134,828
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchno 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=Maria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)|title=The Disappearing Act|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Despite her anonymisation of place names and people, Stepanova's message in this short work of autofiction is unmistakable. A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to the town of F for a literary festival she is to be a guest speaker at. Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by forces beyond her control, her journey slowly bends toward a traveling circus. Swept up in this series of events, M eventually offers to step in for a circus performer who has unexpectedly left the show. The train functions as a motif of transience and impermanence, while the circus embodies the reshaping of identity and a retreat into fantasy, an impulse that lies at the very heart of the novel form itself.|isbn=17876348841804272329}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0GFQ81YQK|title=How the Sky and the Earth Made People: From the Oral Stories of Malagasy Elders|author=Stephanie Zabriskie|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary= Before people came and joined the animals, there was only the sky and the earth. Everything was quiet until the earth and the sky began to tal to each other. First, the earth created bodies. And then, the sky breathed life into them. These were the first humans and they belonged to both earth and sky. And so people lived between sky and soil and they planted and learned and remembered, especially how they came to be. When they grew old and died, their bodies returned to the earth and their life returned to the sky. And that is why the earth and the sky are both revered. Only together can they create human beings. And that is why people must pay attention to, and care for, both.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0GHPMNF6P|title=The HerdZookeeper's Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups|author=Emily EdwardsCarolyn Mathews|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary= When Phil's father unexpectedly dies, he quits his Canary Wharf finance job to take over the running of the family's farm zoo. He'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 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 Oral Stories of Maasai Elders
|rating=5
|genre=General Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Our story opens ''How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows is a children’s nonfiction book drawn from the oral traditions of Maasai elders in December 2019Ngorongoro, before most of us had even heard of Covid or realised that whether or not we should be vaccinated would come Tanzania.'' The Maasai are a cattle-herding people and this story writes down its oral tradition explaining how they came to be a major issueso. WeCattle are status and wealth in Maasai culture but this doesn're in Farley County Courtt tell the whole story of the intimate and symbiotic connection its people, where Elizabeth and Jack Chamberlain are facing Bryony especially its women, have with their cows and Ash Kohlifor the natural world. As they were best friends until just a few months ago we know that whatever has happened is major and that, regardless of The oral tradition retelling the outcomemany conversations Maasai women have had with their cows, this is not going to work out well for anyonedoes.|isbn=B0G9WTGY6J
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Annabel AbbsLivi Michael|title=The Language of FoodElizabeth and Ruth|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Eliza Acton ''Elizabeth and Ruth'' is a poet who has never had 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 slightest inclination to boil an eggworking class published under a pseudonym. When tasked with writing The ''Ruth'' from Livi Michael's title appears in her novel as Pasley, a cookery book, she recruits Ann Kirby, young Irish prostitute who was abandoned as a local woman with child and finds herself in Manchester's New Bailey Prison after a troubled home difficult and unjust hand at life. TogetherSet in Manchester between 1839 and 1842, they test, craft, refine and reshape the world of domestic cookery, reinventing novel examines the harsh conditions endured by the recipe book Victorian working poor and changing interrogates the face of cookery writing foreverextent to which the wealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices.|isbn=13985022271784633682
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Louie StowellMakenna Goodman|title=Loki: A Bad God's Guide to Being GoodHelen of Nowhere
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Meet LokiIt 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. The trickster god has got into trouble againprotagonist, so a disgraced professor on the other gods have decided there's only one thing for it – he must be banishedbrink of losing both his career and his relationship, embodies this feeling. And transformed – for Loki However, Goodman counteracts his discomfort with a force which is spending a month both in exile seductive, radical and unnerving: Helen. The connection between Helen and in the physical form protagonist is indirect yet intimate. As the former owner of a middle-school kid here on Earth. Hethe countryside house he's guarded by considering, Helen represents a giant and a god volta in disguise as his parentslife, her past tied to his potential fresh start. The realtor who shows the protagonist around the house shares stories about Helen, and Thor has come along describes her as well''an entity that is pure