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{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Michel Deon
+
|author= Thomas Dolby
|title= Your Father's Room
+
|title= The Speed of Sound
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Literary Fiction
+
|genre=Entertainment
|summary= I don't feel altogether qualified to review Michel Déon's 2004 fictionalised memoir ''Your Father's Room'', translated here into English for the first time. I hadn't heard of Déon before receiving my copy, let alone read any of his books, published over a 70 year period to much acclaim in his homeland. But it's part of the pleasure of book reviewing to read with no prior knowledge or prejudice, all the more so if you discover an absolute gem.
+
|summary= From struggling post-punk musician to pop star, from Silicon Valley innovator to university professor, Thomas Dolby has had a remarkable if not unique career, often reinventing himself on the way. This memoir is based on his extensive notes and journals.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910477346</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785781952</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Andrew Wilson
+
|author= Ron Butlin
|title= A Talent for Murder
+
|title= Steve and Frandan Take on the World
|rating=4.5
+
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Crime (Historical)
+
|genre= Teens
|summary= Agatha Christie wrote some tantalising crime thrillers back in her day, and here Andrew Wilson makes her a victim to a plot not unlike one of her own. It's all about the mystery, and it really drives the story forward. Agatha is ambushed by a strange man at the train station; she is given a proposition that confuses her and secretly intrigues her. Indeed, for this man wants her to commit a murder.  
+
|summary= Like many books for confident readers and teens, our heroes are the victims of cruel bullies – to be precise, as we are well into the twenty-first century here, of the cyber kind. But this isn't some worthy self-help, tell-an-adult book, nor is it a gloomy book about young people who can't see the point of going on. Nope – these guys take the unusual (and, in the light of later events, utterly daft) decision to simply sail away into the sunset, to take a break from civilisation, online Thor and his idiot Viking horde, and the insanities in general of all adults. In their defence, it seems a sensible move at the time...  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471148211</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780274394</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=Contagion: Book 1 (Dark Matter)
+
|author= Elaine Everest
|author=Teri Terry
+
|title= The Butlins Girls
|rating=4.5
+
|rating= 4
|genre=Teens
+
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=It's not a spoiler if I tell you that Callie dies because she does die and she dies in the first few pages of ''Contagion''. Callie - Calista - disappeared more than a year ago. Her brother Kai is still looking for her, hopeful that she will be found alive and well. But Callie isn't alive and well. She's been taken to a secretive medical facility on the island of Shetland, experimented on, and then burned to death. But Callie survived the burning in non-corporeal form. How?
+
|summary=Fresh-faced Molly Missons has just arrived in Skegness to start her new job as a Butlins auntie. Behind the smiles and confident appearance, she hides a secret; she has taken the job to escape escalating problems at home. She soon finds good friends in her chalet-mates Bunty and Plum, and it turns out that they each have their own reasons for wanting a fresh start. Meanwhile, Molly is shocked to discover that her movie-star crush Johnny Johnson is working as an entertainment adviser at the camp. Is he really as suave as his on-screen persona? And why is he working at the camp anyway? As hidden secrets become discovered, Molly and her new friends face new threats and dangers that may threaten their new-found freedom.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408341727</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447295536</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Delia Ephron
+
|author= Benjamin Ludwig
|title=Siracusa
+
|title= The Original Ginny Moon
|rating=4
+
|rating= 5
|genre=General Fiction
+
|genre= General Fiction
|summary= Michael and Lizzie are a writer–journalist couple from New York City; Finn and Taylor live with their ten-year-old daughter, Snow, in Portland, Maine, where Finn (an old flame of Lizzie's) owns a restaurant. After meeting up by chance on a trip to London last year, they decide to go away together for a proper holiday in Italy, to the Sicilian island of Siracusa via Rome. In alternating chapters, the narrative moves fluidly between the perspectives of the four adults, all of whom are reflecting – with the help of hindsight and therapy – on what ended up being a disastrous trip. Although we don't learn until very late on in the book exactly what went wrong, there's a sense that it might be something to do with Snow.
+
|summary= To Ginny, a child with autism, the word Forever means until the police come. Five years ago the police forcibly removed her from the home of her abusive birth mother, Gloria. Now fourteen, and in her fourth Forever Home, Ginny remains hell-bent on finding her way back to Gloria's apartment. She has no illusions about her mother's addictions or lack of parenting skills. She knows that it might be dangerous – that it might even kill her. Still she plots, obsessed with returning to Gloria's to find something she insists she left behind, something she hid under her bed. Her teachers, therapist, and new Forever Parents are in turn frustrated, infuriated, and perplexed. As Gloria returns to her life, the reader follows Ginny on a journey filled with danger and discovery, in her quest to find a place she can truly call her Forever Home.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786071541</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848456611</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Nick Clegg
+
|author=Holly Webb
|title=Politics: Between the Extremes
+
|title=The Homeless Kitten
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
+
|genre=Emerging Readers
|summary=The political landscape is changing rapidly at the moment. A little more than two years ago we were facing the end of the UK's first coalition government since World War II and fully expecting that we would see another.  Instead we saw a Conservative government elected with a workable majority.  Brexit saw the end of one Prime Minister and another elected by a few members of parliament. As I write we're facing another general election, with a Conservative landslide predicted. In two years we've seen the Liberal Democrats collapse from being part of the ruling coalition to a party whose MPs could hold a meeting in a decent-sized car.
+
|summary= Lily loves their rescue dog, Hugo. However, Lily also really wants a cat – or better still a kitten. She, therefore, can't believe her luck when Hugo sniffs out three abandoned kittens while out of his walk with Lily and her dad. Better still (from Lily's point of view at least) the animal shelter is full so Lily's mum and dad reluctantly offer to hand-rear the tiny kittens until they're old enough to be rehomed. Lily's in heaven looking after the kittens, especially the little fluffy white one whom she names Stanley. There is just one problem – it's going to break her heart when the time comes to say goodbye.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784704164</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847157831</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Alan Gibbons
+
|author= Harriet Cummings
|title=The Beautiful Game
+
|title=We All Begin As Strangers
|rating=4
+
|rating= 4
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
+
|genre= General Fiction
|summary=Football is all about its colours.  And even if I write in the season when one team in blue knocks another team in blue from the throne of English football, it's common knowledge that red is the more successful colour to wear. But is that flame red?  Blood red?  The red of the Sun cover banner when it falsely declared 96 Liverpool FC fans were fatally caught up in a tragedy – and that it had been one of their own making?  And while we're on about colour, where were the people of colour in football in the olden days?  There are so many darker sides to football's history it's enough to make a young lad question the whole game…
+
|summary=In the summer of 1984, a Chilterns village was gripped with fear and suspicion as a mysterious intruder known as ''The Fox'' broke into the homes of several residents in the area. Despite an increased police presence, regular patrols and vigilante groups, this slippery character still managed to evade detection. A huge police ''Foxhunt'' followed, and finally, forensic evidence led to the eventual capture of the perpetrator. This real-life news story sparked the imagination of a young Harriet Cummings, who went on to create a fictional version of events, which invites the reader to turn detective and try and unmask ''The Fox'' from a range of possible suspects.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781126917</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409169049</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Bernard Ashley
+
|author= Malcolm Devlin
|title=Lena Lenik S.O.S.
+
|title= You Will Grow Into Them
|rating=4
+
|rating= 5
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
+
|genre= Short Stories
|summary=Lena's mother seems very ill. Scary noises are coming from the bathroom, she's off food and completely listless, complaining of the effort involved in sewing a patch onto a cub scout uniform.  It might be a surprise to the young reader of this book when we learn what the reason is – certainly it was obvious from page two for me – but there are definitely more surprises to come. Mother makes a slightly unusual decision about her condition – leaving Lena with a lot on her plate when fate sets in with a surprise of its own…
+
|summary=''You Will Grow Into Them'' is a thrilling collection of ten short stories all centred on the nature of transition and change. The often grisly, macabre and ghoulish nature of the stories included in Devlin's debut collection are intoxicatingly illicit and the darkness within each tale is deviously addictive.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781125716</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907389431</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Naomi Alderman
+
|author= Tove Jansson
|title= The Power
+
|title= Letters From Klara
 
