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Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library , the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{Frontpage|isbn=1780724047|title=A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs|author=Peter J Conradi|rating=4|genre=Pets|summary=I struggle to resist a book about dogs, but I did wonder why this one was so ''thin'': given that I've never encountered a dog who wasn't interesting or important - and probably both, I was expecting a massive tome. But ''A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs'' is actually ''a rich compendium of the world's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a rich treasure trove. We begin with Peter J Conradi's four collies: Cloudy, Sky. Bradley and Max. They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what comes over is Conradi's love for each and every one of them. I knew that I was in safe hands.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1785769294|title=Man at the Window (Detective Cardilini)|author=Robert Jeffreys|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's when we read that a young boy is creeping reluctantly to a teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrong. Nowadays you ''might'' hope that something would be done about it fairly quickly but this was 1965 and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of the child. The boy would be safe that night though - albeit in the most horrific fashion. When he reached Captain Edmund's bedroom he found the man dead on the floor, the top of his skull missing. The school's initial reaction was that this was a dreadful accident: there had been a cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields and it was obviously a stray bullet which had killed the Captain.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786695227|title=Invisible in a Bright Light|author=Sally Gardner|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=The beginning of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a little confused: who is the man in the green suit, what is the Reckoning, and why are rows of people in a cave? But stick with it – Ms Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience the same disorientation as our heroine. We watch in dismay as the strange man, who seems to have no eyes, does his best to persuade her to answer his questions. But for some reason Celeste, despite her bewilderment, remains wary and gives nothing away.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1912374854|title=Violet|author=S J I Holliday|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=I've never been but understand that travelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situations. Well that's exactly what happens when the two main/only characters meet in a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to get a refund on an extra ticket for the Trans-Siberian train and Violet is trying to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the same sold-out journey. As the two team up, travelling through Mongolia, Serbia and into Russia, it could've been the start of a beautiful friendship but this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale of obsession, manipulation and toxic friendships.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1912374838|title=Nothing Important Happened Today|author=Will Carver|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Nothing Important Happened Today is a dark, twisted, difficult read. Stories about cults often are, but this is different; it's written with a sense of style that is quite unlike anything I've read before. I can't remember ever having read a novel with such an odd, distinctive narrative voice. While a slim and relatively small book, the slow-moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages.}}{{Frontpage|isbn= williamabbey|title=The Pursuit of William Abbey|author=Claire North|rating=3.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of a young boy in 1880's South Africa, he finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of William. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most…}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1643785036|title=The Wondrous Apothecary|author=Mary E Martin|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay Wagon'', and Rinaldo, renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and cheese, if not sworn enemies. If you've watched the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, you'd have said that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright was at the socially acceptable end of the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo it was all too obvious that there was but a fine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance. As time has worn on, he's frequently been brought to the attention of the police. On this latest occasion we see him charged with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''.}}{{Frontpage|author=Mary H.K. Choi|title=Permanent Record|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Pablo, a college drop-out, is working at a New York bodega. He's massively in debt, he's avoiding his mother, and he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one evening, he's surprised to discover that the girl he is chatting with as he serves is a super-famous pop star and, as unlikely as it may seem, they start a relationship. With one character who is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone, and the other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, it's an interesting clash as they come together. This isn't just a love story though, and actually it's really just Pab's story, about the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smart.