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==The Best New Books==
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{{Frontpage
|author=Joan DidionMaria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (Translator)|title=The Year of Magical ThinkingDisappearing Act|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=This book is Joan DidionDespite her anonymisation of place names and people, Stepanova's heartbreaking autobiographical account message in this short work of autofiction is unmistakable. A novelist named M travels from B (ostensibly Berlin) to the grief town of F for a literary festival she endured following is to be a guest speaker at. Detoured by erratic train schedules and nudged by forces beyond her control, her husband's sudden deathjourney 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. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such The train functions as a beautiful motif of transience and necessary resource to help people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pityimpermanence, denial while the circus embodies the reshaping of identity and delusion and makes them utterly normala retreat into fantasy, lends them a human face to wearan impulse that lies at the very heart of the novel form itself.|isbn=00072168581804272329
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008551324B0GFQ81YQK|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)How the Sky and the Earth Made People: From the Oral Stories of Malagasy Elders|author=Neil LancasterStephanie Zabriskie
|rating=4.5
|genre=CrimeChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=It's unusual for anyone from Before people came and joined the animals, there was only the Hardie family to approach sky and the policeearth. Neither side likes or has any respect for Everything was quiet until the earth and the sky began to tal to each other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell First, the earth created bodies. And then, the police where sky breathed life into them. These were the body of a missing person is buried first humans and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big they belonged to both earth and it will be worth the police doing what he wantssky. And what he wants is so people lived between sky and soil and they planted and learned and remembered, especially how they came to be transferred . When they grew old and died, their bodies returned to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence earth and their life returned to get an early parole datethe sky. Not much to ask, And that is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so why the earth and she's even prepared to do the other thing sky are both revered. Only together can they create human beings. And that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie is why people must pay attention to, and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happeningcare for, both.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1739526910B0GHPMNF6P|title=Where IThe Zookeeper've Not Been Losts Dragon: A Magical Modern Fantasy Tale for Grown-Ups|author=Glen SibleyCarolyn Mathews
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionFantasy|summary=When Phil's father unexpectedly dies, he quits his Canary Wharf finance job to take over the running of the family'One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malleys farm zoo. He's lifenot expecting much excitement, until he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. Living with receives an unexpected housemate at unidentified egg that his former manager’s holiday homenew-age stoner uncle Edgar found in a cave in New Zealand, he dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lostand suddenly life is no longer quite what it seems. But as those tentative plans falterThen the egg hatches into neither a reptile nor a bird, but a dragon! Now he becomes swept up in a local world , Edgar, his mother Abi, and the zoo's part-time café waitress Pearl have to raise this little bundle of unlikely friendshipsscales and joy, mobile discos despite having no idea how to actually raise dragons and surprising romantic possibilitiesnot 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
|isbnauthor=0008405026Stephanie Zabriskie|title=A Stranger in How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane CaseyOral Stories of Maasai Elders
|rating=5
|genre=CrimeChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared 'How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows is a children’s nonfiction book drawn from her bed one summer nightthe oral traditions of Maasai elders in Ngorongoro, Tanzania. She was never found '' The Maasai are a cattle-herding people and the investigation ground this story writes down its oral tradition explaining how they came to a haltbe so. Now, her mother, Helena, Cattle are status and her father are dead wealth in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide Maasai culture but therethis doesn's something about t tell the positioning whole story of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan intimate and symbiotic connection its people, and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-especially its women, have with their cows and-shut case is now a complex double murderfor the natural world. Kerrigan is convinced that The oral tradition retelling the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's bossmany conversations Maasai women have had with their cows, Una Burt) are less convinceddoes.|isbn=B0G9WTGY6J
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1529077745Livi Michael|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann CleevesElizabeth and Ruth|rating=43.5|genre=CrimeHistorical Fiction|summary=A man walking his dog in ''Elizabeth and Ruth'' is a work of historical fiction wrought from the early morning discovered the body life of a man in the park near RosebankVictorian author Elizabeth Gaskell, best known for her first novel Mary Barton (1848), a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one radical critique of the treatment of the care workers who was due to work working class published under a shift the night before but who had never turned uppseudonym. D I Vera Stanhope is called The ''Ruth'' from Livi Michael's title appears in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residentsnovel as Pasley, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe a young Irish prostitute who was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely abandoned as the girla child and finds herself in Manchester's diary makes it clear that she adored JoshNew Bailey Prison after a difficult and unjust hand at life. She knows that she has Set in Manchester between 1839 and 1842, the novel examines the harsh conditions endured by the Victorian working poor and interrogates the extent to find Chloe to discover what happened to Joshwhich the wealthy (including Gaskell herself) were responsible for addressing these injustices.|isbn=1784633682
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1399613073Makenna Goodman|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie WatsonHelen of Nowhere
