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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.

There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY[[image:Reviews}}''' reviews on the siteLeague games.jpg|center|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/primesignup/ref=acph_piv?tag=AssociateTrackingID=thebookbag-21]] <br>

==New Reviews=='''For new reviews by genre Want to find out more [[:Category:New ReviewsAbout Us|click hereabout us]].'''? __NOTOC__

{{newreview|author=Sue Townsend|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 needsRead [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. 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</amazonukbr>}}

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lauren KateMark Lingane|title=FallenDegrade (Tesla Expansion)|rating=4.5

|summary=A 17 year old girl at a new school meets ''Degrade'' opens as it means to go on - with inyerface, banging action. Poor Arid, alone in the desert since his parents were killed, has a narrow escape as two mega-rigs fight it out and his is pretty much destroyed. He finds himself rescued by the mysterious -but-fascinating Ella and impossibly good-looking boyonboard the ''Moonlight'' under the suspicious eyes of its leader, who sheQueen Bea. Bea's immediately drawn to. He seems determined to either ignore eyes flash with recognition when he tells her or be outright rude to her, until his name - Arid Geiger - but before he saves her lifecan find out why that is, there's an assassination attempt and Arid is under suspicion and the two of them end up drawn togetherimprisoned. This isn't Stephenie MeyerAn escape facilitated by Ella - Queen Bea's ''Twilight''daughter - sees Arid and her other daughter, Frey, but it certainly has striking similaritiesstranded in the desert...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>099461649X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gareth HindsB07XLM3SM6|title=King LearMurder at the Dolphin Hotel|author=Helena Dixon|rating=34|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime (Historical)|summary=Hound me out of town Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in a most appropriate mannerJune 1916, but I do not like King Lear. For meleaving her daughter, even as a trained actorKitty, in the language is too dense care of her grandmother. A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and richthe conclusion was that she was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the set-up too archly unfeasible Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to create the great tragedy it's thought look after her sister who was ill. She was reluctant to beleave Kitty in charge - and Kitty could not understand why. To my mind She's always coped with the acclaim mix of holidaymakers, boating people and esteem the naval college on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in which itthe hotel. And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's held is only mirrored by its own over-long, over-blown blusteringfriends have been roped in to keep an eye on things ''and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of security at the hotel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul TherouxSeishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in CalcuttaThe Honjin Murders|rating=3.54|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Set in India, familiar territory for TherouxTo many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery'A Dead Handis enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' tells the story of a travel writer suffering from writeror 's block (also known as good'dead hand. For those who need more, here is the extra background – we') until a chance letter from re in rural Japan in the 1930s. The oldest son of an American ex-patesteemed family is belatedly getting married, although the mysterious Mrs Ungerwhole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her family, for one thing. Either way, the celebrations have gone ahead as planned, relating only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annex before the sun rises on their marriage. What with a story man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a mystery traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this case has a dead body in a hotel leads him to release his creativity in very unexpected ways. The story is more lot of the peculiar about obsession and infatuation than it is about the mystery itself as the narrator falls under Mrs Unger's Tantric charms. But does she have more to hide than she's letting on?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>1782275002

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Toby LesterCixin Liu|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of HistoryDeath's Greatest MapEnd|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryScience Fiction|summary=In 2003 a map was bought for $10 millionIf I'd been paying more attention when I picked this book up, the highest price ever paid publicly for a historical document, by the Library of Congress, where I would have put it is now back on permanent public displaythe shelf. No ordinary mapNot because I didn't want to read it, this is sometimes described as Americabut because I's birth certificate. It is d have figured out that it was the sole survivor final part of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th century, and was discovered by accident in some archives trilogy. Coming in partway through 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 saga is never the result.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steven Lowe easiest thing to do and Alan McArthur |title=Is it Just Me or Has 's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to Unremitting Global Misery|rating=3|genre=Humour|summary=you (when it's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won'The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floort understand. This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu'' Surely that s work – his range is the wackiest, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch and all it has done for the worldphenomenal. You won't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authorsGeorge R R Martin, instead with quite who knows a potty mouth on them they will lambast the modern thing or two about world-creation, the entire banking system, all those who failed to see described it coming, as ''a unique blend of scientific 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 trainphilosophical speculation, conspiracy theory and back up the rich lists.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Andy Stanton|title=Whatcosmology''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 All of fashion, that 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 Elizabethmore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>1784971650

