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==The Best New Books==
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{{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
|isbnauthor= B09NDJ77LMSamantha Harvey|title=Me and My Shadow|author=Deborah StoneOrbital|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary= In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''What happens when someone is pushed too far and they begin to lose their grip on reality? How would you cope if you felt Orbital'', a compact yet profound work that no one loved you? And how far would you go to be happy? Accompany Rachel as she tries to shake off unfolds over a single day in the shadows lives of her past and attempts to repair decades worth a group of painastronauts aboard the International Space Station.Through a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts'' Rachel is in a current conversation with her psychiatristorbital perspective, who pushes her Harvey invites readers to recall her life from very young childhood onwards. But Rachel is combative with Doctor Blake, sometimes even contemptuous of her. You can see that it's not an easy therapeutic relationship. Rachel's recall of her life is our planet in remarkable detail. She remembers each minor slight and each major betrayal in perfect detail with absolute and unforgiving claritya wholly new light.|isbn=1529922933
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529409659295967572X|title=The Locked Room (Dr Ruth Galloway)Pale Pieces|author=Elly GriffithsG M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=It was some time since her father had remarried but Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his wife was now keen to do some decorating companion Django. Where they're going and Dr Ruth Galloway volunteered to clear out her mother's belongings. She was intrigued by what the discovery of a picture purpose of her own house: it was an old photographthis journey is, taken in misty conditions and is uncertain. Django found the tickets ''on the back it said floor somewhere'dawn 1963', some years before Ruth was bornand has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. It was before her parents were married. When she returned to Norfolk she was determined to find out what was behind Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the photograph but Covid intervened and past as the country was in lockdown. Ruth and Kate are restricted pair travel to the cottage with Ruth attempting to home school Kate station by coach and continue with her university teaching duties. The good thing was meeting Zoe, the new tenant from next door whom they got to know whilst clapping for carerstrain is a steam locomotive.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=18479418340008551324|title=Atomic HabitsThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=James ClearNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=IIt've said this before but there are some books that you seek outs 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, some books that you stumble across 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 some books that drop into your life because you really MUST read themto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, like, right now! is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she'Atomic Habitss 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'' is in the last categorys happening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09MSC981WJon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=The Woke Iliad|author=George BoreasVaim
|rating=4
|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Helen is a popular activist''All was strange''... Or should we call her a popular influencer? Or perhaps a popular franchise owner? Anyway, Helen is so popular that This haunting phrase encapsulates the United States government has made her its Ambassador of Woke. Helen runs all sorts of initiatives on behalf pervading sense of the governmentotherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, including the Shaming Conference a fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and Eline, two of the Permissible Entertainment Committee - ''for indoctrinating and legislating against summer fun for any who still knew how to have it''protagonists caught in its melancholic current. Ouch!|isbn=1804271829
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09D95TRKZ1035043092|title=The Wedding MurdersKilling Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Sarah LinleyAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Libby Steele I can't have been the only person who was hoping sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to get start a permanent job with the newspaper and the case she was covering was her big chancenew life on Orkney. It was even more important to her than the celebrity wedding she was to attend the following day 's been seven years since we heard from him, but he's now living with her ex-rock star boyfriend, Matthew. She was leaving her seven-year-old Willow Reeves and their young son, Patrick with her sisterJames, Emmaas well as Cassie, and heading off to a grand manor house hotel in the North Yorkshire countrysidedaughter of his former partner. Daniel AcroydWillow's also his boss, television presenter and former member she ''should'' be on maternity leave, but when the body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, in the rock band was marrying Vicky and Libby suspected that the wedding wasnaftermath of a storm, she can't resist getting involved. He''quite'' as highd been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of a pair -profile as which had been suggested as there was no ban on photos or phonesstolen from a museum.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838226834Thea Lenarduzzi|title=Carried Away With the Carnival|author=Ed BoxallThe Tower|rating=45|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=It was one ''How unctuous are the fats of those memories we treasure from another's life, how dizzying their sugars in our childhoods: an outing with our grandparents. Theybloodstream''re there to undo all the good that parents do, so the trips out were always so much fun. A young boy was going to the carnival with his Grandad, who told him:
