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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=Stephen M Irwin0008517061|title=The DarkeningDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=This book Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has the 'S' word written all over itsettled into his rustic life at Little Sky. NoThere’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, not sex - supernatural. SoLivia and her daughter Diana, it's got all things as moving in together would mean a bit spooky, lot of 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-quite-right, strange coincidences. this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? They are sprinkled throughout like rock salt. I must admit that when I read For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the blurb future on the back cover with its supernatural theme, I gave an inward groanburner. Not really my cup of tea}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4. But I5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury'm openapartments -minded and I'll read anything oncewhen they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. I'm glad I didThere was no skull. Irwin is AustralianWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. For some reason I havenIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't read too many books by Australian authors, so I was keen that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to get readingsudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751543969</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tanya Landman0008551324|title=The Head is Dead Devil You Know (Poppy Fields Murder MysteryD S Max Craigie) |author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet, once again, Poppy FieldsIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. When tasked to create a murder mystery experience Neither side likes or has any respect for a school fete she the other. But Davie Hardie is only surprised struggling in prison and he's prepared to find tell the headmistress - police where the body of a newly employed battleaxe that no-one seems to like - a real-life victim of an assassin. And there missing person is only a school field full of suspectsburied and who was responsible for her death. Can she and her best friendThis person, brainbox Georgehe promises, solve the day is someone big and make it will be worth the staff room a safer place police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to betransferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? And where does The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the invisible sheepdog come in?!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406314633</amazonuk>other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Buckley, Mark Ellingham and Tim Jepson0008405026|title=The Rough Guide to Tuscany and UmbriaA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=TravelCrime|summary=ThereIt'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 general Rough Guide to Italyhalt. Now, her mother, Helena, but revisiting again this regional guide and her father are dead in the process of writing up our trip to Tuscany two years agotheir bed. Initially, I was reminded of how good indeed this particular Rough Guide is. I bought it because I wanted to supplement looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the general Rough Guide to Italy I had with more detailed coverage positioning of the region in which we were bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to spend the whole trip be an open- and I was extremely happy with -shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the resultexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843530554</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frank Furedi0571379877|title=Wasted: Why Education Isn't EducatingThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyCrime|summary=It seems the more problems the schoolEdward Jevons is a working-aged generation pose to societyclass young man, the more responsibility schools have to takeobsessed with his upper-class friends, teaching not simply English Robert and MathsStanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, but Personal Thinking demanding, handsome and Learning Skills, Happiness Classes, entitled and Emotional Educationuses Edward to run errands for him. The duty Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to raise Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a child well relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is taken out of left to stumble upon the apparently 'incompetent' hands two of parents, and given over to the education system, where values can be regulated and controlledthem kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847064167</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susan OstlerJo Callaghan|title=Flirt Diva - For Women Who Want to be Bold and Sassy and have a Fabulous Life!Leave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=There are lots of timetabled books When a man is found crucified on the markettop of a hill in Nuneaton, that promise to transform everything from your employability DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the size of your thighs in a certain number of weekscase alongside her sidekick, if you commit to the AI detective Lock. It's their programmefirst live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and this book is really just another one a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to add their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the 'scheduled self-improvement' pile. Except we're not talking here about dropping a dress size case in time for Christmas, or sailing through that oh-so-important interview to land will Kat find herself taken off the job of your dreams...for this book is a 6 week guide to ''Getting Loved Up'' that promises to put its participants (case and as you'll learn, you're more than potentially, out of a mere reader with this title) on the fast track to romance. Gosh.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904312799</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Morpurgo1399613073|title=The Kites are FlyingMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=Said lives Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the West Bank. He herds his family's sheep, spends first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a lot quarter of time talking in his head to his absent brother Mahmoud, and he makes a great many kitescentury. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which he sends across the wall to the girl in the blue headscarf who lives in the occupiers' settlements. What Said doesn't do, is talk out loud, even a bonus when you aim to his new friend Mister Maxbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. Max Laura is a Western journalist who wants to make perfectionist and a documentary about how trauma doctor. Anjali is the Palestinian/Israeli conflict affects ordinary people on both sides free spirit of the wallgroup and she becomes a GP. Max is entranced by Said, When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and his dozens of kites, all bearing it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the message salaam tragedy or peacethe consequences. He can see Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that Said has a dreamwill impact the three friends. This time, but heit's not sure what it istheir teenage children who are involved. Will the dream come true before Max has to leave? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406317985</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tanya Landman0241636604|title=Dying to be Famous (Poppy Fields Murder Mystery)The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=Meet Poppy Fields - If you were to bring up an inquisitive young lassimage of a city banker in your mind, keen on exploring her world - in a slightly different way you're unlikely to her geeky, walking-encyclopaedia think of a best friend, Grahamsomeone like Gary Stevenson. So keen is she to explore A hoodie and jeans replaces the phenomenon that pin-stripe suit and his background is the latest seen-everywhereEast End, where he was familiar with violence, snappedpoverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV -atbut he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright -allextremely bright -hours celebrity, she makes the pair and he has a facility with numbers which most of them go us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to audition for bit parts in the Christmas production of 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 Wizard of Oz Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the star is starting to rehearseEnglish country village where she grew up. Unfortunately She's back now because of a request for help from herbeloved aunt, she apparently hasnCarole. Freya't noticed shes 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 third book split, she worked in a series of young reader murder mysteriescafe, met and deaths more unexpected than having a house land on you might just be married James (on the playbillrebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406314625</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=Adam WilliamsSunny Singh|title=The Book of the AlchemistHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical FictionThrillers |summary= ''The Book of the Alchemist'' Hotel Arcadia is a story within luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a storyterrorist group. It opens in 1938 during Hiding from the Spanish Civil War. Pinzonterrorists who are rampaging through, a Spanish politician who resigns for moral reasonskilling everyone on site, there is taken hostage by Sam, a group of Republican soldierswartime photographer and Abhi, along with his young Grandsonthe hotel manager. A group of villagers As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are also taken captive and locked still alive in the hotel, he forms a cathedral bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as part Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the soldiersfamily 'Down South' desperate plan to protect themselves . When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the Fascist forces move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that are hunting them. A cavernous mosque built inside She's not worried about the mountain under the cathedraldangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's crypt is discoveredfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and in ither daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, a bookis not. As Pinzon reads Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the bookbody of Greg's father, another story unfoldsDuncan Ackerley, set in the eleventh centuryriver. This is It was an easy assumption for the story of Samuel police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the Jewguilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340899131</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Kaplow1035906708|title=Me and Orson WellesDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Richard Samuels sees everything We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in terms of a performanceManhattan, New York, through the rose-tinted lens of the theatrical celebrities he listens in December 1923 and only moved to on the radioAthens when she was thirteen. So when he stumbles onto the Broadway stage through a chance encounter with Orson Welles, Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it seems as if all his dreams may be about to come true'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. He goes from being the guy When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that all she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the girls see as Nazi occupation by a friend, one mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of the bookish kids at schoolher preference for her elder sister, to the glamour of mingling with stars of the stage. We follow Richard's struggle to balance this newly discovered wonderland and his school life, not to mention his disapproving motherJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540193</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael PalinChristopher Edge|title=Diaries 1969-1979: The Python YearsBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyConfident Readers|summary=''Never meet your heroesLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema,'' goes a place that has the old adage. 