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[[Category:New Reviews|Humour]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreview|authorclass-"wikitable" cellpadding=Toni Jordan"15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> |title=Our Tiny, Useless Hearts<!-- Coulton -->|rating=5-|genrestyle=Women's Fiction"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473669588.jpg|summarylink=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473669588/ref=As predicted by Caroline and Janice's mother on Caroline and Henry's wedding day, their marriage is over, albeit 15 years and two daughters further along than predictednosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Falling Short by Lex Coulton]]=== [[image:4star. Indeedjpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], this is definitely not a good weekend for Janice to be babysitting at Caroline[[:Category:Women's house. ThereFiction|Women's the split and the awkwardness of the girlsFiction]] Lex Coulton' schoolteacher being the other woman for s debut novel is a start. Then there's that mistaken identity moment involving the neighbours. At least Janice is well adjusted story about mistakes, failures, and over her ex-husband Alecrelationships. She still dreams of himThe main protagonist, yesFrances Pilgrim, but it's so over! is a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a work colleague, and is grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. Just as well really… guess whoThis relationship is complicated by the fact that Frances's father disappeared at the door?sea when she was five years old. [[Falling Short by Lex Coulton|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760293814</amazonuk!-- van LENTE -->}}{{newreview|author=Colin Taylor-|titlestyle=The Life of a Scilly Sergeant"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1683690346.jpg|ratinglink=4http://www.amazon.co.5uk/dp/1683690346/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] |genre=Travel|summarystyle=Meet the Isles of Scilly"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente]]=== [[image:4star. (I know they should be called that – the author provides jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Comic-Cons are a handy guide to the etiquette place of their namewonder and sanctuary for many people, their nature and locationwhen Comic book artist Mike Mason arrives at San Diego Comic-Con, etc.) For our more distant readershe's looking for both that and sanctuary with other fans and creators, they're several chunks plus the chance of granite rock out in the Atlantic, where Cornwall is pointingmaybe, just maybe reuniting with just 2his ex. However,200 permanent residents. They're big on tourismwhen his rival is found dead, and big on growing flowers in the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather Mike is bad enough forced to turn any car navigate every dark corner of the con in order to clear his name – from cosplay flash mobs and intrusive fans to a rust bucket within years. They're so weezombie obstacle courses – Mike must prove his innocence and, and in doing so idyllic-seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for may just unravel a dark secret behind a police presencelegendary industry creator. But there is – at least two working at any one time[[The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente|Full Review]] <!-- Curran -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1683690133. And one of them in recent years has been Colin Taylor, who has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a welljpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683690133/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-known online existence, which has brought to life all the whimsical comedy of his work.21]]  |amazonukstyle=<amazonuk>178475515X</amazonuk>"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|}}{{newreview|author=Josie Lloyd ==[[My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Emlyn ReesLarissa Zageris]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|titlelink='Twas the Fight Before ChristmasCategory:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category: A ParodyHistorical Fiction|rating=3.5Historical Fiction]]|genre=Humour|summary=It's Christmas Eve and Mum has arranged everythingYou are a lass of twenty eight. All she now has to do is await the arrival of the relatives Plucky, penniless and in Regency era London the food shopping delivery. Little does Mum know that those two elements alone have the potential race is on to find a suitable suitor - or else doom yourself to ruin everythinglife as an eternal spinster.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472125118</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ryan North|title=Romeo Along your journey you'll be accompanied by Lady Evangeline Youngblood - a fiesty noble eager to save you from a life alone, and/or Juliet|rating=3fired by a rogueish sense for adventure.5|genre=Humour|summary=For all those who think tragedy plots are too restricted and prescribedWhen it comes to suitors though, read on. In these pages you too will see that Romeo had lots of options en route 'll have to hitting make the bottle. Likewiseultimate decision between witty, pretty and wealthy Sir Benedict Granville, she could have turned away from her predestined path at no end of junctures. And to what result? Wellwholesome, happy marriage rugged and a kid called Bencaring Captain Angus MacTaggart, because or the leads have just banged people's heads together mad, bad and stopped the quarrellingterrifyingly sexy Lord Garraway Craven. With orphans, werewolves, or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running an establishment curing murderous womenlost lovers and ancient Egyptian artifcats along the way, such as a it's clear this isn't going to be an easy decision... [[My Lady M (her). 