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Non-Fiction Round Up – Happy Fat by Sofie Hagan, 100 Nasty Women of History by Hannah Jewell and Because I Am A Girl by Various Authors
Last year I decided I wasn’t reading enough non-fiction. I’ve never been a great fan of non-fiction and I released it takes me longer to read than fiction so I rarely picked it up. I decided that there were certain topics that did interest me and the best way to read more non-fiction about these topics would be to set myself a challenge. I set a challenge of one non-fiction book a month. Seventeen months on, I’m glad to report Im pretty much keeping up with that challenge. I may have missed a month or so, but I have read lots more non-fiction than ever before. Now comes the next…
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The Nightsilver Promise – Annaliese Avery
London, the Empire of Albion. The Great Dragons of old are long-gone. Now the world is governed by the science of Celestial Physicists, and everyone’s life is foretold by the track on their wrist.When thirteen-year-old Paisley discovers from her track that she is destined to die, the race is on to protect her dragon-touched brother and find her missing mother. But an ancient power stalks the sewers of London, and the Dark Dragon is rising, intent on restoring the Great Dragons and destroying Paisley’s family and her world forever.In a world where science rules and dragons fear to tread, Paisley must trust her instincts and forge new friends, as she…
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The Lie Tree – Frances Hardinge
The leaves were cold and slightly clammy. There was no mistaking them. She had seen their likeness painstakingly sketched in her father’s journal. This was his greatest secret, his treasure and his undoing. The Tree of Lies. Now it was hers, and the journey he had never finished stretched out before her.When Faith’s father is found dead under mysterious circumstances, she is determined to untangle the truth from the lies. Searching through his belongings for clues, she discovers a strange tree. A tree that feeds off whispered lies and bears fruit that reveals hidden secrets.But as Faith’s untruths spiral out of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter……
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Out of the Blue – Sophie Cameron
When angels start falling from the sky, it seems like the world is ending. Smashing down to earth at extraordinary speeds, wings bent, faces contorted, not a single one has survived.As the world goes wild for angels, Jaya’s father uproots the family to Edinburgh intent on catching one alive. But Jaya can’t stand this obsession and, still reeling from her mother’s recent death and the sudden disappearance of her ex-girlfriend, she’s determined to stay out of it.Then something incredible happens: an angel lands right at Jaya’s feet – and it’s alive… *** Its taken me a while to write this book review. I don’t really know where to begin. I…
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Space Detectives – Mark Powers and Dapo Adeola
Connor and Ethan are spending their summer holidays aboard the world’s first orbiting city, Starville (basically Beverley Hills in space!). The amazing space station is bursting with celebrities and the mega-rich. But Connor and Ethan are too busy selling ice cream to see the sights.However, neither of our heroes can resist a mystery and when they discover the space station is hurtling on a collision course with the moon (eep!) they know they need to step in. This is a case for the SPACE DETECTIVES!Can Connor and Ethan find the culprit and save Starville from its impending doom? *** Such a funny and brilliant story, Space Detectives is like an…
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The Wolf Wilder – Katherine Rundell
Feodora and her mother live in the snowbound woods of Russia, in a house full of food and fireplaces. Ten minutes away, in a ruined chapel, lives a pack of wolves. Feodora’s mother is a wolf wilder, and Feo is a wolf wilder in training. A wolf wilder is the opposite of an animal tamer: it is a person who teaches tamed animals to fend for themselves, and to fight and to run, and to be wary of humans.When the murderous hostility of the Russian Army threatens her very existence, Feo is left with no option but to go on the run. What follows is a story of revolution and…
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The Snow Child – Eowyn Ivey
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart–he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone–but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As…
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A Box Of Stores – A monthly book subscription
Have you heard of A Box of Stories? If you are a book lover this is the monthly subscription you need in your life. Four books, each month, which otherwise would be left undsicovered. I love books so the idea of books and authors going undiscovered makes me cry. A Box Of Stories takes the titles of all the books that don’t make the bestseller lists and puts the titles into their algorithms and looks into the sales figures of the titles, the system scours the internet for blogs, reviews and book forum mentions to discover what the books are about and how good they are by real readers, not…
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The Miseducation of Cameron Post – Emily M Danforth
When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they’ll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl.But that relief doesn’t last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both.Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She…
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All Boys Aren’t Blue – George M Johnson
This powerful YA memoir-manifesto follows journalist and LGBTQ+ activist George M. Johnson as they explore their childhood, adolescence, and college years, growing up under the duality of being black and queer. From memories of getting their teeth kicked out by bullies at age five to their loving relationship with their grandmother, to their first sexual experience, the stories wrestle with triumph and tragedy and cover topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, inequality, consent, and Black joy. *** First of all, let me start by saying I’m not black, Queer or American. So quite a lot of the things that were discussed in All Boys Aren’t Blue were…
