Open main menu

Changes

no edit summary
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews]] at TheBookbag.
Want to find out learn more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
==The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
{{Frontpage
|author=Paul B Preciado
|title=Dysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''It is never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood''
Through this hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to the new generation, a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. Rather, it is the proportional, valid response to ''the epistemological and political crack we are living through, and the tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The whole text is framed against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, or as ''pangea covidica''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews . Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of books about weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to be published]]''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->|isbn=1804271454}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Judith EagleSamantha Harvey|title=The Accidental StowawayOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Patch is a little girl who has been passed from one relation to anotherIn 2024, until it seems that there is nobody left Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for her to go to. Her father died when she was very young''Orbital'', and her mother ran away. The family lawyer, after consultation with ‘someone’, arranges for her to go to a school compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in Liverpool, but on her arrival there, she gets caught up in an adventure with the lives of a little boy called Turo who works on a steamshipgroup of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. During Through a chase with him (when she is both trying narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to get her rollerskate back and running away from the police!) she winds up on the steamship hiding see our planet in a lifeboat, and before she knows it, the ship has left the docks and she is an accidental stowaway!wholly new light.|isbn=05713631211529922933
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0760379874295967572X|title=Super Easy Knitting for BeginnersPale Pieces|author=Carri HammettG M Stevens|rating=4.5|genre=CraftsLiterary Fiction|summary=I learned Our unnamed narrator is about to knit in begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and what the nineteen-fifties: it wasn't a choicepurpose of this journey is, it was a requirementis uncertain. Girls learned to knit Django found the tickets ''on the floor somewhere'' and has persuaded our narrator to embroider and boys did wood and metal workaccompany him. My knitting wa accompanied by a lot of criticism and quite a few tears: it was a long time before I realised that there was pleasure to be had Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the skill. Nearly seventy years later it's past as the pair travel to the only thing that keeps my hands at all supple. The turning point was a booklet published station by Patons which gave all the basics coach and some patterns. I've been looking for something simple to recommend to people who'd like to master the skilltrain is a steam locomotive. So, how did ''Super Easy Knitting For Beginners'' work out?
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Sarah Todd Taylor0008551324|title=Alice Eclair, Spy Extraordinaire! A Recipe for TroubleThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet Alice EclairIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. A perfect eye and very careful hands have made her one of Paris's best young cake makers Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and decorators, making sure her motherhe's establishment prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is a classy affair. Not bad buried and who was responsible for a thirteen year oldher death. OhThis person, he promises, is someone big and a perfect eye and a very careful handler and remote trainer have also made sure she is a very competent young spyit will be worth the police doing what he wants. Her first real mission will And what he wants is to be transferred to chase a traitor across the country – working behind the scenes on a posh sleeper train an open prison to serve the south remainder of Francehis sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and hoping against hope that she can prevent documents allowing foreign agents 's even prepared to creep into do the country other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from getting into nefarious handswhat's happening. But while nobody would have her down as a spy, can she possibly leave behind her rookie status and find the baddy?|isbn=1839940956
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0760379912Jon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=Super Easy Quilting for Beginners|author=Editors of Quarry BooksVaim
|rating=4
|genre=CraftsLiterary Fiction|summary=I learned patchworking from necessity: old or outgrown clothes needed to be turned into something new and usable when I ''All was in my twentiesstrange''.. It would be a while before it became a pleasure rather than a chore but I've never felt completely at home with quilting. I needed something This haunting phrase encapsulates the pervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, a little fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more stylish than my usual buttons or knots. ''Super Easy Quilting real for Beginners'' seemed like a good place to startJatgeir and Eline, two of the protagonists caught in its melancholic current. So, how did it stack up?|isbn=1804271829
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17883607371035043092|title= Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of PostmodernismKilling Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Alexander AdamsAnn Cleeves|rating=25|genre= Politics and SocietyCrime|summary= Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in I can't have been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a vacuumnew life on Orkney. It is made by people. Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes to modifying 's been seven years since we heard from him, but he's now living with Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the social environment in which he develops’’daughter of his former partner. Therefore Willow's also his boss, all art must and she ''should'' be politicalon maternity leave, but when the body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, even implicitly. Alexander Adams in his new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the Era aftermath of Postmodernism’ is adamant that art is freer when it is art for art’s sakea storm, she can't resist getting involved. The recent trend He'd been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of soa pair -called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). Their seemingly grass roots movements have which had been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create stolen from a more globalist and progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believesmuseum.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1408712172Thea Lenarduzzi|title=The Cliff House|author=Chris BrookmyreTower
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=''Many How unctuous are the fats of them didnanother't know each others life, one of them didnhow dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''t know anybody, including Jen, one of them quite possibly hated her, and two of them definitely hated each other. What could possibly go wrong?''
