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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Claire McGowan1787333175|title=I Know YouDon't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=45|genre=ThrillersPopular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'Then:'after enjoying Adam Kay' Casey returns from s first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a walk with glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the baby, CarsonNHS, humour and comes across three bodies, almost a whole family taken downautobiography. ''Now:You Don't Have to be Mad...' Rachel ' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is out for directed at a situation rather than a walk person and it is always delivered with her dog, Brandy, when she comes across a body in the woodsempathy and understanding.|isbn=1542019974
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529148251Maria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)|title=Misfits: A Personal Manifesto|author=Michaela CoelThe Disappearing Act|rating=54|genre=Politics and SocietyLiterary Fiction|summary=''How am I able to be so transparent on paper about rape, malpractice Despite her anonymisation of place names and povertypeople, yet still compartmentalise? ItStepanova's as though I were telling the truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.'' Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be message in a certain frame this short work of mindautofiction is unmistakable. You're not going A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to read the town of F for a book of essays or literary festival she is to be a self-help bookguest speaker at. You're going to read writing which was inspired Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within the television industry at the Edinburgh TV Festivalforces beyond her control, her journey slowly bends toward a traveling circus. You might be ''reading'' the book but you need to ''listen'' Swept up in this series of events, M eventually offers to the words as though you're step in for a circus performer who has unexpectedly left the lecture theatreshow. The disjointedness will fade away train functions as a motif of transience and impermanence, while the circus embodies the reshaping of identity and you'll be carried on a cloud retreat into fantasy, an impulse that lies at the very heart of exquisite writingthe novel form itself.|isbn=1804272329
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008433631B0GFQ81YQK|title=Next How the Sky and the Earth Made People: From the Oral Stories of KinMalagasy Elders|author=Kia AbdullahStephanie Zabriskie|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=It Before people came and joined the animals, there was only the sky and the earth. Everything was quiet until the earth and the sort of thing that happened every day, although not sky began to tal to Leila Syedeach other. She'd never driven her nephewFirst, Maxthe earth created bodies. And then, the sky breathed life into them. These were the first humans and they belonged to school before but his fatherboth earth and sky. And so people lived between sky and soil and they planted and learned and remembered, Andrew Hanson, had rung her in a panic. He was supposed especially how they came to be taking Max . When they grew old and died, their bodies returned to school but he'd been called into work the earth and their life returned to the delay in getting there could lead to financial lossessky. As And that is why the school was only five minutes out of Leila's way, could she drop him off? Of course, she could earth and a sleeping Max was duly strapped into the back of her carsky are both revered. Only together can they create human beings. On the way Leila took a phone call - there was panic at her work tooAnd that is why people must pay attention to, and care for, with a problem which could put a multi-million-pound contract at riskboth.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Justine Avery and Naday MeldovaB0GHPMNF6P|title=Everybody Toots! (Everybody Potties!)|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary= Toots, trumps, farts. 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 the wrong time. In class, say, when everyone will hear it and everyone will laugh. At you. Justine AveryThe Zookeeper's latest entry in her ''Everybody Potties!'' series takes aim at any shame associated with tooting and gently and calmly, with the familiar humour attached, explains that tooting is perfectly normal. Everybody does itDragon: ''Everybody Toots''!|isbn= B09C2RVJ2W}} {{Frontpage|isbn=1784165263|title=Invite Me InA Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups|author=Emma CurtisCarolyn Mathews
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeFantasy|summary=Martin CurranWhen Phil's wifefather unexpectedly dies, Eliza knew that she had he quits his Canary Wharf finance job to be home to make his lunch for one o'clock on take over the dot, despite running of the fact that she was actually painting one of their properties prior to it being letfamily's farm zoo. If she didnHe't get homes not expecting much excitement, until he receives an unidentified egg that his new-age stoner uncle Edgar found in a cave in New Zealand, there would be troubleand suddenly life is no longer quite what it seems. There was some excuse: Martin was Then the egg hatches into neither a paraplegic and confined to reptile nor a wheelchairbird, but don't be too quick to be understanding. He was also a very unpleasant person: dragon! Now he once told Eliza ''you're good at being a disappointment''. All this was in Eliza's mind when she first met Dan Jones who arrived, unannouncedEdgar, his mother Abi, at and the flat just as Eliza was about zoo's part-time café waitress Pearl have to leave: he wanted the lease raise this little bundle of flat 2scales and joy, 42 Linden Road despite having no idea how to actually raise dragons and he was desperate not being able to get tell anyone about it. But this tiny little dragon may show them love and connection in ways they had never before it was advertised as being available.imagined…
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1784742775Stephanie Zabriskie|title=A Change How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the Oral Stories of Circumstance (Simon Serrailler)|author=Susan HillMaasai Elders