'nickname of 'Never read their diariesThe Black Hole'' might be equally sage advice. That All big movie fans, they's probably why I didnre looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't tackle Michael Palin's collected daily journals until noweven imagine. Along with But as they lurch from one film genre to the rest of next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the Monty Python teamcinema, he was without doubt a hero of my teenage years.and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>075382177X</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=Robert CrumbJames Sherwood Metts|title=Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis: All 50 ChaptersPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic NovelsConfident Readers|summary=In the beginning was Things have been a bit sticky for the pictureEarthlings. Just think of all the countless religious images, both inside AI and outside religious establishmentsautomation have been proceeding apace, designed often replacing jobs they're paid to convey the message do and other tasks that took time to those who could not readaccomplish. Art Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and religion have always been linkedstarting to think of other, new ways to spend time, which is probably one of the main reasons I stayed along came an atheist - I hated art at school, awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and drawing a man on a donkey, something way beyond my skillsalong with it, was not a task I appreciated, hence my dislike of both subjectsall the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224078097</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Keith LaidlerMatthew Tree|title=AnimalsWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceLiterary Fiction|summary=''Animals'' is described as a visual guide Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to the animal kingdombe different from his father, but please don't think a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of it as a picture book as it's far more than that. Don't think being exceptional at any of it as a coffee table book either – despite the fact that its size – midway between A2 his artistic passions all failed miserably and A3 – might tempt you who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to think that way. It's a journey through the complex diversity of the animal kingdom based on sound scientific principleshis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184916004X</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael RosenA G Slatter|title=A To Z - The Best Children's Poetry From Agard To ZephaniahBriar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Rhymes and VerseFantasy|summary=Michael Rosen has picked the best modern children'' There's poetry, from John Agard through a part of me that wants to keep this just to Benjamin Zephaniahmyself for however long I can. It stemmed from Rosen performing in schools and libraries with many This secret magic of the poetsmy own, and as children's poetry anthologies goall mine, at last. I just want to enjoy itfor a while.''s amongst the very best.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141324503</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ursula K Le Guin1529900360|title=The Left Hand of Darkness|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=It's hard to believe that ''The Left Hand 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>}} {{newreviewGhost Orchid|author=Michael Lewis|title=The Blind SideJonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=SportCrime|summary=I think my husband It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was a little taken aback reluctant to see me curled up ask for his help on the sofa engrossed in a book about American Footballdifficult cases. I suppose I should admit His assertions that I there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't actually know it was going to be about American Footballneed the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. WellFinally, I knew it was about a boy who ''playedRobin, Delaware'' American Footballs partner, but I'd thought who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was just going to be something that the background storyman she loved needed. The next case did look simple, you know, like though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in ''Jerry Maguire''Bel Air. So He was the first chapter seemed heir to go on an Italian shoe empire and on forever, she is married to an extremely rich man and I thought my head might pop from reading about quarterbacks and blind sides and plays and offence and defence and running statisticsit's not the Italian...but then somehow I stumbled to the real heart But which of them was the story; the story of Michael Oher, a young African-American from the slums 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>primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philippa Pearce and Helen Craig1529395224|title=A Finder's MagicLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Till (thatSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn's short for Tillawn) has lost t want to follow in his dog Bess and he has no idea how footsteps, particularly when heconsidered the strain that being on-call put on his father's going to find her until a mysterious stranger appearslife. Mr Finder interviews various witnesses, including When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a cat, family friend who was a mole, a heron vet and Miss Mouseywas convinced this was the job for him. It's not what Miss Mousey says that gives Mr Finder the vital clue as to what has happened to BessBefore long, but the sketch she made of the riverbank he was at the time that Bess went missingLiverpool University. ThereIt hadn's t - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a lot of magic in the quest to find Besschild. If anything, but ithe's all very confusing for Till and at one point he even doubts the motives of Mr Finderd wanted to be a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406319821</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel Isadora and Clement Clarke Moore0861541774|title=The Night Before ChristmasA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Everyone knows and loves Clement Clarke MooreDCI Domenic Jejeune's poem ''A Visit From St Nicholas''. Even if you don't go the whole hog, gathering the family round by the log fire, close friend and reading it togetherformer colleague, its opening line of '''Twas the night before ChristmasDanny Maik, when all through the househas taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, not Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a creature street brawl - he would later maintain that he was stirring, not even facing a mouse...'' fills you man armed with a warm glowknife - and he killed a Ghurka. You can practically smell Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the mulled wine and hear the snores of Auntie Gertrude during man. Now he could be facing the Queen's Speechdeath penalty. It Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn's an absolute classict help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399254080</amazonuk>
}}
|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
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{{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>
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