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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There's a Bison Bouncing on the Bed by Paul Bright and Chris Chatterton
Becoming a parent gives you many new insights into life; the pleasure in seeing a child smile or the amazement as they start to utter words. However, the one thing that you really begin to understand is – how much stuff costs. Clothes, food, transport, toys, even furniture. It all costs money and you now have a tiny wrecking ball running around the house seemingly doing their best to destroy them all. It may seem like harmless fun to jump on the bed, but who pays for it when it breaks? The bison? I don't think so. Full review...
Britain's Secret Wars by T J Coles
Britain's Secret Wars is a chilling and disturbing book to read. With all four corners of the globe hell-bent on conflict, oppression and injustice, our sanitised media portrays Britain, as a nation, responding to harrowing global events. What is chilling, in T J Coles book, is that the political establishment, through the military and intelligence community appear to be complicit in instigating many of them. What is disturbing is that the majority of information he has used to form his analysis and conclusion is freely available and in the public domain. Full review...
How to Find your (First) Husband by Rosie Blake
Isobel Graves hasn't got the life she envisioned. She moved to LA to become a star-soaked television presenter, instead she's dressing up everyday in a series of wacky promotional costumes on the streets. She thought she'd be married to a gentleman, instead she's fallen into a lacklustre relationship with a pilot, whose booty calls do not send her sky high. So when Isobel sees a man from her past on TV, someone she was once married to on the playground at school, she wonders what her life would be like if they were married now. With everything to gain and nothing to lose, Isobel attempts to find her first husband and take back control of her life. Full review...
Father's Day by Simon Van Booy
When devastating news shatters the life of six year old Harvey, she finds herself in the care of a veteran social worker, Wanda, and alone in the world save for one relative she has never met - a disabled ex-con, haunted by a violent past he can't escape. Moving between past and present, Father's Day weaves together the story of Harvey's childhood on Long Island, and her life as a young woman in Paris. Full review...
The Kew Gardens Children's Cookbook: Plant, Cook, Eat by Joe Archer and Caroline Craig
I grew up in the immediate post war period. Growing your own vegetables had been a necessity in the war and it was still a habit for those who had a bit of garden, so The Kew Gardens Children's Cookbook was a real pleasure for me, as well as a touch of nostalgia. The principle is very simple: show children how to grow their own vegetables and then how to transform them into delicious food. It sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, it might come as a surprise, but it is! Full review...
A Journey Through Nature by John Haslam and Steve Parker
Beautifully presented, this is a book that takes a worldwide look at the natural world, in both urban and rural locations. We start off in the city, looking at pigeons, the American racoon, the Australian possum and the South American Marmoset. I learnt 3 things from those first two pages, including what Kits are, how long babies live with the possum mothers and the pregnancy traits of the monkeys. We were off to a good start. Full review...
The One We Fell In Love With by Paige Toon
I'm not sure whether it would be flattering or stressful to have 3 beautiful women lusting after you. In the case of Angus, it's itchy footed Phoebe who'd rather be flitting around the French Alps than stagnating in suburban Sale, boho musician Eliza who's still waiting for her big break, and former nurse Rose who is leaving behind an unsuitable boyfriend and a life in the city to move back up north… and live with her mother. It's a complicated situation, made only more complex by the fact that the girls know each other. In the past they've shared a room, and a womb. Hello, triplets. Full review...
An Annoyance of Neighbours: Life is Never Dull When You Have Neighbours! by Angela Lightburn
You can choose your friends. You can't choose your relatives, but you can - usually - put some physical distance between you and them, but you can't choose your neighbours and once you're there it can be very expensive or even impossible to break the link. Now, I can't give you any advice on this thorny subject as it's more than thirty years since I've been in a position to have anything to complain about, but Angela Lightburn knows all there is to know. She's spent years collating all the different problems which people have with their neighbours and ways of improving the situation which don't involve a lengthy prison sentence. Full review...
The Leaving by Tara Altebrando
Eleven years after they disappeared in the traumatic event the local community knows as The Leaving, five sixteen-year-olds come home. Where have they been? Who took them? And where is Max, the sixth child? Why has he not come home too? And why can the five remember nothing about themselves or where they have been? Full review...
The Reformation in 100 Facts by Kathleen Chater
The Reformation was one of the major events, if not themes of European history, that has decisively shaped the modern world, and has inevitably provided material for many a detailed account in print. This handy little volume, one of a new series from Amberley, reduces a very complex subject to a series of short chapters which make an ideal introduction. Full review...
The Monstrous Child by Francesca Simon
Hel is the ultimate gloomy, angst-ridden teen. Her dad's hardly ever around, her mum is at best indifferent to her, and her brothers are evil little beasts. She lives in a land of sleet and noise and ice. But that's not the worst of it. She has been, since birth, half human and half corpse, with all the accompanying odours that produces, and - wait for it – there'll never be an end to her misery because she's eternal. And you feel hard done by because you have to take the occasional exam? Full review...