consciousness, to be beyond form''. Although she lives in an assisted living facility now, Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the more suave, more popular and more successful brother of reader gets the twosense are not altogether innocuous. Loki has a month |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 redeem his reputationhold their positions. With 'celebrities', and get his moral compass pointing the right way againthere's frequently a book they might or might not have written, which might or elsemight not tell the true story. It's not often that you find a book that gives the full backstory, and to prove it he has to write rarely do you discover a memoir where the text we read in a sentient notebooktelling is so perfect that you'll go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, that just for the pleasure the words give. ''Why My Mother Went Away'' is able to cry foul one of those rare exceptions. It's the story of his lieshow a boy from the Midlands, and judge his progress. But Loki is born at the kind beginning of god who insists he can do anythingthe Second World War, so surviving would become a bit more virtuously for a month is going to be a walk in Professor of Psychology at Dundee University. In fact, he was one of the founders of the park..department.right?|isbn=1406399752
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008454442Jeremy Cooper|title=A Flicker in the Dark|author=Stacy WillinghamDiscord|rating=43.5|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=It's May 2019 and Dr Chloe DavisDiscord: a lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas) The principal example of discord within the novel, a medical psychologistas with most instances of discord, is completing a session with a new patienteasily located. Lacey is suffering mentally but Chloe has hopes The two protagonists of getting her through the traumanovel, Rebekah Rosen and Evie Bennet, are as different as they come. You seeRebekah is an uptight, Chloe knows what it's like traditional and no-nonsense composer close to have retirement, while Evie is a traumatic childhood. Her father is Richard Davisforce of nature, bounding onto the man who murdered six girls some twenty years agomusical scene as a precocious saxophonist, oozing with talent and charm. Their bodies have never been found but Chloe found some jewellery belonging The two, predictably, don't always see eye to the girls - trophies taken from eye, their bodies - tucked away in a cupboard approaches different and Evie's progressive views at home and she and her mother handed it to the police. Dick Davis is in the Louisiana State Penitentiary and Chloie has had nothing to do odds with him for the last twenty yearsRebekah's conservative leaning. Her mother is in However, something connects them beyond just their musical project: a care homesort of fragile alliance formed within the clamour.|isbn=1804272264
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Christopher EdgeTom Percival|title=Escape RoomThe Wrong Shoes|rating=35
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=IWill've seen junior variants s life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes'Choose Your Own Adventure, 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' format cover escape rooms – t work because he lost his job at the process by which college, was working a character or characters start by being trapped cash-in -hand job on a specific locationbuilding site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and have to solve problems Will's life seems bleak in order to get their way outevery direction. What I've not done (alongside experience one for myself – for that would require actual friends) is seen And yet, he still has a prose book describing people in such an adventure, with the regular second person narrative replaced by the firsttiny amount of hope. Here He is good at art, Ami and four other tweenagers, all new clings to each other and booked into the game without any moments of their friendsjoy when he is drawing, are that feel like a team – starting out light at the game's main officesend of a long, where they're told they and their quest for The Answer are a world-changerdark tunnel. But could watching people engage with such a pastime, despite the ramped-up threat levels, change much in the world of literature?|isbn=17880079641398527122
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1732898731Edward W Said|title=The Boy Who Loved Boxes: A Children's Book for Adults|author=Michael Albanese Representations of the Intellectual
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestylePolitics and Society|summary=There was Edward Said's ''Representations of the Intellectual'' is less a Boy who loved boxes. He had strict theory of what intellectuals are and more a box passionate argument for everything and he was meticulous about storage: his parents probably couldn't believe their luck! It began with art supplies, stuffed toys and the like: all the things which most children have in abundancewhat they should be. The Boy's delight was in Said clearly rejects the sense comfortable image of order in his room: it made him feel happythe intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to other specialists. As Instead, he grew up and became insists on the intellectual as a Manpublic figure, often awkward, abrasive, his life became more complicated and he dealt with this by getting bigger and better boxes. Look carefully at the pictures and you'll see that one of them has a padlock..unpopular, who speaks truth to power even when it is inconvenient or risky.|isbn=1804272248
