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==The Best New Books==
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{{Frontpage
|author=Lisa ThompsonPaul B Preciado|title=The Small ThingsDysphoria Mundi|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Although Anna has friends at school, she feels like she never really fits in. Her family don't have enough money to let her do after school activities, and so she feels like her life at home is boring in comparison to theirs. When a new girl joins her class, Anna is asked to partner her, but things are complicated because the new girl, Ellie, is unwell and so can't attend school in person. Instead, she joins in with the class by using a robot4. Can Anna overcome the challenge of making friends with someone through a robot, and is she even interesting enough to be a good friend to Ellie?|isbn=1781129649}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008350388|title=We Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman It is never too late to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba
''0.7% Through this hybrid text, consisting of English Literature GCSE students 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 England study which detachment is not considered a book by a writer sign of colour while only 7% study a book by a womanpolitical 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 ''The Booksellerdysphoria mundi'' 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later. The family was hardwhole text is framed against the backdrop of the Covid-working19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, principled and determined that their children would have the best education possibleor as ''pangea covidica''. There was always a painful awareness of money although Rather than taking this did not translate into extreme dysphoria as a shortage sign of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the family acquired a car. For Oteghaweakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, education meant a scholarship Preciado urges his readers to a private school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.|isbn=1804271454
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1787631869Samantha Harvey|title=The Rising Tide|author=Sam LloydOrbital|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=Lucy LockeIn 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for 's early life hadn't been easy but sheOrbital'd built ', a good and decent life compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the aftermath. She's now married to Daniel, who co-owns Locke-Povey Marine on Penleith Beach, and they live at Wild Ridge on Mortis Point with Billie, Lucy's daughter and Fin, lives of a group of astronauts aboard the child she had with Daniel. They have financial difficulties, some caused by Nick Povey, Daniel's partner and so-called best friendInternational Space Station. Nick and Daniel have Through a history together from narrative lens that mirrors the time they both spent astronauts' orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a children's home but it's difficult to think that Nick has Daniel's best interests at heart, particularly where Lucy, or money, is concernedwholly new light.|isbn=1529922933
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Hannah Peck295967572X|title=Kate on the CasePale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Meet Kate, although I got the impression she'd rather be Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a Catherine – and one specific Catherine at thattrain journey with his companion Django. For Catherine Rodriguez is KateWhere they's idol, re going and what the author purpose of our heroine's favourite possessionthis journey is, is uncertain. Django found the tickets ''The Special Correspondent Manualon the floor somewhere''and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Armed with a plucky father, that book, and her talking mouse called Rupert, she Why not? Not much else is all equipped to manage a train ride clear either - but we are probably in the past as the pair travel to the Arctic, to see her scientist mother for station by coach and the first time in yonks. However, this is a train ride with a difference, for on board is a greedy-seeming harridan and her cat, a thief – and two glowing eyes, shining from the darkness in a blink-and-you'll-miss-them style. It's definitely a case for a new young investigative journalist..steam locomotive.|isbn=184812970X
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Darren Shan0008551324|title=Archibald Lox and the Forgotten Crypt: Archibald Lox series, Volume 2, book 1 of 3The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=The second trilogy in ShanIt's ''Merge'' saga opens with our hero, Archie, back in London in unusual for anyone from the world of Hardie family to approach the Bornpolice. It Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's not been easy, explaining prepared to his foster parents tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he's beenpromises, or slipping back into ordinary life is someone big and forgetting about Inez and his other friends in 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 Merge, but Archie has done remainder of his bestsentence and to get an early parole date.... well Not much to ask, except for visiting veteran locksmith Winston in Big Benis it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's clock tower even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and except for fiddling anyone who works with that sneaky master lock in Seven Dials every time he can sneak him is kept well awayfrom what's happening.|isbn=B093H8DPQZ
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0571365884Jon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=My Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia PritchettVaim
