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==The Best New Books==
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{{Frontpage
|author=Dean KoontzMaria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)|title=QuicksilverThe Disappearing Act|rating=2.54|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Meet Quinn Quicksilver. He's not had the chance to get to be a mercurial character yetDespite her anonymisation of place names and people, for heStepanova's lived message in a nun-run orphanage since he was a three-day old foundling, and now this short work of autofiction is starting a career on a needless magazine's staffunmistakable. But when this book starts he IS now ''subject A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to sudden or unpredictable changes the town of mood or mind'', F for something – call it unearthly intuition, call it mind-control, call it a supernatural urge – has demanded of him that he go literary festival she is to be a derelict dinerguest speaker at. Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by forces beyond her control, find her journey slowly bends toward a gold coin worth a fortunetraveling circus. Swept up in this series of events, cash the value of it out of his bank and prepare M eventually offers to step in for going on a circus performer who has unexpectedly left the lamshow. And all this is just in time for two The train functions as a motif of those typical Men in Black types to turn up transience and suggest he's of interest to them. Helped to escapeimpermanence, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances while the circus embodies the reshaping of him acting without being in controlidentity and a retreat into fantasy, an impulse that lies at the discovery that he is not unique in having some kind very heart of burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besidesthe novel form itself.|isbn=15420198851804272329
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008441618B0GFQ81YQK|title=Other ParentsHow the Sky and the Earth Made People: From the Oral Stories of Malagasy Elders|author=Sarah StovellStephanie Zabriskie|rating=4.5|genre=WomenChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Jo Fairburn knew that she Before people came and joined the animals, there was under intense pressure as only the new head of West Burntridge First School: if she didn't live up to her retired predecessor there could well be a house price slump in that part of sky and the townearth. The school had an active Parent Teacher Association Everything was quiet until the earth and the funds which they raised were a considerable benefit sky began to tal to each other. First, the schoolearth created bodies. There was one difficultyAnd then, though - the sky breathed life into them. These were the first humans and they belonged to both earth and sky. And so people lived between sky and soil and they were ''devastatingly shockable''planted and learned and remembered, with two membersespecially how they came to be. When they grew old and died, in particular, causing problems for their bodies returned to the earth and their life returned to the headsky. Laura Spence And that is why the earth and Kate Monroe objected to Jo's restrictions on the toys children could bring in on Toy Day but sky are both revered. Only together can they create human beings. And that was just a warm-up act is why people must pay attention to, and care for their real gripe: LGBTQ education, both.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Sarah Ann JuckesB0GHPMNF6P|title=The Hunt Zookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for the NightingaleGrown-Ups|author=Carolyn Mathews
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary=Jasper is a little boy who has some strugglesWhen Phil's father unexpectedly dies, and whilst wehe quits his Canary Wharf finance job to take over the running of the family's farm zoo. He're never told why exactlys not expecting much excitement, we can see until he receives an unidentified egg that he has anxiety and panic attackshis new-age stoner uncle Edgar found in a cave in New Zealand, and has difficulty dealing with change and big emotionssuddenly life is no longer quite what it seems. His big sister, RosieThen the egg hatches into neither a reptile nor a bird, has been but a huge support to himdragon! Now he, talking him down when things were difficultEdgar, encouraging himhis mother Abi, and writing a book with himthe zoo's part-time café waitress Pearl have to raise this little bundle of scales and joy, all despite having no idea how to actually raise dragons and not being able to tell anyone about birds, that he can read when he gets scared to help him calm downit. His parents seem completely caught up But this tiny little dragon may show them love and connection in their business, and so it is Rosie he always turns ways they had never before imagined…}}{{Frontpage|author=Stephanie Zabriskie|title=How Maasai Women Spoke to. Even though she has gone away Cows: From the Oral Stories of Maasai Elders|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=''How Maasai Women Spoke to University nowCows is a children’s nonfiction book drawn from the oral traditions of Maasai elders in Ngorongoro, she has promised him that she will still be there when he needs herTanzania. But now he can't find Rosie. She hasn't come home when she said she would, The Maasai are a cattle-herding people and she isn't answering her phonethis story writes down its oral tradition explaining how they came to be so. His parents won't speak to him or when they do, he Cattle are status and wealth in Maasai culture but this doesn't understand or take in what they're saying. Nothing seems to be righttell the whole story of the intimate and symbiotic connection its people, and the only way he feels he can find any peace is if he can find Rosieespecially its women, have with their cows and if they can find for the natural world. The oral tradition retelling the nightingale and listen to its songmany conversations Maasai women have had with their cows, as they do together every Springdoes.|isbn=1398510890B0G9WTGY6J
