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==The Best New Books==
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1786482126
|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)
|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=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 murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008551375
|title=When Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)
|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Leanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the result of a 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 unpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances in the last year. All were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and sensible people. None of the 'what a stupid thing to do' explanations applied. They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a killer on the loose.
}}
{{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'' 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''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews . Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of books about weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to be published]]''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->|isbn=1804271454}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0CC9W7GLRSamantha Harvey|title=On the Beach: The Winter Visitor|author=Chris Green and Jenny FiondaOrbital|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Kit and Teal were just beginning to wonder whether it was better to be at homeIn 2024, bored but warmSamantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital'', or frozen cold and building sand sculptures on a snowy beach when compact yet profound work that unfolds over a large slab of silvery ice drifted onto single day in the shoreline. On top lives of the ice was a polar bear. As the ice bumped onto the sand, the bear woke and with wobbly legs moved from group of astronauts aboard the iceInternational Space Station. Kit was all for making Through a run for it, but Teal knew narrative lens that mirrors the bear was hungry and gave him one apple and then another. He obviously needed astronauts' orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to be taken home on the bus and given see our planet in a good meal and somewhere to sleepwholly new light. What else would you do?|isbn=1529922933
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Claire North295967572X|title=House of OdysseusPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre= Literary Fiction |summary= ''What could matter more than love?'' The follow-up Our unnamed narrator is about to the excellent ''Ithaca'' picks up begin a few months after where we left offtrain journey with his companion Django. In Where they're going and what the palace purpose of Odysseusthis journey is, with delicate care Queen Penelope continues to rule without her husband, who sailed to war at Troy and then by divine intervention never returned homeis uncertain. As ever she remains surrounded by suitors vying for Django found the throne of tickets ''on the Western Isles. Having survived – politically floor somewhere'' and physical – the chaotic storm that Clytemnestra brought has persuaded our narrator to Ithaca's shores, Queen Penelope accompany him. Why not? Not much else is on clear either - but we are probably in the past as the brink of a fragile peace. One that shatters however with pair travel to the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, station by coach and his sister Elektra, seeking refugethe train is a steam locomotive.|isbn=0356516075
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294270450008551324|title=The Girl in the Eagle's TalonsDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Karin SmirnoffNeil Lancaster|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It''Life s unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has more to offer than people - prime numbers any respect for examplethe other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he''. Lisbeth Salander has headed north s prepared to tell the small town of Gasskas, police where the so-far-untapped natural resources body of the area have sparked a gold rushmissing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. The criminal underworld has not been slow in coming forwardThis person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. Salander's niece's mother And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the latest woman in the area remainder of his sentence and to have vanished without traceget an early parole date. It was only with reluctance that Salander became her nieceNot much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's guardian but it quickly becomes obvious even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that Svala DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is a remarkably gifted teenager whokept well away from what's unaware of the part Salander played in her father's deathhappening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0CCCPJJ5BJon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=The Last Person in the World|author=Matthew TreeVaim
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Our narrator ''All was a scholarship day boy at the London-based public school where he met Ralph Finnsstrange''. It was an unusual relationship as Ralph was a boarder and had money to throw around on a Rolex watch, vintage wines and a state-of-the-art sound system. Both were probably quite surprised when they became almost friends and certainly more than acquaintances. Finns had no intention This haunting phrase encapsulates the pervading sense of going on to Universityotherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, unlike our storyteller who had a place at Wolverton College fictional fishing village in WellingfordNorway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and Eline, two of the UK's third most prestigious university. Before going up, he took up a loose invitation to visit Ralph at his home, Clouds Manor protagonists caught in West Dorsetits melancholic current.|isbn=1804271829
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Dean Koontz1035043092|title=The House at the End of the WorldKilling Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=45|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=When you experience overwhelming tragedy and feel that there is no one on your side, you I can either suck it up't have been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, saddle up and ride on or you can retreat Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to your own private fortress on an island that sits snugly in start a small chain of tiny dots new life on the map and live out your days in peace and solitudeOrkney. ThatIt's what Katie thought she was doing when she shut down her old life to start afresh on Jacobbeen seven years since we heard from him, but he's Ladder; now living with Willow Reeves and all would have been their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the aforementioned peace daughter of his former partner. Willow's also his boss, and solitude were it not for the pesky US Government occupying Ringrockshe ''should'' be on maternity leave, but when the neighbouring island and perpetrating all manner body of mischief a popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, in the name aftermath of science and quite possibly bringing a storm, she can't resist getting involved. He'd been battered about the end head with a Neolithic stone - one of all mankinda pair - which had been stolen from a museum.|isbn=1662453159
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=T KingfisherThea Lenarduzzi|title=ThornhedgeThe Tower
|rating=5
|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary=''You had a right to retake your place.How unctuous are the fats of another's life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''.
