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 Pleasure of Thinking: A Journey Through the Sideways Leaps of Ideas by Theodore Dalrymple
Having recently read Pieces of Light: the New Science of Memory by Charles Fernyhough, I expected something similar, judging only from the title of Theodore Dalrymple's The Pleasure of Thinking: a Journey Through the Sideways Leaps of Ideas. Instead of being a book about how people think laterally, as I thought it might be, it turned out to be something rather different, but ultimately equally interesting. Full review...
No-Bot, The Robot With No Bottom by Sue Hendra
The prospects look good for a story when you're already laughing at the front cover, never mind what's inside. There we have him, our little red robot, holding onto his bottom and giving a coy-looking smile to us as readers. Already we're wondering how he ends up with no bottom, and whether the inside of the story will be as funny as the outside. No-Bot, happily, doesn't disappoint. You can't go wrong, really, with a funny red robot who has lost his bottom can you? Just saying the word 'bottom' to small children usually reduces them to giggles! Full review...
The Blog of Maisy Malone by Eve Ainsworth
Maisy Malone - not her real name, she's not an idiot, you know - has decided to write a blog. She's 17, has just dropped out of sixth form because her lessons all seemed so irrelevant, and is now waiting for her benefits to arrive while she's looking for a job. And jobs are hard to find in the current economic climate. This makes life even more difficult for Maisy than it is for Maisy's friends. Because Maisy's father hasn't had a job in years and is steadily drinking himself into oblivion and her dog, Dave, desperately needs an expensive visit to the vet to sort out his leaky bottom. Full review...
Seven Kings: Books of the Shaper: Volume 2 by John R Fultz
Runaway slave Tong suicidally avenges his lost love but death seems to elude him. Meanwhile King Vireon is happily married to the beautiful shape-shifting sorceress Alua, although his sister has problems with her husband, King D'zan. A courtesan is carrying his baby; odder still when you realise he's impotent. The Twin Kings of Uruz, scholarly Lyrilan and war-hungry Tyro, can't agree on how to rule so Tyro's wife Talondra puts a real spanner in the works to force a decision. However bad their lives currently are, evil is spreading through their world like a dark shadow and, to make things worse still, Ianthe the Claw and Gammir the Reborn aren't as dead as everyone supposes them to be. (You'd think the clue would be in Gammir's name wouldn't you?) Full review...
The Three Day Affair by Michael Kardos
How well do you know your best friends? Will thought he knew Jeffrey, Nolan and Evan particularly well. Heck, they'd known each other since college at Princeton, before the advent of wives and partners. However, Will's assurance becomes less certain during a golfing weekend. Just blokes together with the WaGs out the way; what could go wrong? Nothing till Jeffrey stops the car to pop into a convenience store and emerges with nothing except the till's contents and the shop assistant he's kidnapped. What do they do? A simple enough question but as the hours tick by it becomes more complicated. Full review...
Into That Forest by Louis Nowra
Almost every child dreams about freedom. The idea of being able to make your own decisions about how you live your life is, as anyone who has ever been told to eat up your greens and go to bed will know, a deeply seductive one. Many adults, of course, have the opposite fear: that children are really little monsters dressed up in human clothes, ready to break away and go wild at the slightest provocation. It’s not hard to see, therefore, why both adults and children are so fascinated by the idea of children alone in the wild. From Lord of the Flies to Where the Wild Things Are, there’s a pervasive dream in children’s fiction – a dream that’s sometimes closer to a nightmare – about the child gone feral. Full review...
The Book Publishers Toolkit: 10 Practical Pointers for Independent and Self Publishers Vol. 1 by IBPA Contributors
Ten articles originally published in the Independent Book Publishers Association magazine have been gathered together to provide useful advice to the small independent publisher or anyone looking to self-publish. The authors of the articles - Kate Bandos, Kimberley Edwards, Joel Friedlander, Steve Gillen, Abigail Goben, Tanya Hall, Brian Jud, Stacey Miller, Kathleen Welton, and David Wogahn are all acknowledged experts in their own fields and whilst much of it is more relevant in the USA it's all thought-provoking and worth consideration. Each piece is short, snappy and to the point and reading the entire book took me less than an hour. Full review...
Undone by Cat Clarke
Jem has always been madly in love with the boy next door. Unfortunately, while Kai is his best friend, she’s not the girl for him. In fact, there is no girl for him – Kai is gay. Jem is one of the only people who knows this, though, until he’s cruelly outed online by someone anonymous. When Kai can’t live with people's reaction to his outing, and kills himself, Jem resolves to find out who was responsible, and bring them down. Full review...
