Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
(32 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 14: Line 14:
  
 
{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
 
{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
<!-- Carter -->
+
<!-- Houm -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:147116778X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147116778X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:1782273778.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782273778/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[I Stop Somewhere by T E Carter]]===
+
===[[The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland by Nicolai Houm and Anna Paterson (translator)]]===
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
+
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
  
Ellie has to change schools. It's a chance for renewal and Ellie sets to work to make the most of it. She doesn't want to be homecoming queen or anything - she just wants to fit in without anyone noticing that she's a bit too curvy and doesn't have the money to buy fashionable clothes. With the help of a neighbour, Kate, she manages it pretty well. And so, when Caleb notices her, tells her she's beautiful, Ellie can almost believe it. But there's something not quite right about Caleb. He blows hot and cold and his smile doesn't quite meet his eyes. But it's nice to be wanted and so Ellie ignores the warning signs... [[I Stop Somewhere by T E Carter|Full Review]]
+
Jane Ashland is dying. That's a description of a very early scene here – but also, of course, a platitude that can apply to all of us. Jane's life, if anything, is going up and down in levels of pleasure, energy – sobriety – in these pages, but we soon learn that it recently found a very deeply dark down place. Here then, scattered through a timeline-bending narrative, we have her days finding a Lincolnesque lover as a student in New York, glimpses of therapy, a drive to find her ancestors that takes her from rural America to Norway – and a trip there with a new-found friend to watch the musk oxen, of all things. And nowhere in sight is anything like a platitude… [[The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland by Nicolai Houm and Anna Paterson (translator)|Full Review]]
  
<!-- Worsley -->
+
<!-- Whitehorn -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:Worsley_Mary.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/408869446/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:1847159222.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1847159222/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Lady Mary by Lucy Worsley]]===
+
===[[The Company of Eight by Harriet Whitehorn]]===
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
+
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]
  
''Lady Mary'' chronicles the famous story of Henry VIII's love affair with Anne Boleyn, his divorce from Katherine of Aragon, Anne's execution for adultery, and Henry's subsequent marriage to Jane Seymour, which finally produces the much longed for birth of a male heir. This time, the story is told through the eyes of an important but often neglected player - Henry's young daughter, Mary. Mary's hopes of her family staying together are crushed by the divorce and she is treated terribly by a father under the influence of the Boleyn faction. Lady Mary follows her through these awful years and you can't help but root for the little girl stuck in the middle of these tumultuous events. [[Lady Mary by Lucy Worsley|Full Review]]
+
Fourteen-year-old orphan Cass lives in the Magical District, but as she hasn't the slightest ability in that direction she doesn't exactly fit in. She takes after her dad, and she hopes desperately that she'll pass the upcoming auditions for acrobats and join the Circus Boat as it tours to give performances on all the islands of the Longest World. Her guardian Mrs Potts, however, does ''not'' approve: her hope that Cass will demonstrate magical abilities like her mother's (and make Mrs Potts very rich) has been disappointed so she is determined her ward will take on a sedate, genteel job instead: governess, maybe, or draper's model. So poor Cass is reduced to practising her routines in secret, using an old book her father left her. [[The Company of Eight by Harriet Whitehorn|Full Review]]
  
<!-- Carew -->
+
<!-- Bremner -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:Carew_Wolf.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472247000/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:Bremner_Us.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0525533184/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
===[[The Wolf by Leo Carew]]===
 
  
 +
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 +
===[[Us vs Them: The Failure of Globalism by Ian Bremmer]]===
  
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
+
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]]
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]
 
  
Travel to a world that is familiar and yet utterly different. We are in a version of ancient Britain with enough landmarks to make us feel at home yet it is a smoked glass. North of the river Abus we have the Anakim, a race that isn't quite human; they are something more. The Anakim are virtual giants and their ribs are not cages but bone breastplates instead. Below the Abus are the Sutheners, humans. Theirs is an ancient grudge and one where blood is spilled frequently in pitched battle. Unfortunately it is rare when humans are involved for things to be straightforward and the same is true here. On both sides politics and machinations complicate the quests for glory. With the Anakim we have a boy coming to power and vying with the greatest warrior in the land for the throne. Amongst the Sutheners we see a commoner having the temerity to lead an army alongside his betters. Both battles are as interesting as the war itself. [[The Wolf by Leo Carew|Full Review]]
+
It wasn't supposed to be like this, was it? Every day seems to bring yet more news of doom and gloom. The spectre of terrorism hangs over most of the world, fuelling refugee crises and worries about national security. People keep saying that robots are coming to take all our jobs. Anti-establishment political parties are making huge gains in countries all around the world. And inequality is as much of a problem as it ever was – if not more so. [[Us vs Them: The Failure of Globalism by Ian Bremmer|Full Review]]
  
<!-- Anderson -->
+
<!-- Edwards -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:Anderson_Chicken.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1474940668/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:1848576536.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1848576536/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21
 +
]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson]]===
 
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
+
===[[Humanatomy: How the Body Works by Nicola Edwards and Jem Maybank]]===
  
''My house has chicken legs. Two or three times a year, without warning, it stands up in the middle of the night and walks away from where we've been living.''
+
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]
  
Ok. I dare you to tell me that you ''don't'' want to read a story about a house with chicken legs. There is no way anyone could resist. I certainly couldn't! Marinka lives in this chicken-legged house with her grandmother, Baba Yaga, whose job it is to guide dead people through The Gate. But Marinka is ''lonely''. The house, her grandmother and Marinka never stay anywhere long enough for Marinka to make any friends. And Marinka is determined to change this. But the chicken-legged house has its own agenda... [[The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson|Full Review]]
+
''Get under your own skin, pick your brains, and go inside your insides!''
  
