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Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of author [[:Category:Interviews|interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Features]] page.
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<metadesc>Book review site, with books from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and children's books plus author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>
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<h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>
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Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library, the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.
  
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews on the site.
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There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews at TheBookbag.
  
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]?
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Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
  
==New Reviews==
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==Reviews of the Best New Books==
'''For new reviews by genre [[:Category:New Reviews|click here]].'''
 
  
'''For new features [[Features|click here]].'''
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'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
__NOTOC__
 
  
{{newreview
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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
|author=Jon Berkeley
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{{Frontpage
|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)
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|author= Grady Hendrix
|rating=4.5
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|title= The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
|genre=Confident Readers
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|rating= 5
|summary=I shall start with a word of advice. When you're being hounded by a circus master, and a magician, for the soul of a tiger that's contained in a tiger's egg that's contained in the brain of your teddy bear, and your best friend - a fallen angel - 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 trilogy. Still - never mind, the angel's efforts will involve you entering a dream world of flight and cloud cities, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world to desert oases and back, and friends new and old will be on board to help.
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|genre= Horror
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>
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|summary=  Women, by and large, have always been the subjugated sex. Throughout history, they have been confined to mere bit players who occasionally help hold up the powerful man and let nothing stand in his way. Grady Hendrix's new novel ''The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires'' gives women their due. It is an ode to the strong selfless housewife. Hendrix illustrates this by having them go toe to toe with a predatory male vampire who moves into their quiet cul de sac.
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|isbn=1683691431
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008149089
|author=Sue Townsend
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|title=The Cutting Place (DS Maeve Kerrigan)
|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years
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|author=Jane Casey
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
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|genre=Crime
|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, 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 uniform, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believe, 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 yet, the worst is still to come. 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.
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|summary=It was Kim Weldon who found the first bits of the body - she was a mudlarker on the banks of the Thames and when she turned over what looked like a stick she realised it was a hand, a right hand, in fact. DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent's team would later find three other body parts. Identification of the body was not going to be easy, but eventually, it would be given a name - Paige Hargreaves, a twenty-eight-year-old freelance journalist.  Her friend, Bianca Drummond, another journalist, said that she was working on a story which she reckoned would be explosive - and she hadn't been willing to share any of the details with Bianca.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Jenny Valentine
|author=Lauren Kate
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|title=Hello Now
|title=Fallen
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=A 17 year old girl at a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boy, who she's immediately drawn to. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to her, until he saves her life, and the two of them end up drawn together. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similarities.
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|summary= Jude reluctantly moves to a small, quiet seaside town after her Mum and her most recent boyfriend split (making this their 13th post-breakup move) and settle into a big, old house overlooking the sea - which happens to contain a strange, old sitting tenant named Henry, who stays rooted in the house like a ghost that just won't leave – or can't. As Jude settles into this new, seemingly mundane, reality she is consumed by a longing for her old life in London and anger at another forced change – but this will be the last time, she swears. This world is quiet, dull and yet suffocating for Jude. That is until the day Novo arrives, and her entire concept of the world changes forever.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0007466498
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0867X8NW7
|author=Gareth Hinds
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|title=Access Point
|title=King Lear
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|author=T R Gabbay
|rating=3
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|rating=4
|genre=Graphic Novels
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Hound me out of town in a most appropriate manner, but I do not like King LearFor me, even as a trained actor, the language is too dense and rich, the set-up too archly unfeasible to create the great tragedy it's thought to beTo my mind the acclaim and esteem in which it's held is only mirrored by its own over-long, over-blown blustering.
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|summary=When we first meet Ula Mishkin she's having something of a professional success: using a device of her own invention she's helped a man who has been blind for decades to see an image of a hummingbirdShe's thirty-six years old and her life is about to change radically as, cycling home, she's involved in an accident with a busIt's two years before we meet her again and in the meantime, she's spent 392 days in a coma and now walks with a stick.  A professional colleague persuades Ula that she should let out a spare bedroom to bring in some income.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author= Ben Oliver
|author=Paul Theroux
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|title= The Loop
|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta
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|rating= 3.5
|rating=3.5
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|genre= Teens
|genre=General Fiction
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|summary= Set during the aftermath of a Third World War where methods of punishment for criminal activities have been amped up to a horrific level by machines, The Loop follows the precarious existence of adolescent Luka Kane. In a world of Have and Have Nots where Alts [cyborgs] have power over Regulars, he is trapped inside a living hell with no chance of escape. A detonator has been sewn inside his heart connecting him to a trigger held by the guards who can end his life with one squeeze. Luka is taunted by limited access to his memories and relentlessly drained of energy through a gruelling daily torture ritual. Doomed to Delay [a risky medical trial where he is a guinea pig for Alts in place of execution] after Delay he is in despair. His prison is based on the model of an infinity loop designed to make its inmates suffer. With the only glimmers of hope being the rumours of rebellion outside and the visits of sympathetic Alt guard Wren, can Luka ever be free? Why has he been imprisoned? What waits for him if he can break the loop?
|summary=Set in India, familiar territory for Theroux, ''A Dead Hand'' tells the story of a travel writer suffering from writer's block (also known as 'dead hand') until a chance letter from an American ex-pat, the mysterious Mrs Unger, relating a story of a mystery of a dead body in a hotel leads him to release his creativity in very unexpected ways. The story is more about obsession and infatuation than it is about the mystery itself as the narrator falls under Mrs Unger's Tantric charms. But does she have more to hide than she's letting on?
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|isbn=1912626551
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author= Kirsty Applebaum
|author=Toby Lester
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|title= Troofriend
