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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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{{newreview|author=Russell Celyn Jones|title=The Ninth Wave ('''Read [[:Category:New Stories from the Mabinogion) Reviews|rating=4new reviews by category]].5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Pwyll rules 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 is the main means of transport. But in many ways it's much the same - people still fight one another, towns still have sink estates, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning in their lives. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115146'</amazonukbr>}}

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Owen SheersMark Lingane|title=White Ravens Degrade (New Stories from the MabinogionTesla Expansion)|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionTeens|summary=In ''Degrade'' opens as it means to go on - with inyerface, banging action. Poor Arid, alone in the old taledesert since his parents were killed, Branwen has a narrow escape as two mega-rigs fight it out and his is pretty much destroyed. He finds himself rescued by the sister of Bendigeidfran mysterious-but- fascinating Ella and onboard the giant King of Britain. She marries ''Moonlight'' under the King suspicious eyes of Irelandits leader, who doesnQueen Bea. Bea't treat s eyes flash with recognition when he tells her well. She manages to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling his name - Arid Geiger - but before he can find out why that is, there's an assassination attempt and war Arid is under suspicion and killings ensueimprisoned. In this new taleAn escape facilitated by Ella - Queen Bea's daughter - sees Arid and her other daughter, a young girl has just walked away from her brothers whoFrey, stranded in the wake of the devastating foot and mouth outbreak, are despoiling their heritage by rustling and illegally slaughtering sheepdesert.. 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 affair. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115030</amazonuk>099461649X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer BohnetB07XLM3SM6|title=Follow Your StarMurder at the Dolphin Hotel|author=Helena Dixon|rating=3.54|genre=Women's FictionCrime (Historical)|summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left MonacoElowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the care of her grandmother. She'd A great deal of money had been engaged spent to find out what happened to a Formula 1 racing driver her and had lived the life of the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all conclusion was that. The accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence was dead, mainly because of the alcohol she'd consumed. Her slow recovery there was hindered by the end of her engagement but she's found some contentment in being a nanny no evidence to two young childrensuggest otherwise. When her friend and employer, Vanessa, remarries Kitty has come to terms with this and takes an extended honeymoon in 1933 she was running the Amazon Nanette is asked Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to take the children back leave to Monaco where their father lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=J R Stephenson|title=Crooked Justice|rating=2.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Barry Johnslook after her sister who was ill. You'll see him coming She was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - he's five hundred pounds if he's an ounceand Kitty could not understand why. Just donShe't ever lend him money - he won't pay it back. A businessman s always coped with a share the mix of a nightclub on Cyprus, he goes there for a customary breakholidaymakers, boating people and finds his sort-of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancer. He manages to tread both naval college on the toes edge of his local colleague town before - and some Greek rivalsshe's done every job in the hotel. And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides to pack up and shut up. Itshe particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's a big stone that hides him, but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting friends have been roped in to upturn it and get their revenge.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Baker|title=They've Got Your Number|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that keep an eye on things ''Big Brotherand'' is always watching or like why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to believe that you are not a number, but a free man (or woman), then this may not be the book for you, as it will do nothing to dispel any of those worries. If, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling take charge of humanity' sounds like one of the sexiest things ever, and are chomping security at the bit to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to sayhotel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rebecca TopeSeishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)|title=Fear in the CotswoldsThe Honjin Murders

|summary=Thea Osborne To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is a house sitter enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by professionthe words 'clever' or 'good'. When people go away she moves into their homes and looks after their animals and For those who need more, here is the property. This time itextra background – we's winter and she's spending a month re in rural Japan in the Cotswold village of Hampnett1930s. It wouldn't be a job for all The oldest son of us but Thea delights in an esteemed family is belatedly getting to know married, although the local people and the area. In the past she's also been involved with the police in solving various cases but whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it looks as though that might have come to an end as the relationship she had be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with DS Phil Hollis has crumbledit being arranged at great haste. For the first time Thea feels like She only has an outsider – and a foolish uncle representing her family, for one - when she finds footsteps in the snow which lead to a body in a nearby fieldthing. When Either way, the police finally arrive celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the body has disappeared and the police obviously wonder if she's imagined it all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tad Tuleja|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases|rating=3|genre=Home and Family|summary=Take a look at the cover design of this book, and you'd wedded couple to be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken part slashed to death in our English language since whenever they crossed over from their original homesprivate annex before the sun rises on their marriage. But the title is definitely honest, for this is What with a dictionary book first, for reference, and a browser for man missing parts of his fingers being in the trivia buff second.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anne Rice|title=Angel Time|rating=2.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Toby O'Dare is an extremely efficient hit man with a passion for musicneighbourhood, history and playing his beloved lute. He's also something some mysterious use of a lost soul having turned his back on God many years ago. One day while on a 'job' he is visited by an Angel who offers him a chance traditional musical instrument 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 time of the crime, this case has a Jewish couple accused lot of murder in 13th Century Englandthe peculiar about it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>1782275002