That's In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the round-up for Jen's hen party which is to take place on Clachan Geal an island just south identity of Barra. They're all staying in The Cliff HouseT, hosted by Lauren, and it's the utmost in luxury living but then Jen can afford itprotagonist of this tale. SheJust as T's just sold her muffin business for millions but story is staying on to run it. She's got her doubts about being told, the long weekendstory of a second protagonist is unveiled: fiance Zaki Hussain has been acting Annie, the daughter of a little strangely wealthy family in the 19th century, who died of late and wouldn't explain to her what the email he was hurriedly deleting was about. Added to thattuberculosis after being locked in a tower, hecaptures T's just about forced her to bring his sister, Samira, whom Jenimagination. Annie's never metfate is, on the tripabove all, on the grounds that an enticing story to T. It is a story which she's been stuck at home with newborn twins consumes avariciously, both in a quest for the last six months truth and knowledge, and in service of myth, fable and desperately needs the breakfantasy. |isbn=1804271799
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1788360702Claire-Louise Bennett|title=CharlesBig Kiss, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard ErnstBye-Bye |rating=4.5|genre=BiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=For over forty yearsEverything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter usually a symbol of alternative medicine intimacy and complementary therapiescloseness, becomes evidence of love lost. When the narrator cries out internally, ''Charlescome over here and kiss me, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the Prince's opinions, beliefs and aims against the background of the scientific evidenceit is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to confirm her emotional numbness. There are few instances The imagined recipient of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the reputation of a man who this plea is proud of his refusal to apply evidenceXavier, her ex-basedpartner, logical reasoning a ghost she conjures to his ambitionstest her detachment.|isbn=1804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Will Carver0008405026|title=The Daves Next Door|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Five strangers come together A Stranger in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a London tube line. As their fates overlap, the story is told in backwards order, leading up to the fateful moment.|isbn= 1914585186}} {{Frontpage|isbn=1529125790|title=The Family Remains(Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Lisa JewellJane Casey|rating=45|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=In July 2019, Jason Mott It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was mud larking on never found and the banks of the River Thames when he came across investigation ground to a bag of what appeared to be human boneshalt. Detective Inspector Samuel Owusu Now, her mother, Helena, and Saffron Brown from forensics were there to investigateher father are dead in their bed. The bones were indeed human: Initially, it looks like a young woman had been killed by a blow to straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the head many years ago - probably bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as long as twentythough it was going to be an open-five and- but the bones had not been in the river longer than shut case is now a yearcomplex double murder. There was no identification but Kerrigan is convinced that the bag contained vegetationexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, some of which was quite unusualUna Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jennifer MasonAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Partitions of UnityThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary= Here ''We were born from the same body. I've never really wanted to think about this.'' Ernaux's work is always very candid and her tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of the most intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her sister, however, this letter will never reach her. Why? Because Annie Ernaux's sister died of diphtheria at Bookbag Towers6 years old, we first met Elizabeth Cromwella few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, dominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery 2 years before the author was even born. The large and instant void created by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and unravelled a series the jarring concept of disappearances. In writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux''Partitions s process of Unity''reckoning with this giant absence in her life, an absence that she sets her mind to solving a murder...has always felt but often denied.|isbn=B09LQR9FRF1804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Fiona Parashar Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=A Beautiful Way to Coach Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=3.5|genre=Business and FinanceBiography|summary= So what am Biographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I doing reading think that Gorky completely rejects this bookperspective, and offers a vibrant, using subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book, and being audacious enough Tolstoy complains to review his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it? Truth is I bought , but of what you yourself imagine it out of curiosityto be. I was at an on-line launch for the book and Fiona’s description of her Vision Days appealed Whom would it help to me. know how I wanted to see if there were things in there this tower, that sea, or that I could Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use with someone I am currently helping / supporting / trying to mentor – without committing them to is it?''. Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a full daysubjective account, which I know would send them scurrying for their burrow. I also wanted giving us access to see if I could give myself a Vision Dayhow he saw Tolstoy, to bring me away from their vision Chekhov and back to my ownAndreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=103211603X1804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19137503531529077745|title=Britannica's Word of the DayThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Patrick Kelly, Renee Kelly and Sue MacyAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=''Britannica's Word A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the Day'' has park near Rosebank, a subcare home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh -title: ''366 Elevating Utterances one of the care workers who was due to Stretch Your Cranium and Tickle Your Humerus'' which probably tells you all that you need work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is called in to know about this brilliant book. It starts on January 1st with ''Razzmatazz''investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, tells you how to pronounce it (''razfourteen-muhyear-TAZold Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl''), gives you a definition and then includes the word in a sentence so s diary makes it clear that you know how it should be usedshe adored Josh. You also get an engaging and frequently amusing illustration tooShe knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh. I don't think I've ever encountered a word which uses the letter Z four times before!
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=A C WiseB0FK5LHKD9|title=HookedThe Colour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It’s It's been twenty-two three years since Captain Hook, now going we last reviewed a book by just ‘James’favourite regular Christopher Bowden, has been in Neverland. Living so we were very glad to see a new life in Londonnovel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. Like all Bowden's stories, he has never completely escaped his past. But now he senses there's a mystery at the edges heart of ''The Colour of the beast circling around his life in London, and when suddenly he finds himself face to face in the street with Wendy, he knows that the line between Money''. We like this world and Neverland is growing thin. The beast is finally coming to get him, and running theme in the process will pull Wendy an author's work - take a mystery but give it different flavour and her daughter Jane back into their past once againatmosphere each time.|isbn=1789096839
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1787301745Olga Tokarczuk|title=Confidence|author=Denise MinaHouse of Day, House of Night|rating=3.5|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=We're back in 'What's the good of a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in it?'' The title of podcasters Anna and Finthis spellbinding work, whom we first met in [[Conviction by Denise Mina|Conviction]]. It was Anna who'd organised the 'familyHouse of Day, House of Night'' holiday: her ex, Hamishsomewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the small, subtle changes which govern our lives, like the shift from day to night, however quotidian, causing chaos. But, the constant in that image is the house, stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is perceived.|isbn=1804271918}}{{Frontpage|isbn=henleyA|title=Ultimate Obsession|author=Dai Henley|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Ex-DCI Andy Flood has been a Private Investigator for some time now with her best friend, Estelle and her children are living with themhe should be doing quite well financially. Fin (who was married to Estelle) is there too and it was Anna who invited Unfortunately, his girlfriend, Sofia. Itdaughter's not long before everyone realises that was defence against a bad mistakemurder charge drained his savings. His wife, Laura, has been trying to persuade him to retire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. SofiaThat's difficult and with everyone trapped inside their holiday accommodation - a lighthousewhat 'ordinary people do', in a storm - she begins talking about Anna'' He's past, including her real name and not been entirely up front about the rapestate of their savings. This was something which Anna had intended When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to tell take his case, it's the girls - twelve-tear-old Jess and ten-year-old Lizzie - when thought of the time was right. And money he could make that convinces him that this wasn't the is a miscarriage of justice that he really should put right time.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=178763566X1836284683|title=Listen to MeThe Big Happy|author=Tess GerritsenDavid Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeDystopian Fiction|summary=We're in Boston with Amy. When she set out for university this morning it was Well! This is a spring day and she wore her new, buttery-leather pumps but as she comes out of the library she knows that they're going to be ruined - and unsafe - in the snow that's now falling. As she crosses the road, a car comes out of nowhere and hits her. It doesn't stop.murder mystery unlike any other!
