Changes

<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>

There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}'by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you' reviews at TheBookbagll want to read here.Dig in!

Want to find out more Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[About UsFile:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|about alt=Follow uson Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]]?

==New There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews==}}'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]]at TheBookbag.'''

'''Read Want to find out more [[FeaturesAbout Us|new featuresabout us]].'''? __NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Ru Freeman|title=A Disobedient Girl|ratingThe Best New Books=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=''A Disobedient Girl'' follows two women struggling to retain control of their lives in the face of servitude. Latha is a servant girl to the affluent Vithanage family, whose daughter, Thara, is Latha's age. As children, the girls are the best of friends, but they are destined to be separated by class, which is made painfully obvious when boys come into the picture. Meanwhile, Biso serves a cruel and drunken husband who beats her and terrorises her children, one of whom is another man's love child. Biso's husband murdered her lover in a hateful rage when he uncovered her affair and she realises that she must escape his house if she and her children are to live. Latha too seeks escape, but she finds it in the arms of Thara's boyfriend and this sets off a chain of events that will echo far into her future.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917958</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Debby Holt|title=Recipe For Scandal|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=There's evidently a market for scandalous tales, or else many a women's weekly would have gone out of business by now, but this book, though full of scandal, is slightly different. This isn't council estate scandal or even trashy celebrity scandal, it's juicy, firmly middle class scandal of the type Read [[:Category:Zoe HellerNew Reviews|Zoë Hellernew reviews by category]] might write about, and it. '''s wickedly captivating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847396542</amazonukbr>}}

{{newreview|author=Dana Fowley|title=How Could She?|rating=4|genre=Autobiography'''Read [[:Category:Features|summary=From the age of five Dana Fowley was subjected to unimaginable sexual abuse and before long her sister would be subjected to more of the samelatest features]]. She was raped by her mother's partner and taken to the homes of her grandparents where she was abused by them and others. At other times she was forced to go to the homes of other men where she was raped and abused. Did her mother not know what was going on? Did she turn a blind eye? It was neither of those.''

Her mother was '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a willing participant in the abuse and organised much book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of itthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009952225X</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Robson0008517061|title=CatchDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell

|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Catharine's husband Tom is away on business in BirminghamFormer Metropolitan Police detective, and so Catharine awakes alone for the first time in their little cottage at the end of their lane. They moved there a few months previouslyJake Johnson, and since then Catharine has spent her days quietly awaiting her husband's return from work. She is sure that she will figure out, some day, what her purpose in settled into his rustic life isat Little Sky. She thought it might be to have There’s perhaps a babylittle uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, but they have been trying for some time Livia and it hasn't happened as yet. Meanwhile she waits, and thinks, and waits. In the lounge stands her pianodaughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a stark reminder lot of the compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life she didn't manage to realise because although she studied music she found, quite quickly, that move in spite of being passionate with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she lacked any kind of talent wants for it whatsoever. So, on this day, alone at home, Catharine finds herself tormented by the piano's presence and over-thinking every second of her daughter? For the day. She worries away at who she is, and what her moment they’re enjoying life is, as her loneliness in the present and putting the day itself unravel around herfuture on the back burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090232</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Wadley1786482126|title=Man + DogThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths

|genre=HumourCrime|summary=Throughout my life IBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 've lived with dogs or deeply regretted luxury' apartments - when they discovered the fact that I lacked bones of a child beneath a canine companiondoorway. Watching There was no skull. Was this a dog – ritual killing or better stillmurder? Inevitably, the interaction between dogs – is infinitely better than anything on television and itDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's sheer joy to see how man and dog interacts and howdifficult as Ruth knows, so oftenbut Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they hold a mirror up spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to each othersudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1564785521</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jules Stanbridge0008551324|title=A Date in Your DiaryThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster

|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Harry knows that a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle, but she also knows thereIt's a difference between what we need and what we want – and she wants a blokeunusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. More specifically, she wants a date Neither side likes or has any respect for the latest other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a string of friend-missing person is buried and-family weddingswho was responsible for her death. This person, a wedding wherehe promises, thanks to a 'tricky' seating plan, she is someone big and it will be sitting on worth the same table as her most recent expolice doing what he wants...and his new girlfriend. With no prospects in sight, Harry comes And what he wants is to the conclusion that internet dating might be transferred to an open prison to serve the way remainder of his sentence and to goget an early parole date. At best Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she'll find a guy s even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who ticks all works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her boxes bed one summer night. She was never found and will joyfully accompany the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her to the wedding before they live happily ever aftermother, Helena, and at worsther father are dead in their bed. Initially, well, she might get it looks like a story out straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though itwas going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, never a bad thing for a magazine journoUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347137</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diane Harker0571379877|title=House of SecretsThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet

|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Jane has had to grow up fast. Constantly moving from place to placeEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, never staying in the same school for longobsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and always reminded of her motherStanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's money worriesalso self-obsessed, Jane longs for the kind of life where she can just be a kiddemanding, handsome and entitled and not have uses Edward to deal run errands for him. Edward has been in love with adult problems.  When sheStanza since their university days - and he's sent drunkenly confided how he feels to stay at her sisterRobert. Most men in Robert's student digs, the Laurels, things go position would stay away from bad to worse. The Laurels is Stanza or tell Edward that a decrepit Victorian Townhouse, freezing cold, with no food, and to make matters worse, Janerelationship had begun between them but he's sister, Billa, doesn't even want her therenot like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846243572</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helen BlackJo Callaghan|title=DishonourLeave No Trace

|summary=Modern lives.  Lily Valentine When a man is heavily pregnant and trying found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to get the case alongside her own law firm up and running (sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been sacked from her previous job for a tendency to be a trifle too ''independent'' – or maybe just disorganised)very successful with several cold cases.  Ryan But when there is a boy from the sink estates. Thinsecond body found crucified a few days later, angry, rebellious, but Kat is suddenly struggling with an ability to charm a potential serial killer and a serious talent for art very high profile case that gets lost in his gansta-speak and tendency draws a lot of unwanted attention to skive off school.  Lailla and Aasha are good Muslim girlstheir AI Future Policing project. Hard-working, sober, appropriately dressed, dutiful Will they be able to their families. They're also English teenagers, with a fair dose of what that normally implies.  Jack is a copper, overlooked for solve the interesting cases (like murder), good at child protection, case in love with Lilytime, addicted to or will Kat find herself taken off the jobcase and, always trying to do the right thingpotentially, and not always succeeding. His current clean-living and caring attitude is driving Lily to distraction.out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847560725</amazonuk>139851120X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Panos Karnezis1399613073|title=The ConventMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary=Our Lady of Mercy is a small convent Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the Spanish sierra made up first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a handful quarter of devoted nuns who live their lives simplya century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, carrying out their daily duties like clockworkwhich is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. However things change when Laura is a suitcase containing perfectionist and a newborn baby trauma doctor. Anjali is left mysteriously outside the convent doorsfree spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. The Mother Superior, Sister Maria Ines, believes the baby to be When we first meet them they're at a miracle drug and alcohol-fuelled party and plans it's going to keep him end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the convent, but tragedy or the other sisters do not agreeconsequences. During the events Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that follow will impact the true characters of the nuns inside the convent three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are revealed and the peace that the sisters enjoy is stripped away to show the tension that has been bubbling away under the surfaceinvolved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079344</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Meno0241636604|title=The Great PerhapsTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson

|genre=Literary FictionAutobiography|summary=Jonathan Casper faints when he sees cloudsIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. His wife Madeline worries about everything, not least A hoodie and jeans replaces the way pin-stripe suit and his background is the pigeons that she is studying are murdering each otherEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. Their seventeen year old daughter Amelia wants There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to overthrow the evil empire London School of capitalism and Economics. Stevenson is making her own bomb, while fourteen year old Thisbe is looking for God bright - extremely bright - and praying he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to himbe stupid. Jonathan's father It was his ability at what was, seventy six year old Henryessentially, is planning his disappearancea card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Jonathan and Madeline may be on the verge of splitting up Eventually, to the dismay of both daughtersthis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330512471</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bruno Vincent1035021803|title=Grisly Tales from Tumblewater The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Daniel Dorey comes It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the vast and decaying city English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of Tumblewater with high hopes. He wants to study, become a surgeon, work hard and make a better life request for himself. But when the school he enrolled in turns out to be a deserted building, his money is swindled help from himher beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and heCarole's framed for breaking into a shopclose friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, he's ready to turn round and go say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the countryvillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. His last hope is Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to collect be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a volume of local stories for a back-alley publisher. One by onecafe, he hunts down met and married James (on the rebound from the tellers love of these grisly tales her life, who was murdered) and records their words, but it soon becomes evident that he's hiding a dark secret of his own.Freya and James have now divorced..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330479512</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Dervla Murphy|title=The Island That Dared: Journeys in Cuba|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=In her latest literary outingI've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, the now elderly and increasingly opinionated travel writer and veteran cyclist Dervla Murphy describes I must confess that there have been more than a series few decades of trips to Cubatechnology in my lifetime. The opening section deals I've kept up reasonably well with a family trip in late 2005. Readers who have followed Dervlawhat's books from the beginning will have grown up advantageous to me but I'm left with Rachel, the authorfeeling that it's daughter, who accompanied her on a number all getting away from me. Some of trips between the ages of five and eighteenit is - frankly - quite frightening. Now Dervla travels with Rachel and Rachel's three young daughters Of course, Clodagh, Rose I could research the possibilities and Zea, known for ease throughout the book as probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the Trio''latest conspiracy theorist. The middle section sees Dervla return alone to spend several months trekking in places such as the Sierra del Escambray mountains, I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in the final third of the book, Dervla returns to the city of Santa Clara for the commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the death of Ernesto ''Che'' Guevaraa way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190601146X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth KostovaSunny Singh|title=The Swan ThievesHotel Arcadia|rating=23.5|genre=Literary FictionThrillers |summary=1999 – A renowned painter, Robert Oliver, goes mad, attacking The Hotel Arcadia is a painting with luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a knifeterrorist group. He's arrested Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, and sent to a psychiatrist who there is also an artist. The psychiatristSam, Andrew Marlowea wartime photographer and Abhi, can't get his patient the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to talk try to himcare remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, but tries he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to investigate what drove him to this be cowed by talking to his wife and his girlfriendevents, and reading some letters Oliver seems obsessed withkeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. 1879 – Beatrice de Clerval Although they only ever talk over the phone, aspiring artist, corresponds with their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her uncle-by-marriage Olivier Vignot, a more experienced painter. Their letters keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be found rescued before they are discovered by Robert Oliver, 120 years later, and will lead to his loss of sanitythe terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847442404</amazonuk>086154742X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tim Bowler1529153298|title=Blade: Mixing ItThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=We last saw Blade back in the Beast - the city where it all beganIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. In a last ditch attempt to rescue Jaz (A woman? I mean, the little girl with whom hehonestly...) She's made a genuine connection, henot what's worked the biggest scam of his life and heworrying Miv's risked taking up the knife againfamily, though. Women have been disappearing. He Well, they's also put himself back into the firing line of his greatest enemyve been murdered, the Hawkbut to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. And he Miv's upset because she's had overheard that her father wants to make contact with move the policefamily 'Down South'. Everything When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is closing ina frightening, foreign place, best avoided. But Blade doesn't just have a hostage For Miv, he also has experiencethe move would mean leaving her best friend, skillSharon, knowledge and a willingness she'll do anything to risk everythingprevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192755994</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Atiq Rahimi1398524085|title=The Patience StoneHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French

