Book Of The Week

During these unprecedented times we have teamed up with our Learning Resource Centre Manager Ms Akehurst and our Head of English Mrs Kruschandl to provide you with a ‘Book of the Week’ to keep you reading during the lockdown. We have categorised the books into age groups, so whatever your age, adults included, we have a recommendation for you! You will see each book below and a small synopsis so you can get a feel for it. We have included the link to buy the book so you can have a copy of your own. If you decide to read one of our recommendations don’t forget to let us know how you get on!

 

Week commencing 6th july 2020

 

Our final list of reading recommendations is specifically designed for the summer holidays. These books will transport you around the world, which for most of us, might be our only way to travel abroad this summer. Find a spot corner and get set to drift off to every corner of the world with these novels.

 

The Snail and the Whale – By Julia Donaldson

Genre:  Picture Book| Ages: 2-4

Climb aboard the whale’s tail and join the snail as he travels around the world.

One little snail longs to see the world and hitches a lift on the tail of an enormous whale. Together they go on an amazing journey, past icebergs and volcanoes, sharks and penguins, and the little snail feels so small in the vastness of the world. But when disaster strikes and the whale is beached in a bay, it’s the tiny snail’s big plan that saves the day.

Buy here  Paperback £5.77, Board book £5.99, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

Ottoline at Sea – By Chris Riddell

Genre: Picture Book | Ages: 5-7

A stunningly presented modern-day fable from world-renowned talent Oliver Jeffers.

There was once a man who believed he owned everything and set out to survey what was his.

“You are mine,” Fausto said to the flower, the sheep and the mountain, and they bowed before him. But they were not enough for Fausto, so he conquered a boat and set out to sea…

Working for the first time in traditional lithography, world-renowned talent, Oliver Jeffers, combines spectacular art with powerful prose, hand set using traditional lead type, to create a poignant modern-day fable to touch the hearts of adults and children alike.

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £5.77, Hardcover £10.99

 

Island – By Nicky Singer

Genre: Adventure| Ages: 8-10

Before reading this novel, put on your woolly jumper as you travel to the Arctic. This story will not only transport you to a country few visit, it will also remind you of the impact of climate change. Nicky Singer ran writing workshops this year at Burgess Hill Girls, where she explained the journey of this story beginning as a play at The National Theatre before being transformed into a novel.

Urban teenager Cameron arrives on an uninhabited Arctic Island. He’s prepared for ice and storms and, stripped of his smart technology, possibly boredom. But he’s not prepared for 24-hour daylight and erupting graves! At first Cameron believes the explanations of his research scientist mother. But, as the island reveals itself to him, he begins to see, and hear, things that push him right to the edge of the possible. One of them is an Inuit girl. The other is a large white bear.

Buy here Paperback £5.94

 

 

The Middle of Nowhere – by Geraldine McCaughrean

Genre: Real life| Ages: 11-13

Get set to travel to the other side of the world and to The Middle of Nowhere in the Australian outback. Dealing with some complex and challenging issues, you won’t be able to put down this book, which is also beautifully composed, just read the first sentence as proof: “The piano arrived too late to stop the sky falling in.”

When her mother dies from a snake bite, Comity’s life in the Australian outback changes for ever. Now the only person Comity can count on is her friend, Fred, the Aboriginal yard boy. But when her father’s new assistant, the cruel and sadistic Quartz Hogg arrives, he sets his bloodthirsty sights on Fred, and Comity has to find a way to stop him.

Buy here Kindle Edition £2.49, Paperback £3.56, Hardcover £7.04, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

Shabanu – By Daughter of the Wind

Genre: Real life| Ages: 14-15

Prepare to travel to visit the desert in Pakistan and experience the life of a daughter of nomadic camel traders. This novel is remarkably even-handed: Staples acknowledges the society’s inequities while celebrating its beauty and warmth.

Life is both sweet and cruel to strong-willed young Shabanu, whose home is the windswept Cholistan Desert. The second daughter in a family with no sons, she’s been allowed freedoms forbidden to most Muslim girls. But when a tragic encounter with a wealthy and powerful landowner ruins the marriage plans of her older sister, Shabanu is called upon to sacrifice everything she’s dreamed of. Should she do what is necessary to uphold her family’s honor—or listen to the stirrings of her own heart?

The Newbery Honor winner

A New York Times Notable Book

The quality of this novel has meant it is becoming a popular classroom text.

Buy here  Kindle Edition £5.99, Paperback £7.99, Hardcover £6.98

 

 

The Shadow of the Wind – by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Genre: Fantasy| Ages: 16-18

Not many people visit Barcelona without falling in love with this city. This spellbinding novel will immerse you in the atmosphere of the labyrinthian Gothic Quarter. A literary thriller of intertwining stories it is fiction at its most mesmerising.

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets–an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

Buy here Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £8.19, Hardcover £39.52, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

The House of the Spirits – by Isabel Allende

Genre: Fantasy| Ages: 16-18

Journey to Latin American and a colonial mansion in a Chilean city and a Hacienda in the countryside. In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry, spanning four generations. This is a magnificent family saga populated by memorable, often eccentric cast of characters. Together, men and women, spirits, the forces of nature, and of history, converge in an unforgettable, wholly absorbing and brilliantly realised novel that is as richly entertaining as it is a masterpiece of modern literature.

As a girl, Clara del Valle can read fortunes, make objects move as if they had lives of their own, and predict the future. Following the mysterious death of her sister, Rosa the Beautiful, Clara is mute for nine years. When she breaks her silence, it is to announce that she will be married soon to the stern and volatile landowner Esteban Trueba.

Buy here Paperback £7.37, Hardcover £14.98

 

The Island – By Victoria Hislop

ADULT

Travel to the Mediterranean sun with this acclaimed million-copy number one bestseller and winner of Richard & Judy’s Summer Read 2006. Set on Spinalonga, the seemingly idyllic Crete island, this vivid, moving and absorbing tale pulls at the heartstrings.

Beginning in the present, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother’s past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more.

Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone’s throw from the tiny, deserted island of – Greece’s former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £7.99, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

Mister Pip – By Lloyd Jones

ADULT

The winner of the 2007 Commonwealth prize, this novel will transport you to Bougainville, a small village on a lush tropical island in Papua New Guinea. Careful that you are not too captivated by the beauty of the jungle and South Pacific beach, because war is encroaching from the other end of the island.

When the villagers’ safe, predictable lives come to a halt, Bougainville’s children are surprised to find the island’s only white man, a recluse, reopening the school. Pop Eye, aka Mr Watts, explains he will introduce the children to Mr Dickens. Matilda and the others think a foreigner is coming to the island and prepare a list of much needed items. They are shocked to discover their acquaintance with Mr Dickens will be through Mr Watts’ inspiring reading of Great Expectations.

Just as Great Expectations changes Matilda,  so the environment in which it is read changes the book. Faced with malarial government soldiers and rebel “Rambos” drunk on jungle juice, Mr Watts becomes a latter-day Sheherazade, recounting Pip’s tale in nightly instalments designed to avert disaster. In this dazzling story-within-a-story, Jones has created a microcosm of post-colonial literature, hybridising the narratives of black and white races to create a new and resonant fable. On an island split by war, it is a story that unites.

But the power of fiction has dangerous consequences. Imagination and beliefs are challenged by guns. Mister Pip is an unforgettable tale of survival by story; a dazzling piece of writing that lives long in the mind after the last page is finished.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £5.99, Paperback £7.52, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – By Louis de Bernières

ADULT

Enjoy a vacation to the beautiful Greek island of Cephallonia, in this evocative novel which is both love story and social realism; a sun-bleached elegy for the Greek islands and bomb-blasted condemnation of war. A sweeping examination of love’s ’eternal triangle’ set in wartime Cephalonia, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is a literary gem that has become a popular classic.

It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals but over time he proves himself to be civilised, humorous – and a consummate musician.

When Pelagia, the local doctor’s daughter, finds her letters to her fiancé go unanswered, Antonio and Pelagia draw close and the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. But can this fragile love survive as a war of bestial savagery gets closer and the lines are drawn between invader and defender

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £7.37, Hardcover £11.00, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Notes from an Exhibition – By Patrick Gale

ADULT

Set on the Cornish coastline, this novel has a deeply rooted sense of place, not only the picture-postcard Cornwall and beautiful coastal walks, but the off-season one, where bohemianism and bored teenagers rub shoulders with rural poverty. Plunge into the artistic circles of 1970s St Ives for a memorable story of family dysfunction and mental illness. This is a moving, intuitive novel of artistic compulsion, marriage, and the secrets left behind.

Celebrated artist Rachel Kelly dies alone in her Penzance studio, after decades of struggling with the creative highs and devastating lows that have coloured her life. Her family gathers, each of them searching for answers. They reflect on lives shaped by the enigmatic Rachel – as artist, wife and mother – and on the ambiguous legacies she leaves them, of talent, torment and transcendent love.

Buy here: Paperback £12.20, Hardcover £36.64

Week commencing 29th june 2020

My Strong Mind – By Niels van Hove

Genre:  Picture Book| Ages: 2-4

The story is about Kate, a sporty and happy girl who uses her strong mind to tackle her daily challenges with a positive attitude.

Do you want to teach your children about Confidence, Resilience and a Growth Mindset? With My Strong Mind your children will be introduced to mental strength and learn about techniques to develop their own strong mind.

Buy here  Paperback £8.95, Hardcover £12.99, Kindle Edition FREE with Prime

 

The Fate of Fausto – By Oliver Jeffers

Genre: Picture Book | Ages: 5-7

A stunningly presented modern-day fable from world-renowned talent Oliver Jeffers.

There was once a man who believed he owned everything and set out to survey what was his.

