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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Louis Barfe1035043092|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light EntertainmentKilling Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=45|genre=EntertainmentCrime|summary=Light entertainment is often looked down uponI can't have been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, as if itBook 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a new life on Orkney. It's a bit naffbeen seven years since we heard from him, tepid but he's now living with Willow Reeves and ignorabletheir young son, James, as well as Cassie, the daughter of his former partner. What Willow's often forgotten is that italso his boss, and she ''should''s hugely be on maternity leave, but when the body of a popularislander, Archie Stout, enjoyable and much of it is found, in the aftermath of the highest qualitya storm, she can't resist getting involved. Louis Barfe He's Turned Out Nice Again tells d been battered about the complete story head with a Neolithic stone - one of British light entertainmenta pair - which had been stolen from a museum.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jim Helmore and Karen WallPolly Barton|title=Oh NoWhat Am I, Monster Tomato!A Deer?
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=Marvin Polly Barton's debut novel is entering the Great Grislygust Grow-Offan intellectually playful yet emotionally exposed work that uses translation as both subject and governing metaphor. The narrator, but just like himnewly relocated from London to Berlin, his tomatoes aren't growing very big. He takes works translating video games into Japanese through the only sensible course process of action: he sings his tomatoes localisation, rewriting language until it feels comfortably familiar to a songnew audience. The results are spectacular. Victory Barton treats this as a paradoxical act: arguably, in striving for universality, language is surely within his graspendlessly repackaged, its originality at risk of disappearing altogether.From this, the novel opens out into a wider, resonant question: to what extent do we translate ourselves in order to be understood, accepted, or loved?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>1804272175
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn= Zabriskie1
|title=A Village Where Many Ways Meet: A Story of Belonging and Community, Rooted in Indigenous Wisdom
|author=Stephanie Zabriskie
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=''Across many African and Indigenous systems, differences in how children learn, sense , or process the world were not treated as disorders to be corrected. They were understood as natural variations of human intelligence and awareness, each holding value within the community.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Unger1787333175|title=Die For YouDon't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=3.5|genre=CrimePopular Science|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to successful video game designer Marcus Raine. Or so she thinks. But when her husband fails be Mad to return from work, she realises something Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is wrong. Going to his office to try to find out what happens to himHurt}}, she gets attacked and ends up in hospital, while his co-workers are killed. Things get worse for her, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, and a glorious mixture of insight into the man she married was using a false identity. Infuriated by workings of the betrayalNHS, humour and the realisation that sheautobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad...''s been living a lie for promised the past five years, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and sets out same elements but moved from physical problems to find her husband mental illness and the work out why he lied of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to her be looking for so long. Ignoring police warnings, she delves deeper and deeper into humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a nasty underworld, person and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague it is always delivered with empathy and rivals anything she could have plotted in one of her novelsunderstanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa McMannMaria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)|title=WakeThe Disappearing Act
|rating=4
|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=Janie is seventeen Despite her anonymisation of place names and studying hard for college. Shepeople, Stepanova's also working lots message in this short work of hours at autofiction is unmistakable. A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to the town of F for a local nursing home literary festival she is to earn money for college as it's unlikely be a guest speaker at. Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by forces beyond her control, her alcoholic mother is going journey slowly bends toward a traveling circus. Swept up in this series of events, M eventually offers to provide much step in for a circus performer who has unexpectedly left the way of resourcesshow. College is Janie's only chance at The train functions as a life better than motif of transience and impermanence, while the one she's lived so far circus embodies the reshaping of identity and so you can't blame her for being so single-minded in a retreat into fantasy, an impulse that lies at the pursuit very heart of her goal. Only one thing stands in her way..the novel form itself.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>1804272329
