Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"
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| + | |summary= Jamie Allenby wakes, alone, and realises her fever has broken. But could everyone she knows be dead? Months earlier, Jamie had left her partner Daniel, mourning the miscarriage of their baby. She'd just had to get away, so took a job on a distant planet. Then the virus hit. Jamie survived as it swept through our far-flung colonies. Now she feels desperate and isolated, until she receives a garbled message from Earth. If someone from her past is still alive – perhaps Daniel – she knows she must find a way to return. She meets others seeking Earth, and their ill-matched group will travel across space to achieve their dream. But they'll clash with survivors intent on repeating humanity's past mistakes, threatening their precious fresh start. Jamie will also get a second chance at happiness. But can she escape her troubled past, to embrace a hopeful future? | ||
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|summary=It was the hottest day of the year. Hotter, if such a thing is possible, than broccoli soup, the Atacama Desert and the surface of the sun. Grandad decreed that it was the perfect day for an adventure and began packing the picnic basket with all sorts of useful things: water, biscuits, a telescope, camera, sun protection, fruit, sandwiches, toys and lots, lots more. How are a boy and his grandad to know what they're going to need? Grandad was the navigator and the boy was the lookout. | |summary=It was the hottest day of the year. Hotter, if such a thing is possible, than broccoli soup, the Atacama Desert and the surface of the sun. Grandad decreed that it was the perfect day for an adventure and began packing the picnic basket with all sorts of useful things: water, biscuits, a telescope, camera, sun protection, fruit, sandwiches, toys and lots, lots more. How are a boy and his grandad to know what they're going to need? Grandad was the navigator and the boy was the lookout. | ||
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Revision as of 17:01, 31 May 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 Space Between The Stars by Anne Corlett
Jamie Allenby wakes, alone, and realises her fever has broken. But could everyone she knows be dead? Months earlier, Jamie had left her partner Daniel, mourning the miscarriage of their baby. She'd just had to get away, so took a job on a distant planet. Then the virus hit. Jamie survived as it swept through our far-flung colonies. Now she feels desperate and isolated, until she receives a garbled message from Earth. If someone from her past is still alive – perhaps Daniel – she knows she must find a way to return. She meets others seeking Earth, and their ill-matched group will travel across space to achieve their dream. But they'll clash with survivors intent on repeating humanity's past mistakes, threatening their precious fresh start. Jamie will also get a second chance at happiness. But can she escape her troubled past, to embrace a hopeful future? Full review...
The Hopkins Conundrum by Simon Edge
Tim Cleverley inherits a failing pub in Wales, which he plans to rescue by enlisting an American pulp novelist to concoct an entirely fabricated mystery about Gerard Manley Hopkins, who composed The Wreck of the Deutschland nearby.
In Victorian England, Gerard Manley Hopkins lives a life full of confusion and contradiction, but discovers a calling for poetry that threatens to overrule his calling to God. And, speaking of God, Five nuns leave persecution to travel to a new world – only to find themselves in more trouble that they could ever have imagined… Full review...
My Name is not Refugee by Kate Milner
A child's mother tells her child that they will have to leave this town: it's not safe for them any longer. She explains what will happen. The child can pack his own bag, but he has to remember that he must only take what he can carry. Initially it will be exciting and they can't live in a place where there's no water in the taps and the rubbish just piles up in the streets. It's going to be an adventure, but sometimes they're going to be on their own and it will get a bit boring, but sometimes they'll be with other people and he must remember to hold on to an adult's hand. They'll see lots of cars and lorries and sleep in some strange places. They'll hear people speaking in strange languages and taste new foods. Eventually they'll get to somewhere where they are safe and can unpack. The strange words will start to make sense.
He'll be called Refugee, but he has to remember that Refugee is not his name. Full review...
The Movie Making Book by Dan Farrell and Donna Bamford
In my youth we had to make do with a camcorder that would fit a mini-tape that you recorded onto. This mini-tape would then slip into a casing that could be watched on your VHS (imagine something like a DVD player, but with awful fidelity). In all, making a film was a big old faff, but trying to do anything fancy was almost impossible. There is no longer this excuse for kids today with their camera enabled smart devices, but just because they can do something does not mean they will be any good. A guide for movie making would certainly help! Full review...