|rating= 5
 
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Literary Fiction
 
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary=It started with the girls and spread. From younger woman to older woman, it was awoken and everything changed. Womankind now has the power of electricity in their fingertips and, slowly at first, the balance of power in the world starts shifting. We follow the stories of different people, in different walks of life, who see this from the very beginning and hurtle towards 'the event'. One thing in this startling new development is certain, patriarchal archetypes and chauvinist thinkers are in for the shock of their lives. Literally.  
+
|summary= Famed in the UK for her creation of the Moomin family, Jansson is rather belatedly beginning to gather the richly deserved esteem for her adult writings. For that I offer my heart-felt thanks to publishers ''Sort of books'' and Thomas Teal, who has been responsible for most of the translations.  Receiving this one, two things strike: firstly I somehow seem to have missed one of the series, and secondly there'll come a time sooner rather than later when there'll be no more to be had.  The former will be rectified, the latter is a sad thought.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919969</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745614</amazonuk>
 +
}}
 +
{{newreview
 +
|author= Jane Menczer
 +
|title= An Unlikely Agent
 +
|rating= 4
 +
|genre= Crime (Historical)
 +
|summary=London, 1905. Margaret Trant lives with her ailing, irascible mother in a dreary boarding house in St John's Wood. The pair have fallen on hard times, with only Margaret's meagre salary from a ramshackle import-export company keeping them afloat.When a stranger on the tram hands her a newspaper open at the recruitment page, Margaret spots an advertisement that promises to 'open new horizons beyond your wildest dreams!'. After a gruelling interview, she finds herself in a new position as a secretary in a dingy backstreet shop.But all is not as it seems; she is in fact working for a highly secret branch of the intelligence service, Bureau 8, whose mission is to track down and neutralise a ruthless band of anarchists known as the Scorpions.Margaret's guilty love of detective fiction scarcely prepares her for the reality of true criminality, and her journey of self-discovery forms the heart of this remarkable novel, as she discovers in herself resourcefulness, courage, independence and the first stirrings of love.
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973805</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Caro Fraser
+
|author=Henry Marsh
|title= The Summer House Party
+
|title=Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery
|rating= 4.5
+
|rating=4.5
|genre= General Fiction
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary= In the gloriously hot summer of 1936, a group of people meet at a country house party. Within three years, England will be at war, but for now, time stands still. Dan Ranscombe is clever and good-looking, but he resents the wealth and easy savoir-faire of fellow guest, Paul Latimer. Surely a shrewd girl like Meg Slater would see through that, wouldn't she? And what about Diana, Paul's beautiful sister, Charles Asher, the Jewish outsider, Madeleine, restless and dissatisfied with her role as children's nanny? And artist Henry Haddon, their host, no longer young, but secure in his power as a practised seducer. As these guests gather, none has any inkling the choices they make will have fateful consequences, lasting through the war and beyond. Or that the first unforeseen event will be a shocking death…
+
|summary=It's more than two years since I read [[Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh|Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery]] but the memories have stayed with me. I had thought then that a book about brain surgery might sound as though I was taking my pleasures too sadly, but the book was superb - and very easy reading and when I heard about ''Admissions'' I decided to treat myself to an audio download, particularly as Henry Marsh was narrating.  I knew that my expectations were unreasonably high, but how did the book do?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786691485</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1474603866</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Matt Sewell
+
|author=DK
|title=The Big Bird Spot
+
|title=Children's Illustrated Thesaurus
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 +
|summary=One of the most valuable literary skills which children can learn is how to use reference books.  As a child every question which I began with ''how do you spell...?'' would be answered with ''EXACTLY as it says in the dictionary''.  This was fine, but the family's Collins Little Gem Dictionary didn't encourage exploration, not least because the font was small and difficult to read.  Fortunately those times have now changed and reference book for children are now much more inviting.  Not every book comes with a set of instructions but it's worth studying the ''How to...'' section, not least because similar systems are used in other reference books.
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241286972</amazonuk>
 +
}}
 +
{{newreview <!-- remove 28/5 -->
 +
|author=Val Harris
 +
|title=Hunting Ground
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Recently I stood on a viewing platform at the RSPB reserve at Bempton Cliffs as a very helpful volunteer guided my sight line to one of the puffins who'd arrived on the cliffs in the last few daysFinally, I found one, after visually sorting through all the other birds on the precipitous cliff faceIt was great fun and very rewarding.  The third double-page spread in wild-life author and artist Matt Sewell's first book for children, ''The Big Bird Spot'', shows some cliffs very like those at Bempton, but this time you're going to be looking for twenty three Little Auks, in amongst the guillemots, puffins, herring gulls and razorbillsOh, and you're looking for a pair of binoculars too: our bird watcher is very careless, because you're going to have to find them in every picture.
+
|summary=Nyara Camp is one of the newest camps in the Masai Mara and it's run by James and Alexia SackvilleThe guests might sleep in tents, but it's still luxury accommodation in anybody's book.  Chui Camp, on the other hand, sticks with the traditional way that safaris were run, including bucket showersOwner Ralph Somerton is convinced that's what the guests ''should'' want and he won't listen to any of his wife Tessa's suggestions for updating the tired venueIt's beginning to be reflected in the profits Chui makes, but instead of upping his own game Somerton would rather see Nyara as unfair competition and it's only a small step from that reasoning to looking at ways of ensuring Nyara's failure.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843653265</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955599717</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Richard Askwith
+
|author= Marian Veevers
|title= Today We Die a Little: Emil Zatopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero
+
|title=Jane and Dorothy: A True Tale of Sense and Sensibility
 
