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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jon BerkeleyPolly Barton|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)What Am I, A Deer?|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=I shall start with a word of advicePolly Barton's debut novel is an intellectually playful yet emotionally exposed work that uses translation as both subject and governing metaphor. When you're being hounded by a circus masterThe narrator, and a magiciannewly relocated from London to Berlin, for works translating video games into Japanese through the soul process of localisation, rewriting language until it feels comfortably familiar to a tiger that's contained in new audience. Barton treats this as a tiger's egg that's contained paradoxical act: arguably, in the brain of your teddy bearstriving for universality, and your best friend - a fallen angel - language is trying her best to make sure the other angels do not turn on you in a big way - then you're probably living the third book in a fantasy trilogyendlessly repackaged, its originality at risk of disappearing altogether. Still - never mindFrom this, the angel's efforts will involve you entering novel opens out into a dream world of flight and cloud citieswider, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world resonant question: to what extent do we translate ourselves in order to desert oases and backbe understood, accepted, and friends new and old will be on board to help.or loved?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>1804272175
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue TownsendZabriskie1|title=Adrian MoleA Village Where Many Ways Meet: The Prostrate YearsA Story of Belonging and Community, Rooted in Indigenous Wisdom|author=Stephanie Zabriskie
|rating=5
|genre=General Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ ''Across many African and living, quite literallyIndigenous systems, differences in a pigstyhow children learn, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. It's not quite how life was supposed to turn out. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniformsense , trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in or process the provinces is world were not treated as bad disorders to be corrected. They were understood as she would like to believe, natural variations of human intelligence and desperately attempting to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needs. And yetawareness, each holding value within the worst is still to comecommunity. Think a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – it's going to be a tough year for the Moles, and there's little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back and watch his life spin out of control around him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gareth Hinds1787333175|title=King LearYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=35|genre=Graphic NovelsPopular Science|summary=Hound me out of town in a most appropriate manner, but I do not like King Lear. For mewas tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, even as a trained actorglorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, the language is too dense humour and rich, autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the set-up too archly unfeasible same elements but moved from physical problems to create mental illness and the great tragedy work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it's thought was acceptable to be. To my mind looking for humour in this setting but the acclaim laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and esteem in which it's held is only mirrored by its own over-long, over-blown blusteringalways delivered with empathy and understanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul TherouxMaria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in CalcuttaThe Disappearing Act|rating=3.54|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Set in India, familiar territory for TherouxDespite her anonymisation of place names and people, Stepanova''s message in this short work of autofiction is unmistakable. A Dead Hand'' tells the story of a travel writer suffering novelist named M travels from writer's block B (also known as 'dead hand'ostensibly Berlin) until a chance letter from an American ex-pat, to the mysterious Mrs Unger, relating town of F for a story of literary festival she is to be a mystery of guest speaker at. Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by forces beyond her control, her journey slowly bends toward a dead body traveling circus. Swept up in a hotel leads him this series of events, M eventually offers to release his creativity step in very unexpected waysfor a circus performer who has unexpectedly left the show. The story is more about obsession train functions as a motif of transience and impermanence, while the circus embodies the reshaping of identity and infatuation than it is about a retreat into fantasy, an impulse that lies at the very heart of the mystery novel form itself as the narrator falls under Mrs Unger's Tantric charms. But does she have more to hide than she's letting on?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>1804272329
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Toby LesterB0GFQ81YQK|title=The Fourth Part of How the Sky and the WorldEarth Made People: The Epic Story From the Oral Stories of History's Greatest MapMalagasy Elders|author=Stephanie Zabriskie
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=In 2003 a map Before people came and joined the animals, there was only the sky and the earth. Everything was bought for $10 million, quiet until the earth and the highest price ever paid publicly for a historical documentsky began to tal to each other. First, by the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public displayearth created bodies. No ordinary mapAnd then, this is sometimes described as America's birth certificatethe sky breathed life into them. It is These were the sole survivor of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th century, first humans and they belonged to both earth and was discovered by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901sky. The sale And so people lived between sky and soil and they planted and learned and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired remembered, especially how they came to discover morebe. When they grew old and died, and this book is their bodies returned to the result.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steven Lowe earth and Alan McArthur |title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit their life returned to the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global Misery|rating=3|genre=Humour|summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floorsky.'' Surely And that is why the wackiest, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch earth and all it has done for the worldsky are both revered. You won't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authors, instead with quite a potty mouth on them Only together can they will lambast the modern world, the entire banking system, all those who failed create human beings. And that is why people must pay attention to see it coming, and those millions just seemingly waiting care for us all to revert to high-interest, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get back on the expenses train, and back up the rich listsboth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andy StantonB0GHPMNF6P|title=WhatThe Zookeeper's For Dinner, Mr Gum?Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups|author=Carolyn Mathews
