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<metadesc>Book review site, with books from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and children's books plus author interviews and top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library , the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of author [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Featuresfeatures]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews on the siteat TheBookbag.

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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=Louis BarfeGrady Hendrix|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light EntertainmentSouthern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires|rating=45|genre=EntertainmentHorror|summary=Light entertainment is often looked down upon Women, by and large, have always been the subjugated sex. Throughout history, as if it's a they have been confined to mere bit naff, tepid players who occasionally help hold up the powerful man and ignorablelet nothing stand in his way. WhatGrady Hendrix's often forgotten is that itnew novel ''The Southern Book Club's hugely popular, enjoyable and much of it Guide to Slaying Vampires'' gives women their due. It is of an ode to the highest qualitystrong selfless housewife. Louis Barfe's Turned Out Nice Again tells the complete story of British light entertainmentHendrix illustrates this by having them go toe to toe with a predatory male vampire who moves into their quiet cul de sac.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>1683691431

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim Helmore and Karen Wall0008149089|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!The Cutting Place (DS Maeve Kerrigan)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Marvin is entering It was Kim Weldon who found the first bits of the Great Grislygust Growbody -Offshe was a mudlarker on the banks of the Thames and when she turned over what looked like a stick she realised it was a hand, but just like hima right hand, his tomatoes arenin fact. DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent't growing very bigs team would later find three other body parts. He takes Identification of the only sensible course of action: he sings his tomatoes body was not going to be easy, but eventually, it would be given a name - Paige Hargreaves, a songtwenty-eight-year-old freelance journalist. The results are spectacular. Victory is surely within his grasp Her friend, Bianca Drummond, another journalist, said that she was working on a story which she reckoned would be explosive - and she hadn't been willing to share any of the details with Bianca.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joseph Delaney Jenny Valentine|title=The Spook's Stories: WitchesHello Now|rating=4.5

|summary='Warning: Not Jude reluctantly moves to be read a small, quiet seaside town after darkher Mum and her most recent boyfriend split (making this their 13th post-breakup move) and settle into a big,' are old house overlooking the only words on the back of ''The Spook's Stories''sea - which happens to contain a strange, old sitting tenant named Henry, and on who stays rooted in the inside flap, 'The Times' warns us house like a ghost that this book is just won'seriously scaryt leave – or can't...  The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamelyAs Jude settles into this new, thoughseemingly mundane, with reality she is consumed by a story about a young Spook (a sort of monster-hunter) who falls longing for her old life in love with a witch London and is anger at another forced to bear change – but this will be the consequences when last time, she swears. This world is quiet, dull and yet suffocating for Jude. That is until the witch's sister comes to stay day Novo arrives, and exhibits a taste for her entire concept of the neighbor-childrenworld changes forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>0007466498

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa UngerB0867X8NW7|title=Die For YouAccess Point|author=T R Gabbay|rating=3.54|genre=CrimeThrillers|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married to successful video game designer Marcus Raine. Or so When we first meet Ula Mishkin she thinks. But when 's having something of a professional success: using a device of her husband fails own invention she's helped a man who has been blind for decades to return from work, she realises something is wrongsee an image of a hummingbird. Going to his office to try to find out what happens to him, she gets attacked She's thirty-six years old and ends up in hospital, while his co-workers are killed. Things get worse for herlife is about to change radically as, howevercycling home, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, and the man she married was using 's involved in an accident with a false identitybus. Infuriated by the betrayal, and the realisation that she It's been living a lie for the past five two years, Izzy takes matters into before we meet her own hands again and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied to her for so long. Ignoring police warningsin the meantime, she delves deeper and deeper into 's spent 392 days in a nasty underworld, coma and finds now walks with a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything stick. A professional colleague persuades Ula that she could have plotted should let out a spare bedroom to bring in one of her novelssome income.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa McMannBen Oliver|title=WakeThe Loop|rating=43.5|genre=Teens|summary=Janie is seventeen and studying hard for college. She's also working lots Set during the aftermath of hours at a local nursing home to earn money Third World War where methods of punishment for college as it's unlikely her alcoholic mother is going criminal activities have been amped up to provide much in a horrific level by machines, The Loop follows the way precarious existence of resourcesadolescent Luka Kane. College In a world of Have and Have Nots where Alts [cyborgs] have power over Regulars, he is Janie's only trapped inside a living hell with no chance at of escape. A detonator has been sewn inside his heart connecting him to a trigger held by the guards who can end his life better than the with one she's lived so far squeeze. Luka is taunted by limited access to his memories and so you can't blame her relentlessly drained of energy through a gruelling daily torture ritual. Doomed to Delay [a risky medical trial where he is a guinea pig for being so single-minded Alts in the pursuit place of her goal. Only one thing stands execution] after Delay he is in her way.despair.His prison is based on the model of an infinity loop designed to make its inmates suffer.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 he been imprisoned? What waits for him if he can break the loop?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>1912626551

