Difference between revisions of "Forthcoming Publications"

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=='''4 MARCH'''==
+
=='''27 APRIL'''==
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=1529047315
 
|title=The Lamplighters
 
|author=Emma Stonex
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary=''A fisherman told him once about the sea having two faces.  You have to take  them both, he said, the good and the bad, and never turn your back on either one of them.''
 
 
 
In 1972, fifteen miles off the coast of Cornwall, three men disappeared without trace from  The Maiden Rock Lighthouse in ''the frigid pause between Christmas and New Year''.  Jory Martin had taken out a relief keeper,  the weather such that ''the boat [was] rocking and bobbing like a bath toy over the wavelets'' but they were unable to get any response from the Maiden Rock.  It was broken into the next day, but there was no sign of the men.  The table was set for a meal for two - and the clocks were stopped at 8.45.  Contact with the light had not been possible as the radio was broken.  No explanation was ever found for what happened to the men.
 
}}
 
=='''11 MARCH'''==
 
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529109116
+
|isbn=0753558378
|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey
+
|title=Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters
|author=Hannah Jackson
+
|author=Greg McKeown
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation.  I don't think that is too much to ask.''
+
|summary=''The marginal return of working harder was, in fact, negative.''
  
The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the land where ''his'' family have farmed for generationsHe's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be a farmerIt's not always the case thoughHannah Jackson was born and brought up on the Wirral: she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a deep love of animalsHer original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, whale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake DistrictShe saw a lamb being born and, although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the kudos of her original intention, she knew that she wanted to be a shepherd. With the determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambition.
+
That's what happened to Patrick McGinnisIt's no exaggeration to say that he devoted his life to the company he worked for, struggling through, even when he was ill, only to find that he was working for a bankrupt companyHis stock had fallen by 97%, he had lost his health and his job had little valueHe made a bargain with God; if he survived, he would make some changesHe did survive and came through stronger - and richerThere is, you see, a different way: ''great things are not reserved for those who bleed, for those who almost break.''
 
}}
 
}}
 
=='''18 MARCH'''==
 
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Danny Wallace and Gemma Correll
+
|author=Kristen O'Neal
|title=The Day the Screens Went Blank
+
|title=Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Teens
|summary=Meet Stella and her family. They're just innocently trying to have a Sunday evening in together, watching a film – using three different screens to watch three different things, mind – when ''poof'' everything goes blank. And it's not just their home, but the entire south-western village of Mousehole, and not just that, either, but the whole country, if not world. Suddenly people are constantly on their phones – hoping they're first to get a screen back, and not what they were constantly doing on them before. Toasters can toast, but TVs cannot do the V part of their job, and no computer can show its computations.  You might think this is going to be a social comedy about people stuck in such a Luddite experience against their will, but no.  For the family finally remember Stella's grandma, and see if they can get across country to her. Hence this has to go down as a road-trip book.  But not just that, a slapstick road-trip comedy.  And more than that, too – for it's a slapstick, high-drama, high-octane road-trip comedy with oodles of cuddly heart that kids of all ages will love.
+
|summary= Having recently been diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, Priya has to come to terms with the fact that she may be in constant pain for the rest of her life. She joins ''Oof Ouch My Bones'', an online support group where she talks to a bunch of other teens living with chronic illnesses. They talk about their troubles and help each other out, while also providing an escape to just joke and mess around. When Brigid—one of her closest friends—doesn't respond to the chat for a while, Priya becomes concerned. She decides to steal her parents' car and drive to Brigid's house to check up on her. But what she doesn't expect to find there is a werewolf in the basement and for that werewolf to be the girl she has been talking to online for the past few months.
|isbn=1471196887
+
|isbn=1683692349
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
=='''29 APRIL'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1913193527
+
|isbn=1471181405
|title=Bound (Detective Sam Shephard)
+
|title=Nighthawking
|author=Vanda Symon
+
|author=Russ Thomas
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Dunedin was shocked when it heard of the murder of a wealthy and apparently respectable businessman out at SeacliffHis wife had been bound and gagged and placed so that she was forced to watch the murder, with the scene being discovered by their son, Declan, when he returned home from an evening out. The subsequent investigation would prove that John Henderson had been involved in some activities which might have been considered shady and certainly questionable if not illegalHis company, Eros Global, manufactured and marketed ''vitamin-type supplements and, well, sexual enhancers, that kind of thing'', as Henderson's employee, Blair Harvey-Boyd explained.
+
|summary=Sheffield's [http://www.sbg.org.uk/ Botanical Gardens] (on Clarkehouse Road, if you'd like to visit) are an oasis of calm in what's otherwise thought of as an industrial city but this was disrupted when the body of a young woman was discoveredIt had obviously been buried in one of the beds but who would have started to dig her up? It had been in the earth for months and could have been undiscovered for yearsThe police need to establish who stabbed her - and who left the two, very rare, gold aurei on her eyes.  DCI Diane Jordan is the Investigating Officer and her foot soldiers are DS Adam Tyler and DC Mina Rabbani.  They're joined by DS Guy Daley who's just returned from extended sick leave.  Mina thinks he's as obnoxious as ever but suspects that he's not fully recovered from his injuries.
 