In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the protagonist of this tale. Just as T's story is being told, the story of a second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the daughter of a wealthy family in the 19th century, who died of tuberculosis after being locked in a tower, captures T's imagination. Annie's fate is, above all, an enticing story to T. It'll be brilliantis a story which she consumes avariciously, just rememberboth in a quest for truth and knowledge, don't let go and in service of my handmyth, fable and fantasy.'' |isbn=1804271799
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529135362Claire-Louise Bennett|title=The Long Weekend|author=Gilly MacmillanBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=It was Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, usually a long drive to symbol of intimacy and closeness, becomes evidence of love lost. When the weekend retreat in Northumbrianarrator cries out internally, right up near the Scottish borders ''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 make it worse test her detachment.|isbn=1804271934}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the three husbands had all Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year- for old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one reason or another - had to delay making the trip until the Saturday morningsummer night. Jane She was never found and Ruth had known each other for the investigation ground to a long time but Emily was a bit of an outsiderhalt. She Now, her mother, Helena, and Paul had married only relatively recently and she was ten years younger than the other two womenher father are dead in their bed. The friendship Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the group went back to school daysbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Paul had coached rugby at the school where Mark, Toby What looked as though it was going to be an open-and Rob were pupils-shut case is now a complex double murder. Mark had married Jane, and Toby Kerrigan is Ruthconvinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's husband. And Rob? Well, Robdisappearance: others (such as Derwent's deadboss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=gareth_steelAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Never Work With Animals|author=Gareth SteelThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=Animals and WildlifeAutobiography|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with 'We were born from the same body. I'Never Work With Animals'' it seems ve never really wanted to be appropriatethink about this. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since ' Ernaux'All Creatures Great s work is always very candid and Small'' her tone transparent, but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not this raw epistolary text must be one of the companion volume youmost intimate accounts I've been looking forread. As 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 TV show few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and 2 years before the author would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, as do other similar programmeswas even born. Gareth Steel says that The large and instant void created by the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that hejarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's written it to inform and provoke thoughtprocess of reckoning with this giant absence in her life, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues an absence that she has always felt but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eatingoften denied.|isbn=1804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1787634884Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=The Herd|author=Emily EdwardsReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=3.5|genre=General FictionBiography|summary=Our story opens in December 2019Biographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a vibrant, before most subjective yet informed portrait of us had even heard three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of Covid or realised this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that whether or : ''you write not we should of real life as it is, but of what you yourself imagine it to be vaccinated . Whom would come it help to know how I see this tower, that sea, or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''. Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a major issue. We're in Farley County Courtsubjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, where Elizabeth Chekhov and Jack Chamberlain are facing Bryony and Ash Kohli. As they were best friends until just a few months ago we know Andreyev in such privileged detail that whatever has happened is major and that, regardless one almost feels unworthy of the outcome, this is not going to work out well for anyoneit.|isbn=1804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Annabel Abbs1529077745|title=The Language of FoodDark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=Eliza Acton is A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a poet who has never had man in the slightest inclination to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirbypark near Rosebank, a local woman with care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a troubled home lifeshift the night before but who had never turned up. Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the world disappearance of one of domestic cookerythe residents, reinventing fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the recipe book and changing death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the face of cookery writing forevergirl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.|isbn=1398502227
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Louie StowellB0FK5LHKD9|title=Loki: A Bad God's Guide to Being GoodThe Colour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Meet Loki. The trickster god has got into trouble again, so the other gods have decided thereIt's only one thing for it – he must be banished. And transformed – for Loki is spending been three years since we last reviewed a month both in exile and in the physical form of book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were very glad to see a middle-school kid new novel arrive here on Earthat Bookbag Towers. HeLike all Bowden's stories, there's guarded by a giant and a god in disguise as his parents, and Thor has come along as well, to be mystery at the more suave, more popular and more successful brother heart of ''The Colour of the twoMoney''. Loki has We like this running theme in an author's work - take a month to redeem his reputation, and get his moral compass pointing the right way again, or else, and to prove mystery but give it he has to write the text we read in a sentient notebook, that is able to cry foul of his lies, different flavour and judge his progressatmosphere each time. But Loki is the kind of god who insists he can do anything, so surviving a bit more virtuously for a month is going to be a walk in the park...right?|isbn=1406399752
