134,828
edits
Changes
no edit summary
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews]] at TheBookbag.
Want to find out learn more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
==The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
{{Frontpage
|author=Jason RohanMaria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)|title=S.T.E.A.L.T.H.: Access DeniedThe Disappearing Act|rating=3.54|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Arun Despite her anonymisation of place names and Sam have had little people, Stepanova's message in this short work of autofiction is unmistakable. A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to the town of F for a literary festival she is to do with Donnabe a guest speaker at. Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by forces beyond her control, her journey slowly bends toward a girl at their schooltraveling circus. But things immediately change at the start of Swept up in this extended sprint series of events, M eventually offers to step in for a novel, when she insists Arun's house circus performer who has become unexpectedly left the attention show. The train functions as a motif of plain-clothes coppers transience and that they should bunk off school to find out why. And thus an unlikely trio of misfit young heroes is formed – Sam is really not Donna's idea of companyimpermanence, but he is while the computer buff, Donna seems to know all circus embodies the criminal ins reshaping of identity and outs and survival skillsa retreat into fantasy, and Arun? Well, it's his lot to find out that all he based his family life on isn't true, and that his father – kidnapped an impulse that lies at the very morning – is involved in something quite unexpectedheart of the novel form itself. But how can this disparate trio hope to best MI6, kidnappers, people able to keep the truth about themselves secret for decades, and so much more?|isbn=18399433861804272329
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1638485216B0GFQ81YQK|title=Black, White, How the Sky and Gray All Overthe Earth Made People: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law EnforcementFrom the Oral Stories of Malagasy Elders|author=Frederick ReynoldsStephanie Zabriskie|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=''Corruption is not departmentBefore people came and joined the animals, gender or race specificthere was only the sky and the earth. It has everything Everything was quiet until the earth and the sky began to tal to do with charactereach other. PeriodFirst, the earth created bodies.'' ''One more body just wouldn't matter''And then, the sky breathed life into them. These were the first humans and they belonged to both earth and sky. The murder of George FloydAnd so people lived between sky and soil and they planted and learned and remembered, a forty-six-year-especially how they came to be. When they grew old black manand died, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in their bodies returned to the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around earth and their life returned to the worldsky. We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck And that is not one which I'll ever forget why the earth and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpectedsky are both revered. There was a backlash against the police - Only together can they create human beings. And that is why people must pay attention to, and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brushcare for, both.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09DD1QJKJB0GHPMNF6P|title=The ClubZookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups|author=Ellery LloydCarolyn Mathews
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersFantasy|summary=When Phil's father unexpectedly dies, he quits his Canary Wharf finance job to take over the running of the family's farm zoo. He'The party of s not expecting much excitement, until he receives an unidentified egg that his new-age stoner uncle Edgar found in a cave in New Zealand, and suddenly life is no longer quite what it seems. Then the year turned egg hatches into neither a reptile nor a bird, but a dragon! Now he, Edgar, his mother Abi, and the zoo's part-time café waitress Pearl have to 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 love and connection in ways they had never before imagined…}}{{Frontpage|author=Stephanie Zabriskie|title=How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the murder mystery Oral Stories of Maasai Elders|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=''How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows is a children’s nonfiction book drawn from the decadeoral traditions of Maasai elders in Ngorongoro, Tanzania.''
