Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"
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| + | |summary= In 1872 Maharajah the elephant was sold at auction in Edinburgh to a zoo owner. Shortly after boarding the train to his new home he destroyed the train carriage and his new owner then decided that they would walk to his new home in Manchester. The journey was to take them ten days. Jane Kerr has used this event as the inspiration for her debut novel for children that tells a story that is exciting, compelling and ultimately very moving. | ||
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|summary= Most of the Medicis, who had ruled Florence for much of the fifteenth century, led colourful and violent lives, but few more so than Alessandro, Duke of Florence. In a world of political drama and intrigue, disputed parentage, family rivalry and violent death at an early age, his short life encompassed everything. | |summary= Most of the Medicis, who had ruled Florence for much of the fifteenth century, led colourful and violent lives, but few more so than Alessandro, Duke of Florence. In a world of political drama and intrigue, disputed parentage, family rivalry and violent death at an early age, his short life encompassed everything. | ||
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Revision as of 10:37, 10 April 2017
The Bookbag
Hello from The Bookbag, a 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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The Elephant Thief by Jane Kerr
In 1872 Maharajah the elephant was sold at auction in Edinburgh to a zoo owner. Shortly after boarding the train to his new home he destroyed the train carriage and his new owner then decided that they would walk to his new home in Manchester. The journey was to take them ten days. Jane Kerr has used this event as the inspiration for her debut novel for children that tells a story that is exciting, compelling and ultimately very moving. Full review...
Good As You: From Prejudice to Pride - 30 Years of Gay Britain by Paul Flynn
The last 30 years have seen a tidal wave of change sweep the country with regards to how gay people are perceived and accepted. In 1984, the pulsing electronic beats of Smalltown Boy became an anthem to unite Gay Men, but just a month later, a virus called HIV would be identified, spreading a climate of panic and fear across the nation, and marginalising a community who were already ostracised. 30 years later though, the long road to gay equality would reach a climax with the legalistion of gay marriage. Journalist Paul Flynn charts this remarkable journey via the cultural milestones that affected this change - with interviews with such protagonists as Kylie, Russell T Davies, Will Young, Holly Johnson and Lord Chris Smith. This is the story of Britain's brothers, sons, cousins, fathers and husbands. Of public outrage and personal loss, the (not always legal) highs and desperate lows, and the final collective victory as Gay Men were finally recognised to be as Good As You. Full review...
Dream Magic by Joshua Khan
It's great to welcome our old friends back in this, the second of their adventures, even though we know it means they'll be going through all sorts of terrors and dangers once more as they battle not one but two enemies bent on destroying Gehenna. Lady Lilith Shadow may be the sole heir to her country, but she's still just a girl and therefore expected to do nothing more useful than marry some feeble-witted prince to forge an alliance with a stronger kingdom. Her friend Thorn, on the other hand, is a peasant boy from a neighbouring country with a talent for getting into scrapes and an absolutely wonderful giant bat he uses to travel round on (when the bat's in the mood to be helpful, that is). Together they make a great team. Full review...
His Whole Life by Elizabeth Hay
If you think that un-put-down-able is the greatest accolade for a book, think again. Put-down-able can be stronger praise: His Whole Life is put-down-able. It encourages you to put it down, to wrap yourself in the slow-moving story, the exquisite writing, the subtleties of the characters, and just walk around for a while with them slowly sinking in; it encourages you to come back to it again and again; mostly it encourages you to put it down, to read it slowly, because you don't want it to end. Full review...
Simple Fare: Spring and Summer by Karen Mordechai
Karen Mordechai's family history has its roots in the Jerusalem of the 1950s, when people from around the globe were coming together in a young country and forming their own way of living. When the family then emigrated to the United States they brought this way of cooking with them, along with the tradition of sharing and enjoying food. Mordechai believes that food's ability to bring people together is unparalleled and that the food you make is a compilation of the way you have lived. Thinking back over the food we eat, that is so true and for the first time I looked on a recipe book as an elegant way of seeing someone else's history. Full review...