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09MN1526WSylvie Cathrall|title=Blood Games (DS Nikki Parekh 4)|author=Liz MistryA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=It's the third murder in the space of There are few greater joys than a few weeks and they've all been because of machetes used on teenagers. DS Nikki Parekh and DC Sajid Malik are amongst the first book which lives up to arrive on the scene at Chellow Dene Reservoir on the outskirts of Bradforda compelling premise. Only, And this time, it's going to be different. The body appears to Nikki to be that is one of her beloved nephew, Haqib, and she has a very public meltdown. It isn't Haqib: there are similarities but the body is clad in designer clothes and comes from an obviously monied background. What it does mean though is that Nikki is going to be on sick leave for some time with anxiety and depressionthem.|isbn= 0356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Ally Wilkes1786482126|title=All the White SpacesThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=HorrorCrime|summary=In postBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -WWI England, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Arctic expedition led by the famous Australis Randallsite was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. For Jonathan, There was no skull. Was this adventure represents a chance for a fresh startritual killing or murder? Inevitably, and the opportunity to live life Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as his authentic self and true genderRuth knows, without the disapproval and constraints of his parents. However, Jonathan isnbut Nelson doesn't the only one fleeing the confines of , that she is pregnant with his past and the shadow child as a result of the war hangs like a funeral shroud over the expeditionone night they spent together some three months ago. Guilt, mistrust and grief stalk the party and, when disaster strikes and they are forced to overwinter on land Her condition will be obvious before long, a menacing presence waits to prey on their darkness. If Jonathan not least because Ruth is prone to make it out sudden bouts of the Arctic winter alive, he will have to face his demons once and for all, or risk making the barren, icy landscape his tombsickness.|isbn=1789097835
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Dean Koontz0008551375|title=QuicksilverWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=24.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Meet Quinn Quicksilver. HeLeanne Wilson's not had body was found at the chance to get to be bottom of a mercurial character yetScottish mountain, for heseemingly the result of a tragic accident. She's lived in a nun-run orphanage since he was a three-day old foundlingd looked so happy, too, and now is starting a career when she posted her intentions on a needless magazine's staffFacebook. But when this book starts he IS now ''subject to sudden or unpredictable changes Her friends were relieved as she was just out of mood or mind''an unpleasant relationship, for something – call but it unearthly intuition, call looked like she was living her best life now. Then it mind-control, call it a supernatural urge – has demanded of him emerged that he go to a derelict dinerfive other women had died in similar circumstances in the last year. All were experienced climbers, find a gold coin worth a fortune, cash the value of it out properly equipped for what they were doing and sensible people. None of his bank and prepare for going on the lam'what a stupid thing to do' explanations applied. And They were all this alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is just in time for two of those typical Men in Black types to turn up and suggest hecertain there's of interest to them. Helped to escape, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances of him acting without being in control, a killer on the discovery that he is not unique in having some kind of burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besidesloose.|isbn=1542019885
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008441618Paul B Preciado|title=Other Parents|author=Sarah StovellDysphoria Mundi|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionPolitics and Society|summary=Jo Fairburn knew that she was under intense pressure as ''It is never too late to embrace the new head revolutionary optimism of West Burntridge First School: if she didnchildhood''t live up Through this hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to her retired predecessor there could well be the new generation, a house price slump new feeling mechanism in that part which detachment is not considered a sign of political apathy. Rather, it is the proportional, valid response to ''the epistemological and political crack we are living through, and the towntension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The school had an active Parent Teacher Association and whole text is framed against the backdrop of the funds Covid-19 pandemic as that which they raised were has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a considerable benefit to the school. There was one difficultyglobal scale, though - they were or as ''devastatingly shockablepangea covidica''. Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of weakness, with two members, in particularor mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, causing problems for the head. Laura Spence and Kate Monroe objected Preciado urges his readers to Jo's restrictions on the toys children could bring in on Toy Day but that was just a warm-up act for their real gripe: LGBTQ education'use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.|isbn=1804271454
