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==The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
{{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''
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 the new generation, a new feeling mechanism in 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 tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. The whole text is framed against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, or as ''pangea covidica''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews . Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a sign of books about weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to be published]]''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->|isbn=1804271454}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0008384983Samantha Harvey|title=The Paris Apartment|author=Lucy FoleyOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Things are not what they seemOrbital''. It was , a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a Friday and Jess Hadley was keen to get to her half-brother's flat single day in Paris. She'd come across from London on Eurostar, courtesy the lives of a group of astronauts aboard the money she'd stolen from The Pervert's till in the Copacabana Bar in BrightonInternational Space Station. It wasn't likely Through a narrative lens that mirrors the police would be on to her yet but sheastronauts'd like orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to be somewhere safe and with food and drink inside her. She'd phoned Ben and got the address - 12 Rue des Amants - and he told her that the apartment was on the third floor. She's outside what's obviously see our planet in a very upmarket building but she hasn't been able to get in touch with Benwholly new light.|isbn=1529922933
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0760373558295967572X|title=Nordic KnitsPale Pieces|author=Sue FlandersG M Stevens|rating=45|genre=CraftsLiterary Fiction|summary=I was so delighted by Sue FlandersOur unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they' [[Cozy Knits: 30 Hatre going and what the purpose of this journey is, Mitten, Scarf and Sock Projects from Around is uncertain. Django found the World by Sue Flanders|Cozy Knits]] that I didntickets 't need any persuading at all to pick up her ''Nordic Knitson the floor somewhere''and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. This delivers fortyWhy not? Not much else is clear either -four patterns inspired by textiles and local traditions from Norway, Sweden and Iceland. There but we are a few sweaters or jackets but probably in the majority of patterns are for smaller items such past as mittens, gloves, hats the pair travel to the station by coach and bags. All are bright and cheerful and very cosythe train is a steam locomotive.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=19160720380008551324|title=The House in the Hollow Devil You Know (The Talbot SagaD S Max Craigie)|author=Allie CresswellNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=We meet part of It's unusual for anyone from the Talbot Hardie family in Yorkshire in November 1811. Twenty-seven-year-old Jocelyn Talbot and her mother have travelled in some discomfort from their home at Ecklington, to approach the house in the hollowpolice. The two women are angry with each Neither side likes or has any respect for the other . But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and Jocelyn is well aware of her motherhe's strengths prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and weaknesses: ''She is practiced at subterfugewho was responsible for her death. This person, at concealing, beneath a facade of respectabilityhe promises, is someone big and it will be worth the deplorable truth''police doing what he wants. Hester And what he wants is furious about Jocelyn's refusal to do as she was askedbe transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, which has precipitated is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn''this violent t think so and unexpected removalshe''. Then we are told of s even prepared to do the birth of a child other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and, soon after, Hester Talbot departs, leaving Jocelyn in shame and isolation in Yorkshireanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Matthieu AikinsJon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=The Naked Don't Fear the WaterVaim|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyLiterary Fiction|summary=It's easy to forget at times that The Naked Don't Fear the Water isnAll was strange''t actually fiction, because it reads very much like a well-paced thriller at times... This is not by any means a criticismhaunting phrase encapsulates the pervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and at times painful journey. There are tense moments and gripping accounts Eline, two of border crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. But it's written with a haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the reader to perfectly envisage the environments and people describedprotagonists caught in its melancholic current.|isbn= B09N9157T61804271829
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger1035043092|title=Unhinged The Killing Stones (Volume 3) (Blix and RammJimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=This is I can't have been the third book in a series of stories featuring Alexander Blixonly person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a police officer, and Emma Ramm, a crime journalistnew life on Orkney. In this book It's been seven years since we find that when one of Blixheard from him, but he's colleaguesnow living with Willow Reeves and their young son, KovicJames, uncovers a connection between several Oslo casesas well as Cassie, she tries to contact her superior, Blixthe daughter of his former partner. Before Willow's also his boss, and she can reach him''should'' be on maternity leave, but when the body of a popular islander, howeverArchie Stout, she is murderedfound, and Blix's daughter Iselin who shares in the same apartmentaftermath of a storm, narrowly escapes being murdered tooshe can't resist getting involved. We then find ourselves He'd been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of a pair - which had been stolen from a few days later with Blix and Ramm, who are being interviewed by the National Criminal Investigation Service because Blix has shot and killed someone, and Ramm saw it all happenmuseum. What had Kovic discovered? And what did Blix and Ramm uncover that led to Blix killing someone?|isbn=1914585003
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{{Frontpage
