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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Blink and You Die (Ruby Redfort Book 6) by Lauren Child

Confident Readers

Here we are: the final book in the popular Ruby Redfort spy series. Get ready to say an emotional goodbye to 'every smart kid's smart kid.' Things are looking bleak: Spectrum has a mole, nobody can be trusted, the infamous 'Count' is working for someone even more evil than he is and the fly is about to get tangled in a very sticky web. Stay alert. Stay Awake. Blink and you die. Full review...

The Land of Stories: An Author's Odyssey by Chris Colfer

Confident Readers

I think that it is only fair to warn people who haven't yet read any of the Land of Stories books and may be contemplating it. Prepare to be completely consumed. Be aware that once you pick up one of these books you will be unable to put it down until you have finished the last page. Also know that the author likes to torture his readers with the most frustrating cliff-hangers at the end of each book. You will want to read on, but are essentially paralysed in a type of limbo until the release of the next book in the series. The last book ended on a tantalising premise: our heroes, Alex and Connor have a potion that will enable them to enter any story they wish. They are going to use it to travel into Connor's own collection of short stories in order to recruit his creations, fight the bad guys and save the storybook world. So grab your book, clear your schedule and get cosy, because the reading marathon is just about to begin... Full review...

The Mistress of Windfell Manor by Diane Allen

Women's Fiction

Charlotte Booth is the beautiful daughter of a successful wool farmer and like any young Victorian woman, she looks forward to the day she can be married and have a family of her own. Her childhood sweetheart Archie has a place in Charlotte's heart, but he cannot provide her with the life she desires, so when wealthy mill owner Joseph Dawson comes to town Charlotte sees her luck begin to change. After a brief courtship, Charlotte and Joseph marry and move in to the illustrious Windfell Manor, but things soon turn sour when one of Joseph's mill workers is found dead and Charlotte starts to suspect that Joseph isn't the man she first thought he was. Full review...

Raven Child and the Snow Witch by Lina Sunderland and Daniel Egneus

For Sharing

A beautiful story of hope, family and love. In the frozen north and safe away from the icy wilderness, young Anya lives a happy care-free life in the Snow Garden. She plays, she is at one with the animals and she dreams. On one day, no different from any other, Anya’s mother sets off on a journey to the glacier to collect a special flower to plant in the Snow Garden. Anya waits for her mother’s return and keeps busy throughout the day. After a long while of waiting Anya falls asleep and dreams of a terrible event involving the most dreadful enchantress of them all – the Snow Witch. From here on, Anya becomes determined to find and save her mother but she has no idea what lies ahead. Can Anya pit her wills against the frozen wilderness, the wild wolves and ultimately the Snow Witch herself? Full review...

School of Velocity by Eric Beck Rubin

Literary Fiction

Jan's head is dropping him in it. He's a trained concert pianist, but is having difficulty performing, with a horrendous problem, in that he can hear any discordant music, or just in fact horrid noise, when in the wings waiting to perform, and never the score he is due to follow. The devil's tinnitus, you might call it. With another failure behind him, but dignity somewhat intact, Jan decides he has to work back through his life to tell us the cause – and we're likewise dropped into an extended flashback, to his formative years at art school, with a pretentious drama student, Dirk. The book is a fast-moving exploration of what Jan finds of note (pun intended) through his life, and all that might have caused his mental problem. But is cognisance of what might lie behind it going to help? Full review...

Farm by Surya Sajnani

For Sharing

In this sturdy, interactive board book little ones have clues to animals you might find on the farm, and can then slide the pieces of picture round on the facing page to uncover the answer. Full review...

Hush...Little Bear is Sleeping by Surya Sajnani

For Sharing

In this somewhat ironic interactive board book, Baby Bear is trying to sleep but other animals around him keep making a noise. I say ironic because this would otherwise be a perfect bedtime story, but because it's a press and listen book with sound effects on every page, it's far too much fun and more likely to get them engaged and playing than carefully drifting off to slumber. Full review...

Travels With My Father by Karen Jennings

General Fiction

Despite the coda, this does not feel like an autobiographical novel. I am not sure why Jennings felt the need to couch it in those terms unless there is much in the structure that is fiction. I'm hoping there isn't. I am hoping that the fiction is purely that conceit that this pretends to be a novel. If that was necessary to get it published, then I'll applaud the subterfuge, because this is writing that needs to be read. It is – if as true as I want it to be – a delicate reminiscence: a daughter's in memoriam to a father she loved, worshipped, idealised, cared-for, lived with, and yes (in true daughterly fashion) at times, hated. A father who was, therefore, a good dad. Full review...

