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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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==Reviews of the Best New ReviewsBooks=='''For new reviews by genre [[:Category:New Reviews|click here]].'''

'''For new features Read [[Features:Category:New Reviews|click herenew reviews by category]].'''__NOTOC__<br>

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul TherouxGrady Hendrix|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in CalcuttaThe Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires|rating=3.5|genre=General FictionHorror|summary=Set in India Women, familiar territory for Therouxby and large, have always been the subjugated sex. Throughout history, they have been confined to mere bit players who occasionally help hold up the powerful man and let nothing stand in his way. Grady Hendrix's new novel 'A Dead Hand'' tells the story of a travel writer suffering from writerThe Southern Book Club's block (also known as Guide to Slaying Vampires'dead hand') until a chance letter from gives women their due. It is an American ex-pat, the mysterious Mrs Unger, relating a story of a mystery of a dead body in a hotel leads him ode 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 Unger's Tantric charmsstrong selfless housewife. But does she have more Hendrix illustrates this by having them go toe to hide than she's letting on?toe with a predatory male vampire who moves into their quiet cul de sac.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>1683691431

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Toby Lester0008149089|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest MapCutting Place (DS Maeve Kerrigan)|author=Jane Casey|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=In 2003 a map It was bought for $10 million, Kim Weldon who found the first bits of the highest price ever paid publicly for body - she was a historical document, by the Library of Congress, where it is now mudlarker on permanent public display. No ordinary map, this is sometimes described as America's birth certificate. It is the sole survivor banks of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th century, Thames and was discovered by accident in some archives in when she turned over what looked like a German castle in 1901. The sale and story behind stick she realised it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired to discover morea hand, a right hand, and this book is the resultin fact.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steven Lowe DS Maeve Kerrigan 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=DI Josh Derwent''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floors team would later find three other body parts.'' Surely that is Identification of the wackiestbody was not going to be easy, but eventually, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch and all it has done for the world. You won't get any such nambywould be given a name -pamby animal likenesses from these authorsPaige Hargreaves, 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 hightwenty-eight-year-interestold freelance journalist. Her friend, high-riskBianca Drummond, high-lending capitalismanother journalist, so they can get back said that she was working on the expenses train, a story which she reckoned would be explosive - and back up she hadn't been willing to share any of the rich listsdetails with Bianca.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andy StantonJenny Valentine|title=What's For Dinner, Mr Gum?Hello Now

|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns Jude reluctantly moves to a small, quiet seaside town after her Mum and her backmost recent boyfriend split (making this their 13th post-breakup move) and settle into a big, and leaves old house overlooking the town of Lamonic Bibber for sea - which happens to contain a day at strange, old sitting tenant named Henry, who stays rooted in the seasidehouse like a ghost that just won't leave – or can't. As Jude settles into this new, Mr Gum falls out with his best friendseemingly mundane, causing carnivorous carnage all over reality she is consumed by a longing for her old life in London and anger at another forced change – but this will be the placelast time, she swears. Meat This world is getting thrown around like it's going out of fashionquiet, dull and we have to doubt whether Polly yet suffocating for Jude. That is until the day Novo arrives, and her companions can ever utilise entire concept of the power of love and put things to rights. Especially as this book does not contain a magic unicorn called Elizabethworld changes forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>0007466498

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Loose WomenB0867X8NW7|title=Here Come the GirlsAccess Point|author=T R Gabbay

