132,585
edits
Changes
no edit summary
<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>
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__ ==The Best New Books== '''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br> '''Read [[:Category:Features|new the latest features]].'''__NOTOC__'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Keith HernSylvie Cathrall|title=Bangers and MashA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Home and FamilyScience Fiction|summary=Keith Hern found There are few greater joys than a small lump in his neck and when the results of the tests came through he tried book which lives up to put the appointment off as he had something more pressing to do, but the doctor was insistent. He knew then that he had cancer. The lump in his neck was, in fact, a secondary tumour with the primary being in the back of his tonguecompelling premise. But for the secondary tumour the discovery And this is one of the primary might have been too late for successful treatment. Keith takes us through the discovery of his cancer, his reactions to the diagnosis, his treatment and the titular meal of bangers and mash – the first solid food which he had attempted for some timethem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904312772</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Janet Charters and Michael Foreman0008517061|title=The GeneralDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=General Jodhpur keeps Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his soldiers busyvet girlfriend, polishing their boots Livia and practising shooting. He wants her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to become the most famous general move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the whole world. One day, he's thrown off his horse, future she wants for herself and discovers her daughter? For the joys of lying moment they’re enjoying life in the grass. On his walk home, he gets a chance to smell the flowers, present and soon sets about putting his soldiers to more peaceful activitiesthe future on the back burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763648752</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison Jackson and Keith Graves1786482126|title=Desert RoseThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Desert Rose is mucking out Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the pig stalls, site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when she stumbles across they discovered the bones of a child beneath a giant gold nuggetdoorway. She decides to buy the fattest hog in Texas There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, so she can win first prize at the state fair - a galDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's gotta have a dream. Howeverdifficult as Ruth knows, she gets one highfalutin hog who wonbut Nelson doesn't do as it's told, so that she ropes in all is pregnant with his child as a result of the other inhabitants 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 Laredo to help her out, and win the prizesickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802198</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Blackwood0008551324|title=Mysterious Messages - A History of Codes and Ciphers|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=There's something utterly cool about codes and ciphers. It's not just the spies with their secret world, it's the mystery of an ostensibly random set of letters or pictures. It's being able to unravel them and see what they're hiding. It's a combination of geeky riddle solving The Devil You Know (and geeks are cool, so thereD S Max Craigie) and uncovering the unknown meanings. Gary Blackwood treats us to a history of codes and ciphers, looking at their creation, the stories behind them, and how to crack them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0525479600</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Daniel Pennac|title=DogNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Dog was It's unusual for anyone from the runt of Hardie family to approach the litter. Unwantedpolice. Half-drowned and left to die on a rubbish tip, you can imagine better starts in life Neither side likes or has any respect for this scruffy-looking little puppythe other. But itDavie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's not so bad. Black Nose takes him under her wing and gives him prepared to tell the police where the body of a little of her milk missing person is buried and a lot of who was responsible for her lovedeath. More importantly This person, he promises, she teaches him is someone big and it will be worth the rubbish tip ropes and gives him as much advice about doghood and ownerhood as she possibly canpolice doing what he wants. And then... there's what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an accidentearly parole date. The last thing Black Nose says Not much to Dog ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she'If you go s even prepared to do the town, watch out for the carsother thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. Dodge, little one, remember.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406322741</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Donna Blinston0008405026|title=Make New Year's Resolutions and Keep Them Using NLPA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=25|genre=Home and FamilyCrime|summary=It's coming up to that time of sixteen years since nine-year again – you know it's -old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the one where you make resolutions about going on investigation ground to a diethalt. Now, her mother, getting more exerciseHelena, stopping smoking or losing weightand her father are dead in their bed. If they last Initially, it looks like a week into straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the New Year you're probably doing well – bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and then you're left with a feeling of failureher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Donna Blinston offers advice on how What looked as though it was going to make your resolutions be an open-and how to keep them – and I needed this advice -shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as much as the next couch potatoDerwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312845</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Crowther0571379877|title=Cars - A Pop-Up Book Of AutomobilesThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=Robert