“You are mine,” Fausto said to the flower, the sheep and the mountain, and they bowed before him. But they were not enough for Fausto, so he conquered a boat and set out to sea…

Working for the first time in traditional lithography, world-renowned talent, Oliver Jeffers, combines spectacular art with powerful prose, hand set using traditional lead type, to create a poignant modern-day fable to touch the hearts of adults and children alike.

Buy here Kindle Edition £2.99, Hardcover £10.32

 

School for Skylarks – By Sam Angus

Genre: Historical| Ages: 8-10

It is 1939. When Lyla is evacuated from her home in London to her great-aunt’s enormous house in the West Country, she expects to be lonely. She has never been to school nor had any friends, and her parents have been at the centre of a scandal. But with the house being used to accommodate an entire school of evacuated schoolgirls, there’s no time to think about her old life. Soon there is a horse in a first-floor bedroom and a ferret in Lyla’s sock drawer, hordes of schoolgirls have overrun the house, and Lyla finds out that friends come in all shapes and sizes.

Buy here Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £6.37

 

The Book of Dust – by Phillip Pullman

Genre: Fantasy| Ages: 11-13

Winner- author of the Year, British Book Awards

Shortlisted- UK author category, National Book Awards 2018

Philip Pullman’s magnificent bestseller is now in paperback, with new additional illustrations. A coming of age story like no other . . .

Malcolm Polstead’s Oxford life has been one of routine, ordinary even.

He is happiest playing with his daemon, Asta, in their canoe, La Belle Sauvage. But now as the rain builds, the world around Malcolm and Asta is, it seems, set to become increasingly far from ordinary.

Finding himself linked to a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua, Malcolm is forced to undertake the challenge of his life and to make a dangerous journey that will change him and Lyra for ever . . .

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £4.00, Hardcover £4.61, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

Midwinterblood – By Marcus Sedgwick

Genre: Fantasy| Ages: 14-15

Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award,

What would you sacrifice for someone you’ve loved forever? MIDWINTERBLOOD is a dark, breathtaking and cleverly crafted paranormal love story like no other, beautifully told in seven parts and spanning ten centuries.

Have you ever had the feeling that you’ve lived another life? Been somewhere that has felt totally familiar even though you’ve never been there before, or felt that you’ve known someone even though you are meeting them for the first time?

Eric and Merle loved and lost one another, and have been searching for each other through time ever since. This novel comprises seven short stories and travels in time, from 2073 back to the days of Viking sagas. Across the different tales, the two souls appear as lovers, mother and son, brother and sister, and artist and child as they come close to finding each other before facing the ultimate sacrifice . . .

Buy here  Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £6.99, Hardcover £0.33, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Mary Reilly – by Valerie Martin

Genre: Fantasy| Ages: 16-18

Acclaimed author of Orange Prize winning.

A fresh twist on the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, a novel told from the perspective of Mary Reilly, Dr. Jekyll’s dutiful and intelligent housemaid.

Faithfully weaving in details from Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic, Martin introduces an original and captivating character: Mary is a survivor-scarred but still strong-familiar with evil, yet brimming with devotion and love. As a bond grows between Mary and her tortured employer, she is sent on errands to unsavory districts of London and entrusted with secrets she would rather not know. Unable to confront her hideous suspicions about Dr. Jekyll, Mary ultimately proves the lengths to which she’ll go to protect him. Through her astute reflections, we hear the rest of the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, and this familiar tale is made more terrifying than we remember it, more complex than we imagined possible.

Buy here Paperback £9.99, Hardcover £7.88

 

 

Century Girls – By Tessa Dunlop

ADULT

A celebration of the one-hundred years since British women got the vote, told, in their own voices, by six centenarians: Helena, Olive, Edna, Joyce, Ann and Phyllis – The Century Girls?

In 2018 Britain celebrates the centenary of some women getting the vote. The intervening ten decades have witnessed staggering change, and The Century Girls features six women born in 1918 or before who haven’t just witnessed that change, they’ve lived it. Empire shrank, war came and went, and modern society demanded continual readjustment…. the Century Girls lasted the course, and this book weaves together their lifetime’s adventures – what they were taught, how they were treated, who they loved, what they did and where they are now.

With stories that are intimately knitted into the history of the British Isles, this is a time-travel epic featuring our oldest, most precious national treasures. Edna, 102, was a domestic servant born in Lincolnshire. Helena is 101 years old and the eldest of eight born into a Welsh farming family. Olive, 102, began life as a child of empire in British Guiana and was one of the first women to migrate to London after the war. There’s Ann, a 103-year-London bohemian; 100-year-old Phyllis, daughter of the British Raj, who has called Edinburgh home for nearly eighty years; and finally ‘young’ Joyce – a 99-year-old Cambridge classicist who’s still at work. It is through the prism of these women’s very long lives that The Century Girls provides a deeply personal account of British history over the past one hundred years. Their story is our story too.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £7.37, Hardcover £7.81, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Bone People – By Keri Hulme

ADULT

Winner of the Booker Prize in 1985

The Bone People is the story of Kerewin, a despairing part-Maori artist who is convinced that her solitary life is the only way to face the world. Her cocoon is rudely blown away by the sudden arrival during a rainstorm of Simon, a mute six-year-old whose past seems to hold some terrible trauma. In his wake comes his foster-father Joe, a Maori factory worker with a nasty temper.

The narrative unravels to reveal the truths that lie behind these three characters, and in so doing displays itself as a huge, ambitious work that tackles the clash between Maori and European characters in beautiful prose of a heartrending poignancy.

‘In this novel, New Zealand’s people, its heritage and landscape are conjured up with uncanny poetry and perceptiveness’ Sunday Times

Buy here: Paperback £9.17, Hardcover £14.59

 

The Binding – By Bridget Collins

ADULT

One of 2019’s standout debuts, The Binding became an instant favourite with our booksellers from the moment it landed in their hands in January. Heart-racingly exciting, chilling and with a startlingly original premise, it is a supernaturally tinged tale of forbidden love, buried secrets and unspeakable betrayal that is simply unforgettable.

Set against a landscape that is part Victorian gothic, part medieval outlier and yet strikingly modern, The Binding slowly unravels a mystery surrounding Emmett Farmer, a farm labourer whose life is irrevocably altered when he receives a cryptic summons, pressing him into service as an apprentice to a Bookbinder. It is an invitation he is both drawn to and desperate to run from.

For a Bookbinder’s trade is like no other.

In the house set deep in the marshes, Emmett learns the skills to make exquisitely beautiful volumes, every one as unique as the last and each holding a dark and peculiar secret: a person’s most unconscionable memories. And to Emmett, they whisper in the darkness. Then one day he discovers a book with his own name on it and is forced to choose between forgetting and the dreadful, tantalising promise of remembrance.

Conjuring a magic all of its own, The Binding is a richly imagined story of boundary-defying desire and prejudice wrapped in layers of enchantment, enigma and stunningly evoked detail. Peopled by fully-fledged characters that live and breathe from the book’s pages, it is a novel to fall in love with.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £4.50, Hardcover £12.99, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

Tigers in Red Weather – By Liza Klaussmann

ADULT

Nick and her cousin, Helena, have grown up sharing sultry summer heat, sunbleached boat docks, and midnight gin parties on Martha’s Vineyard in a glorious old family estate known as Tiger House. In the days following the end of the Second World War, the world seems to offer itself up, and the two women are on the cusp of their ‘real lives’: Helena is off to Hollywood and a new marriage, while Nick is heading for a reunion with her own young husband, Hughes, about to return from the war.

 

Soon the gilt begins to crack. Helena’s husband is not the man he seemed to be, and Hughes has returned from the war distant, his inner light curtained over. On the brink of the 1960s, back at Tiger House, Nick and Helena—with their children, Daisy and Ed—try to recapture that sense of possibility. But when Daisy and Ed discover the victim of a brutal murder, the intrusion of violence causes everything to unravel. The members of the family spin out of their prescribed orbits, secrets come to light, and nothing about their lives will ever be the same.

 

Brilliantly told from five points of view, with a magical elegance and suspenseful dark longing, Tigers in Red Weather is an unforgettable debut novel from a writer of extraordinary insight and accomplishment.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £6.55, Hardcover £0.23, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Week commencing 22nd june 2020

 

THE GIRLS – By Lauren Ace

Genre:  Picture Book| Ages: 2-4

Winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize Illustrated Book of the Year 2019

The Girls is a winning celebration of difference, individuality and friendship that lasts a lifetime. The beautifully illustrated story follows four friends from childhood into adulthood. As different as they are the same, each girl takes her individual path, whilst always staying part of the others’ lives, wherever their journey takes them. The Girls is a beautiful story that is brimming over with character and compassion. The overarching theme of inspiration is underpinned with a sweet charm.

Buy here  Paperback £5.94, Hardcover £13.94, Kindle Edition £4.74

 

 

The Lost Words – By Robert Macfarlane

Genre: Picture Book | Ages: 5-7

The Sunday Times Bestseller

Winner Of The Cilip Kate Greenaway Medal 2019

Winner Of The Beautiful Book Award 2017

‘The most beautiful and thought-provoking book I’ve read this year’ Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Observer

All over the country, there are words disappearing from children’s lives. These are the words of the natural world – Dandelion, Otter, Bramble and Acorn, all gone. The rich landscape of wild imagination and wild play is rapidly fading from our children’s minds.

The Lost Words stands against the disappearance of wild childhood. It is a joyful celebration of nature words and the natural world they invoke. With acrostic spell-poems by award-winning writer Robert Macfarlane and hand-painted illustration by Jackie Morris, this enchanting book captures the irreplaceable magic of language and nature for all ages.