Shadow on the Sun by R Julian Cox
There's always been a quandary for the ethically-minded scientist - what to do when your scientific discoveries can be used for less-than-ethical purposes. Robert Oppenheimer faced this problem when his work as a theoretical physicist resulted in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Dr Jonathan Anderson faces a similar situation and - unbelievably - the consequences could be even more far reaching than the consequences of Oppenheimer's work. There's a conflict with his strong religious beliefs as well as with his professional ethics. Full review...
The Arthur Moreau Story by Guy Booth
You could be forgiven for thinking that Johnny Debrett is an unlikely hero, given his occupation as a seller of second hand books, but he has some illustrious connections, not least to Sir Frederick Appleby. Some say that he runs the country and Appleby's deputy, Peter Tyndale is married to Debrett's sister, Celia. Our tale began many years before with some two hundred mysterious and widely reported deaths on a French island which hadn't elicited a single cry of grief from a relative, but we join the story as Appleby asks Debrett to attend the funeral in France of a former business partner, Arthur Moreau. There are, apparently, some unresolved queries about Moreau and despite Debrett's estrangement from the deceased over recent years he's thought to be the person best able to obtain the answers. Full review...
The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement by Jean M Twenge and W Keith Campbell
Twenge and Campbell have been studying the rise in narcissism as a social trend. They are well-qualified to comment, having worked since 1998 with social psychologist Roy Baumeister, who pioneered research in this field. At more than three hundred pages it's rather weighty for the popular market at which it's aimed, but even if you only dip into this book, I think you'll take home their message. Full review...
Bath Times and Nursery Rhymes by Pam Weaver
In 1961, a young 16 year old girl called Pam Weaver embarks on a career path that will change her life. Fed up with the tedium of working on the broken biscuit counter at Woolworths, she decides to train for her NNEB. Bath Times and Nursery Rhymes sees Pam progress from a shy and awkward teenager to a competent and caring nursery nurse. Reluctant to stay too long in any position, Pam tries her hand at a variety of jobs, including her initial employment in a Council-run children’s home, working as a private nanny to a rich young widow and an eventful but emotional stint in a premature baby ward. Full review...
Colin Fischer by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz
Colin Fischer is just starting high school. It's a time that is both exciting and intimidating to the average student, but Colin is not your average fourteen year old. Colin has Asperger's Syndrome, a neurological condition linked to poor social skills and interpersonal interaction, often characterised by repetitive or obsessive patterns of behaviour. For Colin, a zealot of clear-headed logic and rational deductions (yes, he's a fan of Sherlock Holmes), every social interaction is a mystery that has to be solved. But when a real mystery arrives at school, in the form of a gun going off in the school cafeteria, Colin takes it upon himself to find the real culprit. This leads to a sequence of events which, as his father nicely puts it, involves Colin breaking more rules, starting more trouble and causing more chaos in forty-eight hours, than in all his fourteen years on the planet. Full review...
The Low Road by Chris Womersley
Wild is a man on the run. In a slow, underhand and underwhelming way he is leaving behind danger, mistakes and unhappiness in his past, and has fetched up in a nondescript motel. However this is only the beginning, for he is quickly ordered to put his medical training to good use in the case of Lee, when the latter is dumped into his care with a gunshot wound. Lee, too, is a man on the run - from danger, mistakes and unhappiness in his future. But this pairing are not the only people running in this pitch black thriller. Full review...
If Houses Why Not Mouses? by Damian O'Brien
I once dedicated an entire linguistics essay to the plural of sheep, in particular my older sister’s youthful fascination with it all. One sheep, two sheep. No two sheeps. That silly etc etc. So when this book arrived I thought it perfectly plausible that the author had written an extended investigation into house/houses, mouse/mice. (No two mouses? That silly.) What I discovered on making my way through the pages, however, is that there is a lot more to this book that irregular plurals of the 3-year-old-befuddling kind. Full review...
Latte or Cappuccino: 125 Decisions That Will Change Your Life by Hilly Janes
I must admit that my immediate reaction when I saw the title Latte or Cappuccino? was that a filter coffee would be very pleasant, particularly with a shortbread biscuit. But it's not a book about coffee but rather about choices we encounter which could make a real difference to our lives. You see one coffee has 150 calories and the other just 90 and over the weeks and months that decision can mean substantial weight gain - or loss. There are 125 of these relatively minor questions which can have real impact, particularly when you add them all up. Full review...