|isbn=0349003459}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1609809319|title=Long-Haired Cat-Boy Cub|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=One day a boy is in the zoo with his father, when the man gets called away on urgent business. The boy isn't hustled into a cab and taken home first, though, no – he's given hot dog money, and taxi money, and told to just stick around on his own and enjoy himself. Well, it's no surprise that the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn't make him happy, and so he thinks of a species name for himself, and curls himself up into an empty cage, as if he were a new exhibit. And it's then the drama begins… }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1785785516|title=Fucking Good Manners|author=Simon Griffin|rating=4|genre=Lifestyle|summary=Manners maketh man, they say. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set of conventions, some of which are ages old and other which have evolved over time. Manners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: they're about getting the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult matters. Of course we all have more relaxed manners when we're with family and friends, but it's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriately. ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on the way.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008324859|title=Fowl Twins|author=Eoin Colfer|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Relax, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off planet, but the baddies aren't getting away with skulduggery any time soon because they now have not one but two members of the Fowl family to contend with. Those cute little twins are now eleven (and, frankly, cute no longer) and in this, their first independent adventure, they meet a troll and without even trying manage to make two deadly enemies: a nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever the cost (to other people), and an unusual interrogator-nun. The boys are chased, kidnapped, arrested and even killed (though not for long), all with the help of one trainee fairy.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1472255798|title=The Bad Fire (Bob Skinner)|author=Quintin Jardine|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Nine years ago local councillor Marcia Brown took her own life after being accused of shoplifting from a local supermarket. It's always been assumed that she couldn't live with the shame. People were surprised that she committed suicide just before the court case when she had been adamant that she would fight to clear her name. She said that she'd been set up because she was hot on the trail of corruption in the council. Her ex-husband has contacted Alex Skinner, Solicitor Advocate as well as retired Police Constable Bob Skinner's daughter, and asked that she look into clearing Brown's name: it's something which he feels that he has to do in memory of his son who was murdered recently.}}

{{Frontpage|isbn=B07X6GLQ3Q|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingtitle=See Them Run|author="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->Marion Todd<!-- Brandi -->|rating=4|-genre=Crime| stylesummary="widthD I Clare Mackay is still relatively new to St Andrew's: 10%; verticalshe was previously at Maryhill Rd station in Glasgow. She's left quite a lot behind including a relationship that wasn't going anywhere after Tom failed to support her when the chips were down. She also left a nasty situation, of her own making but not her fault, and St Andrew's is a fresh start. Not long into the job she's faced with a hit and run death and there's little doubt that it wasn't accidental -align: top; textthe card with the number five suggests murder. Andy Robb was married to Sandra. You could say that they had an open marriage but there seemed to be a lot of the 'open' and very little of the 'marriage' left -align: center;"on both sides, but would she want him dead?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786540991|title=The Impossible Boy|author=Ben Brooks[[image:1789550122|rating=4.jpg5|genre=Confident Readers|linksummary=http://www''Oleg and Emma entered their den to find a cardboard spaceship standing where they usually sat. Slowly, the front door opened.amazonSmoke billowed out.coAnd out stepped a boy, dressed in a long coat with an even longer scarf, wound around his neck.uk/dp/1789550122/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]''

| style=''"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;My name's Sebastian Cole,"|===[[Into the River by Mark Brandi]]===boy said, "But you already know that."''

[[image:4starAnd indeed they do.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]. [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Two boysEver since the summer, Ben and Fab, are growing up in a small town in Northern Australia in the late 80when their friend Sarah's. They do all the normal things that boys of that age do - go yabbying (fishing)mother had moved her away, play cricket, fight their battles at school Oleg and think about girls. Their family lives are different; Ben comes from Emma have been unable to find a happy home, whilst Fab is the son of Italian immigrants who clearly have little money, and has a father who is very violentnew friend to take her place. Yet despite their differences, they are fiercely loyal to each other. So far, so normal. But with the arrival of a new neighbour for Ben}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1447281357|title=Salvation Lost|author=Peter F Hamilton|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=In the twenty-third century, humanity is enjoying a man called Ronnie, things begin comparative utopia. Yet life on Earth is about to change, forever. Ronnie wants Ben Feriton Kane's investigative team has discovered the worst threat ever to face mankind – and we've almost no time to come over fight back. The supposedly benign Olyix plan to do some odd jobs for himharvest humanity, and both Ben and Fab are increasingly uncomfortable about thisin order to carry us to their god at the end of the universe. [[Into And as their agents conclude schemes down on earth, vast warships converge above to gather this cargo. Some factions push for humanity to flee, to live in hiding amongst the River by Mark Brandi|Full Review]] <!