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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=Helen SlavinTom Percival|title=The Stopping PlaceWrong Shoes|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=How often do you pick up Will's life is difficult, in a book with no idea at all where it multitude of ways. He is likely to lead? How often does such a book still bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have you wondering enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a hundred pages cash-in? -hand job on a building site and had an accident. Not bemusedThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, not lost, absolutely sure that it is going to lead somewhereand Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, but he still with no clue as to exactly wherehas a tiny amount of hope. How often do you get He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a book and thinklong, simply, "Wow!"?dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847391869</amazonuk>1398527122
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jojo MoyesSylvie Cathrall|title=The Last A Letter From Your Loverto the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Science Fiction|summary=I do love There are few greater joys than a story that wraps me book which lives up completely within its little world, making me want to ignore my long list of things to do and just curl up reading all day. Jojo Moyes' new novel certainly managed ita compelling premise. I felt transported back to the 1960's, entirely caught up in the characters' lives, riding their highs and lows alongside And this is one of them, and I ended up desperately foisting my just-woken-up toddler onto my husband so that I could just read the last four pages without her hanging off my arm!.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340961627</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Penny Ingham0008517061|title=The King's DaughterDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=The central female character Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off- 'The King's Daughter' grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is Elflaede. the future she wants for herself and her daughter? She's young, feisty For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and very prettyputting the future on the back burner. She also has this unforgettable reddish hair}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4. At this point 5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the story I site was reminded a little of Queen Elizabeth I, I have going to say. In Elflaedehold seventy-five 's own words she luxury'had never known apartments - when they discovered the bones of a time without war child beneath a doorway.' The hordes of Pagan Norsemen are to blameThere was no skull. They've come to England Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with their own set of superstitionsDCI Harry Nelson. And theyIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn've come t, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one aimnight they spent together some three months ago. To conquer great swathes Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of Englandsickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095559975X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip Sington0008551324|title=The Einstein GirlDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=The two central characters are (and weIt've come across it many times before) a psychiatrist (in this case Kirsch) and his patient (known as s unusual for anyone from the Einstein Girl) and hence Hardie family to approach the novel's titlepolice. The case of this girl Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is intriguing, not least because both doctor struggling in prison and patient had accidentally met prior he's prepared to her admission to hospital. Kirsch appears immediately smitten - which may be tell the police where the body of a problem. He's already spoken missing person is buried and who was responsible forher death. In a nutshellThis person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the Einstein Girl has lost her memorypolice doing what he wants. Kirsch finds more and more And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his professional time given over sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to her recoveryask, back is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to mental welldo the other thing that Hardie demanded -being. It becomes a long make certain that DS Max Craigie and complicated journey, for both of themanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535793</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Juliet Nicolson0008405026|title=The Great Silence: 1918-1920 Living A Stranger in the Shadow of the Great War Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=As the author says in It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her introduction, the 'great silence' of the title bed one summer night. She was that which followed never found and the 'incessant thunder' of the Great Warinvestigation ground to a halt. There are three crucial dates in Now, her narrativemother, all specific days Helena, and her father are dead in three successive Novemberstheir bed. The first was when the guns fell silent in 1918Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the second was that positioning of the first two-minute silence in memory of the fallen one year later, bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and the third was when the Unknown Soldier was lowered into silence beneath the floor in Westminster Abbey, another year onher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. These act What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a framework around which she tells complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the story of the silence of grief which affected everyone explanation lies in various ways during the first two years of peaceRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719562562</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Naomi Alderman0571379877|title=The LessonsKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=James has been used to being very clever at schoolEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and it is Stanza. Robert's a shock theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him when he goes to Oxford University to find there are lots of people who are more able than he is. He is already struggling when he falls and seriously hurts his knee, Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he is also very lonely. Then 's drunkenly confided how he meets Jess, who invites him feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a party at Mark’s house. Mark soon invites Jess, James and other friends relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to move stumble upon the two of them kissing in to his run down mansiona dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670916293</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ngugi wa Thiong'oJo Callaghan|title=Dreams in a Time of WarLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=The interest When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the lives of unfortunate children has created case alongside her sidekick, the publishing phenomenon nicknamed 'misery memoirsAI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Happily for readers 