132,568
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchBook Reviews From The Bookbag (view source)
Revision as of 14:21, 19 February 2020
, 14:21, 19 February 2020no edit summary
<h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>
Hello from The Bookbag, a 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 [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews at TheBookbag.
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)1838593187|title=The Honjin MurdersGuess What I Found in the Playground!|author=Victoria Thompson|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeFor Sharing|summary=To many readersTilly is excited. She's just come dashing out of the classroom, the phrase pigtails flapping behind her and a big grin on her face. Dad's come to collect her and her brother and he ''has'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make try to guess what she found in the book one playground today, although she concedes that he will never guess. Dad wants to read; preferably quantified by the words know how school was, but ''cleverobviously' or 'goodthat's not important. For those who need Could Tilly have found more collectable things for her scrap box? (Isn't that so much moresensible than a scrap ''book''?) Well, actually, here is the extra background – we're in rural Japan in the 1930sTilly did find exciting stuff. The oldest son There are sequins, glittered paper and all sorts of an esteemed family is belatedly getting marriedother things in her pocket, although the whole affair is really but that's not as ostentatious as what she wants Dad to guess.}}{{Frontpage|author= Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed|title= Yes No Maybe So |rating= 4|genre= Teens|summary= ''We might give it our all and crash and burn. But we might be – hardly anybody win. We might actually change things. And that maybe makes it still worth going for, don't you think?''Jaime has turned up, what been spending his summer helping his cousin with it being arranged at great hastecampaigning in time for a special election. She only has an uncle representing her familyWhen his mother encourages him to go canvassing, for one thinghe can't think of anything worse. Either wayHowever, Jaime has always wanted to be a politician and decides there is no time like the celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple present to be slashed conquer his fear of speaking to death in their private annex before the sun rises on their marriagepublic. What with Maya is a man missing parts Pakistani-American Muslim girl who is having the worst summer of his fingers being in her life. Her parents are going through a separation, she has zero plans for the neighbourhoodsummer to help take her mind off things and her only close friend is permanently busy. To help occupy her, and some mysterious use of her parents offer to buy her a traditional musical instrument at car if she agrees to go canvassing. The pair could possibly be the time worst canvassing duo in history, as neither of them really want to be there, but as the crimecampaign goes on they discover that they care, this case has a lot of , about the peculiar election - and maybe even about it.each other?|isbn=17822750021471184668
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Cixin LiuGregg Hurwitz|title=Death's EndInto The Fire
|rating=5
|genre=Science FictionThrillers|summary= If I'd been paying more attention when I picked this book up, I would have put it back on the shelfGrant Merriweather is a forensic accountant. Not because I didn't want to read itOr rather, but because I'd have figured out that it was the final part of a trilogy. Coming in part way through a saga is never He was brought into an ER room after an alleged car crash, his friend pleading with the easiest thing medics to do and it's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are not keep him alive. He was needed alive just people whose names mean nothing long enough to you (when it's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won't understandgive up a name. This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's work – his range is phenomenal. George R R Martin, who knows a thing or two about world-creationHis cousin, described it as ''a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory and cosmology''. All of that and moreMax.|isbn=17849716500718185501
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17808945111529124395|title=Die AloneWhen You See Me|author=Simon KernickLisa Gardner
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=For Janet and Chuck, it was a hiking break in the Appalachians in Georgia and pure chance that Chuck went off the beaten track to find a stick. What he found was a human bone and SSA Kimberley Quincy was called in, along with Sergeant D D Warren. Both women were experienced in this type of rather gruesome work but they also called on the services of Keith Edgar, a computer analyst, and Flora Dane who brought something unique to the table. Flora had been kidnapped and held for 472 days by the notorious killer, Jacob Ness. If Ness had anything to do with the current discoveries then what Flora had to say could be invaluable.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529009677
