Changes

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
no edit summary
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Adrian Tchaikovsky0241636604|title= Shards of EarthThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating= 4.5|genre= Science FictionAutobiography|summary= Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed, warped into If you were to bring up an unrecognisable shape by the moon-sized aliens known as the Architects. Humanity is scatteredimage of a city banker in your mind, constantly fleeing as world after world falls you're unlikely to the architect's reshapingthink of someone like Gary Stevenson. Then, just when they had A hoodie and jeans replaces the human race on pin-stripe suit and his background is the runEast End, the Architects vanished. And so, the memories of the war fades, heroes are forgottenwhere he was familiar with violence, poverty and humanity begins to fracture and fight among themselvesinjustice. Idris Telemmier, a man genetically engineered There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to try and communicate with the Architects, does not want to be rememberedLondon School of Economics. But, when Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he and the crew has a facility with numbers which most of the salvage ship he calls home discover what appears us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be recent Architect activity, suddenly he is thrust back into the spotlightstupid. As he and It was his allies bounce from star system to star systemability at what was, chased by alien crime syndicatesessentially, human secret police and rich slaversa card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, he slowly begins to realise that the real war is only just getting started…|isbn=1529051886this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=18484584281035021803|title=Local Woman MissingThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=Mary KubicaC L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Eleven It's twenty years ago, a man regularly came home since Freya Lockwood has been back to his wife with lipstick marks on his collar and lame excuses as to why he was late - againthe English country village where she grew up. His wife was in the habit She's back now because of going out a request for a run late at nighthelp from her beloved aunt, Carole. It was Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the only time she had for herself when she didn't have circumstances seem suspicious, to look after her baby - but when she was out she would meet up with a man, grateful for say the unquestioning affection he gave herleast. The locality Arthur was stunned when Shelby Tebow disappearedthe reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, seemingly without a traceshe feels, leaving her husband to look after let her disabled babydown badly. Ten days laterEven though they were in business together as antique hunters, a local woman and her six-year-old daughter disappeared. Meredith Dickey was a birth doula and she'd seemed has not felt able to be under some strain for near the last couple of weeks man or sopursue the profession she loved. Her body was eventually found After the split, she worked in a seedy motel - it appeared that she'd committed suicide. She left a note saying that cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her daughter, Delilahlife, who was safe murdered) and Freya and there was no point in looking for herJames have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Nicolas BouvierAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Japanese ChroniclesAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=TravelScience Fiction|summary= It never does to start a review ''Opening up new ways of a book with a quote from thinking about the blurb, but sometimes shape of things to come.'' I've heard itsaid that 'technology' is what happens after you's unavoidablere eighteen. Le Monde reviewed this book, at some point Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with the words what's advantageous to me but I'what m left with the old master craftsmen would call a masterpiecefeeling that it's all getting away from me.'' It Some of it is precisely that- frankly - quite frightening. A masterpiece in Of course, I could research the sense of possibilities and the craft as well as the art of writing. probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm going to hesitate to call it 'travel writingreading someone who knows what they' because this is as much a history of Japan, a mythology-primer for re talking about or the Japanese culture as it is a personal response to living latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and travelling who could deliver information in the countrya way I could understand. |isbn=1906011044
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Genevieve GornichecSunny Singh|title=The Witch's HeartHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=FantasyThrillers |summary= A modern and approachable reimagining of the Norse myths The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that centres around has suddenly been violently taken over by a witch named Angrbodaterrorist group. She hides in Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a forest at wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the edge of residents who are still alive in the nine worldshotel, remembering nothing he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her past life but that fact that she was survived burnt at the stake three times because of Odinroom to try to capture what's wrathhappened through her photography. Her attempts Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to live in peace, however, are quickly thwarted when Loki shows up with help her literal heart—the one that was cut from her chest keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before she was tied to they are discovered by the stake—and refuses to leave her aloneterrorists. After an initial period |isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of mistrustSuspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, Angrboda begins though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to fall for Lokihave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's charms, and overheard that her father wants to move the two start an unusual family made of up 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a half-dead daughterfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, a son and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's a wolf, and another son not worried about the dangers or thather Mum's a snakestopped talking - to anyone.|isbn=1789097061
