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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.

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==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}

|authorisbn=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)0008517061|title=The Honjin MurdersDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell

|summary=To many readersFormer Metropolitan Police detective, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. For those who need more, here is There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the extra background – we're in rural Japan in the 1930s. The oldest son future of an esteemed family is belatedly getting marriedhis life with his vet girlfriend, although the whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing Livia and her familydaughter Diana, for one thing. Either way, the celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death moving in their private annex before the sun rises on their marriage. What with together would mean a man missing parts lot of compromise: does Jake give up his fingers being off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the neighbourhood, future she wants for herself and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the time of present and putting the crime, this case has a lot of future on the peculiar about itback burner.|isbn=1782275002

|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Cixin LiuElly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the 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, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=DeathThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's Endprepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. 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. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the 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|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre=Science FictionCrime|summary= If IIt'd been paying more attention when I picked this book ups sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, I would have put it back on the shelfand her father are dead in their bed. Not because I didn't want to read Initially, it, looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but because Ithere'd have figured out s something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was the final part of going to be an open-and-shut case is now a trilogycomplex double murder. Coming in part way through a saga Kerrigan is never convinced that the easiest thing to do and itexplanation lies in Rosalie's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to you disappearance: others (when itsuch as Derwent's assumed they willboss, Una Burt) but there are whole concepts that you won't understandless convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|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. This latter is particularly true of Cixin LiuRobert's work – his range is phenomenala theatre director. George R R MartinHe's also self-obsessed, who knows a thing or two about world-creationdemanding, described it as ''a unique blend of scientific handsome and entitled and philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and cosmology'he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. All Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of that and morethem kissing in a dark passageway.|isbn=1784971650

|isbnauthor=1780894511Jo Callaghan|title=Die Alone|author=Simon KernickLeave No Trace

|summary=Ray Mason is in prison awaiting trial for murder Olivia, Laura and he's in Anjali met on the vulnerable prisoner unit: as first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a cop he's something quarter of a targetcentury. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, but which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the unit is not as secure as free spirit of the inmates would have hoped group and Mason is injured in she becomes a riotGP. On his way to hospital heWhen we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's broken free by armed men and an offer is made going to himend in tragedy. HeWe don's to assassinate t know who suffered the man who is likely to become tragedy or the country's next prime minister and he'll then consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be given a new identity so an eerily similar event that he can start afresh abroadwill impact the three friends. His captors say that theyThis time, it're MI6, but Mason has his doubts. His choices s their teenage children who are limited though and he has personal reasons to believe that it would be better if Alastair Sheridan was deadinvolved.

|authorisbn=Akwaeke Emezi0241636604|title=PetThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson

|genre=TeensAutobiography|summary=The people If 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 town Lucille believe that all pin-stripe suit and his background is the monsters are goneEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. Their children are raised There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to understand that they were saved by the angels, those who rid the town London School of evil, and there are no monsters anymoreEconomics. But one day, Jam accidentally cuts herself, Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and bleeds he has a little onto one facility with numbers which most of her mother's paintingsus can only envy. The blood awakens a bizarre, terrifying-looking creature named Pet, who somehow comes to life and declares He also realised that it is here most rich people expect poor people to hunt the monsterbe stupid. Though Jam tries to convince it that all the monsters are gone, Pet is certain that there is oneIt was his ability at what was, stillessentially, and that the monster is hiding in the home of her best frienda card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, Redemptionthis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|isbn=0571355110

|isbn=16867516801035021803|title=My Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarresThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=Amelie Julien and GustyawanC L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Which child doesnIt't think that there mother is, wells 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. Freya's former mentor and Carole'weird''? It might be that in s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the morning their mother doesn't like speaking muchcircumstances seem suspicious, when every self-respecting child knows that that is when you're at your brightest with lots to say? the least. ''Why'' then does Mummy stick Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her fingers in her ears? down badly. Then there's doing yoga Even though they were in front of the televisionbusiness together as antique hunters, which could she has not felt able to be worrying if it wasn't so funnynear the man or pursue the profession she loved. We won't go into too much detail about what goes on After the split, she worked in the bathroom a cafe, met and married James (on the colour changes which have occured when Mummy emerges and frankly, rebound from the less said the better about love of her reactions to your artistic efforts on the walllife, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced. I mean, what else would you use paint for?