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious''All was strange''... This haunting phrase encapsulates the pervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, even as a childfictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and Eline, two of the protagonists caught in its melancholic current. She would worry about whether the monsters under |isbn=1804271829}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035043092|title=The Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=I can't have been the bed were comfortable: it only person who was the sort of sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a new life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious on Orkney. It's been seven years since we heard from him, but such occasions were few he's now living with Willow Reeves and far between. On a visit to a therapisttheir young son, James, as an adultwell as Cassie, the daughter of his former partner. when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that Willow's also his boss, and she ''should write it down and ''My Mess be on maternity leave, but when the body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is a Bit found, in the aftermath of a Life: Adventures in Anxietystorm, she can't resist getting involved. He' is d been battered about the result head with a Neolithic stone - or so we are given to believeone of a pair - which had been stolen from a museum.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alex CotterThea Lenarduzzi|title=The House on the EdgeTower|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Faith's family home is teetering on 'How unctuous are the edge fats of a cliffanother's life, literallyhow dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''. Is that crack in In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the garden getting bigger? Is identity of T, the house starting to slope a little? And protagonist of this tale. Just as the house seems to be falling apart, so is FaithT's family. Her dad has disappearedstory is being told, and her mum the story of a second protagonist is struggling to copeunveiled: Annie, barely leaving her bed. So that leaves Faith the daughter of a wealthy family in chargethe 19th century, taking care who died of her little brother Noahtuberculosis after being locked in a tower, taking care of her mumcaptures T's imagination. Annie's fate is, feeding everyoneabove all, getting Noah an enticing story to school, and avoiding awkward questions from interfering teachersT. Is her little brother okay? Why is he obsessed with what he claims It is a ghost story which she consumes avariciously, both in the cellar? What should she do about the house? Can she find a way to raise enough money to fix it? What's happened to her dad? Why did he disappear? Maybe he'll come back if she manages to get funding quest for the house? She carries the weight truth and knowledge, and in service of all these worries on her constantlymyth, fable and she doesn't know how much longer the cliff will hold together, or how long she can keep on keeping onfantasy. |isbn=17880086261804271799
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008269041Claire-Louise Bennett|title=Risk of Harm|author=Lucie WhitehouseBig 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
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008405026
|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=DCI Robin Lyons is back in her native Birmingham after her lessIt's sixteen years since nine-thanyear-comfortable departure old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from the Mether bed one summer night. She might have been reinstated but was never found and the whole episode left investigation ground to a nasty taste in her mouthhalt. She was now working for Detective Chief Superintendent Samir Jaffrey - then the man who had broken Now, her mother, Helena, and her heart nearly twenty years beforefather are dead in their bed. She and her fifteen-year-old daughter have moved out of her parent's home into Initially, it looks like a rented house straightforward murder/suicide but there's still a difficult situation with something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her brother Luke who has gone out of his way boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to make life difficult for Robin since she was be an open-and-shut case is now a young childcomplex double murder. HeKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's married to Natalie, now and has a young child but hedisappearance: others (such as Derwent's still got it in for Robinboss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1786332388Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=The First Day of Spring|author=Nancy TuckerOther Girl|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary=Sometimes I wonder if ''We were born from the same body. I take my pleasures too sadly - and 've never really wanted to think about this.'The First Day of Spring' Ernaux' was one such occasion. The writing s work is superb and completely compelling. The characterisation is excellent always very candid and her tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of the plot grips you and wonmost intimate accounts I't let gove read. So, what's the problem? WellErnaux writes in direct address to her sister, the problem is Chrissiehowever, the main characterthis letter will never reach her. When we first meet her sheWhy? Because Annie Ernaux's just eight sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, small for her age a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and she readily tells us that she's just killed someone - a two-year-old boy2 years before the author was even born. SheThe large and instant void created by the jarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's completely cold about what she's done process of reckoning with this giant absence in her main memory being life, an absence that whilst she was killing has always felt but often denied.|isbn=1804271845}}{{Frontpage|author=Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=Biographies are often seen as the form of life- suffocating - her hands seized upwriting which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. There's a clue I think that Chrissie isn't Gorky completely responsible for her actions rejects this perspective, and offers a little later in vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: when will Steven come back''you write not of real life as it is, but of what you yourself imagine it to be. Whom would it help to know how I see this tower, that sea, she wondersor that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it? Hasn't '. Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to how he been dead for long enough?saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=1804271977
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Catherine Steadman1529077745|title=The Disappearing ActDark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= British actress Mia Eliot is on A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the cusp body of successa man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. Great success 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. If the rumours are true, award season D I Vera Stanhope is going called in to treat investigate the murder - but her wellonly clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, acknowledging her fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for her latest, critically acclaimed production. She's going places the death but so, unfortunately, Vera thinks this is her partner. And unlikely as the places hegirl's going take him towards lies, deceit and a pretty young thing in the form of his new co-stardiary makes it clear that she adored Josh. It's a good time for Mia She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to escape, and pilot season in LA provides just the excuseJosh.|isbn=1471189783