|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest Map
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|rating= 4.5
|rating=4.5
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|genre= Confident Readers
|genre=History
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|summary= Are you tired of your child's classmates constantly being horrible to them? Do you want your child to have some positive experiences with people? Introducing the new Jenson & Jenson Troofriend 560 Mark IV android! These state-of-the-art machines are capable of emulating the full range of human emotions without lying, stealing or bullying. They're the perfect companion for any child! Any mention that these androids are beginning to develop real human feelings are just unsubstantiated rumours and have absolutely no basis in reality…right?
|summary=In 2003 a map was bought for $10 million, the highest price ever paid publicly for a historical document, by the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public display.  No ordinary map, this is sometimes described as America's birth certificate.  It is the sole survivor of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th century, and was discovered by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901. The sale and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired to discover more, and this book is the result.
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|isbn=1788003470
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529123941
|author=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur
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|title=The Silent Treatment
|title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global Misery
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|author=Abbie Greaves
|rating=3
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Humour
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floor.'' Surely that is the wackiest, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch and all it has done for the worldYou won't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authors, instead with quite a potty mouth on them they will lambast the modern world, the entire banking system, all those who failed to see it coming, and those millions just seemingly waiting 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 lists.
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|summary= When we meet Professor Frank Hobbs and his wife, Maggie, Frank is playing chess against his computer, although not very successfullyMaggie, on the other hand, has just taken some pills - eight of them, in fact - and before long she will collapse.  When Frank rings the emergency services in Oxford he has a bit of a problemHe has to admit that he and Maggie haven't actually spoken for a while.  How long?  Well, it's about six months since he spoke to Maggie and he can't really say if it's likely that Maggie has tried to take her own life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Andy Stanton
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|author=Rob Harrell
|title=What's For Dinner, Mr Gum?
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|title=Wink
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns her back, and leaves the town of Lamonic Bibber for a day at the seaside, Mr Gum falls out with his best friend, causing carnivorous carnage all over the placeMeat is getting thrown around like it's going out of fashion, and we have to doubt whether Polly and her companions can ever utilise the power of love and put things to rights.  Especially as this book does not contain a magic unicorn called Elizabeth.
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|summary=When Ross is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, aged 12, his desperate attempts at school to just be 'normal' become impossible.  Suddenly he is the cancer kid, and everything he does, how he looks, and how he behaves falls under the scrutiny of the other kids in school.  Ross is, understandably, angry.  He is facing potential blindness, whilst dealing with an eye sealed in a permanent wink.  He has gloopy eye medicine to try to help with the pain, plus the need to wear a hat at all times to protect his face due to the ongoing treatmentWith the sudden ghosting by one of his best friends, and a series of horrible memes that someone at school creates about Ross, nothing about his life is normal any more, and he has to find new ways to deal with his feelings, and survive.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1471409147
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1786485575
|author=Loose Women
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|title=Magpie Lane
|title=Here Come the Girls
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|author=Lucy Atkins
|rating=4
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|rating=5
|genre=Home and Family
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|genre=Crime
|summary=This is the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV series, ''Loose Women''. Just as promised on the cover, this book is an entertaining night with the girlsIt turns out that they're just like us. The faces are already familiar and even if you don't know them yet, with nine contributors, you'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one of the celebrity faces.  The women are universally warm-hearted and supportive: there will be many a lonely woman who reads this book and feels as if she sat down with a group of friends for the evening.
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|summary=When we first meet Dee she's talking to Nick Law, the new college master.  Law's lately of the BBC and he doesn't come with an entirely good reputation: he's a bit of a bully and Dee can sense something of that in their first conversation. She had been planning to return home to Scotland before taking on a new job as a nanny, but somehow she finds herself going to see Mariah, the Danish wife of the masterShe's pregnant and looking for help, not with the new baby but with the master's daughter by his first wife, Ana.  Felicity is selectively mute: she does talk to her father, but to no one else.  The eight-year-old is grieving for her dead mother and struggling at school.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sally Magnusson
|author=Jean Ure
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|title=The Sealwoman's Gift
|title=Fortune Cookie
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Fudge Cassidy and the Cupcake kid are best friends.  If the names remind you of a certain film then you'd be spot on as that's where Fudge's father got the idea fromThey'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 at secondary school and Cupcake has rather a lot on her plate.  Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obviousAdd to this that her father couldn't cope with the problems and he now has another familyIt's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not a lot of money.
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|summary= There is a legend that God came to visit Adam & Eve in the GardenEve had not finished bathing her children and ashamed of those still not cleansed, she attempted to hide them from the eyes of God, denying that she had more children that those, already bathed, that she willing paraded for himGod was not to be deceived, however, and decreed that what was sought to be hidden from the eyes of God would henceforth be hidden from the eyes of man, and so the Elves were born: the hidden folkThey can see man, but man can only see them if they so choose.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1473638984
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Wendy Cheyne 
|author=Jenifer Roberts
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|title=From the Auld Rock to a Hard Place
|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of Portugal
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|rating=4
|rating=4.5
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|genre=Historical Fiction
|genre=Biography
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|summary= After the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden, many Scottish estates were given to English lords. They were not kind to their crofting tenants. Many on the mainland were cleared and while this did not happen much on the islands such as Shetland, the new exploitative conditions led many Shetlanders to leave - to port cities on the mainland, to North America and even to Australia and New Zealand.  
|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined to become the first female monarch in Portuguese history. Married to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them), and became Queen in 1777.  A conscientious woman, she had the misfortune to be born in during the 'age of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacy.  Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantly.
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|isbn= 1838591753
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Ele Fountain
|author=David Hughes
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|title=Lost
|title=Thomas Wogan is Dead
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Well, with a title like that, need I bother with a plot summary?  A man has a day out in Morecambe, then the next thing he knows he's in the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array of animals (a bat, a toad, a sea urchin...), all waiting for... well, something.  Yup, as you didn't need telling, he's dead.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Dave Eggers
 
