Changes

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search

Newest General Fiction Reviews (view source)

Revision as of 15:11, 5 June 2019

4,044 bytes added ,  15:11, 5 June 2019
no edit summary
{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
<!-- Tanoh McGee -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:19121455610241365953.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/19121455610241365953/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Day of the Orphan American Royals by Dr Nat TanohKatharine McGee]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Saga is eighteen Two anda half centuries ago, like many eighteen-year olds, his prime concerns are listening to what his mum calls ''hop-hip'', eating copious amounts of food, America won the Revolutionary War and learning about girlsGeneral George Washington was offered the crown. Living in an affluent, liberal and protected suburb, he has a good life. HoweverToday, the suburb is in Africa, where childhoods can be snatched House of Washington still sit on the thrown with Princess Beatrice next in an instantline. When his friends Beatrice's whole life has been building up to her ruling the United States and family are dragged into the conflict raging around the dictatorship that Saga lives under, he time for her reign is forced to become an unlikely revolutionaryimminent. Can chubby Saga really stand up to a murderous regime? And can he stay one step ahead of the soldiers desperate to stop him? [[The Day of the Orphan American Royals by Dr Nat TanohKatharine McGee|Full Review]]
<!-- Lock Mulligan -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1784742716.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784742716/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan]]=== [[image:2.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] I came to this book thinking I knew just what to expect, even though it is [[:Category:Andy Mulligan|the author's]] debut in the adult novel market (hence the more mature name – he used to be an Andy). I thought it simple to sum up, the tale of a middle-aged man who knows too much about train travel having his life turned around in the most pleasant way. I hadn't opened it when I'd shelved it alongside [[:Category:Chris Cleave|Chris Cleave]], and [[:Category:David Nicholls|David Nicholls]]. I expected some whimsy, some warmth and some affirmative loveliness. More fool me. [[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan|Full Review]] <!-- Coleman -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:17871982431785032461.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17871982431785032461/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Murmuration The Girl at the Window by Robert LockRowan Coleman]]===
[[image:3star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical FictionParanormal|Historical FictionParanormal]]
''Murmuration'' follows Trudy Heaton is going home, to a house where her roots burrow back through the lives of centuries and to a host of characters from 1863 mother she hasn't spoken to the present dayfor sixteen years. From a risqué comic Home, her refuge, Ponden Hall, where she can heal herself and try to come to a fortune teller, we see terms with the birth traumatic loss of Blackpool and its steadily fading glamourher husband. There is a hint of mysticism She needs to the tale, build bridges with her mother and convince her grieving son that his father is dead. Where better than the mesmerising dance house full of starlings over the pier acting as an anchor light and shadow, that nurtured her throughout the distinct narratives here, drawing together disparate stories of lives captivated by the sea. her childhood? [[Murmuration The Girl at the Window by Robert LockRowan Coleman|Full Review]]
<!-- Laurain -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:19104775400008291845.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/19104775400008291845/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Smoking Kills We Are Not Okay by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)Natalia Gomes]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Meet Fabrice Valantine. He's Set in a headhuntertypical American town, ''We Are Not Okay'' tells the story of four teenage girls facing the difficulties brought on by high school and growing up as a successful one too, girl in an office in Paristoday's society. All around him however his world The novel is changing – yestold from four different perspectives, there is a new ban on smoking in all workplaces. Goaded by his non-smoking wifethose of Lucy, even though they met over an ashtrayUlana, of sortsTrina and Sophia, he sees a hypnotist who had success whose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to sworn enemies. The reader is presented with a mutual friend in stopping glimpse into each of their lives, but more importantly their nicotine habit. The session seems to have been successfulminds, however he faces and at times the prospect thoughts of having such those characters could have been taken directly from my own. Gomes has created a change to his own personality, his imbued habits heartbreakingly real and lifestylerelevant novel that focuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in our society, with fear, when he realises it will never again grant him any pleasureparticularly in relation to the ''Me Too Movement''. He needs this pleasure when further changes at work come about – but it's what he replaces 'We Are Not Okay'' reminds the habit with that will surprise reader of the mostimportance of phrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[Smoking Kills We Are Not Okay by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)Natalia Gomes|Full Review]]
