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|isbnauthor=B097XNMCRKMaria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)|title=The Blood Tide (DS Max Craigie)|author=Neil LancasterDisappearing Act

|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Loch Torridon 'Despite her anonymisation of place names and people, Stepanova's message in this short work of autofiction is'' unmistakable. A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to the back town of F for a literary festival she is to be a guest speaker at. Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by forces beyondher control, her journey slowly bends toward a traveling circus. Swept up in this series of events, M eventually offers to step in for a circus performer who has unexpectedly left the show. The train functions as a motif of transience and impermanence, while the circus embodies the reshaping of identity and a retreat into fantasy, an impulse that lies at the very heart of the novel form itself.|isbn=1804272329}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0GFQ81YQK|title=How the Sky and the Earth Made People: thereFrom the Oral Stories of Malagasy Elders|author=Stephanie Zabriskie|rating=4.5|genre=Children's not even any light pollution which is why it Non-Fiction|summary= Before people came and joined the animals, there was only the sky and the earth. Everything was quiet until the earth and the perfect place sky began to tal to each other. First, the earth created bodies. And then, 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 planted and learned and remembered, especially how they came to land illegal deliveries of drugsbe. Jimmy McLeish thought that he was onto a nice little earnerWhen they grew old and died, only their bodies returned to the earth and their life returned to find the sky. And that is why the earth and the sky are both revered. Only together can they create human beings. And that Maccais why people must pay attention to, and care for, both.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0GHPMNF6P|title=The Zookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups|author=Carolyn Mathews|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary= When Phil's father unexpectedly dies, he quits his Canary Wharf finance job to take over the running of the man family's farm zoo. He's not expecting much excitement, until he thought he was working withreceives an unidentified egg that his new-age stoner uncle Edgar found in a cave in New Zealand, and suddenly life is deadno longer quite what it seems. His remains would never be found. The delivery is hijacked by Davie Then the egg hatches into neither a reptile nor a bird, but a dragon! Now he, Edgar, his mother Abi, and Callum. As the story progresses wezoo'll get s part-time café waitress Pearl have to know raise this little bundle of scales and joy, despite having no idea how to actually raise dragons and not being able to tell anyone about it. But this tiny little dragon may show them quite well.love and connection in ways they had never before imagined…

|isbnauthor= B09NDJ77LMStephanie Zabriskie|title=Me and My Shadow|author=Deborah StoneHow Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the Oral Stories of Maasai Elders|rating=45|genre=General Children's Non-Fiction|summary= ''What happens when someone is pushed too far and they begin to lose their grip on reality? How would you cope if you felt that no one loved you? And how far would you go Maasai Women Spoke to be happy? Accompany Rachel as she tries to shake off Cows is a children’s nonfiction book drawn from the shadows of her past and attempts to repair decades worth oral traditions of painMaasai elders in Ngorongoro, Tanzania.''

Rachel is in The Maasai are a current conversation with her psychiatrist, who pushes her cattle-herding people and this story writes down its oral tradition explaining how they came to recall her life from very young childhood onwardsbe so. But Rachel is combative with Doctor Blake, sometimes even contemptuous of her. You can see that itCattle are status and wealth in Maasai culture but this doesn's not an easy therapeutic relationship. Rachel's recall t tell the whole story of her life is in remarkable detail. She remembers each minor slight the intimate and symbiotic connection its people, and each major betrayal in perfect detail especially its women, have with absolute their cows and unforgiving clarityfor the natural world. The oral tradition retelling the many conversations Maasai women have had with their cows, does.|isbn=B0G9WTGY6J

