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 Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev by Simon Morrison
This book is a biography of and based largely on the letters of Lina Prokofiev. Born Carlina Codina in Madrid in 1897, she spent most of her childhood in New York. After making her stage debut as a soprano in Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’ under the name of Lina Llubera, she met the Soviet composer and pianist Serge Prokofiev, best remembered for the children’s musical fable ‘Peter and the Wolf’. They married in 1924 and for the first thirteen years of their marriage they lived in Paris, where two sons, Oleg and Svyatoslav, were born to them. Soon after moving to Moscow in 1936 their marriage fell apart. In 1941 he left her for a writer, Mira Mendelson, 24 years his junior, whom he married six years later. Full review...
Dinosaurs in the Supermarket by Timothy Knapman and Sarah Warburton
There are dinosaurs in the supermarket!
Look, they’re everywhere!
If only grown-ups noticed them
They’d get a frightful scare.
But of course, the grown-ups are so immersed in their grocery shopping, that they don’t notice the dinosaurs hiding on the shelves, in amongst the vegetables and behind the display cases. Only one little boy is observant enough to spot the dinosaurs all around the supermarket and the fact that their antics are causing chaos. If he doesn’t do something soon, the adults may blame HIM for all the mess appearing on the walls and floors. Full review...
A Crown of Despair by Jenny Mandeville
By the age of 31 Katherine, Lady Latimer, had been married and widowed twice. Her first match to an elderly, sickening baron ended at the age of 16, as miserably as it had started two years earlier. Her second marriage to John Neville, Lord Latimer, had been more comfortable. On his death she found love for the first time in her life, but to no avail. The monarch had seen Katherine and would claim her for himself no matter what her wishes may be. This forced marriage would make her famous, for down the centuries history would recount the story of Lady Latimer using her other name: Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII. Full review...
Young Knights of the Round Table by Julia Golding
Rick is thirteen hundred years old — not bad going for a teenager. He has been living in Avalon, where time moves differently, and training (along with another two hundred human changelings) to get his revenge on the human family which abandoned him so long ago. And now he has his chance. Full review...
The Cautionary Tale of the Childe of Hale by Rachel Lyon and Vanina Starkoff
There was a giant who lived in Hale and if you care to you can visit the cottage and grave of John Middleton who reputedly topped nine feet tall and had to sleep with his feet dangling out of his cottage windows. Rachel Lyon tells the lightly-fictionalised story of how the Childe - as he was known - was taken up by the king, commanded to move to London and given every luxury. For a while he didn't regret leaving Hale at all - for once he was dry, slept in a comfortable bed and had clothes which fit him. He mixed with the royal family and the court - and life seemed good, until the day when the king commanded him to fight. This was bad enough, but even then the king's motives were not exactly as you might expect. Full review...
Beyond Belief by Mark Lingane
Joshua Richards isn't the most successful PI; clients aren't exactly lining up around the block but he lives in hope that one day his luck will change… and it does. Within a couple of weeks he has a sudden plethora of enquirers; the bad news is that none of them seem to live long enough to pay him. Meanwhile elsewhere, the Engine powering the world (literally) is dying, although the populous is blissfully oblivious. Is there a connection? Joshua Richards doesn't know, but there seems to be a huge part of himself he's not acquainted with either… at least not yet. Full review...
What The Spell by Brittany Geragotelis
Brooklyn just wants to be noticed by someone – the popular kids at her high school, the cute guy she likes, anyone other than the guidance counsellor who’s her only real friend. Luckily for her, she’s counting down the days until her sixteenth birthday - when she’ll have her powers as a witch finally unbound. When this happens, though, even though it initially seems like it will give her everything she wants, her new abilities could have caused more problems than ever. Full review...