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jaclyn Moriarty B0GFQ81YQK|title=The Spell Book How the Sky and the Earth Made People: From the Oral Stories of Listen TaylorMalagasy Elders|author=Stephanie Zabriskie|rating=34.5|genre=TeensChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Listen Taylor's father has just moved in with his girlfriend Before people came and they are adopted into joined the Zing familyanimals, with all of its delightful eccentricities there was only the sky and unusual behaviour – the Zings meet every Friday night for dinner earth. Everything was quiet until the earth and the sky began to tal to each other. First, the earth created bodies. And then disappear , the sky breathed life into them. These were the garden shed first humans and they belonged to work on the 'Zing Family Secret'both earth and sky. Marbie Zing is terrified of doing something wrong And so people lived between sky and soil and they planted and losing Nathaniel learned and Listen. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with her home liferemembered, and her daughter's year two teacher is coming especially how they came to terms with a break upbe. The stories of these people come together to create a tale of life, love, When they grew old and ultimatelydied, what being part of a family means.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=F G Cottam|title=The Magdalena Curse|rating=2.5|genre=Horror|summary=Mark Hunter is their bodies returned to the sort of father who would do anything for his son. After losing his wife earth and daughter in a tragic accident, his surviving son Adam has become his whole worldtheir life returned to the sky. And Adam that is an exceptional child – beautiful, incredibly smart why the earth and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he's been channelling the voices of the deadsky are both revered. Plagued by horrific dreams, able to speak Russian in the hours after he wakes, drawing occult symbols when he doodles, Hunter believes Adam to be possessedOnly together can they create human beings. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft And that is sceptical, until she meets Adamwhy people must pay attention to, and witnesses the horrors the poor boy endures care for herself, both.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jon BerkeleyB0GHPMNF6P|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)Zookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups|author=Carolyn Mathews
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary=I shall start with a word of advice. When youPhil're being hounded by a circus masters father unexpectedly dies, and a magician, for he quits his Canary Wharf finance job to take over the soul running of a tiger thatthe family's contained in a tigerfarm zoo. He's not expecting much excitement, until he receives an unidentified egg that's contained his new-age stoner uncle Edgar found in a cave in the brain of your teddy bearNew Zealand, and your best friend - a fallen angel - suddenly life is trying her best to make sure no longer quite what it seems. Then the other angels do not turn on you in egg hatches into neither a reptile nor a big way - then you're probably living the third book in bird, but a fantasy trilogy. Still - never minddragon! Now he, Edgar, his mother Abi, and the angelzoo's efforts will involve you entering a dream world part-time café waitress Pearl have to raise this little bundle of flight scales and cloud citiesjoy, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world despite having no idea how to desert oases actually raise dragons and back, and friends new and old will be on board not being able to helptell anyone about it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>But this tiny little dragon may show them love and connection in ways they had never before imagined…
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue TownsendStephanie Zabriskie|title=Adrian MoleHow Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: The Prostrate YearsFrom the Oral Stories of Maasai Elders
|rating=5
|genre=General Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. It's not quite how life was supposed to turn out. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniform, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believe, and desperately attempting to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits How Maasai Women Spoke to the toilet is really the last thing he needs. And yet, the worst Cows is still to come. Think a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in children’s nonfiction book drawn from the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – it's going to be a tough year for the Moles, and there's little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back and watch his life spin out oral traditions of control around him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lauren Kate|title=Fallen|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=A 17 year old girl at a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boyMaasai elders in Ngorongoro, who she's immediately drawn to. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to her, until he saves her life, and the two of them end up drawn togetherTanzania. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similarities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul TherouxLivi Michael|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in CalcuttaElizabeth and Ruth
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Historical Fiction|summary=Set in India''Elizabeth and Ruth'' is a work of historical fiction wrought from the life of the Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell, familiar territory best known for Therouxher first novel Mary Barton (1848), a radical critique of the treatment of the working class published under a pseudonym. The ''A Dead HandRuth'' tells the story of a travel writer suffering from writerLivi Michael's block (also known title appears in her novel as 'dead hand') until a chance letter from an American ex-patPasley, the mysterious Mrs Unger, relating a story of young Irish prostitute who was abandoned as a mystery of a dead body child and finds herself in Manchester's New Bailey Prison after a hotel leads him to release his creativity difficult and unjust hand at life. Set in very unexpected ways. The story is more about obsession Manchester between 1839 and 1842, the novel examines the harsh conditions endured by the Victorian working poor and infatuation than it is about interrogates the mystery itself as extent to which the narrator falls under Mrs Unger's Tantric charmswealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices. But does she have more to hide than she's letting on?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>1784633682
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Toby LesterMakenna Goodman|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story Helen of History's Greatest MapNowhere