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Christophe MedlerB0FK5LHKD9|title=Madrigal: A Closely Guarded SecretThe Colour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden
|rating=4
|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary= Set against the backdrop of the English Civil WarIt's been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were very glad to see a secret plan (code-named Madrigal) is discovered by Sir Robert Douse in the summer of 1642new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. As a loyal servant of the King, and Head of the Secret ServiceLike all Bowden's stories, it is Robertthere's duty to uncover a mystery at the details heart of the plan and follow the clues to uncover one ''The Colour of the most guarded secrets Money''. We like this running theme in history—especially since the plot could affect the Kingan author's work - take a mystery but give it different flavour and atmosphere each time.|isbn=B095HY8SXQ
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{{Frontpage
|author=Tasha SuriOlga Tokarczuk|title=House of Day, House of Night|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''What's the good of a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in it?'' The Jasmine Thronetitle of this spellbinding work, ''House of Day, House of Night'', somewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the small, subtle changes which govern our lives, like the shift from day to night, however quotidian, causing chaos. But, the constant in that 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=FantasyCrime|summary= On the night of her sacred burningEx-DCI Andy Flood has been a Private Investigator for some time now, Princess Malini defies her brother and refuses he should be doing quite well financially. Unfortunately, his daughter's defence against a murder charge drained his savings. His wife, Laura, has been trying to step persuade him to retire - ''maybe go travelling or go on to cruises. That's what 'ordinary people do','' He's not been entirely up front about the pyrestate of their savings. She is immediately sent When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to be imprisoned on take his case, it's the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once filled with a community thought of people who got powers from the mysterious deathless waters. But now the temple money he could make that convinces him that this is nothing more than an overgrown, decaying ruin. One day, Malini witnesses a girl kill someone with magic. Instead miscarriage of reporting her for such a gruesome crime, Malini claims justice that the girl saved her from an attacker and begs for the girl to become her own personal maidservanthe really should put right.|isbn=0356515648
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B088YWF5BC1836284683|title=The Lies We TellBig Happy|author=Jane CorryDavid Chadwick|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersDystopian Fiction|summary=Sarah Wallace said that she grew up on Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when I open a council estate in Kent book, it's nothing like I expected it to be, and that she had two brothers and two sisters. It seemed to have been it takes me on a loving, stable familywild ride. When we first meet her, she canAnd that is just what happened with 't sleep because her son, Freddie, who's nearly sixteen, hasnThe Big Happy't come home by the time he sort of half-promised he'd be in by. Her husband, Tom, is fast asleep: theyI don're moving house in the morning t want to ruin a similar experience for any of you reading but heI's still going ll have to be going to work and he needs his sleepat least set the scene. He wakes, though, when Freddie does come in and overhears him tell his mother Once that he's killed someonedone, I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Joseph KnoxSally Rooney|title=True Crime StoryIntermezzo|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction |summary= Joseph Knox, known for his series surrounding Detective Aidan Waits, Sally Rooney has created studied the chessboard of life and is something of a new genre with his latest novelgrandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, "True Crime Story"as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. The story follows Among the disappearance of Zoe Nolan from her university halls of residence. Split many relationships woven into four partsthis story, the reader central one for readers to unravel is taken through the life fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and disappearance of Zoe through the eyes of her twin sisterPeter Koubek. Ivan, other familya socially awkward chess prodigy, friends and professionalscontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, such as the policea successful lawyer living in Dublin. The various accounts help the reader get to know ZoeFollowing their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, or at least the Zoe she presented to others. However, the twists and turns at the end of each chapter leave you shocked, confused and unsure of what is true or fabricatedbrothers' already strained relationship faces new trials. Whose accounts can we trust?|isbn=08575277030571365469
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Justine Avery and Naday Meldova1036916375|title=No, No, No!Just a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingAutobiography|summary=They say ''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of memories and reflections from the best picture books years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. Some are factual, such as the family history of a sea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the simplest oneswhat-might-have-been. And nothing could be truer It's a book to settle into and allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to think of this latest from Justine Averysimpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the blitz that was a Bookbag favouriteconstant factor in McArdle's early years. I'd never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the all-clear was sounded.}}