The King's Jockey by Lesley Gray
In June 1913 Emily Wilding Davison ran out in front of the King's horse at the Epsom Derby: she died of her injuries. Her actions are often quoted in history books and whether you think her to be a suffragette martyr or a deluded woman, few are ignorant of her or what she did. But how many people remember the jockey who was up on that fateful day? Few will know his name, or that what happened at the Derby would haunt him for years to come as he believed himself responsible for killing Emily Davison. The King's Jockey is the story of Herbert 'Bertie' Jones, of the life which brought him to the Derby and of what happened in the years afterwards. Full review...
The Brave Beast by Chris Judge
Poor old Beast just wants a quiet life, resting in his peaceful garden after a long day’s work. Unfortunately, his peace is soon shattered by a cry of help from some islanders who have fled their homes after hearing a scary noise. Beast is asked to investigate; after all, he is the biggest and bravest beast around, isn’t he? Full review...
I Got a Crocodile by Nicola Killen
A lonely child wishes for a little brother or sister to play with, but ends up with a crocodile instead. The crocodile is messy and intrusive and soon starts making a nuisance of himself, causing trouble at teatime, bathtime and bedtime. Can the crocodile and the child get over their differences and become friends in the end? Full review...
Outsiders by Roberto Saviano, Carlo Lucarelli, Valeria Parrella, Piero Colaprico, Wu Ming, Simona Vinci
Outsiders is a collection of six pieces of writing by Italian authors. The pieces have been collated from a supplement to an Italian daily newspaper and six have been chosen around the theme of outsiders for translation into English. Thus, the pieces themselves were not written around this specific theme but have rather had this theme imposed on them in this collection. Since the outsider is often used in various forms by writers to observe the status quo, this is not a big leap of imagination. Full review...
Through Dead Eyes by Chris Priestley
After an unfortunate episode at school, Alex has joined his father on a business trip to Amsterdam. He had been hoping to spend some time with his father, but instead he is palmed off on Angelien, daughter of his father's new girlfriend. But Angelien is pretty and so Alex is quite happy to be shown around by her. When her boyfriend Dirk isn't around, that is. At an antique market, Alex finds himself drawn to an ancient-looking mask. He can't help but buy it. And once bought, he can't help but put it on. Full review...
The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer
For many of us, the Elizabethan age which comprised almost half of the Tudor era seems bathed in sunlight, the gilded era of Queen Elizabeth's 'sceptred isle'. It was the period in which Gloriana presided over Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the globe, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the literary epoch of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser and Sidney. Full review...
Burden of the Desert by Justin Huggler
Journalist Zoe Temple can't believe her luck when she's sent to Iraq to cover the birth of an emerging nation, not thinking that such luck can sometimes run out. Mahmoud earns his money driving journalists from story to story, sometimes only just escaping intact. However, the most dangerous thing he will ever do is fall in love. Rick Benes is one of the American soldiers on the news, his only ambition being to get his platoon home safely as Iraq's birth pangs are violent and unrelenting. And then there's Adel, a young Iraqi lad who never dreamt of violence; not until the day that Benes killed his family. Full review...
The Chicken and the Egg by Allan Plenderleith
Flo the chicken lived on a farm where every chicken laid one egg every day, except for Flo, that is. She tried everything - you'll see from the pictures that she really did try everything, but nothing worked. Then one day it rained and all the other chickens went into the coop but there was no room for Flo - so there was nothing left for her to do but hide under a tree. As the rain came down, so did something else and a really BIG egg landed right next to Flo. The other chickens were just a bit sceptical (the egg was bigger than Flo), but Flo was the maternal type and she loved that egg and cared for it all through the year. Then came the night when a predator came calling at the farm and Flo wouldn't leave her egg... Full review...
Thinking the Twentieth Century by Tony Judt and Timothy Snyder
In emulating historians from his geographical area of interest, Timothy Snyder poses questions to, and discusses ideas with, the highly esteemed British historian and writer Tony Judt, best known for his 2005 Postwar. This collaboration of the older and the younger thinker engenders the spoken book Thinking the Twentieth Century, a rather intriguing exploration of said time period. Each of its ten chapters begins with Judt’s narrative of a specific point in his personal life, and continues into debates of specific facets of history; a healthy mix of thematic and chronological approaches is used for the latter. Full review...
