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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, the charity shop 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-->Sylvie Cathrall<!-- Whitlock -->|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|-rating=5| stylegenre=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|Science Fiction[[image:1782692177.jpg|linksummary=http://wwwThere are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise.amazon.coAnd this is one of them.uk/dp/1782692177/ref=nosim?tag|isbn=thebookbag-21]]0356522776}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=[[The Collective by Lindsey Whitlock]]===Crime [[image:3.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] ''Illinois Territory, Collective Homesteads of AmericaFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky.'' It's certainly an unusual place. Some people live in sunken housesThere’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, buried into hillsides to disguise how large their property is at times of austerityLivia and her daughter Diana, among other reasons. Others are called Foresters, for they live and work in trees – forever playing and resting in trees as children, but farming moving in amongst them and living between them too. These two sides hate each other – so perhaps this is less together would mean a lot of an unusual place than at first sight. Our drama kicks compromise: does Jake give up his off when the small area the Foresters live -grid and relaxing life to move in is placed under compulsory purchase – with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the residents are given a pitiful amount to clear out, before they get manfully cleared out. future she wants for herself and her daughter? It's probably For the Hills that are behind this, what's more. Our hero, Elwyn, has just left moment they’re enjoying life in the trees for the Hills, to live with an uncle present and learn their ways – he's just of age to decide things for himself, and he has decided to see how putting the other half livesfuture on the back burner. This has, of course, opened himself up to no end of prejudicial judgement. But what's this – as soon as he reaches the Hills he sees a third way of living, }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in a lovely colonialNorwich -style mansionthe site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, where everything sparkles and shines Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with crystalline lightDCI Harry Nelson. What does it mean It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that he feels destiny-bound to this even posher, newer and more hopeful life? [[The Collective by Lindsey Whitlock|Full Review]]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 sudden bouts of sickness.}}<!-- Andre Pronovost -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0008551324| styletitle=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster[[image:099944235X|rating=4.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/099944235X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary=It''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Man Who Killed Hitler by Andre Pronovost]]=== [[image:3stars unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Germany is split. Some But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of her a missing person is in favour of Hitler buried and the Nazis, but much isn'twho was responsible for her death. Some of her This person, he promises, is stuck to the east fighting the Soviets, but some someone big and it will soon have to be on worth the other front, against the Americans coming into the continent to put things right as they see itpolice doing what he wants. Finding out that the war And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the east isn't working, due to Hitler's tactical ineptitude remainder of his sentence and inability to heed advice, some people reckon Stalin is five seasons away from being in Berlin. get an early parole date. The only way Not much to shore things up, and repair the splitsask, is to kill Hitler, and luckily the Baron Nicholas is the man to do it. ? HeThe new Deputy Police Constable doesn's aristocratic enough, he knows enough people in industry, society t think so and other circles of power, so once heshe's succeeded he might be able even prepared to keep a German presence in Europe. But will he still be able to keep do the "predatory American capitalists" and the blatantly communist Soviets from meeting in the middle? [[The Man Who Killed Hitler by Andre Pronovost|Full Review]]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.}}{{Frontpage<!-- Ann Cleeves -->|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|-author=Jane Casey| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"5|genre=Crime[[image:1509889566.jpg|linksummary=http://www.amazonIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night.co She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt.uk/dp/1509889566/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Long Call (Two Rivers) by Ann Cleeves]]=== [[image:4star Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[ What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance:Category:Crime|Crime]]others (such as Derwent's boss, [[:Category:LGBT FictionUna Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|LGBT Fiction]]isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby CodeWhen we first meet DI Matthew Venn he|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's at his fathera theatre director. He's funeralalso self-obsessed, although 'at' rather overstates the proximitydemanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. He sees everyone Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - his mother and the preacher included from a distance - but he doesn't go its drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. He wouldnMost men in Robert't be welcome. Those attending are part of the Barum Brethren and the teenage Matthew was thrown out when s position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he told the congregation how wrong they were in their beliefs. It coincided with him leaving university and joining the police force. The announcement of Matthew's marriage not like most men: Edward is left to Jonathan Church was stumble upon the two of them kissing in the local paper and whilst he doesn't know if his father saw it, he can't imagine that it will have gone down wella dark passageway. [[The Long Call (Two Rivers) by Ann Cleeves|Full Review]]}}<!