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 16,117 reviews at TheBookbag.
Want to find out more about us?
New Reviews
Read new reviews by genre.
Read new features.
The American Civil War by John Keegan
While before reading this book I considered myself to be vaguely familiar with the major facts about the American Civil War – the fight to liberate the slaves, the well-known battles, and the towering figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S Grant, and Robert E Lee – I was keen to learn more about the war and get an in-depth view of it from a renowned historian. After finishing the book, I certainly consider myself to be far better informed on the military, and tactical, side of things, but found it a little lacking in certain other areas such as the causes and effects. Full review...
The Good Angel of Death by Andrey Kurkov and Andrew Bromfield
Kolya cannot possibly expect what the act of moving flat, and finding a book among what the old folks who move out leave behind, might lead to. I can hint that it involves a trip of several hundreds of miles, involves a couple of pieces of anatomy the average man does not fancy leaving behind, a chameleon, Kolya being given as a husband-cum-present to a lovely young lady, and a lot more. The find involves Ukraine's national author, Taras Shevchenko, and a hunt for something he might have left behind in a desert abutting the Caspian Sea. Full review...
In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works by John Lennon
During the height of Beatlemania, John Lennon used to doodle or write short poems or nonsense stories to pass the time (and there must have been a good deal of time to pass away on tour, if only waiting for screaming fans to leave them alone and go back home). Some of them were seen by Tom Maschler, literary editor at Jonathan Cape, who encouraged him to produce more. The results were published in two very successful short books in 1964 and 1965. Full review...
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer
Meet Jeff. He's a journalist living in London, with a fine line in delaying his work effort and a keen eye for detail. He can see how the world is made better by a smile from a random shopkeeper - yet seems too grumpy to try it himself. Instead he suspects his habit of walking round, mouthing or speaking out his own inner thoughts is making him seem a scary old man. He can partly address this, by dying his hair. And he can stop walking round London when he gets commissions to report back from the modern arts Biennale in Venice. Soon, however, the only work of art he's at all worried about goes by the name of Laura... Full review...
Humphrey's Great-Great-Great Book of Stories by Betty G Birney
There is nothing quite like being proven correct. And this is one of those rare times I have been. From the evidence of the sixth main Humphrey book, Holidays According to..., I declared the whole series to be quite brilliant. The books, I decided, were cute without ever being cloying, clever without being too clever-clever, full of morals without ever forcing them on the reader, and packed with entertaining plot and lovely characters. And now the book reviewing gods have decided I read a fantastic collection of the last three novels, to expand my knowledge of the series. Full review...
Secrets She Left Behind by Diane Chamberlain
This is the third novel I've read by Diane Chamberlain and I felt as if I was visiting an old friend. I enjoyed the other two books and this one looked promising. Although many of the characters spill over from Before The Storm' this current book is a stand alone. Full review...
Casper the Commuting Cat: The True Story of the Cat Who Rode the Bus and Stole Our Hearts by Susan Finden and Linda Watson-Brown
In 2009 as Susan Finden set out to catch the bus from the bus stop opposite her house in Plymouth she noticed her cat Casper watching her. Afraid he would follow her across the busy road she urged the bus driver to move off quickly. But when the bus driver told her that the only thing you've got to worry about is that you're sitting in his seat, Susan finally had the answer to where Casper disappeared to each day. Full review...
My Last Duchess by Daisy Goodwin
There's plenty to enjoy in this debut novel by Daisy Goodwin. And first up is the elegant cover. I wanted to read the book as soon as I saw the photograph: a beautiful girl with great presence about her. The thoughtful look on her face and lack of ring on her finger hinted at an intriguing story. It was also a fair bet that this historical fiction, set in the nineteenth century, was about a romance, suitable or unsuitable. So the cover complemented the story – a quite unusual feat, judging by other offerings I have seen recently. Full review...
Grubtown Tales: Splash, Crash and Loads of Cash by Philip Ardagh
If there's one thing that we've learnt from the previous five Grubtown Tales, it's that Jilly Cheeter and Mango Claptrap are never separated. Whatever extraordinary circumstance of life turns up, they'll always work together. So why is Mango, in his shortest of short trousers as usual, sat on top of a floating mayor, in shark-infested seas, and why is Jilly only taking her poorly dog to the vet's? And what sort of help can we expect from a back story involving some liberated lab rats? Full review...
