Open main menu

Changes

no edit summary
__NOTOC__
=='''21 JANUARY9 MAY'''==
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0099551063Tom Percival|title=The Wisdom of Psychopaths: Lessons in life from Saints, Spies and Serial Killers|author=Dr Kevin DuttonWrong Shoes|rating=45|genre=Popular ScienceConfident Readers|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has ' the wrong shoes'Donald Trump outscores Hitler on psychopathic traits, he has the wrong shoes because his dad can' claims Oxford University researcher.t work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad canUntil t work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the events of 6 January 2021 fact that might have surprisedhis mum and dad are separated, even shocked many readers: now theyand Will're probably convinced that they knew it all alongs life seems bleak in every direction. The statement And yet, he still has lost a little tiny amount of its shock value but it does help us to understand more about the nature of psychopathyhope. It's too easy He is good at art, and clings to associate psychopathy with the Yorkshire Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Saddam Hussein or Robert Maudsleymoments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the real-life Hannibal Lecterend of a long, but the truth is that having psychopathic traits can sometimes be a good thingdark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
}}
=='''23 MAY'''==
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529337925Onyi Nwabineli|title=The Mirror Dance (Dandy Gilver)|author=Catriona McPherson|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=It was the August Bank Holiday weekend and, as so often happened, it was cold enough Allow Me to have the fire lit and Bunty the Dalmation wasn't inclined to leave it to keep Dandy Gilver warm on the sofa. The thought of work was almost cheering when Dandy took the call from Sandy Bissett in Dundee. She was the publisher of a magazine and had been told that the man running the Punch and Judy show in the local park had used copies of two of her cartoon characters - Rosie Cheek and her sister Freckle - to drum up some local interest in his show. Sandy Bissett's request was simple: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to warn the man about infringement of copyright - and Dandy and Alex would be cheaper than employing a solicitor to do the same job.}}{{Frontpage|author=David F Ross|title= There's Only One Danny GarveyIntroduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= Years ago, Danny Garvey was a footballing prodigy playing for his local club. Everyone predicted a bright future – but his career in professional football never quite worked out. Thirteen years Anuri spent her childhood ondisplay to the world, convinced thanks to return home by his "uncle" Higgy to visit his dying her step-motherOphelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, Danny takes over the shambolic and once-great team he used to play where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and tries to reform them.|isbn= 1913193500}}{{Frontpage|author=Afonso Cruz influencer deals and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=Kokoschka's Doll|rating=2.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the get-gobasically, which monetary gain. Now Anuri is why I picked my review copy up in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of it. I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the middle on darker stock paperget her life back, a chapter whose number was in suing her step-mother to take down the 20content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism,000s, letters used as narrative formfailing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so on. It intrigued with Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew new focus of it mentioned, tooOphelia's online empire. But you've seen the star rating that comes with this reviewCan she save her sister, and can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happenedperhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|isbn=15294026970861546873
}}
=='''26 JANUARY4 JUNE'''==