|authorisbn=Justine Avery and Liuba SyrotiukAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=For SharingScience Fiction|summary=''The day has ended''<br>''Hasn't it been splendid?'' <br>''But now, it's time, Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to be sure'' <br>''For an entirely different adventurecome.'' <br>

I hope you haven't forgotten how ve heard it feels to be much too excited for bed. If said that 'technology' is what happens after you're a parent at leasteighteen. Well, you'll know how it is to persuade an excited small person I must confess that yes, it is there have been more than a few decades of technology in fact time for bedmy lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what'What Wonders DoYou See...s advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it' sets out to cater to these childrens all getting away from me. Instead Some of trying to persuade them that night time is calm time, it takes a slightly different tack. It tells them that sleep is actually an exciting time: a time of dreams in which imagination takes over and has no limit- frankly - quite frightening. But Of course, I could research the trick in accessing this wonderful possibilities and exciting world, is to get calm the probabilities and relaxed first so that you can easily fall asleep and open end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the door to itlatest conspiracy theorist. |isbn=194812422X I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.

|author=Michael HarrisSunny Singh|title=Solitude: In Pursuit of 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 Singular Life 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 Crowded Worldbond 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

|genre=LifestyleGeneral Fiction|summary= This It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not the book I was expecting it to bewhat's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm Well, how to step outside the mainstreamthey've been murdered, but it is not that at allto have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Instead of telling us how, it is more about the Miv's upset because she'whys overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. Harries examines how weWhen you're eroding solitudefrom Yorkshire, which used to be Down South is a natural part of our human lifefrightening, foreign place, and why that mattersbest avoided. Of course he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of that For Miv, and eventually in the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it outmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, but mostly he wanders down the alleys and by-ways she'll do anything to prevent that his thinking . She's not worried about this lost art led himthe dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|isbn=1847947662

|authorisbn=Andy Briggs1398524085|title=Ctrl+SHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French

|genre=Science FictionCrime|summary= Life in the near futureCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's not all badfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. We've reversed global warming Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and fixed the collapsing bee populationher daughter, Etty. We even created SPACEare all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desireis not. But almost anything isn Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg't enough for some. Every days father, normal people are being takenDuncan Ackerley, their emotions harvested - and lives traded - to create death-defying thrills in the river. It was an easy assumption for the rich police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and twisted. Now Theo’s mother has disappeared. And as he follows her breadcrumb trail of clues, then committed suicide when hecouldn'll come up against t stand the most dangerous SPACE has to offer: vPolice, AI Bots guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and anarchists - as well as a criminal empire that will kill to stop him finding her wonder about what really happened. . .|isbn=1409184641

|isbn=16098093781035906708|title=The Rabbits' RebellionDiva|author=Ariel Dorfman and Chris RiddellDaisy Goodwin

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=We're in the realm tend to think of the rabbitsMaria Callas as Greek, only the foxes and wolves have taken over. King Wolfbut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, His WolfinessNew York, has declared the rabbits don't exist, but the pesky birds have spread rumours from awing that the bunnies are in fact still aroundDecember 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Demanding a propaganda spree, King Wolf orders a humble monkey Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to be his official portrait photographer, but whatever make it more manageable in the poor innocent monkey prints out in his darkroom there is a distinct leporine hintStates. Can King Wolf succeed When she was back in proving himself victorious, can Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the rabbits show their continued existence to all Nazi occupation by a mother who need to know mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of it – and what can the poor monkey caught in between do?her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.

|author=Innosanto NagaraChristopher Edge|title=M is for MovementBlack Hole Cinema Club

|genre=Emerging Confident Readers|summary=Set Lucas and his friends are all booked in Indonesiafor a movie marathon at their local cinema, in a place that has the not too distant past, this is a story about social changenickname of 'The Black Hole'. Dealing with some difficult issuesAll big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, such as political corruption and nepotismmany, the book is neither boring nor preachy. many snacks! It educates gentlyHowever, with vibrantas the movie starts, challenging illustrationsthey very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and it portrays how social movements need people who will try, they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even when it seems that they will failimagine. The message is a positive But as they lurch from one; that in an increasingly uncertain worldfilm genre to the next, we do still have can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the power cinema, and to instigate change.their real lives?|isbn=16098093511839942738

