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Hello from The Bookbag<metadesc>Expert, a full book review site, featuring books reviews from all the many most walks of literary life ; fiction, non- [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often & self-published books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of plus author [[:Category:Interviews|interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Features]] page.</metadesc>

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==The Best New Books== '''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br> '''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daniel Kehlmann Paul B Preciado|title=Me and KaminskiDysphoria Mundi

|genre=Literary FictionPolitics and Society|summary=After reviewing several long books, it's been refreshing to read such a fluent yet pared down story as 'Kaminski and Me'. In it, Sebastian Zollner, the obnoxious main character, shoves himself forward in a desperate attempt to research a best seller which will re-ignite his career as an art critic. Kaminski, the proposed subject, was a fashionable painter long ago, but now, ancient and chronically ill, has virtually slid into oblivion. So the second-rate writer It is on a loser unless he can dig up some juicy details never too late to hook embrace the art world and general public.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>}}revolutionary optimism of childhood''

{{newreview|author=Louis Barfe|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story Through this hybrid text, consisting of British Light Entertainment|rating=4|genre=Entertainment|summary=Light entertainment 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 often looked down uponnot considered a sign of political apathy. Rather, as if itis the proportional, valid response to 's a bit naff'the epistemological and political crack we are living through, tepid and ignorable. Whatthe tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi's often forgotten is that it's hugely popular, enjoyable and much of it . The whole text is framed against the backdrop of the highest qualityCovid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, or as ''pangea covidica''. Louis BarfeRather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to ''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''s Turned Out Nice Again tells the complete story of British light entertainment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>1804271454

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jim Helmore and Karen WallSamantha Harvey|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!Orbital|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Marvin is entering In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Great Grislygust Grow-OffBooker Prize for ''Orbital'', but just like him, his tomatoes aren't growing very big. He takes a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the only sensible course lives of action: he sings his tomatoes a songgroup of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The results are spectacular. Victory is surely within his graspThrough a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a wholly new light.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>1529922933

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph Delaney 295967572X|title=The Spook's Stories: WitchesPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=45|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary='Warning: Not Our unnamed narrator is about to be read after dark,begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they' are re going and what the only words on purpose of this journey is, is uncertain. Django found the back of tickets ''The Spook's Stories'', and on the inside flap, floor somewhere'The Times' warns us that this book and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not? Not much else is 'seriously scary'...  The whole thing kicksclear either -off relatively tamely, though, with a story about a young Spook (a sort of monster-hunter) who falls but we are probably in love with a witch and is forced to bear the consequences when past as the witch's sister comes pair travel to stay the station by coach and exhibits the train is a taste for the neighbor-childrensteam locomotive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Unger0008551324|title=Die For The Devil YouKnow (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=34.5

|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to successful video game designer Marcus Raineapproach the police. Or so she thinks Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But when her husband fails Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to return from work, she realises something tell the police where the body of a missing person is wrong. Going to his office to try to find out what happens to him, she gets attacked buried and ends up in hospital, while his co-workers are killed. Things get worse who was responsible for herdeath. This person, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several yearshe promises, is someone big and it will be worth the man she married was using a false identitypolice doing what he wants. Infuriated by And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the betrayalremainder 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 the realisation that she's been living a lie for even prepared to do the past five years, Izzy takes matters into her own hands other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied to her for so long. Ignoring police warnings, she delves deeper and deeper into a nasty underworld, and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything she could have plotted in one of her novelsanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa McMannJon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=WakeVaim

|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=Janie is seventeen and studying hard for college. She's also working lots of hours at a local nursing home to earn money for college as it's unlikely her alcoholic mother is going to provide much in All was strange''... This haunting phrase encapsulates the way pervading sense of resources. College is Janie's only chance at otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, a life better than the one she's lived so far fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and so you can't blame her for being so single-minded in Eline, two of the pursuit of her goal. Only one thing stands protagonists caught in her way..its melancholic current.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>1804271829

