Book Reviews From 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.
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Tarnish by Katherine Longshore
Anne Boleyn is coming back to court. After suffering embarrassment and exile, Anne is not about to let this second chance slip through her fingers. But the trickery of court life is difficult to navigate, and telling friend from foe can be the difference between social success and becoming a pariah. Luckily she has the help of Thomas Wyatt, poet and infamous womaniser. He promises to make Anne the most popular woman at court, and when Anne starts to play his game, things start to escalate far further than anyone ever imagined. For not only does Anne manage to get the court eating out of her hand, but the King is starting to sit up and take notice too... Full review...
Mathletics by John D Barrow
As a sports fan and a maths teacher, I was thrilled to get the chance to read a book which claims to give us 'surprising and enlightening insights into the world of sports'. This is rather a frustrating read because it seems to have got the balance wrong in many cases. There are some chapters which are so short as to be barely worth reading – one merely points out that while humans can’t run as fast as cheetahs or perform gymnastics as amazing as that of a monkey, we’re better all-rounders than any other animal. This is true, but hardly seems worth wasting a page on, it’s so obvious. Then there are other chapters, like the interesting one detailing the points scoring system in the decathlon, which are good but could have been much better given more space. The decathlon one is a prime example of this – it’s five pages, so one of the book’s longer sections, but could surely have been excellent if it had gone into more detail. I can’t help thinking that dropping half of the sections and doubling the other half in length might have been the way to go here. Full review...
Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani
Azar is in labour and about to give birth to her first child. Elsewhere she'd be looking forward to medical care for as long as she needs it and a good chance of a safe delivery. But this is Iran in 1983 and Azar is in the notorious Evin Prison for daring to believe in something different from the government. Amil saves date stones to make into a bracelet for his little baby as she grows into a child without him; he too is incarcerated. Even those on the outside need to be wary of what they say or do as Laila discovers when hair falls over her face while she's out walking. This isn’t the brave new world that the revolution was meant to provide, however it is the world in which they, their children and children's children will need to survive. Full review...
Invitation to Die by Helen Smith
I must confess I feel a little apprehensive writing this review. Why? It has to do with the subject matter of the book, a murder mystery set in a London Hotel. The murder victim just happens to be a blogger who writes book reviews [laughs to self nervously] and one of the key suspects is a writer who has taken offense at the poor reception that her book has received online. I keep telling myself that this is only fiction. Only fiction. Full review...
Joe and the Hidden Horseshoe by Victoria Eveleigh
Joe did not want to move. Birmingham suited him just fine. It was where his friends were and his school - and he'd got life sorted quite nicely. But his father had got his dream job as head of a group of village primary schools and the family - Mum, Dad, Joe and his younger sister Emily - moved to a farmhouse in Devon. His Mum was determined that she and Emily would have ponies to ride and not being prone to thinking things through before acting it wasn't long before Lady and Lightning arrived in a horsebox. Mum should have made checks on the ponies before deciding to buy them and she should have been even more wary when the ponies were delivered with little ceremony. But she wasn't. Full review...
Chuckle Bob's Great Escape by Jeremy Strong and Scoular Anderson
Chuckle Bob looks positively wicked in the first illustration of this book, but then who can blame him for feeling a bit cranky? He wants to swing in the trees and run in the grass, not sit in a cage all day. When he sees a chance to escape, he takes it, causing all sorts of mayhem in the process. Once out of his cage he turns the entire pet shop into a disaster zone. He lets the parrot loose, but it falls into the fish tank. Fish get knocked everywhere, including down the pet store assistant's top, and then he lets out the gerbils and rabbits as well. While Mr Rush, the pet store owner and his assistant Maya try to deal with all the mischief he has caused, an unsuspecting customer enters the door, and Chuckle Bob makes his escape, with just a bit more mayhem of course. Full review...
What Fresh Lunacy is This?: The Authorised Biography of Oliver Reed by Robert Sellers
For rather more of his career than he, his family and closest friends might have liked, the name Oliver Reed was a byword for booze, brawls and all types of laddish behaviour. As Sellers’ very full and remarkably objective biography reveals, it was a funny yet sad life all at once. For although he repeatedly played up to the image of the lovable rogue which he had created, underneath the bad boy of popular legend he was at heart a professional actor who could always deliver a first-rate performance on the film set when required. Full review...
