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<metadesc>Book review site, with books from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and children's books plus author interviews and top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review 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 author [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Featuresfeatures]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stella Whitelaw1780724047|title=Midsummer MadnessA Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs|author=Peter J Conradi

|genre=Women's FictionPets|summary=YouI struggle to resist a book about dogs, but I did wonder why this one was so 'll like Sophie Gresham'thin'': given that I've never encountered a dog who wasn't interesting or important - and probably both, I was expecting a massive tome. She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright But ''A Dictionary of Interesting and when Important Dogs'' is actually ''a rich compendium of the side effects became too much for her she worked behind the scenesworld's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a rich treasure trove. SheWe begin with Peter J Conradi's a very good prompt despite the fact that you need to wrap up very warmly to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job four collies: Cloudy, Sky. Bradley and most of the cast in the theatre companyMax. ItThey're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what comes over is Conradi's a bit love for each and every one of a shock though when she realises that the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrison, the man she helped out when he had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleepthem. Sophie I knew that I was a little softer in those days – in the meantime she's had to develop a protective shellsafe hands.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bonnie Greer1785769294|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to grasp. It's best if I start with the author's intentions as set out in her Prologue. It is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll. All of these, she notes, were heard on the President's Inauguration Day. To them she adds the blues, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when Man at the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWindow (Detective Cardilini)|author=P J Parrish|title=Dead of WinterRobert Jeffreys|rating=4.5

|summary=Loon Lake, Michigan 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 picture-postcard pretty – an idyll badly wrong. Nowadays you ''might'' hope that sits serenely something would be done about it fairly quickly but this was 1965 and snugly in child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the midst part of a pinethe child. The boy would be safe that night though -peppered winter wonderlandalbeit in the most horrific fashion. Louis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life and on arrival in Loon Lake When he feels almost as if reached Captain Edmund's bedroom he has come homefound the man dead on the floor, the top of his skull missing. Life has not The school's initial reaction was that this was a dreadful accident: there had been easy for Kincaid. A troubled, unhappy child a cull of mixed race, passed around various institutions kangaroos in some nearby fields and foster homes, Louis figures that if he is going to put some integrity back into it was obviously a stray bullet which had killed the world, he will need to wear a badge to do itCaptain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Russell Celyn Jones1786695227|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Invisible in a Bright Light|author=Sally Gardner

|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=Pwyll rules The beginning of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a medieval-style fiefdom in a post-climate change Wales. Life is different in many ways - there's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism and horsepower little confused: who is the main means of transport. But man in many ways it's much the same - people still fight one anothergreen suit, towns still have sink estateswhat is the Reckoning, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning why are rows of people in their lives. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Owen Sheers|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=In the old tale, Branwen a cave? But stick with it – Ms Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience the sister of Bendigeidfran - the giant King of Britainsame disorientation as our heroine. She marries We watch in dismay as the King of Irelandstrange man, who doesn't treat seems to have no eyes, does his best to persuade her well. She manages to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling and war and killings ensueanswer his questions. In this new taleBut for some reason Celeste, a young girl has just walked away from despite her brothers whobewilderment, in the wake of the devastating foot remains wary and mouth outbreak, are despoiling their heritage by rustling and illegally slaughtering sheep. She meets an old man who tells her a story involving the superstitions about the ravens in the Tower of London, propaganda work during World War II, and an equally doomed love affairgives nothing away. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115030</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer Bohnet1912374854|title=Follow Your StarViolet|author=S J I Holliday

|genre=Women's FictionThrillers|summary=ItI's three years since Nanette Weston left Monacove never been but understand that travelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situations. SheWell that'd been engaged s exactly what happens when the two main/only characters meet in a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to get a Formula 1 racing driver refund on an extra ticket for the Trans-Siberian train and had lived Violet is trying to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the life of same sold-out journey. As the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all that. The accident two team up, travelling through Mongolia, Serbia and into Russia, it could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence because of the alcohol she'd consumed. Her slow recovery was hindered by ve been the end start of her engagement a beautiful friendship but she's found some contentment in being this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a nanny to two young children. When her friend and employer, Vanessatale of obsession, remarries manipulation and takes an extended honeymoon in the Amazon Nanette is asked to take the children back to Monaco where their father livestoxic friendships.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J R Stephenson1912374838|title=Crooked JusticeNothing Important Happened Today|author=Will Carver|rating=2.54

