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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Prediction: How to See and Shape the Future with Game Theory by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
As a rather mediocre recreational poker player I've often been intrigued by game theory. The academic discipline used by politicos during the chilliest days of the Cold War has been utilised by the more mathematically minded players on the professional circuit to improve profitability. Rather than poker, author and politics professor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita uses game theory models to forecast political, economic and international security scenarios and in Prediction he shares some of his secrets. Full review...
The Collected Short Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis
As you might expect with short stories, the themes are as varied as 'The Fears of Mrs Orlando' to 'Mothers' and of course, I have my own particular favourites. Most of these short stories cover a couple of pages, but others are merely a sentence or two. And, for me, the less on the page, the more impart the words usually have. In short (no pun intended) there would seem to be something for everyone in these 700+ pages. Full review...
Tilly's Pony Tails: Neptune the Heroic Horse by Pippa Funnell
Tilly has recently been reunited with her brother – they know nothing of their birth mother and were adopted by different families – and she's just been invited to go on holiday to Cornwall with him and his family. It will mean leaving the horses and ponies at the local stables but she's sure that they'll all manage without her for a week. Once in Cornwall she's delighted to find that there's a riding stable nearby and she soon makes friends, particularly with a horse called Neptune. She also meets a girl called Megan who loves swimming, but can't understand why Megan is frightened of horses and doesn't want to learn to ride, despite the encouragement she gets from her parents. Full review...
Withering Tights by Louise Rennison
After killing off Georgia Nicolson in a blaze of hedonism and vampires, it's time for Louise Rennison to start a new series, with a new teenage girl's first-person narrative. This time it's one Tallulah Casey, a lanky girl worried about her knees and underdeveloped cleavage, and off to stay at a posh drama performance workshop centre in the wilds of Yorkshire. Full review...
Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels by Janet Soskice
Sisters of Sinai tells the story of two extraordinary, Victorian women who unearthed an important early copy of the Gospels from a remote monastery in Egypt. It hardly seems possible that they organised and executed such remarkable feats of unaccompanied travel during an age in which women's freedom was hidebound by their status as the inferior sex. Janet Soskice is well-placed as a feminist philosopher and theologian to explore their lives. Full review...
TimeRiders: Day of the Predator by Alex Scarrow
Liam, Maddy and Sal were each about to die when an old man appeared to them and invited them to choose another fate. And out of the heartbreak of their decisions to bid farewell to their old existence and their loved ones is born a secret team of time riders, dedicated to putting right the chaos caused by those who meddle with time. It is a decision they will sometimes regret. Full review...
Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
It goes without saying, but the greatest thing about fantasy fiction is that one can go anywhere with it, and do anything. So a young man can easily try and dig his girlfriend up and retrieve some poetry he romantically left with her - only to have a hairy evening as a result. There can be a psychic link between a young lad, called Onion and doomed to die in a terrorist attack, and his cousin while she works as slave in an odd community of wizards. Several worlds can be accessed through an elderly woman's handbag, for better or worse. Full review...
Bank Of The Black Sheep (Robin Llywelyn Trilogy) by Robert Lewis
The alcoholic and self-destructive detective is common to the point of cliché in crime fiction, but most carry on to take another case, and make a living. Robert Lewis' character's lifestyle has effectively ended his professional career – he was destitute and he is now terminally ill. He has woken up in a hospice, and learns from a couple of visiting police detectives that he is a washed up Private Investigator, who is avoiding prosecution only because he perhaps has a couple of months left, as he is dying of lung cancer. Full review...
Oil on Water by Helon Habila
The book opens with two local journalists on a rather dangerous trip. Zaq, old-timer and cynic but still has the skills to seek out a good story and apprentice Rufus. A British oil engineer's wife has gone missing, believed kidnapped and the two journalists are following her trail. Zaq comes across as an interesting character; all-seeing, all-knowing albeit likes a drink or two. He's happy to impart years of knowledge to Rufus and tells him that ' ... the story is not always the final goal.' What's really important, what the readers want to know and what sells newspapers is ' ... the meaning of the story.' Full review...
