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|rating=4
|genre=Home and FamilyLiterary Fiction|summary=This is the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV seriesDespite her anonymisation of place names and people, Stepanova''Loose Women''s message in this short work of autofiction is unmistakable. Just as promised on A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to the cover, this book town of F for a literary festival she is an entertaining night with the girlsto be a guest speaker at. It turns out that they're just like us. The faces are already familiar Detoured by erratic train schedules and even if you don't know them yetnudged by forces beyond her control, with nine contributorsher journey slowly bends toward a traveling circus. Swept up in this series of events, you'll soon find M eventually offers to step in for a like-minded woman behind one of circus performer who has unexpectedly left the celebrity facesshow. The women are universally warm-hearted and supportive: there will be many a lonely woman who reads this book and feels train functions as if she sat down with a group motif of friends for the evening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jean Ure|title=Fortune Cookie|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Fudge Cassidy transience and impermanence, while the Cupcake kid are best friends. If circus embodies the names remind you reshaping of identity and a certain film then you'd be spot on as retreat into fantasy, an impulse that's where Fudge's father got the idea from. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – but the combination works. They've just started lies at secondary school and Cupcake has rather a lot on her plate. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obvious. Add to this that her father couldn't cope with the problems and he now has another family. It's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not a lot very heart of moneythe novel form itself.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>1804272329
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenifer RobertsB0GFQ81YQK|title=The Madness of Queen MariaHow the Sky and the Earth Made People: The Remarkable Life From the Oral Stories of Maria I of PortugalMalagasy Elders|author=Stephanie Zabriskie
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Born in 1734 in LisbonBefore people came and joined the animals, at that time there was only the richest sky and most opulent city in Europe, Maria the earth. Everything was destined quiet until the earth and the sky began to become tal to each other. First, the first female monarch in Portuguese historyearth created bodies. Married to her uncle Infante PedroAnd then, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of the sky breathed life into them), . These were the first humans and they belonged to both earth and became Queen in 1777sky. A conscientious womanAnd so people lived between sky and soil and they planted and learned and remembered, she had the misfortune especially how they came to be born in during . When they grew old and died, their bodies returned to the 'age of reason', when church earth and state were vying for supremacytheir life returned to the sky. Instinctively a supporter of And that is why the old religion, with a humanitarian approach earth and the sky are both revered. Only together can they create human beings. And that is why people must pay attention to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Greatand care for, and wore her crown rather reluctantlyboth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David HughesB0GHPMNF6P|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadThe Zookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups|author=Carolyn Mathews
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic NovelsFantasy|summary=WellWhen Phil's father unexpectedly dies, he quits his Canary Wharf finance job to take over the running of the family's farm zoo. He's not expecting much excitement, with a title like until he receives an unidentified egg that, need I bother with a plot summary? A man has his new-age stoner uncle Edgar found in a day out cave in MorecambeNew Zealand, then and suddenly life is no longer quite what it seems. Then the next thing he knows he's in the ultimate waiting room, with egg hatches into neither a strange array of animals (reptile nor a batbird, but a toaddragon! Now he, a sea urchin...)Edgar, all waiting for... wellhis mother Abi, something. Yup, as you didnand the zoo't need tellings part-time café waitress Pearl have to raise this little bundle of scales and joy, he's deaddespite having no idea how to actually raise dragons and not being able to tell anyone about it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>But this tiny little dragon may show them love and connection in ways they had never before imagined…
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{{Frontpage
|author=Stephanie Zabriskie
|title=How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the Oral Stories of Maasai Elders
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=''How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows is a children’s nonfiction book drawn from the oral traditions of Maasai elders in Ngorongoro, Tanzania.''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy StrongLivi Michael|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog |rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Trevor's troublesome dog, Streaker, has had three puppies. They were fathered, according to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one of his Alsatians. Trevor would ideally like to keep them, at least until Christmas, but his parents have other ideas and put them up for sale. Charlie Smugg declares that he's entitled to half of the money from the sale of the puppies, but before they can be sold the three puppies go missing in the park Elizabeth and it's up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Beth Durst|title=IceRuth
|rating=3.5
