Changes

<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[: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. It'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, 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|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.

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'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on 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]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingauthor="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--><!-- AMS -->Tom Percival|-title=The Wrong Shoes| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|5[[image:1408711265.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408711265/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Confident Readers| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Department Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith]]=== [[image:4starways.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Long-time followers of The Bookbag will know I He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes'm a die-hard fan of AMS. So you can imagine my excitement at reading a brand new book in a brand new series, described by he has the author himself as Scandi Blanc (as opposed to Scandi Noir)! Here we meet a new detective named Ulf Varg, who works in wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the Department for Sensitive Crimesmost basic of things like food, solving those crimes that perhaps fall outside and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the usual police parameterscollege, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. This particular book deals with crimes including someone who is stabbed in Throw into that mix the knee, the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriendfact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a case tiny amount of potential werewolveshope. They're the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to deal withHe is good at art, and I rather enjoyed them, especially clings to the stabbing where you find moments of joy when he is drawing, that actually, you identify with feel like a light at the person who committed the crimeend of a long, rather than the victimdark tunnel. [[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith|Full Review]]isbn=1398527122}}<!-- Lingane -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sylvie Cathrall| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5[[image:B07NV8NY4Y.jpg|linkgenre=http://wwwScience Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise.amazonAnd this is one of them.co.uk/dp/B07NV8NY4Y/ref=nosim?tag|isbn=thebookbag-210356522776]]}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061| styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary==[[The RoseFormer Metropolitan Police detective, the NightJake Johnson, and the Mirror by Mark Lingane]]=== [[image:4starhas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[ There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]  Julian's family are getting pretty fed does Jake give up with his permaoff-student status. They feel that the maths PHD candidate should start earning some money. To that end, they have managed grid and relaxing life to find him a job tutoring the children of a highly regarded politician. Julian bowls up at their strange, austere mansion move in with little 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? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the way of expectation. Victor, present and putting the future on the politician is not at homeback burner. But Esis, his wife, is}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4. A beautiful but isolated woman, Esis shows little interest 5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in her children and not much more in Julian. She directs him towards his room, Norwich - the library in which he will teach site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the childrenbones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, and the kitchen, whose chefbot will provide him Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with foodDCI Harry Nelson. [[The RoseIt's difficult as Ruth knows, the Nightbut Nelson doesn't, and that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the Mirror by Mark Lingane|Full Review]] one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.}} <!-- Brandi -->|-{{Frontpage| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|0008551324[[image:1789550122.jpg|linktitle=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789550122/refThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=nosim?tagNeil Lancaster|rating=thebookbag-21]]4.5|genre=Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Into It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the River by Mark Brandi]]=== [[image:4starpolice.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Two boys, Ben and Fab, are growing up in a small town in Northern Australia in Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the late 80's. They do all police where the normal things that boys body of that age do - go yabbying (fishing), play cricket, fight their battles at school a missing person is buried and think about girlswho was responsible for her death. Their family lives are different; Ben comes from a happy homeThis person, he promises, whilst Fab is the son of Italian immigrants who clearly have little money, and has a father who is very violentsomeone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. Yet despite their differences, they are fiercely loyal And what he wants is to each other. So far, so normal. But with be transferred to an open prison to serve the arrival remainder of a new neighbour for Ben, a man called Ronnie, things begin his sentence and to changeget an early parole date. Ronnie wants Ben to come over Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do some odd jobs for him, the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and both Ben and Fab are increasingly uncomfortable about this. [[Into the River by Mark Brandi|Full Review]]anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}<!-- Clark -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0008405026| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey[[image:034901082X.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/034901082X/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; textIt's sixteen years since nine-year-align: left;"|===[[In The Full Light of old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the Sun by Clare Clark]]=== [[image:5starinvestigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] In 1930 Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's Berlin, three people obsessed with art find themselves swept up into a scandalsomething about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Emmeline, a wayward young student, Julius, What looked as though it was going to be an anxious middleopen-aged art expert, and Rachmann, -shut case is now a mysterious art dealer, live complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in the politically turbulent Weimar BerlinRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, and soon find themselves whipped up into excitement over the surprise discovery of thirty-two previously unknown paintings by Vincent Van GoghUna Burt) are less convinced. Based on a true story and unfolding through the subsequent rise of Hitler and the Nazis, the discovery of the art allows these characters to explore authenticity, vanity and self-delusion. [[In The Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark|Full Review]]}}<!