Two months laterI do love it when I open a book, weit're with Angela Rizzoli, mother of Detective Jane Rizzolis nothing like I expected it to be, and it takes me on a keen defender of the suburb of Revere, north of Boston, where she liveswild ride. Nothing gets past her and whilst her boyfriend, Vince Korsak, And that is in California, looking after his sister, she has the time just what happened with ''The Big Happy''. I don't want to watch whatruin a similar experience for any of you reading but I's happening in ll have to at least set the neighbourhoodscene. The people who are moving in at no 2533 have aroused her suspicionsOnce that's done, I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008395632Sally Rooney|title=One Last Secret|author=Adele ParksIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction |summary=Natalya Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is an escortsomething of a grandmaster at putting it into words. WellHer dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her name's not ''actually'' Natalya: that's her professional name but it is a nod to her Serbian heritagecharacters never quite say exactly what they feel. She's actually thirty-Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one-year-old Teodora Dziewulski, usually known as Dora Wulskifor readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. If you're thinking of 'escort' as being a polite description of a prostituteIvan, run by a pimpsocially awkward chess prodigy, who's turning tricks to fund a drug habitcontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, forget it. Dora is a professional successful lawyer living in all senses of the wordDublin. She has an agentFollowing their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, Elspeth, who takes 30% of her income and deals with the payments but checks out the clients to see that Dora is going to be safe. Dora describes herself as a self-employed clairvoyant to Her Majestybrothers's Revenue and Customsalready strained relationship faces new trials. |isbn=0571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=David Solomons1036916375|title=A Beginner's Guide to Ruling the GalaxyJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=Gavin ''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is being followeda collection of memories and reflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. Some are factual, seemingly constantlysuch as the family history of a sea-going family, by with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the new (very annoying) girl at schoolwhat-might-have-been. Only this is not It's a book to settle into and allow your mind to roam across your typical boy meets girl story. Because in this instancechildhood memories, to think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the girl blitz that was a constant factor in question is Niki, and she is a galactic princess (no, really, she is!) McArdle's early years. So what will Gavin do when he becomes embroiled in a situation where, potentially, Earth I'd never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and everyone on it will be blown to smithereens, could appear after the all because of Niki?|isbn=0857639935-clear was sounded.
}}
 
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Alex Cotter1836285493|title=The Mermaid CallDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Vivien knows that mermaids don't existWill is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But she also knows they have to exist – at least in the public eyemost of all, he is an aspiring writer. For there would be nothing to Lake Splendour – a far northern English resort – without them. A hundred years and change agois his favourite lesson at his school, two teenaged girls allegedly spent months with mermaidsMarlowe Park, but were forced to return to help out with the Great War effortand one at which he excels. They also showed female emancipationThis hasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, which helped create the town's tourism industryMrs Howarth, now faded and falling apart but once she has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a feminist success story. Alice, couple of afternoons a week at a girl who stumbles into Vivien's gran's tourist shop one daydifferent school, knows she certainly wants mermaids to exist – she thinks her family's black sheep died searching for themStation Road, or else was just too successful in her huntwhere his ability might be better extended. When the shy, doubting Thomasina that is Vivien collides with the exuberant, gung-ho Alice, what on earth – or perhaps in water – will they find?|isbn=1839941901
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17398051001009473085|title=Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of warThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Andrew MarchAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary= Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it 'Loving 'isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the Enemyinside story about what ''really' tells ' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew Marchbook for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's grandparentsbook, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went thinks Johnson should return to Dresden to teach politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the early days of impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the Nazi regime in most important. This book follows the 1930s. Fred, well-established format: a sensitive and thoughtful man, had some vague ideas series of experts from various fields review the state of "building bridges" which may guard against the growing hostilities between nations unfolding nation when the coalition took over in Europe at 2010, the time. Fred's attempts to separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he did make friendships changes that occurred and connections that lasted for a lifetimethe situation in 2024.