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Melissa Fu Livi Michael|title=Peach Blossom Spring Elizabeth and Ruth
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction |summary= I loved the prelude to Peach Blossom Spring, a short chapter entitled ''OriginsElizabeth and Ruth''. Unfortunately it 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 only truly poetic part treatment of the working class published under a book that I expected more frompseudonym. Covering Chinese history The ''Ruth'' from 1938 to 2005 as viewed through one familyLivi Michael's perspective. When their home city is set ablaze during the war with Japantitle appears in her novel as Pasley, a young mother (Meilin) and her four-year-old son (Renshu) are among those Irish prostitute who flee. The story follows them on their journey across China, was abandoned as a child and finds herself in RenshuManchester's case eventually New Bailey Prison after a difficult and unjust hand at life. Set in Manchester between 1839 and 1842, the novel examines the harsh conditions endured by the Victorian working poor and interrogates the extent to Americawhich the wealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices. |isbn=14722775381784633682
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Vanda SymonMakenna Goodman|title=FacelessHelen of Nowhere|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=In It could be argued that the pervading theme of this book told from multiple viewpoints, several troubled people are thrown into the same story thanks is malaise - a hard-to just one mis-stepplace feeling that something in your life is not quite right. Set in New ZealandThe protagonist, a disgraced professor on the first brink of our characters is Bradleylosing both his career and his relationship, embodies this feeling. However, a middle aged man struggling Goodman counteracts his discomfort with an overbearing boss, a weighty mortgageforce which is seductive, radical and what he feels unnerving: Helen. The connection between Helen and the protagonist is an unappreciative wifeindirect yet intimate. Then there’s BillyAs the former owner of the countryside house he's considering, Helen represents a homeless teenage girl who is a street artist working as a prostitute sometimes volta in order his life, her past tied to pay for the materials she needshis potential fresh start. And then we have Max, The realtor who is also living on shows the protagonist around the streets house shares stories about Helen, and who keeps describes her as ''an eye on Billy. He entity that is a shell of a manpure consciousness, barely able to take any care of himself, and yet we can sense that he was once something more than he is beyond form''. Although she lives in an assisted living facility now. One night, Bradley finds himself half-crazed with stress and anxiety, driving down Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the street looking for a prostitute. He picks up Billy, and then with one thoughtless decision finds his life thrown into turmoil and a spiral away from reader gets the person he thought he was into someone very differentsense are not altogether innocuous.|isbn=19145850461804272205
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0760373531B0GCB1MQ7D|title=Cozy Knits: 30 Hat, Mitten, Scarf and Sock Projects from Around the WorldWhy My Mother Went Away|author=Sue FlandersAlan Kennedy
|rating=5
|genre=CraftsAutobiography|summary=Just occasionally you encounter a book of knitting patterns which seems I have often wondered how prominent people came to meet your every needhold their positions. Right nowWith 'celebrities', itthere's bitterly cold and wefrequently a book they might or might not have written, which might or might not tell the true story. It're in s not often that you find a book that gives the sandwich filling between two storms: I need socksfull backstory, scarves, hats and mittens. They have to look stylish, keep me warm and be rarely do you discover a memoir where the telling is so cheerful perfect that they make me feel betteryou'll go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, just for the pleasure the words give. If that sounds like a lot to ask, have a look at ''Cozy KnitsWhy My Mother Went Away'': it has thirty designs for those necessary items and I don't think that there was is one of them which I couldn't see myself wearingthose rare exceptions. We start with an introduction by Nancy Bush which gives some It's the story of how a boy from the Midlands, born at the beginning of the history Second World War, would become a Professor of knittingPsychology at Dundee University. It's not essential but it's a nice extraIn fact, he was one of the founders of the department.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1776574028Jeremy Cooper|title=Bumblebee Grumblebee|author=David ElliottDiscord|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=I love Discord: a good board book! ''Bumblebee Grumblebee'' is aimed at quite a niche market: it's for the child who still enjoys board books lack of agreement or harmony (eras between persons, see my first sentencethings, or ideas) but has mastered sufficient language skills to have realise that you can ''play'' The principal example of discord within the novel, as with words most instances of discord, is easily located. The two protagonists of the novel, Rebekah Rosen and make something quite Evie Bennet, are as different from each oneas they come. We have the elephant who dons a tutu Rebekah is an uptight, traditional and no- and becomes nonsense composer close to retirement, while Evie is a ''balletphant''. The buffalo who has had force of nature, bounding onto the musical scene as a bath (complete precocious saxophonist, oozing with yellow duck) talent and then dries off with a hair drier becomes a ''fluffalo''charm. The rhinoceros who drops his ice cream cone is a two, predictably, don't always see eye to eye, their approaches different and Evie'crynoceross progressive views at odds with Rebekah'' (think about it!) The pelican who sits on his potty changes into s conservative leaning. However, something connects them beyond just their musical project: a ''smsort of fragile alliance formed within the clamour.......'' OK, let's not go there Some people are eating!|isbn=1804272264