In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the protagonist of this tale. Just as T Kingfisher's latest novella story is a lovely reimagining being told, the story of a fairytale that is well known and well beloved. But whilst there second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the daughter of a princess trapped wealthy family in the 19th century, who died of tuberculosis after being locked in a tower, sleeping under captures T's imagination. Annie's fate is, above all, an eternal enchantment, Thornhedge is not her enticing storyto T. Instead, our protagonist It is Toadlinga story which she consumes avariciously, who was stolen away by fairies when she was both in a new-born baby quest for truth and knowledge, and secreted away to the land in service of fairie where her childhood was spent being taught how to draw magic from her veins myth, fable and cast spellsfantasy. |isbn=18033642381804271799
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= B0CCCVRSGXClaire-Louise Bennett|title=Stories 2|author=Richard F WalkerBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary= This Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is Richard F Walker's second volume steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, usually a symbol of short stories. There are thirteen in all intimacy and I took something from each closeness, becomes evidence of themlove lost. There isnWhen the narrator cries out internally, ''come over here and kiss me,''t it is less an invitation than a single one that doesn't deserve desperate attempt to be among the others or brings down the overall qualityconfirm her emotional numbness. It can be tricky to review short stories without giving too much awayThe imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, her ex-partner, so I'll just pick two a ghost she conjures to talk about and I think they give a general flavourtest her detachment.|isbn=1804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17876366070008405026|title=The TrapA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Catherine Ryan HowardJane Casey|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's a scene replicated all too often in the early hours of the morningsixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Drunken revellers spilling out of clubs She was never found and looking for the investigation ground to a way to get homehalt. Some Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are lucky and manage to get one of the few taxis available. Others squash onto the night bus that will only go as far as one of the outlying villages. The woman all regret the 'taxi problem', particularly dead in the light of 'the missing women'their bed. For one young womanInitially, the final stop on the bus leaves her it looks like a long way short of her home. She had intended to ring someone to come and collect her - straightforward murder/suicide but her phonethere's dead. The bus had driven off before she had something about the chance to beg positioning of the bus driver to let bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her use hisboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. There's no option but What looked as though it was going to start walking be an open- unsuitably clothed and -shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in high-heeled shoesRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1405957174Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=A Death at the Party|author=Amy StuartThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=From ''We were born from the first pagesame body. I've never really wanted to think about this.'' Ernaux's work is always very candid and her tone transparent, we know that Nadine Walshbut this raw epistolary text must be one of the most intimate accounts I's party ve read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her sister, however, this letter will not end wellnever reach her. The victim - Why? Because Annie Ernaux's sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a man - is dying when we first meet him few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and Nadine consciously makes no effort to call 2 years before the ambulance he so desperately needsauthor was even born. What we don't know is who The large and instant void created by the man is or why Nadine prefers jarring concept of writing to have him die. Ian imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux'd better give you a little more background so s process of reckoning with this giant absence in her life, an absence that you can understand what's happeningshe has always felt but often denied.|isbn=1804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Tania UnsworthMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Nowhere IslandReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersBiography|summary=Meet GilBiographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. Just twelveI think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, he is so determined to escape the care system – the system that constantly puts him in futureless places that are not homes – and find offers a home for himself. He is en route to vibrant, subjective yet another fosterer, when he jumps into an anonymous car, and lets it ride him to informed portrait of three of his futureliterary contemporaries. That future seems In the first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to be in jeopardy when someone steals his one bag friend Gorky that: ''you write not of belongings – real life as it is, but that someone lives with his brother in a camp on an island between the two directions of a motorway, a place inaccessible and definitely ignored enough what you yourself imagine it to provide for their safety and seclusionbe. ThemWhom would it help to know how I see this tower, and a mute girl also finding a home therethat sea, albeit so much more successfullyor that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''. Over Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a few weeks we see if their oddball destinies can combinesubjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, or if this is Chekhov and Andreyev in such privileged detail that one place where life as we would want almost feels unworthy of it just would not work….