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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. Itchildren'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, & self-published books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|plus author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.</metadesc>
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sonali FernandoSylvie Cathrall|title=Soul Mates: True Stories From The World of Online DatingA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=2.5|genre=Home and FamilyScience Fiction|summary=Internet dating is no longer the new taboo it once was. These days, whatever type of person you There are, and whatever type of person you're looking few greater joys than a book which lives up to meet, you can take your pick from any number of sites. Yes, even 'Guardian' readers can log on and look for love specifically with, erm, other 'Guardian' readersa compelling premise. To do so, they just have to click through to 'Guardian Soulmates', which And this is probably no different from 'Match.com' or 'Datingdirect', though might count a larger proportion one of sandal wearing hippies among its membersthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>085265202X</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Hunter0008517061|title=I, SniperDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=You don't often find novels or films based on Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the art future of the sniper. Hiding out for hours motionless his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and then killing someone unseen from hundreds of yards away doesn't make for her daughter Diana, as interesting moving in together would mean a story as a face lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to face shoot out. But move in with 'I, Sniper', Stephen Hunter has managed Livia or does Livia move to combine Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the art of future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the sniper with present and putting the art of future on the crime thriller in a decent readback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847377777</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lucy Coats and Anthony Lewis1786482126|title=The Beasts Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the Jar site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (Greek Beasts and HeroesD S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Atticus It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the sandalmaker police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is heading struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the great storytelling competition in Troypolice where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. On his way This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he meets a number wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of people his sentence and, always eager for to get an opportunity early parole date. Not much to hone his skillsask, relates is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to them tales do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from Ancient Greek myths her bed one summer night. She was never found and legendsthe investigation ground to a halt. The beasts Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the jar positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title? Pandora released them from what we mistakenly call her box=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|amazonuksummary=<amazonuk>1444000659</amazonuk>Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jed MercurioJo Callaghan|title=American AdultererLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=I've often wondered how history would have viewed Jack Kennedy if he'd died When a man is found crucified on the top of a natural death rather than by an assassinhill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's bullettheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. As an extension But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of that I've also thought that he might not have lived that much longer had nature been allowed unwanted attention to take its coursetheir AI Future Policing project. He's one of Will they be able to solve the most-written-about Presidents of all case in time , or will Kat find herself taken off the case and finding a new angle – even a fictional one – is not easy, but Jed Mercurio has looked at Kennedy's adult life through the prism potentially, out of his sexual peccadilloes and his health.a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099515873</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Treasure1399613073|title=BesottedMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionThrillers|summary=It is late August 1982Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when O level results come outyou aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Michael Cartwright already knows he has failed his exams Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is dreading his parents finding outthe free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. He, his twin brother Kieran (who has done very well) When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and their younger sisters are on the family holiday, staying with their motherit's parents going to end in Kilross, County Corktragedy. To escape boredom and his parents We don' anger, he wanders round t know who suffered the tragedy or the village, where he meets Fergal Noonan, training to consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be a priestan eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, and lively Peggy Oit'Connor. He has his first kiss and a bit more with Peggy. The family soon goes home to Cheltenham, but s their brief visit to Ireland will have far reaching significanceteenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330511726</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tim Pears0241636604|title=LandedThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=I have hesitated If you were to write this review becausebring up an image of a city banker in your mind, truthfully, I am not you''entirely'' sure that I know what happened at the endre unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. I read it all. I actually read A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the end several timesEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. And then I skipped back There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the middle, just to check something, before trying the end againLondon School of Economics. I have decided to just believe in what I ''think'' happened, Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and since I don't want to spoil it for other readers then I don't have to make he has a complete fool facility with numbers which most of myself writing down what it is I think! us can only envy. And actually, He also realised that mysteriousness is part of the charm of the storymost rich people expect poor people to be stupid. SoIt was his ability at what was, slight confusion asideessentially, I still gave this book four starsa card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, and this is whyturned into permanent employment as a trader...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020079</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeff Somers1035021803|title=The Eternal PrisonAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=This book stands out in the high-energy, hard-edged sci-fi adventure/thriller genre, in that it covers two stories at the same time. In one chapter we have Avery Cates, practically the best gun-for-hire in his post-apocalyptic North America, being told to kill one ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the most protected and important people left in the world, by other, almost as important people, in the cruel mix shape of powerplays that make up the current politics. In the other corner is Cates, being thrown in prison - one of those basic, hell-on-earth, surrounded by miles of desert, prisons. Here, too, he will be told things to do jobs for other people..come.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497053</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laila Lalami Sunny Singh|title=Secret SonHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.