|rating= 4
 
|rating= 4
|genre= Sport
+
|genre= Biography
|summary= As a runner myself, I often look for sources of inspiration. Training is rewarding, but every so often a day comes along when I question whether it is all worth it or not. Zatopek proves that is, indeed, all worth it. He put copious amounts of effort into his training, and the number of races he won over his career as a professional athlete clearly shows the results of it.  
+
|summary= The idea of a dual biography of two contemporaries who never met throughout their lives is an intriguing one. However, there were several unifying factors, which makes it seem logical enough. Jane Austen and Dorothy Wordsworth were both renowned writers though one was much more famous than the other, and both were born just four years apart, in the 1770s.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224100351</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910985775</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= David Grann
+
|author= Geraint Jones
|title= Killers of the Flower Moon
+
|title= Blood Forest
 
|rating= 5
 
|rating= 5
|genre= True Crime
+
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary=Killers of the Flower Moon tells the story of the Osage tribe, forced to settle in the rocky, uninhabitable wilds of Oklahoma in what would become Osage County. In an unexpected turn of fortune, prospectors struck oil, instantly catapulting the Osage into unimaginable wealth and fortune making them some of the richest people in the world. Then members of the tribe start to die, slowly at first of apparently natural causes then in increasingly violent ways. Investigation into the matter stalls and is beset by incompetence and a general lack of interest in the fate of the Osage until the FBI becomes involved and draws together a team of battle scarred, unorthodox agents led by former Texas Ranger Tom White. As pressure on White increases, from both the FBI and the increasingly angry Osage, the race to find the truth becomes increasingly difficult, with more twists and double crosses than any murder mystery.
+
|summary= Felix.  The lucky one. He doesn't feel especially lucky when he staggers out into the grove and finds twelve of his comrades butchered and mutilated in the worst possible ways. He felt even less lucky when the soldiers arrived, Roman cavalry. He might have run, but he knew he'd never make it. He stepped out to face whatever came next.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857209027</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718184815</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Tanya Landman
+
|author=Dorling Kindersley
|title=Passing for White
+
|title=First Science Encyclopedia
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
+
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=In 1847, in Macon, Georgia, Benjamin was a slave.  He was a talented carpenter too, but on November the 19th he was unnerved: a white woman was looking at him, smiling and being polite.  What was going on?  He wasn't just unnerved, but nervous: you see, Benjamin was looking at the white woman, looking ''her'' in the eye and a slave could get himself killed for less than thatOnly this wasn't a white woman: this was Rosa, who was mixed raceShe could pass for white, but she too was a slaveRosa and Benjamin eventually married, but it didn't stop Rosa's master from taking sexual advantage of her and when she found that she was pregnant she had no way of knowing who the father was.
+
|summary=I wasn't introduced to 'science' until I was eleven and went on to senior school: I wasn't alone in this, but it really was too late.  Thankfully, times have changed and children at primary school are getting to grips with plants and animals, atoms and molecules and even outer space from a very young ageWhat's needed is a good, basic reference book which will introduce all the subjects and give a good groundingIt needs to be something which would sit proudly in the classroom library and comfortably on a child's bookshelfThe ''First Science Encyclopedia'' would do both well.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178112681X</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024118875X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Johana Gustawsson and Maxim Jakubowski (Translator)
+
|author=Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet
|title= Block 46
+
|title=Supertato Run Veggies Run
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
+
|genre=For Sharing
|summary= Jewellery designer Linnéa Blix fails to appear at a Cartier event presenting some of her new creations. Her friend Alexis Castells knows something must be wrong; nothing would have kept the talented young artist from attending this prestigious function. When a young woman's mutilated body is discovered in a Swedish marina near Linnéa's holiday home, Alexis' worst fears are confirmed. But Linnéa's death is not unique; in fact, she is only the latest in a string of similar gruesome murders that have occurred in both London and Falkenberg. Up until now, the bodies have all belonged to young boys, so what has caused the killer to change his or her MO? How can Alexis help to find justice for her friend, and stop a serial killer before he strikes again?
+
|summary=I've heard of these so called superfoods, they are reported to boost your immune system and flush out areas of your body that have gone unnoticed for decades, but does this make them super?  In my mind to be a superfood you need to do something spectacular; lift a car from a trapped child, or leap over a building in one bound. The vegetable and fruit in my house can't do any of this, but then they aren't Supertato; a spectacular spud that, more than once, has saved the day with his powers.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910633704</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471121038</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|title=The Harder They Fall
+
|author=The British Museum
|author=Bali Rai
+
|title=Origami, Poems and Pictures
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=5
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
+
|genre=Crafts
|summary=Cal loves comic books. He also dreams of being a superhero and saving the day while simultaneously winning the heart of the girl (Freya being the girl, hopefully). Batman is his favourite superhero. But Cal's world outside his daydreams is not particularly superhero-like. Because Cal is a bit of a geek and he is being bullied by mean girl Anu, who makes him complete homework assignments which she then sells on to lazy classmates. Still, it's not all bad. Cal's parents are lovely and the gorgeous Freya is making friendly overtures...
+
|summary=Sometimes you find a delight of a book.  On an afternoon when it was unseasonably cold and decidedly wet I discovered ''Origami, Poems and Pictures'' and I was transported to Japan. As the title suggests we're looking at three celebrated arts and crafts: the ancient art of paper folding, haiku poetry and painting. I'll confess that it was the origami which caught my attention, but I was surprised by the extent to which the rest of the book caught my imagination.  We begin with something very simple: a boat and in case you're worried, all the entries have a degree of difficulty (from 'simple' through to 'tricky') and this one is at the lowest level.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781126828</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857639382</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Matthew Harffy
 