''No, No, No!'' is based around the simplest text imaginable.{{Frontpage|isbn= 1836285493|title=The Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers''No|summary= Will is a keen player of video games, noa conscientious student, no! Okaya slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But most of all, okayhe is an aspiring writer. YesEnglish is his favourite lesson at his school, you mayMarlowe Park, and one at which he excels.This hasn'' That's it! Butt gone unnoticed by his headteacher, like all the best picture booksMrs Howarth, this tiny snippet and she has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a couple of text is afternoons a week at a veritable tardis - so much bigger on the inside that it appears on the outsidedifferent school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.|isbn=1638820457
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Monica Connell1009473085|title=Against a Peacock SkyThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=TravelPolitics and Society|summary= Monica Connell went Sometimes it's simpler to Nepal explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to do ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the fieldwork inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for her Ph.D. in social anthropologyyou. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think it is important to know that. She went on a grant-supported tripAnthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, with a relatively specific objectivecan be bettered for those tumultuous years. She wasn It't s a hippy wanderer looking compelling read and should be compulsory for Shangri-laanyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. She wasn ''The Conservative Effect''t a mere tourist passing throughis an entirely different beast. She went with It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a fundamental aim of learning about these people government has made and how they livedco-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. She also went, presumably, with This book follows the academic discipline well-established format: a series of how to find these things out, how to organise them in her mind, how to "understand" them in experts from various fields review the context of her own paradigms, and how to keep enough notes and files and photos to help her create some greater sense state of the experience after nation when the event. Fortunately, she also went with a sense of open-ness and curiosity and a willingness to muck-coalition took over in2010, to break her own rules the changes that occurred and to truly connect with the people of the village where she hauled upsituation in 2024.|isbn=1780600429
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1409181669Jenny Valentine|title=The Maidens|author=Alex MichaelidesUs in the Before and After
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=Mariana was convinced that Professor Edward Fosca had committed two murders Elk and looked likely to get away with them both. She needed to think carefully about what she knew and decide how she should proceed. Everything - Mab are best friends, or so she thought - had begun with the death of Tara Hampton on the Paradise nature reserve more than that even, their friendship is a once in Cambridgea lifetime connection. SheThey meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don'd been brutally stabbed and Marianat get each other's niece, Zoe, had telephoned her in distresscontact details at the time. Tara had been her best friend But then chance brings them back together, and she was struggling to copethey are inseparable. Mariana wasn't ''entirely'' happy about having to go to Cambridge Something has happened though, but she caught the first fast train from King's Cross. Mariana something terrible and Zoe were close tragic, and had been made all the more so by the death of Mariana's husbandnow they must work through their grief, Sebastian, in a swimming accident on Naxos some fourteen months earlier. Zoe had been and their surrogate daughter after the death of Zoe's mother and Mariana's sisterfriendship, Elizatogether.|isbn=1471196585
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Maisie Chan1787333175|title=Danny Chung Does Not Do MathsYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersPopular Science|summary=Danny is eleven years old, and what he really, really loves I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to do is draw. He creates fantastical comics, whilst his best friend Ravi adds the words. DannyWork Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's dad, however, wants Danny first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to concentrate on his mathsHurt}}, and forget about a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the drawingNHS, because he says nobody can make a living from drawing! At least Danny has his own room, where he can draw in secret humour and in peaceautobiography. But then one day his parents tell him they have a surprise for him, and this surprise turns out ''You Don't Have to be his grandmother who has come over Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from China physical problems to live with them, mental illness and who will not only the work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be sharing Danny's bedroom looking for humour in this setting but she will also be sleeping on the top bunk of his bunk bed! Danny laughter is horrified! His Nai Nai (grandmother) speaks no English, and Danny finds himself forced into being her babysitter, and showing her around the town. Poor Danny, stuck on directed at a maths project, frustrated with his bedroom situation, rather than a person and then he even has a falling out it is always delivered with Raviempathy and understanding...how on earth will things ever get better?!|isbn=180078001X
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{{Frontpage
|author=Terry MilesMariana Enriquez|title=RabbitsA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=4.5|genre=Science FictionShort Stories|summary=Welcome to the world of The Game. Or should Mariana Enriquez writes horror that be the gameis disturbingly real, for while it ought to be capitalised achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this book. It's also called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structurean urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and to the average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the game of life then. Yes, this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webscrime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. People like our hero, K, named like that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the lists The circumstances of who has successfully won the game her characters are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time it's different. This time the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's even being played, and how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to find out so plausible that the line between observing and learning about the game, and playing it, is supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a very thin one indeed..similarly tangible texture.|isbn=15290169321803511230
