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==The Best New Books==
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{{Frontpage
|isbn= 1806344777
|title=Arthur and the Land of Nimbostratus: Arthur's Able Adventures
|author=Rob Keeley
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary= Arthur dreams of adventures. He looks out of his window each day and thinks of all the escapades he could have, the places he could go and the things he could see. His favourite day is Saturday because that's the day his friend Maxine - she of the booming laugh and silver bangles - comes to visit. Maxine is a great believer in the power of imagination.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1035043092
|title=The Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)
|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=I 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 now living with Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the daughter of his former partner. Willow's also his boss, and she ''should'' be on maternity leave, but when the body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, in the aftermath of a storm, she can't resist getting involved. He'd been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of a pair - which had been stolen from a museum.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Polly Barton
|title=What Am I, A Deer?
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Polly Barton's debut novel is an intellectually playful yet emotionally exposed work that uses translation as both subject and governing metaphor. The narrator, newly relocated from London to Berlin, works translating video games into Japanese through the process of localisation, rewriting language until it feels comfortably familiar to a new audience. Barton treats this as a paradoxical act: arguably, in striving for universality, language is endlessly repackaged, its originality at risk of disappearing altogether. From this, the novel opens out into a wider, resonant question: to what extent do we translate ourselves in order to be understood, accepted, or loved?
|isbn=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.''
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17873320981787333175|title=How You Don't Have to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped Worldbe Mad to Work Here|author=Henry ManceBenji Waterhouse
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and SocietyPopular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''When we do think about animalsYou 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}}, we break them down a glorious mixture of insight into species and groups: cows, dogsthe workings of the NHS, foxes, elephants humour and so onautobiography. And we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on sofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, and millions of wild animals stay out there, ''somewhere,You Don'' hopefully on the next David Attenborough seriest Have to be Mad...'' I was going promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to arguemental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. I mean, cows are did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and I much prefer my elephants humour in the wild this setting but then I realised that I was quibbling for the sake of laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and itis always delivered with empathy and understanding. Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to animals - }}{{Frontpage|author=Maria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)|title=The Disappearing Act|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Despite her anonymisation of place names and I consider myself an animal loverpeople, Stepanova's message in this short work of autofiction is unmistakable. If I had A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to choose between the company town of humans F for a literary festival she is to be a guest speaker at. Detoured by erratic train schedules and the company of animalsnudged by forces beyond her control, I would probably choose the animalsher journey slowly bends toward a traveling circus. I insisted that I read Swept up in this book: no one was trying series of events, M eventually offers to stop me but I was initially reluctantstep in for a circus performer who has unexpectedly left the show. I eat cheeseThe train functions as a motif of transience and impermanence, eggswhile the circus embodies the reshaping of identity and a retreat into fantasy, chicken and fish and I needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected an impulse that making lies at the very heart of the decision would not be comfortablenovel form itself.|isbn=1804272329
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jessie GreengrassB0GFQ81YQK|title=The High HouseHow the Sky and the Earth Made People: From the Oral Stories of Malagasy Elders|author=Stephanie Zabriskie
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Charles Darwin taught that all living matter evolved Before people came and joined the animals, there was only the sky and the earth. Everything was quiet until the earth and the sky began to tal to pass on its genetic material with each other. First, the implied belief that your progeny will earth created bodies. And then pass on theirs, the sky breathed life into them. HoweverThese 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, that train of thought is slowly seems especially how they came to have fallen out of favourbe. Today's young generation are discovering that When they grew old and died, their parents bodies returned to the earth and their parents' parents did not seem life returned to think that far aheadthe sky. Or they did think And that far ahead is why the earth and thought "it's not my problem" or "there's nothing I can do". Raising a child and living in a world on the precipice of catastrophe is what drives ''The High House'' by Jessie Greengrasssky are both revered. This is not a science-fiction novelOnly together can they create human beings. This And that is our reality. This is the life our children why people must pay attention to, and their children will have to livecare for, both.|isbn=1800750072
