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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''
{{Frontpage
|author=Vanda SymonSamantha Harvey|title=FacelessOrbital|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=In this book told from multiple viewpoints2024, several troubled people are thrown into Samantha Harvey won the same story thanks to just one mis-step. Set in New Zealand, the first of our characters is BradleyBooker Prize for ''Orbital'', a middle aged man struggling with an overbearing boss, a weighty mortgage, and what he feels is an unappreciative wife. Then there’s Billy, a homeless teenage girl who is compact yet profound work that unfolds over a street artist working as a prostitute sometimes single day in order to pay for the materials she needs. And then we have Max, who is also living on lives of a group of astronauts aboard the streets and who keeps an eye on BillyInternational Space Station. He is Through a shell of a man, barely able to take any care of himself, and yet we can sense narrative lens that he was once something more than he is now. One night, Bradley finds himself half-crazed with stress and anxiety, driving down mirrors the street looking for a prostitute. He picks up Billyastronauts' orbital perspective, and then with one thoughtless decision finds his life thrown into turmoil and Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a spiral away from the person he thought he was into someone very differentwholly new light.|isbn=19145850461529922933
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1776574028295967572X|title=Bumblebee GrumblebeePale Pieces|author=David ElliottG M Stevens|rating=45|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=I love a good board book! ''Bumblebee Grumblebee'' Our unnamed narrator is aimed at quite about to begin a niche market: ittrain journey with his companion Django. Where they's for re going and what the child who still enjoys board books (erpurpose of this journey is, see my first sentence) but has mastered sufficient language skills to have realise that you can is uncertain. Django found the tickets ''playon the floor somewhere'' with words and make something quite different from each onehas persuaded our narrator to accompany him. We have Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the elephant who dons a tutu - past as the pair travel to the station by coach and becomes a ''balletphant''. The buffalo who has had a bath (complete with yellow duck) and then dries off with a hair drier becomes a ''fluffalo''. The rhinoceros who drops his ice cream cone the train is a ''crynoceros'' (think about it!) The pelican who sits on his potty changes into a ''sm....steam locomotive...'' OK, let's not go there Some people are eating!
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09V1NQ5SX0008551324|title=Death at Friar's InnThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Rob KeeleyNeil Lancaster|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Nat Webber and Tom Barton were in It's unusual for anyone from the finals of Hardie family to approach the Moots to take place at The Honourable Society of Friar's Innpolice. For aspiring barristers, moots test Neither side likes or has any respect for the participantsother. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he' knowledge s prepared to tell the police where the body of several areas of law as well as their advocacy skills: it's a great way of getting invaluable practice missing person is buried and of getting yourself noticedwho was responsible for her death. Tom This person, he promises, is someone big and Nat are from 'a provincial university' and they're ''almost'' looked down on because of thisit will be worth the police doing what he wants. The other contestants - Becca Decker-Hamilton And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and Lucia 'Mouse' Dawes have no such disadvantage and Becca has to get an abundance of confidenceearly parole date. Tom's £30 supermarket suit 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 feel any betteris kept well away from what's happening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529125944Jon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=City of the Dead|author=Jonathan KellermanVaim
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''All was strange''... This haunting phrase encapsulates the pervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, a fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and Eline, two of the protagonists caught in its melancholic current.
