Open main menu

Changes

no edit summary
Hello from The Bookbag<metadesc>Expert, a full book review site, featuring books reviews from all the many most walks of literary life ; fiction, 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, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often & self-published 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 plus author [[:Category:Interviews|interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Features]] page.</metadesc>
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}'by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you' reviews on the sitell want to read here.Dig in!
Want to find out more Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[About UsFile:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|about alt=Follow uson Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]]?
==New There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews==}}'''For new reviews by genre [[:Category:New Reviews|click herereviews]]at TheBookbag.'''
'''For new features Want to find out more [[FeaturesAbout Us|click hereabout us]].'''? __NOTOC__
{{newreview|author=Katherine May|title=Burning Out|ratingThe Best New Books==4|genre=Literary Fiction'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|summary=Violet has it all – a well-paid job, and a luxurious apartment all to herselfnew reviews by category]]. Everything is catered for; her meals, her clothes, and her health are all how she would like them to be. But the life she is leading is beginning to take its toll. On the verge of snapping, a drained and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back to her home town. There, she meets someone familiar, a ghost reminding her of how she used to be ten years earlier – a young carefree girl, full of life. Only this isn't a ghost, but a girl living the life Violet once lived – exactly the same. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself and is convinced events will happen again. Events that will in turn haunt the girl.|amazonuk=''<amazonukbr>1906727392</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Amanda Downum|title=The Drowning City|rating=3.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=In a nutshell, you're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City is good, bad or mediocre. You've probably glanced at the rating and guessed Read [[:Category:Features|the latterlatest features]]. I'm afraid it's not quite that simple. This is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelings. I started off convinced that I was going to love this book. The cover art is effortlessly cool, the premise intriguing, the characters laden with potential for greatness and the backdrop is certainly evocative.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>}}'
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tove JanssonOnyi Nwabineli|title=The True DeceiverAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Most people Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of my age will have come across JanssonAnuri's work unwittinglychildhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, via basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the televised renditions of the Moomin talescontent about her. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced a few years ago Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to discover that at last Thomas Teal had set start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the translation into English, first of The Summer Book and then new focus of a collection of short stories which were published as 'A Winter BookOphelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daniel Kehlmann David Chadwick|title=Me and KaminskiHeadload of Napalm
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionThrillers|summary=After reviewing several long books, itIt's been refreshing to read such September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine and a fluent yet pared down story as defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, there'Kaminski s not much of note other than dive bars and MeJoshua trees. Life is quiet, until....|isbn= B0D321VJ76}}{{Frontpage|author=Tom Percival|title=The Wrong Shoes|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. In it He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', Sebastian Zollnerhe has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the obnoxious main charactercollege, shoves himself forward was working a cash-in -hand job on a desperate attempt to research a best seller which will re-ignite his career as building site and had an art criticaccident. Kaminski, Throw into that mix the proposed subject, was a fashionable painter long ago, but nowfact that his mum and dad are separated, ancient and chronically illWill's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has virtually slid into obliviona tiny amount of hope. So He is good at art, and clings to the second-rate writer moments of joy when he is on drawing, that feel like a loser unless he can dig up some juicy details to hook light at the art world and general publicend of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Louis BarfeSylvie Cathrall|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light EntertainmentA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=EntertainmentScience Fiction|summary=Light entertainment is often looked down upon, as if it's There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a bit naff, tepid and ignorablecompelling premise. What's often forgotten And this is that it's hugely popular, enjoyable and much of it is of the highest quality. Louis Barfe's Turned Out Nice Again tells the complete story one of British light entertainmentthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim Helmore and Karen Wall0008517061|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Marvin is entering the Great Grislygust Grow-OffFormer Metropolitan Police detective, but just like himJake Johnson, has settled into his tomatoes aren't growing very bigrustic life at Little Sky. He takes There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the only sensible course future of actionhis life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: he sings does Jake give up his tomatoes a song. The results are spectacular. Victory off-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 surely within his graspthe future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph Delaney 1786482126|title=The Spook's Stories: WitchesJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'Warning: Not to be read after dark,luxury' are apartments - when they discovered the only words on the back bones of ''The Spooka child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's Storiesdifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn'', and on the inside flapt, 'The Times' warns us that this book she is 'seriously scary'...  