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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[: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. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, & self-published books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|plus author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.</metadesc>
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Elliott0008517061|title=Traitors' Gate (Crossroads)Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=Kate Elliott's ''Crossroads'' series Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has so far come in large, slightly off-putting chunkssettled into his rustic life at Little Sky. They've been decent readsThere’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, by Livia and largeher daughter Diana, with as moving in together would mean a huge cast lot of wonderfully drawn characters, but compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the sheer size future she wants for herself and slow pace of the action has meant I didn't enjoy them as much as I may otherwise have done. her daughter? ''Traitors' Gate'', For the third moment they’re enjoying life in the sequence is different in only one aspect; the character development is still there, present and putting the huge page count is still there, but future on the pacing is a lot betterback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498351</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley Jackson1786482126|title=The Haunting of Hill HouseJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=There Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a time before Stephen Kingdoorway. There was time before ''The Shining''no skull. There was Was this a time when 'horror' was not rooted in bloodritual killing or murder? Inevitably, guts and goreDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. I owe a slight apology to Mr KingIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, because along that she is pregnant with the gutsier side his child as a result of the genreone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, I will own that he not least because Ruth is a master at suspenseprone to sudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141191449</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jill Tomlinson and Paul Howard0008551324|title=The Penguin Who Wanted To Find OutDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Otto the penguin lives on his fatherIt's feet at unusual for anyone from the bottom of Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the worldother. HeBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's an inquisitive little thing prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to know why they haven't fallen off be transferred to an open prison to serve the worldremainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. His dad explains that they won Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't Because I say think so. Otto and his friend Leo gradually expand their horizons from their fathersshe' feet s even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - they meet other penguin chicks, get to know their aunts make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who watch them when their fathers are works with him is kept well away, and eventually grow feathers so theyfrom what're big enough to toboggan on their bellies and swim in the seas happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140523041X</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ryan David Jahn 0571379877|title=Acts of ViolenceThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Kat Marino Edward Jevons is stabbed on her way home from worka working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. All she wanted was a hot bath after a hard dayRobert's worka theatre director. From this point the novel skips nimbly from one neighbour to the next, all of whom are absorbed in their own dilemmas. There is the draftee with a sick motherHe's also self-obsessed, the nurse who thinks she has run over a babydemanding, the woman who suspects her husband of cheating handsome and entitled and othersuses Edward to run errands for him. We are shown what these characters were doing that evening, Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how these events drag through he feels to the morningRobert. We are shown how Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the midst two of their own interesting, poignant and dangerous concerns them kissing in a woman is stabbed in the courtyard onto which all their windows look, through which windows they witness the attack, and how these people did nothingdark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230743595</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Josh LaceyJo Callaghan|title=Two Tigers on a StringLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=BenWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's not too keen to be sharing his bedroom their first live case together, having previously been very successful with his half-brother, Frankseveral cold cases. But you don't have when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the hero case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a detective adventure such as this book career?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to know that as Frank's mother has vanished from be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the face free spirit of the Earth, Ben will let it lie - for group and she becomes a whileGP. Nor is When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it too surprising 's going to see end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the four Misfitz together, on another case, as they go on tragedy or the hunt for consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the missing womanthree friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407109782</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julia Williams0241636604|title=Last ChristmasThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's FictionAutobiography|summary=With Christmas fast approaching, what better way If you were to bring up an image of getting a city banker in the spirit your mind, you're unlikely to think of things than by reading this excellent book that captures someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the joys pin-stripe suit and stresses of his background is the festive season so well? The reader follows four different people – Catherine Tinsall and her husband NoelEast End, where he was familiar with violence, Marianne Moore poverty and Gabriel Northinjustice. Each of these characters have their own reasons for not really looking forward There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to Christmas (mainly because of the experience London School of last Christmas) Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and these reasons slowly become apparent he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to the reader be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as the story progressesa trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847560865</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nigel McCrery1035021803|title=Core of EvilThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Violet Chambers becomes Daisy Wilson through an aromatic cup It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of teaher life, flavoured with Christmas roseswho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you'"There are all kinds re eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of horrible things technology in the Christmas rose," she said, watching to see whether Daisy could still hear hermy lifetime. "Helleborin and hellebrin are both like digitalis, which I've also used before, kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but thereI's saporin and protoanemonin as well. Itm left with the feeling that it's a very nasty cocktailall getting away from me."' And now Daisy has met her rather sticky Some of it is - and graphically effluent frankly - endquite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and Violet has become Daisy, Daisy sets her sights on a new town, a new identity the probabilities and, most importantly, a new victim. Daisy has problems with her memory - the identities go back so far that sometimes she can barely remember end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who is she is now, let alone all knows what they're talking about or the whos she's been before, latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and most certainly not the who with whom she begancould deliver information in a way I could understand. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847243843</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Van der KisteSunny Singh|title=Jonathan Wild: Conman and CutpurseHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=HistoryThrillers |summary=Born towards The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the end of the seventeenth century Jonathan Wild was to become the eighteenth century's most famous criminalterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, plying his trade in a rather curious fashion. He was born in Wolverhampton of parents described as ''mean but honest''wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. It seems likely that he first travelled As Abhi continues to try to London as care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the servant of hotel, he forms a lawyer where he was eventually bond with Sam who refuses to settlebe cowed by events, leaving his wife and child keeps on venturing out of her room to fend for themselvestry to capture what's happened through her photography. It was whilst serving a term of imprisonment in Wood Street Compter that he mixed with Although they only ever talk over the cream of London's criminal underclass phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and learned they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the rudiments of his tradeterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848682190</amazonuk>086154742X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=K M Grant1529153298|title=Paradise Red (Perfect Fire Trilogy)The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=We are back in the south of France for the third It's 1979 and final timeMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. In one corner(A woman? I mean, the honestly...) She's not what'Frenchs worrying Miv's family, with King Louis and his henchmen rampaging through, warring in the name of peacethough. Women have been disappearing. In another cornerWell, the local peoplethey've been murdered, struggling in the harsh environment and none too pleased but to see their corner of the world the location for religious wars, with the Cathar have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she'hereticss overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South' also present. The lines are drawnWhen you're from Yorkshire, in Down South is a realistically convoluted wayfrightening, and this book will see one of our heroes cross one such lineforeign place, just as other people make their own momentous decisionsbest avoided. It will take all For Miv, the narrative skills of the land itself move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to get prevent that. She's not worried about the story across dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to usanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247075</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Camilla Noli1398524085|title=The Mother's TaleHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband''It is early evenings fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. I am suckling my infant son… We are picture perfect. Madonna Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and child''her daughter, Etty. No doubt about it: a new mother totally smitten with are all worried but - strangely - her son. Zach husband, Alec, is adorable. Quiet. Undemandingnot. A happyShortly afterwards, generally relaxedEtty and Greg, childfind the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. Gorgeous. But Zach isnIt was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't her first-bornstand the guilt. First The Salter children are not convinced but there was Cassie. A child who entered the world screaming 's little else they can do but get on with their lives and has since learned exactly wonder about what power she can wring with such lungs. Not yet two years old, Cassie adores her father, but even him she manipulatesreally happened. Her mother she terrorises.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101584</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=AQA 633361035906708|title=More Brilliant Answers|rating=4|genre=Trivia|summary=If you've got a question you can text those nice people at AQA 63336 and they'll do their best to provide you with a prompt and accurate answer. Over the last five years they've answered some twenty million questions and each autumn they publish a book with the best and most interesting of the year's answers. There's some fun to be had in this year's book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683262</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDiva|author=Patrick O'Brien|title=You Are The First Kid On MarsDaisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=It is a sci-fi future We tend to think of no danger whatsoeverMaria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, with no technological breakdownNew York, in December 1923 and no fatal meteor strike, but that of course is only moved to be expected for this marketAthens when she was thirteen. I say Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more to highlight how well manageable in the book has been illustratedStates. Digital airbrush techniques and more have taken the antiseptic sheen off When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the whole experience, but have still allowed for Nazi occupation by a great detail in the machinery, mother who mercilessly exploited her and also a lovely warmth in the face made no secret of the lad we're empathising withher preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399246347</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary NaylusChristopher Edge|title=The DresskeeperBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Things Lucas and his friends are pretty grim all booked in for Picky. She is thirteen years old, being bullied a movie marathon at schooltheir local cinema, and a place that has to spend her weekends helping her single, working mum to take care the nickname of her little brother and her senile grandmother'The Black Hole'. One eveningAll big movie fans, at her Granthey's housere looking forward to lots of exciting films, she goes up into the attic and tries on an old dress that she finds inside an old chest. many, many snacks! The dress turns out to be magicHowever, and she suddenly finds herself back in 17th Century Londonas the movie starts, struggling with a strange man who they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is calling her 'Ameliavery different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn' and is trying to kill hert even imagine. Picky ends up embroiled in Amelia's 17th century life But as she tries they lurch from one film genre to find the next, can they figure out the truth of who what on earth is attempting going on? Will they ever get back to murder herthe cinema, at the same time as trying to avoid arousing suspicion with her strange behaviour whenever she returns and to the present day.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956122280</amazonuk>1839942738
