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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Eowyn Ivey1786482126|title=Black Woods Blue SkyThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury'Black Woods Blue Sky'' tells apartments - when they discovered the story bones of Birdie, the young mother of toddler Emaleen, who longs for a life beyond the Alaskan lodge where she works as child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a bar waitressritual killing or murder? Inevitably, a setting which enables her bad habits and her accidental neglect of EmaleenDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Described It's difficult as a ''wild card'Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she feels stuck in her day-to-day life, and yearns to cross is pregnant with his child as a result of the Wolverine river and live on the North Fork to fulfil her desires of a simple life surrounded by natureone night they spent together some three months ago. When she meets Arthur Nielson, a strange Her condition will be obvious before long, taciturn and solitary man, who says he has a cabin over there, she feels called not least because Ruth is prone to go - and bring Emaleen with hersudden bouts of sickness. Without realising it, this calling will transform hers and Emaleen's lives forever.|isbn=1472279042
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=0008551375|title=When Shadows Fall (D S Max BoucheratCraigie)|titleauthor=The Last Life of Lori MillsNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening sheLeanne Wilson's got body was found at the house to herself – no neighbour to pop inbottom of a Scottish mountain, babysitter poorlyseemingly the result of a tragic accident. She'd looked so happy, mother at worktoo, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as she was just out of an avidly rule-breaking eleven year oldunpleasant relationship, on but it looked like she was living her lonesomebest life now. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances 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 worldlast year. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her ownAll were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and then she finds something even more spookysensible people. For None of the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able 'what a stupid thing to enter shows signs of tamperingdo' explanations applied. When malevolent eyes spark up They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a killer on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?|isbn=0008666482loose.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008385068Paul B Preciado|title=The Midnight Feast|author=Lucy FoleyDysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersPolitics and Society|summary=''Itis never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend Through this hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and splendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. The Manor was her ancestral home autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and she's converted it into brings forth a new sensorium as an impressive retreat for offering to the wealthy and famousnew generation, a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. Her husbandRather, Owenit is the proportional, was valid response to ''the architect epistemological and political crack we are living through, and work is still ongoing on parts of the sitetension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The heat whole text is oppressive and amongst framed against the backdrop of the guests are enemies Covid-19 pandemic as well that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, or as friends''pangea covidica''. Old scores are going Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found'use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.|isbn=1804271454
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{{Frontpage
|author=James BaldwinSamantha Harvey|title=Giovanni's RoomOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction |summary=In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Giovanni's RoomOrbital'' follows the narrator David, an American man living a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in Paristhe lives of a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a gay barwholly new light. While David |isbn=1529922933}}{{Frontpage|isbn=295967572X|title=Pale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Our unnamed narrator is engaged about to Hellabegin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and what the purpose of this journey is, who is travelling in Spain, uncertain. Django found the real tension in tickets ''on the novel arises floor somewhere'' and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not from his infidelity ? Not much else is clear either - but from we are probably in the past as the pair travel to the station by coach and the deeper conflict within himself. It train is David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovannia steam locomotive.|isbn=0141186356
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Ashley Hickson-Lovence0008551324|title=Wild EastThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Written in verse, this is RonnyIt's story, a young black fourteen year old boy unusual for anyone from Hackney who suddenly has the Hardie family to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white schoolapproach the police. The move Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is initiated by Ronnystruggling in prison and he's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying prepared to settle in tell the police where the body of a new town, a new school, missing person is buried and keep himself out of troublewho was responsible for her death. He listens to music constantlyThis person, he promises, is someone big and has always dreamed of being a rapperit will be worth the police doing what he wants. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him And what he wants is to be part transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of a poetry writing workshop group his sentence and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetryget an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the power of creativity other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and crafting your wordsanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|isbn=0241645441
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1635866847Jon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=The Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin VesciVaim|rating=4.5|genre=LifestyleLiterary Fiction|summary=It's 'All was 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 This haunting phrase encapsulates the pervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, 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 fictional fishing village in the book, Norway which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and I was told to make a mess Eline, two of it. Notes the protagonists caught 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 alreadyits melancholic current.|isbn=1804271829
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jacqueline Feldman1035043092|title=Precarious LeaseThe Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=3.5|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=The title of this novel refers 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 French legal term (''bail précaire'new life on Orkney. It') associated with squatters in France, affording them temporary suspension s been seven years since we heard from eviction charges and processeshim, but few scant property rights. Among mentions of other squats dotted around Paris like Le Carrosse he's now living with Willow Reeves and La Miroiterietheir young son, Feldman takes particular interest in one squat of massive proportions which adopted an almost mythical status for its inhabitantsJames, admirers and detractors alike: Le Bloc. Something like a haven for artists and marginal members of society (as one characterwell as Cassie, Le Général, repeats throughoutthe daughter of his former partner. Willow's also his boss, and she ''should''I live be on maternity leave, but when the margins body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, in the margins aftermath of the marginsa storm, she can't resist getting involved. He'), Le Bloc was subject to d been battered about the continual threat head with a Neolithic stone - one of eviction and the pressures from above a pair - which oppressed its inhabitants' lives. We follow Le Bloc had been stolen from its opening in 2012 until its eventual dissolution, framed as a tragedy in this bookmuseum. |isbn=1804271403