|isbn=18045400801804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00085300251529077745|title=Murder in the FamilyThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Cara HunterAnn Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It was A man walking his dog in December 2003 that fifteen-year-old Maura Howard came home and found the early morning discovered the body of her stepfather, Luke Ryder, a man in the garden of their West London park near Rosebank, a care homefor troubled teens. He had an injury on The dead man was Josh - one of the back of his head which could have happened if he'd slipped down care workers who was due to work a shift the steps night before but the vicious beating his face who had taken was obviously deliberatenever turned up. Twenty years later, no one has been charged with his D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder and it's now - but her only clue is the subject disappearance of ''Infamous''one of the residents, a truefourteen-year-crime showold Chloe Spencer. A group of experts has been brought together to review Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the evidence and to take death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the investigation furthergirl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. More She knows that she has to find Chloe to the point, they're going discover what happened to do this live on camera, episode by episode. There's no dump of the whole box set - and no shortage of cliffhangers. It's compelling viewingJosh.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Judith EagleB0FK5LHKD9|title=The Stolen SongbirdColour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=CaroIt's mother, been three years since we last reviewed a world-famous whistlerbook by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, has failed so we were very glad to return home from her recent work trip abroad and is now missingsee a new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. Her other mother, Ronnie, is having to go up North to take care of her sister who is unwell. So who is going to look after Caro? Sent to stay with Gam, someone Caro has heard her mother despises, she feels frustrated and confused and worried. All her summer holiday plans of building herself some equipment to practise her gymnastics are brought to a halt whilst she is stuck inside this staid old Victorian ladyLike all Bowden's house, along with an orphan boy, Albiestories, who is living there too. But she soon finds herself caught up in 's a mystery, as she discovers a painting at the heart of ''The Colour of a bird hidden away inside her mumMoney''. We like this running theme in an author's old suitcase, and all across London work - take a fearsome gang called the Snakes are thieving artworks mystery but give it different flavour and terrorising peopleatmosphere each time. Is the painting somehow linked to the gang? And what has happened to Caro's mother? Is she somehow involved in the mystery too?|isbn=0571363148
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529195977Olga Tokarczuk|title=None House of this is True|author=Lisa JewellDay, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=On her 45th birthday''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, Alix Summer celebrated with a crowd ''House of Day, House of Night'', somewhat reflects this notion of friends in shifting realities - the Landsdown pub on Salisbury Road when she encountered Josie Fair. Shesmall, toosubtle changes which govern our lives, was out celebrating her 45th birthdaylike the shift from day to night, only she was just with her husbandhowever quotidian, Waltercausing chaos. It turns out But, the constant in that not only are Alix image is the house, stoic against the ancient 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, and Josie birthday twinshe should be doing quite well financially. Unfortunately, they were both born in St Maryhis daughter's hospitaldefence against a murder charge drained his savings. That's where the similarities endHis wife, though: AlixLaura, with her husband, Nathan, are in the midst of a joyful, monied group of friends and whilst theyhas been trying to persuade him to retire - 're not 'maybe go travelling or go on cruises. That'exactlys what 'ordinary people do' rowdy, they're enjoying themselves. Josie, on the other hand, holds her handbag close to her tummy and you get the sense that Walter's not too happy. He's not used been entirely up front about the state of their savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to spending this much money on a meal - but take his case, it is Josie's birthday after allthe thought of the money he could make that convinces him that this is a miscarriage of justice that he really should put right.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1803365110|author=Chuck Tingle1836284683|title=Camp Damascus|rating=3.5|genre=Horror|summary=Love is love; although humans continue to be confused by this sentiment. Gay conversion therapy is ongoing. The UK government ruled out plans to make it a crime and, in the US, nearly 700 000 adults have received it. Although it is both a secular and a religious prejudice, Chuck Tingle, in his new horror, ''Camp Damascus'', peels back the skin of Christian ''pray the gay away'' camps to show the reader the horror lurking within.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1803136383|title=Tin SoldiersBig Happy