|genre=TeensHistorical Fiction|summary=Cassie lives on an Arctic research station in Alaska. She loves the ice ''Elizabeth and Ruth'' is a work of historical fiction wrought from the wilderness life of the Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell, best known for her remote home and shefirst novel Mary Barton (1848), a radical critique of the treatment of the working class published under a pseudonym. The ''Ruth'd definitely prefer to spend her time on tracking polar bears and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing with her peers and enjoying college and home comforts back in Fairbanks. However, things aren't all rosy. Cassiefrom Livi Michael's mother died when she title appears in her novel as Pasley, a young Irish prostitute who was just abandoned as a baby child and she canfinds herself in Manchester't help feeling s New Bailey Prison after a huge hole difficult and unjust hand at life. Set in her heart. Her scientist father is remote Manchester between 1839 and unloving 1842, the novel examines the harsh conditions endured by the Victorian working poor and her grandmother left interrogates the extent to which the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very youngwealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>1784633682
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Iain Smyth and Michael TerryMakenna Goodman|title=The Wide-Mouthed FrogHelen of Nowhere
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=Do you know It could be argued that the joke about the widepervading theme of this book is malaise -mouthed frog? You must have heard it. It's a classic. It's one hard-to-place feeling that you really need to tell something in person, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide open, but to hopefully spark your memorylife is not quite right. The protagonist, a disgraced professor on the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to a number brink of animals until he finally comes across losing both his career and his relationship, embodies this feeling. However, Goodman counteracts his discomfort with a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogsforce which is seductive, radical and unnerving: Helen. The connection between Helen and the frog does protagonist is indirect yet intimate. As the former owner of the countryside house he's considering, Helen represents a volta in his best life, her past tied to disguise his potential fresh start. The realtor who he is whilst saying shows the protagonist around the house shares stories about Helen, and describes her as ''Oohan entity that is pure consciousness, you donbeyond form't see many of those round here, do you?'' I'm hardly doing it justice, but it's very cheesy and funny. AnywayAlthough she lives in an assisted living facility now, this is a book of that jokeHelen has powers beyond comprehension which the reader gets the sense are not altogether innocuous.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>1804272205
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanB0GCB1MQ7D|title=Don't Swallow Your GumWhy My Mother Went Away|author=Alan Kennedy
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleAutobiography|summary=I have often wondered how prominent people came to hold their positions. With 'celebrities', there'BANG'''s frequently a book they might or might not have written, which might or might not tell the true story. ThatIt's not often that you find a book that gives the full backstory, and rarely do you discover a memoir where the sound of copious urban myths being shot downtelling is so perfect that you'll go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, just for the pleasure the words give. '''BANG'Why My Mother Went Away''is one of those rare exceptions. ThatIt's the sound story of how a boy from the Midlands, born at the old wives slamming beginning of the doorSecond World War, as their tales get revealed as baselesswould become a Professor of Psychology at Dundee University. '''CLICK'''. That's In fact, he was one of the noise lots founders of ill-informed websites make as they get closed downthe department. All noises come due to this brilliant book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jeremy Cooper
|title=Discord
|rating= 3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Discord: a lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas)
The principal example of discord within the novel, as with most instances of discord, is easily located. The two protagonists of the novel, Rebekah Rosen and Evie Bennet, are as different as they come. Rebekah is an uptight, traditional and no-nonsense composer close to retirement, while Evie is a force of nature, bounding onto the musical scene as a precocious saxophonist, oozing with talent and charm. The two, predictably, don't always see eye to eye, their approaches different and Evie's progressive views at odds with Rebekah's conservative leaning. However, something connects them beyond just their musical project: a sort of fragile alliance formed within the clamour.|isbn=1804272264}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Annie TaylorTom Percival|title=VioletThe Wrong Shoes|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Violet Will's life is difficult, in a very special hippomultitude of ways. She He is extremely small but bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that does not make her adoptive parents Albert mix the fact that his mum and Mavis love her any the lessdad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. However And yet, they are slightly worried that Violet he still has a very unusual habit tiny amount of turning pink without warning hope. He is good at art, and for no explicable reasonclings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>1398527122
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary DixonEdward W Said|title=When Rooks Speak Representations of Lovethe Intellectual |rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionPolitics and Society|summary=Arthur Transcombe Edward Said's ''Representations of the Intellectual'' is less a middle-agedstrict theory of what intellectuals are and more a passionate argument for what they should be. Said clearly rejects the comfortable image of the intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to other specialists. Instead, grey-haired, self-effacing poet. Unremarkable really - he insists on the outside. He hasintellectual as a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, howeverand unpopular, managed who speaks truth to achieve some success with his poems. (Being a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival power even when it is no mean feat)inconvenient or risky. He is also a babe magnet!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>1804272248
