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'''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|title=See Them Run|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingauthor=Marion Todd|rating=4|genre="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->Crime<!|summary=D I Clare Mackay is still relatively new to St Andrew's: she 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 -- Peter Lynas the 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 Charlie Roberts very little of the 'marriage' left -->on both sides, but would she want him dead?}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=1786540991| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Impossible Boy|author=Ben Brooks[[image:0993340342|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/0993340342/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]''

| style=''"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;My name's Sebastian Cole,"|===[[Madeleine Goes to the Moon by Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts]]===boy said, "But you already know that."''

[[image:4starAnd indeed they do.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For SharingEver since the summer, when their friend Sarah's mother had moved her away, Oleg and Emma have been unable to find a new friend to take her place.}}{{Frontpage|For Sharing]]isbn=1447281357|title=Salvation LostMadeleine is a very lucky girl: in her room she has all a girl could ask for in |author=Peter F Hamilton|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=In the way of toystwenty-third century, books, games and dollieshumanity is enjoying a comparative utopia. She's a very lucky girl in another way too: she has imagination and everything in her room can be used to take her Yet life on adventures. She spends all day there: Dad thinks that she likes Earth is about to be alonechange, but Madeleineforever. Feriton Kane's not alone on all investigative team has discovered the trips she takes. Weworst threat ever to face mankind – and we'll find out that yesterday she was told ve almost no time to tidy her room, but instead of doing that she went to the moonfight back. [[Madeleine Goes The supposedly benign Olyix plan to harvest humanity, in order to carry us to their god at the end of the Moon by Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts|Full Review]] <!-- Ann Patchett -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1526614960universe. 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 stars – although only a chosen few would make it out in time. But others refuse to break before the storm.jpg|link=httpAs disaster looms, animosities must be set aside to focus on just one goal://wwwwiping this enemy from the face of creation. Even if it means preparing for a future this generation will never see.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526614960/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"1471186393|title=Photographer of the Lost|author=Caroline Scott|rating==[[The Dutch House by Ann Patchett]]===4.5[[image:5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Historical Fiction|Literary Fiction]] When we first meet Danny and his elder sister, Maeve Conroy, they're both living at The Dutch House summary=May 1921. Edie receives a photograph through the post. There is no letter or note with their parents and under it. There is nothing written on the gaze back of the portraits of the former owners whose oil paintings still hang on the wallsphotograph. It's a strange family dynamic: Cyril Conroy is distant and the closest Danny seems to come to him is when he goes out with him on a Saturday collecting rents from properties the family ownspicture of her husband, Francis. Francis has been missing for four years. Elna Conroy is lovingTechnically, he has been "missing, believed killed" but absent increasingly often until the point comes when the children are told that she will is not be returningsomething that a young widow can believe. In other circumstances this might have affected Maeve and Danny deeplyShe hangs on the word 'missing', but their primary relationship is with each otherdisbelieving the word killed. It's a bond which only death will break. [[The Dutch House by Ann Patchett}}{{Frontpage|Full Review]]isbn=1783784350 <!-- Peter Lynas and Andy S Gray -->|title=This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|-author=Esther Rutter| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|5[[image:0993340350.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993340350/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] History| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Very Rude Toytoise by Peter Lynas It was December and Andy S Gray]]=== [[image:5starEsther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] It was one of those blissful days in the forest The job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. Mrs Rabbit January was collecting carrots because she wanted going to make be a cake. Mrs Blue Bird was gathering twigs to build a nesttime for making changes and she decided that she would travel the length and breadth of the British Isles with occasional forays abroad, discovering and telling the story of wool's history and how it had made and changed the landscape. Mrs Spider was busily spinning She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a web free range child on the farm'' - and learned to catch juicy fliesspin, knit and weave from her mother and her mother's friend. Mrs Squirrel This was piling up acornsin her blood. And Mr Bear sat comfortably in a chair, fishing for lunch. What could be better? And then... [[The Very Rude Toytoise by Peter Lynas and Andy S Gray|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- Peter Lynas and Rosie Alabaster -->|isbn=1401286208|-title=Black Canary: Ignite| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Meg Cabot and Cara McGee[[image:0993340318.