|author=David Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersDystopian Fiction|summary= Wat Tyler has returned from fighting in Vietnam under something of Well! 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 cloudwild ride. What actually happened out there And that is gossiped about and nobody is sure exactly just what took place, but an act of heroism leading happened with ''The Big Happy''. I don't want to ruin a rare battlefield commission followed by rank cowardice and disgrace seems similar experience for any of you reading but I'll have to be at least set the consensusscene. Wat himself is keeping his cards close to his chestOnce that's done, as he always doesI think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0C7J9D21BSally Rooney|title=A Captive in Algiers (Muhammed Amalfi Mysteries)|author=A J LewisIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=When we first meet our hero, his name Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is Ettore and he lives something of a grandmaster at The House of Beautiful Swallowsputting it into words. Idyllic Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this might soundstory, it's a bordello the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Ettore's mother died when he was bornPeter Koubek. He's not been short of mothersIvan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, though - but for someone of contrasts sharply with his background older brother Peter, a successful lawyer living in late-eighteenth-century Amalfi, itDublin. Following their father's difficult to obtain decent employment. The stint working passing after a long battle with cancer, the preparation of anchovies didnbrothers't work out and bastards are considered bad luck on fishing boats. Ettore was nothing if not resourceful - and determined - and it was not long before he had a successful business as a guide for visitors. He was even saving some moneyalready strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Dean Koontz1036916375|title=After DeathJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle|rating=34|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary= Michael Mace, Head of Security, at ''Just a top secret biological research facility, Liverpool Lad '' is among 55 people who die when a virus is released 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 biosea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the what-hazard accidentmight-have-been. Finding himself in It's a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something verybook to settle into and allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies think of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his sensessimpler times when life seemed less constrained, he realises despite the blitz that there is something different about him; he can was a constant factor in McArdle''feel'' everythings early years. I''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymored never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the all-clear was sounded.|isbn=1662500467}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jamie Littler1836285493|title=ArkspireThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=45
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Two sistersWill is a keen player of video games, Juniper and Elodiea conscientious student, born fifteen minutes apart, are growing to be chalk a slightly annoying brother and cheesea supportive friend. Juniper But most of all, he is an eager hunter and trader in illicit magic, including relics from prior major wars left out in the Badlandsaspiring writer. Elodie English is intent on getting closer to power in his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one of the religious districts of Arkspireat which he excels. This hasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, perhaps even to become the child in line to inherit the power of the WatcherMrs Howarth, the closest and she has suggested to a ruler the district has, Will and one of the five major victors in said earlier war. Being trained in the magic his mum that only five people can use would definitely change the status he spends a couple of the whole family. But in finding something oddly magicalafternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, Juniper where his ability might just be able to gain some power of her own – for good, or for very, very bad…|isbn=0241586143better extended.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Thiago de Moraes1009473085|title=Old Gods New TricksThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=Meet Trixie. Forever getting into scrapes, larks and adventures involving flooding the school aircon with fart powder, she could almost be thought Sometimes it's simpler to explain a young goddess of nuisance. But just when shebook by describing what it ''isn't''s being told and that by her oneapplies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-last2024 -chance-giving headteacher14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the world changesbook for you. SuddenlyIf that's what you're looking for, practically everything electronic stops working – a power-outI don't think Anthony Seldon's book, even of electric cars{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, hits not just the town the schoolcan be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's in but the entire planet (apart from mobile phones, a compelling read and all that powers the Internet, just should be compulsory for our convenienceanyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. 's sake)'The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. Trixie, luckily, realises what It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has happened – made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the ancient Gods have taken most important. This book follows the power well-established format: a series of power experts from us. And so she begins her epic quest, to gather all various fields review the state of the people that can steal it back – namely nation when the characters from myth that have past form coalition took over in stealing from the Gods2010, ie the semi-deities, giants, half-gods changes that occurred and so on known as the tricksterssituation in 2024.|isbn=178845295X