-- Clark -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:034901082Xstars – although only a chosen few would make it out in time.jpg|link=httpBut others refuse to break before the storm. As disaster looms, animosities must be set aside to focus on just one goal://wwwwiping this enemy from the face of creation.amazonEven if it means preparing for a future this generation will never see.co.uk/dp/034901082X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"1471186393|==title=[[In The Full Light Photographer of the Sun by Clare Clark]]==Lost|author=Caroline Scott|rating=4.5[[image:5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] In 1930's Berlin, three people obsessed summary=May 1921. Edie receives a photograph through the post. There is no letter or note with art find themselves swept up into a scandalit. Emmeline, a wayward young student, Julius, an anxious middle-aged art expert, and Rachmann, a mysterious art dealer, live in There is nothing written on the politically turbulent Weimar Berlin, and soon find themselves whipped up into excitement over back of the surprise discovery of thirty-two previously unknown paintings by Vincent Van Goghphotograph. Based on It is a true story and unfolding through the subsequent rise picture of Hitler and the Nazisher husband, the discovery of the art allows these characters to explore authenticityFrancis. Francis has been missing for four years. Technically, he has been "missing, vanity and self-delusionbelieved killed" but that is not something that a young widow can believe. [[In The Full Light of She hangs on the word 'missing', disbelieving the Sun by Clare Clark|Full Review]]word killed. }}<!-- Ireland -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1783784350| styletitle="widthThis Golden Fleece: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter[[image:1789090873.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789090873/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] History| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland]]=== [[image:5starIt was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]] ''Two days after I was born … the dead rose up The job frustrated her and started to walk on even her knitting did not soothe her mind. January was going to be a battlefield in a small town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg '' Dread Nation narrates time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the unconventional life length and breadth of Jane McKeene who was born days before the dead began to walk the streets. An event which in interrupting the civil war between the states altered American British Isles with occasional forays abroad, discovering and telling the story of wool's history forever. In the and how it had made and changed world, minorities are forced into conscription and under the new Native and Negro Relandscape. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk -education Act children are placed in combat schools where they are trained extensively to destroy '' a free range child on the dead once farm'' - and for all. For Jane learned to spin, knit and other girls like weave from her, there is however the opportunity for a better life by being employed as an attendantmother and her mother's friend. With deadly capabilities and perfect etiquette, attendants protect those higher This was in society and are valued above all elseher blood. [[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland|Full Review]]}}<!-- Arnold -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1401286208| styletitle=''widthBlack Canary: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''Ignite|author=Meg Cabot and Cara McGee[[image:1789016525.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016525/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Confident Readers| stylesummary=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Betrayed by Geoffrey Arnold]]=== [[image:3Meet Dinah Lance.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] In an extension of the story begun by Geoffrey Arnold in ''Ripped Apart''Frustrated that her policeman father will not allow her to try and follow in his footsteps, and seemingly lumbered with being a cheerleader at school, he continues she is desperate to tell the story of the Quantum twinsfind her voice. Born on a parallel world, these genetically identical twins interfered with an experiment and were hurtled through space-time to our earth - and But it's actually more a series case of adventures ensued in the following books. When we rejoin them in ''Betrayed'' we find Tullia struggling to adapt to life in the bush - adopted by her voice finding her, as when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singer. You could almost call it a Bushman family and made part of weapon, or a tribepower. Twin Qwelby however, is not doing so well - shocked by the violence on the earth. Rescued by an old friendBut in order for her to call herself a superhero, he then tries there has to help be a girl called Xaala - but whole path of steps for her ulterior motives may well prove to drive a wedge between the twins as they try to reconnect... [[Betrayed by Geoffrey Arnold|Full Review]]take – one of which will be into her past…}}<!