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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<!-- Ford -->|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:0356510441|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/0356510441/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]''

| style=''"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;My name's Sebastian Cole,"|===[[The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford]]===the boy said, "But you already know that."''

[[image:4starAnd indeed they do.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] As Ever since the title suggestssummer, this book is all about a girl, Teagan Frostwhen their friend Sarah's mother had moved her away, who has psychokinesis. Forced Oleg and Emma have been unable to secretly work for the government along with find a few unique (and shady) individuals, Teagan has new friend to use take her power for unimaginable tasksplace. All of this whilst under the pretence of working for a moving}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1447281357|title=Salvation Lost|author=Peter F Hamilton|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=In the twenty-company. After her latest job goes wrong and her and the team escape by the skin of their teeththird century, Teagan finds herself as a murder suspect when the victim humanity is found in such enjoying a way that only she could have committed the crimecomparative utopia. The rest of the story unfolds in a fast-paced race against time Yet life on Earth is about to clear Teagan's name and find out exactly what has happenedchange, forever. Is it possible that someone with a gift like TeaganFeriton Kane's investigative team has managed discovered the worst threat ever to fly under the radar? [[The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford|Full Review]] <!-- Caro Ramsay -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0727887602face mankind – and we've almost no time to fight back.jpg|link=http://wwwThe supposedly benign Olyix plan to harvest humanity, in order to carry us to their god at the end of the universe.amazonAnd as their agents conclude schemes down on earth, vast warships converge above to gather this cargo.co.uk/dp/0727887602/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Suffering of Strangers by Caro Ramsay]]=== [[image:4starSome factions push for humanity to flee, to live in hiding amongst the stars – although only a chosen few would make it out in time. But others refuse to break before the storm.jpg|link=CategoryAs disaster looms, animosities must be set aside to focus on just one goal:{{{ratingwiping this enemy from the face of creation. Even if it means preparing for a future this generation will never see.}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime{{Frontpage|Crime]]isbn=1471186393|title=Photographer of the LostRoberta (please call her 'Bobby') Chisholm |author=Caroline Scott|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=May 1921. Edie receives a photograph through the post. There is sleep deprived. Six-week-old Sholto doesn't ''ever'' seem to sleep, so Bobby's like a robotno letter or note with it. There's a little light is nothing written on the horizon, though: back of the photograph. It is a picture of her husband James is up , Francis. Francis has been missing for a new job, which could mean quite a bit more moneyfour years. When Technically, he rings to tell her has been "missing, believed killed" but that is not something that he's got it he's obviously over the moon and tells Bobby to go to the local shop and get a bottle of champagne so that they young widow can celebratebelieve. For once Sholto has dropped off to sleep and when Bobby gets to She hangs on the shop sheword 's reluctant to disturb him: surely there wonmissing't be a problem if she dashes into the shop to get the bubbly? She can keep an eye on the car through the shop window, but when she comes out, disbelieving the car has goneword killed... [[The Suffering of Strangers by Caro Ramsay|Full Review]] <!-- Christopher Edge -->}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=1783784350| styletitle=''widthThis Golden Fleece: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;A Journey Through Britain''|s Knitted History[[image:1788004949.jpg|linkauthor=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788004949/refEsther Rutter|rating=nosim?tag5|genre=thebookbag-21]] History| stylesummary=It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[d never met and preparing spreadsheets. The Longest Night of Charlie Noon by Christopher Edge]]===job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] ''If you go into January was going to be a time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the length and breadth of the woodsBritish Isles with occasional forays abroad, Old Crony will get you.'' Secrets, spies or maybe even a monster... What lies in discovering and telling the heart story of the wood? Charlie, Dizzy wool's history and Johnny are determined to discover how it had made and changed the truth, but when night falls without warning they find themselves trapped landscape. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a nightmare. Lost in free range child on the woodsfarm'' - and learned to spin, strange dangers knit and impossible puzzles lurk in the shadows. As time plays tricks, can Charlie solve this mystery weave from her mother and find a way out of the woods? But what if this night never endsher mother's friend. This was in her blood..? [[The Longest Night of Charlie Noon by Christopher Edge|Full Review]] <!-- Rachel Lynch -->}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=1401286208| styletitle="widthBlack Canary: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Ignite|author=Meg Cabot and Cara McGee[[image:B07P1T8H6J.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P1T8H6J/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Confident Readers|summary===[[Bold Lies (DI Kelly Porter 5) by Rachel Lynch]]=== [[image:4starMeet Dinah Lance.