Killing Rachel: The Murder Notebooks by Anne Cassidy
Rose's mother and Josh's father - both members of the police cold case squad - have been missing for more than five years now. Although their bodies were never found, the authorities have always insisted that they are probably dead. But in the first book in this series, the step siblings find information that suggests Kathy and Brendan are still alive. So Rose, Josh and friend Skeggsie are pursuing every lead they have - including trying to decipher the cryptic notebooks they have discovered. Full review...
I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits
The date is 1939 and the place is what we know as Romania and Hungary. Young Zalman Stern is stopped by soldiers and for a moment he feels this is his last moment on Earth. Meanwhile, not too far away, one moment 5 year old Josef Lichtenstein is playing with his baby sister, the next his childhood is deleted by the same bigotry and blood that deletes her. One day their paths will meet. This is the story of Zalman, Josef, their descendants; their struggles, their beliefs; the cost of escape and the cost of remaining. Full review...
Fade To Black by Francis Knight
In a city hemmed in by mountains that's grown the only way it can - upwards - Rojan's job is to find people. Usually they're runaways or bounties, easy money and guilt free, just like Rojan likes it. But then Rojan's niece is taken, and despite never having met her, Rojan will do anything it takes to get her back. Full review...
Terrifying Tudors (Horrible Histories) by Terry Deary
I've always thought Terry Deary was years ahead of his time. He was writing books that boys really wanted to read many years before the current emphasis on boy friendly reading material and all the efforts to close the ever widening gender gap in reading. Horrible Histories have always been brilliant to motivate boys to read, but the older copies do show their age. Progress has been made in the way books are printed to make them more accessible to struggling readers over the last 20 years. Horrible Histories new editions celebrating 20 Horrible Years has addressed this issue and makes the books not only the type of books that boys want to read, but also the type of book that younger children or those with reading difficulties can read. Full review...
London Calling: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery by Sara Sheridan
Mirabelle Bevan is an intriguing character. Warm, resourceful and extremely clever, she spent her war years in intelligence (though not active duty) and then, as the war ended and her long-time lover died, she withdrew to the coast and the dubious joys of running a debt-collection agency. Accidentally getting involved in solving a major crime with her vibrant young companion Vesta gets her noticed, however, and it isn't long before she finds herself knee-deep in another mystery. A childhood friend flees London and an accusation of murder to beg Vesta and her employer to help him prove his innocence. This leads the intrepid pair into the world of smoky, music-filled basements and the black market, where they encounter criminals from all across the social spectrum. Full review...
I Know You're Going to be Happy: A Story of Love and Betrayal by Rupert Christiansen
Kathleen Lyon, whose family were respectable and hard working but with no claim to celebrity other than a distant relationship to the Earl of Clanmorris married Michael Christiansen, scion of a newspaper family, in a fashionable London church in 1948. Both were talented and successful journalists and they were very much in love. I know you're going to be happy, wrote a senior Fleet Street figure and Rupert Christiansen wryly points out that this was too tempting to fate. There were two children of the marriage and when Rupert was four and his sister Anna just a few months old Michael Christiansen announced to the family that a photographer from his paper would be coming to take pictures of them all that afternoon - and he then told his wife that their eleven-year marriage was over and he was leaving to live with his secretary. Full review...
The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
Edie Middlestein almost has the American dream within her grasp. She trained as a lawyer, has a husband, a daughter who followed her professional footsteps and a son married to an ambitious wife who provided him with two high-achieving children. There are just two flies in the ointment preventing the dream's arrival: 1. Edie is so morbidly obese that she has to undergo surgery; and 2. this is the moment her husband chooses to leave her. Apart from that… Full review...
