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==The Best New Books==
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{{Frontpage
|author=Lucy HopePaul B Preciado|title=FledglingDysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=Bavaria''It is never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood'' Through this hybrid text, 1900. Our scene is a most peculiar hilltop houseconsisting of arias, built bit by bit over the decadesletters, essays and now looking imperiously down on the village autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and woods below. It's brings forth a new sensorium as an eccentric house, offering to host eccentricsthe new generation, so the library shelving system a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not as we'd know considered a sign of political apathy. Rather, itis the proportional, valid response to ''the roof is retractable, there is a steam-powered, hand-operated lift system cut epistemological and political crack we are living through it, and so on. At the moment it houses an ex-soldier with PTSD tension between emancipatory forces and a passion for conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The whole text is framed against the long-standing family hobby backdrop of taxidermy, a woman who does nothing but quibble, kvetch and sing opera loudly, and the dying grandma to our heroine, Cassie, a young lass who Covid-19 pandemic as that which has to do all the maintenance of catalysed this bizarre machine-like abode. Oh but it's also going revolution, when dysphoria began to house someone emerge on a global scale, or something else, when crashing through Cassieas ''pangea covidica''s bedroom window one stormy day is a cherub. And if you think such Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a heavenly arrival is going sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to be a completely great and wonderful thing, think again..''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.|isbn=183994188X1804271454
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1846276772Samantha Harvey|title=The End of Bias: How We Change Our Minds|author=Jessica NordellOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyGeneral Fiction|summary=Anyone who is not an ableIn 2024, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise Samantha Harvey won the extent to which they suffer from it: itBooker Prize for ''Orbital''s simply , a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a part single day in the lives of everyday life. White men will always come first. The able will come before the disabled. Jobs, promotions, higher salaries are the preserve a group of astronauts aboard the white manInternational Space Station. Even when those who wouldn't pass the medical become Through a part of an organisation it's rare that their views are heard, narrative lens that their concerns are acknowledged. It's personally appalling and degrading for the individuals on the receiving end of mirrors the bias but itastronauts's not just the individuals who are negatively impactedorbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a wholly new light.|isbn=1529922933
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Teresa Driscoll295967572X|title=Her Perfect FamilyPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=The novel begins by introducing you Our unnamed narrator is about to Gemma, who at first instance appears to be your average student, faced begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and what the familiar horrifying realisation, at the eleventh hourpurpose of this journey is, that her graduation outfit is all wronguncertain. Suddenly, Gemma receives an eerie message stating Django found the tickets ''He is not who he says he is…on the floor somewhere'', paving and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the way for past as the sinister tone that remains throughout pair travel to the novel. In a twist of events, station by coach and after a change of outfit, Gemma is shot in the midst of her graduation ceremony. With Gemma then in a coma, what follows train is a complex whodunit with a list of suspects that continues to grow the further you readsteam locomotive.|isbn=1542028752
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=84092901030008551324|title=If OnlyThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Matthew TreeNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, 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 to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator)
|title=Vaim
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Twenty-one-year-old Malcolm Lowry had been sent abroad by his father, cotton-broker AO Lowry: he asked his accountant, Mr Patrick, to ensure that the young man got on board the boat and thereafter Patrick ''All was to send him a monthly allowancestrange''... Patrick sent This haunting phrase encapsulates the money regularly and pervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, a correspondence - of sorts - sprang up between the two although we hear fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more about what Lowry has to say than Patrick. It wasn't that Lowry senior didn't care real for his sonJatgeir and Eline, it was that he didn't care to have him two of the protagonists caught in this country where he might be a danger to his wife and other children. The alcohol problem was obvious even before Patrick managed to get the young man on his wayits melancholic current.|isbn=1804271829