Buy here  Hardcover £14.88

 

 

The Invention of Hugo Cabret – By Brian Selznick

Genre: Fantasy| Ages: 8-10

Tender, magical, utterly original, this is a stunning tour de force from an innovative and daring storyteller and artist.  A book to treasure, to dip in and out of forever whether you’re 9 or 109.  The Invention of Hugo Cabret has been described as ‘a true masterpiece’, ‘complete genius’ and by one journalist in the States, as ‘the most extraordinary book I’ve ever come across’.  Set in Paris in the 1930s the book follows the story of a boy called Hugo, but what sets it apart from everything else on the bookshelves is the innovative reading experience created by the author between illustrations and text.  With nearly 300 pages of hand drawn full bleed illustrations, the story is told through pictures and words, like an old silent movie.  It’s a captivating package, part work of art, part thrilling novel, part movie.  It is truly one of a kind.

Buy here Kindle Edition £9.02, Paperback £38.90, Hardcover £12.99, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Merrybegot – by Julie Hearn

Genre: Fantasy| Ages: 11-13

Gripping and lyrical, this is a multi-layered novel with a strong historical background of the witch hunting that took place during the English Civil War crossed with a story of the fairy world and the different kind of magic that is inherent in nature. Both are based on a confusion of half truths which are spun into greater certainties that can carry great risks and penalties. Nell, the child at the centre of it all, lives her life in fear and tells her story capturing the wonder and danger of it all. The Merrybegot casts a powerful spell over its readers. Utterly bewitching.

Buy here Kindle Edition £0.99, Paperback £5.94, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

A Gathering Light – By Jennifer Donnelly

Genre: Dystopian| Ages: 14-15

A young girl, Mattie, is entrusted by a female guest at the hotel where she works with some letters and instructed to burn them. The next day the woman, Grace Brown, is found drowned: murdered. What should Mattie do now?

Interwoven with this true-life crime story is the equally compelling tale of Mattie’s growth to maturity, as she struggles, against a backdrop of harsh farm life – beautifully evoked – and adolescent longings to achieve her ambition of attending university in New York.

Mattie is a beautifully-realised and highly engaging character, and Jennifer Donnelly has created an absorbing story, part mystery/part coming-of-age novel, which will hold the reader’s attention to the last.

Buy here  Kindle Edition £4.28, Paperback £6.55, Hardcover £3.15, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Alchemist – by Paulo Coelho

Genre: Fantasy| Ages: 16-18

Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago’s journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.

A global phenomenon, The Alchemist has been read and loved by over 62 million readers, topping bestseller lists in 74 countries worldwide. Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. This is such a book – a beautiful parable about learning to listen to your heart, read the omens strewn along life’s path and, above all, follow your dreams.

Buy here Kindle Edition £5.49, Paperback £7.72, Hardcover £19.02, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Invisible Women – By Caroline Criado Perez

ADULT

Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month for March 2020

Winner of The Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2019

Winner of The Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2019

Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you’re a woman.

Invisible Women shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. It exposes the gender data gap – a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.

Perez’s eye-opening book provides a startling perspective on the unseen bias at work in our everyday lives. Marshalling a wealth of data with precision and insight, as the Times affirms, ‘Invisible Women is a game-changer; an uncompromising blitz of facts, sad, mad, bad and funny, making an unanswerable case and doing so brilliantly.’

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £8.19, Hardcover £13.74, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

The Night Circus – By Erin Morgenstern

ADULT

‘Playful and intensely imaginative, Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have always longed for. This is a marvellous book.‘ – Audrey Niffenegger

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The black sign, painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, reads: Opens at Nightfall, Closes at Dawn.

As the sun disappears beyond the horizon, all over the tents small lights begin to flicker, as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies. When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign appears. Le Cirque des Reves. The Circus of Dreams. Now the circus is open. Now you may enter.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £7.37, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Mirror and the Light – By Hilary Mantel

ADULT

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020

Eagerly awaited and eight years in the making, The Mirror & the Light completes Cromwell’s journey from self-made man to one of the most feared and influential figures of his time. Told with immediacy and pace, Mantel’s novels immerse readers in her Tudor world; rich with the sights, smells and textures of 16th century England. No other novelist is so successful in conjuring the intrigue, in-fighting and complex machinations of the machine of courtly politics. In her hands these novels form an unrivalled picture of royalty and common experience, duty and desire, conflict and loyalty. But the crowning glory of the trilogy is Cromwell himself, portrayed with passion, pathos and energy as politician, fixer, husband, father, subject and as a man who both defied and defined his age.

The Mirror and the Light is the final book of the magisterial Wolf Hall trilogy. Wolf Hall (book 1) won the Manbooker 2008, Bringing up the Bodies (book 2) won the Manbooker 2012.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £9.99, Paperback £14.20, Hardcover £12.50, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Where The Crawdads Sing – By Delia Owens

ADULT

A remarkable debut bubbles over with the melting-pot tension of a community beset by tragedy and shaped by the landscape that surrounds it. Character-driven, with an impeccable sense of place and time, this is a richly imagined story of innocence undone and of a small town torn and re-shaped by crisis.

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say.

Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life – until the unthinkable happens.

Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £7.37, Hardcover £23.11, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

Week commencing 15th june 2020

 

MY GARDEN – By Kevin Henkes

Genre:  Picture Book| Ages: 2-4

The girl in this book grows chocolate rabbits, tomatoes as big as beach balls, flowers that change colour, and seashells in her garden.
How does your garden grow?

Buy here  Hardcover £11.99

 

 

Slime – By David Walliams, Illustrated by Tony Ross

Genre: Fiction | Ages: 5-7

WELCOME TO THE ISLE OF MULCH…

Home to a large number of awful adults who like nothing more than making children miserable. And the island is owned by the most awful one of all – Aunt Greta Greed! Something needs to be done about them. But who could be brave enough? Meet Ned! Ned has lived on Mulch all his life and whilst trying to get his own back on his trickster sister, Jemima, he discovers one of the great mysteries of the world – slime! What is it? Who is it? Where does it come from? And how does Ned use slimepower to take on the horrible grown-ups of Mulch? David Walliams’ legion of fans will delight in an enthralling read that finally unearths the legend of the origins of slime.

Buy here  Kindle Edition £6.00, Hardcover £6.00, Paperback £10.34, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Colours of History – By Clive Gifford

Genre: History| Ages: 8-10

Who would have thought a book about colour could be so interesting? Each brightly coloured page brings another shade of colour to life. Using pantone samples, this book teaches us about origins and uses for over 20 different colours to illustrate the history of colour. From red to green to purple, this is a book which covers everything.

It’s full of fascinating facts from start to finish. These include everything from how pink was originally considered a masculine colour and not suitable for girls to how “mummy brown” was actually made from real mummies.

This full-colour book focuses on a topic that is not often covered in children’s books. It offers a wide range of opportunities and new ideas for parents and schools, working across the curriculum through art, history and beyond. This book would be a great addition to any classroom, school library or home. It’s also a perfect gift for any budding artists or art historians who want to learn more about colours!

Buy here Hardcover £13.99

 

 

The London Eye Mystery – by Siobhan Dowd

Genre: Crime| Ages: 11-13

The late, great Siobhan Dowd’s ingenious ‘howdunit’ combines a meticulously constructed plot with a brilliantly memorable juvenile sleuth to create one of the standout children’s books of the twenty-first century. Engaging and rewarding, The London Eye Mystery is a junior crime novel par excellence.

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £5.94

 

 

I Will Not Be Erased – By Gal-dem

Genre: Non-fiction| Ages: 14-15

A recommended read for any teenager who has ever felt ‘othered’ or ‘different’. Written by the award-winning online and print magazine, created by women and non-binary people of colour, I Will Not Be Erased is a space for these stories. Filled with personal essays that look at identity, sexuality, family, love, power – and what it’s like to grow up as a person of colour, this is a life-affirming read. From first-times and first break-ups to being the uncool girl and listening to your inner voice, this is a bible for anyone looking to own who they are.

Buy here  Kindle Edition £5.31, Paperback £6.50, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Five Feet Apart – by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis

Genre: Romance| Ages: 16-18

Now a major motion picture on Netflix starring Cole Sprouse (Riverdale’s Jughead) and Haley Lu Richardson (The Edge of Seventeen and Recovery Road)! In this moving story that’s perfect for fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, two teens fall in love with just one minor complication – they can’t get within a few feet of each other without risking their lives. Can you love someone you can never touch? Stella Grant likes to be in control – even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions. The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals. Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But suddenly six feet doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like punishment. What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too?

Buy here Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £5.59, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Flatshare – By Beth O’Leary

ADULT

The will-they won’t-they relationship between two residents of the same flat who happen to have never met forms the basis of this witty and charming gem. Deliciously light and frothy, O’Leary’s wonderfully uplifting debut is a joyous confection of comic misunderstanding and endearing romance.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £4.50, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Big Sky – By Kate Atkinson

ADULT

Jackson Brodie’s back. Fans have been counting the days to read the fifth instalment in Kate Atkinson’s literary crime series about the tough ex-soldier turned private investigator, and Big Sky is well worth the wait. This time round Brodie has moved to a quiet seaside village in the northeast, occasionally joined by his tricky teenage son and his ex-partner’s ageing labrador. But once again he gets drawn into a sinister investigation and old secrets come to the fore. Superbly written and utterly readable, this novel is a delight from start to finish.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £5.99, Paperback £5.00, Hardcover £12.27, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Camino Winds – By John Grisham

ADULT

The compelling follow-up to Grisham’s bestselling Camino Island combines a devastating hurricane with a brutal, unexplained murder. Set in the tropical environs of Florida and once more featuring bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Bruce Cable, Camino Winds is a brilliantly escapist thriller.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £10.99, Paperback £18.15, Hardcover £15.99, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

I Spy: My Life in MI5 – By Tom Marcus

ADULT

‘One of the most successful MI5 undercover surveillance officers of his time.’ – Sun ‘The brutal truth about the war against terror. Fast-paced and gripping.’ – Ant Middleton, author of First Man In The explosive book from ex-MI5 surveillance officer Tom Marcus takes the reader on a non-stop, adrenalin-fuelled ride as he hunts down those who would do our country harm. Tom spent years working covertly to stop those who want to do us harm. In his bestselling memoir Soldier Spy, he told how he was recruited and described some of his top-secret operations. In I Spy, he takes us deeper undercover as he puts his life on the line once more. I Spy plunges the reader straight into the action as Tom and his team race to prevent terrorists from causing carnage on our streets and outsmart Russian agents, blocking a daring plot that threatens the security of the nation. Relying on their quick wits, training and courage, the extraordinary men and women of MI5 are under intense pressure every day. Not everyone is suited for the work, and Tom shows how the incredibly tough challenges he faced growing up gave him the mental strength and skills to survive in a dangerous world. Gritty and eye-opening, this is a unique insight into a hidden war and the sacrifices made by those who fight it. You will never take your safety for granted again.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £6.99, Hardcover £14.26, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

Week commencing 8th june 2020

I AM ENOUGH – By Grace Byers

Genre:  Picture Book| Ages: 2-4

A New York Times bestseller and Goodreads Choice Awards picture book winner.