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993340318/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Confident Readers| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|summary===[[Recipe for Making a Snowman by Peter Lynas and Rosie Alabaster]]=== [[image:4starMeet Dinah Lance.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] Who knew 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 find her voice. But it? You can even get a recipe book which tells you how to make a snowman - and there's no cooking involved! Mum, Dad and the two children are absolutely meticulous though: they're going to get everything rightactually more a case of her voice finding her, even down to doing some mining to get the coal for the eyes, searching through the bits 'n bobs jar for buttons for the snowman's coat and picking out the perfect piece of headgearas when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singer. There's quite You could almost call it a choice availableweapon, but the family decide on the bobble hator a power. But in order for her to call herself a superhero, presumably there has to keep the snowman warm. The moth-eaten pair be a whole path of mittens simply won't do and a pair with purple and pink stripes are chosen. [[Recipe steps for Making a Snowman by Peter Lynas and Rosie Alabaster|Full Review]]her to take – one of which will be into her past…}}<!-- Melanie Martin -->{{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:1789016304.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016304/ref4|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] History| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[War Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Love: A familyEthel Wall. There's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martin]]=== [[imagesome doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II he claimed to have been born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in ''The Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinatinghe might well have shaved a few years off his age. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from For a while the city during the war years, family was quite well-to-do but only disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed -year-old Ronnie had to adjust to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupationvery different lifestyle. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and this would soon be pushed back, that stay with him throughout his life. He joined the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate army at eighteen in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect1942. It's an atrocity on a vast scale, but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies. [[War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martin|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- Sedgwick -->|isbn=1542015421|-title=The Royal Baths Murder| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|J R Ellis[[image:1788542347.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788542347/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|Crime===[[Snowflake, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|linksummary=CategoryWhen Damian Penrose was murdered there was no shortage of suspects:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] This is he was a deep, interesting read unlike any book I've read in quite some timedeeply unpleasant man. The novel In fact the only surprising thing was that there wasn's story follows t more of a young man named Ash in queue waiting to do the process dirty deed. What was a bit of joining a community of sick people in the curiously named town of Snowflake, Arizona. These people are sick, but itheadline maker was that Penrose was a crime writer and that he was strangled in the midst of Harrogate's not crime writing festival. He went for a sickness you've heard of. Insteadswim at the Royal Baths and never returned, they're environmentally ill – affected his body being found by household chemicals and fabrics, pesticides, static electricitythe receptionist. DCI Jim Oldroyd was the man tasked with investigating the crime. It would not be the only death, and radiation – and their it was only ''cure'' is to stay in because of the town away from the real world. Though itquick actions of his sergeant, Andy Carter, that Oldroyd's about a real place, the people in it are fictionalwas not one of them. It really is a place apart, quite literally cut off from the outside world – people are even required to decontaminate themselves thoroughly before becoming fully integrated. [[Snowflake, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick|Full Review]]}}<!-- Moyer -->{{Frontpage|-author=Daniel Kraus| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Blood Sugar|rating=4[[image:178747920X.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178747920X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] General Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Brightfall by Jaime Lee Moyer]]=== [[image:4This is a difficult read.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Robin Hood is gone And not because of the dark subject matter – that'll come later – denouncing both his former life and his love Marian, but because of the way in which it's told. This might put a lot of readers off, and retreating to be honest it'd be hard to blame them. Kraus tells the story in a monastery – although no-one knows quite what led him to abandon all that he had builtdistinctive voice unlike any other I've read; an erratic dialect with heavy and frequent slang. Marion's life since has been relatively quiet - but when her friends start dyingThe immediate effect is disorientating and distracting, Marion is tasked by Father Tuck to break the curse surrounding them and it takes some time to save their livesfeel natural. Setting off with It's a soldierstruggle to acclimatise to Jody's voice, a Fey Lord and a sullen Robin Hoodto get acquainted with his mannerisms, she becomes tangled in a maze of betrayalsbut the story wouldn't be the same without it, complicated relationshipsand somehow it works. It shouldn't, and a vicious struggle for the throne…[[Brightfall by Jaime Lee Moyer|Full Review]] <!