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==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''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews . Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of books about weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to be published]]''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->|isbn=1804271454}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Charlie CarrollSamantha Harvey|title=The LipOrbital|rating=4.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Melody Janie RoweOrbital'' even , a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the name is evocative of…probably lives of whatever we want it to be, and maybe that's a group of astronauts aboard the pointInternational Space Station. To me Through a narrative lens that mirrors the name sings of English folk musicastronauts' orbital perspective, but even Harvey invites readers to see our planet in my use of that word English, I know I'm putting an emmet take on things. And Melody Janie Rowe is anti-emmeta wholly new light. |isbn=15293341791529922933
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Danny Wallace and Gemma Correll295967572X|title=The Day the Screens Went BlankPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Meet Stella and her family. They're just innocently trying Our unnamed narrator is about to have begin a Sunday evening in together, watching a film – using three different screens to watch three different things, mind – when ''poof'' everything goes blank. And it's not just their home, but the entire south-western village of Mousehole, and not just that, either, but the whole country, if not worldtrain journey with his companion Django. Suddenly people are constantly on their phones – hoping Where they're first to get a screen back, going and not what they were constantly doing on them before. Toasters can toast, but TVs cannot do the V part purpose of their job, and no computer can show its computations. You might think this journey is going to be a social comedy about people stuck in such a Luddite experience against their will, but nois uncertain. For Django found the family finally remember Stellatickets ''on the floor somewhere''s grandma, and see if they can get across country to her. Hence this has persuaded our narrator to go down as a road-trip bookaccompany him. But Why not just that, a slapstick road? Not much else is clear either -trip comedy. And more than that, too – for it's but we are probably in the past as the pair travel to the station by coach and the train is a slapstick, high-drama, high-octane road-trip comedy with oodles of cuddly heart that kids of all ages will lovesteam locomotive.|isbn=1471196887
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19131935270008551324|title=Bound The Devil You Know (Detective Sam ShephardD S Max Craigie)|author=Vanda SymonNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Dunedin was shocked when it heard of It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the murder of a wealthy and apparently respectable businessman out at Seacliffpolice. His wife had been bound Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and gagged and placed so that she was forced he's prepared to watch tell the murder, with police where the scene being discovered by their sonbody of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, Declanhe promises, when is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he returned home from an evening outwants. The subsequent investigation would prove that John Henderson had been involved in some activities which might have been considered shady And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and certainly questionable if not illegalto get an early parole date. His companyNot much to ask, Eros Global, manufactured is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and marketed she''vitamins even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded -type supplements make certain that DS Max Craigie and, anyone who works with him is kept well, sexual enhancers, that kind of thing'', as Hendersonaway from what's employee, Blair Harvey-Boyd explainedhappening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529109116Jon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey|author=Hannah JacksonVaim|rating=4.5|genre=LifestyleLiterary Fiction|summary=''I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.'' The stereotypical farmer All was probably born on the land where strange''his'' family have farmed for generations. He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be a farmer. It's not always the case though. Hannah Jackson was born and brought up on This haunting phrase encapsulates the Wirral: she'd never pervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a deep love of animals. Her original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jacksonin Vaim, whale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake District. She saw a lamb being born fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir andEline, although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the kudos two of her original intention, she knew that she wanted to be a shepherd. With the determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambitionprotagonists caught in its melancholic current.|isbn=1804271829
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=08575272311035043092|title=Dog DaysThe Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ericka WallerAnn Cleeves
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=George Dempsey is exceedingly angryI can't have been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a new life on Orkney. It's eight days been seven years since his wifewe heard from him, Ellen, died and itbut he's now living with Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the first time that she's let him downdaughter of his former partner. HeWillow's lostalso his boss, bereft without her ( he and she ''needs his wife, like a snail needs its shellshould''). He misses their ordered life and rather than bringing him meals to be on maternity leave on , but when the body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, in the doorstepaftermath of a storm, heshe can'd much rather have a good row with someonet resist getting involved. He's particularly angry d been battered about the dachshund puppy which Helen brought home just three weeks before she died. She even dared to contradict him when he told her that the dog wasn't staying. Now he's lumbered head with a dog he doesn't want and a load Neolithic stone - one of busybodies who are trying to interfere in his life. Worst of all is Betty, who won't take no for an answer. Betty knits jumpers for Lucky, her greyhound. Lucky spends a lot of time trying to escape pair - which had been stolen from and destroy thema museum.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B003UH99X4Thea Lenarduzzi|title=The Eustace Diamonds|author=Anthony TrollopeTower