Emails From An Asshole by John Lindsay
Some classified ads are crying out for trolling. John Lindsay replies to them, spins them a yarn, and strings them along for as long as possible. Sometimes the advert is fairly innocuous and he emails them anyway. These are emails from an asshole, after all. Full review...
Milo's Pet Egg by Rebecca Elliott
Milo the lemur discovers a pretty pebble one day. He prods it, and to his surprise it moves! He listens carefully, and finds that it's breathing, so he realises that it's an egg, calls it Snappy, and the two of them get up to all sorts of adventures. Full review...
Sacred Treason by James Forrester
In London, in December 1563, the herald William Harley (known to everyone as Clarenceux) had no intention of becoming involved in one of the many Catholic plots against the young Queen Elizabeth, but he's unwittingly drawn into one when his friend and fellow Catholic, Henry Machyn, gave him a chronicle, telling him that it hid a secret which could cost Machyn his life. Clarenceux was sceptical until he was visited by Francis Walsingham's brutal enforcers and within a matter of a few hours he turns from a law-abiding citizen into a man on the run in search of clues which will tell him why the chronicle is so important. Full review...
Heart of Tango by Elia Barcelo and David Frye
Although less than 200 pages in length, this short novel encompasses a great deal, both in the storyline, and the development of the characters. The plot itself is simple. Young Natalia has been betrothed to the much older Berstein, a German sailor known for some time to Natalia’s father. He appears as a kindly character, and clearly in love/enamoured of Natalia. But the marriage is no love match, but one done instead for expediency, and although prepared to go through with it, Natalia is like any other young girl, and wishes she was marrying the love of her life. Her mother died when she was a baby so she has had a lonely childhood, yearning for female company and guidance - but the reality of the situation has meant that other than an elderly, kindly neighbour who has tried to help support and advise her, she is irrevocably alone - seeming to have very few friends even of her own age. Full review...
Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
Meet Aura. She was one of the first people in the world to be born after The Shift, beyond which every newborn was opened to the world of the ghosts, hearing and seeing them whether they liked to or not. Her boyfriend, Logan, who she wants to make love to for the first time on the night of his seventeenth birthday, suddenly dies first instead - making him one of the many ghosts Aura might be able to help. But is something of greater help buried in a school project, touching on standing stone circles, the solstices, the mysteries of her own family's past - and a new young man in her life? Full review...
The Obscure Logic of the Heart by Priya Basil
Lina is from a devout Muslim family and lives with her aunt while she studies law at university; where she meets Anil. Anil is a Kenyan boy from a non-practicing Sikh family who dreams of becoming a ground-breaking architect. The two fall in love but as the lies they have to tell their respective families become more and more elaborate they are forced to make some difficult decisions. Full review...
Big Bad Bun by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
Big Bad Bun (formerly known as Fluff) has run away from home to join the Hell Bunnies. He passed the initiation ceremony of being buried up to his nose in cowpats, and has since gone on to do all sorts of baaaaad things, like getting his ear pierced and never washing his whiskers. What on Earth will Big Bad Bun's parents make of all this? ...It IS true, right? He REALLY has joined the Hell Bunnies, right? ...Right? Full review...
Sucking Eggs: What Your Wartime Granny Could Teach You About Diet, Thrift and Going Green by Patricia Nicol
In the current economy, lots of people are trying to make ends meet in their own ways. Not since the days of Brownie badges has the word thrift been bandied around so much, but now it's not so much about saving money as it is about surviving. Actually, maybe it always was, but the Guiding Association thought a jolly piggy bank was a more appropriate badge emblem than a depressed family collapsed in front of their Sky TV with their supermarket-own curry struggling to fill the void left by a regular take away. What we all need is a return to the good old days, when life was simpler and people happier, the days when you didn't need to clear half an hour in your diary to navigate the olive aisle of the supermarket, and when you ate what was fresh and local, not because it was cheap or you were in the mood, but because it was all they had. Full review...
Candor by Pam Bachorz
The children of Candor know how to behave and the children of Candor stick to those rules:
The great are never late.
Healthy breakfasts make for smart minds.