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0B575J99NJenny Valentine|title=Beneath Us in the Porticoes|author=Brooke AdamsBefore and After|rating=45|genre=Women's FictionTeens|summary=Elizabeth Miller was thirty-four Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a teacher at once in a prestigious girl's school in Yorklifetime connection. It was ''comfortable'' They meet as children one day on a trip out but she longed for something more in life. Sheunfortunately they don'd t get each other''still not found the right vocation nor met the right man'' and now was s contact details at the time to make a change. She needed challengesBut then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. There was a little trepidation when she applied for the professoressa job in Bologna. After a telephone interview Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, she was offered the position and it wasn't long before she was exploring the beautiful city. There were some natural doubts before her first class but it went surprisingly welltheir friendship, together.|isbn=1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291258981787333175|title=Godmersham ParkYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Gill HornbyBenji Waterhouse
|rating=5
|genre=Historical FictionPopular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''If it were not for the casual dereliction of the odd gentlemanYou Don's duty, there would no women t Have to be Mad to teach well-bred daughters at all.Work Here''after enjoying Adam KayAnne Sharpe was thirty-one years old when she arrived at Godmersham Park s first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to take up the position of governess to twelve-year-old Fanny Austen. She had no experience of teaching but this was Hurt}}, a case glorious mixture of necessity. Until insight into the death workings of her motherthe NHS, Anne had a comfortable life humour and was loved by both parents although her father was frequently absent from the householdautobiography. When her mother died, her father cast her off and would have nothing more ''You Don't Have to do with herbe Mad... No explanation was offered '' promised the same elements but she would receive an annuity moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of £35 a yearpsychiatrist. Her maid, Agnes, would receive nothing but I did wonder whether it was fortunately taken acceptable to be looking for humour in by some neighboursthis setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Lev Parikian Mariana Enriquez|title=Light Rains Sometimes Fall|rating=4.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary= If you’re a writer yourself, or an aspiring writer, or someone who pretends to write, then you know that there are unnumbered types of books. Some you read for fun, some A Sunny Place for distraction, some for vicarious emotion, some to learn from in a random way, some for focussed research, and some because they are, broadly speaking, the kind of thing you think you might like to write. Or, indeed, are actually trying to write.|isbn=1783966386}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0751581577|title=Lying Beside You|author=Michael RobothamShady People
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersShort Stories|summary=Elias Haven murdered his parents and his twin sisters two days after his nineteenth birthday. Voices told him to do it. Only two people survived the carnage - EliasMariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, who was sent achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to Ramptonan urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and his thirteena crime-yearridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine -old brother, Cyrus, who hid in a shed until the police found himall within Argentina. Twenty years later, Cyrus is a forensic psychologist and he's been told The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that his brother is being released. Can Cyrus forgive the sinner whilst having to live on supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a daily basis with the results of the crime? Can he bear to have Elias living in the same house? How will his lodger, twenty-one-year-old Evie Cormac, cope?similarly tangible texture. |isbn=1803511230
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=140595115X1529934753|title=A Stranger on BoardThe Protest|author=Cameron WardRob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Right from For a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the beginningcountry's most famous living artist, we know this will was not turn out well. Eight days into going to show up for the trip to deliver opening of his retrospective at the superyacht ''Escape'' to AntiguaRoyal Academy. Still, all 300 tonnes and six decks will be floundering without power he arrived in the Atlantic. Those nick of the crew who are left will be cowering in fear a fellow crew member tries to pick them offtime, complete with his two wives and six children, one by oneof whom filmed what happened. Some are already deadBeing an influencer, you tend to do things like that, but it was fortunate that there was a record of the protest. They are three days Lexi Williams, an intern at the RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from shore under a chair and there is no way of making contactproceeded to spray Bruce in the face, whilst shouting ''Stop the War''. But letIt seemed to be part of an ongoing series of 's go back to when all blue-face' attacks, but this startedwas different. The can had been laced with cyanide, in Southamptonand Sir Max Bruce was dead.