Vengeance by Lee Child (Editor)
I like short story collections. They're useful reading material when you're a mum of young children as you can usually manage to squeeze in a six page story at nap time, but you're guaranteed if you try to start that 500 page novel you've been meaning to read that just as it starts to get interesting your baby will wake up! This collection of crime stories is brought together under the title of Vengeance so, as you'd imagine, they are all to do with revenge and people getting or trying to get their own back. Full review...
The Burning Air by Erin Kelly
It's the Macbrides' annual Guy Fawkes' weekend trip to their Devon holiday home but much has changed since the last Bonfire Night. Their mother Lydia has died, their father Rowan copes only with alcoholic aid and the marriage of Sophie and Will has fireworks of its own. Some happiness exists though: Tara and partner Matt are deeply in love and Felix is bringing his first serious girlfriend to the gathering. Her name's Kerry and, by the end of the weekend, she'll have kidnapped Sophie's baby revealing darkest secrets that refuse to remain buried. Full review...
Zom-B Underground by Darren Shan
Ok. Before we begin. If you haven't read the first book in this series, DON'T read this review. It contains spoilers. Read my review of the first book, read the first book itself, then come back. If you don't, you'll be sorry. Full review...
MediaWiki (Wikipedia and Beyond) by Daniel J Barrett
I don't usually open reviews by explaining how I came to read a particular book, but on this occasion it will help you to judge whether or not this book is suitable for you if you know where I'm coming from. Back in 2006 three people got together and between them they built a site - let's call it The Bookbag. In the early days Bookbag was for fun: it was rather like Everest. We did it because it could be there and we wanted to see if what we (loosely) had in mind could be done. It was a simple HTML site and I had no problems in mastering the technicalities. I'd built the site under instruction and I knew it inside out. Full review...
The Slither Sisters: Tales from Lovecraft Middle School by Charles Gilman
This, if anything, is an abject lesson in the dangers of recycling. The brand spanking new Lovecraft Middle school actually reused bits of an old mansion where arcane experiments were going on, meaning the school to this day serves as a portal to a different universe, one of horrid man-eating demons and other monsters, all with designs on people like Robert Arthur. last time round Robert had trouble with one teacher, who was not as he appeared - this time it's double trouble with two of the school's most popular, most cupcake-giving girls. How can he in his lowly position find the strength to save everyone? Full review...
The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones by Jack Wolf
It doesn’t take long for Jack Wolf’s extraordinary pastiche eighteenth century novel 'The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones' to show its true stripes. Narrator Tristan Hart’s best friend Nathanial is handsome, charming and athletic, and also prone to ‘snatching blue Tits from the Hedges, and consuming them direct upon the Spot.’ In that phrase you see both the heart-stopping nastiness that pulses through Raw Head and Bloody Bones and the fascinating attitude to Gothic duality that lies at its core. Full review...
Ausperity: Live the Life You Want for Less by Lucy Tobin
Clever title, eh? It's a conflation of austerity, of which we must all be sick to the back teeth and prosperity, which we'd all love. At a time when incomes are standing still (unless you're very lucky) but costs are going up all the time. For most people this means that it's the pleasurable parts of life - the treats - which get squeezed out, leaving a life that's dull and rather unrewarding. Lucy Tobin, personal finance editor of the London Evening Standard thinks differently. She's brought together hundreds of money-saving tips which might make that holiday possible - or suggests cheap or free trips in place of the holiday. There are also lots of ways in which you can raise extra money which don't involve a dodgy loan that will cost you more in interest than you borrowed in the first place. And, yes - there's all the information about credit cards, mortgages and budgeting that you need to set you on the right path. Full review...
In the Gold of Time by Claudie Gallay
A young father (I'm not sure we ever know his name) leaves his Montreuil apartment and takes his wife and their seven-year-old twin daughters on the annual holiday to the coast. They have a house, La Téméraire, overlooking the sea a few kilometres south of Dieppe. They'd bought the house just after the girls were born and go there every summer, and maybe for a weekend or two in the Spring. Never in winter. Full review...
A Fatal Thaw (A Kate Shugak Investigation) by Dana Stabenow
Roger McAniff bought a new Winchester rifle and went out to test it - and nine people were dead by the end of the day. But - only eight of them had been shot by McAniff and one - Lisa Getty was shot by someone else. McAniff wouldn't have it - he was almost insulted by the thought that he might have missed someone - but ballistic tests proved that in this instance he wasn't the killer. Kate Shugak was given the job of tracking down the unknown killer. It wasn't going to be easy, not least because she apprehended McAniff and every conversation began with a statement that she could have saved time and money if she'd killed him. That's not Kate's way though. Full review...
