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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:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br> '''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John E SmelcerSeishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)|title=The Great DeathHonjin Murders

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery'As Western Europeans settled Alaska, they brought with them diseases against which is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the indigenous people had no natural immunitywords 'clever' or 'good'. At For those who need more, here is the beginning of extra background – we're in rural Japan in the twentieth century, fully two thirds 1930s. The oldest son of all Alaska natives perished from a pandemic of measlesan esteemed family is belatedly getting married, smallpoxalthough the whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, and influenzawhat with it being arranged at great haste. No community was spared She only has an uncle representing her family, for one thing. In most cases Either way, half of a village's population died within a week. In some casesthe celebrations have gone ahead as planned, there were no survivorsonly for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annex before the sun rises on their marriage. It was What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the end neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of an ancient way a traditional musical instrument at the time of life. Natives still refer to the dreadful period as crime, this case has a lot of the Great Deathpeculiar about it.''|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>1782275002

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maxine BarryCixin Liu|title=River DeepDeath's End|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Science Fiction|summary=Two young women both If I'd been paying more attention when I picked this book up, I would have a love of put it back on the Thamesshelf. Melisande RayNot because I didn's beloved hotelt want to read it, but because I'd have figured out that it was the Ray final part of Sunshine a trilogy. Coming in part way through a saga is on never the river bank. Iteasiest thing to do and it's here that guests come who want to be pampered and looked after particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the way that only the best hotels can do well, but back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to you (when Wendell James checks in to the hotel it's not pampering heassumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won't understand. This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's looking forwork – his range is phenomenal. HeGeorge R R Martin, who knows a thing or two about world-creation, described it as ''s buying a piece unique blend of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine scientific and philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory and hecosmology''s sussing out the competition. There's something personal in there too – if his new hotel means that the Ray All 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 eyeand more.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>1784971650

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Gores1780894511|title=Spade and ArcherDie Alone|author=Simon Kernick

|genre=CrimeThrillers|summary=Sam Spade decides, bravely, to set up his one-man detective agency. ItRay Mason is in prison awaiting trial for murder and he's the 1920s in San Francisco so we have the prohibition era and all that that entails. Many locals, vulnerable prisoner unit: as a cop he's something of coursea target, choose to disobey but the unit is not as secure as the law, stick two fingers up, so to speak inmates would have hoped and as Mason is injured in a result there's lots of bootleg liquorriot. Straight away, itOn his way to hospital he's evident that Sam broken free by armed men and an offer is a man of few wordsmade to him. He has 's to assassinate the man who is likely to become the mannerisms of country's next prime minister and he'll then be given a cat - stealthy, quick on his feetnew identity so that he can start afresh abroad. HeHis captors say that they's also a compulsive chain-smokerre MI6, but then again, most people wereMason has his doubts. In His choices are limited though and he has personal reasons to believe that era, holding a cigarette it would be better if Alastair Sheridan was an elegant, almost essential accessorydead. How times have changed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester ClarkAkwaeke Emezi|title=The Best of TimesPet

|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=Most The people of the town Lucille believe that all the monsters are gone. Their children enjoy a good traditional tale and this lovely book are raised to understand that they were saved by Michael Morpurgo seems to have all the right ingredients – a handsome prince and a beautiful princess angels, those who fall in loverid the town of evil, get married and live happily ever afterthere are no monsters anymore. Or do they? Sadly But one day, not long after Prince Frederico marries the lovely Princess SerafinaJam accidentally cuts herself, she becomes very sad. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadness, but poor Prince Frederico is desperate to find and bleeds a cure for his wifelittle onto one of her mother's miserypaintings. He tries everything in his power The blood awakens a bizarre, terrifying-looking creature named Pet, who somehow comes to life and eventually decides declares that it is here to offer his kingdom to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies of a broken hearthunt the monster. Lots of people come Though Jam tries to convince it that all the palace to try monsters are gone, Pet is certain that there is one, still, and help but that the monster is hiding in the end the solution is a simple one provided by some very kind travellershome of her best friend, Redemption.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>0571355110

