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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[: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. It'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, 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|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.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingauthor="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--><!-- Jo Spain -->Sylvie Cathrall|-title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|5[[image:1787474372.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787474372/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Science Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=[[The Boy Who Fell (Inspector Tom Reynolds) by Jo Spain]]=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime [[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] There were six friends: four men and two womenFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. They're all There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about eighteen the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and they've known each other since they started school. Both girls - Hazel Brophy and Charlotte Burke - have been in relationships with one of the boysher daughter Diana, but Charlotte was determined that it as moving in together would not be sexual. Hazel's views were so dramatically opposite that you wondered how they could be friends. They were all partying in mean a derelict house when Luke Connelly was pushed to lot of compromise: does Jake give up his death from a third floor window off-grid and Daniel Konaté Jones was charged relaxing life to move in with rape Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and murder. her daughter? Daniel was loosely associated with For the group but never felt himself one of them. He didn't come from a wealthy background, is of mixed race moment they’re enjoying life in the present and openly gayputting the future on the back burner. Targets don't come much easier than that, except for one thing. [[}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Boy Who Fell Janus Stone (Inspector Tom ReynoldsDr Ruth Galloway) by Jo Spain|Full Review]]<!-- Webb -->|-author=Elly Griffiths| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|4.5[[image:1916459900.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1916459900/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; textBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments -align: left;"| ===[[Disbelieved: Skin and Bone CSIs by Beth Webb]]=== [[image:4when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway.5star There was no skull.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  Anelise - Annie - has been living Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with her cousin Joe and her auntDCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, an eminent forensic scientistbut Nelson doesn't, since her mum died and her naturalist father went abroad on that she is pregnant with his child as a research trip. So she does wonder sometimes whether the minor premonitions she has - who's on the other end result of the ringing phone, or at the door when there's a knock - are in her imaginationone night they spent together some three months ago. But Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to foresee a serious accident and then for it to actually happen? And the dreadful headachessudden bouts of sickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4. Something's going on. Luckily 5|genre=Crime|summary=It's unusual for Annie, Joe is convinced and also willing anyone from the Hardie family to helpapproach the police. So they start to investigate Neither side likes or has any respect for the accidentother.But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death.. [[Disbelieved: Skin This person, he promises, is someone big and Bone CSIs by Beth Webb|Full Review]] <!-- Mick Herron -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:147365744Xit will be worth the police doing what he wants.jpg|link=http://www And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date.amazon.co.uk/dp/147365744X/ref=nosim Not much to ask, is it?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded -align: top; text-align: left;"make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title===[[Joe Country A Stranger in the Family (Jackson Lamb 6Maeve Kerrigan 11) by Mick Herron]]=|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime[[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] IIt'd like to say that all the s sixteen years since nine-year-old crew are in Slough House but Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the rate of natural (or unnatural) wastage is such as investigation ground to have Health and Safety worrieda halt. Roderick Ho's there thoughNow, her mother, narcissistic as everHelena, and so's Louisa Guyher father are dead in their bed. SheInitially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's getting over something about the death positioning of Min Harper to the extent bodies that she's not ''too'' concerned when she gets a phone call from Clare Harper, Min's wifemakes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. River Cartwright has got death on his mind too, but in his case What looked as though it's the impending demise of his beloved grandfather was going to be an open-and former spook, the OB-shut case is now a complex double murder. Diana Taverner has taken over from Claude Whelan as First Desk at Regent Park and sheKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's going to make changes: one of the first is a shock. An argument with Emma Flyte sees the head dog departing the service. Meanwhile at Slough House, Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Jackson Lamb is offensive disappearance: others (such as ever and Shirley Dander and J K Coe do their best to remain unnoticedDerwent's boss, the latter by saying nothingUna Burt) are less convinced. [[Joe Country (Jackson Lamb 6) by Mick Herron|Full Review]]}}<!-- Laurain -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0571379877| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|The Kellerby Code[[image:1910477672.jpg|linkauthor=http://wwwJonny Sweet|rating=3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1910477672/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalEdward Jevons is a working-align: top; textclass young man, obsessed with his upper-align: left;"|===[[Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurainclass friends, Jane Aitken (translator) Robert and Emily Boyce (translator)]]=== [[image:4Stanza.5star Robert's a theatre director.