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529124417Stuart Douglas|title=Before She Disappeared|author=Lisa Gardner|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Frankie Elkin found Lani Whitehorse's body in her car at the bottom of the lake. She knew that the twenty-two-year-old waitress wouldn't have left her three-year-old daughter and run away. Lani was the fourteenth missing person to be located by Frankie Lowe and now she's moving on again, this time to Boston where there's a strong Haitian community which was home to Angelique Lovelie Badeau until her disappearance eleven months ago. Frankie, middleLe Breton Mysteries -aged and white, gets a job and accommodation at Stoney's bar and sets out to investigate the community which is just about exclusively black.}}=='''28 JANUARY'''=={{Frontpage|author=Rob Keeley|title=The Treasure in the Tower|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Rob Keeley is back! Hooray! We here Death at Bookbag Towers are always happy to read a new adventure from Rob - his stories combine fast pace and lots of action, an easy to read style, an unerring eye for children's friendships and rivalries, and always a good dollop of naughty humour. They're all present here, in ''The Treasure in the Tower''. The chance purchase of a book during a school trip sparks the whole adventure. Who can follow the clues best and find the treasure? Jess, her brother Mason and their friend Kessie through sheer persistence? Or spoiled brat Perdita with her money and tech gadgets and willingness to cheat?|isbn=1800461321}}=='''1 FEBRUARY'''=={{Frontpage|isbn=B08LKT7HSR|title=Murder in the Belltower (A Miss Underhay Mystery)|author=Helena DixonDress Rehearsal
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=In December 1933 the remains of Elowed Underhay were discovered in the cellar of the Glass Bottle Public House. Ezekiel Hamett was sought in connection with the murder of Elowed and During location filming for his half-brother, Denzil Hammett, whose body was also discovered. Kitty Underhay1970's long search for her mothersitcom 'Floggit and Leggit', who disappeared in June 1916 was over. Now she's determined that the leading man responsible for her murder will be brought to justice.}} =='''2 FEBRUARY'''=={{Frontpage|author=Anna Carey|title=This is Not Edward Lowe stumbles across the Jess Show|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Jess is dead body of a normal 90's teenage girl, just trying to navigate woman on the usual stresses edge of school, and boys, and parent troublesa reservoir. But strange things The police seem happy to be happening in her small townassign it as an accidental death, with a mystery flu keeping lots of people indoorsbut something about the whole thing bothers Lowe, and he enlists the help of a strange metal devicefellow actor, with an apple on it, that slips out of her friend's bag, but that her friends just won't talk John Le Breton to her abouthelp him investigate matters further. Jess feels like she might be hearing voices They travel across the country during their days off filming, uncovering more possible murders and her sister (who is very ill) seems , seemingly, a link to be responding to her in strange ways sometimesdeath during the Second World War. Is But is there something going on beneath really a link between the surface of Jess' lifedeaths? And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives?|isbn=16836919701803368209
}}
=='''4 FEBRUARY6 JUNE'''==
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008379300Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=The Shadow Man|author=Helen FieldsDungeon Runners: Hero Trial
|rating=4
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Fergus Ariss is in his late thirties and he knows that he's dying. His body is giving up on him, his internal organs beginning to putrify but before he dies he wants a wife, a child and a brother. He's been on the lookout for the perfect people and he's made certain preparations. The flat where the family will live is prepared and even windows with curtains, and pictures in frames have been painted onto the walls. Angela Fernycroft was to be his wife. Her husband, Cal, had taken the children - a boy of seven and a girl of five, away for the weekend. Unfortunately, it doesn't go according to plan and Angela dies.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=178089905X
|title=Serpentine
|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It wasn't exactly the case Lt Milo Sturgis had been dreaming about: a death from thirty-six years ago and the daughter of the woman who died wanted some answers. She had money and money translated into clout and so the problem was dropped onto Milo's toes. Dorothy Swoboda was twenty-four years old when she died in a car which went off a cliff on Mulholland Drive and burst into flames. It turned out that she wasn't actually married to the man with whom she'd left her daughter but Dr Stanley R Barker, optometrist, was a good man and he took out adoption papers for Ellie - and she took his name. Ellie was three when her mother left her with Dr Barker and she has nothing of her but one photograph of her mother and father and a necklace made of serpentine.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1471191303
|title=The Invisible
|author=Tom Percival
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=This is the story of Isobel, a little girl who made a big difference. Isobel lived with her parents in a house - a very cold house, because her parents couldn't afford to put the heating on:
 
