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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The Face of God: The Gifford Lectures by Roger Scruton
Atheist culture has recently become more mainstream, thanks in part to the success of Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. However, religion does still have a part to play, with Prince Charles urging the United Kingdom to be more tolerant towards faiths other than the Church of England he was raised as part of and even the Prime Minister talking about faith issues. Since 1888, the Gifford Lectures have been given to 'promote and diffuse...the knowledge of God'. Full review...
Fancy Dress Farmyard by Nick Sharratt
There's a party at the farmyard and it's going to be fancy dress. Let's turn the pages together and find out who has come dressed as what! Full review...
My Big Fat Teen Crisis by Jenny Smith
Sam’s left alone when her best friend moves to the Outer Hebrides. Can she take this opportunity to reinvent herself as a cooler, more sophisticated person? And will she manage to win the heart of the new boy at school, David? Aided by her childhood friend Cat, who’s just returned to the area, she’ll do her best – as long as the nasty Tania doesn’t get in the way. Full review...
Illegal by Miriam Halahmy
Lindy’s life started to fall apart when her baby sister Jemma died. With her parents gambling and drinking, and her younger brother needing her to look after him, she’s desperate to hold the family together. So when her brother Garth, who’s in jail, manages to set her up with a job working for her charming cousin Colin, she thinks it’s a great opportunity. Then she finds out, though, that Colin’s business isn’t what it seems, and she’s quickly caught up in a nightmare cycle of drugs and threats… can she find the strength to stand up for herself, helped by the strange and reclusive mute boy Karl? Full review...
Basher Science: Oceans by Dan Green and Simon Basher
I've often wondered why this planet is called 'earth' when three-quarters of it obviously isn't and it seems that I'm not alone. Dan Green and Simon Basher have decided to take a close look at the oceans and other bodies of water on the planet and to explain them in simple words, accompanied by Simon Brasher's illustrations which are almost - but not quite - manga. It's a style which kids are going to be comfortable with - and they're not going to associate it with something boring which they have to learn. It's fun. Full review...
The Eyes of Lira Kazan by Eva Joly and Judith Perrignon
The novel throws you straight into the action with three apparently unconnected events. Nigerian fraud squad investigator, Nwanko Ganbo, realises it's time to get his family out of the country when he finds a colleague and good friend in his car, very dead. The solution is simple: the British government offer him a new life as a lecturer in return for silence about the corrupt regime he has spent so long investigating. Meanwhile the wife of a rich Faroese banker accidentally drowns in full ball gown whilst in Nice but junior prosecutor Felix and his judicial colleague aren't as easily convinced about the accidental nature as their superiors seem to be. The third piece of the jigsaw originates in Russia as local journalist Lira Kazan shows an interest in the life and transactions of Russian millionaire Louchsky. This isn't the healthiest thing she's ever done as people seem to have died for less. Full review...
Never Say No to a Princess! by Tracey Corderoy and Kate Leake
The little princess is used to having everything she wants immediately. She wears a sparkly dress and a sparkly tiara; she sleeps in a sparkly bed and plays with sparkly toys. And whenever she wants something new, she just shouts at the top of her lungs that if she doesn't get it, she will cry. And do you know what? She gets it! Straight away! But having what she wants, the minute she wants it doesn't make the little princess happy. Because she isn't smiling at all. In fact, she never smiles. Ever. Nothing is ever quite good enough for this little princess. Full review...
The Snorgh and the Sailor by Will Buckingham and Thomas Docherty
The Snorgh lives alone in a little shack on a windy and quiet stretch of beach that is known for its rather fabulous crop of samphire, upon which the Snorgh munches. Lucky little devil, isn't he?! Full review...
Dead Time: The Murder Notebooks by Anne Cassidy
Rose's mother and stepfather - Kathy and Brendan - went out for dinner one night and never came back. Rose was taken in by her grandmother who sent her off to a posh boarding school, while her stepbrother Josh went up north to live with an uncle. Full review...
The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda
Gene - not that he remembers he's called Gene - is one of the few remaining survivors in a city peopled by vampires. His mother and sister were killed when he was just tiny and his father finally succumbed to a fang bite infection some years before. Gene's life is all about concealment. He shaves his body hair. He's careful to avoid any situation in which he might sweat - swimming is ok, but other sports are not. He files his nails. He behaves, always, as a vampire would behave. Everything is going so well until the Heper Hunt is announced... Full review...
The Calling by Kelley Armstrong
Maya Delaney and friends have just survived a forest fire they think might have been set deliberately. Safely flying away in a helicopter, they think their troubles are over. Until the pilot turns out to be on the same side as those setting the fire. Full review...
Butterfly Summer by Anne-Marie Conway
Becky isn't best pleased to be moved from her home in the city, where she has friends and a place, to the countryside where her mother grew up. There's a whole secret past that Becky feels on the verge of discovering - starting with friends her mother never mentioned, friends who drop unintentional hints about the father Becky has never met, and ending with the photo she finds of her mother with a baby - dated 12 years before she was born. Full review...
The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber
Stop. Pay attention. Hear a dead man speak
These are the attention grabbing words that Ros Barber addresses to the reader at the start of this unique tale. Marlowe was a playwright with a reputation not only for his plays but also for his lifestyle. His gory death from a stab wound through the eye is one of the many contentious points in a brief but very lively life. Full review...
