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The Blurb On The Back:

It is the week before Christmas and the cathedral city of St Albans is blanketed by snow. But beneath the festive lights, darkness is stirring. The frozen body of a young girl is discovered by the ice-covered lake.

The police scramble for clues. A local woman, Jenny, has had visions of what happened the night of the murder. But Jenny is an exhausted new mother, whose midnight wanderings pull her ever closer to the lake. Can Jenny be trusted? What does she really know?

Then another girl goes missing, and the community unravels. Neighbour turns against neighbour, and Jenny has no idea who to believe. As Christmas approaches, Jenny discovers a secret about her past – and why she could be key to everything …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Rachael Blok’s debut literary psychological thriller has an interesting central hook but ultimately this is a disappointing affair where Jenny remains a shallow character and the antagonist was easy to guess and I found the writing repetitive and lacking in precision. What really irritated me was the fact that the police procedural side of it is poor and lacks credibility such that I wouldn’t rush to read Blok’s next book.

UNDER THE ICE was released in the United Kingdom on 1st November 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

In this devastatingly witty new book, Carl Cederström traces our present-day conception of happiness from its roots in early-twentieth-century European psychiatry, to the Beat generation, to Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. He argues that happiness is now defined by a desire to be ‘authentic’, to experience physical pleasure, and to cultivate a quirky individuality. But over the last fifty years, these once-revolutionary ideas have been co-opted by corporations and advertisers, pushing us to live lives that are ever more unfulfilling, insecure and narcissistic.

In an age of increasing austerity and social division, Cederström argues that a radical new dream of happiness is gathering pace. There is a vision of the good life which promotes deeper engagement with the world and our place within it, rather than the individualism and hedonism of previous generations. Guided by this more egalitarian worldview, we can reinvent ourselves and our societies.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Carl Cederström is Associate Professor at Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University and in this interesting look at the notion of happiness as being the fulfilment of your potential (with failure deemed to result from a poor attitude and inability to manage your life), he examines how the idea started with Wilhelm Reich and tracks its rise with the Beatniks and co-opting by big business to its impending demise with the rise of Trump.

THE HAPPINESS FANTASY was released in the United Kingdom on 24th September 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Nora Krug grew up as a second-generation German after the end of the Second World War, struggling with a profound ambivalence towards her country’s recent past. Travelling as a teenager, her accent alone evoked raw emotions in the people she met, an anger she understood, and shared.

Seventeen years after leaving Germany for the US, Krug decided she couldn’t know who she was without confronting where she’d come from. In Heimat, she documents her journey investigating the lives of her family members under the Nazi regime, visually charting her way back to a country still tainted by war. Beautifully illustrated and lyrically told, Heimat is a powerful meditation on the search for cultural identity, and the meaning of history and home.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Nora Krugg is associate professor in illustration at the Parsons School of Design in New York and in this moving and beautifully illustrated graphic memoir (which mixes Krugg’s drawings with photographs), she examines who she is as a German-American and comes to terms with her attitude to Germany’s recent history by seeking to learn more about the lives of her grandparents under Nazi rule and the role they played in the regime.

HEIMAT: A GERMAN FAMILY ALBUM was released in the United Kingdom on 4th October 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Ajay
Find out how I accidentally sort of became the ACTUAL president of the USA – yeah baby!

Hank
My opposition – he sure knows how to throw a TEMPER TANTRUM, his face can turn from pink to bright beetroot in 20 seconds flat.

Sophie
Behind every great leader, there’s a Sophie. Nothing phases her … well, nothing but a MARMITE SANDWICH.

Joe
My BFF was the first kid Prime Minister in the history of the WORLD and is the first leader to call in a cheese related crisis

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The 5th in Tom McLaughlin’s self-illustrated THE ACCIDENTAL SERIES for children aged 9+ is a delightfully silly affair that pokes fun at politicians, rich businessmen and what it means to be British. Ajay is a well-meaning main character whose tendency to drift off topic and wing it gets him into all sorts of trouble but whose enthusiasm and desire to do the right thing means that readers stay with him through it all.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

”I’ve got a poltergeist,” says Joe.
“What’s one of them?”
“Kind of ghost,” says Joe.
“Davie’ll know. Davie?”