-- Day -->{{Frontpage|-author=Jo Callaghan| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Leave No Trace|rating=4[[image:0241351391.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241351391/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: When a man is found crucified on the top; text-align: left;"|===[[Max Kowalski Didnof a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It't Mean It by Susie Day]]=== [[image:4s their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] When Max’s dad finds himself in a spot of hot water, he disappears for But when there is a second body found crucified a few dayslater, leaving Max in charge of his three younger sisters, Thelma, Louise Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and Ripleya very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Max has no problem with stepping up Will they be able to fill his dad’s shoes and be solve the man case in chargetime, but when his dad still doesn’t come home, he starts to panic that interfering grown ups or will realise that Kat find herself taken off the children are home-alonecase and, and that they will step in and separate the family. So Max takes his sisters to Walespotentially, to hide out in of a friend’s cottage. It won’t be for long, surelycareer? Because his dad wouldn’t miss Christmas, would he? [[Max Kowalski Didn't Mean It by Susie Day|Full Review]]|isbn=139851120X}}<!--Merritt Graves -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1399613073| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson[[image:1949272028.jpg|link|rating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1949272028/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Thrillers|summary===[[Sunlight 24 by Merritt Graves]]===Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. [[image:4starOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] If the game wasn’t fair before, it’s definitely not fair nowLaura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Or so thinks Dorian Waters, part of Anjali is the ever-expanding portion free spirit of humanity who can’t afford the nano-implant group and genetic augmentation regimen known as Revision. And because he can’t afford Revision, he can’t get into college, he can’t get she becomes a jobGP. And when he sees the brilliant and mesmerizing Lena for the When we first time, he knows he doesn’t have meet them they're at a chance with her, eitherdrug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. And so, Dorian robs a house with his best friend, Ethan We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Then they do it again Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. They’re able to keep at This time, it until they have enough money saved up for 's their first Revisionteenage children who are involved. Their initial choices in self-enhancement start impacting their future choices, which in turn impact their future Revision––on and on in a downward spiral of self-destruction... [[Sunlight 24 by Merritt Graves}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|Full Review]] <!-- Stephen Booth -->title=The Trading Game: A Confession|-author=Gary Stevenson| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|4.5[[image:075157628X.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/075157628X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Autobiography| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; textIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-align: left;"| ===[[Drowned Lives by Stephen Booth]]=== [[image:3stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] When council officer Chris Buckley is approached by an old man who wants There was no posh public school on his help in healing a decades' old family rift CV - but he's reluctant had been to get involved, but then Chris is reluctant to get involved in anything but a pint in the pub these daysLondon School of Economics. It could just be the way that he Stevenson is, or the fact that bright - extremely bright - and he's just lost both his parents within three months has a facility with numbers which most of each otherus can only envy. He's currently existing in the family home and wondering when he's going also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be made redundant from his job with the councilstupid. The short answer to that one is 'soon'. Chris does his best to deter the old manIt was his ability at what was, essentially, but it's not before he's left a lot of papers card game which got him an internship with his neighbourCitibank. Then the old man is murdered and the police come calling on ChrisEventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader. [[Drowned Lives by Stephen Booth|Full Review]]}}<!-- Kalpesh Ashar -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1035021803| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller[[image:1949395324.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1949395324/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Financial Accounting Essentials You Always Wanted To Know: 4th Edition by Kalpesh Ashar]]=== [[image:4starIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Business and Finance|Business and Finance]] ''Financial Accounting Essentials You Always Wanted to Know ''gives people without an accounting background Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, who have risen in a companyArthur Crockleford, is dead and the knowledge circumstances seem suspicious, to understand say the accounts which show how the company is doingleast. The book begins by looking at Arthur was the reason why financial accounting systems are necessary, then moves on Freya had not been back to give an excellent overview of the types of accounting systems which will be encountered and the terms usedvillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. We then look Even though they were in detail at the balance sheetbusiness together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the income statement and man or pursue the statement of cash flowsprofession she loved. If you understand these three sections on After the split, she worked in a set of accounts they will tell you a story. You will understand cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the company (or indeed any other businesslove of her life, who was murdered) but if you don't understand what's there you will be missing vital clues as to whether or not the company is thrivingand Freya and James have now divorced. [[Financial Accounting Essentials You Always Wanted To Know: 4th Edition by Kalpesh Ashar|Full Review]]}}<!