Me, the Queen and Christopher by Giles Andreae and Tony Ross
Freya, who is seven years old, received a very important letter. On the back of the envelope it said Buckingham Palace and it was from the Queen, inviting her to tea. It looked as though the day was going to be a disaster as Freya curtsied - and managed to knock the Queen over. But the Queen is nothing if not resilient and up she got and off they went to her private quarters where she and Freya made themselves baked beans on toast and mugs of tea ('always dip your tea bag exactly twenty-seven times' is the Queen's advice for a good cuppa) and really it's rather like being in Freya's Gran's flat. Full review...
The Arab Spring: Rebellion, revolution, and a new world order by Toby Manhire (editor)
A Tunisian man, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire on 17th December 2010, in what appeared at the time to be a desperate gesture showing a complete lack of hope after his humiliation by a municipal official. What followed was one of the most remarkable events of recent years, as a wave of revolutions occured in what became known as the Arab Spring. As you'd expect from a top nwespaper, the Guardian had reporters, bloggers and columnists covering it all, and Toby Manhire provides a compilation of the paper's output here. Full review...
Revolver by Matt Kindt
Meet Sam. He has a rather dull life, with a materialistic girlfriend, and a job in the arse-end of celebrity journalism and a boss he can't stand. All of which is preferential to waking up and finding his home city under attack - munitions going off, skyscrapers burning and people falling from them. He ends up fleeing with said editor, only to wake the next day back in this world. He will indeed fall to being snatched from each reality in turn, at set times of day, forced to suffer consumerism in one, looting in another, basic pay raises here, producing Samizdat bare-bones journalism for survivors there. But always with enough time to ask the important questions - how, and why? Full review...
The Pirates Next Door by Jonny Duddle
Matilda lives in the little seaside town of Dull-on-Sea where the average age is 67. The house next door has been empty since she was a baby and she longs for a family with a girl of her own age to move in but instead a family of pirates move into the decrepit old house - complete with their pirate ship, treasure chests, barrels of grog and Jim Lad who is in Matilda's class at school. The neighbours - well, the town - are not pleased, so what will the pirate family do to win them round? Meanwhile, Matilda is having a lot of fun. Full review...
The Traitors by Tom Becker
What's the saying - sin in haste, repent at leisure? Well Adam is going to be the embodiment of that. One moment where he plants a kiss on his best mate's girl's lips, even though they seem to have split up - at least temporarily - and lo and behold he's snatched by a passing dirigible, and shipped across the universe, to a place outside of time, where the idea is he has three hundred years in prison as penance, after which he will be inserted into the very instance he leaves, remembering only that he should behave a bit more diplomatically in future. Of course, Adam has other ideas... Full review...
Inspector Singh Investigates: A Curious Indian Cadaver by Shamini Flint
Inspector Singh was on sick leave and rather bored, which was why he agreed to his wife's suggestion (well, she was rather more insistent than that...) that they attend her niece's wedding in Mumbai. There's a little bit of history to this part of the family. The bride-to-be is Ashu Singh, granddaughter of Tara Singh, the wealthy industrialist and his acknowledged favourite. Tara's son ( Ashu's father) was murdered in the uprisings which followed the assassination of Indira Ghandi. He supported the family but made a point that he would not do so beyond the level at which his son (a rather lowly civil servant) could have achieved. Ashu and her two brothers have been secure but not wealthy - and as we join the story Ashu is going into an arranged marriage. There are two unfortunate circumstances here. Ashu is in love with another man - and she's disappeared. Full review...
Under a Canvas Sky: Living Outside Gormenghast by Clare Peake
To many of us, the very name Peake on the cover of a book will immediately suggest the creator of 'Gormenghast' and his family. We have had the occasional biography of Mervyn Peake from others, plus the recollections of his widow Maeve, and to join them, here is the story from another perspective altogether – that of their youngest child, daughter Clare. Full review...
The Bonehill Curse by Jon Mayhew
Anthony Bonehill has created the perfect plan. Seven people will together summon a djinn. Six will gain a wish each, while the seventh will use their wish to kill the djinn and avoid it taking revenge on them. But when Carlos, the seventh, double crosses the rest, and ends up sending the bottle containing the djinn to Bonehill’s daughter Necessity, she’s launched into a race against time to stop the djinn from wreaking havoc on her world. Full review...
Holy City by Guillermo Orsi and Nick Caistor (translator)
Honest policemen are not that common in Buenos Aires, it seems, but Deputy Inspector Walter Carroza of the serious-crime squad does his best to keep his head above the murky waters of corruption. Sometimes there just seems to be too much going on - even for a loner like Carroza without too much else in his life to absorb his time. The lack of dredging in the Rio del Plata caused the cruise ship to run aground and the passengers were evacuated to the city, where six - two French, two German and two Italians - of them were abducted. They're wealthy business leaders and the kidnappings send stock markets into freefall. Full review...
The Sick Rose by Erin Kelly
Paul had the passion and academic grades to become a teacher. However, his plans started the slow slide away from his grasp after his father died and he and his mother were forced to move to the rough, Grays Reach Estate and an even rougher school. It seemed that his days as bully's target had ended when Daniel, illiterate and street-wise, stepped in as protector. All Paul had to do was cover for Daniel's disability in class... at least that was all he needed to do at first. Full review...
I Love Beasts! by Emma Dodd
This little boy loves beasts, all kinds of beasts! Using rhyme, we see all the different kinds of animals that he loves until finally he ends with the one he loves the very best, his own cuddly teddy bear! Full review...
Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Nick Gautier has just found out that the mysterious being he thought was his uncle is actually his future self. Over the course of the past 2 books, the majority of other people he’s close to –- apart from his unsuspecting mother – have been revealed to be some form of demon. Oh, and apparently, he’s got the potential to be the person who will end the world. When someone starts spreading vicious rumours about other students at his school, you’d hardly think it would register with him given everything else going on, but he dives in to try and trace the perpetrator with help from Bubba, Mark, and various others. Full review...
