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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=Susan Ostler0008517061|title=Flirt Diva - For Women Who Want to be Bold and Sassy and have Death in a Fabulous Life!Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=There are lots of timetabled books on the marketFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, that promise to transform everything from your employability to has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the size future of your thighs his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a certain number lot of weeks, if you commit to their programme, compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and this book is really just another one relaxing life to add move in with Livia or does Livia move to the 'scheduled self-improvement' pile. Except we're not talking here Little Sky despite her reservations about dropping a dress size in time for Christmas, whether or sailing through that oh-so-important interview to land not this is the job of your dreams...future she wants for this book is a 6 week guide to ''Getting Loved Up'' that promises to put its participants (herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and as you'll learn, you're more than a mere reader with this title) putting the future on the fast track to romanceback burner. Gosh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312799</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Morpurgo1786482126|title=The Kites are FlyingJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Said lives on Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the West Bank. He herds his familysite was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury's sheep, spends apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a lot of time talking in his head to his absent brother Mahmoud, and he makes doorway. There was no skull. Was this a great many kitesritual killing or murder? Inevitably, which he sends across the wall to the girl in the blue headscarf who lives in the occupiersDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It' settlements. What Said s difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't do, that she is talk out loud, even to pregnant with his new friend Mister Max. Max is a Western journalist who wants to make child as a documentary about how the Palestinian/Israeli conflict affects ordinary people on both sides result of the wallone night they spent together some three months ago. Max is entranced by Said Her condition will be obvious before long, and his dozens of kites, all bearing the message salaam or peace. He can see that Said has a dream, but he's not sure what it least because Ruth isprone to sudden bouts of sickness. Will the dream come true before Max has to leave? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406317985</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tanya Landman0008551324|title=Dying to be Famous The Devil You Know (Poppy Fields Murder MysteryD S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet Poppy Fields - an inquisitive young lass, keen on exploring her world - in a slightly different way It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to her geeky, walking-encyclopaedia of a best friend, Grahamapproach the police. So keen Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is she struggling in prison and he's prepared to explore tell the phenomenon that police where the body of a missing person is the latest seen-everywhereburied and who was responsible for her death. This person, snapped-at-all-hours celebrityhe promises, she makes is someone big and it will be worth the pair of them go police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to audition for bit parts in serve the Christmas production remainder of The Wizard of Oz the star is starting his sentence and to rehearseget an early parole date. Unfortunately for herNot much to ask, she apparently hasnis it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't noticed think so and she's in even prepared to do the third book in a series of young reader murder mysteries, other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and deaths more unexpected than having a house land on you might just be on the playbillanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406314625</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stuart Brown0008405026|title=Mma Ramotswe's CookbookA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=CookeryCrime|summary=I expect there will be a few people who spot this book on the shelves and wonder who Mma Ramotswe is, but [[:Category:Alexander McCall Smith|Alexander McCall SmithIt's]] legion of fans certainly won't be amongst themsixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. This cookbook is She was never found and the investigation ground to a nice tie-in to the bookshalt. Now, her mother, written with a foreword from AMS himselfHelena, and full of flavoursome recipes that her father are spoken of dead in his series their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of books about Mma Ramotswe the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her Number One Ladies Detective Agencyboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Illustrated with beautiful photography, lots of quotes from Kerrigan is convinced that the books, and lots of information about Botswanaexplanation lies in Rosalie's rich variety of food itdisappearance: others (such as Derwent's a wonderful mix of being both a cookery bookboss, a reference book and a companion work to the Mma Ramostwe booksUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184697139X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adam Williams0571379877|title=The Book of the AlchemistKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary= ''The Book of the Alchemist'' Edward Jevons is a story within a story. It opens in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War. Pinzon, a Spanish politician who resigns for moral reasons, is taken hostage by a group of Republican soldiersworking-class young man, along obsessed with his young Grandsonupper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. A group of villagers are also taken captive and locked in Robert's a cathedral as part of the soldiers' desperate plan to protect themselves from the Fascist forces that are hunting themtheatre director. A cavernous mosque built inside the mountain under the cathedralHe's crypt is discoveredalso self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and