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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=Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick Sylvie Cathrall|title=TimecatcherA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=Jessie Minahan is There are few greater joys than a pretty average fictional twelve year old girl: she has book which lives up to a dog side-kick named Duff and she craves adventurecompelling premise. One day, when her scatty mother has an urgent need for buttons Jessie discovers the abandoned Dublin Button Factory in an old mill, now inhabited by two detectives, who have a big, big secret. She also meets G who And this is not your average fictional twelve year old boy - for one, he's dead. His worst enemy is Greenwood – a large ghost who lives in the mill and is full of rules. Greenwood is also involved in this big secret which Jessie and G soon discover is the Timecatcher. It opens every seven years for three days and reveals the past - 'shadow days' and 'shadow people'. It is about to open again and there is a ghostly villain named Sullivan Ellz'mede who would do anything to have the power source at its heart..them. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556770</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rose Tremain0008517061|title=TrespassDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Set in the hills of Southern FranceFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, Trespass is has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a novel little uncertainty about sibling love and rivalry, disputed territory and ultimately revenge. In the French corner are Aramon Lunel, resident future of the Mas Lunel, and his sister Audrun who lives in a cottage in the grounds. In the English corner are Victoria Verey, a garden designerlife with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her partnerdaughter Diana, an untalented watercolourist, Kitty. The catalyst that brings these as moving in together is the arrival in France would mean a lot of Anthony Verey, Victoria's sister whose exclusive antiques business compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in London with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is failing the future she wants for herself and who decides to follow his sister in finding a new her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in France. Aramon is tempted to sell his family Mas by the lure of 'foreign' money even if that means that his sister's house has to be destroyed to secure present and putting the future on the dealback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701177942</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip Ardagh1786482126|title=The Wrong End of the Dog Janus Stone (Grubtown TalesDr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=If you havenBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 't been to Grubtown beforeluxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, then feel welcomeDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's an auspicious day for the town of grubby and inept people with names like Rambo Sanskritdifficult as Ruth knows, and Mango Claptrapbut Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as well. For today is a result of the day of film star Tawdrey Hipbone's gala charity premiereone night they spent together some three months ago. But there's to Her condition will be no galaobvious before long, and little charity either, when a pelican (and not the town mascot either, but a different one) comes and steals - yes, steals - the beloved dog Snooks - yes, Snooks - from where he was living the fine life in Tawdrey's hair - yes, hairleast because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057124792X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christi Phillips 0008551324|title=The Devlin Diary|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=It is 1672 and Hannah Devlin, a young widow with a skill for Devil You Know (illegallyD S Max Craigie) practicing medicine finds herself being all but kidnapped by King Charles II's advisors and forced to use her skills to treat his mistress, Louise de Keroualle.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847393489</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Pauline Fisk|title=In the TreesNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Since his mother died, Kid has been staying with Nadine and flipping burgers in a fast food joint after school. It's not an exciting life, but he isn't unhappyunusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. And then Nadine gets a boyfriend and Neither side likes or has any respect for the flat gets rather crampedother. And then a box of his motherBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's possessions arrivesprepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. Inside This person, he finds a photo of promises, is someone big and it will be worth the father police doing what he's never met and a copy of his birth certificate, which tells him that his father comes from Belizewants. And suddenly, Kid makes a decision. He's going nowhere fast in London, so what he's going wants is to be transferred to head out an open prison to Belize serve the remainder of his sentence and find the man in the phototo get an early parole date. He's on a plane within days. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571236200</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Grimstone|title=Gladiator Boy vs Not much to ask, is it? The Living Dead|rating=2.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=[[A Heronew Deputy Police Constable doesn's Quest (Gladiator Boy) by David Grimstone|A Herot think so and she's Quest]] introduced us even prepared to Decimus Rex. This seventh book in do the overall ''Gladiator Boy'' series (other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and start of a new sub-series of 6) begins anyone who works with our hero, Decimus Rex, and his friends all having received messages him is kept well away from their former ally Teo. I say former because they all thought Teo was dead. They're all hoping against hope that Teo is really alive, but therewhat's a nagging doubt that their nemesis Slavious Doom is setting a trap for themhappening...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989270</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenny Valentine0008405026|title=Iggy and Me and A Stranger in the Happy BirthdayFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=OohIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, hooray! Iggy and Flo her father are back! We loved dead in their [[Iggy and Me by Jenny Valentine|first outing]]bed. Initially, just as we love all Jenny Valentineit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's books for older readers. Flo's just your everyday run something about the positioning of the mill eight year oldbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Iggy's What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a normal five year old (going on six)complex double murder. Iggy Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's a funny little thing, Flodisappearance: others (such as Derwent's sweet. They're sisters who do what sisters doboss, in a regular family. They learn to swim, they fall ill, they make cakes, they ride bikesUna Burt) are less convinced. They toddle along with life and have a lovely time. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007283636</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gene Kemp0571379877|title=No Way OutThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Alex and Adam are twinsEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and theyStanza. Robert're telepathic to boots a theatre director. They He're very closes also self-obsessed, demanding, but are also like chalk handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and cheese: Adamhe's looking forward drunkenly confided how he feels to their holiday on Uncle Ben and Aunt SadieRobert. Most men in Robert's farm, position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but Alex canhe't think of anything worse. Adam s not like most men: Edward is always happy to read left to their little sister Emmy, but Alex resents stumble upon the attention she gets (she's disabled, y'see). By and large, they're just ordinary kids, with ordinary grumbles. When the car they're in goes through thick fog and crashes, they find themselves two of them kissing in a town from times past, with inhabitants who don't want to let them leave, and who have an eye on Emmydark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571244556</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Allan Manham and Penny DannJo Callaghan|title=The Giant CarrotLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Jack When a man is quite found crucified on the gardener. All his hard work means his vegetable patch is awash with lucious veggies. One daytop of a hill in Nuneaton, he decides DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to pull up some carrots and make soupthe case alongside her sidekick, but the biggest carrot just wouldn't budgeAI detective Lock. He It's going their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. 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 unwanted attention to have their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to get some chums to help him.solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843625911</amazonuk>139851120X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Castle Freeman1399613073|title=All That I HaveMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionThrillers|summary=Castle Freeman may sound like two thirds Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a firm quarter of provincial solicitors but thankfully this Castle Freeman a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a man very skilled in writing about the law rather than practicing itbonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. In his latest novel Freeman tells an intriguing tale involving local Sheriff Lucian Wing Laura is a perfectionist and his practical yet low-key approach to maintaining order in rural Vermonta trauma doctor. Not for Wing Anjali is the free spirit of the gung ho approach to fighting crimegroup and she becomes a GP. He doesn When we first meet them they't wear re at a uniform, he drives a battered old car rather than the standard issue sheriffdrug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's wagon and his gun, so ubiquitous in US law enforcement, is safely tucked away going to end in his bottom drawertragedy. Everyone in We don't know who suffered the area knows tragedy or the sheriff and by and large they respect him and his slightly unorthodox way of doing businessconsequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715639021</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dan Rhodes0241636604|title=Little Hands ClappingThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=The first character If you were to mention bring up an image of a city banker in this book your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is a moththe East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. It's a human moth, drawn There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the flame that London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a museum facility with numbers which most of suicide - a supposedly cautionary, life-affirming, memento mori, somewhere in Germanyus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. Its curator is an old hand It was his ability at lonelywhat was, unloved museumsessentially, fresh from a card game which got him an art gallery in an airport - it didn't take off - who notices the noise of the latest suicide to happen in the museum, and goes right back to sleepinternship with Citibank. A spider crawls Eventually, this turned into his mouth and gets eatenpermanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847675298</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lindsey Leavitt1035021803|title=Princess for HireThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Desi is not It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the happiest English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of teenagersa request for help from her beloved aunt, although when are teenage girls ever actually happy? Carole. AnywayFreya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, her ex-best friend Celeste is doing everything possible to humiliate dead and alienate her from their friendsthe circumstances seem suspicious, and to top it all off Celeste is also dating say the boy Desi has a huge crush on, Haydenleast. (He is perhaps a dubious prospect for Desi since he can't even get Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her name right)down badly. StillEven though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has landed herself summer job working for a pet store and although it involves being dressed in a furry groundhog costume at least no-one can tell it's her in there. Well, not until Celeste comes along and unmasks herfelt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. In front of Hayden. Desi finds herself feeling more and more like vapour every dayAfter the split, that she doesn't matter or almost doesn't exist. Cue worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the fairy-godmother style entrance love of Meredithher life, an agent for Facade which is a magical company that offer jobs to teens with magical potential to work as substitute princesses..who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524612X</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Giles Andreae and David WojtowyczSunny Singh|title=Commotion In The OceanHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingThrillers |summary=There's The Hotel Arcadia is a commotion luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the ocean: the dolphins terrorists who are squeakingrampaging through, killing everyone on site, the jellyfish are jigglingthere is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the lobsters residents who are clippetty-clapping snippety-snapping. Animal still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by animalevents, Giles Andreae (best-known for [[Giraffes Can't Dance Magnet Book by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees|Giraffes Cankeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what't Dance]]) takes us s happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the underwater adventuresphone, with short, snappy poemstheir 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.