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Ruth HoganB0GHPMNF6P|title=Madame BurovaThe Zookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups|author=Carolyn Mathews
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionFantasy|summary=This book lets us discover several people in different stages of life in the early 1970sWhen Phil's father unexpectedly dies, all vaguely connected. So we have a bullied half-cast boy (as he would have been called then), a girl in a humdrum quits his Canary Wharf finance job wanting to become a singer, and chiefly, Imelda, take over the third generation running of Madame Burova, the family's farm zoo. He'Tarots not expecting much excitement, until he receives an unidentified egg that his new-Readerage stoner uncle Edgar found in a cave in New Zealand, Palmist and Clairvoyant'', to use her family's sea-front boothsuddenly life is no longer quite what it seems. The singer, Then the scryer and the sufferer's mother will all become staff at egg hatches into neither a reptile nor a revamped holiday campbird, but just before then we see Imelda fly solo for the first time in the family stall. We also see her on her last daya dragon! Now he, fifty years laterEdgar, in possession of a pair of letters that will change everything for a woman called Billie. Just who is shehis mother Abi, and who delivered the secrets about her zoo's part-time café waitress Pearl have to Imeldaraise this little bundle of scales and joy, despite having no idea how to actually raise dragons and why did not being able to tell anyone about it have to remain a secret all . But this time?|isbn=152937331Xtiny little dragon may show them love and connection in ways they had never before imagined…
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Jonathan StroudStephanie Zabriskie|title= The Outlaws Scarlett and BrowneHow Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the Oral Stories of Maasai Elders|rating= 45|genre= TeensChildren's Non-Fiction|summary= Scarlett McCain ''How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows is an outlaw, rejecting a children’s nonfiction book drawn from the draconian conformity oral traditions of the Surviving Towns and Faith Houses to wander the wildlands between the Seven Kingdoms of BritainMaasai elders in Ngorongoro, robbing banks and shooting other outlaws to keep herself aliveTanzania. But then she meets Albert Browne, '' The Maasai are a dark boy with dark powers cattle-herding people and a darker past. With mysterious militiamen hunting them this story writes down, its oral tradition explaining how they plan to flee came to be so. Cattle are status and wealth in Maasai culture but this doesn't tell the mythical Free Isles whole story of the London Lagoon. Togetherintimate and symbiotic connection its people, they must brave man-eating wildlifeand especially its women, the cannibalistic Tainted have with their cows and all for the horrors of post-apocalyptic society to reach natural world. The oral tradition retelling the Free Islesmany conversations Maasai women have had with their cows, but will they be any more accepted there than they are in the rest of Britain?does.|isbn=1406394815B0G9WTGY6J
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B08R7LXQ9SLivi Michael|title=Remy: A book about believing in yourself|author=Mayuri Naidoo Elizabeth and Caroline SiegalRuth|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingHistorical Fiction|summary=Remy ''Elizabeth and Ruth'' is feeling miserablea work of historical fiction wrought from the life of the Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell, best known for her first novel Mary Barton (1848), a radical critique of the treatment of the working class published under a pseudonym. HeThe 's let himself down 'Ruth'again'from Livi Michael'. The school bully Jaydens title appears in her novel as Pasley, together with his sidekicks Ryan a young Irish prostitute who was abandoned as a child and Brandon, have been laughing finds herself in Manchester's New Bailey Prison after a difficult and unjust hand at Remy, calling him names because he is short and has small eyeslife. They are mean but they are not stupid. They are careful to wind up Remy when nobody can see Set in Manchester between 1839 and then push him just that little bit further when 1842, the novel examines the other kids are around. So, when Remy reacts, it looks as though he was harsh conditions endured by the instigator. And then he gets into trouble at school Victorian working poor and interrogates the teachers don't believe him when he tries extent to explain what happenedwhich the wealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices.|isbn=1784633682
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B00474HVX4Makenna Goodman|title=Phineas Redux|author=Anthony TrollopeHelen of Nowhere