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jaclyn Moriarty 1035043092|title=The Spell Book of Listen TaylorKilling Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=3.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Listen TaylorI can's father has just moved in with his girlfriend and they are adopted into t have been the Zing familyonly person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, with all of its delightful eccentricities and unusual behaviour – the Zings meet every Friday night for dinner and then disappear into the garden shed Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to work start a new life on the Orkney. It'Zing Family Secrets been seven years since we heard from him, but he'. Marbie Zing is terrified s now living with Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the daughter of doing something wrong and losing Nathaniel and Listenhis former partner. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with her home life Willow's also his boss, and her daughtershe ''should''s year two teacher is coming to terms with a break up. The stories be on maternity leave, but when the body of these people come together to create a tale of lifepopular islander, Archie Stout, loveis found, and ultimatelyin the aftermath of a storm, what being part she can't resist getting involved. He'd been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of a family meanspair - which had been stolen from a museum.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=F G Cottam|title=The Magdalena Curse|rating=2In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the protagonist of this tale.5|genre=Horror|summary=Mark Hunter Just as T's story is being told, the sort story of father who would do anything for his son. After losing his wife and daughter in a tragic accident, his surviving son Adam has become his whole world. And Adam second protagonist is an exceptional child – beautifulunveiled: Annie, incredibly smart and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he's been channelling the voices daughter of a wealthy family in the dead. Plagued by horrific dreams19th century, able to speak Russian who died of tuberculosis after being locked in the hours after he wakesa tower, captures T's imagination. Annie's fate is, drawing occult symbols when he doodlesabove all, Hunter believes Adam an enticing story to be possessedT. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft It is scepticala story which she consumes avariciously, until she meets Adamboth in a quest for truth and knowledge, and in service of myth, fable and witnesses the horrors the poor boy endures for herselffantasy. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>1804271799

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jon BerkeleyClaire-Louise Bennett|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)Big Kiss, Bye-Bye

|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=I shall start with Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, usually a word symbol of intimacy and closeness, becomes evidence of advicelove lost. When youthe narrator cries out internally, 're being hounded by a circus master, 'come over here and a magiciankiss me, for the soul of a tiger that's contained in ' it is less an invitation than a tiger's egg that's contained in the brain desperate attempt to confirm her emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of your teddy bearthis plea is Xavier, and your best friend - a fallen angel - is trying her best to make sure the other angels do not turn on you in a big way ex- then you're probably living the third book in a fantasy trilogy. Still - never mindpartner, the angel's efforts will involve you entering a dream world of flight and cloud cities, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world ghost she conjures to desert oases and back, and friends new and old will be on board to helptest her detachment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>1804271934

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Townsend0008405026|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate YearsA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. It's not quite how life was supposed to turn out. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 sixteen years since nine-year -old Gracie into Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her school uniform, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in bed one summer night. She was never found and the provinces is not as bad as she would like investigation ground to believea halt. Now, and desperately attempting to talk his her mother out of her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needs. And yetHelena, the worst is still to comeand her father are dead in their bed. Think a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairs Initially, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – it's going to be looks like a tough year for the Moles, and straightforward murder/suicide but there's little something about the positioning of the bodies that ol' Adrian can do except sit back makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and watch his life spin out of control around himher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lauren Kate|title=Fallen|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=A 17 year old girl at a new school meets a mysterious What looked as though it was going to be an open-and impossibly good-looking boy, who she's immediately drawn toshut case is now a complex double murder. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to her, until he saves her life, and Kerrigan is convinced that the two of them end up drawn together. This isnexplanation lies in Rosalie't Stephenie Meyers disappearance: others (such as Derwent's ''Twilight''boss, but it certainly has striking similaritiesUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Gareth Hinds|title=King Lear|rating=3|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Hound me out Ernaux's work is always very candid and her tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of town the most intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in a most appropriate mannerdirect address to her sister, however, but I do not like King Learthis letter will never reach her. For meWhy? Because Annie Ernaux's sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, even as a trained actorfew months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and 2 years before the language is too dense author was even born. The large and rich, instant void created by the set-up too archly unfeasible jarring concept of writing to create the great tragedy itan imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's thought to be. To my mind the acclaim and esteem process of reckoning with this giant absence in which it's held is only mirrored by its own over-longher life, over-blown blusteringan absence that she has always felt but often denied.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>1804271845