}}
 
}}
 
=='''23 MARCH'''==
 
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Dean Koontz
+
|author= Jennifer Saint
|title=The Other Emily
+
|title= Ariadne
|rating=4
+
|rating= 4.5
|genre=Thrillers
+
|genre= Women's Fiction
|summary=Our hero David Thorne is an author, who shares his life between the two US coasts. It's the western coast we're concerned with, a place he has to return to, and a place he has to be able to leave.  David lost contact with his partner there ten years ago, when she vanished from a remote road late at night. He's paying for contact with the man he thinks the only suspect, a lifer now, who went a bit Hannibal Lecter, and has a dozen and more unfound Jane Does on his recordDavid is trying to pry the connection between the murderer and his girl from the man's mind, but to no availHe's also having a recharge ready for his next hit novel when into the restaurant walks the sheer spitting image, the very embodiment, the virtual resurrection, of his loveWhat is a man to do?
+
|summary= This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of Ariadne, spanning from her childhood to her death, allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a prop in the heroics of Theseus.  
|isbn=1542019958
+
|isbn=1472273869
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=0241985137
 +
|title=The Whole Truth (D I Fawley)
 +
|author=Cara Hunter
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Crime
 +
|summary=DI Adam Fawley's team got to Edith Launceleve College first, called there by Jancis Appleby to see the Principal, Professor Hilary Reynolds.  There had been an accusation of sexual assault by a professor on a studentWhen Fawley arrived he was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing in the room before they'd even got the details from the victim?  The problem was that Caleb Morgan ''was'' the 'victim' and the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina FisherJust to complicate matters further, Caleb's mother is Petra Newson, the local MP, and Professor Fisher is a big name is Artificial Intelligence.  She has an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by the case from Berry Brothers & Rudd, spends more than £1000 a month on clothes and has more than ten thousand Twitter followersWhen the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this is going to be ''very'' public.
 
}}
 
}}
  
=='''1 APRIL'''==
+
=='''30 APRIL'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B08R7LXQ9S
+
|author=Ananda Devi
|title=Remy: A book about believing in yourself
+
|title=Eve Out of Her Ruins
|author=Mayuri Naidoo and Caroline Siegal
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Remy is feeling miserable. He's let himself down ''again''. The school bully Jayden,  together with his sidekicks Ryan and Brandon, have been laughing at Remy, calling him names because he is short and has small eyes. They are mean but they are not stupid. They are careful to wind up Remy when nobody can see and then push him just that little bit further when the other kids are around. So, when Remy reacts, it looks as though he was the instigator. And then he gets into trouble at school and the teachers don't believe him when he tries to explain what happened.
+
|summary=At not even 200 pages, Eve Out of Her Ruins is one of the shortest books I've read in a long while, but it's one of the most dramatic. It's also told in a way that I can only describe as brutal: it spares nothing and pulls very few punches, the descriptions stark and unromantic.
}}
+
|isbn=0993009344
 +
}}  
 +
 