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008454442Olga Tokarczuk|title=A Flicker 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 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 Darkshift 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=Stacy WillinghamDai Henley
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=It's May 2019 and Dr Chloe Davis, Ex-DCI Andy Flood has been a medical psychologistPrivate Investigator for some time now, is completing a session with a new patient. Lacey is suffering mentally but Chloe has hopes of getting her through the traumaand he should be doing quite well financially. You seeUnfortunately, Chloe knows what ithis daughter's like to have defence against a traumatic childhoodmurder charge drained his savings. Her father is Richard DavisHis wife, Laura, the man who murdered six girls some twenty years agohas been trying to persuade him to retire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. Their bodies have never That's what 'ordinary people do','' He's not been found but Chloe found some jewellery belonging to entirely up front about the girls - trophies taken from state of their bodies - tucked away in a cupboard at home and she and her mother handed savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to take his case, it to 's the police. Dick Davis is in thought of the Louisiana State Penitentiary and Chloie has had nothing to do with money he could make that convinces him for the last twenty years. Her mother that this is in a care homemiscarriage of justice that he really should put right.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Christopher Edge1836284683|title=Escape RoomThe Big Happy|author=David Chadwick|rating=34.5|genre=Confident ReadersDystopian Fiction|summary=Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when Iopen a book, it've seen junior variants of the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' format cover escape rooms – the process by which a character or characters start by being trapped in a specific locations nothing like I expected it to be, and have to solve problems in order to get their way outit takes me on a wild ride. What I've not done (alongside experience one for myself – for And that would require actual friends) is seen a prose book describing people in such an adventure, just what happened with the regular second person narrative replaced by the first''The Big Happy''. Here, Ami and four other tweenagers, all new I don't want to each other and booked into the game without ruin a similar experience for any of their friends, are a team – starting out you reading but I'll have to at least set the gamescene. Once that's main officesdone, where they're told they and their quest I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for The Answer are a world-changeryourself. But could watching people engage with such a pastime, despite the ramped-up threat levels, change much in the world of literature?|isbn=1788007964
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1732898731Sally Rooney|title=The Boy Who Loved Boxes: A Children's Book for Adults|author=Michael Albanese Intermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleGeneral Fiction |summary=There was Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a Boy who loved boxesgrandmaster at putting it into words. He had a box Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for everything readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and he was meticulous about storage: Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his parents probably couldn't believe their luck! It began with art suppliesolder brother Peter, stuffed toys and the like: all the things which most children have a successful lawyer living in abundanceDublin. The BoyFollowing their father's delight was in the sense of order in his room: it made him feel happy. As he grew up and became passing after a Manlong battle with cancer, his life became more complicated and he dealt with this by getting bigger and better boxes. Look carefully at the pictures and youbrothers'll see that one of them has a padlock..already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09MN1526W1036916375|title=Blood Games (DS Nikki Parekh 4)Just a Liverpool Lad|author=Liz MistryPeter McArdle
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=It's 'Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of memories and reflections from the third murder years Peter McArdle spent growing up in the space of a few weeks and they've all been because of machetes used on teenagersaround Liverpool. DS Nikki Parekh and DC Sajid Malik Some are amongst factual, such as the first to arrive on family history of a sea-going family, with the scene at Chellow Dene Reservoir on docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the outskirts of Bradfordwhat-might-have-been. Only, this time, itIt's going a book to be different. The body appears settle into and allow your mind to Nikki roam across your childhood memories, to be that think of her beloved nephewsimpler times when life seemed less constrained, Haqib, and she has despite the blitz that was a very public meltdownconstant factor in McArdle's early years. It isnI't Haqib: there are similarities d never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the body is clad in designer clothes and comes from an obviously monied background. What it does mean though is that Nikki is going to be on sick leave for some time with anxiety and depressionall-clear was sounded.