Joe Quinn tells everyone about the poltergeist in his house, but no one believes him. No one, that is, except Davie.

He’s felt the inexplicable presence in the rooms and seen random objects fly through the air. And there’s something else … a memory of Davie’s beloved sister, and a feeling deep down that it might just be possible for ghosts to exist.

A haunting story of the power of hope.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

David Almond and Dave McKean’s graphic novel for children aged 9+ is, like many ghost stories, a tale of grief and faith that’s pervaded with sadness that’s inspired in part by Almond’s own life. I suspect that the lack of a definitive resolution will put off some readers but this is an emotionally mature book whose illustrations have an otherworldly melancholy that resonated with me and I suspect would do so with the target age group too.

JOE QUINN’S POLTERGEIST will be released in the United Kingdom on 7th March 2019. Thanks to Walker Books for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

When you’re hiding from a world that hates you, who would make you risk everything to be seen again?

It’s the year after 9/11, and Shirin has just started at yet another new high school. It’s a difficult time, but especially so for a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who wears hijab. Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be.

She hides away, drowning her frustrations in music, and spending her afternoons break-dancing with her brother. But then Shirin meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know her – and it terrifies her. He’s not like everyone else – but Shirin has had her guard up against the world for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Tahereh Mafi’s historical YA romance combines fierce anger with a steamy, intense relationship and is based on her experiences of being a Muslim teenager wearing hijab in post 9/11 America. The behaviour displayed towards Shirin is sadly believable and although I think some of the supporting characters are thinly drawn, the passion between the central characters carries you through such that I’d definitely check out Mafi’s other work.

A VERY LARGE EXPANSE OF SEA was released in the United Kingdom on 18th October 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Alec Leamas is tired. It’s the 1960s, he’s been out in the cold for years, spying in the shadow of the Berlin Wall for his British masters. Now Control wants to bring him in at last – but only after one final assignment. He must travel deep into the heart of Communist Germany and betray his country, a job that he will do with his usual cynical professionalism. But when George Smiley tries to help a young woman Leamas has befriended, it may prove the worst thing he could ever have done.

Le Carré’s breakthrough work of 1963 was an award-winning number one global bestseller and brought him international renown, redefining the spy story as a gritty and terrible tale of men who are caught up in politics beyond their imagining.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The third in John Le Carré’s GEORGE SMILEY SERIES (a follow-up to CALL FOR THE DEAD) has Smiley very much in a minor (albeit critical) supporting role but that doesn’t matter as this ice-cold, ruthless, brutal spy thriller novel is an exquisitely plotted affair about treachery and counter-espionage and how lives become disposable to those in power when it suits their interests in what is commonly viewed as a classic spy novel.

The Blurb On The Back:

Meet Amelia Fang.
Everyone’s favourite little vampire!

It’s Amelia Fang’s big birthnight party and she is VERY excited. But the creatures of Nocturnia are acting strangely and no one can seem to remember anything – even Amelia’s party!

Has someone stolen their memories? Can Amelia find out why, and save her friends and family, before they have all forgotten who she is?

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The third in Laura Ellen Anderson’s AMELIA FANG SERIES for children aged 7+ is another charming, self-illustrated gothic fantasy tale about friendship and sacrifice and being worried that your parents don’t understand you. I really enjoy the relationship between Amelia, Squashy and Tangine and between Amelia and her mum but Florence and Grimaldi do get lost in the background and I would really like to see more of them.

AMELIA FANG AND THE MEMORY THIEF was released in the United Kingdom on 4th October 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Egypt is one of the few great empires of antiquity that exists today as a nation state. Despite its extraordinary record of national endurance, the pressures to which Egypt is currently subjected and which are bound to intensify are already straining the ties that hold its political community together, while rendering the task of governing it ever more difficult.