|isbnauthor=1529409659Livi Michael|title=The Locked Room (Dr Elizabeth and Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeHistorical Fiction|summary=It was some time since her father had remarried but his wife was now keen to do some decorating ''Elizabeth and Dr Ruth Galloway volunteered to clear out her mother's belongings. She was intrigued by ' is a work of historical fiction wrought from the discovery life of the Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell, best known for her first novel Mary Barton (1848), a picture radical critique of the treatment of her own house: it was an old photograph, taken in misty conditions and on the back it said working class published under a pseudonym. The 'dawn 1963', some years before Ruth was born. It was before '' from Livi Michael's title appears in her parents were married. When she returned to Norfolk she novel as Pasley, a young Irish prostitute who was determined to find out what was behind the photograph but Covid intervened abandoned as a child and the country was finds herself in lockdownManchester's New Bailey Prison after a difficult and unjust hand at life. Ruth Set in Manchester between 1839 and Kate are restricted to 1842, the novel examines the harsh conditions endured by the cottage with Ruth attempting to home school Kate Victorian working poor and continue with her university teaching duties. The good thing was meeting Zoe, interrogates the new tenant from next door whom they got extent to know whilst clapping which the wealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for carersaddressing these injustices.|isbn=1784633682

|isbnauthor=1847941834Makenna Goodman|title=Atomic Habits|author=James ClearHelen of Nowhere

|genre=LifestyleLiterary Fiction|summary=I've said It could be argued that the pervading theme of this before but there are some books book is malaise - a hard-to-place feeling that you seek outsomething in your life is not quite right. The protagonist, some books that you stumble across a disgraced professor on the brink of losing both his career and his relationship, embodies this feeling. However, Goodman counteracts his discomfort with a force which is seductive, radical and unnerving: Helen. The connection between Helen and some books that drop into your the protagonist is indirect yet intimate. As the former owner of the countryside house he's considering, Helen represents a volta in his life because you really MUST read them, likeher past tied to his potential fresh start. The realtor who shows the protagonist around the house shares stories about Helen, right now! and describes her as ''Atomic Habitsan entity that is pure consciousness, beyond form'' is . Although she lives in an assisted living facility now, Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the last categoryreader gets the sense are not altogether innocuous.|isbn=1804272205

|isbn=B09MSC981WB0GCB1MQ7D|title=The Woke IliadWhy My Mother Went Away|author=George BoreasAlan Kennedy|rating=45|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=Helen is I have often wondered how prominent people came to hold their positions. With 'celebrities', there's frequently a popular activistbook they might or might not have written, which might or might not tell the true story. Or should we call her It's not often that you find a popular influencer? Or perhaps book that gives the full backstory, and rarely do you discover a popular franchise owner? Anyway, Helen memoir where the telling is so popular perfect that you'll go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, just for the United States government has made her its Ambassador pleasure the words give. ''Why My Mother Went Away'' is one of Wokethose rare exceptions. Helen runs all sorts It's the story of initiatives on behalf how a boy from the Midlands, born at the beginning of the governmentSecond World War, would become a Professor of Psychology at Dundee University. In fact, including he was one of the Shaming Conference and founders of the Permissible Entertainment Committee - ''for indoctrinating and legislating against summer fun for any who still knew how to have it''department. Ouch!

|isbnauthor=B09D95TRKZJeremy Cooper|title=The Wedding Murders|author=Sarah LinleyDiscord|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Libby Steele was hoping to get Discord: a permanent job with lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas) The principal example of discord within the newspaper and the case she was covering was her big chance. It was even more important to her than the celebrity wedding she was to attend the following day novel, as with her ex-rock star boyfriendmost instances of discord, Matthewis easily located. She was leaving her seven-year-old sonThe two protagonists of the novel, Patrick with her sisterRebekah Rosen and Evie Bennet, Emmaare as different as they come. Rebekah is an uptight, traditional and heading off no-nonsense composer close to retirement, while Evie is a grand manor house hotel in force of nature, bounding onto the North Yorkshire countrysidemusical scene as a precocious saxophonist, oozing with talent and charm. Daniel AcroydThe two, television presenter and former member of the rock band was marrying Vicky and Libby suspected that the wedding wasnpredictably, don't always see eye to eye, their approaches different and Evie's progressive views at odds with Rebekah'quite'' as high-profile as had been suggested as there was no ban on photos or phoness conservative leaning. However, something connects them beyond just their musical project: a sort of fragile alliance formed within the clamour.|isbn=1804272264