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul TherouxMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in CalcuttaReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev

|genre=General FictionBiography|summary=Set in India, familiar territory for Theroux, ''A Dead Hand'' tells Biographies are often seen as the story form of a travel writer suffering from writer's block (also known life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as 'dead hand') until more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a chance letter from an American ex-patvibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the mysterious Mrs Ungerfirst section of this book, relating a story Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of a mystery real life as it is, but of a dead body in a hotel leads him what you yourself imagine it to release his creativity in very unexpected waysbe. The story 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 more about obsession and infatuation than it is about the mystery itself as the narrator falls under Mrs Unger?''s Tantric charms. But does she have more Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to hide than she's letting on?how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>1804271977

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Toby Lester1529077745|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest MapDark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves

|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=In 2003 A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a map man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was bought for $10 million, Josh - one of the highest price ever paid publicly for care workers who was due to work a historical document, by shift the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public displaynight before but who had never turned up. No ordinary map, this D I Vera Stanhope is sometimes described as America's birth certificate. It called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the sole survivor disappearance of one of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th centuryresidents, and was discovered by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. The sale and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much Some people believe that he Chloe was inspired to discover more, and responsible for the death but Vera thinks this book is unlikely as the resultgirl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur B0FK5LHKD9|title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global Misery|rating=3|genre=Humour|summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over a wet kitchen floor.'' Surely that is the wackiest, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch and all it has done for the world. You won't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authors, instead with quite a potty mouth on them they will lambast the modern world, the entire banking system, all those who failed to see it coming, and those millions just seemingly waiting for us all to revert to high-interest, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get back on the expenses train, and back up the rich lists.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewColour of Memory|author=Andy Stanton|title=What's For Dinner, Mr Gum?Christopher Bowden|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns her backIt's been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, and leaves the town of Lamonic Bibber for so we were very glad to see a day new novel arrive here at the seaside, Mr Gum falls out with his best friend, causing carnivorous carnage Bookbag Towers. Like all over the place. Meat is getting thrown around like itBowden's going out of fashionstories, and we have to doubt whether Polly and her companions can ever utilise there's a mystery at the power heart of ''The Colour of love and put things to rightsMoney''. Especially as We like this book does not contain running theme in an author's work - take a magic unicorn called Elizabethmystery but give it different flavour and atmosphere each time.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>

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}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Loose WomenhenleyA|title=Here Come the GirlsUltimate Obsession|author=Dai Henley

|genre=Home and FamilyCrime|summary=This is the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV seriesEx-DCI Andy Flood has been a Private Investigator for some time now, and he should be doing quite well financially. Unfortunately, his daughter's defence against a murder charge drained his savings. His wife, Laura, has been trying to persuade him to retire - 'Loose Women''. Just as promised maybe go travelling or go on the cover, this book is an entertaining night with the girlscruises. It turns out that theyThat's what 're just like us. The faces are already familiar and even if you donordinary people do't know them yet, with nine contributors'' He's not been entirely up front about the state of their savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to take his case, youit'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one s the thought of the celebrity faces. The women are universally warm-hearted and supportive: there will be many a lonely woman who reads money he could make that convinces him that this book and feels as if she sat down with is a group miscarriage of friends for the eveningjustice that he really should put right.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure1836284683|title=Fortune CookieThe Big Happy|author=David Chadwick

|genre=Confident ReadersDystopian Fiction|summary=Fudge Cassidy and the Cupcake kid are best friends. If the names remind you of a certain film then you'd be spot on as that's where Fudge's father got the idea from. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake Well! This is quiet and thoughtful – but the combination works. They've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather a lot on her plate. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obvious. Add to this that her father couldn't cope with the problems and he now has another family. It's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not a lot of money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>}}murder mystery unlike any other!

{{newreview|author=Jenifer Roberts|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of Portugal|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbondo love it when I open a book, at that time the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined it's nothing like I expected it to become the first female monarch in Portuguese history. Married to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them)be, and became Queen in 1777it takes me on a wild ride. A conscientious woman, she had the misfortune to be born in during the And that is just what happened with ''The Big Happy'age of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacy. Instinctively I don't want to ruin a supporter similar experience for any of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach you reading but I'll have to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine at least set the Greatscene. Once that's done, and wore her crown rather reluctantlyI think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HughesSally Rooney|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadIntermezzo

|genre=Graphic NovelsGeneral Fiction |summary=Well, with Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a title like thatgrandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, need I bother with a plot summary? A man has a day out in Morecambeas her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, then the next thing he knows he's in central one for readers to unravel is the ultimate waiting roomfraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, with a strange array of animals (a batsocially awkward chess prodigy, a toadcontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a sea urchin...), all waiting for... well, somethingsuccessful lawyer living in Dublin. Yup, as you didnFollowing their father't need tellings passing after a long battle with cancer, hethe brothers's deadalready strained relationship faces new trials.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>0571365469