|title=The Wild Things
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Meet Max.  When I say he sometimes gets the wrong end of the stick about adults, or dislikes his mother's new boyfriend, or gets a bit feisty when he feels the need for revenge, I am certainly understating the facts.  He is a bit of a rascal to say the least.  But all that might change when he finds himself travelling to a strange land of roisterous animals, and ends up installed as their king.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jeremy Strong
 
|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|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 AlsatiansTrevor would ideally like to keep them, at least until Christmas, but his parents have other ideas and put them up for saleCharlie 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 and it's up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!
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|summary=Lola lives in an Indian city with her father, and her brother, Amit. She lives with them in a nice apartment, and although they are not rich like some of the girls at school, they have enough money to be comfortableLola spends her time thinking about her school friends, and trying to fit in with them, until one day, suddenly, everything in her life changesAfter taking a work trip away, Lola's father doesn't come home.  They have nobody else to help, and as they wait day after day, Lola wonders what will become of them until, finally, they are evicted from their flat, and she and her brother find themselves forced to live on the streets.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>
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|isbn=178269255X
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author= N K Jemisin
|author=Sarah Beth Durst
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|title= The City We Became
|title=Ice
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|rating= 4
|rating=3.5
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|genre= Science Fiction
|genre=Teens
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|summary= New York is being born, the city has reached critical mass and has matured into a living almost-breathing entity and is ready to make its way out into the world. Before it can be established, an ancient evil appears to attempt to destroy it just as it destroyed Atlantis and other forgotten places. The city is not alone through the birthing process, people who embody the values are selected to become the living embodiment of the city, some cities have one, some have twelve and New York has six. Together these human-embodiments must defeat the woman in white and save New York from very real destruction. But these are five different boroughs which don't always see eye to eye, it's a personality clash on an epic scale and unity is both critical and not remotely guaranteed.
|summary=Cassie lives on an Arctic research station in Alaska. She loves the ice and the wilderness of her remote home and she'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. Cassie's mother died when she was just a baby and she can't help feeling a huge hole in her heart. Her scientist father is remote and unloving and her grandmother left the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very young.
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|isbn=0356512665
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Iain Smyth and Michael Terry
 
|title=The Wide-Mouthed Frog
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Do you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard it. It'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, the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to a number of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogs, and the frog does his best to disguise who he is whilst saying ''Ooh, you don't see many of those round here, do you?'' I'm hardly doing it justice, but it's very cheesy and funny. Anyway, this is a book of that joke.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241446732
|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman
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|title=Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis
|title=Don't Swallow Your Gum
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|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
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|genre=Politics and Society
|summary='''BANG'''That's the sound 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 book.
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|summary=The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normalMalena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughtersThen eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happeningIn such circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the family that they were ''burned-out people on a burned-out planet''If they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Annie Taylor
 
|title=Violet
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Violet is a very special hippo. She is extremely small but that does not make her adoptive parents Albert and Mavis love her any the less. However, they are slightly worried that Violet has a very unusual habit of turning pink without warning and for no explicable reason.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Hilary Dixon
 