One Happy Tiger by Catherine Rayner
I love a good counting book! I particularly like one that has a story attached to it, rather than just 'one ball, two oranges, three dolls...' I like a counting book which is well drawn too and where care and thought has gone into the production of the book: you can't start to appreciate the good things in life too soon and One Happy Tiger ticks all those boxes, but when we first meet him tiger is rather sad. He's sitting all alone and whilst he might not have a frown on his face or tears in his eyes he has a look of dejection about him. Full review...
Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of Our Gendered Minds by Cordelia Fine
I really want to believe that starting Testosterone Rex with an anecdote involving a key-ring made of canine testicles was less of a puerile opening gambit and more of a consciously chosen attempt to make me believe that Cordelia Fine's new book is going to deliver the goods. Full review...
Five Ways to Cook Asparagus (and Other Recipes): the Art and Practice of Making Dinner by Peter Miller
When you've been producing meals for around about half a century the chances are that, like me, you have a fairly regular set of menus which you produce. Hopefully it's not quite in the 'fishcakes! Goodness is it Friday already?' realm but you probably have something in your culinary locker for every occasion. It takes a very good book to make you settle down and actually read what it has to offer and it's an exceptional one where you end up with lots of dog-eared pages for recipes which you're going to try. The inspiration to read Five Ways to Cook Asparagus was simple and serendipitous - I'd just come home with the first of the season's English asparagus when the book arrived in the post. I couldn't not have a look, now could I? Full review...
Omnipotence: Odyssey Book I by Geoff Gaywood
Against a backdrop of relentless global warming and deepening social conflict on Earth, an expedition sets out to secure a foothold on a distant planet thought suitable for human habitation. Almost immediately, the crew are sorely tested by a violent internal conspiracy, alien aggression and simmering emotional tensions. They complete a spectacular transition to a remote solar system where they find that their goal, as dangerous as it is exotic, already has the ominous attention of another civilisation. Moreover, a series of perplexing events suggest that their mission may be subordinate to a much greater power with its own strategic agenda. Full review...
Fluffy Chick by Rod Campbell
Books enable us to travel places that we can only dream of; we can walk on the moon, or sink to the deepest depths of the ocean. However, not all books have to be spectacular to be great; simple pleasures can also be good. Taking a child to a petting zoo is one of the most fun outings a family can do, but what happens when you are having an indoor day? Pick up Fluffy Chick and bring the simple joy of the petting zoo to you. Full review...
The Magician's Lie by Grace Macallister
The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. But one night she swaps her trademark saw for an axe. When Arden's husband is found dead later that night, the answer seems clear, most of all to young policeman Virgil Holt. Captured and taken into custody, all seems set for Arden's swift confession. But she has a different story to tell. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far from powerless, and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbinding. Full review...
Bryant and May: Wild Chamber by Christopher Fowler
Bryant and May are back! So the slow decline into old age, with a side helping of dementia, isn't quite the Reichenbach Falls: it did give Fowler a cleaner and clearer way to have Arthur Bryant return to work. A simple he hasn't been well but he's back now and no more need be said about it. Full review...
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo
It's been said very often that 'history is told by the winners'. Well, too often history, the news and even destinies are written by men, and the proof is between these covers. I didn't know anything about this before reading it, even if it has become the most richly-backed crowd-funded book ever. I'd never heard of the Hollow Flashlight, powered purely by body warmth – which is rich if you're old enough to remember the brou-ha-ha when a maverick British bloke did a wind-up radio. I'd never read about the Niger female who has successfully made a stand against forced, arranged marriage, rejecting a cousin for a fate she wishes to write for herself. My ignorance may, perhaps, show me up to be a chauvinist of sorts, but I think it is further evidence that 'the gaze is male' and that the media are phallocentric. I hope too that this book doesn't turn any of its readers into a feminist, for that would be as bad as the chauvinist charge against me. If anything it is designed to create equals, and that is as it should be, even if there is still a long way to go… Full review...
