134,836
edits
Changes
no edit summary
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jenifer RobertsPolly Barton|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria What Am I of Portugal, A Deer?|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at Polly Barton's debut novel is an intellectually playful yet emotionally exposed work that time the richest uses translation as both subject and most opulent city in Europegoverning metaphor. The narrator, Maria was destined newly relocated from London to become Berlin, works translating video games into Japanese through the first female monarch process of localisation, rewriting language until it feels comfortably familiar to a new audience. Barton treats this as a paradoxical act: arguably, in Portuguese history. Married to her uncle Infante Pedrostriving for universality, seventeen years her seniorlanguage is endlessly repackaged, she had six children (outliving all but one its originality at risk of them), and became Queen in 1777disappearing altogether. A conscientious womanFrom this, she had the misfortune novel opens out into a wider, resonant question: to be born what extent do we translate ourselves in during the 'age of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacy. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach order to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabethbe understood, no Catherine the Greataccepted, and wore her crown rather reluctantly.or loved?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>1804272175
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn= Zabriskie1
|title=A Village Where Many Ways Meet: A Story of Belonging and Community, Rooted in Indigenous Wisdom
|author=Stephanie Zabriskie
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=''Across many African and Indigenous systems, differences in how children learn, sense , or process the world were not treated as disorders to be corrected. They were understood as natural variations of human intelligence and awareness, each holding value within the community.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dave Eggers1787333175|title=The Wild ThingsYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=45|genre=General FictionPopular Science|summary=Meet Max. When I say he sometimes gets the wrong end of the stick about adults, or dislikes his motherwas tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's new boyfriendfirst book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, or gets a bit feisty when he feels glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the need for revengeNHS, I am certainly understating the factshumour and autobiography. He is a bit ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a rascal to say the leastpsychiatrist. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a strange land of roisterous animals, situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and ends up installed as their kingunderstanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy StrongMaria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog The Disappearing Act
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=TrevorDespite her anonymisation of place names and people, Stepanova's troublesome dog, Streaker, has had three puppiesmessage in this short work of autofiction is unmistakable. They were fathered, according A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one the town of his Alsatians. Trevor would ideally like F for a literary festival she is to keep them, be a guest speaker at least until Christmas. Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by forces beyond her control, but his parents have other ideas and put them her journey slowly bends toward a traveling circus. Swept up in this series of events, M eventually offers to step in for salea circus performer who has unexpectedly left the show. Charlie Smugg declares that he's entitled to half The train functions as a motif of transience and impermanence, while the money from circus embodies the sale reshaping of the puppiesidentity and a retreat into fantasy, but before they can be sold an impulse that lies at the three puppies go missing in very heart of the park and it's up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!novel form itself.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>1804272329
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Beth DurstB0GFQ81YQK|title=IceHow the Sky and the Earth Made People: From the Oral Stories of Malagasy Elders|author=Stephanie Zabriskie|rating=34.5|genre=TeensChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Cassie lives on an Arctic research station in AlaskaBefore people came and joined the animals, there was only the sky and the earth. She loves Everything was quiet until the ice earth and the wilderness of her remote home 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 she'd definitely prefer they belonged to spend her time on tracking polar bears both earth and sky. And so people lived between sky and soil and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing with her peers they planted and enjoying college learned and home comforts back in Fairbanksremembered, especially how they came to be. HoweverWhen they grew old and died, things aren't all rosytheir bodies returned to the earth and their life returned to the sky. Cassie's mother died when she was just a baby And that is why the earth and she the sky are both revered. Only together can't help feeling a huge hole in her heartthey create human beings. Her scientist father And that is remote why people must pay attention to, and unloving and her grandmother left the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very youngcare for, both. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain Smyth and Michael TerryB0GHPMNF6P|title=The WideZookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Mouthed FrogUps|author=Carolyn Mathews
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingFantasy|summary=Do you know When Phil's father unexpectedly dies, he quits his Canary Wharf finance job to take over the joke about running of the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard it. Itfamily's a classicfarm zoo. ItHe's one not expecting much excitement, until he receives an unidentified egg that you really need to tell his new-age stoner uncle Edgar found in a cave in personNew Zealand, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide openand suddenly life is no longer quite what it seems. Then the egg hatches into neither a reptile nor a bird, but to hopefully spark your memorya dragon! Now he, Edgar, his mother Abi, and the widezoo's part-mouthed frog introduces himself time café waitress Pearl have to a number raise this little bundle of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogsscales and joy, despite having no idea how to actually raise dragons and the frog does his best not being able to disguise who he is whilst saying ''Ooh, you don't see many of those round here, do you?'' I'm hardly doing it justice, but tell anyone about it's very cheesy and funny. Anyway, But this is a book of that joke.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>tiny little dragon may show them love and connection in ways they had never before imagined…