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17885497591398524085|title=The Distant DeadHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Lesley ThomsonNicci French|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It Charlotte Salter was December 1940 and twenty-four-year-old Maple Greenhill had gone out for the evening 'with expected at her friend Idahusband' leaving s fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her threedaughter, Etty. are all worried but -yearstrangely -old sonher husband, WilliamAlec, at home with her parentsis not. The boy thought that Maple was his sister - it was better for Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the family than the shame of illegitimacy, but Maple had high hopes body of putting her life (and WilliamGreg's) on a better footingfather, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. She It was going an easy assumption for the police to meet her well-to-do fiancé, hoping to persuade him to come make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and meet her family then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the following weekguilt. Later, her body would be found in the bombed-out home where he had taken herThe Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294072491035906708|title=The Perfect LieDiva|author=Jo SpainDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=It We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was July 2019 born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and Erin only moved to Athens when she was happythirteen. She and Danny Ryan were planning a few days away: thatHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 's always a dangerous thing to do when youCallas're married to a cop but make it more manageable in the States. When she was hopeful. They'd been married back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for six months and life her voice - she was good with raised under the Nazi occupation by a decent apartment by the sea mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in Newportfor a movie marathon at their local cinema, Long Islanda place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. The knock on All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the door was insistent movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and when it was opened, Dannythey are swept up into an adventure they couldn's partner, Ben Mitchell was there with a couple of other officerst even imagine. Danny took But as they lurch from one lookfilm genre to the next, turned, walked can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the open window cinema, and jumped to his death from the fourth floor.their real lives? Eighteen months later, Erin would be on trial for her husband's murder.|isbn=1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1523092734Rachel Greenlaw|title=A Women's Guide to Claiming Space|author=Eliza Van CortCompass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and SocietyTeens|summary=''She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD) ''To claim space is to live I can hear the life song of choosing unapologetically and bravelythe sea. It is to live The call of the life you've always wanteddeep, the answering beat in my heart.''
Sometimes Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the reviewing gods are generous: at seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a time when violence against women is much in trap to end the newswrecking, they capture the island''A Womens leader and Mira's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my deskfather. Now - Desperate to be clear - this book save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is not a 'how secretive and with only coordinates to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effectiveguide her, but discussion at she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the moment seems to be about how women can be ''protected''sea. I've always thought that women need With only nine days to rise above thisunearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to be people who donthe heart of the smuggler't need protections territory, people who claim their own space. If all women did this, those few men who are violent Mira must be determined to women would realise that we are not just an easy target stop at nothing to be used to prove that they are big mensave the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Darren ShanJames Sherwood Metts|title=Archibald Lox and the Forgotten Crypt: Archibald Lox series, Volume 2, book 1 of 3Planet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The second trilogy in Shan's ''Merge'' saga opens with our hero, Archie, back in London in Things have been a bit sticky for the world of the BornEarthlings. It's not AI and automation have been easyproceeding apace, explaining often replacing jobs they're paid to his foster parents where he's been, or slipping back into ordinary life do and forgetting about Inez other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and his starting to think of other friends in the Merge, but Archie has done his bestnew ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic.... wellLife was pretty much shut down and, except for visiting veteran locksmith Winston in Big Ben's clock tower and except for fiddling along with that sneaky master lock in Seven Dials every time he can sneak awayit, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=B093H8DPQZ1736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008444501Matthew Tree|title=The Answer to Everything|author=Luke KennardWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Life should have been good for Emily. She had a lovely husband, StevenTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, who was a speech therapist. We'll pass over the fact that they rarely speak to each other drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and don't even sleep in the same bed. It isn't so much that Emily has left the marital bed as that she's sharing a bed with one who had endless crises of her children as it's the only way to get him to sleep during the nightself confidence. Arthur and Matty are gorgeous but they are a handful and Emily has a job So Tim applied himself to cope with too - she teaches drama two days a week. They've not long moved into a new home in Criterion Gardens: it's a trendy area that has been gentrified and it's run on semi-communal lines. The residents even share eco-friendly electric cars his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than owning their ownhis daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241985137A G Slatter|title=The Whole Truth (D I Fawley)|author=Cara HunterBriar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
 
Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.