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Drugs hadn't really been that much 'How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows is a children’s nonfiction book drawn from the oral traditions of a problem Maasai elders in Lafferton and Detective Superintendent Simon Serrailler had thought of drugs ops as a bit of a waste of timeNgorongoro, Tanzania. They still were, to '' The Maasai are a great extent, but Serrailler knew that something had cattle-herding people and this story writes down its oral tradition explaining how they came to be doneso. Children as young as nine were being recruited to transport the drugs Cattle are status and the operation running the county lines was tight. A mule might know the name (although it probably wouldnwealth in Maasai culture but this doesn't be tell the correct one) whole story of the person who was running him but he certainly wouldn't know anything about those higher up in intimate and symbiotic connection its people, and especially its women, have with their cows and for the organisationnatural world. The police might catch a few of oral tradition retelling the runners but they'd never get anywhere near those higher upmany conversations Maasai women have had with their cows, does.|isbn=B0G9WTGY6J
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09FS89KX9Livi Michael|title=Fall On Me|author=Penelope PottsElizabeth and Ruth
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's Historical Fiction|summary=Life should have been good ''Elizabeth and Ruth'' is a work of historical fiction wrought from the life of the Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell, best known for Hollie: She was just going into her first novel Mary Barton (1848), a radical critique of the final year treatment of her veterinary degree and - three years later - was still the working at BBclass published under a pseudonym. The ''Ruth'' from Livi Michael's diner. Bob - the owner - regarded title appears in her fondly: he novel as Pasley, a young Irish prostitute who was abandoned as a child and finds herself in Manchester's New Bailey Prison after a good bossdifficult and unjust hand at life. Hollie had moved Set in with her boyfriendManchester between 1839 and 1842, Marcus: her mother thought he was great the novel examines the harsh conditions endured by the Victorian working poor and he was doing well interrogates the extent to which the wealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices.|isbn=1784633682}}{{Frontpage|author=Makenna Goodman|title=Helen of Nowhere|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=It could be argued that the pervading theme of this book is malaise - a hard-to-place feeling that something in your life is not quite right. The protagonist, a disgraced professor on the brink of losing both his careerand his relationship, embodies this feeling. Hollie wasn't quite so certain thoughHowever, Goodman counteracts his discomfort with a force which is seductive, radical and unnerving: Marcus wanted to control her Helen. The connection between Helen and most the protagonist is indirect yet intimate. As the former owner of all the countryside house he wanted 's considering, Helen represents a volta in his life, her past tied to leave her job at his potential fresh start. The realtor who shows the diner. Then there was protagonist around the fact house shares stories about Helen, and describes her as ''an entity that he would be violentis pure consciousness, beyond form''. Although she lives in an assisted living facility now, both to her and to other peopleHelen has powers beyond comprehension which the reader gets the sense are not altogether innocuous.|isbn=1804272205
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=John GwynneB0GCB1MQ7D|title=The Shadow Of The GodsWhy My Mother Went Away|author=Alan Kennedy
|rating=5
|genre=FantasyAutobiography|summary=The Shadow Of The Gods is I have often wondered how prominent people came to hold their positions. With 'celebrities', there's frequently a book they might or might not have written, which might or might not tell the first installment of true story. It's not often that you find a book that gives the Bloodsworn Sagafull backstory, set in and rarely do you discover a memoir where the era of telling is so perfect that you'll go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, just for the Vikings in pleasure the shadow words give. ''Why My Mother Went Away'' is one of Ragnarok, when those rare exceptions. It's the Gods have battled and their bones lie scattered for all to see. This story is of how a boy from the ultimate in High FantasyMidlands, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to born at the beginning of the genreSecond World War, with mythical creatures, archaic language and battles galorewould become a Professor of Psychology at Dundee University. This is a thick bookIn fact, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in which our heroes must do battlehe was one of the founders of the department.|isbn=0356514218
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09HTWX47XJeremy Cooper|title=Endless Obsession|author=Dai HenleyDiscord|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=It's some years since we last caught up Discord: a lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas) The principal example of discord within the novel, as with Andy Floodmost instances of discord, formerly a DCI in is easily located. The two protagonists of the Met but now a wellnovel, Rebekah Rosen and Evie Bennet, are as different as they come. Rebekah is an uptight, traditional and no-respected private investigator. He's married nonsense composer close to Lauraretirement, formerly his DS in while Evie is a force of nature, bounding onto the Murder Squad but now working in musical scene as a forensics laboratory. Flood's daughtersprecocious saxophonist, Gemma oozing with talent and Pippacharm. The two, have flown the nestpredictably, Pippa don't always see eye to Australia, from where she has very little contact with the familyeye, their approaches different and Gemma to married life. SheEvie's had mental problems since she was abducted many years ago but Andy and Laura hope that married life will provide the support she needs. Floodprogressive views at odds with Rebekah's business is going well and that was why he felt able to turn down conservative leaning. However, something connects them beyond just their musical project: a sort of fragile alliance formed within the case of Lisa Blackclamour.|isbn=1804272264