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanStephanie Zabriskie|title=Don't Swallow Your GumHow Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the Oral Stories of Maasai Elders
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleChildren's Non-Fiction|summary='''BANG'''. That's the sound of copious urban myths being shot down. '''BANG'''. That's How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows is a children’s nonfiction book drawn from the sound oral traditions of the old wives slamming the doorMaasai elders in Ngorongoro, as their tales get revealed as baselessTanzania. '''CLICK'''. That's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>}}
}}
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident ReadersHistorical Fiction|summary=Meet Tommy Storm. He's one 'Elizabeth and Ruth'' is a work of five teenagers snapped up historical fiction wrought from around the universe to be a gang life of heroic detectives charged with rescuing EVERYTHING from destruction. Not just the planetVictorian author Elizabeth Gaskell, best known for her first novel Mary Barton (1848), or a radical critique of the solar system, or even treatment of the galaxy, but EVERYTHINGworking class published under a pseudonym. Nobody seems to know whatThe ''Ruth'' from Livi Michael's going to cause this destructiontitle appears in her novel as Pasley, or when, but he a young Irish prostitute who was abandoned as a child and finds herself in Manchester's New Bailey Prison after a difficult and his friends unjust hand at life. Set in Manchester between 1839 and their ship seem to be 1842, the only people proactively going about saving novel examines the day. So it's a pity that they start this book strung up harsh conditions endured by a nasty loony who's about the Victorian working poor and interrogates the extent to kill themwhich the wealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>1784633682
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Graham McCannMakenna Goodman|title=Bounder!: The Biography Helen of Terry-ThomasNowhere
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=When I was It could be argued that the pervading theme of this book is malaise - a hard-to-place feeling that something in my early teensyour life is not quite right. The protagonist, it sometimes seemed as if Terry-Thomas was one 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 the stars of almost every other five-star British comedy film aroundprotagonist is indirect yet intimate. He was certainly one As the former owner of the most recognizable characters of all with countryside house he's considering, Helen represents a volta in his life, her past tied to his gap-toothed grinpotential fresh start. The realtor who shows the protagonist around the house shares stories about Helen, cigarette holder and inimitable describes her as ''an entity that is pure consciousness, beyond form''Hel-lo!. Although she lives in an assisted living facility now, Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the reader gets the sense are not altogether innocuous.|isbn=1804272205}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0GCB1MQ7D|title=Why My Mother Went Away|author=Alan Kennedy|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=I have often wondered how prominent people came to hold their positions. With 'celebrities', there'Hard cheese!s frequently a book they might or might not have written, which might or might not tell the true story. It's not often that you find a book that gives the full backstory, and best of allrarely do you discover a memoir where the telling is so perfect that you'll go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, just for the angry, pleasure the words give. ''Why My Mother Went Away'You're an absolute shower!is one of those rare exceptions. It'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>s the story of how a boy from the Midlands, born at the beginning of the Second World War, would become a Professor of Psychology at Dundee University. In fact, he was one of the founders of the department.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jeremy Cooper
|title=Discord
|rating= 3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Discord: a lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas)
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeanette WintersonTom Percival|title=The Battle of the SunWrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I Will's life is getting on difficult, in yearsa multitude of ways. Her capital city He is a busybullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', bustling place. Boats fill he has the river wrong shoes because his dad can't work and people fill doesn't have enough money for even the streets. Jack is happy because it's his birthday most basic of things like food, and his present is dad can't work because he lost his heart's desire: an excitable black puppy named Maxjob at the college, who's was working a cash-in-hand job on a ''licking building site and a running had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and a leaping dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a jumping tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a tummy in light at the air and a tail wagging and end of a barking, racing, brakinglong, spinning energy dog of delight''dark tunnel. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreEdward W Said|title=Love and KissesRepresentations of the Intellectual
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=Tamsin Edward Said's ''Representations of the Intellectual'' is less a strict theory of what intellectuals are and Katie were just thirteen and worried that more a passionate argument for what they were boringshould be. They'd been best friends since forever and were Said clearly rejects the comfortable image of the good girlsintellectual as a detached expert speaking only to other specialists. Neither missed schoolInstead, skipped her homework nor had boyfriends. Wellhe insists on the intellectual as a public figure, often awkward, that isabrasive, not so far. Up until then Tamsin had been the boffin head – consistently strong academically and looking forward to going on to university. All that seemed unpopular, who speaks truth to change power even when she met Alexit is inconvenient or risky. Well, when I say 'met' I should perhaps clarify and say that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow into her, from the building site where he worked. Oh, and did I mention that he was seventeen, Polish and spoke very little English?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>1804272248