-- Ireland -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0571379877| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet[[image:1789090873|rating=3.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789090873/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  Crime| stylesummary="verticalEdward Jevons is a working-align: top; textclass young man, obsessed with his upper-align: left;"|===[[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland]]=== [[image:5starclass friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] He's also self-obsessed, demanding, [[:Category:Horror|Horror]] ''Two days after I was born … the dead rose up handsome and started entitled and uses Edward to walk on a battlefield run errands for him. Edward has been in a small town love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg Robert'' Dread Nation narrates the unconventional life of Jane McKeene who was born days before the dead began s position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to walk stumble upon the streetstwo of them kissing in a dark passageway. An event which in interrupting }}{{Frontpage|author=Jo Callaghan|title=Leave No Trace|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=When a man is found crucified on the civil war between the states altered American history forever. In the changed worldtop of a hill in Nuneaton, minorities are forced into conscription and under the new Native and Negro Re-education Act children are placed in combat schools where they are trained extensively DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to destroy the dead once and for all. For Jane and other girls like case alongside hersidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is however the opportunity for a better life by being employed as an attendant. With deadly capabilities and perfect etiquettesecond body found crucified a few days later, attendants protect those higher in society Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and are valued above all elsea very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. [[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland|Full Review]] <!-- Arnold --> Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=1399613073| styletitle=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson[[image:1789016525.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co4.uk/dp/1789016525/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|Thrillers===[[Betrayed by Geoffrey Arnold]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] In an extension Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of the story begun by Geoffrey Arnold in ''Ripped Apart''medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, he continues which is a bonus when you aim to tell the story of the Quantum twinsbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. Born on Laura is a parallel world, these genetically identical twins interfered with an experiment perfectionist and were hurtled through space-time to our earth - a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a series of adventures ensued in the following booksGP. When we rejoin first meet them in they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it'Betrayed'' we find Tullia struggling to adapt to life s going to end in the bush - adopted by a Bushman family and made part of a tribetragedy. Twin Qwelby however, is not doing so well - shocked by We don't know who suffered the violence on tragedy or the earthconsequences. Rescued by an old friend, he then tries to help a girl called Xaala - but her ulterior motives may well prove to drive a wedge between Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the twins as they try to reconnectthree friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved... [[Betrayed by Geoffrey Arnold|Full Review]]}}<!-- Pamela Brookes -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0241636604| styletitle="widthThe Trading Game: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson[[image:1949471004.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1949471004/ref=nosim?tag5|genre=thebookbag-21]] Autobiography| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dog on If you were to bring up an image of a Log Chapter Books: Step 1 by Pamela Brookes]]=== [[image:4starcity banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]] A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] What do you do when your child has dyslexia poverty and you need books which will help them injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to achieve the wonder that London School of Economics. Stevenson is reading? You can risk buying early readers, but the sounds in the book might not be the ones you've been working on and encountering words bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which are just too challenging most of us can have more of a negative effect on the young dyslexic than a child without that problemonly envy. You need to He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be able to buy books stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a reasonable price card game which concentrate on what you've been working on, without anything else being thrown into the mixgot him an internship with Citibank. You need a story which engages the young mind and you need stages which progress steadily through the learning process without there being any large jumps. Some online support and games wouldn't go amissEventually, either. Reading - and ''learning'' to read - should be this turned into permanent employment as a pleasuretrader. It should be ''fun''. [[Dog on a Log Chapter Books: Step 1 by Pamela Brookes|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- Kazan -->|isbn=1035021803|-title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|C L Miller|rating=3.5[[image:0749024801.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0749022132/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Phoenix of Florence by Philip Kazan]]=== [[image:5starIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Deep in to say the Tuscan countryside of fifteenth century Italy, Onoria survives a massacre that destroys her family and homeleast. Alone in Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the forestvillage: Arthur, she meets a band of soldiers whofeels, believing let her to down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be a boy train and develop her – and near the man or pursue the determined Onoria becomes a mercenary – desperate to avoid any situation in which profession she may feel vulnerable againloved. Along After the waysplit, she meets ex-soldier Celaviniworked in a cafe, whose journey to Florence sees him investigating two brutal murders. As he digs further and uncovers links to his own family history, Celavini must revisit met and married James (on the past he shares with Onoria, in rebound from the hope that they can lay the ghosts love of their shared history to resther life, before it's too latewho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced... [[The Phoenix of Florence by Philip Kazan|Full Review]]}}<!