In this timely book, Robert Springborg explains how a country with such a long and impressive history has come to find itself in this parlous condition. As Egyptians become steadily more divided by class, religion, region, ethnicity, gender, and contrasting views of how, by whom, and for what purposes they should be governed, so their rulers become ever more fearful, repressive, and unrepresentative. Caught in a downward spiral in which poor governance is both cause and consequence, Egypt is facing a future so uncertain that it could end up resembling neighbouring countries that have collapsed under similar loads. The Egyptian “hot spot”, Springborg argues, is destined to become steadily hotter, with ominous implications for its peoples, the Middle East and North Africa, and the wider world.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Robert Springborg is a retired Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and in this fascinating, informative and profoundly depressing book that’s clearly written and easy to follow he describes the structural factors that have played their part over the last 70 years in driving Egypt to the point of crisis where division is rife and government more repressive, inefficient and authoritarian.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

How many hours have you worked this week? When you’re working, do you constantly feel stressed, rushed, and under pressure? Has it reached the point where you delay restroom visits because three minutes away from your desk will throw everything off-schedule? You, my friend, are overworked – and you’re not alone. We are all being asked to do more and more with less and less, and it’s all so vitally important and has to be done ASAP. Lacking a magic wand, we work at a furious pace for hours on end, only to collapse into bed so we can wake up and do it all again tomorrow. There is always more to be done, but the days aren’t getting any longer; something’s got to give, but don’t let it be your sanity.

The Free-Time Formula is your lifelines back to happiness, focus, and true productivity. Action-packed and to-the-point, this sanity-saving guide will help you reclaim your days as you discover just how much power you have. Prioritising is key, but deprioritising is even more critical – and this book gives you a clear and workable framework for becoming the focused, efficient achiever you’ve been trying to be for so long. You’ll begin with a time assessment that gauges your current levels of stress, strategies, and output, then you’ll work step-by-step toward a new daily routine that will reawaken your spirit as you start to get it all done – with time left over!

- Gain an extra hour of free time – every day – to read, exercise, or spend time with friends and family.

- Double your productivity without feeling overworked or overwhelmed.

- Ask the right questions, clarify what matters, and cut out the nonsense to reclaim your day.

- Predict and prevent distractions in order to stay on track with the important stuff.

- Formulate a seven-day action plan for revamping your calendar and revitalising your life!

Productivity is not about cramming more “stuff” into each day. It’s about focusing on what matters to you and your current goals, and building the habit of saying “no” when you want to. It’s about never again missing a deadline or being late for a meeting, but also attending every single one of your kid’s recitals. It’s about climbing the ladder while building a life, and feeling absolutely a-okay about leaving your phone in the hotel room on vacation. Life is what happens outside of work, and The Free-Time Formula helps you reformulate your day to enjoy more of it.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Jeff Sanders works as a productivity coach and in this book (read in conjunction with exercises available on Sanders’s website) he provides strategies to work more efficiently and productively. It’s a very American book with a way of looking at life and work that I found difficult to relate to in places and much of the advice is common sense but the use comes from having it in one place and there were tips I found useful.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Hannah and Matthew were just playing a game. But now he is tying Hannah to a tree. And she has never been so terrified. Patrick is there too, hidden, watching. He can’t move. He can’t take his eyes off Matthew’s gun.

Years later, miles away in New York City, living adult lives they never would have imagined, the three will meet again. With even more devastating consequences.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Christopher J Yates’s debut literary thriller examines the events leading to a childhood crime and its ramifications from the perspective of each protagonist with pacing sacrificed for character development which is unfortunate as I found them little more than stock caricatures whose decisions solely serve the plot and were therefore difficult to relate to while the plot itself is predictable and a little trite so it never really engaged me.

GRIST MILL ROAD was released in the United Kingdom on 9th August 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

When the first edition of this book was published, the United States was in a time of recession, financial crises and growing unemployment. Sound familiar? Many companies rose to acclaimed success from these conditions by improving the quality of their products and services by shifting control from top management to employees closer to the work. This revised and updated edition of The Empowered Manager casts fresh eyes on the theory and practice of optimizing the human system in your organisation in the context of how today’s businesses are changing at the speed of technological innovation.

