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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=Jean UreSylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=Fortune CookieThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Fudge Cassidy and Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the Cupcake kid are best friends. If site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the names remind you bones of a certain film then you'd be spot on as that's where Fudge's father got the idea fromchild beneath a doorway. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – but the combination worksThere was no skull. They've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather Was this a lot on her plate. ritual killing or murder? Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obviousInevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Add to this that her father couldnIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't cope , that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the problems and he now has another familyone night they spent together some three months ago. It's just CupcakeHer condition will be obvious before long, Joey and her mother – and not a lot least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of moneysickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenifer Roberts0008551375|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, Leanne Wilson's body was found at that time the richest and most opulent city in Europebottom of a Scottish mountain, Maria was destined to become seemingly the first female monarch in Portuguese historyresult of a tragic accident. Married to her uncle Infante PedroShe'd looked so happy, seventeen years her seniortoo, when she had six children (outliving all but one of them), and became Queen in 1777posted her intentions on Facebook. A conscientious womanHer friends were relieved as she was just out of an unpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had the misfortune to be born died in similar circumstances in during the 'age of reason'last year. All were experienced climbers, when church properly equipped for what they were doing and state were vying for supremacysensible people. Instinctively a supporter None of the old religion, with 'what a humanitarian approach stupid thing to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine do' explanations applied. They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a killer on the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantlyloose.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HughesPaul B Preciado|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadDysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic NovelsPolitics and Society|summary=Well, with a title like that, need I bother with a plot summary? A man has a day out in Morecambe, then the next thing he knows he's in 'It is never too late to embrace the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array revolutionary optimism of animals (a bat, a toad, a sea urchin...), all waiting for... well, something. Yup, as you didnchildhood't need telling, he's dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>}}
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|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Do you know In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the joke about the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard it. ItBooker Prize for ''Orbital''s , a classic. It's one compact yet profound work that you really need to tell unfolds over a single day in person, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide open, but to hopefully spark your memory, the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to lives of a number group of animals until he finally comes across astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogs, and narrative lens that mirrors the frog does his best to disguise who he is whilst saying astronauts''Oohorbital perspective, you don't Harvey invites readers to see many of those round here, do you?'' I'm hardly doing it justice, but it's very cheesy and funny. Anyway, this is our planet in a book of that jokewholly new light.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>1529922933
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman295967572X|title=Don't Swallow Your GumPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleLiterary Fiction|summary='''BANG'''Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his companion Django. ThatWhere they's re going and what the sound purpose of copious urban myths being shot downthis journey is, is uncertain. Django found the tickets '''BANG'on the floor somewhere''and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. That's Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the sound of past as the old wives slamming pair travel to the door, as their tales get revealed as baseless. '''CLICK'''. That's station by coach and the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant booktrain is a steam locomotive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annie Taylor0008551324|title=VioletThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Violet It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a very special hippomissing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. She This person, he promises, is extremely small but that does not make her adoptive parents Albert someone big and Mavis love her any it will be worth the lesspolice doing what he wants. However And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, they are slightly worried 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 Violet has a very unusual habit of turning pink without warning DS Max Craigie and for no explicable reasonanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary DixonJon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=When Rooks Speak of LoveVaim
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Arthur Transcombe is a middle-aged, grey-haired, self-effacing poet''All was strange''... Unremarkable really - on This haunting phrase encapsulates the outside. He haspervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, howevera fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and Eline, managed to achieve some success with his poems. (Being a guest speaker at two of the Cheltenham Literary Festival is no mean feat)protagonists caught in its melancholic current. He is also a babe magnet!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>1804271829
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|genre=Crime
|summary=Spam E-Mails I can be incredibly annoying't have been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, but most of us will have had Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to deal with themstart a new life on Orkney. FortunatelyIt's been seven years since we heard from him, we can hit the delete button but he's now living with Willow Reeves and forget about them their young son, James, as quickly well as they cameCassie, the daughter of his former partner. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish Willow's also his boss, and she ''should'' be onmaternity leave, but when the body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I donfound, in the aftermath of a storm, she can'tresist getting involved. But I wonder how many He'd been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of us would react if a spam Epair -Mail actually was which had been stolen from a matter of life and death, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>museum.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thea Lenarduzzi
|title=The Tower