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Vintage 1954 starts by thrusting several completely different characters upon us He's also self-obsessed, demanding, before deciding handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run with them and formulate a ploterrands for him. So we have an American biker, just landing Edward has been in Paris but unfortunately not love with the wife who shared his dream of visiting the city togetherStanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. We have Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a goth girl who everyone recognises from an American crime show, relationship had begun between them but actually he's not like most men: Edward is a humble restorer left to stumble upon the two of antiques. We have them kissing in a cocktail barman, infatuated with the goth girldark passageway. We also have a man ruling the roost over a whole suite of individual apartments fabricated from the Haussmann-era mansion his family once owned. Finally something conspires to get them together, and drinking from }}{{Frontpage|author=Jo Callaghan|title=Leave No Trace|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=When a man is found crucified on the same bottle top of a rare 1954 red wine. Onlyhill in Nuneaton, one of them has a bizarre incidence in his family history that also features DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the same plonk – where a grandfather imbibedcase alongside her sidekick, and walked out the door one rainy morning, never to be seen againAI detective Lock. But of course nobody will be doing any disappearing now It's their first live case together, though – will they? [[Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurainhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Jane Aitken (translator) Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and Emily Boyce (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Ford -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?[[image:0356510441.jpg|linkisbn=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356510441/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073| styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating===[[The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford]]===4.5[[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] As summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the title suggestsfirst day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, this book which is all about a girl, Teagan Frost, who has psychokinesisbonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Forced to secretly work for the government along with Laura is a few unique (perfectionist and shady) individuals, Teagan has to use her power for unimaginable tasksa trauma doctor. All Anjali is the free spirit of this whilst under the pretence of working for group and she becomes a moving-companyGP. After her latest job goes wrong When we first meet them they're at a drug and her alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the team escape by tragedy or the skin of their teeth, Teagan finds herself as a murder suspect when the victim is found in such a way consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that only she could have committed will impact the crimethree friends. The rest of the story unfolds in a fast-paced race against This time to clear Teagan, it's name and find out exactly what has happenedtheir teenage children who are involved. Is it possible that someone with a gift like Teagan's has managed to fly under the radar? [[The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford|Full Review]]}}<!-- Caro Ramsay -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0241636604| styletitle="widthThe Trading Game: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson[[image:0727887602.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/0727887602/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Autobiography| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Suffering If you were to bring up an image of Strangers by Caro Ramsay]]=== [[image:4stara city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Roberta (please call her 'Bobby') Chisholm A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is sleep deprivedthe East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. Six-week-old Sholto doesn't ''ever'' seem There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to sleep, so Bobby's like a robotthe London School of Economics. There's a little light on the horizon, though: her husband James is up for Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a new job, facility with numbers which could mean quite a bit more moneymost of us can only envy. When he rings to tell her He also realised that he's got it he's obviously over the moon and tells Bobby most rich people expect poor people to go to the local shop and get a bottle of champagne so that they can celebratebe stupid. For once Sholto has dropped off to sleep and when Bobby gets to the shop sheIt 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 reluctant Guide to disturb him: surely there wonMurder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It't be a problem if she dashes into the shop s twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to get the bubbly? English country village where she grew up. She can keep an eye on the car through the shop window's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, but when she comes out, the car has goneCarole... [[The Suffering of Strangers by Caro Ramsay|Full Review]] <!-- Christopher Edge -->|-| style= Freya's former mentor and Carole''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1788004949s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least.jpg|link=http Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village://wwwArthur, she feels, let her down badly.amazon 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.co.uk/dp/1788004949/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow''vertical-aligns Futures: top; text-align: left;''Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=[[The Longest Night ''Opening up new ways of Charlie Noon by Christopher Edge]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] ''If you go into the woods, Old Crony will get youthinking about the shape of things to come.'' Secrets, spies or maybe even a monster... What lies in the heart of the wood? Charlie, Dizzy and Johnny are determined to discover the truth, but when night falls without warning they find themselves trapped in a nightmare. Lost in the woods, strange dangers and impossible puzzles lurk in the shadows. As time plays tricks, can Charlie solve this mystery and find a way out of the woods? But what if this night never ends...? [[The Longest Night of Charlie Noon by Christopher Edge|Full Review]] <!-- Rachel Lynch -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07P1T8H6J.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P1T8H6J/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Bold Lies (DI Kelly Porter 5) by Rachel Lynch]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It was the smell which announced the presence of the body in the wheelhouse of a boat and identification wasn't going to be easy as the man was stark naked. There were all the signs of a brutal, cold-blooded execution but gradually the man was traced back to Allendale House, the estate of the former Lord Allendale, and then to London, where two more bodies, naked, in a staged setting in a garage, were discovered. Senior Investigating Officer DI Kelly Porter had to go to London and was shocked to discover that the SIO for ''that'' case was DCI Matt Carter, her manipulative and untrustworthy ex-lover. It was going to be anything but easy to work alongside Matt the Tw... Ah, well let's not go there. [[Bold Lies (DI Kelly Porter 5) by Rachel Lynch|Full Review]] <!