[[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]]
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.
Want to find out learn more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
==The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
{{Frontpage
|author=Paul B Preciado
|title=Dysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''It is never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood''
Through this hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to the new generation, a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. Rather, it is the proportional, valid response to ''the epistemological and political crack we are living through, and the tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The whole text is framed against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, or as ''pangea covidica''. Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to ''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''Read [[Forthcoming Publications. |isbn=1804271454}}{{Frontpage|author=Samantha Harvey|title=Orbital|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|reviews summary=In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital'', a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the lives of a group of books about astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to be published]]see our planet in a wholly new light.|isbn=1529922933}}{{Frontpage|isbn=295967572X|title=Pale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction<!|summary= Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and what the purpose of this journey is, is uncertain. Django found the tickets ''on the floor somewhere'' and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not? Not much else is clear either -- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->but we are probably in the past as the pair travel to the station by coach and the train is a steam locomotive.}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291244170008551324|title=Before She DisappearedThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Lisa GardnerNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Frankie Elkin found Lani WhitehorseIt's body in her car at unusual for anyone from the bottom of Hardie family to approach the lakepolice. She knew that Neither side likes or has any respect for the twenty-two-year-old waitress wouldn't have left her three-year-old daughter and run awayother. Lani was the fourteenth missing person to be located by Frankie But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and now shehe's moving on again, this time prepared to Boston tell the police where there's the body of a strong Haitian community which missing person is buried and who was home to Angelique Lovelie Badeau until responsible for her disappearance eleven months agodeath. FrankieThis person, middle-aged he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and whiteto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, gets a job is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and accommodation at Stoneyshe's bar and sets out even prepared to investigate do the community which other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is just about exclusively blackkept well away from what's happening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B08QDL5HDLJon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=The Jeeves Collection, Vol 1|author=P G WodehouseVaim
|rating=4
|genre=HumourLiterary Fiction|summary=In my youth, I wasn't fond of PG Wodehouse: I've never been keen on upper-class twits and I All was greedystrange''.. I wanted everything: I required brilliant plots, exceptional characters and laugh-out-loud humour. Age brought This haunting phrase encapsulates the realisation that you have to compromise and I came back to Wodehouse with pervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, a different mindset. The humour is gentle fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and subtle: there's never any malice in it. The characterisation is Eline, two-dimensional where women are concerned: there's little of the protagonists caught in between old gorgons (Aunt Agatha, we're looking at you...) and young schemers such as Honoria Glossop. The plots are superficial but gently engaging. They're fun - and the writing is exquisiteits melancholic current.|isbn=1804271829
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=H M Long1035043092|title=Hall of SmokeThe Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=45|genre=FantasyCrime|summary= Hessa is an Eangi: a powerful priestess of I can't have been the Goddess of War. That is until she is banished only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by her high priestess for not following her one order: Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to kill the traveller that visits her templestart a new life on Orkney. Her whole town is burnt to the ground while she is praying for forgiveness It's been seven years since we heard from him, and Hessa – but he's now left alone – must find this traveller to atone for her weakness living with Willow Reeves and win back her goddess' favour. On her journeytheir young son, she encounters zealot soldiersJames, deceitful godsas well as Cassie, and newly awakened demons at every turnthe daughter of his former partner. It is a gruelling quest Willow's also his boss, and along she ''should'' be on maternity leave, but when the waybody of a popular islander, she discovers a harrowing truth: the gods are dyingArchie Stout, is found, and in the High Halls aftermath of the afterlife are fadinga storm, she can't resist getting involved. Soon Hessa He's trust in her goddess weakens, and she is thrust into d been battered about the head with a battle between the gods Neolithic stone - one of the Old World and the Newa pair - which had been stolen from a museum.|isbn=1789094984
