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|author= Tahi SaihateJennifer Saint|title= Astral SeasonElektra|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary='Elektra' by Jennifer Saint tells the story of three women who live in the heavily male dominated world of Ancient Greece. Cassandra, Beastly SeasonClytemnestra, and Elektra are all bit players in the story of the Trojan War. Yet Jennifer Saint shows us that often the silent women have the most compelling stories and the most extreme furies.|isbn=1913097854}}{{Frontpage|isbn=8409290103|title=If Only|author=Matthew Tree|rating= 34.5|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= We long Twenty-one-year-old Malcolm Lowry had been sent abroad by his father, cotton-broker AO Lowry: he asked his accountant, Mr Patrick, to ensure that the young man got on board the boat and thereafter Patrick was to send him a monthly allowance. Patrick sent the money regularly and a correspondence - of sorts - sprang up between the two although we hear more about what Lowry has to say than Patrick. It wasn't that Lowry senior didn't care for our past his son, it was that he didn't care to have him in this country where he might be a danger to his wife and other children. The alcohol problem was obvious even though before Patrick managed to get the young man on his way.}}{{Frontpage|author=Antoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and Jane Aitken (translator)|title=Red is My Heart|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction |summary=[[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black and white and read in my house. And so was this one, although I could have spelled that more accurately – this one was, and is, black and white and red. Yes, he has an artistic collaborator on this piece, and I think it 's possible to say not one page lacks the influence of some striking visual ideas.|isbn=1913547183}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B098FFFBH9|title=Snowcub|author=Graham Fulbright|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Fourteen-year-old Rachel is her school's animal rights project leader and she and her friend are producing a place competition entry to highlight the way in which human beings exploit the animal world. She gets a great deal of support from her family: father Pip Harrison, a lecturer at Imperial College, London, mother Kate and her twin, Nick. Kate runs the family business, a toy shop called Cornucopia in Putney, which is where we can never return'll meet Rachel's main (if unsuspected) source of information: five soft toys.}}{{Frontpage|author=Yancey Williams|title=Crosshairs of the Devil|rating=4. Tahi Saihate5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Award-winning crime writer Eddie Jablonski is getting on in years and, despite his strenuous objections and thanks to his daughter, finds himself living - or imprisoned, from Eddie's point of view - in room 315 of the Garden of Eden nursing home, with only a trusty nursing aide, Jenkins, for palatable company. Nothing is going to keep Eddie from his stock-in-trade of writing though, so here, for his readers, are his wanderings through his life's work.|isbn=0986031658}} {{Frontpage|isbn=0008421714|title=Mrs March|author=Virginia Feito|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The problem began just after the publication of George March's most successful novel to date. Everyone but Mrs March (we know her debut novel first name only on the last page) seemed to either be reading it or had already done so. Every day Mrs March went to the local patisserie to buy olive bread but on that particular morning, Patricia asked, as she was wrapping the bread, ''but isn't this the first time he's based a character on you?''Astral Season She mentioned that Johanna, Beastly Seasonthe principal character had 'her mannerisms' illustrates how these rose'. Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the fact that Johanna is the whore of Nantes -tinted glasses often lie''a weak, plain, detestable, pathetic, unloved, unloveable wretch.''}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B005FM76AA|title=The Duke's Children|author=Anthony Trollope|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The story opens to probably the worst news of all: Lady Glencora Palliser is dead. Her novel husband, Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium, is nearly paralysed by grief and struggling - at the same time - to adjust to no longer being prime minister, or even in office. He seeks to protect and guide his three adult children, which is easier said than done when none of them wishes to ''be'' guided. Silverbridge (his elder son, actually called Plantagenet, but always known by his title) and Gerald are destined to be sent down from Oxford and Cambridge respectively and to run up gambling debts, occasionally in eye-watering sums. Lady Helen has fallen in love with - and wishes to marry - Frank Tregear, the penniless son of a poor squire, which the Duke cannot countenance, not least because he sees echos of what might have happened when he married Lady Glencora. He's about to learn that parents do not always get their way.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B004O37B6A|title=The Prime Minister|author=Anthony Trollope|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium, is the prime minister of a meditation on youth coalition government but he's privately enraged at the seemingly unstoppable rise of Ferdinand Lopez. Lopex is exotic - some describe him as Jewish, others as Portuguese but the truth is that no one knows and how Lopez is not going to explain. The ladies of society, even Palliser's own wife, Lady Glencora, are supporters but after Lopez makes an advantageous marriage Palliser is placed in the things position of having to support his wife's actions when Lopez loses a by-election. The Duke's payment of Lopez' election expenses in an attempt to stem gossip about his wife will come back to haunt him.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B00474HVX4|title=Phineas Redux|author=Anthony Trollope|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=It's some time since we do heard from [[Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope|Phineas Finn]]. Having succeeded in parliament and achieved a paying position he fell out with those who provided his income and returned to Ireland where he married Mary, his childhood sweetheart. He was fortunate to get a job in Cork (or Dublin - recollections may vary) and seemed settled into a life of domesticity. To bring Finn back, Trollope had to kill off poor Mary and Phineas emerges in London as a teenager childless widower with a legacy from an aunt who died at just the right time to allow the move to be possible.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jessie Greengrass|title=The High House|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Charles Darwin taught that all living matter evolved to pass on its genetic material with the implied belief that your progeny will then pass on theirs. However, that train of thought is slowly seems to have fallen out of favour. Today's young generation are discovering that their parents and their parents' parents did not seem to think that far ahead. Or they did think that far ahead and thought "it's not my problem" or "there's nothing I can seem intensely important do". Raising a child and often living in a world on the precipice of catastrophe is what drives ''The High House'' by Jessie Greengrass. This is not a science-fiction novel. This is our reality. This is the lifeour children and their children will have to live.|isbn=1800750072}}{{Frontpage|author=Charlie Carroll|title=The Lip|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''Melody Janie Rowe'' even the name is evocative of…probably of whatever we want it to be, and maybe that's the point. To me the name sings of English folk music, but even in my use of that word English, I know I'm putting an emmet take on things. And Melody Janie Rowe is anti-alteringemmet.|isbn= 19162771011529334179