Resistance: A Race Against Time to Save Mankind by Val McDermid
It began so innocently, at a music festival in Northumberland. There were some stomach upsets, but what do you expect when the weather's bad, there's inadequate sanitation and 150,000 people out to enjoy themselves? Journalist Zoe Meadows is covering the event and she's filing her copy from the back of a food van run by her friends Sam and Lisa. Sam's fussy about the food he serves - he's The Sausage Man - and he regularly checks out his suppliers. In his business you just can't be too careful. The stomach upsets seem to last for 24 hours, an unpleasant 24 hours, but then it seems to be over. Full review...
Radical Hope by Carolina de Robertis
On 8th November 2016, Donald Trump was elected as the 46th President of the United States. Since then many Americans have been overcome with fear, worrying about what will become of American society during Trump's administration. Carolina de Robertis was no exception to this fear and in response to the newly elected President and his policies she put out a call for action. Radical Hope is the outcome to this call. De Robertis reached out to fellow writers and activists asking for letters, predominantly letters of love, addressed to the citizens of today and those of past and future generations in order to help spread hope during times of uncertainty. Full review...
The Shadow Queen by Anne O'Brien
Born in 1328, Joan of Kent may be of royal blood but she's from a family tainted by treachery. Her father Edmund Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, was executed for his part in the infamous Montague plot. However Joan has grown up under the protection of her cousin, King Edward III with all the advantages and attributes of a princess. Yet, much to her mother's chagrin, obedience isn't one of these attributes. Joan's head strong feist takes her on a varied journey in life. Having said that, three husbands, five marriages (technically) and a son destined for the English throne means that it's also been one heck of a life! Full review...
Shepherd of Another Flock by David Wilbourne
David Wilbourne's CV looks like a career path for people who are hard-of-humoured. Banker, teacher of Ancient Greek, vicar, bishop…none of these are jobs normally connected in our minds with a jovial twinkle. Yet in David's case we'd be totally wrong to assume. The current Bishop of Llandaff takes us by the hand to show us episodes from his life as vicar of the character-packed Yorkshire parish of Helmsley proving that tears of sorrow are equally shared with tears of laughter. Full review...
The Girls of Ennismore: A Heart-Rending Irish Saga by Patricia Falvey
Ireland 1900: Ennismore House's young heiress Victoria had hoped that she and Rosie Killeen would be friends forever. Rosie soon comes to know better as there's a social chasm between those who live in the House and those, like Rosie's family, who have been brought up merely to serve them. The days of innocence are coming to an end in many ways. Soon, as the cry for Irish Home Rule becomes louder, there'll be more than steps on society's ladder between them as each must discover their own way in a nation that will never be the same again. Full review...
Tragic Shores: A Memoir Of Dark Travel by Thomas H Cook
Thomas H Cook, an American author valued for the quality of writing and compelling intrigues of his numerous thrillers, has written a collection of nearly thirty accounts of visits to the tragic shores of the title. There is no noticeable rhyme or reason to the order of presentation, apart from the last, and the most personal tale which links the travel report to the author's personal loss of his wife and long-time travel companion, who features in many of the chapters, as does the couple's daughter, but they all the pertain to Cook's visits to what he describes as the saddest places on Earth. Full review...
Defender of the Realm: Dark Age by Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler
King Alfred the Second is still growing into his roles as King and Defender of the Realm. Just having defeated the Black Dragon at his coronation, Alfie is trying to focus on making less of a fool of himself in his day job, something the Prime Minister is keen to encourage as much as possible, when a new threat hits the Kingdom. The UK is being savaged by a hoard of undead Vikings, intent on causing as much trouble as possible, who have all been stirred up by Alfie's old History teacher, Professor Lock. But how do you kill something that's already dead? Alfie is trying to save the Kingdom by night, rule it by day and keep his family together, all the while knowing if he fails, we could be thrown into another dark age. Well, no one said being King would be easy. Full review...