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alexia CasaleJenny Valentine|title=Sing if you Can't DanceUs in the Before and After
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=It's hard enough to navigate your teenage years without suddenly finding Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that you're having to navigate a life-changing disability tooeven, but that's what Ven their friendship is dealing with after collapsing on stage a once in the middle of a dance performance that was going to change her lifelifetime connection. But she comes back fighting, desperate to avoid the pity stares, and desperate to They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get back to a life thateach other's as normal as she can possibly managecontact details at the time. Meanwhile there's a new (cute!) boy in school, her music A Level performance piece to try to sort outBut then chance brings them back together, and just the day-to-day traumas of all the challenges her body continues to throw at her to navigatethey are inseparable. So even Something has happened though she can't dance anymore, might she be able to sing her way something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through instead?their grief, and their friendship, together.|isbn=05713738011471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Helen Peters1787333175|title=Friends and TraitorsYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=35|genre=Confident ReadersPopular Science|summary=EnglandI 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}}, WW2a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. Two young girls are new at ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the country pile called Stanbrookwork of a psychiatrist. One is Nancy, destined I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in service all her life it seems, like this setting but the female generations before her. The other laughter is Sidney, directed at a girl from situation rather than a hoity-toity Sussex boarding school that has been removed there away from bomber flight-paths. The girls are chalk person and cheese, and if we hadn't guessed that then their behaviour with each other over their first encounters would only prove it so. But something is amiss, and first separately and then in combination they realise the Lord Evesham must be a rum 'un. Midnight deliveries are received under cover of secrecy, talk is made of meetings always delivered with Germans, empathy and not only that, a local Spitfire factory has been attackedunderstanding. But surely the girls are wrong, and the upper class could never be so underhand?|isbn=1788004647
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241996104Mariana Enriquez|title=Coming to Find You|author=Jane CorryA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersShort Stories|summary=Nancy's mother and step-father were brutally stabbed at their Sussex farmhouse and Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her step-brother, Martin, has been convicted settings include an abandoned field full of their murder. We first meet Nancy outside the courtdisused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, after Martin receives an overcrowded homeless shelter and a life sentencecrime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The barrister tells her that she's received a 'silent sentence' - she's not been found guilty circumstances of anything but will have to live with what happened for the rest of her life. Of course, it's made worse because Nancy's rich - she inherited five million pounds from her mother - and the papers characters are making so plausible that the most of it. ''Farmhouse slaughter daughter'' is one favourite epithet and ''rich bitch'' might not be printed but is undoubtedly spokensupernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|isbn=1803511230
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294136801529934753|title=A Chateau Under Siege (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)The Protest|author=Martin WalkerRob Rinder|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=One of For a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the main events of the Sarlat tourist season is country's most famous living artist, was not going to show up for the re-enactment opening of his retrospective at the liberation of the town from the English Royal Academy. Still, he arrived in 1370 and Bruno's there to see the show nick of time, complete with some friendshis two wives and six children, one of whom filmed what happened. It's all been very carefully choreographed but goes badly wrong whenBeing an influencer, Kerquelinyou tend to do things like that, the man playing one but it was fortunate that there was a record of the main characters is seriously injured when he departs from the scriptprotest. LuckilyLexi Williams, an intern at the RA, his doctor is there grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in the face, whilst shouting ''Stop the man is whisked away in a helicopterWar''. A local doctor (and friend It seemed to be part of Bruno) wonders about his chances an ongoing series of survival but 'blue- as heface's a senior government employeeattacks, the man who runs Frenchelon - the military has stepped inbut this was different. One daughter lives nearby The can had been laced with cyanide, and another, who lives in California, is flying in with some of her father's friends for a pre-arranged holidaySir Max Bruce was dead.