|title=A Window Breaks
|author=C M Ewan
|rating=3.5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Ray Mason is in prison awaiting trial for murder Tom Sullivan and hehis wife Rachel are having problems. It's in not just the vulnerable prisoner unit: as usual growing apart after more than a cop he's something decade of a targetmarriage. Their son, Michael, but the unit is not as secure as the inmates would have hoped and Mason is injured was killed in a riot. On car crash some months before: he was driving his way to hospital hefather's broken free by armed men Audi and an offer is made at sixteen wasn't legally entitled to himdrive. He's to assassinate Not only did he kill himself when the man who is likely to become the country's next prime minister and car rammed into a tree, but healso killed his girlfriend, fifteen-year-old Fiona Connor. Tom can'll then be given t think about Michael without a new identity so that he can start afresh abroadsense of shame and guilt. His captors say that they're MI6Rachel is broken, but Mason has his doubtsshe wants to forgive Michael. His choices are limited though and he has personal reasons To give some space, Tom's moved out of the family home, but stresses to believe his thirteen-year-old daughter, Holly, that it would be better if Alastair Sheridan was deadis only a trial separation.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Akwaeke Emezi0241985153|title=PetThe House on the Lake|author=Nuala Ellwood|rating=43.5|genre=TeensThrillers|summary=The people of the town Lucille believe We know that all the monsters are something has gone. Their children are raised to understand that they were saved by wrong - badly wrong - when the angels, those woman who rid was alone in the house is taken away by the town of evilpolice, and there are no monsters anymore. But one day, Jam accidentally cuts herself, and bleeds a little onto one of her motherbut it's paintings. The blood awakens going to be a bizarre, terrifying-looking creature named Pet, who somehow comes to life and declares that it is here to hunt the monsterwhile before we learn exactly what has happened. Though Jam tries to convince it that all the monsters are gone, Pet is certain that there is one, still, and that the monster is hiding in the home of her best friend, Redemption.|isbn=0571355110
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1686751680Struan Murray and Manuel Sumberac (illustrator)|title=My Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres|author=Amelie Julien and GustyawanOrphans of the Tide|rating=45|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=Which child doesn't think that there mother is, wellIn the last city on Earth, ''weird''? It might anyone can be that in the morning their mother doesn't like speaking much, when every selfvessel of The Enemy - the god who drowned the world -respecting child knows that that is when you're at your brightest with lots who has come to say? ''Why'' then does Mummy stick her fingers in her ears? Then there's doing yoga in front wreak havoc on the last of humanity. When a mysterious boy is pulled from the televisioncorpse of a whale, which could the citizens immediately believe him to be worrying if it wasn't so funnythe Vessel - all except for young Ellie Lancaster, a girl inventor. We won't go into too much detail about what goes on in As the bathroom and ruthless Inquisition prepares to execute the colour changes which have occured when Mummy emerges and franklyboy, the less said the better about Ellie must prove that he is innocent - even if it means revealing her reactions to your artistic efforts on the walldeepest, darkest secrets.... I mean, what else would you use paint for?|isbn=0241384435
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Justine Avery and Liuba Syrotiuk0008297169|title=What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?The Guest List|author=Lucy Foley|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=''The day has ended''<br>''Hasn't it been splendid?'' <br>''But nowboat trip out to Inis Amploir, it's timeoff the Irish coast, might have been enough to be sure'' <br>''For an entirely different adventure'' <br> I hope you haven't forgotten how put some guests off, but it feels to be much too excited for bedwas the wedding of the year. If you're Will Slater (television personality, if not yet a parent at leastcelebrity) was to marry Jules Keegan, you'll know how it is to persuade an excited small person that yesonline magazine publisher, it is in fact time for bedthe ruined chapel on the island. The bride''What Wonders DoYou See...'' sets out to cater to these children. Instead of trying to persuade them that night time is calm times sister, Olivia, it takes a slightly different tack. It tells them that sleep is actually an exciting time: a time of dreams in which imagination takes over would be her only bridesmaid and has no limit. But the trick in accessing this wonderful wedding planner and chef are Aoife and exciting worldher husband, is Freddy. They gave a huge discount to get calm and relaxed first so that you can easily fall asleep and open the door couple to the island, but surely it would be worth it. |isbn=194812422X for the publicity?