<!-- Davis -->
+
That's what ''Humanatomy'' invites you to do and honestly, I don't see how you could resist. This informative book provides a wonderful primer about the human body to curious children- from the skeletal system to the muscular system via circulation, respiration and digestion, right up to the DNA that makes who we are.
 +
[[Humanatomy: How the Body Works by Nicola Edwards and Jem Maybank|Full Review]]
 +
<!-- Keeley -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:Davis_Pandora.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473658632/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:1789013313.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789013313/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Pandora's Boy by Lindsey Davis]]===
 
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical)|Crime (Historical)]]
+
===[[My Favourite People by Rob Keeley]]===
  
Relax, die-hard fans of Falco and his spirited British daughter Albia. Rome continues to be as splendid and as sordid as it ever was, the crimes committed are as complex and intriguing, and our heroine just as determined and cynical, with that light dusting of humour which made tales of her father's exploits so engaging. Newcomers to the series need not fear, by the way: each book contains just enough background detail to make you feel immediately at home. This time, despite some serious misgivings, Albia is investigating the sudden death of a fifteen-year-old girl, described as bright, affectionate and popular. Was she poisoned by an illegal love-potion, or did she die of a broken heart? [[Pandora's Boy by Lindsey Davis|Full Review]] [[Pandora's Boy by Lindsey Davis|Full Review]]
+
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]]  
  
<!-- Butterworth -->
+
In ''My Favourite People'' the central character takes us to meet all the important people in his life. There's Auntie Meg, who does brilliant haircuts and loves cats. She has four of them! There's Uncle Steve, who's a gentle giant and an inveterate joker. There's best friend Alice, who can do that clever whistle when you put your fingers in your mouth. There's Carmel the library lady, who always suggests brilliant books to read. And loads more. The book ends with a fabulous party to which everyone is invited. [[My Favourite People by Rob Keeley|Full Review]]
 +
<!-- Togawa -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1510102116.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1510102116/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:1782273646.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782273646/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[When the Mountains Roared by Jess Butterworth]]===
+
===[[The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa and Simon Grove (translator)]]===
 
 
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]
 
 
 
''My fingers come away deep red. My breath catches. Blood. I wipe my shaky hands on my trousers. There's a leopard out there, injured. And I have to find it before they do.''
 
  
Two months earlier, Ruby's dad had dropped a bombshell. They were moving from Australia to India, where her father had got a job at a hotel in the mountains. It was to be a new start and it would help both Ruby and her father get over the death of her mother. Ruby wasn't so sure about that and didn't get more optimistic on arrival - to find a rundown building full of scary corners in a place where the dark is really dark and the wildlife includes scorpions, bears and, well, you get the picture. Ruby has struggled since her mother died and it pretty much feels as though her father has brought her a place that makes everything worse... [[When the Mountains Roared by Jess Butterworth|Full Review]]
+
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]
  
<!-- Duffy -->
+
Japan, the early 1960s. The prologue of this book sets us up in a lovely way with a world of both innocence and seedy nightclubs. When a young girl enters one alone for a drink she ends up singing along with the musical duet doing the rounds of the venues for tips – as does a man with a distinctive bass voice. They leave together. Six months later, she clings to a balcony at work, thinks about it – and drops to her death in suicide. She was pregnant. But the man involved, a rampant womaniser with an intricate diary of all his comings and goings, is not having a perfect time, either. He returns to an old flame, to find her murdered – and then the lady who would be his alibi for that death also gets killed, and so on. From our point of view, he cannot be a killer of ladies, as the title might imply – but what else could it mean? [[The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa and Simon Grove (translator)|Full Review]]
 +
<!-- Hall -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1786697645.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786697645/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:1785630806.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785630806/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 +
===[[The Industry of Human Happiness by James Hall]]===
  
===[[Me Mam. Me Dad. Me by Malcolm Duffy]]===
+
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]
 
 
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  
 
  
''It was the day the clocks went back. That's when I decided to kill him.''
+
''The Industry of Human Happiness'' first and foremost is a novel about music. It is about human beings being able to find music and magic in the simplest of places. Max and his younger cousin have realised their dream of opening a gramophone company. However, their ambition and hubris soon puts them on a course towards London's underworld. They will ascend broken and their lives changed forever. [[The Industry of Human Happiness by James Hall|Full Review]]
  
