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.
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In Bloom by Matthew Crow
Member of a loving but dysfunctional family, life has rarely been straightforward for Francis Wooton, and he is no stranger to heartbreak. Despite this, he's always maintained sensible plans, to get good grades in his GCSEs and A Levels, and get into University, where he'll finally meet his real friends and the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately, a whole new world of worry presents itself when he is diagnosed with leukaemia. He knows his mother and brother will do everything and anything they can to support him, but even they can do little to ease the constant nausea, the all-pervasive pain, the horror of imminent baldness and the general bleak agony that cancer brings. But every cloud has a silver lining, and it is at the hospital unit that Francis first sets eyes on Amber, a girl unlike anyone else he has met before. Amber makes Francis feel more alive than ever, and if anything can help cure the despair of cancer, first love might just be it. Full review...
Unbreakable by Kami Garcia
Set up centuries ago to fight the threat of a malevolent demon, the Legion is a secret society consisting of just five members at any one time, tasked with the responsibility of fighting and exorcising spirits. When all five members are murdered on the same night, their responsibility suddenly falls to five teenagers. Twins Jared and Lukas, Priest and Alara have been trained from a young age in the skills required to track, fight and destroy vengeance spirits. However, for Kennedy, who knows nothing of her mother's role in the Legion, everything is overwhelmingly new and highly dangerous. She will have to learn fast, as she cannot afford to be a liability as the team prepares to take on a mission with the utmost of stakes. Full review...
The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
An elderly man set off on a car journey when the weather was so bad that he really shouldn't have taken the risk. He couldn't quite remember what caused him to skid off the road, but he was trapped in the car which had slithered down a steep embankment. The weather was worsening and he wasn't optimistic about the chances of being found. For ninety-one-year-old Ira Levinson his only comfort and hope was the presence of his adored wife, Ruth, who'd been dead for nine years. Some way away Sophia Danko's life was complicated. She'd been dating Brian for two years but finished the relationship when he cheated on her for the second time - only Brian couldn't accept that it was over. That was how Sophia met Luke - he stepped in when Brian's attentions became just a little too pressing. Full review...
Granddad Bracey and the Flight to Seven Seas by Michael Roll
Sally and her brother Peter are staying at their grandfather's house because their father has died in a car accident. Granddad Bracey (named after the accessories for trousers) is the perfect person for the grieving children at such an awful time. He's kindly and loving but also funny and entertaining - as a retired merchant navy captain, he has plenty of stories to tell. But then a second catastrophe occurs: their mother, Mary, decides to remarry. Sally distrusts her new stepfather, Ned, and his daughter, Mona, immediately. But even Sally doesn't realise the extent of their villainous intentions. Until, that is, Mary is rushed into hospital with a mysterious illness. Full review...
Happenings at Hookwood by Michael Roll
It all begins when a pair of newlyweds move into their first home, observed by the local wildlife with varying grades of alarm. But Startup the rabbit isn't alarmed. While his mother scarpers at her first glance of the ginger cat the couple have brought along and his father watches worriedly from deep cover, Startup finds it all very interesting and exciting. Startup has a lot to learn... Full review...
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Ruth finds a 'Hello Kitty' bag washed up on the shore of Whaletown, the small Canadian island that she and her husband Oliver call home. As Ruth opens it and begins reading the diary safely protected inside, she learns about Nao, a teenager in Japan. Through her writing Nao becomes real and the tales of her varied life, struggles at school and fascinating relatives compels Ruth to search for her, or at least to discover her fate. Full review...
Red Love: The Story of an East German Family by Maxim Leo
Chances are there have been major disagreements and splits in your family. One black sheep might have supported the wrong football team. Some of you will be strictly Strictly, the rest X Factor. But probably nothing compares to what went on in the Leo household over decades in Eastern Berlin. One of our author's grandfathers, Gerhard, was too Jewish and bourgeois to survive life in Germany, fled to France, and came back a Communist having fought against Nazism. His counterpart Werner ended the war with some semblance of PTSD, and more or less landed in Communist Berlin due to facts of administration, yet became a fully-fledged Party activist. Author's mother Anne worked as a journalist on the Communist mouthpiece newspaper, even if she managed to doubt things she was forced to write during the Prague Spring and more. Her husband Wolf – Werner's son – in a similar industry was involved in sort-of Photoshopping for propaganda, and often sabotaged his own output. He was violent, awkward, but very anti-establishment. And if you can't see how having a non-Communist in such a family in the heightened times of Cold War Berlin would be, you certainly will after reading this gripping collective biography. Full review...
