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.
There are currently 16,114 reviews at TheBookbag.
Want to find out more about us?
New Reviews
Read new reviews by genre.
Read the latest features.
Something Like Happy by John Burnside
How do you pick a name for a short story collection? It seems to me the ...and other stories add-on is like picking a favourite child, a promotion of one portion of the content above the rest. John Burnside has got a title story here, but such is the mood of the book that he seems to have nailed the matter, and picked the most apposite name. Something Like Happy could in a way be the title for practically every piece here. Full review...
The Happy Puppy Handbook: Your Definitive Guide to Puppy Care and Early Training by Pippa Mattinson
Unfortunately far too many people acquire puppies because of the aww... factor. They look gorgeous, cuddly, cute - rather like an animated soft toy - and there are people who have to have one. Now. The reality is that bringing a puppy into your home - into your life - requires about the same level of planning as moving home and the best guide which I've seen to preparing for a puppy and the early stages of living with one is Pippa Mattinson's The Happy Puppy Handbook. Do get it well in advance. If you're only thinking about getting a puppy it might even put you off - but then it will be well worth the cover price if it saves you a great deal of expense and even more heartache. Full review...
The Puppy Express: On the road with 25 rescue dogs . . . what could go wrong? by David Rosenfelt
If you're moving home from Southern California with twenty five rescue dogs how, exactly do you do it? Add in that these are mostly elderly dogs who've already had too much change and trauma in their lives and it's obvious that crating them and flying them across country isn't going to work. They couldn't all go together and the trip would take about twenty four hours with all the changes - and that's before you even begin to think about the prohibitive cost. In the end the answer was a convoy of three motorhomes, the addition of nine helpers and just about non-stop driving across the continent. Fun, eh? Full review...
Girl With A White Dog by Anne Booth
Once upon a time Jessie had three wishes. One of these wishes is for a dog of her own. When her Grandma unexpectedly gets a small white dog, Snowy, it would seem that one of her wishes has come true. But the dog prompts a worrying change in Jessie’s Grandma’s behaviour and she appears troubled by memories from her childhood, fearing that something dreadful will happen to Snowy. As past and present mingle Jessie learns that, just like Fairy Tales, goodies and baddies may not always be as they appear. Full review...
A First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies and Mark Hearld
There is a difference between a book for children that the kids themselves will like and one that adults will like. A more mature person may like some interesting illustrations or imaginative story, but most of the children I know are happy just to see some dinosaurs in their pants. However, there are books that transcend this and can appeal to both groups. Books that may have slightly dry reading for the very young, but illustrations that will transfix and amaze – introducing ‘A First Book of Nature’ written by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Mark Hearld. Full review...
Phase by Adam Hamdy
It's ten years since Amber Schaefer was kidnapped and since that day Thomas Schaefer has devoted his life to finding his daughter and the people who abducted her. It's cost him everything - his marriage, his relationship with his son, his job and - in all probability - his sanity. He's reached the stage where - far from moving on - letting go is not an option and many of his actions are irrational. If any part of this can be described as having an upside it's that Schaefer has become an expert in finding missing people, particularly young adults who have become involved with cults. The tipping point is reached when an old friend refers to him a case which bears startling similarities to Amber's abduction. Full review...
Levels of Life by Julian Barnes
If you read a broadsheet you will know the format of this book from when it came out in hardback – indeed I recognised a great portion of the third part as having been excerpted somewhere. Part one of this triptych is a look back at pioneering aeronauts in hot air balloons – either hydrogen balloons or flame balloons, whatever they are. They may have had crash landings, they may have suffered problems here and there and risked life and limb, but they travelled, they saw the world from unique angles, and almost in homage to Barnes' characters chasing the sun in an airplane in his own book, saw themselves as a photographic negative writ large in shadow form on the tops of clouds. Full review...
Brief Loves That Live Forever by Andrei Makine
Our unnamed narrator is inspired to think back through his life on the girls and women he has been in love with, partly because of a time spent with an associate – a time marked by a seemingly most unremarkable encounter with a further woman – whom he deemed had never been loved. The associate, you see, had spent half his adult life in Soviet camps for political instruction – our narrator himself was an orphan in the 1960s' Soviet Union. This snappy volume takes us through episodes in several lives at different points during and since the second half of communist rule – and finally explains the import of that unremarkable encounter… Full review...