<!-- Bennett Kate Tough -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1471407535034914365X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471407535034914365X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Island Keep Walking Rhona Beech by M A BennettKate Tough]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:TeensGeneral Fiction|TeensGeneral Fiction]], [[:Category:General Women's Fiction|General Women's Fiction]]
A contemporary take on the savage classic Life has just hidden behind a corner and stuck a foot out as Rhona Beech came past. She and Mark had been together for nine years and it was beginning to feel ''settled'Lord of the Flies'. Then Mark announced that he': d got a group job in Canada and he was going whether Rhona wanted to come with him or not. The ''not'' bit of mismatchedthe sentence was the way it worked out and Rhona was left on her own. Well, modern-day teenagers must fight to survive she wasn't completely on her own: she had friends and family, but it's not the same as having that special someone in your life, that someone who makes you part of a deserted islandcouple. Link is So Rhona had to start again, rejoining a fish out of water. Newly arrived from America, he is finding it hard world that bore little resemblance to settle into the venerable one she'd left nine years ago - and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to understand? And what kind 's a lot of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round difference between being in the school quad - however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs middle of your twenties and the slowest time in years, he immediately becomes the butt middle of every school joke. And some students are determined to make his life more miserable than others..your thirties. [[The Island Keep Walking Rhona Beech by M A BennettKate Tough|Full Review]]
<!-- Cullen Varenne -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:07181891400857058738.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/07181891400857058738/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Lost Letters of William Woolf Equator by Helen CullenAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Historical Fiction|General Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
William Woolf It strikes me that nobody can speak well of the Wild West outside the walls of a theme park. Our agent to see how bad it was here is Pete Ferguson, who bristles at the indignity of white man against Native 'Indian', who spends days being physically sick while indulging in a letter detectivebuffalo hunt, working in and who hates the way man – and woman, of course – can turn against fellow man at the Dead Letters Depot in East Londonbat of an eyelid. He spends his days deciphering smudged addresses But this book is about so much more than the 1870s USA, and the attendant problems with gold rushes, tracking down mysterious people pioneer spirits and reading endless letters racial genocide. He finds himself trying to find this book's version of loveUtopia, guiltnamely the Equator, deathwhere everything is upside down, hopepeople walk on their heads with rocks in their pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the anti-gravity, and everyday lifewhere, who knows, things might actually be better. But that equator is a long way away – and there's a whole adventure full of Mexico and Latin America between him and it… [[The Lost Letters of William Woolf Equator by Helen CullenAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]]
<!-- Laura Solomon Jane O'Connor -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1979217440B07GLCDXZL.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1979217440B07GLCDXZL/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[MarshaNeedlemouse by Jane O's Deal by Laura SolomonConnor]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:FantasyWomen's Fiction|FantasyWomen's Fiction]]
Marsha didn't have an easy ride in life We first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, the first time aroundProf, is taking her out to lunch. SheThis is her favourite day of the year, not because it'd been afflicted with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrodysplasia_ossificans_progressiva fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva], a rare disease which turned parts s her birthday but because of her body the special time she gets to bone when they were damagedspend with the man she loves. Finally she was unable to stand He's told her life any longer that he and went his wife are going to Dignitas, divorce - Martha is apparently having an affair - and Sylvia is convinced that the Swiss euthanasia clinicProf will then declare his love and they can be together. Shehasn'd thought that would be the endt fully constructed 'together' in her own mind - she envisages it as romantic, but after cremation her body went straight to hell and she found herself face-imagination hasn't yet progressed to-face with the devil. And that was when she made sexual part of the pactrelationship. In exchange for details about some of those who had been close to her - their strengths and weaknesses There's time though - she would be reborn on 's only been the same day to the same parents, but would live her life free of diseaseprof's PA for fifteen years. [[MarshaNeedlemouse by Jane O's Deal by Laura SolomonConnor|Full Review]]
<!-- Novik Laurain -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:15098990141910477672.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/15098990141910477672/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Spinning Silver Vintage 1954 by Naomi NovikAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