Never Forget by Lisa Cutts
DC Nina Foster isn't that unusual in the police force. She's perhaps a little overweight and a little too fond of wine. Her relationships don't tend to last but then the unpredictable hours which the job demands don't help in that area. She has some good friends within the force - part camaraderie, part common interest and a lot of knowledge that that these are the people you might be relying on in an emergency. Nina does have one secret though and it relates back to her childhood. She does her best not to give what happened to her any room in her head and most of the time it works. Most people have no idea about her history. Then a frenzied stabbing pulls Nina into her first murder investigation and the Major Incident Room. Full review...
Bryant and May and the Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler
Never judge a book by its cover? Oh come on... Doesn't that do a huge disservice to the army of graphic designers designing those covers? To be fair, the designers don't get the final say and we've all read things that didn't do what they said on the tin, but I think it's time we started giving a bit of credit to those that do. Full review...
Horrid Henry's Nightmare by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
Horrid Henry was the first chapter book my son ever read alone. It was quickly followed by a succession of books in the series and my son's confidence in reading grew by leaps and bounds with this engaging series that gets young children reading and keeps them reading. The simple fact is, with such a large number of books in the series, any child who reads through the whole lot will improve their reading skills. As he has grown older, his tastes in books have changed, but as I sat down to read 'Horrid Henry's Nightmare' to my four year old he was happy to listen in as well and we all enjoyed sharing this book as a family. Full review...
Hagurosan by Darren Shan
The story begins with a young child, living in a small village at the foot of a holy mountain. When he is told to take a small cake as an offering to the spirits of the shrine, he is disappointed as he would rather play with his friends, but he does as he is told. It is a long walk though and he soon grows hungry. Surely the gods will not mind if he has just a tiny nibble at the cake? But one nibble leads to another and by the time Hagurosan arrives at the shrine, he has eaten the whole cake. All children make mistakes, but what Hagurosan has done is a terrible offense in the culture he lives in. Full review...
A Crack in the Wall by Claudia Pineiro
Pablo Simó is an architect on the verge of a mid life crisis. His work, marriage and general life is governed more by habit and routine than anything, leaving him to ponder over the attractions of his colleague Marta with whom he suspects his boss may be having a relationship. When a young girl enters the office asking if anyone knows a man called Nelson Jara, the three architects deny all knowledge, but they do know him. He was involved in a claim that one of the practice's projects caused a crack in the wall of his apartment and how this was resolved is something all three of them would rather forget. Full review...
Nowhere Ending Sky by Marlen Haushofer
Little Meta is growing up in a childhood paradise with two parents who love her and a younger brother to tease and train to do all the things that Meta wants him to. However the world outside Meta's paradise will soon change beyond all recognition as the Austria and Germany of the 1920s makes way for the Austria and Germany of the 1930s. Full review...
Eleven Days by Lea Carpenter
Sara raised Jason alone; even when she was with his father it felt as if she was a lone parent. Jason's father always seemed to be away doing something indefinable abroad; then he disappeared leaving her completely. Two years later Jason's father was dead. However Jason is a lad to be proud of, never giving Sara a moment's trouble and now a member of the elite US Navy SEALS. Now he's missing in action… Now she has to hang on and hope. Full review...
The Lavender Keeper by Fiona McIntosh
Provence 1942: Lavender farmer Luc Bonet joins the Maquis (a rural guerrilla wing of the French Resistance) to avenge the death of his adoptive Jewish family. Meanwhile in London gifted linguist Lisette Forester is recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a group of trained specialists parachuted into enemy territory to send vital information back to the homeland. Their paths will cross as Lisette is sent into France with the aim of ingratiating herself with Nazi Colonel Markus Kilian. The mission is clear cut on paper, but life can be messier than any plan can predict. Full review...
The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
Sophie has waited her whole life for this night - the night that two children will be taken from her village of Gavaldon to the School for Good and Evil. Sophie has been doing Good Deeds and practising her beauty regime especially. Unlike the other children in the village - who cut their hair and try to be rude if they're good, or hastily says some prayers and do kind things if they're bad in an effort to avoid being chosen - Sophie just knows she's going to be taken for Good, and she can't wait. Full review...
Little Owl's Orange Scarf by Tatyana Feeney
Little Owl's Mummy knitted him a scarf. A long, itchy, orange scarf, and Little Owl does not like it! He tries to get rid of it, using it as wrapping for a gift, and hiding it in a suitcase bound for Peru, but no luck! Mummy finds it every time. Then one day, Little Owl goes on a school visit to the zoo and he comes home without his scarf. What will Mummy say? Full review...