|authorisbn=Laura Imai MessinaB003UH99X4|title=The Phone Box at the End of the WorldEustace Diamonds|author=Anthony Trollope

|summary= In It was generally thought that Sir Florian Eustace had come to regret his marriage but he didn't live long enough for this to become a problem. After his death, his wife, Lizzie - still only in her late teens - was in possession of a very valuable diamond necklace and was determined that she would not hand it over to her husband's executors. She was adamant that Sir Florian had given it to her absolutely, although the northeast precise circumstances of Japan, in Inwate Prefecture the giving varied from telling to telling. Lady Eustace was not a man installed woman to whom truth meant a telephone box in his gardengreat deal. ''Inside there is an old blackAll that was important to her now, telephoneshe maintained, disconnectedwas her son. And, of course, that carries voices into the windher diamonds.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B003L7TDMU|title=Phineas Finn|author=Anthony Trollope|rating=4.'' It 5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Phineas Finn is a real placethe son of Dr Malachi Finn, a necessary placesuccessful doctor in Killaloe in County Clare, and I am pleased who sent his son to see the IMPORTANT NOTE that the author attaches London to her storytrain as a lawyer. Phineas's interest is more in making influential friends than in becoming a lawyer and one of them, Barrington Erle, suggests that he runs for Parliament in the place forthcoming election. His father is not a tourist destination, entirely in favour of this as members are not remunerated and it would be up to him to provide financial support for his son as well as funding his election. One of the doctor's patients is a sacred placeLord Tulla who controls the borough of Loughshane and by this stroke of luck Finn is, eventually, elected by a place that must be left to those who really need itsmall margin.|isbn=178658039X

|authorisbn=Amin MaaloufB003A6W0FO|title=The DisorientedCan You Forgive Her?|author=Anthony Trollope

