Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"
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| + | |title=Sharp Ends | ||
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| + | |summary=I often feel that short stories are an indulgence on the part of the author, they get to write down a lot of their ideas that don't really fit into a larger story. The stop/start nature of them never sits well with me, just as I am starting to get to know a character they are gone. One way of solving this would be to use characters that a fan will already know; perhaps explore the past, or the future. That sounds great for a fan, but how do you do this whilst also catering for a new reader? | ||
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|summary= Six years ago, Stephanie and Nate ran away together. She was 15, and he was her geography teacher. Awkward. We pick up the story with Ros, Steph's mother, as she learns that Nate is about to be released from prison, earlier than planned in just 11 days for now. The book takes place over those 11 days leading up to Mr Temperley's release as Ros struggles to break the news to her daughter. She's bound to be devastated by it…isn't she? | |summary= Six years ago, Stephanie and Nate ran away together. She was 15, and he was her geography teacher. Awkward. We pick up the story with Ros, Steph's mother, as she learns that Nate is about to be released from prison, earlier than planned in just 11 days for now. The book takes place over those 11 days leading up to Mr Temperley's release as Ros struggles to break the news to her daughter. She's bound to be devastated by it…isn't she? | ||
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Revision as of 09:49, 26 April 2016
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.
There are currently 16,114 reviews at TheBookbag.
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Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie
I often feel that short stories are an indulgence on the part of the author, they get to write down a lot of their ideas that don't really fit into a larger story. The stop/start nature of them never sits well with me, just as I am starting to get to know a character they are gone. One way of solving this would be to use characters that a fan will already know; perhaps explore the past, or the future. That sounds great for a fan, but how do you do this whilst also catering for a new reader? Full review...
The Girl With No Name by Diney Costeloe
Thirteen year old Lisa escapes from Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport and arrives in England in August 1939. She can't speak a word of English and her only belongings are crammed into a small suitcase. Among them is one precious photograph of the family she has left behind in Germany. Lonely and homesick, not knowing if she will ever see her family again, Lisa is adopted by a childless couple, and then bullied at school for being German. But worse is to come when the Blitz blows her new home apart, and she wakes up in hospital with no memory of who she is, or where she came from. The authorities give her a new name and despatch her to a children's home. With the war in full swing, what will become of Lisa now? Full review...
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick
On the first anniversary of his wife Miriam's death, Arthur Pepper feels he might finally be up to the task of clearing out her wardrobe. He hasn't got far when he stumbles across a gold charm bracelet he doesn't recognise. If he hadn't been feeling so out of sorts because of the anniversary he would never have rung the phone number he found engraved on the golden elephant. That would have been a shame, because then he would never have set out on his peculiar quest to find out who his wife used to be before she met him. From York to London, Paris and beyond, Arthur pursues Miriam's past and learns things about his wife, his children and himself that he never imagined. Full review...
Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos by Philip Martin
If only those critiquing Doctor Who had access to a time machine, they would be able to temper all their responses. When Mary Whitehouse found the likes of Genesis of the Daleks to be too violent, she and her coterie had no idea the series would soon turn to a prison world, where soon-to-be victims of snuff movies are trapped in a reality-show styled existence, and a hard-done-by populous are sat at home doing nothing other than watching the feeds from the executions, the morgues and worse. If those watching Doctor Who had the benefit of foresight they might have responded to Vengeance on Varos differently. They were quite vocal in complaining about a horrific character being a trade delegate who is half-man, half-slug and wholly stupid evil laugh, and such an artificial premise. Little did they know the series would soon lumber people with Bonnie Langford, and aliens looking like liquorice bleeding allsorts… Full review...
Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks
If you were to randomly travel in time and space, where would you end up? Well, if our own battle-torn history was anything to go by, you'd like as not end up in a time and place of war. The thing is, however, the Doctor is not, for once, travelling randomly – he's been charged with carrying out errands for the Time Lords. And the most tricky of those is to go the planet Skaro, deeply enmeshed in a thousand year war, and put paid to one of the most heinous plans that could risk the universe – that of Davros to create his Dalek race. Full review...