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09V1NQ5SXTom Percival|title=Death at Friar's Inn|author=Rob KeeleyThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Nat Webber and Tom Barton were Will's life is difficult, in the finals a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the Moots to take place at The Honourable Society of Friarwrong shoes's Inn. For aspiring barristers, moots test he has the participantswrong shoes because his dad can' knowledge t work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of several areas of law as well as their advocacy skills: itthings like food, and his dad can's t work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a great way of getting invaluable practice building site and of getting yourself noticedhad an accident. Tom Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and Nat dad are from 'a provincial university' separated, and theyWill're ''almost'' looked down on because of thiss life seems bleak in every direction. The other contestants - Becca Decker-Hamilton and Lucia 'Mouse' Dawes have no such disadvantage and Becca And yet, he still has an abundance a tiny amount of confidencehope. Tom's £30 supermarket suit doesn't make him He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel any betterlike a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529125944Edward W Said|title=City Representations of the Dead|author=Jonathan KellermanIntellectual |rating=4.5|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=When you drive large vehicles for a living, youEdward Said's 're careful and it's not just about Representations of the way that you drive. You restrict your alcohol intake and if itIntellectual's a trip that needs overnight stays you make certain you get your sleep. When you're taking is less a removals truck through strict theory of what intellectuals are and more a residential neighbourhood you head off at 5 passionate argument for what they should be. Said clearly rejects the comfortable image of the intellectual as adetached expert speaking only to other specialists.m. when Instead, he insists on the roads are quieterintellectual as a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, and unpopular, who speaks truth to power even if you have to wait up when you get to where you're going. And it was going well until the men hit something in Westwood Village, an upmarket neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The man was stark naked and couldn't be identifiedis inconvenient or risky.|isbn=1804272248
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)Sylvie Cathrall|title=I May Be WrongA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre= AutobiographyScience Fiction|summary= When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the rest of the world responds There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to your booka compelling premise. I know, having read the book in question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest of the world responds to And this book, because it tells the truth as it is, in the early 21st centuryone of them.|isbn=15266448270356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0949Q1DC11786482126|title=The Patient Janus Stone (A DS Cross thrillerDr Ruth Galloway)|author=Tim SullivanElly Griffiths|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=DS George Cross has Builders were demolishing an autistic spectrum disorder, quite probably Aspergerold house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury's Syndromeapartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. He can be rudeWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, difficult and awkward Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with people, although it's never intentionalDCI Harry Nelson. It's just that he thinks differently and social niceties simply dondifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't occur to him. There's , that she is pregnant with his child as a reason why he's in Bristol's Major Crime Unit and it's that he has result of the best conviction rate with cases, everone night they spent together some three months ago. His partner Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is DS Josie Ottey: she regards Cross with affection (not an emotion he would recognise, or welcome being attached prone to himself) and even attempts to instil some sudden bouts of those missing social niceties into Cross's behavioursickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291516000008551375|title=Give Unto OthersWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Donna LeonNeil Lancaster|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Commissario Guido Brunetti senses that Venice has changed. The Leanne Wilson''pandemia'' stripped s body was found at the city bottom of its tourists for nearly two years and a lot Scottish mountain, seemingly the result of businesses have closeda tragic accident. She'd looked so happy, most never to reopentoo, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. There's now a cascade Her friends were relieved as she was just out of money as an unpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her best life begins again but even 125,000 deaths have not put an end to greednow. The Mafias have liquidity problems: how on earth are they going to launder all Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances in the money which is coming their way? last year. Whilst he's thinking about thisAll were experienced climbers, Brunetti encounters someone he's seen only occasionally since properly equipped for what they were neighbours when he was a childdoing and sensible people. Elisabetta Foscarini has None of the 'what a problem and shestupid thing to do'd like Brunettiexplanations applied. They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's advicea killer on the loose.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Marcus SedgwickPaul B Preciado|title=WrathDysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensPolitics and Society|summary=Meet Fitz''It is never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood'' Through this hybrid text, a young Scottish lad full consisting of frustration at himself. Lockdown is only just overarias, and he should be free to do what he wantsletters, to go where he wants essays and with whom he wantsautofiction, but he cannot stop himself from putting Preciado expresses his foot in it when he talks own hybrid self, and brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to his best friendthe new generation, Cassiea new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. They were half of a desultory school bandRather, it is the proportional, but Cassie was also one hundred per cent valid response to ''the enigmatic – saying she could hear a subhuman hum coming from epistemological and political crack we are living through, and the earthtension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. Is this connected with one of her eco-warrior parents saying The whole text is framed against the end backdrop of the world is already Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a done deal? Is it some spooky new kind of music sheglobal scale, or as ''pangea covidica''s dreaming . Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of? Is she just bonkers? And can Fitz find out the truth? Wellweakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, not when Cassie has gone missing he canPreciado urges his readers to ''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''t...|isbn=18009008991804271454