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1398508632Ariel Saramandi|title=The Wilderness Cure|author=Mo WildePortrait of an Island on Fire|rating=4.5|genre=LifestylePolitics and Society|summary=It had been on the cards for a while but it was In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. The end sociopolitical fabric of NovemberMauritius, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not tunneling deep into the best time wounds left by colonialism and slavery to startexpose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting'', in a world where blunt yet apt metaphor for the normal sores had been exacerbated systemic decay brought about by climate change, Brexit and a pandemic. Wilde had a few advantages: the area around her was a known habitat with a variety malignant forces of terrains. She had electricity which allowed her to run a fridgeracism, patriarchy, freezer environmental degradation and dehydratorgovernmental dysfunction. She had Each essay in this collection serves as a car - and fuel. Most importantlykind of diagnostic, she had shelter: this was not a plan to ''live'' wild just to live off its producecharting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|isbn=1804271616
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1635864674Pekka Harju-Autti|title=Tomato Love: 44 Mouthwatering Recipes for Salads, Sauces, Stews, LoveVortex and More|author=Joy Howardthe Drakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=CookeryFantasy|summary=''Think of it as no-whining dining.'' We know itIt's the eighteenth century, a fruit rather than a vegetable but the fact that so many people get confused just goes to show how versatile the tomato time of discovery and Britain isexpanding its foreign trade. Then there are all the different typesCaptain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, not is sent to mention the cultivars - Andaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with his son, Peter, and you begin their cat, Michi, they set off on a perilous voyage to understand why Joy Howard says that she hasn't met one she didn't lovethese faraway lands. I'd argue with her there - I have no affection for the ones you find The islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the supermarket islanders''next'' to the ones labelled 'grown for flavour' to distinguish them from the ones that have obviously just been grown for profit. Personallyleader, Aarav, I'd prefer a tin of tomatoes is keen to those - and Howard makes establish good use of these. She's not at all precious if you get the tasterelations.|isbn=B0DS1VGHH3
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241989027Helene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=We All Have Our Secrets|author=Jane CorryLili is Crying
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Harold Gentle advertised for live-First published in help as he was failing to cope at Willowmead House on his own. His advert was fairly specific: he was 1953 in French, this novel is a retired lawyer needing help but he also spoke timeless text which wrenches the hearts of the ability to cook a good steak, enjoy decent wine its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and be free sentences from any food fads. The first person who came to their proper position on the house was Francoisepage and positions them elsewhere, a French woman in her early twentiesdisjointed, who fit the bill perfectlytruncated. She got Like the job but Francoise didn't know about the advert: she was there for a completely different reason. Emily Gentle is Harold's daughter and she came to Willowmead House because she was running away from a problem in London. Emily's a midwife and lives of her last shift had seen her lacking concentration and a complaint had been madecharacters, they are often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=1804271675
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Ewald Arenz and Rachel Ward (translator)|title=Tasting Sunlight|rating=4.5|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 alone. Liss 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.|isbn=1914585143}}{{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|title=Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-of-the-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...'' This is just a sample of the cast of characters and settings in Preposterous. As you can see, some keeping up will be required! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this...|isbn=B09STS96HS}}{{Frontpage|author=Will BrookerTom Percival|title=The Truth About Lisa JewellWrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=BiographyConfident Readers|summary=Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors IWill've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brookers life is difficult, one of the thousands in a multitude of less successful authors I quite confidently never have readways. This book starts with He is bullied because he has 'the two meeting each otherwrong shoes', as well, and shows how 2021 drew he has the two closer wrong shoes because his dad can't work and closer together. The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, doesn't have enough money for even the words most basic of her latest book she was recitingthings like food, and her being in a his dad can''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn t work because he lost his job at the author events I get to attend), but pulled Brookercollege, was working a professor of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbitcash-in-hole that is Jewell's diverse outputhand job on a building site and had an accident. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in Throw into that mix the published authorfact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's lifeseems bleak in every direction. And yet, working to make he still has a success tiny amount of the latest titlehope. He is good at art, and struggling with clings to the next in line. Jewellmoments of joy when he is drawing, due diligence appropriately donethat feel like a light at the end of a long, agrees. And this is the resultdark tunnel.