-- Tamaki and Pugh -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover| styletitle="widthAll Tomorrow's Futures: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)[[image:1401283292.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401283292/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|Science Fiction===[[Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Graphic Novels|Graphic Novels]] Harleen Quinzel is ''Opening up new in townways of thinking about the shape of things to come. She always, to me, seems new in town, even if she's been around a long time, for she always has a very fresh attitude, and seems to look out of those large eyes at everything anew each time. But here she is new in town, and the town is Gotham City. Expecting a year-long furlough from life with her mother, she finds her gran dead and herself with no option but to stay with a bunch of drag queens. She also finds school is a drag, she also finds the whole neighbourhood is being redeveloped by a large and uncaring corporation – but she also finds two characters that will have a big impact on her life. One is a civil-minded lass called Ivy, the other someone she only meets at night – a lad with a singular graffiti tag and a mind for violence and chaos, who calls himself The Joker… [[Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh|Full Review]] <!-- Tove Jansson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0954221710.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954221710/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Summer Book by Tove Jansson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Literary Fiction]] Tove Jansson's short novel about Summer is several worlds away from the Moomintrolls she is most famous for outside her native Scandinavia. Book yourself an afternoon this Summer, and take yourself and The Summer Book somewhere quiet, preferably within sight and sound of the sea, settle back and prepare to be transported. [[The Summer Book by Tove Jansson|Full Review]] <!-- Lynda La Plante -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785768506.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785768506/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Dirty Dozen (Jane Tennison 5) by Lynda La Plante]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Jane Tennison had worked hard to get a place on the Flying Squad and she felt that she was there on merit. The Squad wondered who she'd slept with to get the place and bets were being taken as to who she'd sleep with in the first week. What none of them - Jane included - knew was that she was there as an experiment, in the hope that a female presence would have a calming effect. The job had been advertised and Jane was the only female who applied who ticked all the boxes. She doesn't tick all the boxes for the head of the Squad, DCI Murphy. He wanted someone with at least ten years' experience, and the appropriate set of genitals - and he's determined that Jane will fail. [[The Dirty Dozen (Jane Tennison 5) by Lynda La Plante|Full Review]] <!-- Coleman -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785032461.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785032461/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]] Trudy Heaton is going home, to a house where her roots burrow back through the centuries and to a mother she hasn't spoken to for sixteen years. Home, her refuge, Ponden Hall, where she can heal herself and try to come to terms with the traumatic loss of her husband. She needs to build bridges with her mother and convince her grieving son that his father is dead. Where better than the house full of light and shadow, that nurtured her throughout her childhood? [[The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman|Full Review]] <!-- Shackle -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473225213.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473225213/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[We Are The Dead by Mike Shackle]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] Mike Shackle has written a really interesting and unusual story in ''We Are The Dead''; the tag line for the novel is 'No More Heroes' and that is what makes this story so different. There are villains galore but no specific heroes; rather the story is scattered with characters doing their own small part to survive, to fight back, and to find vengeance, in a world that has been utterly torn apart. The plot does not hang on any one character, no one is important, anyone can die and many do, but, like ants working together, each small character achieves their own part of a much larger plot that is rich and complex and keeps the reader glued to the story. [[We Are The Dead by Mike Shackle|Full Review]] <!-- Vibrant Publishers -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1946383627.