|genre=Home and FamilyThrillers|summary=This is the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV series, When we first meet Ula Mishkin she's having something of a professional success: using a device of her own invention she'Loose Womens helped a man who has been blind for decades to see an image of a hummingbird. She''. Just s thirty-six years old and her life is about to change radically as promised on the cover, this book is cycling home, she's involved in an entertaining night accident with the girlsa bus. It turns out that they're just like us. The faces are already familiar s two years before we meet her again and even if you donin the meantime, she't know them yet, s spent 392 days in a coma and now walks with nine contributors, you'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one of the celebrity facesstick. The women are universally warm-hearted and supportive: there will be many a lonely woman who reads this book and feels as if A professional colleague persuades Ula that she sat down with should let out a group of friends for the eveningspare bedroom to bring in some income.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreBen Oliver|title=Fortune CookieThe Loop|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=Fudge Cassidy and Set during the Cupcake kid are best friends. If the names remind you aftermath of a certain film then you'd be spot on as that's Third World War where Fudge's father got methods of punishment for criminal activities have been amped up to a horrific level by machines, The Loop follows the idea fromprecarious existence of adolescent Luka Kane. They're actually chalk In a world of Have and cheese – Fudge Have Nots where Alts [cyborgs] have power over Regulars, he is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake trapped inside a living hell with no chance of escape. A detonator has been sewn inside his heart connecting him to a trigger held by the guards who can end his life with one squeeze. Luka is quiet taunted by limited access to his memories and thoughtful – but the combination worksrelentlessly drained of energy through a gruelling daily torture ritual. They've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather Doomed to Delay [a risky medical trial where he is a lot guinea pig for Alts in place of execution] after Delay he is in despair. His prison is based on her platethe model of an infinity loop designed to make its inmates suffer. Her brother Joey With the only glimmers of hope being the rumours of rebellion outside and the visits of sympathetic Alt guard Wren, can Luka ever be free? Why has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obvioushe been imprisoned? What waits for him if he can break the loop?|isbn=1912626551}}{{Frontpage|author= Kirsty Applebaum|title= Troofriend|rating= 4. Add 5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Are you tired of your child's classmates constantly being horrible to them? Do you want your child to this that her father couldn't cope have some positive experiences with people? Introducing the new Jenson & Jenson Troofriend 560 Mark IV android! These state-of-the-art machines are capable of emulating the problems and he now has another familyfull range of human emotions without lying, stealing or bullying. ItThey's re the perfect companion for any child! Any mention that these androids are beginning to develop real human feelings are just Cupcake, Joey unsubstantiated rumours and her mother – and not a lot of money.have absolutely no basis in reality…right?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>1788003470

 {{newreviewFrontpage |authorisbn=Jenifer Roberts1529123941 |title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalSilent Treatment |author=Abbie Greaves |rating=4.5|genre=BiographyGeneral Fiction |summary=Born in 1734 in LisbonWhen we meet Professor Frank Hobbs and his wife, Maggie, at that time the richest and most opulent city in EuropeFrank is playing chess against his computer, Maria was destined to become the first female monarch in Portuguese historyalthough not very successfully. Married to her uncle Infante PedroMaggie, seventeen years her senioron the other hand, she had six children (outliving all but one has just taken some pills - eight of them), in fact - and became Queen in 1777before long she will collapse. A conscientious woman, she had When Frank rings the misfortune to be born emergency services in during the 'age Oxford he has a bit of reasona problem. He has to admit that he and Maggie haven', when church and state were vying t actually spoken for supremacya while. Instinctively a supporter of the old religionHow long? Well, with a humanitarian approach it's about six months since he spoke to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, Maggie and wore he can't really say if it's likely that Maggie has tried to take her crown rather reluctantlyown life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HughesRob Harrell|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadWink

|summary=TrevorWhen Ross is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, aged 12, his desperate attempts at school to just be 's troublesome dognormal' become impossible. Suddenly he is the cancer kid, and everything he does, how he looks, and how he behaves falls under the scrutiny of the other kids in school. Ross is, Streakerunderstandably, has had three puppiesangry. They were fathered He is facing potential blindness, according whilst dealing with an eye sealed in a permanent wink. He has gloopy eye medicine to try to local bully Charlie Smugghelp with the pain, plus the need to wear a hat at all times to protect his face due to the ongoing treatment. With the sudden ghosting by one of his Alsatians. Trevor would ideally like to keep thembest friends, and a series of horrible memes that someone at least until Christmasschool creates about Ross, but nothing about his parents have other ideas life is normal any more, and put them up for sale. Charlie Smugg declares that he's entitled has 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 it's up find new ways to Trevor and deal with his best friend Tina to try feelings, and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!survive.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>1471409147