|isbn=086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529153298
|title=The List of Suspicious Things
|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She'Secret Sons not what's worrying Miv' is the story of Youssef El-Mekkis family, the slum-dwelling teenage son of single mother Rachidathough. Women have been disappearing. Youssef has always Well, they've been told murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that his her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is deada frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, so when he finds out his mother has lied and she'll do anything to conceal prevent that. She's not worried about the fact dangers or that he her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was born out of wedlockexpected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, he plunges headlong into an identity crisisEtty. He tracks down his real fatherare all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, a wealthy businessman called Nabil Amrani who is surprisingly enthusiastic about his illegitimate sonnot. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's arrivalfather, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. Nabil has recently fallen out with his daughter It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he seizes this opportunity to mould Youssef into couldn't stand the obedient son he has always wantedguilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918296</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bonnie Hearn Hill1035906708|title=Star Crossed: Aries RisingDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Ordinary teen Logan McRae discovers an old book called We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Fearless AstrologyCallas'to make it more manageable in the States. Can the book help her and When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her friends get voice - she was raised under the boys they want, catch the vandals Nazi occupation by a mother who are shocking their school with pranks, mercilessly exploited her and win made no secret of her the approval of cantankerous English teacher Mr 'Frankenstein' Franklin? This is a novel written preference for teens – of course it canher elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0762436700</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gabrielle LordChristopher Edge|title=January (Conspiracy 365)Black Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Callum is wandering along home on New Year's Eve when crazed itinerant accosts him. ''They killed your father! They'll kill you! You must survive Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the next 365 days!nickname of '' The man is carted off in an ambulance, and Cal tries to shrug off the incident but itBlack Hole's not easy. How did the man know his name? How did he know that Cal All big movie fans, they's father was dead? Who could possibly want re looking forward to kill a run lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the mill adolescent like him? What is the Ormond Singularity movie starts, they very quickly realise that the man kept shouting something about? And the thing this new film format isvery different, Caland they are swept up into an adventure they couldn's father had written t even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to him shortly before returning home already in the throes of a fatal illness. His father was vague next, can they figure out what on detail, but earth is pretty sure he was going on ? Will they ever get back to something big. Could there be a connectionthe cinema, and to their real lives? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340996447</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steve FeaseyRachel Greenlaw|title=Changeling: Blood WolfCompass and Blade|rating=43.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Trey is ''I can hear the song of the last living hereditary werewolf - or so he thinkssea. So when he discovers he has a long-lost uncleThe call of the deep, he shrugs off all objections from his vampire guardian, Lucien and catches the first available plane to Canadaanswering beat in my heart. When he arrives, he finds that not all werewolves are fearsome, forbidding and courageous creatures. And they're certainly not all family-friendly. His uncle is old, half-blind and alcoholic. He lives in filth and he couldn't give a fig for Trey. But there is a pack out there, and it's vicious, bloodthirsty and rapidly spinning out of control. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330470493</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daren KingJames Sherwood Metts|title=Frightfully Friendly GhostiesPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Pamela Fraidy has gotten herself locked in Things have been a bit sticky for the attic with a leggy spiderEarthlings. Her fellow frightfully friendly ghosties are doing all AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they can to help her, but it's not easy re paid to pick up a key do and carry it up the stairs if you don't have a bodyother tasks that took time to accomplish. In the process Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of rescuing their friendsother, they also decide new ways to make friends spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the still-alives who inhabit their house. The ghosties are fed up of the still-alives being many daily social interactions on which they depend so mean - running off screaming every time the ghosties say helloheavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847249930</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Aravind AdigaMatthew Tree|title=The White TigerWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Balram Halwai, a Bangalore entrepreneur (of sorts) and a natural philosopher, hears that there is a planned visit from the Chinese leader Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to India to learn the source of Indian entrepreneurial talent. Balram knows that the story he will be told by the Indian leader will be a long way different from the true story of modern Indian lifehis father, a drunk and so resolves, over the course chronic underachiever whose dreams of seven nights, to write to the Chinese premier with the story being exceptional at any of his life artistic passions all failed miserably and his own journey from a poor son who had endless crises of a rickshaw driver self confidence. So Tim applied himself to the head of his own businessstudies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843547228</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jane Casey1529900360|title=The MissingGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=In 1992, Sarah FinchIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's twelve year old brother Charlie says fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to her ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware'Tell mum I'll be back soons partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed.'' Sixteen years later The next case did look simple, his family are still waiting to find out what happened to himthough. Now Two lovers were murdered in her twenties, Sarah the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is teaching at a local private school while looking after her uncaring mother, who since Charliemarried to an extremely rich man and it's disappearance has slid into alcoholismnot the Italian.