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1946383627/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Cost Accounting & Management Essentials You Always Wanted To Know by Vibrant Publishers]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Business and Finance|Business and Finance]], [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] I'm capable of drawing up a profit and loss account (income statement in the USA) and a balance sheet and I do so for my own business and for another organisation. The accounts give me ''broadly'' what I need: I know whether we're making a profit or a loss and I can look at the expenses and see what looks as though it could be trimmed back in future years. My problem was that the accounts didn't really give me any help in making decisions, which was why I turned to ''Cost Accounting and Management'', part of Vibrant Publishers' Self-Learning and Management series. Cost accounting provides the information required by authorities external to the company ''and'' to those within it who need to make decisions, so don't worry that you're going to have to draw up two sets of accounts! [[Cost Accounting & Management Essentials You Always Wanted To Know by Vibrant Publishers|Full Review]] <!-- Steve Burrows -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786075776.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786075776/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Dance of Cranes by Steve Burrows]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] DCI Domenic Jejeune is no longer with Lindy Hey, the estrangement being of his making, not hers. He hasn't explained to her that he is doing this - and leaving for his native Canada - because he thinks that this will keep her safe from his nemesis, Ray Hayes. Lauren Salter has been promoted to sergeant and now has her first murder case. It looks as though there's an obvious suspect, but Salter isn't so certain. Sgt Danny Maik is (unofficially) keeping an eye on Lindy Hey, whilst Jejeune embarks on a treacherous journey to rescue his brother, Damian, who has gone missing in one of Canada's largest national parks. [[A Dance of Cranes by Steve Burrows|Full Review]] <!-- Oates -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785656775.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785656775/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Bobby is an angry, damaged man - damage that came from being abandoned as a baby in a bus station locker, and then being thrown from one foster home or detention centre to another, never far from violence or abuse. Eager to succeed as a musician, he arrives in Hollywood to find his dream - but it soon becomes clear that his paranoid delusions and seething rage will enable a capacity for acts of extreme violence. Unpublished for 40 years, this edition of ''The Triumph of the Spider Monkey'' comes combined with a connected novella – ''Love, Careless Love''. [[The Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates|Full Review]] <!-- Pike -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0192771604.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0192771604/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Last Spell Breather by Julie Pike]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Rayne lives in the small, hidden village of Penderin where she is a somewhat unwilling apprentice to her mother, the spell breather. Not everyone can spell breathe, you have to born with a magic spark and Rayne wishes she hadn't been born with one. She's a terrible spell breather, her attempts are always followed by disaster and she positively hates Mam's spell book with it's sharp teeth that suck your blood. When a stranger finds their village one day, Mam must set off on a journey to the great library, leaving Rayne in the village as their chief spell breather, but an unfortunate mistake sees Rayne breaking her mother's book and turning everyone in to monsters. She must face her fear travel across the monster-ridden country to find Mam and restore the book to save their village. [[The Last Spell Breather by Julie Pike|Full Review]] <!-- Carlie Sorosiak -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:178800387X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178800387X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[I, Cosmo by Carlie Sorosiak]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Cosmo's family is in crisis. Mom and Dad argue all the time. Emmaline doesn't quite understand it because she's too little but she feels it. And Max, who is bigger, does understand it and is terrified by it. Long ago, when Max was just a baby, Cosmo made a promise to protect Max forever and so he sets about his mission of repairing the family with everything he's got... [[I, Cosmo by Carlie Sorosiak|Full Review]] <!-- Fegan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1925810097.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1925810097/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Don't Drink the Pink by B C R Fegan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] Madeline is very fond of Grandfather Gilderberry. He's always busy in his workshop, creating crazy potions, and he always has a smile on his face. Madeline's dad thinks he's a bit bonkers and Madeline's mum thinks the same but gives him a pass because he's old. But Madeline? She thinks Grandfather Gilberberry is just great. Particularly on her birthday when he unfailingly arrives with a selection of potions and allows her to choose one as a gift. And he always says the same thing... [[Don't Drink the Pink by B C R Fegan|Full Review]] <!-- Averill -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1077651538.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1077651538/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Years of Fading Magic by Kenelm Averill]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]  ''What if you could subtly change the lives of ordinary people around you?'' Jessica Turner was one of the more radical teens to come out of Eastfield. A youth spent hanging out with a close crowd of friends was characterised by Jessica's role as trendsetter, as influencer, as leader. Strangely charismatic, Jessica invited fascination and obsession. Nobody who met her, forgot her. Or the days they spent in the Enclosure, a clearing in Eastfield woods that Jessica felt gave her power. But the group went its separate ways, as adolescent groups do, and her influence faded...[[The Years of Fading Magic by Kenelm Averill|Full Review]] <!-- Paula Daly -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1787632105.