This gorgeous, lyrical ode to loving who you are, respecting others, and being kind to one another comes from Empire actor and activist Grace Byers and talented newcomer artist Keturah A. Bobo. We are all here for a purpose. We are more than enough. We just need to believe it.

Buy here  Kindle Edition £6.49, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Thinker: My Puppy Poet and Me – By Eloise Greenfield

Genre: Fantasy | Ages: 5-7

Won as Highly Commended in CLLiPPA Award and nominated for the 2019 Kate Greenaway Medal 2019.

Thinker isn’t just an average puppy. He’s a poet. So is his owner, Jace, and together they turn the world around them into verse. There’s one thing they can’t share, though: Thinker isn’t allowed to go to school. That is, until Pets’ Day. But the puppy poet finds it surprisingly hard to keep quiet…

Buy here  Hardcover £8.19

 

 

One Crazy Summer – By Rita Williams-Garcia

Genre: Reality| Ages: 8-10

Winner of the John Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Award for Authors and a New York Times bestseller.

The story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them. Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She’s had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. But when the sisters arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with their mother, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. A wonderful story about sisterhood.

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.49, Paperback £5.29, Hardcover £13.14

 

 

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Genre: Fantasy| Ages: 11-13

Winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize Older Fiction Award 2019

Magic can burn, turn tides, light darkness and bring back the dead. But magic is gone. So one girl must bring it back in the first in a gripping trilogy. A fierce and unflinching saga of divided love, belief and legacy, this is a story that ripples with magic and a tale that will haunt a reader long after the final page.

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.49, Paperback £5.59, Hardcover £10.59, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Noughts & Crosses – By Malorie Blackman

Genre: Dystopian| Ages: 14-15

Winner of FCBG Children’s Book Award 2002; Sheffield Children’s Book of the Year Award 2002; Wirral Children’s Paperback of the Year Award 2003; Lancashire Children’s Book of the Year Award 2002; Fantastic Fiction Award 2004.

A dystopian Romeo and Juliet that makes eloquent statements about race relations and the burning passions of the teenage heart, Noughts and Crosses is absolutely pivotal in the evolution of the Young Adult novel. The first of an astonishingly consistent series from former Waterstones Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman, Noughts and Crosses stands as trailblazing work of literature

Buy here  Kindle Edition, £3.99, Paperback £4.99, Hardcover £8.19, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

Orangeboy – by Patrice Lawrence

Genre: Realism| Ages: 16-18

Winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2017 for Older Fiction; Bookseller YA Book Prize 2017; Shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award 2016

 

Lawrence’s raw yet tender debut examines the vexed moral choices for a Black British teenager who always swore to stick to the right path. Lyrically written with an almost musical rhythm and brimming with compassion and insight, Orangeboy is a wise, engrossing read for both teens and adults alike.

Sixteen-year-old Marlon has made his mum a promise – he’ll never follow his big brother, Andre, down the wrong path. So far, it’s been easy, but when a date ends in tragedy, Marlon finds himself hunted. They’re after the mysterious Mr Orange, and they’re going to use Marlon to get to him. Marlon’s out of choices – can he become the person he never wanted to be, to protect everyone he loves?       

Buy here Kindle Edition £4.99, FREE with Amazon Audible, Paperback £6.55

 

 

Girl, Woman, Other – By Bernardine Evaristo

ADULT

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020; Joint Winner of the Booker Prize 2019

Tracking the lives and loves of a dozen British women through generations and social classes, Girl, Woman, Other weaves a distinctive, illuminating tapestry of modern British life. Teeming with life and crackling with energy – a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood.

Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.

Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £7.36, Hardcover £15.35, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Half of a Yellow Sun  – By Ngozi Adichie

ADULT

Winner of the ‘Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (fiction category), 2007; PEN ‘Beyond Margins’ Award (now called PEN Open Book Awards), 2007; Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (now called Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction), 2007; ‘Best of the Best’ of the second decade of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, 2015.

Set against the brutal backdrop of the Nigerian Civil War, Adichie’s soaring epic entwines three deftly drawn characters in a web of faded colonialism, racial antagonism and vexed romance. Conjuring a richly evocative image of a complex, violent West Africa, Half of a Yellow Sun is a magnificently accomplished and emotionally engaging novel.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s masterpiece is a novel about the end of colonialism, class and race – and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.49, Paperback £7.55, Hardcover £69.95, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Color Purple  – By Alice Walker

ADULT

The classic, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that made Alice Walker a household name.

Set in the deep American South between the wars, The Color Purple is the classic tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls ‘father’, she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Nettie and is trapped into an ugly marriage.

But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker – a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves.

‘Not a word is wasted, every breath accounted for. We all know that this is one of the greatest books of all time.’ – Benjamin Zephaniah

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.49, Paperback £7.55, Hardcover £69.95, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

White Teeth  – By Zadie Smith

ADULT

Winner of James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. The international bestseller and modern classic of multicultural Britain – an unforgettable portrait of London.

A ground breaking novel of a vibrant multicultural London across three generations, Smith’s blistering debut is a glorious, rambling epic that tackles big, contentious themes with a lightness of touch and freewheeling self-assurance. Witty, moving and wise; all human life is in White Teeth.

One of the most talked about debut novels of all time, White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing – among many other things – with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-read of a book.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £7.37, Hardcover £20.00, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Week commencing 1st june 2020

Tiny T.Rex and the Very Dark Dark – By Jonathan Stutzman

Genre:  Reality| Ages: 2-4

Tiny T. Rex and his friend Pointy the Stegosaurus, are getting ready for their first ever outdoor sleepover. They feel excited and nervous, but the two friends realise just how brave they can be together. If you look hard enough, you’ll always find the light even in the darkest dark.

Buy here  Kindle Edition £7.78, Hardcover £9.21

 

 

You’re Snug With Me – Illustrated by Poonam Mistry and written by Chitra Soundar – Shortlisted Carnegie Medal

Genre: Natural World | Ages: 5-7

At the start of winter, two bear cubs are born, deep in their den in the frozen north. “Mama, what lies beyond here?” they ask. “Above us is a land of ice and snow.” “What lies beyond the ice and snow?” they ask. “The ocean, full of ice from long ago.” And as they learn the secrets of the earth and their place in it, Mama Bear whispers, “You’re snug with me.”

Buy here  Hardcover £9.83

 

 

The Speed of Starlight – by Colin Stuart

Genre: Science | Ages: 8-10

Physics explained in a totally new and exciting way for children. It explores the topics of physics, light, and sound. Kids can visualise sonar sound, discover the speed of light, and understand basic quantum physics in easy-to-understand language.

Buy here Hardcover £11.99

 

 

Lampie and the Children of the Sea – By Annet Schaap – Shortlisted Carnegie Medal

Genre: Fantasy| Ages: 11-13

The lighthouse keeper’s daughter, Lampie, becomes a maid at the very strange house of Admiral Black. It is rumoured that there is a monster in the attic but, as Lampie soon comes to realise, not everything strange and different is monstrous and scary.

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.59, Paperback £6.55, Hardcover £10.28

 

 

The Black Flamingo – By Dean Atta – Shortlisted Carnegie Medal

Genre: Reality| Ages: 14-15

A boy comes to terms with his identity as a mixed-race gay teen – then at university, he finds his wings as a drag artist, ‘The Black Flamingo’ at last he can feel free.

Sometimes, we need to take charge, to stand up wearing pink feathers – to show ourselves to the world in bold colour.

Buy here  Kindle Edition, £0.99, Paperback £6.55, Hardcover £10.59, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Time Traveler’s Wife – by Audrey Niffenegger

Genre: Fantasy| Ages: 16-18

Clare, an art student, and Henry, a librarian, have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry was one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled back into moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing. All the while Clare has to live her life waiting with baited-breath each time he disappears, for his return.

Buy here Kindle Edition £5.99, FREE with Amazon Audible, Paperback £7.99

 

 

Becoming – By Michelle Obama

ADULT

As First Lady of the U.S.A.—the first African American to serve in that role, Michelle Obama established herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world.

During her time as First Lady, she dramatically changed the ways in which American families pursued healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband, as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments, while raising two down-to-earth daughters – all under the unforgiving glare of the media.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £10.99, Paperback £19.87, Hardcover £12.50, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Proof of Heaven – By Eben Alexander, M.D

ADULT

Thousands of people have had near-death experiences, but scientists have argued that they are impossible – Dr Alexander was one of those scientists.

Then the doctor was attacked by a rare illness, in which the part of shut down completely and for seven days he lay in a deep coma. Then, as his doctors considered stopping treatment, Alexander’s eyes opened.
Alexander’s recovery is a medical miracle. But the real miracle of his story lies elsewhere. While his body lay in coma, Alexander journeyed beyond this world and encountered an ‘angelic’ being who guided him into the deepest realms of super-physical existence. There he met, and spoke with, what he considers the divine source of the universe itself.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £9.99, Paperback £10.16

 

 

Parallel Worlds – By Michio Kaku

ADULT

We are taken on a whirlwind ride to explore black holes, time machines, multidimensional space and, most tantalizing of all, the possibility that parallel universes may lay alongside our own.