Capital Punishment: London's Places of Execution by Robert Bard

History

The majority of books on true crime and murder focus first and foremost on specific incidents. This concise volume takes a different approach, in dealing with them according to where the executioner completed his task. Full review...

Harry Potter Magical Places & Characters Postcard Colouring Book: 20 Postcards to Colour by Various Authors

Crafts

Take a book of postcards - go on, take it - it's small enough to pop in a pocket or even a handbag and there's a substantial backing to it so that even when you get to the last one there's still a reasonable surface to work on. You get twenty postcards and they are proper postcards with space for you to write a message and a name and address on the back. They're more substantial than a lot of postcards I've received through the post so they're not going to get all mangled when they come through the letterbox. The thick card also means that you don't get bleed through from one side of the card to the other when you use a felt-tip pen or paints. Full review...

Operation Big: The Race to Stop Hitler's A-Bomb by Colin Brown

History

What, do you think, was more feared in 1941 and 1942 than the Nazi Party? Well, a Nazi Party with nuclear arms would be pretty high on the list. It seems the stuff of pure fantasy, but I'm not so sure. A lot of the people to be at the forefront of the nuclear physics of the age were German, and the first nuclear fission was on their soil. Two things seemed to be needed for nuclear arms – uranium, which they procured by capturing Czechoslovakia, the location of one its greatest source mines; and heavy water. That so nearly fell into Nazi hands when they invaded Norway, but what seems to have been the great majority of the world's supply had only just been smuggled out. Some fiction takes great strides to suggest in a fantasy way that if Hitler hadn't concentrated on exterminating Jews, he would have had the energy to win the war – and it must only be a short step to see his imperial expansionism as having an ulterior motive in nuclear materiel. But make no mistake, this is not fiction – these are the pure facts behind the issue. Full review...

Before I Let You In by Jenny Blackhurst

Thrillers

As a psychiatrist, Karen is never too sure who or what will walk through her door, but the variety keeps it interesting, and her years of training and experience keep her on track even when a statement from a patient seems to throw her off course. It's hard sometimes, because she can't really talk about work at home, but her friends and partner are supportive even when she's not able to share the details with them. Full review...

Tarzan and the Blackshirts by Andy Croft and Alan Marks

Emerging Readers

1930s London, and the streets are rife with racial divides, to the extent that people on one side of the road, generally of one ethnic origin, hate the residents from some other background living on the other. Our narrator Sam has no reason to hate anyone, apart from those in the other gangs, like Alf. But when they latch on to each other as best friends, despite Sam being Jewish and Alf having Irish blood, it seems nothing can stop them. But in times like that – and, of course, in times like 2017 – that doesn't necessarily mean friendships can't be broken… Full review...

An Empire on the Edge by Nick Bunker

History

The history that we are taught is centred on events. Often we know the dates, the central characters and the outcome. We seldom identify and study the causes. 'An Empire on the Edge' is history writ large and looks at the chain of events leading to the Boston Tea Party, and subsequent American War of Independence. What emerges is a catalogue of human failings and frailties that shaped the destiny of America and Britain in the eighteenth century. Many of the failings were avoidable but the accumulation and chain reaction they caused had a catastrophic effect on thousands of lives and has shaped the character of two nations ever since. Full review...

'Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees

Humour

It's Christmas Eve and Mum has arranged everything. All she now has to do is await the arrival of the relatives and the food shopping delivery. Little does Mum know that those two elements alone have the potential to ruin everything. Full review...

The Politician's Daughter by Marion Leigh

Thrillers

I had to feel sorry for Canadian Emily Mortlake, the titular politician's daughter. OK, so going off on a summer job on a mega yacht might have sounded glamorous, but even before she went there were indications that some quite personal services might be required. It didn't worry Emily, but when she went missing there weren't that many people who were worried about her. Her father didn't want anything made public as a scandal could damage his political career. The dean of her college didn't want the spotlight of publicity focused on the college: there'd been a lot of fuss about fees recently and he preferred to avoid the tabloid headlines. Even her friend Amy who reported Emily missing seemed most worried that she couldn't get on with her work. Petra Minx of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Marine Unit was in the UK on holiday and she was sent to investigate. Full review...

