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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=Maxine BarryGrady Hendrix|title=River DeepThe Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires|rating=3.5|genre=Women's FictionHorror|summary=Two young women both Women, by and large, have a love of always been the Thamessubjugated sex. Melisande Ray's beloved hotelThroughout history, they have been confined to mere bit players who occasionally help hold up the Ray of Sunshine is on the river bank. It's here that guests come who want to be pampered powerful man and looked after let nothing stand in the his way that only the best hotels can do well, but when Wendell James checks in to the hotel it. Grady Hendrix's not pampering henew novel ''The Southern Book Club's looking for. HeGuide to Slaying Vampires's buying a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine and he's sussing out the competitiongives women their due. There's something personal in there too – if his new hotel means that It is an ode to the Ray of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonusstrong selfless housewife. There's just Hendrix illustrates this by having them go toe to toe with a slight doubt in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eyepredatory male vampire who moves into their quiet cul de sac.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>1683691431

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Gores0008149089|title=Spade and ArcherThe Cutting Place (DS Maeve Kerrigan)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45

|summary=Sam Spade decides, bravely, to set up his one-man detective agency. It's was Kim Weldon who found the first bits of the 1920s in San Francisco so we have body - she was a mudlarker on the prohibition era and all that that entails. Many locals, banks of course, choose to disobey the lawThames and when she turned over what looked like a stick she realised it was a hand, stick two fingers upa right hand, so to speak in fact. DS Maeve Kerrigan and as a result thereDI Josh Derwent's lots of bootleg liquorteam would later find three other body parts. Straight awayIdentification of the body was not going to be easy, but eventually, it's evident that Sam is would be given a man of few words. He has the mannerisms of name - Paige Hargreaves, a cat twenty-eight-year- stealthy, quick on his feetold freelance journalist. He's also a compulsive chain-smokerHer friend, Bianca Drummond, but then againanother journalist, most people were. In said that era, holding she was working on a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessory. How times have changedstory which she reckoned would be explosive - and she hadn't been willing to share any of the details with Bianca.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester ClarkJenny Valentine|title=The Best of TimesHello Now

|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=Most children enjoy a good traditional tale and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems Jude reluctantly moves to have all the right ingredients – a handsome prince and a beautiful princess who fall in lovesmall, get married and live happily ever quiet seaside town after. Or do they? Sadly, not long after Prince Frederico marries the lovely Princess Serafina, she becomes very sad. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadness, but poor Prince Frederico is desperate to find a cure for his wife's misery. He tries everything in his power her Mum and eventually decides to offer his kingdom to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies of most recent boyfriend split (making this their 13th post-breakup move) and settle into a broken heart. Lots of people come to big, old house overlooking the palace sea - which happens to try and help but in the end the solution is contain a simple one provided by some very kind travellers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Shirley Jackson|title=We Have Always Lived In The Castle|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Mary Katherine Blackwoodstrange, also known as Merricatold sitting tenant named Henry, is eighteen, and lives with her older sister Constance who stays rooted in the family home where house like a ghost that just won'Blackwoods had always livedt leave – or can't. Merricat quickly draws the reader As Jude settles into her world this new, seemingly mundane, reality she is consumed by a series of matter of fact but bizarre statements – longing for her likes include her sister old life in London and death cap mushroomsanger at another forced change – but this will be the last time, and everyone else in her family is deadshe swears. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept the house 'steady against the This world', shutting out other peopleis quiet, dull and they live near a villageyet suffocating for Jude. Merricat believes that 'The people of That is until the village have always hated us'day Novo arrives, and tells us that she hates them tooher entire concept of the world changes forever.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>0007466498

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon WestonB0867X8NW7|title=Nelson to the RescueAccess Point|author=T R Gabbay