The Faber Book of Nursery Stories by Barbara Ireson and Shirley Hughes
A whopping 45 stories make up this reissued book of nursery stories perfectly pitched at the pre-school and early years audience. There are animal stories and stories about fantasy creatures. There are tales of good, sweet children and tales of naughty, crotchety ones. There are stories that go on for pages and others that finish after a few paragraphs. There are entries you might end up reading again and again, and entries you might read once or not at all, in favour of the favourites instead. Full review...
Barbapapa by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor
Bibliophiles over the age of 40 may have fond memories of a certain shape-shifting character by the name of Barbapapa who appeared in a series of children's books back in the 1970’s. The books were originally written in French, but gained popularity and were eventually translated into 30 languages. Barbapapa also had his own TV series and comic book and his name, literally translated, means candy floss. The books are now enjoying a resurgence in popularity now that the original stories have been reprinted in English for a new generation to enjoy. Full review...
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
With the ley lines waking, things are changing around Cabeswater. Ronan is getting more and more adept at bringing his dreams to life, Gansey is needed at home, and Adam has made some mysterious new friends. At the centre of it all, Blue has to try to cope with her curse and her feelings for the Raven Boys. Full review...
The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns by Chris Colfer
This sequel to The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell sees twins Alex and Conner Bailey once again magically transported to the fairy-tale realm, this time with the hope of rescuing their mother. She has been kidnapped by the evil Enchantress, the powerful and wicked entity who cursed Sleeping Beauty. The Enchantress is spreading a dark curse over all of the kingdoms and the fairies seem powerless to stop it. Will Alex and Conner find a way to stop her and save their mother before time runs out? Full review...
Freedom from Bosses Forever by Tony Robinson OBE
When we first meet Canadian businesswoman Leonora Soculitherz (don't struggle - it's pronounced 'so cool it hurts') she's on her way from Manchester Airport to Scarborough, the home of her agent, Tony Robinson OBE. You get the measure of the woman straight away as she lets her irritation show about the problems you find in the First Class carriage on the train. (She is so right - I was once grateful to spend the journey perched on a luggage rack.) Her mission is a piece of investigative journalism that's going to introduce her to some very superior people as she searches for information about why people in small businesses don't get the help they need. Full review...
Resist (Breathe) by Sarah Crossan
Resist carries on where Breathe left off. To catch you up: deforestation has resulted in environmental catastrophe and the world is a ravaged place in which there isn't enough oxygen to fully sustain human life. A corporation, Breathe, runs the Pod, whose inhabitants are divided into Premiums (plenty of oxygen) and Auxiliaries (barely enough). Outside, drifters struggle to survive. With one alternative to the Pod - The Grove - destroyed by the Pod Ministry, Alina, Bea and Quinn, our three central characters, set out on separate, but equally perilous, journeys to find the other, Sequoia. And back in the Pod, Ronan is rethinking the world he thought he lived in but didn't. Full review...
Ninja 2: Death Touch (Ninja Trilogy) by Chris Bradford and Sonia Leong
Ninja Death Touch is the second book in this series. It was however, the first book we read. We had no problem reading this as a stand alone book, but the minute we had finished I was on Amazon to buy the first book, and if the third book had been available I would have bought that one as well. In fact if the author had had twenty books in this series, I'd have tried to buy them all. This book features the two main characters of the first story, Tata and Cho, as well as Tata's rival Renzo and sworn enemy Lord Oda. The book begins with the young Ninja put to what appears to be senseless tasks at the whims of their masters. None are too happy about it, and tensions erupt between the young Ninja. All too soon the reason for these tasks becomes apparent as Lord Oda leads an attack meant to destroy the entire clan. Full review...
Ninja: First Mission (Ninja Trilogy) by Chris Bradford and Sonia Leong
If you are looking for adventure, Ninja First Mission will certain come up trumps. This book never has a slow moment. But even as the story races along at breakneck speed, there is plenty to think about as well. This book has as much to offer the deep thinker as the adrenaline junky. Tata, a young Ninja in training, is desperate to prove himself. He has failed the test for his black belt three times, but this was just a simple test. The sacred scrolls of his clan have been stolen, and all of the fully fledged Ninja but one are away on another mission. Tata faces another test, but this time the stakes are life and death, not only for himself, but for his clan. In order to succeed Tata must learn to find victory in failure. Most of all he must learn to believe in himself. Full review...