's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356508536</amazonuk!-- Jester -->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle= Gervase Phinn"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|title= The Virgin Mary's Got Nits|rating= 4[[image:Jester_Forever.5jpg|genre= Humourleft|summarylink= Christmas in our house is the time we tend to get on a plane and head to either sun or snowhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1510704361?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1510704361]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]], anywhere that [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fasntasy]] Michael Holland is far, far away from a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the madness at homeoffer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, last minute dashes to a grim reaper and his friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the shops on Christmas Eve, records department) as they grapple with their long lives and food cupboard stockpiles that would imply supermarkets are shutting for finding a month, nor clean surface to sit on in their flat. [[Forever After: a mere 36 hoursdark comedy by David Jester|Full Review]] <!-- Stibbe -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Stibbe_Xmas. But I do remember the feeling of Christmas when I was younger, back when it was magical, and back when you knew exactly what the season would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and Christmas partiesjpg|left|link=https://www.amazon. This book is an anthology of those moments, and it took me right back to the wonder of Christmas as a childco.uk/gp/product/0241309824?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0241309824]]  |amazonukstyle=<amazonuk>1444779400</amazonuk>"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|}}{{newreview|author= Kieran Crowley==[[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe]]===|title= Shoot|rating= [[image:4.5star.jpg|genrelink= CrimeCategory:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] |summary= I make something Christmas – the time of a habit of being late traditional trauma. You only have to discover good writersthink about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, in this case getting to Crowley after he is no longer with usand if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. The result is that what is billed as Nowadays it''an F.X. Shepherd mystery'' with s all the optimism of there being more having to come has the poignancy of beingmake sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, if not the last of a short linethough, certainly one is of course also a fewtime of great boons. F.X. Shepherd – he doesnIt't like his first name s cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and prefers just "Shepherd" is, technicallybeards, it was always a columnist. He's been sacked by one New York newspaper and is writing godsend for postmen with all the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a weekly column for another. I don't know much about journalismchild, but I'm guessing one column a week doesn't pay much and as a rule…which explains why Shepherd's soap-washed-foul-mouthed editor (read for the book, you'll see what I mean) expects him to turn in some genuine journalism as makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well: front page, seat did they even try and sell them any other time of your pants stuff. the year? [[An Almost Perfect Christmas by Nina Stibbe|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783296518</amazonuk!-- Doescher -->}}{{newreview|author=Gray Jolliffe-|titlestyle=The First Ever Christmas"width: 10%; vertical-align: And Who to Blametop; text-align: center;"|rating=5[[image:Doescher_Will.jpg|genreleft|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/159474985X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=Humour159474985X]]  |summarystyle=If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to tell anyone? Well, I really don't like Christmas"vertical-align: top; text-align: itleft;"|===[[William Shakespeare's my least favourite time of year and whilst some people count down to the day itself, I look forward to that point when I can say that it's all over for another yearForce Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher]]=== [[image:4. It's all too commercialised for me, with a coating of faux religion5star. I've never found it in the least funny - that isjpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], until I found Gray Jolliffe's ''The First Ever Christmas[[:Category: And Who's to Blame''. AmazinglyHumour|Humour]] A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I'd never encountered Gray Jolliffe eitherthere was a man called William Shakespeare, but I'm a convert who was able to his skills as create a cartoonist (if not to the idea series of Christmas) after reading this collection dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. You may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of Christmas-themed cartoons from his archive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445663503</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Jonathan Pugh|title=Pugh's New Year's Resolutions|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=If there's one thing that's for certainoriginal stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it's that in the world is changingfamily til it hurts. We're dating onlineAnd if you need further encouragement, wedon're communicating in ways that make email seem redundant, and when t forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is so popular we're shopping we just tell a website where and when it can be delivered, and how much leeway they have on to swap our wishes for whatever it is they do bring us. But those changes are also supposed to be affecting us – wepart seven – surely making this over twice as good… [[William Shakespeare're supposed to use a smart watch to tell us if we're moving or not, we have to keep up with s the latest fads, and we're supposed to prick our ears up and take note when Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the proverbial 'they' change their minds about what we're supposed to eat.Seventh by Ian Doescher|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722885</amazonuk!