The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamely, though, pregnant with his child as a story about a young Spook (a sort result of monster-hunter) who falls in love with a witch and the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is forced prone to bear the consequences when the witch's sister comes to stay and exhibits a taste for the neighbor-childrensudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Unger0008551324|title=Die For The Devil YouKnow (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=34.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to successful video game designer Marcus Raineapproach the police. Or so she thinks Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But when her husband fails Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to return from work, she realises something tell the police where the body of a missing person is wrong. Going to his office to try to find out what happens to him, she gets attacked buried and ends up in hospital, while his co-workers are killed. Things get worse who was responsible for herdeath. This person, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several yearshe promises, is someone big and it will be worth the man she married was using a false identitypolice doing what he wants. Infuriated by And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the betrayalremainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and the realisation that she's been living a lie for even prepared to do the past five years, Izzy takes matters into her own hands other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied to her for so long. Ignoring police warnings, she delves deeper and deeper into a nasty underworld, and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything she could have plotted in one of her novelsanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa McMann0008405026|title=WakeA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Janie is seventeen It'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, and studying hard for collegeher father are dead in their bed. She Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's also working lots something about the positioning of hours at a local nursing home to earn money for college the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it's unlikely her alcoholic mother is was going to provide much in the way of resourcesbe an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. College Kerrigan is Janieconvinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's only chance at a life better than the one shedisappearance: others (such as Derwent's lived so far and so you can't blame her for being so single-minded in the pursuit of her goal. Only one thing stands in her wayboss, Una Burt) are less convinced...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jaclyn Moriarty 0571379877|title=The Spell Book of Listen TaylorKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Listen Taylor's father has just moved in Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his girlfriend and they are adopted into the Zing familyupper-class friends, with all of its delightful eccentricities Robert and unusual behaviour – the Zings meet every Friday night for dinner and then disappear into the garden shed to work on the Stanza. Robert'Zing Family Secrets a theatre director. He'. Marbie Zing is terrified of doing something wrong s also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and losing Nathaniel entitled and Listenuses Edward to run errands for him. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned Edward has been in love with her home life, Stanza since their university days - and her daughterhe's year two teacher is coming drunkenly confided how he feels to terms with Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a break up. The stories of these people come together relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to create a tale of life, love, and ultimately, what being part stumble upon the two of them kissing in a family meansdark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=F G CottamJo Callaghan|title=The Magdalena CurseLeave No Trace|rating=2.54|genre=HorrorCrime|summary=Mark Hunter When a man is found crucified on the sort top of father who would do anything for his sona hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. After losing his wife and daughter in a tragic accident It's their first live case together, his surviving son Adam has become his whole worldhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. And Adam But when there is an exceptional child – beautifula second body found crucified a few days later, incredibly smart Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he's been channelling the voices a very high profile case that draws a lot of the deadunwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Plagued by horrific dreams, Will they be able to speak Russian solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the hours after he wakescase and, drawing occult symbols when he doodlespotentially, Hunter believes Adam to be possessed. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft is sceptical, until she meets Adam, and witnesses the horrors the poor boy endures for herself.out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jon Berkeley1399613073|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=I shall start with a word of advice. When you're being hounded by a circus masterOlivia, Laura and a magician, for Anjali met on the soul first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a tiger that's contained in quarter of a tiger's egg that's contained in the brain of your teddy bearcentury. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, and your best friend - a fallen angel - which is trying her best to make sure the other angels do not turn on you in a big way - then bonus when you're probably living the third book in aim to be a fantasy trilogycardiothoracic surgeon. Still - never mind, the angel's efforts will involve you entering Laura is a dream world of flight perfectionist and cloud cities, a trauma doctor. Anjali is the chase after your enemies will take you across free spirit of the world to desert oases group and back, and friends new and old will be on board to helpshe becomes a GP.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sue Townsend|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ When we first meet them they're at a drug and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin alcohol-fuelled party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. Itit's not quite how life was supposed going to turn outend in tragedy. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniform, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believe, and desperately attempting to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile We don''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to t know who suffered the toilet is really tragedy or the last thing he needsconsequences. And yet, Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the worst is still to comethree friends. Think a crumbling economy This time, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – it's going to be a tough year for the Moles, and there's little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back and watch his life spin out of control around himtheir teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lauren Kate0241636604|title=FallenThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensAutobiography|summary=A 17 year old girl at If you were to bring up an image of a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boycity banker in your mind, who sheyou's immediately drawn re unlikely tothink of someone like Gary Stevenson. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to her A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, until where he saves her lifewas familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the two London School of them end up drawn togetherEconomics. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has striking similarities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gareth Hinds|title=King Lear|rating=3|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Hound me out of town in a facility with numbers which most appropriate manner, but I do not like King Learof us can only envy. For me, even as a trained actor, the language is too dense and He also realised that most rich, the set-up too archly unfeasible to create the great tragedy it's thought people expect poor people to bestupid. To my mind the acclaim and esteem in It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which it's held is only mirrored by its own over-longgot him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, over-blown blusteringthis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Theroux1035021803|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in CalcuttaThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Set in India, familiar territory for Theroux, It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She'A Dead Hand'' tells the story s back now because of a travel writer suffering request for help from writerher beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's block (also known as former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead hand') until a chance letter from an American ex-pat, and the mysterious Mrs Ungercircumstances seem suspicious, relating a story of a mystery of a dead body in a hotel leads him to release his creativity in very unexpected wayssay the least. The story is more about obsession and infatuation than it is about Arthur was the mystery itself as reason why Freya had not been back to the narrator falls under Mrs Unger's Tantric charmsvillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. But does Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she have more has not felt able to hide than be near the man or pursue the profession she's letting loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
{{newreview|author=Toby Lester|title=The Fourth Part 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 World: The Epic Story of Historyfeeling that it's Greatest Map|rating=4all getting away from me.5|genre=History|summary=In 2003 a map was bought for $10 million, the highest price ever paid publicly for a historical document, by the Library Some of Congress, where it is now on permanent public display- frankly - quite frightening. No ordinary mapOf course, this is sometimes described as AmericaI 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's birth certificatere talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. It is the sole survivor of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th century, I needed people I knew I could trust and was discovered by accident in some archives who could deliver information in a German castle in 1901. The sale and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired to discover more, and this book is the resultway I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur Sunny Singh|title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global MiseryHotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=HumourThrillers |summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a wet kitchen floorterrorist group.'' Surely that Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is the wackiestSam, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch a wartime photographer and all it has done for Abhi, the worldhotel manager. You won't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authors, instead with quite a potty mouth on them they will lambast As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the modern world, residents who are still alive in the entire banking systemhotel, all those he forms a bond with Sam who failed refuses to see it comingbe cowed by events, and those millions just seemingly waiting for us all keeps on venturing out of her room to revert try to high-interest, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so capture what's happened through her photography. Although they can get back on only ever talk over the expenses trainphone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and back up they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the rich liststerrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andy Stanton1529153298|title=What's For Dinner, Mr Gum?The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns her back, It's 1979 and leaves the town of Lamonic Bibber for a day at the seasideMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, Mr Gum falls out with his best friend, causing carnivorous carnage all over the placehonestly... ) Meat is getting thrown around like itShe's not what's worrying Miv's going out of fashionfamily, and we though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to doubt whether Polly and have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her companions can ever utilise father wants to move the power of love family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and put things she'll do anything to rightsprevent that. Especially as this book does She's not contain a magic unicorn called Elizabethworried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Loose Women1398524085|title=Here Come the GirlsHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45|genre=Home and FamilyCrime|summary=This Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV seriesbody of Greg's father, ''Loose Women''. Just as promised on the coverDuncan Ackerley, this book is an entertaining night with in the girlsriver. It turns out was an easy assumption for the police to make that they're just like us. The faces are already familiar Duncan had murdered Charlie and even if you donthen committed suicide when he couldn't know them yet, with nine contributors, you'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one of stand the celebrity facesguilt. The women Salter children are universally warm-hearted and supportive: not convinced but there will be many a lonely woman who reads this book 's little else they can do but get on with their lives and feels as if she sat down with a group of friends for the eveningwonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure1035906708|title=Fortune CookieDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Fudge Cassidy and the Cupcake kid are best friends. If the names remind you of a certain film then you'd be spot on as that's where Fudge's father got the idea from. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – but the combination works. They've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather a lot on her plate. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obvious. Add to this that her father couldn't cope with the problems and he now has another family. It's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not a lot of money.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Jenifer Roberts
|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of Portugal
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined to become the first female monarch in Portuguese history. Married to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them), and became Queen in 1777. A conscientious woman, she had the misfortune to be born in during the 'age of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacy. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantly.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=David Hughes
|title=Thomas Wogan is Dead
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Well, with a title like that, need I bother with a plot summary? A man has a day out in Morecambe, then the next thing he knows he's in the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array of animals (a bat, a toad, a sea urchin...), all waiting for... well, something. Yup, as you didn't need telling, he's dead.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Dave Eggers
|title=The Wild Things
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Max. When I say he sometimes gets the wrong end We tend to think of the stick about adultsMaria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, or dislikes his mother's new boyfriendNew York, or gets a bit feisty in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when he feels the need for revenge, I am certainly understating the factsshe was thirteen. He is a bit of a rascal Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to say make it more manageable in the leastStates. But all When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that might change when he finds himself travelling to she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a strange land mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of roisterous animalsher preference for her elder sister, and ends up installed as their kingJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy StrongChristopher Edge|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog Black Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Trevor's troublesome dog, StreakerLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has had three puppiesthe nickname of 'The Black Hole'. They were fathered All big movie fans, according they're looking forward to local bully Charlie Smugglots of exciting films, and many, by one of his Alsatians. many snacks! Trevor would ideally like to keep themHowever, as the movie starts, at least until Christmasthey very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, but his parents have other ideas and put them they are swept up for saleinto an adventure they couldn't even imagine. Charlie Smugg declares that he's entitled But as they lurch from one film genre to half of the money from the sale of the puppiesnext, but before can they can be sold figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the three puppies go missing in the park cinema, and it's up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah Beth DurstRachel Greenlaw|title=IceCompass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Cassie lives on an Arctic research station in Alaska''I can hear the song of the sea. She loves The call of the ice and deep, the wilderness of her remote home and she'd definitely prefer to spend her time on tracking polar bears and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing with her peers and enjoying college and home comforts back answering beat in Fairbanksmy heart. However, things aren't all rosy. Cassie's mother died when she was just a baby and she can't help feeling a huge hole in her heart. Her scientist father is remote and unloving and her grandmother left the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very young. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Iain Smyth Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and Michael Terry|title=The Wide-Mouthed Frog|rating=4plundering the wrecks.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Do you know Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the joke about seven who swim out to survey the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard itruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. ItBut when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's a classic. Itleader and Mira's one that you really need father. Desperate to tell in personsave him from death, Mira makes a bargain with your fingers pulling your mouth wide open, but a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to hopefully spark your memoryguide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself sea. With only nine days to a number of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogsunearth what might save her father, and as her journey takes her from the frog does his best watched streets of foreign islands to disguise who he is whilst saying ''Ooh, you don't see many the heart of those round here, do you?'' I'm hardly doing it justice, but itthe smuggler's very cheesy and funny. Anywayterritory, this is a book Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of that jokeher home and the ones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>0008664730
}}