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Henry MintzbergSylvie Cathrall|title=ManagingA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Business and FinanceScience Fiction|summary=''Study after study has shown that managers work at an unrelenting pace'' How true, though it always makes me wonder why, as There are few greater joys than a result, there's such book which lives up to a market for bulky management and leadership and general business books like this onecompelling premise. How does anyone who needs or wants to read one ever find the time to do so? This title actually has an answer to And this, by providing two books in one, and it is such a simple yet effective solution that I have to start there. You can read this book in one of two ways. Option one is to read every word, chapter by chapter, cover to cover. If you have the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readable, not too repetitive, and quite thought-provokingthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kathryn Fox1786482126|title=Blood BornThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=To give support to a vulnerable gangBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -rape victim, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers to drive Giverny Hart to the courthouse on the day she is due site was going to testify against the notorious Harbourn brothers. But hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when Anya arrives at they discovered the house she finds Giverny close to death and faces bones of a child beneath a battle against time to save herdoorway. In the panic, Anya fails to take note of an important clue which might help tell whether it really There was suicide no skull. Was this a ritual killing or a cleverly staged murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Worse still It's difficult as Ruth knows, in trying to save the girlbut Nelson doesn's lifet, Anya has interfered that she is pregnant with his child as a crime scene and the case falls apart. She blames herself for the Harbourn brothers being allowed to walk free and only hours later there is news of another attack. A pair result of sisters have been stabbed and raped resulting in the death of onenight they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, while the other clings not least because Ruth is prone to lifesudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Leah Fleming0008551375|title=Remembrance DayWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=In Leanne Wilson's body was found at the year 2000 an old lady in bottom of a wheelchair watches Scottish mountain, seemingly the unveiling result of the new war memorial in the village squarea tragic accident. ThereShe's pride d looked so happy, too, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as she was just out of an unpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in what has been achieved, similar circumstances in the family who are gathered around her last year. All were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and there are memories toosensible people. None of the 'what a stupid thing to do' explanations applied. Some are good but many are notThey were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a killer on the loose.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Paul B Preciado
|title=Dysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''It is never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ursula Jones and Sarah GibbSamantha Harvey|title=The Princess Who Had No KingdomOrbital|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled by her horse Pretty. SheIn 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital''s very polite, friendly, and kind-hearted, but she feels like something is lacking because she doesn't have a kingdom compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the lives of a group of her ownastronauts aboard the International Space Station. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enough, but there's always Through a feeling narrative lens that shemirrors the astronauts's not quite as good as them because she isn't the princess of anywhereorbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a wholly new light.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>1529922933
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mij Kelly and Louise Nisbet295967572X|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made ChristmasPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=45|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=Mouse doesn't like anyone and keeps herself Our unnamed narrator is about to herselfbegin a train journey with his companion Django. Her things are her things Where they're going and she what the purpose of this journey is too selfish to share them with anyone else. One day, an old man moves in to Mouse's houseis uncertain. He used to be Django found the happiest man in tickets ''on the world, but now hefloor somewhere's sad. He's fed up of having given, given, given all his life and never got anything backhas persuaded our narrator to accompany him. He just sits quietly and mopes. This makes Mouse miserable, so one day she decides Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the past as the pair travel to cheer him up the station by giving him coach and the train is a clementine.steam locomotive..