Miryem comes from Vintage 1954 starts by thrusting several completely different characters upon us, before deciding to run with them and formulate a long line of moneylenders – but her Father isn't very good at it at allplot. Lending freely and rarely collectingSo we have an American biker, he leaves just landing in Paris but unfortunately not with the family on wife who shared his dream of visiting the edge of poverty, until Miryem must step incity together. Hardening her heart and collecting what is owed We have a goth girl who everyone recognises from local villagersan American crime show, she becomes but actually is a person humble restorer of great interest when she borrows antiques. We have a cocktail barman, infatuated with the goth girl. We also have a man ruling the roost over a pouch whole suite of silver pennies individual apartments fabricated from her Grandfather the Haussmann-era mansion his family once owned. Finally something conspires to get them together, and returns it full drinking from the same bottle of golda rare 1954 red wine. Only, soon becoming entangled with an array one of strange creatures, from the dark beings them has a bizarre incidence in his family history that haunt also features the wood through to same plonk – where a King who's eager grandfather imbibed, and walked out the door one rainy morning, never to exploit Miryem's talents be seen again. But of course nobody will be doing any disappearing now, though – she soon becomes aware that her skills may be more trouble than will they're worth… ? [[Spinning Silver Vintage 1954 by Naomi NovikAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)|Full Review]]
<!-- Jones McLean -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:14736804091786076071.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/14736804091786076071/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Four The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Andy JonesFelicity McLean]]===
[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Friends are nice, When Tikka Molloy was eleven and couple friends are doubly niceone-sixth years old, giving you like minded people to spend time withthe Van Apfel sisters disappeared. A pair In the long hot summer of pairs1992, or a couple in an isolated suburb of couplesAustralia surrounded by Bushland, the girls vanished during the school's Showstopper concert at the riverside amphitheatre. Married couple Sally and Al have known Mike Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for ages – Sally from universitythe sisters united the small community, Al through workthey were never found. His new girlfriend Faye completes their foursome and though she doesn't have their shared historyReturning home years later, she's a lot Tikka must make sense of fun that strange moment in time – a bit younger than of the rest of themsummer that shaped her, an actress and so onthe girls she never forgot. [[Four The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Andy JonesFelicity McLean|Full Review]]
<!-- Collishaw AMS -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:17871988121408711265.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17871988121408711265/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[A Child Called Happiness The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Stephan CollishawAlexander McCall Smith]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Mazowe Valley, 2011 – Natalie hears Long-time followers of The Bookbag will know I'm a sharp cry that she thinks die-hard fan of AMS. So you can imagine my excitement at first might be reading a birdbrand new book in a brand new series, but turns out described by the author himself as Scandi Blanc (as opposed to be Scandi Noir)! Here we meet a babynew detective named Ulf Varg, abandoned to who works in the birds on Department for Sensitive Crimes, solving those crimes that perhaps fall outside the kopjeusual police parameters. She This particular book deals with crimes including someone who is there with her uncle and they take stabbed in the knee, the childdisappearance of an imaginary boyfriend, back to his farm initially and then to a local village where it is taken incase of potential werewolves. They do not report it 're the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to deal with, and I rather enjoyed them, especially the stabbing where you find that actually, you identify with the policeperson who committed the crime, rather than the victim. [[A Child Called Happiness The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Stephan CollishawAlexander McCall Smith|Full Review]]
<!-- Syson Kennedy -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:Syson_Peacock0993202349.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17857618620993202349/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Mr Peacock's Possessions by Lydia Syson]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category: Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General FictionThe Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy]]===
On a remote volcanic island off the coast of New Zealand, a family of settlers struggle to make such an unforgiving place a home. When a ship appears, they feel that their wishes have been granted and their community reinvigorated – but high hopes are swiftly dashed when a vulnerable boy disappears. As both settlers and newcomers come together in the search for the child, they uncover far, far more than they were looking for – discovering dark secrets about both the island and those who inhabit it[[image:4star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Mr Peacock's Possessions by Lydia Syson:Category:General Fiction|Full ReviewGeneral Fiction]]