''I'' is fourteen-year-old Danny. ''Him'' is Danny's stepfather Callum. Up until a year ago, it was just Danny and Mam. They lived in a damp, cold council flat and didn't have much money to spare, but things were pretty good. Danny and his Mam got on well, they saw a lot of their lovely extended family, and Danny not only had mates but even a girlfriend, Amy. But a lot has changed. They're now living in Callum's posh house and Danny gets holidays and plenty of Christmas presents. Great, right? [[Me Mam. Me Dad. Me by Malcolm Duffy|Full Review]]
+
<!-- Kerr -->
<!-- Forman -->
 
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:Forman_Lost.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471173720/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:178429652X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178429652X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman]]===
+
===[[Greeks Bearing Gifts: Bernie Gunther Thriller 13 by Philip Kerr]]===
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
+
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical)|Crime (Historical)]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]
  
''I Have Lost My Way'' tells the story of three individuals who have each lost something important to them leading to them losing their way. Freya has lost her voice, Harun has lost his love and Nathaniel has lost everything. However, these three elements do not give justice to the extent of what each character has lost. In this expertly written novel, Gayle Forman writes about how these three dissimilar individuals each came to lose what was most important to them, causing them to all meet one fateful day in New York City. [[I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman|Full Review]]
+
Set in Germany in 1957, ''Greeks Bearing Gifts'' is a historical crime thriller with everything from dodgy Nazi past histories to insurance fraud. Bernie Gunther is a Berliner, who was a sarjeant during the second world war and now, in this novel, is working in the morgue of a hospital. He finds himself embroiled in a mystery, taking on a new role as an insurance claims investigator.  The investigation takes him to Greece, and back into the dark times of the war. With layered plots and double-crossing left, right and centre, there's lots to keep you guessing throughout this story. [[Greeks Bearing Gifts: Bernie Gunther Thriller 13 by Philip Kerr|Full Review]]
  
<!-- Santorella -->
+
<!-- Carthew -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1788038096.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788038096/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:1786488620.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786488620/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Dyed Souls by Gary Santorella]]===
+
===[[All Rivers Run Free by Natasha Carthew]]===
 +
 
 +
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
  
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
+
Ia Pendilly lives in a caravan on the coast of Cornwall – a woman as raw as the landscape that surrounds her. Living with Bran, her abusive cousin and common law husband, she's never yet had her own baby. Discovering a waif washed up on shore, Ia rescues the girl but is also rescued by the girl – given a new found strength to escape and to embark on a new journey. The journey takes her deep into a troubled society and through a damaged, hurting world – finding family and memories long hidden will break Ia, remake her and perhaps give her the elusive sense of freedom she's been seeking. [[All Rivers Run Free by Natasha Carthew|Full Review]]
  
The USA, early 1980s. Charlie (or Charles, if he's feeling belligerent, and he often is) is being taken back to his home by his drop-out, slutty mother. The home is called a Cottage, and while the book doesn't guide us to understand it perfectly, it seems to mean he has a private room in a large self-contained bungalow, on a gated compound with round-the-clock adult supervision. There's a paddock with horses for the kids to ride, their own school – and all the adults are armed with Thorazine to calm the kids down. Charlie, despite his obvious bookish intelligence, is struggling to get to grips with why and how he's ended up where he is, but it must have something to do with his single parent mother being violent, and the fact he is no longer allowed to stay with his grandfather. This book is a slightly woozy look at his thoughts, as he tries to build a relationship with a girl in a different Cottage, and work out his lot. He certainly has a lot on his plate for a thirteen-year-old. [[Dyed Souls by Gary Santorella|Full Review]]
+
<!-- Rogers -->
<!-- Sigurdardottir -->
 
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1473621569.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473621569/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:Rogers_Tale.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787198529/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Reckoning by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)]]===
+
===[[Tale of a Tooth by Allie Rogers]]===
 +
 
 +
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
  
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]]
+
Danny lives in a small Sussex town with his mother, Natalie. Life is poor, but they manage - until they're threatened by a benefits sanction. A Job Centre employee looks to be their salvation - but her impact on the family goes far beyond what they first expect, and the resulting changes are described to the reader through the naive yet perceptive and wholly original eyes of four-year-old Danny. [[Tale of a Tooth by Allie Rogers|Full Review]]
  
[[The Legacy: Children's House Book 1 by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)|Last time]], this series opened with a plot that derailed the careers of both its leads – Huldar the policeman, and child psychologist Freyja. Demoted and stuck with a kind of love/hate connection, they are left staring into space for want of something to happen. Huldar can even find some gruesome human remains the police have been tipped off about, but still isn't allowed to investigate them, so he settles for the drudge work involved in a threat found left in a school's time capsule. Even Freyja can be persuaded to stop twiddling her thumbs and help him out. It's the nature of these books that we know both plots will be connected somehow – but how, we will be asking, will either relate to the prologue, where a young girl was snatched ten years ago, and what is a modern family under threat to do with anything? [[The Reckoning by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)|Full Review]]
+
<!-- Trevelyan -->
<!-- Child -->
 
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:0356510700.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356510700/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:Trevelyan_Claudia.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1473664772?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1473664772]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Everything About You by Heather Child]]===
+
===[[Claudia by Anthony Trevelyan]]===
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]]
+
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
  