-- Jonathan Meres -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1781128693.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781128693/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Special Delivery by Jonathan Meres]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] How do you explain to children about dementia? Injuries or illnesses are obvious, but when the problem is the brain which isn't functioning quite as it used to it isn't as easy to grasp. Frank was a normal nine year old and like many nine year olds what he wanted was a new bike. He'd had his for about seventy-eight years and he didn't want to raise the seat any more. Mum pointed out that it wasn't his birthday or Christmas any time soon and bikes cost a lot of money, which didn't grow on trees. His sister Lottie had a solution: Frank could help her with her paper round. Frank agreed despite thinking that it would take him a thousand years to save up the money for a bike AND he had to get up at six o'clock in the morning. [[Special Delivery by Jonathan Meres|Full Review]] <!-- Vivian French -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1781128707.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781128707/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Spectacular Revenge of Suzi Sims by Vivian French]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Suzi Simms loved running and it was her ambition to win the 100 metres race on sports day at the end of term - and that was next week. We're going to read about what happened in her diary, although there's a warning that we really shouldn't be reading it, particularly as it's about Barbie Meek. To say that the two girls don't get on at all well is a bit of an understatement. Suzi wouldn't actually do anything about it, but Barbie is a troublemaker and she wants to win the 100 metres race too - by fair means or foul. [[The Spectacular Revenge of Suzi Sims by Vivian French|Full Review]] <!-- Pye -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471170233.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471170233/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Adventures of Harry Stevenson by Ali Pye]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Meet Harry Stevenson. He's a typical guinea pig, except he's perhaps a bit more ginger than normal. And more lazy than usual. And his appetite is possibly bigger than the norm. Apart from that he's a regular guinea pig. But the stories in which he features are nothing like. In the first one here, the lad who owns and looks after him is being forced to move house. It should be a simple journey for Harry, safe in his cage from all the predators that watching nature documentaries have put into his imagination, but he gets distracted and – shock horror – left behind. It takes some bravura slapstick and a charming contrivance for him to be found again. In the second, for we get two full-length stories in this volume, there's a party being held to get the lad used to his new schoolmates, and Harry used to life in a garden hutch. And one more wonderful conceit that drives high drama. [[The Adventures of Harry Stevenson by Ali Pye|Full Review]] <!-- Angie Kim -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1529374944.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529374944/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Miracle Creek by Angie Kim]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] The Yoo family originated in Seoul. Yoo Young and her daughter Meh-hee came on ahead of the father of the family, Yoo Pak, as a couple in Baltimore offered to provide accommodation for Young and Meh-hee in exchange for assistance in their grocery store. What Young had not appreciated was that she was to work from 6 a.m. until midnight, seven days a week. For years she hardly saw her daughter except when the Kangs brought Meh-hee to see her at the store. Meh-hee became Mary and struggled at school: her fellow pupils were no exceptions to the rule that children can be cruel and Mary was an easy target. [[Miracle Creek by Angie Kim|Full Review]] <!-- Megan E O'Keefe -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0356512223.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356512223/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Velocity Weapon by Megan E O'Keefe]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction]] The last thing Sanda remembers is her gunship exploding. She expected to be recovered by salvage-medics and to awaken in friendly hands, patched-up and ready to rejoin the fight. Instead she wakes up 230 years later, on a deserted enemy starship called The Light of Berossus - or, as he prefers to call himself, 'Bero'. Bero tells Sanda the war is lost. That the entire star system is dead. But is that the full story? After all, in the vastness of space, anything is possible . . . [[Velocity Weapon by Megan E O'Keefe|Full Review]] <!-- Parker -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789018269.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789018269/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Chessmaster's Secret by Mary Parker]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]  Belle and Joe travel to London in 1944, towards the end of World War II. Orphaned evacuees, they haven't had a good time of it - especially Joe, who is a sensitive child and was badly bullied. Meeting them is Uncle Griff, a kindly man, but one without much money. He is more than happy to have the children stay during the school holidays. Uncle Griff owns the ''Shop of Mechanical Marvels'' and the children love all the old things it contains. Uncle Griff hopes to restore it to profitability and bring some wonder back into London's bombed out streets. [[The Chessmaster's Secret by Mary Parker|Full Review]] <!-- Rob Walker -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1529104432X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529104432X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Art of Noticing: Rediscover What Really Matters to You by Rob Walker]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]] The curse put on reviewers is that we get to read through a book which is really better dipped into, or read gradually and thoughts allowed to be provoked. And so it was with ''The Art of Noticing''. It's a simple premise: the pace of modern life and rapidity of technological advances means that we are constantly overwhelmed and distracted. Rob Walker wants us to be able to steal our attention back. He gives us his thoughts on various areas of our lives and then provides 131 exercises to help us recover our attention. [[The Art of Noticing: Rediscover What Really Matters to You by Rob Walker|Full Review]] <!-- Lesley Thomson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786697246.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786697246/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Rachel Cater was having an affair with her boss, Chris Philips, an auctioneer. It was, she told her mother, love at first sight. Her mother was more sceptical and wondered why, if it had been love at first sight, it had taken him so long to do anything about it. Still, more than anything, she wanted her daughter to be happy. That was what Rachel wanted too and it was why she went to the Philips' family home, determined to have it all out in the open. Instead she was stabbed fifteen times. Her lover was convicted of her murder. [[The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson|Full Review]] <!