|isbn=1803364548
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529900360
|title=The Ghost Orchid
|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=DI Adam FawleyIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's team got to Edith Launceleve College firstfault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, called there by Jancis Appleby Sturgis was reluctant to see the Principal, Professor Hilary Reynoldsask for his help on difficult cases. There had been an accusation His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of sexual assault by a professor on psychologist only worked for a studentwhile. When Fawley arrived he Finally, it was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing in the room before theyRobin, Delaware'd even got the details from s partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the victim? The problem involvement was something that Caleb Morgan ''was'' the 'victim' and the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina Fisherman she loved needed. Just to complicate matters further, Caleb's mother is Petra NewsonThe next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the local MP, and Professor Fisher is swimming pool of a big name remote property in Artificial IntelligenceBel Air. She has He was the heir to an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by the case from Berry Brothers & Rudd, spends more than £1000 a month on clothes Italian shoe empire and has more than ten thousand Twitter followers. When the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this she is going married to be an extremely rich man and it''very'' publics not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker1529395224|title=A Tattoo on my BrainLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Alzheimer's is Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a disease that slowly wears away your identity GP and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel diseaseRowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected particularly when he considered the elements. It seems as if nature wants strain that final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbsbeing on-call put on his father' memoir so admirables life. Daniel Gibbs is When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a neurologist family friend who was diagnosed a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with Alzheimers and has documented so many students - been his journey in ''A Tattoo on my Brain'dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.|isbn=1108838936
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=16358623530861541774|title=The Sandalmaking WorkshopA Nye of Pheasants|author=Rachel CorrySteve Burrows|rating=4.5|genre=CraftsCrime|summary=A sandal-making workshop? I couldnDCI Domenic Jejeune't really believe its close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, mainly because I'd always thought Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that you'd need more equipment than the average home he was likely to be able to contain but I was intriguedfacing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Rachel Corry started sandal making accidentally - Initially, he faced a small fire destroyed some charge of her shoesmanslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. One pair had come apart and she Now he could see how be facing the sandal was constructeddeath penalty. Then she realised that she couldn't afford Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to replace all her shoes. Could she combine these two facts to create help as any interference from another police force could provoke a new diplomatic incident and worthwhile craft? She showed quite a few people her first pair and they wouldn't help Danny at all either wanted to know how to do it - or if she'd make them a pair. A new career was born.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1787332098Alexander McCall Smith|title=How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=Henry ManceThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyGeneral Fiction|summary=''When we do think about animalsThe Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, we break them down into species run by Ness and groups: cows, dogs, foxesoperating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, elephants and so ontailored service. And we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on sofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and millions of wild animals stay out therelook after the business, ''somewhere,'' hopefully on the next David Attenborough series.'' I was going as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to argueget away for a while. I meanKatie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, cows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and I much prefer my elephants in so jumps at the wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for the sake of itchance to come home to Edinburgh. Essentially that quote sums up my attitude And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to animals - and I consider myself an animal lover. If I had Edinburgh we already love, thanks to choose between the company of humans 44 Scotland Street and the company of animalsIsabel Dalhousie novels, I would probably choose the animalsbut with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. I insisted that I read this book: Katie has no one was trying to stop me experience in running a business, or in match-making, but I was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, eggsNess has full confidence in her abilities, chicken and fish there's always her very helpful (and I needed rather handsome) neighbour, William, to either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected that making the decision would not be comfortable.lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Ananda Devi0811771741|title=Eve Out of Her RuinsInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrafts|summary=At not even 200 pages, Eve Out of Her Ruins is one of the shortest books IMelissa Leapman's ''ve read in a long while, but itInstaKnits for Baby's one of the most dramatic. It's also told in gives us a way that I can only describe as brutal: it spares nothing and pulls very few punches, the descriptions stark and unromantic.