Colorstrology by Michele Bernhardt
First impressions of this book left me slightly worried that I would have little to go on to write any kind of helpful review; it was basically a little book of colour swatches, resembling something of a home décor paint guide. Flicking through, I saw that each page represented a day, allowing the reader to refer to their birthday to gain information relating to their character, rather like a horoscope. So all I had to go on was, effectively, a painting guide to star signs. With this is mind (and with fairly low expectations) I began reading from the beginning, refraining from jumping straight in to analyse my birthday characteristics. Full review...
Grandma by Jessica Shepherd
Oscar loves his Grandma very much so it’s scary and frightening when she starts forgetting things and acting differently. She has to go and live somewhere else and it smells funny and is full of new people. Full review...
The Way To The Zoo by John Burningham
It’s easy to lie in bed and see shadows on the wall and imagine what they could be. I still do it now though I know better than to think something that looks like, say, a door in the wall, might be a portal to another universe. Sylvie, though, wants to double check when SHE sees what looks like a door and it’s just as well she does, because lo and behold it IS a door and it DOES lead somewhere. It goes all the way to the zoo! All the animals look nice and friendly so because it’s getting late and she has school in the morning, Sylvie heads back to bed and invites a little bear to come with her for the night. She has her own real live teddy. What fun. Full review...
The Eagle Trail by Robert Rigby
The Nazis have occupied Antwerp, where Paul lives with his English father and French mother. But Paul doesn't think things are too bad. Life is going on pretty much as normal if you are a teenaged boy, Paul feels. But Paul is wrong.
In the space of an afternoon, Paul's world is turned upside down. His father is shot in front of him, having been discovered as an early resistance organiser. His mother is arrested. And Paul finds himself fleeing for his life, hunted by the Nazis for what his father knew. The journey is a long and dangerous one - through Belgium and France for the Pyrenees and Spain and then, hopefully, for England. Every stage is dangerous but the final one - the Eagle Trail across the mountains - is the most perilous. Full review...
The Private Blog of Joe Cowley by Ben Davis
Meet Joe Cowley. He's the kind of doofus who will pretend to be from New York, when his life really revolves around a horrid existence in a secondary school near Birmingham, a life shared with his mother and a visit to his dad and Russian mail-order bride every Sunday, and two friends – Harry, who speaks as if he is a member of an ancient Gentleman's Club, and Ad, who's – well, just thick as two short planks. He can barely get through the day without being tormented by his enemies at school, saying the wrong thing entirely or just cocking things up, hence this, his blog, for him to vent and escape a while. But at least he knows his worth when it comes to getting a snog off the school's most desirable girl – doesn't he? And at least he can keep the torments of real life at arm's length – can't he? Full review...
A Kiss In The Dark by Cat Clarke
Alex and Kate meet online and there's an instant attraction between them. When they get together in person at a gig, they're just as right for each other as they are online. It seems like this could be a wonderful romance, but there's a secret at the heart of it which could destroy more than just their relationship. Will this seemingly fairytale romance have a happy ending? Full review...
Mrs. Mo's Monster by Paul Beavis
What would you do if you answered the door one day, only to find a mini monster standing there? Most of us wold probably weep a little and find somewhere to hide, but not the brave Mrs Mo. She appears to know this monster and will do anything to keep him entertained. Will he help round the house? Nope? How about baking a cake? That may just get anybody’s attention, but will this book capture your little monster’s imagination? Full review...
A Day At The Airport by Richard Scarry
Father Cat was taking the kids sailing, but it started to rain so they had to call it off. On the way home, though, they bump into Rudolph Von Flugel who suggests a detour to the airport as there’s lots of things to see and do there. Full review...
Sesame Seade Mysteries 3: Scam on the Cam by Clementine Beauvais and Sarah Horne
Something strange is happening on or near the river. Finding a pirates' chest is surely likely to be the weirdest thing that happens to most people in an average week, but not Sesame, Toby and Gemma. As well as the possibility of pirates, there's a chance that nefarious goings-on are responsible for the university rowing team dropping like flies. Can Sesame save the day again? Full review...