|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike the MilkWhen we first meet Ula Mishkin she's milk float, but he has now retired. He lives in the stable at the back having something of the dairy along with a couple of tricky rats, Rhodri and Rhys, professional success: using a pigeon who has no sense device of direction, a frog who thinks heher own invention she's helped a secret agent spy and man who has been blind for decades to see an old racehorse who spends most image of his time sleepinga hummingbird. Rhodri and Rhys find a mysterious message on MikeShe's fridge thirty-six years old and the animals believe that Mike has been invited her life is about to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE. Somehow our herochange radically as, Nelsoncycling home, finds himself travelling down to London, pulling a ceremonial coach for Prince Charles as well as giving she's involved in an accident with a TV interview about his experience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848510454</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Elizabeth Baines|title=Too Many Magpies|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Becoming a mother brings a whole new world of fear into your lifebus. Suddenly you see It's two years before we meet her again and in the danger in every situationmeantime, and fear and trepidation can be become your constant companions. In this novella, we meet a young mother who is married to a logical scientist. They attempt to control their childrenshe's futures on spent 392 days in a scientific basis, growing their own fruit coma and vegetables, giving their children nothing sugary, eating no eggs for now walks with a whole year until any adverse affects from them were disprovedstick. But after meeting with an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins A professional colleague persuades Ula that she should let out a spare bedroom to struggle as he introduces ideas of freedom into her worldbring in some income. She begins an affair with him, begins to let things slip at home and with the children, yet finds she is still continuously haunted by the sense of an ever-present danger.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Katherine MayBen Oliver|title=Burning OutThe Loop|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionTeens|summary=Violet has it all – Set during the aftermath of a Third World War where methods of punishment for criminal activities have been amped up to a well-paid jobhorrific level by machines, The Loop follows the precarious existence of adolescent Luka Kane. In a world of Have and Have Nots where Alts [cyborgs] have power over Regulars, he is trapped inside a luxurious apartment all to herselfliving hell with no chance of escape. Everything is catered for; her meals, her clothes, and her health are all how she would like them A detonator has been sewn inside his heart connecting him to be. But a trigger held by the guards who can end his life she with one squeeze. Luka is leading is beginning taunted by limited access to take its toll. On the verge his memories and relentlessly drained of snapping, energy through a drained and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back gruelling daily torture ritual. Doomed to her home town. There, she meets someone familiar, Delay [a ghost reminding her of how she used to be ten years earlier – risky medical trial where he is a young carefree girl, full guinea pig for Alts in place of lifeexecution] after Delay he is in despair. Only this isn't a ghost, but a girl living His prison is based on the life Violet once lived – exactly model of an infinity loop designed to make its inmates suffer. With the same. Haunted by only glimmers of hope being the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself rumours of rebellion outside and is convinced events will happen again. Events that will in turn haunt the girl.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>1906727392</amazonuk>1912626551

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amanda DownumKirsty Applebaum|title=The Drowning CityTroofriend|rating=34.5|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=In a nutshell, Are youtired of your child're reading this because s classmates constantly being horrible to them? Do you're wondering whether The Drowning City is goodwant your child to 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 full range of human emotions without lying, bad stealing or mediocrebullying. YouThey've probably glanced at re the rating and guessed the latter. I'm afraid it's not quite perfect companion for any child! Any mention that simple. This is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed these androids are beginning to develop real human feelings. I started off convinced that I was going to love this book. The cover art is effortlessly cool, the premise intriguing, the characters laden with potential for greatness are just unsubstantiated rumours and the backdrop is certainly evocative.have absolutely no basis in reality…right?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>1788003470

 {{newreviewFrontpage |authorisbn=Tove Jansson1529123941 |title=The True DeceiverSilent Treatment |author=Abbie Greaves |rating=4.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Most people When we meet Professor Frank Hobbs and his wife, Maggie, Frank is playing chess against his computer, although not very successfully. Maggie, on the other hand, has just taken some pills - eight of my age them, in fact - and before long she will have come across Jansson's work unwittingly, via collapse. When Frank rings the televised renditions emergency services in Oxford he has a bit of the Moomin talesa problem. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced a few years ago He has to discover admit that at last Thomas Teal had set he and Maggie haven't actually spoken for a while. How long? Well, it's about the translation into English, first of The Summer Book six months since he spoke to Maggie and then of a collection of short stories which were published as he can'A Winter Bookt really say if it's likely that Maggie has tried to take her own life. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daniel Kehlmann Rob Harrell|title=Me and KaminskiWink

|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=After reviewing several long booksWhen Ross is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, aged 12, it's been refreshing his desperate attempts at school to read such a fluent yet pared down story as just be 'Kaminski and Menormal'become impossible. In it Suddenly he is the cancer kid, and everything he does, Sebastian Zollnerhow he looks, and how he behaves falls under the scrutiny of the obnoxious main characterother kids in school. Ross is, shoves himself forward understandably, angry. He is facing potential blindness, whilst dealing with an eye sealed in a desperate attempt permanent wink. He has gloopy eye medicine to try to help with the pain, plus the need to research wear a best seller which will re-ignite hat at all times to protect his career as an art criticface due to the ongoing treatment. Kaminski, With the proposed subjectsudden ghosting by one of his best friends, was and a fashionable painter long agoseries of horrible memes that someone at school creates about Ross, but nownothing about his life is normal any more, ancient and chronically ill, he has virtually slid into oblivion. So the second-rate writer is on a loser unless he can dig up some juicy details to hook the art world find new ways to deal with his feelings, and general publicsurvive.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>1471409147