|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Set in AfghanistanCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, ''The Patience Stone'' is a partly allegorical tale of a Muslim wife tending to Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her comatose soldier husband who has been shot in the neck, Alec, is not. As she cares for him Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, for find the first time ever she is able to speak to him without fear body of censorship and he becomesGreg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for her, like the mythical Patience Stone police to which you tell your troubles make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the stone finally bursts, you guilt. The Salter children are free from your torments. But also this might mean the Apocalypsenot convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184167</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joyce Carol Oates1035906708|title=A Fair MaidenDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=I've recently read the terrific short story collection ''The Female Of The SpeciesWe 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. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' also by Oates and couldn't wait to start her latest bookmake it more manageable in the States. I felt sure that I When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for a literary treat her voice - and I she was. Firstly, raised under the book itselfNazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, a hardback with a beautifully nostalgic cover is a book lover's delightJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847248586</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pamela FreemanChristopher Edge|title=Full Circle (Castings Trilogy)Black Hole Cinema Club

|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=Pamela Freeman's ''Castings'' trilogy is written Lucas and his friends are all booked in an unusual way for a fantasy novelmovie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. It tells the story from the charactersAll big movie fans, they' points re looking forward to lots of viewexciting films, in a style more common to the chick-lit novels of Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees. many, many snacks! This interrupted However, as the flow of the story quite noticeably in ''Blood Ties''movie starts, the first of the trilogythey very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, but didnand they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't seem quite so much of a distraction in even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the second partnext, ''Deep Water''. can they figure out what on earth is going on? UnfortunatelyWill they ever get back to the cinema, this time around it works against the story.and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841497037</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreview|author=John Dickinson|title=WE|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Paul Munro has been disconnected from the World Ear in readiness for a mission that will last a lifetime. Sent to man Rosevear, a tiny station built at enormous effort remote and expense partially forgotten island, survives on a desolate moon in luring ships into the rocks and plundering the outer reaches of our solar systemwrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, he will never be able to return. Gravity is one-tenth that of Earth the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and his flesh has wastedany treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, his bones enbrittled without they capture the strength of calcium. island's leader and Mira'If s father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he stood on is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the Earth now... his skeleton would splinter under his weightsea.With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler'' It took eight years s territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to get there save the future of her home and the rest of his life stretches before him fearfullyones she holds most dear. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385617895</amazonuk>0008664730

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jim Lahey James Sherwood Metts|title=My Bread: the Revolutionary No-work, No-knead MethodPlanet Storyland

|genre=CookeryConfident Readers|summary=It's a long time since I did Home Economics at school, but Things have been a major part of it was learning methods, which, I was assured would stand me in good stead bit sticky for the rest of my lifeEarthlings. A Victoria sponge was a careful progression of creaming AI and gently adding flour and eggs. A white sauce had a couple of these methodsautomation have been proceeding apace, but essentially it meant working through a series of instructions until often replacing jobs they became second nature. Bread was the worst requiring fermenting, kneading, proving and then more kneading and rising.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393066304</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Amy V Fetzer and Shari Aaron|title=Climb the Green Ladder: Make Your Company and Career More Sustainable|rating=4|genre=Business and Finance|summary=With the abject failure of the Denmark Climate Change Conference fresh in our minds, it is perhaps time 're paid to turn away from the politicians and look back toward what we can do.  The Conference may have finally got the likes of the USA, India and China to acknowledge other tasks that they have took time to join in if we are going to save the planet accomplish. Just as a benevolent place for our species they were beginning to live, but there is still too much posturing and not enough commitment.  Clearly our governments and 'leaders' are not going get used to do all this for us; we have technological change and starting to do it for ourselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>047074801X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jaki Scarcello|title=Fifty and Fabulous: The Best Years think of a Woman's Life|rating=3.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=When you open a package and find a bright pink book which proudly proclaims 'Fifty and Fabulous: the best years of a woman's life' you can be forgiven for wondering if this is going other, new ways to be another of those books which recommends strenuous exercise regimesspend time, strict diets and just a little nip along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and tuck under the chin. Personally, my heart sank becausealong with it, er, well, I'm no longer fiftyall the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. Were my fabulous years behind me?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906787603</amazonuk>1736128426