|isbn=1804271829
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1035043092
|title=The Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)
|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=When you drive large vehicles for 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 livingnew life on Orkney. It's been seven years since we heard from him, youbut he're careful s now living with Willow Reeves and it's not just about their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the way that you drivedaughter of his former partner. You restrict your alcohol intake Willow's also his boss, and if itshe ''should's a trip that needs overnight stays you make certain you get your sleep. When you're taking be on maternity leave, but when the body of a removals truck through a residential neighbourhood you head off at 5 popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, in the aftermath of a.m. when the roads are quieterstorm, even if you have to wait up when you get to where youshe can're goingt resist getting involved. And it was going well until He'd been battered about the men hit something in Westwood Village, an upmarket neighbourhood head with a Neolithic stone - one of Los Angeles. The man was stark naked and couldn't be identifieda pair - which had been stolen from a museum.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)Thea Lenarduzzi|title=I May Be WrongThe Tower
|rating=5
|genre= AutobiographyLiterary Fiction|summary= When ''How unctuous are the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiecefats of another's life, Ihow dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how . In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the rest identity of T, the world responds to your bookprotagonist of this tale. I knowJust as T's story is being told, having read the book in questionstory of a second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest daughter of a wealthy family in the world responds 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 this bookT. It is a story which she consumes avariciously, because it tells the both in a quest for truth as it isand knowledge, and in the early 21st centuryservice of myth, fable and fantasy. |isbn=15266448271804271799
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0949Q1DC1Claire-Louise Bennett|title=The Patient (A DS Cross thriller)|author=Tim SullivanBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=4.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=DS George Cross has an autistic spectrum disorderEverything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, quite probably Asperger's Syndromeis steeped in anguish and distortion. He can be rudeEven a kiss, difficult usually a symbol of intimacy and awkward with peoplecloseness, becomes evidence of love lost. When the narrator cries out internally, although it's never intentional. It's just that he thinks differently come over here and social niceties simply donkiss me,'t occur ' it is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to himconfirm her emotional numbness. There's a reason why he's in Bristol's Major Crime Unit and it's that he has the best conviction rate with casesThe imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, ever. His her ex-partner is DS Josie Ottey: , a ghost she regards Cross with affection (not an emotion he would recognise, or welcome being attached to himself) and even attempts conjures to instil some of those missing social niceties into Cross's behaviourtest her detachment.|isbn=1804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291516000008405026|title=Give Unto OthersA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Donna LeonJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Commissario Guido Brunetti senses that Venice has changed. The It''pandemia'' stripped the city of its tourists for nearly two s sixteen years and a lot of businesses have closed, most never to reopensince nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. There's now a cascade of money as life begins again but even 125,000 deaths have not put an end to greed. The Mafias have liquidity problems: how on earth are they going She was never found and the investigation ground to launder all the money which is coming their way? Whilst he's thinking about this, Brunetti encounters someone he's seen only occasionally since they were neighbours when he was a childhalt. Elisabetta Foscarini has a problem and she'd like Brunetti's advice.}}{{Frontpage|author=Marcus Sedgwick|title=Wrath|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Meet FitzNow, a young Scottish lad full of frustration at himself. Lockdown is only just overher mother, and he should be free to do what he wantsHelena, to go where he wants and with whom he wantsher father are dead in their bed. Initially, but he cannot stop himself from putting his foot in it when he talks to his best friend, Cassie. They were half of looks like a desultory school band, straightforward murder/suicide but Cassie was also one hundred per cent there's something about the enigmatic – saying she could hear a subhuman hum coming from positioning of the earthbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Is this connected with one of her eco What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-warrior parents saying the end of the world shut case is already now a done deal? Is it some spooky new kind of music shecomplex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's dreaming of? Is she just bonkers? And can Fitz find out the truth? Wellboss, not when Cassie has gone missing he can't..Una Burt) are less convinced.|isbn=1800900899
