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| − | =='''18 JANUARY'''== | + | =='''25 APRIL'''== |
| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |isbn=0571379559 | + | |author=Sylvie Cathrall |
| − | |title=The House of Broken Bricks | + | |title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep |
| − | |author=Fiona Williams
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| | |rating=5 | | |rating=5 |
| − | |genre=Literary Fiction
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| − | |summary=''The House of Broken Bricks'' is the story of four people. Tess Hembry's roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, but instead, she lives in the house on the riverbank, built of broken bricks. Insubstantial as it might look, it's stood the passage of time, storms and floods. Her husband, Richard, struggles to grow his vegetables, to complete the delivery rounds - and to bring in sufficient money. They have twin boys - Sonny and Max, the rainbow twins. Sonny's colouring reflects his mother's Jamaican heritage. Max takes after his father. People don't believe that they're related, much less twins and there's an assumption when Max is out with his mother that she's his nanny.
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| − | }}
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| − | =='''25 JANUARY'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=1803816759
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| − | |title=The Unravelling
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| − | |author=Will Gibson
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| − | |rating=4
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| | |genre=Science Fiction | | |genre=Science Fiction |
| − | |summary=It's 2038 and Joe is a bored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the AI system that now runs everything, making life easier for many, and riots start to spread. Finally, Joe gets to do some real policing. In the aftermath of the rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and Joe is assigned to bring her home. Joe isn't the only one trying to save Suki - Dylan, a British superfan and tech nerd, is also on the case. What went wrong? Did the system fail or was it hacked? And how is Suki's kidnapping connected? | + | |summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them. |
| | + | |isbn= 0356522776 |
| | }} | | }} |
| − | =='''31 JANUARY'''== | + | =='''9 MAY'''== |
| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |isbn=0811771741 | + | |author=Tom Percival |
| − | |title=InstaKnits for Baby | + | |title=The Wrong Shoes |
| − | |author=Melissa Leapman
| + | |rating=5 |
| − | |rating=4
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| − | |genre=Crafts
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| − | |summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, 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.
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| − | }}
| |
| − | =='''1 FEBRUARY'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Sarah Marsh
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| − | |title=A Sign of Her Own
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| − | |rating=3.5 | |
| − | |genre=General Fiction
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| − | |summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.
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| − | |isbn=1035401614
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| − | }}
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh
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| − | |title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
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| − | |rating=4
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| | |genre=Confident Readers | | |genre=Confident Readers |
| − | |summary=Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran. | + | |summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. |
| − | |isbn=0571382231
| + | |isbn=1398527122 |
| − | }}
| |
| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=1529431735
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| − | |title=The Winter Visitor
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| − | |author=James Henry
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| − | |rating=4
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| − | |genre=Crime
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| − | |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?
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| | }} | | }} |
| | + | =='''23 MAY'''== |
| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |author=Adam Stower | + | |author=Onyi Nwabineli |
| − | |title=Murray and Bun | + | |title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself |
| | |rating=4.5 | | |rating=4.5 |
| − | |genre=Confident Readers | + | |genre=General Fiction |
| − | |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 regular 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… | + | |summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time? |
| − | |isbn=0008561249
| + | |isbn=0861546873 |
| − | }}
| |
| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Dean Koontz
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| − | |title=The Bad Weather Friend
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| − | |rating=4.5
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| − | |genre=Paranormal
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| − | |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 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 nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.
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| − | |isbn=1662500491
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| − | }}
| |
| − | =='''8 FEBRUARY'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=0861541774
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| − | |title=A Nye of Pheasants
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| − | |author=Steve Burrows
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| − | |rating=4
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| − | |genre=Crime
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| − | |summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, 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 manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.
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| − | }}
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| − | =='''15 FEBRUARY'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=1529395224
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| − | |title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet
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| − | |author=Sion Rowlands
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| − | |rating=3.5
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| − | |genre=Animals and Wildlife
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| − | |summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.
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| − | }}
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| − | =='''29 FEBRUARY'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Rachel Greenlaw
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| − | |title=Compass and Blade
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| − | |rating=3.5
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| − | |genre=Teens
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| − | |summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
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| − | | |
| − | Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.
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| − | |isbn=0008664730
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| − | }}
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| − | =='''14 MARCH'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Christopher Edge
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| − | |title=Black Hole Cinema Club
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| − | |rating=4
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| − | |genre=Confident Readers
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| − | |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?
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| − | |isbn=1839942738 | |
| | }} | | }} |
| | =='''13 JUNE'''== | | =='''13 JUNE'''== |
