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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, & self-published books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|plus author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.</metadesc>
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joanne Dahme Sylvie Cathrall|title=Tombstone TeaA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=Having recently moved There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a new school, in a new town, Jessie is struggling to make friends and fit incompelling premise. She And this is afraid to show these new people who she really is - in her old school she often found she had 'blank' moments, when she could hear voices and 'see' people who weren't really there. In desperation to become part one of a 'group' she accepts the dare of a group of girls to spend the night in the Cemetery and collect some gravestone rubbings to prove she was there. Once there she bumps into Paul, the handsome caretaker, and finds herself in the middle of a strange evening when, Paul claims, local actors get together to rehearse for something called the 'Tombstone Tea', a play in which they portray those buried in the graveyard...there's something strange though about these actors and Jessie soon finds herself caught up in a chilling dramathem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0762437189</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stieg Larsson and Reg Keeland (translator)0008517061|title=The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' NestDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=[[The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and Reg Keeland (translator)|The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo]]Former Metropolitan Police detective, the first of Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy of thrillersJake Johnson, was has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a fine stand-alone novel. The second in little uncertainty about the seriesfuture of his life with his vet girlfriend, [[The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson Livia and Reg Keeland (translator)|The Girl Who Played With Fire]]her daughter Diana, continues the adventures as moving in together would mean a lot of Lisbeth Salander, Larsson's finely crafted anticompromise: does Jake give up his off-hero. If you haven't read this second volume yet I advise you grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to stop reading Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this review now. I'm about to spoil is the ending future she wants for you…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694168</amazonuk>herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diane Chamberlain1786482126|title=The Bay at MidnightJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=The story starts properly 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 letter is discoveredchild beneath a doorway. It will have devastating consequences for several families - and life will never be the same againThere was no skull. Apparently, the wrong person was convicted for Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. MoreoverIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the writer of this letter appears to know who did commit this crimeone night they spent together some three months ago. UnfortunatelyHer condition will be obvious before long, the writer dies before able not least because Ruth is prone to make contact with the policesudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303640</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Miller0008551324|title=Sea Wolf|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Hanna, Ned and Jik. They're on an unlikely quest to recover the world's biggest and richest pearl, from the hiding place Jik alone knows of, when there's a problem in the shape of a tornado. They're thrown from the craft they're on, Ned disappears - and then there were two. Hanna and Jik get rescued by the occupants of a horrid, piratical craft, engaged in very environmentally-unfriendly fishing. Jik gets overworked and underfed, and then there was one... Only one - Hanna - with the spunk, brainpower and energy to keep her spirit together, and try and get one up on the Maestro who commands the boat.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729020</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Katie Davies|title=The Great Hamster MassacreNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet AnnaIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Rather than write Neither side likes or has any respect for the usual staid what-I-did-other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in-my-holidays report for school, she is taking the time prison and he's prepared to tell us about her pet issues over the summer, from recalling police where the Old Cat, body of a missing person is buried and the horror that is the New Catwho was responsible for her death. This person, to the New Rabbit down the roadhe promises, is someone big and her own demands for a hamster or twoit will be worth the police doing what he wants. There are family secrets And what he wants is to be revealed relating transferred to hamsters an open prison to serve the remainder of old, parents his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to argue withask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and finally a trip she's even prepared to do the pet shop other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and that's just the start of Annaanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's troubleshappening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385958</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley Jackson0008405026|title=The Lottery and Other StoriesA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesCrime|summary=Even though it It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was written over sixty years agonever found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, The LotteryHelena, coming and her father are dead in at fewer than 3their bed. Initially,500 words still has the power to shock. When it first appeared in the The New Yorker in 1948 it caused many outraged readers to cancel their subscriptions such was looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the devastating nature positioning of the storybodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Time may have lessened sensibilities over the latter half of the twentieth century 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 beginning of the twenty first but The Lottery, like many of the other stories explanation lies in this timely reissueRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, still packs a mighty punchUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141191430</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hazel McHaffie 0571379877|title=Right to DieThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=It must be hard enough watching your partner die just onceEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, but for Naomiobsessed with his upper-class friends, AdamRobert and Stanza. Robert's death is just the beginninga theatre director. Coming across his personal He's also self-obsessed, private diary of his time from diagnosis to subsequent demisedemanding, she is forced handsome and entitled and uses Edward to relive the awful months during which his body began to betray run errands for him . Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and his will he's drunkenly confided how he feels to live was replaced with Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a will relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to die...on his own termsstumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906307210</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Karen SappJo Callaghan|title=Christmas Is...Leave No Trace|rating=34|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Christmas When a man is looming and thus found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the market for picture books featuring santascase alongside her sidekick, presents and Christmas treesthe AI detective Lock. It's hard to come up their first live case together, having previously been very successful with anything new hereseveral cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and it's rather not the point - is it? Christmas is, after all, about annually repeated celebration a very high profile case that draws a lot of traditional rituals that add delight and nourishment unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the spiritualcase in time, emotional or will Kat find herself taken off the case and social fabric , potentially, out of life.a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007303750</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Giddins and Scott Deveaux1399613073|title=JazzMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=EntertainmentThrillers|summary=At Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first glance this 700-page volume might look day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a little dauntingcentury. Do not Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be daunteda cardiothoracic surgeon. If you want Laura is a small pocket book which merely scratches at the surface perfectionist and can probably be digested in a sitting or two, look elsewheretrauma doctor. On Anjali is the free spirit of the other hand, if you want an extremely readable group and comprehensive book on jazz which can not only be read cover to cover, but also retained as she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a work of reference drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to use again and againend in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, I doubt if this can be betteredit's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393068617</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Wrangham 0241636604|title=Catching FireThe Trading Game: How Cooking Made Us Human A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceAutobiography|summary=Humans are cooking apes. According If you were to Richard Wranghambring up an image of a city banker in your mind, mastery you're unlikely to think of fire someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and cooking of jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the food that resulted from it East End, where he was at the root of human evolutionary development familiar with violence, poverty and ultimate successinjustice. Various factors have There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been proposed as to the crucial stimulus London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which led most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to the appearance of the first recognisably human creatures: leaving aside divine intervention (be it from Godstupid. It was his ability at what was, extra-terrestrials or future humans travelling in time)essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, the candidates for what made our ancestral apes stand straighter and start growing brains range from socialised hunting to chattering about kinship to eating seafoodthis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682851</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Morag Joss1035021803|title=The Night Following|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Distracted by the discovery that her husband has been having an affair, a middle-aged woman loses concentration while driving along a quiet lane, killing Ruth Mitchell, an elderly cyclist. The woman doesn't wait for the police to arrive; she goes home and parks her car in the garage where she smashes it almost beyond recognition. When her arrogant husband sees the damage he believes itAntique Hunter's been done to punish him and he packs his bags. After a few days the woman goes Guide to the home of the dead woman; she doesn't go to the door, but from a hidden spot nearby she can see the widower, an elderly gentleman who is clearly not coping well. Wracked with guilt, the woman makes a decision: the only way she can atone for her actions is to step into the shoes of the dead woman.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715638815</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMurder|author=Nigel McCrery|title=Tooth and ClawC L Miller|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Another serial killer is on the loose, and yet again the police have failed It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to connect the deathsEnglish country village where she grew up. Carl Whittley has just tortured She's back now because of a glamorous TV presenter to death - leaving a singularly gruesome tableau - request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and blown a hapless commuter to smithereens at a railway station. HeCarole's planning his next murder alreadyclose friend, Arthur Crockleford, secreted away in the shed at the bottom of the garden of the house he shares with his invalid father. Carl is embittered dead and lonely - with his mother living away and pursuing a career as a forensic psychologistthe circumstances seem suspicious, there's only him to take care of his severely disabled father: say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to change the colostomy bagvillage: Arthur, to cookshe feels, to cleanlet her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able tobe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, wellshe worked in a cafe, just to bear itmet and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, reallywho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847248071</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=The Harvard LampoonSunny Singh|title=Nightlight: A Parody of Twilight Hotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=HumourThrillers |summary=Most people will have heard of the worldwide phenomenon The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that is [[Twilight has suddenly been violently taken over by Stephenie Meyer|Twilight]]a terrorist group. The books by Stephenie Meyer 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 film have made residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a legend 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 romance between vampire Edward Mullen (Robert Pattinson plays 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 movie role) and teenage schoolgirl Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart)terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849013330</amazonuk>086154742X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Elliott1529153298|title=Traitors' Gate (Crossroads)|rating=4|genre=Fantasy|summary=Kate Elliott's ''Crossroads'' series has so far come in large, slightly off-putting chunks. They've been decent reads, by and large, with a huge cast of wonderfully drawn characters, but the sheer size and slow pace The List of the action has meant I didn't enjoy them as much as I may otherwise have done. ''Traitors' Gate'', the third in the sequence is different in only one aspect; the character development is still there, the huge page count is still there, but the pacing is a lot better.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498351</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSuspicious Things|author=Shirley Jackson|title=The Haunting of Hill HouseJennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=There was a time before Stephen KingIt'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. There was time before Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'The Shiningdisappeared'doesn't sound quite so frightening. There was a time when Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'horror. When you' was not rooted in bloodre from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, guts and gorebest avoided. I owe a slight apology to Mr KingFor Miv, because along with the gutsier side of move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the genre, I will own dangers or that he is a master at suspenseher Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141191449</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jill Tomlinson and Paul Howard1398524085|title=The Penguin Who Wanted To Find OutHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Otto the penguin lives on his fatherCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's feet at 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 bottom body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the worldriver. He's It was an inquisitive little thing easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and wants to know why they haventhen committed suicide when he couldn't fallen off stand the worldguilt. His dad explains that they won The Salter children are not convinced but there't Because I say so. Otto and his friend Leo gradually expand their horizons from their fathers' feet - s little else they meet other penguin chicks, can do but get to know their aunts who watch them when their fathers are away, and eventually grow feathers so they're big enough to toboggan on with their bellies lives and swim in the seawonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140523041X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ryan David Jahn 1035906708|title=Acts of ViolenceDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Kat Marino is stabbed on her way home from workWe 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. All she wanted Her original surname was a hot bath after a hard dayKalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas's work. From this point the novel skips nimbly from one neighbour to make it more manageable in the next, all of whom are absorbed in their own dilemmasStates. There is When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the draftee with Nazi occupation by a sick mother, the nurse who thinks she has run over a baby, the woman who suspects mercilessly exploited her husband of cheating and others. We are shown what these characters were doing that evening, and how these events drag through to the morning. We are shown how in the midst made no secret of their own interestingher preference for her elder sister, poignant and dangerous concerns a woman is stabbed in the courtyard onto which all their windows look, through which windows they witness the attack, and how these people did nothingJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230743595</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Josh LaceyChristopher Edge|title=Two Tigers on a StringBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Ben's not too keen to be sharing Lucas and his bedroom with his half-brotherfriends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, Franka place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. But you donAll big movie fans, they't have re looking forward to be the hero lots of a detective adventure such exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this book to know that as Franknew film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn's mother has vanished from the face of the Earth, Ben will let it lie - for a whilet even imagine. Nor is it too surprising But as they lurch from one film genre to see the four Misfitz togethernext, can they figure out what on earth is going on another case, as ? Will they go on ever get back to the hunt for the missing woman.cinema, and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407109782</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
|genre=Teens
|summary=We are back in the south of France for the third and final time. In one corner, the 'French', with King Louis and his henchmen rampaging through, warring in I can hear the name song of peacethe sea. In another corner, the local people, struggling in the harsh environment and none too pleased to see their corner The call of the world the location for religious warsdeep, with the Cathar ''heretics'' also present. The lines are drawn, answering beat in a realistically convoluted way, and this book will see one of our heroes cross one such line, just as other people make their own momentous decisions. It will take all the narrative skills of the land itself to get the story across to us.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247075</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Camilla Noli|title=The Mother's Tale|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=''It is early evening. I am suckling my infant son… We are picture perfectheart. Madonna and child''. No doubt about it: a new mother totally smitten with her son. Zach is adorable. Quiet. Undemanding. A happy, generally relaxed, child. Gorgeous.