|isbnauthor=1780724047Rachel Greenlaw|title=A Dictionary of Interesting Compass and Important Dogs|author=Peter J ConradiBlade|rating=43.5|genre=PetsTeens|summary=''I struggle to resist a book about dogscan hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, but I did wonder why this one was so the answering beat in my heart.''thin'': given that I've never encountered  Rosevear, a dog who wasn't interesting or important - remote and probably bothpartially forgotten island, I was expecting a massive tomesurvives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. But ''A Dictionary Mira, like her mother before her, is one of Interesting the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and Important Dogs'' is actually ''any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a rich compendium of trap to end the wrecking, they capture the worldisland's most significant and beloved dogs'' leader and itMira's certainly father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a rich treasure trove. We begin bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with Peter J Conradi's four collies: Cloudyonly coordinates to guide her, Skyshe sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. Bradley and Max. They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogsWith only nine days to unearth what might save her father, but what comes over is Conradias her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's love for each territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and every one of them. I knew that I was in safe handsthe ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730

|isbnauthor=1785769294James Sherwood Metts|title=Man at the Window (Detective Cardilini)|author=Robert JeffreysPlanet Storyland

|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=ItThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's when we read re paid to do and other tasks that a young boy is creeping reluctantly took time to a teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrongaccomplish. Nowadays you ''might'' hope that something would be done about it fairly quickly but Just as they were beginning to get used to all this was 1965 technological change and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part starting to think of the child. The boy would be safe that night though - albeit in the most horrific fashion. When he reached Captain Edmund's bedroom he found the man dead on the floorother, new ways to spend time, the top of his skull missingalong came an awful pandemic. The school's initial reaction Life was that this was a dreadful accident: there had been a cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields pretty much shut down and , along with it was obviously a stray bullet , all the many daily social interactions on which had killed the Captainthey depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426

|isbnauthor=1786695227Matthew Tree|title=Invisible in a Bright Light|author=Sally GardnerWe'll Never Know

|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=The beginning of this excellent story will leave the reader Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a little confused: drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who is the man in the green suit, what is the Reckoning, and why are rows had endless crises of people in a cave? But stick with it – Ms Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience the same disorientation as our heroineself confidence. We watch in dismay as the strange man, who seems So Tim applied himself to have no eyeshis studies, does cultivated his best to persuade her to answer abilities rather than his questions. But for some reason Celeste, despite her bewilderment, remains wary daydreams and gives nothing awayset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8

|isbnauthor=1912374854A G Slatter|title=Violet|author=S J I HollidayThe Briar Book of the Dead|rating=3.5|genre=ThrillersFantasy|summary=I've never been but understand ' There's a part of me that travelling is wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situationsmine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while. Well that's exactly what happens when ' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the two main/only characters meet in world, lies Silverton; a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to get town under the protection of the Briar's, a refund on an extra ticket family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the Transfirst non-Siberian train witch to be born into her family for generations and Violet is trying to unsuccessfully buy as such since she was young, her training as a ticket for 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 same sold-out journeytown's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As the two team upchallenges come her way left, travelling through Mongoliaright and centre, Serbia and into RussiaEllie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, it could've been putting her at the start heart of a beautiful friendship but this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale maelstrom of obsessionchaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, manipulation Ellie must decide who to trust and toxic friendshipsdetermine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548

|isbn=19123748381529900360|title=Nothing Important Happened TodayThe Ghost Orchid|author=Will CarverJonathan Kellerman

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Nothing Important Happened Today is a dark, twistedIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult readcases. Stories about cults often are His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, but this is different; itwas Robin, Delaware's written with a sense of style partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that is quite unlike anything I've read beforethe man she loved needed. I can't remember ever having read a novel with such an odd The next case did look simple, distinctive narrative voicethough. While Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a slim remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and relatively small book, she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the slow-moving nature Italian. But which of them was the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages.primary target?