A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke
Eva is blissfully content with life. She has a fulfilling career in her job as a midwife and a happy marriage to the man of her dreams who clearly adores her. Her contented existence is thrown into complete turmoil when, early one morning, her beloved husband Jackson is swept out to sea whilst fishing on the Dorset coast. It seems that in one fell swoop, all of her hopes and dreams have been washed away into the cold, white water. Full review...
Sesame Seade Mysteries 2: Gargoyles Gone AWOL by Clementine Beauvais and Sarah Horne
Sesame Seade is in trouble. So much trouble that our intrepid heroine has already started planning her epitaph. Sesame Seade, sensational supersleuth. Sufficiently scolded, seldom scared. Even with danger around every corner, her stunning voice can't be silenced. But what is the danger lurking in the university? Is it to do with the disappearing gargoyles, or is there something even more worrying going on? Full review...
Daughters of Time by Mary Hoffman (editor)
This is an anthology aimed at tweens and younger teens on the subject of some of history's most remarkable women. It's an interesting idea, particularly as the usual suspects are perhaps avoided. No Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Victoria, or Florence Nightingale. Instead we get Boudica, Mary Seacole, Aphra Behn and Julian of Norwich, amongst others. It doesn't altogether work for me but there are enough strong stories to make it well worth a look. Full review...
Bone Jack by Sara Crowe
15-year-old Ash has been waiting for his father to come back from the war. He's following in his dad's footsteps as the stag boy in the traditional Stag Chase, and he knows his dad will be proud of him. Running through the mountains whenever he can to train, he's not bothered by the taunts of the other boys who he beat to become the stag, and who will take their places as hounds - he knows their hostility is traditional. But something is stirring in the countryside, and he sees strange visions, while his old friend Mark is behaving seriously creepily. Is Mark just grieving for his father, or is there something more sinister at work? Full review...
Let's Go, Baby-o! by Janet McLean and Andrew McLean
Hey! Baby has woken up in his cot and wants to play. Luckily his singing, dancing, jiggling and bouncing older cousin is there to spring him free and start the fun. They leap and chant and jump and sing. Meanwhile, in the garden, the rest of the family, the pets and the wildlife are having some drama of their own. Baby and his dancing cousin pause to look out the window. Their observations inspire them to move and sing again. Full review...
The Dark Wild by Piers Torday
Be careful when reading this book: it presents humanity and its tendency to destroy everything in its path so convincingly that you may end up siding with the bad guys! Kester's world is a dystopian mess, and the fact that this time the threat comes from a quite unexpected quarter only makes things harder for him. Full review...
I Will Eat The Moon (Tiny the Giant) by Dom Conlon and Nicola Anderson
We first met Tiny when he was but a young giant and determined to prove that he was big. When all seemed lost he was proved to be right and the day (as well as his pride) was saved. This time he's taken on an even bigger task. He knows that giants need big things to eat and he's got his eyes on the moon. Actually, he's licking his lips, but it doesn't impress the moon... Full review...
The Blood List by Sarah Naughton
In the mid-seventeenth century, the world is filled with tales of witches, murder and changelings. Sixteen-year-old Barnaby is strong and handsome. His father is a wealthy landowner who indulges his desires, and while his mother doesn't love him - believing him to be merely a replacement for her own baby, who the villagers thought was a changeling and who was mysteriously switched - he's popular with everyone else he knows. Until dark happenings start occurring, which will change Barnaby's life - or possibly even end it. Full review...
Loxley by Sally Wragg
Harry, the eleventh Duke of Loxley, fell in love with Bronwyn and they married. It wasn't the match that his mother would have chosen - Bronwyn was, after all, nothing more than the daughter of the local doctor and even Harry and Bronwyn wondered whether or not they'd done the right thing as they struggled to come to terms with married life. Katherine, the dowager Duchess, didn't make Bronwyn's life any easier - I mean, the girl wasn't above starting to clear the breakfast dishes when there were servants to do that sort of thing. And - to cap it all - she still wasn't pregnant and an heir for Loxley was of paramount importance. Full review...