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Loose Women1780894511|title=Here Come the GirlsDie Alone|author=Simon Kernick

|genre=Home and FamilyThrillers|summary=This Ray Mason is the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV series, ''Loose Women''. Just as promised on the cover, this book is an entertaining night with the girls. It turns out that they're just like us. The faces are already familiar in prison awaiting trial for murder and even if you donhe't know them yet, with nine contributors, you'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one of s in the celebrity faces. The women are universally warm-hearted and supportivevulnerable prisoner unit: there will be many a lonely woman who reads this book and feels as if she sat down with a group cop, he's something of friends for a target, but the evening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jean Ure|title=Fortune Cookie|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Fudge Cassidy and the Cupcake kid are best friends. If the names remind you of a certain film then you'd be spot on unit is not as secure as that's where Fudge's father got the idea from. They're actually chalk inmates would have hoped and cheese – Fudge Mason is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – but the combination works. They've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather injured in a lot on her plateriot. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and On his problems are becoming more obvious. Add way to this that her father couldnhospital he't cope with the problems s broken free by armed men and he now has another familyan offer is made to him. ItHe's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not a lot of money.|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 in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time to assassinate the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined man who is likely to become the first female monarch in Portuguese historycountry's next prime minister and he'll then be given a new identity so that he can start afresh abroad. Married to her uncle Infante PedroHis captors say that they're MI6, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them), and became Queen in 1777Mason has his doubts. A conscientious woman, she had the misfortune His choices are limited though and he has personal reasons to believe that it would 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 better if Alastair Sheridan was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantlydead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HughesAkwaeke Emezi|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadPet

|genre=Graphic NovelsTeens|summary=WellThe people of the town Lucille believe that all the monsters are gone. Their children are raised to understand that they were saved by the angels, with a title like thatthose who rid the town of evil, need I bother with a plot summary? and there are no monsters anymore. A man has a But one day out in Morecambe, then the next thing he knows heJam accidentally cuts herself and bleeds a little onto one of her mother's in the ultimate waiting room, with paintings. The blood awakens a strange array of animals (a batbizarre, a toadterrifying-looking creature named Pet, a sea urchinwho somehow comes to life and declares that it is here to hunt the monster...) Though Jam tries to convince it that all the monsters are gone, all waiting for... wellPet is certain that there is one, something. Yupstill, as you didn't need tellingand that the monster is hiding in the home of her best friend, he's deadRedemption.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>0571355110

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dave Eggers1686751680|title=The Wild ThingsMy Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres|author=Amelie Julien and Gustyawan

|genre=General FictionFor Sharing|summary=Meet Max. Which child doesn't think that their mother is, well, ''weird''? When I It might be that in the morning their mother doesn't like speaking much when every self-respecting child knows that that is when you're at your brightest with lots to say he sometimes gets the wrong end ? ''Why'' then does Mummy stick her fingers in her ears? Then there's doing yoga in front of the stick about adultstelevision, or dislikes his motherwhich could be worrying if it wasn't so funny. We won's new boyfriendt go into too much detail about what goes on in the bathroom and the colour changes which have occurred when Mummy emerges and frankly, or gets a bit feisty when he feels the need for revenge, I am certainly understating less said the facts. He is a bit of a rascal better about her reactions to say your artistic efforts on the leastwall. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling to a strange land of roisterous animalsI mean, and ends up installed as their king.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>what else would you use paint for?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy StrongJustine Avery and Liuba Syrotiuk|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?

|genre=Confident ReadersFor Sharing|summary=Trevor's troublesome dog, Streaker, 'The day has had three puppies. They were fatheredended''<br>''Hasn't it been splendid?'' <br>''But now, according to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one of his Alsatians. Trevor would ideally like to keep them, at least until Christmas, but his parents have other ideas and put them up for sale. Charlie Smugg declares that heit's entitled time, to half of the money from the sale of the puppies, but before they can be sold the three puppies go missing in the park and itsure''s up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!|amazonuk=<amazonukbr>0141327243''For an entirely different adventure'' </amazonukbr>}}