In the future, your social feed is your entire existence. A.I. is here and it is all around you. It fills your fridge, it keeps up to date with your friends and fulfils your wishes. It is also stealing your jobs and, possibly, loosening your grip on reality. Freya is unexpectedly given a beta testing version of the latest smart specs, glasses which give her all the information she'll ever need, right in front of her eyes by barely thinking about it, complete with a personality to guide her. The problem is that the personality on the glasses is that of her missing and presumed dead sister. Freya is thrown and unsettled by this. Her mum tells her to stop using them or at the very least to reset them to a different personality. But Freya just can't do this. Hearing her sister's voice again is like she's right there, and although she knows this is just Ruby's data, part of Freya can't believe that it can be this accurate, it can't be this Ruby. Is it just possible that something more is feeding this personality than Ruby's data? [[Everything About You by Heather Child|Full Review]]
+
When Claudia is called to the reception of her Manchester Office block to meet a visitor, she doesn't expect it to be her father figure – a man she hasn't seen for fifteen years. Samson Glaze – otherwise known as Wild Samson, The Aztec and The Sun King, walked out of Claudia's life and into a world of success as a solar panel salesman – but now he's returned and he needs Claudia's help. Reggie, Samson's son, has joined a mysterious cult called ''Tarantula'', a group who prepare for the end of the world and encourage humanity to embrace their impending doom. Claudia's journey takes her far from her home in Manchester to the end of the world – where encounters with hammer-wielding assassins make things very difficult indeed… [[Claudia by Anthony Trevelyan|Full Review]]
  
<!-- Schimmelpfennig -->
+
<!-- Gayle -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:0857057014.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857057014/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:Gayle_Man.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1473608988?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1473608988]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)]]===
+
===[[The Man I Think I Know by Mike Gayle]]===
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction
+
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
]]
 
  
First, forgive me if I don't refer to this book with its full title often. It's pointedly precise, accurate, and rather ungainly – when in fact the book it describes has only the former two attributes in any quantity. What happens in January is that a wild wolf walks across the frozen river separating Poland and eastern Germany. Which means that, when the book starts properly, mid-February, it has had time to get a lot closer to Berlin – within 80 kilometres, to be precise, for that is the road marker where one of our main characters sees it. He is trying to get back to work in Berlin for the first time in a month, and to be with his girlfriend, not knowing she has had an infidelity while he was away. Also fancying the bright lights and big city are a teenaged pair of love-birds, the boy and girl next door to each other in an eastern village, who flee an unhappy lot on the off-chance of a better one. You just know there is a chance that these characters – human and lupine alike – are sucked into one combined narrative, but you won't know quite what that will entail…
+
James DeWitt and Danny Allen are both men in their early thirties whose lives haven't taken them where they were supposed to go. At an all time low time for both of them, the two men reconnect and slowly find they're exactly what the other needs. Together, they help each other put their lives back together. This is a beautiful story about friendship and what it really means to help another person.  [[The Man I Think I Know by Mike Gayle|Full Review]]
[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)|Full Review]]
 
  
<!-- David -->
+
<!-- Rhodes -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:034900305X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/034900305X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:1510104399.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1510104399/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21
 +
]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Stranger by Keren David]]===
 
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
+
===[[Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes]]===
 +
 
 +
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]
 +
 
 +
''How small I look. Laid out flat, my stomach touching ground. My right knee bent and my brand-new Nikes stained with blood.''
 +
 
 +
Danny was playing with a toy gun his friend Carlos had lent to him when he was shot by Officer Moore, who claims he was in fear for his life, that Danny, a five foot tall, twelve-year-old boy, was a threatening thug whose menace was such that Officer Moore had no choice but to reach for his gun and eliminate the threat. [[Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes|Full Review]]
  
Astor, Ontario, 1904. Emmy and her friend Sadie are walking along when a bloody and bruised boy staggers out of the forest clutching a pistol. Sadie runs off terrified. But something about the boy draws Emmy. She knows, deep inside, that he is not a danger. She kicks the pistol into the grass and cradles the boy until help arrives. Who is he? How has he been living? And will the townsfolk accept him?[[Stranger by Keren David|Full Review]]
+
<!-- Butland -->
<!-- Banks -->
 
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:Banks_W.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/ISBN/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:Butland_Curious.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/785764403/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[W by John Banks]]===
+
===[[The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae by Stephanie Butland]]===
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
+
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
  
On the slopes of Mt Hood in Oregon, an 1000-year old Viking is discovered frozen - three thousand miles further west than any previously known Viking exploration. Josh Kinninger is inspired by the Viking discovery - three personal catastrophes having left him angry, unmoored and with his world in turmoil. Beginning a journey westward, he's filled with a desire to wreak vengeance on the individuals he finds morally corrupt. [[W by John Banks|Full Review]]
+
Ailsa Rae has been sick her whole life, and just as she was edging closer to death she finally, finally got the call that she needed, that a heart was available for her to have a transplant. Previously she had felt so helpless that she had used her blog to make decisions for her, running polls amongst her readers to decide on her actions. But with her new heart, she has been given a new life. Can Ailsa manage to start to live on her own, and will her mother let her do that? [[The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae by Stephanie Butland|Full Review]]
  