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sarah Ann JuckesSamantha Harvey|title=The Hunt for the NightingaleOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Jasper is a little boy who has some strugglesIn 2024, and whilst weSamantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital''re never told why exactly, we can see a compact yet profound work that he has anxiety and panic attacks, and has difficulty dealing with change and big emotions. His big sister, Rosie, has been unfolds over a huge support to him, talking him down when things were difficult, encouraging him, and writing single day in the lives of a book with him, all about birds, that he can read when he gets scared to help him calm downgroup of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. His parents seem completely caught up in their business, and so it is Rosie he always turns to. Even though she has gone away to University now, she has promised him Through a narrative lens that she will still be there when he needs her. But now he canmirrors the astronauts't find Rosie. She hasn't come home when she said she wouldorbital perspective, and she isn't answering her phone. His parents won't speak Harvey invites readers to him or when they do, he doesn't understand or take see our planet in what they're saying. Nothing seems to be right, and the only way he feels he can find any peace is if he can find Rosie, and if they can find the nightingale and listen to its song, as they do together every Springa wholly new light.|isbn=13985108901529922933
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Antoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and Jane Aitken (translator)295967572X|title=Red is My HeartPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction |summary=[[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and white and read in my house. And so was what the purpose of this onejourney is, although I could have spelled that more accurately – this one was, and is, black and white and reduncertain. Yes, he has an artistic collaborator Django found the tickets ''on this piece, the floor somewhere'' and I think it's possible has persuaded our narrator to say accompany him. Why not one page lacks ? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the past as the influence of some striking visual ideaspair travel to the station by coach and the train is a steam locomotive.|isbn=1913547183
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15291355670008551324|title=One Step Too FarThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Lisa GardnerNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's five years since unusual for anyone from the stag weekendHardie family to approach the police. Five Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of them had set out: Tim (the groom) a missing person is buried and his four groomsmen, Scot, Miguel (who was usually called Miggy)responsible for her death. This person, Neil he promises, is someone big and Joshit will be worth the police doing what he wants. The first night they had plenty And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of alcohol - too much really - his sentence and in the night Scot managed to wander offget an early parole date. The remaining four searched for him in vain and Not much to ask, is it was decided that Tim, who was experienced in survival techniques, would go for help. ? When help didnThe new Deputy Police Constable doesn't come the remaining three finally made their way back to town. Scott followed soon after but there was no sign of Tim. Every year, Timthink so and she's father, Martin, and the four friends have been back even prepared to continue do the search although they do now acknowledge other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that theyDS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what're looking for 'remains' rather than for Tims happening.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Gunnar Staalesen1035043092|title=Bitter FlowersThe Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Varg Veum is a Norwegian Private Investigator I can't have been the only person who has just finished was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a stint in rehab and is now returning to worknew life on Orkney. However It's been seven years since we heard from him, the quiet job but he's supposedly taken on caretaking someonenow living with Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the daughter of his former partner. Willow's house quickly turns into a murder investigationalso his boss, and a mystery around a missing woman. Varg finds himself not only investigating theseshe ''should'' be on maternity leave, but also looking into an old, cold case when the body of an eight year old girl who disappeared one night and was never found. Somehowa popular islander, these disparate cases appear to be linkedArchie Stout, but what is found, in the linkaftermath of a storm, and how she can Varg possibly unravel 't resist getting involved. He'd been battered about the truth?|isbn=191319308Xhead with a Neolithic stone - one of a pair - which had been stolen from a museum.