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Revision as of 15:52, 16 November 2017

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{{newreview <!-- remove 24/11 -->
|title=Parenting through the Eyes of a Child: Memoirs of My Childhood
|author=Tabitha Ochekpe Omeiza
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Tabitha Ochekpe Omeiza was brought up in Nigeria and came to Britain to study for her A levels when she was 18. Her parents used their savings to give her this opportunity and called it an investment in her future. Now a qualified pharmacist, married and with a child of her own, Tabitha looks back at her childhood and reflects on the way her mother and father raised her. And she gives their parenting top marks.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524682853</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Fiona Mitchell
|title=The Maid's Room
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In some apartments in Singapore you'll find a bomb shelter - airless and without a window. It will probably house the washing machine and the other domestic paraphernalia that's got nowhere else to go. There'll be a mattress on the floor of this stifling room, with the heat increased by the tumble dryer. This is the maid's room. It's possibly better than sleeping under the dining room table, but not by much. Back in 2009 there were 201,000 female domestic workers in Singapore, many not earning any money for a year until they've repaid 'training' and other fees to the agency, many living in 'the maid's room'.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473659566</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Allan Hailstone
|title=Berlin in the Cold War: 1959 to 1966
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=''Berlin in the Cold War: 1959-1966'' contains almost 200 photographs taken by author / photographer Allan Hailstone in his visits to the city during this period. The images provide an insight into the changing nature of the divide between East and West Berlin and a glimpse into life in the city during the Cold War.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445672901</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Asa Avdic
|title= The Dying Game
|rating= 4
|genre= Thrillers
|summary=In a futuristic dystopian Sweden, ministry worker Anna is presented with an offer from the formidable chairman. Except the offer, is more of an order than a choice. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Anna accepts. She is taken to an isolated Island with other ''candidates'' for a job in the super-secret organisation. Anna's objective is simple, she is to ''die'' and then observe her fellows through hidden chambers of the house. Once the experiment is finished, she will report her findings back to the chairman. However, while this starts off smoothly at first, other contestants start disappearing and Anna is faced with the terror of knowing this is not just a game anymore.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786090201</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|title=Scoop of the Year
|author=Tom Claver
|rating=4
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Martin is an ambitious journalist working on the Financial Review. Martin is good at his job - accurate, dedicated, hardworking and with a good nose for a scoop. But Martin is also uninterested in the culture that comes with reporting. He has a wife and two daughters at home and he doesn't want to waste time and money in the pub, talking macho nonsense with the other hacks. He is a far cry from his colleague Tom de Lacy, a charismatic, silver-spooned charmer with piercing blue eyes. Tom doesn't just grab the limelight though - he also grabs the promotion to industrial correspondent. And that is the job Martin not only wanted, but needed.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1788036220</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Maureen Orth
|title= Vulgar Favours: The Assassination of Gianni Versace
|rating= 5
|genre= True Crime
|summary= What is it about true crime which makes it so fascinating to such a wide audience? I guess it's wanting to try to figure out what happened to make these people partake in the awful crimes they committed, or else the same inexplicable impulse people have to slow down when they overtake a car crash on the motorway. Whatever it is, Maureen Orth's book, Vulgar Favours, taps right on into it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785943103</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Charlotte Peacock
|title= Into The Mountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Biography
|summary= Mostly we choose what books to read, because there is so little time and so many books… I can understand the approach, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, and we sell the myriad lesser known authors short as well. So while, like most other people I have my favourite genres, and favoured authors, and while, like most other people I read the reviews and follow up on what appeals, I also have a third string to my reading bow: randomness. It was in such a 'left-field' move that ''Into the Mountain'' was offered to me.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1903385563</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Alan Moorehead
|title= The Russian Revolution
|rating= 4
|genre= History
|summary= First published in 1958, Moorhead's account is regarded as one of the most succinct accounts of its subject, and now reprinted to mark the centenary of the revolution.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445667320</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Catherine Hewitt
|title=Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Deep in the rural parts of France in the 1860s, you would never really expect to find someone who would come to embody a full artistic period – and not just a movement at that, but a full generation of both creative and societal change. And if you were to expect that someone, they would like as not be male. But almost stumbling into the hedonistic culture of Montmartre came Marie-Clementine Valadon. She started in the circus that first caught her teenaged eye, although her gymnastic career was short-lived. But what she did have from that was the poise to be an appealing model for some seriously important painters, and a natural beauty and figure to appeal to both them and their audiences. And what she also had, much to the surprise of many and the distaste of some, was artistic talent of her own…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785782738</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= David Melling