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns her backWhen Phil's father unexpectedly dies, and leaves he quits his Canary Wharf finance job to take over the town running of Lamonic Bibber for the family's farm zoo. He's not expecting much excitement, until he receives an unidentified egg that his new-age stoner uncle Edgar found in a day at cave in New Zealand, and suddenly life is no longer quite what it seems. Then the seasideegg hatches into neither a reptile nor a bird, but a dragon! Now he, Edgar, Mr Gum falls out with his best friendmother Abi, causing carnivorous carnage all over and the place. Meat is getting thrown around like itzoo's going out part-time café waitress Pearl have to raise this little bundle of fashionscales and joy, and we have despite having no idea how to doubt whether Polly actually raise dragons and her companions can ever utilise the power of love and put things not being able to rightstell anyone about it. Especially as But this book does not contain a magic unicorn called Elizabeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreLivi Michael|title=Fortune CookieElizabeth and Ruth|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersHistorical Fiction|summary=Fudge Cassidy ''Elizabeth and Ruth'' is a work of historical fiction wrought from the life of the Cupcake kid are Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell, best friends. If known for her first novel Mary Barton (1848), a radical critique of the names remind you treatment of the working class published under a certain film then youpseudonym. The ''d be spot on as thatRuth's where Fudge's father got the idea from. TheyLivi Michael're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet s title appears in her novel as Pasley, a young Irish prostitute who was abandoned as a child and thoughtful – but the combination works. Theyfinds herself in Manchester've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather s New Bailey Prison after a lot on her plate. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy difficult and his problems are becoming more obviousunjust hand at life. Add to this that her father couldn't cope with the problems Set in Manchester between 1839 and he now has another family. It's just Cupcake1842, Joey the novel examines the harsh conditions endured by the Victorian working poor and her mother – and not a lot of moneyinterrogates the extent to which the wealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>1784633682
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jenifer RobertsMakenna Goodman|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I Helen of PortugalNowhere
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=Born It could be argued that the pervading theme of this book is malaise - a hard-to-place feeling that something in 1734 in Lisbonyour life is not quite right. The protagonist, at that time a disgraced professor on the richest brink of losing both his career and most opulent city in Europehis relationship, Maria was destined to become the first female monarch in Portuguese historyembodies this feeling. Married to her uncle Infante PedroHowever, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them)Goodman counteracts his discomfort with a force which is seductive, radical and became Queen in 1777unnerving: Helen. A conscientious woman, she had The connection between Helen and the misfortune to be born in during protagonist is indirect yet intimate. As the 'age former owner of reasonthe countryside house he's considering, Helen represents a volta in his life, when church and state were vying for supremacyher past tied to his potential fresh start. Instinctively a supporter of The realtor who shows the protagonist around the old religionhouse shares stories about Helen, with a humanitarian approach to state affairsand describes her as ''an entity that is pure consciousness, beyond form''. Although she was no Queen Elizabethlives in an assisted living facility now, no Catherine Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantlyreader gets the sense are not altogether innocuous.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>1804272205
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David HughesB0GCB1MQ7D|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadWhy My Mother Went Away|author=Alan Kennedy|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic NovelsAutobiography|summary=WellI have often wondered how prominent people came to hold their positions. With 'celebrities', with there's frequently a title like book they might or might not have written, which might or might not tell the true story. It's not often that you find a book thatgives the full backstory, need I bother with and rarely do you discover a plot summary? A man has a day out in Morecambememoir where the telling is so perfect that you'll go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, then just for the next thing he knows hepleasure the words give. ''Why My Mother Went Away'' is one of those rare exceptions. It's in the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array story of animals (how a batboy from the Midlands, a toadborn at the beginning of the Second World War, would become a sea urchin...), all waiting for... well, somethingProfessor of Psychology at Dundee University. Yup, as you didn't need tellingIn fact, he's deadwas one of the founders of the department.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</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)
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy StrongTom Percival|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog The Wrong Shoes|rating=45
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=TrevorWill's troublesome doglife is difficult, Streaker, has had three puppies. They were fathered, according to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one in a multitude of his Alsatiansways. Trevor would ideally like to keep themHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', at least until Christmas, but he has the wrong shoes because his parents have other ideas dad can't work and put them up for sale. Charlie Smugg declares that hedoesn's entitled to half of the t have enough money from for even the sale most basic of the puppiesthings like food, but before they and his dad can be sold the three puppies go missing in the park and it's up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands t work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Beth Durst|title=Ice|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=Cassie lives -in-hand job on a building site and had an Arctic research station in Alaskaaccident. She loves Throw into that mix the ice fact that his mum and the wilderness of her remote home dad are separated, and sheWill'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 s life seems bleak in Fairbanksevery direction. However And yet, things aren't all rosy. Cassie's mother died when she was just he still has a baby and she can't help feeling a huge hole in her hearttiny amount of hope. Her scientist father He is remote good at art, and unloving and her grandmother left clings to the station after an argument with him moments of joy when Cassie was still very younghe is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>1398527122
