Difference between revisions of "Forthcoming Publications"

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=='''13 JUNE'''==
=='''2 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Sally Oliver
 
|title=The Weight of Loss
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary= Marianne is grieving. Traumatised after the death of her sister, she awakes to find strange, thick black hairs sprouting from the bones of her spine which steadily increase in size and volume. Her GP, diagnosing the odd phenomenon as a physical reaction to her grief, recommends she go to stay at Nede, an experimental new treatment centre in Wales. Yet something strange is happening to Marianne and the other patients at Nede: a metamorphosis of a kind. As Marianne's memories threaten to overwhelm her, Nede offers her release from this cycle of memory and pain—but only at a terrible price: that of identity itself.
 
|isbn= 086154112X
 
}}
 
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1800901232
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|isbn=1635866847
|title=Stitched Up
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|title=The Lavender Companion
|author=Steve Cole
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|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
|rating=5
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
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|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Twelve-year-old Hanh wanted to be a fashion designerLife in the rural village where she lived with her family was happy, if not prosperous, so when the smartly-dressed man and woman came to the village to offer Hahn a job in Hanoi it was an opportunity not to be missedSome money changed hands and Hanh was on the mini-bus to HanoiOnly, Hanh and the other girls were not going to work in a shop, they were to work in virtual slavery in an illegal garment factory.  You know those jeans you really wanted: the ones with intricate embroidery and beading on the legs? The ones with the artfully-placed rips and distressed seams that felt so soft when you touched them? It's quite possible that Hanh and her co-workers made them.
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|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for youBefore I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepageI don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally(There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it.  Notes in the margins are sanctioned.  You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I ''loved'' this book already.
 
}}
 
}}
 +
=='''4 JULY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Fiona Longmuir
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|author=Max Boucherat
|title=Looking for Emily
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|rating=5
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Lily. She and her mother have just moved from a city to a tiny seaside town called Edge, and everyone from said mother to her teacher are making demands of Lily that she make new friends. It turns out that she doesn't have any say in the matter, for while pretending when phoning home that she was with someone called Emily, she is unaware her neighbour, Sam, is just about to make herself known, and in a big way. But where does Emily come from? Well, Lily used that name because of what she'd just stumbled into – a mysterious collection of the most mundane objects, in some converted houses behind a most unassuming door, in a place calling itself 'The Museum of Emily'. Sam is completely unaware of this 'museum', too, leaving the two girls to make sure they leave no stone unturned in finding what's behind the intrigue...
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|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome.  What could possibly go wrong?  Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spookyFor the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tamperingWhen malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
|isbn=1839942754
+
|isbn=0008666482
}}
 
 
 
=='''9 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=0241542405
 
|title=Meredith Alone
 
|author=Claire Alexander
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=When we first meet Meredith Maggs it's Wednesday 14 November 2018 and she's not left her home for 1,214 days.  She'd ''like'' to: in fact, she so nearly does.  Her outdoor clothes are on and she's even considered which shoes to wear if she's going to catch her trainThen, she can't.  She simply can't force herself to leave the safety of her home.  She's fortunate that she has a good friend, Sadie, who visits regularly with her two children, James and Matilda.  Sadie's a cardiac nurse and full of sound common senseIn fact it was Sadie who gave Meredith her cat, Fred.  Groceries are online deliveries and there's also an internet-based support group where you'll find Meredith as JIGSAWGIRL, so you can guess what she does in her spare time.  Then Tom McDermott arrives.  He's from Holding Hands, a charity which supports people with problems such as Meredith's.
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Will Brooker
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|author=Jenny Lecoat
|title=The Truth About Lisa Jewell
+
|title=Beyond Summerland
|rating=5
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read.  Now meet Will Brooker, one of the thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read.  This book starts with the two meeting each other, as well, and shows how 2021 drew the two closer and closer together.  The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the words of her latest book she was reciting, and her being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output.  Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the published author's life, working to make a success of the latest title, and struggling with the next in line.  Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees.  And this is the result.
 
|isbn=1529136024
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''21 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=1635864674
 
|title=Tomato Love: 44 Mouthwatering Recipes for Salads, Sauces, Stews, and More
 
|author=Joy Howard
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=''Think of it as no-whining dining.''
 
 
We know it's a fruit rather than a vegetable but the fact that so many people get confused just goes to show how versatile the tomato is.  Then there are all the different types, not to mention the cultivars - and you begin to understand why Joy Howard says that she hasn't met one she didn't love.  I'd argue with her there - I have no affection for the ones you find in the supermarket ''next'' to the ones labelled 'grown for flavour' to distinguish them from the ones that have obviously just been grown for profit.  Personally, I'd prefer a tin of tomatoes to those - and Howard makes good use of these.  She's not at all precious if you get the taste.
 
}}
 
 
=='''23 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Ewald Arenz and Rachel Ward (translator)
 
|title=Tasting Sunlight
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Sally is a teenager who has run away from an anorexia treatment clinic. She just wants space, and for people to stop questioning her, tiptoeing around her, and trying to fix her without ever truly understanding her. She finds herself on some farmland with a woman called Liss who is in her forties and seems to live aloneLiss is unlike any other adult Sally has ever met. She just accepts Sally as she is, giving her a room to sleep in, and the space to just be. As they work together on the farm, a closeness develops between them, becoming a beautiful, powerful friendship.
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|summary=Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the occupationDuring the war, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of him. As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, and the war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. But will the truth come as a relief, or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio?  And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?
|isbn=1914585143
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|isbn=1846976537
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=1398508632
 
|title=The Wilderness Cure
 
|author=Mo Wilde
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|summary=It had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to start, in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and a pandemic.  Wilde had a few advantages: the area around her was a known habitat with a variety of terrains.  She had electricity which allowed her to run a fridge, freezer and dehydrator.  She had a car - and fuel.  Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not a plan to ''live'' wild just to live off its produce.
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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Latest revision as of 14:06, 5 June 2024

13 JUNE

1635866847.jpg

Review of

The Lavender Companion by Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

It's strange, the things that make you immediately feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading The Lavender Companion, I visited the author's website and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I loved this book already. Full Review

4 JULY

0008666482.jpg

Review of

The Last Life of Lori Mills by Max Boucherat

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn? Full Review

1846976537.jpg

Review of

Beyond Summerland by Jenny Lecoat

4star.jpg General Fiction

Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the occupation. During the war, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of him. As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, and the war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. But will the truth come as a relief, or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation? Full Review

You can work your way through the newest review, category by category, starting here.