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Louis Barfe1786485575|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light EntertainmentMagpie Lane|author=Lucy Atkins|rating=45|genre=EntertainmentCrime|summary=Light entertainment is often looked down upon, as if itWhen we first meet Dee she's a bit nafftalking to Nick Law, tepid and ignorablethe new college master. What Law's often forgotten is that itlately of the BBC and he doesn't come with an entirely good reputation: he's hugely popular, enjoyable a bit of a bully and much Dee can sense something of it is that in their first conversation. She had been planning to return home to Scotland before taking on a new job as a nanny, but somehow she finds herself going to see Mariah, the Danish wife of the highest qualitymaster. Louis Barfe She's Turned Out Nice Again tells pregnant and looking for help, not with the complete story of British light entertainmentnew baby but with the master's daughter by his first wife, Ana. Felicity is selectively mute: she does talk to her father, but to no one else. The eight-year-old is grieving for her dead mother and struggling at school.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jim Helmore and Karen WallSally Magnusson|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!The Sealwoman's Gift|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingHistorical Fiction|summary=Marvin There is entering a legend that God came to visit Adam & Eve in the Garden. Eve had not finished bathing her children and ashamed of those still not cleansed, she attempted to hide them from the Great Grislygust Grow-Offeyes of God, but just like denying that she had more children that those, already bathed, that she willing paraded for him. God was not to be deceived, his tomatoes aren't growing very big. He takes however, and decreed that what was sought to be hidden from the eyes of God would henceforth be hidden from the only sensible course eyes of actionman, and so the Elves were born: he sings his tomatoes a songthe hidden folk. The results are spectacular. Victory is surely within his grasp They can see man, but man can only see them if they so choose.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>1473638984

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joseph Delaney Wendy Cheyne |title=The Spook's Stories: WitchesFrom the Auld Rock to a Hard Place

|genre=TeensHistorical Fiction|summary='Warning: Not to be read after dark,' are After the only words on Jacobite defeat at the back Battle of ''The Spook's Stories''Culloden, and on the inside flap, 'The Times' warns us that this book is 'seriously scary'...  The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamely, though, with a story about a young Spook (a sort of monster-hunter) who falls in love with a witch and is forced to bear the consequences when the witch's sister comes many Scottish estates were given to stay and exhibits a taste for the neighbor-childrenEnglish lords.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lisa Unger|title=Die For You|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married They were not kind to successful video game designer Marcus Rainetheir crofting tenants. Or so she thinks. But when her husband fails to return from work, she realises something is wrong. Going to his office to try to find out what happens to him, she gets attacked Many on the mainland were cleared and ends up in hospital, while his co-workers are killed. Things get worse for her, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, and this did not happen much on the man she married was using a false identity. Infuriated by the betrayalislands such as Shetland, and the realisation that she's been living a lie for new exploitative conditions led many Shetlanders to leave - to port cities on the past five yearsmainland, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied to her for so long. Ignoring police warnings, she delves deeper and deeper into a nasty underworld, and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything she could have plotted in one of her novels.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lisa McMann|title=Wake|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Janie is seventeen North America and studying hard for college. She's also working lots of hours at a local nursing home to earn money for college as it's unlikely her alcoholic mother is going even to provide much in the way of resources. College is Janie's only chance at a life better than the one she's lived so far Australia and so you can't blame her for being so single-minded in the pursuit of her goal. Only one thing stands in her way..New Zealand.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>1838591753