Blood Torment (DCI Andy Gilchrist) by T F Muir
Two-year-old Katie Davis was abducted from her mother's home some time in the early hours of the morning. There's something wrong though and DCI Andy Gilchrist suspects that Andrea Davis might have abducted - possibly even murdered - her own child. Then it starts to get political when Gilchrist discovers that Davis' father is Dougal Davis, the former MSP who was forced to resign his seat when he was accused of physically abusing his third wife. Even disgraced politicians have some clout and there's the added complication of the fact that Davis's first wife went to school Gilchrist's ultimate boss. Just to make matters even worse Gilchrist finds that he could be working with DI Tosh MacIntosh - a man for whom he has no respect. But could there be an answer to the abduction in the form of Sammie Bell, a convicted paedophile who had moved back to his home town just a few weeks ago? Full review...
Feather and Fang by Ali Sparkes
Dax Jones is a COLA – a Child Of Limitless Ability. Dax can shift shape from a boy to an otter, falcon or fox while his friends in the COLA Project have psychic, telekinetic and healing powers. They live in Fenton Lodge, a boarding school that once felt like home but increasingly feels like a prison. Dax is the only one left who could leave without permission (he could fly away in falcon form) but he's not prepared to abandon his friends. Then the new head of the COLA Project, Forrester, installs an electronic dome over Fenton Lodge, trapping Dax as effectively as his friends. And, if this weren't bad enough, Forrester starts to categorise and transport the COLA children to hidden locations. When Dax finds himself separated from his friends, he becomes determined to escape. But has he left it too late? Full review...
Secrets of Death (Cooper and Fry) by Stephen Booth
A strange phenomenon has hit the Peak District. There are those who call it 'suicide tourism', but it's frowned on, although it does rather hit the nail on the head. There have been an number of suicides in reasonably public, but picturesque place and all the victims seems to be remarkably competent at what they've done and usually from outside the immediate area. It's almost as though they've been tutored. But whilst it's against the law to assist someone to commit suicide, what's the legal position about providing information and support? Detective Inspector Ben Cooper and his colleagues in E Division have to try and find some connection between the people who have died. But in what might almost be another world - the city of Nottingham - Detective Sergeant Diane Fry finds that a key witness in a case she's involved with has vanished. Full review...
Dotty Detective by Clara Vulliamy
Dorothy Constance Mae Louise, otherwise known as Dot, has just moved house and has had to change schools. Luckily she soon finds a friend, Beans, and together they form the top-secret 'Join the Dots Detectives'. Both Dot and Beans are huge fans of the TV programme 'Fred Fantastic – Ace Detective'. They've watched every episode and memorised all Fred's techniques. It's just as well they have because their classmate Laura has hatched a plot to prevent shy Amy singing in the talent contest and it's up to Dot and Beans to uncover the plan. Full review...
Kiss and Kin by Angela Lambert
It's six months since the death of Harriet Capel's husband George. Looking back she's concluded that she was fond of, but probably not in love, with him. They had two sons and it's the elder of these, Roderick who's married to Jennifer. They have three children, but there's been a rather silly feud between the Capels and Jennifer's family, the Gaunts, which dates back to the couple's wedding, when Clarissa Gaunt, Jennifer's mother said something unpleasant in the church which dropped into one of those silences which always occur when you say something which you really shouldn't. Honours (or should it be dishonours?) were even when George Capel later said something crass and vulgar about the bride's mother and was overheard. Full review...
My Favourite Manson Girl by Alison Umminger
Fifteen year old Anna has had an excruciating year, topped off with new stepparents and a new school. So she borrows her family's credit card, and runs away to LA to crash with her sister. But Hollywood isn't the escape she needs, and it soon dawns on her: she's trapped in a town full of lost souls and wannabes, with no friends, no cash and no return ticket. When her sister's obsessive ex offers her a job researching the murderous Manson girls for his next indie film, she accepts – albeit reluctantly. This is not quite the summer Anna had in mind; but the more she learns about the girls and her fate, the more she comes to understand her family – and herself. Full review...
Under a Cornish Sky by Liz Fenwick
Under a Cornish Sky is the story of two very different women who are forced to work together to complete a common goal. Their personalities couldn't be more different, so expect fireworks along the way! Shy Demi is as timid as a mouse and although she is a skilled architect, she is never able to succeed in her career because others take credit for her work. In relationships, she is easily manipulated into doing things she doesn't always feel comfortable with; a fact that is not lost on her sleazy current boyfriend, Matt. Lady-of-the-Manor Victoria, on the other hand, simply oozes self confidence. Although she is in her sixties, she has the body of a much younger woman and has no trouble getting men to do exactly what she wants. Despite a long list of younger lovers providing a pleasurable distraction, her one true love is the family home of Boscawen, a glorious estate set in the picturesque Cornish countryside, not far from the sea. Full review...
Here we are, world, in the midst of a new Renaissance. What will it be, to flounder or to flourish?
The central aim of this discourse is to highlight our current position, and the fact that there is a choice to be made. The authors date 1990 as the dawn of a new, and our present, Renaissance. As with the last, this time warrants in a whole host of risks, but it also offers the opportunity to reap the benefits of the changes occurring across the globe. Full review...