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Beth Durst1786485575|title=IceMagpie Lane|author=Lucy Atkins|rating=3.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Cassie lives on an Arctic research station in AlaskaWhen we first meet Dee she's talking to Nick Law, the new college master. She loves Law's lately of the ice BBC and the wilderness of her remote home and shehe doesn'd definitely prefer to spend her time on tracking polar bears and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing t come with her peers an entirely good reputation: he's a bit of a bully and enjoying college and home comforts back Dee can sense something of that in Fairbankstheir first conversation. However She had been planning to return home to Scotland before taking on a new job as a nanny, things aren't all rosybut somehow she finds herself going to see Mariah, the Danish wife of the master. Cassie She's mother died when she was just a pregnant and looking for help, not with the new baby and but with the master's daughter by his first wife, Ana. Felicity is selectively mute: she can't help feeling a huge hole in does talk to her heartfather, but to no one else. Her scientist father The eight-year-old is remote grieving for her dead mother and unloving and her grandmother left the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very youngstruggling at school. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Iain Smyth and Michael TerrySally Magnusson|title=The Wide-Mouthed FrogSealwoman's Gift

|genre=For SharingHistorical Fiction|summary=Do you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard it. It's There is a classic. It's one legend that you really need God came to tell visit Adam & Eve in personthe Garden. Eve had not finished bathing her children and ashamed of those still not cleansed, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide openshe attempted to hide them from the eyes of God, denying that she had more children that those, but already bathed, that she willing paraded for him. God was not to hopefully spark your memorybe deceived, however, and decreed that what was sought to be hidden from the eyes of God would henceforth be hidden from the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to a number eyes of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogsman, and so the frog does his best to disguise who he is whilst saying ''Ooh, you don't Elves were born: the hidden folk. They can see many of those round here, do you?'' I'm hardly doing it justiceman, but it's very cheesy and funny. Anyway, this is a book of that jokeman can only see them if they so choose.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>1473638984

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanWendy Cheyne |title=Don't Swallow Your GumFrom the Auld Rock to a Hard Place|rating=54|genre=LifestyleHistorical Fiction|summary='''BANG'''. That's After the Jacobite defeat at the sound Battle of copious urban myths being shot downCulloden, many Scottish estates were given to English lords. '''BANG'''They were not kind to their crofting tenants. That's Many on the sound of mainland were cleared and while this did not happen much on the old wives slamming the doorislands such as Shetland, as their tales get revealed as baseless. '''CLICK'''. That's the noise lots of illnew exploitative conditions led many Shetlanders to leave -informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant bookport cities on the mainland, to North America and even to Australia and New Zealand.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>1838591753

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Annie TaylorEle Fountain|title=VioletLost

|summary=Violet is a very special hippoLola lives in an Indian city with her father, and her brother, Amit. She is extremely small but that does lives with them in a nice apartment, and although they are not make rich like some of the girls at school, they have enough money to be comfortable. Lola spends her time thinking about her adoptive parents Albert school friends, and Mavis love trying to fit in with them, until one day, suddenly, everything in her any the lesslife changes. After taking a work trip away, Lola's father doesn't come home. However They have nobody else to help, and as they wait day after day, Lola wonders what will become of them until, finally, they are slightly worried that Violet has a very unusual habit of turning pink without warning evicted from their flat, and she and for no explicable reasonher brother find themselves forced to live on the streets.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>178269255X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary DixonN K Jemisin|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveThe City We Became|rating=4|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=Arthur Transcombe New York is being born, the city has reached critical mass and has matured into a middleliving almost-agedbreathing entity and is ready to make its way out into the world. Before it can be established, an ancient evil appears to attempt to destroy it just as it destroyed Atlantis and other forgotten places. The city is not alone through the birthing process, people who embody the values are selected to become the living embodiment of the city, grey-hairedsome cities have one, self-effacing poetsome have twelve and New York has six. Unremarkable really Together these human- on embodiments must defeat the outsidewoman in white and save New York from very real destruction. He hasBut these are five different boroughs which don't always see eye to eye, however, managed to achieve some success with his poems. (Being it's a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival personality clash on an epic scale and unity is no mean feat)both critical and not remotely guaranteed. He is also a babe magnet!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>0356512665