|title=When Rooks Speak of Love
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Arthur Transcombe is a middle-aged, grey-haired, self-effacing poetUnremarkable really - on the outside.  He has, however, managed to achieve some success with his poems.  (Being a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival is no mean feat). He is also a babe magnet!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=178730101X
|author=A J Healy
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|title=Keep Him Close
|title=Tommy Storm and the Galactic Knights
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|author=Emily Koch
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Crime
|summary=Meet Tommy StormHe's one of five teenagers snapped up from around the universe to be a gang of heroic detectives charged with rescuing EVERYTHING from destructionNot just the planet, or the solar system, or even the galaxy, but EVERYTHING.  Nobody seems to know what's going to cause this destruction, or when, but he and his friends and their ship seem to be the only people proactively going about saving the daySo it's a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony who's about to kill them.
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|summary=Alice had two children: Benny (well, Benoît, actually) and LouisLou's seventeen and he's just got his A level results and he and his brother are going out to celebrateSomeone has to find something to celebrate in the letters, D, D and EAlice has always had a good relationship with nineteen-year-old Benny but it's a touch problematic with Lou and being honest, he's not terribly likeable.  The letters which kept coming to my mind were ADHD.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241396840
|author=Graham McCann
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|title=Keeper
|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-Thomas
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|author=Jessica Moor
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=When I was in my early teens, 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 the most recognizable characters of all with his gap-toothed grin, cigarette holder and inimitable 'Hel-lo!', 'Hard cheese!', and best of all, the angry, 'You're an absolute shower!'
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Richard Jay Parker
 
|title=Stop Me
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Crime
 
|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 the delete button and forget about them as quickly as they came.  I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish on, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I don't.  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?
+
|summary=Katie Straw worked in the women's refuge and the women who lived there liked and respected her.  She treated them well and seemed to have an understanding of what they were going throughWhy then did she jump from the local suicide spot into the river below? There had been no signs that she was unhappy and she and her boyfriend seemed to have been content together - and Noah has a decent alibi for the time when she died, but what other explanation could there be for her death? The police are convinced that it's suicide, but the women who knew her believed otherwise.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jeanette Winterson
 
|title=The Battle of the Sun
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city is a busy, bustling place. Boats fill the river and people fill the streets. Jack is happy because it's his birthday and his present is his heart's desire: an excitable black puppy named Max, who's a ''licking and a running and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy in the air and a tail wagging and a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jean Ure
 
|title=Love and Kisses
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Tamsin and Katie were just thirteen and worried that they were boring.  They'd been best friends since forever and were the good girls. Neither missed school, skipped her homework nor had boyfriendsWell, that is, not so far.  Up until then Tamsin had been the boffin head – consistently strong academically and looking forward to going on to universityAll that seemed to change when she met Alex.  Well, when I say 'met' I should perhaps clarify and say that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow into her, from the building site where he worked. Oh, and did I mention that he was seventeen, Polish and spoke very little English?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Henry Mintzberg
 
|title=Managing
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|summary=''Study after study has shown that managers work at an unrelenting pace''
 
 
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 one. How does anyone who needs or wants to read one ever find the time to do so? This title actually has an answer to this, by providing two books in one, and it is such a simple yet effective solution that I have to start there. You can read this book in one of two ways. Option one is to read every word, chapter by chapter, cover to cover. If you have the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readable, not too repetitive, and quite thought-provoking.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1838880658
|author=Kathryn Fox
+
|title=Murder at Enderley Hall (Miss Underhay)
|title=Blood Born
+
|author=Helena Dixon
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=To give support to a vulnerable gang-rape victim, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers to drive Giverny Hart to the courthouse on the day she is due to testify against the notorious Harbourn brothers. But when Anya arrives at the house she finds Giverny close to death and faces a battle against time to save her. In the panic, Anya fails 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 to save the girl's life, Anya has interfered with a crime scene and the case falls apart. She blames herself for the Harbourn brothers being allowed to walk free and only hours later there is news of another attack. A pair of sisters have been stabbed and raped resulting in the death of one, while the other clings to life.
+
|summary=It's the summer of 1933 and Kitty Underhay is on her way to visit the family which she never knew she had, at Enderley Hall. Her grandmother, Mrs Treadwell, and Great Aunt Livvy are back at the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth. Kitty gets easily bored working at the Dolphin - every day is much the same - but her real reason for going away is that she needs a break after her recent adventures, which involved three vicious murders, an arson attack and an attempt on her life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1788638026
|author=Leah Fleming
+
|title=Where the Innocent Die (D I Ridpath)
|title=Remembrance Day
+
|author=M J Lee
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=In the year 2000 an old lady in a wheelchair watches the unveiling of the new war memorial in the village square. There's pride in what has been achieved, in the family who are gathered around her and there are memories tooSome are good but many are not.
+
|summary=It was easy to assume that the death of the young Chinese girl at the Immigrant Removal Centre was suicide.  Her throat was cut, there was a lot of blood and the knife was on the floor at the side of the bed,  She was due to be deported that day.  But... how did the knife get into the secure centre and why was the girl's room the only one which was unlocked?  DI Thomas Ridpath, the coroner's officer, is sent to investigate and he quickly becomes suspicious, There's a snag though: the inquest is due to open in a couple of days' time, the girl's parents are coming over from China and they want to take their daughter's body home with them.  Ridpath has just five days to solve the caseThe coroner is disinclined to delay the inquest: for her, it's about giving closure to the parents.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1471166023
|author=Neal Layton
+
|title=Burnt Island (Ben Kitto)
|title=Surf's Up (Mammoth Academy)
+
|author=Kate Rhodes
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Having successfully seen off the rather unpleasant humans in earlier volumes, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar and Arabella have nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy for lots more double periods of Difficult Sums. They're supposed to be making presentations about what they did during the holidays too, but Oscar hasn't done any preparation and, frankly, he can't really remember what he actually did do with all that free time other than no Difficult Sums.  
+
|summary=The 5th of November was D I Ben Kitto's thirty-fifth birthday and the occasion for the usual bonfire celebrations, but it would be marred this year by the discovery of Professor Alex Rogan's body on a bonfire.  He'd obviously been alive when he was put on the fire and can only have died a terrible death.  The body was first discovered by Jimmy Curwen, better known on St Agnes as the Bird Man because he speaks little or nothing and his only concern is the welfare of the birds he looks after. His instinct is to cover Rogan's body and he uses his sheepskin coat to do this, with the result that he's the prime suspect.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Elliot Reed
|author=Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb
+
|title=A Key to Treehouse Living
|title=The Princess Who Had No Kingdom
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled by her horse Pretty. She's very polite, friendly, and kind-hearted, but she feels like something is lacking because she doesn't have a kingdom of her own. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enough, but there's always a feeling that she's not quite as good as them because she isn't the princess of anywhere.
+
|summary=This is the story of a young boy, William Tyce, who is being raised by his uncle after the death of his mother and his father's abandonment. However, it isn't told in the usual narrative way. Instead, the book is made up of glossary entries, written by William, as a way of describing certain events, situations and emotions. It runs alphabetically, starting with ABSENCE, then moving to ALPHABETICAL ORDER. As I began to read I did find myself thinking 'what on earth?!' but I soon grew used to the style, and was instead caught up in William's story.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1911545418
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mij Kelly and Louise Nisbet
 