|isbnauthor=1838226834Tom Percival|title=Carried Away With the Carnival|author=Ed BoxallThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=It was one Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of those memories we treasure from our childhoods: an outing with our grandparentsways. They He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn're there to undo all t have enough money for even the good that parents domost basic of things like food, so and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the trips out were always so much funcollege, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. A young boy was going to Throw into that mix the carnival with fact that his Grandadmum and dad are separated, who told him: and Will''It'll be brilliants life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, just rememberhe still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, don't let go and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of my handa long, dark tunnel.''|isbn=1398527122

|isbnauthor=1529135362Edward W Said|title=The Long Weekend|author=Gilly MacmillanRepresentations of the Intellectual

|genre=ThrillersPolitics and Society|summary=It was Edward Said's ''Representations of the Intellectual'' is less a long drive to the weekend retreat in Northumbria, right up near the Scottish borders strict theory of what intellectuals are and to make it worse the three husbands had all - more a passionate argument for one reason or another - had to delay making what they should be. Said clearly rejects the trip until comfortable image of the Saturday morning. Jane and Ruth had known each other for a long time but Emily was intellectual as a bit of an outsider. She and Paul had married detached expert speaking only relatively recently and she was ten years younger than the to other two womenspecialists. The friendship of Instead, he insists on the group went back to school days. Paul had coached rugby at the school where Markintellectual as a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, Toby and Rob were pupils. Mark had married Janeunpopular, and Toby who speaks truth to power even when it is Ruth's husband. And Rob? Well, Rob's deadinconvenient or risky.|isbn=1804272248

|isbnauthor=gareth_steelSylvie Cathrall|title=Never Work With Animals|author=Gareth SteelA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=Animals and WildlifeScience Fiction|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with There are few greater joys than a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems book which lives up to be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking forcompelling premise. As a TV show the author would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book And this is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eatingone of them.|isbn= 0356522776

|isbn=17876348841786482126|title=The HerdJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Emily EdwardsElly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Our story opens Builders were demolishing an old house in December 2019, before most Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of us had even heard of Covid or realised that whether or not we should be vaccinated would come to be a major issuechild beneath a doorway. We're in Farley County CourtThere was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, where Elizabeth and Jack Chamberlain are facing Bryony and Ash KohliDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. As they were best friends until just a few months ago we know It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that whatever has happened she is major and that, regardless pregnant with his child as a result of the outcomeone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, this not least because Ruth is not going prone to work out well for anyonesudden bouts of sickness.

|authorisbn=Annabel Abbs0008551375|title=The Language of FoodWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=Eliza Acton is Leanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of a poet who has never had Scottish mountain, seemingly the slightest inclination to boil an eggresult of a tragic accident. When tasked with writing a cookery book She'd looked so happy, too, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as she recruits Ann Kirbywas just out of an unpleasant relationship, a local woman with a troubled home but it looked like she was living her best lifenow. Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances in the last year. Together All were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they test, craft, refine were doing and reshape the world sensible people. None of domestic cookery, reinventing the recipe book and changing 'what a stupid thing to do' explanations applied. They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a killer on the face of cookery writing foreverloose.|isbn=1398502227

|author=Louie StowellPaul B Preciado|title=Loki: A Bad God's Guide to Being GoodDysphoria Mundi

|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=Meet Loki. The trickster god has got into trouble again, so the other gods have decided there's only one thing for it – he must be banished. And transformed – for Loki 'It is spending a month both in exile and in never too late to embrace the physical form revolutionary optimism of a middle-school kid here on Earth. Hechildhood''s guarded by a giant  Through this hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and a god in disguise as autofiction, Preciado expresses his parentsown hybrid self, and Thor has come along brings forth a new sensorium as well, an offering to be the more suavenew generation, more popular and more successful brother a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of the twopolitical apathy. Loki has a month to redeem his reputationRather, and get his moral compass pointing it is the right way again, or elseproportional, and valid response to prove it he has to write ''the text epistemological and political crack we read in a sentient notebookare living through, and the tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The whole text is able framed against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to cry foul of his liesemerge on a global scale, and judge his progressor as ''pangea covidica''. But Loki is the kind Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of god who insists he can do anythingweakness, so surviving a bit more virtuously or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for a month is going political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to be a walk in the park..''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.right?|isbn=14063997521804271454