We are guided through the latest innovations in string theory and an explanation of M-theory, which argues that our universe may be just one in an endless multiverse, a singular bubble floating in a sea of infinite bubble universes. If M-theory is proven correct, we may perhaps finally find answer to the question, “What happened before the big bang?”

Buy here: Paperback £9.37, Hardcover £19.76, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Reason Why – The Miracle of Life on Earth – By John Gribbin

ADULT

What makes our planet so special? Gribbin explains why the ‘Fermi Paradox’ – the apparent absence of alien life – holds the key to our uniqueness.

There are several hundred billion stars in the Milky Way, yet out of all of these, Earth is the only planet with intelligent life on it. Why? For the first time, the author makes the link between a whole series of cosmic events that gave rise to our civilization – a unique set of circumstances that have not, and could not, occur anywhere else in the cosmos.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £12.99, Hardcover £4.52

 

Week commencing 25th may 2020

 

Pug Hug – By Zehra Hicks

Genre:  Reality| Ages: 2-4

A very cute pug really wants a hug, but no-one wants to hug him! Cat doesn’t like hugs, Hamster just wants to run in her wheel and Rabbit’s chomping carrots, unconvinced by Pug’s nice red bunny ear costume. What is a pug in need of a hug to do?

Fortunately, Pug’s very huggable little girl comes home from school at just the right time and gives everyone a hug – even the goldfish.

Buy here  Kindle Edition £7.99, Paperback £6.99, Hardcover £5.04, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Sports Are Fantastic Fun! – By Ole Könnecke

Genre: Reality | Ages: 5-7

If you love sports you’ll love this book!

Have you ever tried pole-vaulting? What about caber tossing? This book gives explanations of all the world’s most popular sports explains the rules of each sport and suggests what is most enjoyable or difficult about it.

Buy here  Hardcover £12.99

 

 

The Girl Who Stole An Elephant – By Nizrana Farook

Genre: Adventure | Ages: 8-10

Chaya likes to take things that don’t belong to her does that mean she is a bad person? She doesn’t think so. She takes trinkets from more fortunate people, in order to buy the bare essentials for the most needy in her village.

Thinking about it, breaking into the palace and taking precious jewels from the Queen’s bedside table might not be her best decision. She has unwittingly put her closest friends and family in the most serious danger and has no idea how to put things right. Could stealing an elephant really be the answer

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.90, Paperback £5.94, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Owl Service – By Alan Garner

Genre: Mystery/Folklore| Ages: 11-13

Alison and her family are spending a holiday in Wales, in a B&B run by Gwyn and his mother. When Alison finds a curious dinner service in the attic, with a strange pattern of floral owls that looks different depending on how it is arranged, the discovery sets off a strange chain of events that look set to affect everyone’s lives.

Soon, Alison, her stepbrother Roger and Gwyn find themselves repeating an ancient Welsh legend associated with the valley where they are staying. As tension begins to rise, can they break the pattern and avoid tragedy?

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £5.94, Hardcover £13.19, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Moonlight Dreamers – By Siobhan Curham

Genre: Reality| Ages: 14-15

Amber craves excitement and adventure. Instead, she’s being bullied at school for having two dads, and life at home isn’t much better. Inspired by the writer Oscar Wilde, Amber realizes that among the millions of people in London, there must be others who feel the same as she does; other dreamers – moonlight dreamers. After chance encounters with Maali, Sky and Rose, Amber soon recruits the three girls to the ‘Moonlight Dreamers’. It’s high time they started pursuing their dreams, and how better than with the support of friends?

Buy here  Kindle Edition, £4.35, Paperback £7.54

 

 

In Darkness – by Nick Lake

Genre: Fantasy/Historical | Ages: 16-18

‘Shorty’ is a child of the slums, a teenage boy who has seen enough violence to last a lifetime, and who has been inexorably drawn into the world of the gangster. He is ‘marked’ in a way that links him with Toussaint L’Ouverture, the Haitian rebel who two-hundred years before, led the slave revolt and faced down Napoleon to force the French out of Haiti.

Shorty relates his tale as he is trapped under a pile of rubble, a victim of the 2011 Haitian earthquake. As he grows weaker, Shorty relives the journey that took him to the hospital, a bullet wound in his arm. In his visions and memories, he hopes to find the strength to survive, and perhaps then Toussaint can find a way to be free.

As Maren and Ursa are pushed together and are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them with Absalom’s iron rule threatening their very existence.    

Buy here Kindle Edition £1.99, FREE with Amazon Audible, Paperback £7.03, Hardcover £11.53

 

 

Gone Girl – By Gillian Flynn

ADULT

When Nick’s wife Amy, disappears from their home by the Mississippi River. Amy’s diary when found, reveals a perfectionist, dangerously on edge.

Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—Nick seems to fall into an endless series of lies, deceit and inappropriate behaviour and he’s oddly evasive and bitter—but is he really a killer? As the cops close in, with his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is Amy?

Buy here: Kindle Edition £5.99, Paperback £7.37, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Girl With A Pearl Earring – By Tracy Chevalier

ADULT

This richly imagined portrait of the young woman who inspired one of Vermeer’s most celebrated paintings. History and fiction merge in a novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. It tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius, even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £6.99, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness – By Peter Godfrey-Smith

ADULT

Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus.

In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighbouring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring escapes. How is it that a creature with such gifts evolved through an evolutionary lineage so radically distant from our own? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter?

Buy here: Kindle Edition £3.99, Hardcover £20.00, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation – by John Carlin

ADULT

Nelson Mandela, first earned his freedom, then he won the Presidency of South Africa, but he knew that the country was still dangerously divided. If he couldn’t unite his country and fast–it would collapse into chaos. Mandela picked one of the most farfetched causes imaginable–the national rugby team. That year, 1995, the Springboks, would host the sport’s World Cup. They had long been the embodiment of white supremacist rule, yet Mandela believed that the Springboks could engage the new South Africa. Soon South African TV would carry images of the team in singing “Nkosi Afrika,” the long-time apartheid anthem.

As their surprising string of victories lengthened, and the Springboks took to the field for the final against New Zealand, Mandela sat in his presidential box wearing a Springbok jersey while sixty-two-thousand fans, mostly white, chanted “Nelson! Nelson!”

Buy here: Kindle Edition £3.90, Paperback £7.72, FREE with Amazon Audible

Week commencing 18th may 2020

 

One Mole Digging a Hole – By Julia Donaldson and Illustrated by Nick Sharratt

Genre:  Natural World | Ages: 2-4

One mole digging a hole is soon joined by a troupe of gardening friends, including nine doves in gardening gloves and ten bees pruning trees.

Buy here  Paperback £5.77, Board Book £5.94, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

I’m Actually Really Grown-Up Now – By Maisie Paradise Shearring

Genre: Reality | Ages: 5-7

Meena’s parents are having a grown up party, but she gets sent to bed while it’s happening downstairs. Meena really wants to stay up and have fun like Mum and Dad, but Dad reminds her she needs more sleep than adults.

The next day, Meena presents her parents with breakfast in bed and a fantastic plan: she’s going to have a grown-up party of her own. Yet when her friends come over, they don’t really like the sophisticated dinner party Meena has taken so much trouble to organise. Fortunately, there’s still plenty of fun to be had in the garden!

Buy here  Hardcover £9.83, Paperback £6.99, Kindle Edition £6.99

 

 

The Island at the End of Everything – Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Genre: Adventure | Ages: 8-10

Ami lives on the small island with her sick mum, who has leprosy. But when the government decides the island must be quarantined, Ami and all the other children who don’t have the disease are forced to leave – while her mum must stay behind.

Separated from everything that she loves, Ami embarks on a daring journey to find a way back home. Travelling across fierce water and through dense forest, Ami faces many challenges, but the hardest one of all is waiting for her at home.

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.56, Paperback £5.94, FREE with Amazon Audible, Hardcover £6.68

 

 

The Good Thieves – By Katherine Rundell

Genre: Adventure | Ages: 11-13

If you loved Rooftoppers – you’ll love this!

Newly arrived from England, Vita is determined to win back her family home in New York. This will involve breaking and entering and safe-cracking, but Vita is lucky to have as friends, an extremely talented pickpocket and two fearless circus performers.

Buy here Kindle Edition £6.18, Paperback £7.03, Hardcover £9.79, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Stepsister – By Jennifer Donnelly

Genre: Fantasy | Ages: 14-15

Stepsister takes up where Cinderella’s tale ends. Meet Isabelle, the younger of Cinderella’s two stepsisters. Ella is considered beautiful; stepsister Isabelle is not. Isabelle is fearless, brave, and strong-willed. She fences better than any boy, and takes her stallion over jumps that grown men fear to attempt. It doesn’t matter though; these qualities are not valued in a girl. Others have determined what is beautiful, and Isabelle does not fit their definition. Isabelle must face down the demons that drove her cruel treatment of Ella, challenge her own fate and maybe even redefine the very notion of beauty.

Buy here  Kindle Edition, £3.33, Paperback £6.55, Hardcover £12.17, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Mercies – by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Genre: Historical | Ages: 16-18

Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren’s father and brother are both drowned along with forty other fishermen. With most of the men gone forever, the women of this small Norwegian town must fend for themselves.

Absalom Cornet arrives from Scotland – a ‘witchfinder’. Accompanying him is his young Norwegian wife, Ursa, who is both intoxicated with her husband’s authority and terrified by it. Ursa sees something she has never seen before in a settlement – independent women. But Absalom sees only a place untouched by God.

As Maren and Ursa are pushed together and are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them with Absalom’s iron rule threatening their very existence.    