|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made Christmas
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|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 the happiest man in the world, but now he's sad. He's fed up of having given, given, given all his life and never got anything back. 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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Nick Bland
 
|title=The Very Cranky Bear
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Moose, Lion, Zebra and Sheep head into a cave to get out of the rain, but little do they know that Bear is fast asleep in there. When they wake him up, he roars at them, chasing them outside, so they decide to cheer him up somehow. 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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Will Dean
|author=Kes Gray and Lee Wildish
+
|title=Black River
|title=Mum and Dad Glue
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=A young boy's parents are splitting up. He's going through the usual emotions that children of divorce go through: worry, feeling unsure, blaming himself, anger, denial, and then trying to get them to stay together. His method for this isn't the usual response though: he looks for glue to stick his mum and dad together. Thankfully, he finds some wise and kindly advice in the process.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Clara Vulliamy
 
|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To Bed
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=It's Pearl's bedtime, but she says she's really busy and isn't going to sleep. She just wants to play and play and play. When the bear with sticky paws rings the doorbell, he whisks her away on an amazing adventure - although as you might expect, the bear has a little more energy than Pearl and eventually she does get a little sleepy.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Stephen Mackey
 
|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 star, whilst up top Penguin and new friend Polar Bear start to worry about her.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034095065X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kristin Cashore
 
|title=Fire
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Possessed of great beauty, the kind 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 that exists in the man's mind.
+
|summary=Tuva Moodyson returns - and this third book in the Tuva Moodyson mystery series delves deep into her personal life, returning her to the isolated town of Gavrik and into a desperate search for her missing best friend. With the Midsommar sun blocked out by the dark pines of the forest, Tuva fights to save her friend. But who’ll be there to save Tuva?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905200129</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1786077116
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1782407480
|author=Justin Scroggie
+
|title=Bird Love: The Family Life of Birds
|title=Eye Spy: Uncovering the Secrets of the World Around You
+
|author=Wenfei Tong and Mike Webster
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Trivia
+
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
|summary=Signs are everywhere. I wasn't really one of those who thought our roads were littered with too many traffic signs until the day I was driven past a pair of speed regulation signs, positioned at the exit end of a one-way street but facing the illegal way up it. Not all signs, of course, are quite as unnecessary, or indeed as blatantly visible, which is where this pictorial guide to countless coded messages, signifiers and other similar factoids comes in.
+
|summary=I was a little perturbed when I looked at the blurb for ''Bird Love'' on a couple of on-line booksellers: ''exploring the sex life of birds'' it said.  I very nearly passed over the book, but a closer examination suggested that the book is about the ''family life'' of birds, which is rather different.  If the book was confined to the sex life of birds, you would be missing an opportunity to understand how birds live day-to-day, bring up their families and cope in the wild. Not only that, you have missed the treat of so many beautiful illustrations about a wide variety of birds which run through this book from the first page to the last.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994487</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Camilla Bruce
|author=Jose Saramago
+
|title=You Let Me In
|title=Small Memories
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Having been born in 1922 and lived through so much of the twentieth century, with an author's view of change and people, Jose Saramago has certainly experienced a lot.  Civil Wars in the neighbouring Spain; the growth of his country - which still left it as western Europe's poorest.  Here he allows us witness to his mind drifting through his childhood, in the country and in Lisbon, and provides a subtle and gentle memoir.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655148X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Eoin Colfer
 