|author=Daniel AbrahamThea Lenarduzzi|title=Age of AshThe Tower|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary= We meet Alys under ''How unctuous are the most northerly fats of Oldgateanother's four bridgeslife, she has a knife how dizzying their sugars in her hand and a meeting that she dreadsour bloodstream''. In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the protagonist of this tale. MeanwhileJust as T's story is being told, the City story of Kithamar a second protagonist is at unveiled: Annie, the daughter of a point wealthy family in the turning 19th century, who died of years when the worlds are at their thinnest and tuberculosis after being locked in a tower, captures T's imagination. Annie's fate is, above all things are possible, an enticing story to T. It is the night between the funeral of a Prince story which she consumes avariciously, both in a quest for truth and knowledge, and the coronation in service of his successormyth, fable and fantasy. For a night the Kithamar is un-ruled.|isbn=03565154271804271799
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529095522Claire-Louise Bennett|title=The Interview|author=C M EwanBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Kate Harding Everything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, is going for an interview for her dream job at Edge Communicationssteeped in anguish and distortion. It's the last interview Even a kiss, usually a symbol of the day at one of London's newest office buildings intimacy and Edge have fitted out their part closeness, becomes evidence of love lost. When the building to be something special. Maggienarrator cries out internally, Kate's recruitment agent'come over here and kiss me, '' it is keen less an invitation than a desperate attempt to see that Kate approaches the interview in a good state confirm her emotional numbness. The imagined recipient of mind: Kate assumes that this plea is because Maggie will get Xavier, her ex-partner, a decent bonus if Kate gets the job - and ghost she has conjures to admit that life has not been easy for test her recentlydetachment.|isbn=1804271934
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B097XNMCRK0008405026|title=The Blood Tide A Stranger in the Family (DS Max CraigieMaeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Neil LancasterJane Casey|rating=45
|genre=Crime
|summary=Loch Torridon ''is'' the back of beyond: thereIt's not even any light pollution which is why it sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the perfect place investigation ground to land illegal deliveries of drugsa halt. Jimmy McLeish thought that he was onto a nice little earnerNow, only to find that Maccaher mother, the man he thought he was working withHelena, is and her father are deadin their bed. His remains would never be foundInitially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. The delivery What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is hijacked by Davie and Callumnow a complex double murder. As Kerrigan is convinced that the story progresses weexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent'll get to know them quite wells boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor= B09NDJ77LMAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Me and My Shadow|author=Deborah StoneThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary= ''What happens when someone is pushed too far and they begin to lose their grip on reality? How would you cope if you felt that no one loved you? And how far would you go to be happy? Accompany Rachel as she tries to shake off We were born from the shadows of her past and attempts same body. I've never really wanted to repair decades worth of painthink about this.''
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529409659|title=The Locked Room Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (Dr Ruth Gallowaytranslator)|authortitle=Elly GriffithsReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=3.5|genre=CrimeBiography|summary=It was some time since her father had remarried but his wife was now keen to do some decorating and Dr Ruth Galloway volunteered to clear out her mother's belongings. She was intrigued by Biographies are often seen as the discovery form of a picture of her own house: life-writing which offers less colour; it was an old photographcan be seen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, taken in misty conditions and on offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the back it said first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: 'dawn 1963'you write not of real life as it is, some years before Ruth was bornbut of what you yourself imagine it to be. It was before her parents were married. When she returned Whom would it help to Norfolk she was determined to find out know how I see this tower, that sea, or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what was behind the photograph but Covid intervened and the country was in lockdownuse is it?''. Ruth and Kate are restricted to the cottage with Ruth attempting to home school Kate and continue with her university teaching duties. The good thing was meeting ZoeWell, the new tenant Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from next door whom they got a subjective account, giving us access to know whilst clapping for carershow he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|isbn=1804271977
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=18479418341529077745|title=Atomic HabitsThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=James ClearAnn Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. D I've said this before Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but there are some books that you seek outher only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, some books fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that you stumble across and some books that drop into your life because you really MUST read them, like, right now! ''Atomic Habits'' Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is in unlikely as the last categorygirl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B09MSC981WB0FK5LHKD9|title=The Woke IliadColour of Memory|author=George BoreasChristopher Bowden
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Helen is a popular activist. Or should It's been three years since we call her a popular influencer? Or perhaps last reviewed a popular franchise owner? Anywaybook by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, Helen is so popular that the United States government has made her its Ambassador of Wokewe were very glad to see a new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. Helen runs Like all sorts of initiatives on behalf of the governmentBowden's stories, including there's a mystery at the Shaming Conference and the Permissible Entertainment Committee - heart of ''The Colour of Money'for indoctrinating and legislating against summer fun for any who still knew how to have it'. We like this running theme in an author's work - take a mystery but give it different flavour and atmosphere each time. Ouch!