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A J Healy0241446732|title=Tommy Storm Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and the Galactic KnightsSvante Thunberg|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=Meet Tommy StormThe Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. He's one Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of five teenagers snapped up from around the universe to be a gang parenting of heroic detectives charged with rescuing EVERYTHING from destructiontheir two daughters. Not just the planetThen eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, or the solar systemBeata, or even the galaxythen nine years old, but EVERYTHINGstruggled with what was happening. Nobody seems to know whatIn such circumstances, it's going natural to seek a solution close to cause this destructionhome, or whenbut eventually, but he and his friends and their ship seem it became clear to be the only family that they were ''burned-out people proactively going about saving the dayon a burned-out planet''. So it's a pity that If they start this book strung up by were to find a nasty loony who's about way to live happily again their solution would need to kill thembe radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Graham McCann|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-Thomas|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=When I was in my early teens, it sometimes seemed as if Terry-Thomas was one of the stars of almost every other five-star British comedy film around. He was certainly one of the most recognizable characters of all with his gap-toothed grin, cigarette holder and inimitable 'Hel-lo!', 'Hard cheese!', and best of all, the angry, 'You're an absolute shower!'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Jay Parker178730101X|title=Stop MeKeep Him Close|author=Emily Koch

|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoyingAlice had two children: Benny (well, Benoît, but most of us will have had to deal with themactually) and Louis. Fortunately, we can hit the delete button Lou's seventeen and he's just got his A level results and he and forget about them as quickly as they camehis brother are going out to celebrate. I certainly prefer not Someone has to find something to torture my friends by sending such rubbish oncelebrate in the letters, D, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I don'tD and E. But I wonder how many of us would react if Alice has always had a spam Egood relationship with nineteen-year-Mail actually was old Benny but it's a matter of life touch problematic with Lou and deathbeing honest, rather than just claiming he's not terribly likeable. The letters which kept coming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>my mind were ADHD.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeanette Winterson0241396840|title=The Battle of the Sun|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city is a busy, bustling place. Boats fill the river and people fill the streets. Jack is happy because it's his birthday and his present is his heart's desire: an excitable black puppy named Max, who's a ''licking and a running and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy in the air and a tail wagging and a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>}}  {{newreviewKeeper|author=Jean Ure|title=Love and KissesJessica Moor

|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Tamsin and Katie were just thirteen and worried that they were boring. TheyStraw worked in the women'd been best friends since forever s refuge and were the good girls. Neither missed school, skipped women who lived there liked and respected her homework nor had boyfriends. Well, that is, not so far. Up until then Tamsin had been the boffin head – consistently strong academically She treated them well and looking forward seemed to have an understanding of what they were going on to universitythrough. All that seemed to change when Why then did she met Alex. Well, when I say 'met' I should perhaps clarify and say that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow jump from the local suicide spot into her, from the building site where he worked. river below? Oh, and did I mention There had been no signs that he she was seventeen, Polish unhappy and she and spoke very little English?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Henry Mintzberg|title=Managing|rating=5|genre=Business her boyfriend seemed to have been content together - and Finance|summary=''Study after study Noah has shown that managers work at an unrelenting pace'' How true, though it always makes me wonder why, as a resultdecent alibi for the time when she died, but what other explanation could there's such a market be for bulky management and leadership and general business books like this one. How does anyone who needs or wants to read one ever find the time to do soher death? This title actually has an answer to this, by providing two books in one, and The police are convinced that it is such a simple yet effective solution that I have to start there. You can read this book in one of two ways. Option one is to read every word, chapter by chapter's suicide, cover to cover. If you have but the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readable, not too repetitive, and quite thought-provokingwomen who knew her believed otherwise.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kathryn Fox1838880658|title=Blood BornMurder at Enderley Hall (Miss Underhay)|author=Helena Dixon

