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. We can even direct you to help for custom book reviews! Visit www.everychildareader.org to get free writing tips and www.genecaresearchreports.com will help you get your paper written for free.
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City Dreaming by Daniel Polansky
A City Dreaming guides us through a year in the life of the restless and enigmatic M as he returns to New York after travelling. A magical adept, well-known to the various non-human beings that frequent the alternative realities of New York City and not without power himself, you'd never guess any of it from his nonchalant hipper-than-thou attitude. He tries to keep out of local politics – opposing camps of magical affiliates in the city – but can be fiercely loyal to his closest associates. Though he reluctantly gets mixed up in various scrapes via his strange bunch of friends and acquaintances, and occasionally has to save the day, all he really wants is to be left alone to enjoy the sex, drugs and good coffee that abound in the city. Full review...
Gathering Prey by John Sandford
Any fan of a long running series will dread the book that falls off the cliff. This is the story that just does not make sense, or is so reminiscent of previous outings that it may as well not exist. With 24 titles already written about Lucas Davenport, the Prey series by John Sandford is overdue this, but will Gathering Prey be the moment that the maverick cop Davenport becomes a shadow of his former self? Full review...
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
Ruth Jefferson is a nurse. She looks after new mothers and their babies and she's the sort of nurse that you hope you'll encounter when it's your turn, or the turn of anyone close to you. She cares and she's good at her job, very good, in fact. Turk and Brittany Bauer and their new son, Davis, were under her care, only Turk took strong exception to Ruth having anything to do with their child: Turk and Brittany were white supremacists - and Ruth Jefferson was black, an African American and despite all her experience she was banned from caring from Davis Bauer. Full review...
Blink and You Die (Ruby Redfort Book 6) by Lauren Child
Here we are: the final book in the popular Ruby Redfort spy series. Get ready to say an emotional goodbye to 'every smart kid's smart kid.' Things are looking bleak: Spectrum has a mole, nobody can be trusted, the infamous 'Count' is working for someone even more evil than he is and the fly is about to get tangled in a very sticky web. Stay alert. Stay Awake. Blink and you die. Full review...
The Land of Stories: An Author's Odyssey by Chris Colfer
I think that it is only fair to warn people who haven't yet read any of the Land of Stories books and may be contemplating it. Prepare to be completely consumed. Be aware that once you pick up one of these books you will be unable to put it down until you have finished the last page. Also know that the author likes to torture his readers with the most frustrating cliff-hangers at the end of each book. You will want to read on, but are essentially paralysed in a type of limbo until the release of the next book in the series. The last book ended on a tantalising premise: our heroes, Alex and Connor have a potion that will enable them to enter any story they wish. They are going to use it to travel into Connor's own collection of short stories in order to recruit his creations, fight the bad guys and save the storybook world. So grab your book, clear your schedule and get cosy, because the reading marathon is just about to begin... Full review...
The Mistress of Windfell Manor by Diane Allen
Charlotte Booth is the beautiful daughter of a successful wool farmer and like any young Victorian woman, she looks forward to the day she can be married and have a family of her own. Her childhood sweetheart Archie has a place in Charlotte's heart, but he cannot provide her with the life she desires, so when wealthy mill owner Joseph Dawson comes to town Charlotte sees her luck begin to change. After a brief courtship, Charlotte and Joseph marry and move in to the illustrious Windfell Manor, but things soon turn sour when one of Joseph's mill workers is found dead and Charlotte starts to suspect that Joseph isn't the man she first thought he was. Full review...
Raven Child and the Snow Witch by Lina Sunderland and Daniel Egneus
A beautiful story of hope, family and love. In the frozen north and safe away from the icy wilderness, young Anya lives a happy care-free life in the Snow Garden. She plays, she is at one with the animals and she dreams. On one day, no different from any other, Anya’s mother sets off on a journey to the glacier to collect a special flower to plant in the Snow Garden. Anya waits for her mother’s return and keeps busy throughout the day. After a long while of waiting Anya falls asleep and dreams of a terrible event involving the most dreadful enchantress of them all – the Snow Witch. From here on, Anya becomes determined to find and save her mother but she has no idea what lies ahead. Can Anya pit her wills against the frozen wilderness, the wild wolves and ultimately the Snow Witch herself? Full review...