 +
=='''3 MAY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Ruth Hogan
+
|isbn=1635862353
|title=Madame Burova
+
|title=The Sandalmaking Workshop
 +
|author=Rachel Corry
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
+
|genre=Crafts
|summary=This book lets us discover several people in different stages of life in the early 1970s, all vaguely connectedSo we have a bullied half-cast boy (as he would have been called then), a girl in a humdrum job wanting to become a singer, and chiefly, Imelda, the third generation of Madame Burova, ''Tarot-Reader, Palmist and Clairvoyant'', to use her family's sea-front boothThe singer, the scryer and the sufferer's mother will all become staff at a revamped holiday camp, but just before then we see Imelda fly solo for the first time in the family stallWe also see her on her last day, fifty years later, in possession of a pair of letters that will change everything for a woman called BillieJust who is she, and who delivered the secrets about her to Imelda, and why did it have to remain a secret all this time?
+
|summary=A sandal-making workshop?  I couldn't really believe it, mainly because I'd always thought that you'd need more equipment than the average home was likely to be able to contain but I was intriguedRachel Corry started sandal making accidentally - a small fire destroyed some of her shoesOne pair had come apart and she could see how the sandal was constructedThen she realised that she couldn't afford to replace all her shoesCould she combine these two facts to create a new and worthwhile craft?  She showed quite a few people her first pair and they all either wanted to know how to do it - or if she'd make them a pair.  A new career was born.
|isbn=152937331X
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
=='''6 MAY'''==
=='''14 APRIL'''==
 
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Polly Barton
+
|author=Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker
|title=Fifty Sounds
+
|title=A Tattoo on my Brain
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=3.5
|genre=Politics and Society
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary= Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the first essay, which is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, the sound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.
+
|summary=Alzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the elements. It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in ''A Tattoo on my Brain''.
|isbn=1913097501
+
|isbn=1108838936
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
=='''7 MAY'''==
=='''15 APRIL'''==
 
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Lucy Holland
+
|isbn=0241985137
|title=Sistersong
+
|title=The Whole Truth (D I Fawley)
 +
|author=Cara Hunter
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=Sistersong is part of a genre I particularly enjoy, the modern retelling of folk and fairy tales. These stories, for most of us, are a cornerstone of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. If handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated, fleshing out characters, examining relationships and re-evaluating the role of women. Sistersong is a perfect example of a modern retelling done well, the plot is handled with care, keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters to come to life, to feel real and human, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age they live in. This is a masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to end.
+
|summary=DI Adam Fawley's team got to Edith Launceleve College first, called there by Jancis Appleby to see the Principal, Professor Hilary Reynolds. There had been an accusation of sexual assault by a professor on a student. When Fawley arrived he was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing in the room before they'd even got the details from the victim?  The problem was that Caleb Morgan ''was'' the 'victim' and the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina Fisher.  Just to complicate matters further, Caleb's mother is Petra Newson, the local MP, and Professor Fisher is a big name is Artificial Intelligence.  She has an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by the case from Berry Brothers & Rudd, spends more than £1000 a month on clothes and has more than ten thousand Twitter followers.  When the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this is going to be ''very'' public.
|isbn=1529039037
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
=='''11 MAY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Goldy Moldavsky
+
|isbn=1523092734
|title=The Last Girl
+
|title=A Women's Guide to Claiming Space
 +
|author=Eliza Van Cort
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=teens
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary= Rachel Chavez is the new girl at Manchester Prep. A school filled to the brim with the richest children in the city – and Rachel doesn't belong. She's not rich, she has no ties to some royal family in Serbia, and most of all, she spends the majority of her spare time watching horror movies as a source of comfort. She struggles to find anyone to connect with, until one day she stumbles upon the Mary Shelley Club. A secret society with one aim: pull off the best prank in true horror movie style, and unless someone screams, you have failed. Rachel becomes immediately engrossed in the competition. But as the pranks escalate, and Rachel finally feels like she has found her place in this school, things start to go wrong; a masked figure keeps showing up to the pranks, and people begin to get hurt. When the competition then takes a deadly turn, Rachel must figure out who this masked figure is before it's too late.
+
|summary=''She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD)
|isbn=0755501527
+
 
 +
''To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravely. It is to live the life you've always wanted.''
 +
 
 +
Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, ''A Women's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be ''protected''. I've always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people who don't need protection, people who claim their own space. If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.
 