 {{newreview|author=Jaclyn Moriarty |title=The Spell Book of Listen Taylor|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=Listen Taylor's father has just moved in with his girlfriend and they are adopted into the Zing family, with all 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 the 'Zing Family Secret'. Marbie Zing is terrified of doing something wrong and losing Nathaniel and Listen. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with her home life, and her daughter's year two teacher is coming to terms with a break up. The stories of these people come together to create a tale of life, love, and ultimately, what being part of a family means.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=F G Cottam|title=The Magdalena Curse|rating=2.5|genre=Horror|summary=Mark Hunter is the sort of father who would do anything for his son. After losing his wife and daughter in a tragic accident, his surviving son Adam has become his whole world. And Adam is an exceptional child – beautiful, incredibly smart and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he's been channelling the voices of the dead. Plagued by horrific dreams, able to speak Russian in the hours after he wakes, drawing occult symbols when he doodles, Hunter believes Adam to be possessed. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft is sceptical, until she meets Adam, and witnesses the horrors the poor boy endures for herself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jon BerkeleyEle Fountain|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)Lost

|summary=I shall start Lola lives in an Indian city with a word of adviceher father, and her brother, Amit. When you're being hounded by She lives with them in a circus masternice apartment, and a magician, for the soul although they are not rich like some of a tiger that's contained in a tiger's egg that's contained in the brain of your teddy beargirls at school, they have enough money to be comfortable. Lola spends her time thinking about her school friends, and your best friend - a fallen angel - is trying her best to make sure the other angels do not turn on you fit in a big way - then you're probably living the third book with them, until one day, suddenly, everything in a fantasy trilogyher life changes. Still - never mindAfter taking a work trip away, the angelLola's efforts father doesn't come home. They have nobody else to help, and as they wait day after day, Lola wonders what will involve you entering a dream world become of flight and cloud citiesthem until, finally, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world to desert oases and backthey are evicted from their flat, and friends new she and old will be her brother find themselves forced to live on board to helpthe streets.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>178269255X

{{Frontpage|author= N K Jemisin|title= The City We Became|rating= 4|genre= Science Fiction|summary= 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 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, some cities have one, some have twelve and New York has six. Together these human-embodiments must defeat the woman in white and save New York from very real destruction. But these are five different boroughs which don't always see eye to eye, it's a personality clash on an epic scale and unity is both critical and not remotely guaranteed.|isbn=0356512665}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Townsend0241446732|title=Adrian MoleOur House is on Fire: The Prostrate YearsScenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg

|genre=General FictionPolitics and Society|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and livingher sister, quite literallyBeata, in a pigstythen nine years old, sharing an all too thin party wall struggled with his parents and working in a bookshopwhat was happening. It In such circumstances, it's not quite how life was supposed natural to seek a solution close to turn out. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniformhome, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believebut eventually, and desperately attempting it became clear to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile family that they were ''Jeremy Kyleburned-out people on a burned-out planet'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needs. And yet, the worst is still If they were to come. Think find 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 way to live happily again their solution would need to be a tough year for the Moles, and there's little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back and watch his life spin out of control around himradical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Lauren Kate|title=Fallen|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=A 17 year old girl at a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boy, who she's immediately drawn to. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to her, until he saves her life, and the two of them end up drawn together. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similarities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gareth Hinds178730101X|title=King Lear|rating=3|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Hound me out of town in a most appropriate manner, but I do not like King Lear. For me, even as a trained actor, the language is too dense and rich, the set-up too archly unfeasible to create the great tragedy it's thought to be. To my mind the acclaim and esteem in which it's held is only mirrored by its own over-long, over-blown blustering.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewKeep Him Close|author=Paul Theroux|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in CalcuttaEmily Koch

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Set in IndiaAlice had two children: Benny (well, familiar territory for TherouxBenoît, actually) and Louis. Lou's seventeen and he's just got his A Dead Hand'' tells level results and he and his brother are going out to celebrate. Someone has to find something to celebrate in the story of letters, D, D and E. Alice has always had a travel writer suffering from writergood relationship with nineteen-year-old Benny but it's block (also known as 'dead hand') until a chance letter from an American ex-pat touch problematic with Lou and being honest, 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 the narrator falls under Mrs Ungerhe's Tantric charmsnot terribly likeable. But does she have more The letters which kept coming to hide than she's letting on?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>my mind were ADHD.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Toby Lester0241396840|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest MapKeeper|author=Jessica Moor