<!-- Curran -->
+
<!-- Christie -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1683690133.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690133/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:1910989304.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1910989304/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris]]===
+
===[[Spirit by Sally Christie]]===
 +
 
 +
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]
  
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
+
Matt Barker has seen something strange. Something extraordinary that no one would normally see. That wouldn't usually matter but Matt accidently tells the rest of his class when they're playing the 'truth game' on the school bus. Now most of the class think he's either mad or a liar. To make matters worse, his classmate and new next-door neighbour, Jazzy O'Hanlon, believes him and she's determined to find a way to share his experience, even if that means losing her best friend. [[Spirit by Sally Christie|Full Review]]
  
You are a lass of twenty eight. Plucky, penniless and in Regency era London the race is on to find a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to life as an eternal spinster. Along your journey you'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you from a life alone, and fired by a rogueish sense for adventure. When it comes to suitors though, you'll have to make the ultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, wholesome, rugged and caring Captain Angus MacTaggart, or the mad, bad and terrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. With orphans, werewolves, long lost lovers and ancient Egyptian artifcats along the way, it's clear this isn't going to be an easy decision... [[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris|Full Review]]
+
<!-- Green -->
<!-- Clover -->
 
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:0008265836.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008265836/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:0141375396.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0141375396/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Rory Branagan Detective by Andrew Clover and Ralph Lazar]]===
+
===[[The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green]]===
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]
+
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
  
Ten-year-old Rory Branagan isn't just a normal kid. He's a detective and he has a mystery to solve – why did his dad disappear when he was three? Rory doesn't know where to start but, then, Cassidy moves in next door and he discovers he has an accomplice who is full of ideas. This is just as well as they soon discover a very serious crime: Corner Boy's dad has been poisoned and is at risk of dying but no-one else will believe he's in danger. It's up to Rory and Cassidy to uncover the truth and save a life. [[Rory Branagan Detective by Andrew Clover and Ralph Lazar|Full Review]]
+
Tension exists among the kingdoms surrounding the Pitorian Sea, and peace is definitely not on everyone's agenda. Instead power is sought by force, and political manoeuvring of the worst kind sees families torn apart and innocent victims swept up in the fallout. This story of warring nations is fast moving from page one, and the main characters, who move between kingdoms, face challenge after challenge. There are five separate story lines, each led by a colourful and interesting character, and Sally Green weaves them together beautifully like a tapestry as their paths cross and their lives intertwine. [[The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green|Full Review]]
  
<!-- Green -->
+
<!-- de Lacey Davidson -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:0192758454.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0192758454/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21
+
[[image:1506905900.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1506905900/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21
 
]]
 
]]
  
Line 235: Line 238:
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
  
===[[To the Edge of the World by Julia Green]]===
+
===[[Precept: A Novel by Matthew de Lacey Davidson]]===
 
 
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
 
  
Jamie loves his new island home. He likes the school and he has even made some friends. But, with his history of being bullied, Jamie knows that he has some fears to conquer if he wants to follow his grandfather in the traditional island occupation of boat builder. His fear of the sea in particular. And this is what draws him to Mara, a strange, wild, independent girl who can handle a boat with aplomb. But Mara has her own demons and an approaching show down with the island authorities because of them...[[To the Edge of the World by Julia Green|Full Review]]
+
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
  
<!-- Marc Stigter and Sir Cary Cooper -->
+
Nathan Whyte is tremendously excited about the arrival of Frederick Douglass in Ireland. And even more excited that his Quaker father, who is publishing the British edition of ''Narrative'', Douglass's memoir of his life as a slave, will be accompanying the famous black American abolitionist on his speaking tour. Nathan is deeply impressed by Douglass, who is a charismatic figure and a gifted orator. But Ireland will have as big an impact on Frederick Douglass as Frederick Douglass will have on it. We watch him through Nathan's eyes as he sees for himself the beginnings of the horrors of the potato famine and meets and befriends the famous Irish nationalist, Daniel O'Connell. [[Precept: A Novel by Matthew de Lacey Davidson|Full Review]]
 +
<!-- Daniel Peltz -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1472938062.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472938062/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:1912083779.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912083779/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Boards That Dare: How to Future-proof Today's Corporate Boards by Marc Stigter and Sir Cary Cooper]]===
+
===[[The Indomitable Chiesa di Santa Maria by Daniel Peltz]]===
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Business and Finance|Business and Finance]]
+
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
  