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=It's some time since we heard from [[Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope|Phineas Finn]]could be argued that the pervading theme of this book is malaise - a hard-to-place feeling that something in your life is not quite right. Having succeeded in parliament and achieved The protagonist, a paying position he fell out with those who provided disgraced professor on the brink of losing both his income career and returned to Ireland where he married Maryhis relationship, embodies this feeling. However, Goodman counteracts his childhood sweetheartdiscomfort with a force which is seductive, radical and unnerving: Helen. He was fortunate to get The connection between Helen and the protagonist is indirect yet intimate. As the former owner of the countryside house he's considering, Helen represents a job volta in Cork (or Dublin - recollections may vary) and seemed settled into a his life of domesticity, her past tied to his potential fresh start. To bring Finn backThe realtor who shows the protagonist around the house shares stories about Helen, Trollope had to kill off poor Mary and Phineas emerges describes her as ''an entity that is pure consciousness, beyond form''. Although she lives in London as a childless widower with a legacy from an aunt who died at just assisted living facility now, Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the right time to allow reader gets the move to be possiblesense are not altogether innocuous.|isbn=1804272205
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Dean KoontzB0GCB1MQ7D|title=The Other EmilyWhy My Mother Went Away|author=Alan Kennedy|rating=45|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary=Our hero David Thorne is an author, who shares his life between the two US coastsI have often wondered how prominent people came to hold their positions. ItWith 's the western coast wecelebrities're concerned with, there's frequently a place he has to return tobook they might or might not have written, and a place he has to be able to leavewhich might or might not tell the true story. David lost contact with his partner there ten years ago, when she vanished from a remote road late at night. HeIt's paying for contact with the man he thinks not often that you find a book that gives the only suspectfull backstory, and rarely do you discover a lifer now, who went a bit Hannibal Lecter, memoir where the telling is so perfect that you'll go back and has a dozen reread paragraphs and more unfound Jane Does on his recordsentences, just for the pleasure the words give. David ''Why My Mother Went Away'' is trying to pry the connection between the murderer and his girl from the man's mind, but to no availone of those rare exceptions. HeIt's also having the story of how a recharge ready for his next hit novel when into boy from the Midlands, born at the restaurant walks beginning of the sheer spitting imageSecond World War, the very embodimentwould become a Professor of Psychology at Dundee University. In fact, he was one of the virtual resurrection, founders of his lovethe department. What is a man to do?|isbn=1542019958
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Charlie CarrollJeremy Cooper|title=The LipDiscord|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''Melody Janie Rowe'' even Discord: a lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas) The principal example of discord within the novel, as with most instances of discord, is easily located. The two protagonists of the name novel, Rebekah Rosen and Evie Bennet, are as different as they come. Rebekah is an uptight, traditional and no-nonsense composer close to retirement, while Evie is evocative of…probably a force of whatever we want it nature, bounding onto the musical scene as a precocious saxophonist, oozing with talent and charm. The two, predictably, don't always see eye to beeye, their approaches different and maybe thatEvie's the pointprogressive views at odds with Rebekah's conservative leaning. To me the name sings of English folk musicHowever, but even in my use something connects them beyond just their musical project: a sort of that word English, I know I'm putting an emmet take on things. And Melody Janie Rowe is anti-emmetfragile alliance formed within the clamour. |isbn=15293341791804272264
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Danny Wallace and Gemma CorrellTom Percival|title=The Day the Screens Went BlankWrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Stella and her familyWill's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. TheyHe is bullied because he has 're just innocently trying to the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a Sunday evening cash-in together, watching -hand job on a film – using three different screens to watch three different thingsbuilding site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, mind – when and Will''poof'' everything goes blanks life seems bleak in every direction. And it's not just their homeyet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, but and clings to the entire south-western village moments of Mouseholejoy when he is drawing, and not just thatfeel like a light at the end of a long, either, but dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122}}{{Frontpage|author=Edward W Said|title=Representations of the whole country, if not worldIntellectual |rating=4. Suddenly people are constantly on their phones – hoping they5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Edward Said's ''Representations of the Intellectual''re first to get is less a screen back, strict theory of what intellectuals are and not more a passionate argument for what they were constantly doing on them beforeshould be. Said clearly rejects the comfortable image of the intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to other specialists. Toasters can toastInstead, but TVs cannot do he insists on the V part of their jobintellectual as a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, and no computer can show its computationsunpopular, who speaks truth to power even when it is inconvenient or risky.|isbn=1804272248}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. You might think And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to be hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a social comedy about people stuck in such child beneath a Luddite experience against their will, but nodoorway. For the family finally remember Stella's grandma, and see if they can get across country to herThere was no skull. Hence Was this has to go down as a road-trip book. ritual killing or murder? But not just thatInevitably, a slapstick road-trip comedyDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. And more than that, too – for itIt's a slapstickdifficult as Ruth knows, high-dramabut Nelson doesn't, high-octane road-trip comedy that she is pregnant with oodles his child as a result of cuddly heart that kids the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of all ages will lovesickness.|isbn=1471196887
