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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, & self-published books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|plus author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.</metadesc>
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gaby Morgan (editor)Sylvie Cathrall|title=In My Sky at TwilightA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Off the back of the success of Stephenie Meyer's [[Twilight by Stephenie Meyer|Twilight]] series there has been There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a boom in vampire novels aimed at teenagerscompelling premise. In My Sky at Twilight And this is perhaps one of the most unusual books to come out of this craze as it is a collection of love poetry aimed at teenage fans of the seriesthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230745865</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Burdett0008517061|title=The Godfather of KathmanduDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Sonchai Jitpleecheep is half 'farang' the son of a brothel madam and an American GIFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, but it's the latter rather than the former which is likely to hold up has settled into his promotion in the Thai police force, where he's a detectiverustic life at Little Sky. He's also There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the part owner future of a brothel where his motherlife with his vet girlfriend, NongLivia and her daughter Diana, is the madam as moving in charge. It's no problem for his boss, Colonel Vikorn, who has together would mean a few illegal interests lot of compromise: does Jake give up his own. 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 future she wants for herself and her daughter? He's currently For the moment they’re enjoying life in competition with the head of present and putting the army, General Zinna, to see who can raise future on the finance for a forty million dollar shipment of heroin which Sonchai's Kathmandu-based guru has for saleback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593055462</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Blackwood1786482126|title=The Great Race: The Amazing Round-The-World Auto Race Of 1908Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=In 1908, Henry FordBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 's Model T hadnluxury't yet brought cars to apartments - when they discovered the massesbones of a child beneath a doorway. The pioneers of the world of automobiles were experimenting and discovering just what the car could do There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, by driving right round the worldDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Except they didn It't want to be pioneers. One of the competitorss difficult as Ruth knows, Antonio Scarfoglio, put it so perfectly when he said but Nelson doesn'We had set out to perpetuate an act of splendid follyt, not to open up that she is pregnant with his child as a new way for menresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. We wished to Her condition will be madmenobvious before long, not pioneersleast because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.' Isn't that about the best quote you've ever read?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0810994895</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=P J Reece0008551324|title=RoxyThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=34.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Maddie was at Aunt GretchenIt's funeral when she got unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the phone call other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her that her father was in a coma death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and likely to dieget an early parole date. This might sound like a double whammy but MaddieNot much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn's father had deserted her soon after her birth (during which her mother died) t think so and she was brought up by Aunt Gretchen, who never missed an opportunity 's even prepared to point out do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that she was an unwanted burdenDS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1896580017</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard North Patterson0008405026|title=The SpireA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45
|genre=Crime
|summary=When student Mark Darrow discovers It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the body of investigation ground to a black fellow student, Angela Hall, at the foot of the spire in the centre of the college he attends, he little suspects that his best friend will be charged with the murderhalt. Now, sixteen years laterher mother, Darrow is backHelena, at the invitation of his mentor and now college provost, Lionel Farr, to become president of the college her father are dead in order to rebuild its reputation after a case of embezzlement has left the college in a precarious position (conveniently, Darrow has become an ace financial fraud lawyer in the intervening years)their bed. As Darrow digs into what happened with the college finances Initially, he also begins to look afresh at it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the trial positioning of his friend the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and questions if he really her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was guilty as charged. He also finds time going to start be an emerging relationship with open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the provostexplanation lies in Rosalie's troubleddisappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, but beautiful, daughterUna Burt) are less convinced. Is the real killer still at large and are the two crimes connected?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230705650</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pseudonymous Bosch0571379877|title=This Book is Not Good for YouThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Cass Edward Jevons is not having the best of time when it comes to secretsa working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. ItRobert's all very well being involved in a toptheatre director. He's also self-secret societyobsessed, designed to keep the secret of the most secretive secret everdemanding, but those pesky people called adults are keeping things from her as well - namely, her very origins. Can Max-Ernest handsome and she wade through their junk store base entitled and find the box she was delivered in? Can they survive the mysterious clown school they end up visiting? And can they keep a mystical tuning fork from falling into the wrong hands?