{{newreview|author=Sarah Beth Durst|title=Ice|rating=3I hope you haven't forgotten how it feels to be much too excited for bed.5|genre=Teens|summary=Cassie lives on If you're a parent at least, you'll know how it is to persuade an Arctic research station excited small person that yes, it is in Alaskafact time for bed. ''What Wonders DoYou See...'' sets out to cater to these children. She loves the ice and the wilderness Instead of her remote home and she'd definitely prefer trying to spend her persuade them that night time is a calm time on tracking polar bears and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing with her peers and enjoying college and home comforts back in Fairbanks. However, things aren't all rosyit takes a slightly different tack. Cassie's mother died when she was just It tells them that sleep is actually an exciting time: a baby time of dreams in which imagination takes over and she can't help feeling a huge hole has no limit. But the trick in her heart. Her scientist father accessing this wonderful and exciting world is remote to get calm and unloving relaxed first so that you can easily fall asleep and her grandmother left open the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very youngdoor to it. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>194812422X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Iain Smyth and Michael TerryHarris|title=The Wide-Mouthed FrogSolitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingLifestyle|summary=Do you know This is not the joke about book I was expecting it to be. For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to step outside the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard mainstream, but itis not that at all. It Instead of telling us how it is more about the ''why''s a classic. It Harries examines how we's one that you really need to tell in person, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide open, but to hopefully spark your memoryre eroding solitude, the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself which used to be a number natural part of animals until our human life, and why that matters. Of course, he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogstalks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of that, and eventually in the frog does final chapter he talks about his best to disguise who he is whilst saying ''Ooh, you don't see many own experience of those round here, do you?'' I'm hardly doing having deliberately sought it justiceout, but it's very cheesy mostly he wanders down the alleys and funny. Anyway, by-ways that his thinking about this is a book of that jokelost art led him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>1847947662

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanAndy Briggs|title=Don't Swallow Your GumCtrl+S

|genre=LifestyleScience Fiction|summary=Life in the near future'''BANG'''s not all bad. ThatWe's ve reversed global warming and fixed the sound of copious urban myths being shot downcollapsing bee population. We even created SPACE, a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. '''BANG''But almost anything isn't enough for some. That's the sound of the old wives slamming the doorEvery day, normal people are being taken, as their tales get revealed as baselessemotions harvested - and lives traded - to create death-defying thrills for the rich and twisted. '''CLICK'''Now Theo’s mother has disappeared. ThatAnd as he follows her breadcrumb trail of clues, he's ll come up against the noise lots of illmost dangerous SPACE has to offer: police, AI Bots and anarchists -informed websites make as they get closed downwell as a criminal empire that will kill to stop him finding her . . All noises come due to this brilliant book.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>1409184641

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annie Taylor1609809378|title=VioletThe Rabbits' Rebellion|author=Ariel Dorfman and Chris Riddell

|summary=Violet is a very special hippoWe're in the realm of the rabbits, only the foxes and wolves have taken over. She is extremely small King Wolf, His Wolfiness, has declared the rabbits don't exist, but the pesky birds have spread rumours from awing that does not make her adoptive parents Albert and Mavis love her any the lessbunnies are in fact still around. However Demanding a propaganda spree, King Wolf orders a humble monkey to be his official portrait photographer, they are slightly worried that Violet has but whatever the poor innocent monkey prints out in his darkroom there is a very unusual habit distinct leporine hint. Can King Wolf succeed in proving himself victorious, can the rabbits show their continued existence to all who need to know of turning pink without warning it – and for no explicable reason.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>what can the poor monkey caught in between do?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary DixonInnosanto Nagara|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveM is for Movement

|genre=Literary FictionEmerging Readers|summary=Arthur Transcombe Set in Indonesia, in the not too distant past, this is a middle-agedstory about social change. Dealing with some difficult issues, grey-hairedsuch as political corruption and nepotism, self-effacing poet. Unremarkable really - on the outsidebook is neither boring nor preachy. He hasIt educates gently, howeverwith vibrant, managed to achieve some success with his poemschallenging illustrations, and it portrays how social movements need people who will try, even when it seems that they will fail. (Being The message is a guest speaker at positive one; that in an increasingly uncertain world, we do still have the Cheltenham Literary Festival is no mean feat)power to instigate change. He is also a babe magnet!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>1609809351