|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=In 2003 a map was bought for $10 million, Katie Straw worked in the highest price ever paid publicly for a historical document, by women's refuge and the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public displaywomen who lived there liked and respected her. No ordinary map, this is sometimes described as America's birth certificateShe treated them well and seemed to have an understanding of what they were going through. It is Why then did she jump from the sole survivor of local suicide spot into the river below? There had been no signs that she was unhappy and she and her boyfriend seemed to have been content together - and Noah has a thousand copies printed early in decent alibi for the 16th centurytime when she died, and was discovered by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901. but what other explanation could there be for her death? The sale and story behind police are convinced that it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired to discover more's suicide, and this book is but the resultwomen who knew her believed otherwise.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur 1838880658|title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global MiseryMurder at Enderley Hall (Miss Underhay)|author=Helena Dixon|rating=34|genre=HumourCrime|summary=It''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floor.'' Surely that is s the wackiest, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch summer of 1933 and all it has done for the world. You won't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authors, instead with quite a potty mouth Kitty Underhay is on them they will lambast her way to visit the modern worldfamily which she never knew she had, the entire banking systemat Enderley Hall. Her grandmother, all those who failed to see it comingMrs Treadwell, and those millions just seemingly waiting for us all to revert to high-interest, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get Great Aunt Livvy are back on at the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth. Kitty gets easily bored working at the expenses train, and back up Dolphin - every day is much the rich lists.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Andy Stanton|title=What's For Dinner, Mr Gum?|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns same - but her back, and leaves the town of Lamonic Bibber real reason for going away is that she needs a day at the seasidebreak after her recent adventures, Mr Gum falls out with his best friend, causing carnivorous carnage all over the place. Meat is getting thrown around like it's going out of fashionwhich involved three vicious murders, an arson attack and we have to doubt whether Polly and an attempt on her companions can ever utilise the power of love and put things to rights. Especially as this book does not contain a magic unicorn called Elizabethlife.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Loose Women1788638026|title=Here Come Where the GirlsInnocent Die (D I Ridpath)|author=M J Lee

|genre=Home and FamilyCrime|summary=This is It was easy to assume that the second volume by death of the panelists from that nice ITV series, ''Loose Women''. Just as promised on young Chinese girl at the cover, this book is an entertaining night with the girlsImmigrant Removal Centre was suicide. It turns out that they're just like us. The faces are already familiar and even if you don't know them yetHer throat was cut, with nine contributors, you'll soon find there was a like-minded woman behind one lot of blood and the knife was on the floor at the side of the celebrity facesbed, She was due to be deported that day. The women are universally warm-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 eveningBut..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jean Ure|title=Fortune Cookie|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Fudge Cassidy how did the knife get into the secure centre and why was the Cupcake kid are best friends. girl's room the only one which was unlocked? If DI Thomas Ridpath, the names remind you of a certain film then you'd be spot on as thatcoroner's where Fudgeofficer, is sent to investigate and he quickly becomes suspicious, There's father got a snag though: the idea from. Theyinquest is due to open in a couple of days're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – but time, the combination works. Theygirl've just started at secondary school s parents are coming over from China and Cupcake has rather a lot on her platethey want to take their daughter's body home with them. Her brother Joey Ridpath has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obviousjust five days to solve the case. Add The coroner is disinclined to this that delay the inquest: for her father couldn, it't cope with s about giving closure to the problems and he now has another family. It's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not a lot of moneyparents.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenifer Roberts1471166023|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalBurnt Island (Ben Kitto)|author=Kate Rhodes

|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time The 5th of November was D I Ben Kitto's thirty-fifth birthday and the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined to become occasion for the first female monarch in Portuguese history. Married to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her seniorusual bonfire celebrations, she had six children (outliving all but one of them), and became Queen in 1777. A conscientious woman, she had the misfortune to it would be born in during marred this year by the 'age discovery of reasonProfessor Alex Rogan', when church and state were vying for supremacys body on a bonfire. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach to state affairs, she He'd obviously been alive when he was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine put on the Great, fire and wore her crown rather reluctantlycan only have died a terrible death.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Hughes|title=Thomas Wogan is Dead|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Well, with a title like that, need I bother with a plot summary? A man has a day out in MorecambeThe body was first discovered by Jimmy Curwen, then better known on St Agnes as the next thing Bird Man because he knows he's in speaks little or nothing and his only concern is the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array welfare of animals (a bat, a toad, a sea urchin...), all waiting for... well, somethingthe birds he looks after. Yup, as you didnHis instinct is to cover Rogan't need tellings body and he uses his sheepskin coat to do this, with the result that he's deadthe prime suspect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dave EggersElliot Reed|title=The Wild ThingsA Key to Treehouse Living