|isbn=15291360241398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1801109265Sylvie Cathrall|title=The Companion|author=Lesley ThomsonA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=James Ritchie thought of himself as ''There are few greater joys than a punctual man who was inexplicably never on time'' and he was - as usual - late to pick book which lives up his son, Wilbur, for their 'boys' day out'. These were always days which appealed more to James than to Wilbur and, competing for the boy's attention, his mother, Anna, promised him a roast dinner when he returnedcompelling premise. The dinner would never be served, as James and Wilbur are the victims And this is one of a double stabbing on the beach. The case falls to DI Toni Kemp of Sussex police. She's feeling the pressure. You can always tell - she shoplifts Snickers Bars when the going gets toughthem.|isbn= 0356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=152941363X1786482126|title=To Kill a Troubadour The Janus Stone (A Bruno, Chief of Police NovelDr Ruth Galloway)|author=Martin WalkerElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=''Nobody knows what Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the truth is any more.site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxuryBruno Courrèges is the police chief for St Denis and much of the Vézère valley and works closely with Commissaire Jeanapartments -Jaques Jalipeau (known as 'JJ'), when they discovered the head bones of detectives for the départment of the Dordognea child beneath a doorway. They're not just policemen - they're both deeply committed to the well-being and prosperity of this most beautiful part of FranceThere was no skull. The discovery of an old, stolen Peugeot, crashed and abandoned in Was this a ditch wouldn't normally have worried them so much had it not been for the strange bulletritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with Russian letters stamped on the base, which they found in the carDCI Harry Nelson. Oh, and there was a golf ball tooIt's difficult as Ruth knows, which didnbut Nelson doesn't belong to the owner , that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the carone night they spent together some three months ago. A golf bag would Her condition will be a good place obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to hide a sniper's weaponsudden bouts of sickness. Was there going to be an attempt to kill someone, or were the detectives being pushed in a certain direction?
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241542405Guadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=Meredith Alone|author=Claire AlexanderThe Accidentals
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionShort Stories|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: This collection was truly enchanting 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 train. Then, she can't. She simply can't force herself to leave all senses of the safety of her home. She's fortunate that she has a good friend, Sadie, who visits regularly word: spellbinding with her two childrenits fantastical, James magical elements and Matilda. Sadie's a cardiac nurse charming in its gentle portrayal of nature and full of sound common sense. In fact it was Sadie who gave Meredith her cat, Fredhuman relationships. Groceries are online deliveries Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and there's also an internet-based support group where you'll find Meredith as JIGSAWGIRLprecisely, so you can guess what she does in her spare time. Then Tom McDermott arrives. He's from Holding Hands, stories structured by a charity which supports people with problems such as Meredith'swisdom that appears to want to teach us something about the world.|isbn=1804271470
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09Y451X9K0008551375|title= Greetings, aliens!: When Shadows Fall (do pop in for teaD S Max Craigie)|author=Richard F Walker|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= ''Anything can happen at a birthday party, particularly when the birthday boy is the young Lord of the Manor. But when an eerie signal is picked up in the early hours, George and his new girlfriend, the vivacious Lady Antonia, embark on a quest to uncover its incredible message. Things get complicated when some total spoilsport lets the cat out of the bag and the world goes into a state of panic.'' Could it be? Could it? Have aliens reached out and contacted Earth? George and Antonia find themselves lifted out of their privileged lives of parties and drunken shenanigans and catapulted into the world of advanced science, secret agents.and politicians hungry for power.}}{{Frontpage|author=Darren Shan|title= Archibald Lox and the Sinkhole to Hell: Archibald Lox series, book 7 Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary= So. WeLeanne Wilson're back to s body was found at the Merge with the first chapter in bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the third volume result of Darren Shana tragic accident. She's saga of Archibald Loxd looked so happy, too, a young man who can pick the locks when she posted her intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as she was just out of portals from our world to anotheran unpleasant relationship, called but it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances in the ''Merge''last year. Since his last adventure All were experienced climbers, Archie has persuaded his foster parents into a slightly uneasy truce on the topic of his regular disappearancesproperly equipped for what they were doing and sensible people. They don't ask too many questions and Archie has settled into a fairly peaceful routine None of visiting Winston, his lock-picking mentor in the 'what a stupid thing to do'Mergeexplanations applied. They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there'' and showing Kojo, the young guardian, around our world of s a killer on the Bornloose. |isbn= B09Z2MTCZD
}}