Buy here Kindle Edition £1.99, FREE with Amazon Audible, Paperback £7.03, Hardcover £11.53

 

 

Eat Pray Love – By Elizabeth Gilbert

ADULT

A woman’s search for the meaning of life after her divorce. Elizabeth Gilbert travelled across Italy, India and Indonesia and discovered much about herself during this incredible journey of self- discovery.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.82, Hardcover £3.66, Paperback £7.99, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Dutch House – By Ann Patchett

ADULT

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single astute investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £3.74, Hardcover £13.05, Paperback £6.29, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Red Russia – By Tanya Thompson

ADULT

Peter doesn’t know anything about Russian culture, politics, or language, but he does know American business, plus he knows his fiancé speaks Russian. Peter thinks she can help make him the new Tsar of the timber industry, but first they must survive a weekend with the Russian mob. A weekend of lies, deception and fortunes bought and sold.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £3.70, Paperback £9.50

 

 

Second Nature, A Gardener’s Education – By Michael Pollan

ADULT

Second Nature captures the rhythms of our everyday engagement with the great outdoors in all its glory and exasperation. With chapters ranging from a reconsideration of the lawn, a dispatch from one man’s war with a woodchuck, to an essay about the sexual politics of roses. This is an eloquent argument for re-addressing our relationship with nature.

Buy here: Paperback £11.08, Hardcover £30.95

 

Week commencing 11th may 2020

 

Kiss Goodnight – By Amy Hest

Genre:  Bedtime | Ages: 2-4

In the little white house, Mrs. Bear was getting Sam ready for bed. Outside, the wind blows and the rain comes down. Inside, it is getting close to Sam’s bedtime, first Mrs. Bear reads him a story, tucks him in, and brings him warm milk. “Are you ready now, Sam?” she asks. “I’m waiting,” he says. What else does Sam need before he’ll go to sleep? Could Mrs. Bear have forgotten something?

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.32, Paperback £2.29, Board Book £5.60

 

 

Mayfly Day – By Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross

Genre: Natural World | Ages: 5-7

Mayfly’s first day on earth is also her last. And she is determined to enjoy every minute. From early dawn light to the rising of the moon, Mayfly delights in everything around her. She tastes the honey of budding flowers, sees chicks hatch and lambs tottering about. She feels summer rain, sees a glorious rainbow and basks in the sun. Trees scatter their confetti leaves for her wedding, while bells ring out in celebration. In the evening Mayfly lays her eggs and lies down to sleep forever on a lily pad. It has been the best of days.

Buy here  Hardcover £32.54, Paperback £60.44

 

 

George’s Secret Key To The Universe – Lucy and Stephen Hawking

Genre: Sci-Fi | Ages: 8-10

George’s parents are environmentalists who think science is destroying our planet. So when George makes friends with the scientists that live next door and meets Cosmos, the most powerful computer in the world, he keeps quiet about it.

With Cosmos’ help, George sets off on wonderful adventures exploring the solar system and is enthralled by what he discovers, until one awful day when a dastardly plot leads him into mortal danger and towards the terrible nothingness of a black hole.

Buy here Kindle Edition £2.99, Paperback £5.94, FREE with Amazon Audible, Hardcover £3.18

 

 

Every Shiny Thing – By Cordelia Jensen and Laurie Morrison

Genre: Reality | Ages: 11-13

Lauren is upset with her parents’ decision to send her autistic brother to a residential school. Meanwhile, Sierra has just moved into the street, to live with foster parents. The two girls are very different but quickly become firm friends.

In a well-intentioned attempt to channel her views about social injustice, Lauren concocts a plan to raise money for families who cannot afford support for their autistic children. However, Lauren’s do-good approach to fundraising, puts the girl’s friendship under pressure and sees their loyalties tested in a way they just couldn’t imagine..

Buy here Kindle Edition £5.53, Paperback £6.99, Hardcover £10.65

 

 

Lies We Tell Ourselves – By Robin Talley – shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal

Genre: Historical | Ages: 14-15

Sarah is one of the first black students to attend a white High School in Virginia, where she and other black students are excluded from most activities and are subjected to constant threats, abuse and physical attacks from the white students and their parents. Pretty and popular Linda, daughter of the local newspaper editor, parrots her father’s beliefs that integration goes against the natural order.

When the two girls are thrown together for a school project; they find surprising delight in one another’s company in spite of their differences. As they grow closer, however, they realise that underlying this fragile new friendship is a passion that both of them are terrified to acknowledge.

Buy here  Kindle Edition, £0.00, Paperback £6.55, Hardcover £6.52

 

 

City Of Girls – by Elizabeth Gilbert

Genre: Historical | Ages: 16-18

In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of College. Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theatre. There Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters, from the fun-chasing showgirls to a grand-dame actress, a lady-killer writer, and no-nonsense stage manager. But when Vivian makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, it turns her new world upside down in ways that it will take her years to fully understand.

Now ninety-five, Vivian recalls how the events of those years altered the course of her life and how she chose to live it.                            

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.95, FREE with Amazon Audible, Paperback £9.29

 

 

The Giver Of Stars – by Jojo Moyes

ADULT

Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically. The leader, and soon Alice’s greatest ally, is Margery, smart-talking and self-sufficient, who’s never asked a man’s permission for anything. They will be joined by three other women who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky.
What happens to them–and to the men they love–becomes an unforgettable drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £8.49, FREE with Amazon Audible, Hardcover £16.00

 

 

Perfume – by Patrick Suskind

ADULT

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with a special gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumier. He is not satisfied to stop there though, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of various objects. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the ’ultimate perfume’.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, FREE with Amazon Audible, Paperback £7.37

 

 

Speed – How To Make Things Go Really Fast – by Guy Martin

ADULT

Guy Martin, lorry mechanic, motorcycle racing legend and favourite of the Isle of Man TT, lives for the buzz he feels racing his bike round terrifying bends at 200mph. Nothing, he claims, can match it. Or can it?
In this book, Guy faces four dangerous and thrilling speed record challenges, pushing the boundaries of speed, and his body, to determine just how fast one man can go.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £9.99, Hardcover £20.00

 

 

A Bend In The River – By V.S. Naipaul

ADULT

When Salim, a young Indian man, is offered a small business in a Central African country, he accepts. When he arrives at his destination – ‘a bend in the river’, he’s dismayed to find that the town has been abandoned, but he refuses to give up. As he strives to establish a new life for himself, he becomes closely involved with the fluid and dangerous politics of the newly-independent state with consequences he couldn’t have anticipated.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £6.99, Hardcover £10.65, Paperback £7.32

 

Week commencing 4th may 2020

Jump and Shout! – By Mike Dumbleton

I Can Do It! A Book of 5 Fastenings – By Patricia Hegarty

Genre:  Reality | Ages: 2-4

Buttons, shoelaces, velcro, poppers and zips: they can all be tough to get used to, especially for little hands. Featuring a sturdy fastening on each double page spread – a zip that really zips, colour coded shoelaces for easy fastening etc., – along with clear instructions about how to open and close or tie up each example.

Buy here Board Book £8.19

 

 

Gnome – By Fred Blunt

Genre: Fantasy | Ages: 5-7

Mr Gnome isn’t exactly the politest gnome ever, in fact, he’s pretty rude. Even when a hedgehog comes along with an apple stuck on his spines, Mr Gnome isn’t interested in helping out – and Mr Gnome does actually quite like apples.

So when Miss Witch politely asks him to stop fishing in her pond, it’s no surprise that he refuses. Unfortunately for Mr Gnome, though, it’s not Miss Witch’s first encounter with such an impolite being, and she has a pretty full proof way of dealing with rudeness…

Buy here  Hardcover £8.99, Paperback £6.99

 

 

Where Monsters Lie – Polly Ho-Yen

Genre: Mystery | Ages: 8-10

It all began when Effie’s rabbit Buster, escaped from his hutch. Effie doesn’t really believe in the monsters that are supposed to lead you into the water by their town. Then shortly after Buster escapes, Effie’s mum disappears, and then black slugs begin to show up everywhere.

Effie knows these events aren’t a coincidence, and sets out to determine what has happened, along with her best friend Finn. But the more they learn about the strange happenings, they more they begin to wonder: has someone woken the monster in the loch?

Buy here Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £6.99

 

 

Boom! – By Mark Haddon

Genre: Comedy/Sci Fi | Ages: 11-13

If you loved A Wrinkle in Time you’ll love boom!

Jimbo is a normal twelve-year-old with normal parents and a normal family. Everything is going just fine, until Becky, his sister, plays a silly prank on him. He takes the prank involving his teachers, really seriously, and goes off with his best friend Charlie to spy on them. That’s when everything goes haywire!

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.99, Hardcover £2.99, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Floored – By Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson, Eleanor Wood

Genre: Reality | Ages: 14-15

When they got into the lift, they were strangers: Sasha, who is desperately trying to deliver a parcel; Hugo, who knows he’s the best-looking guy in the lift and is eyeing up Velvet, who knows what that look means when you hear her name; Dawson, who was on TV, but isn’t as good-looking as he was a few years ago; Kaitlyn, who’s losing her sight but won’t admit it, and who used to have a poster of Dawson on her bedroom wall, and Joe, who shouldn’t be here at all, but who wants to be here the most. And one more person, who will bring them together again on the same day every year.

Buy here  Kindle Edition, £4.99, Paperback £6.55

 

 

The Golden Notebook – by Doris Lessing

Genre: Psychological Realism | Ages: 16-18

Anna is a writer, author of a very successful novel, who now keeps four notebooks. In one, with a black cover, she reviews the African experience of her earlier year. In a red one she records her political life, and her disillusionment with Communism. In a yellow one she writes a novel in which the heroine relives part of her own experience. And in the blue one she keeps a personal diary.

Finally, in love with an American writer and threatened with insanity, Anna tries to bring the threads of all four books together in a ‘golden’ notebook. 