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaclyn Moriarty Kirsty Applebaum|title=The Spell Book of Listen TaylorTroofriend|rating=34.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Listen TaylorAre you tired of your child's father has just moved in classmates constantly being horrible to them? Do you want your child to have some positive experiences with his girlfriend and they are adopted into people? Introducing the Zing family, with all new Jenson & Jenson Troofriend 560 Mark IV android! These state-of its delightful eccentricities and unusual behaviour – -the Zings meet every Friday night for dinner and then disappear into the garden shed to work on -art machines are capable of emulating the 'Zing Family Secret'. Marbie Zing is terrified full range of doing something wrong and losing Nathaniel and Listenhuman emotions without lying, stealing or bullying. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with her home life, and her daughterThey's year two teacher is coming to terms with a break up. The stories of re the perfect companion for any child! Any mention that these people come together androids are beginning to create a tale of life, love, develop real human feelings are just unsubstantiated rumours and ultimately, what being part of a family means.have absolutely no basis in reality…right?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>1788003470

 {{newreviewFrontpage |authorisbn=F G Cottam1529123941 |title=The Magdalena CurseSilent Treatment |author=Abbie Greaves |rating=24.5|genre=HorrorGeneral Fiction |summary=Mark Hunter When we meet Professor Frank Hobbs and his wife, Maggie, Frank is the sort of father who would do anything for playing chess against his soncomputer, although not very successfully. After losing his wife and daughter in a tragic accident Maggie, on the other hand, his surviving son Adam has become his whole world. And Adam is an exceptional child – beautifuljust taken some pills - eight of them, incredibly smart in fact - and mature beyond his ten years – only recently before long she will collapse. When Frank rings the emergency services in Oxford he's been channelling the voices has a bit of the deada problem. Plagued by horrific dreams, able He has to speak Russian in the hours after admit that he wakesand Maggie haven't actually spoken for a while. How long? Well, drawing occult symbols when it's about six months since he doodles, Hunter believes Adam spoke to be possessed. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft is sceptical, until she meets Adam, Maggie and witnesses the horrors the poor boy endures for herselfhe can't really say if it's likely that Maggie has tried to take her own life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jon BerkeleyRob Harrell|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)Wink

|summary=I shall start When Ross is diagnosed with a word rare form of advicecancer, aged 12, his desperate attempts at school to just be 'normal' become impossible. When you're being hounded by a circus masterSuddenly he is the cancer kid, and a magicianeverything he does, how he looks, for and how he behaves falls under the soul scrutiny of a tiger that's contained the other kids in school. Ross is, understandably, angry. He is facing potential blindness, whilst dealing with an eye sealed in a tiger's egg that's contained in permanent wink. He has gloopy eye medicine to try to help with the brain of your teddy bearpain, and your best friend - plus the need to wear a fallen angel - is trying her best hat at all times to protect his face due 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 trilogyongoing treatment. Still - never mindWith the sudden ghosting by one of his best friends, the angel's efforts will involve you entering and a dream world series of flight and cloud citieshorrible memes that someone at school creates about Ross, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world to desert oases and backnothing about his life is normal any more, and friends he has to find new ways to deal with his feelings, and old will be on board to helpsurvive.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>1471409147

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Townsend1786485575|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate YearsMagpie Lane|author=Lucy Atkins