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Kia AhankoobThea Lenarduzzi|title=The Gold Lion and the Tournament of SentinelsTower|rating=45|genre=Graphic NovelsLiterary Fiction|summary= When Myriad created Duniva he endowed his children with different powers, each with its own strength and weakeness, in ''How unctuous are the hope they would complement each other and collaborate, creating a dynamic and prosperous society. Each power is contained within a magical ring belonging to one fats of eight countries led by Myriadanother's children and life, how dizzying their descendants. But it didnsugars in our bloodstream''t quite work out like that. Rivalries developed. Enmities grew out In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of them and T, the eight countries went to warprotagonist of this tale. Having fought themselves into an endless and ruinous stalemate and finding Just as T's story is being told, the cost story of war too high, a solution second protagonist is proposed. Each unveiled: Annie, the daughter of a wealthy family in the eight countries will send their greatest warriors19th century, who died of tuberculosis after being locked in a tower, captures T's imagination. Annie's fate is, known as sentinelsabove all, an enticing story to T. It is a single combat tournament. The winner will take possession story which she consumes avariciously, both in a quest for truth and knowledge, and in service of all the rings myth, fable and become the supreme ruler of Dunivafantasy. |isbn=B09MMQJFPV1804271799
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alastair Chisholm and Eric DeschampsClaire-Louise Bennett|title=Dragon Storm: Tomas and IronskinBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Meet Tomas. Happy to work with his father Everything in the blacksmith's forgethis book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, he's almost of the age to become is steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a full apprenticekiss, usually a symbol of intimacy and help with the new batch of dragonswords is certainly needed. Not that there are any dragonscloseness, becomes evidence of course – they vanished centuries ago. Except.love lost.. Strange signals from within When the forge furnacenarrator cries out internally, ''come over here and kiss me,'' it is less an invitation than a peculiar invite desperate attempt to become an apprentice clerk instead, are things for Tom to puzzle over – until it all comes out in the wash, that yes dragons do still exist in confirm her emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of this world, and that Tom plea is rare in the ability to summon themXavier, share magical attributesher ex-partner, and ride with them..a ghost she conjures to test her detachment.|isbn=18399400261804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15293465410008405026|title=Something to Hide: An Inspector Lynley NovelA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Elizabeth GeorgeJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's late July sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and Deborah St James is at the investigation ground to a meeting with Dominique Shawhalt. Now, Undersecretary for the school systemher mother, a representative from the NHS, Mr Oh from BarnardosHelena, someone from Orchid House whose name she didn't catch but would later turn out to be Zawadi and Narissa Cameronher father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a filmmaker. It follows on from the success of Deborahstraightforward murder/suicide but there's book ''London Voices'': something about the meeting is an exploration positioning of the possibility of the idea behind the book being used bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to highlight be an area which open-and-shut case is causing concern in some communitiesnow a complex double murder. DeborahKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's uncertain about quite how successful she could be disappearance: others (such as the problem seems to occur in Nigerian and Somali communities as she relies on getting the trust of the people she speaks to and photographsDerwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09Q3P283YAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Shadebringer|author=Grayson W HooperThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyAutobiography|summary=Clyde Robbins signs up for the US Army during ''We were born from the Vietnam Warsame body. HeI's not ve never really that invested in the fight against Communism, nor is he particularly interested in a career in the militarywanted to think about this. If he'' Ernaux's honest - which Clyde usually work isalways very candid and her tone transparent, with himself at least - he hasn't got many choices and but this raw epistolary text must be one, at least, gets him out of the rut hemost intimate accounts I's ve read. Ernaux writes indirect address to her sister, however, this letter will never reach her. HeWhy? Because Annie Ernaux's good sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in training France, and is quickly put onto a non commissioned officer training course2 years before the author was even born. HeThe large and instant void created by the jarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's chuffed process of reckoning with himselfthis giant absence in her life, an absence that she has always felt but often denied.|isbn=1804271845