-- Pamela Brookes -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1789017977| styletitle="widthRonnie and Hilda's Romance: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Towards a New Life after World War II[[image:1949471004.jpg|linkauthor=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1949471004/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Wendy Williams| stylerating="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"4|==genre=[[Dog on a Log Chapter Books: Step 1 by Pamela Brookes]]===History[[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] What do you do when your child has dyslexia Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and you need books which will help them Ethel Wall. There's some doubt as to achieve the wonder that is reading? You can risk buying early readers, but the sounds in the book might whether or not be the ones youthey were ever married or even Harry've s birthdate: he claimed to have been working on born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and encountering words which are just too challenging can he might well have more of shaved a few years off his age. For a negative effect on while the young dyslexic than family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a child without that problemvery different lifestyle. You need One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be able to buy books well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the army at a reasonable price which concentrate on what you've been working on, without anything else being thrown into the mix. You need a story which engages the young mind and you need stages which progress steadily through the learning process without there being any large jumpseighteen in 1942.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1542015421|title=The Royal Baths Murder|author=J R Ellis|rating=3. Some online support and games wouldn5|genre=Crime|summary=When Damian Penrose was murdered there was no shortage of suspects: he was a deeply unpleasant man. In fact the only surprising thing was that there wasn't go amiss, eithermore of a queue waiting to do the dirty deed. Reading - What was a bit of a headline maker was that Penrose was a crime writer and that he was strangled in the midst of Harrogate''learning'' to read - should be a pleasures crime writing festival. It should be ''fun''. [[Dog on He went for a Log Chapter Books: Step 1 swim at the Royal Baths and never returned, his body being found by Pamela Brookes|Full Review]] <!-- Kazan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0749024801the receptionist. DCI Jim Oldroyd was the man tasked with investigating the crime.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co It would not be the only death, and it was only because of the quick actions of his sergeant, Andy Carter, that Oldroyd's was not one of them.uk/dp/0749022132/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleauthor="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Daniel Kraus|title=Blood Sugar|rating=4|genre==[[The Phoenix of Florence by Philip Kazan]]===General Fiction[[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Deep in the Tuscan countryside of fifteenth century Italy, Onoria survives This is a massacre that destroys her family and homedifficult read. Alone in And not because of the forest, she meets a band of soldiers who, believing her to be a boy train and develop her dark subject matter – and the determined Onoria becomes a mercenary that'll come later – desperate to avoid any situation but because of the way in which she may feel vulnerable againit's told. Along the way, she meets ex-soldier CelaviniThis might put a lot of readers off, whose journey to Florence sees him investigating two brutal murders. As he digs further and uncovers links to his own family history, Celavini must revisit be honest it'd be hard to blame them. Kraus tells the past he shares story in a distinctive voice unlike any other I've read; an erratic dialect with Onoriaheavy and frequent slang. The immediate effect is disorientating and distracting, in the hope that they can lay the ghosts of their shared history and it takes some time to feel natural. It's a struggle to acclimatise to rest, before itJody's too late... [[The Phoenix of Florence by Philip Kazan|Full Review]] <!-- Watson voice, to get acquainted with his mannerisms, but the story wouldn't be the same without it, and Hagan -->somehow it works. It shouldn't, but it does.|-| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|1789091934[[image:1526600862.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526600862/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  Jasmine and Chelsea go to a high school with an excellent reputation. It places strong emphasis on extra curricular activities and all pupils are encouraged to join clubs and associations. But Jasmine is fed up with her drama group because she's always typecast in the loud, "hysterical" roles (Jasmine is black and resents the angry black woman trope). And Chelsea is fed with poetry club because the only poetry it ever covers was written by men who lived and died years ago. So, along with friends Isaac and Nadine, they start a new group called Write Like a Girl. [[Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan|Full Review]] <!-- Rachel Lynch -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07KTQTW1L.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07KTQTW1L/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Bitter Edge (D I Kelly Porter) by Rachel Lynch]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] The girl had once been a promising athlete, but injury and then addiction to prescription painkillers changed her completely. Eventually she was driven to commit suicide in the most gruesome way - by throwing herself off a cliff in the Lake District. It worried DI Kelly Porter, but she had no reason to investigate, although several of her cases keep bringing her back to the girl's school and a darker story emerged. One of the pupils goes missing at the local fair: her best friend is the girl who has accused a teacher of luring her to his flat and then sexually assaulting her. It seems that the teacher also has paedophilia on his computer, but the downloading eerily coincides with the girl's visit to his flat. What is going on, but - most importantly - where is Faith? [[Bitter Edge (D I Kelly Porter) by Rachel Lynch|Full Review]] <!