Business has changed a lot in thirty years, but the philosophies and practices managers use to lead teams are still stuck in a patriarchal mindset. This brilliantly reimagined Second Edition is for everyone who wants to be a force for change and improvement in a stagnant workplace culture where safety, advancement, control, and the desire to hold someone else responsible is forefront on people’s minds. The potent blend of theory and actionable practices provides a clear path for embracing the technology eliminating the tedious tasks from employees’ job descriptions and empowering them with the abilities to better serve customers. Whether you’re a manager or an employee, the inspiring guidance inside lets you step out of the negative office politics fuelling the status quo and gives you the skills to act with autonomy and compassion in service of a vision in order to “own” the performance of your team.

Bring out the entrepreneurial spirit in your entire team and get them invested and excited about the work by:
- creating a unit that exemplifies your deepest personal beliefs about your employees and the organisation and puts in place the systems to make it a reality
- developing high-integrity strategies for neutralising adversaries, motivating fence sitters and focusing mostly on allies
- mastering practical tips for aligning your vision with everyday practice, including how to handle meetings, restructure teams, and manage communications.

The Empowered Manager, Second Edition gives you a clear path to becoming the leader your organisation needs to positively impact performance, build accountability and enhance job satisfaction for everyone – including top management.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Peter Block is an organization development consultant and founder of Designed Learning (a consulting training services provider). In this fascinating book he examines the characteristics of patriarchal organisations and negative politics and how they disempower and demotivate employees and explains how to use more entrepreneurial ways of working so that workers have more control of their work and take more responsibility.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Do you believe in magic?

With all six of them crowded into the secret room behind the rear bookcase in Vernon’s Magic Shop, they were practically bumping elbows in the dim light. None of them minded, though; they were practising what they loved most: magic.

This is Leila, escape artist extraordinaire. She shares all her secrets with her magical best friends, <>The Magical Misfits. But she can’t escape the mystery that’s heading her way …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The second in Neil Patrick Harris’s MAGIC MISFITS SERIES focuses on Leila with Harris and co-writer Alec Azam doing a better job of integrating the backstory with the main mystery and mingling the genuine magic with the illusions while maintaining a chatty narrative style. Kids should enjoy the magic trick suggestions and code games and Lissy Marlin and Kyle Hilton’s illustrations have a fun anime quality to them that adds to the story.

THE MAGIC MISFITS: THE SECOND STORY was released in the United Kingdom on 4th October 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

”I am just a child,” says John. “How can I be at war?”

It’s 1918, and war is everywhere. John’s dad is fighting in the trenches far away in France. His mum works in the munitions factory just along the road. His teacher says that John is fighting too, that he is at war with enemy children in Germany.

One day, in the wild woods outside town, John has an impossible moment: a meeting with a German boy named Jan.

John catches a glimpse of a better world, in which children like Jan and himself can come together, and scatter the seeds of peace.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

David Almond’s historical novel for children aged 9+ has a sparse plot told with a dreamy magical realist quality that highlights the brutality of war and the damage that it wrecks on those subjected to its jingoism and which is sympathetically illustrated by David Litchfield who brings Almond’s themes to life with beauty and sensitivity.

WAR IS OVER was released in the United Kingdom on 1st November 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Who is the girl in the window?

Kasia watches the world go by from her bedroom. She’s not well enough to leave the house, but she sees everything.

Then Kasia witnesses an abduction … but nobody is missing. Does the girl in the window hold the key to the mystery?

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Penny Joelson’s YA contemporary novel incorporates a thriller element with a romance but while it’s strong on setting out what it’s like to live with CFS and I liked Kasia’s Polish heritage, the girl in the window’s storyline is weak (to the point that I felt it did a disservice to the subject matter by relegating it to a sub-plot) and romance cliched so that overall, the novel doesn’t manage to rise above its parts.

GIRL IN THE WINDOW was released in the United Kingdom on 9th August 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

The world almost conquered famine. Until the 1980s, this scourge killed ten million people every decade, but by the early 2000s mass starvation had all but disappeared. Today, famines are resident, driven by war, blockade, hostility to humanitarian principles and a volatile global economy.

In Mass Starvation, world-renowned expert on humanitarian crisis and response Alex de Waal provides an authoritative history of modern famines: their causes, dimensions and why they ended. He analyses starvation as a crime and breaks new ground in examining forced starvation as an instrument of genocide and war. Refuting the enduring but erroneous view that attributes famine to overpopulation and natural disaster, he shows how political decision or political failing is an essential element in every famine, while the spread of democracy and human rights, and the ending of wars, were major factors in the near-ending of this devastating phenomenon.