I wasn't optimistic when I started reading ''Boards That Dare''.  I feared that I would encounter new ways of minimising tax liabilities, of getting as much as possible out of employees whilst paying them the legal minimum and constant reminders that the ''shareholders'' own the company and of the necessity of maximising their return.  In the event I was only a few pages in before I discovered that I couldn't have been more wrong, that we were looking at ways of future proofing the company.  I began to feel hopeful... [[Boards That Dare: How to Future-proof Today's Corporate Boards by Marc Stigter and Sir Cary Cooper|Full Review]]
+
When we first visit the Chiesa di Santa Maria we're in the company of Molly Cavendish who is a part-time guide at the Museo di Santa Maria, which is what the ruins of the Chiesa - a chapel - have now becomeCrowds flock to see its centrepiece, a renaissance fresco with a history which grabs the attention of young and old.  Molly uses the history to entertain the tourists, but there's more too it than she knows, particularly as the history of the building is also the history of the Vannini family, who helped in building the chapel some six hundred years ago and one of whose descendants is the director of the museum. [[The Indomitable Chiesa di Santa Maria by Daniel Peltz|Full Review]]
  
<!-- Guilin -->
+
<!-- Mohamed -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1338045628.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1338045628/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:1784631426.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784631426/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Invasion (The Call, Book 2) by Peadar o Guilin]]===
+
===[[Falling Leaves by Stefan Mohamed]]===
  
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
+
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]],
  
We already know that the Aes Sidhe are back. And in their quest to win back Ireland from humankind, they have placed a magical seal around the entire island. At some point during adolescence, every teenager is transported to the Sidhe realm, that grey, colourless land to which they were banished thousands of years before. If they can evade the vengeful faerie kind for a full day (just three minutes in the human world) then their lives are spared, although they are often sent back with horrific mutilations. Fewer than one in ten children survive. [[The Invasion (The Call, Book 2) by Peadar o Guilin|Full Review]]
+
When your best friend vanishes, how can you begin to move on? How can you live your life not knowing whether they're okay? And what would you do if they reappeared in your life? – all questions that Vanessa faces every day, even seven years after her best friend Mark vanished. When he reappears, she's shocked not only by his presence back in her life, but also by the fact that he hasn't aged a day – for him, no time has passed since his disappearance. Shocked, confused and emotionally reeling, Vanessa must return to her home town in order to help Mark find the answers he so desperately craves. But what's waiting for them is far more surprising than either of them could ever have dreamt… [[Falling Leaves by Stefan Mohamed|Full Review]]
  
<!-- Kent -->
+
<!-- Barto -->
 
|-
 
|-
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
 
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1788038681.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788038681/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
+
[[image:B01N0OZQOD.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N0OZQOD/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21
 +
]]
  
  
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Catchers in Pirates, Thieves, Zombies and Magic by Stuart J Kent]]===
 
  
[[image:2star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]
+
===[[Nickerbacher by Terry John Barto]]===
 +
 
 +
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]]
  
Meet the Catchers – a mix of young and old, magical and human, smart and, er, less smart. It's their job to round up Fabulous Beasts, and right from the get-go they have a job on their hands in this, the second book to contain their adventures. Colin, the older and magical (if not completely smart) one, is tasked with a recovery mission by a friend who boasted about having a wonderful lion griffin, only for it to vanish. Well, wouldn't you, if you were a lion griffin called Muffin? Either way, we know the adventure is going to include more than that simple task implies, as the extended title of the book suggests, but is it any good? Is it rock bottom on the pile of juvenile fantasy reads, or does the combination of Pirates, Thieves, Zombies (both tame and wild) and Magic make this particular Muffin top? [[The Catchers in Pirates, Thieves, Zombies and Magic by Stuart J Kent|Full Review]]
+
Nickerbacher is doing his dragonly duty as all dragons do. That dragonly duty is, of course, princess-guarding. That's what dragons are for, after all. But Gwendolyn isn't any princess. She finds the whole princessing thing quite boring really and she is much less interested in fairy tales than she is in watching comedy on ''The Late Knight Show''. Nickerbacher likes ''The Late Knight Show'' too - in fact, it's his favourite TV show because he wants to be a stand-up comedian himself. He tries out his jokes on Princess Gwendolyn but they don't always come off quite as Nickerbacher intended. [[Nickerbacher by Terry John Barto|Full Review]]
  
 
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
 
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
 
|}
 
|}

Revision as of 08:10, 24 April 2018

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.

There are currently 16,084 reviews at TheBookbag.

Want to find out more about us?

Reviews of the Best New Books

Read new reviews by category.

Read the latest features.

1782273778.jpg


The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland by Nicolai Houm and Anna Paterson (translator)

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews General Fiction, Literary Fiction

Jane Ashland is dying. That's a description of a very early scene here – but also, of course, a platitude that can apply to all of us. Jane's life, if anything, is going up and down in levels of pleasure, energy – sobriety – in these pages, but we soon learn that it recently found a very deeply dark down place. Here then, scattered through a timeline-bending narrative, we have her days finding a Lincolnesque lover as a student in New York, glimpses of therapy, a drive to find her ancestors that takes her from rural America to Norway – and a trip there with a new-found friend to watch the musk oxen, of all things. And nowhere in sight is anything like a platitude… Full Review

1847159222.jpg


The Company of Eight by Harriet Whitehorn

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Confident Readers

Fourteen-year-old orphan Cass lives in the Magical District, but as she hasn't the slightest ability in that direction she doesn't exactly fit in. She takes after her dad, and she hopes desperately that she'll pass the upcoming auditions for acrobats and join the Circus Boat as it tours to give performances on all the islands of the Longest World. Her guardian Mrs Potts, however, does not approve: her hope that Cass will demonstrate magical abilities like her mother's (and make Mrs Potts very rich) has been disappointed so she is determined her ward will take on a sedate, genteel job instead: governess, maybe, or draper's model. So poor Cass is reduced to practising her routines in secret, using an old book her father left her. Full Review