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A J Healy1780724047|title=Tommy Storm A Dictionary of Interesting and the Galactic KnightsImportant Dogs|author=Peter J Conradi|rating=3.54|genre=Confident ReadersPets|summary=Meet Tommy StormI 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. HeBut 's one 'A Dictionary of five teenagers snapped up from around the universe to be Interesting and Important Dogs'' is actually ''a gang rich compendium of heroic detectives charged with rescuing EVERYTHING from destruction. Not just the planet, or the solar system, or even the galaxy, but EVERYTHINGworld's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a rich treasure trove. Nobody seems to know whatWe begin with Peter J Conradi's going to cause this destructionfour collies: Cloudy, or when, but he Sky. Bradley and his friends and their ship seem to be the only people proactively going about saving the dayMax. So itThey's a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony whore consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what comes over is Conradi's about to kill love for each and every one of them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk> I knew that I was in safe hands.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graham McCann1785769294|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-ThomasMan at the Window (Detective Cardellini)|author=Robert Jeffreys

|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoying, but most of us will have had to deal with them. Fortunately, It's when 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 read that a young boy is supposed creeping reluctantly to become if I dona teacher'ts bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrong. But I wonder how many of us Nowadays you ''might'' hope that something would react if a spam E-Mail actually be done about it fairly quickly but this was a matter of life 1965 and death, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jeanette Winterson|title=The Battle child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of the Sun|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=London 1601child. Elizabeth I is getting on The boy would be safe that night though - albeit in years. Her capital city is a busy, bustling place. Boats fill the river and people fill the streetsmost horrific fashion. Jack is happy because it When he reached Captain Edmund's bedroom he found the man dead on the floor, the top of his birthday and his present is his heartskull missing. The school's desireinitial reaction was that this was a dreadful accident: an excitable black puppy named Max, who's there had been a ''licking cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields and it was obviously a running and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy in stray bullet that had killed the air and a tail wagging and a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''Captain. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>

  {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure1786695227|title=Love and KissesInvisible in a Bright Light|author=Sally Gardner

|summary=Tamsin and Katie were just thirteen and worried that they were boring. They'd been best friends since forever and were The beginning of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a little confused: who is the man in the good girls. Neither missed school, skipped her homework nor had boyfriends. Wellgreen suit, that what isthe Reckoning, not so farand why are rows of people in a cave? But stick with it – Ms. Up until then Tamsin had been Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience the boffin head – consistently strong academically and looking forward to going on to universitysame disorientation as our heroine. All that seemed We watch in dismay as the strange man, who seems to change when she met Alex. Wellhave no eyes, when I say 'met' I should perhaps clarify and say that Alex pushed does his wheelbarrow into best to persuade herto answer his questions. But for some reason, from the building site where he worked. OhCeleste, and did I mention that he was seventeendespite her bewilderment, Polish remains wary and spoke very little English?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>gives nothing away.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henry Mintzberg1912374854|title=ManagingViolet|author=S J I Holliday|rating=3.5|genre=Business and FinanceThrillers|summary=I''Study after study has shown ve never been but understand that managers work at an unrelenting pace'' How truetravelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situations. Well, though it always makes me wonder why, as a result, therethat's such a market for bulky management and leadership and general business books like this one. How does anyone who needs or wants to read one ever find exactly what happens when the time to do so? This title actually has an answer to this, by providing two books main/only characters meet in one, and it is such a simple yet effective solution that I have to start there. You can read this book travel agency in one of two ways. Option one Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to read every word, chapter by chapter, cover to cover. If you have the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readable, not too repetitive, and quite thought-provoking.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kathryn Fox|title=Blood Born|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=To give support to get a vulnerable gang-rape victim, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers to drive Giverny Hart to the courthouse refund on an extra ticket for the day she Trans-Siberian train and Violet is due trying to testify against unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the notorious Harbourn brotherssame sold-out journey. But when Anya arrives at As the house she finds Giverny close to death two team up, travelling through Mongolia, Serbia and faces a battle against time to save her. In into Russia, it could've been the panic, Anya fails to take note start of an important clue which might help tell whether a beautiful friendship but this a thriller after all so it really was suicide or quickly becomes a cleverly staged murder. Worse stilltale of obsession, in trying to save the girl's lifemanipulation, Anya has interfered with a crime scene and the case falls apart. She blames herself for the Harbourn brothers being allowed to walk free and only hours later there is news of another attacktoxic friendships. A pair of sisters have been stabbed and raped resulting in the death of one, while the other clings to life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Leah Fleming1912374838|title=Remembrance DayNothing Important Happened Today|author=Will Carver