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{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
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 seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Abbott Nez James Sherwood Metts|title=Cromwell Dixon's Sky-CyclePlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=Meet Cromwell DixonThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. HeAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's a real tinkererre paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, forever in a barn or somewhere building something manically unusualalong came an awful pandemic. Luckily - although his long-suffering mother may disagree Life was pretty much shut down and, along with that word - he's around at it, all the birth of powered flightmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. Will his plans for a pedalled air machine work?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0399250417</amazonuk>1736128426
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue MoorcroftMatthew Tree|title=Starting OverWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary=The story opens when Tess bumps her old reliable car into a breakdown truck. That's rather convenient, since she isn't hurt, and the guy driving it is able to tow her Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his garagefather, and then give her a lift to her new home. Naturally, since this is the 'chick-lit' genre, Tess drunk and the truck-driver, who goes by the unlikely name chronic underachiever whose dreams of Ratty (an abbreviation being exceptional at any of his surname) feel mutual antipathy artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of the sort that's clearly going self confidence. So Tim applied himself to leadhis studies, sooner or later, to strong attractioncultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906931224</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary BeardA G Slatter|title=It's A Don's LifeThe Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleFantasy|summary=Professor Mary Beard, feisty Cambridge classics don, keeps an eye open for architectural detail wherever she goes. Even on holiday, she notices the changing urban landscape and records interesting parallels with ancient cities in her sparky blog. She is engaged in writing '' There's a detailed history of Pompeii and suddenly realises, whilst perambulating the backstreets part of the Mexican city of Oaxacan, me that wants to keep this is exactly what Pompeii must have been likejust to myself for however long I can. She observes the low rise shopsThis secret magic of my own, dirt tracks across dusty streets and the close juxtaposition of rich and poor. Impressive portals of grand residential properties tower above humble workshopsall mine, and this prompts her into imaginative reconstructionat last. In her blog, from which this intriguing book is culled, she tells us about I just how Oaxacan encourages her want to ponder again the curious cart ruts of Pompeiienjoy it for a while. She even finds walls splashed with political slogans that are just like Roman ''dipinti''. Indeed, here in Mexico, the local library displays an edifying message in Spanish which originates in Cicero's speech in his Pro Archia, ''Science and letters are the nourishment of youth and the diversion of old age.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682517</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julian Barnes1529900360|title=Staring at the SunThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=JeanIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's first Incident involved Uncle Leslie, hyacinths fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and golf tees. It's perhaps best forgotteneven after Alex recovered, but Jean doesn't forgetSturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. Uncle Leslie figures large in her life His assertions that there were only open- mostly on the golf course and- until shut cases which didn't need the War comes and he runs away to Americahelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. He Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's replaced by Tommy Prosserpartner, a grounded pilot who once saw nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the sun rise twice in one day and excites as many questions in Jean as he ever answersinvolvement was something that the man she loved needed. Tommy is replaced by Michael The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a policeman, whom Jean eventually marriesremote property in Bel Air. He doesn't know why minks are excessively tenacious of life was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and he doesnit't much cares not the Italian. But Jean does. She cares much less for the Dutch cap that Michael sent her off to obtain before the wedding and much less again for their rather disastrous adventures in which of them was the bedroom. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540096</amazonuk>primary target?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexandra Bruce1529395224|title=2012Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: Science or SuperstitionThe Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=The fuss about 2012 has not started just recentlySiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. The first book to feature the story His father was from a Yale professor, GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in 1966. We've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuhhis footsteps, particularly when he considered the Maya creation myth. But as the crunch date of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice strain that year being on- nears, itcall put on his father's becoming a very big story indeedlife. Even though it sounds absurd - When he was seventeen he took the end opportunity of doing work experience with a 5,125-year family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long cycle of the Maya calendar, which started on August 13th, 3114BCE - or he was judged to start then, when they came across this concept a couple of thousand years into that periodat Liverpool University. Surely they couldnIt hadn't predict the future from their 'primitive' state - as with such accuracy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934708283</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jeff Kinney|title=Diary of so many students - been his dream since he was a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=It is a truth universally acknowledged that school summer holidays are only enjoyable if you want to enjoy summerchild. Greg here doesn't want to notice itIf anything, and would prefer to spend his days curtains drawn, face glued to late night TV or a computer game, hand either clicking away at a controller or shovelling in snacks. The last thing he needs, then, is his mother, on a ''family togetherness'' trip, and on d wanted to be a budget, with bad ideas of what Greg should be doing insteadprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327650</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rick Yancey0861541774|title=The Monstrumologist: The Terror BeneathA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=In late 19th century AmericaDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, young Will Henry has been the apprentice of the sterntaken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, forbidding Dr Warthrop since the death of his parents, who