Buy here Kindle Edition £4.99, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Trick is to Keep Breathing – by Janice Galloway

ADULT

The problems of everyday living on 27-year-old drama teacher Joy Stone, begin to torment her. She blames her problems not on her work or on the accidental drowning of her lover, but on herself. While painful and deeply serious, this is a novel of great warmth and energy: it’s the wit and irony found in moments of despair that prove to be Joy’s salvation.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, FREE with Amazon Audible, Paperback £9.99

 

 

Brother & Sister – by Diana Keating

ADULT

When they were children growing up in the suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1950s, Diane Keaton and her younger brother, Randy, were best friends and companions: they shared bedtime stories, swam, laughed and dressed up for Halloween. Their mother captured their American-dream childhoods in her diaries, and on camera. But as they grew up, Randy became troubled, then reclusive. By the time he reached adulthood, he was divorced, an alcoholic, a man who couldn’t hold on to full-time work–his life a world away from his sister’s, and from the rest of their family.

Diane delves into the nuances of their shared, and separate pasts to confront the difficult question of why and how Randy ended up living his life on “the other side of normal.”

Buy here: Kindle Edition £10.99, FREE with Amazon Audible, Paperback £16.45, Hardcover £15.99

 

 

Wool – by Hugh Howey

ADULT

Thousands of people have lived underground, they’ve lived for there for so long, there are only legends about people living anywhere else. Such a life requires rules. Strict rules. There are things that must not be discussed. Like going outside to find out whether there is truth in the faint but forbidden hope that there just may be something better out ‘there’.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £1.00, FREE with Amazon Audible, Paperback £7.37, Hardcover £22.65

 

 

The Quincunx – by Charles Palliser

ADULT

An epic Dickensian-like mystery set in 19th century England, it concerns the varying fortunes of young John Mallamphy (Huffam,) and his mother. It’s thrilling and complex plot is made more intriguing by the unreliable narrator – how much can we believe of what he is telling us?

Buy here: 5 Book Series

Week commencing 27th April 2020

Jump and Shout! – By Mike Dumbleton

Genre:  Reality | Ages: 2-4

A group of toddlers and little children go out to play at the park and have a fantastic time swinging from monkey bars, being pushed in the swing, playing football and enjoying a delicious picnic lunch. After all that playing it’s no wonder everyone’s sleepy, so it’s time for cuddles and snuggles – and storytime. What a perfect day!

Buy here Paperback £6.29

 

 

Hotel Flamingo – By Alex Milway

Genre: Comedy/History | Ages: 5-7

A glum bear and a sleepy-looking lemur greet Anna, the new owner of Hotel Flamingo. The new owner is saddened to find the hotel looking run-down and empty; there have been no guests for years.

Anna is determined to bring back splendour to Hotel Flamingo so it can once again be full of sunshine and life. She hires new employees including a handywoman (Stella Giraffe), a feisty chef (Madame le Pig) and a bell boy (Squeak the mouse). The team work day and night until the hotel’s shine begins to return, but when a hotel inspector turns up, everything is thrown into doubt. It’s the last chance for Hotel Flamingo, and Anna calls on a flamboyant fleet of flamingos to put on the show of a lifetime.

Buy here  Kindle Edition £3.99, FREE with Amazon Audible, Paperback £7.28

 

 

My Parents Cancelled My Birthday – Jo Simmons

Genre: Adventure/Comedy | Ages: 8-10

Due to family problems, Tom’s 11^th birthday has to be put on hold, but this doesn’t stop Tom. He decides to take matters into his own hands by planning ways to cheer up himself and his family. He arranges amongst other things; a DIY gladiatorial contest, some chicken ‘whispering’ and something involving lots of bacon sandwiches. Be prepared for some real slapstick comedy!

Buy here Kindle Edition £4.49, Paperback £5.94, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial

Happy Girl Lucky – By Holly Smale

Genre: Reality | Ages: 11-13

Hope Valentine’s older siblings might be splashed all over the tabloids, but she’s strictly banned from being in the limelight until she’s 16. But Hope lives up to her name and rides through life on a wave of optimism – even when there are rumours that her parents are about to get divorced. And as for romance, well, it’s only a matter of time before she meets her leading man. When Hope falls for a handsome American boy and resolves to bring her family back together, she might just discover that life is not a movie – not even when you’re in LA.

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £0.78, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl – By Emily Pohl-Weary

Genre: Fantasy | Ages: 14-15

Young rock star Sam Lee, isn’t like other girls. She’s the super-talented bass player and songwriter for an all-girl indie band and an incurable loner. Then one night after a concert in Central Park, she’s attacked by a “wild dog.” Suddenly, this long-time vegetarian is craving meat—the bloodier, the better. Sam finds herself with an unbelievable secret and no one she trusts to share it. And so begin the endless lies to cover up the hairy truth.…

Buy here  Paperback £17.93

 

 

Brooklyn – by Colm Toibin

Genre: Historical/Romance | Ages: 16-18

Eilis has come of age in small-town Ireland just after World War II. She can’t find a job so when an Irish priest from Brooklyn, New York, offers to sponsor her to come to Brooklyn, she decides she must go.

Eilis finds work in a department store and when she least expects it, finds love with Italian American, Tony. He talks to her of his hopes and dreams but just as Eilis begins to fall in love with him, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future, and she is forced to make a decision that could change her life forever.

Buy here Kindle Edition £4.99, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Never Let Me Go – by Kazu Ishiguro

ADULT

Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well cared for and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it.

Within Hailsham’s nurturing setting, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave its safe grounds as they always knew they would, that they realise the full truth of what Hailsham is.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £5.03, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

The Dubliners – by James Joyce

ADULT

Fifteen colourful and memorable stories offer a glimpse into the lives of ordinary Dubliners at the turn of the 20^th Century.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £0.99, Paperback £2.25

 

 

The Hunting Party – by Lucy Foley

ADULT

A group of thirty-something friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves. They arrive just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead…and another of them did it. Keep your friends close, the old saying goes, but just how close is too close?

Buy here: Kindle Edition £0.99, FREE with Amazon Audible, Paperback £6.29, Hardback £10.58

 

 

Notes from a Small Island – by Bill Bryson

ADULT

Back in the 1990’s, before departing back to his native USA, Bryson set out on a grand ‘farewell tour’ of this green and pleasant land which for so long Bryson had called home.

Veering from the ludicrous to the endearing and back again, his delightfully irreverent look at Great Britain is an hysterical social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain, from an unapologetic Anglophile.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £5.49, FREE with Amazon Audible, Hardback £3.49

Week commencing 20th April 2020

Animals in the Sky – By Sara Gillingham

Genre: The Natural World | Ages: 2-4

A board book to help younger children identify six of the most recognizable animal constellations from The Great Bear to The Southern Fish. Each constellation is introduced as a cluster of stars with its connected-line shape; readers can then guess the animal through a series of read-aloud clues.

Buy here Board book £8.05

 

 

Norman The Norman From Normandy – By Philip Ardagh

Genre: Comedy/History | Ages: 5-7

When Norman’s dad, Great Big Norman, is killed in a fight, Norman vows to visit every one of his dad’s three graves to pay his respects. He sets off with his dad’s best sword and a not-very-wild boar called Truffle, and without even noticing, on this quest, he avenges his father’s death.

Buy here £6.99 (Not available on Amazon)

 

 

The Iron Man – Ted Hughes

Genre: Fairytale | Ages: 8-10

From late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes – The Iron Man is a scary figure, wreaking destruction throughout the countryside. He can’t be stopped – but when one of the children realise that he is not simply a nasty monster, but could even be a friend to the people, is when things really change. A creature from outer space has arrived and threatens the planet and it’s the Iron Man who finds a way to save them all.

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.79, Paperback £5.99, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial

 

 

Deep Secret – By Berlie Doherty

Genre: Historical/Reality | Ages: 11-13

Identical twins Grace and Madeleine, live in a small Derbyshire village. The war has just ended – a time for change.

The valley in which they live is to be flooded to make way for a reservoir and they must all leave their homes, which makes everyone sad. Then a tragic event occurs, and all involved must accept the consequences of this act in order to move on and start afresh.

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £7.19

 

 

One Of Us Is Next – By Karen McManus

Genre: Mystery | Ages: 14-15

It’s been a year since the events of ‘One Of Us Is Lying’. But nothing has settled for the residents of Bayview. Especially not now someone has started playing a sinister game of Truth or Dare. Choose truth – you must reveal your darkest secret. Choose dare – that could be even more dangerous, even deadly.

When the game takes an even darker turn, suddenly no one at Bayview High knows who to trust, they need to find out who is behind this game, before it’s too late!

Buy here Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £7.19, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial

 

 

Sweet Sorrow – by David Nicholls

Genre: Romance | Ages: 16-18

It’s 1997, 16 year-old Charlie is the kind of boy you don’t remember in the school photograph. His exams haven’t gone well and at home he is having to care for his dad. If Charlie thinks about the future at all, it’s with dread. Then Fran bursts into his life and despite himself, Charlie dares to hope.

If Charlie wants to be with Fran, he must take on a challenge that could lose him the respect of his friends and require him to become a different person. He must join ‘the Company’ – ‘am dram’ at its worst!