Max Gate by Damien Wilkins
This is a novel about Thomas Hardy's last days, but we get an unusual glimpse into his household at Max Gate, Dorchester through the point-of-view of his housemaid, twenty-six-year-old Nellie Titterington. She's the daughter of a local seamstress and dairyman, and with her fellow servant Alice Rigler keeps up a steady stream of bawdy banter. On his deathbed, Hardy is already more of a ghost than a real-life presence in the house. Affairs are run by Florence, his second wife, who is still viewed as something of a usurper because she was Hardy's secretary while his first wife Emma was alive and is 35 years the literary lion's junior; 'here she is, having written her way into the story line by line, just as the borer beetle eats through the floor,' as Nellie memorably puts it. Full review...
Napoleon's Last Island by Thomas Keneally
It's not usual to open a review with the history of how the book came to be written but with Napoleon's Last Island the story sheds an intriguing light on the plot. In 2012 author Thomas Keneally was given tickets to an exhibition of Napoleonic artefacts: uniforms, furniture, china, paintings, military decorations, snuff boxes and memorabilia as well as Napoleon's death mask. He was intrigued as to how the exhibits and particularly the mask came to be in Australia. Some pieces in the exhibition had been bought in later but most came from the descendants of the Balcombe family, who came to the colony in the first half of the nineteenth century, from St Helena via England. The result of Keneally's research into the story is Napoleon's Last Island. Full review...
Under Earth, Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielinski, Daniel Mizielinski and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator)
One of the major remits of children's non-fiction books is to get them to look around them and gain a better understanding of what they're seeing. After a volume such as this, the obvious response is to see that as an incredibly narrow focus. For this book will take the reader and show them exactly what they can't see – from microscopic things living in soil even seasoned Scrabble players haven't heard of, right down to the fish swimming their way towards the Mariana Trench, the deepest section of sea on earth. Make no bones about it, this book is entirely focused on what is beneath our feet and sea levels, and – no pie in the sky response this – it is a winner. Full review...
The Swimming Pool by Louise Candlish
The Swimming Pool is the story of a woman - Natalie - whose eyes are dazzled by a glamorous couple who live nearby. Natalie and husband Ed have a 13-year-old daughter, Molly, and are the kind of parents you'd steer clear of at the school gates for fear of offending their politically correct sensibilities. Molly has a phobia of water. Rather than keep her away from rivers and pools, they subject her to a childhood of therapy. They keep up with changes to Molly's phone code so they can check up on her messages. They don't believe in private education and they eat nutritionally supplemented pizzas. Louise Candlish pokes delicious fun at this couple, particularly at dull-as-ditchwater Ed whose moral rectitude stifles poor Natalie, desperate to break out of her mould. Enter Lara Channing. Lara is a champion synchronised swimmer and former starlet. Her beauty, wealth and warmth have a magnetic attraction for Natalie who proves powerless to resist Lara's charms, although she is less sure of Lara's enigmatic husband, Miles. The novel charts Natalie's journey as she is enticed away from Ed and into Lara's web, and there is an increasing sense of unease as events unfold. Add to this heady mix a few additional ingredients, a heatwave, an outdoor pool and a gaggle of teenagers, and you have a recipe for disaster. Full review...
A Journey Through the Weather by John Haslam and Steve Parker
We're British. We LOVE to talk about the weather. But beyond the usual platitudes of Bit cold out isn't it or What a beautiful day, how much do you actually know about what's happening up in the sky? Full review...
The Murder Road (Cooper and Fry) by Stephen Booth
The locals will tell you that there's only one road into and out of Shawhead and over the years they've become accustomed to being cut off by snow or floods. The road passes under a railway line and one day in early February Mac Kelsey's curtain-sider jammed under the bridge. It was Amanda Hibbert who discovered the obstruction as she tried to return home to Shawhead, but there was no driver in the cab. There was a lot of blood though. Full review...
The Secret Pirate (Swashbuckle Lil: The Secret Pirate) by Elli Woollard
School girl Lil is a secret pirate. Her classmates think she's an ordinary girl and assume they're just imagining things when they hear her bag squawk. They don't know that's where she keeps her parrot (whose name is Carrot). Her teacher, Miss Lubber, thinks Lil's naughty and is unaware that Lil's really trying to save the teacher from being kidnapped by the wicked pirate, Stinkbeard. But Lil doesn't mind because she knows the truth – she's a bold and brave pirate and all her adventures are true (at least to her). Full review...
Our Young Man by Edmund White
New York City in the eighties, and at its decadent heart is Guy. Guy is taking on the fashion world and fast becoming the darling of the Fire Island's gay community. Fred, Andre and Pierre-Georges are all fixated on Guy, and the Dorian Gray like Guy commands their attention, whilst seemingly never aging. Still modelling at thirty-five, enjoying lavish gifts from these admirers who believe him far younger, Guy lets them believe – but then finds this way of life is destroying the men he loves. Stretching from the disco era to the age of AIDS, Edmund White explores beauty, and the power is has to enslave, fascinate and deceive. Full review...