|summary=Meet Max. When I say he sometimes gets This is the wrong end story of a young boy, William Tyce, who is being raised by his uncle after the stick about adults, or dislikes death of his motherand his father's new boyfriendabandonment. However, or gets a bit feisty when he feels it isn't told in the need for revengeusual narrative way. Instead, I am certainly understating the facts. He book is made up of glossary entries, written by William, as a bit way of a rascal describing certain events, situations and emotions. It runs alphabetically, starting with ABSENCE, then moving to say the leastALPHABETICAL ORDER. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling As I began to a strange land of roisterous animalsread I did find myself thinking 'what on earth?!' but I soon grew used to the style, and ends was instead caught up installed as their kingin William's story.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>1911545418

 {{newreview|author=Jeremy Strong|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog |rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Trevor's troublesome dog, Streaker, has had three puppies. They were fathered, according to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one of his Alsatians. Trevor would ideally like to keep them, at least until Christmas, but his parents have other ideas and put them up for sale. Charlie Smugg declares that he's entitled 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 to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Beth Durst|title=Ice|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=Cassie lives on an Arctic research station in Alaska. She loves the ice and the wilderness of her remote home and she'd definitely prefer to spend her time on tracking polar bears and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing with her peers and enjoying college and home comforts back in Fairbanks. However, things aren't all rosy. Cassie's mother died when she was just a baby and she can't help feeling a huge hole in her heart. Her scientist father is remote and unloving and her grandmother left the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very young. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Iain Smyth and Michael Terry|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 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 and funny. Anyway, this is a book of that joke.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanWill Dean |title=Don't Swallow Your GumBlack River

|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary='''BANG'''. That's Tuva Moodyson returns - and this third book in the Tuva Moodyson mystery series delves deep into her personal life, returning her to the sound isolated town of copious urban myths being shot downGavrik and into a desperate search for her missing best friend. '''BANG'''. That's With the Midsommar sun blocked out by the sound dark pines of the old wives slamming the doorforest, as their tales get revealed as baselessTuva fights to save her friend. '''CLICK'''. That's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due But who’ll be there to this brilliant book.save Tuva?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>1786077116

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annie Taylor1782407480|title=VioletBird Love: The Family Life of Birds|author=Wenfei Tong and Mike Webster

|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Violet is I was a little perturbed when I looked at the blurb for ''Bird Love'' on a couple of on-line booksellers: ''exploring the sex life of birds'' it said. I very special hippo. She is extremely small nearly passed over the book, but a closer examination suggested that does not make her adoptive parents Albert the book is about the ''family life'' of birds, which is rather different. If the book was confined to the sex life of birds, you would be missing an opportunity to understand how birds live day-to-day, bring up their families and Mavis love her any cope in the lesswild. However Not only that, they are slightly worried that Violet has you have missed the treat of so many beautiful illustrations about a very unusual habit wide variety of turning pink without warning and for no explicable reasonbirds which run through this book from the first page to the last.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary DixonCamilla Bruce|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveYou Let Me In

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Arthur Transcombe is a middle-aged, grey-hairedEccentric, self-effacing poet. Unremarkable really - on the outside. He isolated romance novelist Cassandra Tipp has, however, managed to achieve some success with his poems. (Being been missing for a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival is no mean feat). He is also a babe magnet!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=A J Healy|title=Tommy Storm year and the Galactic Knights|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Tommy Storm. He's one of five teenagers snapped up from around the universe to be a gang of heroic detectives charged with rescuing EVERYTHING from destruction. Not just the planet, or the solar system, or even the galaxy, but EVERYTHING. Nobody seems to know what's going to cause this destruction, or when, but he and his friends and their ship seem to be the only people proactively going about saving the day. So it's a pity that they start this book strung up has been pronounced legally dead by a nasty loony who's about to kill themher lawyers.|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>}} {{newreview|author=Richard Jay Parker|title=Stop Me|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoying, but most of us Her will have had to deal with them. Fortunately, we can hit the delete button instructs her niece 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 nephew to become if I don't. But I wonder how many of us would react if a spam E-Mail actually was a matter of life enter her home and death, rather than just claiming find the key 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 their inheritance 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 old manuscript left in her office: the air and a tail wagging and a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog of delight'last story she'll ever tell. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>1787633179