}}
 
}}
 +
=='''13 MAY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Sarah Sultoon
+
|isbn=1788549759
|title=The Source
+
|title=The Distant Dead
|rating=2.5
+
|author=Lesley Thomson
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Crime
 +
|summary=It was December 1940 and twenty-four-year-old Maple Greenhill had gone out for the evening 'with her friend Ida' leaving her three-year-old son, William, at home with her parents.  The boy thought that Maple was his sister - it was better for the family than the shame of illegitimacy, but Maple had high hopes of putting her life (and William's) on a better footing.  She was going to meet her well-to-do fiancé, hoping to persuade him to come and meet her family the following week.  Later, her body would be found in the bombed-out home where he had taken her.
 +
}}
 +
=='''18 MAY'''==
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1848458428
 +
|title=Local Woman Missing
 +
|author=Mary Kubica
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=1996. Essex. Thirteen-year-old schoolgirl Carly lives in a disenfranchised town dominated by a military base, struggling to care for her baby sister while her mum sleeps off another binge. When her squaddie brother brings food and treats, and offers an exclusive invitation to army parties, things start to look a little less bleak...
+
|summary=Eleven years ago, a man regularly came home to his wife with lipstick marks on his collar and lame excuses as to why he was late - again. His wife was in the habit of going out for a run late at night. It was the only time she had for herself when she didn't have to look after her baby - but when she was out she would meet up with a man, grateful for the unquestioning affection he gave her.  The locality was stunned when Shelby Tebow disappeared, seemingly without a trace, leaving her husband to look after her disabled baby.  Ten days later, a local woman and her six-year-old daughter disappeared. Meredith Dickey was a birth doula and she'd seemed to be under some strain for the last couple of weeks or so.  Her body was eventually found in a seedy motel - it appeared that she'd committed suicide. She left a note saying that her daughter, Delilah, was safe and there was no point in looking for her.
|isbn=1913193594
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
=='''27 MAY'''==
=='''27 APRIL'''==
+
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=walker14
 +
|title=The Coldest Case  (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)
 +
|author=Martin Walker
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Crime
 +
|summary=It was when he saw Elisabeth Daynes' work in the prehistory museum at Les Eyzies that chief of police Bruno Courreges had the idea which he thought might help his boss, chief of detectives Jalipeau, known as J-J, to solve a case that had haunted him for thirty years.  The body of a young male was found in the woods but he was never identified and his killer never brought to justice.  What if an artist could recreate the face from the skull and the resulting publicity be used to identify the young man?  J-J calls the skull 'Oscar' and has a picture on his door: he sees it every time he leaves his office: he doesn't want to forget Oscar until his killer has been brought to justice.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=0008404925
 +
|title=The Killing Kind
 +
|author=Jane Casey
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Crime
 +
|summary=Difficult clients were nothing new to barrister Ingrid Lewis but John Webster came as something of a surprise.  After all, it was her cross-examination of the 'victim' which saved him from a lengthy prison sentence.  He'd been accused of stalking the woman but it didn't take long to establish that - if anything - it was the other way around.  Soon Ingrid never seemed to be free of John Webster and then she came to see him as a threat and was forced to remember that the police officer at his trial had told her that this was the best chance they'd had to put Webster away for a long time: he was a very dangerous man.
 +
}}
 +
=='''3 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Kristen O'Neal
+
|author=M G Leonard
|title=Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses
+
|title=Twitch
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= Having recently been diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, Priya has to come to terms with the fact that she may be in constant pain for the rest of her life. She joins ''Oof Ouch My Bones'', an online support group where she talks to a bunch of other teens living with chronic illnesses. They talk about their troubles and help each other out, while also providing an escape to just joke and mess around. When Brigid—one of her closest friends—doesn't respond to the chat for a while, Priya becomes concerned. She decides to steal her parents' car and drive to Brigid's house to check up on her. But what she doesn't expect to find there is a werewolf in the basement – and for that werewolf to be the girl she has been talking to online for the past few months.
+
|summary=Twitch is a boy who loves birds.  He keeps pigeons at home, and chickens, and even has swallows nesting in his bedroom!  His time spent watching and helping birds is easy compared to that of his time in school.  But things are about to change for Twitch in all aspects of his life as there is a dangerous bank robber on the run, and it's possible that the missing bank haul is hidden somewhere in Aves Wood, the place where Twitch has his secret hide and that he knows like the back of his hand!  Can Twitch solve the mystery, and find the missing millions?
|isbn=1683692349
+
|isbn=1406389374
 