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Afonso Cruz and Rahul Bery (translator)Thea Lenarduzzi|title=Kokoschka's DollThe Tower|rating=2.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Well''How unctuous are the fats of another's life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''. In this looked very much like a book I could love from compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the get-goprotagonist of this tale. Just as T's story is being told, which the story of a second protagonist is why I picked my review copy up and flipped pages over several times before actually reading any unveiled: Annie, the daughter of it. I found things to potentially delight me each time – a weird section wealthy family in the middle on darker stock paper19th century, who died of tuberculosis after being locked in a chapter whose number was in the 20tower,000scaptures T's imagination. Annie's fate is, letters used as narrative formabove all, and so onan enticing story to T. It intrigued with the subterranean voice is a story which she consumes avariciously, both in a man hears quest for truth and knowledge, and in wartorn Dresden that what little I knew service of it mentioned, too. But you've seen the star rating that comes with this reviewmyth, fable and can tell that if love was on these pages, it was not actually caused by themfantasy. So what happened?|isbn=15294026971804271799
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=David F RossClaire-Louise Bennett|title= There's Only One Danny GarveyBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary= Years agoEverything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, Danny Garvey was is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a footballing prodigy playing for his local clubkiss, usually a symbol of intimacy and closeness, becomes evidence of love lost. Everyone predicted a bright future – but his career in professional football never quite worked When the narrator cries out. Thirteen years oninternally, ''come over here and kiss me, convinced '' it is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to return home by his "uncle" Higgy to visit his dying motherconfirm her emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, Danny takes over the shambolic and onceher ex-great team he used to play for and tries partner, a ghost she conjures to reform themtest her detachment.|isbn= 19131935001804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15293379250008405026|title=The Mirror Dance A Stranger in the Family (Dandy GilverMaeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Catriona McPhersonJane Casey|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=It 's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was the August Bank Holiday weekend never found and, as so often happened, it was cold enough to have the fire lit and Bunty the Dalmation wasn't inclined investigation ground to leave it to keep Dandy Gilver warm on the sofaa halt. The thought of work was almost cheering when Dandy took the call from Sandy Bissett Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in Dundeetheir bed. She was Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the publisher positioning of a magazine and had been told the bodies that the man running the Punch makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and Judy show in the local park had used copies of two of her cartoon characters boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open- Rosie Cheek and her sister Freckle - to drum up some local interest shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in his show. Sandy BissettRosalie's request was simpledisappearance: she wanted Gilver and Osborne to warn the man about infringement of copyright - and Dandy and Alex would be cheaper than employing a solicitor to do the same jobothers (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0099551063Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=The Wisdom of Psychopaths: Lessons in life from Saints, Spies and Serial Killers|author=Dr Kevin DuttonOther Girl
|rating=4
|genre=Popular ScienceAutobiography|summary='' We were born from the same body. I'Donald Trump outscores Hitler on psychopathic traits' claims Oxford University researcherve never really wanted to think about this.''
Until Ernaux's work is always very candid and her tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of the events most intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her sister, however, this letter will never reach her. Why? Because Annie Ernaux's sister died of diphtheria at 6 January 2021 that might have surprisedyears old, a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and 2 years before the author was even shocked many readers: now they're probably convinced that they knew it all alongborn. The statement has lost a little large and instant void created by the jarring concept of its shock value but it does help us writing to understand more about the nature of psychopathy. Itan imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's too easy to associate psychopathy process of reckoning with the Yorkshire Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Saddam Hussein or Robert Maudsley, the real-this giant absence in her life Hannibal Lecter, an absence that she has always felt but the truth is that having psychopathic traits can sometimes be a good thingoften denied.