Henry V: The Life of the Warrior King & the Battle of Agincourt by Teresa Cole
Henry V is remembered as one of England's greatest warrior kings, not least as a result of his immortalisation in the play by Shakespeare (as well as by two film versions of the drama). Ironically he was one of several great-grandchildren of Edward III, and as he was considered relatively unimportant at the time of his birth, exactly when he arrived in the world was not recorded and two different dates have been given. It was the deposition of his father's childless cousin Richard II in 1399 which placed him directly in the line of succession. Full review...
Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion by Malcolm Hulke
What effect do you think you'd have if you were to time travel? I dare say it depends who or what you were to begin with, and when you went and what you did. The creatures in this story only seem to stay in the same place, and do just what comes natural – but as they're giant rampaging dinosaurs and they suddenly appear in the middle of modern-day Central London they do kind of get noticed. As a result the entire place has been evacuated, all ten million people shipped out, and the Government resettled in that hotbed of politics, Harrogate. As a result, when the Doctor and Sarah Jane turn up they immediately get accused of being looters – and UNIT are just a touch too much out of contact. What is causing time to leave the dinosaurs moving around London, and what is a mediaeval man, complaining of witchcraft under King John, doing there too? Full review...
Peace Maker by Malorie Blackman
Michela Corbin is something of a rebel, but even she understands that everyone must wear a Peace Maker Device all the time and that it must never be tampered with, as non-aggression is their society's founding principle. The Peace Maker is the means by which this is enforced, but Michela wants to experience the full range of human emotions and the Peace Maker stops that. When her mother captains their ship into enemy airspace and they come under attack it seems that Michela's freedom from the constraints of the Peace Maker might be the only thing that can save them. Full review...
Doctor Who and the Web of Fear by Terrance Dicks
What do you look like if you time travel? Perhaps like a lunk-headed Austrian, naked and with fizzy blue stuff all over you. Or perhaps, to the confusion of Professor Travers, you look exactly as you did when he met you in Tibet forty years ago. That escapade has had a legacy, as he has brought back a deactivated robot Yeti – and has mistakenly managed to reactivate it. Or perhaps, you look very much like yourself if you're a time traveller, for just by reading this book you won't change your appearance, but you'll be sent back to 1968, by way of 1975, when this book-of-the-series was first published. Full review...
Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty
Serafina lives in the basement of the grand house on the Biltmore Estate with her Pa, an engineer. No one knows that they live in the basement. No one, in fact, knows that Serafina exists, since she has been told by her Pa that she must keep herself hidden away. She isn’t sure why, but she happily creeps around the beautiful house, mostly by night but sometimes secretly during the day, watching and observing and undertaking her self-appointed job of Chief Rat Catcher. Serafina knows there is something a little unusual about her, but she isn’t quite sure just why and how she is different from everyone else. It’s only when she stumbles across a fearsome man in a black cloak stealing away a child from the house that she finds she can no longer remain in the shadows, but must now do everything she can to help find the missing children. Full review...
Doctor Who and the Zarbi by Bill Strutton
Consider the time machine. You probably know of it as looking like either some fancy Edwardian sit-upon machine that the Morlocks nick, or perhaps a battered old English police call box. I would suggest it can also look like a small paperback book – pretty much like the subject at hand. This reprint of a Doctor Who novel, first presented in 1973 from the series shown in 1965, certainly has the ability to take you back. I grew up with the series on TV and the books in a Target imprint, but this predates that – it was, apparently, the second ever Who book-of-the-series. In it, the good Doctor and his three companions arrive on a certain quarry-like planet. One stays in the TARDIS, only to find it and her nicked by aliens; another needs rescuing from alien mind control by a different species of aliens; and the third with our irascible hero work out what actually took control of their ship and stranded them there in the first place… Full review...
There's a Tiger in the Garden by Lizzy Stewart
Though it's said that you should never judge a book by a cover, the front of 'There's a Tiger in the Garden' gives cause to linger. Here is a taste of the splendid illustrations to come – verdant foliage, bright dragonflies, and, of course, a bright orange tiger. Should you not be convinced to pick it up by the visuals alone, the gorgeous embossing adds a further dimension. Lovely pop-out richness you can feel. What a great start. Full review...