|isbn=0993009344}} {{Frontpage|isbn=0241985137|title=The Whole Truth (D I Fawley)|author=Cara Hunter|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=DI Adam Fawley's team got collection of knits from toys to Edith Launceleve College first, called there by Jancis Appleby to see the Principal, Professor Hilary Reynoldsblankets. There had been an accusation Some will be quick knits - others are of sexual assault by a professor on a student. When Fawley arrived he was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the room before theyfire'd even got the details from the victim? variety. The problem was that Caleb Morgan ''was'' projects are divided by the time they'victim' and the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina Fisher. Just ll take to complicate matters furthercomplete - less than five hours, Caleb's mother is Petra Newson, the local MPfive to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and Professor Fisher is a big name is Artificial Intelligencemore than twenty hours. She has an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by All the case from Berry Brothers & Ruddprojects are attractive, spends more than £1000 a month on clothes modern and has more than ten thousand Twitter followersuseable. When the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this is going to be I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects'verybut that'' publics me being picky.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0753558378Dean Koontz|title=Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters|author=Greg McKeownThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleParanormal|summary=''The marginal return of working harder was, in fact, negative.'' That's what happened to Patrick McGinnisBenny is having a terrifically bad day. It's no exaggeration to say that He loses his job, he devoted loses his life to the company he worked forfiancee, struggling throughand his house gets trashed. Oh, even when he was illand someone has delivered a really weird, only disturbing coffin-sized object to find his home, and it's possible that he whoever or whatever was working for a bankrupt company. inside is the thing that has trashed his house! His stock had fallen by 97%The thing is, he had lost his health and his job had little valueBenny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He made is a bargain with God; if he survived, he would make some changesnice person. He did survive and came through stronger - and richerA really nice person. There So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house isa new friend, you seea bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a different way: good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny'great things s wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are not reserved for those who bleed, for those who almost break.''|isbn=1662500491
}}
 
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1471181405Adam Stower|title=Nighthawking|author=Russ ThomasMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers |summary=Sheffield's [http://www.sbg.org.uk/ Botanical Gardens] (on Clarkehouse Road, if you'd like Murray is supposed to visit) are an oasis of calm in what's otherwise thought of as an industrial city but this was disrupted when the body of be a young woman was discovered. It had obviously been buried in humble, tidy and friendly cat, one of the beds but who would have started is able to dig her up? It had been in the earth for months sleep and eat and eat and could have been undiscovered for years. The police need to establish who stabbed her - sleep and who left the two, very rarewell, gold aurei on her eyes. DCI Diane Jordan is whatever takes his fancy next of the Investigating Officer and her foot soldiers are DS Adam Tyler and DC Mina Rabbanitwo. TheyBut he're joined by DS Guy Daley whos a bad magician's just returned from extended sick leavecat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. Mina thinks This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's as obnoxious as ever but suspects that turned up and he's not fully recovered from his injuries.ll have to do…|isbn=0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Jennifer Saint B0C47LV1PC|title= Ariadne Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating= 4.5 |genre= Women's Literary Fiction |summary= This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that question should you make it? Or is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of Ariadnequestion if you did, spanning from her childhood to her death, allowing would it land? The catch is that the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a prop in the heroics of Theseusanswer for both could well be. |isbn=1472273869}} {{Frontpage|author=Gianna Pollero and Sarah Horne|title=Monster Doughnuts|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=After their parents mysteriously disappeared, Grace and Danni have been left to run the family bakery. But Grace needs the doughnuts and sweet treats that Danni bakes for a rather unusual reason..no.even though she ''Fragility''s only ten years old, she is a monster hunter! Monsters have a very sweet tooth, and Grace uses a number set as the city of methods to defeat them such as throwing baking powder on them, or tricking them into eating a sweet treat that willPortland, ultimatelyOregon, be their demise. One day, though, Grace finds herself facing a cyclops monster called Mr Harris, who has a weakness for doughnuts but doesn't seem cautiously begins to explode as emerge from the restrictions imposed during the other monsters do, and so things start to get very strange…|isbn=1848129432covid pandemic
