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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A Preparation for Death by Greg Baxter
I've always been slightly wary of autobiographies which are written whilst the subject is still relatively young. They can often feel incomplete, particularly when you know the author is still successful in their chosen career. Frequently they are also written from an immediate perspective which time can alter thanks to hindsight. Full review...
Secret Hour (Midnighters) by Scott Westerfeld
If you do have to move into a small American town, make sure it isn't Bixby, Oklahoma. Jessica does, and finds it perhaps more trouble than it's worth. She quickly bonds with some of the more goth-seeming kids at her high school, but it's the night-time activities that intrigue her. She thinks she's in a dream when she walks through a dazzling forest of raindrops, suspended in a moment of frozen time - that moment being exactly midnight. But wouldn't you know? - her goth-seeming friends are active at midnight too - and so are some very dangerous creatures of the terrible kind... Full review...
Travelling Light by Tove Jansson
In her home country of Finland – and no doubt throughout much of the rest of Europe which is not quite so sniffy about foreign literature as Britain tends to be – Jansson is generally recognised as an author of talent, skill, verve and wit that extended far beyond the Moomin Troll stories for which she is best known in this country. Those children's books were first published in England sixty years ago and have remained in print ever since (as well as being adapted for just about every other medium going), and a joy they are too, but it is only recently that we have been granted the pleasures of reading her fiction for adults. Full review...
The Sixties by Jenny Diski
In the last few years, there have been many books of varying length about the 60s. Most of them are relatively self-contained histories of the decade, often fairly liberal in adopting their signposts as to when the era began and ended. (Blame Philip Larkin's famous poem for the confusion, I hear you say). Full review...
Jeremiah Jellyfish Flies High! by John Fardell
Jeremiah Jellyfish is drifting aimlessly through life. He's bored of doing nothing in the great big jellyfish shoal. With a bit of geeing up from his granddad, he strikes out on his own, meets a high-powered businessman, swaps jobs, and becomes an executive in a rocket plane company. As jellyfish do, obviously. Full review...
Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
This is a big book by anyone's standards. Think of your average blockbuster in terms of pages - then double it. Due to its sheer breadth of narrative I think it best if I break it down into manageable book-sized chunks (the novel itself is sub-divided into a trilogy generally known as The Watson Trilogy). First off, there's an explanatory author's note at the beginning to ease the reader in gently, perhaps. I took a deep breath and dived in ... Full review...
Goldengrove by Francine Prose
On a hot day Nico and her older sister Margaret take a boat out onto Mirror Lake, but only Nico returns after Margaret dives off the boat and doesn't resurface. Margaret's sudden death tears through Nico and her parents' lives, and each mourn for her in their own way. Unable to find the help she needs from her parents, who are both consumed by their own grief to help Nico to come to terms with her loss, Nico turns to the vast array of books in Goldengrove, her father's bookshop, for answers, and soon embarks on a dangerous relationship with Margaret's boyfriend Aaron, the only person who seems to understand her grief. Full review...
Frozen Moment by Camilla Ceder
One cold, dark morning in December 2006 a man was driving to work when he began to have problems with his car. It was a fairly deserted part of the Swedish coast but he had vague memories of a car-repair business in the area. When he limped his car in there he discovered a body: the man had been shot in the head and his lower body crushed as a car had been driven over it. The man panicked and called his neighbour for help. Seja was a trainee reporter and when she arrived she was fascinated by the murder victim, but her lies to Inspector Christian Tell are soon discovered. It's not the end of the matter though as there's an immediate attraction between Seja and Tell – and he's well aware that he's breaking all the rules by getting into a relationship with a witness and even a potential suspect. Full review...
Follyfoot by Monica Dickens
Follyfoot Farm is the home of the Colonel, his wife and her daughter Callie – along with the stable hands and rather a lot of unwanted, neglected or elderly horses. Some people paid for their horses to retire there but that was unusual and everyone lead a hand-to-mouth existence to give the horses the best life possible. Not everyone feels the same way about the horses though – or about the people who live and work at the farm – and along with looking after the horses the stable hands have to find out what's going on and why. Full review...