If You're Reading This, I'm Already Dead by Andrew Nicoll
The story at the heart of Andrew Nicoll's If You're Reading This, I'm Already Dead is bizarre but not entirely of Nicoll's own creation. It is narrated by German-born Otto Witte, who is rapidly recording a strange time in his life while Allied bombs are falling in World War Two Germany, although the events that he relates go back to 1913 when Otto was an acrobat working in a travelling circus currently in Buda, or perhaps Pest - he's not quite sure. In addition to his acrobatic skills, he is also blessed with an impressive set of whiskers which make him the dead ringer for the newly appointed Turkish King of Albania. If only he can get there before the claimant to the crown, perhaps he can steal the country and complete an unlikely rise in status. In the company of his pal, Max, a strongman, a blind mind-reader and his beautiful daughter, an exotic dancer and a purloined camel, what could possibly go wrong? Full review...
The Brothers by Asko Sahlberg
We're in the family home of Erik, in Finland, in 1809. It's large enough to have been the most impressive farmstead when his mother was taken there as a young bride, and she still lives there, with an elderly retainer, Erik, Erik's untrusting wife and some other servants. One night the brother of the family, Henrik, returns, and all the bad blood gets spilled. Not just about a neighbour's horse and hotheaded plans for it, not just over a marriage, and not even about the fact that when Sweden and Russia fought over Finland and the territory changed hands, the brothers were on opposing sides. Full review...
Language: The Cultural Tool by Daniel Everett
Daniel Everett previously worked as a missionary in far flung corners of the world– a fact that isn’t surprising given the number of references to faith that crop up over the pages. This new book, however, is about two much more appealing (to me) subjects: language and travel. If Bill Bryson is a travel writer with an interest in linguistics, then Daniel Everett is a linguist with an interest in travel. It’s not quite the ‘read it by a pool’ sort of book that Bryson might release but is somewhere between a formalised every day read and a text book with a big dollop of informality stirred in. The travel stories – jaunts to Brazil, Mexico and beyond – are great, and while you might think they’re taking things a bit off track (albeit in a rather pleasant way) sooner or later the linguistic point will become clear. Full review...
Hugless Douglas and the Big Sleep by David Melling
Douglas is excited! He's on his way for a sleepover and his friend Rabbit's house. First there is the packing, then there's the journey to get there and on his way Douglas runs into rather a lot of little sheep who decide to tag along for the sleepover too. Rabbit's house ends up being very crowded, but they manage to come up with an acceptable solution for everyone, after only a little bit of trouble! Full review...
The Dying Minutes by Martin O'Brien
Chief Inspector Daniel Jacquot is recovering after being shot after his last case. His pregnant girlfriend is away when he receives news that he has been left a boat – Constance - by an old sailor. At about the same time, lawyer, Claude Dupont visits one of his unsuccessful defendants in prison. The man is dying and leaves his lawyer an unusual bequest on which he feels that he needs to act. What follows starts to unnerve many of the criminal fraternity in the South of France and stirs up old rivalries between two of the most feared criminal families on the Cote d'Azur. It also raises questions about what happened to gold bullion, stolen over twenty years previously, and leads to a deadly race as both families seek the gold and also seek revenge. Amidst all of this, Jacquot seems to find his new acquisition at the heart of it all and starts to unravel the mysterious life of the boat's former owner. Full review...
Women of the Revolution: Forty Years of Feminism by Kira Cochrane (editor)
Some revolutions happen faster than others, and the revolution in society's thinking about women is certainly one of the more gradual ones. Kira Cochrane, Women's Editor at the Guardian from 2006 – 2010, has collected together the best articles and essays from that paper's women's section since 1971. The result, Women of the Revolution: Forty Years of Feminism, is a lively account of the more recent women's liberation movement in the UK and of the issues facing women in a modern, late twentieth/early twenty-first century society. Full review...
The Fury by Alexander Gordon Smith
Brick felt it. Daisy felt it. Cal felt it. All three, unconnected kids, had the same noisy, throbbing headache at the same time - and all aches went at the same time, in very disappointing circumstances. Brick took his girlfriend to his favourite place, an abandoned theme park, and found her response to both it and him to be not what he expected. Daisy was the school Juliet, and found the experience quite traumatic - almost as bad as what she found back at home. Cal was more regularly after the attention, as the school's best football player, but found everyone's eyes turned to you is one thing, everyone turning against you is another. Full review...
Slated by Teri Terry
It's Britain about fifty years from now and sixteen-year-old Kyla is just about to leave the hospital and go home with her new, adopted family. Kyla has been slated - her memories deleted and her entire personality erased. Kyla is a blank slate. This is what happens to child criminals under the Central Coalition, who were responsible for wiping out the gangs and the riots that had dominated the country for so long. In their eyes, Kyla has been given a second chance. Full review...
You are What You Eat: And Other Mealtime Hazards by Serge Bloch
We last saw Serge Bloch's talents in Reach for the Stars and Other Advice for Life's Journey when we saw lots of whimsical advice for the Boy and his dog, Roger. This time he wants us to look at what we eat. Boy's mother has told him that he is what he eats - so he's very careful about what he puts on his plate, because you might end up with a pea-pod mouth and a tomato tummy. Roger looks to have fared rather better - with a bone for a body. He at least seems to have a smile on his face! Full review...
Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
Mia Price and her family had moved to LA shortly before a massive earthquake devastated the city. Mia has a connection to the storm that caused the earthquake - lightning seems to be attracted to her and she has been struck and survived countless times. But Mia is also attracted to lightning. It's like a drug for her and her entire body pulses when a storm is coming. Amidst the lawlessness and devastation of the city, two rival factions are gaining influence and both want to recruit Mia. Both say the entire world is in great danger - the Seekers believe that annihilation can be averted but the Followers welcome it. But who is right? And what part must Mia play? Full review...
Secret of the Shadows by Cathy MacPhail
If there's one thing, more than any other, which strikes you about the Tyler Lawless books, it's how ordinary and everyday the heroine is. She could easily be the girl up the road, or the one who sits next to you in geography: solid, real, utterly normal. And that is Cathy Macphail's skill: she can create characters who are absolutely convincing and lifelike, who live in the same reality as us, liking the same clothes and food and music. And yet, Tyler sees ghosts. Full review...
Alan M Turing: Centenary Edition by Sara Turing
June 2012 will see the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing, brilliant mathematician, the man who played a major part in breaking the Enigma codes in the Second World War and is widely thought to be the father of computer science. To celebrate the anniversary Cambridge University Press have reprinted a short biography written by Turing's mother and included a memoir written by his older brother, John. I'm rarely impressed by biographies written by family members particularly when they're still coming to terms with their own grief, but this book is startling for what it says about the family members as much as for what it says about Alan Turing. Full review...
Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas
It's sometimes said that bad luck comes in threes. It certainly happens that way for Lucy, the rather hapless heroine of this book. First her boyfriend of two years announces that he wants her to move out, because - of all things - he has decided that he likes her sister Alice better. Then Lucy's car breaks down. And then, just as she seems to be dealing with her circumstances fairly well, she is knocked over by a car. Full review...
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren and Tony Ross
Pippi Longstocking lives the life of every girl's dream. Her mother is dead and her father was blown off his ship. Pippi believes that he's away being the King of the Cannibals (and that she's therefore a Princess of the Cannibals) and in the meantime she lives on her own - well except for a horse, a monkey and a suitcase full of gold - and with NO grown-ups to tell her what to do. Well, a few do try, but Pippi always gives them short shrift and gets on with living her life the way that she wants to live it. Full review...
Tides of War by Stella Tillyard
When a scholarly historian turns a hand to fiction, complications can follow. Sometimes the result is a dry work of proud, thinly disguised research, where all discerned information is hurled at the page. Sometimes the demonstrated research levels are just right, but the characterisation is more reminiscent of cardboard cut outs than real people. However, if the historian is, cited as being phenomenally gifted by none other than Simon Schama, there's no need for concern. Tides of War is an engrossing, sweeping epic of a novel. Full review...
The Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan
Set in 1978, 18-year old Phoebe is living with her mother in San Francisco. Her father died some years ago, before her elder sister, Faith, a charismatic idealist and true child of the 1960s left for Europe where she died in 1970. Faith was always her father's favourite, While Phoebe's older brother, Barry, is now a computer millionaire, on leaving high school Phoebe decides on a whim to follow her sister's path to Europe in the hope of finding what happened in Italy and to finally understand her beloved sister's actions. Full review...
An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas
Only Adamsberg could be involved in these crimes. While innocently on a stroll through London he and his colleagues, there for a conference, get told of nearly two dozen disembodied feet, and their shoes, left outside Highgate Cemetery. Some of them are decades old. Much fresher are the ridiculously demolished remains of a legal journalist, in his rural French home. Only Adamsberg can approach either, and do it partly through the urban myth of a bear hunter, a wardrobe-eater and more, and only in his world could they ever be linked. It's a good job too, that Adamsberg is the one to solve them, for they have a much greater bearing on him, his colleagues and his life than he would ever expect. Full review...
A Common Loss by Kirsten Tranter
There were five friends - Dylan, Brian, Tallis, Cameron and Elliot - but then Dylan was killed in a road accident and the remaining four had to come to terms with how the dynamics of the group had changed. Dylan had always been the fixer, the solver and the mediator. He'd been the one the other four had gone to when they had problems because he'd always come up with something and it was usually an ingenious solution. It wasn't until after Dylan's death that the four friends realised that Dylan knew their dirtiest secrets - and that someone else had access to all the information. Full review...
Arcadia by Lauren Groff
Back in the seventies a group of idealists (well, hippies) founded a commune in the grounds of Arcadia House, a decaying mansion in western New York State. In the early days the renovation of the house and the funding of the commune was hopeful, energising - the American dream encapsulated in bricks, crops and hard work - but as with many, if not most, such enterprises it was not to last. Power corrupted, personalities changed and commitment waivered. We see the commune and the people who made it through the early, hard-working days to its precarious peak and into its inevitable decline. Full review...
Unclean Spirits: Black Sun's Daughter by M L N Hanover
Although the world is moving towards equality in the workplace, when you're fighting the supernatural, it seems to help to be a man. Changes: The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher features Harry Dresden, professional wizard and general smart ass and the exorcist of Thicker Than Water (Felix Castor) by Mike Carey is also male. Admittedly, Lynda La Plante's DCI Jane Tennison is a great female lead, but she's more on the everyday end of investigation. But now, M L N Hanover brings us Jayné Heller, who proves that fighting demons and the like isn't just a man's job. Full review...