|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=In the year 2000 an old lady in Nothing Important Happened Today is a dark, twisted, difficult read. Stories about cults often are, but this is different; it's written with a wheelchair watches the unveiling sense of the new war memorial in the village squarestyle that is quite unlike anything I've read before. ThereI can's pride in what has been achievedt remember ever having read a novel with such an odd, distinctive narrative voice. While a slim and relatively small book, in the family who are gathered around her and there are memories tooslow-moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages. Some are good but many are not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Neal Laytonwilliamabbey|title=Surf's Up (Mammoth Academy)The Pursuit of William Abbey|author=Claire North

|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=Having successfully seen off When William Abbey fails to prevent the rather unpleasant humans lynching of a young boy in earlier volumes, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar and Arabella have nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy for lots more double periods of Difficult Sums. They1880're supposed to be making presentations about what they did during the holidays too, but Oscar hasn't done any preparation and, franklys South Africa, he can't really remember what he actually did do with all that free time other than no Difficult Sums. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb|title=The Princess Who Had No Kingdom|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled finds himself cursed by her horse Prettythe grieving mother. She's very politeA naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, friendlyas the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and kind-hearted, but she feels like something is lacking because she doesn't have a kingdom mountains in pursuit of her ownWilliam. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enoughAs he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, but there's always a feeling he also learns that she's not quite as good as them because she isn't the princess of anywhere.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mij Kelly and Louise Nisbet1643785036|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made ChristmasWondrous Apothecary|author=Mary E Martin

|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Mouse doesnThose who have known Alexander Wainwright, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize-winning 't like anyone 'The Hay Wagon'', and keeps herself to herself. Her things are her things Rinaldo, the renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and she is too selfish to share them with anyone elsecheese, if not sworn enemies. One day If you've watched the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, you'd have said that they were magnets, an old man moves drawing and repulsing each other in to Mouse's houseequal measure. He used to be Wainwright was at the happiest man in socially acceptable end of the worldartistic continuum, but with Rinaldo, it was all too obvious that there was but now a fine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance. As time has worn on, he's sad. He's fed up frequently been brought to the attention of having given, given, given all his life and never got anything backthe police. He just sits quietly and mopes. This makes Mouse miserable On this latest occasion, so one day she decides to cheer we see him up by giving him a clementine..charged with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick BlandMary H.K. Choi|title=The Very Cranky BearPermanent Record

|genre=For SharingTeens|summary=MoosePablo, Lion, Zebra and Sheep head into a cave to get college drop-out of the rain, but little do they know that Bear is fast asleep working at a New York bodega. He's massively in there. When they wake him updebt, he roars at them's avoiding his mother, chasing them outsideand he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one evening, so they decide he's surprised to cheer him up somehow. Zebra paints stripes on himdiscover that the girl he is chatting with as he serves is a super-famous pop star and, as unlikely as it may seem, Moose fashions antlers for him and Lion sticks they start a mane of straw on himrelationship. Unsurprisingly, this makes Bear even crankier, so it's down With one character who is trying very hard not to Sheep to save be seen or noticed by anyone and the day...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kes Gray other who is seen and Lee Wildish|title=Mum followed and Dad Glue|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=A young boyhounded by everyone all over the world, it's parents are splitting up. He's going through the usual emotions that children of divorce go through: worry, feeling unsure, blaming himself, anger, denial, and then trying to get them to stay an interesting clash as they come together. His method for this This isn't the usual response just a love story though: he looks for glue to stick his mum , and dad together. Thankfullyactually it's really just Pab's story, about the journey he finds some wise and kindly advice takes in the processhis life via his meet-up with Leanna Smart.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>0349003459