The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis
Just before Henry Aster's birth, his father, a frustrated novelist and lawyer, reluctantly returns to the remote North Carolina mountains in which he was improbably raised and installs his young family in a gothic mansion - nicknamed 'the vulture house' - worthy of his hero Edgar Allan Poe. There, Henry grows up under the desk of this fierce and brilliant man. But when a death in the family tips his father toward a fearsome unravelling, what was once a young son's reverence is poisoned, and Henry flees, not to return until years later when he, too, must go home again. Full review...
How to Be Human by Paula Cocozza
When Mary arrives home from work one day to find a magnificent fox on her lawn - his ears spiked in attention and every hair bristling with his power to surprise - it is only the beginning. He brings gifts (at least, Mary imagines they are gifts), and gradually makes himself at home. And as he listens to Mary, Mary listens back. She begins to hear herself for the first time in years. Her bullish ex-boyfriend, still lurking on the fringes of her life, would be appalled. So would the neighbours with a new baby. They only like wildlife that fits with the decor. But inside Mary a wildness is growing that will not be tamed. Full review...
Gone by Min Kym
Gone is a fascinating peephole into the world of solo musicians and their instruments. When Min Kym's 300 year old Stradivarius violin was stolen in 2010, the newspapers were eager to tell the story; this memoir is Kym's side of it, from her early childhood and education at the Purcell School (their youngest ever pupil) to the recovery of the Strad and beyond. Full review...
Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner
Where are you guys? Text me back.
Ending three lives with seven words becomes Carver's reality when he sends a simple, impatient text to his best friend. His best friend who is driving and on the way to pick him up at any moment. His best friend who in replying to his text, rams into the back of a truck instantly killing himself and their other two best friends in the car. Full review...
Evie's Ghost by Helen Peters
Evie is not happy. Not only has her mother disrupted their hitherto happy duo by getting married, she has flown off on honeymoon with new husband Marcus and sent Evie off to stay with a godmother she hasn't seen for years and can barely remember. And if that weren't bad enough, godmother Anna lives in a creaky old mansion miles from anywhere, without such necessities as internet access and a mobile phone signal. Anna doesn't even own a television, for heavens sake. Full review...
The Huntress: Sea by Sarah Driver
Feisty heroines who refuse to accept the limitations set on them by men abound in literature at the moment – which is all to the good – and thirteen-year-old Mouse is no exception. She lives a precarious but happy life on the Huntress with her one-eyed grandma, who is the ship's captain, and her little brother Sparrow. Their tribe worships the whales as gods, protecting and working together with them to defeat the vicious and bloodthirsty terrodyls, and despite her young age Mouse is already a gifted diver for the pearls which they trade for food. Full review...
Camping With Kids by Simon McGrath
When my daughter was young it used to be joked that if a child asked on his fifth birthday to go camping and you told him that he could in five years' time, he'd be there on his tenth birthday, all kitted up and ready to go. These days the discussions - and delaying tactics - are more likely to be about technology - and mobiles in particular. Whilst it's wonderful that children do embrace technology, it shouldn't be at the expense of getting out in the fresh air, being free of screens and having an adventure - preferably with all the family doing it together. Full review...
The Reunion by Roisin Meaney
This is an emotional story about the lives of two Irish sisters, beginning with their invitation to attend a twenty year reunion back at their Convent High School. They are both unsure whether to go, their adult lives having veered off in totally different and dramatic directions since leaving school. We find out that the sisters have each suffered terrible life events, changing them for ever from the children they were. The story reveals how they begin to re-build their lives, supporting one another and becoming much closer in the process. Full review...
Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer
Juliet has always written letters to her mother. The award-winning photojournalist wasn't at home much and letters always seemed somehow more personal and intimate than email or Skype. And Juliet is still writing those letters even though her mother died in a hit-and-run accident, rushing home to surprise her daughter by arriving earlier than expected. Juliet leaves them at her graveside, overwhelmed with grief and guilt. If her mother hadn't come home early for her daughter, she would still be alive today. Full review...