|title=And Another Thing ... Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Part Six of Three (Hitchhikers Guide 6)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|summary=Of all the big books announced for this year, this one must have raised more eyebrows than many.  Why try and write a new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, when way before the end, its creator Douglas Adams was proving quite hopeless at such a task?  And why approach an Irishman, Eoin Colfer, when the originals - tempered with their humour which could only be described as Monty Python doing a sci-fi Terry Pratchett, and with their cups of tea and dressing gowns, 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 story.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155149</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Harlan Coben
 
|title=Tell No One
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I've been meaning to get around to reading some or all of Harlan Coben's work, because if the reviews are to be believed and you are a fan of the 'Bloody Knife /Blunt Instrument' thriller, 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 and a bulging pile of books to be read and reviewed, I just somehow hadn't managed to give him my full attention.  Until now.
+
|summary= Eccentric, isolated romance novelist Cassandra Tipp has been missing for a year and has been pronounced legally dead by her lawyers. Her will instructs her niece and nephew to enter her home and find the key to their inheritance in an old manuscript left in her office: the last story she'll ever tell.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409117022</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1787633179
}}
 
 
 
{{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 most important disc jockeys of all time.  Born in Merseyside in 1939, he began his career in mid-60s America before returning home to join Radio London and then become one of the original Radio 1 team, where he stayed until his death 37 years later.  I admired the man for his passion for playing the music nobody else would give the time of day (even if I didn't always enjoy it myself) and his readiness to say exactly what he thought, even if it was not what his employers at the BBC wanted to hear, and I always enjoyed reading his columns in the music weeklies and later Radio Times.  Nevertheless I found much of his show unlistenable towards the end, recall some 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 a while.  So I approached this book with an open mind as a fan, but not an uncritical one.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez
 
|title=Perfumes: The A - Z Guide
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|summary=Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The only thing that could be conceivably better than reading ''Perfumes'' would be to read it while sampling the scents it reviews, but even without the olfactory component, ''Perfumes'' is a delight: Turin (a lyrical scientist) and Sanchez (an analytically enthusiastic collector) not only treat perfume creation as high art, but turn perfume criticism into an art form (or at least a sophisticated genre of writing) too.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681278</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Malouf
 
|title=Ransom
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Taking his theme from a small part of Homer's Iliad, Malouf tells the story of the king of Troy, 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 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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{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 I've read most of what has been written about the event.  It's been of variable quality, but the books fed the curiosity of people entranced by the charismatic young President who died so publicly.  I'd come to the point of wondering if there was anything new to be said, but Stephen Gillom has looked at what happened from an unusual and largely overlooked angle – the first twenty four hours of Lyndon Johnson's Presidency.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}

Revision as of 09:16, 7 April 2020

The Bookbag

Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library, the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of author interviews, and all sorts of top tens - all of which you can find on our features page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the recommendations page.

There are currently 16,084 reviews at TheBookbag.

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Reviews of the Best New Books

Read new reviews by category.

Read the latest features.

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Review of

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

5star.jpg Horror

Women, by and large, have always been the subjugated sex. Throughout history, they have been confined to mere bit players who occasionally help hold up the powerful man and let nothing stand in his way. Grady Hendrix's new novel The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires gives women their due. It is an ode to the strong selfless housewife. Hendrix illustrates this by having them go toe to toe with a predatory male vampire who moves into their quiet cul de sac. Full Review

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Review of

The Cutting Place (DS Maeve Kerrigan) by Jane Casey

5star.jpg Crime

It was Kim Weldon who found the first bits of the body - she was a mudlarker on the banks of the Thames and when she turned over what looked like a stick she realised it was a hand, a right hand, in fact. DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent's team would later find three other body parts. Identification of the body was not going to be easy, but eventually, it would be given a name - Paige Hargreaves, a twenty-eight-year-old freelance journalist. Her friend, Bianca Drummond, another journalist, said that she was working on a story which she reckoned would be explosive - and she hadn't been willing to share any of the details with Bianca. Full Review

0007466498.jpg

Review of

Hello Now by Jenny Valentine

4.5star.jpg Teens

Jude reluctantly moves to a small, quiet seaside town after her Mum and her most recent boyfriend split (making this their 13th post-breakup move) and settle into a big, old house overlooking the sea - which happens to contain a strange, old sitting tenant named Henry, who stays rooted in the house like a ghost that just won't leave – or can't. As Jude settles into this new, seemingly mundane, reality she is consumed by a longing for her old life in London and anger at another forced change – but this will be the last time, she swears. This world is quiet, dull and yet suffocating for Jude. That is until the day Novo arrives, and her entire concept of the world changes forever. Full Review

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Review of

Access Point by T R Gabbay

4star.jpg Thrillers

When we first meet Ula Mishkin she's having something of a professional success: using a device of her own invention she's helped a man who has been blind for decades to see an image of a hummingbird. She's thirty-six years old and her life is about to change radically as, cycling home, she's involved in an accident with a bus. It's two years before we meet her again and in the meantime, she's spent 392 days in a coma and now walks with a stick. A professional colleague persuades Ula that she should let out a spare bedroom to bring in some income. Full Review