|isbn=1804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alex WheatleMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=The Humiliations Reminiscences of Welton BlakeTolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=23.5|genre=Confident ReadersBiography|summary=We meet Welton Blake at Biographies are often seen as the worst form of times – only they should life-writing which offers less colour; it can be the best seen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of timeshis literary contemporaries. He should be getting a text from In the most bae-worthy girl in school in regards first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to a cinema date, but his phone has packed up, hefriend Gorky that: 's chundered last night's meal and his breakfast over another girl in classyou write not of real life as it is, who's duffed him up in response, and the wanna-bae seems but of what you yourself imagine it to actually be with someone else anyway. On a bigger scale he's living with his mother and not much income now Whom would it help to know how I see this tower, that the dad has left the picture – yessea, things are so bad theyor that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''re resorting to having cabbage for dinner. I knowWell, right? But surely this is just Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a blipsubjective account, a day at school giving us access to forgethow he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and everything Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=1804271977}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529077745|title=The Dark Wives (like D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=A man walking his vomit) will all come out dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the wash? park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. This can't be D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the start disappearance of a most nightmarish time one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for young Welton?|isbn=1781129495the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Karen M McManusB0FK5LHKD9|title=The CousinsColour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden|rating=54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= The rich and famous Story family led It's been three years since we last reviewed a life of luxury on Gull Cove Islandbook by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, until 25 years ago when each of the Story children - Anders, Archer, Adam and Allison - received so we were very glad to see a mysterious letter from their mother and were cut off completelynew novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. But nowLike all Bowden's stories, there's a quarter mystery at the heart of a century later, their children have been called to return to the island for the summer by their grandmother. What does she want with the cousins? Why did she cut off her children all those years ago? Are the deaths on Gull Cove Island really what they seem? ''The dark web Colour of twisted lies, secrets and tragedy that has held the Story family up Money''. We like this running theme in an author's work - take a mystery but give it different flavour and held them apart - for a quarter of a century is about to come crashing downatmosphere each time.|isbn=0241376947
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786495902Olga Tokarczuk|title=The Natural Health Service: How Nature Can Mend Your Mind|author=Isabel HardmanHouse of Day, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleLiterary Fiction|summary=Isabel Hardman suffered ''What's the good of a trauma which she chooses not to share. She says world that keeps changing like that a friend who does know? How can one go on calmly living in it?'' The title of this spellbinding work, ''House of Day, burst into tears and health-care professionalsHouse of Night'' jaws have sagged in disbelief. Hardman dealt with , somewhat reflects this at notion of shifting realities - the time by 'keeping going': small, subtle changes which govern our lives, like the next shift from day she went to work to cover night, however quotidian, causing chaos. But, the constant in that image is the budgethouse, next there was stoic against the EU referendumancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is perceived.|isbn=1804271918}}{{Frontpage|isbn=henleyA|title=Ultimate Obsession|author=Dai Henley|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Ex-DCI Andy Flood has been a Private Investigator for some time now, the political party leadership contests and then it was party conference seasonhe should be doing quite well financially. Unfortunately, his daughter's defence against a murder charge drained his savings. One night she had His wife, Laura, has been trying to be sedated and returned home persuade him to begin longretire -term sick leave''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. That was 's what brought me 'ordinary people do','' He's not been entirely up front about the state of their savings. When Jack Durban tries to this book: 2020 was persuade him to take his case, it's the year when thought of the bins went out more often than I didmoney he could make that convinces him that this is a miscarriage of justice that he really should put right.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Emma Carroll and Kaja Kajfez1836284683|title=The Ghost GardenBig Happy|author=David Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersDystopian Fiction|summary=FranWell! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when I open a book, the gardenerit's daughter at nothing like I expected it to be, and it takes me on a posh country house, wild ride. And that is worriedjust what happened with ''The Big Happy''. I don't want to ruin a similar experience for any of you reading but I'll have to at least set the scene. SheOnce that's just cracked done, I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sally Rooney|title=Intermezzo|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction |summary=Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her garden fork through characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a grim discovery - socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a large bone, buried under the potatoessuccessful lawyer living in Dublin. But sheFollowing their father's even more worried when she learns that that event coincided passing after a long battle with Leocancer, the older child brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1036916375|title=Just a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of memories and reflections from the houseyears Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. Some are factual, breaking his leg while playing cricket on such as the lawn. She is due to get even more worried when she finds something else that also seems to foretell family history of a surprisesea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Tasked with shoving Leo around Other stories blend seamlessly into the grounds in his bathchair, she what-might -have reason -been. It's a book to be out of her settle into and allow your mind with fearto roam across your childhood memories, to think of simpler times when she learns what he is seeking - life seemed less constrained, despite the blitz that was a long-forgotten burial chamberconstant factor in McArdle's early years. But surely that wonI't act as a premonition to anything d never heard of parachute mines before - not here in but they were almost soundless and could appear after the sultry, summery days of 1914?