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley Jackson1686751680|title=We Have Always Lived In The CastleMy Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres|author=Amelie Julien and Gustyawan|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionFor Sharing|summary=Mary Katherine BlackwoodWhich child doesn't think that there mother is, also known as Merricatwell, ''weird''? It might be that in the morning their mother doesn't like speaking much, when every self-respecting child knows that that is eighteen, and lives when you're at your brightest with her older sister Constance in the family home where lots to say? ''Why'Blackwoods had always lived'. Merricat quickly draws the reader into her world by a series of matter of fact but bizarre statements – then does Mummy stick her likes include her sister and death cap mushrooms, and everyone else fingers in her family is dead. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept the house ears? Then there'steady against s doing yoga in front of the worldtelevision, which could be worrying if it wasn', shutting out other people, and they live near a villaget so funny. Merricat believes that We won'The people of t go into too much detail about what goes on in the bathroom and the village colour changes which have always hated us'occured when Mummy emerges and frankly, and tells us that she hates them toothe less said the better about her reactions to your artistic efforts on the wall.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk> I mean, what else would you use paint for?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon WestonJustine Avery and Liuba Syrotiuk|title=Nelson to the RescueWhat Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?

|genre=Confident ReadersFor Sharing|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike the Milk's milk float, but he has now retired. He lives in the stable at the back of the dairy along with a couple of tricky rats, Rhodri and Rhys, a pigeon who 'The day has no sense of direction, a frog who thinks heended's a secret agent spy 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 been invited 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 a TV interview about his experience.|amazonuk=<amazonukbr>1848510454''Hasn't it been splendid?'' </amazonukbr>}}{{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''But now, 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 childrenit's futures on a scientific basistime, 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 to struggle as he introduces ideas of freedom into 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 danger.|amazonuk=be sure'' <amazonukbr>1844717216''For an entirely different adventure'' </amazonukbr>}}

{{newreview|author=Katherine May|title=Burning Out|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Violet has I hope you haven't forgotten how it all – feels to be much too excited for bed. If you're a well-paid jobparent at least, and a luxurious apartment all you'll know how it is to herself. Everything persuade an excited small person that yes, it is catered in fact time for; her meals, her clothes, and her health are all how she would like them bed. ''What Wonders DoYou See...'' sets out to be. But the life she is leading is beginning cater to take its tollthese children. On the verge Instead of snappingtrying to persuade them that night time is calm time, it takes a drained and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back to her home townslightly different tack. There, she meets someone familiar, It tells them that sleep is actually an exciting time: a ghost reminding her time of how she used to be ten years earlier – a young carefree girl, full of lifedreams in which imagination takes over and has no limit. Only But the trick in accessing this isn't a ghostwonderful and exciting world, but a girl living the life Violet once lived – exactly the same. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself to get calm and is convinced events will happen again. Events relaxed first so that will in turn haunt you can easily fall asleep and open the girldoor to it. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>194812422X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amanda DownumMichael Harris|title=The Drowning CitySolitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World|rating=3.5|genre=FantasyLifestyle|summary=In a nutshell, you're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City This is good, bad or mediocre. You've probably glanced at not the rating and guessed the latterbook I was expecting it to be. For some reason I'm afraid expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to step outside the mainstream, but it's is not quite that simpleat all. This Instead of telling us how, it is more about the ''why''. Harries examines how we're eroding solitude, which used to be a debut natural part of our human life, and why that provokes decidedly mixed feelingsmatters. I started off convinced Of course he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of that I was going to love this book. The cover art is effortlessly cool, and eventually in the premise intriguingfinal chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out, but mostly he wanders down the characters laden with potential for greatness alleys and the backdrop is certainly evocativeby-ways that his thinking about this lost art led him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>1847947662

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tove JanssonAndy Briggs|title=The True DeceiverCtrl+S

|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=Most people of my age will have come across JanssonLife in the near future's work unwittinglynot all bad. We've reversed global warming and fixed the collapsing bee population. We even created SPACE, a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. But almost anything isn't enough for some. Every day, via normal people are being taken, their emotions harvested - and lives traded - to create death-defying thrills for the televised renditions rich and twisted. Now Theo’s mother has disappeared. And as he follows her breadcrumb trail of clues, he'll come up against the Moomin tales. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced a few years ago most dangerous SPACE has to discover that at last Thomas Teal had set about the translation into Englishoffer: vPolice, first of The Summer Book AI Bots and then of anarchists - as well as a collection of short stories which were published as 'A Winter Book'criminal empire that will kill to stop him finding her . . . |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>1409184641