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. ItWhen we first meet Dee she's not quite how life was supposed talking to turn out. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniformNick Law, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believe, and desperately attempting to talk his mother out new college master. Law's lately of her quest to appear on the vile BBC and he doesn''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing t come with an entirely good reputation: he needs. And yet, the worst is still to come. Think a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – it's going to be a tough year for the Moles, bit of a bully and there's little that ol' Adrian Dee can do except sit back and watch his life spin out sense something of control around himthat in their first conversation.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lauren Kate|title=Fallen|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=A 17 year old girl at She had been planning to return home to Scotland before taking on a new school meets job as a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boynanny, who but somehow she's immediately drawn finds herself going to. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to hersee Mariah, until he saves her life, and the two Danish wife of them end up drawn together. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similarities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gareth Hinds|title=King Lear|rating=3|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Hound me out of town in a most appropriate manner, but I do not like King Learthe master. 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 itShe's thought to be. To my mind the acclaim pregnant and esteem in which it's held is only mirrored by its own over-long, over-blown blustering.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paul Theroux|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Set in India, familiar territory looking for Therouxhelp, ''A Dead Hand'' tells not with the story of a travel writer suffering from writer's block (also known as 'dead hand') until a chance letter from an American ex-pat, the mysterious Mrs Unger, relating a story of a mystery 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 new baby but with the narrator falls under Mrs Unger's Tantric charms. But does she have more to hide than shemaster'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, daughter by the Library of Congresshis first wife, where it is now on permanent public displayAna. No ordinary map, this Felicity 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 selectively mute: she does talk to discover moreher father, 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 but to Unremitting Global Misery|rating=3|genre=Humour|summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floorno one else.'' Surely that The eight-year-old is the wackiest, most inappropriate simile grieving for the credit crunch her dead mother and all it has done for the worldstruggling at school. 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 StantonSally Magnusson|title=WhatThe Sealwoman's For Dinner, Mr Gum?Gift

|genre=Confident ReadersHistorical Fiction|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns There is a legend that God came to visit Adam & Eve in the Garden. Eve had not finished bathing her backchildren and ashamed of those still not cleansed, and leaves she attempted to hide them from the town eyes of Lamonic Bibber for a day at the seasideGod, denying that she had more children that those, Mr Gum falls out with his best friendalready bathed, causing carnivorous carnage all over the placethat she willing paraded for him. Meat is getting thrown around like it's going out of fashionGod was not to be deceived, however, and we have decreed that what was sought to doubt whether Polly and her companions can ever utilise be hidden from the eyes of God would henceforth be hidden from the power eyes of love man, and put things to rightsso the Elves were born: the hidden folk. Especially as this book does not contain a magic unicorn called ElizabethThey can see man, but man can only see them if they so choose.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>1473638984

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Loose WomenWendy Cheyne |title=Here Come From the GirlsAuld Rock to a Hard Place

|genre=Home and FamilyHistorical Fiction|summary=This is After the second volume by Jacobite defeat at the panelists from that nice ITV seriesBattle of Culloden, ''Loose Women''many Scottish estates were given to English lords. Just as promised They were not kind to their crofting tenants. Many on the cover, mainland were cleared and while this book is an entertaining night with did not happen much on the girls. It turns out that they're just like us. The faces are already familiar and even if you don't know them yetislands such as Shetland, with nine contributors, you'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one of the celebrity faces. The women are universally warmnew exploitative conditions led many Shetlanders to leave -hearted and supportive: there will be many a lonely woman who reads this book and feels as if she sat down with a group of friends for the evening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jean Ure|title=Fortune Cookie|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Fudge Cassidy and the Cupcake kid are best friends. If the names remind you of a certain film then you'd be spot to port cities on as that's where Fudge's father got the idea from. They're actually chalk mainland, to North America 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 on her plate. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obvious. Add even to this that her father couldn't cope with the problems Australia and he now has another family. It's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not a lot of moneyNew Zealand.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>1838591753

 {{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 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), and became Queen in 1777. A conscientious woman, she had the misfortune to be born in during the 'age of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacy. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HughesEle Fountain|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadLost

|summary=Trevor's troublesome dogLola lives in an Indian city with her father, Streakerand her brother, has had three puppiesAmit. They were fathered She lives with them in a nice apartment, and although they are not rich like some of the girls at school, according they have enough money to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one of his Alsatiansbe comfortable. Trevor would ideally like Lola spends her time thinking about her school friends, and trying to keep fit in with them, at least until Christmasone day, suddenly, but his parents have other ideas and put them up for saleeverything in her life changes. Charlie Smugg declares that heAfter taking a work trip away, Lola's entitled father doesn't come home. They have nobody else to half help, and as they wait day after day, Lola wonders what will become of the money them until, finally, they are evicted from the sale of the puppiestheir flat, but before they can be sold the three puppies go missing in the park and it's up to Trevor she and his best friend Tina her brother find themselves forced to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!live on the streets.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>178269255X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah Beth DurstN K Jemisin|title=IceThe City We Became|rating=3.54|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Cassie lives on New York is being born, the city has reached critical mass and has matured into a living almost-breathing entity and is ready to make its way out into the world. Before it can be established, an Arctic research station in Alaskaancient evil appears to attempt to destroy it just as it destroyed Atlantis and other forgotten places. She loves The city is not alone through the birthing process, people who embody the ice and values are selected to become the wilderness living embodiment of her remote home the city, some cities have one, some have twelve and she'd definitely prefer to spend her time on tracking polar bears New York has six. Together these human-embodiments must defeat the woman in white and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing with her peers and enjoying college and home comforts back in Fairbankssave New York from very real destruction. However, things arenBut these are five different boroughs which don't all rosy. Cassiealways see eye to eye, it's mother died when she was just a baby personality clash on an epic scale and she can't help feeling a huge hole in her heart. Her scientist father unity is remote both critical and unloving and her grandmother left the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very youngnot remotely guaranteed. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>0356512665