Crowther tells the story of the carEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, from Cugnot's steam engineobsessed with his upper-class friends, TrevithickRobert and Stanza. Robert's road locomotive and Benza theatre director. He's Motorwagenalso self-obsessed, right through to the record-breaking Thrust SSC demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to future cars, like the biodegradable Eco Onerun errands for him. There are plenty of pop Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days -ups and pull tabs he's drunkenly confided how he feels to bring it all to life, and itRobert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's packed with detailnot like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406312274</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marie-Louise JensenJo Callaghan|title=Daughter of Fire and IceLeave No Trace|rating=34|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Welcome to Viking times. The land When a man is ruled by found crucified on the top of a pitiless and greedy Chieftain, Bjorn Svansonhill in Nuneaton, who always gets what he wants. And what he wants is Thora. She is a healer – very useful when you're going DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to set out on a voyagethe case alongside her sidekick, and also very prettythe AI detective Lock. The Chieftain It's destination is the land of fire and icetheir first live case together, also known as Icelandhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. Impatiently, the Chieftain kidnaps Thora, but what he doesn't know But when there is that Thora has powers. Yes, a historical fantasy where the heroine has powers – didn't see that coming did you? She can read auras and at timessecond body found crucified a few days later, see the future. And what she sees Kat is her new master's murder. Before you know it, he has been stabbed and Thora suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a mysterious male slave are free. What is very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their destination still? The land of fire and iceAI Future Policing project. Impersonating Bjorn Svanson Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the male slave commandeers his ships case and they sail away to Iceland, where a precarious future awaits. Will Svanson's men follow them across the oceans for revenge? Can they live with what they have done? Will they ever get potentially, out of a chance to be togethercareer? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192728814</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lili St Crow1399613073|title=Betrayals: A Strange Angels NovelMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=TeensThrillers|summary=To startOlivia, I have to cover Laura and Anjali met on the ground first day of the mythology medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of this seriesa century. HumansOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, vampires which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and werewolves all live in this world, a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and both species of she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they'the otherre at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it' have people halfway turneds going to end in tragedy. Vampires and werewolves arenWe don't exactly know who suffered the sort to mix with each other - one liking to spill blood, tragedy or the others going into feeding frenzies every time they smell itconsequences. In a previous book, our heroine Dru, has realised her best friend can become semiTwenty-wolf in a shape-changing way, and she's tending to five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the vampire side of thingsthree friends. SheThis time, it's also discovered a very strong threat against her lifetheir teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161283</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Fitzsimmons0241636604|title=The Hudbrax Hoard (Sabrax Clyke Series)Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=34.5|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=Meet Sabrax ClykeIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. Not allowed to sit around in the hole in A hoodie and jeans replaces the drypin-stone wall he stripe suit and his family call homebackground is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and admire injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the pretty girl who's just moved in next door, London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he's persuaded by an urgent message from distant relatives to go has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to their aid regarding some unmentionable, awful predicamentbe stupid. His journey there and the task itself will involve metal dragonsIt was his ability at what was, odd standing stonesessentially, earth-shattering movementsa card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, and unearthly nastiesthis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955644216</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jane Ray1035021803|title=Snow WhiteThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Jane Ray It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has taken been back to the classic fairy tale English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of Snow Whitea request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the dwarves and reason why Freya had not been back to the wicked queenvillage: Arthur, and created beautiful three-dimensional tableauxshe feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. It's After the split, she worked in a much-loved story that everyone is familiar withcafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and this is a great opportunity to rediscover a classic in an interesting new wayFreya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406311839</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=Wayne J HarrisSunny Singh|title=Sins of the AngelHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=FantasyThrillers |summary=Dr Gideon Matthews, The Hotel Arcadia is a shouty hellfire and damnation preacher, luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has just delivered suddenly been violently taken over by a sermon all about terrorist group. Hiding from the evils of women being allowed into the church hierarchy andterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on his way home afterwardssite, he