''Ice curled across the inside of the window and crept up the corner of the bedpost.''
 
The family didn't go to the cinema or on holidays but they had each other and they were happy. Then the day came when they couldn't afford the rent for the house and they had to move to the far side of the city. This part of the city was cold, sad and lonely and Isobel felt invisible.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Helen Fisher
|title=Space Hopper
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Faye lost her mum when she was very young. She was raised by some elderly neighbours after her mum died from a cold that got worse, and although they were kind and very good to her she of course missed her mum enormously. So when, unexpectedly, she discovers a time travel conduit (via an old space hopper box in her attic) that takes her back to the 70's and her mum, she revels in the chance to create some memories and get to know the woman who meant so much to her. The time travelling, however, is neither easy nor safe, and Faye fears that her husband won't believe what's happening and so lies to him instead. The lies grow more tangled, and Faye begins to wonder if it's safe for her to return one last time to the past. Should she try to see her mum one last time before her mum's death, or will it change her own future forever to attempt it?
|isbn=1471188663
}}
 
=='''18 FEBRUARY'''==
{{Frontpage
|author=Hannah Gold
|title=The Last Bear
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=April's fatherMeet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, a scientistit seems, has been given he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a job on a remote island called Bear Islandteam of warrior, mage and he accepts the job deciding to take his daughter April with him. They live alone anywayhealer enter specially prepared, century-old, since April's mother died some time beforemagical mazes, and he feels it will be educational for her race to experience the island exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and all its natural beautythe points they grant you along the way. April already has an affinity with natureUnfortunately for Kit, and shethe only thing he's excited to travel with her father, thinking seen of all the fun things they will be able to experience together latest race on the islandinn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a new trio of questors is needed. But when they get therePossibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, her father finds that his work monitoring and recording he has taken to the goading from the temperatures just takes up too much token bully of his time, world and so April is left to explore by herselfstumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. Her father had reassured her What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that there were no longer any bears living on Bear Island, but one day April thinks she catches a glimpse of one, and so she sets out to find the Bear, and then when she sees how could he is injured, possibly hope to befriend and help him.succeed?|isbn=000841128X1839945184
}}
 =='''4 MARCH13 JUNE'''==
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Saima Mir1635866847|title=The Khan|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Jia Khan has alway lived by the motto be twice as good as men and four times as good as white men. This has served her well in her rise through the criminal justice system and by the time she is called home for her sister's wedding after fifteen years in self-imposed exile, she is at the top of her game. Returning to the city of her birth, to old scars and fresh wounds, Jia must confront her past and reconcile her visions for the future with her sense of honour and duty.|isbn=1786079097}}{{FrontpageLavender Companion|author=Andrea Bajani Jessica Dunham and Elizabeth Harris (translator)|title=If You Kept a Record of SinsTerry Barlin Vesci
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionLifestyle|summary=This was an incredibly readable novellaIt's strange, but one the things that left me a little conflicted. We start as our hero arrives at Bucharest airport, and before we even know his gender or the nature of the person hemake you ''immediately's addressing in his second person monologue of a narration, we see him picked up by his mother's chauffeur, and carted off to do all the necessary introductions before said mother feel that this is buried the following daybook for you. Before I started reading ''The mother was a businesswomanLavender Companion'', who clearly left northern Italy and settled in Romania with her (night-time and business) partner, and feelings of abandonment are still strong. And so we flit from current (well, this came out in I visited the original Italian in 2007, so moderately current) Bucharest, to the ladauthor's childhood, and see just what he has to tell her as a private farewell address[https://www.|isbn=1939810965}}{{Frontpage|author=Mary Hpinelavenderfarm.K. Choi|title=Yolk|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary= Jayne Baek is a fashion student thatcom/ website] and there's barely getting by. She drinks. She smokes. She makes bad decisions about a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the men she sleeps withhomepage. She I don's an allt eat cakes and desserts -round messy character; and but I wanted that's her charmcake viscerally. June, on the other hand, is a complete contrast to Jayne. She (There's a typical older sister: she's smart, thinks she knows it all, and has a successful job. She constantly criticises Jayne for her life choices, and the two have barely kept in contact despite living recipe in the same city for the past two years. This is until June finds out shebook, which I's sick, and Jayne is m avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the only person she can turn to. The two sisters have to come together book and decide how far they'll go I was told to save each other's lives – even if make a mess of it means swapping identities.|isbn= 0349003696}} =='''23 MARCH'''=={{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Other Emily|rating=4|genre=Thrillers|summary=Our hero David Thorne is an author, who shares his life between Notes in the two US coastsmargins are sanctioned. It's You get to fold down the western coast we're concerned with, a place he has to return to, and a place he has to be able to leavecorners of pages. David lost contact with his partner there ten years ago, when she vanished from You suspect that smears of butter would not be a remote road late at nightproblem. HeI 's paying for contact with the man he thinks the only suspect, a lifer now, who went a bit Hannibal Lecter, and has a dozen and more unfound Jane Does on his record. David is trying to pry the connection between the murderer and his girl from the man's mind, but to no avail. Heloved''s also having a recharge ready for his next hit novel when into the restaurant walks the sheer spitting image, the very embodiment, the virtual resurrection, of his lovethis book already. What is a man to do?|isbn=1542019958
}}
=='''1 APRIL4 JULY'''=={{Frontpage|isbn=B08R7LXQ9S|title=Remy: A book about believing in yourself|author=Mayuri Naidoo and Caroline Siegal|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Remy is feeling miserable. He's let himself down ''again''. The school bully Jayden, together with his sidekicks Ryan and Brandon, have been laughing at Remy, calling him names because he is short and has small eyes. They are mean but they are not stupid. They are careful to wind up Remy when nobody can see and then push him just that little bit further when the other kids are around. So, when Remy reacts, it looks as though he was the instigator. And then he gets into trouble at school and the teachers don't believe him when he tries to explain what happened.}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Ruth HoganMax Boucherat|title=Madame BurovaThe Last Life of Lori Mills
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=This book lets us discover several people We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in different stages of life in the early 1970s, all vaguely connectedbabysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. So we have What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a bullied half-cast boy (as he would have been called then)blanket fort, a girl in a humdrum job wanting to become a singershe has one main intention, and chiefly, Imeldathat is to log on to Voxminer, the third generation of Madame Burovaworld-building, ''Tarotcritter-Reader, Palmist and Clairvoyant'', to use her familycollecting game that is a hit in Lori's sea-front boothworld. The singerBut first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, the scryer and the sufferer's mother will all become staff at a revamped holiday camp, but just before then we see Imelda fly solo for the first time in the family stallshe finds something even more spooky. We also see For the server she and her on her last day, fifty years later, in possession of a pair bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of letters that will change everything for a woman called Billietampering. Just who is sheWhen malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and who delivered her safe place in the secrets about her to Imeldagame has been doctored – well, and why did it have where is a girl to remain a secret all this timeturn?|isbn=152937331X0008666482
}}
 