|isbnauthor=0008454442Samantha Harvey|title=A Flicker in the Dark|author=Stacy WillinghamOrbital|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=ItIn 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital''s May 2019 and Dr Chloe Davis, a medical psychologist, is completing compact yet profound work that unfolds over a session with single day in the lives of a new patient. Lacey is suffering mentally but Chloe has hopes group of getting her through astronauts aboard the traumaInternational Space Station. You see, Chloe knows what itThrough a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts's like to have a traumatic childhood. Her father is Richard Davisorbital perspective, the man who murdered six girls some twenty years ago. Their bodies have never been found but Chloe found some jewellery belonging Harvey invites readers to the girls - trophies taken from their bodies - tucked away see our planet in a cupboard at home and she and her mother handed it to the police. Dick Davis is in the Louisiana State Penitentiary and Chloie has had nothing to do with him for the last twenty years. Her mother is in a care homewholly new light.|isbn=1529922933

|authorisbn=Christopher Edge295967572X|title=Escape RoomPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=35|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=IOur unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they've seen junior variants re going and what the purpose of this journey is, is uncertain. Django found the tickets 'Choose Your Own Adventure' format cover escape rooms – on the process by which a character or characters start by being trapped in a specific location, floor somewhere'' and have to solve problems in order has persuaded our narrator to get their way outaccompany him. What I've Why not done (alongside experience one for myself – for that would require actual friends) ? Not much else is seen a prose book describing people clear either - but we are probably in such an adventure, with the regular second person narrative replaced by past as the first. Here, Ami and four other tweenagers, all new pair travel to each other the station by coach and booked into the game without any of their friends, are train is a team – starting out at the game's main offices, where they're told they and their quest for The Answer are a world-changersteam locomotive. But could watching people engage with such a pastime, despite the ramped-up threat levels, change much in the world of literature?|isbn=1788007964

|isbn=17328987310008551324|title=The Boy Who Loved Boxes: A Children's Book for AdultsDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Michael Albanese Neil Lancaster

|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=There was a Boy who loved boxesIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. He had a box Neither side likes or has any respect for everything the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he 's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was meticulous about storage: his parents probably couldn't believe their luck! responsible for her death. It began with art suppliesThis person, he promises, stuffed toys is someone big and it will be worth the like: all the things which most children have in abundancepolice doing what he wants. The Boy's delight was in And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the sense remainder of order in his room: it made him feel happysentence and to get an early parole date. As he grew up and became a ManNot much to ask, his life became more complicated is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and he dealt with this by getting bigger and better boxes. Look carefully at she's even prepared to do the pictures other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and youanyone who works with him is kept well away from what'll see that one of them has a padlock..s happening.

|isbn=B09MN1526W1035043092|title=Blood Games The Killing Stones (DS Nikki Parekh 4Jimmy Perez)|author=Liz MistryAnn Cleeves|rating=45

|summary=ItI can's t have been the third murder in the space of only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a few weeks and they've all been because of machetes used new life on teenagersOrkney. DS Nikki Parekh It's been seven years since we heard from him, but he's now living with Willow Reeves and DC Sajid Malik are amongst their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the first to arrive on the scene at Chellow Dene Reservoir on the outskirts daughter of Bradfordhis former partner. Only, this time, itWillow's going to be different. The body appears to Nikki to be that of her beloved nephew, Haqibalso his boss, and she has a very public meltdown. It isn't Haqib: there are similarities 'should'' be on maternity leave, but when the body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is clad found, in designer clothes and comes from an obviously monied backgroundthe aftermath of a storm, she can't resist getting involved. What it does mean though is that Nikki is going to be on sick leave for some time He'd been battered about the head with anxiety and depressiona Neolithic stone - one of a pair - which had been stolen from a museum.