-- Goss -->}}{{newreview|-|author= Luke Rhinehartstyle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Goss_600.jpg|title= Invasionleft|ratinglink= 4https://www.amazon.co.5|genreuk/gp/product/1785942719?ie= Humour |summaryUTF8&tag=Superthebookbag-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universe. And they've come to earth to have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one day, and he and his family quickly come to love the playful alien. But when Louie starts using their computer to hack into government 21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785942719]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and corporate networks, stealing millions from banks to give to others, they realise that Louie and his friends mean troubleRussell T Davies]]=== [[image:4. As Billy 5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Rhymes and his family begin a roller coaster ride of fame and fortune, as well as a ranking high on the FBIVerse|Children's most wanted listRhymes and Verse]], the Government soon decides that these aliens are terrorists[[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Consider the Doctor. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must be eliminated. Whilst the aliens are playing games they hope will help humans he have to see the insanity of the American politicalhand out each year, economic and military systems, they soon come were he to realise keep in touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the Powers life of a Time Lord and that Be don't play games: they make warof some of his friends and enemies. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785651757</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Rod Green|title=Only Fools As luck would have it, he has the space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and Horses: The Peckham Archives|rating=4|genre=Entertainment |summary=We are in the world of one of the country's most famous and well-loved sitcoms – even if it was sort-of killed off for Christmas 2003. Yesget himself ready. And if you're working on a shorter timescale, there have been specials sincewith a shorter lifespan, and more repeats to clog up the BBC schedules than is really pukkathinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, but very few people failed to succumb to its charms at one time or anotherwell my advice is pretty much the same. I'm sure there have been books before now celebrating the stony-faced reception [[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of ''that'' drop through the open bar hatch, Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and ''that'' chandelier scene, but this is much more meaty. Purporting to be the family archives, found dumped in Nelson Mandela House, the documents here were passed from pillar to post, from one council worker in a department with a clumsy acronym to another, from them to the police – and now here they are being published for their social history worthRussell T Davies|Full Review]] <!-- Ingram -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Ingram_Kammie.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co. Will enough readers find them of worth, as the series quietly celebrates its 35th birthdayuk/gp/product/1785451995?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785451995]]  |amazonukstyle=<amazonuk>1849909245</amazonuk>"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|}}===[[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram]]==={{newreview|author= Mara Wilson[[image:4star.jpg|titlelink= Where Am I Now?Category: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Pets|Pets]], [[:Category:Humour|rating= 5Humour]]|genre= Autobiography|summary= Mara Wilson has always felt It was something of a little young relief when I encountered Annie Ingram and a little out of placeher cocker spaniel Kammie. You see, Annie knows something which has been self-evident to me for a long time: as the only child dogs are perfectly capable of communicating with humans and not just on a film set full level of adultsfood!, the first daughter in a house full of boys, the sole clinically depressed member of a cheerleading squadwalk! or play!. You do require extensive training to become fluent, a valley girl in New York but most dogs will be perfectly willing to give their time to teach you and a neurotic in California, all you have to do is listen. Annie has studied hard: Kammie has trained her well and an adult the world still remembers as a little girlpair have allowed us to share some of their conversations. Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex on the set of ''Melrose Place,'' to losing her mother at a young age, to getting her first kiss (or was it kisses[[Conversations with Kammie by Annie Ingram|Full Review]] <!-- Harris -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Harris_Glass.