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Iain Smyth and Michael TerryEdward W Said|title=The Wide-Mouthed FrogRepresentations of the Intellectual
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingPolitics and Society|summary=Do you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard it. ItEdward Said's a classic. It's one that you really need to tell in person, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide open, but to hopefully spark your memory, 'Representations of the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to Intellectual'' is less a number strict theory of animals until he finally comes across what intellectuals are and more a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogs, and passionate argument for what they should be. Said clearly rejects the comfortable image of the frog does his best intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to disguise who other specialists. Instead, he is whilst saying ''Oohinsists on the intellectual as a public figure, you don't see many of those round hereoften awkward, do you?'' I'm hardly doing it justiceabrasive, but it's very cheesy and funny. Anywayunpopular, this who speaks truth to power even when it is a book of that jokeinconvenient or risky.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>1804272248
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanSylvie Cathrall|title=Don't Swallow Your GumA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleScience Fiction|summary='''BANG'''There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. That's the sound And this is one of copious urban myths being shot down. '''BANG'''. That's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baseless. '''CLICK'''. That's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant bookthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annie Taylor1786482126|title=VioletThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Violet is Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a very special hipporitual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. She is extremely small It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that does not make her adoptive parents Albert and Mavis love her any she is pregnant with his child as a result of the lessone night they spent together some three months ago. However Her condition will be obvious before long, they are slightly worried that Violet has a very unusual habit not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of turning pink without warning and for no explicable reasonsickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hilary Dixon0008551375|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveShadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Arthur Transcombe is Leanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the result of a middle-agedtragic accident. She'd looked so happy, grey-hairedtoo, self-effacing poetwhen she posted her intentions on Facebook. Unremarkable really - on 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 outsidelast year. He has, howeverAll were experienced climbers, managed to achieve some success with his poemsproperly equipped for what they were doing and sensible people. (Being None of the 'what a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival is no mean feat)stupid thing to do' explanations applied. He They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is also certain there's a babe magnet!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529429</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=Graham McCannSamantha Harvey|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-ThomasOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyGeneral Fiction|summary=When I was in my early teensIn 2024, it sometimes seemed as if Terry-Thomas was one of the stars of almost every other five-star British comedy film around. He was certainly one of Samantha Harvey won the most recognizable characters of all with his gap-toothed grin, cigarette holder and inimitable Booker Prize for 'Hel-lo!', Orbital'Hard cheese!', and best a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the lives of a group of all, astronauts aboard the angry, 'You're an absolute shower!'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard Jay Parker|title=Stop Me|rating=3International Space Station.5|genre=Crime|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoying, but most of us will have had to deal with them. Fortunately, we can hit Through a narrative lens that mirrors the delete button and forget about them as quickly as they came. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish onastronauts' orbital perspective, no matter how bad my luck is supposed Harvey invites readers to become if I don'tsee our planet in a wholly new light. But I wonder how many of us would react if a spam E-Mail actually was a matter of life and death, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>1529922933
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeanette Winterson295967572X|title=The Battle of the SunPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a busy, bustling placetrain journey with his companion Django. Boats fill the river Where they're going and people fill what the streets. Jack purpose of this journey is happy because it's his birthday and his present , is his heartuncertain. Django found the tickets 's desire: an excitable black puppy named Max, who's a on the floor somewhere''licking and a running and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the air past as the pair travel to the station by coach and the train is a tail wagging and a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''steam locomotive. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure0008551324|title=Love and KissesThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Tamsin and Katie were just thirteen and worried that they were boringIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. TheyNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he'd been best friends since forever s prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and were the good girls. Neither missed school, skipped who was responsible for her homework nor had boyfriendsdeath. WellThis person, he promises, that is, not so farsomeone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. Up until then Tamsin had been And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the boffin head – consistently strong academically remainder of his sentence and looking forward to going on to universityget an early parole date. All that seemed Not much to change when she met Alex. ask, is it? Well, when I say The new Deputy Police Constable doesn'mett think so and she' I should perhaps clarify s even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and say that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow into her, anyone who works with him is kept well away from the building site where he workedwhat's happening. Oh, and did I mention that he was seventeen, Polish and spoke very little English?