|title= Merry Christmas, Hugless Douglas
|rating= 4.5
|genre= For Sharing
|summary= Hugless Douglas is a large, comfy sort of bear who burst onto the picture book scene a few years ago as he searched for just the right sort of hug. His endearing, hopeful face and that chubby (to put it politely) body instantly melted young hearts, and to universal delight we have since been treated to several more of his adventures. Douglas is hugless no longer, you'll be glad to know, but the name stuck, mostly because it's such fun to say (go on, try it!) and because he still bumbles through life embracing everything in sight as if cuddles are about to go out of fashion.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444906844</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
|title=A Treasury of Songs
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=Some people have all the skills, not only is Julia Donaldson one of the most successful children's authors, she can also carry a tune. For the past few years she has adapted many of her most popular stories into songs and plays them during open readings, or releases them as part of a song book. For the first time ''A Treasury of Songs'' brings together several of her books in one omnibus and it also has a CD too of Donaldson singing the songs.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509846131</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
|title=The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you've never read an Alexander McCall Smith novel, but have always thought you might like to try, one day then this might be the book to start with. Rather than face the daunting task of leaping into one of his now very long-running series, this is a standalone novel, and it gives a good flavour of AMS's style, the way he can write to evoke a feeling of time and place, and the warm optimism underlying his words that is so very reassuring and comforting to read. It calls itself 'a wartime romance', which it is, and yet it is much more than that besides. Focussing mainly on Val, a young woman working as a Land Girl, we see her falling in love with an American pilot, Mike Rogers. Thanks to a sheepdog on Val's farm (the Peter Woodhouse from the title) their lives become entwined with that of a German soldier, and the book shows us a variety of friendships as they grow and develop over the years.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846974097</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Christopher Maslanka and Steve Tribe
|title=Sherlock: The Puzzle Book
|rating= 4
|genre= Entertainment
|summary=Who doesn't love a good puzzle, especially those really fiendish ones that get the brain working extra hard? There really is nothing to compare to that buzz we get from the ''Aha!'' moment, when everything falls into place and the solution reveals itself. If puzzles are your thing then you may wish to put your grey cells to the test with ''The Sherlock Puzzle Book,'' based on the popular TV series.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785943030</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author= Hilary Lee-Corbin
|title= Conkers and Grenades
|rating= 4
|genre= Confident Readers
|summary=It's Bristol in 1916. Britain is halfway through the Great War and everyone is expected to put their shoulder to the wheel of the war effort. Mar and Appy might be boys, but they're no different. Both their fathers are away fighting and the two young boys are expected to help with household chores, look after younger siblings, earn a few extra pennies through casual jobs and concentrate on getting an education...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1788033515</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Krysten Ritter
|summary= A life threatening virus is spreading through the United States, an already broken country with a Government that many do not trust. The top scientists are frantically trying to produce a vaccine to save humanity, but it seems a hopeless race against time as the virus mutates into new and stronger strains at a frightening pace. Catarina has lived alone and in hiding for the past two years, since her brilliant father was rounded up by the State and taken by force to work in the national laboratories. His last message to her was to hide from the State and not to trust them an inch. Set in America, but not an America we would recognise, most of the citizens are incarcerated in underground bunkers, protected by air lock doors and bug free conditions. Others, less trusting of the State, remain in hiding on the surface, hoping the virus will not reach them and avoiding anyone who is infected.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141379278</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Tony Mitton
|title= Potter's Boy
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Confident Readers
|summary= Life is unpredictable; it never goes exactly where we want it to despite how much effort we put in to shape a direction for ourselves. It's a hard lesson to learn, and one Tony Mitton captures with vivid simplicity for the potter's boy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910989347</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Simon Lelic
|title= The House
|rating= 5
|genre= Thrillers
|summary= Syd loved the house, despite the fact that it was crammed full of the seller's stuff and they had to take the whole lot as a job lot. The seller had run off to Australia apparently and was up for a quick sale, lock, stock and barrel. Jack wasn't so sure. He found the place creepy, and it wasn't just the stuffed birds, there was an air about the place that he just didn't like.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241296544</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Nicholas Bowling
|title= Witchborn
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Teens
|summary=''There are yet more unholy discoveries within, too foul for your eyes to look upon''
 
Enter the Elizabethan world of 1577. A world of intrigue, terror and suspicion. A world of witchcraft and witch-hunting.
 
Alyce is a young girl forced to flee from her home after the devastating death of her Mother, the only person she had ever loved. Tried and deemed a witch, her Mother was sentenced to being burnt at the stake by the notorious witchfinder John Hopkins who seems hell-bent on finding Alyce.
Haunted by the past she can't leave behind, Alyce escapes to London but she's not alone. Endangered and being followed, Alyce is determined to keep her freedom, but as Alyce discovers her own dark magic she will find that she is more dangerous than she ever thought possible.