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1908943823/ref=nosim?) on a celebrity canoe trip, to not being cute enough to make it in Hollywood, these essays tell the story tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Breaking of one young woman's journey from accidental fame to relative obscurity, but also illuminate a universal struggleLiam Glass by Charles Harris]]=== [[image: learning to accept yourself, and figuring out who you are and where you belong3star. jpg|amazonuklink=<amazonuk>0143128221</amazonuk>}}Category:{{{newreviewrating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|author= Tony StuartCrime]], [[:Category:Humour|title= Writing Lines|rating= 4.5Humour]]|genre=Humour|summary= George Gordon Wentworth (1946-2011) lived a humdrum lifeTeenager Liam Glass is mugged and stabbed yards from his Camden flat. He was As the boy lies comatose, desperate journalist Jason Worthington scrabbles for the inside scoop, tired police officer Andy Rockham searches for a barely adequate teacher missing tape, harried politician Jamila Hasan fights for re-election, distraught mother Katrina Glass waits by her son, and gym-owner Royland simply finds himself in a fairly world renowned independent school the wrong place at the wrong time. We follow this host of ensemble characters in Kent and kept a copious diary bleak, kaleidoscopic satire of his quotidian existencemodern media. Most [[The Breaking of what he recorded was drossLiam Glass by Charles Harris|Full Review]] <!-- LENTE -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Lente_10. However, amongst all the utterly uninteresting tailings of his life there were some nuggets and grains to catch the attentionjpg|link=http://www.amazon. Author Tony Stuart has created these amusing anecdotes, panning them out over twenty six episodes which give us the best of Wentworth – comedy goldco. From losing all the pupils in his charge on a school trip to being arrested on suspicion of terrorism; from waking up in bed between the married couple the morning after their wedding, to destroying a ski run; from appearing fulluk/dp/1683690222/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-frontal naked in a sheep21]]  | style="vertical-farmers' gazette to triggering an airalign: top; text-sea rescuealign: left; Wentworth was, blinkered and befuddled, the subject – of these and so many more unlikely but highly amusing events."||amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524634441</amazonuk>==[[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Fred Van Lente]]===}}[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{newreview|author=Graham Fulbright|title=Driving Mad{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Maniacs, Morons and the Advanced Motorist's ClubHumour|rating=3.5Humour]]|genre=Humour|summary=I passed my driving test when John F Kennedy was in Nine comedians are invited to a remote Caribbean island under the White House and I've recently had to reapply for my driving licence having achieved guise of working with Dustin Walker, a venerable agecomedic legend. When I started driving Each fits neatly into one of the roads were kinderarchetypal comic stereotypes: Steve, more forgiving places the washed-up has- or put another waybeen who has fallen far from his early days; Zoe, the idiots were fewer and further between. I don't know how long Graham Fulbright has been drivingrising female star with a new stand-up special coming soon; Dante, but he certainly knows his motoring morons and who went from being a kid on the streets to the hardest working road comic in the business; Oliver, the child-like prop comic who can''Driving Mad'' he brings us t get any respect from his peers; Janet, the insult comic who is past her prime; TJ, the nightly variety show host with a fictional sample of their eccentricities. Wellreputation for harassing his female colleagues and guest acts; Ruby, I'm pretty certain that they're fictional the ultra- but these days you never know...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783062584</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Mario Giordano|title=Auntie Poldi feminist YouTuber and Blogger with a chip on her shoulder; and William, whose redneck character ''Billy the Sicilian Lions|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Poldi had not long been widowed when she decided to move Contractor'' is a far cry from Bavaria to Sicily with the intention of drinking herself to deathhis real personality as a posh millionaire. She could, of Of course, have done this in Germany, but she felt that all nine agree because ''when God almighty walks down on a sea view was essential. Once therebeam of light and asks for your help, new friends, family already resident on what the island and the corpse of a young man, his face blown off hell else are you going to say?'' [[Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by a shotgun, whom she found on the local beach, intervened to give her life some meaning. For a while she was a suspect, but that (and her wig) were no obstacle to her falling for Commissario Vito Montana who was assigned to investigate the caseFred Van Lente|Full Review]] <!