|isbn= williamabbey1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Pursuit Secret Life of William Abbeya Vet|author=Claire NorthSion Rowlands

|genre=ParanormalAnimals and Wildlife|summary=When William Abbey fails Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to prevent the lynching of a young boy follow in 1880's South Africahis footsteps, particularly when he finds himself cursed by considered the grieving motherstrain that being on-call put on his father's life. A naïve English Doctor, When he was seventeen he slowly learns took the weight of the curse upon him, as the shadow opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the dead boy begins to follow job for him across the world. Never stopping Before long, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of Williamhe was at Liverpool University. As It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in otherswas a child. If anything, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks 'd wanted to kill the one he loves the most…be a professional footballer.

|isbn=16437850360861541774|title=The Wondrous ApothecaryA Nye of Pheasants|author=Mary E MartinSteve Burrows

|summary=Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay Wagon''Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and Rinaldo, renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and cheeseoperating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, if not sworn enemiestailored service. If you've watched Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the relationshipbusiness, as has our narratorNess is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, art dealer Jamie Helmsworthand so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, you'd have said that they were magnetsbringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, drawing thanks to 44 Scotland Street and repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright was at the socially acceptable end of the artistic continuumIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with Rinaldo it was all too obvious that there was but a fine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisancesome new characters who quickly begin to charm. As time Katie has worn onno experience in running a business, or in match-making, hebut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's frequently been brought always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to the attention of the police. On this latest occasion we see him charged with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''.lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596

|authorisbn=Mary H.K. Choi0811771741|title=Permanent RecordInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman

|genre=TeensCrafts|summary=PabloMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, a college dropcosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete -outless 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 working at having a New York bodegaterrifically bad day. He's massively in debtloses his job, he's avoiding loses his motherfiancee, and he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! house gets trashed. Whilst working one eveningOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, heand it's surprised 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 discover deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the girl he delivery to his house is chatting with as he serves 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 super-famous pop star good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, andwill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, as unlikely as it may seemif he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they start a relationshipare.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4. With one character who 5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is trying very hard not supposed to be seen or noticed by anyonea humble, tidy and the other friendly cat, one who is seen able to sleep and eat and eat and followed sleep and hounded by everyone all over , well, whatever takes his fancy next of the world, ittwo. But he's a bad magician's an interesting clash as cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they come togetherboth use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This isn't just time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a love story thoughtroll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, and actually itto be honest, but he's really just Pabturned up and he's story, about the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smart.ll have to do…|isbn=03490034590008561249

|isbn=1609809319B0C47LV1PC|title=Long-Haired Cat-Boy CubFragility|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)Mosby Woods|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=One day Can you make a boy ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is in the zoo with his fatherquestion should you make it? Or is the question if you did, when would it land? The catch is that the man gets called away on urgent businessanswer for both could well be.... no. The boy isn ''t hustled into a cab and taken home first, though, no – heFragility's given hot dog money, and taxi money, and told to just stick around on his own and enjoy himself. Well, it's no surprise that is set as the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn't make him happy, and so he thinks city of a species name for himselfPortland, and curls himself up into an empty cageOregon, as if he were a new exhibit. And it's then cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the drama begins… covid pandemic

|isbn=17857855161529431735|title=Fucking Good MannersThe Winter Visitor|author=Simon GriffinJames Henry

|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=Manners maketh man, they say. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set of conventions's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, some of which are ages old and other which have evolved over timemade Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. Manners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: theyHe're about getting d been exiled on the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult mattersCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. Of course we all have more relaxed manners when weThe return has come about because he're with family and friendss had a letter from his ex-wife, but itsaying that she's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives ill and hasn't long to act appropriatelylive. It''Fucking Good Manners'' aims s hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to help us on a watery grave in the wayboot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?

|isbnauthor=0008324859Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Fowl Twins|author=Eoin ColferThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=54

|summary=Relax, everyone Eli is a busy lad – our old friend Artemis may be off planetby day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, but and in the evening a helper at the baddies aren't getting away dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with skulduggery any time soon because they now have not one but two members of his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the Fowl family to contend with. Those cute little twins are now eleven (and A few short years ago, franklyEli's parents were both lost to the titular race, cute no longer) and a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in this, their first independent adventure, they meet the company of a troll and without even trying manage magical beast. This has made the race anathema to make two deadly enemies: the pair – but when a nobleman obsessed with immortality whatever bad incident at the cost (eatery leads to other people)a confession from gran, and an unusual interrogator-nun. The boys are chased, kidnapped, arrested and even killed (though not for long)Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, all with the help sole aim the prize of one trainee fairymagic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231