}}
 
}}
  
=='''29 APRIL'''==
+
=='''10 JUNE'''==
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=C J Carey
 +
|title=Widowland
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=General Fiction
 +
|summary=It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen Wallis.  For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''.  But this is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widows.  Female literacy is actively discouraged.  And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint.  That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.
 +
|isbn=152941198X
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Terry Miles
 +
|title=Rabbits
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Science Fiction
 +
|summary=Welcome to the world of The Game. Or should that be the game, for while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this book. It's also called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structure, and to the average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the game of life then. Yes, this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webs. People like our hero, K, named like that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the lists of who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time it's different. This time the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's even being played, and how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to find out that the line between observing and learning about the game, and playing it, is a very thin one indeed...
 +
|isbn=1529016932
 +
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author= Jennifer Saint
+
|author=Louise Beech
|title= Ariadne
+
|title=This Is How We Are Human
|rating= 4.5
+
|rating=4
|genre= Women's Fiction  
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of Ariadne, spanning from her childhood to her death, allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a prop in the heroics of Theseus.  
+
|summary=Veronica is a devoted single mother to her son, Sebastian - but she can't give him everything he wants. Sebastian has decided that it's time for him to have sex. But as an autistic 20 year-old, that's easier said than done. And it's starting to cause them both problems.  
|isbn=1472273869
+
|isbn=1913193713
}}  
+
}}
  
 
=='''17 JUNE'''==
 
=='''17 JUNE'''==
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|summary=You might be forgiven for thinking that all the dark corners of Iceland have featured in their noirish thrillers and crime books before now.  You think, seeing on the map that we're set in Akranes, and finding it's only twenty kilometres from the capital city, that this author is clutching at the few final straws left.  However just because the book aims for the usual small-town feel, it's not just in Akranes that our interests lie.  Six months ago a woman failed to turn up for her date evening, and was never seen again.  This left a teenaged girl not at all disappointed that she could now live permanently with the couple who had given her foster care before her mother had asked for the girl back, and a couple of delighted adopters.  But it left our three detectives at a quandary – mobile phone use was at a high level until it stopped all of a sudden, in one place, the woman's car was found miles away in a second place, and now, after six months, the body has been discovered, in a third, even more remote place.  Meanwhile, this narrative is interrupted by a confessional monologue from a mother who found herself with heavy post-natal depression, and very little maternal feeling in her body.  Is the assumption that is so easy for the reader to make the right one?
 
|summary=You might be forgiven for thinking that all the dark corners of Iceland have featured in their noirish thrillers and crime books before now.  You think, seeing on the map that we're set in Akranes, and finding it's only twenty kilometres from the capital city, that this author is clutching at the few final straws left.  However just because the book aims for the usual small-town feel, it's not just in Akranes that our interests lie.  Six months ago a woman failed to turn up for her date evening, and was never seen again.  This left a teenaged girl not at all disappointed that she could now live permanently with the couple who had given her foster care before her mother had asked for the girl back, and a couple of delighted adopters.  But it left our three detectives at a quandary – mobile phone use was at a high level until it stopped all of a sudden, in one place, the woman's car was found miles away in a second place, and now, after six months, the body has been discovered, in a third, even more remote place.  Meanwhile, this narrative is interrupted by a confessional monologue from a mother who found herself with heavy post-natal depression, and very little maternal feeling in her body.  Is the assumption that is so easy for the reader to make the right one?
 
|isbn=191319373X
 
|isbn=191319373X
 +
}}
 +
 +
=='''7 OCTOBER'''==
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=John Gwynne
 +
|title=The Shadow Of The Gods
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Fantasy
 +
|summary=The Shadow Of The Gods is the first installment of the Bloodsworn Saga, set in the era of the Vikings in the shadow of Ragnarok, when the Gods have battled and their bones lie scattered for all to see. This story is the ultimate in High Fantasy, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to the genre, with mythical creatures, archaic language and battles galore. This is a thick book, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in which our heroes must do battle.
 +
|isbn=0356514218
 
}}
 
}}
  

Revision as of 07:44, 19 April 2021

27 APRIL

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Review of

Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters by Greg McKeown

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

The marginal return of working harder was, in fact, negative.

