132,610
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>
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony Horowitz Sylvie Cathrall|title=Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider)A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=Fans of Anthony Horowitz' Alex Rider series have had a two-year wait for this installment of our young hero's escapades and they There are not going to be disappointed. He's fourteen year old now and not only is he being targeted by few greater joys than a hitman, he's also being pursued by a journalist who wants book which lives up to tell the nation all about the fact that MI6 are using one of his tender years to do their dirty work. The trouble is that he can't be positive that it was a sniper that caused the car he was in to skid off a Scottish road and land at the bottom of a Lochcompelling premise. And MI6 don't seem all that bothered about the journalist, unless, that this is, Alex might be willing to find some simple information from a GM crop research centre, in which case they might be able to have a quiet word with the gentlemanone of them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406310484</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cathi Unsworth 0008517061|title=Bad Penny BluesDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Step Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into the seedy underbelly of London on the cusp of the Swinging Sixtieshis rustic life at Little Sky. 'Bad Penny Blues' is the story of the hunt for There’s perhaps a brutal serial killer targeting prostitutes in little uncertainty about the west future of the cityhis life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, at the time as moving in together would mean a melting pot lot of immigrants from compromise: does Jake give up his 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 Caribbean future she wants for herself and Ireland, bohemian artists her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and media types, and even peers. Carnaby Street was just becoming putting the future on the fashion centre of London and a new decade promised exciting possibilitiesback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846686784</amazonuk>
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyCrime|summary=Did you know that Horlicks, that great sleep aid, is sold Builders were demolishing an old house in India as a startNorwich -thesite was going to hold seventy-day energy boostfive 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Not another concoction under the same brand 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 Exact Same Productone 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>047074622X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=P C and Kristin Cast 0008551324|title=Tempted The Devil You Know (House of NightD S Max Craigie)|rating=3|genre=Teens|summary=Last time we left Zoey, she'd just banished Kalona, an ancient fallen immortal, from the Tulsa House of Night, along with evil High Priestess Neferet. Stevie Rae's Red Fledglings were regaining their humanity, but Stark, second ever Red Vampire, was badly injured. Her official boyfriend was Erik, but she's re-Imprinted with Human, Heath, and Stark had pledged a Warrior's Oath to her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905654804</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jackie French and Bruce Whatley |title=Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=The author-illustrator partnership that created the 'Diary of a Wombat', [[Pete the Sheep by Jackie French|Pete the Sheep]] and 'Josephine Wants to Dance' bring all their Aussie characters together in a Christmas book with a Antipodean twist.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007324278</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mary McCarthy |title=The GroupNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=It'Given s unusual for anyone from the attention paid Hardie family to relations between approach the sexes, it would be tempting to call The Group a forerunner of today's chick litpolice. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. ItBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's not.' So writes Candace Bushnell, prepared to tell the writer behind police where the TV series Sex body of a missing person is buried and the Citywho was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, in is someone big and it will be worth the introduction police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to this new Virago Modern Classics edition be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of The Group by Mary McCarthyhis sentence and to get an early parole date. First published in 1963 Not much to ask, this novel is about it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the lives of a group of young women after leaving college in 1933, including careers, relationships, sex, babies, parents, other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and moneyanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844085937</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charlie Huston 0008405026|title=My Dead Body A Stranger in the Family (Joe Pitt CasebookMaeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=HorrorCrime|summary=Joe PittIt's New York is sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one riddled with Vampyres, infected by a Vyrus that makes them drink blood summer night. She was never found and die in the suninvestigation ground to a halt. It is also a wasteland of lawless tribes of VampyresNow, her mother, gang warfare carving up Manhattan into territoriesHelena, each with and her father are dead in their own leaders, specialist workers, fighters, animositiesbed. As we start book fiveInitially, Joeit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's New York is actually a subterranean one, as he hides from everyone in something about the sewers and tunnels, until positioning of the enterprise of a top dog character flushes him out, bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and tells Pitt her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to find his daughter be an open- and-shut case is now a messianic poster girl for complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the future of the cityexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496820</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aeronwy Thomas 0571379877|title=My Father's Places: A portrait of childhood by Dylan Thomas' daughterThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=Aeronwy Thomas was six years old when she Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and her family came to settle after Stanza. Robert's a nomadic existence at Laugharnetheatre director. He's also self-obsessed, on the Welsh coastdemanding, in 1949handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Dylan used to broadcast regularly on the BBC, Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and while he continued 's drunkenly confided how he feels to travel Robert. 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 London regularly for stumble upon the purpose (as well as to carouse with friends two of them kissing in his old haunts), somewhere off the beaten track was a more suitable working environmentdark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010056</amazonuk>