Sleep Baby Sleep (Detective Pieter Voss) by David Hewson
Annie Schrijver is just twenty-two-years old and is known as 'the flower girl' in the picturesque Albert Cuyp flower market, where she works on her father's stall. It's almost impossible to believe that she's missing as she's very personable and always popular with the customers. When she's found she's barely alive though, tied to a stone angel in a graveyard and surrounded by a ring of fire. In her body there are traces of a drug which takes Detective Pieter Voss back four years to the Sleeping Beauty murders. He had his doubts at the time as to whether or not everyone involved had been caught: now it seems that his doubts have come back to haunt him. Full review...
Beards From Outer Space by Gareth P Jones
You might not realise it but Earth is under constant alien attack. Luckily we humans don't need to worry because the Pet Defenders (a secret society of our domestic pets) are always on standby to keep us safe. The activities of the Pet Defenders are normally kept secret but Stripes Publishing are kindly allowing human children a brief glimpse into their exciting adventures. In Beards From Outer Space we are able to read how a dog and cat – secret agents Biskit and Mitzy – team up to rid the world of an army of alien beards. Full review...
Doodle Dogs: Best in Show by Tim Hopgood
Doodle Dogs introduces a wide variety of artistic styles through the idea of a dog show! Tim Hopgood shows us different kinds of dogs, all of which can be created very easily, and you soon find that doodling a dog can be a lot more detailed, and interesting, than you perhaps previously appreciated! Full review...
A Passing Fury: Searching for Justice at the End of World War II by A T Williams
In A Passing Fury, we follow an Orwell Prize-winning law academic's journey through Germany as he pursues the legal history of the trials waged by the British, and to some extent other Allied forces, against the newly-fallen Nazi regime. This is a deeply personal account, that reads very much like a travelogue in places. Williams is affected at every turn by harrowingly familiar accounts of life in the concentration camp system, such as those of the esteemed Italian writer and academic Primo Levi, who features throughout the book. More striking to the reader, however, are the often-forgotten atrocities Williams describes that failed to make a mark on our collective memory, such as the Cap Arcona tragedy, in which some 7,000 concentration camp internees were killed in a British air raid. Horrors such as these, which largely go unremembered, raise many questions, chief among them, was justice served? Williams pursues answers to this question throughout his investigation, which is just shy of 500 pages long. Full review...
The Dry by Jane Harper
Sometimes a book takes a while to get into. Sometimes it's quicker than that. If Harper hadn't grabbed me in the first paragraph, she certainly had half-way down the second page: So nothing reacted when deep inside the house, the baby started crying. Full review...
The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial by Maggie Nelson
Maggie Nelson is the author of four volumes of poetry and five wide-ranging works of nonfiction that delve into the nature of violence and sexuality. From what I'd heard about her writing, I knew to expect an important and unconventional thinker with a distinctive, lyrical style. Now Vintage is making some of her backlist, including this book (originally published in 2007) and the uncategorisable Bluets, available for the first time in the UK. Full review...
BL!NK (Hadron Damnation Book 1) by Mark Lingane
iYe is a smasher: a child who is capable of sending back pictures of the future by travelling out to where the past and future meet. Smashers don't usually live to see their teens as the information generally returns without them. However iYe's mother, Captain Trix Raiden, is determined he'll be different and, indeed he is, in many ways. Not only does iYe survive, he is a chip off the same block as Cally, the planetary hero. However there is a darker side: iYe carries a message that Earth doesn't want to hear. The planet is used to dealing with the aliens that Cally originally fought but worse is on its way. We are coming to kill you. Full review...
The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers
Something terrible is happening in the forest. Branches from trees are going missing overnight, and nobody knows what's going on. Everyone living in the forest gathers together to look at the crime scene, and to try to discover what has happened. Initially they blame each other, but after discovering everyone there has a solid alibi they continue their investigations to try and find the culprit. Full review...