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Will BirchMatthew Tree|title=Ian Dury: The Definitive BiographyWe'll Never Know

|genre=BiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=Ian Dury was always one of the most individualTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, even contrary characters in the musical world. In a branch drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of showbiz where people often relied on good looks as a short cut his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to stardom, he was no oil painting. During the pub rock era, he and his groupstudies, the Blockheads, ploughed a lonely furrow which owed more to jazz-funk than rock'n'roll, and cultivated his songs extolled the virtues of characters from Billericay or Plaistow abilities rather than those from Memphis or California. Alongside the young punk rock upstarts with whom he competed for inches in the rock press, he was comparatively middle-aged. As if that was not enough, in his own words childhood illness had left him a permanent 'raspberry ripple'daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0283071036</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8

{{newreview|author=Glenn Cooper|title=Book Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of Souls|rating=4witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Area 51 Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is not what you think it is. No the first non- all that UFO kerfuffle is a smokescreen witch to be born into her family for the powers that be to hide even better the most unusual manuscript known to (generations and as such since she was young, her training as a handful of) mankind - steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the most unearthlyBriar Witch, singularthe town's leader, and unsettling bookEllie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, in thousands right and thousands of volumes. All except onecentre, which is about Ellie uncovers the rare ability to come under communicate with the hammer in a London auction house. Our hero Will Piper must go very reluctantly on dead, putting her at the trail heart of it and its secrets, a trail which will force him and others maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to become entangled with shadowy agentsanother, Ellie must decide who in turn know to trust and determine what to do as the very day of all their enemyBriar witches's deathslegacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099534479</amazonuk>1803364548

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sharon Owens1529900360|title=The Seven Secrets of HappinessGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman

|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=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 hard reluctant to think ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that life wasnthere were only open-and-shut cases which didn't perfect need the help of a psychologist only worked for Ruby Oa while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware'Neills partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She and Jonathan had an idyllic marriage and knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a beautiful homeremote property in Bel Air. There He was a job in a dress shop which the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she enjoyed is married to an extremely rich man and although she might it's not be close to her parents she had good friendsthe Italian. It But which of them was Christmas Eve and the tree had just been delivered by a lovely man on behalf of the garden centre when her world fell apart. Jonathan had been killed in a car crash.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141028564</amazonuk>primary target?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Skinner1529395224|title=Furnaces Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of Forgea Vet|author=Sion Rowlands

|genre=TeensAnimals and Wildlife|summary=In this [[Blue Fire Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Ice (The Land) by Alan Skinner|sequel]]Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, itparticularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's almost as you were, except here life. When he was seventeen he took the mysterious powers opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the blue flame are not being used by some outlander arsonistjob for him. Before long, but have he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been usurped by two inept young scientists from the Myrmidots, to fuel their industryhis dream since he was a child. We can predict this will prove a bad thingIf anything, but the breadth of the journey he'd wanted to capture the flame, and the efforts of all our returning characters to put things right might still be a surpriseprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955726859</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Simpson0861541774|title=Alastair Sim: The Star A Nye of Scrooge and the Belles of St Trinian'sPheasants|author=Steve Burrows

|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=The mere mention of Alastair Sim conjures DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up visions of pictures made during the 1950s when with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a more gentle humour street brawl - he would later maintain that he was the order of the dayfacing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Yet the man hated and did his best Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to avoid publicity, claiming light that the person the public saw on screen revealed all suggested that anybody needed he might have planned to know about himmurder the man. How Now he would have fared twenty years later in could be facing the age of death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a more intrusive press, one cannot but wonderdiplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752453726</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Saci LloydAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Carbon Diaries 2017|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=It's been a year since we read a diary entry from Laura Brown. We left her with a boyfriend and just about adjusted to a Britain in the full throes of carbon rationing. Her nu-punk band, ''dirty angels'', hadn't quite made it, but things were looking rather promising for its future. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340970162</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=P Robert Smith|title=Sunday Daffodil and Other Happy EndingsPerfect Passion Company|rating=34.5

|summary=''Sunday Daffodil The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and Other Happy Endings'' look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is the sort coming out of book you finish a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the feeling that you've just read something with a million different meaningschance to come home to Edinburgh. Don't be surprised if you feel like you should start And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the whole thing again Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with your brain more fully engagedsome new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and perhaps thatthere's the whole point.always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099535238</amazonuk>1846976596