-- Dare -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:191303674X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/I191303674X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Billion Pound Lie by Bill Dare]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Can you imagine what it would be like to win a billion pounds? The UK's biggest ever lottery winners were a couple from Ayrshire, who won a £161 million EuroMillions jackpot a few years ago. That's so much money that it landed them on the Sunday Times Rich List of the UK's thousand most wealthy people. So a billion pounds. That's a lot, right? Can you imagine it? What would you do? Would you try to remain anonymous? And, if you did, how would this affect your relationships with your nearest and dearest? What it would be like? How could you keep your friends and family from knowing that you were now one of the richest people in the country? [[The Billion Pound Lie by Bill Dare|Full Review]] <!-- Vaughn -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0751568228.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751568228/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Across the Void by S K Vaughn]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Sea epics? So 20th century. Try a space epic. [[Across the Void by S K Vaughn|Full Review]] <!-- McLean -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786076071.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786076071/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] When Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old, the Van Apfel sisters disappeared. In the long hot summer of 1992, in an isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushland, the girls vanished during the school's Showstopper concert at the riverside amphitheatre. Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for the sisters united the small community, they were never found. Returning home years later, Tikka must make sense of that strange moment in time – of the summer that shaped her, and the girls she never forgot. [[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean|Full Review]] <!-- Stowell -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788000269.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788000269/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]'

| style="verticalI've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is -align: top; textfrankly -align: left;"quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=[[The Dragon Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a 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 Library 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 Louie Stowell 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 Davide Ortu Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (IllustratorA 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 family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers 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 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 father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. 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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, 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 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 of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're 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 even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=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.''

[[image: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}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5star5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings.jpgAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|linkisbn=Category:{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}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|Confident Readers]]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, [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]]at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''

It is Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the start Briar's, a family of witches who protect the summer holidays town and Kit the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has plansalways 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. These plans involve climbing treesWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, getting muddy and being outsideEllie takes her place beside her. Her friendsAs challenges come her way left, Josh right and Alitacentre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, on putting her at the other hand want heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to go trust and determine what to do as the libraryBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat. Kit hates reading |isbn=1803364548}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and caneven after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't see need the point help of books at all but a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is very reluctantly persuaded married to go with an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the others Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the local librarystrain that being on-call put on his father's life. Once there When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the children job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{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 librarian death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and Kit makes wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an incredible discovery; alternative to all the librarian is online apps in providing a wizard! Even more incrediblypersonal, Kit tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a wizard too trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and she so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her friends have an important taskvery helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. They must save Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the library…and save fire' variety. The projects are divided by the worldtime they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! [[ The Dragon in thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the Library by Louie Stowell delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Davide Ortu Harper (Illustratora waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure)can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|Full Review]]title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.

<!''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529431735|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It'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 letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to 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.|isbn=0571382231}}