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=It was generally thought that Sir Florian Eustace had come to regret his marriage but he didn't live long enough for 'How unctuous are the fats of another's life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''. In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the protagonist of this to become a problemtale. After his deathJust as T's story is being told, his wifethe story of a second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, Lizzie - still only the daughter of a wealthy family in her late teens - was the 19th century, who died of tuberculosis after being locked in possession of a very valuable diamond necklace and was determined that she would not hand it over to her husbandtower, captures T's executorsimagination. She was adamant that Sir Florian had given it to her absolutelyAnnie's fate is, above all, although the precise circumstances of the giving varied from telling an enticing story to tellingT. Lady Eustace was not It is a woman to whom truth meant a great deal. All that was important to her now, story which she maintainedconsumes avariciously, was her son. Andboth in a quest for truth and knowledge, and in service of coursemyth, her diamondsfable and fantasy. |isbn=1804271799
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Claire-Louise Bennett|title=Big Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, usually a symbol of intimacy and closeness, becomes evidence of love lost. When the narrator cries out internally, ''come over here and kiss me,'' it is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to confirm her emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, her ex-partner, a ghost she conjures to test her detachment.|isbn=1804271934}}{{Frontpage|isbn=15290473150008405026|title=The LamplightersA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Emma StonexJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=It''A fisherman told him once about the sea having two facess sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. You have She was never found and the investigation ground to take a halt. them bothNow, her mother, he saidHelena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the good bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the badexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|author=Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=The Other Girl|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=''We were born from the same body. I've never turn your back on either one of themreally wanted to think about this.''
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Mary H K ChoiMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=YolkReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=3.5|genre=TeensBiography|summary= Jayne Baek is a fashion student that's barely getting by. She drinks. She smokes. She makes bad decisions about Biographies are often seen as the men she sleeps with. She's an allform of life-round messy characterwriting which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I think that's her charmGorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. June, on In the other handfirst section of this book, is a complete contrast Tolstoy complains to Jayne. Shehis friend Gorky that: 's a typical older sister: she's smartyou write not of real life as it is, thinks she knows but of what you yourself imagine it to be. Whom would it allhelp to know how I see this tower, and has a successful job. She constantly criticises Jayne for her life choicesthat sea, and the two have barely kept in contact despite living in the same city for the past two years. This or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is until June finds out sheit?'s sick'. Well, and Jayne is the only person she Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can turn be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to. The two sisters have to come together how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and decide how far they'll go to save each other's lives – even if Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it means swapping identities.|isbn= 03490036961804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Saima Mir1529077745|title=The KhanDark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Jia Khan has alway lived by A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the motto be twice as good as men and four times as good as white menpark near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. This has served her well in her rise through The dead man was Josh - one of the criminal justice system and by care workers who was due to work a shift the time she night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is called home for her sister's wedding after fifteen years in selfto investigate the murder -imposed exile, she but her only clue is at the top disappearance of one of her game. Returning to the city of her birthresidents, to fourteen-year-old scars and fresh wounds, Jia must confront her past and reconcile her visions Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the future with her sense of honour and dutydeath 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.|isbn=1786079097
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008336830B0FK5LHKD9|title=Two WrongsThe Colour of Memory|author=Mel McGrathChristopher Bowden|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=Sondra was on her way home after work when she saw It's been three years since we last reviewed a young woman looking as though she was going book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were very glad to jump from the Clifton suspension bridgesee a new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. She talks to herLike all Bowden's stories, and Sondra finally persuades Satnam to call her best friend and flatmate, Nevis Smith. Nevis is unworldly and rather reserved - and she canthere's a mystery at the heart of ''The Colour of Money't understand why Satnam hasn't shared her problems with her. She thought they shared everything. Satnam is taken to hospital and Nevis calls her mother, Honor. TheyWe like this running theme in an author've not been on good terms since s work - take a discovery Nevis made the previous summer mystery but right now, Nevis needs her mothergive it different flavour and atmosphere each time.