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dai Sijie 0811771741|title=Once on a Moonless NightInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=3.54|genre=Literary FictionCrafts|summary=A French female scholarMelissa 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, studying in China, finds herself caught up cosy afternoons in front of the search for a lost, sacred text that was inscribed on an ancient scrollfire' variety. The scroll was torn in two projects are divided by Emperor Puyi years agothe time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and was lostmore than twenty hours. After falling in love with a young grocer called Tumchooq All the young woman becomes caught up in tales within talesprojects are attractive, as she finds modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that Tumchooq's father found and translated half of the missing scroll and became obsessed with finding the other half, and soon Tumchooq too becomes embroiled in the searchme being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099521326</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nicholas SternDean Koontz|title=A Blueprint for a Safer Planet: How We Can Save the World and Create ProsperityThe Bad Weather Friend

|genre=Politics and SocietyParanormal|summary=The hardback edition of 'A Blueprint for Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a Safer Planetreally weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it' s possible that whoever or whatever was published early in 2009 as an update to inside is the 2006 Stern Review on thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the economics of climate changevery last person to deserve all this bad luck. Now here He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the paperback editiondelivery to his house is a new friend, published too early a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to critique Copenhagen, but nonetheless an interesting readhelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Stern Spike is an expert witness who presents his evidence understandably for the layman; going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he is unemotional , Benny, and very convincingHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099524058</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert CrawfordAdam Stower|title=The Bard: Robert Burns - a biographyMurray and Bun

|genre=BiographyConfident Readers |summary=If Shakespeare Murray is England's own Bardsupposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, the comparatively shortlived Robert Burns – one who lived is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and worked nearly , well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two centuries later – fulfils the equivalent role in Scottish iconography more than adequately. Yet as this very thorough biography demonstratesBut he's a bad magician's cat, there is much more to so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the man than catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the wordsmith regular back garden, but into a world of 'Auld Lang Syne' frightening adventure and 'Weewhiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, sleekitone much bigger than Murray was, cowrin'to be honest, timbut he'rous beasties turned up and he'.ll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1844139301</amazonuk>0008561249

{{newreview|author=Alyxandra Harvey|title=My Love Lies Bleeding|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=Solange Drake hates being ''Fragility'' is set as the only born female vampire. Not only does she have to put up with her pheromones making her irresistible to male vampirescity of Portland, Oregon, who all want cautiously begins to use her to start their own vampire families, she has a prophecy looming over her head, one that states a female Drake vampire will overthrow emerge from the current ruler to become Queen of restrictions imposed during the Vampires.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408803402</amazonuk>covid pandemic

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Terence Morgan1529431735|title=The Master of BrugesWinter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=54|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=Belgium, the fifteenth century. Hans It's February 1991 and Essex is apprenticed to a master painter in the city of Brusselsbitingly cold, until which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the old curmudgeon dies, and his studio falls apartmore surprising. Luckily for Hans, a mistakenly drawn sketch, and a bizarre rescue from He'd been exiled on the gallows gives him Costa del Sol as a major boost - patronage, wanted drug smuggler for both portraits and many religious imagesa decade. With what might seem to be a patchy diary - some years have five pages only, concerning but one month - we see his startling life journey, covering beguiling models, ghostly war scenes, and even the biggest intrigues of English royal court.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230744125</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Markus Zusak|title=Fighting Ruben Wolfe|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=The Wolfe family are only just getting by. Times are hard for Cameron and his older brother Ruben. Their father return has been injured at work and even though come about because he's mostly recovered nowhad a letter from his ex-wife, hesaying that she's finding it hard to get jobs ill and the ultimate emasculation of the dole is looming ever nearer. Older brother Steve has ambitions and he canhasn't wait long to get out of the houselive. Sister Sarah is drinking too much and getting a tarty reputation at school. Their mother It's fighting hard to hold things togetherfeel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, but it's taking a heavy toll. Cameron stripped to his underwear and Rube can't even manage sent to win a bet at watery grave in the dog track - even when they get boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a policeman problem closer to put it on for them. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1862309574</amazonuk>home?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom PalmerAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Captain Fantastic (Football Academy)The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts

|summary=Ryan Eli is a changed boy. Since he got into hot water busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with manager Steve for bullying several books agohim, and his captaincy of in the United U12s was threatened, he's been determined to get his socks firmly pulled up. He's worked really hard evening a helper at redeeming himself too - both on and off the pitch. He's more than halfway towards becoming the best captain the team's ever had. So when Craig's attitude suddenly nosedives and he starts playing dirty during games dessert cafe his gran owns and being insolent during training, Ryan feels a big responsibility to help sort it outruns. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141324724</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Duncan|title=A Single to Rome|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Natalie is in love Eli lives with Michael. They've been together his lovely gran, too – for three years, but Michael wants some space. He hasn’t said he doesn’t love her, so there is still a chance he could come back… Then he goes and finds himself a new girlfriend. Devastated, Natalie consoles herself with the help of her friends, who persuade her to go speed dating. There she meets Guy, a friendly man, who like her is trying to get over someone – his new ex-wife Vanessa. But Guy is one of the nice ones, and before she knows it, he has been invited to her friend’s wedding as Natalie’s date. At least she won’t be going alone and Michael will be there. But her love life isn’t her only worry. Past actions have come to light that have put her career generation missing in danger. At a loss, Natalie turns to Guy for help, who offers her the use of his flat in Romefamily. A place to escape? Or a place to dwell? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755345932</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Christopher Russell and Christine Russell|title=The Quest of the Warrior Sheep|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Take five rare breed sheep, put them in a fieldfew short years ago, and wait for something to fall out the sky on to one of them. You'll find the result is that they gather, confer among themselves, work out their sacred God Aries is in trouble as heEli's parents were both lost the only thing to confer his power over the sacred Demon of sheeptitular race, Lambad, and decide a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to take navigate the fallen object up North to return it. A journey that will take them into London world in a market truck, down the Underground, and so much more on their epic journey.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405243767</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=M J Trow|title=Maxwell's Retirement|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Peter 'Mad Max' Maxwell has always been something company of a dinosaur and even he realises just how far adrift he is when some of his sixth form students start receiving threatening messages on their mobilesmagical beast. He might prefer This has made the race anathema to make a phone call or send a note when the need arises, pair – but this isn't the way of when a bad incident at the younger generation and Maxwell discovers that he's going to have eatery leads to climb a steep learning curve if he's to help his students through the problem.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007664</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Linda Porter|title=Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Katherine Parr was the last and arguably the most fortunate of King Henry VIII's six wives. Apart confession from Anne of Clevesgran, the speedily divorced 'Flanders mare', she was the Eli knows his only one hope is to dare to survive him. And while all six of the queens consort remain rather shadowy figuresenter what he most hates, this biography gives with the impression that she was probably sole aim the most intelligent and well-rounded personality prize of them all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230710395</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Kessler|title=Mercy|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=In some ways, magic at the first line of this novel says it all: 'It's hard to sit still when your client is scheduled to die in fifteen hours.' From this moment on, end – the action comes thick and fast, leaving the reader with barely the breath only thing to murmer 'is it really probable that all this was left to the last day?' However, if you suspend your disbelief, then the author does deliver blockbuster plot twists and twirls that are very satisfactorypossibly save his gran. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847561829</amazonuk>0571382231