|author=Ally WilkesThea Lenarduzzi|title=All the White SpacesThe Tower|rating=45|genre=HorrorLiterary Fiction|summary=In post-WWI England''How unctuous are the fats of another's life, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Arctic expedition led by the famous Australis Randallhow dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''. For Jonathan,  In this adventure represents a chance for a fresh startcompelling novel, and Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the opportunity to live life as his authentic self and true genderidentity of T, without the disapproval and constraints protagonist of his parentsthis tale. HoweverJust as T's story is being told, Jonathan isn't the only one fleeing story of a second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the confines daughter of his past and a wealthy family in the shadow 19th century, who died of the war hangs like tuberculosis after being locked in a funeral shroud over the expeditiontower, captures T's imagination. GuiltAnnie's fate is, mistrust and grief stalk the party andabove all, when disaster strikes and they are forced an enticing story to overwinter on land, a menacing presence waits to prey on their darknessT. If Jonathan It is to make it out of the Arctic winter alivea story which she consumes avariciously, he will have to face his demons once both in a quest for truth and for allknowledge, or risk making the barrenand in service of myth, icy landscape his tombfable and fantasy. |isbn=17890978351804271799

|author=Dean KoontzClaire-Louise Bennett|title=QuicksilverBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=24.5|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Meet Quinn QuicksilverEverything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. He's not had the chance to get to be Even a mercurial character yetkiss, for he's lived in usually a nun-run orphanage since he was a three-day old foundlingsymbol of intimacy and closeness, and now is starting a career on a needless magazine's staffbecomes evidence of love lost. But when this book starts he IS now When the narrator cries out internally, ''subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mindcome over here and kiss me,'', for something – call it unearthly intuition, call it mind-control, call it is less an invitation than a supernatural urge – has demanded of him that he go desperate attempt to a derelict diner, find a gold coin worth a fortune, cash the value of it out confirm her emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of his bank and prepare for going on the lam. And all this plea is just in time for two of those typical Men in Black types to turn up and suggest he's of interest to them. Helped to escapeXavier, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances of him acting without being in controlher ex-partner, the discovery that he is not unique in having some kind of burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besidesghost she conjures to test her detachment.|isbn=15420198851804271934

|isbn=00084416180008405026|title=Other ParentsA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Sarah StovellJane Casey

|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Jo Fairburn knew that she was under intense pressure as the new head of West Burntridge First School: if she didnIt't live up to s sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her retired predecessor there could well be a house price slump in that part of the townbed one summer night. The school had an active Parent Teacher Association She was never found and the funds which they raised were investigation ground to a considerable benefit to the schoolhalt. There was one difficultyNow, though - they were ''devastatingly shockable''her mother, with two membersHelena, and her father are dead in particular, causing problems for the headtheir bed. Laura Spence and Kate Monroe objected to JoInitially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's restrictions on something about the toys children could bring in on Toy Day but positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was just going to be an open-and-shut case is now a warm-up act for their real gripecomplex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: LGBTQ educationothers (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.

|author=Sarah Ann JuckesAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=The Hunt for the NightingaleOther Girl|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=Jasper is a little boy who has some struggles, and whilst we're 'We were born from the same body. I've never told why exactly, we can see that he has anxiety and panic attacks, and has difficulty dealing with change and big emotions. His big sister, Rosie, has been a huge support really wanted to him, talking him down when things were difficult, encouraging him, and writing a book with him, all think about birds, that he can read when he gets scared to help him calm downthis. His parents seem completely caught up in their business, and so it '' Ernaux's work is Rosie he always turns to. Even though she has gone away to University nowvery candid and her tone transparent, she has promised him that she will still but this raw epistolary text must be there when he needs her. But now he canone of the most intimate accounts I't find Rosieve read. She hasn't come home when she said she wouldErnaux writes in direct address to her sister, however, and she isn't answering this letter will never reach her phone. His parents wonWhy? Because Annie Ernaux't speak to him or when they dos sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, he doesn't understand or take a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in what they're saying. Nothing seems to be rightFrance, and 2 years before the only way he feels he can find any peace is if he can find Rosie, author was even born. The large and if they can find instant void created by the nightingale and listen jarring concept of writing to its songan imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in her life, as they do together every Springan absence that she has always felt but often denied.|isbn=13985108901804271845