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henry Mintzberg1035043092|title=ManagingThe Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=To give support to a vulnerable gang-rape victim, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers to drive Giverny Hart to I can't have been the courthouse on the day she is due to testify against the notorious Harbourn brothers. But only person who was sad when Anya arrives at the house she finds Giverny close to death and faces a battle against time to save her. In the panicInspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Anya fails Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to take note of an important clue which might help tell whether it really was suicide or start a cleverly staged murdernew life on Orkney. Worse still It's been seven years since we heard from him, in trying to save the girlbut he's life, Anya has interfered now living with a crime scene Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the case falls apartdaughter of his former partner. She blames herself for Willow's also his boss, and she ''should'' be on maternity leave, but when the Harbourn brothers being allowed to walk free and only hours later there body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is news found, in the aftermath of another attacka storm, she can't resist getting involved. A pair of sisters have He'd been stabbed and raped resulting in battered about the death head with a Neolithic stone - one of one, while the other clings to lifea pair - which had been stolen from a museum.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</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=Neal LaytonClaire-Louise Bennett|title=Surf's Up (Mammoth Academy)Big Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=34.5|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Having successfully seen off the rather unpleasant humans Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in earlier volumesanguish and distortion. Even a kiss, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar usually a symbol of intimacy and Arabella have nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy for lots more double periods closeness, becomes evidence of Difficult Sumslove lost. They're supposed to be making presentations about what they did during When the holidays toonarrator cries out internally, but Oscar hasn't done any preparation 'come over here andkiss me, frankly, he can't really remember what he actually did do with all that free time other ' it is less an invitation than no Difficult Sumsa desperate attempt to confirm her emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, her ex-partner, a ghost she conjures to test her detachment. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>1804271934
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb0008405026|title=The Princess Who Had No KingdomA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled by It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her horse Prettybed one summer night. She's very politewas never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, friendlyHelena, and kind-heartedher father are dead in their bed. Initially, but she feels it looks like something is lacking because she doesn't have a kingdom of her own. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enough, straightforward murder/suicide but there's always something about the positioning of the 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 feeling complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that shethe explanation lies in Rosalie's not quite as good disappearance: others (such as them because she isnDerwent't the princess of anywheres boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mij Kelly Annie Ernaux and Louise NisbetAlison L. Strayer (translator)|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made ChristmasOther Girl
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingAutobiography|summary=Mouse doesn't like anyone and keeps herself to herself. Her things are her things and she is too selfish to share them with anyone else. One day, an old man moves in to Mouse's house. He used to be We were born from the happiest man in the world, but now he's sadsame body. HeI's fed up of having given, given, given all his life and ve never got anything back. He just sits quietly and mopes. This makes Mouse miserable, so one day she decides really wanted to cheer him up by giving him a clementinethink about this...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kes Gray Maxim Gorky and Lee WildishBryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Mum Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dad GlueAndreyev|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingBiography|summary=A young boy's parents Biographies are splitting upoften seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. He's going through the usual emotions I think that children of divorce go through: worryGorky completely rejects this perspective, feeling unsureand offers a vibrant, blaming himselfsubjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book, angerTolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is, denial, and then trying but of what you yourself imagine it to get them be. Whom would it help to stay together. His method for know how I see this isntower, that sea, or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''t the usual response though: he looks for glue to stick his mum and dad together. ThankfullyWell, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to how he finds some wise saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and kindly advice Andreyev in the processsuch privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>1804271977
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Clara Vulliamy1529077745|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To BedDark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=It's Pearl's bedtimeA man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but she says she's really busy and isn't going to sleepwho had never turned up. She just wants D I Vera Stanhope is called in to play and play and play. When investigate the murder - but her only clue is the bear with sticky paws rings disappearance of one of the doorbellresidents, he whisks her away on an amazing adventure fourteen-year- although old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as you might expect, the bear girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has a little more energy than Pearl and eventually she does get a little sleepyto find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen MackeyOlga Tokarczuk|title=Miki|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=It's cold, dark and icy, and Miki and Penguin are trudging through the snow. But it's Midwinter Eve, when wishes come true. They wish for a tree, lights, someone strong to power the lights, and finally a star that will shine brightly forever. Miki is taken deep below the ice to find the starHouse of Day, whilst up top Penguin and new friend Polar Bear start to worry about her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034095065X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kristin Cashore|title=FireHouse 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!