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409506312</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Russell Kirkpatrick|title=Beyond the Wall of Time (Broken Man)|rating=4|genre=Fantasy|summary=A couple of aspects have summed up Russell Kirkpatrick's ''Broken Man'' trilogy uses Edward to run errands for me so farhim. There Edward has been a fascinating story in love with some wonderful character building that has made it highly enjoyableStanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. There have also been some of the most detailed maps I have ever seen Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a fantasy series, offering more variation than Irelationship had begun between them but he've seen in maps before and actually adding detail s not like most men: Edward is left to some parts stumble upon the two of the story, not merely acting as them kissing in a guide. I was expecting more of the same from the final part, ''Beyond the Wall of Time'' and very much looking forward to itdark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496715</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HospJo Callaghan|title=Among ThievesLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=In 1990When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, some valuable paintings were stolen from DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston in case alongside her sidekick, the United StatesAI detective Lock. The police investigation failed to find them and many felt they were lost forever It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But soon the paintings when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their whereabouts would AI Future Policing project. Will they be impacting on many people's lives…able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230707238</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Shields1399613073|title=Reality Hunger: A ManifestoMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyThrillers|summary='The Novel 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 Dead' ruthlessly ambitious, which is not really what a novelist wants bonus when you aim to read first on picking up be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a new book – but I persevered with Shields' manifesto perfectionist and I'm glad I dida trauma doctor. This Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a thoughtdrug and alcohol-provoking wakefuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-up call five years later there will be an eerily similar event that any artistwill impact the three friends. This time, writer or book-lover will enjoyit's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114499X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ian Rankin and Werther Dell'Edera 0241636604|title=Dark Entries|rating=4|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=The producers of Dark Entries, the latest hit reality TV show, are worried. Yes the six housemates are there, present and correct, and are ready to be scared witless en route to the one way out, and the brilliant prize that might await them somewhere in the merry-go-round of horror that is their new home. They are already being scared witless, by phantoms - but that's nothing to do with the TV producers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848563426</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Betty G Birney|title=Holidays According to Humphrey|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Humphrey the hamster is worried. Everywhere he turns his little pink ears he hears noises about the school being closed. How can he survive without all his adoring fans in room 26, and what is life like for a classroom pet without a classroom? Luckily, this is only the summer holiday he is misunderstanding, and what do you know - he will soon be meeting familiar faces, not at school, but at summer camp.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571250904</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keith Mansfield|title=Johnny MackintoshTrading Game: Star Blaze|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Before I get into the review of this book, I'd like to suggest that if you haven't read Keith Mansfield's first Johnny Mackintosh book, [[Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London by Keith Mansfield|The Spirit of London]], you go off and read the review of that first and then go and read the book itself. It's a fantastic read. But because this is a sequel, there are obviously going to be some SPOILERS ahead. So, done that have you?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161267</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewA Confession|author=Chinua Achebe|title=The Education of a British-Protected ChildGary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=This book is If you were to bring up an image of a collection city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of autobiographical essays by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, whose best known work someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the novel Things Fall ApartEast End, published in 1958. Topics covered include Nigerianwhere he was familiar with violence, Biafran and Igbo history and culture, African literature poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the legacy London School of colonialism in his country Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and the rest he has a facility with numbers which most of Africaus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. Some of the essays are taken from guest lectures It was his ability at universities around the world and conference paperswhat was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, and others are written for this book, particularly many of the more personal pieces about Achebe's familyturned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846142598</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Norman Russell1035021803|title=The Calton PapersAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Philip Garamond had had an abiding interest in botany since his teens and when we first meet him heIt's on his way twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to Sothebythe English country village where she grew up. She's intent on making back now because of a bid request for the Calton Papershelp from her beloved aunt, Carole. Sir George CaltonFreya's papers include an unpublished account of Darwinformer mentor and Carole's explorations on close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the Beaglecircumstances seem suspicious, some letters and a geographical survey of to say the British Islesleast. Garamond's ambition Arthur was the reason why Freya had always not been back to own a botanical garden on Madeirathe village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, but he lacked she has not felt able to be near the funds and man or pursue the Calton Papers seemed to be as close as he would get to owning something specialprofession she loved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089546</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nancy Holder After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and Debbie Viguie |title=Legacy and Spellbound married James (Wicked)|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Holly Cathers has returned, and this time, she's more powerful than ever. The war between on the rebound from the House love of Cahors witches her life, who was murdered) and House of Deveraux warlocks still rages on, Freya and only one side will eventually triumphJames have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738689X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kees van DeemterAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Not Exactly - In Praise Of Vagueness|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=How warm is a warm day? Or rather, given the weather at the moment, how chilly is a chilly day? Is it better to know I want a small helping of peas, or to know All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that I want 82 peas? There are times when vagueness is more useful than being specific. Kees van Deemter makes this point, sharing many examples from a number of fields, including maths, philosophy, linguistics and AI.