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==The Best New Books==
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008385068Paul B Preciado|title=The Midnight Feast|author=Lucy FoleyDysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersPolitics and Society|summary=''Itis never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend Through this hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and splendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. The Manor was her ancestral home autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and she's converted it into brings forth a new sensorium as an impressive retreat for offering to the wealthy and famousnew generation, a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. Her husbandRather, Owenit is the proportional, was valid response to ''the architect epistemological and political crack we are living through, and work is still ongoing on parts of the sitetension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The heat whole text is oppressive and amongst framed against the backdrop of the guests are enemies Covid-19 pandemic as well that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, or as friends''pangea covidica''. Old scores are going Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found'use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.|isbn=1804271454
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=James BaldwinSamantha Harvey|title=Giovanni's RoomOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction |summary=In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Giovanni's RoomOrbital'' follows the narrator David, an American man living a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in Paristhe lives of a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a gay barwholly new light. While David |isbn=1529922933}}{{Frontpage|isbn=295967572X|title=Pale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Our unnamed narrator is engaged about to Hellabegin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and what the purpose of this journey is, who is travelling in Spain, uncertain. Django found the real tension in tickets ''on the novel arises floor somewhere'' and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not from his infidelity ? Not much else is clear either - but from we are probably in the past as the pair travel to the station by coach and the deeper conflict within himself. It train is David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovannia steam locomotive.|isbn=0141186356
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD0008551324|title=Nowhere ManThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Deborah StoneNeil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=In It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a quiet suburban house, Patrick missing person is making his final plansburied and who was responsible for her death. A meticulous man This person, he makes sure of every preparationpromises, down to is someone big and it will be worth the last detailpolice doing what he wants. Some last reflections, and then And what he says goodbye wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his wife, the worldsentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and his life. Itshe's horribly sad. At work in her shop, his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and ailing mother, anyone who needs extricating works with him is kept well away from yet another accident. It will be a while before Diana realises what Patrick has done's happening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Virginie DespentesJon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=King Kong TheoryVaim
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography Literary Fiction|summary=''King Kong TheoryAll was strange'' is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, ... This haunting phrase encapsulates the pervading sense of otherworldliness which can be seen as a call to arms for women permeates this story set in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in FrenchVaim, the book is a collection of essays fictional fishing village in Norway which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwinedEline, their placement within two of the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essaysprotagonists caught in its melancholic current.|isbn=191309734X1804271829
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=James Baldwin1035043092|title=Giovanni's RoomThe Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction Crime|summary=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 new life on Orkney. It'Giovannis been seven years since we heard from him, but he's Room'' follows the narrator Davidnow living with Willow Reeves and their young son, an American man living in ParisJames, as he navigates well as Cassie, the daughter of his former partner. Willow's also his torturous affair with Giovanniboss, and she ''should'' be on maternity leave, an Italian bartender he meets in but when the body of a gay bar. While David is engaged to Hellapopular islander, Archie Stout, who is travelling in Spainfound, the real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himselfaftermath of a storm, she can't resist getting involved. It is David He's crippling shame and denial d been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovannia pair - which had been stolen from a museum.|isbn=0141186356
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Ashley Hickson-LovenceThea Lenarduzzi|title=Wild EastThe Tower|rating=4.5|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=Written ''How unctuous are the fats of another's life, how dizzying their sugars in verseour bloodstream''. In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the protagonist of this is Ronnytale. Just as T's storyis being told, the story of a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the daughter of a wealthy family in the 19th century, who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at died of tuberculosis after being locked in a mostly white schooltower, captures T's imagination. The move is initiated by RonnyAnnie's mum who fate is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying above all, an enticing story to settle in T. It is a new townstory which she consumes avariciously, both in a new school, quest for truth and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantlyknowledge, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part service of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowlymyth, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap fable and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your wordsfantasy. |isbn=02416454411804271799
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1635866847Claire-Louise Bennett|title=The Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin VesciBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleLiterary Fiction|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that Everything in this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://wwwhowever sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's Even a picture of kiss, usually a slice symbol of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes intimacy and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerallycloseness, becomes evidence of love lost. (There's a recipe in When the booknarrator cries out internally, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book 'come over here and I was told to make kiss me,'' it is less an invitation than a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get desperate attempt to fold down the corners of pagesconfirm her emotional numbness. You suspect that smears The imagined recipient of butter would not be this plea is Xavier, her ex-partner, a problem. I ''loved'' this book alreadyghost she conjures to test her detachment.|isbn=1804271934