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 Zach isnwhen the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island't her first-borns leader and Mira's father. First there was Cassie. A child Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who entered the world screaming is as charming as he is secretive and has since learned exactly what power with only coordinates to guide her, she can wring with such lungssets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. Not yet two years oldWith only nine days to unearth what might save her father, Cassie adores as her journey takes her fatherfrom the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, but even him she manipulates. Her mother Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she terrorisesholds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409101584</amazonuk>0008664730
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Things are pretty grim have been a bit sticky for Pickythe Earthlings. She is thirteen years old, being bullied at schoolAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and has other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to spend her weekends helping her single, working mum get used to all this technological change and starting to take care think of her little brother and her senile grandmother. One eveningother, at her Gran's housenew ways to spend time, she goes up into the attic and tries on along came an old dress that she finds inside an old chestawful pandemic. The dress turns out to be magic, Life was pretty much shut down and she suddenly finds herself back in 17th Century London, struggling along with a strange man who is calling her 'Amelia' and is trying to kill her. Picky ends up embroiled in Amelia's 17th century life as she tries to find out the truth of who is attempting to murder herit, at all the same time as trying to avoid arousing suspicion with her strange behaviour whenever she returns to the present daymany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956122280</amazonuk>1736128426
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Abbott Nez Matthew Tree|title=Cromwell DixonWe's Sky-Cyclell Never Know|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Meet Cromwell Dixon. He's a real tinkerer, forever in a barn or somewhere building something manically unusual. Luckily - although his long-suffering mother may disagree with that word - he's around at the birth of powered flight. Will his plans for a pedalled air machine work?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399250417</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sue Moorcroft|title=Starting Over|rating=45|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary=The story opens when Tess bumps her old reliable car into a breakdown truck. That's rather convenient, since she isn't hurt, and the guy driving it is able to tow her Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his garagefather, and then give her a lift to her new home. Naturally, since this is the 'chick-lit' genre, Tess drunk and the truck-driver, who goes by the unlikely name chronic underachiever whose dreams of Ratty (an abbreviation being exceptional at any of his surname) feel mutual antipathy artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of the sort that's clearly going self confidence. So Tim applied himself to leadhis studies, sooner or later, to strong attractioncultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906931224</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary BeardA G Slatter|title=It's A Don's LifeThe Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleFantasy|summary=Professor Mary Beard, feisty Cambridge classics don, keeps an eye open for architectural detail wherever she goes. Even on holiday, she notices the changing urban landscape and records interesting parallels with ancient cities in her sparky blog. She is engaged in writing '' There's a detailed history of Pompeii and suddenly realises, whilst perambulating the backstreets part of the Mexican city of Oaxacan, me that wants to keep this is exactly what Pompeii must have been likejust to myself for however long I can. She observes the low rise shopsThis secret magic of my own, dirt tracks across dusty streets and the close juxtaposition of rich and poor. Impressive portals of grand residential properties tower above humble workshopsall mine, and this prompts her into imaginative reconstructionat last. In her blog, from which this intriguing book is culled, she tells us about I just how Oaxacan encourages her want to ponder again the curious cart ruts of Pompeiienjoy it for a while. She even finds walls splashed with political slogans that are just like Roman ''dipinti''. Indeed, here in Mexico, the local library displays an edifying message in Spanish which originates in Cicero's speech in his Pro Archia, ''Science and letters are the nourishment of youth and the diversion of old age.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682517</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julian Barnes1529900360|title=Staring at the SunThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=JeanIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's first Incident involved Uncle Leslie, hyacinths fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and golf tees. It's perhaps best forgotteneven after Alex recovered, but Jean doesn't forgetSturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. Uncle Leslie figures large in her life His assertions that there were only open- mostly on the golf course and- until shut cases which didn't need the War comes and he runs away to Americahelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. He Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's replaced by Tommy Prosserpartner, a grounded pilot who once saw nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the sun rise twice in one day and excites as many questions in Jean as he ever answersinvolvement was something that the man she loved needed. Tommy is replaced by Michael The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a policeman, whom Jean eventually marriesremote property in Bel Air. He doesn't know why minks are excessively tenacious of life was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and he doesnit't much cares not the Italian. But Jean does. She cares much less for the Dutch cap that Michael sent her off to obtain before the wedding and much less again for their rather disastrous adventures in which of them was the bedroom. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540096</amazonuk>primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexandra Bruce1529395224|title=2012Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: Science or SuperstitionThe Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=The fuss about 2012 has not started just recentlySiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. The first book to feature the story His father was from a Yale professor, GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in 1966. We've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuhhis footsteps, particularly when he considered the Maya creation myth. But as the crunch date of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice strain that year being on- nears, itcall put on his father's becoming a very big story indeedlife. Even though it sounds absurd - When he was seventeen he took the end opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a 5vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long,125he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't -year long cycle of the Maya calendar, which started on August 13th, 3114BCE as with so many students - or been his dream since he was judged to start then, when they came across this concept a couple of thousand years into that periodchild. Surely they couldnIf anything, he't predict the future from their 'primitive' state with such accuracy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934708283</amazonuk>d wanted to be a professional footballer.