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dave Eggers1036916375|title=The Wild ThingsJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle

|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=Meet Max''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of memories and reflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. When I say he sometimes gets Some are factual, such as the wrong end family history of a sea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the stick about adults, or dislikes his motherwhat-might-have-been. It's new boyfrienda book to settle into and allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, or gets a bit feisty to think of simpler times when he feels the need for revengelife seemed less constrained, I am certainly understating despite the factsblitz that was a constant factor in McArdle's early years. He is a bit I'd never heard of a rascal to say parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the least. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling to a strange land of roisterous animals, and ends up installed as their king-clear was sounded.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeremy Strong1836285493|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog The Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=45

|summary=Trevor's troublesome dogWill is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, Streakera slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But most of all, has had three puppieshe is an aspiring writer. They were fatheredEnglish is his favourite lesson at his school, according to local bully Charlie SmuggMarlowe Park, and one at which he excels. This hasn't gone unnoticed by one his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and she has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a couple of afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his Alsatiansability might be better extended.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1009473085|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. Trevor would ideally like to keep themIf you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at least until Christmas10}}, but his parents have other ideas can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and put them up should be compulsory for saleanyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. Charlie Smugg declares that heIt's entitled to half the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of the money experts from various fields review the sale state of the puppies, but before they can be sold nation when the three puppies go missing coalition took over in 2010, the park changes that occurred and it's up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>the situation in 2024.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah Beth DurstJenny Valentine|title=IceUs in the Before and After|rating=3.5

|summary=Cassie lives on an Arctic research station in Alaska. She loves the ice Elk and the wilderness of her remote home and she'd definitely prefer to spend her time on tracking polar bears and fending off frostbite rather Mab are best friends, or more than on mixing with her peers and enjoying college and home comforts back that even, their friendship is a once in Fairbanksa lifetime connection. However, things aren They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't all rosy. Cassieget each other's mother died when she was just a baby contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and she can't help feeling a huge hole in her heartthey are inseparable. Her scientist father is remote Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and unloving now they must work through their grief, and her grandmother left the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very youngtheir friendship, together. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>1471196585

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain Smyth and Michael Terry1787333175|title=The Wide-Mouthed FrogYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingPopular Science|summary=Do you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frog? I was tempted to read ''You must have heard it. ItDon't Have to be Mad to Work Here''s a classic. Itafter enjoying Adam Kay's one that you really need first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to tell in person, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide open, but to hopefully spark your memoryHurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to a number workings of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogsthe NHS, humour and the frog does his best to disguise who he is whilst saying autobiography. ''Ooh, you donYou Don't see many of those round here, do you?Have to be Mad...'' I'm hardly doing it justice, promised the same elements but it's very cheesy moved from physical problems to mental illness and funnythe work of a psychiatrist. Anyway, I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a book of that jokesituation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanMariana Enriquez|title=Don't Swallow Your GumA Sunny Place for Shady People

|genre=LifestyleShort Stories|summary='''BANG'''Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture. |isbn=1803511230}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529934753|title=The Protest|author=Rob Rinder|rating=4. That5|genre=Crime|summary=For a little 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. Still, he arrived in the sound nick of copious urban myths being shot downtime, complete with his two wives and six children, one of whom filmed what happened. '''BANG'''Being an influencer, you tend to do things like that, but it was fortunate that there was a record of the protest. That's Lexi Williams, an intern at the sound RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in the old wives slamming the doorface, as their tales get revealed as baseless. whilst shouting '''CLICK'Stop the War''. ThatIt seemed to be part of an ongoing series of 's the noise lots of illblue-informed websites make as they get closed downface' attacks, but this was different. All noises come due to this brilliant bookThe can had been laced with cyanide, and Sir Max Bruce was dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Annie TaylorAriel Saramandi|title=VioletPortrait of an Island on Fire

|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=Violet is a very special hippoIn this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the wounds left by colonialism and slavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. She is extremely small but that does not make her adoptive parents Albert and Mavis love her any Saramandi describes the less. Howevercountry at one stage as ''rotting'', they are slightly worried that Violet has a very unusual habit blunt yet apt metaphor for the systemic decay brought about by the malignant forces of turning pink without warning racism, patriarchy, environmental degradation and for no explicable reasongovernmental dysfunction. Each essay in this collection serves as a kind of diagnostic, charting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>1804271616