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jenny ValentineThea Lenarduzzi|title=Us in the Before and AfterThe Tower
|rating=5
|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=Elk and Mab ''How unctuous are best friendsthe fats of another's life, or more than that evenhow dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''. In this compelling novel, their friendship Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the protagonist of this tale. Just as T's story is being told, the story of a second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the daughter of a once wealthy family in the 19th century, who died of tuberculosis after being locked in a lifetime connectiontower, captures T's imagination. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each otherAnnie's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back togetherfate is, above all, and they are inseparablean enticing story to T. Something has happened thoughIt is a story which she consumes avariciously, something terrible both in a quest for truth and tragicknowledge, and now they must work through their griefin service of myth, fable and their friendship, togetherfantasy. |isbn=14711965851804271799
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529425905Claire-Louise Bennett|title=A Voice in the Night (A D I Wilkins Mystery)|author=Simon MasonBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=There's a new Superintendent Everything in Thames Valley — DCS Wainwright—and she's youngthis book, ambitioushowever sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and ruthlessdistortion. She talks Even a kiss, usually a good talk about work/life balance symbol of intimacy and family valuescloseness, but as far as shebecomes evidence of love lost. When the narrator cries out internally, ''s concernedcome over here and kiss me, she has two main problems, and they're both called DI Wilkins. Ray Wilkins ' it is of Nigerian descent, Baliol educated and always immaculately dressed. He's married less an invitation than a desperate attempt to Diane and has twin sonsconfirm her emotional numbness. Management's opinion The imagined recipient of him this plea is that he thinks too highly of himself and his last boss felt that he needed more experience at what he called 'the wet end'. Ryan Wilkins comes from a trailer park Xavier, her ex- in factpartner, it could be said that he's never really left it. He lives in shell suits and tracksuits, always in vivid colours. Previous management was adamant that he should ''never'' be given responsibility. Wainwright feels that a ghost she would be best shut of both of themconjures to test her detachment.|isbn=1804271934
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17873331750008405026|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work HereA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Benji WaterhouseJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Popular ScienceCrime|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam KayIt's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to Hurt}}a halt. Now, her mother, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHSHelena, humour and autobiographyher father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised s something about the positioning of the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and the work of a psychiatristher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. I did wonder whether What looked as though it was acceptable going to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter an open-and-shut case is directed at now a situation rather than a person and it complex double murder. Kerrigan is always delivered with empathy and understandingconvinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Mariana EnriquezAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=A Sunny Place for Shady PeopleThe Other Girl|rating=54|genre=Short StoriesAutobiography|summary=Mariana Enriquez writes horror that ''We were born from the same body. I've never really wanted to think about this.'' Ernaux's work is disturbingly realalways very candid and her tone transparent, achieving but this uncanny familiarity by basing raw epistolary text must be one of the most intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her paranormal plots on gritty realities: sister, however, this letter will never reach her settings include an abandoned field full . Why? Because Annie Ernaux's sister died of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishapdiphtheria at 6 years old, a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina2 years before the author was even born. The circumstances large and instant void created by the jarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in her characters are so plausible life, an absence that the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible textureshe has always felt but often denied. |isbn=18035112301804271845
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{{Frontpage
|author=Onyi NwabineliMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Allow Me to Introduce MyselfReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5|genre=General FictionBiography|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to Biographies are often seen as the world, thanks to her stepform of life-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social mediawriting which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals andoffers a vibrant, basicallysubjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying Tolstoy complains to regain her confidence and to get her his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life backas it is, suing her step-mother but of what you yourself imagine it to take down the content about herbe. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing Whom would it help to start her PhDknow how I see this tower, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantlythat sea, she or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Opheliait?''s online empire. Can she save her sisterWell, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=08615468731804271977
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=David Chadwick1529077745|title=Headload of NapalmThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= It's September 1973 A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in Hicksthe park near Rosebank, Californiaa care home for troubled teens. Hicks is a Mojave desert town The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive awayshift the night before but who had never turned up. Not much happens D I Vera Stanhope is called in Hicksto investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. A silver mine and a defence contractor are Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the main local employers death but otherwise, thereVera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until.diary makes it clear that she adored Josh.She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh..|isbn= B0D321VJ76
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Tom PercivalB0FK5LHKD9|title=The Wrong ShoesColour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=WillIt's life is difficultbeen three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, in so we were very glad to see a multitude of waysnew novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. He is bullied because he has Like all Bowden'the wrong shoess stories, there', he has s a mystery at the wrong shoes because his dad canheart of 't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic The Colour of things Money''. We like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-this running theme in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Willauthor's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has work - take a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, mystery but give it different flavour and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnelatmosphere each time.|isbn=1398527122