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Ally Wilkes1836285493|title=All the White SpacesThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=45|genre=HorrorConfident Readers|summary=In post-WWI EnglandWill is a keen player of video games, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Arctic expedition led by the famous Australis Randall. For Jonathana conscientious student, this adventure represents a chance for slightly annoying brother and a fresh startsupportive friend. But most of all, and the opportunity to live life as he is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his authentic self and true genderschool, Marlowe Park, without the disapproval and constraints of his parentsone at which he excels. However, Jonathan isnThis hasn't the only one fleeing the confines of gone unnoticed by his past and the shadow of the war hangs like a funeral shroud over the expedition. Guiltheadteacher, mistrust and grief stalk the party andMrs Howarth, when disaster strikes and they are forced she has suggested to overwinter on land, Will and his mum that he spends a menacing presence waits to prey on their darkness. If Jonathan is to make it out couple of the Arctic winter aliveafternoons a week at a different school, he will have to face his demons once and for all, or risk making the barrenStation Road, icy landscape where his tombability might be better extended.|isbn=1789097835
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Dean Koontz1009473085|title=QuicksilverThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=2.5|genre=ThrillersPolitics and Society|summary=Meet Quinn Quicksilver. HeSometimes it's not had the chance simpler to get explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to be a mercurial character yet, for he's lived in a nun'The Conservative Effect: 2010-run orphanage since he was a three2024 -day old foundling, and now is starting a career on a needless magazine14 Wasted Years?''s staff. But when this book starts he IS now If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mindreally''happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for you. If that's what you're looking for something – call it unearthly intuition, call it mind-controlI don't think Anthony Seldon's book, call it a supernatural urge – has demanded of him that he go to a derelict diner{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, find can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a gold coin worth a fortune, cash the value of it out of his bank compelling read and prepare should be compulsory for going on the lamanyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. And all this ''The Conservative Effect'' is just an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in time for two of those typical Men in Black types to turn up a series which looks at the impact a government has made and suggest he's co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of interest to them. Helped to escape, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances experts from various fields review the state of him acting without being the nation when the coalition took over in control2010, the discovery changes that he is not unique occurred and the situation in having some kind of burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besides2024.|isbn=1542019885
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008441618Jenny Valentine|title=Other Parents|author=Sarah StovellUs in the Before and After
|rating=5
|genre=Women's FictionTeens|summary=Jo Fairburn knew Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that she was under intense pressure even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as the new head of West Burntridge First School: if she didnchildren one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't live up to her retired predecessor there could well be a house price slump in that part of get each other's contact details at the towntime. The school had an active Parent Teacher Association But then chance brings them back together, and the funds which they raised were a considerable benefit to the schoolare inseparable. There was one difficulty, Something has happened though - they were ''devastatingly shockable'', with two memberssomething terrible and tragic, in particularand now they must work through their grief, causing problems for the head. Laura Spence and Kate Monroe objected to Jo's restrictions on the toys children could bring in on Toy Day but that was just a warm-up act for their real gripe: LGBTQ educationfriendship, together.|isbn=1471196585
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Sarah Ann Juckes1787333175|title=The Hunt for the NightingaleYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersPopular Science|summary=Jasper I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is a little boy who has some struggles, and whilst we're never told why exactly, we can see that he has anxiety and panic attacks, and has difficulty dealing with change and big emotions. His big sister, Rosie, has been a huge support Going to himHurt}}, talking him down when things were difficult, encouraging him, and writing a book with him, all about birds, that he can read when he gets scared to help him calm down. His parents seem completely caught up in their businessglorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and so it is Rosie he always turns toautobiography. Even though she has gone away ''You Don't Have to University now, she has promised him that she will still be there when he needs herMad.. But now he can't find Rosie. She hasn't come home when she said she would, and she isn't answering her phone. His parents won't speak promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to him or when they do, he doesn't understand or take in what they're sayingmental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. Nothing seems I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be right, and looking for humour in this setting but the only way he feels he can find any peace laughter is if he can find Rosie, directed at a situation rather than a person and if they can find the nightingale it is always delivered with empathy and listen to its song, as they do together every Springunderstanding.|isbn=1398510890
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{{Frontpage