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Michael HarrisB07ZGL6B1B|title=Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded WorldPlain Sight (D I Clare Mackay)|author=Marion Todd|rating=4.5|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary= This is not It was a coincidence that Detective Sergeant Chris West and DI Clare Mackay were at the beach when the baby was stolen. They were there for the book I fun run and their attention was expecting it taken by the NEFEW protesters who tried to bedisrupt the race. For some reason I expected it They're against the planned McIntosh Water bottled water plant to be another self-help manual constructed on how to find calm, how to step outside Priory Marsh and the mainstream, but it firm is not that at allsponsoring the fun run. It was Lisa Mitchell's scream which stopped everything. Instead of telling us howHer daughter, six-month-old Abi, it is more about the had been taken from her pram whilst no one was looking. It's a major incident when 'why'any'. Harries examines how we're eroding solitude, which used to be child is abducted but Abi needs regular medication because of a natural part of our human lifeheart problem: without it, and why that matters. Of course he talks about how some people she might have found solitude and what has come of that, and eventually in the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out, but mostly he wanders down the alleys and byonly forty-ways that his thinking about this lost art led himeight hours to live.|isbn=1847947662
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Andy Briggs1471180921|title=Ctrl+SFirewatching|author=Russ Thomas
|rating=5
|genre=Science FictionCrime|summary= Life Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler is in the near futureCold Cas Review Unit at South Yorkshire Police and there are those who think that he's not all badlucky to be there, given that he decked a superior officer. We He's there because Tyler came off worse in the exchange - there've reversed global warming s a scar on his face to prove it - and fixed the collapsing bee populationsuperior officer was forced to take early retirement. We even created SPACE, There's a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. But almost anything isnsuggestion too that Tyler's godmother (she't enough for some. Every day, normal people are being taken, their emotions harvested - s on the force too) has looked after him and lives traded - that his current boss is keen to have a tame gay to create death-defying thrills for put on the rich and twisted. Now Theo’s mother has disappearedtown hall steps come Pride. And as he follows her breadcrumb trail of clues Either way, he'll come up against the most dangerous SPACE has to offer: vPolices there, AI Bots and anarchists - as well as a criminal empire that will kill but without anything really interesting to stop him finding her . . get his teeth into.|isbn=1409184641
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1609809378A K Larkwood|title=The Rabbits' Rebellion|author=Ariel Dorfman and Chris RiddellUnspoken Name|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary=We're in the realm of What does it mean to betray someone? What if that someone is a god? Csorwe has been raised knowing that she would be sacrificed to her god on her fourteenth birthday, yet when the rabbitsopportunity arises, only the foxes she chooses to abandon everything she knows and wolves have taken overflee with her life. King Wolf, His Wolfiness, has declared the rabbits donWho can blame her? Her god't exist, 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 humble monkey s reach is limited and Csorwe intends to be his official portrait photographerstay far beyond it, but whatever the poor innocent monkey prints out in his darkroom there yet fate is a distinct leporine hint. Can King Wolf succeed in proving himself victorious, can funny thing and when circumstances bring her back within the rabbits show their continued existence to all who need to know reach of it – her god Csorwe learns that her god remembers her, and what can the poor monkey caught in between do?blames her very much indeed.|isbn=1250238900
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Innosanto NagaraM G Leonard and Sam Sedgman|title=M is for MovementThe Highland Falcon Thief|rating=45|genre=Emerging Confident Readers|summary=Set in IndonesiaHarrison Beck, in the not too distant pastor Hal as he prefers to be called, isn't exactly pleased when his parents send him off with his uncle Nat, a travel writer, this is on a story about social changelong train journey. Dealing with some difficult issuesAlthough, such as political corruption and nepotismthis isn't any old train; this is the Highland Falcon, the book royal train, and this is neither boring nor preachyits last ever journey before it gets sent to a museum. It educates gentlyA number of high-society figures, including film stars, with vibrantmillionaires and aristocrats, challenging illustrationswill be on this train, and so it portrays how is quite the event on the social movements need people who will trycalendar. However, even when it seems an expensive brooch is stolen, Hal realises that they will failmaybe this trip won't be as boring as he previously thought. The message is a positive one; that in an increasingly uncertain worldAs the passengers begin to turn on each other, we do still have Hal vows to get to the bottom of the mystery…before the power train gets to instigate changethe end of the line.|isbn=16098093511529013062
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17807240470008275246|title=A Dictionary of Interesting and Important DogsPerfect Kill (D I Callanach)|author=Peter J ConradiHelen Fields
|rating=4