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=09956478951529431735|title=Sadie and the Sea DogsThe Winter Visitor|author=Maureen Duffy and Anita JoiceJames Henry|rating=3.54|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=SadieIt's mother always said that she was a dreamerFebruary 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, her mind never on what she should be doing. She lives by the River Thames at Greenwich and she loves to spend hours at The Maritime Museum or gazing at Cutty Sark. ''Her class had gone one rainy afternoon''<br>which made Bruce Hopkins''When return all the houses cowered in the gloom,''<br>''To the Maritime Museum''. Her imagination was firedmore surprising. SheHe'd love to sail been exiled on the oceans on an ancient sailing ship and went back regularlyCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. One day she fell asleep under a glass case (itThe return has come about because he's the one where Nelsonhad a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's Trafalgar breeches are on show) and missed the closing bell ill and the attendanthasn's warning shoutt long to live. When she woke (It's hard floors don't make comfy beds) she was to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the midst boot of an adventure that she could never have imagined in a world of dolphins, pirates, mermaids and treasurestolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Kristen O'NealAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Lycanthropy and Other Chronic IllnessesThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=54|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary= Having recently been diagnosed Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with chronic Lyme diseasehim, Priya has to come to terms and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with the fact that she may be his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in constant pain for the rest of her lifefamily. She joins ''Oof Ouch My Bones' A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, an online support group a globe-trotting adventure where she talks all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a bunch of other teens living with chronic illnessesmagical beast. They talk about their troubles and help each other out, while also providing an escape This has made the race anathema to just joke and mess around. When Brigid—one of her closest friends—doesn't respond the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to the chat for a whileconfession from gran, Priya becomes concerned. She decides to steal her parents' car and drive Eli knows his only hope is to Brigid's house dare to check up on her. But enter what she doesn't expect to find there is a werewolf in he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the basement end and for that werewolf to be the girl she has been talking only thing to online for the past few monthspossibly save his gran.|isbn=16836923490571382231
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Mercedes Helnwein178763681X|title=SlingshotKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin|rating=34|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Gracie Welles has resigned herself Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. He didn't really want to being lonely. As but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a secret illegitimate daughter way of getting both men and women to do what he wanted. Paul ''somehow'' got the impression that he'd be at the school to assist Paul, who had a man with a "real" familybroken arm, she is used to not being a priority in peoplebut it didn's livest turn out that way. The teaching - and the problems - are all his own. But when she defends a random boy in her class with her slingshot, her simple existence is changed The one thing he hadn't expected was for goodsomeone to turn up dead. No longer can she spend her time writing novels in solitude Unfortunately, for her life now has a boy in it he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that she never asked for: Wade Scholfieldperson to be the prime suspect.|isbn=152905818X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B005FM76AASarah Marsh|title=The Duke's Children|author=Anthony TrollopeA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=The story opens to probably the worst news After a bout of all: Lady Glencora Palliser is deadscarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Her husband, Plantagenet PalliserSuddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the Duke use of Omniumsign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is nearly paralysed by grief and struggling - at the same time - sent to adjust a school where she is taught to no longer being prime ministerlip read, or even in officebut physically restrained from signing. He seeks to protect From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and guide his three adult children, which is easier said than done when none of them wishes to ''be'' guidedusing a system called Visible Speech. Silverbridge (his elder sonAt the same time, actually called PlantagenetBell is working on other inventions and ideas, but always known by his title) and Gerald are destined to be sent down from Oxford and Cambridge respectively and to run Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up gambling debts, occasionally in eye-watering sums. Lady Helen has fallen in love with - and wishes to marry - Frank Tregear, the penniless son of a poor squire, which the Duke cannot countenance, not least because he sees echos complicated tangle of what might have happened when he married Lady Glencora. He's about to learn that parents do not always get their wayespionage.|isbn=1035401614
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Goldy Moldavsky1803816759|title=The Last GirlUnravelling|author=Will Gibson|rating=54|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary= Rachel Chavez It's 2038 and Joe is a bored cop policing the new girl at Manchester Prepwealthy and peaceful New York City. A school filled Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to the brim get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the richest children in the city – AI system that now runs everything, making life easier for many, and Rachel doesn't belongriots start to spread. She's not richFinally, she has no ties Joe gets to do some royal family in Serbia, and most real policing. In the aftermath of all, she spends the majority of rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and Joe is assigned to bring her spare time watching horror movies as a source of comforthome. She struggles to find anyone to connect with, until one day she stumbles upon Joe isn't the Mary Shelley Club. A secret society with only one aim: pull off the best prank in true horror movie styletrying to save Suki - Dylan, a British superfan and unless someone screamstech nerd, you have failed. Rachel becomes immediately engrossed in is also on the competitioncase. But as the pranks escalate, and Rachel finally feels like she has found her place in this school, things start to go What went wrong; a masked figure keeps showing up to ? Did the pranks, and people begin to get hurt. When the competition then takes a deadly turn, Rachel must figure out who this masked figure system fail or was it hacked? And how is before itSuki's too late.|isbn=0755501527kidnapping connected?