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MortimerCixin Liu|title=1415: Henry VDeath's Year of GloryEnd

|genre=HistoryScience Fiction|summary=The medievalIf I'd been paying more attention when I picked this book up, in fact time-honouredI would have put it back on the shelf. Not because I didn't want to read it, view but because I'd have figured out that it was the final part of King Henry V as one of Englanda trilogy. Coming in partway through a saga is never the easiest thing to do and it's greatest heroes was propagated though particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are not originated by Shakespeare, and again more recently just people whose names mean nothing to some extent by Olivieryou (when it's portrayal in filmassumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won't understand. This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's work – his range is phenomenal. At least one historian has called him George R R Martin, who knows a thing or two about world-creation, described it as ''the greatest man that ever ruled Englanda unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory and cosmology''. All of that and more.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>1784971650

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Deborah Gregory1780894511|title=Dancing With The Dead|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=I wanted to read ''Dancing with the Dead'', because I'm interested in family history. The blurb on the back of the book also mentioned Gill – our heroine of the piece – was moving from Bristol (my current home) to Lincolnshire (where I was born and brought up). I felt with all these links, the novel could not fail to interest me – but this was not the case.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDie Alone|author=Miss Read|title=Christmas at Thrush GreenSimon Kernick

|genre=Women's FictionThrillers|summary=Set Ray Mason is in prison awaiting trial for murder and he's in the rural village vulnerable prisoner unit: as a cop, he's something of Thrush Greena target, this book but the unit is not as secure as the latest inmates would have hoped and Mason is injured in a series surrounding familiar charactersriot. There On his way to hospital he's broken free by armed men and an offer is made to him. He's to assassinate the feisty Ella Bembridge, man who is finally having likely to admit become the country's next prime minister and he'll then be given a new identity so that old age is creeping up as her eyesight failshe can start afresh abroad. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock are concerned about her His captors say that they're MI6, but she refuses to accept any helpMason has his doubts. Albert Piggott His choices are limited though and he has decided it's time personal reasons to retire now believe that his wife, Nelly, is a successful cafe owner and can afford to take care of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging the local nativity play, despite a number of set-backsit would be better if Alastair Sheridan was dead. Will everything be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matt and DaveAkwaeke Emezi|title=Yuck's Robotic BottomPet|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=It's concerned me for a while The people of the town Lucille believe that it's relatively easy all the monsters are gone. Their children are raised to pick up early readers for girls – princessesunderstand that they were saved by the angels, magic soft toysthose who rid the town of evil, mermaids and pets abound – but thereare no monsters anymore. But one day, Jam accidentally cuts herself and bleeds a little onto one of her mother's a much smaller choice for boyspaintings. It's important too with early readers The blood awakens a bizarre, terrifying-looking creature named Pet, who somehow comes to life and declares that the content it is ''interesting'' and reading becomes more than just something which you ''have'' here to do at school and moves into being funhunt the monster. Matt Though Jam tries to convince it that all the monsters are gone, Pet is certain that there is one, still, and Dave have found that the answer monster is hiding in Yuckthe home of her best friend, Redemption.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>0571355110