|genre=PetsCrime|summary=I struggle to resist a book about dogsWhen Maggie Campbell realised that her son, Bart, but I did wonder why this one was so ''thin'': given that I've never encountered missing he was already 200 miles away and just waking from a dog who wasn't interesting or important chemically- and probably both, I induced sleep. Maggie knew straight away that something was expecting a massive tomewrong. But ''A Dictionary Bart might be twenty but he was considerate of Interesting his mother and Important Dogswouldn't have stayed out all night without letting her know. Besides, he didn' is actually ''a rich compendium of the world's most significant t have his phone with him and beloved dogshe wouldn'' and itt have gone far without that. It's certainly a rich treasure trove. We begin with Peter J Conradinot long before Bart realises that he's four collies: Cloudyalone, Sky. Bradley trapped in a shipping container and Max. They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogson his way to France, but what comes over is Conradi's love for each and every one of them. I knew that I was in safe handswhere his fate has already been decided.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1785769294Alyssa Sheinmel|title=Man at the Window (Detective Cardilini)|author=Robert JeffreysWhat Kind of Girl|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeWomen's Fiction|summary=It's ' Doing something when we read that a young boy you're scared is creeping reluctantly to a teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise braver than doing something is badly wrong. Nowadays when you 're not'might' When Mike Parker' hope that something would be done about s girlfriend comes into school with a black eye, claiming he gave it fairly quickly but this was 1965 to her, her whole world is tipped upside down. Her relationship has just ended and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on now she's the part talk of the childschool. The Mike was the most popular boy would be safe in school who was always so in love with her, everyone knew that night though - albeit in the most horrific fashion. When , so why did he do what he reached Captain Edmunddid? Some people believe her and some don's bedroom he found the man dead on the floort, but one thing is for sure, the top of his skull missing. The schoolthis isn's initial reaction was that this was a dreadful accident: there had been a cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields and it was obviously a stray bullet which had killed the Captaint going to blow over any time soon.|isbn=0349003297
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786695227Holly Rivers|title=Invisible in a Bright Light|author=Sally GardnerDemelza and the Spectre Detectors|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=The beginning Demelza Clock is a scientist, often staying up late to work on her various gadgets, much to her Grandma Maeve's irritation. However, she has also inherited a certain set of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a little confusedskills that are not especially scientific: who is Spectre Detecting, the man in ability to summon the green suit, what is the Reckoning, and why are rows ghosts of people in a cave? But stick with it – Ms Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience the same disorientation as our heroinerecently deceased. We watch in dismay as Under the strange manguidance of her Grandma Maeve, who seems Demelza begins to have no eyesmaster her newfound skills. However, does his there is a mysterious individual on the prowl, kidnapping young Spectre Detectors. It's up to Demelza and her best friend Percy to persuade her get to answer his questionsthe bottom of this.. But for some reason Celeste, despite her bewilderment, remains wary and gives nothing away.|isbn=1912626039
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19123748541787477533|title=VioletThe Lantern Men (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=S J I HollidayElly Griffiths|rating=3.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=IEverything has changed for Dr Ruth Galloway. She've never been but understand that travelling is all about meeting new people s no longer providing assistance to the police and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situationsisn't even working at the University of North Norfolk. Well that She's exactly what happens when the two main/only characters meet in a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to get a refund on an extra ticket for the Trans-Siberian train lecturing at Cambridge and Violet is trying has moved from her beloved Saltmarsh cottage to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the same sold-out journeylive with Dr Frank Barker in Cambridge. As the two team up Her daughter, travelling through MongoliaKatie, Serbia has settled into school better than she could ever have hoped and into Russialife is looking good. Settled. She can't help thinking about Harry Nelson, it couldKatie've been the start of a beautiful friendship but this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale of obsessions father, manipulation because Katie sees him regularly and toxic friendshipsthere's a close relationship with his family. You might ''almost'' think that Ruth's life is settling down.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1912374838183895015X|title=Nothing Important Happened TodayA Bit of a Stretch: The Diaries of a Prisoner|author=Will CarverChris Atkins|rating=45|genre=General FictionPolitics and Society|summary=Nothing Important Happened Today is a darkDocumentary filmmakers don't usually get the run of establishments within the Mountbatten-Windsor Hotel Group, twistedbut after getting involved in an illegal tax scheme to fund his latest film, difficult readChris Atkins was invited for a five-year stay. Stories about cults often are The first nine months were spent in HMP Wandsworth, but this which is different; it's written with a sense of style that is quite unlike anything I've read before. I can't remember ever having read a novel with such an oddprobably the oldest, distinctive narrative voice. While a slim largest and relatively small book, the slow-moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pagesmost dysfunctional prison in Europe.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn= williamabbey1250168546|titleauthor=The Pursuit of William AbbeySarah Kozloff|authortitle=Claire NorthA Queen In Hiding|rating=3.5|genre=ParanormalFantasy|summary=When William Abbey fails to prevent World-building is the lynching of a young boy in 1880's South Africa, he finds himself cursed backbone by the grieving motherwhich fantasy novels live and die. A naïve English DoctorAnd what a pleasure, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon himthen, as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the get a novel with world-building you actually want to delve into. Never stoppingSarah Kozloff's debut novel presents a startlingly rich and layered world, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit with a complex history of William. As he finds himself unable connecting nations that seems certain to have more to resist speaking the truths that he hears in otherstap, he also learns that and the dark shadow is deadly characters are interesting – if a little underdeveloped. But it's a world I could – and did – eagerly buy into, and seeks the struggle of each Queen to kill the one he loves the most…discover and hone her magical talent felt very real and very apt.