|summary=Meet Barry JohnsNothing Important Happened Today is a dark, twisted, difficult read. You'll see him coming - heStories about cults often are, but this is different; it's five hundred pounds if hewritten with a sense of style that is quite unlike anything I's an ounceve read before. Just donI can't remember ever lend him money - he won't pay it back. A businessman having read a novel with a share of a nightclub on Cyprussuch an odd, he goes there for distinctive narrative voice. While a customary breakslim and relatively small book, and finds his sort-of moll-type sortthe slow-moving nature of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancer. He manages to tread both on the toes of his local colleague and some Greek rivals. And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides to pack up and shut up. It's a big stone that hides him, but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn plot makes it and get their revengefeel far larger than its 276 pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Bakerwilliamabbey|title=They've Got Your NumberThe Pursuit of William Abbey|author=Claire North|rating=43.5|genre=Popular ScienceParanormal|summary=If you are When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of a young boy in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that 1880''Big Brother'' is always watching or like to believe that you are not a numbers South Africa, but a free man (or woman)he finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. A naïve English Doctor, then this may not be he slowly learns the book for you, as it will do nothing to dispel any weight of those worries. If, on the other handcurse upon him, you think 'as the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one shadow of the sexiest things everdead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and are chomping at mountains in pursuit of William. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the bit to learn more about ittruths that he hears in others, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to say.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>kill the one he loves the most…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rebecca Tope1643785036|title=Fear in the CotswoldsThe Wondrous Apothecary|author=Mary E Martin

|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Thea Osborne is a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves into their homes Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay Wagon'', and looks after their animals Rinaldo, renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and the propertycheese, if not sworn enemies. This time itIf you've watched the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, you's winter d have said that they were magnets, drawing and she's spending a month repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright was at the Cotswold village socially acceptable end of Hampnett. It wouldn't be a job for the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo it was all of us too obvious that there was but Thea delights in getting to know the local people a fine dividing line between conceptual art and the areapublic nuisance. In the past sheAs time has worn on, he's also frequently been involved with the police in solving various cases but it looks as though that might have come brought to an end as the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbled. For attention of the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish one - when she finds footsteps in the snow which lead to a body in a nearby fieldpolice. When the police finally arrive the body has disappeared On this latest occasion we see him charged with arson and the police obviously wonder if shetheft of ''The Hay Wagon''s imagined it all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tad TulejaMary H.K. Choi|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and PhrasesPermanent Record|rating=34|genre=Home and FamilyTeens|summary=Take Pablo, a look college drop-out, is working at the cover design of this booka New York bodega. He's massively in debt, he's avoiding his mother, and youhe finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one evening, he'd be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words s surprised to discover that have taken part in our English language since whenever they crossed over from their original homes. But the title girl he is definitely honest, for this chatting with as he serves is a dictionary book firstsuper-famous pop star and, for referenceas unlikely as it may seem, and they start a browser for the trivia buff secondrelationship.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anne Rice|title=Angel Time|rating=2.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Toby O'Dare With one character who is an extremely efficient hit man with a passion for musictrying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone, history and playing his beloved lute. Hethe other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, it's also something of a lost soul having turned his back on God many years agoan interesting clash as they come together. One day while on This isn't just a love story though, and actually it'jobs really just Pab' s story, about the journey he is visited by an Angel who offers him a chance at redemption. Toby agrees to become the Angel's human instrument and help save lives rather than take them. He is sent on an assignment to help a Jewish couple accused of murder takes in 13th Century Englandhis life via his meet-up with Leanna Smart.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>0349003459

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mortimer1609809319|title=1415: Henry V's Year of GloryLong-Haired Cat-Boy Cub|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)

|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=One day a boy is in the zoo with his father, when the man gets called away on urgent business. The medievalboy isn't hustled into a cab and taken home first, in fact time-honouredthough, view of King Henry V as one of Englandno – he's greatest heroes was propagated though not originated by Shakespearegiven hot dog money, and taxi money, and again more recently told to some extent by Olivier's portrayal in filmjust stick around on his own and enjoy himself. At least one historian has called him 'Well, it's no surprise that the greatest man that ever ruled England''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Deborah Gregory|title=Dancing With The Dead|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=I wanted to read ''Dancing with orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the Dead'lad feels doesn't make him happy, because I'm interested in family history. The blurb on the back and so he thinks of the book also mentioned Gill – our heroine of the piece – was moving from Bristol (my current home) to Lincolnshire (where I was born a species name for himself, and brought curls himself up)into an empty cage, as if he were a new exhibit. I felt with all these links, the novel could not fail to interest me – but this was not And it's then the case.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>drama begins…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Miss Read1785785516|title=Christmas at Thrush GreenFucking Good Manners|author=Simon Griffin