}}
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=General Jodhpur keeps his soldiers busyWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, polishing their boots and practising shooting. He wants DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to become the most famous general in case alongside her sidekick, the whole worldAI detective Lock. One day, he It's thrown off his horsetheir first live case together, having previously been very successful with several 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 discovers the joys a very high profile case that draws a lot of lying in the grassunwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. On his walk home, he gets a chance Will they be able to smell solve the flowerscase in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and soon sets about putting his soldiers to more peaceful activities., potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0763648752</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison Jackson and Keith Graves1399613073|title=Desert RoseMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingThrillers|summary=Desert Rose Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is mucking out the pig stallsruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when she stumbles across you aim to be a giant gold nuggetcardiothoracic surgeon. She decides to buy the fattest hog in Texas, so she can win first prize at the state fair - Laura is a gal's gotta have perfectionist and a dreamtrauma doctor. However, she gets one highfalutin hog who won't do as it's told, so she ropes in all Anjali is the other inhabitants free spirit of Laredo to help her out, the group and win the prizeshe becomes a GP.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802198</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gary Blackwood|title=Mysterious Messages When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol- A History of Codes fuelled party and Ciphers|rating=5|genre=Childrenit's Non-Fiction|summary=There's something utterly cool about codes and ciphersgoing to end in tragedy. It We don's not just t know who suffered the spies with their secret world, it's tragedy or the mystery of an ostensibly random set of letters or picturesconsequences. It's being able to unravel them and see what they're hiding. It's a combination of geeky riddle solving (and geeks are cool, so Twenty-five years later there) and uncovering will be an eerily similar event that will impact the unknown meaningsthree friends. Gary Blackwood treats us to a history of codes and ciphers This time, looking at it's their creation, the stories behind them, and how to crack themteenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0525479600</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel Pennac0241636604|title=DogThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=Dog was the runt If you were to bring up an image of the litter. Unwanted. Half-drowned and left to die on a rubbish tipcity banker in your mind, you can imagine better starts in life for this scruffy-looking little puppy. But it's not so badre unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. Black Nose takes him under her wing A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and gives him a little injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of her milk Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a lot facility with numbers which most of her loveus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. More importantly It was his ability at what was, she teaches essentially, a card game which got him the rubbish tip ropes and gives him as much advice about doghood and ownerhood as she possibly can. And then... there's an accidentinternship with Citibank. The last thing Black Nose says to Dog is ''If you go to the town Eventually, watch out for the cars. Dodge, little one, rememberthis turned into permanent employment as a trader.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406322741</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Donna Blinston1035021803|title=Make New Year's Resolutions and Keep Them Using NLP|rating=2|genre=Home and Family|summary=ItThe Antique Hunter's coming up Guide to that time of year again – you know it's the one where you make resolutions about going on a diet, getting more exercise, stopping smoking or losing weight. If they last a week into the New Year you're probably doing well – and then you're left with a feeling of failure. Donna Blinston offers advice on how to make your resolutions and how to keep them – and I needed this advice as much as the next couch potato.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312845</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMurder|author=Robert Crowther|title=Cars - A Pop-Up Book Of AutomobilesC L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=Robert Crowther tells It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the story English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of the car, a request for help from Cugnot's steam engineher beloved aunt, TrevithickCarole. Freya's road locomotive former mentor and BenzCarole's Motorwagenclose friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, right through to say the record-breaking Thrust SSC and least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to future carsthe village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, like she has not felt able to be near the biodegradable Eco Oneman or pursue the profession she loved. There are plenty After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of pop-ups and pull tabs to bring it all to her life, who was murdered) and Freya and it's packed with detailJames have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406312274</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.''