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{{Frontpage
|author=Peter PapathanasiouTom Percival|title=The StoningWrong Shoes|rating=3.5|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=In a town sleazy enough to make sh*tholes elsewhere look glamorous Will's life is difficult, in comparison, a teacher multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has been transported across town at night in a shopping trolley, and she's been taped to a tree and shethe wrong shoes's had rocks bowled at her as if she were , he has the worldwrong shoes because his dad can's tallest cricket stumps. When shet work and doesn's discovered by t have enough money for even the town gossip everyonemost basic of things like food, including and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the local copscollege, are quite confident the culprit has come from the immigrant detention centre the place is reluctantly home towas working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. An arson attack on Throw into that shows mix the feeling – fact that his mum and itdad are separated, and Will's only fairlife seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the general opinionmoments of joy when he is drawing, for the occupants are often setting their own fires in protest that feel like a light at their conditions. Cue the arrival end of George Manolis, a higher rank from the city, to sort everything out. Because such an aggrievedlong, insular community is really going to welcome a Greek-heritaged city boy laying down the law..dark tunnel.|isbn=15294169731398527122
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B08Z8BMZ7HEdward W Said|title=The Mystery Representations of Healing|author=A P McGraththe Intellectual |rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)Politics and Society|summary=We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era and heEdward Said's the physician on duty at the munus - the games put on for the amusement ''Representations of the populace. The remuneration isnIntellectual''t high but the work gives the doctor is less a feeling strict theory of virtue what intellectuals are and hones his skills: Solon ''wants'' the warriors to livemore a passionate argument for what they should be. It's quite a spectacle: Said clearly rejects the magistri are comfortable image of the charge hands and when we first see them, they're sprinkling gold dust onto the lions' manes intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to make them look more impressiveother specialists. The sagitarii are Instead, he insists on the archers intellectual as a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, and the beastiarii are the condemned criminals unpopular, who are going speaks truth to fight for their lives with the wild animals. Today, power even when it's the crocodilesis inconvenient or risky.|isbn=1804272248
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{{Frontpage
|author=Kate DiCamillo and Sophie BlackallSylvie Cathrall|title=The Beatryce ProphecyA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=''Stories have joy and surprises in them'', we There are told here. And none more so few greater joys than in this wondrous story, a book which feels an instant classic with the freshness and the agelessness it has in equal proportion. We start with a group of monks, the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing, and the demonic goat that loves nothing more than upending, trampling on and biting the poor Brothers. Things change drastically when the beast takes a totally maternal approach lives up to a homeless girl, one who has survived some trauma that has blocked her past from her memorycompelling premise. Elsewhere sits a King in his castle, desperate to find the girl, for it And this is prophesied that a young child can unseat the throne and cause great changeone of them. Who foretold that revolution but the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing? But how can a simple, amnesiac lass ever prove a threat to anyone?|isbn=15295008930356522776
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09FFJF8YS1786482126|title=You Can't Wear Panties! The Janus Stone (No More Nappies!Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Justine Avery and Kate Zhoidik|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=''For the big, grownup girls out there, the potty masters in training, "You Can't Wear Panties!" is a cry (the big-girl kind!) of toilet triumph and persevering panty pride.'' And so it is! This latest book from Justine Avery celebrates a little girl's final goodbye to nappies and pull-ups and graduation to "proper" pants by following her around as she proudly explains to her dog, her cat, her stuffed rabbit and her baby sibling that ''she'' can wear super-duper proper pants, while they cannot. Neither can the flowers, nor the fish, nor the birds. Boy's certainly can't. She's a big girl now and she wants everyone to know it!}} {{Frontpage|author=Nick Lake and Emily Gravett|title=Locked Out LilyElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Lily is, or Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was, no skull. Was this a ritual killing or has beenmurder? Inevitably, very ill, and to give her parents relief sheDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's been told to stay with her grandma for a few days. The parents need the relief difficult as LilyRuth knows, but Nelson doesn's baby sibling t, that she is just about to be born – pregnant with his child as a child Lily swears she hates already and wants nothing to do with. But on tracking back home for word result of her parents (and her plush toy so she can sleep) she finds stony-eyed simulacra of her parents, and the babe-in-arms, already installedone night they spent together some three months ago. These devilish interlopers need to Her condition will be ousted to get the family back intactobvious before long, even if it's not the family Lily wants – and all she has least because Ruth is prone to help her in the task are some talking animals – Crow, Mole, Mouse and Snakesudden bouts of sickness.|isbn=1471194833