School of Velocity by Eric Beck Rubin
Jan's head is dropping him in it. He's a trained concert pianist, but is having difficulty performing, with a horrendous problem, in that he can hear any discordant music, or just in fact horrid noise, when in the wings waiting to perform, and never the score he is due to follow. The devil's tinnitus, you might call it. With another failure behind him, but dignity somewhat intact, Jan decides he has to work back through his life to tell us the cause – and we're likewise dropped into an extended flashback, to his formative years at art school, with a pretentious drama student, Dirk. The book is a fast-moving exploration of what Jan finds of note (pun intended) through his life, and all that might have caused his mental problem. But is cognisance of what might lie behind it going to help? Full review...
Farm by Surya Sajnani
In this sturdy, interactive board book little ones have clues to animals you might find on the farm, and can then slide the pieces of picture round on the facing page to uncover the answer. Full review...
Hush...Little Bear is Sleeping by Surya Sajnani
In this somewhat ironic interactive board book, Baby Bear is trying to sleep but other animals around him keep making a noise. I say ironic because this would otherwise be a perfect bedtime story, but because it's a press and listen book with sound effects on every page, it's far too much fun and more likely to get them engaged and playing than carefully drifting off to slumber. Full review...
Travels With My Father by Karen Jennings
Despite the coda, this does not feel like an autobiographical novel. I am not sure why Jennings felt the need to couch it in those terms unless there is much in the structure that is fiction. I'm hoping there isn't. I am hoping that the fiction is purely that conceit that this pretends to be a novel. If that was necessary to get it published, then I'll applaud the subterfuge, because this is writing that needs to be read. It is – if as true as I want it to be – a delicate reminiscence: a daughter's in memoriam to a father she loved, worshipped, idealised, cared-for, lived with, and yes (in true daughterly fashion) at times, hated. A father who was, therefore, a good dad. Full review...
Capital Punishment: London's Places of Execution by Robert Bard
The majority of books on true crime and murder focus first and foremost on specific incidents. This concise volume takes a different approach, in dealing with them according to where the executioner completed his task. Full review...
Harry Potter Magical Places & Characters Postcard Colouring Book: 20 Postcards to Colour by Various Authors
Take a book of postcards - go on, take it - it's small enough to pop in a pocket or even a handbag and there's a substantial backing to it so that even when you get to the last one there's still a reasonable surface to work on. You get twenty postcards and they are proper postcards with space for you to write a message and a name and address on the back. They're more substantial than a lot of postcards I've received through the post so they're not going to get all mangled when they come through the letterbox. The thick card also means that you don't get bleed through from one side of the card to the other when you use a felt-tip pen or paints. Full review...
Operation Big: The Race to Stop Hitler's A-Bomb by Colin Brown
What, do you think, was more feared in 1941 and 1942 than the Nazi Party? Well, a Nazi Party with nuclear arms would be pretty high on the list. It seems the stuff of pure fantasy, but I'm not so sure. A lot of the people to be at the forefront of the nuclear physics of the age were German, and the first nuclear fission was on their soil. Two things seemed to be needed for nuclear arms – uranium, which they procured by capturing Czechoslovakia, the location of one its greatest source mines; and heavy water. That so nearly fell into Nazi hands when they invaded Norway, but what seems to have been the great majority of the world's supply had only just been smuggled out. Some fiction takes great strides to suggest in a fantasy way that if Hitler hadn't concentrated on exterminating Jews, he would have had the energy to win the war – and it must only be a short step to see his imperial expansionism as having an ulterior motive in nuclear materiel. But make no mistake, this is not fiction – these are the pure facts behind the issue. Full review...
Before I Let You In by Jenny Blackhurst
As a psychiatrist, Karen is never too sure who or what will walk through her door, but the variety keeps it interesting, and her years of training and experience keep her on track even when a statement from a patient seems to throw her off course. It's hard sometimes, because she can't really talk about work at home, but her friends and partner are supportive even when she's not able to share the details with them. Full review...