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{{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, because if the reviews are to be believed and you are a fan of the 'Bloody Knife /Blunt Instrument' thrillerconscientious student, the man is quite simply not capable of turning out a duff novel. But you know how it is, what with one thing and another slightly annoying brother and a bulging pile of books to be read and reviewed, I just somehow hadn't managed to give him my full attentionsupportive friend. Until now.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409117022</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft|title=Margrave of the Marshes|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=John Peel was without doubt one of the But most important disc jockeys of all time. Born in Merseyside in 1939, he began is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his career in mid-60s America before returning home to join Radio London school, Marlowe Park, and then become one of the original Radio 1 team, where at which he stayed until his death 37 years laterexcels. I admired the man for his passion for playing the music nobody else would give the time of day (even if I didnThis hasn't always enjoy it myself) and gone unnoticed by his readiness to say exactly what he thoughtheadteacher, even if it was not what his employers at the BBC wanted to hearMrs Howarth, and I always enjoyed reading his columns in the music weeklies she has suggested to Will and later Radio Times. Nevertheless I found much of his show unlistenable towards the end, recall some mum that he spends a couple of his rather curmudgeonly remarks on air (guest slots on Radio 1's Round Table review programme come to mind), and thought his build-'em-up, knock-'em-down stance rather irritating after afternoons a while. So I approached this book with an open mind as week at a fandifferent school, but not an uncritical oneStation Road, where his ability might be better extended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez 1009473085|title=Perfumes: The A Conservative Effect 2010 - Z Guide2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=LifestylePolitics and Society|summary=Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The only thing Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that could be conceivably better than reading applies to ''PerfumesThe Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?'' would be to . If you're looking for an easy read it while sampling which will deliver the scents it reviewsinside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, but even without then this isn't the olfactory componentbook for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. 'Perfumes'The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a delight: Turin (series which looks at the impact a lyrical scientist) government has made and Sanchez (an analytically enthusiastic collector) not only treat perfume creation co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as high art, but turn perfume criticism into an art form (or at least the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a sophisticated genre series of experts from various fields review the state of writing) toothe nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681278</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David Malouf Jenny Valentine|title=RansomUs in the Before and After
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionTeens|summary=Taking his theme from a small part of Homer's IliadElk and Mab are best friends, Malouf tells the story of the king of Troyor more than that even, Priam's grief-stricken voyage into the Greek camp to ransom Troy's wealth for the body of his fallen son, Hector, killed by the equally grief-stricken Achilles whose great friend Hector had killed their friendship is a once in battle before Achilles took his cruel revengea lifetime connection. 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 They meet as children one day on a great piece of story telling.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184159</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steven M Gillon|title=The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=The assassination of President Kennedy came at a pivotal moment in my life and for more than forty years Itrip out but unfortunately they don've read most of what has been written about the event. Itt get each other's been of variable quality, but contact details at the books fed the curiosity of people entranced by the charismatic young President who died so publiclytime. I'd come to the point of wondering if there was anything new to be saidBut then chance brings them back together, but Stephen Gillom and they are inseparable. Something has looked at what happened from an unusual though, something terrible and tragic, and largely overlooked angle – the first twenty four hours of Lyndon Johnson's Presidencynow they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>1471196585
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