The final novel in Alan Kennedy's WW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and banished to Scotland, providing trade craft spy training. It's stifling and suffocating and feels as much like a prison to Alex as anything the Germans would provide. And where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her since he went to ''that'' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, instigator of the disinformation campaign, and returned to find her missing. A failed mission is one thing but no Justine is quite another. Alex can't get Justine out of his head. Has she left the service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy|Full Review]] <!-- Parkin Schienmel -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:17871984050349003289.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17871984051492667242/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Underwater Breathing A Danger to Herself and Others by Cassandra ParkinAlyssa Sheinmel]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''They needed someone to blame, and I was the only available scapegoat. Their daughter was my best friend. Playing the scapegoat was the least I could do under the circumstances.'' Seventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell her. She has dined in fancy restaurants, explored the most sophisticated corners of the globe and lived a life of luxury. [[A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]] <!-- Cohen -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1409179826.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1409179826/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Louis and Louise by Julie Cohen]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A tumble-down Edwardian house that will sooner rather than later tumble down the mud cliffs What would you be like, right now, if you'd been born a different gender? Would it simply be a matter of genetics, and away into your life would still have unfolded in the sea is where we meet Jacob and Ella. same way? They share a bathroom Or would the way you had been raised affect who you became in life? This latest novel by Julie Cohen looks at all of the turretabove, old covering the stories of Louis and cold and not really supposed Louise, born on the same day, to be used…but this is where they hide away from the shouts of their same parents' arguments. Here they play the Underwater Breathing game, submerging themselves but in one storyline Lou is a boy, and in the water holding their breath for as long as they canother a girl. For sixteen year old Jacob Does it's just really make a way of drowning out difference, the arguments…but for Ella it gender box that is more than ticked when we arrive in this world? We all know that. She is terrified of men and women are treated differently, but this story really highlights how things have been in the seapast, how they still are, of the fact that it will come and swallow their houseprompts you to think about how they could be. She needs to know that she can survive under water. She has to practice. [[Underwater Breathing Louis and Louise by Cassandra ParkinJulie Cohen|Full Review]]
<!-- Makkai O'Reilly -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:0708899137147367235X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0708899137147367235X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Great Believers M for Mammy by Rebecca MakkaiEleanor O'Reilly]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:LGBT General Fiction|LGBT General Fiction]]
''The Great Believers'' follows Augustts are, like all families, a group of friends whose lives are devastated by the AIDS crisis bit complicated. A loving irish family, their love binds them together – but all express that in Chicago during the late 1980’svery different ways. Beginning in 1985However, when misfortune strikes the reader follows Yale and his friends as family they come are forced to work together in order to terms understand each other again, as with a family as complicated as the increasingly virulent illness spreading throughout their community, alongside their demonisation at Augustts it's not always what is spoken that makes the hands most sense. Things are shaken up further when Granny Mae-Anne moves in and takes charge. Full of a conservative America. Thirty years later Fionastern words and common sense, she's a devoted friend force of nature who must try her hardest to Yale, is searching for her estranged daughter on hold the streets of Paris, trying to rebuild a relationship beset by memories and old hurtfamily together. [[The Great Believers M for Mammy by Rebecca MakkaiEleanor O'Reilly|Full Review]]
<!-- Koomson Hogan -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:178089600X1473669065.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178089600X1473669065/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Brighton Mermaid Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Dorothy KoomsonRuth Hogan]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]