|summary= Adam has lived in Paris for years, speaks French more easily than his native Arabic. In fact he hasnOn the surface ''Can You Forgive Her?'' looks deceptively simple: it't been back to his homeland s the story of one woman and two men who are vying with each other for 25 yearsher love. An old friend is dying…or as Adam prefers Alice Vavasor was originally engaged to think of him a former-friendher cousin, perhaps not as harsh as George Vavasor but she broke off that engagement and later became engaged to John Grey. When we first meet Alice she's on an ex-friend, or maybeextended tour of the continent with George Vavasor and his sister Kate. The falling out was It's obvious that there's still a long time ago, great deal of chemistry between John and Alice - and Adam's partner has no idea what Kate is all for encouraging the relationship as it was about, even so she urges him would tie Alice to go knowing that he'll regret not doing soher. Not knowing whether heGeorge wants Alice but it's going because a matter of ''amour propre'' rather than love: he needs or wants to, or simply has little consideration for anyone other than himself and the original engagement had fallen through because he was asked, he's on of his infidelity and deceitfulness. This thread is the next planestory of a very complicated love affair and a woman who lacks confidence in her own judgement. You might not like Alice to start with but you will warm to her. |isbn=B07ZQSK9CY

|author=Joanne M HarrisLucy Holland|title=A Pocketful of CrowsSistersong

|genre= Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary= Sistersong is part of a genre I have always been particularly enjoy, the modern retelling of the mind that once you're above picture-book level folk and before you get to graphic sex & violencefairy tales. These stories, there is no difference between books for children most of us, are a cornerstone of childhood and books for adultsI relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. There If handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are good books now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated, fleshing out characters, examining relationships and poor ones. And Joanne Harris does not produce poor onesre-evaluating the role of women. ''A Pocketful of Crows'' Sistersong is clearly aimed at the younger readers as witness the use a perfect example of a modern retelling done well, the middle initial in plot is handled with care, keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the author's name characters to come to life, to differentiate from her adult offers. Ignore that if you have loved anything from ''Chocolat'' onwards you will know that Harris is mistress of feel real and human, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the modern fairy talepre-Saxon age they live in. This is no different. It is an utter delighta masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to end.|isbn=14732221841529039037

|authorisbn=Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)B002SQCYWQ|title=A Life Without EndThe Complete Barchester Chronicles|author=Anthony Trollope|rating=45

|summary=When I looked at the calendar the other weektold my daughter that I didn't know what to listen to now that I'd finished [[The Complete Novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and disappointedly realised I have a birthday this year – I knowPrejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, yet another one. It won't be one Northanger Abbey and Persuasion by Jane Austen|The Complete Novels of Jane Austen]] for the major numbers, but the second time when I have the same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizon. And then a few of trot she had the big 0-numbers, perfect answer: The Barchester Chronicles and if all goes well, I'll be an OBE. (Which they were in my inbox in a matter of course stands for Over Bloody Eightyminutes.) Now if thatThey're not ''quite's the extent of my mid-life crisis, I guess I have to be happy. Our author here doesn't use that exact phrase, but he might be said to be living one. Determined to find out how to prolong life for as long well known as he wants – he would like to see 400 – he hops right into bed with the assistant to the first geneticist he interviews, and Austen books but they end up with a child, which is at least a way of continuing the life of his genes, and a motive to keep 're an excellent follow on going. But how can he get to not flick the 'final way out' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?|isbn=1642860670

|authorisbn= Maryse CondéB077K6BQFD|title= The Wondrous Complete Novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Tragic Life of Ivan Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and IvanaPersuasion |author=Jane Austen|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= We live in a post- world: post-colonialism, postYes -modernism, post truth. The list goes on. There are numerous works that utilise the prefix post's over eighty- in their categorisation, but perhaps none more so than Maryse Condé. In her new novel, ''The Wondrous and Tragic Life one hours of Ivan and Ivana'', Condé writes with fervour about listening for the scars left by colonialism on the countries to which it latched itselfpurchase of one audio book. Ivan and Ivana All six major novels are twins born in Guadeloupe, a French overseas department. They grow up with intense read by conmedienne Alison Larkin and passionate feelings for each other. As they grow up and move overseas, 're presented in the ravages of a post-colonial society drive them apart with tragic consequencesorder in which they were published.|isbn=1642860697