-- Hewitt -->|-but it does.| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|1789091934[[image:1509896465.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509896465/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] ''The Nightjar'' is an unusual and exciting story. Alice Wyndham lives a normal life in London until she finds a box on her doorstep one morning and her life begins to unravel, fast. From that very moment, her life is flooded with magic, loss, expectation and particularly, betrayal. As everything around her shifts, all that she knows, all that she thinks she knows, must change. Who can she trust? Who must she trust? Who will she trust? More importantly, can she even trust herself? [[The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt|Full Review]] <!-- McGee -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241365953.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241365953/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[American Royals by Katharine McGee]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Two and a half centuries ago, America won the Revolutionary War and General George Washington was offered the crown. Today, the House of Washington still sit on the thrown with Princess Beatrice next in line. Beatrice's whole life has been building up to her ruling the United States and the time for her reign is imminent. [[American Royals by Katharine McGee|Full Review]] <!-- Nicola Monaghan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857308025.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VRSX3SN/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dead Flowers (Dr Sian Love) by Nicola Monaghan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It was more than a little bit of a surprise to Dr Sian Love (and the rest of the relatives) when her uncle Bobby left her his home - a former pub called The Loggerheads in the Narrow Marsh area of Nottingham. Then it was a shock when she found two bodies in the cellar before she'd even got settled in - and managed to break a bone in her foot in the course of making the discovery. They'd been there for some time, but who - exactly - were the man and the woman, wrapped in each other's arms? Having spent ten years on the Murder Squad, ending up as a DCI she knows what's going to happen next, but she's not prepared for quite how personal it's all going to get. [[Dead Flowers (Dr Sian Love) by Nicola Monaghan|Full Review]] <!-- Renee Watson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1526613689.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526613689/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Some Places More Than Others by Renee Watson]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  Amara's twelfth birthday is coming up and she wants nothing more for it than a trip to New York to meet her father's side of the family. But her father hasn't spoken to Amara's grandfather for many years - Amara doesn't know why - and both her parents are resistant to the idea. But Amara is nothing if not persistent and a school family history project provides her with the perfect wedge. Eventually, her parents give in and off she goes... with a secret mission from her mother: to bring her father and Grandpa Earl back together again. [[Some Places More Than Others by Renee Watson|Full Review]] <!-- Graves -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:194927201X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/194927201X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Lakes of Mars by Merritt Graves]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Aaron Sheridan doesn't want to live anymore. His entire family is dead by his own hand, killed in a shuttle crash. Unable to deal with the guilt, he signs up for the Fleet expecting a fatal deployment to the Rim War, but instead ends up at their most prestigious command school, Corinth Station... [[Lakes of Mars by Merritt Graves|Full Review]] <!-- Ryan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:191280493X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/191280493X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Coming of Age by Danny Ryan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]]  ''He began writing novels and poetry at the age of twelve, but it was to take him a further forty-eight years to realise that he wasn’t very good at either. Consistently unpublished for all that time, he remains a shining example of hope over experience...''  ''This a memoir from someone you have never heard of - but will feel like you have.'' [[Coming of Age by Danny Ryan|Full Review]]  <!-- Maxwell N Andrews -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1983376353.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1983376353/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Lighthouse of the Netherworlds by Maxwell N Andrews]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] The phrase about never trusting a book by its cover is something I put on a par with comments about Marmite. You're supposed to love it or hate it and I'm halfway between, and likewise the old adage is halfway true. From the cover of this I had a child-friendly fantasy, what with that name and that attractive artwork of an attractive girl reaching for an attractive water plant. That was only built on by the initial fictionalised quotes, with their non-standard spelling, as if texts of scripture in this book's world predated our standardised literacy. But why was I two chapters in and just finding more and more characters, both human and animal, and more and more flashbacks, and no proof that this was what I'd bought in for? [[Lighthouse of the Netherworlds by Maxwell N Andrews|Full Review]] <!-- Ellory -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1542007232.