in it, a bookuses Edward to run errands for him. As Pinzon reads the book, another story unfolds, set Edward has been in the eleventh centurylove with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. This 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 story two of Samuel the Jewthem kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340899131</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert KaplowJo Callaghan|title=Me and Orson WellesLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Richard Samuels sees everything in terms When a man is found crucified on the top of a performancehill in Nuneaton, through DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the rose-tinted lens of case alongside her sidekick, the theatrical celebrities he listens to on the radioAI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. So But when he stumbles onto the Broadway stage through there is a second body found crucified a chance encounter few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with Orson Welles, it seems as if all his dreams may be about to come true. He goes from being the guy a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that all the girls see as draws a friend, one lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the bookish kids at schoolcase in time, to the glamour of mingling with stars of or will Kat find herself taken off the stage. We follow Richard's struggle to balance this newly discovered wonderland case and his school life, not to mention his disapproving mother.potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099540193</amazonuk>139851120X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Palin1399613073|title=Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=''Never meet your heroes,'' goes the old adage. ''Never read their diaries'' might be equally sage advice. That's probably why I didn't tackle Michael Palin's collected daily journals until now. Along with the rest of the Monty Python team, he was without doubt a hero of my teenage years.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075382177X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMoral Injuries|author=Robert Crumb|title=Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis: All 50 ChaptersChristie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic NovelsThrillers|summary=In Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the beginning was the picturefirst day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Just think of all the countless religious imagesOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, both inside and outside religious establishments, designed which is a bonus when you aim to convey the message to those who could not readbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. Art Laura is a perfectionist and religion have always been linked, which a trauma doctor. Anjali is probably one the free spirit of the main reasons I stayed an atheist - I hated art at school, group and drawing she becomes a man on GP. When we first meet them they're at a donkeydrug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, something way beyond my skills, was not a task I appreciated, hence my dislike of both subjectsit's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224078097</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keith Laidler0241636604|title=AnimalsThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceAutobiography|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you''Animals'' re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is described as a visual guide to the animal kingdomEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but please don't think he had been to the London School of it as Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a picture book as it's far more than thatfacility with numbers which most of us can only envy. Don't think of it as a coffee table book either – despite the fact He also realised that its size – midway between A2 and A3 – might tempt you most rich people expect poor people to think that waybe stupid. It's was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a journey through the complex diversity of the animal kingdom based on sound scientific principlestrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916004X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Rosen1035021803|title=A To Z - The Best ChildrenAntique Hunter's Poetry From Agard To ZephaniahGuide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Children's Rhymes and VerseCrime|summary=Michael Rosen It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has picked been back to the best modern childrenEnglish country village where she grew up. She's poetryback 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, from John Agard through to Benjamin Zephaniahsay 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. It stemmed from Rosen performing After the split, she worked in schools a cafe, met and libraries with many married James (on the rebound from the love of the poetsher life, who was murdered) and Freya and as children's poetry anthologies go, it's amongst the very bestJames have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141324503</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der KisteAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Man on the Moor|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=In the summer of 1913 relations with Germany were deteriorating steadily, but there didn't seem to be any connection with the international situation when a London clerk, George Stephens, was found dead in a country lane on the edge of Dartmoor. The moor had been his passion and he'd always been keen to escape London and return to Devon. It was an odd death but in all probability it would have been put down as an accident if GeorgeAll Tomorrow's mother had not announced that George was the son of the Kaiser. Despite her fondness for gin the story she told was oddly compelling and when it was linked up with the fact Futures: Fictions that two German officers had been staying at a nearby farm George's death seemed less and less like an accident.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904744230</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDisrupt|author=Ursula K Le Guin|title=The Left Hand of DarknessBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=It's hard to believe that ''The Left Hand Opening up new ways of Darkness'' dates back to 1969: forty years on, it reads as well, or even better, then when it was originally written, and - deservedly - enjoys a classic status in the science-fiction canon, as well as being perhaps the best known sci-fi novel by Ursula LeGuin.