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=C J Carey1529934753|title=WidowlandThe Protest|author=Rob Rinder|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=ItFor a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country's April 1953most famous living artist, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes was not going to Moscow to attend show up for the state funeral opening of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to Londonhis retrospective at the Royal Academy. Still, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to he arrived in the throne nick of Edward VIII time, complete with his wifetwo wives and six children, Queen Wallisone of whom filmed what happened. For yesBeing an influencer, Britain caved in the lead-up you tend to the World War Two do things like that certainly didn't happen as we know , but it, and we are now was fortunate that there was a protectorate – well, we share enough record of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''protest. But this is most certainly a different BritainLexi Williams, for Nazi-styled phrenologyan intern at the RA, and ideas grabbed a spray can of female purpose, has put all of that gender into blue paint from under a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the drudges, chair and beyond those, right on down proceeded to spray Bruce in the childlessface, whilst shouting ''Stop the husbandless and the widowsWar''. Female literacy is actively discouraged. And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task It seemed to be part of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out an ongoing series of it – after all'blue-face' attacks, not every book but this was different. The can be bannedhad been laced with cyanide, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprintSir Max Bruce was dead. That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.|isbn=152941198X
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{{Frontpage
|author=Louise BeechAriel Saramandi|title=This Is How We Are HumanPortrait of an Island on Fire|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionPolitics and Society|summary=Veronica is a devoted single mother In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to her sonintradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, Sebastian - but she cantunneling 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't give him everything he wants. Sebastian has decided that it's time , a blunt yet apt metaphor for him to have sexthe systemic decay brought about by the malignant forces of racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. But Each essay in this collection serves as an autistic 20 year-olda kind of diagnostic, that's easier said than done. And it's starting to cause them both problemscharting the various diseases afflicting the island state. |isbn=19131937131804271616
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B093VPBL5LPekka Harju-Autti|title=Cape Henry House|author=Jolly Walker BittickLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionFantasy|summary=Meet Bosner, or, to give him his full title, Petty Officer Third Class Bosner. We never really find out if he has a first name: thereIt's merely the eighteenth century, a hint that he had the nickname 'Secretary' at one pointtime of discovery and Britain is expanding its foreign trade. He's simply Bosner Captain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, is sent to one and allthe Andaman Islands in his endeavour. When we first encounter him he's exploring Along with his memories of 2008 when he was a greaser on helicopters (or helosson, Peter, and their cat, Michi, as they were called) at set off on a naval establishmentperilous voyage to these faraway lands. The hours could be long islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and he was often working nights but at the age of twenty-oneislanders' leader, Aarav, there was always a way is keen to work some fun (think drinking and eating) into his dayestablish good relations.|isbn=B0DS1VGHH3
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|author=Hannah WhittenHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=For the WolfLili is Crying|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary=In Red's familyFirst published in 1953 in French, this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the first daughter becomes queen, hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and the second daughter becomes a sacrifice. To Red's misfortune, she is the second daughter. Sent alone into the woods with nothing but the cape sentences from their proper position on her back, Red knows what to expect: within the woods is a wolf, page and he is the one who will decide the fate of their kingdom. If she is not a worthy sacrificepositions them elsewhere, the monsters he keeps contained to the woods will be releaseddisjointed, and the fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the stories gotruncated. But when Red enters Like the woodslives of her characters, expecting nothing more than to be killed within the hour, she finds that the legends they are lies. The wolf is not a monster—he's a manoften left tragically incomplete.|isbn=03565163691804271675
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|author=M G LeonardTom Percival|title=TwitchThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Twitch Will's life is difficult, in a boy who loves birdsmultitude of ways. He keeps pigeons at homeis bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and chickensdoesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and even has swallows nesting his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in his bedroom! -hand job on a building site and had an accident. His time spent watching and helping birds is easy compared to Throw into that mix the fact that of his time mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in schoolevery direction. But things are about to change for Twitch in all aspects And yet, he still has a tiny amount of his life as there hope. He is a dangerous bank robber on the rungood at art, and it's possible that clings to the missing bank haul moments of joy when he is hidden somewhere in Aves Wooddrawing, the place where Twitch has his secret hide and that he knows feel like a light at the back end of his hand! Can Twitch solve the mysterya long, and find the missing millions?dark tunnel.|isbn=14063893741398527122