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|isbnauthor=1529196388Ariel Saramandi|title=The Trial|author=Rob RinderPortrait of an Island on Fire
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=Grant Cliveden was a hero: a policeman who stood for all that was good and honest and looked up In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to by just about everyoneintradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, so there was public uproar when he was murdered in plain sight at tunneling deep into the Old Baileywounds left by colonialism and slavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. ThereSaramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting's just one man in the frame for his murder - Jimmy Knight - and it's not too long before Knight appears in court, charged with Cliveden's murder. Knight was told that a blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the best barrister for him was Jonathan Taylor-Cameron malignant forces of Stag Court Chambers and it's Taylor-Cameron and his pupilracism, Adam Greenpatriarchy, who eventually represent himenvironmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. Knight's determined to plead not guiltyEach essay in this collection serves as a kind of diagnostic, despite all Taylor-Cameron's recommendations to charting the various diseases afflicting the contraryisland state.|isbn=1804271616
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|author=Essie FoxPekka Harju-Autti|title=The FascinationLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=Historical FictionFantasy|summary= The Victorian era It's the eighteenth century, a time of discovery and Britain is incredibly over-romanticised as a setting for historical fiction (matched onlyexpanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, perhapsan experienced Scottish sea captain, by is sent to the Second World War) which has often led Andaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with his son, Peter, and their cat, Michi, they set off on a perilous voyage to more than a few writers mishandling itthese faraway lands. There's such a glut of media set The islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the era that the hallmarks weislanders've come to associate with it are familiar to the point of being clichedleader, Aarav, hackneyed even. All this is simply to illustrate that it would be an easy thing keen to do poorly. But despite that, something about it still grabs me – and something about this book's description did as wellestablish good relations.|isbn=1914585526B0DS1VGHH3
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|author=Andrew CartmelHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=Death in Fine ConditionLili is Crying|rating=34.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Cordelia really loves classic paperback crime fictionFirst published in 1953 in French, this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and in particular a series called Sleuth Hound. She spends her time hunting out copies that she can sell sentences from their proper position on for profit, sometimes 'tweaking' the page and positions themelsewhere, to add valuedisjointed, in somewhat fraudulent waystruncated. One day she discovers a near perfect collection of these books after seeing them in Like the background lives of a photograph on her drug dealer's living room wallcharacters, and so she sets about discovering where this collection is, and how she can steal it! It's a next-level step in her petty crime career, but has she reached too far, and what will happen when the owner of the collection comes looking for their books?they are often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=17890989471804271675
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|isbnauthor=1529507987Tom Percival|title=The Repair Shop Craft Book|author=Walker Books and Sonia Albert (Illustrator)Wrong Shoes|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionConfident Readers|summary=I love Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes'The Repair Shop, he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn'. Itt have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can's my got work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-to programme when I want to be cheered uphand job on a building site and had an accident. After a hard dayThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, thereand Will's nothing better than watching experts repair treasured items without ever mentioning what they're worthlife seems bleak in every direction. You seeAnd yet, the value he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is in what these possessions are worth to the people who own them good at art, and the memories they hold. No expense appears clings to be spared and the experts spend as much time and effort as moments of joy when he is required to achieve drawing, that feel like a light at the desired resultend of a long, dark tunnel. Regular viewers know the experts and they're all brilliant at explaining what it is they're doing. But how did they start?|isbn=1398527122
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|author=Nicole JarvisSylvie Cathrall|title=A Portrait in ShadowLetter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Science Fiction|summary=''I want all of Florence There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to know my name'' Cast out from Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking an oasis in which her art can find a home and where her future can thrive rather than stagnatecompelling premise. But as some as she enters Florentine society she faces great opposition from the powerful Accademia, the self-proclaimed guardians And this is one of the healing magics that through paintings have the power to protect the city and its citizens from plagues and curses. The all-male Accademia has hoarded power over art and architecture for centuries and guard it above all else. To them, Artemisia – an ambitious young woman who promises trouble and change – has no place amongst them and their society.|isbn=18033623400356522776
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|isbnauthor=B0BVDC2VWHGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William FrankAccidentals|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionShort Stories|summary=The village is isolated and poor. It's surrounded by a Witching Forest. And This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - word: spellbinding with its bread-like fruit provides nutrition fantastical, magical elements and charming in its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood gentle portrayal of the forest provides heat nature and warmth, roofs on homes, human relationships. Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and even gallowsprecisely, if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and her stories structured by a wisdom that is appears to want to teach us something about the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man is toleratedworld. |isbn=1804271470
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