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John E Smelcer1686751680|title=The Great DeathMy Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres|author=Amelie Julien and Gustyawan

|genre=General FictionFor Sharing|summary=Which child doesn'As Western Europeans settled Alaskat think that their mother is, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunity. At the beginning of the twentieth centurywell, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from a pandemic of measles, smallpox, and influenza. No community was spared. In most cases, half of a village's population died within a week. In some cases, there were no survivors. It was the end of an ancient way of life. Natives still refer to the dreadful period as the Great Death.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maxine Barry|title=River Deep|rating=3.5|genre=Womenweird'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 might be that guests come who want to be pampered and looked after in the way morning their mother doesn't like speaking much when every self-respecting child knows that only the best hotels can do well, but that is when Wendell James checks in you're at your brightest with lots to the hotel itsay? ''Why's not pampering he's looking for. then does Mummy stick her fingers in her ears? HeThen there's buying a piece doing yoga in front of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine and hetelevision, which could be worrying if it wasn's sussing out the competitiont so funny. ThereWe won's something personal in there t go into too – if his new hotel means that the Ray of Sunshine much detail about what goes under then that would be an added bonus. There's just a slight doubt on in his mind the bathroom and the colour changes which have occurred when a red-haired maid catches his eyeMummy emerges and frankly, the less said the better about her reactions to your artistic efforts on the wall.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk> I mean, what else would you use paint for?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joe GoresJustine Avery and Liuba Syrotiuk|title=Spade and ArcherWhat Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?

|genre=CrimeFor Sharing|summary=Sam Spade decides, bravely, to set up his one-man detective agency. It's the 1920s in San Francisco so we have the prohibition era and all that that entails. Many locals, of course, choose to disobey the law, stick two fingers up, so to speak and as a result there's lots of bootleg liquor.The day has ended''<br> ''Hasn't it been splendid?'' <br>Straight away''But now, it's evident that Sam is a man of few words. He has the mannerisms of a cat - stealthytime, quick on his feet. Heto be sure''s also a compulsive chain-smoker, but then again, most people were. In that era, holding a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessory. How times have changed.|amazonuk=<amazonukbr>140911323X''For an entirely different adventure'' </amazonukbr>}}

{{newreview|author=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester Clark|title=The Best of Times|rating=4I hope you haven't forgotten how it feels to be much too excited for bed.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Most children enjoy If you're a good traditional tale and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems parent at least, you'll know how it is to have all the right ingredients – a handsome prince and a beautiful princess who fall in love, get married and live happily ever after. Or do they? Sadly, not long after Prince Frederico marries the lovely Princess Serafina, she becomes very sad. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadnesspersuade an excited small person that yes, but poor Prince Frederico it is desperate to find a cure in fact time for his wifebed. 's misery'What Wonders DoYou See. He tries everything in his power and eventually decides ..'' sets out to offer his kingdom cater to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies these children. Instead of trying to persuade them that night time is a calm time, it takes a broken heartslightly different tack. Lots It tells them that sleep is actually an exciting time: a time of people come to dreams in which imagination takes over and has no limit. But the palace trick in accessing this wonderful and exciting world is to try get calm and relaxed first so that you can easily fall asleep and help but in open the end the solution is a simple one provided by some very kind travellersdoor to it. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>194812422X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley JacksonMichael Harris|title=We Have Always Lived Solitude: In The CastlePursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionLifestyle|summary=Mary Katherine BlackwoodThis is not the book I was expecting it to be. For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, also known as Merricathow to step outside the mainstream, but it is eighteen, and lives with her older sister Constance in not that at all. Instead of telling us how it is more about the family home where 'Blackwoods had always lived'why''. Merricat quickly draws the reader into her world by Harries examines how we're eroding solitude, which used to be a series natural part of matter of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include her sister and death cap mushroomsour human life, and everyone else in her family is deadwhy that matters. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept the house 'steady against the world' Of course, shutting out other he talks about how some peoplehave found solitude and what has come of that, and they live near a village. Merricat believes that 'The people eventually in the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out, but mostly he wanders down the village have always hated us', alleys and tells us by-ways that she hates them toohis thinking about this lost art led him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>1847947662