Doctor Doom: Oli and Skipjack's Tales of Trouble by Ceci Jenkinson
Eleven-year-old Skipjack is in serious trouble: his team lost a cricket match because he fell asleep, and now Slugger Stubbins is after him. Slugger has two things in mind: to bash Skipjack, and to squeeze out of him the ten pounds he lost betting on the match. Skipjack, therefore, spends a large part of this wonderfully silly book hiding from his nemesis using a variety of fancy dress costumes from his friend Doctor Hamish Levity's shop. Oli, on the other hand, has weightier matters to deal with: he has discovered an International Criminal Mastermind. And because he has always dreamed of being a secret agent, this promises to be the perfect opportunity to try out the practical tips on espionage contained in The Good Spy's Handbook, which he has recently been given. Full review...
Black Diamond: A Bruno Courreges Investigation by Martin Walker
Perigord is rightly famed for its food and at the heart of the region's success lies the black truffle. They're exported all over the world because nothing else quite lives up to the subtlety and nuances of flavour and aroma. There are the first rumblings of trouble though – a few complaints that packs of truffles have been adulterated by cheaper ones from China - and there are ominous signs that Chinese organised crime might be behind the fraud. Intriguingly there's another, possibly related problem for Bruno Courreges, the local chief of police. In St Denis market a Vietnamese family's stall is wrecked – and the attackers looked to be Chinese. Full review...
Up Close and Personal by Leonie Fox
I had high hopes for a bright and breezy bonkbuster from Leonie Fox's third novel, having read some favourable reviews of her first two books. The title, cover art and blurb suggest a frothy, fun, flirty and sexy read, so I was very disappointed to find this is anything but. Full review...
And The Land Lay Still by James Robertson
The novel starts ... at the end. We see the fictional character, photographer Mike Pendreich collating many, many photographs which his late father took with his trusty camera. His father is generally acknowledged as the better of the two at the craft; he simply had the knack. And what his son is now in charge of are black and white photographs charting a social history at that time. And we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. Full review...
In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut
'In A Strange Room' follows the actions of one man as he travels across three different countries, with three sets of companions, playing three separate roles. Never settled in one place, narrator Damon continually hops from one country to another collecting more stamps in his passport than he does friends. Full review...
The Road to Rome (Forgotten Legion Chronicles) by Ben Kane
After years of wondering if their twin were still alive, Romulus and Fabiola happen to catch sight of each other on the docks at Alexandria. Their meeting isn't to last long, as Fabiola is being rushed to safety by her lover, Brutus, one of Caesar's most trusted generals and Romulus has just been press-ganged into an army about to go into battle. However, this chance meeting gives them additional strength, which they are certainly going to need to survive the struggles ahead. Full review...
The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker
Readers who know of Nicholson Baker don't go to his work expecting convoluted plot, fast-paced action or non-stop drama. His novels at their best, dissect, in minute detail, the most intimate thoughts and daily doings, usually of a single character. They are revealing and surprising, and revel in language itself, like poetry. In other ways they are unlike poetry, which deals in suggestion and compression. And Baker's novels generally deal in the opposite. Full review...
Let the Dead Lie by Malla Nunn
In early June 1953 most of the world was waiting for the coronation of Princess Elizabeth, but in South Africa the rigid and rigorously-applied race laws have split the country. Those to whom the land once belonged are now part of an underclass with many living in gruelling poverty. Even some white people struggled to make a living and when ex-Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper came across the body of a white child in the Durban docks he has no idea where the tragedy will end. It's not long before he's the chief suspect for Jolly Marks' murder and two others as well. Full review...
Stolen Child by Laura Elliot
The title of the book leaves us in no doubt as to what it's all about. It does exactly what it says on the tin. But those two, small words are wrapped up in plenty of emotions for the characters involved. In some ways, it's worse than a death. With death, there's closure but with a baby being stolen there's living hell. And, as you would expect, some characters cope with all of this better than others. Full review...
Act of Murder by Alan Wright
In 1894 Wigan was having a feast of cultural entertainment. The Morgan-Drew players from London were presenting a celebrated Victorian melodrama, but nearby the Richard Throstle Magic Lantern Company was presenting a ghoulish extravaganza called Phantasmagoria. They're at opposite ends of the cultural scale but the town was just recovering from the recent miners' strike and it seemed that happily there might be something for everyone. It wasn't to last though as the town is soon in turmoil after a gruesome murder. Detective Sergeant Samuel Slevin of the Wigan Borough Police is called in to investigate and soon discovers that much is not as it seems. Full review...