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryLiterary Fiction|summary=In 2003 It could be argued that the pervading theme of this book is malaise - a map was bought for $10 millionhard-to-place feeling that something in your life is not quite right. The protagonist, a disgraced professor on the highest price ever paid publicly for brink of losing both his career and his relationship, embodies this feeling. However, Goodman counteracts his discomfort with a historical documentforce which is seductive, by radical and unnerving: Helen. The connection between Helen and the Library protagonist is indirect yet intimate. As the former owner of Congressthe countryside house he's considering, where it Helen represents a volta in his life, her past tied to his potential fresh start. The realtor who shows the protagonist around the house shares stories about Helen, and describes her as ''an entity that is pure consciousness, beyond form''. Although she lives in an assisted living facility now on permanent public display, Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the reader gets the sense are not altogether innocuous.|isbn=1804272205}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0GCB1MQ7D|title=Why My Mother Went Away|author=Alan Kennedy|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=I have often wondered how prominent people came to hold their positions. No ordinary mapWith 'celebrities', there's frequently a book they might or might not have written, which might or might not tell the true story. It's not often that you find a book that gives the full backstory, this and rarely do you discover a memoir where the telling is sometimes described as Americaso perfect that you'll go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, just for the pleasure the words give. ''Why My Mother Went Away''s birth certificateis one of those rare exceptions. It is 's the sole survivor story of how a thousand copies printed early in boy from the Midlands, born at the beginning of the 16th centurySecond World War, and was discovered by accident in some archives in would become a German castle in 1901Professor of Psychology at Dundee University. The sale and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much that In fact, he was inspired to discover more, and this book is one of the founders of the resultdepartment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jeremy Cooper
|title=Discord
|rating= 3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Discord: a lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas)
The principal example of discord within the novel, as with most instances of discord, is easily located. The two protagonists of the novel, Rebekah Rosen and Evie Bennet, are as different as they come. Rebekah is an uptight, traditional and no-nonsense composer close to retirement, while Evie is a force of nature, bounding onto the musical scene as a precocious saxophonist, oozing with talent and charm. The two, predictably, don't always see eye to eye, their approaches different and Evie's progressive views at odds with Rebekah's conservative leaning. However, something connects them beyond just their musical project: a sort of fragile alliance formed within the clamour.|isbn=1804272264}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur Tom Percival|title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global MiseryThe Wrong Shoes|rating=35|genre=HumourConfident Readers|summary=Will''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over s life is difficult, in a wet kitchen floormultitude of ways.'' Surely that He is bullied because he has 'the wackiestwrong shoes', most inappropriate simile for he has the credit crunch wrong shoes because his dad can't work and all it has done doesn't have enough money for even the world. You wonmost basic of things like food, and his dad can't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authorswork because he lost his job at the college, instead with quite was working a potty mouth cash-in-hand job on them they will lambast a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the modern worldfact that his mum and dad are separated, the entire banking systemand Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, all those who failed to see it cominghe still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and those millions just seemingly waiting for us all clings to revert to high-interestthe moments of joy when he is drawing, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get back on that feel like a light at the expenses trainend of a long, and back up the rich listsdark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>1398527122
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andy StantonEdward W Said|title=What's For Dinner, Mr Gum?Representations of the Intellectual
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns her back, Edward Said's ''Representations of the Intellectual'' is less a strict theory of what intellectuals are and leaves more a passionate argument for what they should be. Said clearly rejects the town comfortable image of Lamonic Bibber for the intellectual as a day at detached expert speaking only to other specialists. Instead, he insists on the seasideintellectual as a public figure, Mr Gum falls out with his best friendoften awkward, causing carnivorous carnage all over the place. Meat is getting thrown around like it's going out of fashionabrasive, and we have unpopular, who speaks truth to doubt whether Polly and her companions can ever utilise the power of love and put things to rights. Especially as this book does not contain a magic unicorn called Elizabetheven when it is inconvenient or risky.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>1804272248
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Loose WomenSylvie Cathrall|title=Here Come A Letter to the GirlsLuminous Deep|rating=45|genre=Home and FamilyScience Fiction|summary=This is the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV series, ''Loose Women''There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. Just as promised on the cover, And this book is an entertaining night with the girls. It turns out that they're just like us. The faces are already familiar and even if you don't know them yet, with nine contributors, you'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one of the celebrity faces. The women are universally warm-hearted and supportive: there will be many a lonely woman who reads this book and feels as if she sat down with a group of friends for the eveningthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure1786482126|title=Fortune CookieThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Fudge Cassidy and Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the Cupcake kid are best friends. If site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the names remind you bones of a certain film then you'd be spot on as that's where Fudge's father got the idea fromchild beneath a doorway. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – but the combination worksThere was no skull. They've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather Was this a lot on her plate. ritual killing or murder? Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obviousInevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Add to this that her father couldnIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't cope , that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the problems and he now has another familyone night they spent together some three months ago. It's just CupcakeHer condition will be obvious before long, Joey and her mother – and not a lot least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of moneysickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenifer Roberts0008551375|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, Leanne Wilson's body was found at that time the richest and most opulent city in Europebottom of a Scottish mountain, Maria was destined to become seemingly the first female monarch in Portuguese historyresult of a tragic accident. Married to her uncle Infante PedroShe'd looked so happy, seventeen years her seniortoo, when she had six children (outliving all but one of them), and became Queen in 1777posted her intentions on Facebook. A conscientious womanHer friends were relieved as she was just out of an unpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had the misfortune to be born died in similar circumstances in during the 'age of reason'last year. All were experienced climbers, when church properly equipped for what they were doing and state were vying for supremacysensible people. Instinctively a supporter None of the old religion, with 'what a humanitarian approach stupid thing to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine do' explanations applied. They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a killer on the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantlyloose.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HughesPaul B Preciado|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadDysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic NovelsPolitics and Society|summary=Well, with a title like that, need I bother with a plot summary? A man has a day out in Morecambe, then the next thing he knows he's in the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array of animals (a bat, a toad, a sea urchin...), all waiting for... well, something. Yup, as you didn't need telling, he's dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dave Eggers|title=The Wild Things|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Max. When I say he sometimes gets the wrong end of the stick about adults, or dislikes his mother's new boyfriend, or gets a bit feisty when he feels the need for revenge, I am certainly understating the facts. He It is a bit of a rascal to say the least. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling never too late to a strange land of roisterous animals, and ends up installed as their king.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jeremy Strong|title=Christmas Chaos for embrace the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog |rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Trevor's troublesome dog, Streaker, has had three puppies. They were fathered, according to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one revolutionary optimism of his Alsatians. Trevor would ideally like to keep them, at least until Christmas, but his parents have other ideas and put them up for sale. Charlie Smugg declares that hechildhood's entitled to half of the money from the sale of the puppies, but before they can be sold the three puppies go missing in the park and it's up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Iain Smyth and Michael TerrySamantha Harvey|title=The Wide-Mouthed FrogOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Do you know In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the joke about the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard it. ItBooker Prize for ''Orbital''s , a classic. It's one compact yet profound work that you really need to tell unfolds over a single day in person, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide open, but to hopefully spark your memory, the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to lives of a number group of animals until he finally comes across astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogs, and narrative lens that mirrors the frog does his best to disguise who he is whilst saying astronauts''Oohorbital perspective, you don't Harvey invites readers to see many of those round here, do you?'' I'm hardly doing it justice, but it's very cheesy and funny. Anyway, this is our planet in a book of that jokewholly new light.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>1529922933
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman295967572X|title=Don't Swallow Your GumPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleLiterary Fiction|summary='''BANG'''Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his companion Django. ThatWhere they's re going and what the sound purpose of copious urban myths being shot downthis journey is, is uncertain. Django found the tickets '''BANG'on the floor somewhere''and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. That's Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the sound of past as the old wives slamming pair travel to the door, as their tales get revealed as baseless. '''CLICK'''. That's station by coach and the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant booktrain is a steam locomotive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annie Taylor0008551324|title=VioletThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Violet 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 very special hippomissing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. She This person, he promises, is extremely small but that does not make her adoptive parents Albert someone big and Mavis love her any it will be worth the lesspolice doing what he wants. However And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, they are slightly worried is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that Violet has a very unusual habit of turning pink without warning DS Max Craigie and for no explicable reasonanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary DixonThea Lenarduzzi|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveThe Tower|rating=45