-- Angela Marsons -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786817721.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786817721/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dead Memories (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Someone is recreating every traumatic event in Kim Stone's past, starting with the death of her twin when she was six years old. Some of the events, or at least the details of them, are not public knowledge, but whoever is behind this has a wealth of information and is using it to evil intent. That might seem bad enough, but the brutal truth of the matter is that people - innocent people - are dying so that these dramas can be recreated. Stone probably - well, certainly - shouldn't be on the case, but who has better knowledge of what happened to her than she does? If her boss can just turn a blind eye to the effect it's having on her for long enough, she can sort it out... Or can she? [[Dead Memories (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons|Full Review]] <!-- Hurwitz -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:071818548X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/071818548X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] 1997. Evan Smoak is 19 years old ''trained up, mission ready. And yet untested.'' He's in a foreign city on an officially unofficial mission, which he executes with all the impeccable training that his youth belies. Evan Smoak is Orphan X. [[Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz|Full Review]] <!-- Jewell -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:178475627X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475627X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Watching You by Lisa Jewell]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] A teenage boy spies on a teenage girl from his bedroom window. Down the road, a woman is convinced she knows a man in the village and that he is following her. Meanwhile, a young woman has moved back home after some time abroad, and develops a fascination with her new neighbour. The man's wife, meanwhile, engages the services of the young woman's husband in some work around the house. Oh, and that teenage boy? He's her son. And the woman with the conspiracy theories? She's the mother of the girl he's spying on. Plus, the man she thinks is out to get her is the woman's husband (and is also the new headteacher at her daughter's school). Whichever way you look at it, there's a lot of watching going on in this book. [[Watching You by Lisa Jewell|Full Review]] <!-- Cooch -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0578444305.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0578444305/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Fish Seeking Bicycle by Kate Cooch]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] This novel is set about a hundred years into the future. The world has been decimated by nuclear conflict and what's left of the old United States is run from Center City. Women run this world and it is very proud of having defeated the old patriarchy. Men must behave appropriately and deferentially at all times and, if they don't, are medicalised to keep their baser instincts under control. And if that doesn't work, they're sent to work camps, away from open society, or even worse: expelled to the wilderness beyond the Central Authority's borders. [[Fish Seeking Bicycle by Kate Cooch|Full Review]] <!-- James Atkinson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07ML4Q55J.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ML4Q55J/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Home Workout for Beginners: 6 Week Fitness Program with Fat Burning Workouts for Long Term Weight Loss by James Atkinson]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]] James Atkinson has all the qualifications which you need in a workout instructor and he looks the part. He's been actively involved in the health and fitness arena for more than twenty years and he spent nine years as a member of 9 Parachute Regiment, Royal Engineers. He has another qualification which means a lot to me: he's been on the other side. There was a time when he was overweight and not particularly strong. As a child he was slow to develop. This means that he ''understands'' what it's like and he knows how his clients feel: it's much more helpful than the twenty-something who was born super-fit and with an attitude problem. [[Home Workout for Beginners: 6 Week Fitness Program with Fat Burning Workouts for Long Term Weight Loss by James Atkinson|Full Review]] <!-- Adrian Cull -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1999308719.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999308719/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments by Adrian Cull]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]], [[:Category:Popular Science|Popular Science]] For many years now I've (half) joked that I intended to live forever and that so far, it was working out OK. Time has passed though and although I'm a great deal fitter and healthier than most people of my age there were a few nagging health problems which were tipping my life out of balance. It was time to look for a new approach and as so often happens, the reviewing gods brought me the book I needed. ''Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments'' seemed like the answer to my problems - only you get so much more than just 101 tips. [[Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments by Adrian Cull|Full Review]] <!-- Anders -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785653199.