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Andrea Bajani and Elizabeth Harris (translator)Olga Tokarczuk|title=If You Kept a Record House of SinsDay, House of Night|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=This was an incredibly readable novella, but ''What's the good of a world that keeps changing like that? How can one that left me a little conflicted. We start as our hero arrives at Bucharest airportgo on calmly living in it?'' The title of this spellbinding work, and before we even know his gender or the nature of the person he's addressing in his second person monologue 'House of a narrationDay, we see him picked up by his motherHouse of Night''s chauffeur, and carted off to do all somewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the necessary introductions before said mother is buried small, subtle changes which govern our lives, like the following shift from dayto night, however quotidian, causing chaos. The mother was a businesswomanBut, who clearly left northern Italy and settled the constant in Romania with her (nightthat image is the house, stoic against the ancient 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 and business) partnernow, and feelings of abandonment are still stronghe should be doing quite well financially. And so we flit from current (well Unfortunately, this came out in the original Italian in 2007his daughter's defence against a murder charge drained his savings. His wife, so moderately current) BucharestLaura, has been trying to persuade him to retire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. That's what 'ordinary people do','' He's not been entirely up front about the ladstate of their savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to take his case, it's childhood, and see just what the thought of the money he has to tell her as could make that convinces him that this is a private farewell addressmiscarriage of justice that he really should put right.|isbn=1939810965
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jane Lightbourne1836284683|title= My Cat Called RedThe Big Happy|author=David Chadwick|rating= 4.5|genre=Emerging ReadersDystopian Fiction|summary= Robin has red hair. He hates Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love itwhen I open a book, and the freckles that go along with it. He's been bullied nothing like I expected it to be, and mocked at school because of ittakes me on a wild ride. And that is just what happened with ''Ginger Minger! Carrots!The Big Happy'' Kids are mean. But red hair is not RobinI don's only misery in life. Het want to ruin a similar experience for any of you reading but I's already lost his dad ll have to a mountaineering accident when his mum gets ill and is taken into hospitalat least set the scene. She doesnOnce that't come home agains done, I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.|isbn= 1838216812
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B003L7TDMUSally Rooney|title=Phineas Finn|author=Anthony TrollopeIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Phineas Finn Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is the son something of Dr Malachi Finn, a successful doctor in Killaloe in County Claregrandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, who sent his son to London to train as a lawyerher characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Phineas's interest Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to unravel is more in making influential friends than in becoming the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a lawyer and one of themsocially awkward chess prodigy, Barrington Erlecontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, suggests that he runs for Parliament a successful lawyer living in the forthcoming electionDublin. His Following their father is not 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 Lord Tulla who controls passing after a long battle with cancer, the borough of Loughshane and by this stroke of luck Finn is, eventually, elected by a small marginbrothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=18385950311036916375|title=Crooked: Honest CriminalityJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Bronwen JohnPeter McArdle|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary=The con had seemed like ''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a good one: tricking people into buying artwork supposedly by the new Banksy - collection of memories and they should have made a decent profit reflections from it. The problem was they were too successful: one of the marks had bought a few years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and then discovered that they were valuelessaround Liverpool. Henry Martin Holmes had fallen for Some are factual, such as the family history of a simple con and his fathersea-going family, celebrity criminal Harry Holmes, was determined that he and his family could not lose face like thatwith the docks dominating lives. The grifters were going to payOther stories blend seamlessly into the what-might-have-been. Ashia It'Ash' Cox s a book to settle into and Max 'Colorado' Ying needed allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to be got out think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the countryblitz that was a constant factor in McArdle's early years. In I'd never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the course of bringing this about, Luke Gaines, Ash's foster father, lost his lifeall-clear was sounded.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Hayley Webster1836285493|title=Luna Rae is Not AloneThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Luna Rae has just moved house. Moving house Will is always trickya keen player of video games, but especially when you're ten years olda conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and you miss your old home, and you and your little sister have to start a new school but your mum seems to be out working supportive friend. But most of all the time, he is an aspiring writer. Then there's your dadEnglish is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, who doesnand one at which he excels. This hasn't seem like he's coping so wellgone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and so there's no one she has suggested to take care Will and his mum that he spends a couple of things but you. Everything feels afternoons a week at a different and strangeschool, and mysteriousStation Road, and so Luna finds a way of coping is by watchingwhere his ability might be better extended. She turns detective and starts keeping an eye on her new neighbourhood, but it turns out she's not the only one keeping watch!|isbn=1788006046