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{{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?'' The title of this spellbinding work, ''House of Day, House of Night'', somewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the small, subtle changes which govern our lives, like the shift from day to night, however quotidian, causing chaos. But, the constant in that image is the house, stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is perceived.|isbn=B09D95TRKZ1804271918}}{{Frontpage|isbn=henleyA|title=The Wedding MurdersUltimate Obsession|author=Sarah LinleyDai Henley|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Libby Steele was hoping to get Ex-DCI Andy Flood has been a permanent job with the newspaper Private Investigator for some time now, and the case she was covering was her big chancehe should be doing quite well financially. It was even more important to her than the celebrity wedding she was to attend the following day with her ex-rock star boyfriendUnfortunately, Matthewhis daughter's defence against a murder charge drained his savings. She was leaving her seven-year-old sonHis wife, Patrick with her sisterLaura, Emma, and heading off has been trying to persuade him to a grand manor house hotel in the North Yorkshire countrysideretire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. Daniel Acroyd, television presenter and former member of the rock band was marrying Vicky and Libby suspected that the wedding wasnThat's what 't ordinary people do','quite' He' as high-profile as had s not been suggested as there was no ban on photos or phonesentirely up front about the state of their savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to take his case, it's the thought of the money he could make that convinces him that this is a miscarriage of justice that he really should put right.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=18382268341836284683|title=Carried Away With the CarnivalThe Big Happy|author=Ed BoxallDavid Chadwick|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingDystopian Fiction|summary=It was one of those memories we treasure from our childhoods: an outing with our grandparents. They're there to undo all the good that parents do, so the trips out were always so much fun. A young boy was going to the carnival with his Grandad, who told him:Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other!
I do love it when I open a book, it''It'll s nothing like I expected it to be brilliant, and it takes me on a wild ride. And that is just remember, what happened with ''The Big Happy''. I don't let go want to ruin a similar experience for any of my handyou 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.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529135362Sally Rooney|title=The Long Weekend|author=Gilly MacmillanIntermezzo
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction |summary=It was a long drive to Sally Rooney has studied the weekend retreat in Northumbria, right up near the Scottish borders chessboard of life and to make is something of a grandmaster at putting it worse the three husbands had all - for one reason or another - had to delay making the trip until the Saturday morninginto words. Jane Her dialogue is gripping and Ruth had known each other for a long time but Emily was a bit of an outsiderso brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. She and Paul had married only relatively recently and she was ten years younger than Among the other two women. The friendship of many relationships woven into this story, the group went back central one for readers to school days. Paul had coached rugby at unravel is the school where Mark, Toby fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Rob were pupilsPeter Koubek. Mark had married JaneIvan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, and Toby is Rutha successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's husband. And Rob? Wellpassing after a long battle with cancer, Robthe brothers's deadalready strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=gareth_steel1036916375|title=Never Work With AnimalsJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Gareth SteelPeter McArdle
|rating=4
|genre=Animals and WildlifeAutobiography|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with 'Just a warning but with Liverpool Lad ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Stories is a collection of a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great memories and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not reflections from the companion volume you've been looking foryears Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. As Some are factual, such as the family history of a TV show sea-going family, with the author would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, as do other similar programmesdocks dominating lives. Gareth Steel says that Other stories blend seamlessly into the book is not suitable for younger readers and what-might- after reading have- I agree with himbeen. He says that he It's written it a book to inform settle into and provoke thoughtallow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, particularly amongst aspiring vetsdespite the blitz that was a constant factor in McArdle's early years. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues I'd never heard of parachute mines before - but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading they were almost soundless and eatingcould appear after the all-clear was sounded.
