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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>
}}
{{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>
}}
{{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>
}}
{{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>
}}
{{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>
}}
{{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 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 about able to come true. He goes from being solve the guy that all case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the girls see as case and, potentially, out of a friendcareer?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, one Laura and Anjali met on the first day of the bookish kids at medical schooland their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the glamour of mingling with stars free spirit of the stagegroup and she becomes a GP. We follow Richard When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's struggle going to balance this newly discovered wonderland and his school lifeend 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, not to mention his disapproving motherit's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540193</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Palin0241636604|title=Diaries 1969-1979The Trading Game: The Python YearsA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=''Never meet If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your heroesmind,you'' goes re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the old adageLondon School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to 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 a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It'Never read their diariess twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She'' might be equally sage advices back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. That Freya's probably why I didn't tackle Michael Palinformer mentor and Carole's collected daily journals until nowclose 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. Along with Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the rest of profession she loved. After the Monty Python teamsplit, he was without doubt she worked in a hero cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of my teenage yearsher life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075382177X</amazonuk>
}}
{{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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Keith LaidlerSunny Singh|title=AnimalsHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Popular ScienceThrillers |summary=''Animals'' The Hotel Arcadia is described as a visual guide to luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the animal kingdomterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, but please don't think of it as a picture book as it's far more than thatwartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. Don't think of it as As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a coffee table book either – despite the fact that its size – midway between A2 bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and A3 – might tempt you keeps on venturing out of her room to think that way. Ittry to capture what's a journey happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the complex diversity of phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the animal kingdom based on sound scientific principlesterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184916004X</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Rosen1529153298|title=A To Z - The Best Children's Poetry From Agard To ZephaniahList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the summer of 1913 relations with Germany were deteriorating steadilyIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but there didnto have 'disappeared' doesn't seem sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to be any connection with move the international situation when family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a London clerkfrightening, George Stephensforeign place, best avoided. For Miv, was found dead in a country lane on the edge of Dartmoor. The moor had been his passion move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and heshe'd always been keen ll do anything to escape London and return to Devonprevent that. It was an odd death but in all probability it would have been put down as an accident if GeorgeShe's mother had not announced worried about the dangers or 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 that two German officers had been staying at a nearby farm GeorgeMum's death seemed less and less like an accidentstopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904744230</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ursula K Le Guin1398524085|title=The Left Hand of DarknessHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Science FictionCrime|summary=ItCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's hard father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to believe make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn''t stand the guilt. The Left Hand of DarknessSalter children are not convinced but there'' dates back s little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We tend to 1969: forty years onthink of Maria Callas as Greek, it reads as wellbut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, or even betterNew York, then in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was originally written, and back in Athens - deservedly supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - enjoys she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a classic status in the science-fiction canonmother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, as well as being perhaps the best known sci-fi novel by Ursula LeGuinJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496065</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael LewisChristopher Edge|title=The Blind SideBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=SportConfident Readers|summary=I think my husband was Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a little taken aback to see me curled up on the sofa engrossed in movie marathon at their local cinema, a book about American Football. I suppose I should admit place that I didnhas the nickname of 'The Black Hole't actually know it was going to be about American Football. Well, I knew it was about a boy who ''played'' American FootballAll big movie fans, but Ithey'd thought that was just going re looking forward to be the background storylots of exciting films, you knowand many, like in ''Jerry Maguire''. many snacks! So However, as the first chapter seemed to go on and on forevermovie starts, and I thought my head might pop from reading they very quickly realise that something about quarterbacks this new film format is very different, and blind sides and plays and offence and defence and running statisticsthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine...but then somehow I stumbled But as they lurch from one film genre to the real heart of the story; the story of Michael Ohernext, a young African-American from can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the slums of Memphis whose father was never aroundcinema, and whose mother was a drug addict and lost him to social services at a young age.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>039333838X</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{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=Philippa Pearce and Helen CraigJames Sherwood Metts|title=A Finder's MagicPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Till (that's short Things have been a bit sticky for Tillawn) has lost his dog Bess the Earthlings. AI and he has no idea how heautomation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's going re paid to find her until a mysterious stranger appears. Mr Finder interviews various witnesses, including a cat, a mole, a heron do and Miss Mouseyother tasks that took time to accomplish. It's not what Miss Mousey says that gives Mr Finder the vital clue Just as they were beginning to get used to what has happened all this technological change and starting to Bessthink of other, but the sketch she made of the riverbank at the new ways to spend time that Bess went missing, along came an awful pandemic. There's a lot of magic in the quest to find BessLife was pretty much shut down and, but along with it's , all very confusing for Till and at one point he even doubts the motives of Mr Findermany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406319821</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Matthew Tree
|title=We'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.
|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{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.''