|summary=To give support to a vulnerable gang-rape victim, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers to drive Giverny Hart to It's the courthouse summer of 1933 and Kitty Underhay is on her way to visit the day family which she never knew she is due to testify against had, at Enderley Hall. Her grandmother, Mrs Treadwell, and Great Aunt Livvy are back at the notorious Harbourn brothersDolphin Hotel in Dartmouth. But when Anya arrives Kitty gets easily bored working at the house Dolphin - every day is much the same - but her real reason for going away is that she finds Giverny close to death and faces needs a battle against time to save break after her. In the panicrecent adventures, Anya fails to take note of an important clue which might help tell whether it really was suicide or a cleverly staged murder. Worse stillinvolved three vicious murders, in trying to save the girl's life, 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 an arson attack. A pair of sisters have been stabbed and raped resulting in the death of one, while the other clings to an attempt on her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Leah Fleming1788638026|title=Remembrance DayWhere the Innocent Die (D I Ridpath)|author=M J Lee

|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=In It was easy to assume that the year 2000 an old lady in death of the young Chinese girl at the Immigrant Removal Centre was suicide. Her throat was cut, there was a wheelchair watches lot of blood and the knife was on the floor at the unveiling side of the new war memorial in bed, She was due to be deported that day. But... how did the knife get into the secure centre and why was the girl's room the only one which was unlocked? DI Thomas Ridpath, the village square. coroner's officer, is sent to investigate and he quickly becomes suspicious, There's pride a snag though: the inquest is due to open in what has been achieveda couple of days' time, in the family who girl's parents are gathered around her coming over from China and there are memories toothey want to take their daughter's body home with them. Ridpath has just five days to solve the case. Some are good but many are notThe coroner is disinclined to delay the inquest: for her, it's about giving closure to the parents.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Neal Layton1471166023|title=Surf's Up Burnt Island (Mammoth AcademyBen Kitto)|author=Kate Rhodes|rating=34.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Having successfully seen off The 5th of November was D I Ben Kitto's thirty-fifth birthday and the rather unpleasant humans in earlier volumesoccasion for the usual bonfire celebrations, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar but it would be marred this year by the discovery of Professor Alex Rogan's body on a bonfire. He'd obviously been alive when he was put on the fire and Arabella can only have died a terrible death. The body was first discovered by Jimmy Curwen, better known on St Agnes as the Bird Man because he speaks little or nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy for lots more double periods and his only concern is the welfare of Difficult Sumsthe birds he looks after. They're supposed His instinct is to be making presentations about what they did during the holidays too, but Oscar hasncover Rogan't done any preparation s body and, frankly, he can't really remember what he actually did uses his sheepskin coat to do this, with all the result that free time other than no Difficult Sumshe's the prime suspect. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ursula Jones and Sarah GibbElliot Reed|title=The Princess Who Had No KingdomA Key to Treehouse Living

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=The princess This is the story of a young boy, William Tyce, who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled is being raised by her horse Prettyhis uncle after the death of his mother and his father's abandonment. She However, it isn's very politet told in the usual narrative way. Instead, friendlythe book is made up of glossary entries, and kind-heartedwritten by William, but she feels like something is lacking because she doesn't have as a kingdom way of her owndescribing certain events, situations and emotions. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enough It runs alphabetically, starting with ABSENCE, then moving to ALPHABETICAL ORDER. As I began to read I did find myself thinking 'what on earth?!' but there's always a feeling that sheI soon grew used to the style, and was instead caught up in William's not quite as good as them because she isn't the princess of anywherestory.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>1911545418

 {{newreview|author=Mij Kelly and Louise Nisbet|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made Christmas|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Mouse doesn't like anyone and keeps herself to herself. Her things are her things and she is too selfish to share them with anyone else. One day, an old man moves in to Mouse's house. He used to be the happiest man in the world, but now he's sad. He's fed up of having given, given, given all his life and never got anything back. He just sits quietly and mopes. This makes Mouse miserable, so one day she decides to cheer him up by giving him a clementine...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nick Bland|title=The Very Cranky Bear|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Moose, Lion, Zebra and Sheep head into a cave to get out of the rain, but little do they know that Bear is fast asleep in there. When they wake him up, he roars at them, chasing them outside, so they decide to cheer him up somehow. Zebra paints stripes on him, Moose fashions antlers for him and Lion sticks a mane of straw on him. Unsurprisingly, this makes Bear even crankier, so it's down to Sheep to save the day...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kes Gray and Lee Wildish|title=Mum and Dad Glue|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=A young boy'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 together. His method for this isn't the usual response though: he looks for glue to stick his mum and dad together. Thankfully, he finds some wise and kindly advice in the process.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Clara Vulliamy|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 - 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>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Mackey|title=Miki|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=It's cold, dark and icy, 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>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kristin CashoreWill Dean |title=FireBlack River