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091935997</amazonuk> But which of them was the primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew Condon1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Trout OperaSecret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Judges Carrington Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Thorpe recline in leather armchairs on the verandah of BuckleyRowlands didn's Crossing hotel and watch t want to follow in silence as a giant trout shuffles across his footsteps, particularly when he considered the bridge. The Judges, despite their initial prominence and convincing backstrain that being on-story giving them a valid reason for being in Buckleycall put on his father's Crossing, will not really concern uslife. They are there to represent When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a type: family friend who was a visitor to small town Australia, a fisherman from vet and was convinced this was the cityjob for him. Before long, a seeker after something in the Snowy that probably isnhe was at Liverpool University. It hadn't fish- as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. We shall, however If anything, he'd wanted to be concerned with the giant trouta professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561506X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Morton0861541774|title=The Forgotten GardenA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Just before the First World War DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a little girl street brawl - he would later maintain that he was found abandoned on the wharf after facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a dreadful sea voyage from England to AustraliaGhurka. She appears not Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to know her name – or is unwilling light that suggested that he might have planned to tell it – and all she will say is that a mysterious lady she calls murder the Authoress had promised to look after herman. There's no trace of her though and Now he could be facing the little girl was taken in a by a friendly familydeath penalty. She forgot Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all about the events until many years later when her adopted father told her what had happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330449605</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Van der KisteAlexander McCall Smith|title=William and Mary: Heroes of the Glorious RevolutionThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Jonah grew up The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in London but his motherEdinburgh, getting increasingly worried about social disintegration run by Ness and increasing crimeoperating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has moved them up asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to Nottinghamget away for a while. Jonah Katie is coming out of a bright lad and halfway through break up with a media coursebad boyfriend, but he's finding it difficult and so jumps at the chance to come home to fit inEdinburgh. He's also finding And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new racial mix characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a problem business, or in match- making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's palpable tension between black always her very helpful (and brown-skinned people on campusrather handsome) neighbour, William, and he often feels alienated and to lend a bit like a fish out of water. hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1902835190</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Clare Morrall0811771741|title=The Man Who DisappearedInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrafts|summary=I was drawn Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to this book straight awayblankets. FirstlySome will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the jacket cover is lovelyfire' variety. The subliminal message is read meprojects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, please read me. We are introduced five to the Kendall family; motherten hours, father ten to twenty hours and three childrenmore than twenty hours. All leading unremarkablethe projects are attractive, rather ordinary livesmodern and useable. The father, Felix, works hard to provide for his family. He loves them all dearly. They all love him back. It is a secure family unit. Until I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social- completely out of the blue media- he simply disappears. His family is distraught and mystified. We all know worthy projects' but that a person cannot simply disappear's me being picky. But Felix Kendall has taken himself off the radar. Why?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994274</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ellie SandallDean Koontz|title=BirdsongThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingParanormal|summary=One by one the birds land on the branch. Each Benny is having a different speciesterrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, each has different plumageand his house gets trashed. Oh, and most importantly each someone has delivered a different call. The chorus of birdsong builds up and up and up until the biggest bird of all lands on the branchreally weird, with disturbing coffin-sized object to his loud shriek. Ahhome, but whoand it's this about to land on possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the branch with him?