|genre=Women's FictionLifestyle|summary=Set in the rural village of Thrush GreenManners maketh man, this book is the latest in they say. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a series surrounding familiar characters. There is the feisty Ella Bembridgeset of conventions, who is finally having to admit that some of which are ages old age is creeping up as her eyesight failsand other which have evolved over time. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock Manners are concerned not about herhow much to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, but she refuses they have nothing to do with class or financial status: they're about getting the basics right before we try to accept any helpdeal with more difficult matters. Albert Piggott has decided Of course we all have more relaxed manners when we're with family and friends, but it's time best if we learn to retire now that his wife, Nelly, is a successful cafe owner distinguish between our public and private lives and can afford to take care of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging act appropriately. ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on the local nativity play, despite a number of set-backsway. Will everything be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matt and Dave0008324859|title=Yuck's Robotic BottomFowl Twins|author=Eoin Colfer|rating=45

|summary=ItRelax, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off planet, but the baddies aren's concerned me for a while that it's relatively easy t getting away with skulduggery any time soon because they now have not one but two members of the Fowl family to pick up early readers for girls – princessescontend with. Those cute little twins are now eleven (and, frankly, cute no longer) and in this, magic soft toystheir first independent adventure, mermaids they meet a troll and pets abound – but there's without even trying manage to make two deadly enemies: a much smaller choice for boys. It's important too nobleman obsessed with early readers that immortality whatever the content is ''interesting'' and reading becomes more than just something which you ''have'' cost (to do at school other people), and moves into being funan unusual interrogator-nun. Matt The boys are chased, kidnapped, arrested and Dave have found even killed (though not for long), all with the answer in Yuckhelp of one trainee fairy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John E Smelcer1472255798|title=The Great DeathBad Fire (Bob Skinner)|author=Quintin Jardine|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|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'As Western Europeans settled Alaska, they brought t live with them diseases against which the indigenous people shame. People were surprised that she committed suicide just before the court case when she had no natural immunitybeen adamant that she would fight to clear her name. At She said that she'd been set up because she was hot on the beginning trail of corruption in the twentieth centurycouncil. Her ex-husband has contacted Alex Skinner, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from a pandemic of measles, smallpoxSolicitor Advocate as well as retired Police Constable Bob Skinner's daughter, and influenza. No community was spared. In most cases, half of a villageasked that she look into clearing Brown's name: it's population died within a week. In some cases, there were no survivors. It something which he feels that he has to do in memory of his son who was the end of an ancient way of lifemurdered recently. Natives still refer to the dreadful period as the Great Death.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Maxine BarryB07X6GLQ3Q|title=River Deep|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Two young women both have a love of the Thames. Melisande Ray's beloved hotel, the Ray of Sunshine is on the river bank. It's here that guests come who want to be pampered and looked after in the way that only the best hotels can do well, but when Wendell James checks in to the hotel it's not pampering he's looking for. He's buying a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine and he's sussing out the competition. There's something personal in there too – if his new hotel means that the Ray of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonus. There's just a slight doubt in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eye.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSee Them Run|author=Joe Gores|title=Spade and ArcherMarion Todd

|summary=Sam Spade decides, bravely, D I Clare Mackay is still relatively new to set up his one-man detective agencySt Andrew's: she was previously at Maryhill Rd station in Glasgow. ItShe's left quite a lot behind including a relationship that wasn't going anywhere after Tom failed to support her when the 1920s in San Francisco so we have the prohibition era and all that that entailschips were down. Many localsShe also left a nasty situation, of course, choose to disobey the lawher own making but not her fault, stick two fingers up, so to speak and as a result there's lots of bootleg liquor. Straight away, itSt Andrew's evident that Sam is a man of few wordsfresh start. He has Not long into the mannerisms of job she's faced with a cat hit and run death and there's little doubt that it wasn't accidental - stealthy, quick on his feetthe card with the number five suggests murder. He's also a compulsive chain-smoker, but then again, most people wereAndy Robb was married to Sandra. In You could say that era, holding they had an open marriage but there seemed to be a cigarette was an elegantlot of the 'open' and very little of the 'marriage' left - on both sides, almost essential accessory. How times have changed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>but would she want him dead?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester Clark1786540991|title=The Best of TimesImpossible Boy|author=Ben Brooks