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Arthur Transcombe is a middle-aged, grey-haired, self-effacing poet. Unremarkable really - on ''How unctuous are the outside. He hasfats of another's life, however, managed to achieve some success with his poems. (Being a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival is no mean feat)how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''. He is also a babe magnet!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Graham McCannClaire-Louise Bennett|title=Bounder!: The Biography of TerryBig Kiss, Bye-ThomasBye
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=When I was Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in my early teensanguish and distortion. Even a kiss, it sometimes seemed as if Terry-Thomas was one usually a symbol of the stars intimacy and closeness, becomes evidence of almost every other five-star British comedy film aroundlove lost. He was certainly one of When the most recognizable characters of all with his gap-toothed grinnarrator cries out internally, cigarette holder and inimitable 'Hel-lo!'come over here and kiss me, 'Hard cheese!', and best it is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to confirm her emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of allthis plea is Xavier, the angryher ex-partner, 'You're an absolute shower!'a ghost she conjures to test her detachment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>1804271934
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Jay Parker0008405026|title=Stop MeA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Spam EIt's sixteen years since nine-year-Mails can be incredibly annoying, but most of us will have had old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to deal with thema halt. FortunatelyNow, her mother, Helena, we can hit the delete button and forget about them as quickly as they cameher father are dead in their bed. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish onInitially, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I donit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there'ts something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. But I wonder how many of us would react if a spam EWhat looked as though it was going to be an open-and-Mail actually was shut case is now a matter of life and deathcomplex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)
|title=The Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=''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 6 years old, a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and 2 years before the author was even born. The large and instant void created by the jarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in her life, an absence that she has always felt but often denied.|isbn=1804271845}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeanette WintersonMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=The Battle Reminiscences of the SunTolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersBiography|summary=London 1601Biographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city is think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a busyvibrant, bustling placesubjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. Boats fill In the river and people fill the streetsfirst section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is, but of what you yourself imagine it to be. Jack Whom would it help to know how I see this tower, that sea, or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is happy because it?'s his birthday and his present is his heart's desire: an excitable black puppy named Max. Well, who's Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a ''licking subjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and a running and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy Andreyev in the air and a tail wagging and a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of delight''it. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>1804271977
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure1529077745|title=Love and KissesThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Tamsin and Katie were just thirteen and worried that they were boringA man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. They'd been best friends since forever and were The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the good girls. Neither missed school, skipped her homework nor night before but who had boyfriendsnever turned up. Well, that D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue isthe disappearance of one of the residents, not so farfourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Up until then Tamsin had been Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the boffin head – consistently strong academically and looking forward to going on to university. All girl's diary makes it clear that seemed to change when she met Alexadored Josh. Well, when I say 'met' I should perhaps clarify and say She knows that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow into her, from the building site where he workedshe has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh. Oh, and did I mention that he was seventeen, Polish and spoke very little English?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Henry MintzbergOlga Tokarczuk|title=ManagingHouse of Day, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=Business and FinanceLiterary Fiction|summary=''Study after study has shown that managers work at an unrelenting pace'' How true, though it always makes me wonder why, as a result, thereWhat's such the good of a market for bulky management and leadership and general business books world that keeps changing like this one. that? How does anyone who needs or wants to read can one ever find the time to do so? This title actually has an answer to this, by providing two books go on calmly living in one, and it is such a simple yet effective solution that I have to start there. You can read this book in one of two ways. Option one is to read every word, chapter by chapter, cover to cover. If you have the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readable, not too repetitive, and quite thought-provoking.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>}}?''