That's what happened to Patrick McGinnis. It's no exaggeration to say that he devoted his life to the company he worked for, struggling through, even when he was ill, only to find that he was working for a bankrupt company. His stock had fallen by 97%, he had lost his health and his job had little value. He made a bargain with God; if he survived, he would make some changes. He did survive and came through stronger - and richer. There is, you see, a different way: great things are not reserved for those who bleed, for those who almost break. Full Review

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Review of

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O'Neal

5star.jpg Teens

Having recently been diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, Priya has to come to terms with the fact that she may be in constant pain for the rest of her life. She joins Oof Ouch My Bones, an online support group where she talks to a bunch of other teens living with chronic illnesses. They talk about their troubles and help each other out, while also providing an escape to just joke and mess around. When Brigid—one of her closest friends—doesn't respond to the chat for a while, Priya becomes concerned. She decides to steal her parents' car and drive to Brigid's house to check up on her. But what she doesn't expect to find there is a werewolf in the basement – and for that werewolf to be the girl she has been talking to online for the past few months. Full Review

29 APRIL

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Review of

Nighthawking by Russ Thomas

4.5star.jpg Crime

Sheffield's Botanical Gardens (on Clarkehouse Road, if you'd like to visit) are an oasis of calm in what's otherwise thought of as an industrial city but this was disrupted when the body of a young woman was discovered. It had obviously been buried in one of the beds but who would have started to dig her up? It had been in the earth for months and could have been undiscovered for years. The police need to establish who stabbed her - and who left the two, very rare, gold aurei on her eyes. DCI Diane Jordan is the Investigating Officer and her foot soldiers are DS Adam Tyler and DC Mina Rabbani. They're joined by DS Guy Daley who's just returned from extended sick leave. Mina thinks he's as obnoxious as ever but suspects that he's not fully recovered from his injuries. Full Review

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Review of

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

4.5star.jpg Women's Fiction

This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of Ariadne, spanning from her childhood to her death, allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a prop in the heroics of Theseus. Full Review

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Review of

The Whole Truth (D I Fawley) by Cara Hunter

5star.jpg Crime

DI Adam Fawley's team got to Edith Launceleve College first, called there by Jancis Appleby to see the Principal, Professor Hilary Reynolds. There had been an accusation of sexual assault by a professor on a student. When Fawley arrived he was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing in the room before they'd even got the details from the victim? The problem was that Caleb Morgan was the 'victim' and the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina Fisher. Just to complicate matters further, Caleb's mother is Petra Newson, the local MP, and Professor Fisher is a big name is Artificial Intelligence. She has an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by the case from Berry Brothers & Rudd, spends more than £1000 a month on clothes and has more than ten thousand Twitter followers. When the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this is going to be very public. Full Review

30 APRIL

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Review of

Eve Out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi

4star.jpg General Fiction

At not even 200 pages, Eve Out of Her Ruins is one of the shortest books I've read in a long while, but it's one of the most dramatic. It's also told in a way that I can only describe as brutal: it spares nothing and pulls very few punches, the descriptions stark and unromantic. Full Review

3 MAY

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Review of

The Sandalmaking Workshop by Rachel Corry

4.5star.jpg Crafts

A sandal-making workshop? I couldn't really believe it, mainly because I'd always thought that you'd need more equipment than the average home was likely to be able to contain but I was intrigued. Rachel Corry started sandal making accidentally - a small fire destroyed some of her shoes. One pair had come apart and she could see how the sandal was constructed. Then she realised that she couldn't afford to replace all her shoes. Could she combine these two facts to create a new and worthwhile craft? She showed quite a few people her first pair and they all either wanted to know how to do it - or if she'd make them a pair. A new career was born. Full Review

6 MAY

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Review of

A Tattoo on my Brain by Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker

3.5star.jpg Autobiography

Alzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the elements. It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in A Tattoo on my Brain. Full Review