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1635864070Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Knit 2 Socks in 1|author=Safiyyah TalleyThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=CraftsAutobiography|summary=If you''We were born from the same body. I've ever started knitting a pair of socksnever really wanted to think about this.'' Ernaux's work is always very candid and her tone transparent, finished the first but this raw epistolary text must be one and either got bored by the idea of doing the same thing all over againmost intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her sister, or started on the second sock and lost the first before you finished ithowever, this is the book for youletter will never reach her. Where is it that single socks go to hideWhy? Safiyyah Talley has developed Because Annie Ernaux's sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a system that allows you to knit two socks few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in oneFrance, divide them up and have a perfectly finished pair 2 years before the author was even born. The large and instant void created by the jarring concept of socks. Sounds good? Itwriting to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's clever and well-thought-outprocess of reckoning with this giant absence in her life, an absence that she has always felt but often denied.|isbn=1804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Olivie BlakeMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=The Atlas SixReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5|genre=FantasyBiography|summary= DarkBiographies 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, sharpand offers a vibrant, and highly inquisitivesubjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''The Atlas Sixyou 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, or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?'' makes its publishing debut after becoming . Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a Tik-Tok sensationsubjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=15290952391804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083849831529077745|title=The Paris ApartmentDark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Lucy FoleyAnn Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=''Things are not what they seem''. It was A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a Friday and Jess Hadley was keen to get to her half-brother's flat man in Paristhe park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. She'd come across from London on Eurostar, courtesy The dead man was Josh - one of the money she'd stolen from The Pervert's till in care workers who was due to work a shift the Copacabana Bar in Brightonnight before but who had never turned up. It wasn't likely that D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the police would be on to her yet murder - but she'd like to be somewhere safe and with food and drink inside her. She'd phoned Ben and got only clue is the disappearance of one of the address residents, fourteen- 12 Rue des Amants year- and he told her old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the apartment was on death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the third floorgirl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She's outside knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what's obviously a very upmarket building but she hasn't been able happened to get in touch with BenJosh.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0760373558B0FK5LHKD9|title=Nordic KnitsThe Colour of Memory|author=Sue FlandersChristopher Bowden
|rating=4
|genre=CraftsGeneral Fiction|summary=I was It's been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so delighted by Sue Flanderswe were very glad to see a new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. Like all Bowden' [[Cozy Knits: 30 Hats stories, Mitten, Scarf and Sock Projects from Around the World by Sue Flanders|Cozy Knits]] that I didnthere't need any persuading s a mystery at all to pick up her the heart of ''Nordic KnitsThe Colour of Money''. This delivers fortyWe like this running theme in an author's work -four patterns inspired by textiles and local traditions from Norway, Sweden and Iceland. There are take a few sweaters or jackets mystery but the majority of patterns are for smaller items such as mittens, gloves, hats give it different flavour and bags. All are bright and cheerful and very cosyatmosphere each time.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1916072038Olga Tokarczuk|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)|author=Allie Cresswellof Day, House of Night|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=We meet part ''What's the good of the Talbot family a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in Yorkshire in November 1811. Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house in the hollow. The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her motherit?''s strengths and weaknesses:
The title of this spellbinding work, ''She is practiced at subterfugeHouse of Day, at concealingHouse of Night'', beneath a facade somewhat reflects this notion of respectabilityshifting 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 deplorable truth''ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is perceived.|isbn=1804271918Hester is furious about Jocelyn}}{{Frontpage|isbn=henleyA|title=Ultimate Obsession|author=Dai Henley|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Ex-DCI Andy Flood has been a Private Investigator for some time now, and he should be doing quite well financially. Unfortunately, his daughter's refusal defence against a murder charge drained his savings. His wife, Laura, has been trying to persuade him to retire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. That's what 'ordinary people do as she was asked', which has precipitated ''this violent and unexpected removal He's not been entirely up front about the state of their savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to take his case, it'. Then we are told s the thought of the birth money he could make that convinces him that this is a miscarriage of a child and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshirejustice that he really should put right.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Matthieu Aikins1836284683|title=The Naked Don't Fear the WaterBig Happy|author=David Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyDystopian Fiction|summary=ItWell! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when I open a book, it's easy nothing like I expected it to forget at times be, and it takes me on a wild ride. And that is just what happened with ''The Naked DonBig Happy''t Fear the Water isn. I don't actually fiction, because it reads very much like want to ruin a well-paced thriller at times. This is not by similar experience for any means a criticism, of you reading but rather a testament I'll have to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and at times painful journey. There are tense moments and gripping accounts of border crossings which had me on edge least set the whole way throughscene. But itOnce that's written with a haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the reader to perfectly envisage the environments and people describeddone, I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.|isbn= B09N9157T6