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary=OliviaIt 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 protagonist, Laura and Anjali met a disgraced professor on the first day brink of medical school losing both his career and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a centuryhis relationship, embodies this feeling. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitiousHowever, Goodman counteracts his discomfort with a force which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeonseductive, radical and unnerving: Helen. Laura The connection between Helen and the protagonist is a perfectionist and a trauma doctorindirect yet intimate. Anjali is As the free spirit former owner of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them theycountryside house he're at s considering, Helen represents a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going volta in his life, her past tied to end in tragedyhis potential fresh start. We don't know The realtor who suffered shows the tragedy or protagonist around the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be house shares stories about Helen, and describes her as ''an eerily similar event entity that will impact the three friendsis pure consciousness, beyond form''. This timeAlthough she lives in an assisted living facility now, it's their teenage children who Helen has powers beyond comprehension which the reader gets the sense are involvednot altogether innocuous.|isbn=1804272205
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0241636604B0GCB1MQ7D|title=The Trading Game: A ConfessionWhy My Mother Went Away|author=Gary StevensonAlan Kennedy|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=If I have often wondered how prominent people came to hold their positions. With 'celebrities', there's frequently a book they might or might not have written, which might or might not tell the true story. It's not often that you were to bring up an image of find a city banker in your mindbook that gives the full backstory, and rarely do you discover a memoir where the telling is so perfect that you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie ll go back and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit reread paragraphs and his background is sentences, just for the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to pleasure the London School of Economicswords give. Stevenson ''Why My Mother Went Away'' is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most one of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupidthose rare exceptions. It was his ability 's the story of how a boy from the Midlands, born at what was, essentiallythe beginning of the Second World War, would become a card game which got him an internship with CitibankProfessor of Psychology at Dundee University. EventuallyIn fact, this turned into permanent employment as a traderhe was one of the founders of the department.
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{{Frontpage
|author=Leanne EganJeremy Cooper|title=Lover BirdsDiscord|rating=43.5|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=When new girlDiscord: a lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, Isabelthings, moves to Lou's hometown or ideas) The principal example of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each otherdiscord within the novel, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks as with hermost instances of discord, is easily located. The two protagonists of the novel, Rebekah Rosen and that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so crossEvie Bennet, isn't it? Because Lou are as different as they come. Rebekah is straightan uptight, traditional and no-nonsense composer close to retirement, isnwhile Evie is a force of nature, bounding onto the musical scene as a precocious saxophonist, oozing with talent and charm. The two, predictably, don't she? Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so faralways see eye to eye, their approaches different and sheEvie's never had a good kiss progressive views at odds with any of Rebekah's conservative leaning. However, something connects them? So she beyond just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?their musical project: a sort of fragile alliance formed within the clamour.|isbn=000862657X1804272264
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1009473085Tom Percival|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and SocietyConfident Readers|summary=Sometimes itWill's simpler to explain life is difficult, in a book by describing what it multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes'isn, he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't'' work and that applies to doesn''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking t have enough money for an easy read which will deliver even the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasionsmost basic of things like food, then this isnand his dad can't work because he lost his job at the book for youcollege, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. If Throw into that mix the fact that's what you're looking forhis mum and dad are separated, I don't think Anthony Seldonand Will's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous yearslife seems bleak in every direction. It's And yet, he still has a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politicstiny amount of hope. ''The Conservative Effect'' He is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks good at the impact a government has made art, and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as clings to the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series moments of experts from various fields review the state of the nation joy when the coalition took over in 2010he is drawing, the changes that occurred and feel like a light at the situation in 2024end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122
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{{Frontpage
|author=Max BoucheratEdward W Said|title=The Last Life Representations of Lori Millsthe Intellectual
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersPolitics and Society|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening sheEdward Said's got ''Representations of the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that Intellectual'' is less a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, strict theory of what intellectuals are and then she finds something even more spookya passionate argument for what they should be. For Said clearly rejects the comfortable image of the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able intellectual as a detached expert speaking only to enter shows signs of tamperingother specialists. When malevolent eyes spark up Instead, he insists on her phone screenthe intellectual as a public figure, often awkward, abrasive, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – wellunpopular, where who speaks truth to power even when it is a girl to turn?inconvenient or risky.|isbn=00086664821804272248