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It was the smell which announced the presence of the body in the wheelhouse of a boat and identification wasn't going 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, she is desperate to be easy as the man was stark nakedfind her voice. There were all the signs of But it's actually more a brutal, cold-blooded execution but gradually the man was traced back to Allendale House, the estate case of the former Lord Allendaleher voice finding her, and then to London, where two more bodiesas 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 weapon, naked, in or a staged setting power. But in order for her to call herself a garagesuperhero, were discovered. Senior Investigating Officer DI Kelly Porter had there has to go to London and was shocked to discover that the SIO be a whole path of steps for ''that'' case was DCI Matt Carter, her manipulative and untrustworthy ex-lover. It was going to take – one of which will be anything but easy to work alongside Matt the Tw... Ah, well let's not go there. [[Bold Lies (DI Kelly Porter 5) by Rachel Lynch|Full Review]]into her past…}}<!-- Jonathan Meres -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1789017977| styletitle="widthRonnie and Hilda's Romance: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams[[image:1781128693.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781128693/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 4| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Special Delivery by Jonathan Meres]]===History[[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] How do you explain Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. There's some doubt as to children about dementia? Injuries whether or not they were ever married or illnesses are obvious, but when the problem is the brain which isneven Harry't functioning quite as it used s birthdate: he claimed to it isn't as easy to grasp. Frank have been born in 1863, but he was a normal nine year old already many years older than Ethel and like many nine year olds what he wanted was might well have shaved a new bikefew years off his age. He'd had his for about seventyFor a while the family was quite well-eight years and he didn't want to raise -do but disaster struck in the seat any more1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. Mum pointed out that it wasn't One thing he did inherit from his father was his birthday or Christmas any time soon need to be well-turned-out and bikes cost a lot of money, which didn't grow on trees. His sister Lottie had a solution: Frank could help her this would stay with her paper roundhim throughout his life. Frank agreed despite thinking that it would take him a thousand years to save up the money for a bike AND he had to get up He joined the army at six o'clock eighteen in the morning1942. [[Special Delivery by Jonathan Meres|Full Review]]}}<!-- Vivian French -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1542015421| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Royal Baths Murder|author=J R Ellis[[image:1781128707.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781128707/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Spectacular Revenge When Damian Penrose was murdered there was no shortage of Suzi Sims by Vivian French]]=== [[imagesuspects:5starhe was a deeply unpleasant man.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Suzi Simms loved running and it In fact the only surprising thing was her ambition that there wasn't more of a queue waiting to win do the 100 metres race on sports day at the end dirty deed. What was a bit of term - a headline maker was that Penrose was a crime writer and that he was next week. We're going to read about what happened strangled in her diary, although therethe midst of Harrogate's crime writing festival. He went for a warning that we really shouldn't be reading itswim at the Royal Baths and never returned, particularly as it's about Barbie Meekhis body being found by the receptionist. To say that DCI Jim Oldroyd was the two girls don't get on at all well is a bit of an understatementman tasked with investigating the crime. Suzi wouldn't actually do anything about itIt would not be the only death, but Barbie is a troublemaker and she wants to win it was only because of the 100 metres race too - by fair means or foulquick actions of his sergeant, Andy Carter, that Oldroyd's was not one of them. [[The Spectacular Revenge of Suzi Sims by Vivian French|Full Review]]}}<!-- Pye -->{{Frontpage|-author=Daniel Kraus| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Blood Sugar|rating=4[[image:1471170233.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471170233/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] General Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Adventures This is a difficult read. And not because of Harry Stevenson by Ali Pye]]=== [[image:5starthe dark subject matter – that'll come later – but because of the way in which it's told.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Meet Harry StevensonThis might put a lot of readers off, and to be honest it'd be hard to blame them. He's Kraus tells the story in a typical guinea pig, except hedistinctive voice unlike any other I's perhaps a bit more ginger than normalve read; an erratic dialect with heavy and frequent slang. And more lazy than usual. And his appetite The immediate effect is possibly bigger than the normdisorientating and distracting, and it takes some time to feel natural. Apart from that heIt's a regular guinea pig. But struggle to acclimatise to Jody's voice, to get acquainted with his mannerisms, but the stories in which he features are nothing like. In story wouldn't be the first one heresame without it, the lad who owns and looks after him is being forced to move housesomehow it works. It should be a simple journey for Harry, safe in his cage from all the predators that watching nature documentaries have put into his imaginationshouldn't, but he gets distracted and – shock horror – left behindit does. It takes some bravura slapstick and a charming contrivance for him to be found again. In the second, for we get two full-length stories in this volume, there's a party being held to get the lad used to his new schoolmates, and Harry used to life in a garden hutch. And one more wonderful conceit that drives high drama. [[The Adventures of Harry Stevenson by Ali Pye|Full Review]] <!