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17876348841836285493|title=The HerdDouble Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Emily EdwardsRob Keeley
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=Our story opens in December 2019Will is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, before a slightly annoying brother and a supportive friend. But most of us had even heard of Covid or realised that whether or not we should be vaccinated would come to be a major issueall, he is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one at which he excels. WeThis hasn're in Farley County Courtt gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, where Elizabeth and Jack Chamberlain are facing Bryony and Ash Kohli. As they were best friends until just a few months ago we know that whatever she has happened is major suggested to Will and his mum thathe spends a couple of afternoons a week at a different school, regardless of the outcomeStation Road, this is not going to work out well for anyonewhere his ability might be better extended.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Annabel Abbs1009473085|title=The Language of FoodConservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Historical FictionPolitics and Society|summary=Eliza Acton is Sometimes it's simpler to explain a poet who has never had the slightest inclination book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to boil ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an eggeasy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for you. When tasked with writing a cookery If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, she recruits Ann Kirby{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a local woman with 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 seventh book in a troubled home lifeseries which looks at the impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. Together, they test, craft, refine and reshape This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the world state of domestic cookerythe nation when the coalition took over in 2010, reinventing the recipe book changes that occurred and changing the face of cookery writing foreversituation in 2024.|isbn=1398502227
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{{Frontpage
|author=Louie StowellJenny Valentine|title=Loki: A Bad God's Guide to Being GoodUs in the Before and After|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=Meet Loki. The trickster god has got into trouble againElk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, so the other gods have decided there's only one thing for it – he must be banished. And transformed – for Loki their friendship is spending a month both once in exile and in the physical form of a middle-school kid here lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on Earth. Hea trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's guarded by a giant and a god in disguise as his parents, and Thor has come along as well, to be contact details at the more suavetime. But then chance brings them back together, more popular and more successful brother of the twothey are inseparable. Loki Something has a month to redeem his reputationhappened though, something terrible and get his moral compass pointing the right way again, or elsetragic, and to prove it he has to write the text we read in a sentient notebook, that is able to cry foul of his liesnow they must work through their grief, and judge his progress. But Loki is the kind of god who insists he can do anythingtheir friendship, so surviving a bit more virtuously for a month is going to be a walk in the park..together.right?|isbn=14063997521471196585
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=00084544421787333175|title=A Flicker in the DarkYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Stacy WillinghamBenji Waterhouse|rating=45|genre=ThrillersPopular Science|summary=ItI was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's May 2019 and Dr Chloe Davisfirst book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a medical psychologist, is completing a session with a new patient. Lacey is suffering mentally but Chloe has hopes glorious mixture of insight into the workings of getting her through the traumaNHS, humour and autobiography. ''You see, Chloe knows what itDon's like t Have to have a traumatic childhoodbe Mad... Her father is Richard Davis, '' promised the man who murdered six girls some twenty years ago. Their bodies have never been found same elements but Chloe found some jewellery belonging moved from physical problems to mental illness and the girls - trophies taken from their bodies - tucked away in work of a cupboard at home and she and her mother handed it to the policepsychiatrist. Dick Davis is in the Louisiana State Penitentiary and Chloie has had nothing I did wonder whether it was acceptable to do with him be looking for humour in this setting but the last twenty years. Her mother laughter is in directed at a situation rather than a care homeperson and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Christopher EdgeMariana Enriquez|title=Escape RoomA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=35|genre=Confident ReadersShort Stories|summary=I've seen junior variants of the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' format cover escape rooms – the process by which a character or characters start by being trapped in a specific location, and have to solve problems in order to get their way out. What I've not done (alongside experience one for myself – for Mariana Enriquez writes horror that would require actual friends) is seen a prose book describing people in such an adventuredisturbingly real, with the regular second person narrative replaced achieving this uncanny familiarity by the first. Herebasing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, Ami an overcrowded homeless shelter and four other tweenagers, a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all new to each other and booked into the game without any within Argentina. The circumstances of their friends, her characters are a team – starting out at so plausible that the game's main offices, where they're told they and their quest for The Answer are supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a world-changersimilarly tangible texture. But could watching people engage with such a pastime, despite the ramped-up threat levels, change much in the world of literature?|isbn=17880079641803511230
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=17328987311529934753|title=The Boy Who Loved Boxes: A Children's Book for AdultsProtest|author=Michael Albanese Rob Rinder
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=There was For a Boy who loved boxes. He had a box for everything and he was meticulous about storage: his parents probably couldn't believe their luck! It began with art supplieslittle while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, stuffed toys and the like: all the things which most children have in abundance. The Boycountry's delight most famous living artist, was in not going to show up for the sense opening of order in his room: it made him feel happyretrospective at the Royal Academy. As Still, he grew up and became a Manarrived in the nick of time, complete with his life became more complicated two wives and he dealt with this by getting bigger and better boxessix children, one of whom filmed what happened. Being an influencer, you tend to do things like that, but it was fortunate that there was a record of the protest. Look carefully Lexi Williams, an intern at the pictures RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a chair and youproceeded to spray Bruce in the face, whilst shouting ''Stop the War''ll see that one . It seemed to be part of an ongoing series of them has a padlock.'blue-face' attacks, but this was different. The can had been laced with cyanide, and Sir Max Bruce was dead.