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785653199/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The City In The Middle Of The Night by Charlie Jane Anders]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] January is a dying planet. It wasn't exactly pleasant to begin with. One half is scorching sunlight, pure, blazing heat, and totally uninhabitable. The other half is pure darkness and ice, where a creature can freeze to death in seconds, and totally uninhabitable. In the middle is a brief twilight that is barely survivable. Life is a knife-edge, stray too close to one side you die, to close to the other, you die and yet the heat from the sun and the water from the ice are necessary for life. Life for the inhabitants of January is long, and hard, and arduous, will anything ever change? [[The City In The Middle Of The Night by Charlie Jane Anders|Full Review]] <!-- Laws -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789016851.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016851/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Exit Day: Brexit; An Assassin Stalks the Prime Minister by David Laws]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] At the time of my writing this, there is one thing uniting Britain, and this is hatred of 'Brexit'. Not just Brexit, but use of the word 'Brexit'. Yes, people hate the people that instigated it then disappeared, and/or the people who just can't seem to get their fingers out and complete it, but they also hate the use of the word. This biggest turn-off has made people who have never so much as tutted in their life slam down their tea-cups in high dudgeon and leave the room until it's safe to return, when all mention of it has subsided. I mention this in relation to this book because it is partly about Brexit, but because it too seems to get to the actual Brexiting in a very protracted manner. Just as we have to wade through dirges from Europe to get anywhere, it seems, so the reader of this book has to get through a lot from Europe before the title's theme really arises. Here, at least though, the author's delaying tactics are much more forgiveable. [[Exit Day: Brexit; An Assassin Stalks the Prime Minister by David Laws|Full Review]] <!-- Chamberlain -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786076446.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786076446/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Hidden by Mary Chamberlain]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] When Barbara Hummel arrives, determined to identify the mysterious woman whose photograph she has found among her mother's possessions, Dora and Joe find their worlds upended – and are swiftly forced to confront their pasts. Revisiting their time on the Channel Islands during World War II, Dora remembers a time when she concealed her Jewish identity, and Joe, a Catholic Priest, remembers a time when he hid something very different. In this story of love, loss and betrayal, it remains to be seen whether a speck of light can diffuse the darkest shadows of war… [[The Hidden by Mary Chamberlain|Full Review]] <!-- Stephen John Hartley -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1999811402.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999811402/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Painting Snails by Stephen John Hartley]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]] It's very difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'': originally I thought that as it's loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best results. The answer would be something along the lines of 'try it and see'. Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and is now an A&E consultant (part time). I found out that there's an awful lot more to what goes on in a Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', but that isn't really what the book's about. There's a lot about rock & roll, which seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. Did we have a category for 'doing the impossible the hard way'? Yep - that's the one. It's autobiography. [[Painting Snails by Stephen John Hartley|Full Review]] <!-- Lelic -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07GXSB6N2.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444947605/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Haven: Book 1 by Simon Lelic]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] When Ollie and Nancy, the police officer tasked with guarding our young hero, are abducted in the middle of the night, things take a dangerous turn. Rescued by Dodge, Ollie is taken to the Haven, a secret underground community based in a network of underground tunnels that the London above ground knows nothing about. Here, children work together to battle great evils. And there is an immediate enemy to fight. Ollie would have been the hundredth victim of Maddy Sikes had he not been rescued. And Maddy intends to destroy the city. [[The Haven: Book 1 by Simon Lelic|Full Review]] <!-- Kennedy -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0993202349.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993202349/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]  The final novel in Alan Kennedy's WW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and banished to Scotland, providing trade craft spy training. It's stifling and suffocating and feels as much like a prison to Alex as anything the Germans would provide. And where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her since he went to ''that'' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, instigator of the disinformation campaign, and returned to find her missing. A failed mission is one thing but no Justine is quite another. Alex can't get Justine out of his head. Has she left the service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}}