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405247371</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joan Brady|title=Venom|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=David Marion isn't used to finding hitmen standing at thing that has trashed his front doorhouse! The thing is, though you wouldn't be able Benny is the very last person to tell deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that such the delivery to his house is a thing might be truenew friend, given the speed and competency with which Marion dispatches said hitman and then disappearsa bad weather friend called Spike, seemingly, off the face of the Earth. Dr. Helen Freyl who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a physicist working for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the worldgood person. She Spike is alsogoing to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, up until his disappearanceBenny, David Marionand Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's sometime lover and is grief-stricken to the point of distraction by his sudden absence from her life, as she believes him to be deadwild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0743267907</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cathy Marie Buchanan Adam Stower|title=The Day The Falls Stood StillMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionConfident Readers |summary=I imagined this title as Murray is supposed to be a 'Gone With the Wind' sort of novelhumble, a saga-esque historical romancetidy and friendly cat, with a characterful heroine one who is able to sleep and page-turning story line that necessitates reading late into the night. Well, I wasn't disappointed in this paperback edition of the hardback, already a best-seller in the U.S.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925967</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anu Stohner eat and Henrike Wilson|title=Charlotte eat and the Wolves|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Hot on the heels of her adventure in [[Brave Charlotte by Anu Stohner sleep and Henrike Wilson|Brave Charlotte]], well, whatever takes his fancy next of the brave little sheep is backtwo. She But he's as bold as evera bad magician's cat, and the older sheep have stopped worrying about her wild ways. Added so his favourite bun has been turned into the mix are a gang of teenage sheep who call themselves The Wolves hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and worry the lambs. When real wolf howls catflap they both use can be heardchuck them out, but not by into the shepherd or Jack the old sheepdogregular back garden, it's down to Charlotte to save the day again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802589</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Hiawyn Oram but into a world of frightening adventure and Sarah Warburton|title=Rumblewick and the Dinner Dragons (The Rumblewick Letters)|rating=3whiffs.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Haggy Aggy This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is an unscary witch and decides she wants to make friends with dragons. Her catexpected – well, Rumblewick Spellwacker Mortimer Bone much bigger than Murray was, is a little unsure of thisto be honest, so writes to his friend Grimey for advice. Their correspondence fills this latest book in the but he's turned up and he'Rumblewick Letters'' series, following on from [[My Unwilling Witch (The Rumblewick Letters) by Hiawyn Oram|My Unwilling Witch]].ll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846160642</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Glenn DakinB0C47LV1PC|title=Candle Man: The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance |rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Birthdays for Theo are not exactly how we would recognise them. One bland, forgettable present from each of the three people who live in his household. Some pink cake at the best of times. A trip to the cemetery, with the butler making sure nobody else is in sight. But this one is different - some person unknown leaves something for him. And by the time burglars break in, and force Theo to leave the confines of his bedroom and find some of the secrets of the house, it is too late - Theo is set on a nightmarish trail between two warring forces, as the truths of his destiny, his origins, and his hands, come to the fore.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405246766</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFragility|author=Christopher Isherwood|title=A Single ManMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=If Can youmake a ''Yo birthing person've ever wanted to know what goes on inside someone's mind joke? And if you'll love this short novelcould, first published back in 1964. We join George Falconer just at is the moment he awakes from sleep and witness his innermost thoughts as he goes about a typical day. It all sounds pretty dull and monotonous but what makes this exciting question should you make it? Or is that George isn't just any old professor living the American Dreamquestion if you did, oh no, he's so detached from would it land? The catch is that the banal normality of the world that he's almost outside of his own body at timesanswer for both could well be..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548828</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Celine Kiernan|title=The Poison Throne (Moorehawke Trilogy)|rating=3|genre=Teens|summary=In ''The Poison Throne'' what had been a benevolent kingdom has become characterised by repression and torture (which the book graphically describes). The magical aspects of the kingdom, its talking cats and ghosts, have been suppressed, while Alberon, the heir to the throne, has vanished. Wynter, along with Alberon's half brother Razi and his friend Christopher are increasingly at risk as they attempt to deal with this situationno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498211</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jo Brand1529431735|title=The More You Ignore MeWinter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Alice is growing up in a cottage in Herefordshire with her gentle, hippy father and her mother, Gina, who spends her days standing around like a chain-smoking zombie because she is kept on medication and has been for years. Gina's first psychotic episode occured after AliceIt's birth. Then there was the episode Alice remembers, the day her mother climbed onto the roof, naked, holding Smelly the hamster, February 1991 and refused to come down. From that dayEssex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the old Gina, boisterous and unconventional as she was, fell silent under the numbing impact of constant medicationmore surprising. Jo Brand tells the story of how Alice coped with He'd been exiled on the loneliness and worry of growing up with an ill mother. Most importantly, Costa del Sol as I'm sure the teenage Alice would see it, we are shown the birth and life of her obsession with Morrissey of The Smiths. In his music she finds escapism and comfort and in him she finds a figure to adore. Her friends can't understand her fixation and her mother understands fixation wanted drug smuggler for a little too well (the local weatherman having been the object of one of her fervent obsessions)decade. Morrissey sings with such sensitivity and angst that surely, Alice thinks, if she could just meet him and tell him her story he could help her and she could help him...