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''How unctuous are the fats of another's life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreClaire-Louise Bennett|title=Love and KissesBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Tamsin Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and Katie were just thirteen and worried that they were boringdistortion. They'd been best friends since forever Even a kiss, usually a symbol of intimacy and were the good girls. Neither missed school, skipped her homework nor had boyfriends. Wellcloseness, that is, not so farbecomes evidence of love lost. Up until then Tamsin had been When the boffin head – consistently strong academically narrator cries out internally, ''come over here and looking forward to going on to university. All that seemed to change when she met Alex. Wellkiss me, when I say 'met' I should perhaps clarify and say that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow into it is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to confirm her, from the building site where he workedemotional numbness. OhThe imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, and did I mention that he was seventeenher ex-partner, Polish and spoke very little English?a ghost she conjures to test her detachment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>1804271934
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henry Mintzberg0008405026|title=ManagingA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Business and FinanceCrime|summary=It''Study after study has shown that managers work at an unrelenting pace''s sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. How trueInitially, though it always makes me wonder why, as looks like a result, straightforward murder/suicide but there's such a market for bulky management something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and leadership and general business books like this oneher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. How does anyone who needs or wants to read one ever find the time What looked as though it was going to do so? This title actually has be an answer to this, by providing two books in one, open-and it -shut case is such now a simple yet effective solution that I have to start therecomplex double murder. You can read this book in one of two ways. Option one Kerrigan is to read every word, chapter by chapter, cover to cover. If you have convinced that the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readableexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, not too repetitive, and quite thought-provokingUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kathryn FoxAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Blood BornThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=To give support to a vulnerable gang-rape victim, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers to drive Giverny Hart to the courthouse on the day she is due to testify against ''We were born from the notorious Harbourn brotherssame body. But when Anya arrives at the house she finds Giverny close to death and faces a battle against time I've never really wanted to save herthink about this. In the panic, Anya fails to take note of an important clue which might help tell whether it really was suicide or a cleverly staged murder. Worse still, in trying to save the girl's life, Anya has interfered with 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 of sisters have been stabbed and raped resulting in the death of one, while the other clings to life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</amazonuk>}}'
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neal LaytonMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Surf's Up (Mammoth Academy)Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident ReadersBiography|summary=Having successfully Biographies are often seen off as the rather unpleasant humans in earlier volumesform 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, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar and Arabella have nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy for lots more double periods offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of Difficult Sumshis literary contemporaries. TheyIn the first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: 're supposed 'you write not of real life as it is, but of what you yourself imagine it to be making presentations about . Whom would it help to know how I see this tower, that sea, or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what they did during the holidays too, but Oscar hasnuse is it?''t done any preparation and. Well, franklyMaxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to how he can't really remember what he actually did do with all saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev in such privileged detail that free time other than no Difficult Sumsone almost feels unworthy of it. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>1804271977
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb1529077745|title=The Princess Who Had No KingdomDark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The princess dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who has no kingdom wanders around in was due to work a cart pulled by her horse Prettyshift the night before but who had never turned up. She's very polite, friendly, and kind D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder -hearted, but she feels like something her only clue is lacking because she doesn't have a kingdom the disappearance of one of her ownthe residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enough, Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but thereVera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's always a feeling diary makes it clear that she's not quite as good as them because adored Josh. She knows that she isn't the princess of anywherehas to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mij Kelly and Louise NisbetB0FK5LHKD9|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made ChristmasColour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Mouse doesnIt't like anyone and keeps herself s been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were very glad to herselfsee a new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. Her things are her things and she is too selfish to share them with anyone else. One dayLike all Bowden's stories, an old man moves in to Mousethere's house. He used to be a mystery at the happiest man in the world, but now heheart of ''The Colour of Money''s sad. HeWe like this running theme in an author's fed up of having given, given, given all his life and never got anything back. He just sits quietly work - take a mystery but give it different flavour and mopesatmosphere each time. This makes Mouse miserable, so one day she decides to cheer him up by giving him a clementine...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
|author=Olga Tokarczuk
|title=House of Day, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''What's the good of a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in it?''
The 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=Nick BlandhenleyA|title=The Very Cranky BearUltimate Obsession|author=Dai Henley
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=MooseEx-DCI Andy Flood has been a Private Investigator for some time now, Lionand he should be doing quite well financially. Unfortunately, Zebra and Sheep head into his daughter's defence against a cave to get out of the rain, but little do they know that Bear is fast asleep in theremurder charge drained his savings. When they wake him up His wife, he roars at themLaura, chasing them outside, so they decide has been trying to cheer persuade him up somehowto retire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. Zebra paints stripes on him That's what 'ordinary people do', Moose fashions antlers for him and Lion sticks a mane '' He's not been entirely up front about the state of straw on their savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him. Unsurprisingly, this makes Bear even crankierto take his case, so it's down to Sheep to save the day..thought of the money he could make that convinces him that this is a miscarriage of justice that he really should put right.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1836284683
|title=The Big Happy
|author=David Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other!