Blood and Ice by Robert Masello
Journalist Michael Wilde cannot pass the opportunity of spending some time at a research station in Antarctica. His girlfriend is in what could be a permanent coma following a trip that they both made together and he needs to get away. Expecting to see some amazing sights, he is not disappointed. What he was not expecting, however, was to find a block of ice during a diving expedition in which the bodies of a man a woman, perfectly preserved, were chained together. By their side were several bottles of what appeared to be wine. However, once the bodies are brought to the surface and defrost, strange things start to happen and before long, everyone at the research station is fighting for their lives. Will Michael ever manage to return home safely? Full review...
What Becomes by A L Kennedy
You're three stories into this collection and two people have cut their hands open preparing food - a man with love drooping away from his marriage, making soup, and another, a greengrocer, preparing stock and thinking about his own relationship. But there is no pattern to that. Four stories in and there have been two bursts of non-sequitur comedy. Why your fruit might be ruined by stray fingers, and the thoughts of a woman in a flotation tank, remembering Doctor Who, locked parental doors - and the urban myths of gerbils. But there's still no pattern - and that's the point of these combined stories. Life and all of its emotions does not live to rule. Full review...
Annexed by Sharon Dogar
There's been a bit of a kerfuffle over Annexed - the story of Peter van Pels, who shared the Amsterdam annexe with Anne Frank during World War II, who fell in love with the teenaged diarist, and who perished in a Nazi death camp called Munthausen in 1945. Sharon Dogar has been accused of sexing it up, disrespecting the too-recently deceased, and thrusting twenty-first century sexualised mores into a time where this sort of thing just didn't go on. So, on the one hand, I was very keen to read it and see what I thought. Full review...
The Escape by Adam Thirlwell
When we first meet seventy-eight year-old Raphael Haffner, he is hiding in a spa hotel closet watching a twenty-something year-old yoga instructor (who knows he's there) having sex with her boyfriend (who doesn't). Haffner is a British, Jewish former banker who is staying at the spa in Central Europe while on a mission to reclaim his dead wife's villa that was confiscated by the Nazis in the war. Thirlwell's narrator, some fifty years younger than Haffner (ie the age of the author), describes the aging libertine Haffner as lustful, selfish, vain - an entirely commonplace man. Charming. Full review...
Gunshot Road (Emily Tempest) by Adrian Hyland
Straight away the humour is apparent in this book, mainly coming from the mouth of Emily Tempest. And we're also hurled into Aboriginal country with lots of unforgettable characters with equally unforgettable names. Hyland has a lovely, flowing style with a strong Australian flavour. Tempest has the unenviable job of trying to keep law and order. She's travelled the world and has now returned to her roots. She seems to have a bit of an advantage in that she's of mixed race, so can understand both white folks and black folks. She certainly has her work cut out. Most of the locals see her job as a joke, not to be taken too seriously, until someone dies in suspicious circumstances. Full review...
The Importance of Being Seven (44 Scotland Street) by Alexander McCall Smith
Evereyone's favourite, Bertie, is still struggling with his over-protective, over-zealous mother Irene. Poor Bertie. He still has yoga class, saxophone lessons, Italian lessons, and he longs to go away to Scout camp, but really doesn't want his mum to come along as a helper. And, as the title suggests, he is looking forward to being seven. His little brother, Ulysses, is getting bigger and has developed an interesting reaction to their mother, whilst Irene herself goes missing in a rather mysterious manner... Full review...
Black Flies by Shannon Burke
Ollie Cross has failed to get into medical school. While he thinks about what he plans to do, he takes a job as a paramedic on the tough streets of Harlem, New York City, and finds his whole perspective on life and death beginning to shift. Full review...
The Old Romantic by Louise Dean
Ken is nearly eighty and he's obsessed with his death and planning his own funeral. He's even helping out on a volunteer basis in the local undertaker's, but what he'd really like is to be back with his family. The trouble is that they've rather moved on. His sister – who seems to have been the perfect woman in his life – is dead. He and his first wife are divorced and he's contemplating the same end to his second marriage. His elder son left home some twenty years ago as Gary and re-invented himself as Nick. At forty he's a solicitor, living with his girlfriend and her twelve-year old daughter and he's happy. He really doesn't want Ken to spoil things, but there are some things which you just cannot avoid. Ken is one of them. Full review...