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel Kehlmann 1609809378|title=Me The Rabbits' Rebellion|author=Ariel Dorfman and KaminskiChris Riddell

|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=After reviewing several long booksWe're in the realm of the rabbits, it's been refreshing to read such a fluent yet pared down story as 'Kaminski only the foxes and Me'wolves have taken over. In it King Wolf, Sebastian ZollnerHis Wolfiness, has declared the obnoxious main characterrabbits don't exist, shoves himself forward but the pesky birds have spread rumours from awing that the bunnies are in fact still around. Demanding a propaganda spree, King Wolf orders a desperate attempt humble monkey to research a best seller which will re-ignite be his career as an art critic. Kaminskiofficial portrait photographer, but whatever the proposed subject, was poor innocent monkey prints out in his darkroom there is a fashionable painter long ago, but now, ancient and chronically ill, has virtually slid into obliviondistinct leporine hint. So Can King Wolf succeed in proving himself victorious, can the second-rate writer is on a loser unless he rabbits show their continued existence to all who need to know of it – and what can dig up some juicy details to hook the art world and general public.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>poor monkey caught in between do?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Louis BarfeInnosanto Nagara|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light EntertainmentM is for Movement

|genre=EntertainmentEmerging Readers|summary=Light entertainment Set in Indonesia, in the not too distant past, this is often looked down upona story about social change. Dealing with some difficult issues, such as if political corruption and nepotism, the book is neither boring nor preachy. It educates gently, with vibrant, challenging illustrations, and it's a bit naffportrays how social movements need people who will try, tepid and ignorableeven when it seems that they will fail. What's often forgotten The message is a positive one; that it's hugely popularin an increasingly uncertain world, enjoyable and much of it is of the highest quality. Louis Barfe's Turned Out Nice Again tells we do still have the complete story of British light entertainmentpower to instigate change.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>1609809351

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1780724047|authortitle=Jim Helmore A Dictionary of Interesting and Karen WallImportant Dogs|titleauthor=Oh No, Monster Tomato!Peter J Conradi

|genre=For SharingPets|summary=Marvin is entering the Great Grislygust Grow-OffI struggle to resist a book about dogs, but just like him, his tomatoes arenI did wonder why this one was so ''thin'': given that I've never encountered a dog who wasn't growing very biginteresting or important - and probably both, I was expecting a massive tome. He takes But ''A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs'' is actually ''a rich compendium of the only sensible course of actionworld's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a rich treasure trove. We begin with Peter J Conradi's four collies: he sings his tomatoes a songCloudy, Sky. The results are spectacularBradley and Max. Victory They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what comes over is surely within his graspConradi's love for each and every one of them. I knew that I was in safe hands.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph Delaney 1785769294|title=The Spook's Stories: Witches|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary='Warning: Not to be read after dark,' are the only words on the back of ''The Spook's Stories'', and on Man at the inside flap, 'The Times' warns us that this book is 'seriously scary'...  The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamely, though, with a story about a young Spook Window (a sort of monster-hunterDetective Cardilini) who falls in love with a witch and is forced to bear the consequences when the witch's sister comes to stay and exhibits a taste for the neighbor-children.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lisa Unger|title=Die For YouRobert Jeffreys|rating=34.5