were also employed by the doctorGuy Trueman. The twelve year old boy has seen many things Maik was involved in his service to the monstrumologist a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a specialist in monsters knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but nothing can prepare him for evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings man. Now he could be facing the doctor the twin corpses of death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a young girl diplomatic incident and the headless creature with fangs in his chest who had tried to feast on herwouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738546X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stella WhitelawAlexander McCall Smith|title=Midsummer MadnessThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=You'll like Sophie GreshamThe Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and when look after the side effects became too much business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for her she worked behind the scenesa while. She's Katie is coming out of a break up with a very good prompt despite bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the fact that you need chance to wrap up very warmly come home to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job and most of the cast in the theatre companyEdinburgh. It's a bit of a shock though when she realises that the guest producer And so begins this new story from New York is Joe HarrisonAlexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, the man she helped out when he had nothing thanks to eat 44 Scotland Street and nowhere the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to sleepcharm. Sophie was Katie has no experience in running a little softer business, or in those days – match-making, but Ness has full confidence in the meantime sheher abilities, and there's had always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to develop lend a protective shell.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bonnie Greer0811771741|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to grasp. It's best if I start with the author's intentions as set out in her Prologue. It is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll. All of these, she notes, were heard on the President's Inauguration Day. To them she adds the blues, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewInstaKnits for Baby|author=P J Parrish|title=Dead of WinterMelissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=Loon LakeMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, Michigan is picture-postcard pretty – an idyll that sits serenely and snugly cosy afternoons in front of the midst of a pine-peppered winter wonderlandfire' variety. Louis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come home. Life has not been easy for Kincaidmore than twenty hours. A troubled, unhappy child of mixed raceAll the projects are attractive, passed around various institutions modern and foster homes, Louis figures useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that if he is going to put some integrity back into the world, he will need to wear a badge to do it's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Russell Celyn JonesDean Koontz|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionParanormal|summary=Pwyll rules Benny is having a medieval-style fiefdom in terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a postreally weird, disturbing coffin-climate change Walessized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. Life He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is different in many ways - there's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and horsepower is the main means will certainly take care of transport. But in many ways itBenny's much the same - people still fight one anotherenemies, if he, towns still have sink estatesBenny, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning in their livesHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Owen SheersAdam Stower|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)Murray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's cat, 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. 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 turned up and he'll have to do…
|isbn=0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0C47LV1PC
|title=Fragility
|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=In the old taleCan you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, Branwen is the sister of Bendigeidfran - question should you make it? Or is the giant King of Britain. She marries question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the King of Ireland, who doesn't treat her answer for both could wellbe.... She manages to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling and war and killings ensueno.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer Bohnet1529431735|title=Follow Your StarThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=3.54|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left MonacoFebruary 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. SheHe'd been engaged to exiled on the Costa del Sol as a Formula 1 racing driver and had lived the life of the wealthy but wanted drug smuggler for a serious car accident had ended all thatdecade. The accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence return has come about because of the alcohol he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she'd consumeds ill and hasn't long to live. Her slow recovery was hindered by the end of her engagement but sheIt's found some contentment hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in being the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a nanny warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to two young childrenhome?}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. When her friend and employerA few short years ago, VanessaEli's parents were both lost to the titular race, remarries and takes an extended honeymoon a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the Amazon Nanette company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is asked to take dare to enter what he most hates, with the children back sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to Monaco where their father livespossibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J R Stephenson178763681X|title=Crooked JusticeKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin|rating=2.54|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Meet Barry JohnsChef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. YouHe didn'll see him coming - t really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of getting both men and women to do what hewanted. Paul ''s five hundred pounds if hesomehow's an ounce. Just don't ever lend him money - got the impression that he won't pay it back. A businessman with a share of a nightclub on Cyprusd be at the school to assist Paul, he goes there for who had a customary breakbroken arm, but it didn't turn out that way. The teaching - and finds his sort-of mollthe problems -type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancer. He manages to tread both on the toes of are all his local colleague and some Greek rivalsown. And when a rival in London chases him up The one thing he hadn't expected was for thousands of pounds owed he decides someone to pack up and shut turn updead. It's a big stone that hides himUnfortunately, but he leaves a very awkward trail for was the person who discovered the body and everyone wanting knows that the police consider that person to upturn it and get their revengebe the prime suspect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>
}}