In 1993Tilda returns to Brighton, two teenagers stumble across a horrific scene on to tidy away the beach as theyremains of her mother're sneaking home s life after an un-authorised night out: a body of a young woman, partially strippedher death. Whilst there, totally deceased. The find hits the girls in different ways. Nell becomes obsessed with finding the identity of the girl – who she calls ''returns to the Brighton Mermaid'' because of Paradise hotel, a distinguishing tattoo – whereas Jude just wants to forget it ever happened. Fast forward 25 years haven for eccentrics and Nell is still haunted by what happened that nightmisfits. With few leads to go on, the Police closed the case without cracking itA place where people can be themselves, and so it remains one let go of those unsolved mysteries thoughts that become part of local folklore, but Nell struggles to let sleeping dogs, or even sleeping mermaids, lietorment them elsewhere. As Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for Judebanishing her as a child, well no one knows if from this place of wonder. With the discovery still haunts her because no one knows where she is. Shortly after that fateful nighthelp of Queenie Malone, caring, she too disappearedand gregarious, never Tilda begins to be seen or heard from again. There's more to Brighton than Stag Dos pick apart the tricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and Gay Pride, it seemsdistant mother. [[The Brighton Mermaid Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Dorothy KoomsonRuth Hogan|Full Review]]
<!-- Coulton Cookson -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:14736695880955489059.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/14736695880955489059/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Falling Short by Lex Coulton]]===
===[[The Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
Lex Coulton's debut novel is 'In 1948, the first set of Caribbean nationals arrived in Great Britain on a story about mistakes, failures, and relationshipsship called "Empire Windrush". They struggled to find housing. They worked as labourers. The main protagonistThey faced open discrimination, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth forcing them to quickly form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a work colleaguetheir own community. Decades later, and is grappling with Freddy makes the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mothersame journey. This relationship is complicated by the fact that Frances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years old. [[Falling Short by Lex Coulton|Full Review]]'
''Does he find a place to live? Does he face stereotypes? Has Britain moved forward?'' Freddie arrives in London in the early 2000s, answering the call for teachers. He thinks about his own Jamaican education, based on the British system, and the way he was taught English nursery rhymes and about the River Thames. He thinks about the love of cricket and football, shared by both countries. And he thinks of the generations of the diaspora who came before him. Freddy does well in his job in East London but he does have to face down some stereotypical attitudes from his pupils - all Jamaicans smoke weed, don't they? Everybody knows that! [[The Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson|Full Review]] <!-- Elisabeth Hyde Rubin -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:14736797370718187091.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/14736797370718187091/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Go Ask Fannie Farmer Liberation Square by Elisabeth HydeGareth Rubin]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
EightyIn an alternate 1952, Soviet Troops control British Streets. After D-one-year-old Murray Blaire hoped for the best when he waited for his three children Day goes horribly wrong, Britain is first occupied by Nazi Germany – only to arrive one Friday night. He might be a retired lawyer, a state legislatorrescued by Russian soldiers from the East, elected congressman and now an amateur farmer but he knew that there could be trouble when Ruth and George arrivedAmericans from the west. RuthDividing the nation between them, London soon finds itself split in two, a corporate lawyerwall running through it like a scar. When Jane Cawson's husband is arrested for the murder of his former wife, would find fault and want Jane is determined to talk about him going into a retirement homeclear his name. GeorgeIn doing so, Jane follows a nurse, would argue and Lizzie, a professor trail of corruption that leads her right to the highest levels of English Literature, who lived locally and kept the state – and visited him regularly, would be unpredictable. Murray hoped that all would go smoothly, but that simply wasn't going soon finds herself desperate to happen. stay one step ahead of the murderous secret police… [[Go Ask Fannie Farmer Liberation Square by Elisabeth HydeGareth Rubin|Full Review]]
<!-- Hogan Mary Adkins -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:14736689991473673313.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/14736689991473673313/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Particular Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes When You Read This by Ruth HoganMary Adkins]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Masha's son Gabriel died some Smith Simonyi and Iris Massey worked together for four years ago, during which time Iris left her husband at the altar on their wedding day. She'd been a single parent with help from her friendSmith, Edwardmeanwhile, who had grieved as much as Masha and whilst Edward has moved relied on (his boyfriend moved out in the immediate aftermath of the drowningIris, but therehis attention was on making enough money to cover his mother's now a new love interest) Masha is still strickennursing home fees in Wisconsin, feeling that it would somehow be disloyal to Gabriel if she running the branding agency in New York and losing money gambling when the pressures got too much for him. He was to be happydevastated when Iris developed a terminal cancer and died at the age of thirty three. An independent, rebellious woman has somehow He was surprised too when he discovered that Iris had been diminishedwriting a blog in the last six months of her life and her final request of Smith is that he gets the blog published as a book. [[The Particular Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes When You Read This by Ruth HoganMary Adkins|Full Review]]