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{{Frontpage
|author=Antoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and Jane Aitken (translator)Livi Michael|title=Red is My HeartElizabeth and Ruth
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Historical Fiction |summary=[[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black ''Elizabeth and white and read Ruth'' is a work of historical fiction wrought from the life of the Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell, best known for her first novel Mary Barton (1848), a radical critique of the treatment of the working class published under a pseudonym. The ''Ruth'' from Livi Michael's title appears in my house. And so was this oneher novel as Pasley, although I could have spelled that more accurately – this one a young Irish prostitute who was, abandoned as a child and is, black finds herself in Manchester's New Bailey Prison after a difficult and white unjust hand at life. Set in Manchester between 1839 and red. Yes, he has an artistic collaborator on this piece1842, the novel examines the harsh conditions endured by the Victorian working poor and I think it's possible interrogates the extent to say not one page lacks which the influence of some striking visual ideaswealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices.|isbn=19135471831784633682
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529135567Makenna Goodman|title=One Step Too Far|author=Lisa GardnerHelen of Nowhere
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=It's five years since could be argued that the stag weekendpervading theme of this book is malaise - a hard-to-place feeling that something in your life is not quite right. Five The protagonist, a disgraced professor on the brink of them had set out: Tim (the groom) losing both his career and his four groomsmenrelationship, Scotembodies this feeling. However, Miguel (who was usually called Miggy)Goodman counteracts his discomfort with a force which is seductive, Neil radical and Joshunnerving: Helen. The first night they had plenty of alcohol - too much really - connection between Helen and in the night Scot managed to wander offprotagonist is indirect yet intimate. The remaining four searched for him in vain and it was decided that TimAs the former owner of the countryside house he's considering, who was experienced Helen represents a volta in survival techniqueshis life, would go for helpher past tied to his potential fresh start. When help didn't come The realtor who shows the protagonist around the remaining three finally made their way back to town. Scott followed soon after but there was no sign of Tim. Every yearhouse shares stories about Helen, Timand describes her as ''s fatheran entity that is pure consciousness, Martinbeyond form''. Although she lives in an assisted living facility now, and Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the four friends have been back to continue reader gets the search although they do now acknowledge that they're looking for 'remains' rather than for Timsense are not altogether innocuous.|isbn=1804272205
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Gunnar StaalesenB0GCB1MQ7D|title=Bitter FlowersWhy My Mother Went Away|author=Alan Kennedy|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=Varg Veum is a Norwegian Private Investigator who has just finished a stint in rehab and is now returning I have often wondered how prominent people came to workhold their positions. However With 'celebrities', the quiet job hethere's supposedly taken on caretaking someonefrequently a book they might or might not have written, which might or might not tell the true story. It's house quickly turns into not often that you find a murder investigationbook that gives the full backstory, and rarely do you discover a mystery around memoir where the telling is so perfect that you'll go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, just for the pleasure the words give. ''Why My Mother Went Away'' is one of those rare exceptions. It's the story of how a missing woman. Varg finds himself not only investigating theseboy from the Midlands, but also looking into an oldborn at the beginning of the Second World War, cold case would become a Professor of an eight year old girl who disappeared one night and was never foundPsychology at Dundee University. SomehowIn fact, these disparate cases appear to be linked, but what is he was one of the link, and how can Varg possibly unravel founders of the truth?|isbn=191319308Xdepartment.