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19131935270008551375|title=Bound When Shadows Fall (Detective Sam ShephardD S Max Craigie)|author=Vanda SymonNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Dunedin Leanne Wilson's body was shocked when it heard found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the murder result of a wealthy and apparently respectable businessman out at Seaclifftragic accident. His wife had been bound and gagged and placed She'd looked so that she was forced to watch the murder, with the scene being discovered by their sonhappy, Declantoo, when he returned home from she posted her intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as she was just out of an evening outunpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her best life now. The subsequent investigation would prove Then it emerged that John Henderson five other women had been involved died in similar circumstances in some activities which might have been considered shady and certainly questionable if not illegalthe last year. His company, Eros GlobalAll were experienced climbers, manufactured properly equipped for what they were doing and marketed sensible people. None of the ''vitamin-type supplements and, well, sexual enhancers, that kind of what a stupid thingto do'', as Hendersonexplanations applied. They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's employee, Blair Harvey-Boyd explaineda killer on the loose.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529109116Paul B Preciado|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey|author=Hannah JacksonDysphoria Mundi
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestylePolitics and Society|summary=''I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. I don't think that It is never too much late to ask.embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0857527231Samantha Harvey|title=Dog Days|author=Ericka WallerOrbital|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=George Dempsey is exceedingly angry. It's eight days since his wifeIn 2024, Ellen, died and it's Samantha Harvey won the first time that sheBooker Prize for 's let him down. He's lost, bereft without her ( he Orbital''needs his wife, like a snail needs its shell''). He misses their ordered life and rather than bringing him meals to leave on compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the doorstep, he'd much rather have lives of a good row with someone. He's particularly angry about group of astronauts aboard the dachshund puppy which Helen brought home just three weeks before she diedInternational Space Station. She even dared to contradict him when he told her Through a narrative lens that mirrors the dog wasnastronauts't staying. Now he's lumbered with a dog he doesn't want and a load of busybodies who are trying orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to interfere see our planet in his life. Worst of all is Betty, who won't take no for an answer. Betty knits jumpers for Lucky, her greyhound. Lucky spends a lot of time trying to escape from and destroy themwholly new light.|isbn=1529922933
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B003UH99X4295967572X|title=The Eustace DiamondsPale Pieces|author=Anthony TrollopeG M Stevens
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=It was generally thought that Sir Florian Eustace had come Our unnamed narrator is about to regret begin a train journey with his marriage companion Django. Where they're going and what the purpose of this journey is, is uncertain. Django found the tickets ''on the floor somewhere'' and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not? Not much else is clear either - but he didnwe are probably in the past as the pair travel to the station by coach and the train is a steam locomotive.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It't live long enough s unusual for this anyone from the Hardie family to become a problemapproach the police. After his death, his wife, Lizzie - still only Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in her late teens - was in possession prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a very valuable diamond necklace missing person is buried and who was determined that she would not hand it over to responsible for her husband's executorsdeath. She was adamant that Sir Florian had given This person, he promises, 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 her absolutely, although serve the precise circumstances remainder of the giving varied from telling his sentence and to tellingget an early parole date. Lady Eustace was not a woman Not much to whom truth meant a great deal. ask, is it? All The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that was important to her now, she maintained, was her son. And, of course, her diamondsDS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529047315Thea Lenarduzzi|title=The Lamplighters|author=Emma StonexTower
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=''A fisherman told him once about How unctuous are the sea having two faces. You have to take them both, he said, the good and the badfats of another's life, and never turn your back on either one of them.how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''.