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B09MN1526WAriel Saramandi|title=Blood Games (DS Nikki Parekh 4)|author=Liz MistryPortrait of an Island on Fire|rating=4.5|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=It's In this powerful collection of essays, Saramandi seeks to intradermally dissect the third murder in sociopolitical fabric of Mauritius, tunneling deep into the space of a few weeks wounds left by colonialism and they've all been because of machetes used on teenagersslavery to expose how these legacies still shape modern life. DS Nikki Parekh and DC Sajid Malik are amongst Saramandi describes the first to arrive on country at one stage as ''rotting'', a blunt yet apt metaphor for the scene at Chellow Dene Reservoir on systemic decay brought about by the outskirts malignant forces of Bradford. Onlyracism, this timepatriarchy, it's going to be differentenvironmental degradation and governmental dysfunction. The body appears to Nikki to be that Each essay in this collection serves as a kind of her beloved nephewdiagnostic, Haqib, and she has a very public meltdown. It isn't Haqib: there are similarities but charting the various diseases afflicting 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 depressionisland state.|isbn=1804271616
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ally WilkesPekka Harju-Autti|title=All LoveVortex and the White SpacesDrakor's Curse
|rating=4
|genre=HorrorFantasy|summary=In post-WWI EnglandIt's the eighteenth century, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Arctic expedition led by the famous Australis Randalla time of discovery and Britain is expanding its foreign trade. For JonathanCaptain Julius Hawthorne, this adventure represents a chance for a fresh startan experienced Scottish sea captain, and the opportunity is sent to live life as his authentic self and true gender, without the disapproval and constraints of Andaman Islands in his parentsendeavour. HoweverAlong with his son, Peter, Jonathan isn't the only one fleeing the confines of his past and the shadow of the war hangs like a funeral shroud over the expedition. Guilttheir cat, mistrust and grief stalk the party andMichi, when disaster strikes and they are forced to overwinter set off on land, a menacing presence waits perilous voyage to prey on these faraway lands. The islands are beautiful and stunning in their darkness. If Jonathan is to make it out of scenery and the Arctic winter aliveislanders' leader, Aarav, he will have is keen to face his demons once and for all, or risk making the barren, icy landscape his tombestablish good relations.|isbn=1789097835B0DS1VGHH3
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{{Frontpage
|author=Dean KoontzHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title=QuicksilverLili is Crying|rating=24.5|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=Meet Quinn Quicksilver. He's not had the chance to get to be a mercurial character yet, for he's lived First published in 1953 in a nun-run orphanage since he was a three-day old foundlingFrench, and now this novel is starting a career on a needless magazine's staff. But when this book starts he IS now ''subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind'', for something – call it unearthly intuition, call it mind-control, call it a supernatural urge – has demanded of him that he go to a derelict diner, find a gold coin worth a fortune, cash timeless text which wrenches the value hearts of it out of his bank its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and prepare for going sentences from their proper position on the lam. And all this is just in time for two of those typical Men in Black types to turn up page and suggest he's of interest to positions them. Helped to escapeelsewhere, he finds his flight is interrupted by other instances of him acting without being in controldisjointed, truncated. Like the discovery that he is not unique in having some kind lives of burgeoning power – and a whole lot more besidesher characters, they are often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=15420198851804271675
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|isbnauthor=0008441618Tom Percival|title=Other Parents|author=Sarah StovellThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Women's FictionConfident Readers|summary=Jo Fairburn knew that she was under intense pressure as Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the new head most basic of West Burntridge First School: if she didnthings like food, and his dad can't live up to her retired predecessor there could well be work because he lost his job at the college, was working a house price slump cash-in that part of the town. The school -hand job on a building site and had an active Parent Teacher Association and the funds which they raised were a considerable benefit to the schoolaccident. There was one difficultyThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, though - they were and Will''devastatingly shockable'', with two members, s life seems bleak in particularevery direction. And yet, causing problems for the headhe still has a tiny amount of hope. Laura Spence He is good at art, and Kate Monroe objected clings to Jo's restrictions on the toys children could bring in on Toy Day but moments of joy when he is drawing, that was just feel like a light at the end of a warm-up act for their real gripe: LGBTQ educationlong, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