-- Watson and Hagan -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover| styletitle="widthAll Tomorrow's Futures: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)[[image:1526600862.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526600862/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Science Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  Jasmine and Chelsea go to a high school with an excellent reputation. It places strong emphasis on extra curricular activities and all pupils are encouraged to join clubs and associations. But Jasmine is fed up with her drama group because she's always typecast in ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the loud, "hysterical" roles (Jasmine is black and resents the angry black woman trope). And Chelsea is fed with poetry club because the only poetry it ever covers was written by men who lived and died years ago. So, along with friends Isaac and Nadine, they start a new group called Write Like a Girl. [[Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan|Full Review]] <!-- Rachel Lynch -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07KTQTW1L.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07KTQTW1L/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Bitter Edge (D I Kelly Porter) by Rachel Lynch]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] The girl had once been a promising athlete, but injury and then addiction to prescription painkillers changed her completely. Eventually she was driven to commit suicide in the most gruesome way - by throwing herself off a cliff in the Lake District. It worried DI Kelly Porter, but she had no reason to investigate, although several of her cases keep bringing her back to the girl's school and a darker story emerged. One of the pupils goes missing at the local fair: her best friend is the girl who has accused a teacher of luring her to his flat and then sexually assaulting her. It seems that the teacher also has paedophilia on his computer, but the downloading eerily coincides with the girl's visit to his flat. What is going on, but - most importantly - where is Faith? [[Bitter Edge (D I Kelly Porter) by Rachel Lynch|Full Review]] <!-- Angela Marsons -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786817721.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786817721/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dead Memories (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Someone is recreating every traumatic event in Kim Stone's past, starting with the death of her twin when she was six years old. Some of the events, or at least the details of them, are not public knowledge, but whoever is behind this has a wealth of information and is using it to evil intent. That might seem bad enough, but the brutal truth of the matter is that people - innocent people - are dying so that these dramas can be recreated. Stone probably - well, certainly - shouldn't be on the case, but who has better knowledge of what happened to her than she does? If her boss can just turn a blind eye to the effect it's having on her for long enough, she can sort it out... Or can she? [[Dead Memories (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons|Full Review]] <!-- Hurwitz -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:071818548X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/071818548X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] 1997. Evan Smoak is 19 years old ''trained up, mission ready. And yet untested.'' He's in a foreign city on an officially unofficial mission, which he executes with all the impeccable training that his youth belies. Evan Smoak is Orphan X. [[Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz|Full Review]] <!-- Jewell -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:178475627X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475627X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Watching You by Lisa Jewell]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] A teenage boy spies on a teenage girl from his bedroom window. Down the road, a woman is convinced she knows a man in the village and that he is following her. Meanwhile, a young woman has moved back home after some time abroad, and develops a fascination with her new neighbour. The man's wife, meanwhile, engages the services of the young woman's husband in some work around the house. Oh, and that teenage boy? He's her son. And the woman with the conspiracy theories? She's the mother of the girl he's spying on. Plus, the man she thinks is out to get her is the woman's husband (and is also the new headteacher at her daughter's school). Whichever way you look at it, there's a lot of watching going on in this book. [[Watching You by Lisa Jewell|Full Review]] <!-- Cooch -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0578444305.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0578444305/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Fish Seeking Bicycle by Kate Cooch]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] This novel is set about a hundred years into the future. The world has been decimated by nuclear conflict and what's left of the old United States is run from Center City. Women run this world and it is very proud of having defeated the old patriarchy. Men must behave appropriately and deferentially at all times and, if they don't, are medicalised to keep their baser instincts under control. And if that doesn't work, they're sent to work camps, away from open society, or even worse: expelled to the wilderness beyond the Central Authority's borders. [[Fish Seeking Bicycle by Kate Cooch|Full Review]] <!-- James Atkinson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07ML4Q55J.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ML4Q55J/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Home Workout for Beginners: 6 Week Fitness Program with Fat Burning Workouts for Long Term Weight Loss by James Atkinson]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]] James Atkinson has all the qualifications which you need in a workout instructor and he looks the part. He's been actively involved in the health and fitness arena for more than twenty years and he spent nine years as a member of 9 Parachute Regiment, Royal Engineers. He has another qualification which means a lot to me: he's been on the other side. There was a time when he was overweight and not particularly strong. As a child he was slow to develop. This means that he ''understands'' what it's like and he knows how his clients feel: it's much more helpful than the twenty-something who was born super-fit and with an attitude problem. [[Home Workout for Beginners: 6 Week Fitness Program with Fat Burning Workouts for Long Term Weight Loss by James Atkinson|Full Review]] <!