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1542007232/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Berlin, 1989. Miriam is in the middle of a city freshly united, with the Wall newly broken down and people able to cross at liberty for the first time in decades. She is in the middle of such euphoria, but cannot feel it, for she has not left her father's apartment in weeks, nursing him as he lies dying. One standard bed-bath, however, is very different, when he gasps the name ''Frieda'' that she does not recognise – and she sees for the first time ever a tattoo for his camp inmate identity under his watch. One bombshell outside, then, and two inside... [[The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory|Full Review]] <!-- Tove Jansson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0954899520.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954899520/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Winter Book by Tove Jansson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be. [[A Winter Book by Tove Jansson|Full Review]] <!-- Whitlock -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1782692177.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782692177/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Collective by Lindsey Whitlock]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] ''Illinois Territory, Collective Homesteads of America.'' Some people live in sunken houses, buried into hillsides to disguise how large their property is at times of austerity. Others are called Foresters, for they live and work in trees. When the small area the Foresters live in is placed under compulsory purchase, the residents are given a pitiful amount to clear out before they get manfully cleared out. Our hero, Elwyn, has just left the trees for the Hills, to live with an uncle and learn their ways – he's just of age to decide things for himself, and he has decided to see how the other half lives... [[The Collective by Lindsey Whitlock|Full Review]] <!-- Andre Pronovost -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:099944235X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/099944235X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''| ===[[The Man Who Killed Hitler by Andre Pronovost]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Germany is split. Some of her is in favour of Hitler and the Nazis, but much isn't. Some of her is stuck to the east fighting the Soviets, but some will soon have to be on the other front, against the Americans coming into the continent to put things right as they see it. Finding out that the war to the east isn't working, due to Hitler's tactical ineptitude and inability to heed advice, some people reckon Stalin is five seasons away from being in Berlin. The only way to shore things up, and repair the splits, is to kill Hitler, and luckily the Baron Nicholas is the man to do it. He's aristocratic enough, he knows enough people in industry, society and other circles of power, so once he's succeeded he might be able to keep a German presence in Europe. But will he still be able to keep the capitalists and communists from meeting in the middle? [[The Man Who Killed Hitler by Andre Pronovost|Full Review]] <!-- Ann Cleeves -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1509889566.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509889566/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Long Call (Two Rivers) by Ann Cleeves]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:LGBT Fiction|LGBT Fiction]] When we first meet DI Matthew Venn he's at his father's funeral, although 'at' rather overstates the proximity. He sees everyone - his mother and the preacher included from a distance - but he doesn't go it. He wouldn't be welcome. Those attending are part of the Barum Brethren and the teenage Matthew was thrown out when he told the congregation how wrong they were in their beliefs. It coincided with him leaving university and joining the police force. The announcement of Matthew's marriage to Jonathan Church was in the local paper and whilst he doesn't know if his father saw it, he can't imagine that it will have gone down well. [[The Long Call (Two Rivers) by Ann Cleeves|Full Review]] <!-- Day -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241351391.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241351391/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Max Kowalski Didn't Mean It by Susie Day]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] When Max’s dad finds himself in a spot of hot water, he disappears for a few days, leaving Max in charge of his three younger sisters, Thelma, Louise and Ripley. Max has no problem with stepping up to fill his dad’s shoes and be the man in charge, but when his dad still doesn’t come home, he starts to panic that interfering grown ups will realise that the children are home-alone, and that they will step in and separate the family. So Max takes his sisters to Wales, to hide out in a friend’s cottage. It won’t be for long, surely? Because his dad wouldn’t miss Christmas, would he? [[Max Kowalski Didn't Mean It by Susie Day|Full Review]] <!--Merritt Graves -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1949272028.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1949272028/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Sunlight 24 by Merritt Graves]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] If the game wasn’t fair before, it’s definitely not fair now. Or so thinks Dorian Waters, part of the ever-expanding portion of humanity who can’t afford the nano-implant and genetic augmentation regimen known as Revision. And because he can’t afford Revision, he can’t get into college, he can’t get a job. And when he sees the brilliant and mesmerizing Lena for the first time, he knows he doesn’t have a chance with her, either. And so, Dorian robs a house with his best friend, Ethan. Then they do it again. They’re able to keep at it until they have enough money saved up for their first Revision. Their initial choices in self-enhancement start impacting their future choices, which in turn impact their future Revision––on and on in a downward spiral of self-destruction... [[Sunlight 24 by Merritt Graves|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}}