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
Teenager Hattie Shepherd moves with her husband August, parents and siblings from the colour apartheid of the southern US to Philadelphia in search of a better life. Unfortunately this is 1920's America and so 'better life' is a mirage for Hattie. By the age of 15 she's pregnant and subsequently gives birth to twins Jubilee and Philadelphia, the first two of 11 children. As much joy as they bring, the twins are destined to provide a tragedy that will flavour Hattie's and August's outlook and relationship for decades. Each later Shepherd baby will develop with their own characteristics but each will also be tarnished by the past, irrespective of their attempts to escape it. Full review...
Deceit by Deborah White
Thinking the immortal Doctor defeated, Claire has allowed her modern-day London life to return - almost - to normal. Her father has found a new girlfriend, Lindsay, and Claire quite likes her, despite a nagging guilt about disloyalty to her mother, who is depressed about the divorce and struggling to cope with Claire's new baby brother, Matthew. There's even a boyfriend, Joe, on the scene. Last year's adventure involving a girl from the past, an evil magician ancestor and an ancient prophecy, seem like old news. After all, Doctor Robert died, didn't he? Full review...
Midnight Pirates by Ally Kennen
It's hard to read this book without feeling a sea breeze on your face and sand between your toes, so vivid and so natural is the detail on every page. Pinkie-Sue and Cormac have been running the slightly dilapidated Dodo beach hotel for years, and their children have lived their whole lives in and out of the waves in Dummity Bay. Miranda swims like a fish herself and knows all the local seals and their habits, easy-going Cal talks of nothing but surfing and his girlfriend Doris, and Jackie scrambles over the rocks with his dog Fester whenever he can escape from the irritations of school and chores. Full review...
You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Through Unloved Britain by Tim Moore
This is not the first book I've read about the scummy, unloved corners of our country, and I approached it in just the same way I did with the last - I looked to see if it might feature Leicester, where I live. The opinion seems to be that you can only like Leicester enough to be proud of it if you're not from there originally - and as I grew up on the edge of a village in the middle of nowhere, it suits me fine. But no - despite its problems (thanks, Labour councils) it doesn't count. It's not grotty, ugly, run-down and unappreciated enough. It still has some semblance of life, unlike too many towns and cities in Britain where the industry, the jobs, the life and the thought have been sucked out, seemingly beyond repair. After stumbling upon the nightmare that is the out-of-season, redundant English coastal town, our author has valiantly journeyed round many of these grot-spots, and found the story of decrepitude only exacerbating. Full review...
Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff
Hannah's best friend Lillian starved herself to death six months ago. And now she's haunting her. Hannah wants life to resume as normal, but even if she wasn't constantly in the presence of Lillian's ghost, that wouldn't be possible. How can she carry on when her best friend is dead? To add to her problems, girls in her hometown are dying, beaten brutally then arranged in a ritualistic sort of way. Soon Hannah's being haunted by more than just Lillian, each vision more ghastly than the last. Full review...
The Investigation by Philippe Claudel
And you think you had it bad. Our hero gets off a train at the right station, but doesn't get collected by those he's working on behalf of, can't have his order at the bar fulfilled, cannot get to the place of work on time, then cannot find the hotel almost opposite without a major trek through a snowy, unsavoury but completely empty city. And when he gets to the hotel - well that and the other people he meets there are a whole new category of odd. Is this how things are supposed to be - is this limbo, a nightmare or just a novel our hero is trapped in? Full review...
Splintered by A G Howard
Alyssa Gardner has secrets. She can't tell anyone that bugs and flowers talk to her, or she'll end up in a mental hospital like her mother. All of the women in her family have struggled with mental health problems, ever since her ancestor Alice Liddell inspired Lewis Carroll to write 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'. When she's dragged into Wonderland herself, can she break the family curse? Full review...
Shrinking Violet Definitely Needs a Dog by Lou Kuenzler
Ten year old Violet Potts wants a dog. Her favourite uncle, Max, adopted a Siberian wolf cub for her, but that wasn’t the same as having a real pet dog to cuddle and care for. Her parents think she is too irresponsible to handle a pet, but Violet is determined to prove them wrong by volunteering at the local pet shelter. The only complication is that Violet has a secret; she shrinks to the size of a dog biscuit whenever she gets excited. Will she be able to keep a lid on her emotions and prove to her parents that she can handle a dog of her own? Full review...