|title= The Serpent Sword
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= Historical Fiction
 
|summary= It's AD 633 and Albion is a divided island made up of petty warlords who want to be treated like honourable royalty but act like gangsters. Romans are a memory that have entered into myth and the souls of Albion are torn between the old Gods and the new Christ. It is in this world that we follow the adventures of Beobrand as he undertakes the classic hero’s journey. Beobrand moves from wide-eyed teenager to hardened and honourable warrior through a brutal rite of passage as he hunts the killer of his brother and seeks to become a true warrior.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786692406</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Anna Pitoniak
+
|author=Warner Brothers
|title=The Futures
+
|title=Harry Potter Colouring Book Celebratory Edition: The Best of Harry Potter colouring
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|genre=Crafts
|summary=When we first meet Evan Peck, he has just started at Yale College, where he plays ice hockey. Like lots of the other players, he is actually Canadian, from small-town British Columbia. One night after a party Evan meets Julia Edwards at their dorm and they go out for pizza. She technically has a boyfriend from her Boston boarding school days, but they soon break up and before long Julia and Evan have become inseparable, as they will remain for the rest of their college years.
+
|summary=Imagine pages and pages of images from the Harry Potter books and films for you to colour as you wish. You ''might'' have seen some of the images before - I know I have - as they've appeared in the ''Harry Potter Colouring Book'', ''Harry Potter Magical Creatures Colouring Book'', and ''Harry Potter Magical Places and Characters Colouring Book'', but there are several exclusive never-before-seen images which will please the collector of Harry Potter memorabilia.  If you're in need of inspiration as to colours then you'll enjoy the sixteen pages of film stills, unit photography and concept art at the back of the book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718184564</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783708255</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Lee Child
+
|title=The Secret of the Wooden Chest (Roman Magic)
|title= No Middle Name
+
|author= Catherine Rosevear
|rating= 4
+
|rating=3.5
|genre= Crime
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= There is a theory, to which those who regularly read my reviews will know I sometimes subscribe, which says that the short story's heyday has passed and it has now put itself out to grass. This is particularly true, some say, and I have been known to concur, of the crime and thriller genres.  Tosh!  I can only apologise to all authors involved and own up: I simply haven't been paying attention.  Not even to shorter offerings my by favourite authors. So: big thanks to Lee Child and publishers Bantam Press for putting me straight with ''No Middle Name'' : a collection of short stories about my favourite latter-day, American-style, Robin Hood by the name of ''Jack Reacher''.
+
|summary=Hannah lives with her parents in a flat above the nursing home where her mother is matron. Hannah is an only child and so she enjoys making friends with some of the home's residents. So when Mrs Oberto moves in, Hannah is keen to make her acquaintance - Hannah has never met anyone Italian before. Mrs Oberto is quite standoffish at first but Hannah persists and soon they are the best of friends. Mrs Oberto is particularly keen on helping Hannah with her school project about ancient Rome and relates many interesting stories about her Sicilian childhood. But she remains tight-lipped about the mysterious wooden chest, the key to which she keeps around her neck...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593079019</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1788032535</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview <!-- remove 21/5 -->
 
