowing of bush animals into the houseis keen to establish good relations.|isbn=B09926MK8HB0DS1VGHH3
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alex FoulkesHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=Rules for VampiresLili is Crying
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary= Eleonore Von Motteberg (or 'Leo' for short) First published in 1953 in French, this novel is a Vampire. She drinks blood, she sleeps during timeless text which wrenches the day, hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and she can Grimwalk (turning into a flock of bats to travel around, although not all of them remember to come back). Pretty cool stuff. Now, sentences from their proper position on the night of her hundredth birthnight, she has to go out page and hunt her first human. Howeverpositions them elsewhere, instead she ends up killing two humans by accident and burning down an orphanage. Oops! And to make things worsedisjointed, the ghosts of one of the orphans and the evil master of the orphanage come back to haunt hertruncated. So, not only does Leo have to team up with Like the friendly ghost Minna to stop the ghost lives of the Orphanmaster before he becomes unstoppably powerful, she has to do it all while hiding it from her family. Did I mention vampires and ghosts hate each other? Yeahcharacters, there's a reason why there they are rules for vampires…often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=147119955X1804271675
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Tori BovalinoTom Percival|title=The Devil Makes ThreeWrong Shoes|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary= Working all summer in her boarding schoolWill's library life is the last thing Tess Matheson wants to do — especially when she gets difficult, in a request for over a hundred books that she has to deliver herselfmultitude of ways. What makes it worse He is bullied because he has 'the man who requested wrong shoes', he has the books: Mr Birch. The boarding schoolwrong shoes because his dad can's headmaster, t work and a man Tess hates. As a petty act doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of revenge for making her find things like food, and deliver such his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a large request, Tess sticks postcash-in-it notes hand job on each of a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the booksfact that his mum and dad are separated, scribbled with the ugliest insults she can think ofand Will's life seems bleak in every direction. They're never meant to reach him And yet, he still has a tiny amount of coursehope. Her plan He is good at art, and clings to get her anger out the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like thisa light at the end of a long, and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or it would be, if someone hadn't delivered them for herdark tunnel.|isbn=17890981301398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= B09BG8V3Q6Sylvie Cathrall|title= Who Needs Nappies? Not Me! (Everybody Potties!)|author= Justine Avery and Seema AmjadA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingScience Fiction|summary= ''Who Needs Nappies? Not Me!'' is the latest release in the ''Everybody Potties!'' series from Justine Avery. This series of fun picture books aims There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to take the pain out of potty training children and replace it with some fun. It's a worthy aim, as any frustrated parent will tell youcompelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B098FFFBH91786482126|title=SnowcubThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Graham FulbrightElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=FourteenBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -yearthe site was going to hold seventy-old Rachel is her schoolfive 'luxury's animal rights project leader and she and her friend are producing apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a competition entry to highlight the way in which human beings exploit the animal worlddoorway. There was no skull. She gets Was this a great deal of support from her family: father Pip Harrisonritual killing or murder? Inevitably, a lecturer at Imperial CollegeDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, Londonbut Nelson doesn't, mother Kate and her twin, Nickthat she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Kate runs the family business, a toy shop called Cornucopia in PutneyHer condition will be obvious before long, which not least because Ruth is where we'll meet Rachel's main (if unsuspected) source prone to sudden bouts of information: five soft toyssickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Angharad WalkerGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title= The Ash House|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= A new boy arrives at The Ash House. He doesn't know his name, or why he is there but he is used to the system, used to different places and different faces. 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 of Nicenesses set out by the absent Headmaster. All children must remember their Niceness and complete their chores, working as 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 again.|isbn=1912626977}}{{Frontpage|author=Yancey Williams|title=Crosshairs of the DevilAccidentals
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionShort Stories|summary=Award-winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski is getting on This collection was truly enchanting in years and, despite his strenuous objections and thanks to his daughter, finds himself living - or imprisoned, from Eddie's point of view - in room 315 all senses of the Garden of Eden nursing home, word: spellbinding with only a trusty nursing aideits fantastical, Jenkins, for palatable company. Nothing is going to keep Eddie from his stock-magical elements and charming in-trade its gentle portrayal of writing though, so here, for his readers, are his wanderings through his life's worknature and human relationships.|isbn=0986031658}} {{Frontpage|author=Philip Reeve|title=Utterly Dark Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and the Face of the Deep|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In a wordprecisely, rich. There is certainly an abundance of riches in this story set on her stories structured by a peculiar island called Wildsea, British but way west, beyond the Scillies. There are troll people on it, and sea-witches, and legends of the Dark family wisdom that has appears to keep watch for magical islands and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sail. The current Darks are the Watcher, Andrewe, who has want to keep notes of activity from the Hidden Lands, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head to worry teach us something about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewe's foundling daughter, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years ago. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himself, both his sullen brother and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or not.|isbn=1788452372}}{{Frontpage|author=Erling Kagge|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 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=02413577051804271470
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Ian Mark and Louis Ghibault0008551375|title=Monster Hunting For BeginnersWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet Jack. Now Jack knows very little about being fearless and nimble and quick, for heLeanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of a slight boyScottish mountain, and although he wants for danger and peril and interesting things his dad refuses to let him out seemingly the result of his sighta tragic accident. That She's because Jack's mother knew all about monstersd looked so happy, too, and look what happened to when she posted her – intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as she was just out of an unpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had diedin similar circumstances in the last year. Luckily or unluckily then All were experienced climbers, depending on your point properly equipped for what they were doing and sensible people. None of view, a giant ogre will threaten his aunt when Jack's father also goes AWOL, Jack will fluke the ogre's death, what a dwarfish wizard-type will make him an apprentice monster hunter, and hestupid thing to do'll be given a book that tells him explanations applied. They were all he needs to know about the perils he always wanted closer contact with. The bookalone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's name? ''Monster Hunting for Beginners''a killer on the loose...|isbn=0755501942
}}