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496065</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Lewis|title=The Blind Side|rating=4|genre=Sport|summary=I think my husband was a little taken aback to see me curled up on the sofa engrossed in a book about American Football. I suppose I should admit that I didn't actually know it was going to be about American Football. Well, I knew it was about a boy who ''played'' American Football, but I'd thought that was just going to be the background story, you know, like in ''Jerry Maguire''. So the first chapter seemed to go on and on forever, and I thought my head might pop from reading thinking about quarterbacks and blind sides and plays and offence and defence and running statistics...but then somehow I stumbled to the real heart of the story; the story of Michael Oher, a young African-American from the slums shape of Memphis whose father was never around, and whose mother was a drug addict and lost him to social services at a young age.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039333838X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philippa Pearce and Helen Craig|title=A Finder's Magic|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Till (that's short for Tillawn) has lost his dog Bess and he has no idea how he's going to find her until a mysterious stranger appears. Mr Finder interviews various witnesses, including a cat, a mole, a heron and Miss Mousey. It's not what Miss Mousey says that gives Mr Finder the vital clue as to what has happened things to Bess, but the sketch she made of the riverbank at the time that Bess went missingcome. There's a lot of magic in the quest to find Bess, but it's all very confusing for Till and at one point he even doubts the motives of Mr Finder.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406319821</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jack LudlowSunny Singh|title=WarriorsHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical FictionThrillers |summary=Arduin of Fassano The Hotel Arcadia is paid a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by Michael Doukeianosa terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a young Byzantine generalwartime photographer and Abhi, to keep the peace in Apuliahotel manager. Arduin is a Lombard, however, and secretly plans As Abhi continues to try to revolt and take Apulia care remotely for himselfthe residents who are still alive in the hotel, hiring he forms a group bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of Norman mercenaries her room to help him do the jobtry to capture what's happened through her photography. These Normans are William de Hauteville and his brothersAlthough they only ever talk over the phone, famed warriors with their own conflicts friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and a desire they both wait to gain titles and wealth for their sons. Even see if Arduin and they will be rescued before they are discovered by the Normans could take Apulia, there are no guarantees that they could hold it in a land full of treachery and bribesterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749007559</amazonuk>086154742X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jo Berry1529153298|title=The Ultimate DVD Easter Egg Guide: How to Access the Hidden Extras on Your DVD|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Consider the Easter Egg - at least in the way DVD collectors mean. Sometimes a pointless hidden add-on, that is there for no reason. Sometimes they can be a priceless bonus, seemingly gifted by the disc producers to those in the know, costing - at least in the case List of some animated instances - many thousands of pounds. Some oik on set with a camcorder, they are not. I've been guilty several times of clicking away in directions the menus don't seem to encourage on the off-chance I find something (or, on a PC, just sweeping the PC mouse over any and every title card in case it highlights something previously invisible). Forcing several titles and chapters by going straight to them in case they're something secret is not a hobby I like to admit to.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752875205</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSuspicious Things|author=Frances Day|title=Dead Cat With FirelighterJennie Godfrey|rating=35
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=WeIt're in the world of modern arts 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A couple who met at art college are on the verge of breaking upwoman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, as but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her success at fine arts is only bettered by his sudden rise father wants to fame in move the world of his conceptual, pompous bits of (almost literally) rubbish and nothingfamily 'Down South'. WeWhen you're also in the world of the wannabe stars and starletsfrom Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, trying to make the jump from well-thought of provincial comedy theatre to Hollywoodbest avoided. And in For Miv, the background in both instancesmove would mean leaving her best friend, are guru-type Svengalis, pulling stringsSharon, and aiming to she'll do as much as is morally justifiable - and a lot more - anything to get their charges to fameprevent that. And a bit of contract killing and murder on She's not worried about the sidedangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954337751</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Fyfield1398524085|title=Cold to the TouchHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45
|genre=Crime