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Fyodor DostoyevskySylvie Cathrall|title=White NightsA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=As always in Dostoyevsky, the character work is sublimeThere are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. One is never left wondering what a character And this is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and temperaments with remarkable clarityone of them.|isbn=02416197850356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=00083850681786482126|title=The Midnight FeastJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Lucy FoleyElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=ItBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury's midsummer on apartments - when they discovered the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manorbones of a child beneath a doorway. It's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promisedThere was no skull. It's all headed up by Francesca MeadowsWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. The Manor was her ancestral home and sheIt's converted it into an impressive retreat for the wealthy and famous. Her husbanddifficult as Ruth knows, Owenbut Nelson doesn't, was the architect and work that she is still ongoing on parts pregnant with his child as a result of the siteone night they spent together some three months ago. The heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. Old scores are going to be settled and it won't Her condition will be obvious before long before a body , not least because Ruth is foundprone to sudden bouts of sickness.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=James Baldwin0008551375|title=Giovanni's RoomWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction Crime|summary=''GiovanniLeanne Wilson's Room'body was found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, seemingly the result of a tragic accident. She' follows the narrator Davidd looked so happy, an American man living in Paristoo, when she posted her intentions on Facebook. Her friends were relieved as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovannishe was just out of an unpleasant relationship, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay barbut it looked like she was living her best life now. While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling Then it emerged that five other women had died in Spain, the real tension similar circumstances in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from last year. All were experienced climbers, properly equipped for what they were doing and sensible people. None of the deeper conflict within himself'what a stupid thing to do' explanations applied. It They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is Davidcertain there's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovannia killer on the loose.|isbn=0141186356
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0DGDJRHYDPaul B Preciado|title=Nowhere Man|author=Deborah StoneDysphoria Mundi|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionPolitics and Society|summary=In ''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 quiet suburban housenew sensorium as an offering to the new generation, Patrick a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is making his final plansnot considered a sign of political apathy. A meticulous manRather, he makes sure of every preparationit is the proportional, down valid response to ''the last detail. Some last reflectionsepistemological and political crack we are living through, and then he says goodbye to his wife, the world, tension between emancipatory forces and his life. Itconservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''s horribly sad. At work in her shopThe whole text is framed against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and ailing motherwhen dysphoria began to emerge on a global scale, who needs extricating from yet another accidentor as ''pangea covidica''. It will be Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as a while before Diana realises what Patrick has donesign of weakness, or mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to ''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.|isbn=1804271454
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Virginie DespentesSamantha Harvey|title=King Kong Theory|rating=4|genre=Autobiography |summary=''King Kong Theory'' is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays.|isbn=191309734X}}{{Frontpage|author=James Baldwin|title=Giovanni's RoomOrbital
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction |summary=In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Giovanni's RoomOrbital'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, the real tension compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from lives of a group of astronauts aboard the deeper conflict within himselfInternational Space Station. It is DavidThrough a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanniorbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a wholly new light.|isbn=01411863561529922933
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Ashley Hickson-Lovence295967572X|title=Wild EastPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating=4.5|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=Written in verse, this Our unnamed narrator is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has about to move to Norwich and start at begin a mostly white schooltrain journey with his companion Django. The move is initiated by RonnyWhere they's mum who re going and what the purpose of this journey is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of troubleis uncertain. He listens to music constantly, Django found the tickets ''on the floor somewhere'' and has always dreamed of being a rapperpersuaded our narrator to accompany him. But now, Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in this new school, his teacher encourages him the past as the pair travel to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, station by coach and the power of creativity and crafting your wordstrain is a steam locomotive.|isbn=0241645441
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=16358668470008551324|title=The Lavender CompanionDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin VesciNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=It's strange, unusual for anyone from the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is Hardie family to approach the book for youpolice. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited Neither side likes or has any respect for the author's [https://wwwother.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and therehe's a picture prepared to tell the police where the body of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes missing person is buried and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerallywho was responsible for her death. (There's a recipe in the bookThis person, he promises, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book is someone big and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in will be worth the margins are sanctionedpolice doing what he wants. You get And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to fold down serve the corners remainder of pageshis sentence and to get an early parole date. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. Not much to ask, is it? I The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she'loveds even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what'' this book alreadys happening.