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=1035043092|title=Antti Tuomainen and David Hackston The Killing Stones (translatorJimmy Perez)|titleauthor=The Rabbit FactorAnn Cleeves|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Meet Henri. With I 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 mind so much more focused new life on maths and calculations than it is other human beings, heOrkney. It's perfect for his job in the insurance company – until they decide been seven years since we heard from him, but he's not a team-membernow living with Willow Reeves and their young son, that they'd prefer everyone to be all open-planJames, holistic and keen on stupid-as workshopping. This is when he finds his brother has diedwell as Cassie, having a heart attack while busy changing the daughter of his Volvoformer partner. Willow's radio channelalso his boss, and has left Henri everything. Unfortunately (or otherwise) that she 'everything' is just an adventure park, and nothing else. should''YouMeFun'' is so not what Henri wants to occupy his mindbe on maternity leave, but he perks up a little when he sees huge holes in the finances – it runs at body of a steady money-moving pacepopular islander, Archie Stout, despite some desultory staff ideasis found, but loans have been made out and in the amount vanishedaftermath of a storm, she can't resist getting involved. Fortunately (or otherwise) some people are quickly on the scene to explain that missing money – it He's d been turned into battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of a gambling debt that has also now pair - which had been inherited by Henri, and the activities of these guys are not conducive to getting stolen from a cheap life insurance plan.museum..|isbn=191319387X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1471179311Thea Lenarduzzi|title=The Unheard|author=Nicci FrenchTower|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Tess''How unctuous are the fats of another's life, a teacher and Jasonhow dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''. In this compelling novel, a headmasterThea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, have split up: she and Poppy have moved out the protagonist of this tale. Just as T's story is being told, the family home and Jason story of a second protagonist is now married to Emily. The separation was amicable - they had just drifted apart. They co-parent three-year-old Poppy who has her bedroom in what was unveiled: Annie, the daughter of a wealthy family home and another in the flat she shares with her mother19th century, who died of tuberculosis after being locked in a tower, captures T's imagination. It ''seemed'Annie' s fate is, above all, an enticing story to be working well until the day that Poppy came home with T. It is a menacing drawing of a woman falling from a tall building and story which she started swearingconsumes avariciously, using words she was unlikely to have heard both in either home. Her behaviour deteriorated and there were problems at nursery school. Tess turns to a therapist quest for helptruth and knowledge, then her doctor and finally the police but no one will take what she has to say seriouslyin service of myth, fable and fantasy. |isbn=1804271799
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1471196615Claire-Louise Bennett|title=Iced|author=Felix FrancisBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Miles Pussett used to be Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, usually a Steeplechase jockey but those days are past symbol of intimacy and he now gets his thrills from hurling head-first down the three-quarter-mile Cresta Runcloseness, occasionally reaching eighty miles an hourbecomes evidence of love lost. He was in St Moritz When the same weekend as White Turf - thatnarrator cries out internally, ''s high-class horseracing on the frozen lake come over here and against his better judgement he gets talked into helping with the saddling of the horses. Itkiss me,'s seven years since he put horseracing behind him and he swore that he'd never go back it is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to itconfirm her emotional numbness. But when he sees that something suspicious The imagined recipient of this plea is going onXavier, Miles can't help but look for answersher ex-partner, even when it puts him in dangera ghost she conjures to test her detachment.|isbn=1804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=147228612X0008405026|title=The Late Train to Gipsy HillA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Alan JohnsonJane Casey|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=We all know people like Gary Nelson, although we probably havenIt't taken much notice of thems sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. They live quiet, uneventful lives She was never found and stay mostly under the radarinvestigation ground to a halt. In a city like LondonNow, her mother, Helena, that's quite easy - and even Gary's three flatmates largely ignore himher father are dead in their bed. The highlight of his day is watching a beautiful young woman apply her makeup as she goes to work on the train each morning: he'd love to ask her for Initially, it looks like a date straightforward murder/suicide but he doesnthere't have s something about the positioning of the couragebodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Then, on his homeward commute, Arina speaks What looked as though it was going to him be an open-and asks for his help-shut case is now a complex double murder. Before long he finds himself on Kerrigan is convinced that the run from mobstersexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Russian secret agents and the Metropolitan policeUna Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Claire McGowanAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=I Know YouThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary=''Then:'' Casey returns We were born from a walk with the baby, Carson, and comes across three bodies, almost a whole family taken downsame body. I've never really wanted to think about this.''