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 Ngugi wa Thiong'o’s Dreams unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in a Time time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of War memories of the author’s often difficult childhood are presented as a tale of triumph and empowerment rather than anger and self-pity. career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846553776</amazonuk>139851120X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christy Lefteri1399613073|title=A Watermelon, a Fish and a BibleMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary=It is 20 July 1974 in Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the small coastal town first day of Kyreniamedical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, Cypruswhich is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. The radio continues to report that Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the Turkish forces did not manage to invade, group and that she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they were thrown back into 're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the sea, even as tragedy or the Greek Cypriot population realises consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that they have been invadedwill impact the three friends. The story of this novel is set over just eight days This time, and is told from the alternating viewpoints of three charactersit's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161275</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Trevor Bloom0241636604|title=The Half-SlaveTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Historical FictionAutobiography|summary=At Samarobriva If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in Roman Gaulyour mind, a raiding Saxon tribe meets its match in you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the form of a division of pin-stripe suit and his background is the FranksEast End, where he was familiar with violence, who have suborned the Roman authorities poverty and are establishing their control throughout injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the regionLondon School of Economics. A mysterious meeting Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with the Frankish Overlord persuades the leader numbers which most of the Saxons to sign a treaty us can only envy. He also realised that will forever alter the fate of his most rich people expect poor peopleto be stupid. In return for Frankish silver, he hands over to them It was his youngest sonability at what was, Ascha the half-slaveessentially, as a perpetual hostage to guarantee the peacecard game which got him an internship with Citibank. But in the frozen north new powers are rising Eventually, and Ascha will soon be drawn this turned into permanent employment as a web of lies and ambition as two very different worlds come into conflicttrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955563062</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charles Lambert1035021803|title=Any Human FaceThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=1983: Alex enjoys It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the attention of his latest loverEnglish country village where she grew up. Bruno is generous with his money and his time; he lends Alex the flash car, dines him extravagantly, treats him well, takes him seriously. "It was not that he was not fond of the older man… or that he didnShe't appreciate the longer term view s back now because of a leg-up into journalism…"request for help from her beloved aunt, itCarole. Freya's just that he doesnformer mentor and Carole't realise he s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is lying to himself. What he feels for Bruno is a bit more than affectiondead and the circumstances seem suspicious, as he is about to discover.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330512994</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Heidi W Durrow|title=The Girl Who Fell From say the Sky|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Set in 1980s America, ''The Girl Who Fell From The Sky'' is a story built around a tragic event in a young girl’s childhoodleast. The opening scene introduces you to Rachel, an elusive young girl, Arthur was the reason why Freya had not black, not white but ''light skinned-ed'' as she is packed off been back to live with her grandma after a devastating family event. Immediately, Durrow highlights race and identity as the primary themesvillage: Arthur, and we follow blue-eyed Rachel as she struggles between two worlds – the white world of her Danish motherfeels, and the other black world of let her African-American Gdown badly.I. father.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851687459</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Aravind Adiga|title=Between the Assassinations|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=''Between the Assassinations'' is a collection of short stories set Even though they were in the fictional South Indian town of Kitturbusiness together as antique hunters, which is almost certainly Mangalore (where the Adiga grew up). But the plight of the residents can she has not felt able to be found in any Indian city - which I imagine is Adiga's point of setting it in a fictional location. The twelve stories are vaguely interlinked (there are some recurring characters) but for near the most part man or pursue the stories stand aloneprofession she loved. The time period is set between After the assassinations of Indira Gandhi split, she worked in 1984 and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991a cafe, although like the location, the time period met and the assassinations of the title have little bearing married James (on the events themselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848871236</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Diane Chamberlain|title=Before rebound from the Storm|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=We're first introduced to Laurel's sonlove of her life, Andy. He's a teenager with some sort of mental disorder. He's the pivotal character of the story who was murdered) and he's also the undisputed star. I recently read ''Henry's Sisters'' by Cathy Lamb Freya and decided that every family should have a Henry. Now I'll enlarge on that by saying that every family should James have a Henry - or an Andy. Both of these teenagers are 99% innocent and adorable - it's that other 1% that is worrying. Andy's descriptions of people, places and situations are truly unique. He has a language all of his own. So immediately, as a reader, I was drawn right into the world of Andy and therefore right into the heart of the storynow divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303381</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David MitchellAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de ZoetAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary='The belly craves food, the tongue craves water, the heart craves love, and 'Opening up new ways of thinking about the mind craves storiesshape of things to come.