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Kia AhankoobJeremy Cooper|title=The Gold Lion and the Tournament of SentinelsDiscord|rating=43.5|genre=Graphic NovelsLiterary Fiction|summary= When Myriad created Duniva he endowed his children Discord: a lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas) The principal example of discord within the novel, as with different powersmost instances of discord, is easily located. The two protagonists of the novel, each with its own strength Rebekah Rosen and weakenessEvie Bennet, in the hope are as different as they would complement each other come. Rebekah is an uptight, traditional and collaborateno-nonsense composer close to retirement, creating a dynamic and prosperous society. Each power while Evie is contained within a magical ring belonging to one force of eight countries led by Myriad's children nature, bounding onto the musical scene as a precocious saxophonist, oozing with talent and their descendantscharm. But it didnThe two, predictably, don't quite work out like that. Rivalries developed. Enmities grew out of them always see eye to eye, their approaches different and the eight countries went to warEvie's progressive views at odds with Rebekah's conservative leaning. Having fought themselves into an endless and ruinous stalemate and finding the cost of war too highHowever, a solution is proposed. Each of the eight countries will send something connects them beyond just their greatest warriors, known as sentinels, to musical project: a single combat tournament. The winner will take possession sort of all fragile alliance formed within the rings and become the supreme ruler of Dunivaclamour.|isbn=B09MMQJFPV1804272264
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alastair Chisholm and Eric DeschampsTom Percival|title=Dragon Storm: Tomas and IronskinThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet TomasWill's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. Happy to work with his father in He is bullied because he has 'the blacksmithwrong shoes's forge, hehas the wrong shoes because his dad can's almost t work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the age to become college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a full apprentice, building site and help with had an accident. Throw into that mix the new batch of dragonswords is certainly needed. Not fact that there his mum and dad are any dragonsseparated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of course – they vanished centuries ago. Except..hope. Strange signals from within the forge furnaceHe is good at art, and a peculiar invite clings to become an apprentice clerk instead, are things for Tom to puzzle over – until it all comes out in the washmoments of joy when he is drawing, that yes dragons do still exist in this world, and that Tom is rare in feel like a light at the ability to summon themend of a long, share magical attributes, and ride with them..dark tunnel.|isbn=18399400261398527122
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529346541Edward W Said|title=Something to Hide: An Inspector Lynley Novel|author=Elizabeth GeorgeRepresentations of the Intellectual |rating=4.5|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=ItEdward Said's late July and Deborah St James is at a meeting with Dominique Shaw, Undersecretary for the school system, a representative from the NHS, Mr Oh from Barnardos, someone from Orchid House whose name she didn't catch but would later turn out to be Zawadi and Narissa Cameron, a filmmaker. It follows on from 'Representations of the success of DeborahIntellectual's book ''London Voices'': the meeting is an exploration less a strict theory of what intellectuals are and more a passionate argument for what they should be. Said clearly rejects the possibility comfortable image of the idea behind the book being used intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to highlight an area which is causing concern in some communitiesother specialists. Deborah's uncertain about quite how successful she could be Instead, he insists on the intellectual as the problem seems to occur in Nigerian a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, and Somali communities as she relies on getting the trust of the people she unpopular, who speaks truth to and photographspower even when it is inconvenient or risky.|isbn=1804272248
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09Q3P283YSylvie Cathrall|title=Shadebringer|author=Grayson W HooperA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=FantasyScience Fiction|summary=Clyde Robbins signs There are few greater joys than a book which lives up for the US Army during the Vietnam War. He's not really that invested in the fight against Communism, nor is he particularly interested in to a career in the militarycompelling premise. If he's honest - which Clyde usually And this is, with himself at least - he hasn't got many choices and this one, at least, gets him out of the rut he's in. He's good in training and is quickly put onto a non commissioned officer training course. He's chuffed with himselfthem.|isbn= 0356522776
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Lucy Strange and Pam Smy1786482126|title=The Mermaid in the MillpondJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=There is no mermaid Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the millpond. That at least is what Bess is telling herself. Neither will there be a friend for her in amongst all the other kids, who have had their entire childhoods sold site was going to the millhold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments -owners by when they discovered the London workhouse they used to call homebones of a child beneath a doorway. Bess knows there is There was no time for friendship in skull. Was this a hand-to-mouthritual killing or murder? Inevitably, every man for himself kind of existenceDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. But despite herself Bess does find a bit of a kindred spirit in the slight little Dot It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, and despite everything that life has taught her about betrayal and how befriending people only leads to harm, there might be she is pregnant with his child as a glimmer result of companionship in the tired-out mill workersone night they spent together some three months ago. But surely that doesn't mean there Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is any truth in the existence prone to sudden bouts of the mermaid?