How to Read Water by Tristan Gooley
Signs are all around us, if we know where to look. The ability to read and interpret signs is particularly useful to navigators and those who make their living on the water. In fact, the ability to read water can mean the difference between life and death, especially when strong tidal currents are involved. Of course, there are those who take water-reading beyond the ability of even the most experienced sailors. Traditional Arab navigators called this knowledge the isharat. Pacific islanders call it kapesani lemetau-the talk of the sea or water lore. Those who posses such knowledge have been baffling Westerners for centuries with their seemingly preternatural ability to understand the water. Full review...
Death on the Riviera by John Bude
Counterfeit currency was circulating on the French Riviera and it was suspected that an Englishman was behind the crime, so DI Meredith was sent along with acting-Sergeant Strang to trace the whereabouts of Chalky Corbett. It wasn't entirely an unpleasant assignment - the warm of the south of France compared favourably with polluted London - and Meredith (whose French was far from fluent) got on well with the local policeman, Inspector Blampignon of Nice. It wasn't long before their interest settled on the Villa Poloma, home of an eccentric expatriate Englishwoman, Nesta Hedderwick and her band of bohemian house guests. Full review...
The Sword of the Spirit (Spirits 3) by Rob Keeley
There are truths which must be revealed before the battle may commence. You do not yet know the meaning of the sword.
Ooh! Events are moving apace in Rob Keeley's Childish Spirits series. Let me explain... Full review...
Whisper to Me by Nick Lake
Cassie lives with her father in a New Jersey beach town. Dad spends most of his time closeted away with his insect collection. He's an ex-Navy SEAL who suffers from PTSD and its concomitant anger issues. Frankly, Cassie finds him best avoided. Cassie herself is doing ok, despite a recent tragedy. Until, that is, she finds a dismembered foot on the beach, thought to be from a victim of a serial killer stalking the locality. Full review...
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
War was declared at 11:15. Mary North signed up at noon. When war is declared, Mary North leaves her finishing school, travels back to London, and immediately signs up. Expecting to be given a position of high importance or excitement, she is instead placed as a school teacher. Tom Shaw decides to give war a miss – happy in his role organising education. It's only when his flatmate Alistair enlists, that Tom and Mary are drawn into the war in ways they never could have imagined. As Mary grows to protect and defend her small band of pupils, Tom struggles to decide whether he should join the war effort. And Alistair? Many, many miles away, Alistair battles both the enemy, and his own feelings for one out of his reach. Full review...
The Cauliflower® by Nicola Barker
Nicola Barker teasingly refers to herself as this book's 'collagist', piecing together diverse documents to create a picture of Sri Ramakrishna (1836–1886), a largely illiterate guru who attracted followers to his intense worship of the goddess Kali. His life story is a sticky mass of contradictions: Full review...
Moth Girls by Anne Cassidy
The first seven weeks of secondary school changed Mandy Crystal's life. It was in those seven weeks that she became friends with Petra Armstrong and Tina Pointer. And it was at the end of those seven weeks that she refused to join them when they impulsively decided to explore the house on Princess Street. That was the last time anyone saw either of them – Petra and Tina disappeared, never to be seen again. Labelled the 'Moth Girls' by the media, the two girls have haunted Mandy ever since. For five years she has had to live with the guilt that for many hours she didn't admit where she'd last seen her friends. Were those hours crucial? Would they have been found it she'd told the police where they'd gone sooner? When the house is knocked down, Mandy can't resist visiting. It is during this visit that a chance encounter changes everything. Full review...
Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories by Dr Seuss
Going back and revisiting characters once an author has died is not always the best idea, too often the result smacks of a cash in that does not have any of the charm of the original. However, revisiting lesser works by the author is a different thing. If a fan has all the writer's books, but never managed to get their hands on their obscure short stories or tales written for magazines, a new collection may just work. Even for as eccentric an author as Dr Seuss. Full review...
Storm Weaver by Matt Griffin
In the sequel to [A Cage of Roots], the four friends are journeying back to the lair from which they have just escaped. Sean, Finny and Benvy think they're trying to save the Goblins and turn them back into girls, but Ayla, who so nearly became a goblin herself, is being drawn by a greater force. As Ayla's powers emerge and grow stronger, she leads her friends on a dangerous quest, deeper into the heart of the fairy kingdom of Fal. Sean, Benvy and Finny just want to go home to Ireland, but with the war that's brewing and Ayla's part in it, they may never be able to go back home again. Full review...
