Book Reviews From The Bookbag

The Bookbag

Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of author interviews, and all sorts of top tens - all of which you can find on our features page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the recommendations page. We can even direct you to help for custom book reviews! Visit www.everychildareader.org to get free writing tips and www.genecaresearchreports.com will help you get your paper written for free.

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Fire Witch by Matt Ralphs

Confident Readers

It's the middle of the seventeenth century and England is in turmoil. Cromwell is determined to impose his will by any means necessary, rebels in the North are massing to stop him and Matthew Hopkins, Witch Hunter General, stalks the land. If you are old and crotchety, have a squint or a hare-lip, or maybe just an unfortunate tendency to talk to your cat, beware – it takes just one spiteful whisper from a neighbour to have you condemned as a servant of the devil and sent to the torture chambers. And in the midst of all this is Hazel, a twelve-year-old fire witch. She needs to find and rescue her mother from the underworld, but the only man who can help is the one who sent her there in the first place: Hopkins' most famous and closely guarded prisoner Nicholas Murrell. Full review...

The Gem Connection by Michael R Lane

Crime

In the beginning it was simple. C J Kavanaugh, formerly of the Drugs Enforcement Agency but now making a living as Private Investigator was employed to prove that a man was having an adulterous affair. Antonio Fahrletti had confounded half a dozen PIs who'd been unable to prove that he was being unfaithful to his wife, but CJ was determined to be the one who got the proof. Luck was on his side, but not, it would seem, on Fahrletti's. In the meantime Clinton Windell knew that luck was on his side: he'd brought home twenty million dollars of uncut gems. The board hadn't believed that he could do it and a large part of his pleasure was that he was proving them wrong. Full review...

Dragon Games by Jan-Philipp Sendker

Crime

The putative cover of my advance copy of Dragon Games ties it to the international bestseller The Art of Hearing Heartbeats – Sendker's first offering in English translation. I'm hoping that the final edition that hits the market will have the confidence to reference Whispering Shadows to which this is the direct sequel. My hope is because the step between the first two Burmese books and the modern China mystery ones is a significant one. Many readers will love both, but I think the less lyrical, more prosaic, dare I say more political approach of the Chinese stories has a wider readership. It is a readership Sendker deserves. Full review...

Lydia: The Wild Girl of Pride and Prejudice by Natasha Farrant

Teens

Lydia Bennet has just turned fifteen and has received, amongst other gifts, a diary from her bookish older sister Mary. She'd rather have received some ribbon or some lace; after all, writing in a diary every day seems such a tedious pastime. But when a handsome regiment of scarlet-coats arrives in Meryton, Lydia decides that there just might be something exciting to write about after all... Full review...

The Ultimate Peter Rabbit: A Visual Guide to the World of Beatrix Potter by Camilla Hallinan

Children's Non-Fiction

I had a deprived childhood: I never knew Peter Rabbit. He'd have been at about his half century by the time I could have been reading him, but books at home didn't go beyond Enid Blyton. Peter was drawing his old age pension by the time that I discovered him when my daughter fell in love with him and - in her turn - read them to her own children thirty years later. He's well past his century now and still delighting children of all ages: he's accessible and relatable and I can't recollect ever meeting a child who didn't have a soft spot for him. Full review...

Colin the Cart Horse by Gavin Puckett and Tor Freeman

Children's Rhymes and Verse

Meet Colin. He's a perfectly regular cart horse, carrying the crops, tools and children around the farm. He's happy with a life of labour, resting after his shift is done about three every afternoon, and a life of hay – that is, however, until he wonders what his fellow farm animals are eating. What could be the consequence of him trying out every other farm food on the market? Full review...

In at the Death by Francis Duncan

Crime

Mordecai Tremaine is an elderly retired tobacconist, a fan of romantic fiction, and a wearer of pince-nez. Not a natural crime-fighting celebrity, you might think, but in In at the Death his burgeoning reputation as an amateur sleuth is both a blessing and something of a burden as he accompanies his good friend Inspector Boyce on the trail of a murderer in the city of Bridgton. The death of a local GP in an abandoned house looks like an unfortunate encounter with a tramp, but that doesn’t explain why the doctor had a gun in his bag. As the detectives get to work there are skeletons to be found lurking in a few closets. Full review...

The Yellow Room by Jess Vallance

Teens

Sixteen-year-old Anna lives an ordinary, uneventful life with her workaholic mother after her father left them both years before without a single word since. However Anna's simple life is suddenly changed when she receives a letter from Edie, her father's girlfriend, telling her that he has died and she would like for them to meet. Anna isn't sure how to feel at first – she was estranged from her father but the news has still come as a shock, and so Anna agrees to meet Edie and they start up an unlikely friendship. Edie is eccentric and warm and offers Anna the companionship she lacks with her own unemotional mother, so much so that Anna manages to gather up the courage to tell Edie about the troublesome secret she has been carrying deep inside her. Full review...

Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights: A Colouring Classic by Elisabetta Stoinich

Crafts

Wuthering Heights is one of the classics which has stood the test of time. At the time of its publication in December 1847 reviews were mixed, not least because of the start depictions of mental and physical cruelty and it certainly wasn't in line with how Victorians felt that life should be lived. But the book hung in there and before long it was considered superior to Emily Bronte's sister Charlotte's Jane Eyre. There have been films, adaptations and now - a colouring book. But does the book capture the nature of the landscape and the people who inhabited it a hundred and seventy years ago? Full review...

The Bed Moved by Rebecca Schiff

Short Stories

Rebecca Schiff's collection of short stories was a revelation. It has everything I want from a collection: humour, (often of the black variety), heartbreaking sadness, and moments of shocking clarity. These stories feel like the revealing of the inner workings of a young American woman's psyche. In fact, in the last short piece, entitled Write What You Know, it feels that the narrator/author is telling us the experiences which have led to this collection. I only know about parent death and sluttiness', she tells us. She goes on to talk about her knowledge of Jewish people who are assimilated, liberal and sexual guilt, and I think it is no exaggeration to say that these are the underlying themes to practically all of the stories here. Full review...

The Call by Peadar o Guilin

Teens

The Aes Sidhe are back. And in their quest to win back Ireland from humankind, they have placed a magical seal around the entire island. Nobody can get in or out. North? South? Doesn't matter any more. What does matter is The Call. At some point during adolescence, every teenager is transported to the Sidhe realm, that grey, colourless land to which they were banished thousands of years before. If they can evade the vengeful faerie kind for a full day (just three minutes in the human world) then their lives are spared, although they are often sent back with horrific mutilations. Fewer than one in ten children survive. Full review...

They All Saw A Cat by Brendan Wenzel

For Sharing

If I told you that They All Saw A Cat is a children's picture book about perception, you might be forgiven for thinking that toddlers were taking their pleasures a little sadly these days: you might be slightly mollified when I added in that it was also about the natural world, but it's much better that I just tell you a little bit about the content and I'm sure that you'll understand. Full review...

Turning Blue by Benjamin Myers

Crime

It was just before Christmas when Melanie Muncy went missing from an isolated Yorkshire hamlet in a particularly harsh winter. DI Jim Brindle from the elite detective unit, Cold Storage, was sent to investigate and he could have been helped by Roddy Mace, a local journalist. Only Brindle, the obsessive compulsive, teetotal, vegetarian loner wants nothing to do with the writer. Mace is desperate to revive his flagging career. Well it's more than flagging: he left London in disgrace, so it's the two men living on the outskirts of life who are trying independently to trap the man they believe is responsible for Melanie's disappearance and that man is Steven Rutter, another loner, near destitute and living high on the moors, who knows all the hiding places. He knows the secrets of the local town too and there are those who fear that he might tell more than should be known. Full review...

Ready for Pop by Hurk

Graphic Novels

London, The mid-sixties. In what appears to have been a murder attempt, Britain's greatest pop sensation 'Vic Vox' has been left a foot tall – the effects of a 'shrink drug' administered by assailants unknown. As Detective Chief Inspector Ladyshoe and his team at Scotland Yard try to find who did it and why, comedian Tubs Cochran prepares himself for his big come-back show. Can he keep his old fashioned comedy instincts relevant enough to entertain a new generation? Will Vic Vox's big rivals, 'The Small Pocks' be given a boost in Vic Vox's absence? And will June Scurvy get her hit (or maybe not) new single featured on the show they're all waiting for…Ready for Pop! Full review...

Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts

Emerging Readers

The first thing you must know about Ada Marie is the way she said nothing until the day she was three. Now that's a way to pique your interest from the start. After all what sort of child does not speak until she turns three? In this case it's a very smart little girl. Full review...

The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright and Jim Field

For Sharing

The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph, but what if you get stuck at the first bit? What if you don't want to try new things? Kevin the Koala knows what he likes, and likes what he knows thank you very much. And he's quite happy doing just that, hanging around his tree, never trying anything new and refusing the other animals' invitations to join in. He won't / can't / is choosing not to come down and play. Full review...

The Hippopandamouse by Jools Bentley

For Sharing

When the princess comes to your shop, everyone stands to attention, and Fluffley's Fine Toys is no exception. In preparation, the staff work hard to ensure everything is perfect. The floor is clean, the shelves neat and tidy, a place for everything and everything in its place. And if anything doesn't meet these exacting stands then POOF! It's off to the Unstitcher room. There is no room for anything less than perfection here. Full review...

Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Colouring Classic by Chellie Carroll

Crafts

There's no choice in the matter - you're going back to Transylvania in the late nineteenth century, to follow Dracula's attempts to move to England in search of new blood and to spread the undead curse. Only this time you're not reading Bram Stoker's classic, but using pens and crayons in this colouring classic full of bloodthirsty vampires, gothic patterns, dramatic landscapes and nightmarish figures. It's eerie, it's dramatic and it's great good fun. Full review...

Terry Pratchett's Discworld Colouring Book by Paul Kidby

Crafts

It was Sir Terry Pratchett whose chose Paul Kidby as artist for The Last World and the covers of the Discworld novels from 2002 onwards and it was a marriage made in heaven, with the one complementing the other. Kidby himself says that designing the characters with pencil and paint challenged and amused him beyond measure. The writing conjured clear imagery and it was his job to capture the humour and richly-textured stories on paper. Kidby and Pratchett shared interests in nature, folklore, science and history as well as a love of Monty Python and the bizarre and to my eyes at least the result was more, far more, than the sum of the parts. Full review...

The Otherlife by Julia Gray

Teens

Ben has a dark gift: he can see the Otherlife, a world of ancient Norse myths, wildness and danger. It means freedom from exams, warring parents, and everyone's impossible expectations. Then Ben meets Hobie, a charming, ruthless bully. He's a born mischief-maker who always gets away with it. Hobie has everything he could possibly want. Except the Otherlife. And he'll do anything to be a part of it. Anything. Full review...

My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things by DK

Children's Non-Fiction

Depending on the curiosity level of your child, you may start to hate the word why. Why is the sky blue? Why do some elephants have bigger ears than others? Why, why, why, why! I can suggest to most parents that they make something up that sounds vaguely intelligent. The problem is that kids are canny little things. So, rather than trying to download the entirety of the internet into your head, get your child their own first encyclopaedia, something like My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things. Full review...

What's the Opposite? by Oliver Jeffers

For Sharing

When a child is very young they don't have the ability to grasp what their hands are, never mind complex matters of State, but eventually they all must start to learn. One way to achieve this is by reading fun books about the alphabet or numbers, but not all concepts are as clear as letters and numbers. What about the concept of opposites? How do you define to a 16 month year old why one thing is opposite to the other? Thankfully, you don't need to know the answer as the Hueys are on hand to help in their usual irreverent way. Full review...

Black Powder by Ally Sherrick

Confident Readers

Black Powderfollows a fictional account of the events leading up to November 5th 1605 – The Gunpowder Plot. The story opens with Tom Garnett, a 12 year-old boy, witnessing the hanging of his neighbour for a crime he did not commit. However being Catholic sealed his fate. This opening event is told with caution which paints an appropriate picture for a children's story. Tom's father, also a good Catholic man, helps a struggling priest by giving him shelter for the night and attempts to guide him to safety along the road to London. Unfortunately, the police hear of these kind deeds, which is against the King's rule and through forced information they set off to arrest his father. Knowing what lays ahead, Tom sets out to warn his father and so sets the scene for this exciting tale. Full review...

My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry

General Fiction

Autumn 2000. Newly married lawyer Lily and her artist husband Ed have a small apartment in London. Fresh from the honeymoon, they're still settling in to their new roles, and their neighbour Francesca and her 9 year old daughter Carla help to take the pressure off a little bit. Full review...

The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies

General Fiction

Clashes of cultures or cultural enrichment? Xenophobia or embracing diversity? Today's hot topics focus much on cultures meeting and notions of foreignness, especially in the context of migration. As such, Peter Ho Davies could not have chosen a more current and thought-provoking theme for The Fortunes: through four different stories, the novel documents some of the history of Chinese people in America over more than century. From railroad workers, laundry owners, and prostitutes to film stars and adoptive parents, The Fortunes tells tales of searching for identity on both national and personal levels. Full review...

Time: The Immortal Divide (The Chronicles of Fate and Choice) by K S Turner

Fantasy

As we open this, the third book of the trilogy, Tachra is on the threshold of either victory or death. As Arrun runs amok, Tachra's kutu allies disappear on paths that are separated from hers so she's forced to rely on her own wit and power. As Tachra and her people teeter on the edge of destruction, will that be enough? Full review...

The Mystery of the Three Orchids by Augusto de Angelis and Jill Foulston (translator)

Crime

All the ladies of O'Brian Fashion House are trying to do is to present their works in the best of lights to the best of Milanese and European society, but they're not going to find a dead person on their premises much help. Cristiana lives in Casa O'Brian, on the top floor of the building where everything key to her company happens, and it's on her bed that she finds the corpse – resplendent with an orchid perched nearby, an orchid that bizarrely means a lot to her. What could it signify? Was she correct in thinking she'd seen some people she really didn't want to see back in her life, in the audience below? And who here might not actually be who they first appear? It'll be a tough case for Inspector de Vincenzi, that's for sure. Full review...