|author=Lizzy Mumfrey
 
|title=Fall Out
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Charlton's the sort of village where people aspire to live, despite its apparent ordinariness.  There's the usual mix of commuters (it's not ''too'' far from London) and those who make their lives in the village. Richard Hughes is a commuter, but his wife Jessica works at the local academy, where both their children - Alfie and Hannah - are pupils. Pete Cole is a newly-promoted police superintendent and clearly still fond of his voluptuous wife, Susie. Actually, some of that voluptuousness might be better described as fat - Pete suspects that he might need longer arms to hug her before long. Less popular is Gary Webber. He's the sort of man who causes people to heave a sigh of relief when he joins someone else for a drink at the golf club.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911079840</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Cath Staincliffe
+
|author= Dominic Smith
|title= The Silence Between Breaths
+
|title= The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
 
|rating= 5
 
|rating= 5
|genre= Crime
+
|genre= Historical Fiction
|summary= I'm always wary of author endorsements, even those from people I rate as writers, but the ''harrowing and humane'' quote from Ian Rankin on the front cover of ''The Silence Between Breaths'' does not overstate the case.  This is an extremely powerful book.
+
|summary= If you find the techniques used by Rembrandt and Vermeer fascinating, ''The Last Painting of Sara de Vos'' provides a masterclass in how to work up a canvas in stages.  Framing the novel as the story of a seventeenth century Dutch painting, Dominic Smith vividly sketches out the main contours of his characters and the three time periods they inhabit before we are even one fifth of the way through.  Sara is one of the few women artists of the period and her painting is of children skating on a frozen canal, her now dead daughter its central figure. The painting has been in Marty de Groot's family since before Isaac Newton was born and he is the patent lawyer from whom it is stolen in 1950s Manhattan.  Ellie Shipley forged a copy of the painting in her postgraduate student years and in 2000 finds herself at the centre of a gathering storm which threatens to destroy her reputation as one of Sydney's foremost fine art academics.  Satisfying though those first descriptions are, we then understand these are merely the author's equivalent of the delicate chalk lines used by painters of the Dutch Golden Age to mark out the composition which will follow.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472118014</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>192526680X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Jill Armitage
+
|author=Deirdre Osborne (Editor)
|title= Arbella Stuart: The Uncrowned Queen
+
|title=The Cambridge Companion to British Black and Asian Literature (1945–2010)
|rating= 4.5
+
|rating=5
|genre= Biography
+
|genre=Reference
|summary= Lady Arbella Stuart, cousin to both Elizabeth I of England and James VI of Scotland, was one of the unfortunate figures of English history who might have been Queen – and who, like the even more tragic Lady Jane Grey, might have paid the ultimate price. This is a sad but engrossing story of one whose only crime was to have royal blood coursing through her veins.
+
|summary=This literary companion offers fifteen essays addressing the contribution of black and Asian authors to the British literary canon since 1945. It covers not just fiction, but also poetry, plays and performance works. It sits as a kind of joyful cuckoo in the nest, interrupting the usual narratives of literary waves and movements in Britain that take little notice of any perspective other than the dominant white - and posh! - direction of travel. It's a disparate, varied collection of essays, covering spoken word performance poetry, black British urban fiction, LGBTQ writing, liberationist writing and much more. I was really happy to see children's authors such as Malorie Blackman, Jamila Gavin and Catherine Johnson discussed and respected.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445650193</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1316504808</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Stephan Talty
+
|author=Dr Seuss
|title= The Black Hand
+
|title=Dr Seuss's ABC
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=True Crime
+
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=History is a fascinating subject to study as there is so much of it, so why do we keep going back to the same places?  I feel like I have walked the steps of Julius Caesar and married at least two of Henry VIII's wives, so often I have read about themThere are countless other tales out there to learn about that may be more obscure, but are just as exciting. I don't know much about New York around 1900, but after reading ''The Black Hand'' by Stephan Talty I now know it was a violent place to live, but an interesting one to learn about.
+
|summary=No one who has read his work can deny that Dr Seuss had a powerful imagination.  He was able to pluck from his brainpan not only interesting takes on old ideas, but also new creatures and worlds that had never been seen beforeHis books are often madder than a box of March hares, but even he must have had his limits? The humble ABC book (dare I say the dull ABC book), surely he could not bring his sense of anarchic fun to this staple of the children's education market?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785037129</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007487754</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= A P McGrath
+
|author= Stewart O'Nan
|title= A Burning in the Darkness
+
|title= Last Night at the Lobster
 