there is murdered. The following day however he wakes up in hospital orSam, actuallya wartime photographer and Abhi, an angel called Gabriel finds himself inside Dr Matthews' body, able to recall Dr Matthews' memories and thoughts and feelings but acting now as himselfthe hotel manager. Gabriel goes a little bit wild, finding himself overwhelmed by As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the new feelings and desires he experiences residents who are still alive in this bodythe hotel, sinning lefthe forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, right and centre and causing scandal at his every movekeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. He is also wondering for what purpose he has been brought into this body and finds that he is dreaming about a demonAlthough they only ever talk over the phone, someone who is persuading an unknown monk their friendship grows as Abhi tries to commit murders in God's name help her keep safe and who seems they both wait to see if they will be getting closer and closer to Dr Matthews in order to kill him too..rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1438994699</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Marr1529153298|title=The Making List of Modern Britain: From Queen Victoria to V.E. DaySuspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryGeneral Fiction|summary=This bookIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, and the BBC TV series which complements itthough. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, must confirm Andrew Marrbut to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's status as one of overheard that her father wants to move the most entertaining and compulsive historian-cum-presenters working todayfamily 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. His previous projectFor Miv, on postwar Britainthe move would mean leaving her best friend, was hard to faultSharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone who enjoyed that will certainly relish this.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230709427</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Children's Trust1398524085|title=The Walrus and the Carpenter and Other Favourite PoemsHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=3.5|genre=Children's Rhymes and VerseCrime|summary=CelebritiesCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, including [[:Category:Richard Hammond|Richard Hammond]]sons Niall, Paul O'Gradyand Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, Sienna Milleris not. Shortly afterwards, McFly Etty and Lorraine KellyGreg, have chosen their favourite poems for this anthology. All proceeds from find the book go to [http://www.thechildrenstrust.org.uk/ The Childrenbody of Greg's Trust]father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. Itwas an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn's a fantastic charity, who help disabled t stand the guilt. The Salter children, and I urge you all to buy a copy of are not convinced but there''The Walrus s little else they can do but get on with their lives and the Carpenter'' to support themwonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140632650X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roger Scruton1035906708|title=I Drink Therefore I Am|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Roger Scruton is a conservative philosopher and composer, best known for his work on philosophy and music, but who shares Plato's belief that 'nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by the gods to man' and in this book seeks to combine his two interests of philosophy and the fruits of the vine.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847065082</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDiva|author=Stephen M Irwin|title=The DarkeningDaisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This book has the 'S' word written all over it. NoWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, not sex - supernatural. So, it's got all things a bit spookybut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, not-quite-rightNew York, strange coincidences. They are sprinkled throughout like rock salt. I must admit that in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when I read the blurb on the back cover with its supernatural theme, I gave an inward groanshe was thirteen. Not really my cup of tea. But IHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'm open-minded and ICallas'll read anything onceto make it more manageable in the States. I'm glad I did. Irwin is Australian. For some reason I haven't read too many books When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by Australian authorsa mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, so I was keen to get readingJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751543969</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tanya LandmanChristopher Edge|title=The Head is Dead (Poppy Fields Murder Mystery) Black Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet, once again, Poppy Fields. When tasked to create a murder mystery experience Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a school fete she is only surprised to find the headmistress - movie marathon at their local cinema, a newly employed battleaxe place that no-one seems to like - a real-life victim has the nickname of an assassin'The Black Hole'. And there is only a school field full All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of suspects. Can she exciting films, and her best friendmany, brainbox Georgemany snacks! However, solve as the day movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and make the staff room a safer place to be? they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. And where does the invisible sheepdog come in?!