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199545901</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDisrupt|author=Chris Wormell|title=One Smart FishBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=For SharingScience Fiction|summary=Many, many, many years ago, ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the ocean was full shape of amazing fish. The most amazing fish was a boring-looking silver fish, who was smarter than all the others. He played chess (against himself), drew pictures and performed plays. One day, he decided things to see what life was like on land, so he invented feet and went for a walkcome. Yep, you've guessed it: it's a picture book about evolution.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224083546</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Norah VincentSunny Singh|title=Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony BinHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=LifestyleThrillers |summary=''Voluntary Madness'' The Hotel Arcadia is journalist Norah Vincent's account of her visits to three mental health facilities a luxury hotel in America. The first is an urban, public hospital unnamed city that houses mainly homelesshas suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, psychotic patientskilling everyone on site, many of whom are addicted to drugs. In this hospitalthere is Sam, the doctors are overworked a wartime photographer and jaded and medication is always Abhi, the answerhotel manager. Soon, the author finds that her latent depression (which led her As Abhi continues to try to do care remotely for the book residents who are still alive in the first place) is returning. The process hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of being institutionalised breaks her sense of self-worth down astonishingly fastroom to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Indeed, she suggests that it is Although they only ever talk over the lack of autonomy in institutional lifephone, even for those patients who voluntarily commit themselves, that makes it so hard for them their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to rebuild independent lives when see if they will be rescued before they finally leave are discovered by the institutionterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099513439</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Neal Shusterman1529153298|title=EverwildThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Neal Shusterman continues his part zany adventure, part philosophical enquiry, It's 1979 and part coming-of-age story that began with Everlost in this follow-up that Margaret Thatcher is perhaps even better than its predecessorPrime Minister. Everlost is a kind of limbo and home to children - Afterlights - who have died (A woman? I mean, but somehow missed the tunnel and the light - wherever and whatever the light actually ishonestly... Adults never make it there) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, but significant or much-loved objects and buildings sometimes dothough. Women have been disappearing. Mary Hightower Well, for instancethey've been murdered, is but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so-called frightening. Miv's upset because she took up residence in New York in 's overheard that her father wants to move the Twin Towersfamily 'Down South'. Mary thinks Everlost When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a wonderful frightening, foreign place , best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she "saves" 'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the Afterlights she finds by giving them repetitive but addictive tasks dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to fill eternityanyone. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387322</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gabriel Weston1398524085|title=Direct RedHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=Few people have Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the ability to convey the minutiae body of their profession Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in ways which engage the reader, answer your unspoken questions and talk in such a way that you're neither patronised nor overburdened with jargonriver. Gabriel Weston is one such – It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn''Direct Red'' held me as though I was hypnotised for several hourst stand the guilt. SheThe Salter children are not convinced but there's a surgeon and we're pulled into the intricacies of her world without the need to don mask little else they can do but get on with their lives and gownwonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520699</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Baldacci1035906708|title=True BlueDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Jamie MeldonWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, ex-criminal-defence attorneyNew York, now in private practice, leaves his office very late one nightDecember 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. HeHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas's met by to make it more manageable in the FBIStates. Very shortly afterwards Jamie Meldon is dead When she was back in a dumpster. Mace Perry is working out, trying to stay fit, trying to stay sane, trying to stay alive long enough to Athens - supposedly so that she could get out jail in a couple of days' time. Perry appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a cop. Under-cover, maverick mother who mercilessly exploited her and darn good at made no secret of her job. Until she ended up stoned on meth, busted preference for robberyher elder sister, convicted and sent downJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230706134</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David BaldwinChristopher Edge|title=The Kingmaker's Sisters: Six Powerful Women in the Wars of the RosesBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyConfident Readers|summary=Due to Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the small amount nickname of surviving personal sources'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, any book which purports they're looking forward to be a biography lots of a 15-century subject exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is almost inevitably going to be more a 'life very different, and timesthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn' than a lifet even imagine. In But as they lurch from one film genre to the case of women who were sisters but not sovereigns or consorts themselvesnext, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the lack of data will be even more acute.cinema, and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0750950765</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. 