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeff Kinney0861541774|title=Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=It is a truth universally acknowledged that school summer holidays are only enjoyable if you want to enjoy summer. Greg here doesn't want to notice it, and would prefer to spend his days curtains drawn, face glued to late night TV or a computer game, hand either clicking away at a controller or shovelling in snacks. The last thing he needs, then, is his mother, on a ''family togetherness'' trip, and on a budget, with bad ideas A Nye of what Greg should be doing instead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327650</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPheasants|author=Rick Yancey|title=The Monstrumologist: The Terror BeneathSteve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=In late 19th century AmericaDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, young Will Henry has been the apprentice of the sterntaken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, forbidding Dr Warthrop since the death of his parents, who were also employed by the doctorGuy Trueman. The twelve year old boy has seen many things Maik was involved in his service to the monstrumologist a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a specialist in monsters knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but nothing can prepare him for evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings man. Now he could be facing the doctor the twin corpses of death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a young girl diplomatic incident and the headless creature with fangs in his chest who had tried to feast on herwouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738546X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stella WhitelawAlexander McCall Smith|title=Midsummer MadnessThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=You'll like Sophie GreshamThe 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. She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright and when the side effects became too much for Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she worked behind could come and look after the scenes. She's business, as Ness is planning to take a very good prompt despite the fact that you need trip to wrap up very warmly Canada to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job and most of the cast in the theatre companyget away for a while. It's Katie is coming out of a bit of break up with a shock though when she realises that the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrisonbad boyfriend, and so jumps at the man she helped out when he had nothing chance to eat and nowhere come home to sleepEdinburgh. Sophie was a little softer in those days – in the meantime she's had And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to develop a protective shell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bonnie Greer|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting readEdinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult with some new characters who quickly begin to graspcharm. It's best if I start with the author's intentions as set out Katie has no experience in her Prologue. It is running a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Sidebusiness, she writesor in match-making, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with the musicbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll. All of these, she notes, were heard on the Presidentthere's Inauguration Day. To them she adds the blues, gospelalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, soul and jazz of the South SideWilliam, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planet.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=P J Parrish0811771741|title=Dead of WinterInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeCrafts|summary=Loon LakeMelissa 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, Michigan is picture-postcard pretty – an idyll that sits serenely and snugly cosy afternoons in front of the midst of a pine-peppered winter wonderlandfire' variety. Louis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come home. Life has not been easy for Kincaidmore than twenty hours. A troubled, unhappy child of mixed raceAll the projects are attractive, passed around various institutions modern and foster homes, Louis figures useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that if he is going to put some integrity back into the world, he will need to wear a badge to do it's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Russell Celyn JonesDean Koontz|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionParanormal|summary=Pwyll rules Benny is having a medieval-style fiefdom in terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a postreally weird, disturbing coffin-climate change Walessized object to his home, and it'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. Life He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is different in many ways - there's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism 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 horsepower is the main means will certainly take care of transport. But in many ways itBenny's much the same - people still fight one anotherenemies, if he, towns still have sink estatesBenny, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning in their livesHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Owen SheersAdam Stower|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)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
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0C47LV1PC
|title=Fragility
|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=In the old taleCan you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, Branwen is the sister of Bendigeidfran - question should you make it? Or is the giant King of Britain. She marries question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the King of Ireland, who doesn't treat her answer for both could wellbe.... She manages to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling and war and killings ensueno.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer Bohnet1529431735|title=Follow Your StarThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=3.54|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left MonacoFebruary 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. SheHe'd been engaged to exiled on the Costa del Sol as a Formula 1 racing driver and had lived the life of the wealthy but wanted drug smuggler for a serious car accident had ended all thatdecade. The accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence return has come about because of the alcohol he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she'd consumeds ill and hasn't long to live. Her slow recovery was hindered by the end of her engagement but sheIt's found some contentment in being a nanny hard to two young children. When her friend and employerfeel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, Vanessa, remarries stripped to his underwear and takes an extended honeymoon sent to a watery grave in the Amazon Nanette is asked to take the children back boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to Monaco where their father lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>home?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=J R StephensonAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Crooked JusticeThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=2.54|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=Meet Barry Johns. You'll see him coming - he's five hundred pounds if he's Eli is a busy lad – by day an ounce. Just don't ever lend apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him money - he won't pay it back, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. A businessman Eli lives with a share of a nightclub on Cyprushis lovely gran, he goes too – for there for is a customary break, and finds his sort-of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as generation missing in the bar dancerfamily. He manages A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to tread both on the toes titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of his local colleague and some Greek rivalsa magical beast. And This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides bad incident at the eatery leads to pack up and shut up. It's a big stone that hides himconfession from gran, but Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to upturn it and get their revengepossibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>0571382231
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