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas EngerSally Rooney|title=Unhinged (Volume 3) (Blix and Ramm)Intermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction |summary=This Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is the third book in a series something of stories featuring Alexander Blix, a police officer, grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and Emma Rammso brilliantly frustrating, a crime journalistas her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. In Among the many relationships woven into this book we find that when story, the central one of Blix's colleagues, Kovicfor readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, uncovers a connection between several Oslo casessocially awkward chess prodigy, she tries to contact her superiorcontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, Blixa successful lawyer living in Dublin. Before she can reach him, however, she is murdered, and BlixFollowing their father's daughter Iselin who shares the same apartment, narrowly escapes being murdered too. We then find ourselves passing after a few days later long battle with Blix and Rammcancer, who are being interviewed by the National Criminal Investigation Service because Blix has shot and killed someone, and Ramm saw it all happenbrothers' already strained relationship faces new trials. What had Kovic discovered? And what did Blix and Ramm uncover that led to Blix killing someone?|isbn=19145850030571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Daniel Abraham1036916375|title=Age of AshJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyAutobiography|summary= We meet Alys under the most northerly of Oldgate's four bridges, she has 'Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a knife collection of memories and reflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in her hand and a meeting that she dreadsaround Liverpool. MeanwhileSome are factual, such as the City family history of Kithamar is at a point in sea-going family, with the turning of years when docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the worlds are at their thinnest and all things are possiblewhat-might-have-been. It is the night between the funeral of 's a Prince book to settle into and allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the coronation of his successorblitz that was a constant factor in McArdle's early years. For a night I'd never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the Kithamar is unall-ruledclear was sounded.|isbn=0356515427
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15290955221836285493|title=The InterviewDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=C M EwanRob Keeley|rating=45|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=Kate Harding Will is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But most of all, he is going for an interview for her dream job at Edge Communicationsaspiring writer. It's the last interview of the day English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one of Londonat which he excels. This hasn's newest office buildings and Edge have fitted out their part of the building to be something special. Maggiet gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Kate's recruitment agentMrs Howarth, is keen and she has suggested to see Will and his mum that Kate approaches the interview in he spends a good state couple of mind: Kate assumes that this is because Maggie will get afternoons a week at a decent bonus if Kate gets the job - and she has to admit that life has not been easy for her recentlydifferent school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B097XNMCRK1009473085|title=The Blood Tide (DS Max Craigie)Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Neil LancasterAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=45|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=Loch Torridon Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't''isand that applies to '' the back of beyondThe Conservative Effect: there2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?'s not even any light pollution '. If you're looking for an easy read which is why it was will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the perfect place to land illegal deliveries of drugsbook for you. Jimmy McLeish thought If that he was onto a nice little earner's what you're looking for, only to find that MaccaI don't think Anthony Seldon's book, the man he thought he was working with{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, is deadcan be bettered for those tumultuous years. His remains would never It's a compelling read and should be foundcompulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The delivery Conservative Effect'' is hijacked by Davie an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and Callumco-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. As This book follows the story progresses we'll get to know them quite well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= B09NDJ77LMJenny Valentine|title=Me Us in the Before and My Shadow|author=Deborah StoneAfter|rating=45|genre=General FictionTeens|summary= ''What happens when someone is pushed too far Elk and they begin to lose Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their grip on reality? How would you cope if you felt that no one loved you? And how far would you go to be happy? Accompany Rachel as she tries to shake off the shadows of her past and attempts to repair decades worth of pain.'' Rachel friendship is a once in a current conversation with her psychiatrist, who pushes her to recall her life from very young childhood onwardslifetime connection. But Rachel is combative with Doctor Blake, sometimes even contemptuous of her. You can see that it They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's not an easy therapeutic relationshipcontact details at the time. Rachel's recall of her life is in remarkable detail But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. She remembers each minor slight Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and each major betrayal in perfect detail with absolute now they must work through their grief, and unforgiving claritytheir friendship, together.|isbn=1471196585
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294096591787333175|title=The Locked Room (Dr Ruth Galloway)You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Elly GriffithsBenji Waterhouse
|rating=5