|isbn=180090049Xsickness.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17856330740008551375|title=Staggering HubrisWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Josh BerryNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=HumourCrime|summary=Members Leanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politiciansa Scottish mountain, headed by the Prime minister - seemingly the result of a tragic accident. She''primus inter pares'' (that's for those d looked so happy, too, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as she was just out of you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) an unpleasant relationship, but the reality is it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances in the ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the governmentlast year. We are in the privileged position of having access to the memoirs of Rafe HubrisAll were experienced climbers, the man who was behind the skilful control properly equipped for what they were doing and sensible people. None of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020'what a stupid thing to do' explanations applied. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a killer on the man to watchloose.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09MYXSRV4Paul B Preciado|title=Otter's Coat: The Real Reason Turtle Raced Rabbit: A Cherolachian Tortoise and Hare|author=Cordellya SmithDysphoria Mundi|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingPolitics and Society|summary=When ''It is never too late to embrace the world was maderevolutionary optimism of childhood'' Through this hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to the animals were given gifts. Bear was given strength so that he could become new generation, a protector. Water Spider received new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a strong web that even fire could not burnsign of political apathy. Owl had excellent sight so Rather, it is the proportional, valid response to ''the epistemological and political crack we are living through, and the tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that he could see the characterize our present ''andwhich Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi'' . The whole text is framed against the future. Rabbit developed intelligence backdrop of the Covid- but19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, unfortunatelywhen dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, not the ability to use it wellor as ''pangea covidica''. He liked Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to trick other animals. He was also jealous which was how he came to be in a race with Turtle. You might think that's not a fair contest but wait and see. Things are not always 'use dysphoria as they seem. Iyour revolutionary platform''ll tell you how it came about.|isbn=1804271454
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{{Frontpage
|author=Giovanna FletcherSamantha Harvey|title=Walking on SunshineOrbital|rating=4.5|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Mike's wifeIn 2024, Pia, who he was with Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for seventeen years, has died. And whilst he is dealing with his grief, so are their best friends, Vicky and Zaza. But Pia left them all some 'rules' to followOrbital'', knowing a compact yet profound work that she was dying and that they would need help to carry on living. Whilst some unfolds over a single day in the lives of a group of astronauts aboard the rules are around practicalities such as clearing out her wardrobe, another one International Space Station. Through a narrative lens that Mike discovers one day encourages him to take one of their trips away, and Vicky and Zaza, struggling with their grief and their own life troublesmirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, decide Harvey invites readers to drop everything see our planet in their own lives, and go along with hima wholly new light.|isbn=140593560X1529922933
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529393930295967572X|title=Making a Living: How to Craft Your BusinessPale Pieces|author=Sophie RochesterG M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre=CraftsLiterary Fiction|summary=''Starting Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a creative business has never been easiertrain journey with his companion Django.Where they'' ''If not nowre going and what the purpose of this journey is, when?is uncertain. Django found the tickets '' I know that Ion the floor somewhere'm not alone in having wondered whether or not I could turn my hobby into a business. There's a lot of motivation and has persuaded our narrator to do so: I make more items than accompany him. Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we can sensibly use and there are a lot of people who have been delighted probably in the past as the pair travel to accept what I make as gifts. Selling would offset the costs, which can be quite considerable station by coach and it could be fun to do, couldn't it? But where to start? What do I need to think about? Well, the first thing anyone who is considering turning a crafting hobby into a business should do train is to read ''Making a Living''steam locomotive.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Freya Marske0008551324|title=A Marvellous LightThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=Robin Blyth 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 nudged into a job struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the Civil Servicebody of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, much to his chagrin. There he meets Edwin Courcey promises, is someone big and learns that it will be worth the streets of London are threaded with magicpolice doing what he wants. Desperate And what he wants is to remove a curse that threatens be transferred to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin an open prison to serve the countrysideremainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, where is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the hedgegrows bristle with incantations other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and the people shimmer anyone who works with power. There they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the lives of all magicians in the British Isleshim is kept well away from what's happening. |isbn=1529080886