 {{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 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 has no sense of direction, a frog who thinks he'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=<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 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=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Katherine May|title=Burning Out|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Violet has it all – a well-paid job, and a luxurious apartment all to herself. Everything is catered for; her meals, her clothes, and her health are all how she would like them to be. But the life she is leading is beginning to take its toll. On the verge of snapping, a drained and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back to her home town. There, she meets someone familiar, a ghost reminding her of how she used to be ten years earlier – a young carefree girl, full of life. Only this isn't a ghost, but a girl living the life Violet once lived – exactly the same. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself and is convinced events will happen again. Events that will in turn haunt the girl.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Amanda Downum|title=The Drowning City|rating=3.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=In a nutshell, you're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City is good, bad or mediocre. You've probably glanced at the rating and guessed the latter. I'm afraid it's not quite that simple. This is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelings. I started off convinced that I was going to love this book. The cover art is effortlessly cool, the premise intriguing, the characters laden with potential for greatness and the backdrop is certainly evocative.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>}} {{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: police, 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 Cardellini) 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 It's when we read that a young boy is married creeping reluctantly to successful video game designer Marcus Raine. Or so she thinks. But when her husband fails to return from work, she realises a teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrong. Going to his office to try 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 Nowadays you ''might'' hope that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, something would be done about it fairly quickly but this was 1965 and the man she married child abuse was using a false identity. Infuriated by generally regarded as malicious mischief on the betrayal, and part of the realisation child. The boy would be safe that shenight though - albeit in the most horrific fashion. When he reached Captain Edmund's been living a lie for bedroom he found the man dead on the past five yearsfloor, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied to her for so longthe top of his skull missing. Ignoring police warnings, she delves deeper and deeper into The school's initial reaction was that this was a nasty underworld, and finds dreadful accident: there had been a tale which has its roots cull of kangaroos in Prague some nearby fields and rivals anything she could have plotted in one of her novelsit was obviously a stray bullet that had killed the Captain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa McMann1786695227|title=WakeInvisible in a Bright Light|author=Sally Gardner|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Janie is seventeen and studying hard for college. She's also working lots The beginning of hours at this excellent story will leave the reader more than a local nursing home to earn money for college as it's unlikely her alcoholic mother little confused: who is going to provide much the man in the way green suit, what is the Reckoning, and why are rows of resourcespeople in a cave? But stick with it – Ms. College Gardner is Janie's only chance at a life better than very cleverly letting us experience the one she's lived so far and so you can't blame her for being so single-minded same disorientation as our heroine. We watch in dismay as the pursuit of strange man, who seems to have no eyes, does his best to persuade her goalto answer his questions. Only one thing stands in But for some reason, Celeste, despite her way..bewilderment, remains wary and gives nothing away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jaclyn Moriarty 1912374854|title=The Spell Book of Listen TaylorViolet|author=S J I Holliday

|genre=TeensThrillers|summary=Listen TaylorI's father has just moved ve never been but understand that travelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in with his girlfriend and they are adopted into the Zing familyoften chance situations. Well, with all of its delightful eccentricities and unusual behaviour – that's exactly what happens when the Zings two main/only characters meet every Friday night in a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to get a refund on an extra ticket for dinner the Trans-Siberian train and then disappear into the garden shed Violet is trying to work on unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the 'Zing Family Secret'same sold-out journey. Marbie Zing is terrified of doing something wrong As the two team up, travelling through Mongolia, Serbia and losing Nathaniel and Listen. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with her home lifeinto Russia, and her daughterit could's year two teacher is coming to terms with ve been the start of a beautiful friendship but this a break up. The stories of these people come together to create thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale of lifeobsession, lovemanipulation, and ultimately, what being part of a family meanstoxic friendships.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=F G Cottam1912374838|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 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>}} {{newreviewNothing Important Happened Today|author=Jon Berkeley|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)Will Carver|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=I shall start with a word of advice. When you're being hounded by a circus master, and a magician, for the soul of a tiger that's contained in a tiger's egg that's contained in the brain of your teddy bear, and your best friend - a fallen angel - is trying 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 trilogy. Still - never mind, the angel's efforts will involve you entering a dream world of flight and cloud cities, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world to desert oases and back, and friends new and old will be on board to help.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sue Townsend|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years|rating=5

|summary=Adrian Mole Nothing Important Happened Today is now 39¼ and livinga dark, quite literallytwisted, in a pigstydifficult read. Stories about cults often are, sharing an all too thin party wall but this is different; it's written 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 sense of style 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 quite unlike anything I've read before. I can'Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needs. And yett remember ever having read a novel with such an odd, the worst is still to comedistinctive narrative voice. Think While a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairsslim and relatively small book, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over slow-moving nature of the big C – plot makes 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 himfeel far larger than its 276 pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lauren Katewilliamabbey|title=FallenThe Pursuit of William Abbey|author=Claire North|rating=43.5|genre=TeensParanormal|summary=A 17 year old girl at When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking young boy, who shein 1880's immediately drawn toSouth Africa, he finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to herA naïve English Doctor, until he saves her lifeslowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, and as the two shadow of them end up drawn togetherthe dead boy begins to follow him across the world. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight''Never stopping, but always growing – it certainly has striking similaritiescrosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of William.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gareth Hinds1643785036|title=King Lear|rating=3|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Hound me out of town in a most appropriate manner, but 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>}} {{newreviewThe Wondrous Apothecary|author=Paul Theroux|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in CalcuttaMary E Martin|rating=3.54