Tarzan and the Blackshirts by Andy Croft and Alan Marks
1930s London, and the streets are rife with racial divides, to the extent that people on one side of the road, generally of one ethnic origin, hate the residents from some other background living on the other. Our narrator Sam has no reason to hate anyone, apart from those in the other gangs, like Alf. But when they latch on to each other as best friends, despite Sam being Jewish and Alf having Irish blood, it seems nothing can stop them. But in times like that – and, of course, in times like 2017 – that doesn't necessarily mean friendships can't be broken… Full review...
An Empire on the Edge by Nick Bunker
The history that we are taught is centred on events. Often we know the dates, the central characters and the outcome. We seldom identify and study the causes. 'An Empire on the Edge' is history writ large and looks at the chain of events leading to the Boston Tea Party, and subsequent American War of Independence. What emerges is a catalogue of human failings and frailties that shaped the destiny of America and Britain in the eighteenth century. Many of the failings were avoidable but the accumulation and chain reaction they caused had a catastrophic effect on thousands of lives and has shaped the character of two nations ever since. Full review...
'Twas the Fight Before Christmas: A Parody by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees
It's Christmas Eve and Mum has arranged everything. All she now has to do is await the arrival of the relatives and the food shopping delivery. Little does Mum know that those two elements alone have the potential to ruin everything. Full review...
The Politician's Daughter by Marion Leigh
I had to feel sorry for Canadian Emily Mortlake, the titular politician's daughter. OK, so going off on a summer job on a mega yacht might have sounded glamorous, but even before she went there were indications that some quite personal services might be required. It didn't worry Emily, but when she went missing there weren't that many people who were worried about her. Her father didn't want anything made public as a scandal could damage his political career. The dean of her college didn't want the spotlight of publicity focused on the college: there'd been a lot of fuss about fees recently and he preferred to avoid the tabloid headlines. Even her friend Amy who reported Emily missing seemed most worried that she couldn't get on with her work. Petra Minx of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Marine Unit was in the UK on holiday and she was sent to investigate. Full review...
The Knife Slipped by Erle Stanley Gardner
Before we begin, I must confess. Confess that I am a hardboiled noir addict. Therefore, I approach each grisly tale of murder, private detectives and femme fatales with a sense of wonder but also scepticism. Surely, I think this one can't be as good as the last, it must have flaws, poor characters and lack the necessary grit to be a true hardboiled noir masterpiece? so you can imagine my trepidation when opening the Knife Slipped. I was wrong, wonderfully wrong. This book for me is the essence of the hardboiled noir genre and E.S. Gardner is a marvel. Full review...
Imaginary Fred by Eoin Colfer and Oliver Jeffers
Fred is an imaginary friend. He really loves being an imaginary friend, and he throws himself into his role wholeheartedly whenever he is 'summoned' by a child. The problem is that his children always end up finding a real friend, and then they don't need him, and slowly he fades away until the wind whisks him away into the clouds where he waits until he is summoned once more. When he becomes Sam's friend he thinks that all his dreams have come true - they like the same things, they have so much fun together, but Fred has a funny feeling in his imaginary tummy that one day, Sam won't need him any more either… Full review...
One Hundred Sausages by Yuval Zommer
Mmm, sausages! Everyone knows that dogs have special hearing when it comes to the discussion of what's for dinner, especially when it comes to sausages. My mum used to hide the worming tablets in sausages as our dog would eat the sausage so fast he wouldn't notice the tablet. Well, most times! Anyway, this book is all about one particular dog's love of sausages, and what happens when he is falsely accused of stealing all of the town's sausages! Full review...
Winter Storms by Elin Hilderbrand
A year is a long time in the life of the Quinn family. So much can happen. For some people this can just be births and deaths and the whole circle of life, but for the Quinn family it's more love triangles, felonies, drug dealers who stalk you, ex-husbands who haunt you, and business opportunities transplanted from the scorching Caribbean to the cooler north east coast of America. As spring leads to summer, leads to autumn leads to winter we follow the extended family on Nantucket and in nearby cities (Boston, Manhattan) and learn that as divisive as life can be, there are some ties that will always bind you. In this case the tie is called Bart, and whatever else is happening, if he returns then everything else will all be ok. Full review...
Tales of Loving and Leaving by Gaby Weiner
In Tales of Loving and Leaving, author Gaby Weiner tells the story of three of her family members: her grandmother, Amalia Moszkowicz Dinger; her mother, Steffi Dinger; and her father, Uszer Frocht. Full review...