In 1972this compelling novel, fifteen miles off Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the coast identity of CornwallT, three men disappeared without trace from The Maiden Rock Lighthouse in 'the protagonist of this tale. Just as T's story is being told, the frigid pause between Christmas and New Year''. Jory Martin had taken out story of a relief keepersecond protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the weather such that ''daughter of a wealthy family in the boat [was] rocking and bobbing like 19th century, who died of tuberculosis after being locked in a bath toy over the waveletstower, captures T's imagination. Annie' but they were unable s fate is, above all, an enticing story to get any response from the Maiden RockT. It was broken into the next dayis a story which she consumes avariciously, but there was no sign of the men. The table was set for both in a meal quest for two - truth and knowledge, and in service of myth, fable and the clocks were stopped at 8.45. Contact with the light had not been possible as the radio was brokenfantasy. No explanation was ever found for what happened to the men.|isbn=1804271799
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Mary H K ChoiClaire-Louise Bennett|title=YolkBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=4.5|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary= Jayne Baek Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a fashion student that's barely getting by. She drinks. She smokeskiss, usually a symbol of intimacy and closeness, becomes evidence of love lost. She makes bad decisions about When the men she sleeps with. Shenarrator cries out internally, ''s an all-round messy character; come over here and that's her charm. Junekiss me, on the other hand, is a complete contrast to Jayne. She's a typical older sister: she's smart, thinks she knows it all, and has is less an invitation than a successful job. She constantly criticises Jayne for desperate attempt to confirm her life choices, and the two have barely kept in contact despite living in the same city for the past two yearsemotional numbness. This The imagined recipient of this plea is until June finds out she's sickXavier, her ex-partner, and Jayne is the only person a ghost she can turn conjures to. The two sisters have to come together and decide how far they'll go to save each other's lives – even if it means swapping identitiestest her detachment.|isbn= 03490036961804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Saima Mir0008405026|title=The KhanA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Jia Khan has alway lived by the motto be twice as good as men and four times as good as white men. This has served her well in her rise through the criminal justice system and by the time she is called home for her sisterIt's wedding after fifteen sixteen years in selfsince nine-year-imposed exile, she is at the top of old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her gamebed one summer night. Returning She was never found and the investigation ground to the city of a halt. Now, her birthmother, to old scars and fresh woundsHelena, Jia must confront her past and reconcile her visions for father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the future with positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her sense of honour boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and duty-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|isbn=1786079097
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008336830Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Two Wrongs|author=Mel McGrathThe Other Girl|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersAutobiography|summary=Sondra was on her way home after work when she saw a young woman looking as though she was going to jump ''We were born from the Clifton suspension bridgesame body. She talks I've never really wanted to her, think about this.'' Ernaux's work is always very candid and Sondra finally persuades Satnam to call her best friend and flatmatetone transparent, Nevis Smith. Nevis is unworldly and rather reserved - and she canbut this raw epistolary text must be one of the most intimate accounts I't understand why Satnam hasn't shared her problems with her. She thought they shared everythingve read. Satnam is taken Ernaux writes in direct address to hospital and Nevis calls her mothersister, Honorhowever, this letter will never reach her. TheyWhy? Because Annie Ernaux've not been on good terms since s sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a discovery Nevis few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and 2 years before the previous summer author was even born. The large and instant void created by the jarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in her life, an absence that she has always felt but right now, Nevis needs her motheroften denied.