I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
Meet John Smith. By all appearances he is the usual fifteen year old American kid, except for the fact he and his 'father' shift location every few months. John is certainly not his real name, but has to face up to reality - school bullies, hot girls and in fact any friends being unattainable with such a peripatetic lifestyle. 'Dad' stays at home, scanning the internet and all news sources, in order to protect the pair - for they are among the remaining dozen or so inhabitants of Lorien, living in hidden exile on Earth, but hunted by their enemies from yet another alien race. Can the fact they are permanently pursued grant them any peace - especially when 'John' is about to undergo some rather prominent alien-style puberty? Full review...
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
In a story that takes us from the elegance of Paris, through the streets of Budapest and on into the Hungarian countryside and the Ukraine this is an epic tale, masterfully told. It is 1937 and Andras Levi, a young Hungarian Jewish student, is about to leave his brother Tibor to go and study architecture in Paris. Andras' story unfolds first amongst the beautiful buildings of Paris, the theatres and the bars, as he struggles in his studies and falls in love with a beautiful ballerina who has a terrible secret to hide. As the tragedy of World War 2 edges ever closer to Andras, the book moves back to Hungary, to the little village where Andras and his brothers grew up, to Budapest where his new family live and then on into the forced labour camps across Hungary. Full review...
The Whole World by Emily Winslow
The Whole World is a sort of crime/suspense novel set in Cambridge, England, told in turn from the viewpoint of five different characters. The first two narrators, Polly and Liv, are friends, and seem to have much in common – they are both American students with things to hide, and they are both attracted to the same young man, Nick. One night things come to a head as Nick somehow ends up kissing them both, then goes missing and is presumed dead. Then Nick, a blind woman called Gretchen and a local police officer, Morris, tell their stories, and the novel takes several weird twists. It is hard to say more without revealing too much about the plot. Full review...
Magic Parcel: The Awakening by Frank English
Jimmy Scoggins is an ordinary boy of nine, who lives with his mother and his brother. He loves to visit his uncle Reuben, believing the old man must have special powers because he always knows exactly what type of ice cream Jimmy would like to eat that day. Reuben tells Jimmy thrilling tales, and at the beginning of this book actually sends his nephew into another world, called Omnia, for an adventure. Jimmy is not the first boy to go to there: his brother Tommy used to go too, but now he is thirteen he has stopped, feeling it is all rather babyish. But something has gone wrong this time: Jimmy does not return, and Tommy has to cross the barrier between worlds to find him. Full review...
Forest Born by Shannon Hale
Rinna is the youngest of seven children, and the only girl. As a child she lives an idyllic existence in the forest with her beloved Ma and a huge, loving family. But Rinna has gifts which she does not understand, and which frighten her because she senses in herself a terrible potential for evil. She loves her home deeply, but when the trees which once made her feel so peaceful appear to reject her, she is confused and unhappy to such a degree that she decides to leave the forest and join her favourite brother Razo at court in the city. This leads her into a cracking adventure full of magic, betrayal and terrifying peril. Full review...
Hancox by Charlotte Moore
Hancox is the large imposing house in rural Sussex where Charlotte Moore was brought up, and where she still lives. Although its origins are not fully documented, according to local records it certainly existed by the mid-15th century, its name probably derived from that of John Handcocks, one of the early owners. In what is basically part family history and part biography of the house itself, the author traces its story back to lawyer John Dounton, the first owner about whom nothing substantial is known, who made extensive alterations to it in 1569. It then passed through the hands of several families until her ancestors acquired it in 1888. In 1900 one of them let it to the Church of England Temperance Society as a drying-out house for 'inebriates', but the arrangement was terminated in 1907 and the family moved back in. Full review...