-- Scott -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Scott_Eliz. Assisting him (or having him assist her) came naturally to Poldi and before long there was an investigative and personal partnershipjpg|link=http://www.amazon. At least so far as Poldi was concernedco.uk/dp/1788037006/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  |amazonukstyle=<amazonuk>1908524693</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Grady Hendrix"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|title= My Best Friend's Exorcism|rating= 5|genre= Horror|summary=1988[[Elizabeth, Charleston, South CarolinaWilliam... High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth gradeMe by S Lynn Scott]]=== [[image:4.5star. But after jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Ally is an evening of skinny-dipping goes disatrously wrongordinary woman with teenage children, Gretchen begins to acta husband and a job.Then comes the day when ordinariness flies out of the window..different. SheIt's moody. Shenot a coincidence that it's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever the same day she's nearbyfinds Queen Elizabeth I in the pantry and the Bard of Avon in her bath. AbbyWhat's investigation leads her she going to some startling discoveries - do? Well, Elizabeth and by the time Will have their story reaches its terrifying conclusionown ideas about that! [[Elizabeth, the fate of Abby William... and Gretchen will be determined Me by a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat the devil?S Lynn Scott|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748624</amazonuk!-- Rodford -->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle= Kevin MacNeil"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|title=The Brilliant and Forever[[image:Rodford_Surgeon.jpg|ratinglink= 3http://www.amazon.co.5|genreuk/dp/178565005X/ref=nosim?tag= Humour|summary= You know sometimes when someone tells a joke, everyone else laughs, and you're sat there wondering what was so funny?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973376</amazonuk>}}thebookbag-21]]{{newreview|author= Christopher Fowler|titlestyle= Bryant and May"vertical-align: Strange Tidetop; text-align: left;"||rating= 3==[[The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford]]=== [[image:4star.5jpg|genrelink= Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|summary= The thirteenth outing for Bryant and May is looking very much like it will be their last. Arthur Bryant is on compassionate leave whilst tests are continuingCrime]], which are likely to confirm that he is suffering from Alzheimer's. His condition is worsening almost by [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] In the daysecond instalment of this series, memory lapses are morphing into fullPrivate Investigator George Kocharyan has been hired by a well-scale hallucinationsknown local man to track down some missing valuables.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523422</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Kevin Smith|title=The Voyage Bill Galbraith, a world-famous surgeon at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital who hosts a popular medical television programme, has had his briefcase stolen by his live-in domestic servant, Aurora. According to Galbraith, this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient of his at the Dolphin|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Dublin 1916: Among hospital. George agrees to look into the unrest theft, assuming it will be a relatively easy and anti-British feeling worsened by the threat of conscription into a war seen as nothing to do with the Irishstraightforward case – little does he know, Trinity College faculty has other distractions. Theyhe'd like s about to enter a trophy; the skeleton world of an Irish 'giant' to be precisedeceit and dysfunction. [[The only glitch is that the main trophy contender, Bernard MacNeillSurgeon's skeleton, is somewhere difficult to access and all seasoned explorers are otherwise engaged. There may be hope thoughCase: George Kocharyan Mystery 2 by E G Rodford|Full Review]] <!-- Jordan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Jordan_Tiny.jpg|link=http://www. They turn to Fitzmaurice, a student not good enough for anything elseamazon. Fitzmaurice agrees, picking his friends Crozier and Rafferty to go with himco. So… ''Gentlemen, lace up your strongest boots and pack your warmest underwear – we're all off to the bloody Arctic!'' Whether battle cry or epitaphuk/dp/1760293814/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Our Tiny, three men and a dog… and an iguana… are going anywayUseless Hearts by Toni Jordan]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|amazonuklink=<amazonuk>1910124826</amazonuk>|amazonus=<amazonus>1910124826</amazonus>Category:{{{rating}}}Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]{{newreview|author=Tony Hawks|title=Once Upon a Time in the West… Country|rating=3|genre=Travel|summary=I have often complained in a jokey voice to my partner about life in the sticks, As predicted by Caroline and the way she moved me from an inner-city flat to slumming it in the suburbs with fewer bussesJanice's mother on Caroline and Henry's wedding day, no takeaways within walking-and-keeping-food-hot distancetheir marriage is over, albeit 15 years and no 'Polish' shops for a can of beer whenever you fancy onetwo daughters further along than predicted. Things are different with Tony HawksIndeed, as here he has purposefully decided this is definitely not a good weekend for Janice to up sticks from London to Somewhere, Devon – a tiny village where be babysitting at Caroline's house. There's the split and the people who built their own homes decades ago still live in them, where slugs are a lot more awkwardness of a problem for the wannabe lettuce-grower than they are for girls' schoolteacher being the metropolitan commuter, and where village halls have the power to turn you into both other woman for a Pol Pot dictator if you get on their committee and into a quivering, bruise-inducing wreck if youstart. Then there're s that mistaken identity moment involving the wrong gender at a Zumba class…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444794809</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Marian Keyesneighbours. At least Janice is well adjusted and over her ex-husband Alec. She still dreams of him, yes, but it's so over! Just as well really… guess who's at the door? [[Our Tiny, Useless Hearts by Toni Jordan|title=Making It Up As I Go AlongFull Review]]|rating=4.5|genre<!