Academics are the key to success.
Always be courteous.
In Candor, everyone is happy. There is no crime. There are no tantrums. There is just respect and cooperation. It is a harmonious place that people from the outside desperately want to relocate to. Full review...
Columbanus: Poet, Preacher, Statesman, Saint by Carol Richards
Richards is at pains to point out straight away that the reader mustn't confuse Columbanus with Columba of Iona. She informs us that the latter did not travel extensively but the former, the subject of her book, did travel throughout parts of Europe. She gives her subject a terrific introduction on the cover, describing him as 'poet, preacher, statesman, saint.' And then goes into much more detail about these areas of his life. Full review...
On Balance by Adam Phillips
Essential for a tightrope walker, prized as an intellectual objective, balance is generally considered something to which we can aspire. We praise someone who makes a balanced decision, we envy people who have a 'good work/life balance' we offer an opinion 'on balance' to demonstrate that we have considered various arguments and options. Full review...
The Wonder by Diana Evans
Lucas and Denise have been brought up by their grandmother on a canal boat in west London, after the death of their parents. Now they are in their 20s, and their grandmother Toreth is gone. Denise is a practical and responsible young woman, getting on with her job as a florist, but her younger brother Lucas is a dreamer, still trying to establish what he wants to do with his life, and increasingly distracted by trying to find out more about his identity, about who his parents were, especially his father. Full review...
Michael Rosen's Big Book of Bad Things by Michael Rosen
When he was little, Michael Rosen's dad remembered all the bad things he'd done and reminded him of them when appropriate, so Michael imagined he'd written them all down in a Big Book of Bad Things. Here he presents the eponymous poem, as well as many many other tales of childhood, from the horrors of being a second late to school, to making a raft, to going to a café. Some bad, some sad, some quirky, some funny, some touching, some light-hearted, all wonderful. Full review...
Martha, No! by Edward Hardy and Deborah Allwright
Martha Felicity Molly-Anne May gets through nannies faster than most kids get through... well, everything. She's a bit of a handful is our Martha, always doing what she shouldn't, and running her nanny ragged. Her day is, unsurprisingly, peppered with cries of Martha, noooo! Full review...
The Economist Book of Isms by John Andrews
I'm assuming all readers of this book, and this review, will know the meanings of the words racism, atheism and Communism. But how about Orphism? Nestorianism? Vorticism? Or the exact difference between egoism, egotism, and egocentrism? I'll confess to ignorance on all of that second trio of words before reading this book, but was fascinated to find out what they were. (Orphism is a religion originating in 6th or 7th century BC Greece based on the poems of Orpheus, who returned from Hades. I'll leave you to find out the definitions of the other two yourself!) Similarly, I was aware of all three of that final trilogy, but am not sure I even knew there was a difference, let alone that I'd have come close to being able to actually define them all as this volume does. Full review...
Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson
As soon as I read the blurb on the front cover of the book, I gained a pretty good idea of the tone and style. 'Reaping - it's a grim job but someone's got to do it.' This book is a little bit quirky, a little bit out of the ordinary. I was keen to start reading. Full review...
A Funny Thing About Love by Rebecca Farnworth
When the reader first meets Carmen Miller she is struggling to cope with the breakup of her marriage whilst not really enjoying her job as a comedy agent. Her boss always seems to find fault with her and she soon discovers that her ex husband's girlfriend is pregnant which comes as quite devastating news. The only thing that lightens up her days is the flirtatious banter that takes place between herself and her colleague Will. The problem is though that she is afraid of taking things further and eventually being hurt as she knows too well what that is like. Full review...
Serena by Ron Rash
The reader is introduced to one of the two main characters straight away. George Pemberton. But everyone (even his new wife) calls him simply Pemberton. He's faced with an awkward and at the same time delicate situation and deals with it - with violence. No one seems too bothered, not even the local sheriff. Full review...
Mr Chicken Goes To Paris by Leigh Hobbs
Mr Chicken wants to see France, so he reads his guidebooks, learns his French phrases and arranges for his penpal Yvette to meet him at the airport. Ooh la la! Full review...