Ernaux's work is always very candid and her tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of the most intimate accounts I'Now: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 years old, a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and 2 years before the author was even born. The large and instant void created by the jarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux' Rachel is out for a walk s process of reckoning with this giant absence in her dog, Brandylife, when an absence that she comes across a body in the woodshas always felt but often denied.|isbn=15420199741804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529148251Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Misfits: A Personal Manifesto|author=Michaela CoelReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and SocietyBiography|summary=''How am Biographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I able to be so transparent on paper about rapethink that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, malpractice and povertyoffers a vibrant, subjective yet still compartmentalise? It's as though I were telling informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: '' Before you start reading ''Misfits'' write not of real life as it is, but of what you need yourself imagine it to be in a certain frame of mind. You're not going Whom would it help to read a book of essays know how I see this tower, that sea, or a selfthat Tartar -help book. Youwhy should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?'re going to read writing which was inspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to professionals within the television industry at the Edinburgh TV Festival. You might Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be ''reading'' the book but you need gained from a subjective account, giving us access to ''listen'' to the words as though you're how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev in the lecture theatre. The disjointedness will fade away and you'll be carried on a cloud such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of exquisite writingit.|isbn=1804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00084336311529077745|title=Next of KinThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Kia AbdullahAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=It was A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the sort body of thing that happened every daya man in the park near Rosebank, although not to Leila Syeda care home for troubled teens. She'd never driven her nephew, Max, The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to school work a shift the night before but his father, Andrew Hanson, who had rung her in a panicnever turned up. He was supposed to be taking Max to school but he'd been D I Vera Stanhope is called into work and the delay in getting there could lead to financial losses. As investigate the school was murder - but her only five minutes out clue is the disappearance of Leila's wayone of the residents, could she drop him off? fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Of course, she could and a sleeping Max Some people believe that Chloe was duly strapped into responsible for the back of her cardeath but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. On the way Leila took a phone call - there was panic at her work too, with a problem which could put a multi-million-pound contract at riskShe knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Justine Avery and Naday MeldovaB0FK5LHKD9|title=Everybody Toots! (Everybody Potties!)The Colour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary= TootsIt's been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, trumps, farts. Whatever your word for them, find us so we were very glad to see a child that doesn't find them irresistibly funny. Funny to talk about and joke about, that is. But horribly embarrassing if you let one go new novel arrive here at the wrong time. In class, say, when everyone will hear it and everyone will laugh. At youBookbag Towers. Justine AveryLike all Bowden's latest entry in her ''Everybody Potties!'' series takes aim at any shame associated with tooting and gently and calmlystories, with the familiar humour attached, explains that tooting is perfectly normal. Everybody does it: ''Everybody Toots''!|isbn= B09C2RVJ2W}} {{Frontpage|isbn=1784165263|title=Invite Me In|author=Emma Curtis|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Martin Curranthere's wife, Eliza knew that she had to be home to make his lunch for one o'clock on the dot, despite a mystery at the fact that she was actually painting one heart of their properties prior to it being let. If she didn't get home, there would be trouble. There was some excuse: Martin was a paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair, but don't be too quick to be understanding. He was also a very unpleasant person: he once told Eliza ''you're good at being a disappointmentThe Colour of Money''. All We like this was running theme in Elizaan author's mind when she first met Dan Jones who arrived, unannounced, at the flat just as Eliza was about to leave: he wanted the lease of flat 2, 42 Linden Road work - take a mystery but give it different flavour and he was desperate to get in before it was advertised as being availableatmosphere each time.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1784742775Olga Tokarczuk|title=A Change House of Circumstance (Simon Serrailler)|author=Susan HillDay, 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 title 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=Crime
|summary=Drugs hadn't really Ex-DCI Andy Flood has been that much of a problem in Lafferton Private Investigator for some time now, and Detective Superintendent Simon Serrailler had thought of drugs ops as a bit of he should be doing quite well financially. Unfortunately, his daughter's defence against a waste of timemurder charge drained his savings. They still were His wife, Laura, has been trying to a great extent, but Serrailler knew that something had persuade him to be doneretire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. Children as young as nine were being recruited to transport That's what 'ordinary people do','' He's not been entirely up front about the drugs and the operation running the county lines was tightstate of their savings. A mule might know the name (although When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to take his case, it probably wouldn't be s the correct one) thought of the person who was running money he could make that convinces him but he certainly wouldn't know anything about those higher up in the organisation. The police might catch that this is a few miscarriage of the runners but they'd never get anywhere near those higher upjustice that he really should put right.