|summary=ThereCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's something obsessive about Jessica Hurlyfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. When Sarah Fortune encounters her on a coldHer children, dark London morningsons Niall, she's distraught because the man who fills all her thoughts has rejected her Paul and Ollie and it seems that her mother wants nothing to do with daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - herhusband, Alec, is not. Jess is a talented chef but sheShortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's short of work – father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the occasion police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when she emptied a tureen of soup over he couldn't stand the host at a dinner party did not enhance her reputation even if all the other guests were secretly delightedguilt. Sarah senses her vulnerability, The Salter children are not convinced but itthere's Jess who organises the let of one of her mother's cottages in the sea-side town where she grew up so that Sarah little else they can have a long break from the flat where she still smells a recent firedo but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847441092</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley Williams1035906708|title=Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley WilliamsDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=AutobiographyGeneral Fiction|summary=Who could resist a title like that? And is this some lesser-known Shirley Williams, recalling a life spent in libraries? The answer We tend to the latter is no. Shirley Catlinthink of Maria Callas as Greek, as but she was bornto Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, tells us in the early pages of this memoir that during her childhood December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father encouraged her changed it to 'Callas' to climb the bookshelves make it more manageable in their Chelsea house, right up to the ceilingStates. It When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret between the two of them, as her mother, Testament of Youth Author Vera Brittainpreference for her elder sister, would have immediately anticipated cracked skulls and broken armsJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844084760</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Vyvyen BrendonChristopher Edge|title=Prep School Children: A Class Apart Over Two CenturiesBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Home and FamilyConfident Readers|summary=''Prep School Children'' is Vyvyen Brendon's second collection (''Children Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of the Raj'The Black Hole' was the first). It explores the pupil experience All big movie fans, using primary sources like weekly letters homethey're looking forward to lots of exciting films, memoirs and interviewsmany, many snacks! However, and less immediate material such as fictionthe movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, school magazines and headmastersthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn' biographiest even imagine. I came But as they lurch from one film genre to the book with some questions: next, can they figure out what was it like to be a boarder at a prep school? What difference did a prep school education make to life as an adulton earth is going on? Why parents might send their children Will they ever get back to such schools when the horrors were well-knowncinema, many of the dads presumably having survived the experience themselves.and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847062873</amazonuk>1839942738
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bill ButterworthRachel Greenlaw|title=Reversing Global Warming For Profit Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyTeens|summary=There aren't many climate change deniers left, are there? We all know it's there. We all know, too, that I can hear the world's population growth is on a collision course with song of the dwindling of its resourcessea. The world's going to get hottercall of the deep, its weather more extremethe answering beat in my heart. Fossil fuels are going to run out. More and more people will compete for fewer and fewer of civilisation's luxuries. We're all worried. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312810</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helen FitzgeraldJames Sherwood Metts|title=Bloody WomenPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Before reading ''Bloody Women''Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, I hadnoften replacing jobs they't heard of the author Helen Fitzgerald re paid to do and by the title other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and blurbstarting to think of other, I expected a standard crime-thriller novel. But early onnew ways to spend time, I realised this wasn't the casealong came an awful pandemic. The novel Life was a kind of black comedy pretty much shut down and written , along with wit and humourit, despite all the theme of murder and violencemany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846971330</amazonuk>1736128426
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patrick Casey and Richard I HaleMatthew Tree|title=For College, Club & Country - A History of Clifton Rugby Football ClubWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryLiterary Fiction|summary=Clifton Rugby Football Club can proudly trace its history back to the very emergence of the sport of rugby union. Founded in September 1872, the same year that William Webb Ellis, who is reputed Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to have been the rebellious Rugby schoolboy who first ran with the ballbe different from his father, died. In reality, it is highly likely that the Webb Ellis story is something of a spin job on behalf drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of Rugby School, although it did mean that Rugby School was able to impose its rules on the game being exceptional at a time when most public schools any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had their own rules for playing versions endless crises of the gameself confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904312756</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