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Bland0008551324|title=The Very Cranky BearDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Moose, Lion, Zebra It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and Sheep head into a cave he's prepared to get out tell the police where the body of the rain, but little do they know that Bear a missing person is fast asleep in thereburied and who was responsible for her death. When they wake him up This person, he roars at thempromises, chasing them outside, so they decide is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to cheer him up somehow. Zebra paints stripes on him, Moose fashions antlers for him serve the remainder of his sentence and Lion sticks a mane of straw on himto get an early parole date. Unsurprisingly, this makes Bear even crankier Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so itand she's down even prepared to Sheep to save do the day.other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kes Gray and Lee Wildish1035043092|title=Mum and Dad GlueThe Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=45|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=A young boyI can't have been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a new life on Orkney. It's been seven years since we heard from him, but he's parents are splitting upnow living with Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the daughter of his former partner. He Willow's going through also his boss, and she ''should'' be on maternity leave, but when the usual emotions that children body of divorce go through: worrya popular islander, feeling unsureArchie Stout, blaming himselfis found, anger, denialin the aftermath of a storm, and then trying to get them to stay together. His method for this isnshe can't the usual response though: he looks for glue to stick his mum and dad togetherresist getting involved. Thankfully, he finds some wise and kindly advice in He'd been battered about the processhead with a Neolithic stone - one of a pair - which had been stolen from a museum.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Thea Lenarduzzi
|title=The Tower
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''How unctuous are the fats of another's life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen MackeyClaire-Louise Bennett|title=MikiBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=4.5|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=It's coldEverything in this book, dark and icyhowever sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and Miki and Penguin are trudging through the snowdistortion. But it's Midwinter EveEven a kiss, when wishes come true. They wish for usually a treesymbol of intimacy and closeness, lights, someone strong to power becomes evidence of love lost. When the lightsnarrator cries out internally, ''come over here and finally kiss me,'' it is less an invitation than a star that will shine brightly foreverdesperate attempt to confirm her emotional numbness. Miki The imagined recipient of this plea is taken deep below the ice to find the starXavier, her ex-partner, whilst up top Penguin and new friend Polar Bear start a ghost she conjures to worry about test herdetachment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>034095065X</amazonuk>1804271934
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kristin Cashore0008405026|title=FireA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=Possessed of great beauty, the kind that drives men mad, Fire is used to people trying to kill It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from herbed one summer night. She isn't used was never found and the investigation ground to them doing it by accidenta halt. When a poacher in the woods outside Now, her home accidentally shoots mother, Helena, and herfather are dead in their bed. Initially, Fire is hard pressed to keep it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the temperamental Lord Archer from killing himbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. But What looked as sure as Fire though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is the man did not mean to cause her harm, she now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is made unsure by convinced that the strange fog that exists explanation lies in the manRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's mindboss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905200129</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Justin ScroggieAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Eye Spy: Uncovering the Secrets of the World Around YouThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=TriviaAutobiography|summary=Signs are everywhere''We were born from the same body. I wasn't ve never really one of those who thought our roads were littered with too many traffic signs until the day I was driven past a pair of speed regulation signs, positioned at the exit end of a one-way street but facing the illegal way up it. Not all signs, of course, are quite as unnecessary, or indeed as blatantly visible, which is where wanted to think about this pictorial guide to countless coded messages, signifiers and other similar factoids comes in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994487</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eoin ColferMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=And Another Thing ... Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Part Six Reminiscences of Three (Hitchhikers Guide 6) Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev
|rating=3.5
|genre=Science FictionBiography|summary=Of all Biographies are often seen as the big books announced for form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this yearperspective, this one must have raised more eyebrows than many. Why try and write offers a new Hitchhiker's Guide to vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the Galaxy first section of this book, when way before the endTolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is, its creator Douglas Adams was proving quite hopeless at such a task? And why approach an Irishmanbut of what you yourself imagine it to be. Whom would it help to know how I see this tower, Eoin Colferthat sea, when the originals or that Tartar - tempered with their humour which could only why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''. Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be described as Monty Python doing gained from a sci-fi Terry Pratchettsubjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and with their cups Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of tea and dressing gownsit.|isbn=1804271977}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529077745|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, could only be described as very English? a care home for troubled teens. Well The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the answer night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is most evident called in to investigate the murder - Colfer but her only clue is a worldthe disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-beater when old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it comes clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to knocking up a storyfind Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155149</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Olga Tokarczuk
|title=House of Day, House of Night
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''What's the good of a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in it?''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1836284683
|title=The Big Happy
|author=David Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other!