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B003A6W0FO1009473085|title=Can You Forgive Her?The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony TrollopeSeldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionPolitics and Society|summary=On the surface Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''Can You Forgive HerThe Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?'' looks deceptively simple: it. If you's re looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story of one woman and two men who are vying with each other about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for her loveyou. Alice Vavasor was originally engaged to her cousinIf that's what you're looking for, George Vavasor but she broke off that engagement and later became engaged to John Grey. When we first meet Alice sheI don't think Anthony Seldon's on an extended tour of the continent with George Vavasor and his sister Katebook, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's obvious that there's still a great deal of chemistry between John compelling read and Alice - and Kate is all should be compulsory for encouraging the relationship as it would tie Alice anyone who thinks Johnson should return to herpolitics. George wants Alice but it's a matter of 'The Conservative Effect'amour propre'is an entirely different beast. It' rather than love: he s the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has little consideration for anyone other than himself made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the original engagement had fallen through because well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of his infidelity the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and deceitfulnessthe situation in 2024. This thread is }}{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the story of a very complicated love affair Before and After|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a woman who lacks confidence once in her own judgementa lifetime connection. You might not like Alice to start with They meet as children one day on a trip out but you will warm to herunfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.|isbn=1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Hannah Gold1787333175|title=The Last BearYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersPopular Science|summary=AprilI was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's fatherfirst book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a scientist, has been given a job on a remote island called Bear Islandglorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and he accepts the job deciding to take his daughter April with himautobiography. They live alone anyway, since April's mother died some time before, and he feels it will 'You Don't Have to be educational for her to experience the island and all its natural beautyMad... April already has an affinity with nature, and she's excited to travel with her father, thinking of all ' promised the fun things they will be able same elements but moved from physical problems to experience together on mental illness and the island. But when they get there, her father finds that his work monitoring and recording the temperatures just takes up too much of his time, and so April is left to explore by herselfa psychiatrist. Her father had reassured her that there were no longer any bears living on Bear Island, I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but one day April thinks she catches the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a glimpse of one, person and so she sets out to find the Bear, and then when she sees he it is injured, to befriend always delivered with empathy and help himunderstanding.|isbn=000841128X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1472276140Mariana Enriquez|title=What Will Burn (Inspector McLean)|author=James OswaldA Sunny Place for Shady People
|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.
|isbn=1803511230
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529934753
|title=The Protest
|author=Rob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=When Cecily SlaterFor a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country's body most famous living artist, was found, she'd already been dead not going to show up for a week - in a house fire in deserted woodland near Edinburgh. Heavy rain had washed away most the opening of his retrospective at the evidenceRoyal Academy. Still, but DI Tony McLeanhe arrived in the nick of time, demoted complete with his two wives and just returned from suspensionsix children, one of whom filmed what happened. Being an influencer, is reluctant you tend to accept do things like that, but it was fortunate that this is nothing more than there was a careless accidentrecord of the protest. There were indications that Slater had been savagelyLexi Williams, an intern at the RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in the face, almost ritualistically beaten before whilst shouting ''Stop the fireWar''. But who would hate a ninety-year-old woman It seemed to the extent be part of an ongoing series of doing something like that? 'blue-face' attacks, but this was different. She The can had been laced with cyanide, and Sir Max Bruce was a virtual recluse: who could she have upset to that extent?dead.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=000845552XAriel Saramandi|title=Where Ravens RoostPortrait of an Island on Fire|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the wounds left by colonialism and slavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting'', a blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the malignant forces of racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. Each essay in this collection serves as a kind of diagnostic, charting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|isbn=1804271616}}{{Frontpage|author=Karin NordinPekka Harju-Autti|title=LoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeFantasy|summary=Inspector Kjeld Nygaard had been estranged from his fatherIt's the eighteenth century, a time of discovery and Britain is expanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, Stenaran experienced Scottish sea captain, for more than a decade but when he got is sent to the rather muddled phone call from him saying that he'd seen a murder Andaman Islands in the barn on his land he didn't hesitate to drop everything endeavour. Along with his son, Peter, and go to Varsund. Actuallytheir cat, Michi, 'drop everything' rather overstates the situation. Nygaard was they set off on suspension following the shooting of a suspect perilous voyage to these faraway lands. The islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the Aubuchon murder enquiry. There had been a complication: the Kattegat Killer turned out to be Nils Hedinislanders' leader, Nygaard's best friend. StillAarav, the ten-hour drive from Gothenburg in the south of Sweden is keen to Varsund in the far north shouldn't be underestimatedestablish good relations.|isbn=B0DS1VGHH3
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1471187179Helene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=A Beautiful Spy|author=Rachel HoreLili is Crying|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Minnie is an 'ordinary' girl living an unexciting life First published in a leafy provincial suburb. The book is set 1953 in the 1930s and Minnie French, this novel is expected to live up to her mother's expectations and find a nice young man to marry, produce children and spend timeless text which wrenches the rest hearts of her days looking after her husband its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their home. Unfortunately, this isn't what she wants to do at all proper position on the page and neither does she want to continue working as a secretary. As a result of a chance meetingpositions them elsewhere, she finds herself drawn into espionagedisjointed, working for the secret service and effectively living a double life - attempting to infiltrate truncated. Like the Communist Party lives of Great Britain. Minnie finds herself torn between what she perceives as her duty and the friends she has made - and likes - whilst working for the Communist Partycharacters, they are often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=1804271675