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain Smyth and Michael Terry0241446732|title=The Wide-Mouthed Frog|rating=4.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Do you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard it. It's a classic. It's one that you really need to tell in person, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide open, but to hopefully spark your memory, the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to a number Our House is on Fire: Scenes of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogs, and the frog does his best to disguise who he is whilst saying ''Ooh, you don't see many of those round here, do you?'' I'm hardly doing it justice, but it's very cheesy Family and funny. Anyway, this is a book of that joke.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPlanet in Crisis|author=Dr Aaron Carroll Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Dr Rachel Vreeman|title=Don't Swallow Your GumSvante Thunberg

|genre=LifestylePolitics and Society|summary='''BANG'''The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. That's Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the sound parenting of copious urban myths being shot downtheir two daughters. '''BANG'''. That's the sound of the Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baselessstruggled with what was happening. '''CLICK'''. ThatIn such circumstances, it's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due natural to this brilliant book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Annie Taylor|title=Violet|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Violet is seek a very special hippo. She is extremely small solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the family that does not make her adoptive parents Albert and Mavis love her any the less. However, they are slightly worried that Violet has were ''burned-out people on a very unusual habit of turning pink without warning and for no explicable reason.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Hilary Dixon|title=When Rooks Speak of Love|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Arthur Transcombe is a middleburned-aged, grey-haired, self-effacing poetout planet''. Unremarkable really - on the outside. He has, however, managed If they were to achieve some success with his poems. (Being find a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival is no mean feat)way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical. He is also a babe magnet!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A J Healy178730101X|title=Tommy Storm and the Galactic KnightsKeep Him Close|author=Emily Koch

|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet Tommy StormAlice had two children: Benny (well, Benoît, actually) and Louis. HeLou's seventeen and he's one of five teenagers snapped up from around the universe just got his A level results and he and his brother are going out to be a gang of heroic detectives charged with rescuing EVERYTHING from destructioncelebrate. Not just the planet, or the solar system, or even the galaxy, but EVERYTHING. Nobody seems Someone has to know what's going find something to cause this destructioncelebrate in the letters, or whenD, but he D and his friends and their ship seem to be the only people proactively going about saving the dayE. So Alice has always had a good relationship with nineteen-year-old Benny but it's a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony who touch problematic with Lou and being honest, he's about not terribly likeable. The letters which kept coming to kill themmy mind were ADHD.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graham McCann0241396840|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-ThomasKeeper|author=Jessica Moor