|summary=Most children enjoy a good traditional tale ''Oleg and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems Emma entered their den to have all the right ingredients – find a handsome prince and a beautiful princess who fall in love, get married and live happily ever aftercardboard spaceship standing where they usually sat. Or do they? SadlySlowly, not long after Prince Frederico marries the lovely Princess Serafina, she becomes very sadfront door opened. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadness, but poor Prince Frederico is desperate to find a cure for his wife's miserySmoke billowed out. He tries everything in his power and eventually decides to offer his kingdom to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies of And out stepped a broken heart. Lots of people come to the palace to try and help but boy, dressed in the end the solution is a simple one provided by some very kind travellerslong coat with an even longer scarf, wound around his neck.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Shirley Jackson|title=We Have Always Lived In The Castle|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Mary Katherine Blackwood, also known as Merricat, is eighteen, and lives with her older sister Constance in the family home where 'Blackwoods had always lived'. Merricat quickly draws the reader into her world by a series of matter of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include her sister and death cap mushrooms"My name's Sebastian Cole, and everyone else in her family is dead. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept " the house 'steady against the world'boy said, shutting out other people, and they live near a village"But you already know that. Merricat believes that "'The people of the village have always hated us', and tells us that she hates them too.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Simon Weston|title=Nelson to the Rescue|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike the Milk's milk float, but he has now retiredAnd indeed they do. He lives in Ever since the stable at the back of the dairy along with a couple of tricky ratssummer, Rhodri and Rhys, a pigeon who has no sense of direction, a frog who thinks hewhen their friend Sarah's a secret agent spy mother had moved her away, Oleg and an old racehorse who spends most of his time sleeping. Rhodri and Rhys find a mysterious message on Mike's fridge and the animals believe that Mike has Emma have been invited unable to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE. Somehow our hero, Nelson, finds himself travelling down to London, pulling a ceremonial coach for Prince Charles as well as giving find a TV interview about his experience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848510454</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Elizabeth Baines|title=Too Many Magpies|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Becoming a mother brings a whole new world of fear into your life. Suddenly you see the danger in every situation, and fear and trepidation can be become your constant companions. In this novella, we meet a young mother who is married to a logical scientist. They attempt to control their children's futures on a scientific basis, growing their own fruit and vegetables, giving their children nothing sugary, eating no eggs for a whole year until any adverse affects from them were disproved. But after meeting with an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins friend to struggle as he introduces ideas of freedom into take her world. She begins an affair with him, begins to let things slip at home and with the children, yet finds she is still continuously haunted by the sense of an ever-present dangerplace.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katherine May1447281357|title=Burning OutSalvation Lost|author=Peter F Hamilton

|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=Violet has it all – a wellIn the twenty-paid jobthird century, and humanity is enjoying a luxurious apartment all to herselfcomparative utopia. Everything Yet life on Earth is catered for; her meals, her clothesabout to change, forever. Feriton Kane's investigative team has discovered the worst threat ever to face mankind – and her health are all how she would like them we've almost no time to befight back. But the life she is leading is beginning The supposedly benign Olyix plan to harvest humanity, in order to carry us to take its toll. On their god at the verge end of snapping, a drained and somewhat out-of-sorts Violetthe universe. And as their agents conclude schemes down on earth, withdraws back vast warships converge above to her home towngather this cargo. There, she meets someone familiarSome factions push for humanity to flee, a ghost reminding her of how she used to be ten years earlier live in hiding amongst the stars – although only a young carefree girl, full of lifechosen few would make it out in time. Only this isn't a ghost, but a girl living But others refuse to break before the life Violet once lived – exactly the samestorm. Haunted by As disaster looms, animosities must be set aside to focus on just one goal: wiping this enemy from the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself and is convinced events will happen againface of creation. Events that Even if it means preparing for a future this generation will in turn haunt the girlnever see.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amanda Downum1471186393|title=The Drowning CityPhotographer of the Lost|author=Caroline Scott|rating=34.5|genre=FantasyHistorical Fiction|summary=In May 1921. Edie receives a nutshell, you're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City photograph through the post. There is good, bad no letter or mediocrenote with it. You've probably glanced at There is nothing written on the rating and guessed back of the latterphotograph. I'm afraid it's not quite that simple. This It is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelingspicture of her husband, Francis. Francis has been missing for four years. I started off convinced Technically, he has been "missing, believed killed" but that is not something that I was going to love this booka young widow can believe. The cover art is effortlessly cool, She hangs on the premise intriguingword 'missing', disbelieving the characters laden with potential for greatness and the backdrop is certainly evocativeword killed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tove Jansson1783784350|title=The True DeceiverThis Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter

|genre=Literary FictionHistory|summary=Most It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people of my age will have come across Janssonshe's work unwittingly, via the televised renditions of the Moomin talesd never met and preparing spreadsheets. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. January was going to be a few years ago to discover time for making changes and she decided that at last Thomas Teal had set about she would travel the length and breadth of the translation into EnglishBritish Isles with occasional forays abroad, first discovering and telling the story of The Summer Book wool's history and how it had made and then of changed the landscape. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a collection of short stories which were published as free range child on the farm''A Winter Book- and learned to spin, knit and weave from her mother and her mother's friend. This was in her blood. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel Kehlmann 1401286208|title=Me Black Canary: Ignite|author=Meg Cabot and KaminskiCara McGee|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=After reviewing several long booksMeet Dinah Lance. 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's been refreshing to read such actually more a fluent yet pared down story case of her voice finding her, as 'Kaminski and Me'when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singer. In You could almost call ita weapon, Sebastian Zollner, the obnoxious main character, shoves himself forward or a power. But in order for her to call herself a desperate attempt superhero, there has to research be a best seller whole path of steps for her to take – one of which will re-ignite his career as an art critic. Kaminski, the proposed subject, was a fashionable painter long ago, but now, ancient and chronically ill, has virtually slid be into oblivion. So the second-rate writer is on a loser unless he can dig up some juicy details to hook the art world and general public.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>her past…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Louis Barfe1789017977|title=Turned Out Nice AgainRonnie and Hilda's Romance: The Story of British Light EntertainmentTowards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams

|genre=EntertainmentHistory|summary=Light entertainment is often looked down upon, Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as if it's a bit naff, tepid Harry) and ignorableEthel Wall. What There's often forgotten is that itsome doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's hugely popularbirthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, enjoyable but he was already many years older than Ethel and much of it is of the highest qualityhe might well have shaved a few years off his age. Louis Barfe's Turned Out Nice Again tells the complete story of British light entertainment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jim Helmore and Karen Wall|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!|rating=4|genre= For Sharing|summary=Marvin is entering a while the Great Grislygust Growfamily was quite well-to-Off, do but just like him, his tomatoes aren't growing disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very bigdifferent lifestyle. He takes the only sensible course of action: One thing he sings did inherit from his tomatoes a song. The results are spectacular. Victory is surely within father was his grasp.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joseph Delaney |title=The Spook's Stories: Witches|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary='Warning: Not need to be read after dark,' are the only words on the back of ''The Spook's Stories'', and on the inside flap, 'The Times' warns us that this book is 'seriously scary'...  The whole thing kickswell-off relatively tamely, though, with a story about a young Spook (a sort of monsterturned-hunter) who falls in love with a witch out and is forced to bear the consequences when the witch's sister comes to this would stay and exhibits a taste for with him throughout his life. He joined the neighbor-childrenarmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Unger1542015421|title=Die For YouThe Royal Baths Murder|author=J R Ellis

|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married to successful video game designer Marcus RaineWhen Damian Penrose was murdered there was no shortage of suspects: he was a deeply unpleasant man. Or so she thinks. But when her husband fails In fact the only surprising thing was that there wasn't more of a queue waiting to return from work, she realises something is wrongdo the dirty deed. Going to his office to try to find out what happens to him, she gets attacked What was a bit of a headline maker was that Penrose was a crime writer and ends up that he was strangled in hospitalthe midst of Harrogate's crime writing festival. He went for a swim at the Royal Baths and never returned, while his co-workers are killedbody being found by the receptionist. Things get worse for her, however, when DCI Jim Oldroyd was the man tasked with investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, and the man she married was using a false identitycrime. Infuriated by It would not be the betrayalonly death, and it was only because of the realisation quick actions of his sergeant, Andy Carter, that sheOldroyd's been living a lie for the past five years, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied to her for so long. Ignoring police warnings, she delves deeper and deeper into a nasty underworld, and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything she could have plotted in was not one of her novelsthem.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa McMannDaniel Kraus|title=WakeBlood Sugar

|summary=Adrian Mole This is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working difficult read. And not because of the dark subject matter – that'll come later – but because of the way in a bookshop. Itwhich it's not quite how life was supposed to turn outtold. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniform, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believeThis might put a lot of readers off, and desperately attempting to talk his mother out of her quest be honest it'd be hard to appear on blame them. Kraus tells the vile story in a distinctive voice unlike any other I''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly ve read; an erratic dialect with heavy and frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needsslang. And yet, the worst The immediate effect is still to come. Think a crumbling economy, redundancydisorientating and distracting, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – ittakes some time to feel natural. It's going a struggle to be a tough year for the Moles, and thereacclimatise to Jody's little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back and watch voice, to get acquainted with his life spin out of control around him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lauren Kate|title=Fallen|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=A 17 year old girl at a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boymannerisms, who shebut the story wouldn's immediately drawn to. He seems determined to either ignore her or t be outright rude to her, until he saves her lifethe same without it, and the two of them end up drawn togethersomehow it works. This isnIt shouldn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similaritiesdoes.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>1789091934