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755322320</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit |title=Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=In early 2005, a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman to confirm and prepare for a telephone interview return has come about day to day life in Baghdad, and about her thoughts on the forthcoming elections there. Maybecause he's detailed and frank responses prompt more curiosity and questions had a letter from Bee, and a friendship develops between the two women. They tell each other about their work, relationships and family lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141038535</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Diana Wynnehis ex-Jones|title=Enchanted Glass|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Andrew Hope, a rather woolly professorwife, learns saying that his magical grandfather has died, leaving him his house she's ill and his field-of-care. Andrew remembers some things from when he was a little boy, such as his grandfather leaving vegetables on the roof of the shed for someone, or something, hasn't long to eat each night. He also remembers that there is something special about the beautiful, old coloured glass above the kitchen door, but not exactly what that islive. It seems he has forgotten a lot of what his grandfather taught him, including the mystery of the field-of-care he has inherited. But with the entrance of Aidan Cain, an orphan, into his house and his life the mysteries deepen. The two are drawn to each other, however, and slowly start to unravel the truth that surrounds them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007320787</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=James Delgado|title=Kamikaze: History's Greatest Naval Disaster|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=When Mongol leader, Khubilai Khan, achieved what his Grandfather Genghis had failed hard to do in conquering China, he inherited the world's largest and most sophisticated navy. Howeverfeel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, in attempting stripped to utilise this to expand his empire further to Java, Vietnam and mainly Japan, he lost the entire armada in a few short years. New marine archeological evidence from Japan, ironically with the site discovered in the 1990s in the construction of new defences from the weather, has raised questions on the traditional view that the defeat of the two Japanese invasion forces of 1274 underwear and particlularly 1281 were solely due sent to the intervention of the weather and what Japanese culture claim was a Kamikaze (or ''divine wind'') summoned by the Gods.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532581</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Bakewell|title=How to Live: A Life of Montaigne watery grave in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer |rating=5|genre=Biography|summary='Chance … really the way things happen,' wrote Howard Beck, the Chicago School sociologist. I visit Bookbag Towers with few preconceived ideas about the next book for review. I'll allow myself to fall for a quirky title or appealing cover, despite only a smattering boot of interest in the subject matter. Just occasionally this way, I stumble on a golden nugget so fascinating and well-written that I realise how lucky I am to be a reviewerstolen Ford Sierra. I'm so pleased to have chanced upon this inviting biography of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178922</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Conway and Melanie Williamson|title=The Great Nursery Rhyme Disaster|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Little Miss Muffet is fed up of being constantly scared by Is it a spider, so she ups sticks and heads for warning from a different page of the book, to see if the characters of another nursery rhyme will let her join in. She tries one rhyme after another, but things never quite work to plan. Will she find Spanish gang or a nursery rhyme that suits her problem closer to a Thome?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340945087</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alistair DuncanAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Norwood Author - Arthur Conan Doyle and the Norwood Years (1891 - 1894)Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's the funeral. Laurel - Lolly to those that love her - Eli is concentrating very hard and trying desperately to turn into a busy lad – by day an ice lolly. Ice lollies are frozen, you seeapprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and they don't feel so much. They can't miss people - mothers - who are gone in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and people who are still around can't hurt themruns. A frozen heart Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a sad thinggeneration missing in the family. A few short years ago, but itEli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a safe thingglobe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. Auntie Ellen doesn't like This has made the race anathema to the music pair – but when a bad incident at the serviceeatery leads to a confession from gran, she thinks it's inappropriate. It isn't even a hymn. But it was one Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of Laurel's mother's favourites, and Laurel think it's just perfect. Specialmagic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281730</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