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09FS89KX91836284683|title=Fall On MeThe Big Happy|author=Penelope PottsDavid Chadwick|rating=34.5|genre=Women's Dystopian Fiction|summary=Life should have been good for Hollie: She was just going into the final year of her veterinary degree and - three years later - was still working at BBWell! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when I open a book, it's diner. Bob - the owner - regarded her fondly: he was nothing like I expected it to be, and it takes me on a good bosswild ride. Hollie had moved in And that is just what happened with her boyfriend, Marcus: her mother thought he was great and he was doing well in his career''The Big Happy''. Hollie wasnI don't quite so certain though: Marcus wanted want to control her and most ruin a similar experience for any of all he wanted her you reading but I'll have to leave her job at least set the dinerscene. Then there was the fact Once that he would be violent's done, both to her and to other peopleI think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=John GwynneSally Rooney|title=The Shadow Of The GodsIntermezzo|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyGeneral Fiction |summary=The Shadow Of The Gods Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is the first installment something of the Bloodsworn Sagaa grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, set in as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the era of the Vikings in the shadow of Ragnarokmany relationships woven into this story, when the Gods have battled and their bones lie scattered central one for all readers to see. This story unravel is the ultimate in High Fantasy, fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and John Gwynne certainly does justice to the genre, with mythical creaturesPeter Koubek. Ivan, archaic language and battles galore. This is a thick booksocially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that are woven together to create his older brother Peter, a wonderfully realistic and gritty world successful lawyer living in which our heroes must do Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battlewith cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=03565142180571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09HTWX47X1036916375|title=Endless ObsessionJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Dai HenleyPeter McArdle
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=It's some 'Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of memories and reflections from the years since we last caught Peter McArdle spent growing up with Andy Floodin and around Liverpool. Some are factual, formerly a DCI in such as the Met but now family history of a wellsea-respected private investigatorgoing family, with the docks dominating lives. He's married to Laura, formerly his DS in Other stories blend seamlessly into the Murder Squad but now working in a forensics laboratorywhat-might-have-been. FloodIt's daughters, Gemma a book to settle into and Pippa, have flown the nestallow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, Pippa to Australiathink of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, from where she has very little contact with despite the family, and Gemma to married life. Sheblitz that was a constant factor in McArdle's had mental problems since she was abducted many early years ago but Andy and Laura hope that married life will provide the support she needs. FloodI's business is going well d never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and that could appear after the all-clear was why he felt able to turn down the case of Lisa Blacksounded.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Peter Papathanasiou1836285493|title=The StoningDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=3.5|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=In Will is a town sleazy enough to make sh*tholes elsewhere look glamorous in comparisonkeen player of video games, a teacher has been transported across town at night in conscientious student, a shopping trolley, slightly annoying brother and she's been taped to a tree supportive friend. But most of all, he is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and she's had rocks bowled one at her as if she were the world's tallest cricket stumpswhich he excels. When sheThis hasn's discovered t gone unnoticed by the town gossip everyonehis headteacher, including the local copsMrs Howarth, are quite confident the culprit and she has come from the immigrant detention centre the place is reluctantly home suggested to. An arson attack on Will and his mum that shows the feeling – and it's only fair, is the general opinion, for the occupants are often setting their own fires in protest he spends a couple of afternoons a week at their conditions. Cue the arrival of George Manolis, a higher rank from the citydifferent school, to sort everything out. Because such an aggrievedStation Road, insular community is really going to welcome a Greek-heritaged city boy laying down the law..where his ability might be better extended.|isbn=1529416973
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B08Z8BMZ7H1009473085|title=The Mystery of HealingConservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=A P McGrathAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=45|genre=Crime (Historical)Politics and Society|summary=We meet Solon in Pergamon in the second century of the common era Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and hethat applies to ''s The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the physician inside story about what ''really'' happened on duty at the munus - certain occasions, then this isn't the games put on book for the amusement of the populaceyou. The remuneration isnIf that's what you're looking for, I don't high but the work gives the doctor think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a feeling of virtue compelling read and hones his skills: Solon should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''wantsThe Conservative Effect'' the warriors to liveis an entirely different beast. It's quite the seventh book in a spectacle: series which looks at the magistri are the charge hands impact a government has made and when we first see them, they're sprinkling gold dust onto co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the lions' manes to make them look more impressivemost important. The sagitarii are This book follows the archers and well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the beastiarii are state of the condemned criminals who are going to fight for their lives with nation when the wild animals. Todaycoalition took over in 2010, it's the crocodileschanges that occurred and the situation in 2024.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Kate DiCamillo and Sophie BlackallJenny Valentine|title=The Beatryce ProphecyUs in the Before and After