|isbn=1781129002all-clear was sounded.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=reed31836285493|title=Why You? 101 Interview Questions You'll Never Fear Again (3rd Edition)The Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=James ReedRob Keeley
|rating=5
|genre=Business and FinanceConfident Readers|summary=Six years on from the original editionWill is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, the book is being re-issued with a bonus chapter entitled ''The Future slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But most of Work'' all, he is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one at which includes an additional 10 questionshe excels. IThis hasn've come to this some 6 years after reviewing the original book t gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and my life she has changed significantly in the meantime. I'm no longer working in middle-management having opted for a down-shift into reduced hours freelancing to enable me to focus on other (not necessarily paying) work. I can therefore relate suggested to the first point made in this chapter namely that independence Will and flexibility are core skills his mum that employees need to havehe spends a couple of afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Deborah O'Connor1009473085|title= The CaptiveConservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating= 45|genre= ThrillersPolitics and Society|summary=Hannah knows Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the cageinside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, intimatelythen this isn't the book for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It lurks 's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the corner state of her eye. Soonthe nation when the coalition took over in 2010, it will be occupiedthe changes that occurred and the situation in 2024. Then what? What if he speaks to her? What if he escapes? What if he hurts her? What if she hurts him?|isbn=1838772650
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B08CR3WNFTJenny Valentine|title=The Therapist|author=B A ParisUs in the Before and After
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersTeens|summary=When Leo Curtis found the house in The CircleElk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a gated community, Alice Dawson was once in Venicea lifetime connection. Leo wanted to move quickly on the property They meet as it was children one day on the market at such a reasonable price that Alice wouldntrip out but unfortunately they don't have to sell her cottage in Harlestone for them to be able to afford itget each other's contact details at the time. Alice agreed - she was tired of their long-distance relationshipBut then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Now Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they would be able to spend most of the week together instead of just the weekends. Leo had some must work done on the house: he made two bedrooms into one through their grief, and although Alice knew that the house was stunning she just didn't feel comfortable theretheir friendship, together.|isbn=1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14063954041787333175|title=The Awesome Power of Sleep: How Sleep Super-Charges Your Teenage BrainYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Nicola MorganBenji Waterhouse
|rating=5
|genre=TeensPopular Science|summary=2020 has been I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a strange year: I doubt anyone would argue with that statement. Lots glorious mixture of insight into the workings of our routines have been completely dismantled the NHS, humour and for some teenagers this will have brought about sleep problemsautobiography. Some teens will dismiss this as irrelevant ('who needs sleep? - I've got loads You Don't Have to be doing) and others will worry unnecessarilyMad... Most people, '' promised the same elements but moved from children physical problems to adults will have mental illness and the odd bad night but worrying about your lack work of sleep is only likely to make it worsea psychiatrist. And there's also I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the fact that for far too long, lack of sleep has been lauded as laughter is directed at a situation rather than a virtue person and sleep made to seem like laziness. Being up early, working late has been praised it is always delivered with empathy and the ability to survive on little sleep has almost become something to put on your CVunderstanding.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=000820831XMariana Enriquez|title=The Coffinmaker's Garden|author=Stuart MacBrideA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=45|genre=CrimeShort Stories|summary=At the coastal village of ClachmaraMariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, the headland is slowly eroding into the sea. Storm Trevor speeds up the process. A ship - the Ocean-Gold Harvester is stuck achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on the rocks and young Alfie Compton cannot resist sneaking out gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of the house disused refrigerators due to see what's happening. Margaret runs after her son an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and as she grabs him to pull him back to a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety she glances across at the newlymeetings are routine -exposed cliff front and sees human bonesall within Argentina. Gordon Smith's home is falling into the North Sea and the evidence The circumstances of what he's been doing for decades is going with it - except for what Ash Henderson of LIRU can grab as he later escapes her characters are so plausible that the tumbling ruinsupernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|isbn=1803511230