 {{newreview|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman|title=Don't Swallow Your Gum|rating=5|genre=Lifestyle|summary='''BANG'''. That's the sound of copious urban myths being shot down. '''BANG'''. That's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baseless. '''CLICK'''. That's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Annie TaylorJames Sherwood Metts|title=VioletPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Violet is Things have been a very special hippobit sticky for the Earthlings. She is extremely small but that does not make her adoptive parents Albert AI and Mavis love her any the less. Howeverautomation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they are slightly worried 're paid to do and other tasks that Violet has a very unusual habit took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of turning pink without warning other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and for no explicable reason, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary DixonMatthew Tree|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Arthur Transcombe is a middle-aged, grey-haired, self-effacing poet. Unremarkable really - on the outside. He has, however, managed Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to achieve some success with be different from his poems. (Being father, a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival is no mean feat). He is also a babe magnet!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=A J Healy|title=Tommy Storm drunk and the Galactic Knights|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Tommy Storm. He's one chronic underachiever whose dreams of five teenagers snapped up from around the universe to be a gang being exceptional at any of heroic detectives charged with rescuing EVERYTHING from destruction. Not just the planet, or the solar system, or even the galaxy, but EVERYTHING. Nobody seems to know what's going to cause this destruction, or when, but he and his friends artistic passions all failed miserably and their ship seem to be the only people proactively going about saving the daywho had endless crises of self confidence. So it's a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony who's about Tim applied himself to kill them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Graham McCann|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-Thomas|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=When I was in my early teenshis studies, it sometimes seemed as if Terry-Thomas was one of the stars of almost every other five-star British comedy film around. He was certainly one of the most recognizable characters of all with cultivated his abilities rather than his gap-toothed grin, cigarette holder daydreams and inimitable 'Hel-lo!', 'Hard cheese!', and best of all, the angry, 'You're an absolute shower!'set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
 {{newreview|author=Richard Jay Parker|title=Stop Me|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoying, but most of us will have had to deal with them. Fortunately, we can hit the delete button and forget about them as quickly as they came. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish on, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I don't. But I wonder how many of us would react if a spam E-Mail actually was a matter of life and death, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeanette WintersonA G Slatter|title=The Battle Briar Book of the SunDead
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city is a busy, bustling place. Boats fill the river and people fill the streets. Jack is happy because it's his birthday and his present is his heart's desire: an excitable black puppy named Max, whoThere's a ''licking and a running and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy in the air and a tail wagging and a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog part of delight''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>}}  {{newreview|author=Jean Ure|title=Love and Kisses|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Tamsin and Katie were me that wants to keep this just thirteen and worried that they were boringto myself for however long I can. They'd been best friends since forever and were the good girls. Neither missed schoolThis secret magic of my own, skipped her homework nor had boyfriends. Wellall mine, that is, not so farat last. Up until then Tamsin had been the boffin head – consistently strong academically and looking forward I just want to going on to university. All that seemed to change when she met Alexenjoy it for a while. Well, when I say 'met' I should perhaps clarify and say that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow into her, from the building site where he worked. Oh, and did I mention that he was seventeen, Polish and spoke very little English?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Henry Mintzberg|title=Managing|rating=5|genre=Business Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and Finance|summary=''Study after study the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has shown that managers work at an unrelenting pace'' How truealways wished for magic, though it always makes me wonder whyEllie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a resultsteward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, thereEllie's such a market for bulky management cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and leadership Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and general business books like this one. How does anyone who needs or wants centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to read one ever find communicate with the time to do so? This title actually has an answer to thisdead, by providing two books in one, and it is such putting her at the heart of a simple yet effective solution that I have to start there. You can read this book in one maelstrom of two wayschaos. Option Reeling from one is family secret to read every wordanother, chapter by chapter, cover Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to cover. If you have do as the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readableBriar witches' legacy, not too repetitiveeverything they have sacrificed to survive, and quite thought-provokingis under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>1803364548
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kathryn Fox1529900360|title=Blood BornThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=To give support to a vulnerable gang-rape victimIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers Sturgis was reluctant to drive Giverny Hart to the courthouse ask for his help on the day she is due to testify against the notorious Harbourn brothersdifficult cases. But when Anya arrives at His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the house she finds Giverny close to death and faces help of a psychologist only worked for a battle against time to save herwhile. In the panic Finally, Anya fails to take note of an important clue which might help tell whether it really was suicide or a cleverly staged murder. Worse stillRobin, in trying to save the girlDelaware's lifepartner, Anya has interfered with a crime scene and the case falls apartwho nudged Milo into asking for help again. She blames herself for knew that the involvement was something that the Harbourn brothers being allowed to walk free and only hours later there is news of another attackman she loved needed. A pair of sisters have been stabbed and raped resulting in the death of one The next case did look simple, while the other clings to lifethough.