Hard-hitting and deeply informed, Mass Starvation explains why man-made famine and the political decisions that could end it for good must once again become a top priority for the international community.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Alex de Waal is Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and a Research Professor at Tufts University and in this compelling read that’s by turns fascinating and horrifying, he seeks to counter the Malthus theory that famine is an inevitable consequence of overpopulation by arguing that famines result from political decisions and war and that famines have been decreasing in magnitude over recent years and could be eradicated altogether.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Bath, December 1812.

Lady Helen Wrexhall is finalising the preparations for her wedding, but her focus is on the Dark Days Club. Time is running out to find the vital answers needed to defeat their unknown foe, the Grand Deceiver.

Lady Helen and Lord Carlston are also struggling to control their new dyad bond, and their illicit feelings for one another. As Helen tries desperately to juggle the demands of her double life, an old enemy arrives in Bath, bringing death and deceit.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The conclusion to Alison Goodman’s New Adult/YA LADY HELEN TRILOGY is a satisfying historical fantasy read with an excellent feel for the period and which further develops the worldbuilding and fantasy elements. However, it’s overwritten and overly complicated at times and some of the twists were very obvious earlier in the trilogy. The obligatory happy ending leaves room for a sequel series though, which I would definitely check out.

THE DARK DAYS DECEIT was released in the United Kingdom on 15th November 2018. Thanks to Walker Books for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Kim Lord’s face looked back at me, disguised in paint and the features of a murdered woman.

Revered artist Kim Lord is about to unveil her most shocking show yet: Still Lives, a series of self-portraits in which she impersonates the female victims of America’s most famous homicides, from Nicole Brown Simpson to the Black Dahlia.

As celebrities and rich patrons pour into L.A.’s Rocque Museum for the opening night, the attendees wait eagerly for Kim’s arrival. All except Maggie Richter, museum editor and ex-girlfriend of Greg Shaw Ferguson, Kim’s new boyfriend. But Kim never shows up to her party and the crowd’s impatience slowly turns to unease.

When Greg is arrested on suspicion of murder, it seems that life is imitating art. Has Kim suffered the same fate as the women in her paintings? As Maggie is drawn into an investigation of her own, she uncovers dark and deadly truths that will change her life forever …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Maria Hummel’s literary thriller is a love letter to Los Angeles that’s strong in its observations of the modern art world and its inhabitants but the mystery element quickly tails off under the weight of Maggie’s backstory and the final quarter falls apart as she makes leaps of deduction based on a knowledge of the other characters that isn’t previously shared on the page, concluding with an overblown denouement that made me roll my eyes

STILL LIVES was released in the United Kingdom on 1st November 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

White Girls is about, among other things, blackness, queerness, movies, Brooklyn, Love (and the loss of love), AIDS, fashion, Basquiat, Capote, philosophy, porn, Louise Brooks and Michael Jackson. Freewheeling and dazzling, tender and true, it is one of the most highly acclaimed essay collections in years.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Hilton Als is a Pulitzer Prize winning critic and an Associate Professor of Writing at Colombia University. In this collection of 13 smart and provocative essays (9 of which were first published in 2013) he tackles such subjects as race, homosexuality, AIDS, Richard Pryor, Michael Jackson and André Leon Talley and memory and although some of it went over my head (mainly due to unfamiliarity with the subject) I enjoyed his insight and passion.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

1. How To Hang A Witch by Adriana Mather.

2. In Pursuit Of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer’s by Joseph Jebelli.

3. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black.