The Orphaned Worlds (Humanity's Fire) by Michael Cobley
The planet Darien, once a lost outpost where earth colonists co-existed with the native Uvovo, is now the focal point of an intergalactic struggle. Hegemony forces are in occupation mode, Earth is standing back reined in by inter-planetary politics, whilst planet-side local alliances are fighting back guerrilla-style. This is the least of the galaxy's concerns, however. It might even get air-brushed out as a little minor difficulty in the history-books-to-come. There is a much bigger problem to worry about. Full review...
Dear Mr Bigelow: A Transatlantic Friendship by Frances Woodsford
Meet Mister Bigelow. He's elderly, living alone on Long Island, New York, with some health problems but more than enough family and friends to get him by, and still a very active interest in yachting, regattas and more. Meet, too, Frances Woodsford. She's reaching middle-age, living with her brother and mum in Bournemouth, and working for the local baths as organiser of events, office lackey and more. I suggest you do meet them, although neither ever met the other. Despite this they kept up a brisk and lively conversation about all aspects of life, from the late 1940s until his death at the beginning of the 60s. And as a result comes this book, of heavily edited highlights, which opens up a world of social history and entertaining diary-style comment. Full review...
Lady Farquhar's Butterfly by Beverley Eikli
Olivia - Lady Farquhar - has recently been widowed. This does not upset her in the least; indeed, as becomes clear through the novel, her husband was an unpleasant bully who subjected her to all kinds of abuse. Unfortunately, however, the terms of his will have ensured that her beloved toddler Julian has been taken away to live with his uncle Max until such time as Olivia marries someone considered to be above reproach. For that reason, she is seriously considering marrying Nathaniel, a clergyman who has helped her for many years. The only problem with that is that she finds him increasingly repulsive... Full review...
First Lord's Fury (Codex Alera) by Jim Butcher
In First Lord's Fury, the concluding part in Jim Butcher's six-part Codex Alera series, the land of Alera is struggling under the weight of an invasion by the Vord. The First Lord of Alera has been killed in battle and with his son already dead and his grandson away fighting in Canea, there looks likely to be a power struggle within the Alerans themselves. Many Alerans have switched their allegiance to the Vord, sensing that victory over them is impossible and believing that may be the only way to escape death. This gives the Vord access to Aleran furies, a powerful force that is the Alerans main weapon. Full review...
Dark Secrets 2 by Elizabeth Chandler
Those of you who read my review of the first Dark Secrets bind-up will know I absolutely loved that book. This is a similar proposition – two average-sized teen novels packaged together in a very good value volume. Both are set in Wisteria, Maryland. Both feature teenage girls looking for closure on past events, with dark secrets buried in their past – and both are guaranteed to capture the imagination of their target audience of teen girls, and of a fair few other readers besides. Full review...
Forbidden Game by L J Smith
While looking for a game to play for her boyfriend's birthday, Jenny Thorn comes across a strange shop she's never seen before. Going in, she talks to a handsome boy who sells her a mysterious game in a plain box. But when she and her friends open the game to play it, they're transported to a world where the boy is the Shadow Man, and the consequence of losing the game can be deadly. The group of teens are left fighting against their worst nightmares as they try to defeat the sinister Shadow Man and escape – but when some of them finally do get out, they realise that it's just the beginning of the nightmare for them. Full review...
The Cabinet of Curiosities by Paul Dowswell
When Lukas Declercq begins work as an apprentice to his uncle, a court physician to the Holy Roman Emperor in Prague, it's only after an absolutely hair-raising journey. Robbed at knifepoint and left naked and penniless, he fell in with a much more streetwise child, Etienne, who helped him blag his way across the country. Full review...
Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
Maya is sixteen, pretty, sociable and wise beyond her years. But she's never been kissed. Lochan is seventeen, drop-dead gorgeous and most of the girls at his school have crushes on him. He's also highly intelligent, at the top of his class and heading off to a good London university and on the cusp of a bright future. But he's never kissed a girl. You'd think then, that when these two teenagers kiss for the first time, it would be the beginning of a gorgeous first love affair, wouldn't you? But you'd be wrong. Because Maya and Lochan are brother and sister... Full review...
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Seance for a Vampire by Fred Saberhagen
Holmes and Watson are called in by a bereaved father who's convinced a pair of spiritualists have deceived his wife by holding a séance in which their daughter seemed to return. When the pair attend a second séance, the girl comes back again, and it's clear that this is no ordinary trick. Holmes gets assaulted and kidnapped, and Watson realises that for the second time in their investigative career they're dealing with vampires. He's left with only one choice, and turns to Holmes cousin, the legendary Prince Dracula, for aid. Full review...
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
In John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, in October 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a mother of five children, died of cervical cancer at the age of 31. However, a sample of her cancer cells taken the same year lived on, grew and reproduced. Often referred to as HeLa cells, cells with their origins in the original sample are still being used in medical and scientific research today, nearly sixty years on. Many of the scientific breakthroughs that have been made using HeLa cells are hugely profitable. But her children have spent their lives in low waged jobs and on welfare, unable to afford basic health insurance. Understandably they feel a lot of anger at this injustice. Full review...
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
Easy Rawlins is a little down on his luck, having just been laid off from his job and with a mortgage payment due. So when DeWitt Albright walks into Joppy's bar and offers him money for finding a young woman who has gone missing, it seems like the perfect opportunity for him to keep his house, as well as to pass some time. Of course, what Albright doesn't mention is that the reason he's looking for this woman is that she's run off with a large amount of someone else's money and quite a few people on the streets of Los Angeles are prepared to kill to get that money back. Full review...
The Sickness by Alberto Barrera Tyszka
This literary novel is a slow burner. But the very first page gives an insight into the beautiful language used throughout such as 'Medical people rarely used adjectives. They don't need to.' And later on there's another lovely sentence loaded with meaning and originality - 'Blood is a terrible gossip, it tells everything, as any laboratory technician knows.' The opening chapter is located in a consulting room where a rather tense conversation is taking place. The answer is extremely important to one man. Full review...
Day After Night by Anita Diamant
First of all, I really liked the unusual pitch for a Second World War novel, set in a detention camp in Palestine in October 1945, soon after the liberation of Europe. The war machine has ground to a halt, leaving millions of bewildered refugees to find their way out of chaos. With huge effort, hundreds of Jewish men and women reach their promised land, albeit as illegal immigrants. Though imprisoned again, Atlit camp is emotionally a halfway house between the past and the future for them. They are at least well-fed and humanely treated by their British captors. With no particular duties and in limbo for an indeterminate period, the women start to come to terms with how life will be for them in the future, safe at last from Nazi persecution, but having lost all their loved ones. Full review...
No Matter What by Wendy Kremer
Wealthy American Jason Tyler needs a wife fast to stop his cousin Calvin from taking over the family oil business. After responding to his advert English girl Amy Courtland meets Jason in London to discuss his proposal. Amy is desperate for the money Jason is offering her to be his wife so she can pay off the debts her father has left behind. Her feet barely touch the ground in Los Angeles before Amy finds herself with a new surname and new life as Jason's fake wife. But unlike the rest of Jason and Amy's families, Calvin is not convinced by the marriage and is determined to prove it is a sham. When Jason decides to take Amy into the Venezuelan jungle with him on a business field trip Amy soon finds her life in danger on more than one occasion, leaving Jason to wonder if someone is behind these strange events. Full review...
