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 Hunger and Howling of Killian Lone by Will Storr
Killian Lone grows up in a home lacking in love and security. For these he relies on his elderly aunt Dorothy, an accomplished cook. Indeed his visits to Dorothy revolve around food as he absorbs all she can teach him, slowly inheriting her passion and skill along with her knowledge. This attachment to food then becomes his career choice, leading to the unfortunate discovery of a family secret that has remained hidden for a very long time. Why 'unfortunate'? There's a reason for its concealment… a very, very good reason. Full review...
Prince Charmless by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
Prince Charmless was probably born complaining and every day there is something new to complain about. Amongst his complaints are that he wants to be a panda rather than a prince; he wants to live in a big, gold palace instead of a silly, silver, little one; and he wants to get up in the middle of the night rather than in the morning. If he can find something to complain about, he will, and Prince Charmless does not worry about upsetting people when he does complain. Unsurprisingly, the palace staff has had enough and all decide to leave. Full review...
Perception by Kim Harrington
After solving a murder over the summer, Clarity 'Clare' Fern finds herself the centre of attention at school. Mostly it's annoying, but harmless - popular girls wanting her to use her unique gift for show and entertainment - but someone is sending her increasingly creepy messages, and Clare keeps getting the feeling she's being followed. Full review...
The First Crusade: The Call from the East by Peter Frankopan
At the now famous Council of Clermont in November 1095, Pope Urban II responded to calls of distress from the eastern Byzantine Empire by issuing the dramatic call to arms that sparked the First Crusade. But there are at least two sides to every story, especially in history. Western histories of the Crusades have concentrated on that Council and the journeys of Crusaders across Europe: Peter Frankopan's 'The Call from the East' instead draws attention to Emperor Alexios I Komnenus and the plight of his Byzantine Empire. Full review...
Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a Very British Coup by Christopher de Bellaigue
A good historian will take a single important fact and make good use of it to expound his general thesis. De Bellaigue demonstrates this masterfully when he states, 'Between 1876 and 1915 a quarter of the world changed ownership, with a half a dozen European states taking the lion’s share.' Persia, however, during this time was judged to be too poor to be worth occupying. It had, for instance, only a few miles of railway track. Secondly, Russia and Britain both had schemes for control but their mutual animosity gave the Persians room for manoeuvre. The latter were skilled at playing each off against the other and obtaining concessions. However, the conflict sharpened over the control of a critical resource, oil. This was controlled upon the outbreak of the First World War by the major share held in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, later to become BP, held by the British. It was Muhammad Mossadegh, one of the first liberals of the Middle East was determined that this resource beneath his native land had to belong to his own people. Full review...
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell
In London, in July 1976 it hadn't rained for months. Gardens - if you could call them that any longer - were thick with aphids and what water there was, which was to be consumed or used for washing, came from a standpipe. Robert Riordan told his wife, Gretta, that he was going round the corner to buy a newspaper. This was what he did every morning, but this time he didn't come back. The police weren't interested as the closer they looked the more it was obvious that there was an intention to disappear. Gretta turned to her three adult children for help. But how much help would they - could they - be? Full review...
Byron Easy by Jude Cook
Byron Easy is a 30-year-old poet and product of a failed marriage who, in turn, has a failed marriage of his own. He works in a shop whilst waiting to be discovered as a poet. How did his depression-tinted life reach this point? Once there was hope, love and many good times and, as he sits on a train travelling to his mother's for Christmas with a bag full of money, he reflects and ponders while trying to escape something more tangible and dangerous than the past. Full review...
The Polka Dot Girl by Darragh McManus
Police Detective Eugenie Auf der Maur is called in to investigate the murder of Madeleine Greenhill the daughter of the wealthy socialite Misericordiae. The more she looks into it, the less it seems an open and shut case. In fact it opens a Pandora's Box that shakes Hera City to its core, not to mention its ability to agitate Eugenie's core a little too. The fact is that somebody wants her dead. Full review...
The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris
When did the Norman conquest of England start and end? This generous panoramic history takes a wide sweep of almost the whole of the eleventh century in England, although as the title indicates, the focal point is that pivotal date of 1066. Morris begins his narrative at around the year 1000, a time when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were under threat from the Viking invasions from Alfred and Ethelred the Unready. Having long been vulnerable to raids from Scandinavia, England then had to contend with the same from France. The power struggles that followed the illness and death of the childless Edward the Confessor (who had nominated William of Normandy as his preferred successor in 1051), the apparent seizure of the English throne by Harold Godwinson who then had himself crowned with remarkable haste, the invasion led by Harold’s brother Tostig and Harald Hardrada of Norway and the death of both the latter at Stamford Bridge, are dealt with in painstaking detail. Full review...
The Grim Company by Luke Scull
The gods are dead. The Magelords murdered them and hurled their bodies from heaven and are also slowly dominating the world below. Dorminia is already in their iron grasp, policed by the feared Crimson Watch and the terrorising Augmentors. It's not even safe to think as Mind Hawks monitor and punish with pain and suffering. However there is a resistance, albeit fragmented and comparatively impotent but the situation is worsening so they must make a stand or lose everything (and everyone) they love. Is the evil magic stronger than the heroes' own resources? They're dying to find out. Full review...
Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J Bick
Jenna is 16 years old, and fresh out of a psychiatric hospital when her parents enrol her at a new high school in the wilds of Wisconsin. Being the new kid at school adds to an already iffy situation (parents who ignore her angst in favour of their own; a brother who enlisted to get away from them) and she’s not really looking forward to term starting. But then she meets someone, someone special who is kind to her, pays attention to her, looks out for her. Someone she can trust. Mr Anderson is a Chemistry teacher and athletics coach, but he’s more than that to Jenna. Against the rules, and against the odds, he becomes her ally, and so much more. Full review...
The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Mara knows that the things that have been haunting her for the past year are not necessarily all in her head. The problem is persuading everyone else of that. When Mara's parents don't believe that she saw Jude - Jude who died in the building collapse that started all of Mara's problems - alive and well, Mara realises that anything she says is just going to convince them she's more crazy. She tries to pretend that she knows she has problems and she's trying to get better, but that's made difficult when Jude keeps trying to scare her - leaving dead cats in the garden, messages written in blood. Full review...
Geek Girl by Holly Smale
Harriet Manners is clever, works hard, and retains lots of information. She knows more facts than just about anyone else at her school. She just doesn't know why barely anyone seems to like her... Full review...
The White Shadow by Andrea Eames
As a general principle I am a little tired of books that start at the end. I want to argue for a return to good old fashioned narrative where stories start at the beginning, go on until the end, and then stop. Full review...
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...