|rating= 4
 
|rating= 4
|genre= Crime
+
|genre= General Fiction
|summary= At a busy airport, Michael Kieh is a full time faith representative serving the needs of some of the 80 million passengers, but circumstance and evidence point to his guilt in a terrible crime. His struggle to prove his innocence leads him on a charged journey that pitches love against revenge. When a mysterious woman confides a dark secret, he is motivated to redress a heart-breaking injustice. Together they must battle against powerful forces as they edge dangerously close to unmasking a past crime. But Michael faces defeat when he chooses to protect a young witness, sparking memories of Michael's past in Liberia. As he fights to prove his innocence, Michael has to risk anything for the sake of love and truth.
+
|summary=The Red Lobster seafood restaurant chain is closing some of its poorly-performing branches just before Christmas. Amid the Christmas lights, office parties and forced jollity Manny DeLeon, the manager of one of these failing outlets, has to keep it all together for one last day. Short-handed, with most of the staff who've bothered to turn up facing unemployment, he tries to make the best of a bad job, all the while knowing this will be the last day he'll spend with the waitress he shouldn't still be in love with, particularly not now he's about to be a dad. Oh, and there's a blizzard on the way.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B06ZYXJ1KL</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760293865</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Nosy Crow
+
|author=Tom Malmquist and Henning Koch (translator)
|title=British Museum: ABC
+
|title=In Every Moment We Are Still Alive
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Learning your ABCs is also seemingly learning the same items appearing over and over again. A is not only A – it is also Apple. B is Ball, C is Car.  It is almost as if there are only 26 objects in the world and they happen to start with different letters of the alphabet.  In fact, apart from Xylophone and X-Ray, there are loads of things that you could choose to put in an ABC book, if only you had a vast repository of objects and art that you could choose from …
+
|summary=Tom Malmquist is a poet from Sweden. Originally published in Swedish in 2015, this is his first work of prose. While it's being marketed as a novel, it reads more like a stylized memoir. Similar to Karl Ove Knausgaard's books, it features the author as the central character and narrator, and the story of grief it tells is a highly personal one.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857638165</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473640008</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author=Liz Pichon
+
|author= Michel Deon
|title=Family, Friends and Furry Creatures (Tom Gates)
+
|title= Your Father's Room
|rating=4
+
|rating= 4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary=Tom Gates has got a problem: his shoes are making a noise.  They sort of rasp when he walks, only he can't recreate the sound at home.  At school it's a different matter: not only is the noise very loud, there are those of his classmates who suggest that it has originated from somewhere a little more, well, ''intimate''. All in all it's not a good start to the day for Tom, particularly when he realises that he's also forgotten his baby photo for the latest school project.  Class 5F are building their family trees and they've got to interview family members to get stories of their lives for the project.
+
|summary= I don't feel altogether qualified to review Michel Déon's 2004 fictionalised memoir ''Your Father's Room'', translated here into English for the first time. I hadn't heard of Déon before receiving my copy, let alone read any of his books, published over a 70 year period to much acclaim in his homeland. But it's part of the pleasure of book reviewing to read with no prior knowledge or prejudice, all the more so if you discover an absolute gem.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407168118</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910477346</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
|author= Clare Fisher
+
|author=Andrew Wilson
|title= All the Good Things
+
|title= A Talent for Murder
|rating= 4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre= General Fiction
+
|genre= Crime (Historical)
|summary= Nature, nurture, chance and circumstance; all combine to produce the story of Bethany Mitchell, a young adult who writes from her prison cell. We know only that she has committed a 'bad thing', a bad thing that she sees as the end of her story. Armed with a simple task, Erika, a psychologist, sets out to challenge this. She asks Beth simply to compile a list of all the good things in her life.
+
|summary= Agatha Christie wrote some tantalising crime thrillers back in her day, and here Andrew Wilson makes her a victim to a plot not unlike one of her own. It's all about the mystery, and it really drives the story forward. Agatha is ambushed by a strange man at the train station; she is given a proposition that confuses her and secretly intrigues her. Indeed, for this man wants her to commit a murder.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024127575X</amazonuk>
+
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471148211</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
}}

Revision as of 07:53, 25 May 2017

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 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. We can even direct you to help for custom book reviews! Visit www.everychildareader.org to get free writing tips and www.genecaresearchreports.com will help you get your paper written for free.

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.

The Speed of Sound by Thomas Dolby

4.5star.jpg Entertainment

From struggling post-punk musician to pop star, from Silicon Valley innovator to university professor, Thomas Dolby has had a remarkable if not unique career, often reinventing himself on the way. This memoir is based on his extensive notes and journals. Full review...

Steve and Frandan Take on the World by Ron Butlin

4.5star.jpg Teens

Like many books for confident readers and teens, our heroes are the victims of cruel bullies – to be precise, as we are well into the twenty-first century here, of the cyber kind. But this isn't some worthy self-help, tell-an-adult book, nor is it a gloomy book about young people who can't see the point of going on. Nope – these guys take the unusual (and, in the light of later events, utterly daft) decision to simply sail away into the sunset, to take a break from civilisation, online Thor and his idiot Viking horde, and the insanities in general of all adults. In their defence, it seems a sensible move at the time... Full review...

The Butlins Girls by Elaine Everest

4star.jpg Historical Fiction

Fresh-faced Molly Missons has just arrived in Skegness to start her new job as a Butlins auntie. Behind the smiles and confident appearance, she hides a secret; she has taken the job to escape escalating problems at home. She soon finds good friends in her chalet-mates Bunty and Plum, and it turns out that they each have their own reasons for wanting a fresh start. Meanwhile, Molly is shocked to discover that her movie-star crush Johnny Johnson is working as an entertainment adviser at the camp. Is he really as suave as his on-screen persona? And why is he working at the camp anyway? As hidden secrets become discovered, Molly and her new friends face new threats and dangers that may threaten their new-found freedom. Full review...

The Original Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig

5star.jpg General Fiction

To Ginny, a child with autism, the word Forever means until the police come. Five years ago the police forcibly removed her from the home of her abusive birth mother, Gloria. Now fourteen, and in her fourth Forever Home, Ginny remains hell-bent on finding her way back to Gloria's apartment. She has no illusions about her mother's addictions or lack of parenting skills. She knows that it might be dangerous – that it might even kill her. Still she plots, obsessed with returning to Gloria's to find something she insists she left behind, something she hid under her bed. Her teachers, therapist, and new Forever Parents are in turn frustrated, infuriated, and perplexed. As Gloria returns to her life, the reader follows Ginny on a journey filled with danger and discovery, in her quest to find a place she can truly call her Forever Home. Full review...

The Homeless Kitten by Holly Webb

4.5star.jpg Emerging Readers

Lily loves their rescue dog, Hugo. However, Lily also really wants a cat – or better still a kitten. She, therefore, can't believe her luck when Hugo sniffs out three abandoned kittens while out of his walk with Lily and her dad. Better still (from Lily's point of view at least) the animal shelter is full so Lily's mum and dad reluctantly offer to hand-rear the tiny kittens until they're old enough to be rehomed. Lily's in heaven looking after the kittens, especially the little fluffy white one whom she names Stanley. There is just one problem – it's going to break her heart when the time comes to say goodbye. Full review...