7 MAY

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Review of

The Whole Truth (D I Fawley) by Cara Hunter

5star.jpg Crime

DI Adam Fawley's team got to Edith Launceleve College first, called there by Jancis Appleby to see the Principal, Professor Hilary Reynolds. There had been an accusation of sexual assault by a professor on a student. When Fawley arrived he was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing in the room before they'd even got the details from the victim? The problem was that Caleb Morgan was the 'victim' and the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina Fisher. Just to complicate matters further, Caleb's mother is Petra Newson, the local MP, and Professor Fisher is a big name is Artificial Intelligence. She has an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by the case from Berry Brothers & Rudd, spends more than £1000 a month on clothes and has more than ten thousand Twitter followers. When the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this is going to be very public. Full Review

11 MAY

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Review of

A Women's Guide to Claiming Space by Eliza Van Cort

5star.jpg Politics and Society

She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and again. (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD)

To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravely. It is to live the life you've always wanted.

Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, A Women's Guide to Claiming Space by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk. Now - to be clear - this book is not a 'how to disable your attacker with two simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, but discussion at the moment seems to be about how women can be protected. I've always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people who don't need protection, people who claim their own space. If all women did this, those few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men. Full Review

13 MAY

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Review of

The Distant Dead by Lesley Thomson

4.5star.jpg Crime

It was December 1940 and twenty-four-year-old Maple Greenhill had gone out for the evening 'with her friend Ida' leaving her three-year-old son, William, at home with her parents. The boy thought that Maple was his sister - it was better for the family than the shame of illegitimacy, but Maple had high hopes of putting her life (and William's) on a better footing. She was going to meet her well-to-do fiancé, hoping to persuade him to come and meet her family the following week. Later, her body would be found in the bombed-out home where he had taken her. Full Review

18 MAY

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Review of

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

4star.jpg Thrillers

Eleven years ago, a man regularly came home to his wife with lipstick marks on his collar and lame excuses as to why he was late - again. His wife was in the habit of going out for a run late at night. It was the only time she had for herself when she didn't have to look after her baby - but when she was out she would meet up with a man, grateful for the unquestioning affection he gave her. The locality was stunned when Shelby Tebow disappeared, seemingly without a trace, leaving her husband to look after her disabled baby. Ten days later, a local woman and her six-year-old daughter disappeared. Meredith Dickey was a birth doula and she'd seemed to be under some strain for the last couple of weeks or so. Her body was eventually found in a seedy motel - it appeared that she'd committed suicide. She left a note saying that her daughter, Delilah, was safe and there was no point in looking for her. Full Review

27 MAY

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Review of

The Coldest Case (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel) by Martin Walker

4star.jpg Crime

It was when he saw Elisabeth Daynes' work in the prehistory museum at Les Eyzies that chief of police Bruno Courreges had the idea which he thought might help his boss, chief of detectives Jalipeau, known as J-J, to solve a case that had haunted him for thirty years. The body of a young male was found in the woods but he was never identified and his killer never brought to justice. What if an artist could recreate the face from the skull and the resulting publicity be used to identify the young man? J-J calls the skull 'Oscar' and has a picture on his door: he sees it every time he leaves his office: he doesn't want to forget Oscar until his killer has been brought to justice. Full Review

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Review of

The Killing Kind by Jane Casey

5star.jpg Crime

Difficult clients were nothing new to barrister Ingrid Lewis but John Webster came as something of a surprise. After all, it was her cross-examination of the 'victim' which saved him from a lengthy prison sentence. He'd been accused of stalking the woman but it didn't take long to establish that - if anything - it was the other way around. Soon Ingrid never seemed to be free of John Webster and then she came to see him as a threat and was forced to remember that the police officer at his trial had told her that this was the best chance they'd had to put Webster away for a long time: he was a very dangerous man. Full Review

3 JUNE

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Review of

Twitch by M G Leonard

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Twitch is a boy who loves birds. He keeps pigeons at home, and chickens, and even has swallows nesting in his bedroom! His time spent watching and helping birds is easy compared to that of his time in school. But things are about to change for Twitch in all aspects of his life as there is a dangerous bank robber on the run, and it's possible that the missing bank haul is hidden somewhere in Aves Wood, the place where Twitch has his secret hide and that he knows like the back of his hand! Can Twitch solve the mystery, and find the missing millions? Full Review