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408308452</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Delphine de Vigan1529153298|title=No and MeThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Lou It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is a cleverPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, clever child with an IQ approaching 160honestly... ) She's thirteen, but shenot what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been moved up two years at school and she compares her flat chested, nervous self somewhat unfavourably with her fifteen-year-old peer groupdisappearing. Funnily enough Well, her only real friend at school is Lucasthey've been murdered, whobut to have 's seventeen and such a rebel that hedisappeared's been moved down two years. Things at home arendoesn't great for Lousound quite so frightening. Her baby sister died a few years ago and Miv's upset because she's overheard that her mother has been severely depressed ever since. She barely talks, seldom gets dressed. Her father is worn down wants to move the bone with worry and Lou doesnfamily 'Down South'. When you't get a great deal of attention re from him eitherYorkshire, so distracted Down South is he. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408807513</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paul Magrs|title=The Diary of a Dr Who Addict|rating=3|genre=Teens|summary=Daveyfrightening, in his first term at secondary schoolforeign place, is horrifiedbest avoided. Not only is his For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend trying to grow up through the use of a home gym, Sharon, and standing him up on the first morning of term, he also seems she'll do anything to be becoming dismissive of The Showprevent that. Still, he is trying to be esoteric She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - just like his sister, painting her face to look like Bowie album sleeves of all things - and Davey knows better. He knows everyone should be enthralled with the spectacle of Tom Baker falling off a building and becoming Peter Davisonanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384129</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joshua Ferris 1398524085|title=The UnnamedHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Tim Farnsworth seemed to have it allCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. He loved his wife Jane Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter Becka and his job as a partner in prestigious law firm was enjoyable, fulfilling and financially rewardingEtty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. The fly Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the ointment river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that sometimes Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he was overtaken by a compulsion to walkcouldn't stand the guilt. The time of day, the weather or the occasion did Salter children are not matter – when the compulsion came he had to walk until he was physically exhausted and fell asleep immediately after calling his wife to come convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and collect him. There seemed to be no medical explanation for wonder about what was happening – and Tim and Jane had tried every source they could find – but Tim was still reluctant to accept that this was a mental rather than a physical illnessreally happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917702</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michele Monro1035906708|title=Matt Monro: The Singer's SingerDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Although Robin Cook has written many booksWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, ''Intervention'' is the first one that I have read - I'm a Robin Cook 'virgin.' This is a big book in many respectsDecember 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. It's a classic, glossy 'coffee table' edition; Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed itto 's a big, satisfying read and itCallas's a multi-layered book in that to make it covers many current-day topics which have their roots more manageable in historythe States. In fact, this book is When she was back in Athens - supposedly so multi-dimensional that, you she could argueget appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, there are several books within this bookJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230743633</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Victoria ForesterChristopher Edge|title=The Girl Who Could FlyBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could fly? It would be such Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a wonderful sensationmovie marathon at their local cinema, soaring through a place that has the air, looping the loop, swooping down over your house and gardennickname of 'The Black Hole'. But have you also stopped to think what other people might think if All big movie fans, they saw that you could fly whilst no one else could? Would children still want 're looking forward to be your friend? What would your family think? The little girl in this storylots of exciting films, Piper McCloudand many, can fly. many snacks! She lives on her parents farm and was always a littleHowever, wellas the movie starts, unusualthey very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and after her mum found her floating in the air one day when she was a baby she decided to home school Piper, rather than expose her to the gossips in the villagethey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one day, at film genre to the village picnicnext, Piper flies during the baseball match as she tries can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to catch the ballcinema, and suddenly her whole life is turned upside down...to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330512536</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jon MayhewJames Sherwood Metts|title=MortlockPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Abyssinia, 1820. Three Englishment search Things have been a bit sticky for the AmarantEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, a mythical flower with the power over life often replacing jobs they're paid to do and death, in a strange desert oasisother tasks that took time to accomplish. On finding the flower surrounded by decaying faces, Just as they realize that it is cursed, were beginning to get used to all this technological change and take a blood oath never starting to remove it. Londonthink of other, 1854. 13 year old knife thrower Josie performs with her guardian the Great Cardamomnew ways to spend time, along came an especially gifted magician who we quickly learn is Chrimes, the coward of the original three Englishmenawful pandemic. Their relatively peaceful existence is shattered when three macabre Aunts (note the capital letter, never a good sign…) descend on them, Life was pretty much shut down and Cardamom instructs Josie, along with his dying breathit, to find all the twin brother he'd never told her about and destroy the Amarantmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408803925</amazonuk>1736128426