Elysian Fields by Suzanne Johnson
Drusilla Jaco (DJ) is the sentinel for the preternatural community in the greater New Orleans area and is still recovering from bereavement, Katrina and broken ribs from her last adventure. No such luck as life taking things easy on her, however, as it is discovered that the copycat of a famous serial killer is not, in fact, a copycat. The Axeman of New Orleans himself has been raised from the dead by a necromancer or necromancers unknown. To make matters worse, her loup-garou fiend Jake bit her in a fit of pique and her best friend’s creepy boyfriend won’t leave her alone. She doesn’t know what he wants and she doesn’t know whether she’ll turn into a wolf at the next full moon but she does know that the Axeman is after her, specifically. Full review...
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen
We provide an irresistible opportunity for enterprising microbes by the ubiquity and abundance of our human bodies. This is a salient fact taken away from David Quammen's Spillover. The entire book is a most trenchant eye-opener to just how much of an impact animal infections have on people; approximately 60% of human infectious diseases are zoonoses, 'animal [infections] transmissible to humans'. Full review...
I Came To Say Goodbye by Caroline Overington
Sometimes when you have clear expectations of a book based on its blurb, and then you get an utterly different story, it can be frustrating. While I think ‘misleading’ is too strong a word for it, I really could not have predicted the story of this book from what I read on the back cover. It sounded like an excellent story about a baby snatched from a hospital ward but instead it was…an excellent story about something else entirely. Full review...
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with a feather in her hair...
Tiger Lily tells the story of Neverland after Peter Pan arrived but before Wendy came. Our narrator is Tink, the silent, sometimes jealous, fairy. And our heroine is Tiger Lily, the native girl who is strange even to her fellow villagers. Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories but when she meets Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland, her heart burns with a fire she had never expected. Full review...
Hugless Douglas Finds A Hug by David Melling
The fun in Hugless Douglas Finds A Hug jumps out at you. Literally. In the form of a Douglas puppet who arrives poking his head through the centre of the book. He pops up on every page of the story, sporting his red scarf and his slightly dopey look, and as his body seems to grow with every page that’s turned, you just know there’s something special waiting for you on the last page. Can you guess what it is? Hint: the clue’s in the title. Full review...
Poppy Cat's Counting Adventure by Lara Jones
Just how much can you pack in one short book? That’s the question you’ll be asking when you pick up Poppy Cat’s Counting Adventure. How about: rhyme (check), flaps to lift (check), holes to peep through (check), bright colours, happy characters and a fun, educational aspect (check, check, check). This book really has it all. Full review...
United We Spy (Gallagher Girls) by Ally Carter
The Circle of Cavan are still on the hunt for Cammie Morgan. Their other plans, though, might be even more terrible than their hunt for the young spy. Can Cammie and her friends save themselves, and take down the Circle before they carry out their deadly mission? Full review...
The World is a Wedding by Wendy Jones
They say one door doesn't shut but for another opens. Wilfred Price, the most amenable 1920s Welsh undertaker in literature, is living proof of that. He took his beloved Flora Myffanwy to be his, after they both fell in love at her father's funeral. It did leave Grace alone and bereft, and forced out of town in a very unsavoury fashion, but for Wilfred and Flora married life is fine. Hesitant, but fine. He's finally got into the swing of things as regards calling her dear, and conjugal relations, and she has finally felt able to speak up about her place in the household of her husband and his father – and whoever happens to be left to settle in the workshop, having died on the loo and got stuck in a non-coffin-shaped pose. But do those doors stay firmly shut…? Full review...
Muddle Your Way Through Being a Grandparent: How to Fool People into Thinking You're a Competent Granny or Grandpa by Paul Merrill
It seems to be accepted wisdom that being a grandparent is a great deal easier than being a parent. The trials and tribulations have largely been ignored by wrinklies grateful for contact with their children and grandchildren - and by the children who are grateful (or otherwise) for free childcare - or so Paul Merrill would have us believe. Published for Grandparents' Day his book takes us through a series of scientifically-questionable quizzes, flow charts (that's often of money, by the way - and you can guess which way it's flowing), checklists and advice from celebrities, some of whom you might even have heard of. Full review...
Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch by Barbara A Perry
It's about fifty years since the assassination of President John F Kennedy and it was he (and particularly his death) who brought the Kennedy family to the attention of a new generation. An earlier generation had been split about the virtues (or otherwise) of his father, Joe Kennedy, multi millionaire and United States Ambassador to Great Britain. But behind both of these men was mother and wife, Rose Kennedy and Barbara A Perry has produced a superb biography using letters, diaries and other archived material recently made available. Full review...
Fashion Beast by Alan Moore and Malcolm McLaren
Meet Doll. She seems to fit in with the world she aspires to – she has an androgynous look and a sharp tongue, and doesn't seem to hold many of the people around her in much deference. However, as someone else is very quick to point out, she is only a cloakroom attendant, however swanky and in vogue the nightclub she works at might be. That same someone else gets her fired, however, yet for every door that shuts… As she becomes an overnight modelling sensation, and finds her new boss a very singular individual. Full review...
The Weirdo Years 1981-'91 by R Crumb
Books are better than magazines – discuss. Certainly for the connoisseur of the contents of culturally important titles from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s it must be a lively debate. I remember my collection of New Worlds editions and how often the editors would take us through a long novel over seven or eight parts, then dump a 'sorry, due to space requirements this last part of what you've cherished for months is abridged – but wait for the novel version soon' on us. Is it better to be a completist, and witness everything the original editors deemed worthy (or just had lying around) or should we cherry-pick and note the best? This hefty hunk of book goes for the latter, anyway, taking R Crumb's output for the Weirdo comic, as edited by R Crumb, then someone else, then Mrs R Crumb, and giving us everything, warts and all. Full review...
The Hartlepool Monkey by Wilfrid Lupano and Jeremie Moreau
OK, I'll get the obvious pun over and done with – this graphic novel features a lot of monkeying around. It focuses on the village of Hartlepool, and the people who populated the small settlement on low cliffs overlooking the North Sea, with its couple of pubs and not much else. It looks at what might have happened when, as folklore has it, a storm put paid to a French ship and when a monkey washed up ashore afterwards the natives took it for a Napoleonic spy, tried to find invasion plans from it, and hanged it as the enemy. Here the poor creature is even shaved so it shows respect to the court-martial. Here too are some lovely choice lines of vernacular delivered in spite about the French and the English, and here too is a guest appearance by someone with a much more modern outlook than the ridiculous Hartlepool residents. Full review...
A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks
Geoffrey swaps a career as a public school master for an existence as an English officer behind German lines during WWII, an experience that will take a lifetime to expunge. Billy is a child sent to the workhouse to give his family a chance of survival. Elena has to come to terms with an adopted brother, Jeanne the French nursemaid lives in the shadow of a one-off encounter and Jack? He bears the indelible heart print of a girl who travels with a guitar. Five lives, five stories, one human, emotional thread. Full review...
Football Crazy by Tony Bradman and Michael Broad
Football Crazy is about a group of friends who play on the worst team in the league. It can be difficult when your team loses every time you go on the pitch, but Danny, Jamil and Lewis love the sport and they stick with it - win or lose. They keep hoping the next game will be the game in which they finally win, or at least get on the scoreboard, but it never happens - not as long as Mr Perkins is coaching. When the coach finally packs it in - it looks like curtains for Rovers FC. But, luck seems to be on the children's side when a new coach, Jock Ramsay, with some history in the pro leagues is found. The new coach is tough, but he quickly gets the team into shape and the Rovers start climbing the league tables. Parents are delighted, the stands are full, but the children find they no longer love the sport. Everything is about winning. Things come to crisis point when Coach Ramsay orders Danny to take a dive. Full review...
Secret FC by Tom Palmer
Unlike many children, Lily, Zack and Khan can't wait for the school year to begin. They live in an overcrowded part of London with no room for outdoor sports and the school ground is the only place they can enjoy a friendly game of football. But their hopes for the new term are dashed when a new Head Teacher decides ball sports are too dangerous for children. Surprisingly, with an overly safety-conscious Head, while football is prohibited there is a wooded waste ground inside the school grounds - which just happens to be the perfect spot for the children to clear and create their own football pitch. But will they be able to keep the secret? Or will Mr Edwards blow the final whistle on all of their sports? Full review...