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=''Stories have joy Elk and surprises in them''Mab are best friends, we are told here. And none or more so than in this wondrous storythat even, which feels an instant classic with the freshness and the agelessness it has their friendship is a once in equal proportiona lifetime connection. We start with They meet as children one day on a group of monks, trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowingtime. But then chance brings them back together, and the demonic goat that loves nothing more than upendingthey are inseparable. Something has happened though, trampling on something terrible and biting the poor Brothers. Things change drastically when the beast takes a totally maternal approach to a homeless girltragic, one who has survived some trauma that has blocked her past from her memory. Elsewhere sits a King in his castleand now they must work through their grief, desperate to find the girland their friendship, for it is prophesied that a young child can unseat the throne and cause great changetogether. Who foretold that revolution but the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing? But how can a simple, amnesiac lass ever prove a threat to anyone?|isbn=15295008931471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09FFJF8YS1787333175|title=You CanDon't Wear Panties! (No More Nappies!)Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Justine Avery and Kate ZhoidikBenji Waterhouse|rating=3.5|genre=For SharingPopular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''For the big, grownup girls out there, the potty masters in training, "You CanDon't Wear Panties!" is a cry (the big-girl kind!) of toilet triumph and persevering panty pride.'' And so it is! This latest book from Justine Avery celebrates a little girl's final goodbye Have to nappies and pull-ups and graduation be Mad to "proper" pants by following her around as she proudly explains to her dog, her cat, her stuffed rabbit and her baby sibling that Work Here''she'' can wear super-duper proper pants, while they cannot. Neither can the flowers, nor the fish, nor the birds. Boyafter enjoying Adam Kay's certainly can't. She's a big girl now and she wants everyone to know it!}} first book {{Frontpageamazonurl|authorisbn=Nick Lake and Emily Gravett1509858636|title=Locked Out Lily|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lily This isGoing to Hurt}}, or was, or has been, very illa glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and to give her parents relief sheautobiography. ''You Don's been told t Have to stay with her grandma for a few daysbe Mad... The parents need '' promised the relief as Lily's baby sibling is just about to be born – a child Lily swears she hates already and wants nothing same elements but moved from physical problems to do with. But on tracking back home for word of her parents (mental illness and her plush toy so she can sleep) she finds stony-eyed simulacra the work of her parents, and the babe-in-arms, already installeda psychiatrist. These devilish interlopers need I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be ousted to get looking for humour in this setting but the family back intact, even if laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it's not the family Lily wants – is always delivered with empathy and all she has to help her in the task are some talking animals – Crow, Mole, Mouse and Snakeunderstanding.|isbn=1471194833
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Greg James and Chris SmithMariana Enriquez|title=The Great Dream RobberyA Sunny Place for Shady People
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersShort Stories|summary=Maya's father Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is a professor who invented 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 amazing dream machine. But something went wrongurban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and now he can't wake upa crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. Or at least, The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that's what Maya has been told. In the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a rather strange dream one night Maya makes a new friend, and discovers that the only way to save her dad may be by being asleep. Cue one madcap action adventure story where dreams and reality collide...reallysimilarly tangible texture...and there's everything from llamas and bananas, dream machines made from hairdresser cast-offs, to a talking cat called Bin Bag!|isbn=024147051X1803511230
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=18004644951529934753|title= 100 Ways in 100 Days to Teach Your Baby Maths: Support All Areas of Your Baby’s Development by Nurturing a Love of MathsThe Protest|author=Emma SmithRob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=For a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country''Babies seem s most famous living artist, was not going to be born with an amazing number sense: understanding shapes show up for the opening of his retrospective at the Royal Academy. Still, he arrived in the womb, being aware nick of quantities at seven hours oldtime, assessing probability at complete with his two wives and six months oldchildren, and comprehending addition and subtraction at nine months oldone of whom filmed what happened.'' Did Being an influencer, you know this? I didn't! How about: ''Maths ability on entry tend to school is a strong predictor of later achievementdo things like that, double but it was fortunate that there was a record of literacy skillsthe protest.'' I didn't know this either! I think most parents are aware that giving your children a good start in literacy - reading stories Lexi Williams, teaching pen gripsan intern at the RA, singing rhymes - gives children grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a solid foundation when they start school. But do we think chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in the same way about mathsface, beyond counting? I donwhilst shouting 't think we do, in 'Stop the War''. It seemed to be part because so many of us are afraid an ongoing series of maths'blue-face' attacks, but this was different. But why are we? Most of us use maths in daily life without realising The can had been laced with cyanide, and it follows that giving our children a similar pre-school grounding will be just as beneficialSir Max Bruce was dead.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529379385Ariel Saramandi|title=The Madness Portrait of Crowds (Chief Inspector Gamache)|author=Louise Pennyan Island on Fire