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Lucy Strange Maxim Gorky and Pam SmyBryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=The Mermaid in the MillpondReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersBiography|summary=There is no mermaid in Biographies are often seen as the millpondform of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. That at least is what Bess is telling herselfI think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. Neither will there be a friend for her in amongst all In the other kidsfirst section of this book, who have had their entire childhoods sold Tolstoy complains to the mill-owners by the London workhouse they used his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is, but of what you yourself imagine it to call homebe. Bess knows there is no time for friendship in a hand-Whom would it help toknow how I see this tower, that sea, or that Tartar -mouthwhy should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''. Well, every man for himself kind of existence. But despite herself Bess does find Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a bit of a kindred spirit in the slight little Dotsubjective account, and despite everything that life has taught her about betrayal and giving us access to how befriending people only leads to harmhe saw Tolstoy, there might be a glimmer of companionship Chekhov and Andreyev in the tired-out mill workers. But surely such privileged detail that doesn't mean there is any truth in the existence one almost feels unworthy of the mermaid?it.|isbn=180090049X1804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17856330741529077745|title=Staggering HubrisThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Josh BerryAnn Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=HumourCrime|summary=Members A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of Parliament like us to believe that a man in the country is run by politicianspark near Rosebank, headed by the Prime minister a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the ''primus inter pares'' (that's for those of you care workers who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) was due to work a shift the night before but the reality is that the ''prime'' movers are the special advisers - the SPADS - who are the driving force behind the governmenthad never turned up. We are D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the privileged position of having access to murder - but her only clue is the memoirs disappearance of Rafe Hubris, the man who was behind the skilful control one of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. You might not know Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the name now death but he will certainly be Vera thinks this is unlikely as the man girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to watchJosh.
}}
{{Frontpage
|rating=5
|genre=CraftsLiterary Fiction|summary=''Starting What's the good of a creative business has never been easier.world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in it?''
The title of this spellbinding work, ''If not nowHouse of Day, when?House of Night'' I know that I'm not alone in having wondered whether or not I could turn my hobby into a business. There's a lot , somewhat reflects this notion of motivation to do so: I make more items than we can sensibly use and there are a lot of people who have been delighted to accept what I make as gifts. Selling would offset shifting realities - the costssmall, subtle changes which can be quite considerable and it could be fun govern our lives, like the shift from day to donight, however quotidian, couldn't it? causing chaos. But where to start? What do I need to think about? Well, the first thing anyone who constant in that image is considering turning a crafting hobby into a business should do the house, stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is to read ''Making a Living''perceived.|isbn=1804271918
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Freya Marske1836284683|title=A Marvellous LightThe Big Happy|author=David Chadwick|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Dystopian Fiction|summary=Robin Blyth Well! This is nudged into a job in the Civil Servicemurder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when I open a book, much it's nothing like I expected it to his chagrinbe, and it takes me on a wild ride. There he meets Edwin Courcey and learns And that the streets of London are threaded is just what happened with magic''The Big Happy''. Desperate I don't want to remove ruin a curse that threatens similar experience for any of you reading but I'll have to swallow him, Robin follows Edwin to the countryside, where the hedgegrows bristle with incantations and at least set the people shimmer with powerscene. There they uncover a sinister plot Once that threatens the lives of all magicians in the British Isles's done, I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself. |isbn=1529080886
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0241480442Sally Rooney|title=Healthy Vegan The Cookbook: Vegan Cooking Meets Nutrition Science|author=Niko Rittenau and Sebastian CopienIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=CookeryGeneral Fiction |summary=Emotionally, I am Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a vegangrandmaster at putting it into words. MentallyHer dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, I am a veganas her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. I read [[How Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World by Henry Mance]] unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and was appalled by the way in which we treat animals in our search for (preferably cheap) foodPeter Koubek. PracticallyIvan, I am not a vegan. It worked for a while apart from the odd blip socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with regard to cheese but then his older brother Peter, a perfect storm of those events which you hope don't occur too often successful lawyer living in your lifetime tempted me back to animal-based proteinDublin. It wasnFollowing their father't s passing after a long battle with cancer, the taste - I know that I can get plant-based food that tastes just as good as anything plundered from the animal kingdom - it was the ease of being able to get sufficient protein when meals were often snatched in a few spare momentsbrothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=suppl_stafl1836285493|title=Supply