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Greg James and Chris Smith0008551375|title=The Great Dream RobberyWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=MayaLeanne Wilson's father is body was found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the result of a professor who invented tragic accident. She'd looked so happy, too, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as she was just out of an amazing dream machine. But something went wrongunpleasant relationship, and but it looked like she was living her best life now he can't wake up. Or at least, Then it emerged that's what Maya has been toldfive other women had died in similar circumstances in the last year. In a rather strange dream one night Maya makes a new friendAll were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and discovers that sensible people. None of the only way 'what a stupid thing to save her dad may be by being asleepdo' explanations applied. Cue one madcap action adventure story where dreams and reality collide...really...and They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's everything from llamas and bananas, dream machines made from hairdresser cast-offs, to a talking cat called Bin Bag!|isbn=024147051Xkiller on the loose.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1800464495Paul B Preciado|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 SmithDysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionPolitics and Society|summary=''Babies seem It is never too late to be born with an amazing number sense: understanding shapes in embrace 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.'' Did you know this? I didn't! How about: ''Maths ability on entry to school is a strong predictor of later achievement, double that revolutionary optimism of literacy skills.childhood''
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529379385Samantha Harvey|title=The Madness of Crowds (Chief Inspector Gamache)|author=Louise PennyOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral 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 Canadian village lives of a group of Three Pinesastronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, weHarvey 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 begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're post-pandemic: going and what the scars are still there but life purpose of this journey is, is starting to get back to normaluncertain. The villagers are beginning to return to Django found the Bistro and tickets ''on the Auberge. Theyfloor somewhere're visiting each other's homes and having friends and relatives has persuaded our narrator to stayaccompany him. A young Sudanese woman who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize Why not? Not much else is one such visitor and she soon proves that not all saints clear either - but we are necessarily pleasant people to be around - a bit like Vincent Gilbert, known probably in the village past as the Asshole Saintpair travel to the station by coach and the train is a steam locomotive.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn= B09F4CTKJR0008551324|title= Flights for FreedomThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author= Steven BurgauerNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the later stages of World War I and Hardie family to approach the United States police. Neither side likes or has just entered any respect for the conflictother. Petrol Petronus But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a young American missing person is buried and who has signed up was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and joined it will be worth the 17 Aero Squadronpolice doing what he wants. This company was the first US Aero Squadron And what he wants is to be trained in Canada, the first transferred to be attached an open prison to serve the RAF remainder of his sentence and the first to be sent into the skies get an early parole date. Not much to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happenask, Petrol has is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to master flying do the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camelother thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=183885410X1035043092|title=The Dark RemainsKilling Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=William McIlvanney and Ian RankinAnn Cleeves|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Bobby Carter I can't have been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a lawyer and consigliere to one of the major crime families in nineteen seventies Glasgow. DC Jack Laidlaw is new life on the CID team charged with the investigationOrkney. I say It's been seven years since we heard from him, but he'on s now living with Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the team'' but Laidlaw never really seems to be a part daughter of ithis former partner. He does Willow's also his own thingboss, goes his own way and she ''The Dark Remainsshould'' uncovers be on maternity leave, but when the body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, in the truth aftermath of why Bobby Cartera storm, she can's body was found behind t resist getting involved. He'd been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of Glasgow's seedier pubsa pair - which had been stolen from a museum.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1942410255Thea Lenarduzzi|title=Tokyo Zangyo (Detective Hiroshi)|author=Michael PronkoThe Tower|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=''Zangyo: overtime workHow unctuous are the fats of another's life, often unpaidhow dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241425425Claire-Louise Bennett|title=The Man Who Died Twice|author=Richard OsmanBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, usually a symbol of intimacy and closeness, becomes evidence of love lost. When the narrator cries out internally, ''come over here and kiss me,'' it is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to confirm her emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, her ex-partner, a ghost she conjures to test her detachment.