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406314633</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jonathan Buckley, Mark Ellingham and Tim Jepson|title=The Rough Guide to Tuscany and Umbria|rating=5|But as they lurch from one film genre=Travel|summary=There's a general Rough Guide to Italy, but revisiting again this regional guide in the process of writing up our trip to Tuscany two years agonext, I was reminded of how good indeed this particular Rough Guide can they figure out what on earth is. I bought it because I wanted to supplement the general Rough Guide to Italy I had with more detailed coverage of the region in which we were going on? Will they ever get back to spend the whole trip - cinema, and I was extremely happy with the result.to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843530554</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frank FurediRachel Greenlaw|title=Wasted: Why Education Isn't EducatingCompass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyTeens|summary=It seems ''I can hear the more problems song of the school-aged generation pose to society, the more responsibility schools have to take, teaching not simply English and Maths, but Personal Thinking and Learning Skills, Happiness Classes, and Emotional Educationsea. The duty to raise a child well is taken out call of the apparently 'incompetent' hands of parentsdeep, and given over to the education system, where values can be regulated and controlledanswering beat in my heart.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847064167</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael MorpurgoJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Kites are FlyingPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Said lives on Things have been a bit sticky for the West BankEarthlings. He herds his familyAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's sheep, spends a lot of re paid to do and other tasks that took time talking in his head to his absent brother Mahmoud, accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and he makes a great many kites, which he sends across the wall starting to the girl in the blue headscarf who lives in the occupiers' settlements. What Said doesn't do, is talk out loudthink of other, even to his new friend Mister Max. Max is a Western journalist who wants ways to make a documentary about how the Palestinian/Israeli conflict affects ordinary people on both sides of the wallspend time, along came an awful pandemic. Max is entranced by SaidLife was pretty much shut down and, and his dozens of kitesalong with it, all bearing the message salaam or peacemany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. He can see that Said has a dream, but he's not sure what it is. Will the dream come true before Max has to leave? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406317985</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tanya LandmanMatthew Tree|title=Dying to be Famous (Poppy Fields Murder Mystery)We'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Meet Poppy Fields - an inquisitive young lassTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, keen on exploring her world - in a slightly different way to her geeky, walking-encyclopaedia drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of a best friend, Graham. So keen is she to explore the phenomenon that is the latest seen-everywhere, snapped-being exceptional at-any of his artistic passions all-hours celebrity, she makes the pair failed miserably and who had endless crises of them go self confidence. So Tim applied himself to audition for bit parts in the Christmas production of The Wizard of Oz the star is starting to rehearse. Unfortunately for her, she apparently hasn't noticed she's in the third book in a series of young reader murder mysterieshis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and deaths more unexpected than having a house land on you might just be on the playbill..set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406314625</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
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 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 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 Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stuart Brown1529900360|title=Mma Ramotswe's CookbookThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=CookeryCrime|summary=I expect It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there will be were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a few people psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who spot this book on nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the shelves and wonder who Mma Ramotswe isman she loved needed. The next case did look simple, but [[:Category:Alexander McCall Smith|Alexander McCall Smith's]] legion of fans certainly won't be amongst themthough. This cookbook is a nice tie-Two lovers were murdered in to the books, written with swimming pool of a foreword from AMS himself, and full of flavoursome recipes that are spoken of remote property in his series of books about Mma Ramotswe and her Number One Ladies Detective AgencyBel Air. Illustrated with beautiful photography, lots of quotes from He was the books, heir to an Italian shoe empire and lots of information about Botswana's she is married to an extremely rich variety of food man and it's a wonderful mix not the Italian. But which of being both a cookery book, a reference book and a companion work to them was the Mma Ramostwe books.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184697139X</amazonuk>primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adam Williams1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Book Secret Life of the Alchemista Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary= Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn''The Book of t want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the Alchemiststrain that being on-call put on his father'' is a story within a storys life. It opens in 1938 during When he was seventeen he took the Spanish Civil War. Pinzon, opportunity of doing work experience with a Spanish politician family friend who resigns was a vet and was convinced this was the job for moral reasons, is taken hostage by a group of Republican soldiers, along with his young Grandsonhim. A group of villagers are also taken captive and locked in a cathedral as part of the soldiers' desperate plan to protect themselves from the Fascist forces that are hunting themBefore long, he was at Liverpool University. A cavernous mosque built inside the mountain under the cathedralIt hadn's crypt is discovered, and in it, t - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a bookchild. As Pinzon reads the bookIf anything, another story unfolds, set in the eleventh centuryhe'd wanted to be a professional footballer. This is the story of Samuel the Jew.