The Dressing-Up Dad by Maudie Smith and Paul Howard
Danny and his dad both love dressing up! Whatever the event, or reason, they are ready. Indeed, they don't really need a reason, but just happily dress up together at home, or when they go out, as spacemen, a knight and a dragon, sea creatures and wizards...you name it, they can dress up as it! Danny loves having so much fun with his dad, but then one day he does start to wonder what it would be like to have a normal, ordinary dad, and so for his birthday he decides to ask his dad to dress up as an ordinary dad! Full review...
Triangle by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen
This is a story about Triangle. One day he goes out of his house and walks a long way to go and play a sneaky trick on his friend, Square. It's quite a long walk, past lots and lots of triangles, and then lots of shapes with no name, and then lots and lots of squares. What will happen after he's played his trick on Square, though? Will Triangle get his comeuppance? Full review...
Something or Nothing: A Search for My Personal Theory of Everything by Anthony Marson
Most thinking people have their own theory of the meaning of the universe,and of why they - we - exist within it. It's a natural extension to wonder whether life was created, or, if not created, how was life formed? In Something or Nothing Anthony Marson develops his own theories. The journey began when the author was on a touring holiday in Tasmania, gazed up at a clear night sky and asked himself how and why all the stars came to exist. Although this subject has been explored countless times by scientists, theologians and philosophers, Marson wanted an answer which satisfied him and he begins his search by quite openly admitting that he has only a limited scientific education. It was good to know - for once - that I was on the same footing as the author and we could explore together. Full review...
Aphra Behn: A Secret Life by Janet Todd
In view of her unique status, Aphra Behn seems to have been largely forgotten – if ever really acknowledged at all – by history. The preface states it loud and clear; she was the first Englishwoman to earn her living solely by writing, as the most prolific dramatist of her time as well as an innovative writer of fiction, poetry and translator of science and French romance. It seems remarkable that the daughter of a barber and a wet-nurse should have achieved such status. Full review...
Marvel: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
Doreen Green moves from California to New Jersey and, quite by accident, embarks on a journey to become a hero. A fantastic origin tale for the brilliant Squirrel Girl character this story is engaging, fast-paced, hip and extremely cool. What would a person be like if they had the proportional strength and agility of a squirrel? Wonder no more. Full review...
Cold Welcome: Vatta's Peace by Elizabeth Moon
I'm convinced we can survive anything
After saving the empire, Admiral Kylara Vatta wants nothing less than to return to her home planet. But after her cousin's request, that's exactly where Ky finds herself, enroute to tie up some family business. Promised a hero's welcome, Ky plans to stay as little time as possible back in the place filled with such horrible memories. But as soon as she arrives, Ky finds herself in perilous danger, caught in the middle of an assassination attempt. Now stranded at sea and without communication links with the outside world, Ky must use every ounce of skill she possesses to battle for survival. But with an unfamiliar crew who don't trust her, sabotaged equipment and a traitor in the midst, the odds aren't in her favour. While the survivors hunt for land, Ky's family members are doing everything possible to ensure her rescue. Old friends are called in and new alliances are made, but will it be enough? Will they get to Ky before it's too late? Full review...
Sun by Sam Usher
It was the hottest day of the year. Hotter, if such a thing is possible, than broccoli soup, the Atacama Desert and the surface of the sun. Grandad decreed that it was the perfect day for an adventure and began packing the picnic basket with all sorts of useful things: water, biscuits, a telescope, camera, sun protection, fruit, sandwiches, toys and lots, lots more. How are a boy and his grandad to know what they're going to need? Grandad was the navigator and the boy was the lookout. Full review...
Grandpa Diet and Diabetes by Laura Williams
Nick's Mum is an accident and emergency nurse and life can get a bit hectic at times, particularly when she has to arrange for someone to look after Nick and his twin sister Emma. One day in the school holidays Grandpa had the pleasure of looking after the kids and Nick thought this was cool. Grandpa used to be a bit of a rocker, you see, and that's the sort of music he always has playing. He might have a stick but Nick sure that he doesn't really need it - it's there just in case. He does have a problem though and Mum explains it by saying that Grandpa has to eat at the right time every day because he has diabetes. Full review...