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jenny Valentine0008405026|title=Us A Stranger in the Before and AfterFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Elk It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and Mab are best friendsthe investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, or more than that evenHelena, and her father are dead in their friendship is a once in a lifetime connectionbed. They meet as children one day on Initially, it looks like a trip out straightforward murder/suicide but unfortunately they don't get each otherthere's contact details at something about the positioning of the timebodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened What looked as though, something terrible and tragic, it was going to be an open-and -shut case is now they must work through their griefa complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, and their friendship, togetherUna Burt) are less convinced.|isbn=1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1787333175Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji WaterhouseThe Other Girl|rating=54|genre=Popular ScienceAutobiography|summary=I was tempted to read ''You DonWe were born from the same body. I't Have ve never really wanted to be Mad to Work Herethink about this.'' after enjoying Adam Kay Ernaux's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This work is Going to Hurt}}always very candid and her tone transparent, a glorious mixture but this raw epistolary text must be one of insight into the workings 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 6 years old, a few months before the NHSvaccine was made compulsory in France, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad.2 years before the author was even born..'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness The large and instant void created by the work jarring concept of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable writing to be looking for humour an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in this setting her life, an absence that she has always felt but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understandingoften denied. |isbn=1804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Onyi NwabineliMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Allow Me to Introduce MyselfReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5|genre=General FictionBiography|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to Biographies are often seen as the world, thanks to her stepform of life-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social mediawriting which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals andoffers a vibrant, basicallysubjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying Tolstoy complains to regain her confidence and to get her his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life backas it is, suing her step-mother but of what you yourself imagine it to take down the content about herbe. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing Whom would it help to start her PhDknow how I see this tower, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantlythat sea, she or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Opheliait?''s online empire. Can she save her sisterWell, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=08615468731804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=David Chadwick1529077745|title=Headload of NapalmThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= It's September 1973 A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in Hicksthe park near Rosebank, Californiaa care home for troubled teens. Hicks is a Mojave desert town The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive awayshift the night before but who had never turned up. Not much happens D I Vera Stanhope is called in Hicksto investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. A silver mine and a defence contractor are Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the main local employers death but otherwise, thereVera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until.diary makes it clear that she adored Josh.She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh..|isbn= B0D321VJ76
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Tom PercivalB0FK5LHKD9|title=The Wrong ShoesColour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=WillIt's life is difficultbeen three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, in so we were very glad to see a multitude of waysnew novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. He is bullied because he has Like all Bowden'the wrong shoess stories, there', he has s a mystery at the wrong shoes because his dad canheart of 't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic The Colour of things Money''. We like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-this running theme in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Willauthor's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has work - take a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, mystery but give it different flavour and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnelatmosphere each time.|isbn=1398527122
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sylvie CathrallOlga Tokarczuk|title=A Letter to the Luminous DeepHouse of Day, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=Science Literary Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than ''What's the good of a book world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in it?'' The title of this spellbinding work, ''House of Day, House of Night'', somewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the small, subtle changes which govern our lives up , like the shift from day to a compelling premisenight, however quotidian, causing chaos. And this But, the constant in that image is the house, stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is one of themperceived.|isbn= 03565227761804271918}}{{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, and he should be doing quite well financially. Unfortunately, his daughter's defence against a murder charge drained his savings. His wife, Laura, has been trying to persuade him to retire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. That's what 'ordinary people do','' He's not been entirely up front about the state of their savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to take his case, it's the thought of the money he could make that convinces him that this is a miscarriage of justice that he really should put right.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17864821261836284683|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)Big Happy|author=Elly GriffithsDavid Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeDystopian Fiction|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this I open a ritual killing or murder? Inevitablybook, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Itit's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn'tnothing like I expected it to be, and it takes me on a wild ride. And that she is pregnant just what happened with his child as ''The Big Happy''. I don't want to ruin a result similar experience for any of you reading but I'll have to at least set the one night they spent together some three months agoscene. Her condition will be obvious before longOnce that's done, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sicknessI think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Joan DidionSally Rooney|title=The Year of Magical ThinkingIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=AutobiographyGeneral Fiction |summary=This book Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account something of the grief she endured following her husband's sudden deatha grandmaster at putting it into words. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful Her dialogue is gripping and necessary resource to help people so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pityAmong the many relationships woven into this story, denial the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and delusion and makes them utterly normalPeter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, lends them a human face to wearsuccessful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=00072168580571365469