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Review of

The Loop by Ben Oliver

3.5star.jpg Teens

Set during the aftermath of a Third World War where methods of punishment for criminal activities have been amped up to a horrific level by machines, The Loop follows the precarious existence of adolescent Luka Kane. In a world of Have and Have Nots where Alts [cyborgs] have power over Regulars, he is trapped inside a living hell with no chance of escape. A detonator has been sewn inside his heart connecting him to a trigger held by the guards who can end his life with one squeeze. Luka is taunted by limited access to his memories and relentlessly drained of energy through a gruelling daily torture ritual. Doomed to Delay [a risky medical trial where he is a guinea pig for Alts in place of execution] after Delay he is in despair. His prison is based on the model of an infinity loop designed to make its inmates suffer. With the only glimmers of hope being the rumours of rebellion outside and the visits of sympathetic Alt guard Wren, can Luka ever be free? Why has he been imprisoned? What waits for him if he can break the loop? Full Review

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Review of

Troofriend by Kirsty Applebaum

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Are you tired of your child's classmates constantly being horrible to them? Do you want your child to have some positive experiences with people? Introducing the new Jenson & Jenson Troofriend 560 Mark IV android! These state-of-the-art machines are capable of emulating the full range of human emotions without lying, stealing or bullying. They're the perfect companion for any child! Any mention that these androids are beginning to develop real human feelings are just unsubstantiated rumours and have absolutely no basis in reality…right? Full Review

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Review of

The Silent Treatment by Abbie Greaves

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

When we meet Professor Frank Hobbs and his wife, Maggie, Frank is playing chess against his computer, although not very successfully. Maggie, on the other hand, has just taken some pills - eight of them, in fact - and before long she will collapse. When Frank rings the emergency services in Oxford he has a bit of a problem. He has to admit that he and Maggie haven't actually spoken for a while. How long? Well, it's about six months since he spoke to Maggie and he can't really say if it's likely that Maggie has tried to take her own life. Full Review

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Review of

Wink by Rob Harrell

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

When Ross is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, aged 12, his desperate attempts at school to just be 'normal' become impossible. Suddenly he is the cancer kid, and everything he does, how he looks, and how he behaves falls under the scrutiny of the other kids in school. Ross is, understandably, angry. He is facing potential blindness, whilst dealing with an eye sealed in a permanent wink. He has gloopy eye medicine to try to help with the pain, plus the need to wear a hat at all times to protect his face due to the ongoing treatment. With the sudden ghosting by one of his best friends, and a series of horrible memes that someone at school creates about Ross, nothing about his life is normal any more, and he has to find new ways to deal with his feelings, and survive. Full Review

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Review of

Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins

5star.jpg Crime

When we first meet Dee she's talking to Nick Law, the new college master. Law's lately of the BBC and he doesn't come with an entirely good reputation: he's a bit of a bully and Dee can sense something of that in their first conversation. She had been planning to return home to Scotland before taking on a new job as a nanny, but somehow she finds herself going to see Mariah, the Danish wife of the master. She's pregnant and looking for help, not with the new baby but with the master's daughter by his first wife, Ana. Felicity is selectively mute: she does talk to her father, but to no one else. The eight-year-old is grieving for her dead mother and struggling at school. Full Review

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Review of

The Sealwoman's Gift by Sally Magnusson

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

There is a legend that God came to visit Adam & Eve in the Garden. Eve had not finished bathing her children and ashamed of those still not cleansed, she attempted to hide them from the eyes of God, denying that she had more children that those, already bathed, that she willing paraded for him. God was not to be deceived, however, and decreed that what was sought to be hidden from the eyes of God would henceforth be hidden from the eyes of man, and so the Elves were born: the hidden folk. They can see man, but man can only see them if they so choose. Full Review

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Review of

From the Auld Rock to a Hard Place by Wendy Cheyne

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

After the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden, many Scottish estates were given to English lords. They were not kind to their crofting tenants. Many on the mainland were cleared and while this did not happen much on the islands such as Shetland, the new exploitative conditions led many Shetlanders to leave - to port cities on the mainland, to North America and even to Australia and New Zealand. Full Review

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Review of

Lost by Ele Fountain

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Lola lives in an Indian city with her father, and her brother, Amit. She lives with them in a nice apartment, and although they are not rich like some of the girls at school, they have enough money to be comfortable. Lola spends her time thinking about her school friends, and trying to fit in with them, until one day, suddenly, everything in her life changes. After taking a work trip away, Lola's father doesn't come home. They have nobody else to help, and as they wait day after day, Lola wonders what will become of them until, finally, they are evicted from their flat, and she and her brother find themselves forced to live on the streets. Full Review