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340899131</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Kaplow0861541774|title=Me and Orson WellesA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Richard Samuels sees everything DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in terms of a performance, through the rosestreet brawl -tinted lens of the theatrical celebrities he listens to on the radio. So when would later maintain that he stumbles onto the Broadway stage through was facing a chance encounter man armed with Orson Wellesa knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, it seems as if all his dreams may be about he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to come true. He goes from being the guy light that suggested that all the girls see as a friend, one of the bookish kids at school, he might have planned to murder the glamour of mingling with stars of man. Now he could be facing the stagedeath penalty. We follow Richard's struggle Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to balance this newly discovered wonderland help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and his school life, not to mention his disapproving mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540193</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Palin|title=Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=''Never meet your heroes,'' goes the old adage. ''Never read their diaries'' might be equally sage advice. That's probably why I didnwouldn't tackle Michael Palin's collected daily journals until nowhelp Danny at all. Along with the rest of the Monty Python team, he was without doubt a hero of my teenage years.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075382177X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert CrumbAlexander McCall Smith|title=Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis: All 50 ChaptersThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the summer of 1913 relations with Germany were deteriorating steadilyThe Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, but there didn't seem run by Ness and operating as an alternative to be any connection with all the international situation when online apps in providing a London clerkmore personal, George Stephenstailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, was found dead in as Ness is planning to take a country lane on the edge of Dartmoor. The moor had been his passion and he'd always been keen trip to escape London and return Canada to Devonget away for a while. It was an odd death but in all probability it would have been put down as an accident if George's mother had not announced that George was the son Katie is coming out of the Kaiser. Despite her fondness for gin the story she told was oddly compelling and when it was linked a break up with the fact that two German officers had been staying at a nearby farm George's death seemed less bad boyfriend, and less like an accidentso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904744230</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ursula K Le Guin|title=The Left Hand of Darkness|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=It's hard And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to believe that ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' dates back an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 1969: forty years on44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, it reads as wellbut with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or even betterin match-making, then when it was originally writtenbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and - deservedly - enjoys there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a classic status in the science-fiction canon, as well as being perhaps the best known sci-fi novel by Ursula LeGuin.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841496065</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Lewis0811771741|title=The Blind SideInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=SportCrafts|summary=I think my husband was a little taken aback to see me curled up on the sofa engrossed in a book about American Football. I suppose I should admit that I didnMelissa Leapman't actually know it was going to be about American Football. Well, I knew it was about a boy who s ''playedInstaKnits for Baby'' American Football, but I'd thought that was just going gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the background story, you know'long, like cosy afternoons in front of the fire''Jerry Maguire''variety. So The projects are divided by the first chapter seemed time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to go on ten hours, ten to twenty hours and on forevermore than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I thought perhaps show my head might pop from reading age when I wonder about quarterbacks and blind sides and plays and offence and defence and running statistics...'social-media-worthy projects' but then somehow I stumbled to the real heart of the story; the story of Michael Oher, a young African-American from the slums of Memphis whose father was never around, and whose mother was a drug addict and lost him to social services at a young agethat's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039333838X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philippa Pearce and Helen CraigDean Koontz|title=A Finder's MagicThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=Till (that's short for Tillawn) has lost Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his dog Bess fiancee, and he has no idea how he's going to find her until a mysterious stranger appearshis house gets trashed. Mr Finder interviews various witnessesOh, including and someone has delivered a catreally weird, a moledisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, a heron and Miss Mousey. Itit's not what Miss Mousey says possible that gives Mr Finder whoever or whatever was inside is the vital clue as to what thing that has happened to Besstrashed his house! The thing is, but Benny is the sketch she made of the riverbank at the time that Bess went missingvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. There's He is a lot of magic in the quest to find Bess, but it's all very confusing for Till and at one point he even doubts the motives of Mr Findernice person.