Modesty Blaise - The Girl In The Iron Mask by Peter O'Donnell
n this volume our globe-trotting heroine Modesty and her faithful Willie land up at a jungle hospital, only to find the people providing it with useful drugs are also creating their own much worse drugs nearby; find the Mafia just one man away from taking over Australia – and therefore give him a male and female tag team back-up; and stumble into the wicked games of a pair of corrupt, evil billionaires in the Alps. There is no let-up in the global shenanigans, the daring-do, or the whipcrack action – and we wouldn’t want it any other way… Full review...
One Seriously Messed-Up Weekend: In the Otherwise Un-Messed-Up Life of Jack Samsonite by Tom Clempson
Two years after the messed-up week described in the first Jack Samsonite book, things aren't all that different for our hero. He's still trying to get together with a girl - despite having ended book 1 in bed with someone, things didn't go as he would have wanted after that. He's also struggling at school again, and it's even more important than his attempts to pass his GCSEs were. This time, he needs to get into film school. He has a weekend to make a film, and he needs a girl to kiss, and at least one enemy to fight. Full review...
Requiem by Lauren Oliver
Out in the Wilds, Lena is now trying to cope with the return of her first love Alex along with her feelings for Julian, but these relationship issues take a backseat as life becomes very dangerous for her, and everyone else. Back in Portland, her friend Hana is set to marry the man who will become Mayor - a perfect pairing, surely? While both girls have changed a lot since the start of book one, the biggest changes are still to come... Full review...
The Colours of Corruption by Jacqueline Jacques
Mary, an impoverished cleaner, is witness to a murder. Archie is one of the first artists to work with the police and creates a picture of the man she says she saw. Taken by her looks he persuades Mary to sit for a portrait, but the man who buys the portraitwould rather buy Mary herself... Full review...
Harold Finds A Voice by Courtney Dicmas
Harold is a parrot, quite a talented parrot in fact. He is able to mimic almost anything with great accuracy. From the washing machine to the toaster, the vacuum cleaner to the phone Harold delights in imitating every single sound he hears in the apartment in which he lives. One day Harold decides that he has tired of all these familiar sounds and ventures out into the big city where is he delighted to discover a whole range of exciting new sounds for him to copy. However something is worrying Harold; despite all the many sounds he makes he is worried that he does not have a sound of his own. Surely he must have a voice and if he does what does it sound like? Full review...
Raining Fire by Alan Gibbons
Gangs have always dominated the Green, an inner-city estate with an ominous undercurrent of violence. Growing up in the Green, Ethan has never really known anything different; however, he has always harboured a hope to escape from the place, and his position on a professional football training programme might just give him the chance to do so. Unfortunately, the Green won't let him go so easily. Drawn into a violent feud between two major gangs, Ethan will have no choice but to play his part, if he doesn't want a gun put to the heads of everyone he cares about. Full review...
Giants: The Dwarfs of Auschwitz: The Extraordinary Story of the Lilliput Troupe by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev
The title of this book does of course carry a sense of irony, although we never quite know exactly how much. When a man of diminutive stature was born in rural Romania in the 1860s nobody was to know what would happen to his lineage – there was no clue then that he would father ten children, and seven of them would inherit his genetic dwarfism. But history has pieced together all that followed, including the careers those children had as a performance troupe, belting out showtunes to their own accompaniment, and acting in their own tragi-comic skits. And then having the limelight stolen from them by the Nazis, and a transportation to Auschwitz. And then being surprisingly saved, and given what passed as a cushty life, fed and together, but tortured at the hands of the camp doctor, avidly researching anything he thought might shed clues on what singled out his Aryan race's genetic destiny. I say the amount of irony is unknown because we are not told exactly how short these little characters are – but he, the doctor, would have known. As one of the more ominous sentences you'll read all year has it – 'Mengele had plans for them'. Full review...