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}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel Isadora and Clement Clarke Moore1529900360|title=The Night Before ChristmasGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Everyone knows and loves Clement Clarke MooreIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's poem ''A Visit From St Nicholas''fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. Even if you don His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't go need the whole hog, gathering the family round by the log firehelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, and reading it togetherwas Robin, its opening line of Delaware'''Twas the night before Christmass partner, when all through who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the house, not a creature involvement was stirringsomething that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, not even a mousethough...'' fills you with Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a warm glowremote property in Bel Air. You can practically smell He was the mulled wine heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and hear it's not the snores Italian. But which of Auntie Gertrude during them was the Queen's Speech. It's an absolute classic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399254080</amazonuk>primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jack Ludlow1529395224|title=WarriorsLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Arduin of Fassano is paid by Michael Doukeianos, a young Byzantine general, to keep the peace in ApuliaSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. Arduin is His father was a Lombard, however, GP and secretly plans Rowlands didn't want to revolt and take Apulia for himselffollow in his footsteps, hiring particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a group of Norman mercenaries to help him do vet and was convinced this was the jobfor him. These Normans are William de Hauteville and his brothersBefore long, famed warriors he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with their own conflicts and so many students - been his dream since he was a desire to gain titles and wealth for their sonschild. Even if Arduin and the Normans could take ApuliaIf anything, there are no guarantees that they could hold it in he'd wanted to be a land full of treachery and bribesprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007559</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo BerryAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Ultimate DVD Easter Egg Guide: How to Access the Hidden Extras on Your DVDPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We're The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the world of modern artonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. A couple who met at art college are on Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the verge of breaking upbusiness, as her success at fine arts Ness is only bettered by his sudden rise planning to take a trip to Canada to fame in the world get away for a while. Katie is coming out of his conceptuala break up with a bad boyfriend, pompous bits of (almost literally) rubbish and nothingso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. We're also in the world of the wannabe stars and starletsAnd so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, trying thanks to make 44 Scotland Street and the jump from well-thought of provincial comedy theatre Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to Hollywoodcharm. And Katie has no experience in the background running a business, or in both instances, are gurumatch-type Svengalismaking, pulling stringsbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and aiming to do as much as is morally justifiable - there's always her very helpful (and a lot more - to get their charges rather handsome) neighbour, William, to fame. And lend a bit of contract killing and murder on the side.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0954337751</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Fyfield0811771741|title=Cold to the TouchInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=ThereMelissa Leapman's something obsessive about Jessica Hurly. When Sarah Fortune encounters her on ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a cold, dark London morning, she's distraught because the man who fills all her thoughts has rejected her and it seems that her mother wants nothing collection of knits from toys to do with herblankets. Jess is a talented chef but she's short Some will be quick knits - others are of work – the occasion when she emptied a tureen 'long, cosy afternoons in front of soup over the host at a dinner party did not enhance her reputation even if all fire' variety. The projects are divided by the other guests were secretly delightedtime they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. Sarah senses her vulnerabilityAll the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but it's Jess who organises the let of one of her motherthat's cottages in the sea-side town where she grew up so that Sarah can have a long break from the flat where she still smells a recent fireme being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847441092</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley WilliamsDean Koontz|title=Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley WilliamsBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=AutobiographyParanormal|summary=Who could resist Benny is having a title like that? terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. And is this some lesserOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-known Shirley Williamssized object to his home, recalling a life spent in libraries? and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The answer to the latter thing is no. Shirley Catlin, as she was born, tells us in Benny is the early pages of very last person to deserve all this memoir bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that during her childhood her father encouraged her the delivery to climb the bookshelves in their Chelsea his houseis a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, right up who has been sent to the ceilinghelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. It was a secret between the two Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of themBenny's enemies, as her motherif he, Testament of Youth Author Vera BrittainBenny, would have immediately anticipated cracked skulls and broken armsHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1844084760</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Vyvyen BrendonAdam Stower|title=Prep School Children: A Class Apart Over Two CenturiesMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Home and FamilyConfident Readers |summary=''Prep School Children'' Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is Vyvyen Brendon's second collection (''Children able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the Rajtwo. But he's a bad magician' was the first). It explores the pupil experiences cat, using primary sources like weekly letters homeso his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, memoirs and interviewsthe catflap they both use can chuck them out, and less immediate material such as fictionnot into the regular back garden, school magazines but into a world of frightening adventure and headmasters' biographieswhiffs. I came to the book with some questions: what was This time round it like to be drops them into a boarder at Viking land, where a prep school? What difference did a prep school education make troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to life as an adult? Why parents might send their children be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to such schools when the horrors were well-known, many of the dads presumably having survived the experience themselves.