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1635864070Samantha Harvey|title=Knit 2 Socks in 1|author=Safiyyah TalleyOrbital|rating=4.5|genre=CraftsGeneral Fiction|summary=If youIn 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for 've ever started knitting 'Orbital'', a pair compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the lives of socks, finished the first one and either got bored by the idea a group of doing the same thing all over again, or started on the second sock and lost the first before you finished it, this is astronauts aboard the book for youInternational Space Station. Where is it that single socks go to hide? Safiyyah Talley has developed Through a system narrative lens that allows you mirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to knit two socks see our planet in one, divide them up and have a perfectly finished pair of socks. Sounds good? It's clever and well-thought-outwholly new light.|isbn=1529922933
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Olivie Blake295967572X|title=The Atlas SixPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=45|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary= Dark, sharp, Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and highly inquisitivewhat the purpose of this journey is, is uncertain. Django found the tickets ''The Atlas Sixon the floor somewhere'' makes its publishing debut after becoming and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the past as the pair travel to the station by coach and the train is a Tik-Tok sensationsteam locomotive.|isbn=1529095239
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083849830008551324|title=The Paris ApartmentDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Lucy FoleyNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=''Things are not what they seem''. It was a Friday and Jess Hadley was keen to get to her half-brother's flat in Parisunusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. She'd come across from London on Eurostar, courtesy of Neither side likes or has any respect for the money she'd stolen from The Pervertother. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's till in prepared to tell the police where the Copacabana Bar in Brightonbody of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. It wasn't likely that This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police would doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be on transferred to her yet but she'd like an open prison to be somewhere safe serve the remainder of his sentence and with food and drink inside herto get an early parole date. SheNot much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn'd phoned Ben t think so and got she's even prepared to do the address - 12 Rue des Amants other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and he told her that the apartment was on the third floor. She's outside anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's obviously a very upmarket building but she hasn't been able to get in touch with Benhappening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=07603735581035043092|title=Nordic KnitsThe Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Sue FlandersAnn Cleeves|rating=45|genre=CraftsCrime|summary=I can't have been the only person who was so delighted by Sue Flanders' sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Cozy Knits: 30 Hat, MittenWild Fire (Shetland, Scarf and Sock Projects from Around the World Book 8) by Sue FlandersAnn Cleeves|Cozy Knitsleft Shetland]] that I didn't need any persuading at all to pick up her ''Nordic Knits''start a new life on Orkney. This delivers forty-four patterns inspired by textiles and local traditions It's been seven years since we heard from Norwayhim, Sweden but he's now living with Willow Reeves and Icelandtheir young son, James, as well as Cassie, the daughter of his former partner. There are a few sweaters or jackets Willow's also his boss, and she ''should'' be on maternity leave, but when the majority body of patterns are for smaller items such as mittensa popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, glovesin the aftermath of a storm, hats and bagsshe can't resist getting involved. All are bright and cheerful and very cosy He'd been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of a pair - which had been stolen from a museum.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1916072038Thea Lenarduzzi|title=The House in the Hollow (The Talbot Saga)|author=Allie CresswellTower|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Literary Fiction|summary=We meet part of the Talbot family in Yorkshire in November 1811. Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to the house in the hollow. The two women are angry with each other and Jocelyn is well aware of her mother's strengths and weaknesses: ''She is practiced at subterfuge, at concealing, beneath a facade How unctuous are the fats of respectability, the deplorable truth''. Hester is furious about Jocelynanother's refusal to do as she was askedlife, which has precipitated ''this violent and unexpected removalhow dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Matthieu AikinsClaire-Louise Bennett|title=The Naked Don't Fear the WaterBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyLiterary Fiction|summary=It's easy to forget at times that The Naked Don't Fear the Water isn't actually fictionEverything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, because it reads very much like a well-paced thriller at timesis steeped in anguish and distortion. This is not by any means Even a criticismkiss, but rather usually a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast symbol of intimacy and at times painful journeycloseness, becomes evidence of love lost. There are tense moments When the narrator cries out internally, ''come over here and gripping accounts of border crossings which had kiss me on edge the whole way through,'' it is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to confirm her emotional numbness. But it's written with The imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, her ex-partner, a haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the reader ghost she conjures to perfectly envisage the environments and people describedtest her detachment.|isbn= B09N9157T61804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger0008405026|title=Unhinged A Stranger in the Family (Volume 3) (Blix and RammMaeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=This is It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the third book in a series of stories featuring Alexander Blix, a police officer, and Emma Ramm, investigation ground to a crime journalisthalt. In this book we find that when one of Blix's colleaguesNow, Kovicher mother, uncovers a connection between several Oslo casesHelena, she tries to contact and her superior, Blixfather are dead in their bed. Before she can reach himInitially, however, she is murdered, and Blixit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's daughter Iselin who shares something about the same apartment, narrowly escapes being murdered too. We then find ourselves a few days later with Blix and Ramm, who are being interviewed by positioning of the National Criminal Investigation Service because Blix has shot bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and killed someone, and Ramm saw it all happenher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What had Kovic discovered? looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. And what did Blix and Ramm uncover Kerrigan is convinced that led to Blix killing someone?