-- Angie Kim -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1529374944.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529374944/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Miracle Creek by Angie Kim]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] The Yoo family originated in Seoul. Yoo Young and her daughter Meh-hee came on ahead of the father of the family, Yoo Pak, as a couple in Baltimore offered to provide accommodation for Young and Meh-hee in exchange for assistance in their grocery store. What Young had not appreciated was that she was to work from 6 a.m. until midnight, seven days a week. For years she hardly saw her daughter except when the Kangs brought Meh-hee to see her at the store. Meh-hee became Mary and struggled at school: her fellow pupils were no exceptions to the rule that children can be cruel and Mary was an easy target. [[Miracle Creek by Angie Kim|Full Review]] <!-- Megan E O'Keefe -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0356512223.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356512223/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Velocity Weapon by Megan E O'Keefe]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction]] The last thing Sanda remembers is her gunship exploding. She expected to be recovered by salvage-medics and to awaken in friendly hands, patched-up and ready to rejoin the fight. Instead she wakes up 230 years later, on a deserted enemy starship called The Light of Berossus - or, as he prefers to call himself, 'Bero'. Bero tells Sanda the war is lost. That the entire star system is dead. But is that the full story? After all, in the vastness of space, anything is possible . . . [[Velocity Weapon by Megan E O'Keefe|Full Review]] <!-- Parker -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789018269.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789018269/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Chessmaster's Secret by Mary Parker]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]  Belle and Joe travel to London in 1944, towards the end of World War II. Orphaned evacuees, they haven't had a good time of it - especially Joe, who is a sensitive child and was badly bullied. Meeting them is Uncle Griff, a kindly man, but one without much money. He is more than happy to have the children stay during the school holidays. Uncle Griff owns the ''Shop of Mechanical Marvels'' and the children love all the old things it contains. Uncle Griff hopes to restore it to profitability and bring some wonder back into London's bombed out streets. [[The Chessmaster's Secret by Mary Parker|Full Review]] <!-- Rob Walker -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1529104432X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529104432X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Art of Noticing: Rediscover What Really Matters to You by Rob Walker]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]] The curse put on reviewers is that we get to read through a book which is really better dipped into, or read gradually and thoughts allowed to be provoked. And so it was with ''The Art of Noticing''. It's a simple premise: the pace of modern life and rapidity of technological advances means that we are constantly overwhelmed and distracted. Rob Walker wants us to be able to steal our attention back. He gives us his thoughts on various areas of our lives and then provides 131 exercises to help us recover our attention. [[The Art of Noticing: Rediscover What Really Matters to You by Rob Walker|Full Review]] <!-- Lesley Thomson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786697246.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786697246/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Rachel Cater was having an affair with her boss, Chris Philips, an auctioneer. It was, she told her mother, love at first sight. Her mother was more sceptical and wondered why, if it had been love at first sight, it had taken him so long to do anything about it. Still, more than anything, she wanted her daughter to be happy. That was what Rachel wanted too and it was why she went to the Philips' family home, determined to have it all out in the open. Instead she was stabbed fifteen times. Her lover was convicted of her murder. [[The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson|Full Review]] <!-- Dare -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:191303674X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/I191303674X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Billion Pound Lie by Bill Dare]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Can you imagine what it would be like to win a billion pounds? The UK's biggest ever lottery winners were a couple from Ayrshire, who won a £161 million EuroMillions jackpot a few years ago. That's so much money that it landed them on the Sunday Times Rich List of the UK's thousand most wealthy people. So a billion pounds. That's a lot, right? Can you imagine it? What would you do? Would you try to remain anonymous? And, if you did, how would this affect your relationships with your nearest and dearest? What it would be like? How could you keep your friends and family from knowing that you were now one of the richest people in the country? [[The Billion Pound Lie by Bill Dare|Full Review]] <!-- Vaughn -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0751568228.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751568228/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Across the Void by S K Vaughn]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Sea epics? So 20th century. Try a space epic. [[Across the Void by S K Vaughn|Full Review]] <!-- McLean -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786076071.