The Knife Slipped by Erle Stanley Gardner

Crime

Before we begin, I must confess. Confess that I am a hardboiled noir addict. Therefore, I approach each grisly tale of murder, private detectives and femme fatales with a sense of wonder but also scepticism. Surely, I think this one can't be as good as the last, it must have flaws, poor characters and lack the necessary grit to be a true hardboiled noir masterpiece? so you can imagine my trepidation when opening the Knife Slipped. I was wrong, wonderfully wrong. This book for me is the essence of the hardboiled noir genre and E.S. Gardner is a marvel. Full review...

Imaginary Fred by Eoin Colfer and Oliver Jeffers

For Sharing

Fred is an imaginary friend. He really loves being an imaginary friend, and he throws himself into his role wholeheartedly whenever he is 'summoned' by a child. The problem is that his children always end up finding a real friend, and then they don't need him, and slowly he fades away until the wind whisks him away into the clouds where he waits until he is summoned once more. When he becomes Sam's friend he thinks that all his dreams have come true - they like the same things, they have so much fun together, but Fred has a funny feeling in his imaginary tummy that one day, Sam won't need him any more either… Full review...

One Hundred Sausages by Yuval Zommer

For Sharing

Mmm, sausages! Everyone knows that dogs have special hearing when it comes to the discussion of what's for dinner, especially when it comes to sausages. My mum used to hide the worming tablets in sausages as our dog would eat the sausage so fast he wouldn't notice the tablet. Well, most times! Anyway, this book is all about one particular dog's love of sausages, and what happens when he is falsely accused of stealing all of the town's sausages! Full review...

Winter Storms by Elin Hilderbrand

General Fiction

A year is a long time in the life of the Quinn family. So much can happen. For some people this can just be births and deaths and the whole circle of life, but for the Quinn family it's more love triangles, felonies, drug dealers who stalk you, ex-husbands who haunt you, and business opportunities transplanted from the scorching Caribbean to the cooler north east coast of America. As spring leads to summer, leads to autumn leads to winter we follow the extended family on Nantucket and in nearby cities (Boston, Manhattan) and learn that as divisive as life can be, there are some ties that will always bind you. In this case the tie is called Bart, and whatever else is happening, if he returns then everything else will all be ok. Full review...

The Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter

Science Fiction

An intellectual property no longer dies with the author. After a certain period the copyright is lifted so that an independent author can tackle the characters, hence the proliferation of Sherlock Holmes books. For many fans of the original, these books feel like cover versions and are best avoided. It is only when the estate of the author gets involved that their interest is piqued. H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds left enough of a door open to explore further and when you hire as an experienced a science fiction author as Stephen Baxter to pick up the official story, it may just be worth a read. Full review...

Gordon's Great Escape by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet

For Sharing

The life of the humble balloon is one full of fear and dangers. Imagine going out of the house each day and all that protects your vulnerable self is a thin sheet of taut rubber. Even if you do get to survive into your dotage, this is not a long time. Who has not left a balloon alone for a week or so, it starts to sag and go wrinkly until it is nothing more than a floppy bag. Depressing as this may be, Gordon the balloon looks on the bright side of life and is determined to enjoy every moment he has. Full review...

The Girl Before by J P Delaney

Thrillers

Jane is recovering from recent trauma and needs to change her life, starting with where she lives. After seeing the dives she can afford in central London on her salary, One Folgate Street seems like a dream come true. Ultra modern, smart technology living - a small haven in a big city... however, it comes with some very tight restrictions, rules that must be obeyed. Jane is ready for a big change in her life, so she accepts the conditions of the house and moves in. However, the longer Jane lives there, the more interested she becomes in the previous tenant, a woman named Emma who died there, Emma who’s life Jane’s is starting to mimic. Suddenly, this haven doesn’t feel so safe. Full review...

Tales of Loving and Leaving by Gaby Weiner

Biography

In Tales of Loving and Leaving, author Gaby Weiner tells the story of three of her family members: her grandmother, Amalia Moszkowicz Dinger; her mother, Steffi Dinger; and her father, Uszer Frocht. Full review...