Death Message by Kate London
In October 1987, on the morning after the great storm, Tania Mills left home to visit a friend and was never seen again. Twenty-seven years later DS Sarah Collins from the Met's Homicide Command has to look into new information which might reveal what happened to the fifteen-year-old girl. It's not all she has to do though - there are still current cases which have to be responded to immediately: somehow she has to fit it all together. Meanwhile DC Lizzie Griffiths has to deal with a case of domestic violence: the husband is vicious and volatile, but outwardly charming and the wife ultimately too frightened to do anything but put up with his outbursts. Collins and Griffiths have history and antagonism between them: will they be able to work together? Full review...
And Then We Ran by Katy Cannon
Megan's passion is photography. She wants to pursue it for a living. But her parents don't see this as a reliable career want her to follow a more academic route. And, since Megan's clever sister Lizzie died, her parents have put more and more pressure on Megan to buckle down to this boring stuff and get herself ready for Oxbridge. It's all too much for Megan, who is still grieving for Lizzie, but doesn't want to take her place as the high achiever her parents crave. Full review...
Stargazing for Beginners by Jenny McLachlan
Meg loves space. And when we say Meg loves space, this doesn't quite explain how much Meg loves space. Meg loves all things space to the exclusion of almost everything else. She has a space mural in her bedroom. She belongs to a stargazing club with her grandfather. She is determined to become an astronaut one day. And she dreams of winning a competition that will earn her a place on a trip to NASA in Houston. Full review...
Confessions of Modern Women by Spadge Whittaker
She's back! Huzzah! Do you remember when Spadge Whittaker faced her (and our) deepest fears? We loved the way she did that. EXCEPT FOR THE SPIDERS.
This time, Spadge has turned her attention to what it means to be a modern woman in twenty-first century, digital Britain. Full review...
Patrick and the President by Ryan Tubridy and P J Lynch
Meet Patrick. Such a direction is a little facetious here, because it's who he's going to meet that's the key. He lives in New Ross, County Wexford, and his school has been chosen to perform as a choir for the much-anticipated arrival of President J F Kennedy, as the man traces the path of his Irish ancestry, in what (in addition to stop-overs in England and Italy on the same trip) was to be his last state visit abroad. But surely just being one among three hundred on such an auspicious, yet brief, occasion is not enough for such an enterprising lad? Well, no, for his connected parents have got another trick up their sleeve for him… Full review...
The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Set in the Philippines at the beginning of the last century, Ami lives with her mother on Culion Island. It's a beautiful place covered in lush forests and surrounded by a blue sea that matches the sky. It's Ami's home and the only place she has ever known. But Culion is an island for people with leprosy who are sent there to live on the edge of the world away from civilisation. Ami's mother is among the infected but Ami herself remains untouched, so when government official Mr Zamora arrives to transport the islanders who are free from the sickness to another island, Ami's world is torn apart. Banished across the sea to an orphanage, Ami is determined to get back home and crosses great lengths to return to her sick mother once more, on the island at the end of everything. Full review...
Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
Cassandra Clare is particularly impassioned about her latest book as it is set in the City of Angels where she grew up. She recalls, "I was an imaginative teenager, always seeing supernatural creatures and potential magic around every corner". Her novel is imbued with her love of film noir, classical texts and the murky literary gothic world of Edgar Allan Poe. These influences charge her urban crime fantasy with mystery and imagination. It works as a standalone though will appeal especially to teenage fans of 'The Mortal Instruments' who will be happy to rejoin the brave Shadowhunter warriors Emma and Julian last seen battling for their lives at the age of 12 during the Dark Wars in 'The City of Heavenly Fire' and now facing painful decisions. Full review...
The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' Medici by Catherine Fletcher
Most of the Medicis, who had ruled Florence for much of the fifteenth century, led colourful and violent lives, but few more so than Alessandro, Duke of Florence. In a world of political drama and intrigue, disputed parentage, family rivalry and violent death at an early age, his short life encompassed everything. Full review...