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{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Jenny Valentine1035043092|title=Us in the Before and AfterThe Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Elk and Mab are best friendsI can't have been the only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (Shetland, or more than that even, their friendship is Book 8) by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a once in a lifetime connectionnew life on Orkney. They meet as children one day on a trip out It's been seven years since we heard from him, but unfortunately they don't get each otherhe's contact details at now living with Willow Reeves and their young son, James, as well as Cassie, the timedaughter of his former partner. But then chance brings them back togetherWillow's also his boss, and they are inseparable. Something has happened thoughshe ''should'' be on maternity leave, but when the body of a popular islander, something terrible and tragicArchie Stout, and now they must work through their griefis found, and their friendshipin the aftermath of a storm, togethershe 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.|isbn=1471196585
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1787333175Thea Lenarduzzi|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji WaterhouseThe Tower
|rating=5
|genre=Popular ScienceLiterary Fiction|summary=I was tempted to read ''You DonHow unctuous are the fats of another't Have to be Mad to Work Heres life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream'' after enjoying Adam Kay. In this compelling novel, Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the protagonist of this tale. Just as T's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This story is Going to Hurt}}being told, the story of a glorious mixture second protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the daughter of insight into a wealthy family in the workings 19th century, who died of the NHStuberculosis after being locked in a tower, humour and autobiography. captures T''You Don't Have to be Mad..s imagination.Annie'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems s fate is, above all, an enticing story to mental illness and the work of a psychiatristT. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter It is directed at a situation rather than story which she consumes avariciously, both in a person quest for truth and it is always delivered with empathy knowledge, and in service of myth, fable and understandingfantasy. |isbn=1804271799
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{{Frontpage
|author=Onyi NwabineliClaire-Louise Bennett|title=Allow Me to Introduce MyselfBig Kiss, Bye-Bye
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the worldEverything in this book, however sweet or seemingly innocent, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social mediais steeped in anguish and distortion. Even a kiss, where she posted every step usually a symbol of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals intimacy andcloseness, basicallybecomes evidence of love lost. When the narrator cries out internally, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties ''come over here and she kiss me,'' it is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother less an invitation than a desperate attempt to take down the content about confirm heremotional numbness. Anuri The imagined recipient of this plea is battling alcoholismXavier, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantlyex-partner, a ghost she is desperately worried about conjures to test her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empiredetachment. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|isbn=08615468731804271934
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=David Chadwick0008405026|title=Headload of NapalmA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= It's September 1973 in Hicks, Californiasixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA She was never found and Las Vegas both the investigation ground to a significant drive awayhalt. Not much happens Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in Hickstheir bed. A silver mine and Initially, it looks like a defence contractor are the main local employers straightforward murder/suicide but otherwise, there's not much something about the positioning of note other than dive bars the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and Joshua treesher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Life What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is quietconvinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, until..Una Burt) are less convinced..|isbn= B0D321VJ76
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Tom PercivalAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=The Wrong ShoesOther Girl|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways'We were born from the same body. I've never really wanted to think about this. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can Ernaux't s work is always very candid and doesn't have enough money for even her tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of the most basic of things like foodintimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her sister, however, and his dad canthis letter will never reach her. Why? Because Annie Ernaux't work because he lost his job s sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a few months before the college, vaccine was working a cash-made compulsory in-hand job on a building site France, and had an accident2 years before the author was even born. Throw into that mix The large and instant void created by the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Willjarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in her life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still an absence that she has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnelalways felt but often denied.|isbn=13985271221804271845
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sylvie CathrallMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=A Letter to the Luminous DeepReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=3.5|genre=Science FictionBiography|summary= There Biographies are few greater joys than 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, and offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book which lives up , Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is, but of what you yourself imagine it to a compelling premisebe. And Whom would it help to know how I see this tower, that sea, or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''. Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of themit.|isbn= 03565227761804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17864821261529077745|title=The Janus Stone Dark Wives (Dr Ruth GallowayD I Vera Stanhope)|author=Elly GriffithsAnn Cleeves