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|isbnauthor=1838853804Sylvie Cathrall|title=The Cursed Girls|author=Caro RamsayA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=ThrillersScience Fiction|summary=Megan Melvick's earliest memory is of her fourth birthday: she followed her grandfather down There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to the pond, only to find that he'd hanged himselfa compelling premise. Twenty years later she's back home again and And this time the occasion is no less sad. She's there to say her final farewells to her sister, Melissa, who is dying one of anorexiathem. As she dies, Melissa whispers 'sorry' to Megan but what did she mean? There were lots of things, minor and major cruelties, for which Melissa might have been sorry - or was it even a question? Was she asking if Megan was sorry for sleeping with Melissa's husband, Jago, on their wedding day? The Melvicks might seem to have everything - Ivan Melvick was Lord Lieutenant of the County and money was never in short supply - but there did seem to be a curse. In addition to Melissa's health problems, Megan was deaf and their mother, Beth, had left suddenly three years before. Would she come back for her elder daughter's funeral?|isbn= 0356522776
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|isbn=02414001201786482126|title=The Girl Who Died|author=Ragnar Jonasson and Victoria Cribb|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Una was not thriving in Reykjavik: it was some years since her beloved father had committed suicide without leaving any explanation and since then she'd given up her medical studies and retrained as a teacher. She was thirty years old and money was tight. Her friend, Sara, showed her an advert for a job in Skalar on the Langanes Peninsula. There were only ten people in the village but a teacher was required for two children: a salary would be paid and accommodation provided. Una was the only applicant and the job meant that she could let her flat in Reykjavik and, hopefully, save some money over the winter which her contract covered.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1846975719|title=For Any Other Truth Janus Stone (DCI Jim DaleyDr Ruth Galloway)|author=Denzil MeyrickElly Griffiths|rating=34.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=We learn that MI5 is having its problems with environmental terrorists supergluing themselves Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to awkward placeshold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. But that's London, isn't itWas this a ritual killing or murder? What's happening in Kinloch? When a light aircraft crash lands at Machrie airportInevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Jim Daley and his colleague, Acting DI Brian Scott, head off for the airport straight awayHarry Nelson. It soon becomes evident though 's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that both occupants she is pregnant with his child as a result of the plane were dead before take offone night they spent together some three months ago. How could that Her condition will be? The sort obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of tech which would make that possible isn't available to the paying publicsickness. And why have the man no identification on them - or even labels in their clothes?
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|author=Richard BrookGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=Understanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to LifeThe Accidentals
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleShort Stories|summary= I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose booksThis collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and sometimes books choose us. In my case, this is one charming in its gentle portrayal of the latternature and human relationships. Not so very long agoGuadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, if I had come across this book I'd have skimmed it, found some of it interesting, but it would not have 'hit home' in the way her stories structured by a wisdom that it does now. I believe it came appears to me not just because I was likely want to give it a favourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's u.s.p. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, so there is a predisposition towards expecting to like teach us something about the book, even if it doesn't always turn out that way'' ] – but also because it is a book I needed to read, right nowworld.|isbn=18004616821804271470
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|isbn=B095CY7NBN0008551375|title=Autumn CampWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Barry FowlerNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=It was to be BrianLeanne Wilson's last camp. He'd founded the organisation some four years ago and had done all the organisation since but he body was leaving school and found at the time had come to hand bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the reins to someone elseresult of a tragic accident. The obvious person was Gary, whoShe'd always been the fun element of the camps and Brian had said that looked so happy, too, when she posted her intentions on this camp, Gary should act as the leader and he'd just be there to observeFacebook. The problem with this Her friends were relieved as she was that Gary wasn't really just out of an organiserunpleasant relationship, an administrator if you but it looked likeshe was living her best life now. He was the entertainer, the person who basked Then it emerged that five other women had died in the spotlight and made things fun - so Brian stepped similar circumstances in and did the organisinglast year. He handed the camp over - All were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and then took it backsensible people. And Gary determined None of the 'what a stupid thing to have his revengedo' explanations applied. This should have been ''his'' camp.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=194812467X|title=The Farm Shop|author=Devon Avery, Justine Avery and Ema Tepic|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Kirelle and her best friend Sam the cat decide to go for a walk. Kirelle is dressed for They were all weathers in her bright yellow wellies and Sam alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is perfectly turned out as ever in his smart grey fur coat. As they walk to the top of the hill, they see a big barn with a sign outside. Itcertain there's a farm shop! But this is a farm shop with a difference: all killer on the stallholders and customers are farmyard animalsloose. There are sheep and ducks and cows, goats and chickens, and even some mice. Excited, Kirelle and Sam go shopping. What will they buy?
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