-- Taylor -->|-| style=Entertainment"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Taylor_Scilly.jpg|summarylink=Oh, how the book reviewing gods like to give, and equally like to take away. Here before me is http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475515X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Life of a brand, spanking new collection of journalism Scilly Sergeant by the wonderful Marian Keyes – but it's a proof copy, so there's no photo of the authorColin Taylor]]=== [[image:4.5star. Even if over jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Meet the years Isles of Scilly. (I have stopped reading her novels, I have always turned to know they should be called that – the author picture provides a handy guide to remind myself such sights exist in this world. Himself is a lucky man, for sure. But beyond sounding like a letch, what can I say about this – the beauty's third large dose etiquette of essaystheir name, web columns their nature and other journalism? I can start with agreeing that I am not the target audiencelocation, etc.) For our more distant readers, but itthey's easy enough to see from these pages exactly what re several chunks of granite rock out in the target isAtlantic, where Cornwall is pointing, with just 2,200 permanent residents. So much like that test you do – you know the oneThey're big on tourism, that formulates decisions about the age and commonality of all things big on growing flowers in space the tropical climate the Gulf Stream bequeaths them – although the weather is bad enough to come up with how many billions of planets are likely turn any car to have alien life on – you can narrow things down quite readily here, and still come up with a huge numberrust bucket within years.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718182529</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= JeanThey're so wee, and so idyllic-Yves Ferri|title= Asterix and the Missing Scroll (Album 36)|rating= 5|genre= For Sharing|summary=Asterix is those rarest of book series; one designed seeming, especially at night, you can be mistaken for thinking there would be no need for kids which a police presence. But there is actually even funnier when you are an adult– at least two working at any one time. I used to love Asterix as a childAnd one of them in recent years has been Colin Taylor, but now that I reread them I can't help but wonder whywho has done his official duty – alongside maintaining a well-known online existence, because they are so full which has brought to life all the whimsical comedy of hilarious jokes that I definitely wouldn't have understood when I was younger. I laughed loud and hard to myself twice within the first two pages his work. [[The Life of Asterix and the Missing Scroll, so I'd definitely say that this was a hit.Scilly Sergeant by Colin Taylor|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1510100458</amazonuk!-- Lloyd -->}}{{newreview|author=Spadge Whittaker-|titlestyle=Braver Than Britain, Occasionally"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|rating=4[[image:Lloyd_Twas.jpg|genrelink=Humour|summaryhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472125118/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|=In which Spadge researches Britain==[['s top ten fears and faces them all over Twas the course of a yearFight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees]]=== [[image:3. We're quite a fearful society, you know5star. And the things we fear most are, in orderjpg|link=Category: heights (acrophobia), snakes (ophidiophobia), public speaking (glossophobia), spiders (arachnophobia), small spaces (claustrophobia), mice (musophobia), needles (trypanophobia), flying (pteromerhanophobia), crowds (agoraphobia) and clowns (coulrophobia).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993429904</amazonuk>{{{rating}}{{newreview} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|author= Mike BullenHumour]]|title= Trust|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary= Greg It's Christmas Eve and Amanda are happyMum has arranged everything. Unmarried, but together thirteen years and with two young daughters, they are very much in love. Dan and Sarah aren't so fortunate. Their marriage All she now has to do is going through await the arrival of the motions, relatives and they're staying together for the sake of their troubled teenage sonfood shopping delivery. Little does Mum know that those two elements alone have the potential to ruin everything. Following a business conference away from home, one bad decision sends a happy couple into turmoil, and turns an unhappy couple into love[['s young dream. As secrets Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and betrayals threaten to send both relationships out of control, there's only one thing that can keep everything from falling apart: TrustEmlyn Rees|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751559253</amazonuk>Full Review]]}}{{newreview<!