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1836284683
|title=The Big Happy
|author=David Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other!
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neal LaytonSally Rooney|title=Surf's Up (Mammoth Academy)Intermezzo|rating=34.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction |summary=Having successfully seen off Sally Rooney has studied the rather unpleasant humans in earlier volumes, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar chessboard of life and Arabella have nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy for lots more double periods is something of Difficult Sumsa grandmaster at putting it into words. They're supposed to be making presentations about Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they did during feel. Among the holidays toomany relationships woven into this story, but Oscar hasn't done any preparation the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan andPeter Koubek. Ivan, franklya socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, he cana successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father't really remember what he actually did do s passing after a long battle with all that free time other than no Difficult Sumscancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>0571365469
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb1836285493|title=The Princess Who Had No KingdomDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=45
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in Will is a cart pulled by her horse Pretty. She's very politekeen player of video games, friendlya conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and kind-hearteda supportive friend. But most of all, but she feels like something he is an aspiring writer. English is lacking because she doesnhis favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one at which he excels. This hasn't have gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and she has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a kingdom couple of her own. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enoughafternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, but there's always a feeling that she's not quite as good as them because she isn't the princess of anywherewhere his ability might be better extended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mij Kelly and Louise Nisbet1009473085|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made ChristmasConservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=45|genre=For SharingPolitics and Society|summary=Mouse doesnSometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't like anyone '' and keeps herself that applies to herself''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. Her things are her things and she is too selfish to share them with anyone else If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for you. One day, an old man moves in to Mouse If that's house. He used to be the happiest man in the worldwhat you're looking for, but now heI don't think Anthony Seldon's sadbook, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. He It's fed up of having given, given, given all his life a compelling read and never got anything backshould be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. He just sits quietly ''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 mopesco-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This makes Mouse miserablebook 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, so one day she decides to cheer him up by giving him a clementine..the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick BlandJenny Valentine|title=The Very Cranky BearUs in the Before and After|rating=45|genre=For SharingTeens|summary=Moose, Lion, Zebra Elk and Sheep head into a cave to get out of the rainMab are best friends, but little do they know or more than that Bear even, their friendship is fast asleep a once in therea lifetime connection. When they wake him up, he roars at them, chasing them outside, so they decide to cheer him up somehow. Zebra paints stripes They meet as children one day on him, Moose fashions antlers for him and Lion sticks a mane of straw on him. Unsurprisingly, this makes Bear even crankier, so ittrip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's down to Sheep to save contact details at the day...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kes Gray and Lee Wildish|title=Mum and Dad Glue|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=A young boy's parents are splitting uptime. He's going through the usual emotions that children of divorce go through: worry, feeling unsure, blaming himself, anger, denial, and But then trying to get chance brings them to stay back together, and they are inseparable. His method for this isn't the usual response Something has happened though: he looks for glue to stick his mum , something terrible and dad together. Thankfullytragic, he finds some wise and kindly advice in the process.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Clara Vulliamy|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To Bed|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=It's Pearl's bedtimenow they must work through their grief, but she says she's really busy and isn't going to sleep. She just wants to play and play and play. When the bear with sticky paws rings the doorbelltheir friendship, he whisks her away on an amazing adventure - although as you might expect, the bear has a little more energy than Pearl and eventually she does get a little sleepytogether.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>1471196585
}}