|isbn=1804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Andrea Bajani Maxim Gorky and Elizabeth Harris Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=If You Kept a Record Reminiscences of SinsTolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionBiography|summary=This was an incredibly readable novellaBiographies are often seen as the 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 perspective, but one that left me and offers a little conflicted. We start as our hero arrives at Bucharest airportvibrant, and before we even know subjective yet informed portrait of three of his gender or literary contemporaries. In the nature first section of the person he's addressing in his second person monologue of a narrationthis book, we see him picked up by Tolstoy complains to his motherfriend Gorky that: 's chauffeur'you write not of real life as it is, and carted off but of what you yourself imagine it to do all the necessary introductions before said mother is buried the following daybe. The mother was a businesswomanWhom would it help to know how I see this tower, that sea, who clearly left northern Italy and settled in Romania with her (nightor that Tartar -time and business) partnerwhy should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''. Well, and feelings of abandonment are still strong. And so we flit Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from current (well, this came out in the original Italian in 2007, so moderately current) Bucharesta subjective account, giving us access to the lad's childhoodhow he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and see just what he has to tell her as a private farewell addressAndreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=19398109651804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jane Lightbourne1529077745|title= My Cat Called RedThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating= 4.5|genre=Emerging ReadersCrime|summary= Robin has red hair. He hates itA man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, and the freckles that go along with ita care home for troubled teens. He's been bullied and mocked at school because The dead man was Josh - one of it. ''Ginger Minger! Carrots!'' Kids are meanthe care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. But red hair D I Vera Stanhope is not Robin's called in to investigate the murder - but her only misery in lifeclue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. He Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's already lost his dad to a mountaineering accident when his mum gets ill and is taken into hospitaldiary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She doesn't come home againknows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.|isbn= 1838216812
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B003L7TDMUOlga Tokarczuk|title=Phineas Finn|author=Anthony TrollopeHouse of Day, House of Night|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Phineas Finn is ''What's the son good of Dr Malachi Finn, a successful doctor world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in Killaloe in County Clareit?'' The title of this spellbinding work, ''House of Day, who sent his son to London to train as a lawyer. PhineasHouse of Night''s interest is more in making influential friends than in becoming a lawyer and one , somewhat reflects this notion of themshifting realities - the small, Barrington Erlesubtle changes which govern our lives, suggests that he runs for Parliament in like the forthcoming election. His father is not entirely in favour of this as members are not remunerated and it would be up shift from day to him to provide financial support for his son as well as funding his electionnight, however quotidian, causing chaos. One of But, the doctor's patients constant in that image is Lord Tulla who the house, stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls the borough of Loughshane and by this stroke of luck Finn how it is, eventually, elected by a small marginperceived.|isbn=1804271918
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|isbn=18385950311836284683|title=Crooked: Honest CriminalityThe Big Happy|author=Bronwen JohnDavid Chadwick
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersDystopian Fiction|summary=The con had seemed like Well! This is a good one: tricking people into buying artwork supposedly by the new Banksy - and they should have made a decent profit from murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it. The problem was they were too successful: one of the marks had bought when I open a few and then discovered that they were valueless. Henry Martin Holmes had fallen for a simple con and his fatherbook, celebrity criminal Harry Holmesit's nothing like I expected it to be, was determined that he and his family could not lose face like it takes me on a wild ride. And that. is just what happened with ''The grifters were going to pay. Ashia Big Happy'Ash' Cox and Max . I don'Coloradot want to ruin a similar experience for any of you reading but I' Ying needed ll have to be got out of at least set the countryscene. In the course of bringing this about, Luke Gaines, AshOnce that's foster fatherdone, lost his lifeI think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.