4. Satellite by Nick Lake.

5. The City Of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty.

6. East Of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman.

7. The Woman In The Window by A. J. Finn.

8. Seventeen by Hideo Yokoyama.

9. Now We Are Dead by Stuart MacBride.

10. Why Democracies Need Science by Harry Collins & Robert Evans.

11. Bioinformation by Bronwyn Parry and Beth Greenhough.

12. Blackbird by N. D. Gomes.

13. Nancy Parker's Chilling Conclusions by Julia Lee.

14. There Was A Country: A Personal History Of Biafra by Chinua Achebe.

15. Star Wars The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein.

16. Summary Justice by John Fairfax.

17. A Spoonful Of Murder by Robin Stevens.

18. Hackerspaces: Making The Maker Movement by Sarah R. Davies.

19. Landscape With Invisible Hand by M. T. Anderson.

20. Can The Euro Be Saved? By Malcolm Sawyer.

21. London Rules by Mick Herron.

22. The M&A Formula by Peter Zink Secher and Ian Horley.

23. Rose Raventhorpe Investigates: Hounds And Hauntings by Janine Beacham.

24. The Art of Doing Business Across Cultures by Craig Storti.

25. The Playstation Dreamworld by Alfie Bown.

26. The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobbs.

27. What You Don't Know by Joann Chaney.

28. Amelia Fang And The Unicorn Lords by Laura Ellen Anderson.

29. Horace & Harriet Take On The Town by Clare Elsom.

30. Do We Need Economic Inequality? by Danny Dorling.

31. Basic Income And How We Can Make It Happen by Guy Standing.

32. What Everyone Needs To Know About Tax by James Hannam.

33. Scythe by Neal Shusterman.

34. Society Of Fear by Heinz Bude.

35. The Ascendancy Of Finance by Joseph Vogl.

36. Flying Tips For Flightless Birds by Kelly McCaughrain.

37. Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes.

38. Did You See Melody? by Sophie Hannah.

39. The Echo Killing by Christi Daugherty.

40. The Confession by Jo Spain.

41. Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings.

42. The Whitby Witches by Robin Jarvis.

44. The Exact Opposite Of Okay by Laura Steven.

45. Refuge: Transforming A Broken Refugee System by Alexander Betts and Paul Collier.

46. This Book Will (Help You) Change The World by Sue Turton.

47. White Rabbit Red Wolf by Tom Pollock.

48. Rory Branagan: Detective by Andrew Clover and Ralph Lazar.

49. Purple Hearts by Michael Grant.

50. The Wonder Of Us by Kim Culbertson.

51. Can We Solve The Migration Crisis? by Jacqueline Bhabha.

52. The Colour Of The Sun by David Almond.

53. The Gender Games by Juno Dawson.

54. Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter.

55. The New Scramble For Africa by Pádraig Carmody.

56. Little Miss Lucky Is Getting Married by Roger Hargreaves, Sarah Daykin, Lizzie Daykin and Liz Bankes.

57. Small Money, Big Impact: Fighting Poverty With Microfinance by Peter Fanconi and Patrick Scheurle.

58. Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala.

59. Star Of The North by D. B. John.

60. To The Edge Of The World by Julia Green.

61. The List by Mick Herron.

62. One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning At The Beginning Of The Twenty-First Century by Roland Schimmerlpfennig.