We All Begin As Strangers by Harriet Cummings

4star.jpg General Fiction

In the summer of 1984, a Chilterns village was gripped with fear and suspicion as a mysterious intruder known as The Fox broke into the homes of several residents in the area. Despite an increased police presence, regular patrols and vigilante groups, this slippery character still managed to evade detection. A huge police Foxhunt followed, and finally, forensic evidence led to the eventual capture of the perpetrator. This real-life news story sparked the imagination of a young Harriet Cummings, who went on to create a fictional version of events, which invites the reader to turn detective and try and unmask The Fox from a range of possible suspects. Full review...

You Will Grow Into Them by Malcolm Devlin

5star.jpg Short Stories

You Will Grow Into Them is a thrilling collection of ten short stories all centred on the nature of transition and change. The often grisly, macabre and ghoulish nature of the stories included in Devlin's debut collection are intoxicatingly illicit and the darkness within each tale is deviously addictive. Full review...

Letters From Klara by Tove Jansson

5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Famed in the UK for her creation of the Moomin family, Jansson is rather belatedly beginning to gather the richly deserved esteem for her adult writings. For that I offer my heart-felt thanks to publishers Sort of books and Thomas Teal, who has been responsible for most of the translations. Receiving this one, two things strike: firstly I somehow seem to have missed one of the series, and secondly there'll come a time sooner rather than later when there'll be no more to be had. The former will be rectified, the latter is a sad thought. Full review...

An Unlikely Agent by Jane Menczer

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

London, 1905. Margaret Trant lives with her ailing, irascible mother in a dreary boarding house in St John's Wood. The pair have fallen on hard times, with only Margaret's meagre salary from a ramshackle import-export company keeping them afloat.When a stranger on the tram hands her a newspaper open at the recruitment page, Margaret spots an advertisement that promises to 'open new horizons beyond your wildest dreams!'. After a gruelling interview, she finds herself in a new position as a secretary in a dingy backstreet shop.But all is not as it seems; she is in fact working for a highly secret branch of the intelligence service, Bureau 8, whose mission is to track down and neutralise a ruthless band of anarchists known as the Scorpions.Margaret's guilty love of detective fiction scarcely prepares her for the reality of true criminality, and her journey of self-discovery forms the heart of this remarkable novel, as she discovers in herself resourcefulness, courage, independence and the first stirrings of love. Full review...

Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

It's more than two years since I read Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery but the memories have stayed with me. I had thought then that a book about brain surgery might sound as though I was taking my pleasures too sadly, but the book was superb - and very easy reading and when I heard about Admissions I decided to treat myself to an audio download, particularly as Henry Marsh was narrating. I knew that my expectations were unreasonably high, but how did the book do? Full review...

Children's Illustrated Thesaurus by DK

4.5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

One of the most valuable literary skills which children can learn is how to use reference books. As a child every question which I began with how do you spell...? would be answered with EXACTLY as it says in the dictionary. This was fine, but the family's Collins Little Gem Dictionary didn't encourage exploration, not least because the font was small and difficult to read. Fortunately those times have now changed and reference book for children are now much more inviting. Not every book comes with a set of instructions but it's worth studying the How to... section, not least because similar systems are used in other reference books. Full review...

Hunting Ground by Val Harris

4star.jpg General Fiction

Nyara Camp is one of the newest camps in the Masai Mara and it's run by James and Alexia Sackville. The guests might sleep in tents, but it's still luxury accommodation in anybody's book. Chui Camp, on the other hand, sticks with the traditional way that safaris were run, including bucket showers. Owner Ralph Somerton is convinced that's what the guests should want and he won't listen to any of his wife Tessa's suggestions for updating the tired venue. It's beginning to be reflected in the profits Chui makes, but instead of upping his own game Somerton would rather see Nyara as unfair competition and it's only a small step from that reasoning to looking at ways of ensuring Nyara's failure. Full review...

Jane and Dorothy: A True Tale of Sense and Sensibility by Marian Veevers

4star.jpg Biography

The idea of a dual biography of two contemporaries who never met throughout their lives is an intriguing one. However, there were several unifying factors, which makes it seem logical enough. Jane Austen and Dorothy Wordsworth were both renowned writers though one was much more famous than the other, and both were born just four years apart, in the 1770s. Full review...

Blood Forest by Geraint Jones

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

Felix. The lucky one. He doesn't feel especially lucky when he staggers out into the grove and finds twelve of his comrades butchered and mutilated in the worst possible ways. He felt even less lucky when the soldiers arrived, Roman cavalry. He might have run, but he knew he'd never make it. He stepped out to face whatever came next. Full review...

First Science Encyclopedia by Dorling Kindersley

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

I wasn't introduced to 'science' until I was eleven and went on to senior school: I wasn't alone in this, but it really was too late. Thankfully, times have changed and children at primary school are getting to grips with plants and animals, atoms and molecules and even outer space from a very young age. What's needed is a good, basic reference book which will introduce all the subjects and give a good grounding. It needs to be something which would sit proudly in the classroom library and comfortably on a child's bookshelf. The First Science Encyclopedia would do both well. Full review...

Supertato Run Veggies Run by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet

4.5star.jpg For Sharing

I've heard of these so called superfoods, they are reported to boost your immune system and flush out areas of your body that have gone unnoticed for decades, but does this make them super? In my mind to be a superfood you need to do something spectacular; lift a car from a trapped child, or leap over a building in one bound. The vegetable and fruit in my house can't do any of this, but then they aren't Supertato; a spectacular spud that, more than once, has saved the day with his powers. Full review...