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|author=Hayley WebsterSally Rooney|title=Luna Rae is Not Alone|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Luna Rae has just moved house. Moving house is always tricky, but especially when you're ten years old, and you miss your old home, and you and your little sister have to start a new school but your mum seems to be out working all the time. Then there's your dad, who doesn't seem like he's coping so well, and so there's no one to take care of things but you. Everything feels different and strange, and mysterious, and so Luna finds a way of coping is by watching. She turns detective and starts keeping an eye on her new neighbourhood, but it turns out she's not the only one keeping watch!|isbn=1788006046}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B003A6W0FO|title=Can You Forgive Her?|author=Anthony TrollopeIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=On the surface ''Can You Forgive Her?'' looks deceptively simple: it's Sally Rooney has studied the story chessboard of one woman life and two men who are vying with each other for her love. Alice Vavasor was originally engaged to her cousin, George Vavasor but she broke off that engagement and later became engaged to John Grey. When we first meet Alice she's on an extended tour is something of the continent with George Vavasor and his sister Katea grandmaster at putting it into words. It's obvious that there's still a great deal of chemistry between John Her dialogue is gripping and Alice - and Kate is all for encouraging the relationship so brilliantly frustrating, as it would tie Alice to hercharacters never quite say exactly what they feel. George wants Alice but it's a matter of ''amour propre'' rather than love: he has little consideration Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for anyone other than himself and readers to unravel is the original engagement had fallen through because of his infidelity fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and deceitfulnessPeter Koubek. This thread is the story of Ivan, a very complicated love affair and socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a woman who lacks confidence successful lawyer living in her own judgementDublin. You might not like Alice to start Following their father's passing after a long battle with but you will warm to hercancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469
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|authorisbn=Hannah Gold1836285493|title=The Last BearDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=April's fatherWill is a keen player of video games, a scientistconscientious student, has been given a job on slightly annoying brother and a remote island called Bear Islandsupportive friend. But most of all, and he accepts the job deciding to take is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his daughter April with him. They live alone anywayschool, since April's mother died some time beforeMarlowe Park, and one at which he feels it will be educational for her to experience the island and all its natural beautyexcels. April already has an affinity with natureThis hasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and she's excited to travel with her father, thinking of all the fun things they will be able has suggested to experience together on the island. But when they get there, her father finds that his work monitoring Will and recording the temperatures just takes up too much of his time, and so April is left to explore by herself. Her father had reassured her mum that there were no longer any bears living on Bear Island, but one day April thinks she catches he spends a glimpse couple of oneafternoons a week at a different school, and so she sets out to find the BearStation Road, and then when she sees he is injured, to befriend and help himwhere his ability might be better extended.|isbn=000841128X
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=14722761401009473085|title=What Will Burn (Inspector McLean)The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=James OswaldAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=When Cecily SlaterSometimes it's body was found, shesimpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''d already been dead for a week The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - in a house fire in deserted woodland near Edinburgh14 Wasted Years?''. Heavy rain had washed away most of If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the evidence, but DI Tony McLean, demoted and just returned from suspensioninside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, is reluctant to accept that then this is nothing more than a careless accidentisn't the book for you. There were indications If that Slater had been savagely's what you're looking for, almost ritualistically beaten before the fireI don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. But It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who would hate thinks Johnson should return to politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a ninetygovernment has made and co-yeareditor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-old woman to established format: a series of experts from various fields review the extent state of doing something like the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that? She was a virtual recluse: who could she have upset to that extent?occurred and the situation in 2024.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=000845552XJenny Valentine|title=Where Ravens Roost|author=Karin NordinUs in the Before and After|rating=45|genre=CrimeTeens|summary=Inspector Kjeld Nygaard had been estranged from his father, StenarElk and Mab are best friends, for or more than a decade but when he got the rather muddled phone call from him saying that he'd seen even, their friendship is a murder once in the barn a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on his land he didna trip out but unfortunately they don't hesitate to drop everything and go to Varsund. Actually, get each other'drop everything' rather overstates s contact details at the situationtime. Nygaard was on suspension following the shooting of a suspect in the Aubuchon murder enquiryBut then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. There had been a complication: the Kattegat Killer turned out to be Nils Hedin Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, Nygaard's best friend. Stilland their friendship, the ten-hour drive from Gothenburg in the south of Sweden to Varsund in the far north shouldn't be underestimatedtogether.|isbn=1471196585
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