134,729
edits
Changes
no edit summary
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
{{Frontpage
|author=Mariana Enriquez
|title=A Sunny Place for Shady People
|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.
|isbn=1803511230
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529934753
|title=The Protest
|author=Rob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=For a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country's most famous living artist, was not going to show up for the opening of his retrospective at the Royal Academy. Still, he arrived in the nick of time, complete with his two 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 record of the protest. Lexi Williams, an intern at the RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in the face, whilst shouting ''Stop the War''. It seemed to be part of an ongoing series of 'blue-face' attacks, but this was different. The can had been laced with cyanide, and Sir Max Bruce was dead.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Ariel Saramandi
|title=Portrait of an Island on Fire
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the wounds left by colonialism and slavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting'', a blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the malignant forces of racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. Each essay in this collection serves as a kind of diagnostic, charting the various diseases afflicting the island state.
|isbn=1804271616
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Pekka Harju-Autti
|title=LoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=It's the eighteenth century, a time of discovery and Britain is expanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, is sent to the Andaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with his son, Peter, and their cat, Michi, they set off on a perilous voyage to these faraway lands. The islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the islanders' leader, Aarav, is keen to establish good relations.
|isbn=B0DS1VGHH3
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Helene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)
|title=Lili is Crying
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=First published in 1953 in French, this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on the page and positions them elsewhere, disjointed, truncated. Like the lives of her characters, they are often left tragically incomplete.
|isbn=1804271675
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Gregor Hens and Jen Calleja (translator)
|title=The City and the World
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=In ''The City and the World'', Gregor Hens reveals how cities are as much imagined spaces as they are physical ones. With a deep affection for the urban landscapes that have shaped his life, Hens reflects on places like Cologne, Berlin, and Goch on the Lower Rhine with a blend of personal memory and thoughtful observation. His writing, at times abstract, captures not just architectural features but the emotional and mental geographies tied to each location, for example, his perspectives as a child as opposed to as an adult. From Belgium and Germany to Berkeley and Columbus, Hens traces a map of experiences, turning cities into reflections of identity and belonging.
|isbn=1804271691
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Tom Percival
|isbn=1398527122
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Saou Ichikawa and Polly Barton (translator)|title=Hunchback|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=I was in the middle of a self-imposed book-buying ban when I made an exception for this one. What first drew me in was the book's bold fuchsia cover, followed by its striking title: ''Hunchback''. This is a word I recognised to be loaded with historical and cultural baggage, often used to dehumanise or reduce. Curious, I leaned over the display table and turned to the back inside cover. There, I discovered the author: Saou Ichikawa, a woman diagnosed in childhood with congenital myopathy, a condition that causes severe muscular weakness and touches every aspect of her life. The title took on new complexity in light of her biography. I had to read it.|isbn=0241700787}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
|isbn= 0356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Ian Penman
|title=Erik Satie Three Piece Suite
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=This unconventional biography somewhat mirrors Satie's admittedly effusive personality: whimsical, experimental and creative. It is divided into three sections: the first, an essay, the second, an A-Z encyclopedia on Satie and the third, a 'Satie Diary', documenting Ian Penman's thoughts surrounding Satie, his muse.