|isbn=1914585003the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Daniel AbrahamAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Age of AshThe Other Girl|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyAutobiography|summary= ''We meet Alys under were born from the most northerly of Oldgatesame body. I've never really wanted to think about this.'' Ernaux's four bridgeswork is always very candid and her tone transparent, she has a knife but this raw epistolary text must be one of the most intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her sister, however, this letter will never reach her hand and a meeting that she dreads. Meanwhile, the City Why? Because Annie Ernaux's sister died of Kithamar is diphtheria at 6 years old, a point few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in the turning of France, and 2 years when before the worlds are at their thinnest author was even born. The large and all things are possible. It is the night between instant void created by the funeral jarring concept of a Prince and the coronation writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of his successor. For a night the Kithamar is un-ruledreckoning with this giant absence in her life, an absence that she has always felt but often denied.|isbn=03565154271804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529095522Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=The Interview|author=C M EwanReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersBiography|summary=Kate Harding is going for an interview for her dream job at Edge CommunicationsBiographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. It's the last interview I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the day at one first section of Londonthis book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: 's newest office buildings and Edge have fitted out their part 'you write not of real life as it is, but of the building what you yourself imagine it to be something special. Maggie, Kate's recruitment agent, is keen Whom would it help to know how I see this tower, that Kate approaches the interview in a good state of mind: Kate assumes sea, or that this Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is because Maggie will get it?''. Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a decent bonus if Kate gets the job - subjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and she has to admit Andreyev in such privileged detail that life has not been easy for her recentlyone almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=1804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B097XNMCRK1529077745|title=The Blood Tide Dark Wives (DS Max CraigieD I Vera Stanhope)|author=Neil LancasterAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Loch Torridon ''is'' A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the back body of beyond: there's not even any light pollution which is why it was a man in the perfect place to land illegal deliveries of drugspark near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. Jimmy McLeish thought that he The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was onto due to work a nice little earner, only to find that Macca, shift the man he thought he was working with, is dead. His remains would night before but who had never be foundturned up. The delivery D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is hijacked by Davie and Callumthe disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. As Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the story progresses wegirl'll get s diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to know them quite wellJosh.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= B09NDJ77LMOlga Tokarczuk|title=Me and My Shadow|author=Deborah StoneHouse of Day, House of Night|rating=45|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary= ''What happens when someone is pushed too far and they begin to lose their grip on reality's the good of a world that keeps changing like that? How would you cope if you felt that no can one loved you? And how far would you go to be happyon calmly living in it? Accompany Rachel as she tries to shake off the shadows of her past and attempts to repair decades worth of pain.''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294096591836284683|title=The Locked Room (Dr Ruth Galloway)Big Happy|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It was some time since her father had remarried but his wife was now keen to do some decorating and Dr Ruth Galloway volunteered to clear out her mother's belongings. She was intrigued by the discovery of a picture of her own house: it was an old photograph, taken in misty conditions and on the back it said 'dawn 1963', some years before Ruth was born. It was before her parents were married. When she returned to Norfolk she was determined to find out what was behind the photograph but Covid intervened and the country was in lockdown. Ruth and Kate are restricted to the cottage with Ruth attempting to home school Kate and continue with her university teaching duties. The good thing was meeting Zoe, the new tenant from next door whom they got to know whilst clapping for carers.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1847941834|title=Atomic Habits|author=James ClearDavid Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleDystopian Fiction|summary=Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when Iopen a book, it've said this before but there are some books that you seek outs nothing like I expected it to be, some books that you stumble across and some books it takes me on a wild ride. And that drop into your life because you really MUST read them, like, right now! is just what happened with ''Atomic HabitsThe Big Happy'' is in the last category.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B09MSC981W|title=The Woke Iliad|author=George Boreas|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Helen is I don't want to ruin a popular activistsimilar experience for any of you reading but I'll have to at least set the scene. Or should we call her a popular influencer? Or perhaps a popular franchise owner? Anyway, Helen is so popular Once that the United States government has made her its Ambassador of Woke. Helen runs all sorts of initiatives on behalf of the government's done, including the Shaming Conference and the Permissible Entertainment Committee - ''I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for indoctrinating and legislating against summer fun for any who still knew how to have it''yourself. Ouch!