|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married to successful video game designer Marcus Raine. Or so she thinks. But It's when her husband fails to return from work, she realises something we read that a young boy is wrong. Going to his office to try creeping reluctantly to find out what happens to him, she gets attacked and ends up in hospital, while his co-workers are killed. Things get worse for her, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, and the man she married was using a false identity. Infuriated by the betrayal, and the realisation that sheteacher'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 bedroom one of her novels.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lisa McMann|title=Wake|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Janie October night that we realise something is seventeen and studying hard for collegebadly wrong. She Nowadays you 's also working lots of hours at a local nursing home to earn money for college as it's unlikely her alcoholic mother is going to provide much in the way of resources. College is Janiemight's only chance at a life better than the one she's lived so far hope that something would be done about it fairly quickly but this was 1965 and so you can't blame her for being so single-minded in child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the pursuit part of her goalthe child. Only one thing stands The boy would be safe that night though - albeit in her waythe most horrific fashion...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jaclyn Moriarty |title=The Spell Book of Listen Taylor|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=Listen Taylor When he reached Captain Edmund's father has just moved in with his girlfriend and they are adopted into bedroom he found the man dead on the Zing familyfloor, with all of its delightful eccentricities and unusual behaviour – the Zings meet every Friday night for dinner and then disappear into the garden shed to work on the 'Zing Family Secret'. Marbie Zing is terrified top of doing something wrong and losing Nathaniel and Listenhis skull missing. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with her home life, and her daughter The school's year two teacher is coming to terms with initial reaction was that this was a break up. The stories of these people come together to create dreadful accident: there had been a tale cull of life, love, kangaroos in some nearby fields and ultimately, what being part of it was obviously a family meansstray bullet which had killed the Captain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=F G Cottam1786695227|title=The Magdalena Curse|rating=2.5|genre=Horror|summary=Mark Hunter is the sort of father who would do anything for his son. After losing his wife and daughter Invisible in a tragic accident, his surviving son Adam has become his whole world. And Adam is an exceptional child – beautiful, incredibly smart and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he's been channelling the voices of the dead. Plagued by horrific dreams, able to speak Russian in the hours after he wakes, drawing occult symbols when he doodles, Hunter believes Adam to be possessed. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft is sceptical, until she meets Adam, and witnesses the horrors the poor boy endures for herself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBright Light|author=Jon Berkeley|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)Sally Gardner

|summary=I shall start with a word The beginning of advice. When you're being hounded by this excellent story will leave the reader more than a circus masterlittle confused: who is the man in the green suit, what is the Reckoning, and a magician, for the soul why are rows of a tiger that's contained people in a tiger's egg that's contained 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 brain of your teddy bearstrange man, who seems to have no eyes, and your does his best friend - a fallen angel - is trying to persuade her best to make sure the other angels do not turn on you in a big way - then you're probably living the third book in a fantasy trilogyanswer his questions. Still - never mindBut for some reason Celeste, the angel's efforts will involve you entering a dream world of flight and cloud citiesdespite her bewilderment, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world to desert oases and back, and friends new remains wary and old will be on board to helpgives nothing away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Townsend1912374854|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. It's not quite how life was supposed to turn out. 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 believe, and desperately attempting to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needs. And yet, the worst is still to come. Think a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – it's going to be a tough year for the Moles, and there's little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back and watch his life spin out of control around him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewViolet|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 boy, who she's immediately drawn to. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to her, until he saves her life, and the two of them end up drawn together. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similarities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gareth Hinds|title=King Lear|rating=3|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Hound me out of town in a most appropriate manner, but S J I do not like King Lear. For me, even as a trained actor, the language is too dense and rich, the set-up too archly unfeasible to create the great tragedy it's thought to be. To my mind the acclaim and esteem in which it's held is only mirrored by its own over-long, over-blown blustering.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paul Theroux|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in CalcuttaHolliday