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{{Frontpage
|author= T L HuchuTom Percival|title= The Library of the DeadWrong Shoes|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensConfident Readers|summary= Ropa Moyo Will's life is a ghostalkerdifficult, using Zimbabwean magic (and in a bit multitude of Scottish pragmatism) to take messages from ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the dead of Edinburgh wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for their living relatives. Ever since she dropped out even the most basic of schoolthings like food, sheand his dad can's been using it to support not only herselft work because he lost his job at the college, but her younger sister was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and her aging grandmotherhad an accident. However, there's an evil stalking Throw into that mix the ruined streets of Edinburghfact that his mum and dad are separated, targeting the cityand Will's childrenlife seems bleak in every direction. Soon And yet, Ropa is pulled into the search for he still has a missing boy at the request tiny amount of his dead motherhope. She will end up discovering an occult library He is good at art, and realise that clings to the world moments of magic joy when he is far bigger and more dangerous than she ever could've imagined. Will she find drawing, that feel like a light at the missing children and bring an end to this evilof a long, or will it claim her too?dark tunnel.|isbn= 15290394521398527122
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|author=Everina MaxwellSylvie Cathrall|title=Winter's OrbitA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= Prince Kiem is There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a famous political disappointment. He's outgoing, carefree, and has gotten into many drunken scandals over the past few yearscompelling premise. So when an important political alliance is to be arranged – one that And this is supposed to prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him to be chosen for the role. Least of all himthem.|isbn=03565158850356522776
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|isbn=18389520121786482126|title=The FavourJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Laura VaughanElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=The rejection by Oxford came as Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a bit of child beneath a shock to Ada Howell: she doorway. There wasno skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, after all, the daughter of the renowned author, Anthony Howell, who'd been to this collegeDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. WellIt's difficult as Ruth knows, she wasnbut Nelson doesn't ''actually'' Howell's daughter: he'd married her mother after her birth and had then adopted her, so that she was 'chosen' rather than just 'made', which was better really. And whilst we're being honest, we might is pregnant with his child as well admit that 'renowned author' might be stretching a result of the truth a little: his books degenerated into self-published poetry which Ada couldn't understandone night they spent together some three months ago. StillHer condition will be obvious before long, Ada had felt entitled and this was why her godmother's offer had come at such a brilliant timenot least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
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|author=C A SachaGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=Legacy: A Political ThrillerThe Accidentals|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersShort Stories|summary= Corporate boss Gene Finnegan has a plan to increase his already startling wealth This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and ensure his legacy: to bring the world's first emission-free car to market charming in its gentle portrayal of nature and dominate productionhuman relationships. The secret development project to enable thisGuadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, Bucephalus, is already underway and Finnegan bankrolls US president Joseph Montgomery into her stories structured by a second term wisdom that appears to help him carry it out. Montgomery is also looking for a legacy and one that does not involve his controlling mother and her foundation, so grabs onto Finnegan's Feed Africa programme with both hands..want to teach us something about the world.|isbn=18004619761804271470
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|authorisbn=Martin Venning0008551375|title=The Primary ObjectiveWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=24.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary= Sometimes Leanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of a book starts off slowlyScottish mountain, but eventually draws you in to caring about seemingly the characters or simply wanting to know what happens nextresult of a tragic accident. Sometimes it doesnShe'td looked so happy, too, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. The basic premise is a good one – a clandestine organisation, operating Her friends were relieved as a charityshe was just out of an unpleasant relationship, but funded by various governments around the world and partially (maybe, I'm not sure) under the auspices of the UN, with the primary objective of keeping the peace, by any means possibleit looked like she was living her best life now. Diplomacy is always the first option and sometimes one Then it emerged that needs to be carried out by third parties, but for situations when that looks unlikely to yield results Peace International maintains a call-on list of field operatives, ex-military, medics, scientists or anyone else with a taste for adventure and willing to risk their life for five other women had died in similar circumstances in the sake of itlast year.|isbn=1800461100}}{{Frontpage|author=Francesca Simon and Steve May|title=Two Terrible Vikings|rating=4|genre=Emerging Readers|summary=In a small Viking village there live two twins, Hack and Whack, who are eager to be the very worst Vikings ever! Nothing can stop their mad maraudingAll were experienced climbers, as properly equipped for what they cause havoc at a birthday party, chaos whilst tracking a troll, were doing and undertake sensible people. None of the 'what a grand journey stupid thing to raid Bad Island with their friends! do' explanations applied. They get up to were all kinds of mischief and naughty behaviour, along with their wolf-cub Bitey-Bitey, and their crazy cast of friendsalone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a killer on the loose.|isbn=0571349498
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