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=A J HealySylvie Cathrall|title=Tommy Storm and A Letter to the Galactic KnightsLuminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=Meet Tommy Storm. He's one of five teenagers snapped There are few greater joys than a book which lives up from around the universe to be a gang of heroic detectives charged with rescuing EVERYTHING from destruction. Not just the planet, or the solar system, or even the galaxy, but EVERYTHINGcompelling premise. Nobody seems to know what's going to cause And this destruction, or when, but he and his friends and their ship seem to be the only people proactively going about saving the day. So it's a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony who's about to kill is one of them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graham McCann1786482126|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-ThomasJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=When I was Builders were demolishing an old house in my early teens, it sometimes seemed as if TerryNorwich -Thomas the site was one of going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the stars bones of almost every other five-star British comedy film arounda child beneath a doorway. He There was certainly one of the most recognizable characters of all no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with his gap-toothed grin, cigarette holder and inimitable 'Hel-lo!DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn'Hard cheese!'t, and best that she is pregnant with his child as a result of all, the angryone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, 'You're an absolute shower!'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Jay Parker0008551375|title=Stop MeWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=34.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoyingLeanne 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 most of us will have it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had to deal with themdied in similar circumstances in the last year. FortunatelyAll were experienced climbers, we can hit the delete button properly equipped for what they were doing and forget about them as quickly as they camesensible people. I certainly prefer not None of the 'what a stupid thing to torture my friends by sending such rubbish on, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I dondo'texplanations applied. But I wonder how many of us would react if They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a spam E-Mail actually was a matter of life and death, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>killer on the loose.
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{{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''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreSamantha Harvey|title=Love and KissesOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Tamsin and Katie were just thirteen and worried that they were boring. TheyIn 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital''d been best friends since forever and were the good girls. Neither missed school, skipped her homework nor had boyfriends. Well, a compact yet profound work that is, not so far. Up until then Tamsin had been unfolds over a single day in the lives of a group of astronauts aboard the boffin head – consistently strong academically and looking forward to going on to universityInternational Space Station. All Through a narrative lens that seemed to change when she met Alex. Well, when I say mirrors the astronauts'met' I should perhaps clarify and say that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow into herorbital perspective, from the building site where he workedHarvey invites readers to see our planet in a wholly new light. Oh, and did I mention that he was seventeen, Polish and spoke very little English?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>1529922933
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henry Mintzberg295967572X|title=ManagingPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre=Business and FinanceLiterary Fiction|summary=Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and what the purpose of this journey is, is uncertain. Django found the tickets 'Study after study has shown that managers work at an unrelenting pace'on the floor somewhere' How true, though it always makes me wonder why, as a result, there's such a market for bulky management and leadership and general business books like this onehas persuaded our narrator to accompany him. How does anyone who needs or wants to read one ever find the time to do soWhy not? This title actually has an answer to this, by providing two books in one, and it Not much else is such a simple yet effective solution that I have to start there. You can read this book clear either - but we are probably in one of two ways. Option one is the past as the pair travel to read every word, chapter the station by chapter, cover to cover. If you have the time I would recommend this approach because coach and the book train is very readable, not too repetitive, and quite thought-provokinga steam locomotive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kathryn Fox0008551324|title=Blood BornThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=To give support to a vulnerable gang-rape victim, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers to drive Giverny Hart It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the courthouse on police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the day she other. But Davie Hardie is due struggling in prison and he's prepared to testify against tell the notorious Harbourn brothers. But when Anya arrives at police where the house she finds Giverny close to death body of a missing person is buried and faces a battle against time to save who was responsible for herdeath. In This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the panic, Anya fails police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to take note of an important clue which might help tell whether it really was suicide or a cleverly staged murder. Worse still, in trying open prison to save serve the girl's life, Anya has interfered with a crime scene remainder of his sentence and the case falls apartto get an early parole date. She blames herself for the Harbourn brothers being allowed Not much to walk free and only hours later there ask, is news of another attack. A pair of sisters have been stabbed it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and raped resulting in the death of one, while she's even prepared to do the other clings to lifething that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Leah Fleming1035043092|title=Remembrance DayThe Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=45|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=In I can't have been the year 2000 an old lady in only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a wheelchair watches the unveiling of the new war memorial in the village squarelife on Orkney. ThereIt's pride in what has been achievedseven years since we heard from him, but he's now living with Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, in the family who are gathered around her and there are memories toodaughter of his former partner. Some are good Willow's also his boss, and she ''should'' be on maternity leave, but many are notwhen the body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, in the aftermath of a storm, she can't resist getting involved. He'd been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of a pair - which had been stolen from a museum.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