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clara VulliamySally Rooney|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To BedIntermezzo|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction |summary=It's Pearl's bedtime, but she says she's really busy Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and isn't going to sleepis something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. She just wants to play Her dialogue is gripping and play and playso brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. When Among the bear with sticky paws rings many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to unravel is the doorbellfraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, he whisks her away on an amazing adventure - although as you might expectcontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, the bear has a little more energy than Pearl and eventually she does get successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a little sleepylong battle with cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>0571365469
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Mackey1036916375|title=MikiJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingAutobiography|summary=It's cold, dark 'Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of memories and icy, reflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and Miki and Penguin around Liverpool. Some are trudging through factual, such as the family history of a sea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the snowwhat-might-have-been. But it It's Midwinter Evea book to settle into and allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to think of simpler times when wishes come true. They wish for a treelife seemed less constrained, lights, someone strong to power despite the lights, and finally blitz that was a star that will shine brightly foreverconstant factor in McArdle's early years. Miki is taken deep below the ice to find I'd never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the star, whilst up top Penguin and new friend Polar Bear start to worry about herall-clear was sounded.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034095065X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kristin Cashore1836285493|title=FireThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=5
|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=Possessed Will is a keen player of great beautyvideo games, the kind that drives men mada conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But most of all, Fire he is used to people trying to kill heran aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one at which he excels. She isnThis hasn't used to them doing it gone unnoticed by accident. When a poacher in the woods outside her home accidentally shoots herhis headteacher, Fire is hard pressed to keep the temperamental Lord Archer from killing him. But as sure as Fire is the man did not mean to cause her harmMrs Howarth, and she is made unsure by the strange fog has suggested to Will and his mum that exists in the man's mindhe spends a couple of afternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905200129</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Justin Scroggie1009473085|title=Eye Spy: Uncovering the Secrets of the World Around YouThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=45|genre=TriviaPolitics and Society|summary=Signs are everywhereSometimes 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?''. If 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 wasndon't really one of think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thought our roads were littered with too many traffic signs until thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the day I was driven past seventh book in a pair of speed regulation signs, positioned series which looks at the exit end of impact a onegovernment has made and co-way street but facing editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the illegal way up itmost important. Not all signs, This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of coursethe nation when the coalition took over in 2010, are quite as unnecessary, or indeed as blatantly visible, which is where this pictorial guide to countless coded messages, signifiers the changes that occurred and other similar factoids comes the situation in2024.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994487</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jose Saramago Jenny Valentine|title=Small MemoriesUs in the Before and After|rating=45|genre=AutobiographyTeens|summary=Having been born in 1922 Elk and lived through so much of the twentieth centuryMab are best friends, with an author's view of change and peopleor more than that even, Jose Saramago has certainly experienced their friendship is a once in a lotlifetime connection. Civil Wars in the neighbouring Spain; the growth of his country - which still left it They meet as western Europechildren one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's poorestcontact details at the time. Here he allows us witness to his mind drifting through his childhoodBut then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, in the country something terrible and in Lisbontragic, and provides a subtle now they must work through their grief, and gentle memoirtheir friendship, together.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184655148X</amazonuk>1471196585
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eoin Colfer1787333175|title=And Another Thing ... Douglas AdamsYou Don' Hitchhiker's Guide t Have to be Mad to the Galaxy: Part Six of Three (Hitchhikers Guide 6) Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science Fiction|summary=Of all 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 Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the big books announced for this yearNHS, this one must have raised more eyebrows than manyhumour and autobiography. Why try and write a new Hitchhiker's Guide 'You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the Galaxy book, when way before same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the end, its creator Douglas Adams work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was proving quite hopeless acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at such a task? And why approach an Irishman, Eoin Colfer, when the originals - tempered with their humour which could only be described as Monty Python doing situation rather than a sci-fi Terry Pratchett, person and it is always delivered with their cups of tea empathy and dressing gowns, could only be described as very English? Well the answer is most evident - Colfer is a world-beater when it comes to knocking up a storyunderstanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155149</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Harlan CobenMariana Enriquez|title=Tell No OneA Sunny Place for Shady People