Origami, Poems and Pictures by The British Museum

5star.jpg Crafts

Sometimes you find a delight of a book. On an afternoon when it was unseasonably cold and decidedly wet I discovered Origami, Poems and Pictures and I was transported to Japan. As the title suggests we're looking at three celebrated arts and crafts: the ancient art of paper folding, haiku poetry and painting. I'll confess that it was the origami which caught my attention, but I was surprised by the extent to which the rest of the book caught my imagination. We begin with something very simple: a boat and in case you're worried, all the entries have a degree of difficulty (from 'simple' through to 'tricky') and this one is at the lowest level. Full review...

Harry Potter Colouring Book Celebratory Edition: The Best of Harry Potter colouring by Warner Brothers

4star.jpg Crafts

Imagine pages and pages of images from the Harry Potter books and films for you to colour as you wish. You might have seen some of the images before - I know I have - as they've appeared in the Harry Potter Colouring Book, Harry Potter Magical Creatures Colouring Book, and Harry Potter Magical Places and Characters Colouring Book, but there are several exclusive never-before-seen images which will please the collector of Harry Potter memorabilia. If you're in need of inspiration as to colours then you'll enjoy the sixteen pages of film stills, unit photography and concept art at the back of the book. Full review...

The Secret of the Wooden Chest (Roman Magic) by Catherine Rosevear

3.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Hannah lives with her parents in a flat above the nursing home where her mother is matron. Hannah is an only child and so she enjoys making friends with some of the home's residents. So when Mrs Oberto moves in, Hannah is keen to make her acquaintance - Hannah has never met anyone Italian before. Mrs Oberto is quite standoffish at first but Hannah persists and soon they are the best of friends. Mrs Oberto is particularly keen on helping Hannah with her school project about ancient Rome and relates many interesting stories about her Sicilian childhood. But she remains tight-lipped about the mysterious wooden chest, the key to which she keeps around her neck... Full review...

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith

5star.jpg Historical Fiction

If you find the techniques used by Rembrandt and Vermeer fascinating, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos provides a masterclass in how to work up a canvas in stages. Framing the novel as the story of a seventeenth century Dutch painting, Dominic Smith vividly sketches out the main contours of his characters and the three time periods they inhabit before we are even one fifth of the way through. Sara is one of the few women artists of the period and her painting is of children skating on a frozen canal, her now dead daughter its central figure. The painting has been in Marty de Groot's family since before Isaac Newton was born and he is the patent lawyer from whom it is stolen in 1950s Manhattan. Ellie Shipley forged a copy of the painting in her postgraduate student years and in 2000 finds herself at the centre of a gathering storm which threatens to destroy her reputation as one of Sydney's foremost fine art academics. Satisfying though those first descriptions are, we then understand these are merely the author's equivalent of the delicate chalk lines used by painters of the Dutch Golden Age to mark out the composition which will follow. Full review...

The Cambridge Companion to British Black and Asian Literature (1945–2010) by Deirdre Osborne (Editor)

5star.jpg Reference

This literary companion offers fifteen essays addressing the contribution of black and Asian authors to the British literary canon since 1945. It covers not just fiction, but also poetry, plays and performance works. It sits as a kind of joyful cuckoo in the nest, interrupting the usual narratives of literary waves and movements in Britain that take little notice of any perspective other than the dominant white - and posh! - direction of travel. It's a disparate, varied collection of essays, covering spoken word performance poetry, black British urban fiction, LGBTQ writing, liberationist writing and much more. I was really happy to see children's authors such as Malorie Blackman, Jamila Gavin and Catherine Johnson discussed and respected. Full review...

Dr Seuss's ABC by Dr Seuss

4star.jpg For Sharing

No one who has read his work can deny that Dr Seuss had a powerful imagination. He was able to pluck from his brainpan not only interesting takes on old ideas, but also new creatures and worlds that had never been seen before. His books are often madder than a box of March hares, but even he must have had his limits? The humble ABC book (dare I say the dull ABC book), surely he could not bring his sense of anarchic fun to this staple of the children's education market? Full review...

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan

4star.jpg General Fiction

The Red Lobster seafood restaurant chain is closing some of its poorly-performing branches just before Christmas. Amid the Christmas lights, office parties and forced jollity Manny DeLeon, the manager of one of these failing outlets, has to keep it all together for one last day. Short-handed, with most of the staff who've bothered to turn up facing unemployment, he tries to make the best of a bad job, all the while knowing this will be the last day he'll spend with the waitress he shouldn't still be in love with, particularly not now he's about to be a dad. Oh, and there's a blizzard on the way. Full review...

In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist and Henning Koch (translator)

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Tom Malmquist is a poet from Sweden. Originally published in Swedish in 2015, this is his first work of prose. While it's being marketed as a novel, it reads more like a stylized memoir. Similar to Karl Ove Knausgaard's books, it features the author as the central character and narrator, and the story of grief it tells is a highly personal one. Full review...

Your Father's Room by Michel Deon

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

I don't feel altogether qualified to review Michel Déon's 2004 fictionalised memoir Your Father's Room, translated here into English for the first time. I hadn't heard of Déon before receiving my copy, let alone read any of his books, published over a 70 year period to much acclaim in his homeland. But it's part of the pleasure of book reviewing to read with no prior knowledge or prejudice, all the more so if you discover an absolute gem. Full review...

A Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson

4.5star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Agatha Christie wrote some tantalising crime thrillers back in her day, and here Andrew Wilson makes her a victim to a plot not unlike one of her own. It's all about the mystery, and it really drives the story forward. Agatha is ambushed by a strange man at the train station; she is given a proposition that confuses her and secretly intrigues her. Indeed, for this man wants her to commit a murder. Full review...