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847062873</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bill ButterworthB0C47LV1PC|title=Reversing Global Warming For Profit |rating=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=There aren't many climate change deniers left, are there? We all know it's there. We all know, too, that the world's population growth is on a collision course with the dwindling of its resources. The world's going to get hotter, its weather more extreme. 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>}} {{newreviewFragility|author=Margaret Thornton|title=Until We Meet AgainMosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary=In the fateful summer of 1914 Tilly Moon is settled in the midst of the Moon family in Scarborough. ItCan you make a 's an extensive clan with the usual close relationships, unusual situations and slight distances between people for no apparent reason. Tilly's an accomplished pianist and she longs to take her music studies further, but thereYo birthing person's someone who's coming to mean more to her than her music. Her twin's best friendjoke? And if you could, Dominic Fraser is the apple of her eye and he feels question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the same way about heranswer for both could well be.... There are war clouds on the horizon though and when Britain declares war on Germany Tommy and Dominic are quick to enlist as were many of the men in and around the Moon familyno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007486</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick Casey and Richard I Hale1529431735|title=For College, Club & Country - A History of Clifton Rugby Football ClubThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=When lawyer Emma Feldman It's February 1991 and her husband Steven decided to buy a holiday home to give them the opportunity for much needed breaks from their hectic professional livesEssex is bitingly cold, they brought an old colonial house in which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the woods by Lake Mondac in Wisconsin, more surprising. He'd been exiled on foreclosure – it seemed like the deal of Costa del Sol as a lifetime. But on their first evening in the place, wanted drug smuggler for a series of strange snapping noises outside begin to freak the couple outdecade. They know they are in real trouble when The return has come about because he's had a man with shotgun letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and stocking mask appears at their windowhasn't long to live. Another enters the building and the only hope they have is that someone will take notice of Steven It's phone call hard to the policefeel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, cut off by stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the intruders after he is able boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to get out only one word – This.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994037</amazonuk>home?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Zadie SmithAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Changing My Mind: Occasional EssaysThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=I do look forward to Eli is a good children's storybusy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and having read Tumtum in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and Nutmeg's [[The Pirates' Treasure (Tumtum and Nutmeg) by Emily Bearn|previous adventure on a pirate ship]] I was particularly looking forward to this oneruns. It's ChristmasEli lives with his lovely gran, and our two friendly little mice have been working hard, preparing delicious treats and temptations ready too – for Christmas Day. One evening they go upstairs to check on the children who live there is a generation missing in their house, Arthur and Lucy, and find their letters to Father Christmas. Last year the children didn't get any presents because their chimney was blocked up and Father Christmas couldn't get infamily. TheyA few short years ago, Eli've asked for s parents were both lost to the same presents again this yeartitular race, hopeful that this year Father Christmas will manage to find a way through even though their father refuses globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to unblock navigate the world in the chimney for fear company of draftsa magical beast. Tumtum and Nutmeg are worried anyway that This has made the race anathema to the letter won't reach Father Christmas in time, and that pair – but when a bad incident at the children will be disappointed once again. They decide eatery leads to take matters into their own hands and set off a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to visit the terrifying Baron Toymouse in Toy Kingdom dare to see if enter what he can help. Howevermost hates, with clockwork cats to contend with, and the capture sole aim the prize of Tumtum by magic at the end – the evil Baron, Christmas could turn out only thing to be an even bigger disaster than they'd thought..possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405250267</amazonuk>0571382231
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=M C Beaton178763681X|title=Agatha Raisin: There Goes The BrideKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin|rating=34
|genre=Crime
|summary=Private investigator Agatha Raisin is not Chef Paul Delamare took a happy womanteaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. She is concerned with the rate at which her body is ageing; even worse, her ex-husband, James, is getting married He didn't really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a much younger woman and Agatha has been invited to the wedding. She goes, with plenty way of friends in tow getting both men and looks forward women to the whole thing being over as soon as possibledo what he wanted. She sees James just before Paul ''somehow'' got the wedding, when he makes it clear impression that he has changed his mind and wants 'd be at the school to pull out of the wedding. Then the bride is killedassist Paul, by who had a bullet through the windowbroken arm, and James and Agatha are the primary suspects. Can they prove their innocence while finding but it didn't turn out who the real perpetrator is?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845299531</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Janice Galloway|title=Collected Stories|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=In this collection, stories are taken from two previous volumes, Blood and Where You Find Itthat way. The fortyteaching - and the problems -two snap shots of life are mainly of women and young girls, struggling with emotions, sometimes realized and sometimes not. In all, there seems to be an underlying link of isolation and truthhis own. The settings are varied, from a visit one thing he hadn't expected was for someone to the dentist to the place known as hometurn up dead. Unfortunately, to a walk in he was the evening. We have a peek into person who discovered the deepest darkest corners of everyday relationships, with lovers, partners body and most of all ourselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540398</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Janice Galloway|title=Collected Stories|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=In this collection, stories are taken from two previous volumes, Blood and Where You Find It. The forty-two snap shots of life are mainly of women and young girls, struggling with emotions, sometimes realized and sometimes not. In all, there seems everyone knows that the police consider that person to be an underlying link of isolation and truth. The settings are varied, from a visit to the dentist to the place known as home, to a walk in the evening. We have a peek into the deepest darkest corners of everyday relationships, with lovers, partners and most of all ourselvesprime suspect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540398</amazonuk>
}}