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787632105/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Clear My Name by Paula Daly]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Tess Gilroy works for Innocence UK, a charity investigating the cases of prisoners who can convince them that they've been wrongly convicted and they're just moving on to their next case. She's somewhat surprised when Clive, the head of the charity, announces that she'll have someone shadowing her. Avril's in her mid twenties and rather gauche as well as prone to putting her foot in it. One of the reasons they're now going to look at the case of Carrie Kamara is that she's female and Innocence have never yet taken up the case of a woman: such impressions matter. [[Clear My Name by Paula Daly|Full Review]]  <!-- Georgianne Landy-Kordis -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1072549271.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1072549271/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]'

I'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 - frankly - 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 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 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 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 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| stylegenre="verticalCrime|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 -align: top; textstrangely -align: left;"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=[[The Simple Act We tend to think of SelfMaria 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 -Publishing With Amazon: A Simple Step she was raised under the Nazi occupation by Step Guide by Georgianne Landy-Kordis ]]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:4Rosevear, 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.5starWith 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.jpg|linkisbn=Category:{0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI 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.|isbn=1736128426}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Business {{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 Finance|Business chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and Finance]]who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, [[:Category:Referencecultivated 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|Reference]]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, [[:Category:Self-Publishing|Self Publishing]]all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''

I frequently meet authors 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 are struggling 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 published by 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 traditional housesBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|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 when I suggest selfhe felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-publishing they explain that they donshut cases which didn't have need the help of 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 big bucks required heir to go down that road with Author Solutions or Matador or their likean Italian shoe empire and she is married to 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 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. I then ask if theyHis father was a GP and Rowlands didn've t want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered Kindle 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 vet and was convinced this was the answer is inevitably that they wouldnjob for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't know where - 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 startmeet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. I can empathise 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 thatsuggested 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.}}{{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 alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Despite having used Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a computer trip to Canada to get away for about thirty yearsa while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and 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 most of my life a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very 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 ''andInstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a website on linecollection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, Icosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'm still nervous when it comes ll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to starting something newtwenty hours and more than twenty hours. I like someone to hold my hand as I go through it for All the first timeprojects are attractive, modern and useable. That was why I was very interested perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Simple Act of Self Publishing With Amazon'' came across my deskBad 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. Author Georgianne LandyOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-Kordis doesnsized object to his home, and it't profess s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to be take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a computer expert: shewaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's simply someone 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 has done this many times is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and she, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's giving us 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 benefit regular back garden, but into a world of her experience frightening adventure and without any added chitchatwhiffs. [[ This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= 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 Simple Act of Self-Publishing With Amazon: A Simple Step by Step Guide by Georgianne Landy-Kordis |Full Review]]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}}