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Polly Barton1529421284|title=Fifty SoundsLaying Out the Bones|author=Kate Webb
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyCrime|summary= Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself startsIt was one of those flash downpours that the British weather often delivers in a heatwave. In a gully, with a human skeleton came to the question surface and forensic testing proved the body to be Lee Geary, who had disappeared nine years earlier. He''Why Japan?'' Japan has d been on my radar for a while known drug user and if the world hadnhad learning disabilities, so it could have been a simple case of misadventure but DI Matt Lockyer wasn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by nowconvinced. I may get there later this year Geary was a townie, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer so what was he doing out on Salisbury Plain alone? There are connections to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect suicide of the question in the first essay, Holly Gilbert and to two other deaths which is on were not considered suspicious at the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, time. Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad of the sound of Major Crimes Review Unit (that''every party where s cold cases to you have to introduce yourself''and me) investigate.|isbn=1913097501
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Lucy Holland0571379559|title=SistersongThe House of Broken Bricks|author=Fiona Williams
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Sistersong ''The House of Broken Bricks'' is part of a genre I particularly enjoy, the modern retelling story of folk and fairy talesfour people. These stories Tess Hembry's roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, but instead, for most of usshe lives in the house on the riverbank, are a cornerstone built of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a fresh perspectivebroken bricks. If handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated Insubstantial as it might look, fleshing out charactersit's stood the passage of time, examining relationships storms and re-evaluating the role of womenfloods. Sistersong is a perfect example of a modern retelling done well Her husband, the plot is handled with careRichard, keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters struggles to come grow his vegetables, to life, complete the delivery rounds - and to feel real bring in sufficient money. They have twin boys - Sonny and humanMax, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age rainbow twins. Sonny's colouring reflects his mother's Jamaican heritage. Max takes after his father. People don't believe that they live in. This 're related, much less twins and there's an assumption when Max is a masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to endout with his mother that she's his nanny.|isbn=1529039037
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291242551529425867|title=The WhispersLost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery)|author=Heidi PerksSimon Mason
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=We know straight away that In Oxford, thereare two D I Wilkins. Raymond Wilkins is of Nigerian descent, Balliol educated and always exquisitely dressed. D I Ryan Wilkins, son of Ryan and father of Ryan, is not. He's going to be a bodynot any of those things. ItHe's on the beach under Craynewhite, originated from a trailer park, barely educated (reading's Cliff near the town not ''really'' his thing) and his wardrobe consists mainly of Clearwater shell suits and it's new year's daytrackies. To understand what happened weThey're going to have to go back to the previous Septemberusually in lime green or acid yellow. Grace Goodwin has a soft Australian accent - sheYou might wonder if you's lived there since her teens and now, in her mid-thirties, she's returned re being introduced to her home town to livea police procedural written for laughs. Her husband, Graham, works in Singapore and she and her eight-year-old daughterWell, Matilda, might as well be in the lovely apartment sheyou's foundre not. Grace's best friend, Anna Robinson, is still in Clearwater and she has an eight-year-old child tooThe two men are just different sides of the same policing coin. Ethan's in Sometimes the class Matilda will be joiningcombination works brilliantly well. ItSometimes it's perfect!problematic.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sarah SultoonMosby Woods|title=The SourceA Whirly Man Loses His Turn|rating=2.54|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=1996The West isn't the dominant force it once was. Nobody in the West is quite sure how to mend this or even if mending it is the best course of action. EssexGovernments are flailing. Thirteen-year-old schoolgirl Carly lives in a disenfranchised town dominated by A war here, a military base, struggling to care push for her baby sister while her mum sleeps off another bingeclimate action there. When her squaddie brother brings food and treatsA feeling that nobody is in actual charge. Imagine then, and offers an exclusive invitation to army parties, things start to look there was a man with precognition. Imagine the strategic advantage in this asset; a little less bleakman who can tell you what will happen given any set of circumstances.That man would be valuable, right? Perhaps the most valuable asset in history.Imagine then, that this man loses this ability.What would governments do to get it back?|isbn=1913193594B0C9SNG8R1
}}

Navigation menu