|isbn=1804271535
}}
{{Frontpage
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Joan DidionGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=The Year Accidentals|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and charming in its gentle portrayal of Magical Thinkingnature and human relationships. Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, her stories structured by a wisdom that appears to want to teach us something about the world.|isbn=1804271470}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551375|title=When Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=This book is Joan DidionLeanne Wilson's heartbreaking autobiographical account body was found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the grief result of a tragic accident. She'd looked so happy, too, when she endured following posted her husbandintentions 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 sudden deatha killer on the loose. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death }}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008643660|title=The Burial Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=A group of archaeologists are such uncovering a beautiful Roman site close to Little Sky: it's idyllic and necessary resource some of the excavations are being televised. There's even a hoard of Roman gold worth millions which will be split between the finders and the landowner. It's perfect until the group begin receiving threatening letters. Jake Jackson, a former police detective, is trying to lead a simpler life at Little Sky but he's inevitably drawn in to investigate. Reading the letters, it's difficult to help people feel less aloneavoid the conclusion that there will be violence and even the local police are keen that Jake should be involved.}}{{Frontpage|author=Paul B Preciado|title=Dysphoria Mundi|rating=4. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like 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-pity, denial and delusion 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 makes them utterly normalconservative 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, lends them or as ''pangea covidica''. Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a human face sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to wear''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.|isbn=00072168581804271454
}}
{{Frontpage
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=02416784120008405026|title=The Proof A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. 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 positioning of My Innocencethe bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jonathan CoeMary McCarthy|title=Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary=Life after university hasnMary McCarthy describes herself as an ''amateur architect't worked out quite the way that Phyl anticipated. She's back home, living with her parents and on a zero-hours contract serving sushi obsessively digging into the past to tourists at terminal 5 piece together the broken mosaic of Heathrow Airporther life. All those ideas of becoming a writer seem to have come to nothing. The situation improves when She attributes her ''burning interest in the past'Uncle' Chris comes to stay and introduces Phyl to his adopted daughterher orphanhood, Rashida. Christopher Swann (described by some as a lefty blogger) is investigating a think tank which originated at Cambridge University she lacked any second-hand memories from her parents, who died in the 1980s1918 flu epidemic. It plans to push This memoir chronicles her early years, beginning with her orphanhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she lived under the government in a more extreme direction harsh guardianship of her late father's Irish Catholic parents and her abusive Uncle Myers and is ready Aunt Margaret. Later, she moved to actSeattle to live with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with a different kind of upbringing.|isbn=1804271659
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= 1836282028Jonathan Buckley|title=The Fighting Spirit|author=Rob KeeleyOne Boat
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=''Would you like to adopt a ghost?One Boat'' ''Young spiritis a deeply introspective novella that defies traditional narrative structure, born 1887drawing the reader into a contemplative realm of philosophical musings and fragmented memories flowing from our narrator and protagonist, seeks kind home to hauntTeresa. Gentleman by birth. Good company. Gets on well with other children. Jokes and shocks Set against the evocative backdrop of a speciality.'' ''If interestedsmall coastal Greek town, place outside your home three twigs, in this work masterfully captures the shape magic of an arrow, pointing its setting and its power to your front doorprovoke profound introspection...'' Hooray! Bookbag favourite Rob Keeley is celebrating a decade Teresa herself recognises these qualities as the reason she has visited it after the death of his wonderfully entertaining [[Rob Keeley's ''Spirits'' series in Chronological Order|Spirits]] series with a new adventure that is both a reboot and a continuationher parents. Just like Doctor WhoPrompted by her mourning, Edward Fitzberranger, our incorrigible Victorian ghost boy, has some new companions. Ruby and Jayden respond to this intriguing advertisement her narrative voice is meditative and Edwarddeeply self-aware, who has broken inviting the rules as usual and absconded from his manor house homereader into her labyrinthine cogitations. It is a book that not only requires but inspires depth of thought, since its narrative structure is adopted by them fragmentary and takes up residence inironically relies on analepsis for its propulsion.... a wardrobe!|isbn=1804271764
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1739526910Jen Beagin|title=Where I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen SibleyBig Swiss
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionHumour |summary=''One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’MalleyI found the premise of this book totally original and addictive. Greta possesses the power to know the population of Hudson, New York's lifedarkest secrets, their intimate lives, he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town their fetishes and fears. How? Her job is to recovertranscribe their sex therapy sessions. Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday homeSure, there's a confidentiality agreement, he dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. But as those tentative plans falterthe sex coach who calls himself Om keeps reminding her, he becomes swept up but that just makes it more exciting. Like we've all probably wished for at some point in life, Greta can exist passively, placidly, as a local world fly on the wall. That is, until Greta decides to unglue her fly-feet from the safety of unlikely friendships, mobile discos the wall and surprising romantic possibilitiesbuzz far too close to the sun.''}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger The sun in this analogy is the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Itsex coach's sixteen years since ninenewest patient, who Greta dubs 'Big Swiss', and who, like the sun, is bright, blonde and beautiful -year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground irresistible to a haltGreta. NowSuddenly, the confidentiality agreement, the ethics of her motherprofessional position, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initiallyloyalties to Om, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning fly out of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspiciouswindow. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in RosalieShe's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convincedin too deep.|isbn=0571378579
}}
{{Frontpage
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 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 book for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a 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 experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.
}}
{{Frontpage
|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
|isbn=0008666482
}}
{{Frontpage
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=I 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 workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' 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 directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.
}}