|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary=Set I've never been but understand that travelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in India, familiar territory for Theroux, often chance situations. Well that''A Dead Hand'' tells s exactly what happens when the story of two main/only characters meet in a travel writer suffering from writer's block (also known as 'dead hand') until agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to get a chance letter from refund on an American exextra ticket for the Trans-Siberian train and Violet is trying to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the same sold-patout journey. As the two team up, travelling through Mongolia, Serbia and into Russia, it could've been the mysterious Mrs Unger, relating a story start of a mystery of beautiful friendship but this a dead body in thriller after all so it quickly becomes a hotel leads him to release his creativity in very unexpected ways. The story is more about tale of obsession , manipulation and infatuation than it is about the mystery itself as the narrator falls under Mrs Unger's Tantric charmstoxic friendships. But does she have more to hide than she's letting on?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Toby Lester1912374838|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest Map|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=In 2003 a map was bought for $10 million, the highest price ever paid publicly for a historical document, by the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public display. No ordinary map, this is sometimes described as America's birth certificate. It is the sole survivor of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th century, and was discovered by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901. The sale and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired to discover more, and this book is the result.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNothing Important Happened Today|author=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur |title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global Misery|rating=3|genre=Humour|summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floor.'' Surely that is the wackiest, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch and all it has done for the world. You won't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authors, instead with quite a potty mouth on them they will lambast the modern world, the entire banking system, all those who failed to see it coming, and those millions just seemingly waiting for us all to revert to high-interest, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get back on the expenses train, and back up the rich lists.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Andy Stanton|title=What's For Dinner, Mr Gum?|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns her back, and leaves the town of Lamonic Bibber for a day at the seaside, Mr Gum falls out with his best friend, causing carnivorous carnage all over the place. Meat is getting thrown around like it's going out of fashion, and we have to doubt whether Polly and her companions can ever utilise the power of love and put things to rights. Especially as this book does not contain a magic unicorn called Elizabeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Loose Women|title=Here Come the GirlsWill Carver

|genre=Home and FamilyGeneral Fiction|summary=This Nothing Important Happened Today is the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV seriesa dark, twisted, ''Loose Women''difficult read. Just as promised on the coverStories about cults often are, but this book is an entertaining night different; it's written with the girls. It turns out a sense of style that theyis quite unlike anything I're just like usve read before. The faces are already familiar and even if you donI can't know them yet, remember ever having read a novel with nine contributorssuch an odd, you'll soon find distinctive narrative voice. While a like-minded woman behind one of slim and relatively small book, the celebrity faces. The women are universally warmslow-hearted and supportive: there will be many a lonely woman who reads this book and feels as if she sat down with a group moving nature of friends for the eveningplot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Urewilliamabbey|title=Fortune CookieThe Pursuit of William Abbey|author=Claire North|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=Fudge Cassidy and When William Abbey fails to prevent the Cupcake kid are best friends. If the names remind you lynching of a certain film then you'd be spot on as thatyoung boy in 1880's where Fudge's father got South Africa, he finds himself cursed by the idea fromgrieving mother. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – but A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, as the shadow of the combination works. They've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather a lot on her plate. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obvious. Add dead boy begins to this that her father couldn't cope with follow him across the problems and he now has another familyworld. It's just CupcakeNever stopping, Joey and her mother always growing – it crosses oceans and not a lot mountains in pursuit of moneyWilliam.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jenifer Roberts|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of Portugal|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Born As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in 1734 in Lisbonothers, at he also learns that time the richest dark shadow is deadly – and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined seeks to become kill the first female monarch in Portuguese history. Married to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them), and became Queen in 1777. A conscientious woman, she had he loves the misfortune to be born in during the 'age of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacy. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>most…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Hughes1643785036|title=Thomas Wogan is Dead|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Well, with a title like that, need I bother with a plot summary? A man has a day out in Morecambe, then the next thing he knows he's in the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array of animals (a bat, a toad, a sea urchin...), all waiting for... well, something. Yup, as you didn't need telling, he's dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewThe Wondrous Apothecary|author=Dave Eggers|title=The Wild ThingsMary E Martin

|summary=Meet MaxThose 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. When I say he sometimes gets If you've watched the wrong end of the stick about adultsrelationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, or dislikes his motheryou's new boyfriendd have said that they were magnets, or gets a bit feisty when he feels the need for revenge, I am certainly understating the factsdrawing and repulsing each other in equal measure. He is a bit Wainwright was at the socially acceptable end of the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo it was all too obvious that there was but a rascal to say the leastfine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance. But all that might change when As time has worn on, he finds himself travelling 's frequently been brought to a strange land the attention of roisterous animals, the police. On this latest occasion we see him charged with arson and ends up installed as their kingtheft of ''The Hay Wagon''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy StrongMary H.K. Choi|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog Permanent Record