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Alba de Cespedes 1036916375|title=Forbidden NotebookJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionAutobiography|summary=This Italian work ''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense memories and tension reflections from the moment our protagonistyears Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. Some are factual, Valeria Cossatisuch as the family history of a sea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the what-might-have-been. It's a book to settle into and allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, purchases her forbidden notebookto think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the blitz that was a constant factor in McArdle's early years. I'd never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and learns about herself in could appear after the most intimate and revealing waysall-clear was sounded.|isbn=1782278222
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Ottessa Moshfegh1836285493|title=My Year The Double Life of Rest and Relaxationa Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=35|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=At best, this novel Will is a scathing critique keen player of modern society video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and reveals the fragility a supportive friend. But most of human relationships; all, he is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at worsthis school, it is the cynicalMarlowe Park, predictable and slightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonistone at which he excels. This unlikely heroinehasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, a slimMrs Howarth, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the worldshe has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a couple of afternoons a week at a different school, but resolves not to lose sleep over it: in factStation Road, her solution lies in her hibernationwhere his ability might be better extended.|isbn=1784707422
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00085513241009473085|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Neil LancasterAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=ItSometimes it's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to approach the police''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. Neither side likes or has any respect If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and heinside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn's prepared to tell t the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible book for her deathyou. This personIf that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, he promises{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, is someone big and it will can be worth the police doing what he wantsbettered for those tumultuous years. And what he wants is to It's a compelling read and should be transferred compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole datepolitics. Not much to ask, ''The Conservative Effect'' is it? an entirely different beast. The new Deputy Police Constable doesnIt't think so s the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and she's even prepared to do co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the other thing that Hardie demanded well- make certain established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that DS Max Craigie occurred and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happeningthe situation in 2024.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1739526910Jenny Valentine|title=Where I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen SibleyUs in the Before and After|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionTeens|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don''One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malleyt get each other's lifecontact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to recoverand they are inseparable. Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home Something has happened though, he dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. But as those tentative plans faltersomething terrible and tragic, he becomes swept up in a local world of unlikely friendshipsand now they must work through their grief, mobile discos and surprising romantic possibilitiestheir friendship, together.''|isbn=1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00084050261787333175|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Jane CaseyBenji Waterhouse
|rating=5
|genre=CrimePopular Science|summary=ItI was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a halt. Now, her mother, Helenaglorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and her father are dead in their bedautobiography. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but there's something about moved from physical problems to mental illness and the positioning work of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspiciousa psychiatrist. What looked as though I did wonder whether it was going acceptable to be an open-and-shut case looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is now directed at a complex double murder. Kerrigan situation rather than a person and it is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convincedalways delivered with empathy and understanding.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jo CallaghanMariana Enriquez|title=Leave No TraceA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=45|genre=CrimeShort Stories|summary=When a man Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is found crucified disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on the top gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned disused refrigerators due to the case alongside her sidekickan urban planning mishap, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer an overcrowded homeless shelter and a very high profile case crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, supernatural or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a career?similarly tangible texture. |isbn=139851120X1803511230
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15290777451529934753|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)Protest|author=Ann CleevesRob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=A man walking his dog in For a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the early morning discovered country's most famous living artist, was not going to show up for the body opening of a man his retrospective at the Royal Academy. Still, he arrived in the park near Rosebanknick of time, complete with his two wives and six children, a care home for troubled teensone of whom filmed what happened. The dead man Being an influencer, you tend to do things like that, but it was Josh - one of the care workers who fortunate that there was due to work a shift record of the night before but who had never turned upprotest. D I Vera Stanhope is called Lexi Williams, an intern at the RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is face, whilst shouting ''Stop the disappearance War''. It seemed to be part of one an ongoing series of the residents'blue-face' attacks, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencerbut this was different. Some people believe that Chloe The can had been laced with cyanide, and Sir Max Bruce was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Joshdead.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1399613073Ariel Saramandi|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie WatsonPortrait of an Island on Fire