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionShort Stories|summary=I've been meaning 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 get around to reading some or an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of Harlan Cobenher 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=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=For a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, the country's workmost famous living artist, because if was not going to show up for the reviews are to be believed and you are a fan opening of his retrospective at the 'Bloody Knife /Blunt Instrument' thrillerRoyal Academy. Still, he arrived in the man is quite simply not capable nick of time, complete with his two wives and six children, one of turning out a duff novelwhom filmed what happened. But Being an influencer, you know how tend to do things like that, but it iswas fortunate that there was a record of the protest. Lexi Williams, an intern at the RA, what with one thing and another and grabbed a bulging pile spray can of books blue paint from under a chair and proceeded to be read and reviewedspray Bruce in the face, I just somehow hadnwhilst shouting ''Stop the War't managed '. It seemed to give him my full attentionbe part of an ongoing series of 'blue-face' attacks, but this was different. Until nowThe can had been laced with cyanide, and Sir Max Bruce was dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409117022</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Peel and Sheila RavenscroftAriel Saramandi|title=Margrave Portrait of the Marshesan Island on Fire
|rating=4.5
|genre=EntertainmentPolitics and Society|summary=John Peel was without doubt one In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the most important disc jockeys sociopolitical fabric of all time. Born in Merseyside in 1939Mauritius, he began his career in mid-60s America before returning home tunneling deep into the wounds left by colonialism and slavery to join Radio London and then become one of the original Radio 1 team, where he stayed until his death 37 years laterexpose how these legacies still shape modern life. I admired Saramandi describes the man for his passion for playing the music nobody else would give the time of day (even if I didncountry at one stage as ''rotting''t always enjoy it myself) and his readiness to say exactly what he thought, even if it was not what his employers at a blunt yet apt metaphor for the BBC wanted to hear, and I always enjoyed reading his columns in systemic decay brought about by the music weeklies and later Radio Times. Nevertheless I found much malignant forces of his show unlistenable towards the endracism, recall some of his rather curmudgeonly remarks on air (guest slots on Radio 1's Round Table review programme come to mind)patriarchy, environmental degradation and thought his build-'em-up, knock-'em-down stance rather irritating after a whilegovernmental dysfunction. So I approached Each essay in this book with an open mind collection serves as a fankind of diagnostic, but not an uncritical onecharting the various diseases afflicting the island state.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>1804271616
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez Pekka Harju-Autti|title=Perfumes: The A - Z GuideLoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse|rating=54|genre=LifestyleFantasy|summary=WonderfulIt's the eighteenth century, a time of discovery and Britain is expanding its foreign trade. Captain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, is sent to the Andaman Islands in his endeavour. Along with his son, Peter, and their cat, wonderfulMichi, wonderfulthey set off on a perilous voyage to these faraway lands. The only thing that could be conceivably better than reading ''Perfumesislands are beautiful and stunning in their scenery and the islanders'' would be to read it while sampling the scents it reviewsleader, but even without the olfactory componentAarav, ''Perfumes'' is a delight: Turin (a lyrical scientist) keen to establish good relations.|isbn=B0DS1VGHH3}}{{Frontpage|author=Helene Bessette and Sanchez Kate Briggs (an analytically enthusiastic collectortranslator) not only treat perfume creation |title=Lili is Crying|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=First published in 1953 in French, this novel is a timeless text which wrenches the hearts of its readers just as high artBessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on the page and positions them elsewhere, disjointed, but turn perfume criticism into an art form (or at least a sophisticated genre truncated. Like the lives of writing) tooher characters, they are often left tragically incomplete. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846681278</amazonuk>1804271675
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David Malouf Tom Percival|title=RansomThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=Taking his theme from a small part of HomerWill's Iliadlife is difficult, Malouf tells the story in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the king of Troywrong shoes', Priamhe has the wrong shoes because his dad can's grief-stricken voyage into the Greek camp to ransom Troyt work and doesn's wealth t have enough money for even the body most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his fallen sonjob at the college, Hector, killed by the equally griefwas working a cash-in-stricken Achilles whose great friend Hector hand job on a building site and had killed in battle before Achilles took his cruel revengean accident. Malouf tells Throw into that mix the story fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in sparseevery direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, yet lyrical and poetic fashion suggesting clings to the personal stories behind the epic themes moments of joy when he is drawing, that Homer related. It is an exquisitely written piece managing to be both deeply moving as well as feel like a great piece light at the end of story tellinga long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701184159</amazonuk>1398527122
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven M GillonGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours AfterAccidentals
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryShort Stories|summary=The assassination This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of President Kennedy came at a pivotal moment the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and charming in my life its gentle portrayal of nature and for more than forty years I've read most of what has been written about the eventhuman relationships. It's been of variable qualityGuadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, but the books fed the curiosity of people entranced her stories structured by the charismatic young President who died so publicly. I'd come a wisdom that appears to the point of wondering if there was anything new want to be said, but Stephen Gillom has looked at what happened from an unusual and largely overlooked angle – teach us something about the first twenty four hours of Lyndon Johnson's Presidencyworld.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>1804271470
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