}}
|rating=3.5
|genre=For SharingThrillers |summary=Jane Ray 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 classic fairy tale of Snow Whiteterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the dwarves and hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the wicked queenhotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and created beautiful three-dimensional tableaux. Itkeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's a much-loved story that everyone is familiar withhappened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and this is a great opportunity they both wait to rediscover a classic in an interesting new waysee if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406311839</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Van Dusen1529153298|title=The Circus ShipList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=3.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=When a circus ship sinks off the coast of Maine, the animals escape It's 1979 and make their home in a nearby townMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. They soon enchant the locals (A woman? I mean, who in turn decide to protect the animals from the greedy circus-ownerhonestly... Very loosely based on the sinking of the ) She's not what'Royal Tars worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they' in 1836ve been murdered, but to have 'disappeared'The Circus Shipdoesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South' . When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a fun picture book frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that animalher Mum's stopped talking -lovers will enjoyto anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>076363090X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Wayne J Harris1398524085|title=Sins of the AngelHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=3.5|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=Dr Gideon MatthewsCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, a shouty hellfire sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and damnation preacherher daughter, has just delivered a sermon Etty. are all about the evils of women being allowed into the church hierarchy andworried but - strangely - her husband, on his way home afterwardsAlec, he is murderednot. The following day however he wakes up in hospital or, actually, an angel called Gabriel finds himself inside Dr Matthews' bodyShortly afterwards, able to recall Dr Matthews' memories and thoughts Etty and feelings but acting now as himself. Gabriel goes a little bit wildGreg, finding himself overwhelmed by find the new feelings and desires he experiences in this bodyof Greg's father, sinning leftDuncan Ackerley, right and centre and causing scandal at his every movein the river. He is also wondering It was an easy assumption for what purpose he has been brought into this body the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and finds that then committed suicide when he is dreaming about a demon, someone who is persuading an unknown monk to commit murders in Godcouldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's name little else they can do but get on with their lives and who seems to be getting closer and closer to Dr Matthews in order to kill him toowonder about what really happened...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1438994699</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Marr1035906708|title=The Making of Modern Britain: From Queen Victoria to V.E. DayDiva|author=Daisy 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=Crime
|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
|title=The Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Richard Samuels sees everything The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in terms of Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a performancemore personal, through tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the rose-tinted lens of the theatrical celebrities he listens business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to on the radioget away for a while. So when he stumbles onto the Broadway stage through Katie is coming out of a chance encounter break up with Orson Wellesa bad boyfriend, it seems as if all his dreams may be about and so jumps at the chance to come truehome to Edinburgh. He goes And so begins this new story from being the guy that all the girls see as a friendAlexander McCall Smith, one of the bookish kids at schoolbringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the glamour of mingling Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with stars of the stagesome new characters who quickly begin to charm. We follow Richard Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's struggle to balance this newly discovered wonderland always her very helpful (and his school liferather handsome) neighbour, William, not to mention his disapproving mother.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099540193</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Palin0811771741|title=Diaries 1969-1979: The Python YearsInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyCrafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's 'Never meet your heroes,'InstaKnits for Baby'' goes gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the old adage. 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire'Never read their diariesvariety. The projects are divided by the time they'' might be equally sage advicell take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. That I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 's probably why I didnsocial-media-worthy projects't tackle Michael Palinbut that's collected daily journals until now. Along with the rest of the Monty Python team, he was without doubt a hero of my teenage yearsme being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075382177X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert CrumbDean Koontz|title=Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis: All 50 ChaptersThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic NovelsParanormal|summary=In the beginning was the pictureBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Just think of all the countless religious imagesOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, both and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside and outside religious establishmentsis the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, designed Benny is the very last person to convey deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the message delivery to those his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who could not readhas been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Art and religion have always been linked, which Spike is probably one going to take care of the main reasons I stayed an atheist - I hated art at schoolBenny, and drawing a man on a donkeywill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, something way beyond my skillsBenny, was not and Harper (a task I appreciated, hence my dislike of both subjectswaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224078097</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Keith LaidlerAdam Stower|title=AnimalsMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceConfident Readers |summary=''Animals'' Murray is described as supposed to be a visual guide 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 animal kingdom, but please dontwo. But he't think of it as s a picture book as itbad magician's far more than thatcat, 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. Don't think of This time round it as drops them into a coffee table book either Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – despite the fact that its size – midway between A2 and A3 – might tempt you well, one much bigger than Murray was, to think that way. Itbe honest, but he's a journey through the complex diversity of the animal kingdom based on sound scientific principles.turned up and he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184916004X</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.
''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Rosen1529431735|title=A To Z - The Best Children's Poetry From Agard To ZephaniahWinter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=54|genre=Children's Rhymes and VerseCrime|summary=Michael Rosen has picked the best modern childrenIt's poetryFebruary 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, from John Agard through to Benjamin Zephaniahwhich made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. It stemmed from Rosen performing in schools and libraries with many of He'd been exiled on the poets, and Costa del Sol as childrena wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's poetry anthologies gohad a letter from his ex-wife, itsaying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's amongst hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the very bestboot of a stolen Ford Sierra.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141324503</amazonuk> Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Van der KisteAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Man on the MoorGlorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=In Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the summer of 1913 relations wondrous library we start by visiting with Germany were deteriorating steadilyhim, but there didn't seem to be any connection with and in the international situation when evening a London clerkhelper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, George Stephens, was found dead too – for there is a generation missing in a country lane on the edge of Dartmoorfamily. The moor had been his passion and he A few short years ago, Eli'd always been keen s parents were both lost to escape London and return the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to Devon. It was an odd death but navigate the world in all probability it would have been put down as an accident if George's mother had not announced that George was the son company of the Kaisera magical beast. Despite her fondness for gin This has made the race anathema to the story she told was oddly compelling and pair – but when it was linked up a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the fact that two German officers had been staying sole aim the prize of magic at a nearby farm George's death seemed less and less like an accidentthe end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904744230</amazonuk>0571382231
}}