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=02414804421035043092|title=Healthy Vegan The Cookbook: Vegan Cooking Meets Nutrition ScienceKilling Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Niko Rittenau and Sebastian CopienAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=CookeryCrime|summary=Emotionally, I am a vegan. Mentally, I am a vegan. I read can't have been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Henry ManceAnn Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a new life on Orkney. It's been seven years since we heard from him, but he's now living with Willow Reeves and was appalled by their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the way in which we treat animals in our search for (preferably cheap) fooddaughter of his former partner. PracticallyWillow's also his boss, and she ''should'' be on maternity leave, I am not but when the body of a vegan. It worked for a while apart from popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, in the odd blip with regard to cheese but then aftermath of a perfect storm of those events which you hope don, she can't occur too often in your lifetime tempted me back to animal-based proteinresist getting involved. It wasn He't d been battered about the taste head with a Neolithic stone - I know that I can get plantone of a pair -based food that tastes just as good as anything plundered which had been stolen from the animal kingdom - it was the ease of being able to get sufficient protein when meals were often snatched in a few spare momentsmuseum.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=suppl_staflThea Lenarduzzi|title=Supply Chain 20/20: A Clear View on the Local Multiplier Effect for Book Lovers|author=Kim StaflundThe Tower|rating=4.5|genre=ReferenceLiterary Fiction|summary=So, you've finished writing your book and you think 'How unctuous are the hard work is all done? Youfats of another're convinced that all you need to do now is get it published and the money will start rolling s life, how dizzying their sugars in?our bloodstream''.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1398706906Claire-Louise Bennett|title=The Lost|author=Simon BeckettBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=4.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=The disappearance of Metropolitan police firearms officerEverything in this book, Jonah Colley's young sonhowever sweet or seemingly innocent, Theois steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, just about finished himusually a symbol of intimacy and closeness, particularly as he blamed himself for what had happenedbecomes evidence of love lost. He'd fallen asleep in When the park whilst Theo was playing and when he wokenarrator cries out internally, Theo had gone. It cost him his marriage and his home. Ten years later he's largely 'come through it over here and hekiss me,''s out with his team when he gets it is less an invitation than a phone call from DS Gavin McKinney. Gavin used desperate attempt to be his best friend but it's a long time since they've spokenconfirm her emotional numbness. He's obviously in some difficulty now The imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, her ex- Jonah can hear it in his voice - and he asks Jonah partner, a ghost she conjures to meet him at Slaughter Quay. ''There's no one else I can trust'', he saystest her detachment.|isbn=1804271934
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Amanda Mason0008405026|title=The Hiding Place|rating=3.5|genre=Horror|summary=Needing an escape from their turbulent life, Nell Galilee takes her husband and stepdaughter to Whitby, where they rent a cliffside holiday cottage by the name of Elder House. She hopes that it will be A Stranger in the perfect place to sort things out. But there's something not quite right about Elder House. The atmosphere is unsettling and off – and before long Nell starts to suspect that she and her family aren't alone there…|isbn=1838771964}} {{FrontpageFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Paul Cleave|title=The Quiet PeopleJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary= I am not a fan of "the Prologue"It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Most books are She was never found and the worse for them. In this case I might make an exception. We start with Luca Pittman who is in investigation ground to a hurryhalt. He has to hurry because he has children that he should not have Now, her mother, Helena, and when he hurriesher father are dead in their bed. Initially, when he bundles things into it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the back positioning of his car the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and tries her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to run be an open-and then hears sirens behind him, which he should not hear because this -shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is New Zealand and convinced that is not how they do things therethe explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, he takes a risk. It ends badlyUna Burt) are less convinced.|isbn=1913193942