<!-- Houm Laura Solomon -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:17822737781512235857.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17822737781512235857/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland Vera Magpie by Nicolai Houm and Anna Paterson (translator)Laura Solomon]]===
[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
Jane Ashland is dying. That's a description of a very early scene here – but also, of course, a platitude that can apply to all of us. Jane's life, if anything, is going up and down in levels of pleasure, energy – sobriety – in these pages, but we soon learn that it recently found a very deeply dark down place. Here then, scattered through a timeline-bending narrative, we I have her days finding a Lincolnesque lover as a student in New York, glimpses of therapy, a drive to find her ancestors that takes her from rural America to Norway – and a trip there with a new-found friend to watch the musk oxen, of all thingsmurdered three husbands. And nowhere in sight is anything like a platitude… [[The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland by Nicolai Houm and Anna Paterson (translator)|Full Review]]''
As an opening line that must take some beating, but Vera's telling us the truth. The first two husbands, Gary and Harry were abusive, but Larry was a treasure, a keeper, and it's difficult to understand why Vera would have killed him, particularly when she was likely to get found out very quickly and now she's in prison with a mandatory life sentence. Her only friend is Shirley, a lesbian, but Vera's not one to let herself be a victim. She's not keen on having a sexual relationship with Shirley (she wouldn't risk the security of her life in prison for the sake of a fling), but she is keen on getting an education and she's studying for a degree in English Literature. [[Vera Magpie by Laura Solomon|Full Review]] <!-- Rogers Laura Solomon -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:Rogers_Tale938689713X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787198529938689713X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Tale of a Tooth Black Light by Allie RogersLaura Solomon]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
[[imageJim is a university student and, as the saying goes, he hasn't got his troubles to seek. His father committed suicide when he was young and somehow he's never really managed to connect with his step-father. His younger brother would be kindly described as having learning difficulties: if you were being honest you'd just say that he was very difficult, but Jim does his best with and for him. Jim's in love with a woman, but she finds him repulsive and you can understand why:5starthe looks, the attitude, the (lack of) conversational ability and the clothing all leave a lot to be desired.jpg|link=Category Despite all that's he's not about to sit back and allow his life to drift:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] he's actually writing ''two'' novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. [[:Category:General FictionBlack Light by Laura Solomon|General FictionFull Review]]
Danny lives in a small Sussex town with his mother, Natalie. Life is poor, but they manage - until they're threatened by a benefits sanction. A Job Centre employee looks to be their salvation - but her impact on the family goes far beyond what they first expect, and the resulting changes are described to the reader through the naive yet perceptive and wholly original eyes of four-year-old Danny. [[Tale of a Tooth by Allie Rogers|Full Review]]
<!-- Trevelyan Chase -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:Trevelyan_Claudia1789010098.jpg|left|link=httpshttp://www.amazon.co.uk/gpdp/product1789010098/1473664772ref=nosim?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1473664772]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Claudia Redemptor Domus by Anthony TrevelyanGamelyn Chase]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
When Claudia is called A young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the scenic North Wales coast, sent far from his family in the Far East. As the boy travels to the reception of her Manchester Office block school, a family tragedy causes the boy to meet arrive at the school a visitorvulnerable orphan, she doesn't expect it to be her father figure – a man she hasn't seen for fifteen yearswith an uncertain future. Samson Glaze – otherwise known as Wild Samson, The Aztec and The Sun King, walked out of Claudia's life and Plunged into a world school full of success danger and betrayal, the boy is seen as a solar panel salesman – but now he's returned trophy by friends and he needs Claudia's helpenemies alike. ReggieWith them locked into their scheming and plotting, Samson's son, has joined a mysterious cult called ''Tarantula'', a group who prepare for the end of it comes to the world and encourage humanity boy to embrace their impending doom. Claudia's journey takes her far from her home in Manchester attempt to clean up the end pit of filth that the world – where encounters with hammer-wielding assassins make things very difficult indeed… school has become. [[Claudia Redemptor Domus by Anthony TrevelyanGamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
|}
Retrieved from "http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/Special:MobileDiff/149842...152080"

Navigation menu