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 Death of Lyndon Wilder and the Consequences Thereof by E A Dineley
Anna Arbuthnot moves to Ridley Hall as governess for Lord and Lady Charles Wilder's granddaughter, Lottie. Lottie's mother died years before and her father Lyndon has just been killed in the Napoleonic Wars. Lady Charles has all but beatified Lyndon as no one could ever be as wonderful, caring or heroic. In fact she only tolerates Lottie because of her family likeness but things are about to change. Lyndon's younger brother, Thomas, returns from the war accompanied by the secrets that stalk him and intentions that will shake Ridley Hall. Full review...
Quantum Drop by Saci Lloyd
We're in London. The London that's left after the next financial crash devastates life for most people right across the world. Money is hard to come by, and most people survive on black market credits, supplied by the Betta. Everyone either works for the Betta or borrows from them. And when Anthony's girlfriend gets on the wrong side of the Betta and is taken out in a gang hit, he must venture into the virtual world of the Drop if he is to find out who is responsible and how to get justice. But the Drop is a dangerous, dangerous place... Full review...
London in the 18th century by Jerry White
White has already written accounts of London in the 19th and 20th centuries, and this is the last in a planned trilogy. In 1700, according to an unnamed contemporary source, it was one of the ‘most Spacious, Populous, Rich, Beautiful, Renowned and Noble Citys that we know of at this day in the World’. It was also the largest city in Europe. By the end of the century, it would double in extent and population, and become the largest in the universe. Carl Phillipp Moritz, a visitor from Germany in 1782, could climb St Paul's Cathedral and comment with amazement that he found it impossible to ascertain where London began or ended, ‘or where the circumjacent villages began; far as the eye could reach, it seemed to be all one continued chain’. Full review...
Lost and Found by Tom Winter
Carol has lived in a state of unhappiness for many years, married to a man she doesn't love (and probably never has) and with a daughter whom she doesn't understand (and probably never will). But Sophie is just about independent now and Carol is determined that she's going to tell Bob that the marriage is over - that she's leaving - but something always gets in the way. As her frustration grows she writes letters - to the world at large - and posts them. It doesn't change anything, but she does feel better. She even puts a smiley face on the envelope. Full review...
Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian
Kat wants revenge on her ex-best friend, who now taunts her whenever they cross paths. Lillia wants revenge on the boy who's started treating her little sister as more than a friend. Mary wants revenge on the boy whose cruelty led to her leaving Jar Island for years, only returning now. Individually, they may not be able to do much - but as a trio, they're sure they can wreak vengeance on those people who've wronged them. Just how far will these three 17-year-olds go? Full review...
Goblins vs Dwarves by Philip Reeve
Goblins are the bad guys, right? Everybody knows that. They're just like orcs and trolls: ugly, smelly, and evil through and through, with no interest in life but eating anything that moves and having a good punch up now and again (preferably both at the same time). But what if they weren't all like that? What if one of them turned out to be a tad brighter than his greedy, thieving, brawling brothers? Full review...
Seduction of the Innocent by Max Allan Collins
Loosely based on real life events from the 1950s, Seduction of the Innocent tells a story around a group of comic book publishers, who are being attacked for their product being inappropriate. Here, the innocent are a generation of young people being corrupted by that material and the seduction is that practised by the comic books themselves. In both a book he has written and in a Congressional hearing, noted psychiatrist Dr. Werner Frederick claims that comic books are leading their audience into the world of violence, crime and sex depicted in their chosen reading material, which can only be having a negative effect on the individuals and on society as a whole. Full review...
A French Affair by Katie Fforde
Gina Makepiece has just moved to the Cotswolds to live near her sister Sally. They are intrigued when they discover that their dear Aunt Rainey has left them something in her will. In order to find out what though, they have to go to the French House, an antiques centre, where the owner, Matthew, has a letter from their aunt to open. It transpires that they have been left a stall in the centre and their aunt has requested that Matthew helps them get to grips with the world of antiques. Full review...
Infinite Sky by CJ Flood
As summer begins, Iris is finding that life can be quite tricky. Her mother has packed up and left to go travelling. Her father isn't coping too well with having been abandoned by his wife. Her brother, Sam, is in trouble at school and in danger of going off the rails generally. And Iris herself is feeling overtaken by her best friend, who is obsessed with boys and fashion while Iris prefers to run wild in the woods as she's always done. Full review...
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
I know you shouldn't judge a book by the cover, but when the cover has a title like Vampires in the Lemon Grove, I can't help but be a little intrigued, especially when the author has a recent history like Karen Russell's. This history includes a Guardian award nomination for a previous collection with another great title; St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and a Pulitzer Prize shortlisting for her novel, Swamplandia! Full review...