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{{Frontpage
|author=Will Carver|title=Psychopaths Anonymous|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Maeve is a high functioning alcoholic, drinking continuously and also, curiously, addicted to attending numerous AA groups. She is also a self-acknowledged psychopath. Whilst analysing and critiquing the AA steps she is mainly using the groups to find targets...targets for sexual encounters, targets to feed her desire to hear of people's misery, Annie Ernaux and targets for her violent behaviourAlison L. Yet she also seems to be searching for others who think as she does, and when she's unable to find like-minded people in any of the groups she decides to set up her own, hoping to encounter others who share similar obsessions, and thus Psychopaths Anonymous is born.|isbn=1913193756}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529418100Strayer (translator)|title=Bruno's Challenge and The Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin WalkerGirl
|rating=4
|genre=Short StoriesAutobiography|summary=I'm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put 'We were born from the book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but same body. I am a fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation ve never really wanted to read think about this.''Bruno Ernaux's Challenge'' was hard to resist work is always very candid and her tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of the most intimate accounts I'm rather glad that I didn't even tryve read. For those new Ernaux writes in direct address to the seriesher sister, however, there's an excellent introduction that this letter will tell you all you need to know about whonever reach her. Why? Because Annie Ernaux's who sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and 2 years before the background author was even born. The large and instant void created by the jarring concept of writing to why Bruno is an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in St Denisher life, an absence that she has always felt but often denied.|isbn=1804271845
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09GJW49GF|title=Buried Lies Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (Gaby Darin Book 5translator)|authortitle=Jenny O'BrienReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeBiography|summary=Hannah Thomas was having her first night away from her sonBiographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. Hunter had diabetes I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this was controlled by a pump attached book, Tolstoy complains to his stomach, so her over-protectiveness was understandablefriend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is, but her fianceof what you yourself imagine it to be. Whom would it help to know how I see this tower, Ianthat sea, was pestering her to get married and she thought or that Tartar - why should it would be a good idea for him to find out interest anyone? Of what parenting was ''reallyuse is it?'' like. Her friendWell, MillyMaxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, had arranged giving us access to take her boyfriendhow he saw Tolstoy, Liam, for a night in a posh hotel but then he dumped her Chekhov and she couldn't get the money back, so Hannah was offered the opportunity to go Andreyev in his place. She would return home to find Ian dead and five-year-old Hunter missingsuch privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=1804271977
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09GV3WS1Q1529077745|title=Without a TraceThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Jane BettanyAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Life hadn't been easy A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for Ruth Prendergast: she'd just come through a divorce and right now it was raining hardtroubled teens. All she wanted The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to get back work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her new home and settle down for a quiet eveningonly clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. It wasnSome people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl't going to be though: when she went into her bedroom s diary makes it clear that she found a dead man on her bed with a knife in his chestadored Josh. She'd no idea who he wasknows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1838774823Olga Tokarczuk|title=Her Majesty the Queen Investigates: A Three Dog Problem|author=S J BennettHouse of Day, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=It''What's 2016 and the Queen's Private Secretary, Sir Simon Holcroft has decided that too much good claret and too little exercise is putting of a strain world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on his waistband. Swimmingcalmly living in it?'' The title of this spellbinding work, he decides''House of Day, is House of Night'', somewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the way to go and he can use small, subtle changes which govern our lives, like the Buckingham Palace pool which is how he came shift from day to be there early one morning and discovered the body of Cynthia Harris at the side of the poolnight, however quotidian, causing chaos. There was broken glass - a crystal tumblerBut, by the look at it - probably one of constant in that image is the young royals being careless - and it looked as though Mrs Harris had slipped and cut herself so badly that she had bled out. Stillhouse, stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it was a shock for Sir Simonis perceived.|isbn=1804271918