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Carole White and Sian WilliamsMatthew Tree|title=Struggle or StarveWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=AutobiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=Struggle or Starve is Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a collection drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of autobiographical writings about girls' being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and women's lives in South Wales between the warswho had endless crises of self confidence. This is a new edition of a book first published in 1998 by HonnoSo Tim applied himself to his studies, an independent publisher cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set up to encourage Welsh women writers. Most of the contributors in this book came from miners' families and grew up in real poverty and economic insecurityhimself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906784094</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julia GreenA G Slatter|title=Drawing with LightThe Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=TeensFantasy|summary=Emily doesn't remember her biological mother. She ran away with another man when Emily was ' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just twoto myself for however long I can. NowThis secret magic of my own, her older sister Katall mine, her father, and her stepmother Cassy make up the family unit and Emily thinks it's at last. I just fine that way. She doesn't need a mother who didn't want her and has never even tried to get in touch. But then Kat goes off to university, her father buys a rundown house in the middle of nowhere and moves them into enjoy it for a caravan while it.''s being renovated, and Cassy gets pregnant. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802732</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Caroline Moorehead 1529900360|title=Dancing to the Precipice : Lucie De La Tour Du Pin and the French RevolutionThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=Two hundred years agoIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, with Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the fall help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the monarchy and involvement was something that the Napoleonic warsman she loved needed. The next case did look simple, France underwent one cataclysmic change after anotherthough. There Two lovers were many who witnessed and experienced murdered in the volatile age at first hand, but few left swimming pool of a more detailed record than remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the subject Italian. But which of this biography, Lucie-Henriette Dillon, Marquise Marchioness de La Tour du Pin.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099490528</amazonuk>them was the primary target?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rook Hastings1529395224|title=Nearly DepartedLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=TeensAnimals and Wildlife|summary=At first sight, you'd think Weirdsville Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was Anytown - it has a slightly rundown feel; everythingGP and Rowlands didn's just a little bit shabby. But itt want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's pretty much like any other townlife. Parents go to When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work. Kids go to school experience with a family friend who was a vet and clump together in little peer groups of geeks and swots and jocks and bullieswas convinced this was the job for him. But Weirdsville isn't like any other town. There's a strangely abundant wood right in the middle of it Before long, and he was at night, everythings turns, well, a little bit weirdLiverpool University. The darkness is It hadn't - as with so dark it almost sucks you inmany students - been his dream since he was a child. And there are odd noises too... ... and Emily thinks she If anything, he's seen d wanted to be a ghostprofessional footballer. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007258100</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel Suarez0861541774|title=DaemonA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=As the internet grows DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and technology advancesformer colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, it's seems there is nothing you can't doGuy Trueman. Recent innovations mean you can operate appliances Maik was involved in your own home from another continent a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and cars are more automated than everhe killed a Ghurka. Huge online games allow users worldwide Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to interact and play against each other in huge arenaslight that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Thanks to social networking, Now he could be facing the internet death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can be addictive do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and, yes, Iwouldn'm aware of the irony in writing that heret help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249612</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Erica Bauermeister Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Monday Night Cooking SchoolPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=The Monday Night Cooking School Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the first novel written by American writer Erica Bauermeister online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and it really look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a delicious read in every sensetrip to Canada to get away for a while. The novel tells Katie is coming out of eight very diverse people who attend a cooking class once break up with a month bad boyfriend, and so jumps at Lillian's restaurantthe chance to come home to Edinburgh. 