10 JUNE

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Review of

Widowland by C J Carey

4star.jpg General Fiction

It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen Wallis. For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on the mainland. But this is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widows. Female literacy is actively discouraged. And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint. That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit. Full Review

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Review of

Rabbits by Terry Miles

4.5star.jpg Science Fiction

Welcome to the world of The Game. Or should that be the game, for while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this book. It's also called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structure, and to the average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the game of life then. Yes, this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webs. People like our hero, K, named like that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the lists of who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time it's different. This time the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's even being played, and how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to find out that the line between observing and learning about the game, and playing it, is a very thin one indeed... Full Review

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Review of

This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech

4star.jpg General Fiction

Veronica is a devoted single mother to her son, Sebastian - but she can't give him everything he wants. Sebastian has decided that it's time for him to have sex. But as an autistic 20 year-old, that's easier said than done. And it's starting to cause them both problems. Full Review

17 JUNE

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Review of

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox

4star.jpg Thrillers

Joseph Knox, known for his series surrounding Detective Aidan Waits, has created a new genre with his latest novel, "True Crime Story". The story follows the disappearance of Zoe Nolan from her university halls of residence. Split into four parts, the reader is taken through the life and disappearance of Zoe through the eyes of her twin sister, other family, friends and professionals, such as the police. The various accounts help the reader get to know Zoe, or at least the Zoe she presented to others. However, the twists and turns at the end of each chapter leave you shocked, confused and unsure of what is true or fabricated. Whose accounts can we trust? Full Review

24 JUNE

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Review of

The Disappearing Act by Catherine Steadman

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

British actress Mia Eliot is on the cusp of success. Great success. If the rumours are true, award season is going to treat her well, acknowledging her for her latest, critically acclaimed production. She's going places but so, unfortunately, is her partner. And the places he's going take him towards lies, deceit and a pretty young thing in the form of his new co-star. It's a good time for Mia to escape, and pilot season in LA provides just the excuse. Full Review

8 JULY

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Review of

Kate on the Case by Hannah Peck

3.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Meet Kate, although I got the impression she'd rather be a Catherine – and one specific Catherine at that. For Catherine Rodriguez is Kate's idol, and the author of our heroine's favourite possession, The Special Correspondent Manual. Armed with a plucky father, that book, and her talking mouse called Rupert, she is all equipped to manage a train ride to the Arctic, to see her scientist mother for the first time in yonks. However, this is a train ride with a difference, for on board is a greedy-seeming harridan and her cat, a thief – and two glowing eyes, shining from the darkness in a blink-and-you'll-miss-them style. It's definitely a case for a new young investigative journalist... Full Review

22 JULY

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Review of

Girls Who Lie by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)

3star.jpg Thrillers

You might be forgiven for thinking that all the dark corners of Iceland have featured in their noirish thrillers and crime books before now. You think, seeing on the map that we're set in Akranes, and finding it's only twenty kilometres from the capital city, that this author is clutching at the few final straws left. However just because the book aims for the usual small-town feel, it's not just in Akranes that our interests lie. Six months ago a woman failed to turn up for her date evening, and was never seen again. This left a teenaged girl not at all disappointed that she could now live permanently with the couple who had given her foster care before her mother had asked for the girl back, and a couple of delighted adopters. But it left our three detectives at a quandary – mobile phone use was at a high level until it stopped all of a sudden, in one place, the woman's car was found miles away in a second place, and now, after six months, the body has been discovered, in a third, even more remote place. Meanwhile, this narrative is interrupted by a confessional monologue from a mother who found herself with heavy post-natal depression, and very little maternal feeling in her body. Is the assumption that is so easy for the reader to make the right one? Full Review

7 OCTOBER

0356514218.jpg

Review of

The Shadow Of The Gods by John Gwynne

5star.jpg Fantasy

The Shadow Of The Gods is the first installment of the Bloodsworn Saga, set in the era of the Vikings in the shadow of Ragnarok, when the Gods have battled and their bones lie scattered for all to see. This story is the ultimate in High Fantasy, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to the genre, with mythical creatures, archaic language and battles galore. This is a thick book, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in which our heroes must do battle. Full Review

You can work your way through the newest review, category by category, starting here.