|author=Antoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and Jane Aitken (translator)Mariana Enriquez|title=Red is My HeartA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction Short Stories|summary=[[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black and white and read in my house. And so was this one, although I could have spelled Mariana Enriquez writes horror that more accurately – this one was, and isdisturbingly real, black and white and red. Yesachieving 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, he has an artistic collaborator on this piece, overcrowded homeless shelter and I think it's possible to say not one page lacks a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the influence of some striking visual ideassupernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|isbn=19135471831803511230
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291355671529934753|title=One Step Too FarThe Protest|author=Lisa GardnerRob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=ItFor a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country's five years since most famous living artist, was not going to show up for the stag weekend. Five opening of them had set out: Tim (his retrospective at the groom) and his four groomsmenRoyal Academy. Still, Scothe arrived in the nick of time, Miguel (who was usually called Miggy)complete with his two wives and six children, Neil and Joshone of whom filmed what happened. The first night they had plenty Being an influencer, you tend to do things like that, but it was fortunate that there was a record of alcohol - too much really - and in the night Scot managed to wander offprotest. The remaining four searched for him in vain Lexi Williams, an intern at the RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and it was decided that Tim, who was experienced proceeded to spray Bruce in survival techniquesthe face, would go for help. When help didnwhilst shouting ''t come Stop the remaining three finally made their way back to townWar''. Scott followed soon after It seemed to be part of an ongoing series of 'blue-face' attacks, but there this was no sign of Timdifferent. Every year, Tim's father, MartinThe can had been laced with cyanide, and the four friends have been back to continue the search although they do now acknowledge that they're looking for 'remains' rather than for TimSir Max Bruce was dead.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Gunnar StaalesenAriel Saramandi|title=Bitter FlowersPortrait of an Island on Fire|rating=34.5|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=Varg Veum is a Norwegian Private Investigator who has just finished a stint in rehab 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 is now returning slavery to workexpose how these legacies still shape modern life. However, Saramandi describes the quiet job hecountry at one stage as ''rotting's supposedly taken on caretaking someone's house quickly turns into a murder investigation, and a mystery around a missing woman. Varg finds himself not only investigating theseblunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the malignant forces of racism, but also looking into an oldpatriarchy, cold case of an eight year old girl who disappeared one night environmental degradation and was never foundgovernmental dysfunction. SomehowEach essay in this collection serves as a kind of diagnostic, these disparate cases appear to be linked, but what is charting the link, and how can Varg possibly unravel various diseases afflicting the truth?island state.|isbn=191319308X1804271616
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Kia AhankoobPekka Harju-Autti|title=The Gold Lion LoveVortex and the Tournament of SentinelsDrakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=Graphic NovelsFantasy|summary= When Myriad created Duniva he endowed his children with different powers, each with its own strength and weakeness, in It's the hope they would complement each other and collaborateeighteenth century, creating a dynamic time of discovery and prosperous societyBritain is expanding its foreign trade. Each power Captain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, is contained within a magical ring belonging sent to one of eight countries led by Myriad's children and their descendants. But it didn't quite work out like that. Rivalries developed. Enmities grew out of them and the eight countries went to warAndaman Islands in his endeavour. Having fought themselves into an endless Along with his son, Peter, and ruinous stalemate and finding the cost of war too high, a solution is proposed. Each of the eight countries will send their greatest warriorscat, known as sentinelsMichi, they set off on a perilous voyage to a single combat tournamentthese faraway lands. The winner will take possession of all the rings islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and become the supreme ruler of Dunivaislanders' leader, Aarav, is keen to establish good relations.|isbn=B09MMQJFPVB0DS1VGHH3
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|author=Alastair Chisholm Helene Bessette and Eric DeschampsKate Briggs (translator)|title=Dragon Storm: Tomas and IronskinLili is Crying|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Meet Tomas. Happy to work with his father First published in 1953 in the blacksmith's forgeFrench, he's almost of the age to become this novel is a full apprentice, and help with timeless text which wrenches the new batch hearts of dragonswords is certainly needed. Not that there are any dragons, of course – they vanished centuries ago. Except... Strange signals its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from within their proper position on the forge furnace, page and a peculiar invite to become an apprentice clerk insteadpositions them elsewhere, are things for Tom to puzzle over – until it all comes out in the washdisjointed, that yes dragons do still exist in this world, and that Tom is rare in truncated. Like the ability to summon themlives of her characters, share magical attributes, and ride with them..they are often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=18399400261804271675