Bremner Us.jpg


Us vs Them: The Failure of Globalism by Ian Bremmer

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Politics and Society

It wasn't supposed to be like this, was it? Every day seems to bring yet more news of doom and gloom. The spectre of terrorism hangs over most of the world, fuelling refugee crises and worries about national security. People keep saying that robots are coming to take all our jobs. Anti-establishment political parties are making huge gains in countries all around the world. And inequality is as much of a problem as it ever was – if not more so. Full Review

1848576536.jpg


Humanatomy: How the Body Works by Nicola Edwards and Jem Maybank

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Confident Readers

Get under your own skin, pick your brains, and go inside your insides!

That's what Humanatomy invites you to do and honestly, I don't see how you could resist. This informative book provides a wonderful primer about the human body to curious children- from the skeletal system to the muscular system via circulation, respiration and digestion, right up to the DNA that makes who we are. Full Review

1789013313.jpg


My Favourite People by Rob Keeley

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews For Sharing

In My Favourite People the central character takes us to meet all the important people in his life. There's Auntie Meg, who does brilliant haircuts and loves cats. She has four of them! There's Uncle Steve, who's a gentle giant and an inveterate joker. There's best friend Alice, who can do that clever whistle when you put your fingers in your mouth. There's Carmel the library lady, who always suggests brilliant books to read. And loads more. The book ends with a fabulous party to which everyone is invited. Full Review

1782273646.jpg


The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa and Simon Grove (translator)

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime

Japan, the early 1960s. The prologue of this book sets us up in a lovely way with a world of both innocence and seedy nightclubs. When a young girl enters one alone for a drink she ends up singing along with the musical duet doing the rounds of the venues for tips – as does a man with a distinctive bass voice. They leave together. Six months later, she clings to a balcony at work, thinks about it – and drops to her death in suicide. She was pregnant. But the man involved, a rampant womaniser with an intricate diary of all his comings and goings, is not having a perfect time, either. He returns to an old flame, to find her murdered – and then the lady who would be his alibi for that death also gets killed, and so on. From our point of view, he cannot be a killer of ladies, as the title might imply – but what else could it mean? Full Review

1785630806.jpg


The Industry of Human Happiness by James Hall

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Historical Fiction, Thrillers

The Industry of Human Happiness first and foremost is a novel about music. It is about human beings being able to find music and magic in the simplest of places. Max and his younger cousin have realised their dream of opening a gramophone company. However, their ambition and hubris soon puts them on a course towards London's underworld. They will ascend broken and their lives changed forever. Full Review

178429652X.jpg


Greeks Bearing Gifts: Bernie Gunther Thriller 13 by Philip Kerr

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Crime (Historical), Thrillers

Set in Germany in 1957, Greeks Bearing Gifts is a historical crime thriller with everything from dodgy Nazi past histories to insurance fraud. Bernie Gunther is a Berliner, who was a sarjeant during the second world war and now, in this novel, is working in the morgue of a hospital. He finds himself embroiled in a mystery, taking on a new role as an insurance claims investigator. The investigation takes him to Greece, and back into the dark times of the war. With layered plots and double-crossing left, right and centre, there's lots to keep you guessing throughout this story. Full Review

1786488620.jpg


All Rivers Run Free by Natasha Carthew

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Literary Fiction

Ia Pendilly lives in a caravan on the coast of Cornwall – a woman as raw as the landscape that surrounds her. Living with Bran, her abusive cousin and common law husband, she's never yet had her own baby. Discovering a waif washed up on shore, Ia rescues the girl but is also rescued by the girl – given a new found strength to escape and to embark on a new journey. The journey takes her deep into a troubled society and through a damaged, hurting world – finding family and memories long hidden will break Ia, remake her and perhaps give her the elusive sense of freedom she's been seeking. Full Review

Rogers Tale.jpg


Tale of a Tooth by Allie Rogers

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews General Fiction

Danny lives in a small Sussex town with his mother, Natalie. Life is poor, but they manage - until they're threatened by a benefits sanction. A Job Centre employee looks to be their salvation - but her impact on the family goes far beyond what they first expect, and the resulting changes are described to the reader through the naive yet perceptive and wholly original eyes of four-year-old Danny. Full Review

Trevelyan Claudia.jpg


Claudia by Anthony Trevelyan

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews General Fiction

When Claudia is called to the reception of her Manchester Office block to meet a visitor, she doesn't expect it to be her father figure – a man she hasn't seen for fifteen years. Samson Glaze – otherwise known as Wild Samson, The Aztec and The Sun King, walked out of Claudia's life and into a world of success as a solar panel salesman – but now he's returned and he needs Claudia's help. Reggie, Samson's son, has joined a mysterious cult called Tarantula, a group who prepare for the end of the world and encourage humanity to embrace their impending doom. Claudia's journey takes her far from her home in Manchester to the end of the world – where encounters with hammer-wielding assassins make things very difficult indeed… Full Review

Gayle Man.jpg


The Man I Think I Know by Mike Gayle

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews General Fiction

James DeWitt and Danny Allen are both men in their early thirties whose lives haven't taken them where they were supposed to go. At an all time low time for both of them, the two men reconnect and slowly find they're exactly what the other needs. Together, they help each other put their lives back together. This is a beautiful story about friendship and what it really means to help another person. Full Review

1510104399.jpg


Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Teens, Confident Readers

How small I look. Laid out flat, my stomach touching ground. My right knee bent and my brand-new Nikes stained with blood.