A Question of Answers by Margaret Henderson Smith
Harriet Glover lives with her partner who's reluctant to commit himself to marriage. It's not that he hasn't had time to make up his mind – their two children are at the stage where they might produce grandchildren. His excuse is that he can't see the point as they already share a surname through chance, so what difference would marriage make? Mark's not entirely insensitive (well, some of the time…) but he can't understand Harriet's need for that reassuring piece of paper. Until then she's going to be wondering if his eyes are wandering elsewhere. Harriet's not entirely immune either: she finds the headmaster of the school where she teaches quite irresistible. Full review...
West: A Journey Through the Landscapes of Loss by Jim Perrin
Where would you go if the love of your life, and your son, both died within a short few months of each other? Jim Perrin headed West - to the scraggly patches of land off Ireland, closer to the setting sun, nearer to the further horizon, beyond the noise, information and opinion of humanity. Of course, that question could also be answered in a more metaphoric way. Jim went inward, before coming outward. He suffered - "involuntarily, the tears have come. Who would have thought that death would release so many.." He also, although he would probably hate me for saying it, went on a "psycho-geographical ramble" - both in life, and in making this book. Full review...
Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity by Sam Miller
Miller is probably one of the best people to take you on a tour of Delhi. He's not a native so has no in-bred partisanship, but he does love the place so will make sure you do too, but mainly because to begin with he HATED it… so he will understand if you don't share his ironic good humour about the shit squirter or the fact that sometimes the only way to cross the road is to take a rickshaw taxi. Full review...
comin 2 gt u by Simon Packham
Sam Tennant is reasonably happy at school, generally gets on alright with people, and doesn't have much to worry about – until he's murdered in the first chapter of this novel. Oh, not really murdered – his character in a game he plays online is killed. But then, the two who kill him refer to him by his real name instead of his computer persona, and he realises that virtual life has just become very nasty indeed. Full review...
Jealousy (Strange Angels) by Lili St Crow
Dru Anderson has finally arrived at the Schola Prima – the main school for the training of wulfen and djamphir. She's supposed to be safe here. Supposed to be. Dru doesn't find life any easier. There's someone who wants her dead, and Dru has to work out who, and who else is loyal to them. Because loyalty is everything in the Order. Full review...
Blood Road by Caspar Walsh
The book opens with an extremely uncomfortable and graphically depicted scene of violence, made all the more so by the cool, calm and collected manner of the perpetrators. The episode ends in a bloody death. We're in London so straight away there's a smattering of East End humour with lots more to follow. We're introduced to the main male character, Nick, who's really nothing better than low-life scum. That's pretty clear from the outset. Even although he's old enough to know better he's still scum. Add in the fact that he's a husband (separated) and a father and the whole sorry saga starts to unfold. His wife's sick of him and his criminal interests - and so are Jake and Zeb, his two sons. Full review...
Leith's Meat Bible by Max Clark and Susan Spaull
I've been cooking beef for almost half a century and I thought that I was making a pretty good job of it, but last weekend I cooked the best beef I have ever done and it was down to 'Leith's Meat Bible'. It wasn't because I had suddenly found a recipe to top all the others – it was because this book doesn't just tell you what to do; it tells you why. Because of this I made some fairly minor adjustments to how I cooked the beef – and the results were amazing. It's the ultimate meat cookbook and unless you're vegetarian or vegan you should have one. Full review...
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Fifty years after its first release, readers are once again getting the chance to acquaint themselves with Harper Lee's classic tale of growing up in the Deep South during the depression. After five decades, To Kill a Mockingbird still hasn't lost its charm. Even new readers can expect a classic tale full of elements still relevant to this day. Full review...
The Edge of Nowhere by John E Smelcer
Could you survive in the wilds of Alaska if you were washed overboard from a fishing boat during a storm and somehow, amazingly, managed to make it to dry land? This is the challenge facing Seth and his loyal dog, Tucker. They are out on Seth's father's fishing boat during a terrible storm and neither Seth's dad or his friend realise that the boy and dog have been washed overboard until they reach home and are found to be missing from the boat. A search party is sent out, but Seth is assumed drowned. Luckily, Seth and his dog manage to get to one of the tiny islands that run along the coast of Alaska, and after realising that no one is coming to help them they slowly make their way hundreds of miles over many months. Will they starve to death, or freeze, or be eaten by bears before they manage to make it home? Full review...