63. A New Politics From The Left by Hilary Wainwright.

64. The Golden Child by Wendy James.

65. Natboff! One Million Years Of Stupidity by Andy Stanton.

66. Come And Find Me by Sarah Hilary.

67. Directorate S: The CIA And America’s Secret Wars In Afghanistan And Pakistan, 2001 – 2016 by Steve Coll.

68. Night Of The Party by Tracey Mathias.

69. The Woman In The Mirror by Rebecca James.

70. The Power Of Yes by Abbie Headon.

71. The Case For A Maximum Wage by Sam Pizzigati.

72. This Is What Happened by Mick Herron.

73. Will Big Business Destroy Our Planet? by Peter Dauvergne.

74. The Joneses & The Pirateers: Search For The Phantom Lady by S. L. Westgate.

75. Lean Six Sigma For Leaders by Martin Brenig-Jones and Jo Dowdall.

76. Run, Riot by Nikesh Shukla.

77. The Real Politics Of The Horn Of Africa by Alex de Waal.

78. One Way by S. J. Morden.

79. All Systems Red by Martha Wells.

80. Embassy Of The Dead by Will Mabbitt.

81. Taylor & Rose Secret Agents: Peril In Paris by Katherine Woodfine.

82. Do Central Banks Serve The People? By Peter Dietsch, François Claveau and Clément Fontan.

83. The Shock Doctrine Of The Left by Graham Jones.

84. Wrong Way Home by Isabelle Grey.

85. Sweet Pea by C. J. Skuse.

86. In Bloom by C. J. Skuse.

87. Age Of Assassins by R J Barker.

88. Bad Blood by E. O. Chirovici.

89. The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams.

90. Happyville High: Geek Tragedy by Tom McLaughlin.

91. A Treachery Of Spies by Manda Scott.

92. The 57 Bus: A True Story Of Two Teenagers And The Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater.

93. The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes The Way We Think, Live And Die by Keith Payne.

94. Phantom by Leo Hunt.

95. A Double Life by Flynn Berry.

96. The Court Of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark.

97. Under The Pendulum Sun by Jeanette Ng.

98. The Hunger by Alma Katsu.

99. The Goose Road by Rowena House.

100. The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French.

101. The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.

102. Solomon Creed by Simon Toyne.

103. Lethal White by Robert Galbraith.

104. The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney.

105. All The Hidden Truths by Claire Askew.

106. The Traitors: A True Story Of Blood, Betrayal And Deceit by Josh Ireland.

107. The Boy Who Saw by Simon Toyne.

108. Firefly by Henry Porter.

109. Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough.

110. Blood Cruise by Mats Strandberg.

111. The Chaos Of Now by Erin Lange.

112. The Anomaly by Michael Rutger.

113. Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman.

114. Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson.

115. The Drop by Mick Herron.

116. The Hope That Kills by Ed James.

117. Blackwater by James Henry.

118. The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka.

119. She’s Not There by Tamsin Grey.

120. When Conflict Resolution Fails by Oliver Ramsbotham.

121. In Our Mad And Furious City by Guy Gunaratne.

122. The Legend Of Kevin by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre.

123. Yellowhammer by James Henry.

124. Rosie Loves Jack by Mel Darbon.

125. Trans Global: Transgender Then, Now And Around The World by Honor Head.

126. What Is Race? Who Are Racists? Why Does Skin Colour Matter? And Other Big Questions by Claire Heuchan & Nikesh Shukla.

127. Winnie-The-Pooh Gloom & Doom For Pessimists by A. A. Milne.

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Under The Ice by Rachael Blok
The Happiness Fantasy by Carl Cederström
Heimat: A German Family Album by Nora Krug
The Accidental President by Tom McLaughlin
Joe Quinn’s Poltergeist by David Almond and Dave McKean
A Very Large Expanse Of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John Le Carré
Amelia Fang And The Memory Thief by Laura Ellen Anderson
Egypt by Robert Springborg
The Free-Time Formula by Jeff Sanders
Grist Mill Road by Christopher J Yates
The Empowered Manager by Peter Block
The Magic Misfits 2: The Second Story by Neil Patrick Harris
War Is Over by David Almond and David Litchfield
Girl In The Window by Penny Joelson
Mass Starvation: The History And Future Of Famine by Alex de Waal
The Dark Days Deceit by Alison Goodman
Still Lives by Maria Hummel
White Girls by Hilton Als
Master List of Books 2018

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I Read, Therefore I Blog

A Book Review Blog Belonging to Caroline Hooton

Recent Entries

Under The Ice by Rachael Blok

The Happiness Fantasy by Carl Cederström

Heimat: A German Family Album by Nora Krug

The Accidental President by Tom McLaughlin

Joe Quinn’s Poltergeist by David Almond and Dave McKean

A Very Large Expanse Of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John Le Carré

Amelia Fang And The Memory Thief by Laura Ellen Anderson

Egypt by Robert Springborg

The Free-Time Formula by Jeff Sanders

Grist Mill Road by Christopher J Yates

The Empowered Manager by Peter Block

The Magic Misfits 2: The Second Story by Neil Patrick Harris

War Is Over by David Almond and David Litchfield

Girl In The Window by Penny Joelson

Mass Starvation: The History And Future Of Famine by Alex de Waal

The Dark Days Deceit by Alison Goodman

Still Lives by Maria Hummel

White Girls by Hilton Als

Master List of Books 2018