Changes

|author=Max BoucheratMariana Enriquez|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|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|isbn=0008385068|title=The Midnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. The Manor was her ancestral home and she's converted it into an impressive retreat A Sunny Place for the wealthy and famous. Her husband, Owen, was the architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the site. The heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. Old scores are going to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found.}}{{Frontpage|author=James Baldwin|title=Giovanni's Room|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction |summary=''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, the real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|isbn=0141186356}}{{Frontpage|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence|title=Wild East|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school. The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words.|isbn=0241645441}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1635866847|title=The Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci|rating=4.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I ''loved'' this book already.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jacqueline Feldman|title=Precarious Lease|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=The title of this novel refers to a French legal term (''bail précaire'') associated with squatters in France, affording them temporary suspension from eviction charges and processes, but few scant property rights. Among mentions of other squats dotted around Paris like Le Carrosse and La Miroiterie, Feldman takes particular interest in one squat of massive proportions which adopted an almost mythical status for its inhabitants, admirers and detractors alike: Le Bloc. Something like a haven for artists and marginal members of society (as one character, Le Général, repeats throughout, ''I live on the margins of the margins of the margins''), Le Bloc was subject to the continual threat of eviction and the pressures from above which oppressed its inhabitants' lives. We follow Le Bloc from its opening in 2012 until its eventual dissolution, framed as a tragedy in this book. |isbn=1804271403}}{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the Before and AfterShady People

|genre=TeensShort Stories|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than Mariana Enriquez writes horror that evenis disturbingly real, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back togethergritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and they a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are inseparableroutine - all within Argentina. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, togetherThe circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|isbn=14711965851803511230

|isbn=15294259051529934753|title=A Voice in the Night (A D I Wilkins Mystery)The Protest|author=Simon MasonRob Rinder

|summary=There's For a new Superintendent in Thames Valley — DCS Wainwright—and shelittle while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country's youngmost famous living artist, ambitious, and ruthlesswas not going to show up for the opening of his retrospective at the Royal Academy. She talks a good talk about work/life balance and family valuesStill, but as far as she's concernedhe arrived in the nick of time, she has complete with his two main problemswives and six children, and they're both called DI Wilkinsone of whom filmed what happened. Ray Wilkins is of Nigerian descentBeing an influencer, Baliol educated and always immaculately dressed. He's married you tend to Diane and has twin sons. Management's opinion of him is do things like that, but it was fortunate that he thinks too highly there was a record of himself and his last boss felt that he needed more experience at what he called 'the wet end'protest. Ryan Wilkins comes Lexi Williams, an intern at the RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a trailer park - chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in factthe face, it could be said that hewhilst shouting 's never really left it. He lives in shell suits and tracksuits, always in vivid colours. Previous management was adamant that he should 'Stop the War'never'' be given responsibility. Wainwright feels that she would It seemed to be best shut part of both an ongoing series of them'blue-face' attacks, but this was different. The can had been laced with cyanide, and Sir Max Bruce was dead.

|isbnauthor=1787333175Ariel Saramandi|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji WaterhousePortrait of an Island on Fire|rating=4.5|genre=Popular SciencePolitics and Society|summary=I was tempted In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks 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}}intradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, a glorious mixture of insight tunneling deep into the workings of the NHS, humour wounds left by colonialism and autobiographyslavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''You Donrotting't Have to be Mad...'' promised , a blunt yet apt metaphor for the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and systemic decay brought about by the work malignant forces of a psychiatristracism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour Each essay in this setting but collection serves as a kind of diagnostic, charting the various diseases afflicting the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understandingisland state. |isbn=1804271616