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09D95TRKZSally Rooney|title=The Wedding Murders|author=Sarah LinleyIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction |summary=Libby Steele was hoping to get Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a permanent job with the newspaper grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and the case she was covering was so brilliantly frustrating, as her big chancecharacters never quite say exactly what they feel. It was even more important to her than Among the many relationships woven into this story, the celebrity wedding she was central one for readers to attend unravel is the following day with her ex-rock star boyfriendfraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, Matthew. She was leaving her seven-year-old sona socially awkward chess prodigy, Patrick contrasts sharply with her sisterhis older brother Peter, Emma, and heading off to a grand manor house hotel successful lawyer living in the North Yorkshire countrysideDublin. Daniel AcroydFollowing their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, television presenter and former member of the rock band was marrying Vicky and Libby suspected that the wedding wasnbrothers't ''quite'' as high-profile as had been suggested as there was no ban on photos or phonesalready strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=18382268341836285493|title=Carried Away With the CarnivalThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Ed BoxallRob Keeley|rating=45|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=It was one Will is a keen player of those memories we treasure from our childhoods: an outing with our grandparentsvideo games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. They're there to undo But most of all the good that parents do, so the trips out were always so much funhe is an aspiring writer. A young boy was going to the carnival with English is his favourite lesson at his Grandadschool, Marlowe Park, who told him: and one at which he excels. This hasn''It'll be brilliantt gone unnoticed by his headteacher, just rememberMrs Howarth, don't let go and she has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a couple of my handafternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291353621009473085|title=The Long WeekendConservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Gilly MacmillanAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersPolitics and Society|summary=It was Sometimes it's simpler to explain a long drive to the weekend retreat in Northumbria, right up near the Scottish borders book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to make it worse the three husbands had all ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for one reason or another - had to delay making an easy read which will deliver the trip until inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the Saturday morningbook for you. Jane and Ruth had known each other 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 a long time but Emily was a bit of an outsiderthose tumultuous years. She It's a compelling read and Paul had married only relatively recently and she was ten years younger than the other two womenshould be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The friendship of the group went back to school daysConservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. Paul had coached rugby It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the school where Mark, Toby impact a government has made and Rob were pupilsco-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. Mark had married JaneThis book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and Toby is Ruth's husband. And Rob? Well, Rob's deadthe situation in 2024.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=gareth_steelJenny Valentine|title=Never Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating=4|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show Us in the author would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers Before and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787634884|title=The Herd|author=Emily EdwardsAfter
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionTeens|summary=Our story opens in December 2019Elk and Mab are best friends, before most of us had even heard of Covid or realised more than that whether or not we should be vaccinated would come to be even, their friendship is a once in a major issuelifetime connection. WeThey meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don're in Farley County Courtt get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, where Elizabeth and Jack Chamberlain they are facing Bryony and Ash Kohliinseparable. As they were best friends until just a few months ago we know that whatever Something has happened is major though, something terrible and tragic, and thatnow they must work through their grief, regardless of the outcomeand their friendship, this is not going to work out well for anyonetogether.|isbn=1471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Annabel Abbs1787333175|title=The Language of FoodYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse
|rating=5
|genre=Historical FictionPopular Science|summary=Eliza Acton 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 poet who has never had glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the slightest inclination NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to boil an eggbe Mad.. When tasked with writing a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, a local woman with a troubled home life. Together, they test, craft, refine '' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and reshape the world work of domestic cookery, reinventing a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the recipe book laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and changing the face of cookery writing foreverunderstanding.|isbn=1398502227
}}