I do love it when I open a book, it's nothing like I expected it to be, and it takes me on a wild ride. And that is just what happened with ''The Big Happy''. I don't want to ruin a similar experience for any of you reading but I'll have to at least set the scene. Once that's done, I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Peel and Sheila RavenscroftSally Rooney|title=Margrave of the MarshesIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=EntertainmentGeneral Fiction |summary=John Peel was without doubt one of Sally Rooney has studied the most important disc jockeys chessboard of all time. Born in Merseyside in 1939, he began his career in mid-60s America before returning home to join Radio London life and then become one is something of the original Radio 1 team, where he stayed until his death 37 years latera grandmaster at putting it into words. I admired the man for his passion for playing the music nobody else would give the time of day (even if I didn't always enjoy it myself) Her dialogue is gripping and his readiness to so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what he thoughtthey feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, even if it was not what his employers at the BBC wanted central one for readers to hear, and I always enjoyed reading his columns in unravel is the music weeklies fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and later Radio TimesPeter Koubek. Nevertheless I found much of his show unlistenable towards the endIvan, recall some of his rather curmudgeonly remarks on air (guest slots on Radio 1's Round Table review programme come to mind)a socially awkward chess prodigy, and thought contrasts sharply with his build-'em-upolder brother Peter, knock-a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father'em-down stance rather irritating s passing after a while. So I approached this book long battle with an open mind as a fancancer, but not an uncritical onethe brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>0571365469
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez 1836285493|title=Perfumes: The A - Z GuideDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleConfident Readers|summary=WonderfulWill is a keen player of video games, wonderfula conscientious student, wonderfula slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. The only thing that could be conceivably better than reading 'But most of all, he is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one at which he excels. This hasn'Perfumes'' would be to read it while sampling the scents it reviewst gone unnoticed by his headteacher, but even without the olfactory componentMrs Howarth, ''Perfumes'' is and she has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a delight: Turin (couple of afternoons a lyrical scientist) and Sanchez (an analytically enthusiastic collector) not only treat perfume creation as high art, but turn perfume criticism into an art form (or week at least a sophisticated genre of writing) toodifferent school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681278</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Malouf 1009473085|title=RansomThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionPolitics and Society|summary=Taking his theme from Sometimes it's simpler to explain a small part of Homerbook by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you's Iliad, Malouf tells re looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story of the king of Troyabout what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, Priamthen this isn's grief-stricken voyage into t the Greek camp to ransom Troybook for you. If that's wealth what you're looking for the body of his fallen son, HectorI don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, killed by 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 equally grief-stricken Achilles whose great friend Hector had killed seventh book in battle before Achilles took his cruel revenge. Malouf tells a series which looks at the story in sparse, yet lyrical impact a government has made and poetic fashion suggesting co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the personal stories behind most important. This book follows the epic themes that Homer related. It is an exquisitely written piece managing to be both deeply moving as well as -established format: a great piece series of story tellingexperts 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184159</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven M GillonJenny Valentine|title=The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours Us in the Before and After|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryTeens|summary=The assassination of President Kennedy came at a pivotal moment in my life Elk and for Mab are best friends, or more than forty years I've read most of what has been written about the eventthat even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. ItThey meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's been of variable quality, but contact details at the books fed the curiosity of people entranced by the charismatic young President who died so publiclytime. I'd come to the point of wondering if there was anything new to be saidBut then chance brings them back together, but Stephen Gillom and they are inseparable. Something has looked at what happened from an unusual though, something terrible and largely overlooked angle – the first twenty four hours of Lyndon Johnson's Presidencytragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>1471196585
}}