|author=Mariana EnriquezPekka Harju-Autti|title=A Sunny Place for Shady PeopleLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse|rating=54|genre=Short StoriesFantasy|summary=Mariana Enriquez writes horror that It's the eighteenth century, a time of discovery and Britain is disturbingly realexpanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due experienced Scottish sea captain, is sent to an urban planning mishapthe Andaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with his son, Peter, an overcrowded homeless shelter and their cat, Michi, they set off on a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentinaperilous voyage to these faraway lands. The circumstances of her characters islands are so plausible that beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible textureislanders' leader, Aarav, is keen to establish good relations. |isbn=1803511230B0DS1VGHH3

|author=Onyi NwabineliHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=Allow Me to Introduce MyselfLili is Crying

|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to First published in 1953 in French, this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step hearts of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down sentences from their proper position on the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online page and receiving money from positions them for doing so. Most importantlyelsewhere, she is desperately worried about her little sisterdisjointed, who is truncated. Like the new focus lives of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sistercharacters, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?they are often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=08615468731804271675

|author=David ChadwickGregor Hens and Jen Calleja (translator)|title=Headload of NapalmThe City and the World|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersPolitics and Society|summary= ItIn ''The City and the World''s September 1973 in Hicks, CaliforniaGregor Hens reveals how cities are as much imagined spaces as they are physical ones. Hicks is With a Mojave desert town of 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 few thousand people with its nearest neighbours blend of LA personal memory and thoughtful observation. His writing, at times abstract, captures not just architectural features but the emotional and Las Vegas both mental geographies tied to each location, for example, his perspectives as a significant drive awaychild as opposed to as an adult. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine From Belgium and Germany to Berkeley and Columbus, Hens traces a defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwisemap of experiences, there's not much turning cities into reflections of note other than dive bars identity and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until...belonging.|isbn= B0D321VJ761804271691

|author=Joan DidionGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=The Year of Magical ThinkingAccidentals

|genre=AutobiographyShort Stories|summary=This book is Joan Didioncollection was truly enchanting in all senses of the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and charming in its gentle portrayal of nature 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=Crime|summary=Leanne 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 uncovering a Roman site close to Little Sky: it's idyllic and some of the excavations are such being televised. There's even a beautiful hoard of Roman gold worth millions which will be split between the finders and necessary resource 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 help people feel less aloneinvestigate. Reading the letters, it's difficult to avoid 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

|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

|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

|isbnauthor= 1836282028Jonathan Buckley|title=The Fighting Spirit|author=Rob KeeleyOne Boat

|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

|isbnauthor=1739526910Jen Beagin|title=Where I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen SibleyBig Swiss

|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

|author=Mark LinganeMax Boucherat|title=ChimeraThe Last Life of Lori Mills

|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she''The survivor stumbles forwards 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 steps echoing 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 oppressive silenceworld-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. Her heart pounds like But first Lori has a jackhammertiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. She doesn’t know where she’s heading. All For the server she remembers is running. Terror chasing. Everything lost.'' ''Broken and fragmented recollections tumble around her headbestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. Fear courses through When malevolent eyes spark up on her body. Her breaths come in shallowphone screen, ragged gasps as desperation claws at her throat. Dehydration consumes and hersafe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?|isbn=0008666482}}{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the Before and After|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a raging thirst feels unquenchablelifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other' ''There must be a way outs contact details at the time. As she moves through the foreign area But then chance brings them back together, memories begin to geland they are inseparable. Disaster had ploughed Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through her life—not just herstheir grief, and their friendship, everyone’stogether.|isbn=1471196585}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787333175|title=You Don''t Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=5|genre=Popular ScienceAs our survivor struggles |summary=I was tempted to orient herself, sheread ''s guided by a robot, which looks human-made, but she canYou Don't Have to be sure. It says it Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is. It says she must try not to injure herself. Guided Going to an interview with an eerieHurt}}, terrifying group a glorious mixture of aliens, she desperately tries to make sense insight into the workings of flashes of memory - environmental degradationthe NHS, deals done humour and then betrayed, horrifying rituals covering desperate attempts autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to survive - mental illness and to attempt to explain how she came the work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be here, apparently looking for humour in this setting but the last human being alivelaughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.|isbn=B0DNVWMYP2