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mark GriffithsSunny Singh|title=The Lotus QuestHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=TravelThrillers |summary=Mark Griffiths The Hotel Arcadia is one of Britain's leading plant expertsa luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. I know this because his brief biog in Hiding from the front of The Lotus Quest tells me so; just as it tells me that he terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the editor of The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening 'the largest work on horticulture ever published'hotel manager. His prior works list includes five other plant book credits, three of them As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the RHS. I shall take all of this on trustresidents who are still alive in the hotel, since attempts he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to find be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out more about the author and his background of her room to try to capture what's happened through the usual internet search mechanisms has failed miserablyher photography. He remains Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as elusive as the sacred flower that is the subject of this latest work: Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the lotusterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184595100X</amazonuk>086154742X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ninni Holmqvist1529153298|title=The UnitList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dorrit inhabits a world where society It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is split into two campsPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Not male or female Well, or young or oldthey've been murdered, but those who are Necessary and an asset to their communities versus those who are Dispensable and a drain on civilizationhave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. It’s not a birth right, nor a class firmly established When you're from childhoodYorkshire, and everyone gets the chance to make Down South is a good go of it. Butfrightening, if you’re a childless woman of 50foreign place, or a childless man of 60best avoided. For Miv, and not working in a ‘needed’ industry your time is upthe move would mean leaving her best friend, and you are quietlySharon, and without any fuss, transported she'll do anything to a Second Reserve Bank Unit for Biological Material (‘the Unit’) where you will spend the rest of your daysprevent that. Here you will participate in any number of psychological and physiological experiments, donate cells for research and give up your body parts one by one as Needed people require them, until She's not worried about the day of your final donation when you ultimately and rather ironically become a valuable member of society by losing your lifedangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851687440</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Archie Brown1398524085|title=The Rise and Fall of CommunismHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband'A source of hope for a radiant future or…the greatest threat on the face of the earth's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Whichever of these descriptions you would apply to Communism you will find Archie Brown's detailed Her children, sons Niall, Paul and largely objective study enlightening Ollie and engrossingher daughter, Etty. On one levelare all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, this is a chronological description not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of how a political force grew Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to dominate a third of make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the worldguilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's population then virtually disappeared within a period of less than a centurylittle else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950674</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Seth Hunter1035906708|title=The Tide of WarDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=The Tide We tend to think of War is the second book Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in a trilogy of historical fictionnovels by Seth HunterManhattan, New York, set in the 1790s December 1923 and recounts only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the adventures ofBritish naval captain Nathan PeakeStates. In this book newly When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice -promoted Peakeis sent to she was raised under the Caribbean to command Nazi occupation by a British frigate, the Unicorn,to hunt mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for the French warshipher elder sister, the VirginieJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755357612</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lynne Reid BanksChristopher Edge|title=I, HoudiniBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Houdini is not your usualLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, commonplace hamstera place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. Oh noAll big movie fans, he is a hamster on a missionthey're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, a mission to escapemany snacks! From his However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very first glorious taste of freedom he spends his life inventing ways to escape different, and scurrying away (usually straight they are swept up into a heap of trouble) at every possible opportunityan adventure they couldn't even imagine. This is his tale, related entirely But as they lurch from his ownone film genre to the next, rather conceitedcan they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, point of view.and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007341539</amazonuk>1839942738
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrew Matthews and Tony RossRachel Greenlaw|title=The Merchant Of Venice (Shakespeare Stories)|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Bassanio's got the hots for Portia, and she for him. His friend, Antonio, borrows money from Shylock so Bassanio can woo her. Antonio is usually well-off, but all his money is tied up with his ships at the moment. Due to past rivalries, Shylock demands that Antonio pay him back with a pound of flesh if he can't come up with the money. Meanwhile, Portia is putting various suitors to the test. As someone wise once said elsewhere, the course of true love never did run smooth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408305046</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Caryl Hart Compass and Sarah Horne|title=Rhino? What Rhino?Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=It's April and Cal has survived three months 'I can hear the song of his year on the runsea. Will The call of the fourth bring him any closer to answers about deep, the Ormond Singularity? And can he trust Winter Frey?answering beat in my heart.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrew Weale and Margaret ChamberlainJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Newt In The SuitPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=There's one newt in Things have been a suitbit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and he's looking very dapperother tasks that took time to accomplish. He's joined by two snazzy-looking flies in tiesJust as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, three cockatoos in high-heeled shoesnew ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and so on up to ten. Yep, this is a counting book along with lots of well-dressed animals going about their businessit, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340988673</amazonuk>1736128426