Alice Brown's Lessons in the Curious Art of Dating by Eleanor Prescott
'Alice Brown's Lessons in the Curious Art of Dating' is a very enjoyable and light-hearted look at the world of dating agencies. Table for Two is a thriving agency run by Audrey Cracknell and her team including Alice who is most successful at setting up dates leading to lasting love. There is nothing more exciting that receiving gold written wedding invitations from former clients. There's also fierce competition from the other dating agencies in town especially Love Birds run by Audrey's arch rival, Sheryl Toogood. Then of course, there's the annual Matchmakers' ball – the highlight of the year but also the place to be seen and score points. There's a great deal of fun and lots of romance too. This book is pure escapism. Full review...
The Queen by Richard Brassey
Those of us who've been around for longer than the Queen has been on the throne tend to forget that not everyone knows about her history or who-is-who in the family. Richard Brassey has set out to remedy that with this easy-read, almost comic-style book about Her Majesty and there's lots in there in the way of fascinating information, some fun facts and (I'll confess!) a few anecdotes which left me chuckling, sometimes with and sometimes... er, well, I think we'll gloss over that bit, but let me say that this book is not at all sycophantic! Full review...
Rubbish Town Hero by Nicola Davies
What is most striking about this excellent little book is the utterly matter-of-fact way it is recounted. Violence, near-slavery, starvation and disease are as familiar to the children we meet in this story as television and homework are to its readers. The story is told through the eyes of Chipo, a young boy who can neither read nor write but who willingly took over responsibility for his little sister Gentle when the bombs killed the rest of his family. Gentle has a cleft palate and finds it hard to swallow or speak, but she dreams of a place she calls Happy Split-face Land, where people like her can be healed. She saves up for the trip by washing old plastic bags (she is paid a penny for every hundred), and although Chipo does not believe such a place exists the big brother in him will do nothing to take away her hope. There is no self-pity, no jealousy or resentment evident in either child for the things they do not have, simply a determination to survive and make enough money to stave off hunger and disease. The result is a cracking good story, full of heart-stopping danger and wild escapes, extraordinary encounters and heart-breaking generosity. Full review...
The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay
The Translation of the Bones revolves around four women, all connected with the Church of the Sacred Heart, Battersea. Mary Margaret, not the sharpest knife in the box, lives between two poles. When she isn't in church, she's caring for her flat-bound, morbidly obese mother, Fidelma. Alice Armitage, happily married to Larry, counts the days until their son will be home from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. The fourth woman, Stella, lives in a loveless marriage to MP Rufus and spends her time wishing the days away till she can collect her 10 year old son from boarding school. Father Diamond ministers to these women and the church community in general, but whilst worrying about his own adequacy and faith. However, their problems thus far are nothing compared to the devastation to come. Full review...
Apocalypse Moon (The Joshua Files) by M G Harris
Well, I didn't see this coming. After four lurid, neon plastic covers to these books, the fifth and final one is stark black. The hero, Josh Garcia, probably didn't predict this, either - that every step he seems to have gone towards understanding and preventing the end of the world in December 2012, is looking to have been in vain. And even having seen so much throughout the series, even he hasn't seen anything as galling, disappointing and hellish as earth, after the end event, as foreseen so long ago by the Mayans. That black is very appropriate. Full review...
The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo
The country of Ravka has been at war for many years. It has also been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a mysterious black fog filled with the volcra, monsters who feast on human flesh, created by an evil Darkling many centuries ago. All seems lost for this once-great country - until orphan Alina crosses the fold, and manages to fight off the volcra by releasing a power she never knew she had. Taken to the royal court to learn how to use her power, will she be Ravka's saviour? And while the current Darkling needs her to help him to repent for his predecessor's crimes, and she feels attracted to him - why can't she ever forget her childhood friend Mal? Full review...
A Bit Lost by Chris Haughton
Little owl has fallen out of his nest - uh-oh! Thankfully, a kindly squirrel is going to help him find his mummy. The little owl remembers aspects of what she looks like, so the squirrel ticks off animal after animal until they find mummy owl. Full review...
The Good Father by Noah Hawley
Dr Paul Allen is more than happy with his life. His second wife, Fran, is efficient, a good manager, a good mother to their young twins and not overly emotional as Ellen (Wife No. 1) was. In fact you could say that his life runs like clockwork, which is just how he likes it. Paul hates chaos and the unexpected, but he's about to be visited by both. As the Allens sit in horror watching news footage of the charismatic presidential front-runner being gunned down, there's a knock at the door. Their real horror is beginning; the FBI believes the son he had with Ellen is the guy who pulled the trigger. Full review...
Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May
Billy's mum is dead. Billy is 19 years old when his mum resists a mugger; this is the last thing she ever does, leaving Billy with 6 year old Oscar to face life together. They'll be fine. For a start, their life isn't as bad as the 'Life! Death! Prizes!' type magazines at supermarket check-outs. Billy has a job at the local history museum, Oscar's doing ok at school, so, despite their Aunt Toni, despite Oscar's recently reappearing father, despite the PTA mothers at the school gates... and social services... and the fact that the mugger is a local lad that Billy sees around... yep, they'll be fine. Full review...
Cub's First Summer by Rebecca Elliott
It's the first day of summer, and when Cub wakes up, Mum suggests a walk in the forest together. As Cub and Mum explore Cub bombards his mum with questions (in true toddler fashion!) about the heat, about the length of the days, about the flowers and the birds. They spend a happy day together, enjoying the delights of summer until the sky grows darker and a thunderstorm approaches. Quickly, they run back home and as the storm rages they enjoy one more pleasure, snuggling up together for sleepy time! Full review...