-- Phinn -->|author=Dan Rhodes-|titlestyle=When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|rating=4[[image:Phinn_Virgin.5jpg|genre=General Fictionleft|summarylink= Two people are on a train on their way to, of all things, a WI meeting where the ladies of All Bottoms will be lectured on the non-existence of Godhttp://www.amazon.co. One of the two people is Professor Richard Dawkins, rampant atheist, hectoring scientist chappie, and alluk/dp/1444779400/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-round devotee of ''Deal or No Deal''. align: left;"|===[[The other is Smee, his mono-named assistant, amanuensis or 'male secretaryVirgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn]]=== [[image:4. Smee will come to the fore when the weather sets in and the train journey has to be abandoned some way short of its ultimate destination, Upper Bottom5star. Instead the pair fetch up at the isolated yet friendly community of Market Hortonjpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], and the only option for accommodation [[:Category:Anthologies|Anthologies]] Christmas in our house is taken – yes, the died-in-the-wool non-believer has time we tend to be housed by get on a retired vicar plane and his wife. This clash of titanic opinionshead to either sun or snow, peppered with social faux pas aplenty will provide for a particularly English kind of farcical comedyanywhere that is far, but one with far away from the legs to go as far as any other Good Books have reached in madness at home, last minute dashes to the past…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910709018</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Rob Temple|title=Very British Problems Abroad|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=Meetshops on Christmas Eve, and food cupboard stockpiles that would imply supermarkets are shutting for a month, if you haven't already, the phenomenon of nor a mere 36 hours. But I do remember the Very British Problem. In this format they're in pithy little comments (feeling ofChristmas when I was younger, ooh, about 140 characters in lengthback when it was magical, for some reason…) and detail back when you knew exactly what the minor things in life that we like nothing more than to inflate to a major factor season would bring with carol concerts and school nativities and Christmas parties. This book is an anthology of life. They can involve mannersthose moments, staring at things until they mend themselves, hitting things ditto, or the fact that nobody apart from you and I know how and it took me right back to queue properly. And if the idea hits the world outside our shores, then – well, you certainly have wonder of Christmas as a book full of content regarding our attitude and ineptitude abroadchild.[[The Virgin Mary's Got Nits by Gervase Phinn|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751558494</amazonuk!-- North -->}}{{newreview|author=Fraser McAlpine-|titlestyle=Stuff Brits Like|rating=4"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:North_Romeo.jpg|genrelink=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356508536/ref=Humournosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  |summarystyle= With over 100 chapters on different aspects of Britain and Britishness, this book is both fascinating "vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Romeo and hilarious/or Juliet by Ryan North]]=== [[image:3. Just looking at the list of subjects is enough to produce a sardonic twist of that stiff upper lip5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: the chapters cover topics that range from offal to curryHumour|Humour]] For all those who think tragedy plots are too restricted and prescribed, from pedantry to banter, from conkers to rugbyread on. There may be many chapters but this is no academic tome - each chapter is just two In these pages you too will see that Romeo had lots of options en route to three pages longhitting the bottle. Likewise, each is written with endearing affectionshe could have turned away from her predestined path at no end of junctures. And to what result? Well, each is easy happy marriage and satisfying - and quirkily funny - to read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1857886348</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= John Samuel|title= What I Tell You in a kid called Ben, because the leads have just banged people's heads together and stopped the Dark|rating= 3quarrelling, or Death by Tybalt (him) or a long life running an establishment curing murderous women, such as a Lady M (her).5[[Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North|Full Review]]|genre= Humour|summary<!-- Crowley -->|-| style=A man called Will is fighting fiercely against corruption – desperate to expose his company's dodgy dealings to the press"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Crowley_Shoot. Overcome with doubt and fear, he goes to kill himselfjpg|link=http://www.amazon. But, at the exact moment he attaches his noose to the back of the door, he is savedco. By a curious housemate or a concerned girlfrienduk/dp/1783296518/ref=nosim? No, by an Angel. Not the whitetag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-feathered guardian Angel you may expect, but one who wishes align: left;"|===[[Shoot by Kieran Crowley]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] I make something of a habit of being late to discover good writers, in this case getting to help Will achieve his ends, and so possess the body of the hapless Will in order to finish what he started. It goes without saying that the Angel is hoping things go better than they did with the last guy he possessed – a hapless young man from Galilee called Jesus…Crowley after he is no longer with us. The result is that what is billed as ''an F.X. Shepherd mystery'' with all the optimism of there being more to come has the poignancy of being, if not the last of a short line, certainly one of a few. [[Shoot by Kieran Crowley|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715650505</amazonuk>}}