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B08BC4D58S1529934753|title=Winterkill (Dark Iceland)The Protest|author=Ragnar JonassonRob Rinder|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Ari Thor Arason is For a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the police inspector in Siglufjordur and hecountry's still most famous living artist, was not going to show up for the opening of his retrospective at the Royal Academy. Still, he arrived in the house on Eyrargata which he shared nick of time, complete with his wife Kristin two wives and son Stefnir before Kristin left to go to Sweden to do a Masters degreesix children, taking three-year-old Stefnir with herone of whom filmed what happened. They were supposed Being an influencer, you tend to spend Christmas together do things like that, but Kristin cancelledit was fortunate that there was a record of the protest. It's now Lexi Williams, an intern at the Thursday RA, grabbed a spray can of Holy Week blue paint from under a chair and his family is due proceeded to arrive spray Bruce in Siglufjordur that afternoonthe face, whilst shouting ''Stop the War''. Ari Thor is having trouble sleeping but when he finally managed It seemed to get to sleep the phone rings: the body be part of an ongoing series of a young woman has 'blue-face' attacks, but this was different. The can had been found on Adalgatalaced with cyanide, the main street of the townand Sir Max Bruce was dead.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rob WintersAriel Saramandi|title=His Name Was WrenPortrait of an Island on Fire|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=In September 1944 something came down in Oban Woodsthis powerful collection of essays, near Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the village sociopolitical fabric of Hurstwick. It came down hardMauritius, taking tunneling deep into the spire of wounds left by colonialism and slavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the village church with itcountry at one stage as ''rotting'', destroying a stone shack, and leaving a wide trail through blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the woodmalignant forces of racism, but no trace of what it actually was. German secret weapon was the local gossippatriarchy, but there should have been an explosion environmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. Each essay in this collection serves as a craterkind of diagnostic, and there were neither of those thingscharting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|isbn=B08KGVNVNB1804271616
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Stephen ClarkePekka Harju-Autti|title=The Spy Who Inspired MeLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionFantasy|summary=This It's the eighteenth century, a time of discovery and Britain is a spoof spy storyexpanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, that isn't about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. But it features a man called Ian Lemmingan experienced Scottish sea captain, who dresses well and 'likes is sent to the ladies' and who works for the secret service, but Andaman Islands in the planning side of things more than the active servicehis endeavour. Lemming finds himself put on a mission Along with a female spy called Margauxhis son, Peter, and the pair end up stranded in Normandytheir cat, Michi, with Margaux they set off on a desperate mission perilous voyage to unearth traitors these faraway lands. The islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the resistance networkislanders' leader, Aarav, and Lemming desperately trying is keen to keep up with her!establish good relations.|isbn=2952163855B0DS1VGHH3
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=3110706075Helene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=Making a Difference: Leadership, Change and Giving Back the Independent Director Way|author=Gerry BrownLili is Crying|rating=4.5|genre=Business and FinanceLiterary Fiction|summary=''You're not there to run the organisation. You are there to make sure that it First published in 1953 in French, this novel is run properly.'' Gerry Brown is passionate about a timeless text which wrenches the benefits which Independent Directors can bring to a board - not hearts of its readers just a corporate board, but as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on the board of an NHS Trustpage and positions them elsewhere, a universitydisjointed, a sports organisation or a charitytruncated. He's particularly keen that there's increased diversity on these boards and feels that this would help to avoid some Like the lives of the scandals (Oxfam, Kids Company - we're thinking about you) which have occurred in recent years. For this to happenher characters, boards need to have a wider field of people to choose from when they're looking for an IDare often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=1804271675