Fables: Legends in Exile - Vol 01 by Bill Willingham
Forced out of the Homelands by the evil Adversary, the characters in Fables have made their way to New York City. Those of them who look relatively human, at least. With Old King Cole as Mayor (in name, at least, despite his deputy Snow White running the show), Bigby Wolf as the Sheriff, and Prince Charming being, well, charming, towards every woman he can, these are characters you'll already know and love – but portrayed in a way that completely reinvigorates them. Full review...
In the Springtime of the Year by Susan Hill
Ben and Ruth had been married for just a year when he was killed in a tragic accident. One of the other foresters came to tell Ruth about what had happened, but in truth she had known before he arrived. From feeling deliriously happy she had descended within moments into the depths of despair and felt so ill that she could barely move. The confirmation was just that - and Ruth was bereft. She couldn't share her feelings with Ben's family. It's politic to say that they were dealing with their grief in their own way but more truthful to admit that they had never liked her and were disinclined to extend more than the socially-required gestures now that Ben was dead. Full review...
Reach for the Stars and Other Advice for Life's Journey by Serge Bloch
A young boy and Roger, his dog, receive some traditional advice about how they should live their lives. We've all heard the sentiments (and being honest - not always in the best of circumstances) many times but Serge Bloch gives us his interpretation of the words which we hear so often. Boy (for he has no other name) is told that he has his whole life ahead of him - and gazes at the future through a telescope. It's the first of almost thirty delightful illustrations designed to make us think about what we're saying. Full review...
Escape by Barbara Delinsky
Emily and James are a couple of 30-something lawyers living in New York, except they’re not really living so much as existing, running from home to work to yoga class to book club, barely spending any time together. It’s just the way it is until one day Emily takes a particularly tough call at work and realises in that moment that what she’s doing isn’t right. It isn’t how she imagined life would be. It isn’t what she went to law school for, or what she wants. And so she leaves. Fleeing the city for an altogether more relaxed place, she tells neither her work nor her husband that she is leaving, she just goes. Full review...
London Under by Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd is already well-known as a historian of London. As a kind of adjunct to his mammoth work on the city, here we have a comparatively slender tome on one specific aspect. Underneath the city is a world of its own, of springs, streams, Roman amphitheatres, Victorian sewers, gang hideouts, the creatures which have dwelt in its darkness from rats and eels to monsters and hosts, and last but not least the modern Underground railway system. Full review...
London: The Concise Biography by Peter Ackroyd
As is the case with his recent volume on Charles Dickens, Ackroyd's London is an abridged version of the full book originally published twelve years ago. Nevertheless, at over 600 pages of fairly close print in paperback, it is still a very full read. Full review...
The Duff: The designated ugly fat friend by Kody Keplinger
Bianca Piper is proud of her cynicism. She's not an air-head. She's not obsessed with dating jocks. She has no desire to flirt with every male in sight. But when Wesley Rush, the school heartthrob, tells her she's a DUFF - a Designated Ugly Fat Friend - it really gets to Bianca. Things aren't going well for Bianca on the domestic front either. Her mother is away all the time and Bianca is afraid her father might start drinking again, after eighteen years. As things get further and further out of control at home, Bianca finds herself in the most unlikely of place - the arms of the hated Wesley Rush. Full review...
The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki
The Flying Man opens with the now elderly Maqil Karam writing a letter in his budget hotel in the South of France and facing death. His story takes in many locations, from his native Punjab, to New York, Cairo, London, Paris and Hong Kong. In each location, Maqil adopts a different name, including Mike Cram, Mehmet Kahn, Miguel Caram and Mikhail Lee. Often he acquires a different wife as well, Carine, Samira and Bernadette, although he doesn't go to the bother of divorcing them, he just simply walks away. He is a chancer and a gambler, avoiding attachment, responsibility and commitment throughout his life. Full review...
Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder: The End of the World. Maybe. by Jo Nesbo
If you put authors you least expect to diversify from more literary to children's works on a scale of one to ten, Jeanette Winterson must be a four, Ian McEwan a high eight, and Jo Nesbo, Nordic crime sensation de nos jours at least eleven. But this is now the third in the series of youthful, frivolous adventures, and this time the titular professor, diminutive smart Alec Nilly and Lisa (and their seven-legged spider) have to save the world. Full review...
The Day is Dark by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
All contact is lost with two Icelanders working in a remote north-eastern coast of Greenland. There are some signs of what might have happened to them - and none of them good - but the local villagers have no intention of helping in any search and are hostile when they're approached. Six months before a woman geologist had disappeared from the same site and although this was written off as a potential suicide or dreadful accident no definitive explanation had been forthcoming. Was her disappearance related to the disappearance of the two men? Lawyer Thora Gudmundsdottir was part of the team hired to investigate the disappearances. Full review...
When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle
In this modern-day retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Rosaline has been best friends with Rob ever since they were tiny. But recently, their friendship has grown. The electric crackle of attraction is sparking between them and they are tentatively inching their way towards a relationship. One night they kiss and Rosaline believes they are about to become the couple she has always believed they were destined to be. But then her estranged cousin Juliet arrives back in town. She makes it clear she wants Rob and will stop at nothing to get him. Rosaline can do nothing but watch as Juliet steals her boyfriend and her best friend... Full review...
Department 19: The Rising by Will Hill
HE RISES. The graffiti is breaking out everywhere. For those who don't know what it's referring to, it's a minor annoyance. For Blacklight operatives, it could be the harbinger of the end of the world. Because HE is Dracula, and Valeri Rusmanov has succeeded in bringing his old master back to life – or the vampire equivalent of it, at least. The only hope is that they can track him down before he reaches his full power. Can Jamie Carpenter, along with new Blacklight operatives Larissa (his vampire girlfriend) and Kate Randall, who he rescued from Lindisfarne at the climax of the last book, help to stop him? That's about all of the plot that I feel comfortable talking about, such is my desperation to avoid spoiling anything. Full review...