|genre=CrimePopular Science|summary=It I was some time since her father had remarried but his wife was now keen tempted to read ''You Don't Have to do some decorating and Dr Ruth Galloway volunteered be Mad to clear out her motherWork Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's belongings. She was intrigued by first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the discovery workings of a picture of her own house: it was an old photographthe NHS, taken in misty conditions humour and on the back it said autobiography. ''dawn 1963You Don', some years before Ruth was bornt Have to be Mad.. It was before her parents were married. When she returned to Norfolk she was determined to find out what was behind '' promised the photograph same elements but Covid intervened moved from physical problems to mental illness and the country was in lockdownwork of a psychiatrist. Ruth and Kate are restricted I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the cottage laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with Ruth attempting to home school Kate empathy 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 carersunderstanding.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1847941834Mariana Enriquez|title=Atomic Habits|author=James ClearA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=4.5|genre=LifestyleShort Stories|summary=I've said Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this before but there are some books that you seek outuncanny 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, some books that you stumble across an overcrowded homeless shelter and some books a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that drop the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into your life because you really MUST read them, like, right now! ''Atomic Habits'' is in the last categorythese spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|isbn=1803511230
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09MSC981W1529934753|title=The Woke IliadProtest|author=George BoreasRob Rinder|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Helen is For a popular activistlittle while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country's most famous living artist, was not going to show up for the opening of his retrospective at the Royal Academy. Or should we call her a popular influencer? Or perhaps a popular franchise owner? AnywayStill, Helen is so popular that he arrived in the United States government has made her its Ambassador nick of Woketime, complete with his two wives and six children, one of whom filmed what happened. Helen runs all sorts of initiatives on behalf Being an influencer, you tend to do things like that, but it was fortunate that there was a record of the governmentprotest. Lexi Williams, including an intern at the Shaming Conference RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in the face, whilst shouting ''Stop the Permissible Entertainment Committee - War''for indoctrinating and legislating against summer fun for any who still knew how . It seemed to have itbe part of an ongoing series of 'blue-face'attacks, but this was different. The can had been laced with cyanide, and Sir Max Bruce was dead. Ouch!
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09D95TRKZAriel Saramandi|title=The Wedding Murders|author=Sarah LinleyPortrait of an Island on Fire
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersPolitics and Society|summary=Libby Steele was hoping In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to get a permanent job with intradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the newspaper wounds left by colonialism and slavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the case she was covering was her big chance. It was even more important to her than country at one stage as ''rotting'', a blunt yet apt metaphor for the celebrity wedding she was to attend systemic decay brought about by the following day with her ex-rock star boyfriendmalignant forces of racism, Matthew. She was leaving her seven-year-old son, Patrick with her sister, Emmapatriarchy, environmental degradation and heading off to governmental dysfunction. Each essay in this collection serves as a grand manor house hotel in the North Yorkshire countryside. Daniel Acroydkind of diagnostic, television presenter and former member of charting the rock band was marrying Vicky and Libby suspected that various diseases afflicting the wedding wasn't ''quite'' as high-profile as had been suggested as there was no ban on photos or phonesisland state.|isbn=1804271616
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838226834Pekka Harju-Autti|title=Carried Away With LoveVortex and the Carnival|author=Ed BoxallDrakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingFantasy|summary=It was one of those memories we treasure from our childhoods: an outing with our grandparents. They're there to undo all s the good that parents doeighteenth century, so the trips out were always so much funa time of discovery and Britain is expanding its foreign trade. A young boy was going Captain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, is sent to the carnival Andaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with his Grandadson, Peter, and their cat, Michi, who told him: ''Itthey set off on a perilous voyage to these faraway lands. The islands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the islanders'll be brilliantleader, just rememberAarav, don't let go of my handis keen to establish good relations.''|isbn=B0DS1VGHH3
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529135362Helene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=The Long Weekend|author=Gilly MacmillanLili is Crying
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=It was a long drive to the weekend retreat First published in 1953 in NorthumbriaFrench, right up near this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the Scottish borders hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and to make it worse the three husbands had all - for one reason or another - had to delay making sentences from their proper position on the trip until the Saturday morning. Jane page and Ruth had known each other for a long time but Emily was a bit of an outsiderpositions them elsewhere, disjointed, truncated. She and Paul had married only relatively recently and she was ten years younger than Like the other two women. The friendship lives of the group went back to school days. Paul had coached rugby at the school where Markher characters, Toby and Rob were pupils. Mark had married Jane, and Toby is Ruth's husband. And Rob? Well, Rob's deadthey are often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=1804271675