Chain 20/20: A Clear View on the Local Multiplier Effect for Book LoversThe Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Kim StaflundRob Keeley|rating=4.5|genre=ReferenceConfident Readers|summary=SoWill is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, you've finished writing your book a slightly annoying brother and you think the hard work is a supportive friend. But most of all done? You're convinced that all you need to do now , he is get it published and the money will start rolling in? Wrong and wrong againan aspiring writer. You presumably wrote the book because you wanted to - English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and you had a talent for delivering the written word. You knew your subject back to frontone at which he excels. Now youThis hasn're going to have to get to grips with the book supply chaint gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, which even parts of the publishing industry believe and she has suggested to be wrong but it's too difficult to change Will and no one wants to be the first to try. Then, when you ''finally'' have his mum that he spends a copy couple of the book in your handsafternoons a week at a different school, Station Road, you're going to have to work out how to sell it - because it ''is'' going to where his ability might be down to youbetter extended.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=13987069061009473085|title=The LostConservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Simon BeckettAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=45|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=The disappearance of Metropolitan police firearms officer, Jonah ColleySometimes it's young son, Theo, just about finished him, particularly as he blamed himself for simpler to explain a book by describing what had happenedit ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. HeIf you'd fallen asleep in re looking for an easy read which will deliver the park whilst Theo was playing and when he wokeinside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, Theo had gonethen this isn't the book for you. It cost him his marriage and his home. Ten years later heIf that's largely come through it and hewhat you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's out with his team when he gets a phone call from DS Gavin McKinneybook, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. Gavin used to be his best friend but itIt's a long time since they've spoken. He's obviously in some difficulty now - Jonah can hear it in his voice - compelling read and he asks Jonah should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to meet him at Slaughter Quaypolitics. ''ThereThe Conservative Effect's no one else I can trust'is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This 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, he saysthe changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Amanda MasonJenny Valentine|title=The Hiding Place|rating=3.5|genre=Horror|summary=Needing an escape from their turbulent life, Nell Galilee takes her husband and stepdaughter to Whitby, where they rent a cliffside holiday cottage by the name of Elder House. She hopes that it will be Us in the perfect place to sort things out. But there's something not quite right about Elder House. The atmosphere is unsettling Before and off – and before long Nell starts to suspect that she and her family aren't alone there…|isbn=1838771964}} {{Frontpage|author=Paul Cleave|title=The Quiet PeopleAfter
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeTeens|summary= I am not a fan of "the Prologue". Most books Elk and Mab are the worse for them. In this case I might make an exception. We start with Luca Pittman who best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a hurrylifetime connection. He has to hurry because he has They meet as children that he should not haveone day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and when he hurriesthey are inseparable. Something has happened though, when he bundles things into the back of his car something terrible and tries to run tragic, and then hears sirens behind himnow they must work through their grief, which he should not hear because this is New Zealand and that is not how they do things theretheir friendship, he takes a risk. It ends badlytogether.|isbn=19131939421471196585
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Will Carver1787333175|title=Psychopaths AnonymousYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=3.5|genre=ThrillersPopular Science|summary=Maeve 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 high functioning alcoholicglorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, drinking continuously humour and also, curiously, addicted to attending numerous AA groupsautobiography. She is also a self-acknowledged psychopath. Whilst analysing and critiquing the AA steps she is mainly using the groups ''You Don't Have to find targetsbe Mad...targets for sexual encounters, targets '' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to feed her desire to hear mental illness and the work of people's misery, and targets for her violent behavioura psychiatrist. Yet she also seems I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be searching looking for others who think as she does, and when she's unable to find like-minded people humour in any of this setting but the groups she decides to set up her own, hoping to encounter others who share similar obsessions, laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and thus Psychopaths Anonymous it is bornalways delivered with empathy and understanding.|isbn=1913193756
}}