=='''15 APRIL'''==
{{Frontpage
|author=Lucy Holland
|title=Sistersong
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Sistersong is part of a genre I particularly enjoy, the modern retelling of folk and fairy tales. These stories, for most of us, are a cornerstone of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. If handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated, fleshing out characters, examining relationships and re-evaluating the role of women. Sistersong is a perfect example of a modern retelling done well, the plot is handled with care, keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters to come to life, to feel real and human, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age they live in. This is a masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to end.
|isbn=1529039037
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Goldy Moldavsky
|title=The Last Girl
|rating=5
|genre=teens
|summary= Rachel Chavez is the new girl at Manchester Prep. A school filled to the brim with the richest children in the city – and Rachel doesn't belong. She's not rich, she has no ties to some royal family in Serbia, and most of all, she spends the majority of her spare time watching horror movies as a source of comfort. She struggles to find anyone to connect with, until one day she stumbles upon the Mary Shelley Club. A secret society with one aim: pull off the best prank in true horror movie style, and unless someone screams, you have failed. Rachel becomes immediately engrossed in the competition. But as the pranks escalate, and Rachel finally feels like she has found her place in this school, things start to go wrong; a masked figure keeps showing up to the pranks, and people begin to get hurt. When the competition then takes a deadly turn, Rachel must figure out who this masked figure is before it's too late.
|isbn=0755501527
}}
 
=='''27 APRIL'''==
{{Frontpage
|author=Kristen O'Neal
|title=Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary= Having recently been diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, Priya has to come to terms with the fact that she may be in constant pain for the rest of her life. She joins ''Oof Ouch My Bones'', an online support group where she talks to a bunch of other teens living with chronic illnesses. They talk about their troubles and help each other out, while also providing an escape to just joke and mess around. When Brigid—one of her closest friends—doesn't respond to the chat for a while, Priya becomes concerned. She decides to steal her parents' car and drive to Brigid's house to check up on her. But what she doesn't expect to find there is a werewolf in the basement – and for that werewolf to be the girl she has been talking to online for the past few months.
|isbn=1683692349
}}
 
=='''29 APRIL'''==
{{Frontpage
|author= Jennifer Saint
|title= Ariadne
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Women's Fiction
|summary= This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of Ariadne, spanning from her childhood to her death, allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a prop in the heroics of Theseus.
|isbn=1472273869
}}
 
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
You can work your way through the newest review, category by category, starting [[Newest Animals and Wildlife Reviews|here]].