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Clara Vulliamy1609809319|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To Bed|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=It's Pearl's bedtime, but she says she's really busy and isn't going to sleep. She just wants to play and play and play. When the bear with sticky paws rings the doorbell, he whisks her away on an amazing adventure Long-Haired Cat- although as you might expect, the bear has a little more energy than Pearl and eventually she does get a little sleepy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBoy Cub|author=Stephen Mackey|title=Miki|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=It's cold, dark and icyEtgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Miki and Penguin are trudging through the snow. But it's Midwinter Eve, when wishes come true. They wish for a tree, lights, someone strong to power the lights, and finally a star that will shine brightly forever. Miki is taken deep below the ice to find the star, whilst up top Penguin and new friend Polar Bear start to worry about her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034095065X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kristin Cashore|title=FireSondra Silverston (translator)

|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=Possessed of great beauty, One day a boy is in the zoo with his father when the kind that drives men mad, Fire is used to people trying to kill herman gets called away on urgent business. She The boy isn't used to them doing it by accident. When hustled into a poacher in the woods outside her cab and taken home accidentally shoots herfirst, though, no – he's given hot dog money, Fire is hard pressed and taxi money, and told to keep the temperamental Lord Archer from killing himjust stick around on his own and enjoy himself. But as sure as Fire is the man did not mean to cause her harm Well, she is made unsure by the strange fog that exists in the manit's mind.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905200129</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Justin Scroggie|title=Eye Spy: Uncovering no surprise that the Secrets of orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the World Around You|rating=4|genre=Trivia|summary=Signs are everywhere. I wasnlad feels doesn't really one make him happy, and so he thinks of those who thought our roads were littered with too many traffic signs until the day I was driven past a pair of speed regulation signsspecies name for himself, positioned at the exit end of a one-way street but facing the illegal way and curls himself up it. Not all signs, of course, are quite into an empty cage as unnecessary, or indeed as blatantly visible, which is where this pictorial guide to countless coded messages, signifiers and other similar factoids comes inif he were a new exhibit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994487</amazonuk> And it's then the drama begins…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jose Saramago 1785785516|title=Small MemoriesFucking Good Manners|author=Simon Griffin

|summary=WonderfulManners maketh man, wonderful, wonderfulthey say. The only thing that could be conceivably better than reading ''Perfumes'' would be to read it while sampling the scents it reviews, but even without the olfactory component, ''Perfumes'' is a delight: Turin (a lyrical scientist) and Sanchez (an analytically enthusiastic collector) not only treat perfume creation as high art, but turn perfume criticism into an art form (or at least a sophisticated genre of writing) too. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681278</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Malouf |title=Ransom|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Taking his theme from It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a small part set of Homer's Iliadconventions, Malouf tells the story of the king some of Troy, Priam's grief-stricken voyage into the Greek camp to ransom Troy's wealth for the body of his fallen son, Hector, killed by the equally grief-stricken Achilles whose great friend Hector had killed in battle before Achilles took his cruel revenge. Malouf tells the story in sparse, yet lyrical which are ages old and poetic fashion suggesting the personal stories behind the epic themes that Homer relatedothers which have evolved over time. It is Manners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an exquisitely written piece managing invitation to be both deeply moving as well as a great piece of story telling.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184159</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steven M Gillon|title=The Kennedy AssassinationBuckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: 24 Hours After|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=The assassination of President Kennedy came at a pivotal moment in my life and for more than forty years I they've read most of what has been written re about getting the eventbasics right before we try to deal with more difficult matters. ItOf course, we all have more relaxed manners when we's been of variable qualityre with family and friends, but the books fed the curiosity of people entranced by the charismatic young President who died so publiclyit's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriately. I'd come to the point of wondering if there was anything new 'Fucking Good Manners'' aims to be said, but Stephen Gillom has looked at what happened from an unusual and largely overlooked angle – help us on the first twenty four hours of Lyndon Johnson's Presidencyway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>