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sylvie CathrallOlga Tokarczuk|title=A Letter to the Luminous DeepHouse of Day, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=Science Literary Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than ''What's the good of a book world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in it?'' The title of this spellbinding work, ''House of Day, House of Night'', somewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the small, subtle changes which govern our lives up , like the shift from day to a compelling premisenight, however quotidian, causing chaos. And this But, the constant in that image is the house, stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is one of themperceived.|isbn= 03565227761804271918}}{{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 he should be doing quite well financially. Unfortunately, his daughter's defence against a murder charge drained his savings. His wife, Laura, has been trying to persuade him to retire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. That's what 'ordinary people do','' He's not been entirely up front about the state of their savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to take his case, it's the thought of the money he could make that convinces him that this is a miscarriage of justice that he really should put right.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17864821261836284683|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)Big Happy|author=Elly GriffithsDavid Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeDystopian Fiction|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this I open a ritual killing or murder? Inevitablybook, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Itit's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn'tnothing like I expected it to be, and it takes me on a wild ride. And that she is pregnant just what happened with his child as ''The Big Happy''. I don't want to ruin a result similar experience for any of you reading but I'll have to at least set the one night they spent together some three months agoscene. Her condition will be obvious before longOnce that's done, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sicknessI think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Joan DidionSally Rooney|title=The Year of Magical ThinkingIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. 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 story, the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.
|isbn=0571365469
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1036916375
|title=Just a Liverpool Lad
|author=Peter McArdle
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=This book ''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account a collection of memories and reflections from the grief she endured following her husband's sudden deathyears Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death Some are factual, such as the family history of a beautiful sea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the what-might-have-been. It's a book to settle into and necessary resource allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to help people feel think of simpler times when life seemed less aloneconstrained, despite the blitz that was a constant factor in McArdle's early years. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self I'd never heard of parachute mines before -pity, denial but they were almost soundless and delusion and makes them utterly normal, lends them a human face to wearcould appear after the all-clear was sounded.|isbn=0007216858
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Samantha Harvey1836285493|title=OrbitalThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=In 2024Will is a keen player of video games, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital''a conscientious student, a compact yet profound work that unfolds over slightly annoying brother and a single day in the lives supportive friend. But most of a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Stationall, he is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one at which he excels. Through a narrative lens that mirrors the astronautsThis hasn' orbital perspectivet gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Harvey invites readers Mrs Howarth, and she has suggested to see our planet in Will and his mum that he spends a wholly new lightcouple of afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.|isbn=1529922933
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00085513241009473085|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Neil LancasterAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=ItSometimes it's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to approach the police''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. Neither side likes or has any respect If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and heinside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn's prepared to tell t the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible book for her deathyou. This personIf that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, he promises{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, is someone big and it will can be worth the police doing what he wantsbettered for those tumultuous years. And what he wants is to It's a compelling read and should be transferred compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole datepolitics. Not much to ask, ''The Conservative Effect'' is it? an entirely different beast. The new Deputy Police Constable doesnIt't think so s the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and she's even prepared to do co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the other thing that Hardie demanded well- make certain 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 DS Max Craigie occurred and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happeningthe situation in 2024.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241678412Jenny Valentine|title=The Proof of My Innocence|author=Jonathan CoeUs in the Before and After|rating=45|genre=ThrillersTeens|summary=Life after university hasn't worked out quite the way Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that Phyl anticipated. She's back homeeven, living with her parents and on their friendship is a once in a zero-hours contract serving sushi to tourists at terminal 5 of Heathrow Airportlifetime connection. All those ideas of becoming They meet as children one day on a writer seem to have come to nothing. The situation improves when trip out but unfortunately they don'Unclet get each other' Chris comes to stay and introduces Phyl to his adopted daughter, Rashida. Christopher Swann (described by some as a lefty blogger) is investigating a think tank which originated s contact details at Cambridge University in the 1980stime. It plans to push the government in a more extreme direction But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and is ready to acttheir friendship, together.|isbn=1471196585
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17395269101787333175|title=Where IYou Don've Not Been Lostt Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Glen SibleyBenji Waterhouse|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionPopular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here''One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malleyenjoying Adam Kay's lifefirst book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to recoverbe Mad. Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams ..'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of reconnecting with everything he has losta psychiatrist. But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up 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 local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos person and it is always delivered with empathy and surprising romantic possibilitiesunderstanding.''