Thief by Maureen Gibbon
It’s summer, and school teacher Suzanne is renting a cabin by a lake. Spending her days reading and swimming, she also finds time to engage in some old fashioned letter writing with a stranger who responded to a personal ad she placed. He’s currently an inmate at the state penitentiary, but Suzanne’s not one to judge, and agrees to give their correspondence a shot. Then she finds out what he’s in for – and it’s not pretty. Breville is a convicted thief and rapist, and Suzanne herself was raped as a teenager, by a friend’s brother. That should be the end of it: any sensible person would cut off all communication and turn their back on the situation. But Suzanne is different and though she’s acknowledges that it might not be the healthiest of relationships, she maintains the back and forth with Breville. Full review...
Avenging the Dead by Guy Fraser
It's 1863 and the Superintendent covering the inner city area of Glasgow has his hands full. First off an alarming forgery scandal has just been discovered and no sooner has he drawn breath than one, two and counting suspicious deaths occur. Instinctively, I want to say that it's all good, clean fun. Because it is. The language Fraser uses is very much of that era which lends the book a particular old-fashioned and rather twee, charm. It's all over the book in spades. On almost every page. Let me give you just one endearing example of the flavour of the book 'None of Mrs Maitland's four regulars at her superior guest house for single gentlemen would even dream of taking another's seat ...' Full review...
Bitter Chocolate by Sally Grindley
Pascal and Kojo are best friends in a place where friendship is scarce. The boys work on a cocoa plantation in West Africa, far from their families. It's brutal work overseen by brutal men and the boys labour from dawn 'til dusk, rewarded by beatings, a wooden pallet to sleep on, and a bowl of corn paste. They're always hungry and tired. Kojo tries to keep up his spirits, looking forward to the day he can take his wages home and make a difference to his family. But Pascal isn't so optimistic. He knows they'll never be paid, and he suspects they'll never be allowed to leave. He's probably right. Full review...
The Blind Side of the Heart by Julia Franck
When I read the international bestseller on the front cover, as in this novel, my expectations are raised a notch or two. So, would this book meet those expectations? Franck gives the reader a short prologue and we see Helene, the main character of the novel, living in her middle-years. We know she has a husband who is carrying out some very important and crucial work for his country; his beloved Germany. The book is set in 1945 and Germany is in chaos. And Helen's young son has seen sights no 7 year old should witness. It's the stuff of nightmares. Their lives are also in chaos not to mention extreme danger and as a single parent who's at her wit's end she makes a monumental decision. Full review...
Venice: Pure City by Peter Ackroyd
Among Peter Ackroyd's recent works are 'biographies' of London and of the river Thames. Now he gives similar treatment to Venice, basically a history but enlivened with his elegant, literary style, and what a previous reviewer has called his love of 'psychogeographical investigation'.x Full review...
The Littlest Dinosaur and the Naughty Rock by Camilla Reid and Michael Foreman
After the littlest dinosaur's earlier adventures, Camilla Reid takes hold of the writing reins, whilst Michael Foreman offers up his beautiful illustrations as always. This time, the dinosaur is in a bit of a bad mood, being rude to his dad, shouting at his siblings, and ruining his meal. His mum sends him to sit on the naughty rock, but he's in for quite a surprise when he gets there... Full review...
How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like by Paul Bloom
How much would you pay for a jumper that used to belong to Brad Pitt? What about if I had it dry cleaned for you first? Chances are, if you were considering the first offer, you've just been put off somewhat. But why? The jumper hasn't changed, after all. Do you honestly and rationally, believe that dry cleaning would destroy some of Brad's 'essence', thus making the item less valuable? Full review...
Hailey's War by Jodi Compton
At the beginning of the book, Hailey Cain is a 23 year old cycle courier living in San Francisco. The story then takes a step back in time and we discover that she had to leave West Point Military Academy during her final year, for reasons she prefers to keep to herself. I continued to read under the assumption that Hailey had done something which forced her to leave. Her next move is to L.A, where she spent the latter part of her childhood. During these years, her mother with whom she has, at best, a very strained relationship is no source of comfort and Hailey develops a very close attachment to her cousin CJ. Aspects of this relationship make for uncomfortable reading at times. Full review...