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 characters who quickly begin to charm. Each Katie has no experience in running a different reason for being business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there 's always her very helpful (and each has his or her own story rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to tellblankets. However Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, over cosy afternoons in front of the months that fire' variety. The projects are divided by the course is runtime they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, they start ten to bond through the learning experience twenty hours and their love of foodmore than twenty hours. It's not All the sort of novel where much happens but if you projects are interested in people attractive, modern and you love food, useable. I am sure you will enjoy this book. Having said that though, perhaps show my age when I donwonder about 'social-media-worthy projects't think it is a book but that should be read if you are trying to diet because you can virtually smell the food as you turn the pages!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141038837</amazonuk>'s me being picky.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marcus SedgwickDean Koontz|title=Lunatics and Luck (Raven Mysteries)The Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=It's obvious reallyBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. When an earthquake hits Castle OtherhandOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, Valevinedisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the head of the householdthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, decides what Benny is the place needs very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a machine nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to predict the futurehis house is a new friend, and a new tutor bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for his two oldest childrenbeing a good person. And why not? There are only those childrenSpike is going to take care of Benny, the suicidal baby twins, Valevineand will certainly take care of Benny's dreadful failed inventions and experimentsenemies, if he, Edgar the raven that narrates this series of booksBenny, and Harper (a monkey. With bells on. Clearly there is not enough weirdness there already to go aroundwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556959</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Richard Wilkinson and Kate PickettAdam Stower|title=The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better For Everyone Murray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyConfident Readers |summary=If you asked people why it Murray is (or might supposed to be) a good idea humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to reduce inequality in a societysleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, many people would assume that reducing inequality works by making the life whatever takes his fancy next of the poorest better: that two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the poor are catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the ones who benefit from reduction regular back garden, but into a world of inequalityfrightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141032367</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0C47LV1PC
|title=Fragility
|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.
''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ken Bruen1529431735|title=The Killing of the TinkersWinter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Jack Taylor returns to his native Ireland with his tail between his legsIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He's d been lying low 'over exiled on the water' in London, licking his woundsCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. Jack (IThe return has come about because he'm slightly surprised that Bruen didn't give him s had a more Irish name) is a middleletter from his ex-agedwife, washed-up, disgraced ex-cop. As if saying that wasnshe's ill and hasn't bad enough, he also has a lot of very bad habitslong to live. He acknowledges however that It'the new world s hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is designed for non-smokers.' He also admits quite freely abducted, stripped to his underwear and openly that 'An alcoholic has dreams sent to rival that a watery grave in the boot of any Vietnam veta stolen Ford Sierra.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863224113</amazonuk> Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dave ZeltsermanAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=KillerThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=54|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Here at Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the Bookbag, wondrous library we've been very impressed start by visiting with Dave Zeltserman's work thus far. He uses him, and in the evening a wonderful noirish narrative that takes you straight to helper at the heart of the storydessert cafe his gran owns and runs. His story telling is very straightforwardEli lives with his lovely gran, not weighing down the story with too much style, but sticking to – for there is a generation missing in the substance and delivering a hard-hitting work every timefamily. With ''Killer'', he has done the same again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668644X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Roger Hargreaves|title=Mr Nobody (Mr Men and Little Misses)|rating=4.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Mr Nobody is... wellA few short years ago, heEli's somebody who sort of is and sort of isn't. Mr Happy comes across him one dayparents were both lost to the titular race, and does his best to cheer him up. Who could possibly help a person who's sort of there and sort of isn't? Ah, the Wizard!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405251425</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tony Mitton and Guy Parkerglobe-Rees|title=Jolly Olly Octopus|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Jolly Olly Octopus is giggling underneath trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the sea. He's soon joined by two tickly turtles, three smiley seahorses, and so on through world in the numbers. The large cast company of underwater animals are having a jolly ol' time, until a shark appearsmagical beast...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846166861</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mo Smith|title=The Lazy Cook's Family Favourites|rating=4.5|genre=Cookery|summary=These days I get very nervous This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when I hear about books for 'lazy' cooksa bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, or how Eli knows his only hope is to dare to cheat when preparing meals. There's a very simple reason for this: good foodenter what he most hates, prepared using seasonal ingredients which don't break with the budget needs skill and knowledge and neither are sole aim the prerogative prize of magic at the end – the lazy. Mo Smith might like us only thing to think that she's lazy, but take my word for it – she isn't. She might have learned a few tricks for making good food quickly, but she's a woman who knows her onions and all sorts of other foodpossibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749007826</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