The Bankruptcy Diaries by Paul Broderick
In 2000, Paul Livingson graduated from university and got his first proper grown up job. By 2007 he had filed for bankruptcy. With no failed businesses, unfortunate property depreciation or poor stock market investments in between you might be at a loss to see how he ended up there, until you read his diary of those years and it all becomes crystal clear. Full review...
Six Little Chicks by Jez Alborough
It's a beautiful day and Hen has already given birth to five fine chicks. She still has one more egg to hatch though so she still needs to sit on that while the other chicks explore and play outside. She is just settling down when she hears Owl’s loud 'To-wit-to-woo!' telling them that the big, bad fox is on the prowl. She dashes out to see all her chicks playing happily with no wolf in sight so she warns them to stay close and goes back to her egg. Not long after, Goose comes along with a similar warning but still there is no fox. Finally though, the fox does arrive and although the chicks are now hiding in the hen house, he entices them to 'come closer'. It looks as if time may be up for these sweet little creatures. Luckily though, the fifth chick had been kicking a stick which, in the little ones' attempts to get away, flies up in the air and manages to land in the fox's mouth wedging it open. This is very fortunate as it is just in time for them to see their sixth little brother or sister be born! Full review...
The Last Day of Term by Francis Gilbert
It's the last day of term at the Gilda Ball Academy, and English teacher Martin can't wait for the holiday to start. Shaken by the death of his friend Jack in a riot at the school, he's failed to notice his marriage falling to pieces and his relationship with his son deteriorating. Just when he thinks things can't get any worse, an anonymous pupil accuses him of inappropriate sexual conduct. Full review...
Invincible by Sherrilyn Kenyon
With Nick Gautier having survived the onslaught of zombies, and finding out that most of the people he knows are supernatural, he’s left wondering what to do now. He hasn’t got long to decide, though – because his new coach is putting pressure on him to steal some special items, and boys of his age are turning up dead. Will he be next? Not if he can help it! Can Nick avoid being murdered, deal with his coach, and work out just who he can trust? Full review...
How to Be Selfish (and Other Uncomfortable Advice) by Olga Levancuka
It's strange how you come to read a particular book. A couple of days ago I was chatting to a dog-walking friend who retired about a year ago. He'd been surprised to find that the main problem in retirement was one which he hadn't anticipated: all his life he'd had to account for himself to somebody else and now he was struggling to discover what it was that he wanted to do. Then I found myself chatting to Olga Levancucka, author of How To Be Selfish - but she seemed like one of the most unselfish people I'd ever met. There was a book here waiting to be read! Full review...
Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
Bea Nightingale's brother Marvin wants her - is haranguing her - to retrieve his errant son Julian from post-war Paris, to where he has decamped in an effort to escape parental control. Bea, a New York high school teacher, is an unlikely candidate for the role of rescuer - she and her brother have been estranged for the best part of twenty years. But she capitulates to his demands and sets off on a journey in which her presence will affect not only Julian, but his sister who also runs off to Paris, his girlfriend, a displaced Eastern European Jew, his mother (also escaping Marvin, but this time in a psychiatric facility) and Bea's own ex-husband Leo. Full review...
Never Coming Home by Evonne Wareham
Kaz Elmore has almost come to terms with her daughter's death. She died while on holiday in America with her father (Kaz's ex husband) and her ashes have been scattered on the river. As tragic as it is, Kaz has no alternative but to accept that her daughter is never coming back. However, one day she receives a visit from a man called Devlin, who witnessed the accident and was holding Jamie when she died. His sole intention is to provide some comfort for Kaz by telling her that her daughter was not alone but when he spots photographs of Jamie, he realises that she is not the child who died in his arms. Full review...
The Cry of the Go-Away Bird by Andrea Eames
'The Cry of the Go-Away Bird' is the debut novel from Andrea Eames. It revolves around Elise, a white Zimbabwean girl living through her teens on the eve of the Mugabe-sponsored farm invasions at the beginning of this century. The author herself grew up in Zimbabwe before moving to New Zealand with her family at the age of seventeen and there is a strong sense of memoir and personal experience in the novel, which has both positive and negative effects on the narrative. Full review...
Grandad There's a Head on the Beach by Colin Cotterill
Things have moved on since we first met ex-crime reporter, Jimm Juree, stranded at the Gulf Bay Lovely Resort and Restaurant with most of her dysfunctional family. I say 'most' because the sister who used to be a brother and who has criminal tendencies isn't with them and when I say 'moved on' I mean that the tide has been in and out quite a few times. This time it's washed up something a little unusual: a head. Uncertain of what, exactly, you do when you find a head on the beach, Jimm sets off to see the village head man. It's the start of a journey which will uncover piracy and slavery, violence and murder in what should be a beautiful part of the world, but isn't. Full review...
I Love You, Little Monster by Giles Andreae and Jess Mikhail
There's a little monster called Small and a big monster called Big. Small is fast asleep in bed one night when Big comes in, ruffles his hair and starts talking to him. As he speaks it becomes apparent how much he loves the little monster and how much he wants to protect him. He explains that the days are always so busy and there is never enough time to say all of the things that he should say, but it is easy to do so when it is dark. Full review...