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=057136358X1836284683|title=April in SpainThe Big Happy|author=John BanvilleDavid Chadwick|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)Dystopian Fiction|summary=Terry Tice was a hitman, although he didn't think of himself in those terms. He saw what he did as ''a matter of making things tidy''. I couldn't resist the thought that he was an extreme version of Marie Kondo. He enjoyed his job, something which occurred to him when he was in Burma with the army ''where he got the chance to kill a lot of the little yellow fellows and had a fine old time''. He was spending a lot of time with Percy Antrobus - who couldn't understand why Terry didn't know the purpose of Well! This is a swizzle stick - surely he wouldn't drink champagne with bubbles in the ''morning''? It was after Percy's death that he saw the benefits of taking up a job in Spain.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dave Letterfly Knoderer|title=Speedy: Hurled Through Havoc|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=How to summarise the life of Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to kick off a review of his memoir? Do you know, I really don't think I can.murder mystery unlike any other!
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{{Frontpage
|author=Tade ThompsonSally Rooney|title=Far From the Light of HeavenIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=Science General Fiction|summary=Michelle 'Shell' Campion Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is fulfilling gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her lifelong dream of going to spacecharacters never quite say exactly what they feel. As first officer aboard Among the sleeper ship Ragtimemany relationships woven into this story, bound for the world of Bloodroot, she will essentially be a babysitter central one for readers to unravel is the ship's AI captainfraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. HoweverIvan, when she wakes up at the end of her trip to find dozens of her passengers butchered and the Ragtime's AI almost non-responsivea socially awkward chess prodigy, she begins to realise that her first mission won't be going as smoothly as she hoped it would. Down on Bloodrootcontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, disgraced investigator Rasheed Fin and his android partner Salvo are sent up to discover exactly what went wrong on the Ragtimea successful lawyer living in Dublin. Meanwhile, former astronaut and friend of ShellFollowing their father's father Lawrence Biz takes passing after a shuttle to Bloodroot, half-alien daughter in tow, to see why the Ragtime has gone quietlong battle with cancer, leaving behind the politicking and bureaucracy of Space Station Lagosbrothers' already strained relationship faces new trials. What the five of them discover on the Ragtime has ramifications not just for Bloodroot, but potentially the entirety of human space…|isbn=03565143230571365469
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{{Frontpage
|isbn= 1836285493
|title=The Double Life of a Wheelchair User
|author=Rob Keeley
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=178607981X1009473085|title=Bad ApplesThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Will DeanAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=Tuva Moodyson was driving up Sometimes it's simpler to explain a foggy hillside towards Visberg when she discovered 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 Audi 4x4 parked at easy read which will deliver the side of inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the roadbook for you. Wondering if someone needed help she got out of If that's what you're looking for, I don't 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 thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the car impact a government has made and co- and heard editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the screams well-established format: a series of experts from deep inside various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the forestsituation in 2024. Determining }}{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the direction of a sound isn't easy when you need hearing aids Before and After|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Elk and dampness Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is causing interference but Tuva made her way to where a woman was holding her coat over the body of once in a manlifetime connection. HeThey meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don'd been decapitatedt get each other's contact details at the time. He was Arne Gustav PerssonBut then chance brings them back together, a resident of Visbergand they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.|isbn=1471196585
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Lilja Sigurdadottir1787333175|title=Cold As HellYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=45|genre=CrimePopular Science|summary= In 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 red suitcase as glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the bottom same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a fissure psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a lava field, there is situation rather than a body. And the man who has put her there has just discovered that he person and it is capable of killingalways delivered with empathy and understanding.|isbn=1913193888
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