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=gareth_steel|title=Never Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating=4|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the author would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787634884Tom Percival|title=The Herd|author=Emily EdwardsWrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=Our story opens Will's life is difficult, in December 2019a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', before he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of us 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 even heard of Covid or realised that whether or not we should be vaccinated would come to be a major issuean accident. We're in Farley County Court, where Elizabeth Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and Jack Chamberlain dad are facing Bryony separated, and Ash KohliWill's life seems bleak in every direction. As they were best friends until just And yet, he still has a few months ago we know that whatever has happened tiny amount of hope. He is major good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that, regardless feel like a light at the end of the outcomea long, this is not going to work out well for anyonedark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
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|author=Annabel AbbsSylvie Cathrall|title=The Language of FoodA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Science Fiction|summary=Eliza Acton is There are few greater joys than a poet who has never had the slightest inclination book which lives up to boil an egg. When tasked with writing a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home lifecompelling premise. Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing the recipe book and changing the face And this is one of cookery writing foreverthem.|isbn=13985022270356522776
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Louie Stowell1786482126|title=Loki: A Bad God's Guide to Being GoodThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Meet Loki. The trickster god has got into trouble again, so Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the other gods have decided theresite was going to hold seventy-five 's only one thing for it – he must be banished. And transformed – for Loki is spending a month both in exile and in luxury' apartments - when they discovered the physical form bones of a middle-school kid here on Earthchild beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. He It's guarded by a giant and a god in disguise difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his parents, and Thor has come along child as well, to be the more suave, more popular and more successful brother a result of the twoone night they spent together some three months ago. Loki has a month to redeem his reputation, and get his moral compass pointing the right way again, or else, and to prove it he has to write the text we read in a sentient notebook Her condition will be obvious before long, that not least because Ruth is able prone to cry foul of his lies, and judge his progress. But Loki is the kind sudden bouts 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..sickness.right?|isbn=1406399752
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|isbnauthor=0008454442Guadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=A Flicker in the Dark|author=Stacy WillinghamThe Accidentals|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersShort Stories|summary=It's May 2019 and Dr Chloe Davis, a medical psychologist, is completing a session with a new patient. Lacey is suffering mentally but Chloe has hopes This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of getting her through the trauma. You seeword: spellbinding with its fantastical, Chloe knows what it's like to have a traumatic childhood. Her father is Richard Davis, the man who murdered six girls some twenty years ago. Their bodies have never been found but Chloe found some jewellery belonging to the girls - trophies taken from their bodies - tucked away magical elements and charming in a cupboard at home its gentle portrayal of nature and she human relationships. Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, her mother handed it stories structured by a wisdom that appears to the police. Dick Davis is in the Louisiana State Penitentiary and Chloie has had nothing want to do with him for teach us something about the last twenty years. Her mother is in a care homeworld.|isbn=1804271470
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Christopher Edge0008551375|title=Escape Room|rating=3|genre=Confident Readers|summary=I'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 location, and have to solve problems in order to get their way out. What I've not done When Shadows Fall (alongside experience one for myself – for that would require actual friendsD S Max Craigie) is seen a prose book describing people in such an adventure, with the regular second person narrative replaced by the first. Here, Ami and four other tweenagers, all new to each other and booked into the game without any of their friends, are a team – starting out at the game's main offices, where they're told they and their quest for The Answer are a world-changer. 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|isbn=1732898731|title=The Boy Who Loved Boxes: A Children's Book for Adults|author=Michael Albanese Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=There Leanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the result of a Boy who loved boxestragic accident. He had a box for everything and he was meticulous about storage: his parents probably couldnShe't believe their luck! d looked so happy, too, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. It began with art suppliesHer friends were relieved as she was just out of an unpleasant relationship, stuffed toys and the but it looked like: all the things which most children have she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in abundance. The Boy's delight was similar circumstances in the sense of order in his room: it made him feel happylast year. As he grew up and became a ManAll were experienced climbers, his life became more complicated properly equipped for what they were doing and he dealt with this by getting bigger and better boxessensible people. Look carefully at None of the pictures and you'll see that one of them has what a padlock.stupid thing to do' explanations applied. They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a killer on the loose.
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