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michelle LovricMatthew Tree|title=The Book of Human SkinWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=''Ye can't take the slither out ovva snake.'' So says GianniTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, valet in a wealthy eighteenth century Venetian household. The master, a merchant, divides drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his time between Italy artistic passions all failed miserably and Peru, where he deals in silverwho had endless crises of self confidence. But the merchant isn't the serpent - So Tim applied himself to his son Minguillo is. On the night an earthquake ripped through Peru and deposited fanatical nun Sor Loreta at the convent in Arequipastudies, Minguillo was born - a serpent in cultivated his family's midst. His own mother couldn't bear to nurse him and abilities rather than his father went into denial, making more daydreams and more frequent trips to a South American home free of sociopathic progenyset himself high but achievable ambitions. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140880588X</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Glenn MurphyA G Slatter|title=Science: Sorted! Evolution, Nature and StuffThe Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionFantasy|summary=Ever wanted '' There's a part of me that wants to know about evolution, nature and stuff? Unsurprisingly, keep this is the book just to myself for youhowever long I can. If you're interested in [http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0330508938?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0330508938 spaceThis secret magic of my own, black holes and stuff]all mine, then Glenn Murphy has also written a sister book in the ''Science: Sorted!'' series packed full of all the information you'd at last. I just want to knowenjoy it for a while. It's all written with the fabulous quality that made [[Why is Snot Green? by Glenn Murphy|Why is Snot Green?]] such a must-read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330508946</amazonuk>}}'
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Dawson1529900360|title=The Self-Sufficiency Bible: Window Boxes to Smallholdings - Hundreds of Ways to Become Self-SufficientGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=The recent financial crises have taken people by surprise It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and instead of trying even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ride ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the problem out and then get back to our oldhelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, profligate ways weDelaware've looked at how we can live more sustainably and less expensivelys partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Thrift is Two lovers were murdered in the new black and many people are taking pride swimming pool of a remote property in not spending moneyBel Air. I might take issue with whether or not Simon Dawson's book should be called a ''bible'' which suggests a completeness which He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is doesn't seem married to exhibit, but an extremely rich man and it's an excellent starting point for those wanting to become more self-sufficientnot the Italian. It also has the recipe for a chocolate sponge But which takes just five minutes to make – and that takes a lot of beating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906787689</amazonuk>them was the primary target?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cathy Woodman1529395224|title=Trust Me, I'm Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Though I'm not Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a pet owner GP and as such had never thought too much about itRowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, I believed this book particularly when it told me there are two types of vets (three if you count he considered the Vietnam kind, though for these purposes letstrain that being on-call put on his father's not). No, I mean the city type who look after poodles and hamsters and maybe the odd depressed gold fish, and the country kind who stick their hands up cows' bottoms for fun, and think horses are man's second best friend, as well as essential equipment for extracurricular activities. Maz definitely falls into the first category, but when her love life gets as sticky as a cancerous canine tumour, she realises that London is not the place to be any more. An opportunity arises at the rather tweely named ''Otter'' ''House'' ''Veterinary'' ''Clinic'', and she seizes it, pleased to have a reason to flee the capital, at least temporarily.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099543567</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Zizou Corder|title=Halo|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=When Halo is a baby, a centaur finds her crawling up a beach, he was seventeen he took the sole survivor opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a shipwreck. This scene shows, right from the first page, the courage vet and determination which characterise her during the course of this book. No one has any idea who was convinced this human child is, but the golden owl amulet and the curious tattoo on her forehead suggest she is special. She is adopted by was the family and job for ten years she and her centaur brother Arko lead an idyllic life on the island of Zakynthoshim. But ten years later Halo is kidnapped by fishermen and sold into slavery Before long, he was at Liverpool University. She escapes and disguises herself It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a boy because as a girl she can have little or no respect, and no freedom of actionchild. Still disguised as a boy she lives with the Spartans If anything, falls in love, and is given clues he'd wanted to her true identity by the famous Oracle at Delphibe a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141328304</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Welshman0861541774|title=Churchill's Children: The Evacuee Experience in Wartime Britain A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=As DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a little girl I was fascinated by stories from the second world warshort holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. My Nan Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would tell me tales of her work doing welding, my mum's uncle had exciting adventure stories from his years in the RAF, and the book Carrie's War later maintain that he was one I returned to again facing a man armed with a knife - and againhe killed a Ghurka. So I was intrigued by this title which looks at the stories of thirteen children and adults through World War TwoInitially, from the first wave he faced a charge of evacuations through manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the end of man. Now he could be facing the wardeath penalty. 