Plan D by Simon Urban and Katy Derbyshire (Translator)
October 2011 and the Berlin wall is still intact. Inspector Martin Wegener of the East German People's Police faces another day dividing his mind between thoughts of his luscious ex-lover Karolina and work. On this particular day 'work' is a body found hanging from the GDR section of gas pipeline that joins Russian to Europe. Not only is he hanging, the deceased has eight knots round his neck and his shoe laces are tied together: a Stasi trademark. Who is he and why are the Stasi killing again? Martin needs answers and they're sending a West Berlin detective in to help him find them; not the best start to a day. Full review...
A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert 'Believe It or Not' Ripley by Neal Thompson
Robert LeRoy Ripley was indeed a curious man. He throve on curiosity, his own and that of everyone else. By exploiting and never underestimating the public demand for trivia, and by being in the right place at the right time just as the news and broadcasting media were beginning to develop in America into the unassailable forces they were by the end of the century, he became one of the most successful men of the age. Full review...
The Trader of Saigon by Lucy Cruickshanks
In the Saigon of the 1980s the Vietnam War is over but the traces remain. Alexander has deserted from the US army and makes a comfortable living selling girls to local business men. Phuc used to be a business man, complete with mansion and the means to keep his wife and three children in affluence. Now his family live in a shanty hut, afraid of the ruling government that spies through the eyes of children. At last he finds a way out, his luck just needs to hold. Hanh also lives in poverty, desperately trying to help her sick mother with the pittance she earns from cleaning one of the city's many open latrines. Then one day she meets someone who offers so much more. His name is Alexander. Full review...
Nowhere by Jon Robinson
There are 100 teenagers trapped in a prison for crimes they don't remember committing. Does anyone know they're there? What do the people holding them there want? And will they ever break out? Full review...
Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty by Alain Mabanckou
Michel is as carefree as any child can be during that difficult process called 'growing up'. Here in Congo Brazzaville he has his best friend Lounes, a crush on Caroline (his best friend's sister), the hassles of school and a family consisting of two mothers in two houses which seems perfectly normal. He's also being educated about the world by his father; a world that changes daily as it's 1979. Never mind, he can always marry Caroline as long as he meets her conditions: she requires children, a red 5-seater car and a white dog. Full review...
Krispy Whispers by Melvin Burgess
A woman stops you in the road and gazes fearfully into the pram. "Your babies are not human," she says. Then she runs off.
Ooh! Alien changelings! Cuckoos in the nest? Are they really? Really, really, really? Can you be sure? So begins the first story in Krispy Whispers, a series of flash fictions by Bookbag favourite Melvin Burgess. You also get a girl dreaming of riches, a lonely woman who finds a pet and gets a boyfriend too closely together for mere coincidence. And a priest who actually meets God. And a very worrisome monster. Concentrate hard. Because you'll need to keep up... Full review...
Blood Family by Anne Fine
Blood Family is the companion novel to Anne Fine's The Devil Walks. Both books feature a boy locked away from the world and what happens when he is rescued. The Devil Walks is a Gothic shiver tale, set in the past but Blood Family is a contemporary story, exploring what happens to children who have been abused and how their lives are affected. Full review...
Seven Point Eight: The First Chronicle by Marie Harbon
Following several main characters - scientist Paul, businessman Max, remote viewer Tahra and mystery woman Ava - across two time frames spanning the 1940s to the present day, Seven Point Eight blends science fiction and fantasy in a sprawling, absorbing, diffuse novel that will attract fans of both genres. Full review...
All Is Silence by Manuel Rivas
The small community of Noitía is a place where everyone knows each other and each other’s business, which considering most of the adults are involved in the one business, smuggling, is potentially dangerous knowledge. We follow a small group of three young friends growing up in the area as they play and learn and even experience a little of the black market dealings. They stumble across a stash of smuggled whisky and are caught by the charismatic king pin responsible for the trafficking, who teaches them that silence is the most important lesson to learn when growing up in Noitía. Full review...
Stoker's Manuscript by Royce Prouty
In a world where vampires are the new romantic heroes, Stoker’s Manuscript is a bit of a Godsend. I, for one, am absolutely delighted to find some good old fashioned evil as sin, night dwelling, blood guzzling, crucifix hating Romanian villains. Of course, this means sacrificing sexiness, romance and attractively sulking out of a window but since what we get in exchange is stunning views of Transylvania, thought-through biology (for want of a better word) of the creatures and stakes that are elevated beyond one person, I say sharpen up the spike pit. Full review...