My Best Friend And Other Enemies by Catherine Wilkins
Jessica and Natalie have been best friends for ages. But in the last year of primary school, when new girl Amelia moves to their school, she starts to come between them, forming a secret society with Natalie - and not letting Jessica join. Can Jessica repair her friendship with Natalie, or find some new friends? Armed with only her ability to draw great cartoons, she sets out to find out. Full review...
Mountains of the Moon by I J Kay
The story starts harshly, with a release from prison, a bail hostel, a refuge for people with mental health problems as a better-than-nothing-lied-to-be-obtained kind of a sanctuary and a slow easing back into society. If you can call a housing association flat, with a decorating voucher and no furniture, only occasional power and annoying neighbours society. Full review...
The Scent of Death by Andrew Taylor
It’s hard to explain why Andrew Taylor’s novels are so chilling. They’re ghost stories that often lack ghosts, crime novels in which the crime itself feels at a remove from the rest of the action. But that’s really the secret of their power: while in most thrillers, the bogeyman is a single entity, easy to pinpoint and therefore easy to excise from the rest of the healthy fictional world, things are never so simple in the universes Taylor creates. What is frightening in an Andrew Taylor novel? Everything. Full review...
Red Joan by Jennie Rooney
It is very obvious where Jennie Rooney has taken the idea for her novel Red Joan from. As she acknowledges fully, it has its origin in the 1999 story of Melita Norwood whose espionage for the Russians wasn't discovered until she was in her late 80s, but while Norwood was a dyed in the wool communist, Rooney offers a more complex back story to her character, Joan. The result is a very different type of spy novel than normal. Joan, a widowed grandmother, is going about her day to day life when MI5 come knocking on her door to ask about her past. The narrative switches between their questions to her and her recollections of her time at Cambridge in the late 1930s where communist feelings were, by some, given a more sympathetic ear. When Joan falls for Leo, the cousin of her Russian born friend Sonya, she gets dragged into a world that is dangerous and morally complex. Full review...
The Last Time I Saw You by Eleanor Moran
As a woman in her mid thirties, Livvy feels that her life is OK. She has a good job even though she is slightly intimidated by her boss and is often in danger of being overlooked for new projects. Her love life might be non-existent but at least she shares her home with James, the one time love of her life which only works if she can settle for being good mates. However, when she hears that Sally, her best friend from many years ago, has been killed in a car accident, her world is turned upside down. Full review...
Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is being sent to a finishing school. She's none too happy about it, until she gets there and finds there's rather more to Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality than meets the eye. Because while her mother thought she was there to be finished, she's also going to learn just how to finish - 'anything or anyone who needs finishing.' Full review...
Measly Middle Ages (Horrible Histories) by Terry Deary
The Horrible Histories series is a favourite with both schools and Home Educators, but Terry Deary never intended his books to be used in education. He originally set out to write a joke book, based on a historical subject, but freed from the constraints of school - he discovered what so many of us have also found - history really is fun. Instead of a joke book with a bit of history, Deary ended up with a history book - with quite a lot of jokes. But these books were never intended as educational texts, they were written to entertain, and his Horrible Histories - Measly Middle Ages does just that, it entertains both children and adults. It is difficult to read any of Deary's books without learning something, but learning is incidental - the fun comes first. Full review...
Grown-ups Can't be Friends with Dragons by Antony Wootten
Brian finds home a bit of a trial these days. Since Mum went, Dad seem to have spent as much time as he could down at the pub. Big sister Emily does her best to keep them all fed and the washing done, but she's not that old herself and her only support is her boyfriend Mark. School's not going too well for Brian either. Whatever he does he seems to land in trouble, even when he doesn't mean to and his teacher sometimes despairs of him. What that boy needs is a good listening to. Brian does have a secret though - his cave. Full review...
Butter by Erin Lange
Bullied by his classmates at school, harassed by his parents at home, and weighing over 400 lbs, Butter really has very little to keep living for. And so he decides to stop. Living, that is. But he’s not going to throw his not unsubstantial frame under a bus, or jump off a cliff. He’s going to do what he does best – eat. Full review...
Three Pickled Herrings (Wings and Co 2) by Sally Gardner
Emily Vole and the rest of the team at Wings and Co Fairy Detective Agency are worried. They have been open for five months and have not had a single case to solve. Then Sir Walter Cross dies in strange circumstances; shooting into the sky in a cloud of purple smoke before falling to his death. Shortly afterwards they receive more tales of bad luck and disaster from Mr. Rollo the tailor and the Smith family who have been preparing for their daughter Pandora’s wedding. Suddenly Emily, the Fairy Detectives and of course, the remarkable talking cat, Fidget, find themselves with not one but three cases to solve. Are Wings and Co. up to the task? Of course they are! Full review...