Lionheart by Sharon Penman
Lionheart is the latest book in the Devil’s Brood series, which focuses on the dysfunctional Angevin branch of the Plantaganets. As the title suggests, the story is a richly detailed account of the life of Richard I, covering the period from his coronation up to the end of the third crusade. Full review...
Making of Life of Pi - A Film, A Journey by Jean Christophe Castelli
Before I'd seen the film of Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi I knew the end result would leave me either wondering 'how did they make that?!' or 'WHY did they make that?!'. The fact I ended up watching it twice before the general public had their chance, and lapped up a repeat viewing within a fortnight, says it all. There's no plot spoiler in the fact that the creators left us with a visually dazzling, splendidly luxurious-looking piece of cinema, one that left me scrabbling for tiny faults to nitpick with and just acknowledging how brilliant the FX and acting were. And, as the resulting question was the right one, I am still interested very much in the answer - luckily for me this book provides it. Full review...
Up Close by Henriette Gyland
Dr Lia Thompson is an E.R. specialist. She patches people up for a living. Her fiancé is some hot-shot lawyer (specialism unspecified) with an all-American-apple-pie family and a mom pressing for a wedding date. When Lia's grandmother dies and her mother eschews any right to the inheritance or obligation for dealing with the estate, it falls to Lia to come up and tidy up. That's exactly what she intends to do. Sign the papers, clear the house, get it on the market and go home. Full review...
Another Time, Another Life by Leif G W Persson
We start, enjoyably enough, in the realm of truth, as German terrorists attack their own embassy in Stockholm, demanding things as only the Red Army Faction demanded. But the truth only goes so far - as this whole book will prove - before we are engaged in the solving of a civil servant's murder some years later. There should be no connection - but there is. There should be a way to solve the crime - but there are too many potential stories and nobody to point the way. There should also be effective collaboration in the police forces - but with personalities as rich as these investigators, there won't be. Full review...
Jack's Mega Machines: The Dinosaur Digger by Alison Ritchie and Mike Byrne
Jack the mechanic loves to repair broken vehicles in his workshop. But the magical Rally Road Workshop is no ordinary garage. Whenever Jack takes one of his vehicles on a test drive, he is wondrously transported to incredible locations or different time periods. Full review...
The Flowers of War by Geling Yan and Nicky Harman (translator)
1937, Nanking. The war between the Republic of China and Japan has ended in defeat for China, and now Japanese soldiers are moving in to bloodily occupy the capital city. In a small American mission church, fifteen Chinese schoolgirls are hiding, trapped until the priests who look after them can smuggle them to safety. Into this already fraught atmosphere come desperate Chinese citizens looking for shelter – a rowdy group of Nanking prostitutes, a colonel on the run and two more soldiers who have survived a horrendous secret massacre. As the Japanese atrocities gather pace, the safety and survival of each of the church’s disparate members becomes uncertain, and the initially hostile girls begin to realise that there may be common ground between them and the prostitutes they have been taught to despise. Full review...
3-Minute JRR Tolkien: A Visual Biography of The World's Most Revered Fantasy Writer by Gary Raymond
When something with such a built-in cult base as Tolkien books have gets transported into another medium, the manically interested fans have two reactions – to initially scoff at how nothing could compare with the original, and then to try and buy everything worthwhile with even a tenuous link to the object of their affections, while avoiding the mountain of crud that could deluge the unwary. Such it will be until the third movie part of The Hobbit is safely behind us, and the six-film, three-month long Blu-Ray box set is on the shelves. Tolkien enthusiasts of course have a precarious situation – so great do they rightly hold the originals, and so low can the quality of the spin-offs be, there are some who will never be satisfied. But there remains the newcomer, freshly inspired to find out more, and those at least will certainly be able to enjoy this beginner's guide to J R R Tolkien. Full review...
The Truth About Love by Philip Ardagh
We are never too far from springtime, when, of course, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. Beardy Ardagh is hoping that young people's fancies turn to trivia about love customs, predictions of who they'll marry and what the whole symbolism around love, Valentines and marriage mean. The emphasis is on young – this book is definitely suited for the primary school library, although he slips up once when asking if we think our partners smell nice. Full review...