 
And Alyce, although she doesn't yet realise it, is caught between two strong and powerful Queens, one desperate to steal the throne and the other determined to keep it…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911077252</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= James Ravilious
|title= The Recent Past
|rating= 5
|genre= Art
|summary= James, son of the war artist Eric Ravilious, inherited his father's artistic talents. Although he was a gifted painter, his main career was to be as a photographer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908524936</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Robin Ravilious
|title= James Ravilious: A Life
|rating= 5
|genre= Biography
|summary= The name of Eric Ravilious, war artist, engraver and designer, has long been familiar. Less well-known was his equally gifted son James. This delightful biography by his widow should help to put the situation right.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908524944</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Minette Walters
|title=The Last Hours
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In June 1348 the Black Death came into the country through the port of Melcombe in Dorset. Ignorant of many rules of hygiene which we'd find basic nearly seven hundred years later, the disease rages through the country. On the estate of Develish, Lady Anne Develish took control of the future of the people who lived in the demesne after her husband had ridden off to try and secure a marriage for his daughter. Two hundred bonded serfs lived on the estate and when Lady Anne realised the virulence of the plague she ordered that the estate refuse entry to anyone, including her husband and his entourage, for fear that they would bring the disease to her people.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760632139</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Javier Cercas and Frank Wynne (translator)
|title= The Impostor
|rating= 5
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary= Enric Marco is without doubt an extraordinary man. A veteran of the Spanish Civil War, honoured for his bravery on the battlefield. A political prisoner of two fascist regimes. A survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. A prominent figure in the clandestine resistance against Franco's tyranny. A tireless warrior for social justice and the defence of human rights. A national hero. But the most extraordinary thing about Enric Marco is this: that he is really none of these things. He is an impostor. And Javier Cercas sets out to tell his story – the true story of Spain's most notorious liar.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857056506</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Susan Wood and Ross MacDonald
|title=American Gothic: The Life of Grant Wood
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Who won a national prize for a crayon drawing of three oak leaves before he was properly in his teens? Who sought acclaim as an artist and came to Europe to study from the greats, only to reject all they had to offer? Who instinctively knew a picture of his dentist (yes, his dentist) would be more appealing and say more to people than ''floating water lilies and frilly ballet dancers''? The answer in all cases was Grant Wood, practically the most well-known painter in America at one time, and still the best, alongside Edward Hopper, at presenting his world minus any Modernist trappings.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1419725335</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Stuart Hill and Sandra Lawrence
|title=The Atlas of Monsters
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=There are monsters and mysterious characters, such as trolls, leprechauns, goblins and minotaurs. They're the stuff of far too many stories to remain mysterious, and every schoolchild should know all about them. There are monsters and mysterious characters, such as Gog and Magog, Scylla and Charybdis, and the bunyip. They are what you find if you take an interest in this kind of thing to the next level; even if you cannot place them all on a map you should have come across them. But there are monsters and mysterious characters, such as the dobhar-chu, the llambigyn y dwr, and the girtablili. To gain any knowledge of them you really need a book that knows its stuff. A book like this one…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783706961</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Stephen Fry
|title= Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece
|rating= 5
|genre= Reference
|summary= The Greek Myths are, arguably, the greatest stories ever told. So old and influential they cast a shadow over western tales and traditions, yet remain relatable and readable millennia later. Here comedian, actor, television presenter, actor and author Stephen Fry brings his considerable talent to these special stories and recreates them with a wit, warmth and humanity that brings them into the modern age whilst still giving the honour and respect that such ancient and influential stories deserve.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718188721</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lisa Cutts
|title=Buried Secrets
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=You never know what goes on in a marriage: most people thought that Detective Inspector Milton Bowman had the ideal life. He had a beautiful wife and a house that had a mortgage which was smaller than most people's credit card bill. On the other hand, there weren't that many people who had a good word to say about him and when he was involved in a serious road traffic accident which left him minus a leg and with only a few hours to live, people were more worried about the extra work than saddened. When his wife's battered body was found in their kitchen, the idea that it was a murder/suicide seemed like the obvious answer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471153142</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Moira Young
|title= The Road to Ever After
|rating= 5
|genre= Confident Readers
|summary= A grumpy old lady who can no longer drive requires a chauffeur, and we watch as she gradually softens towards him and they become friends. So far, so ''Driving Miss Daisy'', an apt comparison in a book which references several well-loved classic films. But the obvious similarity ends there. Davy, hired to take Miss Flint on her final road trip, is thirteen years old and has not the foggiest idea how to drive a car.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509832564</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Benny Lindelauf, Ludwig Volbeda and Laura Watkinson (translator)
|title=Tortot, the Cold Fish Who Lost His World and Found His Heart
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Meet Tortot. He's a camp chef for an army, with a cold heart – he sheds no tears, or at least as much as does a fish – and a brilliant way of gauging the warfare going on around him. The book even starts with him crossing the battlefield to start work for the enemy the night before they turn the tables on his previous employers and defeat them, leaving Tortot on the winning side once more. But now he's not alone – for he has managed to also inherit an assistant, who lives in a barrel of the Emperors' favourite and most important gherkins…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782691545</amazonuk>
}}
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