Bone Quill by John Barrowman and Carole E Barrowman
Twins Matt and Em Calder have both their mother's Animare gift of bringing paintings to life and their father's telepathic Guardian gifts. This makes them an unknown to the Guardian Council - some of whom would have the twins bound, their powers trapped forever. Full review...
The Devil is White by William Palmer
Just off the West coast of Africa is the island of Muranda. It is uninhabited, but previous attempts at settling it mean there are buildings available for use. There is wild game for hunting, fruits on the trees and the climate suggests that the land could be cultivated. A group of gentlemen, not liking the slavery rules they are living under in late Eighteenth Century England, have an idea of claiming this island as a kind of Utopia where there are no slaves and everyone lives in comfort and equality. Full review...
Snug as a Bug by Tamsyn Murray and Judi Abbot
When George looked out the window at the rain, he was a bit reluctant to go out. That was until his mum told him that they would be taking lots of extra cuddles that would keep him lovely and warm. In fact, he would be as 'snug as a bug rolled up in a rug'. Added to that he would be 'like two cosy bats in thick woolly hats' and even 'as hot as three pigs in big purple wigs'. This list of how snug he will be keeps being added to all the way up to ten when Mum tells George that he will be 'tucked up like... Ten toasty geese all sharing one fleece'. Full review...
Turned Out Nice Again: On Living With the Weather by Richard Mabey
After many years of discussion of climate change it's easy to assume that this is a book about climate but it's not - or only indirectly. It's about how we live with weather and our reactions to it and climate comes into the discussion only as an examination of our reaction to the changes. You might have heard the essays which were broadcast in a five part BBC Radio 3 series Changing Climates which ran in February 2013, but as always with Richard Mabey, his words warrant thought and examination which can't be accommodated by the spoken word. Full review...
Black Sheep by Naima B Robert
Sixteen-year-old Dwayne is a badman – a wannabe rapper who hangs around with other gang members and doesn't see any future in education. Misha, high-flying university-bound daughter of a local councillor, should have nothing in common with him, but when they meet there's an undeniable attraction, and they start to date in secret. Misha makes Dwayne want to be a better person – but with his old life tempting him back at every turn, can he make a break from it, or will he be drawn back in? Full review...
Lord Kelvin's Machine by James P Blaylock
On a dark and rainy night, a weary but determined Langdon St. Ives rides out in hot pursuit of the villain who is holding his wife, Alice, captive. Catching up with his nemesis on the road, the resulting standoff between the two ends with St. Ives witnessing the cold-blooded murder of his beloved, shot in the head at point blank range whilst pinned under the wheels of a carriage. It is a scene that will play out again and again in his mind, driving him to the brink of madness and desperation. There appears, however, to be a glimmer of hope in the form of a mysterious machine in the possession of the Royal Academy of Science; a machine that may hold the secret to time itself. Is it possible for our hero to harness the power of Lord Kelvin’s Machine and rewrite history? Full review...
Skylark by Meagan Spooner
Lark's city is run on magic - they've found a way to use it like electricity, it powers everything. This magic comes from teenagers. When a child comes of age they find their magical power, which is then harvested. Once this is done, your magical abilities have gone. However, there are stories about people who are Renewable, there magic just keeps coming back. Someone like this would be invaluable to society, and unfortunately for Lark, this is exactly what she is. Determined not to be a slave, and having been tortured by the government for her powers, she escapes (with the help of another Renewable who is a prisoner of the city) and leaves. She begins her journey to find others like her - Renewables - her only clue to 'follow the birds'. Full review...
The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham by Michael Jago
John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris, volunteered to serve in the army at the outbreak of the Second World War, but his sight prevented front-line service and he joined MI5. Prior to this he’d been a journalist, working on the '’Hull Daily Mail’’ before moving to Fleet Street. He found a natural home in MI5 and a considerable talent for interrogation. At a time when spies are thought of as being flamboyant, he was the opposite - a small, bespectacled man who could easily blend into the background. His greatest skill was that he was a patient listener. John Le Carre has said that nobody who knew John and the work he was doing could have missed the description of Smiley in his first novel. Le Carre was a junior colleague in MI5. Full review...
The Disappearances by Gemma Malley
The Disappearances opens a year after Evie and Raffy escaped from the City. They have begun a new life in the Settlement - Raffy farms and Evie sews and this kibbutz-like living is like balm in comparison to the ultra-controlled, denunciation environment they left behind. But Raffy's jealousy won't leave him and it's threatening to ruin the couple's precious, new-found peace. Back in the City, Lucas is finding that switching off the System hasn't been the panacea he thought it would be. His people are lost without the rigid controls they had lived under for so long. And to make matters worse, the City's young people are disappearing. Full review...