|author=Thea Lenarduzzi
|title=The Tower
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''How unctuous are the fats of another's life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ursula Jones and Sarah GibbClaire-Louise Bennett|title=The Princess Who Had No KingdomBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=The princess who has no kingdom wanders around Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, usually a cart pulled by her horse Prettysymbol of intimacy and closeness, becomes evidence of love lost. SheWhen the narrator cries out internally, 's very polite, friendly, 'come over here and kind-heartedkiss me, but she feels like something '' it is lacking because she doesn't have less an invitation than a kingdom of desperate attempt to confirm her ownemotional numbness. The other royals she meets treat imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, her nicely enoughex-partner, but there's always a feeling that ghost she's not quite as good as them because she isn't the princess of anywhereconjures to test her detachment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>1804271934
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mij Kelly and Louise Nisbet0008405026|title=The Happiest Man A Stranger in the World or the Mouse Who Made ChristmasFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Mouse doesnIt't like anyone s sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and keeps herself the investigation ground to herselfa halt. Her things are Now, her things mother, Helena, and she is too selfish to share them with anyone elseher father are dead in their bed. One day Initially, an old man moves in to Mouseit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's housesomething about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. He used 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 happiest man explanation lies in the world, but now heRosalie's sad. Hedisappearance: others (such as Derwent's fed up of having givenboss, given, given all his life and never got anything backUna Burt) are less convinced. He just sits quietly and mopes. This makes Mouse miserable, so one day she decides to cheer him up by giving him a clementine...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick BlandAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=The Very Cranky BearOther Girl
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingAutobiography|summary=Moose, Lion, Zebra and Sheep head into a cave to get out of ''We were born from the rain, but little do they know that Bear is fast asleep in theresame body. When they wake him up, he roars at them, chasing them outside, so they decide I've never really wanted to cheer him up somehowthink about this. Zebra paints stripes on him, Moose fashions antlers for him and Lion sticks a mane of straw on him. Unsurprisingly, this makes Bear even crankier, so it's down to Sheep to save the day...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>}}'
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clara VulliamyMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To BedReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingBiography|summary=ItBiographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: 's Pearl's bedtimeyou write not of real life as it is, but she says she's really busy and isn't going of what you yourself imagine it to sleepbe. She just wants Whom would it help to play and play and playknow how I see this tower, that sea, or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''. When the bear with sticky paws rings the doorbellWell, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to how he whisks her away on an amazing adventure - although as you might expectsaw Tolstoy, the bear has a little more energy than Pearl Chekhov and eventually she does get a little sleepyAndreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>1804271977
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Mackey1529077745|title=MikiThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=It's cold, dark and icy, and Miki and Penguin are trudging through A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the snow. But it's Midwinter Evepark near Rosebank, when wishes come truea care home for troubled teens. They wish for The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a tree, lights, someone strong shift the night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is called in to power investigate the lightsmurder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, and finally a star fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that will shine brightly forever. Miki Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is taken deep below unlikely as the ice girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find the star, whilst up top Penguin and new friend Polar Bear start Chloe to discover what happened to worry about herJosh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034095065X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kristin CashoreOlga Tokarczuk|title=FireHouse of Day, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary=Possessed ''What's the good of great beauty, the kind a world that drives men mad, Fire is used to people trying to kill her. She isn't used to them doing it by accident. When a poacher in the woods outside her home accidentally shoots her, Fire is hard pressed to keep the temperamental Lord Archer from killing him. But as sure as Fire is the man did not mean to cause her harm, she is made unsure by the strange fog keeps changing like that exists ? How can one go on calmly living in the manit?''s mind.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905200129</amazonuk>}}
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1836284683
|title=The Big Happy
|author=David Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other!