|author= Ukamaka OlisakweAndrea Bajani and Elizabeth Harris (translator)|title= Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be All RightIf You Kept a Record of Sins|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= The new novel by Ukamaka Olisakwe is This was an incredibly readable novella, but one that left me a look little conflicted. We start as our hero arrives at Bucharest airport, and before we even know his gender or the nature of the trauma and heartache person he's addressing in his second person monologue of being a woman in 1980s Nigeria. The title is narration, we see him picked up by his mother''Ogadinma Ors chauffeur, Everything Will Be All Right''. Ogadinma and carted off to do all the necessary introductions before said mother is buried the eponymous heroine of the storyfollowing day.. We are The mother was a businesswoman, who clearly left northern Italy and settled in Romania with her in every scene (night-time and it is her narrative voice that leads the storybusiness) partner, although Olisakwe writes in third person. This provides a sense of detachment for the reader and highlights the isolation feelings of Ogadinmaabandonment are still strong. She is exiled And so we flit from her fathercurrent (well, this came out in the original Italian in 2007, so moderately current) Bucharest, to the lad's home childhood, and sent see just what he has to Lagos where she is married to an older man named Tobe. Their marriage descends into violence and indignities and Ogadinma must utilise tell her resourcefulness to escapeas a private farewell address.|isbn=19116481601939810965

|author=Elliot ReedAfonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)|title=A Key to Treehouse LivingKokoschka's Doll|rating=42.5|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=This is Well, this looked very much like a book I could love from the story of a young boyget-go, William Tyce, who which is being raised by his uncle after the death why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any of his mother and his father's abandonmentit. However, it isn't told I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section in the usual narrative way. Insteadmiddle on darker stock paper, a chapter whose number was in the book is made up of glossary entries20, written by William000s, letters used as a way of describing certain eventsnarrative form, situations and emotionsso on. It runs alphabetically, starting intrigued with ABSENCEthe subterranean voice a man hears in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew of it mentioned, then moving to ALPHABETICAL ORDERtoo. As I began to read I did find myself thinking But you'what on earth?!' but I soon grew used to ve seen the stylestar rating that comes with this review, and can tell that if love was instead caught up in William's storyon these pages, it was not actually caused by them. So what happened?|isbn=19115454181529402697

|authorisbn= Karina Sainz Borgo and Elizabeth Bryer (translator)0571362672|title= It Would Be Night in CaracasSnow|author=John Banville|rating= 45|genre= Literary Fiction Crime (Historical)|summary= ''It Would Be Night in CaracasWell, at least you'' illuminates the everyday horrors of modern day Venezuelare a Wexford man. It begins with the death of Adelaida Falcon's mother and chronicles Adelaida's coming to terms with her new solitude in this world and her attempts to escape it. Danger stalks the shadows and, in a society where the establishment is crumbling, who can you turn to? |isbn=0062936867}}