|summary=Set in IndiaThose who have known Alexander Wainwright, familiar territory the landscape artist famous for Theroux, his Turner prize-winning ''A Dead HandThe Hay Wagon'' tells , and Rinaldo, the story of a travel writer suffering from writerrenowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and cheese, if not sworn enemies. If you's block (also known ve watched the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, you'dead hand') until a chance letter from an American ex-patd have said that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright was at the mysterious Mrs Ungersocially acceptable end of the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo, relating it was all too obvious that there was but a story fine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance. As time has worn on, he's frequently been brought to the attention of a mystery the police. On this latest occasion, we see him charged with arson and theft of a dead body in a hotel leads him to release his creativity in very unexpected ways. ''The story is more about obsession and infatuation than it is about the mystery itself as the narrator falls under Mrs UngerHay Wagon''s Tantric charms. But does she have more to hide than she's letting on?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Toby Lester|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>}} {{newreview|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>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andy Stanton|title=What's For Dinner, Mr Gum?|rating=4Mary H.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 placeK. 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 WomenChoi|title=Here Come the GirlsPermanent Record

|genre=Home and FamilyTeens|summary=This is the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV seriesPablo, ''Loose Women''. Just as promised on the covera college drop-out, this book is an entertaining night with the girlsworking at a New York bodega. It turns out that theyHe're just like us. The faces are already familiar and even if you dons massively in debt, he't know them yets avoiding his mother, and he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with nine contributorsrandom ingredients! Whilst working one evening, youhe'll soon find s surprised to discover that the girl he is chatting with as he serves is a likesuper-minded woman behind one of the celebrity facesfamous pop star and, as unlikely as it may seem, they start a relationship. The women are universally warm-hearted With one character who is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone and supportive: there will be many a lonely woman the other who reads this book is seen and feels followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, it's an interesting clash as if she sat down with they come together. This isn't just a group of friends for love story though, and actually it's really just Pab's story, about the eveningjourney he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smart.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>0349003459

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure1609809319|title=Fortune CookieLong-Haired Cat-Boy Cub|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)|rating=4.5

|summary=Fudge Cassidy and One day a boy is in the Cupcake kid are best friends. If the names remind you of a certain film then you'd be spot on as that's where Fudge's zoo with his father got when the idea from. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge 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 a lot man gets called away on her plateurgent business. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obvious. Add to this that her father couldnThe boy isn't cope with the problems hustled into a cab and taken home first, though, no – he now has another family. It's just Cupcakegiven hot dog money, Joey and her mother – and not a lot of taxi 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 the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined told to become 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), just stick around on his own and became Queen in 1777enjoy himself. A conscientious womanWell, she had it's no surprise that the misfortune to be born in during orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn'age t make him happy, and so he thinks of reason'a species name for himself, when church and state curls himself up into an empty cage as if he were vying for supremacya new exhibit. Instinctively a supporter of And it's then 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>drama begins…

 {{newreview|author=David Hughes|title=Thomas Wogan is Dead|rating=4.5Frontpage|genreisbn=Graphic Novels1785785516|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>}} {{newreviewFucking Good Manners|author=Dave Eggers|title=The Wild ThingsSimon Griffin

|genre=General FictionLifestyle|summary=Meet MaxManners maketh man, they say. When I say he sometimes gets the wrong end It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set of conventions, some of the stick which are ages old and others which have evolved over time. Manners are not about adultshow much to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or dislikes his motherfinancial status: they's new boyfriend, or gets a bit feisty when he feels re about getting the need for revenge, I am certainly understating the facts. He is a bit of a rascal basics right before we try to say the leastdeal with more difficult matters. But Of course, we all that might change have more relaxed manners when he finds himself travelling we're with family and friends, but it's best if we learn to a strange land of roisterous animals, distinguish between our public and private lives and ends up installed as their kingto act appropriately. ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on the way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>