Danny was playing with a toy gun his friend Carlos had lent to him when he was shot by Officer Moore, who claims he was in fear for his life, that Danny, a five foot tall, twelve-year-old boy, was a threatening thug whose menace was such that Officer Moore had no choice but to reach for his gun and eliminate the threat. Full Review

Butland Curious.jpg


The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae by Stephanie Butland

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews General Fiction, Women's Fiction

Ailsa Rae has been sick her whole life, and just as she was edging closer to death she finally, finally got the call that she needed, that a heart was available for her to have a transplant. Previously she had felt so helpless that she had used her blog to make decisions for her, running polls amongst her readers to decide on her actions. But with her new heart, she has been given a new life. Can Ailsa manage to start to live on her own, and will her mother let her do that? Full Review

1910989304.jpg


Spirit by Sally Christie

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Confident Readers

Matt Barker has seen something strange. Something extraordinary that no one would normally see. That wouldn't usually matter but Matt accidently tells the rest of his class when they're playing the 'truth game' on the school bus. Now most of the class think he's either mad or a liar. To make matters worse, his classmate and new next-door neighbour, Jazzy O'Hanlon, believes him and she's determined to find a way to share his experience, even if that means losing her best friend. Full Review

0141375396.jpg


The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Teens, Teens

Tension exists among the kingdoms surrounding the Pitorian Sea, and peace is definitely not on everyone's agenda. Instead power is sought by force, and political manoeuvring of the worst kind sees families torn apart and innocent victims swept up in the fallout. This story of warring nations is fast moving from page one, and the main characters, who move between kingdoms, face challenge after challenge. There are five separate story lines, each led by a colourful and interesting character, and Sally Green weaves them together beautifully like a tapestry as their paths cross and their lives intertwine. Full Review

1506905900.jpg


Precept: A Novel by Matthew de Lacey Davidson

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Historical Fiction

Nathan Whyte is tremendously excited about the arrival of Frederick Douglass in Ireland. And even more excited that his Quaker father, who is publishing the British edition of Narrative, Douglass's memoir of his life as a slave, will be accompanying the famous black American abolitionist on his speaking tour. Nathan is deeply impressed by Douglass, who is a charismatic figure and a gifted orator. But Ireland will have as big an impact on Frederick Douglass as Frederick Douglass will have on it. We watch him through Nathan's eyes as he sees for himself the beginnings of the horrors of the potato famine and meets and befriends the famous Irish nationalist, Daniel O'Connell. Full Review

1912083779.jpg


The Indomitable Chiesa di Santa Maria by Daniel Peltz

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Historical Fiction

When we first visit the Chiesa di Santa Maria we're in the company of Molly Cavendish who is a part-time guide at the Museo di Santa Maria, which is what the ruins of the Chiesa - a chapel - have now become. Crowds flock to see its centrepiece, a renaissance fresco with a history which grabs the attention of young and old. Molly uses the history to entertain the tourists, but there's more too it than she knows, particularly as the history of the building is also the history of the Vannini family, who helped in building the chapel some six hundred years ago and one of whose descendants is the director of the museum. Full Review

1784631426.jpg


Falling Leaves by Stefan Mohamed

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews General Fiction, Fantasy,

When your best friend vanishes, how can you begin to move on? How can you live your life not knowing whether they're okay? And what would you do if they reappeared in your life? – all questions that Vanessa faces every day, even seven years after her best friend Mark vanished. When he reappears, she's shocked not only by his presence back in her life, but also by the fact that he hasn't aged a day – for him, no time has passed since his disappearance. Shocked, confused and emotionally reeling, Vanessa must return to her home town in order to help Mark find the answers he so desperately craves. But what's waiting for them is far more surprising than either of them could ever have dreamt… Full Review

B01N0OZQOD.jpg


Nickerbacher by Terry John Barto

link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews Emerging Readers

Nickerbacher is doing his dragonly duty as all dragons do. That dragonly duty is, of course, princess-guarding. That's what dragons are for, after all. But Gwendolyn isn't any princess. She finds the whole princessing thing quite boring really and she is much less interested in fairy tales than she is in watching comedy on The Late Knight Show. Nickerbacher likes The Late Knight Show too - in fact, it's his favourite TV show because he wants to be a stand-up comedian himself. He tries out his jokes on Princess Gwendolyn but they don't always come off quite as Nickerbacher intended. Full Review