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary DixonPekka Harju-Autti|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse

|genre=Literary FictionFantasy|summary=Arthur Transcombe is a middle-aged, grey-haired, self-effacing poet. Unremarkable really - on It's the outside. He haseighteenth century, however, managed to achieve some success with his poems. (Being a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival time of discovery and Britain is no mean feat)expanding its foreign trade. He Captain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, is also a babe magnet!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=A J Healy|title=Tommy Storm and sent to the Galactic Knights|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Tommy StormAndaman Islands in his endeavour. He's one of five teenagers snapped up from around the universe to be a gang of heroic detectives charged Along with rescuing EVERYTHING from destruction. Not just the planethis son, Peter, or the solar systemand their cat, or even the galaxyMichi, but EVERYTHINGthey set off on a perilous voyage to these faraway lands. Nobody seems to know what's going to cause this destruction, or when, but he The islands are beautiful and his friends stunning in their scenery and their ship seem to be the only people proactively going about saving the day. So itislanders's a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony who's about leader, Aarav, is keen to kill themestablish good relations.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>B0DS1VGHH3

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Graham McCannHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-ThomasLili is Crying

|genre=BiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=When I was First published in my early teens1953 in French, it sometimes seemed as if Terry-Thomas was one of this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the stars of almost every other five-star British comedy film around. He was certainly one hearts of its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on the most recognizable characters of all with his gap-toothed grin, cigarette holder page and inimitable 'Hel-lo!'positions them elsewhere, 'Hard cheese!'disjointed, and best truncated. Like the lives of allher characters, the angry, 'You're an absolute shower!'they are often left tragically incomplete.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>1804271675

 {{newreview|author=Richard Jay Parker|title=Stop Me|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoying, but most of us will have had to deal with them. Fortunately, we can hit the delete button and forget about them as quickly as they came. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish on, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I don't. But I wonder how many of us would react if a spam E-Mail actually was a matter of life and death, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeanette WintersonTom Percival|title=The Battle of the SunWrong Shoes

|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I Will's life is getting on difficult, in years. Her capital city is a busy, bustling placemultitude of ways. Boats fill the river and people fill the streets. Jack He is happy bullied because ithe has 's his birthday and his present is his heartthe wrong shoes's desire: an excitable black puppy named Max, whohe has the wrong shoes because his dad can's a t work and doesn''licking and a running and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy in t have enough money for even the air and a tail wagging and a barking, racingmost basic of things like food, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>}}  {{newreview|author=Jean Ure|title=Love and Kisses|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Tamsin and Katie were just thirteen and worried that they were boring. Theyhis dad can'd been best friends since forever and were t work because he lost his job at the good girls. Neither missed schoolcollege, skipped her homework nor was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had boyfriendsan accident. Well, Throw into that mix the fact that ishis mum and dad are separated, not so far. Up until then Tamsin had been the boffin head – consistently strong academically and looking forward to going on to universityWill's life seems bleak in every direction. All that seemed to change when she met AlexAnd yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. WellHe is good at art, when I say 'met' I should perhaps clarify and say that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow into her, from clings to the building site where moments of joy when he worked. Ohis drawing, and did I mention that he was seventeenfeel like a light at the end of a long, Polish and spoke very little English?dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>1398527122

