'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Richard Wrangham
|title=Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Humans are cooking apes. According to Richard Wrangham, mastery of fire and cooking of the food that resulted from it was at the root of human evolutionary development and ultimate success. Various factors have been proposed as the crucial stimulus which led to the appearance of the first recognisably human creatures: leaving aside divine intervention (be it from God, extra-terrestrials or future humans travelling in time), the candidates for what made our ancestral apes stand straighter and start growing brains range from socialised hunting to chattering about kinship to eating seafood.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682851</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Morag Joss
|summary=Meet Barry Johns. You'll see him coming - he's five hundred pounds if he's an ounce. Just don't ever lend him money - he won't pay it back. A businessman with a share of a nightclub on Cyprus, he goes there for a customary break, and finds his sort-of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancer. He manages to tread both on the toes of his local colleague and some Greek rivals. And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides to pack up and shut up. It's a big stone that hides him, but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn it and get their revenge.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Stephen Baker
|title=They've Got Your Number
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that ''Big Brother'' is always watching or like to believe that you are not a number, but a free man (or woman), then this may not be the book for you, as it will do nothing to dispel any of those worries. If, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of the sexiest things ever, and are chomping at the bit to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to say.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rebecca Tope
|title=Fear in the Cotswolds
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Thea Osborne is a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves into their homes and looks after their animals and the property. This time it's winter and she's spending a month in the Cotswold village of Hampnett. It wouldn't be a job for all of us but Thea delights in getting to know the local people and the area. In the past she's also been involved with the police in solving various cases but it looks as though that might have come to an end as the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbled. For the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish one - when she finds footsteps in the snow which lead to a body in a nearby field. When the police finally arrive the body has disappeared and the police obviously wonder if she's imagined it all.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tad Tuleja
|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases
|rating=3
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=Take a look at the cover design of this book, and you'd be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken part in our English language since whenever they crossed over from their original homes. But the title is definitely honest, for this is a dictionary book first, for reference, and a browser for the trivia buff second.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anne Rice
|title=Angel Time
|rating=2.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Toby O'Dare is an extremely efficient hit man with a passion for music, history and playing his beloved lute. He's also something of a lost soul having turned his back on God many years ago. One day while on a 'job' he is visited by an Angel who offers him a chance at redemption. Toby agrees to become the Angel's human instrument and help save lives rather than take them. He is sent on an assignment to help a Jewish couple accused of murder in 13th Century England.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ian Mortimer
|title=1415: Henry V's Year of Glory
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=The medieval, in fact time-honoured, view of King Henry V as one of England's greatest heroes was propagated though not originated by Shakespeare, and again more recently to some extent by Olivier's portrayal in film. At least one historian has called him ''the greatest man that ever ruled England''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Deborah Gregory
|title=Dancing With The Dead
|rating=3
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=I wanted to read ''Dancing with the Dead'', because I'm interested in family history. The blurb on the back of the book also mentioned Gill – our heroine of the piece – was moving from Bristol (my current home) to Lincolnshire (where I was born and brought up). I felt with all these links, the novel could not fail to interest me – but this was not the case.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Miss Read
|title=Christmas at Thrush Green
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Set in the rural village of Thrush Green, this book is the latest in a series surrounding familiar characters. There is the feisty Ella Bembridge, who is finally having to admit that old age is creeping up as her eyesight fails. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock are concerned about her, but she refuses to accept any help. Albert Piggott has decided it's time to retire now that his wife, Nelly, is a successful cafe owner and can afford to take care of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging the local nativity play, despite a number of set-backs. Will everything be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her future?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Matt and Dave
|title=Yuck's Robotic Bottom
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's concerned me for a while that it's relatively easy to pick up early readers for girls – princesses, magic soft toys, mermaids and pets abound – but there's a much smaller choice for boys. It's important too with early readers that the content is ''interesting'' and reading becomes more than just something which you ''have'' to do at school and moves into being fun. Matt and Dave have found the answer in Yuck.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John E Smelcer
|title=The Great Death
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary='As Western Europeans settled Alaska, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from a pandemic of measles, smallpox, and influenza. No community was spared. In most cases, half of a village's population died within a week. In some cases, there were no survivors. It was the end of an ancient way of life. Natives still refer to the dreadful period as the Great Death.'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Maxine Barry
|title=River Deep
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Two young women both have a love of the Thames. Melisande Ray's beloved hotel, the Ray of Sunshine is on the river bank. It's here that guests come who want to be pampered and looked after in the way that only the best hotels can do well, but when Wendell James checks in to the hotel it's not pampering he's looking for. He's buying a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine and he's sussing out the competition. There's something personal in there too – if his new hotel means that the Ray of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonus. There's just a slight doubt in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eye.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>
}}