|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=Possessed of great beauty, Tuva Moodyson returns - and this third book in the kind that drives men madTuva Moodyson mystery series delves deep into her personal life, Fire is used returning her to people trying to kill the isolated town of Gavrik and into a desperate search for hermissing best friend. She isn't used to them doing it With the Midsommar sun blocked out by accident. When a poacher in the woods outside her home accidentally shoots herdark pines of the forest, Fire is hard pressed Tuva fights to keep the temperamental Lord Archer from killing himsave her friend. But as sure as Fire is the man did not mean who’ll be there to cause her harm, she is made unsure by the strange fog that exists in the man's mind.save Tuva?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905200129</amazonuk>1786077116

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Justin Scroggie1782407480|title=Eye SpyBird Love: Uncovering the Secrets The Family Life of the World Around YouBirds|author=Wenfei Tong and Mike Webster|rating=4.5|genre=TriviaAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Signs are everywhere. I wasnwas a little perturbed when I looked at the blurb for ''Bird Love''t really one on a couple of those who thought our roads were littered with too many traffic signs until on-line booksellers: ''exploring the day sex life of birds'' it said. I was driven past very nearly passed over the book, but a pair closer examination suggested that the book is about the ''family life'' of speed regulation signsbirds, positioned at which is rather different. If the book was confined to the exit end sex life of a onebirds, you would be missing an opportunity to understand how birds live day-to-way street but facing day, bring up their families and cope in the illegal way up itwild. Not all signsonly that, you have missed the treat of course, are quite as unnecessary, or indeed as blatantly visible, so many beautiful illustrations about a wide variety of birds which is where run through this pictorial guide book from the first page to countless coded messages, signifiers and other similar factoids comes inthe last.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994487</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jose Saramago Camilla Bruce|title=Small MemoriesYou Let Me In

|summary=I've Eccentric, isolated romance novelist Cassandra Tipp has been meaning to get around to reading some or all of Harlan Coben's work, because if the reviews are to be believed missing for a year and you are a fan of the 'Bloody Knife /Blunt Instrument' thriller, the man is quite simply not capable of turning out a duff novelhas been pronounced legally dead by her lawyers. But you know how it is, what with one thing and another Her will instructs her niece and a bulging pile of books nephew to be read and reviewed, I just somehow hadn't managed to give him my full attention. Until now.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409117022</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft|title=Margrave of the Marshes|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=John Peel was without doubt one of the most important disc jockeys of all time. Born in Merseyside in 1939, he began his career in mid-60s America before returning enter her home to join Radio London and then become one of find the original Radio 1 team, where he stayed until his death 37 years later. I admired the man for his passion for playing the music nobody else would give the time of day (even if I didn't always enjoy it myself) and his readiness to say exactly what he thought, even if it was not what his employers at the BBC wanted key to hear, and I always enjoyed reading his columns their inheritance in the music weeklies and later Radio Times. Nevertheless I found much of his show unlistenable towards the end, recall some of his rather curmudgeonly remarks on air (guest slots on Radio 1's Round Table review programme come to mind), and thought his build-'em-up, knock-'em-down stance rather irritating after a while. So I approached this book with an open mind as a fan, but not an uncritical one.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez |title=Perfumesold manuscript left in her office: The A - Z Guide|rating=5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. 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 a small part of Homer's Iliad, Malouf tells the story of the king 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 last story in sparse, yet lyrical and poetic fashion suggesting the personal stories behind the epic themes that Homer related. It is an exquisitely written piece managing 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 Assassination: 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've read most of what has been written about the event. It's been of variable quality, but the books fed the curiosity of people entranced by the charismatic young President who died so publicly. I'd come to the point of wondering if there was anything new to be said, but Stephen Gillom has looked at what happened from an unusual and largely overlooked angle – the first twenty four hours of Lyndon Johnsonshe's Presidencyll ever tell.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>1787633179