|isbn=1804271934
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008405026
|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Elizabeth Best was a little surprised when she received the letterIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. It came from a man whose body she had helped to pull from the Thames She was never found and who had never existed but then this is the sort of conundrum which retired spies have investigation ground to deal with on a regular basishalt. When she visits Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the sender positioning of the letter (he's moved into the Cooper's Chase Retirement Village) it comes as no surprise bodies that it's someone with whom she has a long professional history - makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and who used to be her husbandboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. He's made a bad mistake - something What looked as though it was going to do with a mask being removed within the range of a CCTV camera on a raid, a missing twentybe an open-million pounds in diamonds and -shut case is now a few death threatscomplex double murder. HeKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's now in hiding with a young woman called Polly, whodisappearance: others (such as Derwent's his MI5 handler as well as being an incompetent waitressboss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Andrew SharpAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=The Chef, the Bird and the BlessingOther Girl
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary= Chef Mlantushi - Mozzy ''We were born from the same body. I've never really wanted to his employer - think about this.'' Ernaux's work isalways very candid and her tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of the most intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her sister, however, this letter will never reach her. Why? Because Annie Ernaux's sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in his mindFrance, and 2 years before the author was even born. The large and instant void created by the head chef jarring concept of a safari business catering writing to VIP guests an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in her life, an unnamed African countryabsence that she has always felt but often denied. Mozzy is earnest |isbn=1804271845}}{{Frontpage|author=Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=Biographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and dedicated to his task less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and he puts all offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of himself into creating fine cuisine dishes for his literary contemporaries. In the guests at BOD-W safaris but first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his dream friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is , but of what you yourself imagine it to be. Whom would it help to become the head chef of a restaurant in London know how I see this tower, that sea, or a big American citythat Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''. Even to win Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a Michelin star. He is thwarted in this ambition by his bosssubjective account, Mr Bin (Ben giving us access to you how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and me) who incurs Mozzy's disapproval for his scruffy ways, his uninterest Andreyev in his guests and - shock, horror - his allowing such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of bush animals into the houseit.|isbn=B09926MK8H1804271977
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Alex Foulkes1529077745|title=Rules for VampiresThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary= Eleonore Von Motteberg (or 'Leo' for short) is A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a Vampire. She drinks blood, she sleeps during man in the daypark near Rosebank, and she can Grimwalk (turning into a flock care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of bats the care workers who was due to travel around, although not all of them remember to come back). Pretty cool stuff. Now, on work a shift the night of her hundredth birthnight, she has to go out and hunt her first human. However, instead she ends before but who had never turned up killing two humans by accident and burning down an orphanage. Oops! And D I Vera Stanhope is called in to make things worse, investigate the murder - but her only clue is the ghosts disappearance of one of the orphans and residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the evil master of death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the orphanage come back to haunt hergirl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. So, not only does Leo have She knows that she has to team up with the friendly ghost Minna find Chloe to stop the ghost of the Orphanmaster before he becomes unstoppably powerful, she has discover what happened to do it all while hiding it from her familyJosh. Did I mention vampires and ghosts hate each other? Yeah, there's a reason why there are rules for vampires…|isbn=147119955X
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|author=Tori BovalinoOlga Tokarczuk|title=The Devil Makes ThreeHouse of Day, House of Night|rating=4.5|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary= Working all summer in her boarding school''What's library is the last thing Tess Matheson wants to do — especially when she gets good of a request for over a hundred books world that keeps changing like that she has to deliver herself. What makes ? How can one go on calmly living in it worse is the man who requested the books: Mr Birch. ?'' The boarding schooltitle of this spellbinding work, ''s headmasterHouse of Day, and a man Tess hates. As a petty act House of revenge for making her find and deliver such a large requestNight'', Tess sticks postsomewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities -it notes on each of the bookssmall, subtle changes which govern our lives, scribbled with like the ugliest insults she can think of. They're never meant shift from day to reach himnight, of coursehowever quotidian, causing chaos. Her plan But, the constant in that image is to get her anger out like thisthe house, and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it would be, if someone hadn't delivered them for heris perceived.|isbn=17890981301804271918
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|isbn= B09BG8V3Q61836284683|title= Who Needs Nappies? Not Me! (Everybody Potties!)The Big Happy|author= Justine Avery and Seema AmjadDavid Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingDystopian Fiction|summary= ''Who Needs Nappies? Not MeWell! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when I open a book, it'' s nothing like I expected it to be, and it takes me on a wild ride. And that is the latest release in the just what happened with ''Everybody Potties!The Big Happy'' series from Justine Avery. This series I don't want to ruin a similar experience for any of fun picture books aims you reading but I'll have to take at least set the pain out of potty training children and replace it with some funscene. ItOnce that's a worthy aimdone, as any frustrated parent will tell I think you. should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.