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786076071/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] When Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old, the Van Apfel sisters disappeared. In the long hot summer of 1992, in an isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushland, the girls vanished during the school's Showstopper concert at the riverside amphitheatre. Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for the sisters united the small community, they were never found. Returning home years later, Tikka must make sense of that strange moment in time – of the summer that shaped her, and the girls she never forgot. [[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean|Full Review]] <!-- Stowell -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788000269.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788000269/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Dragon in the Library by Louie Stowell and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] It is the start of the summer holidays and Kit has plans. These plans involve climbing trees, getting muddy and being outside. Her friends, Josh and Alita, on the other hand want to go to the library. Kit hates reading and can't see the point of books at all but is very reluctantly persuaded to go with the others to the local library. Once there the children meet the librarian and Kit makes an incredible discovery; the librarian is a wizard! Even more incredibly, Kit is a wizard too and she and her friends have an important task. They must save the library…and save the world! [[The Dragon in the Library by Louie Stowell and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)|Full Review]] <!-- Stuart MacBride -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008208263.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008208263/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[All That's Dead (Logan McRae 12) by Stuart MacBride]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It seemed like a good idea. Logan 'Lazarus' McRae was back at work after a year off sick. He'd been stabbed in the line of duty and recovery had been slow: he still had some pain. His first case was to be a simple one - just to ease him back into work - but it turned out to be anything but. Professor Wilson, a high-profile anti-independence campaigner has gone missing, apparently abducted from his home, but nothing was left behind except some bloodstains. In much the same way that Brexit is dividing people south of the border, there's going to be a war between the pro- and anti-independence factions in Scotland - and the police are not above being involved. [[All That's Dead (Logan McRae 12) by Stuart MacBride|Full Review]] <!-- Louise Voss -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07MWXBTV8.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MWXBTV8/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Last Stage by Louise Voss]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] If you were looking back to when it began you'd have to say that it was before 1995. Meredith Vincent (that wasn't her name then) had gone to Greenham Common on her seventeenth birthday, dressed as a teddy bear, to protest about nuclear weapons. It was whilst she was there that she met Samantha, fell head over heels in love with her and went to live in a squat in London, leaving behind her A levels, her recently-widowed mother - and her twin brother, Pete, to look after her. Samantha was there occasionally but Meredith was drawn into forming a band with the boys from the squat and against all the odds Cohen went on to become a sensation and it wasn't long before Meredith was living in a mansion rather than the squat. [[The Last Stage by Louise Voss|Full Review]] <!-- Ian Mathie -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1906852472.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1906852472/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad by Ian Mathie]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up with the missing link in his narrative, the story of a very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became). The bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that the book is published posthumously. As always, it's beautifully written, with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was the feeling that many of the questions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a satisfying clunk. Seemingly all that's now left in the drawer is unpublishable. [[Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad by Ian Mathie|Full Review]] <!-- Martin Walker -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786485753.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786485753/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Body in the Castle Well (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) by Martin Walker]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Claudia Muller was an American, studying art history and being mentored by an eminent French art historian and Resistance war hero in Limeuil in Perigord. She was beautiful, wore designer clothes and was well-liked by everyone. She didn't parade her wealth, or her father's White House connections. In fact, her closest friend was a man recently released from prison. So when she left a lecture saying that she felt ill, and her body was later found at the bottom of the castle well it seemed that the likeliest explanation was that this had been a dreadful accident with the only people to blame being the builders who had left the well unsealed. [[The Body in the Castle Well (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) by Martin Walker|Full Review]] <!-- Nayeri -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786893452.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786893452/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Here in the West, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in this intelligent, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->||isbn=1789091934}}