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{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar 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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Zadie Smith1529900360|title=Changing My Mind: Occasional EssaysThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Private investigator Agatha Raisin is not a happy woman. She is concerned with the rate at which her body is ageing; It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even worseafter Alex recovered, her exSturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-husband, James, is getting married to a much younger woman and Agatha has been invited to -shut cases which didn't need the weddinghelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. She goes Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, with plenty of friends in tow and looks forward to the whole thing being over as soon as possiblewho nudged Milo into asking for help again. She sees James just before knew that the wedding, when he makes it clear involvement was something that he has changed his mind and wants to pull out of the weddingman she loved needed. Then The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the bride is killed, by swimming pool of a bullet through remote property in Bel Air. He was the window, heir to an Italian shoe empire and James she is married to an extremely rich man and Agatha are it's not the primary suspectsItalian. Can they prove their innocence while finding out who But which of them was the real perpetrator isprimary target?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845299531</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Janice Galloway1529395224|title=Collected StoriesLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Short StoriesAnimals and Wildlife|summary=In this collectionSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, stories are taken from two previous volumes, Blood and Where You Find It. The fortyparticularly when he considered the strain that being on-two snap shots of call put on his father's life are mainly . When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of women and young girls, struggling doing work experience with emotions, sometimes realized a family friend who was a vet and sometimes notwas convinced this was the job for him. In all Before long, there seems to be an underlying link of isolation and truthhe was at Liverpool University. The settings are varied, from It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a visit to the dentist to the place known as homechild. If anything, he'd wanted to be a walk in the eveningprofessional footballer. We have a peek into the deepest darkest corners of everyday relationships, with lovers, partners and most of all ourselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540398</amazonuk>
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|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Tommy Hopkins was born DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in October 1886 in CollyhurstSingapore to meet up with an old ally, one of the poorer, inner-city suburbs of ManchesterGuy Trueman. His father had quite Maik was involved in a good job and there wasn't street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a lot of money to spare but Tommy remembered the home as being filled man armed with love a knife - and laughterhe killed a Ghurka. He was an only child Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but thought evidence came to light that suggested that he was spoilt in terms of affection rather than in might have planned to murder the form of worldly goodsman. All that was to change when his father died of spinal meningitis and Now he and his mother had to move into cheaper lodgingscould be facing the death penalty. Even that tenuous security wasnDomenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't to last for long – his mother died of a heart attack in her thirties, leaving Tommy an orphan before he was eight years oldhelp Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755359585</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael GrantAlexander McCall Smith|title=HungerThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=The kids of Perdido Beach are still within the FAYZPerfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, a barrier erected run by Little Pete - no-one knows how - when Ness and operating as an alternative to all the nuclear plant went into meltdownonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. An uneasy truce between Sam's tribe of Perdido Beach kids Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and Caine's Coates Academy kids look after the business, as Ness is beginning planning to take a trip to waverCanada to get away for a while. The food Katie is running coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the Darkness has its claws in all those it's encounteredchance to come home to Edinburgh. Caine himself is reduced And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to delirium by the voice of the Darkness in his head 44 Scotland Street and Lana the healer knows it's inevitable that she too will answer its call. Sam is struggling Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to keep any form of ordercharm. As more and more kids begin to develop special powers Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and the hunger bites deeper into everyonethere's belliesalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, it's inevitable that conflict will break out. And it doesWilliam, in some very unpleasant ways. to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405251522</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Various0811771741|title=Hello Kitty Guide to LifeInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''Hello KittyInstaKnits for Baby'' is gives us a huge worldwide phenomenon with a whole heap collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of related merchandise featuring the cute cartoon cat 'long, cosy afternoons in dresses and ribbonsfront of the fire' variety. It appeals The projects are divided by the time they'll take to girls complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and women of many agesmore than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, but this new hardback book modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects'Hello Kitty – Guide to Life'' is aimed at the brandbut that's younger fans, probably around 6 to 14 year oldsme being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000732622X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Claire TomalinDean Koontz|title=Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn ManBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyParanormal|summary=I came to this biography Benny is having read three of Hardy's novelsa terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, two quite recentlydisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and some of it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his poetryhouse! The thing is, but knowing Benny is the very little about him as last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. Claire Tomalin So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has brought been sent to help him admirably since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to life in these pagestake 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's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141017414</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Liza