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house A man walking his dog in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they early morning discovered the bones body of a child beneath man in the park near Rosebank, a doorwaycare home for troubled teens. There The dead man was no skullJosh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. Was this a ritual killing or D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder? Inevitably- but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelsonfourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. ItSome people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's difficult as Ruth diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone has to find Chloe to discover what happened to sudden bouts of sicknessJosh.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Alba de Cespedes Olga Tokarczuk|title=Forbidden NotebookHouse of Day, House of Night|rating=45
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=This Italian ''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 feminist fiction holds an air Night'', somewhat reflects this notion of suspense 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=1804271918}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1836284683|title=The Big Happy|author=David Chadwick|rating=4.5|genre=Dystopian Fiction|summary=Well! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when I open a book, it's nothing like I expected it to be, and tension from it takes me on a wild ride. And that is just what happened with ''The Big Happy''. I don't want to ruin a similar experience for any of you reading but I'll have to at least set the moment our protagonistscene. Once that's done, Valeria CossatiI think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sally Rooney|title=Intermezzo|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction |summary=Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, purchases as her forbidden notebookcharacters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and learns about herself Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, the most intimate and revealing waysbrothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=17822782220571365469
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|authorisbn=Ottessa Moshfegh1836285493|title=My Year The Double Life of Rest and Relaxationa Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=35|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=At best, this novel Will is a scathing critique keen player of modern society video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and reveals the fragility a supportive friend. But most of human relationships; all, he is an aspiring writer. English is his favourite lesson at worsthis school, it is the cynicalMarlowe Park, predictable and slightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonistone at which he excels. This unlikely heroinehasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, a slimMrs Howarth, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the worldshe has suggested to Will and his mum that he spends a couple of afternoons a week at a different school, but resolves not to lose sleep over it: in factStation Road, her solution lies in her hibernationwhere his ability might be better extended.|isbn=1784707422
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|authorisbn=Jo Callaghan1009473085|title=Leave No TraceThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating=45|genre=CrimePolitics and Society|summary=When Sometimes it's simpler to explain a man is found crucified book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the top of a hill in Nuneatonbook for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, the AI detective Lockcan be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold casesa compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. But when there ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with series which looks at the impact a potential serial killer government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a very high profile case that draws a lot series of experts from various fields review the state of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case nation when the coalition took over in time2010, or will Kat find herself taken off the case changes that occurred and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120Xthe situation in 2024.
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|isbnauthor=B0DB64PYV5Jenny Valentine|title=The White Rose|author=Dave BainesUs in the Before and After|rating=45|genre=Dystopian FictionTeens|summary=In 2033Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a superstorm known once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the White Rose devastates the Northern Hemispheretime. And it's not a storm that gathers But then chance brings them back together, wreaks havocand they are inseparable. Something has happened though, then dissipates. Insteadsomething terrible and tragic, it hovers across half the Earth with its octopus-like tentaclesand now they must work through their grief, not giving up and never going awaytheir friendship, together.|isbn=1471196585
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|authorisbn=Jenny Lecoat1787333175|title=Beyond SummerlandYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=45|genre=General FictionPopular Science|summary=Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating 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 glorious mixture of insight into the end workings of the occupationNHS, humour and autobiography. During the war, Jean's father was arrested for listening 'You Don't Have to a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of himbe Mad... As '' promised the British finally free the Channel islands same elements but moved from the Nazis, physical problems to mental illness and the war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became work of hima psychiatrist. But will I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the truth come as laughter is directed at a situation rather than a relief, or will person and it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?|isbn=1846976537is always delivered with empathy and understanding.
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