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|isbnauthor=B098FFFBH9Sally Rooney|title=Snowcub|author=Graham FulbrightIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Fourteen-year-old Rachel Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is her school's animal rights project leader and she gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her friend are producing a competition entry characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to highlight unravel is the way in which human beings exploit the animal worldfraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. She gets a great deal of support from her family: father Pip HarrisonIvan, a lecturer at Imperial Collegesocially awkward chess prodigy, Londoncontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, mother Kate and her twin, Nicka successful lawyer living in Dublin. Kate runs the family business, Following their father's passing after a toy shop called Cornucopia in Putneylong battle with cancer, which is where wethe brothers'll meet Rachel's main (if unsuspected) source of information: five soft toysalready strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469
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|authorisbn= Angharad Walker1836285493|title= The Ash HouseDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating= 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= A new boy arrives at The Ash HouseWill is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. He doesn't know his nameBut most of all, or why he is there but he an aspiring writer. English is used to the systemhis favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, used to different places and different facesone at which he excels. He meets Dom who names him Sol This hasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and sets out she has suggested to teach him the rules Will and his mum that he spends a couple of The Ash House. These rules centre on afternoons a week at a variety of Nicenesses set out by the absent Headmaster. All children must remember their Niceness and complete their choresdifferent school, 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 storyStation Road, lives will where his ability might be changed forever and The Ash House will never be the same againbetter extended.|isbn=1912626977
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|authorisbn=Yancey Williams1009473085|title=Crosshairs of the Devil|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=AwardThe Conservative Effect 2010 -winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski is getting on 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 of the Garden of Eden nursing home, with only a trusty nursing aide, Jenkins, for palatable company. Nothing is going to keep Eddie from his stock-in-trade of writing though, so here, for his readers, are his wanderings through his life's work.|isbn=0986031658}} {{Frontpage2024|author=Philip Reeve|title=Utterly Dark Anthony Seldon and the Face of the DeepTom Egerton (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=In Sometimes it's simpler to explain a word, richbook by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. There is certainly If you're looking for an abundance of riches in this easy read which will deliver the inside story set about what ''really'' happened on a peculiar island called Wildseacertain occasions, British but way west, beyond then this isn't the Scilliesbook for you. There are troll people on it If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, and sea-witches{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and legends of should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the Dark family that impact a government has to keep watch for magical islands made and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sailco-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. The current Darks are This book follows the Watcher, Andrewe, who has to keep notes well-established format: a series of activity experts from various fields review the Hidden Lands, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head to worry about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewe's foundling daughter, who washed up out state of the sea one day eleven years ago. But nation when Andrewe Dark drowns himselfthe coalition took over in 2010, both his sullen brother the changes that occurred and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or notsituation in 2024.|isbn=1788452372
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|author=Erling KaggeJenny Valentine|title=Walking: One Step At A TimeUs in the Before and After
|rating=5
|genre= LifestyleTeens|summary= Those who have read my reviews before will know Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that how much I loved even, their friendship is a once in 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 minelifetime connection. In my defence, I will say that They meet as children one day on a reader of this type of book there is something connective about noting where prior readers were inspired (provided it is subtle – Itrip out but unfortunately they don't get each other'll allow creased corners, but not scribbles – for s contact details at the latter we must buy our own copy – which I am about to do as soon as I have finished telling you why)time. Erligg Kagge is a Norwegian explorer who has walked to the South Pole But then chance brings them back together, the North Pole and the summit of Everestthey are inseparable. He knows a thing or two about walking. However Something has happened though, this isn't a travelogue about any of those epic journeyssomething terrible and tragic, 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 paperbacknow they must work through their grief, each essay is only a few pages long. Perhaps thenand their friendship, better thought of as a meditation rather than an essaytogether.|isbn=02413577051471196585
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