Buy here Kindle Edition £9.99, Paperback £7.91, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

Idiot – by Laura Clery

ADULT

Laura Clery makes her living by sharing inappropriate comic sketches with millions of strangers on the Internet. She writes songs about her anatomy, talks rubbish about her one-eyed rescue pug, and upsets her husband, Stephen – but still, it pays the bills! Laura recounts how she went from being dangerously impulsive, broke and crippled by fear to a , somewhat rational, meditating, vegan yogi, with good credit, a great marriage, and a fantastic career.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £11.99, Paperback £11.95, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Olive Kitteridge – by Elizabeth Strout – Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature

ADULT

Vignettes of small-town New England life. Olive Kitteridge, is a retired teacher, she disapproves of the changes she witnesses in the world around her, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those closest to her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels bullied by her; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £5.99, Paperback £5.95, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

 

Atomic Habits – by James Clear

ADULT

James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, he reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviours that can lead to remarkable lefe-changing results.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £7.99, Paperback £9.00, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

Catch 22 – by Joseph Heller

ADULT

It’s mid-point in WWII, anti-hero, Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier, with the (fictional) 256th Squadron is based on the Mediterranean island of Pianosa. We witness the mundane day-to-day existence of military life through the eyes of Yossarian, and his fellow compatriots in the camp, who attempt to maintain their sanity while dreaming of home.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, Paperback £8.47, FREE with Amazon Audible

 

Week commencing 13th April 2020

The Seedling That Didn’t Want To Grow – By Britta Teckentrup

Genre: The Natural World | Ages: 2-4

It’s early spring and seeds are just starting to sprout, all except for one little seedling, who isn’t quite ready. As most of the seeds transform into strong flowers, they block out the sun from the little one left behind. But the little seedling persists, twisting and turning until, with the help of some bird and insect friends, it finds its own place to grow and blossom. In the end, this little seed turns into a flower that’s just as beautiful and healthy as all the others.

Buy here Hardback £5.05.

 

A Robot Girl Ruined My Sleepover – By Rebecca Patterson

Genre: Comedy | Ages: 5-7

It’s 2099 and Lyla has a new friend, a robot girl! It’s Clara 2.2’s first day at school and Lyla has been chosen to be her buddy. Clara is perfect in every way and she makes Lyla feel special too. But when it comes to having fun, Lyla finds out that maybe her new friend isn’t quite so perfect after all.

Buy here Paperback £6.99, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial.

 

Liar and Spy – by Rebecca Stead (Winner of Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize)

Genre: Mystery | Ages: 8-10

Georges has just moved to a new apartment block and he immediately gets caught up in a game with Safer, a boy who lives in his building.

Safer’s spying game seems fun and Safer’s sister Candy and brother Pigeon, provide Georges with an interesting alternative to his own home. Then Georges begins to have his doubts about the whole ‘game’, and gradually everything he has been protecting himself from spins out of control as he begins to unravel the truth.

Buy here Kindle Edition £3.99, Paperback £7.99, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial.

 

Fantastically Great Women Who Saved The Planet – By Kate Pankhurst

Genre: Biography | Ages: 11-13

Kate Pankhurst continues her quest to pay tribute to the often-overlooked female pioneers of our world. From high-profile Anita Roddick, who founded the Body Shop and Jane Goodall, who pioneered work with chimpanzees, to Edith Farkas, who discovered the ozone hole in the Antarctic or Maria Telkes, who forged ahead with her work on solar power, plus many, many more great women!

Buy here Kindle Edition £4.49, Paperback £4.89, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial.

 

Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow – By Siobhan Curham

Genre: Reality | Ages: 14-15

An uplifting story of friendship, unity and hope. Fourteen-year-old Stevie lives in Lewes with her beloved vinyl collection, her mum, and her mum’s spiralling depression. Enter Hafiz, a talented footballer and a Syrian refugee. Hafiz’s parents gave their life savings to buy Hafiz a safe passage to Europe; his journey has been anything but easy. Then he meets Stevie, and as their friendship grows, they encourage each other to believe in themselves and not be afraid to follow their dreams.

Buy here Kindle Edition £5.22, Paperback £6.55

 

Norwegian Wood – by Murakami

Genre: Reality/Coming of Age | Ages: 16-18

Toru, a quiet and serious young college student in Tokyo, he is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective girl, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before.

As Toru begins to adapt to college life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to other young women for the solace he can never seem to find.

Buy here Kindle Edition £5.99, Paperback £7.99

 

Normal People – by Sally Rooney (Best Novel Costa Book Awards)

ADULT

At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private.

They meet again while they’re both studying at Trinity College, Dublin. Marianne has found her feet socially, while Connell hangs on the side-lines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, they are always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back to each other. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.49, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial, Paperback £6.99

 

The Cazelets – by Elizabeth Jane Howard

ADULT

The saga of an upper middle class family before, during and after WWII.
As war clouds gather on England’s horizon, the Cazalet siblings, along with their husbands, wives, children, and servants, prepare to leave London and join their parents at their Sussex estate – Home Place. Thus begins the compelling story of a dynasty held together by a family bond that is hard to break.

Buy here: 5 x Paperbacks £22.99

 

Gotta Get Theroux This – My life and strange times in Television            – by Louis Theroux

ADULT

Louis the son of the American travel writer Paul Theroux, was schooled at Westminster, and won a place at Oxford at the tender age of 16. He was a fledgling journalist in 1994, when he was given a one-off slot on Michael Moore’s programme TV Nation – the rest is history; as Louis takes us on an exuberant journey through his life and unexpectedly successful screen career.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £9.99, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial, Paperback £8.99

 

The Rivals: An Intimate Story of a Political Marriage – by James Naughtie

ADULT

No Prime Minister and Chancellor in any century have been bound so closely in the public consciousness, theirs was a bond that brimmed with suspicion and misunderstanding – this is an insider’s look at that relationship.
A hugely respected political commentator, James Naughtie, had equal access to both men; their key courtiers, the party agitators and everyone who has ever sat in Cabinet with them.

Buy here: Paperback £16.80

Week commencing 6th April 2020

 

The Wonder – By Faye Hanson

Genre: Reality | Ages: 2-4

This is a lovely story about a boy whose head is always full of wonder. We follow him on a day where his daydreams transform the world around him.

Unfortunately, lots of other people – the park keeper, the bus driver, the lollipop lady – all tell him to get his head out of the clouds. It is only when he’s drawing, that he realises he can bring the wonder out of his head onto a page for the whole world to enjoy.

Buy here Paperback £6.50.

 

Cinnamon – By Neil Gaiman

Genre: Fantasy | Ages: 5-7

Cinnamon is a mysterious princess who has pearls for eyes, cannot see and does not speak. While many people try to help her, none succeed – until a magnificent tiger befriends her and changes her life for ever!

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.83, Paperback £7.19

 

Time Train to the Blitz – By Sophie McKenzie

Genre: Sci-Fi | Ages: 8-10

When Scarlett, Joe and their dog, Pippy, stumble upon a ghostly train visible only to them, they find themselves travelling back in time to Second World War London. They find themselves on a heroic mission to save a young boy and his granny from catastrophe.

Buy here: FREE with Amazon Audible Trial, Paperback 25p

 

Interworld – Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves

Genre: Sci-Fi | Ages: 11-13

The story of Joey Harker, a very ordinary kid who discovers that his world is only one of a trillion alternate earths. Some of these earths are ruled by magic, some by science- all are at war.

Joey teams up with alternate versions of himself from an array of these worlds and together, the army of Joeys must battle evil magicians Lord Dogknife and Lady Indigo to keep the balance of power between all the earths stable.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £2.49, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial, Paperback £7.54

 

The Start of Me and You – Emery Lord

Genre: Reality | Ages: 13-15

It’s been a year since Paige’s first boyfriend drowned and now it’s time she re-joined the real world. So she makes a plan: Date a boy (long-standing crush Ryan Chase seems like the perfect choice) Attend parties (with best friends by your side: do-able) Join a club (simple enough, right?) Travel (might as well dream big) Swim (terrifying and impossible?) But when she meets Ryan’s sweet but so nerdy cousin, Max, he opens up her world and Paige’s plans start to change. Is it too late for a second chance at living?

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.83, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial, Paperback £7.39

 

Pigeon English – Stephen Kelman

Genre: Murder Mystery | Ages: 13-18

Told in the voice of eleven-year-old Harrison. Lying in front of Harri, is the body of one of his classmates, who seems to have been senselessly murdered.

Armed with a pair of binoculars and detective techniques gleaned from some of his favourite TV cop shows, Harri and his best friend Dean, plot to bring the perpetrator to justice. Methodically they gather evidence; fingerprints lifted from windows with sticky tape, a blood-stained wallet – gathering enough information to flush out the murderer. But nothing can prepare these boys for what happens when the criminal feels you closing in on them!

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.99, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial, Paperback £5.25

 

The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas (Winner of The Man Booker Prize)

ADULT

Told from the point of view of eight people who all attend an Australian suburban barbecue. At the gathering, one of the men in the group slaps a child – it is not his own. The event has a shocking ricochet effect on the whole group – mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the slap.

Tsolkas turns his unwavering and all-seeing eye onto that which connects us all: the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century.  Its consequences force them all to question their own relationships to each other and their families.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £4.68, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial, Paperback £7.99

 

The Most of Nora Ephron – Nora Ephron

ADULT

A celebration of the work of the late, great screenwriter Nora Ephron. From her writings on journalism, feminism and ageing, her best-selling novel, Heartburn, written in the wake of a shattering divorce, to her hilarious and touching screenplay for the movie When Harry Met Sally.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £1.49, Paperback £11.11

 

Dark Matter – Michelle Paver

ADULT

It is 1937, Jack is penniless, lonely, and desperate to change his life, so when he’s offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Along with two other young men and eight huskies, they cross the Barents Sea to reach Gruhuken, the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year.

A couple of months in, his companions are suddenly forced to leave and when the sea freezes, escape will be impossible for Jack. Gruhuken is uninhabited, but it seems Jack is not alone, something walks in the darkness.

Buy here: Kindle Edition £5.99, Paperback £5.75

 

Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari

ADULT

Harari explores the theories that human history has been shaped by three major revolutions: the Cognitive, the Agricultural and the Scientific. They have empowered us to do something no other life form has done, create and connect around ideas that do not physically exist. These shared “myths” have enabled us to take over the globe and have put humankind on the verge of overcoming the forces of natural selection.

Buy now: Kindle Edition £7.99, FREE with Amazon Audible Trial, Paperback £8.99