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the Canadian village sociopolitical fabric of Three PinesMauritius, we're post-pandemic: tunneling deep into the scars are wounds left by colonialism and slavery to expose how these legacies still there but shape modern life is starting to get back to normal. The villagers are beginning to return to Saramandi describes the country at one stage as ''rotting'', a blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the Bistro 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 Aubergeisland state. They|isbn=1804271616}}{{Frontpage|author=Pekka Harju-Autti|title=LoveVortex and the Drakor're visiting each others Curse|rating=4|genre=Fantasy|summary=It's homes the eighteenth century, a time of discovery and having friends Britain is expanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, is sent to the Andaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with his son, Peter, and relatives their cat, Michi, they set off on a perilous voyage to staythese faraway lands. A young Sudanese woman who has been nominated for The islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the Nobel Peace Prize islanders' leader, Aarav, is one such visitor and she soon proves that not all saints are necessarily pleasant people keen to be around - a bit like Vincent Gilbert, known in the village as the Asshole Saintestablish good relations.|isbn=B0DS1VGHH3
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|isbnauthor= B09F4CTKJRHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title= Flights for Freedom|author= Steven BurgauerLili is Crying
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=It's First published in 1953 in French, this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the later stages hearts of World War I its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up page and joined the 17 Aero Squadronpositions them elsewhere, disjointed, truncated. This company was Like the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happenlives of her characters, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camelthey are often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=1804271675
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=183885410XTom Percival|title=The Dark Remains|author=William McIlvanney and Ian RankinWrong Shoes|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Bobby Carter was Will's life is difficult, in a lawyer and consigliere to one multitude of the major crime families in nineteen seventies Glasgowways. DC Jack Laidlaw He is on bullied because he has 'the CID team charged with wrong shoes', he has the investigation. I say wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the teamfact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will'' but Laidlaw never really s life seems to be bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a part tiny amount of ithope. He does his own thingis good at art, goes his own way and ''The Dark Remains'' uncovers clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the truth end of why Bobby Carter's body was found behind a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of Glasgow's seedier pubsthem.|isbn= 0356522776
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=19424102551786482126|title=Tokyo Zangyo The Janus Stone (Detective HiroshiDr Ruth Galloway)|author=Michael PronkoElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=''Zangyo: overtime work, often unpaid'' It's Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the culture, isnsite was going to hold seventy-five 't it? The hours for which youluxury're paid are really just a statement of apartments - when they discovered the minimum you'll be required to do: you'll work more hours to get the job done and done to the satisfaction bones of bullies like Shigeru Onizukaa child beneath a doorway. When he There was found dead in front of Senden Centralno skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's headquarters in Tokyo there was nothing in the way of regret or griefdifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, even from that she is pregnant with his family, but there was child as a mild curiosity as to whether he'd jumped from the roof result of the building or been assisted in his descent. Gossip revolves around the fact that he left the roof at the exact same spot that an employee, Mayu Yamase, had committed suicide one night they spent together some three years earliermonths ago. She'd accused Onizuka of bullying her and forcing her Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to work an unreasonable amount sudden bouts of overtimesickness.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241425425Guadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=The Man Who Died Twice|author=Richard OsmanAccidentals
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeShort Stories|summary=Elizabeth Best This collection was a little surprised when she received truly enchanting in all senses of the letter. It came from a man whose body she had helped to pull from the Thames word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and who had never existed but then this is the sort charming in its gentle portrayal of conundrum which retired spies have to deal with on a regular basisnature and human relationships. When she visits the sender of the letter (he's moved into the Cooper's Chase Retirement Village) it comes as no surprise that it's someone with whom she has a long professional history - Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and who used to be precisely, her husband. He's made stories structured by a bad mistake - wisdom that appears to want to teach us something to do with a mask being removed within about the range of a CCTV camera on a raid, a missing twenty-million pounds in diamonds and a few death threats. He's now in hiding with a young woman called Polly, who's his MI5 handler as well as being an incompetent waitressworld.|isbn=1804271470
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Andrew Sharp0008551375|title=The Chef, the Bird and the BlessingWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary= Chef Mlantushi - Mozzy to his employer - is, in his mindLeanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the head chef result of a safari business catering to VIP guests 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 an 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 an unnamed African countrythe last year. Mozzy is earnest All were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and dedicated to his task and he puts all sensible people. None of himself into creating fine cuisine dishes for the guests at BOD-W safaris but his dream is to become the head chef of 'what a restaurant in London or a big American city. Even stupid thing to win a Michelin stardo' explanations applied. He They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is thwarted in this ambition by his boss, Mr Bin (Ben to you and me) who incurs Mozzycertain there's disapproval for his scruffy ways, his uninterest in his guests and - shock, horror - his allowing of bush animals into a killer on the houseloose.|isbn=B09926MK8H
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