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199574413</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeannie MachinAlexander McCall Smith|title=My Lady DominoThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Adele Russell serves behind the counter in a haberdashers and lives over the shop. It wasn't always like that though as it's only a few years since she was a wealthy heiress engaged to marry an earl, but after her father's financial ruin and his death in a fire her fiancé broke off the relationship and Adele was lucky to be taken in by her old nurse. It's taken some time to come to terms with what happened and Adele has reconciled herself to her lowly position until she finds an invitation to a masked ball4. What harm would there be in her wearing her mother's ball gown and domino, just for a taste of how things used to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089988</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sue Rulliere|title=Cinema Blue|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Frankie The Perfect Passion Company is a twenty nine year old woman living dating agency in Paris Edinburgh, run by Ness and working operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a supermarket while more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she tries could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to put her life back together after take a trip to Canada to get away for a split from her husbandwhile. The split Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and what led up so jumps at the chance to come home to itEdinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, was clearly distressing, and exactly what happened is revealed through a series of flashbacks bringing us to the time when Frankie was Francesca, whose life was controlled by her husband, JP. The news that JP has had an accident throws Frankie into confusionEdinburgh we already love, because it seems that he turned thanks to drink after she left him 44 Scotland Street and she blames herself. In the meantimeIsabel Dalhousie novels, Frankie is entering into a relationship but with the enigmatic Antoine, some new characters who appears quickly begin to be doing something rather strange charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in the flat below hers. Will Frankie be able to retain her new identity? Will the relationship with Antoine go anywhereabilities, or is he just as bad for and there's always her as JP was?very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190452947X</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Millar0811771741|title=Lonely Werewolf GirlInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyCrafts|summary=The plot is simple Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - the werewolf others are of the title is 17 year old Kalix'long, exiled from her family due to her involvement cosy afternoons in the head front of the clan’s deathfire' variety. Her elder brother has set a price on her head The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and is pursuing her with all sources he can mustermore than twenty hours. It sounds horrific? It is indeed All the projects are attractive, modern and there are some truly gruesome scenes, as werewolves battle amongst themselves, or with the humans who come into their orbituseable. However, these scenes do serve a purpose (to remind us I perhaps, show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that they are werewolves, and not humans?!), and by and large do not occupy too large a part in the narrative's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749942835</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip ArdaghDean Koontz|title=Trick Eggs and Rubber Chickens: Grubtown Tales The Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=If you haven't been to Grubtown beforeBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, then feel welcomeand his house gets trashed. As newly arrived lorry driver John Jones finds outOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's a place of exceedingly silly names for people – Blue-Ridge Handheld my favourite so far – and exceedingly silly things happening for exceedingly silly reasonspossible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. One of those silly things He is John Jones arriving into town with a giant octopus on nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the back of delivery to his lorry – house is a realnew friend, live onea bad weather friend called Spike, destined who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for the brand new aquarium and carwashbeing a good person. AnotherSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, coincidingif he, silly thingBenny, is the mayor having and Harper (a huge festival day for the opening of his new home, which he has just finished knittingwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571247938</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elif ShafakAdam Stower|title=The Forty Rules of LoveMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the 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 catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening 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…
|isbn=0008561249
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0C47LV1PC
|title=Fragility
|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=This Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is a sixth novel from best-selling Turkish authorthe question if you did, Elif Shafakwould it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be... Set in twelfth century Anatolia, two famous characters from Islamic history meet in a gorgeously real world. A delicate contemporary US love story no. ''Fragility'' is wrapped around set as the richcity of Portland, Oregon, meaty historical fiction. Don't be misled by cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the dodgy-sounding title!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918733</amazonuk>covid pandemic
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=S J Rozan1529431735|title=Trail of BloodThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Lydia Chin takes on a new case helping another private investigator, Joel Pilarsky, to find missing jewellery which belonged to an Austrian Jewish refugee in wartime Shanghai – she has been hired for her ability to operate in New York CityIt's Chinese community. She is quickly drawn into Rosalie Gilder's story, told through letters written to her mother, February 1991 and when Joel Essex is shot dead the next daybitingly cold, being fired by which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the client doesn't stop her wanting to find out moresurprising. She is glad when her old associate Bill Smith, who has He'd been out of touch exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a while, returns to help herdecade. This detective story linking past and present is compulsive reading.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091936365</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Val Harris|title=Sea Creatures|rating=3.5|genre=Women The return has come about because he's Fiction|summary=Rowena Moon and her husband Brendan lived on the Cornish coast with their three childrenhad a letter from his ex-wife, Jenna, Charlie saying that she's ill and Oliviahasn't long to live. Brendan was an artist – It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a reasonably successful one. Rowena ran a local café and the children had watery grave in the freedom boot of the local beacha stolen Ford Sierra. It sounds like, and probably was, an idyllic childhood until one day Rowena disappeared without Is it a warning and without explanation. It was devastating and affected each of the children in different ways as they grew up. Twenty two years later the five are reunited and the mystery of their past unravels.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955599741</amazonuk>}}from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?