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406319821</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rachel Isadora and Clement Clarke Moore|title=The Night Before Christmas|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Everyone knows and loves Clement Clarke Moore's poem '' A Visit From St Nicholas''really nice person. Even if you don't go the whole hog, gathering the family round by the log fire, and reading So fortunately for Benny it together, its opening line of '''Twas the night before Christmas, when all through turns out that the delivery to his houseis a new friend, not a creature was stirringbad weather friend called Spike, not even a mouse...'' fills you with a warm glow. You can practically smell the mulled wine and hear the snores of Auntie Gertrude during the Queen's Speech. It's an absolute classic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399254080</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jack Ludlow|title=Warriors|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Arduin of Fassano who has been sent to help him since Benny is paid by Michael Doukeianos, clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a young Byzantine general, to keep the peace in Apuliagood person. Arduin Spike is a Lombard, howevergoing to take care of Benny, and secretly plans to revolt and will certainly take Apulia for himselfcare of Benny's enemies, if he, hiring a group of Norman mercenaries to help him do the job. These Normans are William de Hauteville and his brothersBenny, famed warriors with their own conflicts and Harper (a desire to gain titles and wealth for their sons. Even if Arduin and the Normans could take Apulia, there waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are no guarantees that they could hold it in a land full of treachery and bribes.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749007559</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo BerryAdam Stower|title=The Ultimate DVD Easter Egg Guide: How to Access the Hidden Extras on Your DVDMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=EntertainmentConfident Readers |summary=Consider the Easter Egg - at least in the way DVD collectors mean. Sometimes a pointless hidden add-on, that Murray is there for no reason. Sometimes they can supposed to be a priceless bonushumble, tidy and friendly cat, seemingly gifted by the disc producers one who is able to those in the knowsleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, costing - at least in whatever takes his fancy next of the case of some animated instances - many thousands of poundstwo. Some oik on set with But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a camcorderhyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they are both use can chuck them out, not. I've been guilty several times of clicking away in directions the menus don't seem to encourage on into the off-chance I find something (orregular back garden, on but into a PC, just sweeping the PC mouse over any world of frightening adventure and every title card in case it highlights something previously invisible)whiffs. Forcing several titles and chapters by going straight to This time round it drops them in case they're something secret into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is not a hobby I like expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to admit be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0752875205</amazonuk>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 catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Fyfield1529431735|title=Cold to the TouchThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=ThereIt's something obsessive about Jessica HurlyFebruary 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. When Sarah Fortune encounters her 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 cold, dark London morningletter from his ex-wife, saying that she's distraught because the man who fills all her thoughts has rejected her ill and it seems that her mother wants nothing hasn't long to do with herlive. Jess is a talented chef but sheIt's short of work – the occasion hard to feel any sympathy when she emptied Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a tureen watery grave in the boot of soup over the host at a dinner party did not enhance her reputation even if all the other guests were secretly delightedstolen Ford Sierra. Sarah senses her vulnerability, but Is it's Jess who organises the let of one of her mother's cottages in the sea-side town where she grew up so that Sarah can have a long break warning from the flat where she still smells a recent fire.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847441092</amazonuk>Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley WilliamsAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley Williams|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Who could resist a title like that? And is this some lesser-known Shirley Williams, recalling a life spent in libraries? The answer to the latter is no. Shirley Catlin, as she was born, tells us in the early pages of this memoir that during her childhood her father encouraged her to climb the bookshelves in their Chelsea house, right up to the ceiling. It was a secret between the two Glorious Race of them, as her mother, Testament of Youth Author Vera Brittain, would have immediately anticipated cracked skulls and broken arms.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844084760</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Vyvyen Brendon|title=Prep School Children: A Class Apart Over Two CenturiesMagical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Home and FamilyConfident Readers|summary=''Prep School Children'' Eli is Vyvyen Brendon's second collection (''Children of a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the Raj'' was wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the first). It explores evening a helper at the pupil experience, using primary sources like weekly letters home, memoirs dessert cafe his gran owns and interviewsruns. Eli lives with his lovely gran, and less immediate material such as fictiontoo – for there is a generation missing in the family. A few short years ago, school magazines and headmastersEli' biographiess parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. I came This has made the race anathema to the book with some questions: what was it like to be pair – but when a boarder bad incident at the eatery leads to a prep school? What difference did a prep school education make confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to life as an adult? Why parents might send their children dare to such schools when enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the horrors were well-known, many prize of magic at the dads presumably having survived end – the experience themselvesonly thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847062873</amazonuk>0571382231
}}