|author=Antoine Laurain, Le Sonneur Maxim Gorky and Jane Aitken Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Red is My HeartReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev

|genre=Literary Fiction Biography|summary=[[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black and white Biographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and read in my houseless personal. And so was this one, although I could have spelled think that more accurately – Gorky completely rejects this one wasperspective, and offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is, black and white and redbut of what you yourself imagine it to be. YesWhom would it help to know how I see this tower, he has an artistic collaborator on this piecethat sea, and I think or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''s possible . Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to say not how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev in such privileged detail that one page lacks the influence almost feels unworthy of some striking visual ideasit.|isbn=19135471831804271977

|isbn=15291355671529077745|title=One Step Too FarThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Lisa GardnerAnn Cleeves

|summary=It's five years since A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the stag weekendpark near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. Five The dead man was Josh - one of them had set out: Tim (the groom) and his four groomsmen, Scot, Miguel (care workers who was usually called Miggy), Neil and Joshdue to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. The first night they had plenty D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of alcohol the residents, fourteen- too much really year- and in the night Scot managed to wander offold Chloe Spencer. The remaining four searched for him in vain and it was decided Some people believe that Tim, who Chloe was experienced in survival techniques, would go responsible for help. When help didn't come the remaining three finally made their way back to town. Scott followed soon after death but there was no sign of Tim. Every year, TimVera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's father, Martin, and the four friends have been back diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to continue the search although they do now acknowledge that they're looking for 'remains' rather than for TimJosh.

|author=Gunnar StaalesenOlga Tokarczuk|title=Bitter FlowersHouse of Day, House of Night|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=Varg Veum is ''What's the good of a Norwegian Private Investigator who has just finished a stint world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in rehab and is now returning to it?'' The title of this spellbinding work. However, the quiet job he's supposedly taken on caretaking someone's house quickly turns into a murder investigationHouse of Day, House of Night'', and a mystery around a missing woman. Varg finds himself not only investigating thesesomewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the small, but also looking into an oldsubtle changes which govern our lives, cold case of an eight year old girl who disappeared one like the shift from day to night and was never found, however quotidian, causing chaos. SomehowBut, these disparate cases appear to be linked, but what the constant in that image is the linkhouse, and stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how can Varg possibly unravel the truth?it is perceived.|isbn=191319308X1804271918

|authorisbn=Kia Ahankoob1836284683|title=The Gold Lion and the Tournament of SentinelsBig Happy|author=David Chadwick|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic NovelsDystopian Fiction|summary= When Myriad created Duniva he endowed his children with different powersWell! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when I open a book, each with its own strength and weakenessit's nothing like I expected it to be, in the hope they would complement each other and collaborate, creating it takes me on a dynamic and prosperous societywild ride. Each power And that is contained within a magical ring belonging to one of eight countries led by Myriadjust what happened with ''The Big Happy''s children and their descendants. But it didnI don't quite work out like that. Rivalries developed. Enmities grew out want to ruin a similar experience for any of them and the eight countries went you reading but I'll have to war. Having fought themselves into an endless and ruinous stalemate and finding at least set the cost of war too high, a solution is proposedscene. Each of the eight countries will send their greatest warriors, known as sentinelsOnce that's done, to a single combat tournamentI think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself. The winner will take possession of all the rings and become the supreme ruler of Duniva.|isbn=B09MMQJFPV

|author=Alastair Chisholm and Eric DeschampsSally Rooney|title=Dragon Storm: Tomas and IronskinIntermezzo|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction |summary=Meet Tomas. Happy to work with his father in Sally Rooney has studied the blacksmith's forge, he's almost chessboard of the age to become a full apprentice, life and help with the new batch is something of dragonswords a grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is certainly needed. Not that there are any dragonsgripping and so brilliantly frustrating, of course – as her characters never quite say exactly what they vanished centuries ago. Except..feel. Strange signals from within Among the forge furnacemany relationships woven into this story, and a peculiar invite to become an apprentice clerk instead, are things the central one for Tom readers to puzzle over – until it all comes out in unravel is the wash, that yes dragons do still exist in this world, fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and that Tom is rare in the ability to summon themPeter Koubek. Ivan, share magical attributesa socially awkward chess prodigy, and ride contrasts sharply with them.his older brother Peter, a successful lawyer living in Dublin.Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=18399400260571365469