The Medusa Project: The Rescue by Sophie McKenzie
It's a fascinating premise: four babies are implanted with a gene relating to psychic abilities, and as they grow up it becomes clear they have each reacted differently, and developed different skills. Then write four books (plus a short story for World Book Day) about their shared adventures, with each book focussing on one boy or girl in particular. In this book, Ed is the central character: he is able to read minds, but is forced to use his gift for evil in order to save his friends. A high-octane tale about four teens struggling to stay alive when it seems every adult on the planet is out to use them for their own ends. Full review...
After You: Letters of Love, and Loss, to a Husband and Father by Natasha McElhone
What would you do if, without warning, your brilliant, loving, superman partner died from a catastrophic heart event at the untimely age of 43, leaving you with two young boys and a third on the way? Most of us would probably reach for the Valium and book a very long course of counseling. But Natascha McElhone couldn't because she was already stretched, juggling a busy transatlantic career as an actress as well as caring for her sparky young family. Coping as a single parent left no spare time for self-indulgence; within months she had a new baby as well. So she found her own way, grabbing instead at odd moments to write in her well-established diary. These short entries … e-mails, almost … to her dead husband form the basis of 'After You'. Full review...
The Unit by Terry Dehart
We all know about the nuclear family, well now meet the post-nuclear family in Terry De Hart's brutal vision of a post apocalyptic America.
We know the score; terrorists attack key US cities with nuclear devices, US retaliates on the nations supporting the terrorist. There is only one possible outcome, mass casualties and the breakdown of civil society leading to the rise of barbarism in a devastated landscape in the grip of a nuclear winter. Within this madness a family survives not knowing how much of the country or the world has been destroyed. Full review...
The Innocent by David Szalay
This is a slim volume but it is tense, taut and has bite. The story see-saws between the 1970s and the late 1940s where much political activity occurs, (there's an understatement) but especially in Russia as far as this novel is concerned. And as we dip into the even earlier period of the 1930s, we get a glimpse of the main character, Aleksandr, as a young man brimming over with political ideology. Along with his fellow students he fervently believed that 'The making of Communism was something sacred to us.' Full review...
A Most Improper Magick by Stephanie Burgis
The very first sentence of this charming and funny book sets the tone. Twelve-year-old Kat is setting off, dressed as a boy, to earn her fortune, pay back her brother's gambling debts, and save her two sisters from having to marry rich old men. Fortunately for Kat, she is stopped before she gets to the end of the front garden. All the trappings of Regency romance are here: fainting heroines, evil stepmothers, handsome young men with no prospects, and even a highwayman. But in this, the first book of a trilogy, there is something extra: Kat's late mother was a witch. Full review...
Micka by Frances Kay
Micka and Laurie are two ten year old boys. They're in the same class at school and are friends, of a sort. They both have vivid imaginations, and Laurie's plans involve finding a magical bone and using it for murder. Micka lives with his mum (who can't read and is often drunk) and his two older brothers who get into fights, are involved in crime, and who abuse Micka physically and sexually. Laurie lives with his parents, until they suddenly break up, and he is left with his mum who seems to be having a breakdown. The book is told from the point of view of the two boys, and so as we see how their own lives are falling apart, sympathising with them, we also read with horror their own descent into violence. Full review...
Floating Gold by Margaret Muir
The novel opens with a description of the rotting remains of a human being battered by the waves on the beaches of the Isle of Wight. I cannot recall any book I have ever read starting on a more depressing note, but this is far from a depressing, or disappointing, story. Full review...
Dead in the Water by Veronyca Bates
The novel opens with a couple of fishermen enjoying their hobby ... until they fish out of the water a dead body. The body of a middle-aged woman. Enter a couple of rather endearing, local policemen intent on getting to the bottom of it all. The plot develops nicely. We discover that the dead woman had two names, two identities. Why? It seems to make the job of the police twice as difficult. And Bates' conversational and over-the-garden-fence style is engaging and very easy to read. I romped through the chapters, no problem. The dead woman is becoming more of a mystery as time goes on. Her past is delved into and looked over with a fine tooth comb and the bobby-dazzler question 'What makes a girl of nineteen marry a man of sixty?' is soon asked. A good section of the book is spent trying to answer that question. The obvious answer would appear to be - money. But is it in this case? And all sorts of puzzling questions are thrown up left, right and centre. Full review...