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eoin ColferSally Rooney|title=And Another Thing ... Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Part Six of Three (Hitchhikers Guide 6) Intermezzo|rating=34.5|genre=Science General Fiction|summary=Of all 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 big books announced for many relationships woven into this yearstory, this the central one must have raised more eyebrows than many. Why try and write a new Hitchhiker's Guide for readers to unravel is the Galaxy book, when way before the endfraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, its creator Douglas Adams was proving quite hopeless at such a task? And why approach an Irishmansocially awkward chess prodigy, Eoin Colfercontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, when the originals - tempered with a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their humour which could only be described as Monty Python doing father's passing after a sci-fi Terry Pratchett, and long battle with their cups of tea and dressing gownscancer, could only be described as very English? Well the answer is most evident - Colfer is a world-beater when it comes to knocking up a storybrothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718155149</amazonuk>0571365469
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Harlan Coben1836285493|title=Tell No OneThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=I've been meaning to get around to reading some or all Will is a keen player of Harlan Coben's workvideo games, a conscientious student, because if the reviews are to be believed a slightly annoying brother and you are a fan supportive friend. But most of the 'Bloody Knife /Blunt Instrument' thrillerall, the man he is quite simply not capable of turning out a duff novelan aspiring writer. But you know how it English ishis favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, what with and one thing at which he excels. This hasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and another she has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a bulging pile couple of books to afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be read and reviewed, I just somehow hadn't managed to give him my full attentionbetter extended. Until now.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409117022</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft1009473085|title=Margrave of the MarshesThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=EntertainmentPolitics and Society|summary=John Peel was without doubt one of the most important disc jockeys of all timeSometimes 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?''. Born in Merseyside in 1939If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, he began his career in mid-60s America before returning home to join Radio London and then become one of this isn't the original Radio 1 team, where he stayed until his death 37 years laterbook for you. I admired the man If that's what you're looking for his passion for playing the music nobody else would give the time of day (even if , I didndon't always enjoy it myself) and his readiness to say exactly what he thoughtthink Anthony Seldon's book, even if it was not what his employers {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at the BBC wanted to hear10}}, and I always enjoyed reading his columns in the music weeklies and later Radio Timescan be bettered for those tumultuous years. Nevertheless I found much of his show unlistenable towards the end, recall some of his rather curmudgeonly remarks on air (guest slots on Radio 1It's Round Table review programme come a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to mind), and thought his build-politics. ''The Conservative Effect'em-up, knock-'em-down stance rather irritating after a whileis an entirely different beast. So I approached 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 with an open mind as follows the well-established format: a fanseries of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, but not an uncritical onethe changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez Jenny Valentine|title=Perfumes: The A - Z GuideUs in the Before and After
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleTeens|summary=WonderfulElk and Mab are best friends, wonderfulor more than that even, wonderfultheir friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. The only thing that could be conceivably better than reading They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other'Perfumes'' would be to read it while sampling s contact details at the scents it reviewstime. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, but even without the olfactory componentsomething terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, ''Perfumes'' is a delight: Turin (a lyrical scientist) and Sanchez (an analytically enthusiastic collector) not only treat perfume creation as high arttheir friendship, but turn perfume criticism into an art form (or at least a sophisticated genre of writing) tootogether. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846681278</amazonuk>1471196585
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Malouf 1787333175|title=RansomYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionPopular Science|summary=Taking his theme from a small part of HomerI was tempted to read ''s Iliad, Malouf tells the story of the king of Troy, PriamYou Don's grief-stricken voyage into the Greek camp t Have to be Mad to ransom TroyWork Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's wealth for the body of his fallen son, Hector, killed by the equally grief-stricken Achilles whose great friend Hector had killed in battle before Achilles took his cruel revenge. Malouf tells the story in sparse, yet lyrical and poetic fashion suggesting the personal stories behind the epic themes that Homer related. It is an exquisitely written piece managing to be both deeply moving as well as a great piece of story telling.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184159</amazonuk>}} first book {{newreviewamazonurl|authorisbn=Steven M Gillon1509858636|title=The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=The assassination This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of President Kennedy came at a pivotal moment in my life and for more than forty years I've read most insight into the workings of what has been written about the eventNHS, humour and autobiography. It's been of variable quality, 'You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the books fed the curiosity work of people entranced by the charismatic young President who died so publiclya psychiatrist. I'd come to the point of wondering if there did wonder whether it was anything new acceptable to be said, looking for humour in this setting but Stephen Gillom has looked the laughter is directed at what happened from an unusual a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and largely overlooked angle – the first twenty four hours of Lyndon Johnson's Presidencyunderstanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>
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