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersPolitics and Society|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter In this powerful collection of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitiousessays, which is a bonus when you aim Saramandi seeks to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is intradermally dissect the free spirit sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the group wounds left by colonialism and she becomes a GPslavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. When we first meet them theySaramandi describes the country at one stage as 're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We donrotting''t know who suffered , a blunt yet apt metaphor for the tragedy or systemic decay brought about by the consequencesmalignant forces of racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact Each essay in this collection serves as a kind of diagnostic, charting the various diseases afflicting the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involvedisland state.|isbn=1804271616
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241636604Pekka Harju-Autti|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary StevensonLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyFantasy|summary=If you were to bring up an image of It's the eighteenth century, a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think time of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit discovery and his background Britain is the East Endexpanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, where he was familiar with violencean experienced Scottish sea captain, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been is sent to the London School of EconomicsAndaman Islands in his endeavour. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility Along with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what wasson, Peter, and their cat, essentiallyMichi, they set off on a card game which got him an internship with Citibankperilous voyage to these faraway lands. EventuallyThe islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the islanders' leader, this turned into permanent employment as a traderAarav, is keen to establish good relations.|isbn=B0DS1VGHH3
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0DB64PYV5Helene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=The White Rose|author=Dave BainesLili is Crying|rating=4.5|genre=Dystopian Literary Fiction|summary=In 2033First published in 1953 in French, this novel is a superstorm known timeless text which wrenches the hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on the White Rose devastates the Northern Hemisphere. And it's not a storm that gatherspage and positions them elsewhere, wreaks havocdisjointed, then dissipatestruncated. Instead, it hovers across half Like the Earth with its octopus-like tentacleslives of her characters, not giving up and never going awaythey are often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=1804271675
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|author=Leanne EganTom Percival|title=Lover BirdsThe Wrong Shoes|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=When new girl, Isabel, moves to LouWill's hometown life is difficult, in a multitude of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around herways. A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with herHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and thatdoesn's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so crosst have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, isnand his dad can't it? Because Lou is straightwork because he lost his job at the college, isn't she? was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so farThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and sheWill's never had life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a good kiss with any tiny amount of them? hope. So she just finds herself watching IsabelHe is good at art, and wanting clings to hang out with her because fighting with her the moments of joy when he is fundrawing, and she definitely just hates Isabelthat feel like a light at the end of a long, doesn't she?dark tunnel.|isbn=000862657X1398527122
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1009473085Sylvie Cathrall|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and SocietyScience Fiction|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain There are few greater joys than a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies which lives up to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''a compelling premise. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then And this isn't the book for youis one of them. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{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 thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.0356522776
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|authorisbn=Max Boucherat1786482126|title=The Last Life of Lori MillsJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=We meet Lori on Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the first evening shesite was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury's got apartments - when they discovered the house to herself – bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesomeskull. What could possibly go wrongWas this a ritual killing or murder? Snuggled in a blanket fortInevitably, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in LoriDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then that she finds something even more spookyis pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should Her condition will be able obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to enter shows signs sudden bouts of tamperingsickness. 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?|isbn=0008666482
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|author=Jenny LecoatGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=Beyond SummerlandThe Accidentals|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionShort Stories|summary=Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the occupation. During the warword: spellbinding with its fantastical, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a banned radio magical elements and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean charming in its gentle portrayal of nature and her mother waiting for years for news of himhuman relationships. As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and the war is finally overprecisely, their hopes rise her stories structured by a wisdom 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 appears to want to teach us something about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?world.|isbn=18469765371804271470
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=152919640X0008551375|title=The SuspectWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Rob RinderNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=The nationLeanne Wilson's favourite daytime TV presenterbody was found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, Jessica Holby, was murdered live on television and it seems that there's only one suspectseemingly the result of a tragic accident. HeShe's celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and his contract stated that he must not serve anything containing miso to Jessica Holbyd looked so happy, too, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. She's seriously allergic and carries Her friends were relieved as she was just out of an EpiPen unpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in case of emergenciessimilar circumstances in the last year. Everything seemed as normal - as normal as All were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they can be in a busy, live television studio - were doing and Brooks served a ragout to Holbysensible people. Her EpiPen was nowhere None of the 'what a stupid thing to be found and she was dead within minutesdo' explanations applied. It was soon clear that this was no accidentThey were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a killer on the loose.
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