The Age of Treachery by Gavin Scott
In the winter of 1946 Duncan Forrester, formerly of the Special Operations Executive, was back at his Oxford college as a junior fellow in Ancient History. He'd lost the woman he loved to the Gestapo and was now feeling guilty about the fact that he was besotted with the wife of his best friend, a fellow academic. To confuse matters further the woman in question, Margaret Clark, had been having an affair with another lecturer, David Lyall and it seemed likely that she would leave her husband for him. Full review...
Lying About Last Summer by Sue Wallman
Skye's sister, Luisa, died in a tragic accident last summer and Skye is still struggling to come to terms with both the events she witnessed and the loss of her sister. It's, therefore, not surprising that she welcomes the opportunity to escape – even if it is on a holiday for bereaved teens. She's up for anything that will stop her thinking about the past so she's totally unprepared when she starts receiving text messages from an account only Luisa had access to. Rather than erasing all thoughts of the past, Skye finds herself having to confront her worst fears. Full review...
Buy Me The Sky by Xinran, Esther Tyldesley and David Dobson
These single-sprout children are more precious than gold, says a Chinese woman to the author. Buy Me The Sky asks what it's like to grow up as gold through Xinran's conversations with ten adults from the first generation of China's only children. In the highly informative introduction, she tells the story of a 22 year old male student who, in 2010, ran over a female migrant worker in his car, and then was so fearful of the consequences that he brutally murdered her. He was tried and executed in a hugely divisive case with some seeing him as an evil perpetrator and others, a victim. Full review...
The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
Ali Benjamin describes her accomplished debut novel as a work where despair and wonder come together. When we first meet Suzy she cannot speak after a traumatic incident. Her family is struggling to cope with her silence and she is averse to the therapy of 'Dr Legs'. It is only through her flashback sequences, written in italics, and her passion for a science report that the reader comes to know her and sympathise with her suffering. Suzy is experiencing a cauldron of emotions including grief, guilt, denial and a tumultuous desperation to discover what she perceives to be the truth. It is this zeal which makes her refuse to believe her mother's explanation that sometimes things just happen and fanatically pursue her own best educated guess. Full review...
Isabella of France: The Rebel Queen by Kathryn Warner
Ask almost anyone what they know about Isabella, Queen of King Edward II. The chances are that they will tell you she was ‘the she-wolf of France’ who was so infuriated by her gay husband’s propensity for disastrous favourites that she took a lover and they conspired to depose him, then have him murdered in captivity. The truth is somewhat different. To use an old cliché, if you throw enough mud it will stick. A good deal has adhered to this seemingly much-maligned couple over the years. Full review...
Pax by Sara Pennypacker
Young readers will be well aware of the horrors of war. It kills people, destroys families and homes, creates waves of desperate refugees and devastates the landscape. But there's one aspect of fighting which, apart from a few notable exceptions, isn't often touched upon – the fate of animals caught up in conflicts. We know a little about horses participating in cavalry charges, and homing pigeons carrying messages, but what about those animals which live in the wild? And worse still, what about all those well-loved pets which can no longer be fed or protected by owners close to starvation themselves? Full review...
Dust (Object Lessons) by Michael Marder
Dust is among the latest volumes in Bloomsbury's fascinating new 'Object Lessons' series. With titles ranging from Cigarette Lighter to Shipping Container, the books aim to explore the hidden histories of commonplace items. Here Marder approaches dust not as a scientist but as a philosopher: he is a professor at the University of the Basque Country, Spain. Nevertheless, he reminds readers that dust is largely composed of skin cells and hair, the detritus of our human bodies. Thus dusting – the verb form – is a kind of guilty attempt to clean up after ourselves, ultimately a futile and 'self-defeating occupation'. Full review...
The Daughter's Secret by Eva Holland
Six years ago, Stephanie and Nate ran away together. She was 15, and he was her geography teacher. Awkward. We pick up the story with Ros, Steph's mother, as she learns that Nate is about to be released from prison, earlier than planned in just 11 days for now. The book takes place over those 11 days leading up to Mr Temperley's release as Ros struggles to break the news to her daughter. She's bound to be devastated by it…isn't she? Full review...