I Have Waited, and You Have Come by Martine McDonagh
Rachel's world is in a state of decay. Her house is falling apart, her boyfriend has left her and civilization has crumbled in the wake of plague and extreme climate change. Her only friend, Stephanie, is separated from Rachel by the now insurmountable barrier of the Atlantic Ocean, their communication dependent on an increasingly unreliable satellite connecting their phones. At Stephanie's prompting Rachel gives her number to local trader Noah, who promises to call. Instead the number falls into the hands of the mysterious and sinister Jez White, initiating a disturbing game of cat and mouse, where the line between stalker and victim becomes blurred as Rachel finally decides to take control of her life. Full review...
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
The 'I' in the title of Jane Harris's Gillespie and I is Harriet Baxter. Now elderly and residing in London in 1933, she is finally telling her events of what happened in the early 1880s in Glasgow and her relationship with the Gillespie family. At the time, a spinster of independent means, she arrived in Glasgow to visit the International Exhibition and became a champion of and friend to a young Scottish painter, Ned Gillespie and his young family. We know from early on that tragedy struck the Gillespie family leading to Ned destroying his career, but Harriet wants to set the record straight with regard to her involvement in events. You may or may not believe her story. Full review...
The Girl In The Mask by Marie-Louise Jensen
Sophia has been living relatively freely while her father has been in the West Indies, running the estate, shooting pistols with her cousin Jack and generally being unladylike. But now her father is back and more than keen to see her married off to the next suitable gentleman who so much as looks in her direction. Full review...
Let's Find Mimi at Home by Katherine Lodge
Mimi is a little mouse who lives with her mouse family. This book takes us through her day at home, waking up, getting dressed, eating breakfast etc. Each double page spread has a small description of what Mimi is doing and the challenge is to find Mimi (and her family too, if you wish) and see what she's getting up to! Full review...
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander McCall Smith makes it look so easy, churning out book after delightful book that continue to delight and amuse his loyal readers. His writing seems effortless, and in this story, once again, the characters remain the wonderful friends we have always known and expected them to be, as if they really are alive and living these stories somewhere and AMS is simply transcribing them for our pleasure. Full review...
Cold Comfort by Quentin Bates
Since we last met Sergeant Gunnhildur she's been promoted and is now working in the Serious Crimes Unit in Reykjavik. It's quite a contrast to her previous job in Hvalvick, but Gunna is determined to make a go of it and it's not long before she has responsibility for two very different cases. A convict has escaped and seems as though he's determined to settle old scores, but why did he need to escape when his ten-year sentence was almost up? The other case is rather more high profile: an ex-TV fitness presenter is murdered in her city apartment and some of the people who knew her are rather well known. Full review...
Twelve Minutes to Midnight by Christopher Edge
The year is 1899. Each night at twelve minutes to midnight, the inmates of Bedlam (London's Bethlehem Hospital for the Insane) rise up from their sleep and begin scribbling strange words and messages everywhere they can... scraps of paper, the walls, scraps from their clothes, even on their own skin. These insane ramblings seem to depict the impossible and hint at the future. Thirteen year old Penelope Tredwell, orphan heiress and writer of best-selling magazine The Penny Dreadful, is intrigued. Hiding behind an actor hired to play the noted author of the Penny Dreadful mysteries, Penny drags him unwillingly into a macabre investigation. As she seeks to discover the meaning of insane ramblings of these unfortunate inmates, and turn them into what would be her best-selling and most famous story ever, Penny finds that she's uncovered a sinister plot controlled by a very real, very evil, very unlikely villain, and she may well be the next victim. Full review...
Welcome To Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop Of Dreams by Jenny Colgan
Rosie Hopkins is reluctant to leave her beloved London, Gerard, a live-in boyfriend of eight years and her work as auxiliary nurse. But when an elderly aunt who had spent her life running a traditional sweetshop in a small village in the North of England becomes just too elderly to cope, Rosie surprises everybody – even herself – by taking up the challenge. A 100% townie who can't ride a bike and doesn't seem to own a waterproof, a pair of wellies or even walking boots, Rosie soon discovers that the countryside has its charms, not least of which is the local supply of masculine eye candy. Soon she will find herself re-opening the shop (just to sell it as a running concern, you understand) as well as somewhat accidentally, saving and enriching lives all around, from a lady of the manor's Lab to her own dignified, but possessed of an acid tongue, great aunt Lillian. Full review...
Goblins by Philip Reeve
Poor Skarper. He's such a loser. In the violent and bloodthirsty goblin world where fighting and eating and taking other people's loot are all-time-favourite, number-one activities, he has a terrible handicap. He thinks. In fact, he's pretty clever, for a goblin, to the extent that he uses the goblins' bumwipe heaps for . . . reading. Yup, you heard me. Reading. The foolish hatchling works out that the black squiggles on the mouldering heaps of soft and crinkly stuff left, long ago, by the ancient inhabitants of the tower, are written words, and instead of going out raiding like any sensible goblin, he creeps off to a quiet corner to work out what they mean. Silly, eh? Full review...
A Small Fortune by Rosie Dastgir
Harris Anwar is truly a man who is split between two worlds. He's a British Pakistani, proud of his Eastern roots, but when he came to the UK he changed his name from Haaris - with a long, flat vowel - to the more acceptable Harris and his clothing was that favoured by an English gentleman. He's proud and he would say many reasons to be proud. Some of the things of which he's proud are relatively small - the vacuum cleaner which he's had for twenty years might not work particularly well, but he's proud that he's hung on to it. He's proud of his car, the central heating which he installed himself and most of all he's proud of his daughter. Full review...