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=16437850361543987877|title=The Wondrous ApothecaryLearn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life|author=Mary E MartinDr Thomas Jordan|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionLifestyle|summary=Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay WagonLearn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life'', is a book about love relationships rather than a book about love. The two greatest emotions are love and grief and Rinaldo, renowned conceptual artist would say that theylove is the opposite of grief: ''re chalk and cheese, if not sworn enemies. If youlove''ve watched the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie HelmsworthDr Thomas Jordan tells us, ''youwill inevitably grieve''d have said that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright was at Your love relationships begin the socially acceptable moment you're born and end of only when you die. Whilst we all come into the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo it was all too obvious that world hoping to give and receive love there was but a fine dividing line between conceptual art are many people for whom love is not quite so simple. Some people suffer multiple disappointments - sometimes repeating the same mistakes - and public nuisancethis eventually becomes resignation. As time has worn onFor people who are making the same mistakes repeatedly, he's frequently been brought to self-preservation, in the attention form of the police. On this latest occasion we see him charged with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''resignation is a necessity.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Mary H.K. ChoiChris Hauty|title=Permanent RecordDeep State|rating=43|genre=TeensThrillers|summary=Pablo, a college drop-out, Hayley Chill is working at a New York bodegafighter. He's massively She is every kind of fighter, and well-trained in debt, hemost of them. She's avoiding his motherarmy infantry and she boxes for fun – and she wins. Always. She wins because she is focussed. She works hard, mentally and he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one eveningphysically, he's surprised and she knows how to discover that deal with the girl he pain. She is chatting with not so much cold as he serves is a super-famous pop star and, as unlikely as it may seem, they start a relationshipcontrolled. With one character who This fight is against someone she is trying very hard not expected to be seen or noticed by anyone, and the other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, it's an interesting clash as they come togetherbeat. This isn't just a love story though, and actually it's really just Pab's story, about the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna SmartAnd she is being watched.|isbn=03490034591471185605
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1609809319H G Parry |title=Long-Haired Cat-Boy Cub|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=One day Brothers Rob and Charley have struggled to see eye to eye for years - Rob a boy is sensible lawyer who exists in the zoo "normal" world - and Charley a man who is blessed with his father, when the man gets called away on urgent business. The boy isnan ability he can't hustled fully control - one which allows him to bring literary characters into a cab and taken home first, though, no – he's given hot dog money, and taxi moneythe real world. After years of protecting Charley, Rob wants to discharge his duties and told leave Charley to just stick around on his own and enjoy himselfdevices - but circumstances soon take choices out of both their hands. WellAs literary characters begin to appear everywhere, itsoon becomes clear that someone out there shares Charley's no surprise that powers and intends to use them for nefarious gains. Rob and Charley must team up to stop the orphanmadness -for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn't make him happy, and so he thinks of in a species name for himselfbattle to win before they, the characters and curls himself up into an empty cage, as if he were a new exhibit. And it's then the drama begins… world reach The End…|isbn=0356513777
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17857855161444776185|title=Fucking Good MannersHaven't they Grown|author=Simon GriffinSophie Hannah|rating=4.5|genre=LifestyleThrillers|summary=Manners maketh manIt was when Beth Leeson was ferrying her son, Ben, they sayto a football match that she found herself on Wyddial Lane in Hemingford Abbots. Actually, It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by 's a little disingenuous to say 'found herself' as Beth had made a set deliberate detour on the grounds that she didn't find herself in this neck of conventions, some of which are ages old the woods very often and other which have evolved over time. Manners are not about how much she was curious to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: see where a family who'd come into money had lived before they're about getting the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult mattersd all lost contact twelve years ago. Of course we all And it might have more relaxed manners when we're gone no further than that had Beth not seen a car draw up and her friend Flora get out along with family two children she called Thomas and friends, Emily. Beth remembered the names well - but itthese children were about three and five and Flora's best if we learn to distinguish between our public children - Thomas and private lives Emily - would now be fifteen and to act appropriately. ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on the wayseventeen.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083248591529123763|title=Fowl TwinsMiss Austen|author=Eoin ColferGill Hornby
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersHistorical Fiction|summary=Relax, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be off planet, but It's long been known that Cassandra Austen burned most of the baddies aren't getting away with skulduggery any time soon because they now have not one but two letters which she and other members of the Fowl extensive Austen family to contend had exchanged withor about her sister Jane. Those cute little twins are now eleven ( What is not known is ''why'' she did this and, frankly, cute no longer) and in at this, their first independent adventure, they meet a troll and without even trying manage to make stage - more than two deadly enemies: hundred years after Jane's death - a nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever the cost (definitive answer is unlikely to other people), and an unusual interrogator-nunforthcoming. The boys are chased, kidnapped, arrested and even killed (though not for long), all Gill Hornby has provided us with the help of one trainee fairysome possible answers in a book that proved to be far more emotionally complex than I was expecting.
}}