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's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Fred VargasJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Chalk Circle ManPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Meet Jean-Baptiste AdamsbergThings have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. An unlikely police commissaireAI and automation have been proceeding apace, heoften replacing jobs they's an acquired taste for his colleaguesre paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. ShortJust as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, ungainlynew ways to spend time, seemingly thinking about the most obtuse things in his pursuit of the truthalong came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, and endlessly doodlingalong with it, but beneath his deathly slow speech and unexpected diversions into his childhood comes a surprisingly perceptive ability to find all the culprit in whatever crime he is forced to solvemany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099488973</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean Reidy and Genevieve LeloupMatthew Tree|title=Too Purply!We'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=It's time for schoolTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, but the young girl a drunk and her tortoise don't want to wear chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of their clotheshis artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. They're too purply, too tickly, too puckery, too pricklySo Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and so on. You get the idea. Adjectives abound in this fun getting dressed book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408803151</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rachel Isadora|title=The Twelve Dancing Princesses|rating=3|genre=For Sharing|summary=Bookbag recently loved Rachel Isadora's take on [[The Night Before Christmas by Rachel Isadora and Clement Clarke Moore|The Night Before Christmas]], which put the classic Christmas poem in an African setting. This time round, she has turned her eye to the Grimms' 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses'set himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0142414506</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gemma MalleyA G Slatter|title=The ReturnersBriar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=TeensFantasy|summary='Ducks are cool' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. Whatever happensThis secret magic of my own, all mine, whatever gets thrown at them, they last. I just carry on, their little legs paddling. Unfazedwant to enjoy it for a while. They always look like they're smiling.'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alex Milway1529900360|title=Mousebeard's Revenge (Mousehunter Trilogy)The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=If you started this trilogy way back when, you would probably never expect the pirate, Mousebeard, and the hero It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and heroine, Emiline and Scratchereven after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to be working togetherask for his help on difficult cases. But they are His assertions that there were only open-and- so deep is shut cases which didn't need the world help of Old Town in intriguea psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, subterfuge and wicked plansit was Robin, that they need to combine forces - and get other returning characters back on hand and on their side - to counter MousebeardDelaware's enemies once and partner, who nudged Milo into asking for allhelp again. Only, one great thing has changedShe knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. YesThe next case did look simple, that's rightthough. Mousebeard has had Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a shaveremote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571245102</amazonuk> But which of them was the primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Mullin1529395224|title=A Very British Coup|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=No one had anticipated that Labour would win the election, not least because Letting the party leader was Harry Perkins, a former steel worker. His manifesto included promises to remove all American bases from British soil, public control Cat Out of finance and the dismantling Bag: The Secret Life of media empires. There were a few other things too – but they'll do for starters. The establishment – to a man – was appalled. Press barons, media stars, bishops and civil service mandarins knew that, for the good of the country (not themselves, ''of course'') something had to be done and ''obviously'' the end would justify whatever means they had to take to achieve their aims. Harry Perkins had to be removed from office.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687403</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewVet|author=Orson Scott Card|title=Ender in ExileSion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=Science FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary='Ender in Exile' is the most recently published in the series set in the universe of 'Ender's Game', a long standing and one of the best known series of Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science-fiction by Orson Scott Cardaccidentally. It's been defined as an 'interquel', fitting chronologically between 'Ender's Game' His father was a GP and the 'Speaker for the DeadRowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the first two (and probably the best two) novels in the sequence. Technically speaking, 'Ender in Exile' actually fits instrain that being on-between the last chapters of 'Endercall put on his father's Game' and describes in more detail events outlined in the resolving sections of 'Ender's Game'life. Confusingly for the uninitiated, 'Ender in Exile' is also a sequel to When he was seventeen he took the 'Shadow opportunity of the Giant', doing work experience with a parallel sub-series from the universe of the 'Ender's Game'. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841492272</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sue Roe|title=The Private Lives of the Impressionists|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=In the early 1860s family friend who was a group of young Parisian artists were keen to exhibit their work, despite opposition from vet and was convinced this was the official art worldjob for him. Their protests at being spurned by the SalonBefore long, the French equivalent of the Royal Academy, resulted in their paintings being shown he was at the rather disparaginglyLiverpool University. It hadn't -named Salon des Refusés, where crowds and critics came to view as with so many students - and jeerbeen his dream since he was a child. When they held the first of their own exhibitions a few years laterIf anything, one reviewer said that they he'seem d wanted to have declared war on beauty', while another assured his readers that every canvas must have been the work of some practical joker who had dipped his brushes in paint, smeared it onto yards of canvas, and signed the result with several different namesbe a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099458349</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Angela McAllister and Alex T Smith0861541774|title=My Mum Has X-Ray VisionA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Milo suspects his mum DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has xtaken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl -ray vision. She can see through the ceiling downstairs when he's jumping on her bedwould later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. She can see through the outside wall when Initially, he's making potions in the garden in her saucepans. Is she really faced a superhero? Milo puts her charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the testman. 