The Friday Gospels by Jenn Ashworth
There are five in the Leeke family. Martin is the father and he works in the mail sorting office. There's not a lot of pleasure in Martin's life, but if you were making a list you'd put Bovril at the top of it. She's a labrador and Martin's obsessed with her training. Well, he's partly obsessed with the training and the training is partly an excuse for his other obsession. Nina owns two labradors and Martin sees them (he and Nina, that is - not he and the labs) as having a future together. It would be easy to be critical, but Martin's wife is in a wheelchair. Pauline's been unwell since the birth of their youngest child. She's not quite doubly incontinent, but accidents are frequent and embarrassing. She's also got a penchant for spending on home improvements - despite the fact that there really isn't the money for them. Full review...
The Change Book: Fifty models to explain how things happen by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler
The Change Book is a pocket-sized publication with lofty ambitions. Small enough to slip into a handbag, and a mere 167 pages long, it makes the following claim: Full review...
Cinderella's Secret Diary by Faye Hanson
Did you know that Cinderella kept a secret diary sharing all her thoughts and feelings about how she was treated by her stepmother and her two ugly sisters? The diary starts when her father returns home from his travels and not long after, she is introduced to Madame Riche who is soon to become her father's wife. When Cinderella finds out about the forthcoming marriage, she is very excited to discover that she will soon have two sisters. Unfortunately, her excitement is short lived as, after the marriage, her father stays abroad for business and Cinderella's stepmother and sisters start to show their true colours. They are mean and nasty treating her no better than a slave. The worst thing is when an invitation comes for the royal ball and Cinderella is not allowed to attend even though she has been invited. Luckily, her fairy godmother appears, waves her magic wand and well, I guess we all know what happens next. Everybody loves a happy ending and it's wonderful to read Cinderella's words at the end of her diary: Full review...
Alphasaurs and Other Prehistoric Types by Sharon Werner and Sarah Nelson Forss
I suppose you could describe any book about dinosaurs as being sixty-five million years in the making. What is definite is that this title was certainly not knocked up overnight. After a suitably clever, rhyming introduction, we enter the world of prehistory with A, and exit with Z, having met 27 (yes, there's a surprise guest entrant) animals along the way. And the way we meet them on these supremely clever pages is the selling point. Full review...
Beast Friends Forever! by Robert L Forbes and Ronald Searle
We're never far away from spring, when the thoughts of the whole animal kingdom turn to love - or at least, one aspect of it we'd better not mention in a book for the very young such as this is. Skunks need to smell nice, elephants and crickets need to make the right noises to attract a mate, while others can just celebrate their being together in different ways, whether they be real love birds or grizzly bears. The whole wildlife love life is here, in a very chaste and harmless manner. Full review...
Darcy Burdock by Laura Dockrill
Darcy Burdock is a ten-year-old girl who sees the extraordinary in the everyday. This is her first book, a story about her life, complete with her own short stories and pictures. Full review...
The Sentinel by Mark Oldfield
Plaza De Toros, Badajoz, 15th August 1936: a group of prisoners are marched across the sands of the bullring, lined up against the barrera and, mown down rifle-fire. The first group of many.
Cut to 2009. In the mountains known as the Sierra de Gredos in central Spain, there was mine. For some reason it was abruptly closed in 1953. On another newbie-assignment forensic investigator Dr Ana Maria Galindez is about to find out why. Full review...
The Positively Last Performance by Geraldine McCaughrean
Gracie absolutely loves Seashaw. She has many happy memories of holidays in the faded resort (which bears more than a passing resemblance to Margate) and she is delighted when her parents, who are actors, decide to move there for good. Their plan is to take over the old theatre, which has been abandoned for years, and do it up—as long as they can get a grant or two to fund the work. They are understandably busy with surveyors and town officials, and it's no surprise to Gracie that she's left pretty much to her own devices. Besides, she's just discovered something extraordinary: she can see ghosts. Full review...
The Taste of Apple Seeds by Katharina Hagena and Jamie Bulloch (Translator)
Iris Berger isn't a stranger to loss. Her cousin died at 15 and her grandmother has just passed away leaving Iris her house. It all echoes with memories, for instance the wardrobe full of her mother and aunts' childhood dresses, the beautiful garden and the apple tree that played such a large part in the family history. While wandering outside, Iris bumps into Carsten Lexow, family friend and garden caretaker. Over lunch he tells her of a family secret. There's a reason why, on a certain June night a lifetime ago, a certain apple tree bloomed twice. Although significant, Iris discovers more secrets as she settles in, and not only secrets concerning others. Full review...