|summary=Cassie lives on an Arctic research station in AlaskaPablo, a college drop-out, is working at a New York bodega. She loves the ice and the wilderness of her remote home and she He'd definitely prefer to spend her time on tracking polar bears and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing with her peers and enjoying college and home comforts back s massively in Fairbanks. Howeverdebt, things aren't all rosy. Cassiehe's avoiding his mother died when she was just a baby , and she can't help feeling a huge hole he finds his joy in her heart. Her scientist father is remote and unloving and her grandmother left the station after an argument creating unusual snacks with him when Cassie was still very young. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Iain Smyth and Michael Terry|title=The Wide-Mouthed Frog|rating=4.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Do you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard it. Itrandom ingredients! Whilst working one evening, he's a classic. It's one surprised to discover that you really need to tell in person, the girl he is chatting with your fingers pulling your mouth wide openas he serves is a super-famous pop star and, but to hopefully spark your memoryas unlikely as it may seem, the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to they start a number of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile relationship. With one character who eats wide-mouthed frogsis trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone, and the frog does his best to disguise other who he is whilst saying seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, it''Ooh, you dons an interesting clash as they come together. This isn't see many of those round herejust a love story though, do you?and actually it'' I'm hardly doing it justice, but its really just Pab's very cheesy and funny. Anywaystory, this is a book of that jokeabout the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smart.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>0349003459

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman1609809319|title=Don't Swallow Your GumLong-Haired Cat-Boy Cub|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)

|summary=Violet 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 very special hippocab 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. She is extremely small but Well, it's no surprise that does not the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn't make her adoptive parents Albert him happy, and Mavis love her any the less. Howeverso he thinks of a species name for himself, and curls himself up into an empty cage, they are slightly worried that Violet has as if he were a very unusual habit of turning pink without warning and for no explicable reasonnew exhibit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk> And it's then the drama begins…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hilary Dixon1785785516|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveFucking Good Manners|author=Simon Griffin

|genre=Literary FictionLifestyle|summary=Arthur Transcombe is a middle-agedManners maketh man, grey-haired, self-effacing poetthey say. Unremarkable really - on the outsideIt 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. He hasManners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, however, managed they have nothing to achieve some success do with his poems. class or financial status: (Being a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival is no mean feat). He is also a babe magnet!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=A J Healy|title=Tommy Storm and the Galactic Knights|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Tommy Storm. Hethey's one of five teenagers snapped up from around re about getting the universe basics right before we try to be a gang of heroic detectives charged deal with rescuing EVERYTHING from destructionmore difficult matters. Not just the planet, or the solar system, or even the galaxyOf course we all have more relaxed manners when we're with family and friends, but EVERYTHING. Nobody seems to know whatit's going best if we learn to cause this destruction, or when, but he distinguish between our public and his friends private lives and their ship seem to be the only people proactively going about saving the dayact appropriately. So it's a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony who's about Fucking Good Manners'' aims to kill them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Graham McCann|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-Thomas|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=When I was in my early teens, it sometimes seemed as if Terry-Thomas was one of help us on the stars of almost every other five-star British comedy film aroundway. He was certainly one of the most recognizable characters of all with his gap-toothed grin, cigarette holder and inimitable 'Hel-lo!', 'Hard cheese!', and best of all, the angry, 'You're an absolute shower!'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Jay Parker0008324859|title=Stop Me|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoying, but most of us will have had to deal with them. Fortunately, we can hit the delete button and forget about them as quickly as they came. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish on, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I don't. But I wonder how many of us would react if a spam E-Mail actually was a matter of life and death, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFowl Twins|author=Jeanette Winterson|title=The Battle of the SunEoin Colfer

|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city is a busyRelax, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off planet, bustling place. Boats fill but the river and people fill baddies aren't getting away with skulduggery any time soon because they now have not one but two members of the streetsFowl family to contend with. Jack is happy because it's his birthday Those cute little twins are now eleven (and his present is his heart's desire: an excitable black puppy named Max, who's a ''licking frankly, cute no longer) and in this, their first independent adventure, they meet a running troll and without even trying manage to make two deadly enemies: a leaping and a jumping and a tummy in nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever the air cost (to other people), and a tail wagging and a barkingan unusual interrogator-nun. The boys are chased, racingkidnapped, brakingarrested and even killed (though not for long), spinning energy dog all with the help of delight''one trainee fairy. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>