0356512665.jpg

Review of

The City We Became by N K Jemisin

4star.jpg Science Fiction

New York is being born, the city has reached critical mass and has matured into a living almost-breathing entity and is ready to make its way out into the world. Before it can be established, an ancient evil appears to attempt to destroy it just as it destroyed Atlantis and other forgotten places. The city is not alone through the birthing process, people who embody the values are selected to become the living embodiment of the city, some cities have one, some have twelve and New York has six. Together these human-embodiments must defeat the woman in white and save New York from very real destruction. But these are five different boroughs which don't always see eye to eye, it's a personality clash on an epic scale and unity is both critical and not remotely guaranteed. Full Review

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Review of

Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis by Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg

5star.jpg Politics and Society

The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening. In such circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the family that they were burned-out people on a burned-out planet. If they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical. Full Review

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Review of

Keep Him Close by Emily Koch

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Alice had two children: Benny (well, Benoît, actually) and Louis. Lou's seventeen and he's just got his A level results and he and his brother are going out to celebrate. Someone has to find something to celebrate in the letters, D, D and E. Alice has always had a good relationship with nineteen-year-old Benny but it's a touch problematic with Lou and being honest, he's not terribly likeable. The letters which kept coming to my mind were ADHD. Full Review

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Review of

Keeper by Jessica Moor

4.5star.jpg Crime

Katie Straw worked in the women's refuge and the women who lived there liked and respected her. She treated them well and seemed to have an understanding of what they were going through. Why then did she jump from the local suicide spot into the river below? There had been no signs that she was unhappy and she and her boyfriend seemed to have been content together - and Noah has a decent alibi for the time when she died, but what other explanation could there be for her death? The police are convinced that it's suicide, but the women who knew her believed otherwise. Full Review

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Review of

Murder at Enderley Hall (Miss Underhay) by Helena Dixon

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It's the summer of 1933 and Kitty Underhay is on her way to visit the family which she never knew she had, at Enderley Hall. Her grandmother, Mrs Treadwell, and Great Aunt Livvy are back at the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth. Kitty gets easily bored working at the Dolphin - every day is much the same - but her real reason for going away is that she needs a break after her recent adventures, which involved three vicious murders, an arson attack and an attempt on her life. Full Review

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Review of

Where the Innocent Die (D I Ridpath) by M J Lee

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It was easy to assume that the death of the young Chinese girl at the Immigrant Removal Centre was suicide. Her throat was cut, there was a lot of blood and the knife was on the floor at the side of the bed, She was due to be deported that day. But... how did the knife get into the secure centre and why was the girl's room the only one which was unlocked? DI Thomas Ridpath, the coroner's officer, is sent to investigate and he quickly becomes suspicious, There's a snag though: the inquest is due to open in a couple of days' time, the girl's parents are coming over from China and they want to take their daughter's body home with them. Ridpath has just five days to solve the case. The coroner is disinclined to delay the inquest: for her, it's about giving closure to the parents. Full Review

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Review of

Burnt Island (Ben Kitto) by Kate Rhodes

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The 5th of November was D I Ben Kitto's thirty-fifth birthday and the occasion for the usual bonfire celebrations, but it would be marred this year by the discovery of Professor Alex Rogan's body on a bonfire. He'd obviously been alive when he was put on the fire and can only have died a terrible death. The body was first discovered by Jimmy Curwen, better known on St Agnes as the Bird Man because he speaks little or nothing and his only concern is the welfare of the birds he looks after. His instinct is to cover Rogan's body and he uses his sheepskin coat to do this, with the result that he's the prime suspect. Full Review

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Review of

A Key to Treehouse Living by Elliot Reed

4star.jpg General Fiction

This is the story of a young boy, William Tyce, who is being raised by his uncle after the death of his mother and his father's abandonment. However, it isn't told in the usual narrative way. Instead, the book is made up of glossary entries, written by William, as a way of describing certain events, situations and emotions. It runs alphabetically, starting with ABSENCE, then moving to ALPHABETICAL ORDER. As I began to read I did find myself thinking 'what on earth?!' but I soon grew used to the style, and was instead caught up in William's story. Full Review

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Review of

Black River by Will Dean

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Tuva Moodyson returns - and this third book in the Tuva Moodyson mystery series delves deep into her personal life, returning her to the isolated town of Gavrik and into a desperate search for her missing best friend. With the Midsommar sun blocked out by the dark pines of the forest, Tuva fights to save her friend. But who’ll be there to save Tuva? Full Review

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Review of

Bird Love: The Family Life of Birds by Wenfei Tong and Mike Webster

4.5star.jpg Animals and Wildlife

I was a little perturbed when I looked at the blurb for Bird Love on a couple of on-line booksellers: exploring the sex life of birds it said. I very nearly passed over the book, but a closer examination suggested that the book is about the family life of birds, which is rather different. If the book was confined to the sex life of birds, you would be missing an opportunity to understand how birds live day-to-day, bring up their families and cope in the wild. Not only that, you have missed the treat of so many beautiful illustrations about a wide variety of birds which run through this book from the first page to the last. Full Review

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Review of

You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce

4star.jpg General Fiction

Eccentric, isolated romance novelist Cassandra Tipp has been missing for a year and has been pronounced legally dead by her lawyers. Her will instructs her niece and nephew to enter her home and find the key to their inheritance in an old manuscript left in her office: the last story she'll ever tell. Full Review