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Henry MintzbergSylvie Cathrall|title=ManagingA Letter to the Luminous Deep

|genre=Business and FinanceScience Fiction|summary=''Study after study has shown that managers work at an unrelenting pace'' How true, though it always makes me wonder why, as There are few greater joys than a result, there's such book which lives up to a market for bulky management and leadership and general business books like this onecompelling premise. How does anyone who needs or wants to read one ever find the time to do so? This title actually has an answer to And this, by providing two books in one, and it is such a simple yet effective solution that I have to start there. You can read this book in one of two ways. Option one is to read every word, chapter by chapter, cover to cover. If you have the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readable, not too repetitive, and quite thought-provokingthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kathryn Fox1786482126|title=Blood BornThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5

|summary=To give support to a vulnerable gangBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -rape victim, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers to drive Giverny Hart to the courthouse on the day she is due site was going to testify against the notorious Harbourn brothers. But hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when Anya arrives at they discovered the house she finds Giverny close to death and faces bones of a child beneath a battle against time to save herdoorway. In the panic, Anya fails to take note of an important clue which might help tell whether it really There was suicide no skull. Was this a ritual killing or a cleverly staged murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Worse still It's difficult as Ruth knows, in trying to save the girlbut Nelson doesn's lifet, Anya has interfered that she is pregnant with his child as a crime scene and the case falls apart. She blames herself for the Harbourn brothers being allowed to walk free and only hours later there is news of another attack. A pair result of sisters have been stabbed and raped resulting in the death of onenight they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, while the other clings not least because Ruth is prone to lifesudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Leah FlemingGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=Remembrance DayThe Accidentals|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionShort Stories|summary=In the year 2000 an old lady This collection was truly enchanting in a wheelchair watches the unveiling all senses of the new war memorial word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and charming in the village squareits gentle portrayal of nature and human relationships. There's pride in what has been achievedGuadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, in her stories structured by a wisdom that appears to want to teach us something about the family who are gathered around her and there are memories too. Some are good but many are notworld.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>1804271470

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Neal Layton0008551375|title=Surf's Up When Shadows Fall (Mammoth AcademyD S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=34.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Having successfully seen off Leanne Wilson's body was found at the rather unpleasant humans in earlier volumesbottom of a Scottish mountain, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar and Arabella have nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy for lots more double periods seemingly the result of Difficult Sums. They're supposed to be making presentations about what they did during the holidays too, but Oscar hasn't done any preparation and, frankly, he can't really remember what he actually did do with all that free time other than no Difficult Sums. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb|title=The Princess Who Had No Kingdom|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled by her horse Prettytragic accident. She's very polited looked so happy, friendlytoo, and kind-hearted, but when she feels like something is lacking because she doesn't have a kingdom of posted her ownintentions on Facebook. The other royals Her friends were relieved as she meets treat her nicely enoughwas just out of an unpleasant relationship, but there's always a feeling that it looked like she's not quite as good as them because she isn't the princess of anywhere.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mij Kelly and Louise Nisbet|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made Christmas|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Mouse doesn't like anyone and keeps herself to herself. Her things are was living her things and she is too selfish to share them with anyone elsebest life now. One day, an old man moves Then it emerged that five other women had died in to Mouse's house. He used to be the happiest man similar circumstances in the world, but now he's sadlast year. He's fed up of having given All were experienced climbers, given, given all his life properly equipped for what they were doing and never got anything backsensible people. He just sits quietly and mopes. This makes Mouse miserable, so one day she decides to cheer him up by giving him a clementine...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nick Bland|title=The Very Cranky Bear|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Moose, Lion, Zebra and Sheep head into a cave to get out None of the rain, but little do they know that Bear is fast asleep in there. When they wake him up, he roars at them, chasing them outside, so they decide to cheer him up somehow. Zebra paints stripes on him, Moose fashions antlers for him and Lion sticks 'what a mane of straw on him. Unsurprisingly, this makes Bear even crankier, so it's down stupid thing to Sheep to save the day...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kes Gray and Lee Wildish|title=Mum and Dad Glue|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=A young boydo's parents are splitting upexplanations applied. He's going through the usual emotions that children of divorce go through They were all alone when they died: worry, feeling unsure, blaming himself, anger, denial, and then trying to get them to stay together. His method for this isn't the usual response though: he looks for glue to stick his mum and dad together. Thankfully, he finds some wise and kindly advice in the process.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Clara Vulliamy|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To Bed|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=ItDS Max Craigie is certain there's Pearl's bedtime, but she says she's really busy and isn't going to sleep. She just wants to play and play and play. When the bear with sticky paws rings the doorbell, he whisks her away a killer on an amazing adventure - although as you might expect, the bear has a little more energy than Pearl and eventually she does get a little sleepyloose.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>