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529346541Tom Percival|title=Something to Hide: An Inspector Lynley Novel|author=Elizabeth GeorgeThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=ItWill's late July and Deborah St James life is at difficult, in a meeting with Dominique Shaw, Undersecretary for multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the school systemwrong shoes', a representative from he has the NHS, Mr Oh from Barnardos, someone from Orchid House whose name she didnwrong shoes because his dad can't catch but would later turn out to be Zawadi work and Narissa Cameron, a filmmaker. It follows on from doesn't have enough money for even the success most basic of Deborahthings like food, and his dad can's book ''London Voices'': t work because he lost his job at the meeting is college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an exploration of the possibility of the idea behind the book being used to highlight an area which is causing concern in some communitiesaccident. DeborahThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's uncertain about quite how successful she could be as the problem life seems to occur bleak in Nigerian every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and Somali communities as she relies on getting clings to the trust moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the people she speaks to and photographsend of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
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|isbnauthor=B09Q3P283YSylvie Cathrall|title=Shadebringer|author=Grayson W HooperA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=FantasyScience Fiction|summary=Clyde Robbins signs There are few greater joys than a book which lives up for the US Army during the Vietnam War. He's not really that invested in the fight against Communism, nor is he particularly interested in to a career in the militarycompelling premise. If he's honest - which Clyde usually And this is, with himself at least - he hasn't got many choices and this one, at least, gets him out of the rut he's in. He's good in training and is quickly put onto a non commissioned officer training course. He's chuffed with himselfthem.|isbn= 0356522776
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Lucy Strange and Pam Smy1786482126|title=The Mermaid in the MillpondJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=There is no mermaid Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the millpond. That at least is what Bess is telling herself. Neither will there be a friend for her in amongst all the other kids, who have had their entire childhoods sold site was going to the millhold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments -owners by when they discovered the London workhouse they used to call homebones of a child beneath a doorway. Bess knows there is There was no time for friendship in skull. Was this a hand-to-mouthritual killing or murder? Inevitably, every man for himself kind of existenceDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. But despite herself Bess does find a bit of a kindred spirit in the slight little Dot It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, and despite everything that life has taught her about betrayal and how befriending people only leads to harm, there might be she is pregnant with his child as a glimmer result of companionship in the tired-out mill workersone night they spent together some three months ago. But surely that doesn't mean there Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is any truth in the existence prone to sudden bouts of the mermaid?|isbn=180090049Xsickness.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1785633074Guadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=Staggering Hubris|author=Josh BerryThe Accidentals
|rating=4.5
|genre=HumourShort Stories|summary=Members This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politiciansword: spellbinding with its fantastical, headed by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares'' (that's for those magical elements and charming in its gentle portrayal of you who are Eton nature and Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that the ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the governmenthuman relationships. We are in the privileged position of having access to the memoirs of Rafe HubrisGuadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, the man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained her stories structured by a wisdom that appears to want to teach us something about the end of 2020. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to watchworld.|isbn=1804271470
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09MYXSRV40008551375|title=Otter's Coat: The Real Reason Turtle Raced Rabbit: A Cherolachian Tortoise and HareWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Cordellya SmithNeil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=When Leanne Wilson's body was found at the world was madebottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the animals were given gifts. Bear was given strength so that he could become result of a protectortragic accident. Water Spider received a strong web that even fire could not burn. Owl had excellent sight She'd looked so that he could see the present ''and'' the futurehappy, too, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. Rabbit developed intelligence - Her friends were relieved as she was just out of an unpleasant relationship, but, unfortunately, not the ability to use it welllooked like she was living her best life now. He liked to trick Then it emerged that five other animalswomen had died in similar circumstances in the last year. He was also jealous which was how he came to be in a race with TurtleAll were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and sensible people. You might think thatNone of the 's not what a fair contest but wait and seestupid thing to do' explanations applied. Things are not always as They were all alone when they seem. I'll tell you how it came about.}}{{Frontpage|author=Giovanna Fletcher|title=Walking on Sunshine|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Mike's wife, Pia, who he was with for seventeen years, has died. And whilst he : DS Max Craigie is dealing with his grief, so are their best friends, Vicky and Zaza. But Pia left them all some certain there'rules' to follow, knowing that she was dying and that they would need help to carry s a killer on living. Whilst some of the rules are around practicalities such as clearing out her wardrobe, another one that Mike discovers one day encourages him to take one of their trips away, and Vicky and Zaza, struggling with their grief and their own life troubles, decide to drop everything in their own lives, and go along with himloose.|isbn=140593560X
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