{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15"<!-- Caroline Scott -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471186393.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471186393/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Photographer of the Lost by Caroline Scott]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] May 1921. Edie receives a photograph through the post. There is no letter or note with it. There is nothing written on the back of the photograph. It is a picture of her husband, Francis. Francis has been missing for four years. Technically, So said Colonel Osborne when he has been "missing, believed killed" but that is not something that a young widow can believe. She hangs on the word welcomed DI St John (pronounced 'missingSinjun', disbelieving the word killed. [[Photographer of the Lost by Caroline Scott|Full Review]] <!-- Ann Patchett -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1526614960.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526614960/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Dutch ) Strafford to Ballyglass House by Ann Patchett]]=== [[image:5starjust before Christmas 1957.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] When we first meet Danny and his elder sister, Maeve Conroy, they're both living at The Dutch House with their parents and under the gaze Osborne was master of the portraits of the former owners whose oil paintings still hang on the walls. It's a strange family dynamic: Cyril Conroy is distant Keelmore Hounds and the closest Danny seems to come to him is when he goes out had done something memorable with him on a Saturday collecting rents from properties the family owns. Elna Conroy is loving, but absent increasingly often until the point comes when the children are told that she will not be returning. In other circumstances this might have affected Maeve and Danny deeply, but their primary relationship is with each otherInniskilling Dragoons at Dunkirk. It's a bond which only death will break. [[The Dutch House by Ann Patchett|Full Review]] <!-- Tove Jansson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0954899520.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954899520/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Winter Book by Tove Jansson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she niceties had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the world might be. [[A Winter Book by Tove Jansson|Full Review]] <!-- Jansson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0954221710.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954221710/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Summer Book by Tove Jansson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Literary Fiction]] Tove Jansson's short novel about Summer is several worlds away from the Moomintrolls she is most famous for outside her native Scandinavia. Book yourself an afternoon this Summer, and take yourself and The Summer Book somewhere quiet, preferably within sight and sound of the sea, settle back and prepare to be transported. [[The Summer Book by Tove Jansson|Full Review]] <!-- Sedgwick -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788542347.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788542347/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Snowflake, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] This is a deep, interesting read unlike any book I've read in quite some time. The novel's story follows a young man named Ash in the process of joining a community of sick people in the curiously named town of Snowflake, Arizona. These people are sick, but it's not a sickness you've heard of. Instead, they're environmentally ill – affected by household chemicals and fabrics, pesticides, static electricity, and radiation – and their only ''cure'' is to stay in the town away from the real world. Though it's about a real place, the people in it are fictional. It really is a place apart, quite literally cut off from the outside world – people are established even required to decontaminate themselves thoroughly before becoming fully integrated. [[Snowflake, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick|Full Review]] <!-- Hewitt -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1509896465.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509896465/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] ''The Nightjar'' is an unusual and exciting story. Alice Wyndham lives when there was a normal life in London until she finds a box Catholic priest dead on her doorstep one morning and her life begins to unravel, fast. From that very moment, her life is flooded the library floor with magic, loss, expectation and particularly, betrayal. As everything around her shifts, all that she knows, all that she thinks she knows, must change. Who can she trust? Who must she trust? Who will she trust? More importantly, can she even trust herself? [[The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt|Full Review]] <!-- 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 some precious bits of a middle-aged man who knows too much about train travel having his life turned around in the most pleasant wayanatomy missing. I hadn't opened it when I'd shelved it alongside [[:Category:Chris Cleave|Chris Cleave]], Strafford was from Roslea at Bunclody and [[:Category:David Nicholls|David Nicholls]]. I expected some whimsythis, some warmth and some affirmative loveliness. More fool me. [[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan|Full Review]] <!along with his good-but- Anstruther -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1784631647.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784631647/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Perfect Explanation by Eleanor Anstruther]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]shabby suit, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Enid Campbell was a woman who, on the face of it, had everything. Leading the life marked him out as of an aristocrat – full of inherited wealth and splendour, glamourous locales and high expectations. Only EnidOsborne's life has been plagued by mental illness – undiagnosed, untreated and threatening both Enid and those close to her. After losing custody of her children, Enid sells her son to her sister for £500 – but is this an act of greed, or an act of desperation? Exploring the true story of her own grandmother, Eleanor Anstruther has found the perfect subject for an explosive, moving class and beautifully well written debut. [[A Perfect Explanation by Eleanor Anstruther|Full Review]] <!-- Laguna -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:191070962X.jpg|link=http://www.amazonobviously Protestant.co.uk/dp/191070962X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Choke by Sofie Laguna]]=== [[image:2star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] There's a dulldead priest was Father Tom Lawless from Scallanstown, dispiriting pang of disappointment that comes when you try something everyone else loves and find out that you're really not into it. Coffee. Ice skating. A new Netflix series. Books are like that, but doubly so. [[The Choke by Sofie Laguna|Full Review]] <!who -despite the different religions - Varenne -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857058738.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857058738/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] 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 buffalo hunt, and who hates the way man – and woman, habit of course – can turn against fellow man spending time at the bat of an eyelidBallyglass House. But this book is about so much more than the 1870s USA, and the attendant problems with gold rushes, pioneer spirits and racial genocide. He finds himself trying to find this book's version of Utopia, namely the Equator, where everything is upside down, people walk on their heads with rocks in their pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the anti-gravity, and where, who knows, things might actually be better. But that equator is a long way away – and His horse was stabled there's a whole adventure full of Mexico and Latin America between him and it… [[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Kan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1911115847.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1911115847/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Nights of the Creaking Bed by Toni Kan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Literary Fiction| Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] ''Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, in this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of hope. [[Nights of the Creaking Bed by Toni Kan|Full Review]]