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008405026Mariana Enriquez|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane CaseySunny Place for Shady People
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeShort Stories|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. NowMariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her mother, Helena, and paranormal plots on gritty realities: her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning settings include an abandoned field full of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going disused refrigerators due to be an openurban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-andridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine -shut case is now a complex double murderall within Argentina. Kerrigan is convinced The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convincedsupernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|isbn=1803511230
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15290777451529934753|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)Protest|author=Ann CleevesRob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=A man walking his dog in For a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the early morning discovered country's most famous living artist, was not going to show up for the body opening of a man his retrospective at the Royal Academy. Still, he arrived in the park near Rosebanknick of time, complete with his two wives and six children, a care home for troubled teensone of whom filmed what happened. The dead man Being an influencer, you tend to do things like that, but it was Josh - one of the care workers who fortunate that there was due to work a shift record of the night before but who had never turned upprotest. D I Vera Stanhope is called Lexi Williams, an intern at the RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is face, whilst shouting ''Stop the disappearance War''. It seemed to be part of one an ongoing series of the residents'blue-face' attacks, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencerbut this was different. Some people believe that Chloe The can had been laced with cyanide, and Sir Max Bruce was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Joshdead.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1399613073Ariel Saramandi|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie WatsonPortrait of an Island on Fire
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersPolitics and Society|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter In this powerful collection of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitiousessays, which is a bonus when you aim Saramandi seeks to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is intradermally dissect the free spirit sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the group wounds left by colonialism and she becomes a GPslavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. When we first meet them theySaramandi describes the country at one stage as 're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We donrotting''t know who suffered , a blunt yet apt metaphor for the tragedy or systemic decay brought about by the consequencesmalignant forces of racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact Each essay in this collection serves as a kind of diagnostic, charting the various diseases afflicting the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involvedisland state.|isbn=1804271616
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|isbnauthor=0241636604Pekka Harju-Autti|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary StevensonLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyFantasy|summary=If you were to bring up an image of It's the eighteenth century, a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think time of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit discovery and his background Britain is the East Endexpanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, where he was familiar with violencean experienced Scottish sea captain, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been is sent to the London School of EconomicsAndaman Islands in his endeavour. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility Along with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what wasson, Peter, and their cat, essentiallyMichi, they set off on a card game which got him an internship with Citibankperilous voyage to these faraway lands. EventuallyThe islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the islanders' leader, this turned into permanent employment as a traderAarav, is keen to establish good relations.|isbn=B0DS1VGHH3
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|author=Leanne EganHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=Lover BirdsLili is Crying
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=When new girlFirst published in 1953 in French, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the hearts of Liverpool its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves their proper position on the page and positions them hating each otherelsewhere, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with herdisjointed, and that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it? Because Lou is straight, isn't she? Even though none truncated. Like the lives of her relationships with boys have gone very well so farcharacters, and she's never had a good kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?they are often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=000862657X1804271675
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|author=Sally RooneyTom Percival|title=IntermezzoThe Wrong Shoes|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction Confident Readers|summary=Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of Will's life and is something difficult, in a multitude of a grandmaster at putting it into wordsways. Her dialogue He is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among bullied because he has 'the many relationships woven into this storywrong shoes', he has the central one wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for readers to unravel is even the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan most basic of things like food, and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peterdad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a successful lawyer living cash-in Dublin-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Following their father Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's passing after life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long battle with cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trialsdark tunnel.|isbn=05713654691398527122
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|isbnauthor=1009473085Sylvie Cathrall|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and SocietyScience Fiction|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain There are few greater joys than a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies which lives up to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''a compelling premise. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then And this isn't the book for youis one of them. 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 2024.0356522776
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|author=Mark LinganeGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=ChimeraThe Accidentals
|rating=4.5
|genre=Science FictionShort Stories|summary=''The survivor stumbles forward, her steps echoing This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the oppressive silence. Her heart pounds like a jackhammer. She doesn’t know where she’s heading. All she remembers is running. Terror chasing. Everything lost.'' ''Broken word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and fragmented recollections tumble around her head. Fear courses through her body. Her breaths come charming in shallow, ragged gasps as desperation claws at her throatits gentle portrayal of nature and human relationships. Dehydration consumes her, Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and a raging thirst feels unquenchable.'' ''There must be a way out. As she moves through the foreign areaprecisely, memories begin to gel. Disaster had ploughed through her life—not just hers, everyone’s.'' As our survivor struggles to orient herself, she's guided stories structured by a robot, which looks human-made, but she can't be sure. It says it is. It says she must try not wisdom that appears to injure herself. Guided want to an interview with an eerie, terrifying group of aliens, she desperately tries to make sense of flashes of memory - environmental degradation, deals done and then betrayed, horrifying rituals covering desperate attempts to survive - and to attempt to explain how she came to be here, apparently teach us something about the last human being aliveworld.|isbn=B0DNVWMYP21804271470
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