|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoying, but most of us will have had to deal with them. Fortunately, we can hit Katie Straw worked in the delete button and forget about them as quickly as they came. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish on, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I donwomen't. But I wonder how many of us would react if a spam E-Mail actually was a matter of life s refuge and death, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jeanette Winterson|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 women who lived there liked and people fill the streetsrespected her. Jack is happy because it's his birthday She treated them well and his present is his heart's desire: seemed to have 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 understanding of delight''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>}}  {{newreview|author=Jean Ure|title=Love and Kisses|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Tamsin and Katie were just thirteen and worried that what they were boringgoing through. They'd been best friends since forever and were Why then did she jump from the local suicide spot into the good girls. Neither missed school, skipped her homework nor had boyfriends. river below? Well, that is, not so far. Up until then Tamsin There had been the boffin head – consistently strong academically no signs that she was unhappy and she and looking forward to going on to university. All that her boyfriend seemed to change have been content together - and Noah has a decent alibi for the time when she met Alex. died, but what other explanation could there be for her death? Well, when I say The police are convinced that it'met' I should perhaps clarify and say that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow into hers suicide, from but the building site where he workedwomen who knew her believed otherwise. Oh, and did I mention that he was seventeen, Polish and spoke very little English?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henry Mintzberg1838880658|title=Managing|rating=5|genre=Business and Finance|summary=''Study after study has shown that managers work Murder at an unrelenting pace'' How true, though it always makes me wonder why, as a result, there's such a market for bulky management and leadership and general business books like this one. How does anyone who needs or wants to read one ever find the time to do so? This title actually has an answer to this, by providing two books in one, and 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, cover to cover. If you have the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readable, not too repetitive, and quite thought-provoking.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewEnderley Hall (Miss Underhay)|author=Kathryn Fox|title=Blood BornHelena 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 occasion for the rather unpleasant humans in earlier volumesusual bonfire celebrations, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar and Arabella have nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy for lots more double periods but it would be marred this year by the discovery of Difficult SumsProfessor Alex Rogan's body on a bonfire. They He're supposed to be making presentations about what they did during d obviously been alive when he was put on the holidays too, but Oscar hasn't done any preparation fire and, frankly, he can't really remember what he actually did do with all that free time other than no Difficult Sumsonly have died a terrible death. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb|title=The Princess Who Had No Kingdom|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary= The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled body was first discovered by her horse Pretty. She's very polite, friendlyJimmy Curwen, better known on St Agnes as the Bird Man because he speaks little or nothing and kind-hearted, but she feels like something his only concern is lacking because she doesn't have a kingdom the welfare of her ownthe birds he looks after. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enough, but there His instinct is to cover Rogan's always a feeling body and he uses his sheepskin coat to do this, with the result that shehe's not quite as good as them because she isn't the princess of anywhereprime suspect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mij Kelly and Louise NisbetElliot Reed|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made ChristmasA Key to Treehouse Living

|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Mouse doesn't like anyone and keeps herself to herself. Her things are her things and she This is too selfish to share them with anyone else. One daythe story of a young boy, William Tyce, an old man moves in to Mousewho is being raised by his uncle after the death of his mother and his father's houseabandonment. He used to be the happiest man However, it isn't told in the worldusual narrative way. Instead, but now he's sad. He's fed the book is made up of having givenglossary entries, givenwritten by William, given all his life as a way of describing certain events, situations and never got anything backemotions. He just sits quietly and mopes It runs alphabetically, starting with ABSENCE, then moving to ALPHABETICAL ORDER. This makes Mouse miserable As I began to read I did find myself thinking 'what on earth?!' but I soon grew used to the style, so one day she decides to cheer him and was instead caught up by giving him a clementine..in William's story.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>1911545418

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick BlandWill Dean |title=The Very Cranky BearBlack River |rating=45|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=MooseTuva Moodyson returns - and this third book in the Tuva Moodyson mystery series delves deep into her personal life, Lion, Zebra returning her to the isolated town of Gavrik and Sheep head into a cave to get desperate search for her missing best friend. With the Midsommar sun blocked out by the dark pines of the rainforest, 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 Tuva fights to cheer him up somehowsave her friend. 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 But who’ll be there to save the day...Tuva?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>1786077116

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kes Gray and Lee Wildish1782407480|title=Mum Bird Love: The Family Life of Birds|author=Wenfei Tong and Dad GlueMike Webster|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingAnimals and Wildlife|summary=A young boyI was a little perturbed when I looked at the blurb for ''Bird Love'' on a couple of on-line booksellers: 's parents are splitting up'exploring the sex life of birds'' it said. He's going through I very nearly passed over the usual emotions book, but a closer examination suggested that children the book is about the ''family life'' of divorce go through: worrybirds, feeling unsurewhich is rather different. If the book was confined to the sex life of birds, blaming himself, anger, denialyou would be missing an opportunity to understand how birds live day-to-day, bring up their families and then trying to get them to stay togethercope in the wild. His method for Not only that, you have missed the treat of so many beautiful illustrations about a wide variety of birds which run through this isn't book from the usual response though: he looks for glue first page to stick his mum and dad together. Thankfully, he finds some wise and kindly advice in the processlast.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clara VulliamyCamilla Bruce|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To BedYou Let Me In

|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=It's Pearl's bedtimeEccentric, but she says she's really busy isolated romance novelist Cassandra Tipp has been missing for a year and isn't going to sleephas been pronounced legally dead by her lawyers. She just wants Her will instructs her niece and nephew to play enter her home and play and play. When find the bear with sticky paws rings the doorbell, he whisks key to their inheritance in an old manuscript left in her away on an amazing adventure - although as you might expect, office: the bear has a little more energy than Pearl and eventually last story she does get a little sleepy'll ever tell.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>1787633179