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786495902Tom Percival|title=The Natural Health Service: How Nature Can Mend Your Mind|author=Isabel HardmanWrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleConfident Readers|summary=Isabel Hardman suffered Will's life is difficult, in a trauma which she chooses not to sharemultitude of ways. She says that a friend He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', who does know, burst into tears he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and health-care professionalsdoesn' jaws t have sagged in disbelief. Hardman dealt with this at enough money for even the time by 'keeping goingmost basic of things like food, and his dad can': the next day she went to t work to cover because he lost his job at the budgetcollege, next there was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the EU referendumfact that his mum and dad are separated, the political party leadership contests and then it was party conference seasonWill's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. One night she had to be sedated He is good at art, and returned home to begin long-term sick leave. That was what brought me clings to this book: 2020 was the year moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the bins went out more often than I didend of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=3030513025Sylvie Cathrall|title=The Independent Director in Society: Our current crisis of governance and what A Letter to do|author=Gerry Brown, Andrew Kakabadse and Filipe Moraisthe Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Business and FinanceScience Fiction|summary=Independent Director: ''There are few greater joys than a job for book which no one is qualified'' (''Financial Times'') Independent Director: ''An independent director is lives up to a member of the board of directors who (1) do not have a material relationship with the company, (2) compelling premise. And this is not part of the company's executive team, and (3) is not involved with the day-to-day operations one of the companythem. (Corporate Finance Institute) Gerry Brown, Andrew Kakabadse and Filipe Morais feel that the relationship between the executive members of boards and the independent directors (formerly known as non-executive directors), trustees or governors of organisations is frequently unbalanced. The function of the independent director is to have general oversight of the executive side of the board - to spot when and where things are going wrong - but all too often the relationship is too cosy, too antagonistic or the independent director lacks the knowledge and/or experience to understand what's happening or to know how to intervene. Covid-19 has highlighted the failings and weaknesses of leadership and governance and you might be tempted to think that these are extraordinary times and that all will be well once we get back to 'normal' but a pandemic was predicted and modelled in the past and there has been a general failure to prepare for what has happened - and is still happening.|isbn= 0356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B002SQCYWQ1786482126|title=The Complete Barchester ChroniclesJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Anthony TrollopeElly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=When I told my daughter that I didnBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 't know what to listen to now that Iluxury'd finished [[The Complete Novels: Sense and Sensibilityapartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Pride and PrejudiceDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, Mansfield Parkbut Nelson doesn't, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion by Jane Austen|The Complete Novels that she is pregnant with his child as a result of Jane Austen]] for the second time on the trot she had the perfect answer: The Barchester Chronicles and one night they were in my inbox in a matter of minutesspent together some three months ago. They're Her condition will be obvious before long, not ''quite'' as well known as the Austen books but they're an excellent follow onleast because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008214468Guadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=A Time to Lie|author=Simon BerthonThe Accidentals|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersShort Stories|summary=A workman has a nasty surprise when he pulls a package out This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of an excavation on a building site. It's wrapped the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and charming in part its gentle portrayal of an old shower curtain nature and is a hand, severed above the wrist. It's been there for about twenty-five to thirty-five yearshuman relationships. Robin Sandford - generally known as Robbie - is Prime Minister. He's married to heiress Carol van Koon Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and they have two daughtersprecisely, Becca and Bella. Sandford's determined to be her stories structured by a better type of politician: he wants ''a government wisdom that is not just practically good, but morally good.'' One of the ways he's planning on going about this is appears to ban arms sales want to dubious regimes. Henry Morland-Cross, the Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor of teach us something about the Exchequer, wishes that he'd been warned about this: it's easy to see that he wouldn't have been in agreementworld.|isbn=1804271470
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B077K6BQFD0008551375|title=The Complete Novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion When Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Jane AustenNeil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Yes - thatLeanne Wilson's over eighty-one hours body was found at the bottom of listening for a Scottish mountain, seemingly the purchase result of a tragic accident. She'd looked so happy, too, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as she was just out of one audio bookan unpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances in the last year. All six major novels are read by conmedienne Alison Larkin were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and sensible people. None of the 'what a stupid thing to do' explanations applied. They were all alone when theydied: DS Max Craigie is certain there're presented in s a killer on the order in which they were publishedloose.
}}