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Leah Fleming|title=Remembrance Day|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=In the year 2000 an old lady Two lovers were murdered in a wheelchair watches the unveiling swimming pool of the new war memorial a remote property in the village squareBel Air. ThereHe was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's pride in what has been achieved, in not the family who are gathered around her and there are memories tooItalian. Some are good but many are not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>But which of them was the primary target?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Neal Layton1529395224|title=Surf's Up (Mammoth Academy)Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Having successfully seen off the rather unpleasant humans Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in earlier volumeshis footsteps, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and Arabella have nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy was convinced this was the job for lots more double periods of Difficult Sumshim. They're supposed to be making presentations about what they did during the holidays too Before long, but Oscar hasnhe was at Liverpool University. It hadn't done any preparation and, frankly- as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he can't really remember what he actually did do with all that free time other than no Difficult Sumsd wanted to be a professional footballer. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb0861541774|title=The Princess Who Had No KingdomA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled by her horse Pretty. SheDCI Domenic Jejeune's very politeclose friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, friendlyhas taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and kind-heartedhe killed a Ghurka. Initially, but she feels like something is lacking because she doesn't have he faced a kingdom charge of her own. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enough, manslaughter but there's always a feeling evidence came to light that suggested that she's not quite he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as good as them because she isnany interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't the princess of anywherehelp Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mij Kelly and Louise NisbetAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made ChristmasPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Mouse doesn't like anyone The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and keeps herself operating as an alternative to herselfall the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Her things are Ness has asked her things younger cousin Katie if she could come and she look after the business, as Ness is too selfish planning to take a trip to Canada to share them get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with anyone elsea bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. One day And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an old man moves in Edinburgh we already love, thanks to Mouse's house. He used to be the happiest man in 44 Scotland Street and the worldIsabel Dalhousie novels, but now he's sadwith some new characters who quickly begin to charm. He's fed up of having given Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, givenbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, given all his life and never got anything back. He just sits quietly there's always her very helpful (and mopes. This makes Mouse miserablerather handsome) neighbour, William, so one day she decides to cheer him up by giving him lend a clementine...hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Bland0811771741|title=The Very Cranky BearInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrafts|summary=Moose, Lion, Zebra and Sheep head into Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a cave collection of knits from toys to get out blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the rain'long, but little do they know that Bear is fast asleep cosy afternoons in therefront of the fire' variety. When The projects are divided by the time they wake him up'll take to complete - less than five hours, he roars at themfive to ten hours, chasing them outside, so they decide ten to cheer him up somehowtwenty hours and more than twenty hours. Zebra paints stripes on him All the projects are attractive, Moose fashions antlers for him modern and Lion sticks a mane of straw on himuseable. Unsurprisingly, this makes Bear even crankier, so it I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's down to Sheep to save the dayme being picky...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kes Gray and Lee WildishDean Koontz|title=Mum and Dad GlueThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingParanormal|summary=A young boy's parents are splitting upBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He's going through the usual emotions that children of divorce go through: worryloses his job, feeling unsurehe loses his fiancee, blaming himselfand his house gets trashed. Oh, angerand someone has delivered a really weird, denialdisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and then trying it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to get them to stay togetherdeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. His method So fortunately for this isn't Benny it turns out that the usual response though: he looks delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for glue being a good person. Spike is going to stick his mum take care of Benny, and dad together. Thankfullywill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he , Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds some wise and kindly advice in the processherself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clara VulliamyAdam Stower|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To BedMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers |summary=It's Pearl's bedtimeMurray is supposed to be a humble, but she says she's really busy tidy and isn't going friendly cat, one who is able to sleep. She just wants to play and play eat and eat and playsleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. When But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the bear with sticky paws rings catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the doorbellregular back garden, he whisks her away on an amazing but into a world of frightening adventure - although as you might expectand whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, the bear has where a little more energy troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Pearl Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and eventually she does get a little sleepy.he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>0008561249
}}