|isbn=15293465411836285493|title=Something to Hide: An Inspector Lynley NovelThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Elizabeth GeorgeRob Keeley

|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=It's late July and Deborah St James Will is at a meeting with Dominique Shawkeen player of video games, Undersecretary for the school systema conscientious student, 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 slightly annoying brother and Narissa Cameron, a filmmakersupportive friend. It follows on from the success But most of Deborah's book ''London Voices'': the meeting all, he is an exploration of the possibility of the idea behind the book being used to highlight an area aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one at which is causing concern in some communitieshe excels. DeborahThis hasn's uncertain about quite how successful t gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and she could be as the problem seems has suggested to occur in Nigerian Will and Somali communities as she relies on getting the trust his mum that he spends a couple of the people she speaks to and photographsafternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.

|isbn=B09Q3P283Y1009473085|title=ShadebringerThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Grayson W HooperAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=45|genre=FantasyPolitics and Society|summary=Clyde Robbins signs up 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?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the US Army during the Vietnam War. Heinside story about what ''s not really that invested in the fight against Communism'' happened on certain occasions, nor is he particularly interested in a career in then this isn't the militarybook for you. If hethat's honest - which Clyde usually iswhat you're looking for, with himself at least - he hasnI don't got many choices and this onethink Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at least10}}, gets him out of the rut hecan be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's ina compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. He It's good the seventh book in training a series which looks at the impact a government has made and is quickly put onto co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a non commissioned officer training course. He's chuffed with himselfseries of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.

|author=Lucy Strange and Pam SmyJenny Valentine|title=The Mermaid Us in the MillpondBefore and After|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=There Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is no mermaid a once in the millpond. That at least is what Bess is telling herselfa lifetime connection. Neither will there be They meet as children one day on a friend for her in amongst all the trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other kids, who have had their entire childhoods sold to the mill-owners by 's contact details at the London workhouse they used to call home. Bess knows there is no time for friendship in a hand-to-mouth, every man for himself kind of existence. But despite herself Bess does find a bit of a kindred spirit in the slight little Dotthen chance brings them back together, and despite everything that life they are inseparable. Something has taught her about betrayal happened though, something terrible and tragic, and how befriending people only leads to harmnow they must work through their grief, there might be a glimmer of companionship in the tired-out mill workersand their friendship, together. But surely that doesn't mean there is any truth in the existence of the mermaid?|isbn=180090049X1471196585

|isbn=17856330741787333175|title=Staggering HubrisYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Josh BerryBenji Waterhouse|rating=4.5|genre=HumourPopular Science|summary=Members of Parliament like us I was tempted to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister - the read ''You Don'primus inter parest Have to be Mad to Work Here'' (thatafter enjoying Adam Kay's for those of you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) but the reality is that the ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the government. We are in the privileged position of having access to the memoirs of Rafe Hubris, the man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to watch.}}first book {{Frontpageamazonurl|isbn=B09MYXSRV41509858636|title=Otter's Coat: The Real Reason Turtle Raced Rabbit: A Cherolachian Tortoise and Hare|author=Cordellya Smith|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=When This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the world was madeNHS, the animals were given giftshumour and autobiography. Bear was given strength so that he could become a protector''You Don't Have to be Mad.. Water Spider received a strong web that even fire could not burn. Owl had excellent sight so that he could see the present ''promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and'' the futurework of a psychiatrist. Rabbit developed intelligence - but, unfortunately, not the ability to use I did wonder whether it well. He liked to trick other animals. He was also jealous which was how he came acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a race with Turtle. You might think that's not situation rather than a fair contest but wait person and see. Things are not it is always as they seem. I'll tell you how it came aboutdelivered with empathy and understanding.