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|author=Sarah Ann JuckesSylvie Cathrall|title=The Hunt for A Letter to the NightingaleLuminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=Jasper is a little boy who has some struggles, and whilst we're never told why exactly, we can see that he has anxiety and panic attacks, and has difficulty dealing with change and big emotions. His big sister, Rosie, has been a huge support to him, talking him down when things were difficult, encouraging him, and writing There are few greater joys than a book with him, all about birds, that he can read when he gets scared to help him calm down. His parents seem completely caught which lives up in their business, and so it is Rosie he always turns toa compelling premise. Even though she has gone away to University now, she has promised him that she will still be there when he needs her. But now he can't find Rosie. She hasn't come home when she said she would, and she isn't answering her phone. His parents won't speak to him or when they do, he doesn't understand or take in what they're saying. Nothing seems to be right, and the only way he feels he can find any peace And this is if he can find Rosie, and if they can find the nightingale and listen to its song, as they do together every Springone of them.|isbn=13985108900356522776
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|authorisbn=1786482126|title=Antoine Laurain, Le Sonneur and Jane Aitken The Janus Stone (translatorDr Ruth Galloway)|titleauthor=Red is My HeartElly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=Literary Fiction Crime|summary=[[:Category:Antoine Laurain|Antoine Laurain]] books have always been black and white and read Builders were demolishing an old house in my houseNorwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. And so There was no skull. Was this onea ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, although I could have spelled that more accurately – this she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one wasnight they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, and not least because Ruth is, black and white and red. Yes, he has an artistic collaborator on this piece, and I think it's possible prone to say not one page lacks the influence sudden bouts of some striking visual ideassickness.|isbn=1913547183
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|isbnauthor=1529135567Guadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=One Step Too Far|author=Lisa GardnerThe Accidentals
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeShort Stories|summary=It's five years since This collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the stag weekend. Five of them had set outword: Tim (the groom) and his four groomsmenspellbinding with its fantastical, Scot, Miguel (who was usually called Miggy), Neil magical elements and Josh. The first night they had plenty charming in its gentle portrayal of alcohol - too much really - nature and in the night Scot managed to wander offhuman relationships. The remaining four searched for him in vain Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and it was decided precisely, her stories structured by a wisdom that Tim, who was experienced in survival techniques, would go for help. When help didn't come the remaining three finally made their way back appears to town. Scott followed soon after but there was no sign of Tim. Every year, Tim's father, Martin, and the four friends have been back want to continue teach us something about the search although they do now acknowledge that they're looking for 'remains' rather than for Timworld.|isbn=1804271470
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Gunnar Staalesen0008551375|title=Bitter FlowersWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=34.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Varg Veum is a Norwegian Private Investigator who has just finished a stint in rehab and is now returning to work. However, the quiet job heLeanne Wilson's supposedly taken on caretaking someone's house quickly turns into body was found at the bottom of a murder investigationScottish mountain, and a mystery around seemingly the result of a missing womantragic accident. Varg finds himself not only investigating these She'd looked so happy, but also looking into an oldtoo, cold case when she posted her intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as she was just out of an eight unpleasant relationship, but it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in similar circumstances in the last year old girl who disappeared one night . All were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and was never foundsensible people. Somehow, these disparate cases appear None of the 'what a stupid thing to be linked, but what do' explanations applied. They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is certain there's a killer on the link, and how can Varg possibly unravel the truth?|isbn=191319308Xloose.
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