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407105388</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Angelica GarnettAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Unspoken TruthPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=I would not normally start The Perfect Passion Company is a review with the biography of the authordating agency in Edinburgh, but The Unspoken Truth is presented run by Ness and operating as autobiographical fiction by a child of an alternative to all the Bloomsbury Group – online apps in fact providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the subtitle business, as Ness is 'A Quartet of Bloomsbury Stories'planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. The blurb on the inside cover even identifies which character Katie is based on the author in each coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the four storieschance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, just in case bringing us to an Edinburgh we are not surealready love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some 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 there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701184353</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amos Oz0811771741|title=Rhyming Life and Death|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Rhyming Love and Death is a kind of philosophical love letter to literature, or perhaps more so to fiction. It is a book about how to write, about the compulsion to write, and about the strange world that the writer of fiction must live in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099521024</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewInstaKnits for Baby|author=Jean Hannah Edelstein |title=Himglish and Femalese: Why Women Don't Get Why Men Don't Get ThemMelissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=LifestyleCrafts|summary=Men arenMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby't Martian and women don't hail gives us a collection of knits from Venustoys to blankets. We Some will be quick knits - others are of the 're all Earthlings apparently; which seems like progress long, cosy afternoons in front of a sortthe fire' variety. Even so we still have trouble understanding each other because we speak different languages – Himglish The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and Femalesemore than twenty hours. Luckily Jean Hannah Edelstein is fluent in both and has written this light hearted volume to define All the problem projects are attractive, modern and translateuseable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848091729</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Valerie Thomas and Korky PaulDean Koontz|title=Winnie's Jokes|rating=2.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Who turns off the lights at Halloween? The lights witch. What does an Australian witch ride on? A broomerang. Yep, it's a joke book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729063</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl|title=Beautiful Creatures|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Teenage boy meets mysterious new stranger in a small town. They fall in love, he finds out she's harbouring a dark secret, the pair of them try to find out if their relationship can work while she tries to keep him safe from her world. This kind of book appears to be released every few weeks since [[Twilight by Stephenie Meyer|Twilight]] became so successful – but rarely in the past few years has it been done as well as it has in Beautiful Creatures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141326085</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jasper Fforde|title=Shades of GreyBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=FantasyParanormal|summary=Sometimes with authors you just don't know what you've been missingBenny is having a terrifically bad day. Other times you doHe loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Jasper Fforde Oh, and someone has long been on my catchdelivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-up list. sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! Snippets of Thursday Next and reviews and interviews were enough The thing is, Benny is the very last person to convince me I had to get to know deserve all this workbad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. My chance finally came with So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the first in delivery to his house is a completely new series: friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Shades Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of GreyBenny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340963034</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sam MillsAdam Stower|title=BlackoutMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensConfident Readers |summary='I am Murray is supposed to be a murdererhumble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he'Is a bad magician'm standing in s cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a bookshophyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, a gun hot in my palm. The bullet that sat in my barrel thirty seconds ago has pierced fleshand the catflap they both use can chuck them out, blown not into brain tissuethe regular back garden, metal now fighting consciousness. The woman slumps ont the floor. Blood begins to trickle from her head. It drips onto but into a pile world of signed copies stacked on the floorfrightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he' Oh my word! What an explosive beginning ll have to a book! But what made a boy do something like this? do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571239412</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=Jean Rowden1529431735|title=More Deaths Than OneThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=3.54
|genre=Crime
|summary=Constable Thomas It'Thorny' Deepbriar has a broken leg after his involvement in a case s February 1991 and so Essex is taken by his wifebitingly cold, Mary, to recuperate in which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the seaside town where he worked as a policeman during the warmore surprising. He expects to be bored - the most interesting thing 'd been exiled on the horizon is Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a case of missing gnomesdecade. Then The return has come about because he bumps into an old colleague 's had a letter from his ex- someone who left the force in a haze of suspicion. Shortly afterwardswife, a body is found on the beach. Even stranger is saying that the dead man is someone that Thorny she's ill and his colleague thought had died during the warhasn't long to live. It seems that things are not as they seem. Can Thorny work out what 's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is going onabducted, even with stripped to his underwear and sent to a broken legwatery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089309</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul StrathernAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Artist, The Philosopher and The WarriorGlorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=3.54|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=The interaction between three very differentEli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, not to say contrasting, personalities of and in the Renaissance period sets evening a helper at the scene dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for what promises to be an intriguing titlethere is a generation missing in the family. In 1502 A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the paths of Cesare Borgiatitular race, notorious son a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the equally infamous Pope Alexander VIpair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Niccolò MachiavelliEli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the intellectual and diplomat, and Leonardo da Vinci, prize of magic at the time best known as a military engineer though remembered today primarily as a great artist, were destined end – the only thing to crosspossibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845951212</amazonuk>0571382231
}}