-- Adrian Cull -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1999308719.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999308719/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments by Adrian Cull]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]], [[:Category:Popular Science|Popular Science]] For many years now I've (half) joked that I intended to live forever and that so far, it was working out OK. Time has passed though and although I'm a great deal fitter and healthier than most people of my age there were a few nagging health problems which were tipping my life out of balance. It was time to look for a new approach and as so often happens, the reviewing gods brought me the book I needed. ''Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments'' seemed like the answer to my problems - only you get so much more than just 101 tips. [[Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments by Adrian Cull|Full Review]] <!-- Anders -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785653199.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785653199/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The City In The Middle Of The Night by Charlie Jane Anders]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] January is a dying planet. It wasn't exactly pleasant to begin with. One half is scorching sunlight, pure, blazing heat, and totally uninhabitable. The other half is pure darkness and ice, where a creature can freeze to death in seconds, and totally uninhabitable. In the middle is a brief twilight that is barely survivable. Life is a knife-edge, stray too close to one side you die, to close to the other, you die and yet the heat from the sun and the water from the ice are necessary for life. Life for the inhabitants of January is long, and hard, and arduous, will anything ever change? [[The City In The Middle Of The Night by Charlie Jane Anders|Full Review]] <!-- Laws -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789016851shape of things to come.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016851/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]''

I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298| styletitle="verticalThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking -align: top; textto anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=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 -align: left;"her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=[[Exit Day: Brexit; An Assassin Stalks We 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' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Prime Minister Nazi occupation by David Laws]]a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=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.''

[[image:3Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks.5starMira, 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.jpgBut 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.|linkisbn=Category:0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|Thrillers]]summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''

At Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the time protection of the Briar's, a family of my writing thiswitches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, there Ellie Briar is one thing uniting Britainthe first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and this is hatred of administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie'Brexits cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. Not just BrexitAs challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, but use putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the word Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It hadn'Brexitt been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. YesHis assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, people hate it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the people involvement was something that instigated it then disappearedthe man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and/or she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the people who just canBag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't seem want to get their fingers out and complete itfollow in his footsteps, but they also hate particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the use opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the wordjob for him. This biggest turnBefore long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't -off has made people who have never as with so much as tutted in their life slam down their teamany students -cups in high dudgeon and leave the room until itbeen his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's safe close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to returnmeet up with an old ally, when all mention Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of it has subsidedmanslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. I mention this in relation Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to this book because it help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is partly about Brexita dating agency in Edinburgh, but because it too seems to get run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the actual Brexiting online apps in providing a very protracted mannermore personal, tailored service. Just Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as we have Ness is planning to take a trip to wade through dirges from Europe Canada to get anywhere, it seemsaway for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the reader of chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this book new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already 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 get through lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a lot collection of knits from Europe before toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. 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 more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=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 really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's theme possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really arisesnice person. HereSo fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, at least thougha bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, the authorand Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's delaying tactics wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are much more forgiveable. [[Exit Day: Brexit; An Assassin Stalks |isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the Prime Minister by David Lawsregular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|Full Review]]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.

<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529431735|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4|genre=Crime|}summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?