PalmerAdam Stower|title=A Field Guide to Burying Your ParentsMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's FictionConfident Readers |summary=Grace is reluctantly participating in a 5k race when she receives the news: her estranged sister Murray is calling supposed to tell her their estranged father has had be a stroke. That's two lots of estrangement in just two generations of familyhumble, tidy and friendly cat, but a summons one who is a summonsable to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, and Grace soon finds herself dragged back into the heart of the family she desertedwell, working with the others to discover the many hidden secrets whatever takes his fancy next of the father who deserted them alltwo. It But he's a tough jump from her happy life of bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a good jobhyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, a new boyfriend and a home of her own to return to the family life she left behind a long time agocatflap they both use can chuck them out, and Grace has to decide whether she can ignore not into the pull regular back garden, but into a world of her biological siblings once more or whether the frightening adventure and whiffs. This time has come round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to let bygones be bygones. After all, while there are lots of four letter words she would associate with her familyhonest, but he's turned up and he'love'' is not one of them.ll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340962151</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer JohnstonB0C47LV1PC|title=Truth or FictionFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Caroline Wallace is not Can you make a happy woman. She has waited ten years for her lover to propose to her, and now just as he finally does, she has to go to Dublin to interview faded literary star Desmond Fitzmaurice. Desmond promises his tale will be brimful of 'sex and violence'Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, but Caroline has no idea of is the question should you make it? Or is the mystery question if you did, would it land? The catch is that lies at the heart of his storyanswer for both could well be.... no.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755330544</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guy Delisle1529431735|title=Pyongyang: A Journey in North KoreaThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime|summary=Meet GuyIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a Frenchletter from his ex-Canadian animatorwife, leaving home for a short stay in the capital of one of the worldsaying that she's most intriguing, unknown ill and alien cultures - Pyongyang, North Korea - so he can work on a TV cartoon co-productionhasn't long to live. Forced It's hard to stay in one of the three official hotels designed for foreignersfeel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, so that the locals stripped to his underwear and people such as he do not have sent to mix, he see glimpses of a watery grave in the unique socialist dictatorship, stunning views boot of the buildings forced through the poverty, and thousands of unreadable facesa stolen Ford Sierra.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079905</amazonuk> Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sam OsmanAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=QuicksilverThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=''Quicksilver'' Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the story of Wolfiewondrous library we start by visiting with him, Tala and Zi'ib, three ordinary children from three different continentsin the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. They have never met Eli lives with his lovely gran, until too – for there is a strange chain of events involving gun-toting gangs and eccentric old men means they all end up generation missing in Thornhamthe family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a London suburb. They soon realise they are connected: they globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have green eyes with golden flecks and to navigate the world in the company of a missing parentmagical beast. But was it fate, chance or This has made the ley lines that encompass race anathema to the earth that brought them together? Before you know it they're solving clues and fulfilling pair – but when a one thousand year old prophecy. But all they want bad incident at the eatery leads to do a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is find their parentsto dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407105736</amazonuk>0571382231
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diane Janes178763681X|title=Edwardian Murder: Ightham & the Morpeth Train RobberyKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Two murders Chef Paul Delamare took place a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Edwardian England less than two years apart, one in the south-east and the other in the north-eastBelgravia. At first glance they seemed He didn't really want to have nothing but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of getting both men and women to do with each other, but years later a link between them was hinted at though never proved beyond doubtwhat he wanted. The author has investigated Paul ''somehow'' got the impression that he'd be at the connection and come up with school to assist Paul, who had a riveting bookbroken arm, but it didn't turn out that way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752449451</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Gay|title=Modernism: The Lure of Heresy teaching - From Baudelaire to Beckett and Beyond|rating=4|genre=History|summary=It is impossible not to be impressed by the sheer scope of cultural historian Peter Gayproblems - are all his own. The one thing he hadn's 2007 study of Modernismt expected was for someone to turn up dead. Unfortunately, newly released in this paperback edition. He notes in he was the person who discovered the introduction body and everyone knows that it is not a 'comprehensive history' but rather 'a study of its rise, triumphs, and decline'. What is remarkable though, is the attempt police consider that person to include be the whole gamut of artistic fields in this coherent studyprime suspect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099441969</amazonuk>
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