The Bookbag
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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Inferno Decoded: The essential companion to the myths, mysteries and locations of Dan Brown's Inferno by Michael Haag
Here be spoilers. Not so much in my review, but certainly in its subject, a very quickly produced companion guide to the latest Dan Brown blockbuster. It's not so much a page-by-page guide, but certainly serves as an educational and intelligent look at the background to the biggest-selling book of 2013. Full review...
A Crumpet Calamity (Pip Street) by Jo Simmons
This is not Dip Street, nor Chip Street, this is Pip Street, and it's where Bobby and his best friend Imelda live – but how long Bobby stays depends on his father getting more income at his crumpet factory so they can afford living there. Bobby's idea is to have an open improve-the-crumpet competition, which is immediately popular around town. Also immediately popular, especially with Imelda, is the new boy on Pip Street, who claims to have no interest in cooking crumpets. But is he as perfect as he seems…? Full review...
The Son by Philipp Meyer
Philipp Meyer's second novel, The Son, is an epic, multi-generational saga of Texas life. Tracing the McCullough family from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present day, Meyer joins those writing today's masterpieces of American 'dirty realism': Ron Rash, David Vann, Richard Ford and especially Cormac McCarthy. Like McCarthy's Blood Meridian, The Son is a gory Western that transcends a simplistic cowboys-versus-Indians dichotomy to draw broader conclusions about the universality of violence in a nihilistic world. Full review...
Memory: She's Dying to Remember by Christoph Marzi
Jude can see the dead. His life has changed immeasurably since he saw his first ghost about six months ago. He's lost interest at school and become even further distanced from his father, who works away a lot. Instead, he spends most of his time in Highgate Cemetery with the shapeshifting vixen Miss Rathbone and a circle of dead people headed by ex-rock star Gaskell. Jude feels more at home with ghosts than he does with the living. Full review...
My Funny Family Gets Bigger by Chris Higgins
We've met Mattie Butterfield before in My Funny Family and My Funny Family on Holiday. Mattie is the worrier of the family although she is doing her best to get out of the habit and only makes her worry lists when she feels under pressure. Mattie worries about people - not because there's anything bad going on. You see the Butterfield are a lovely family: they don't have a lot of money but they do their best to be happy and to look after their extended family. They don't have a lot of expensive toys or go on foreign holidays - but they're the sort of people you'd like to live next door to - only you can't, because that's where Uncle Vesuvius lives. He was Mum's foster dad when she was young. Full review...
Walk Me Home by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Carly and Jen’s mother is dead and they have no other living relative. Scared that they will be placed in care in separate homes, the sisters decide that they have to find their mother’s former boyfriend, Teddy, one of the only people to have shown them any care and affection in their short lives. The only problem is that they are not sure where he is now, other than in California, and have no money or means of getting there. They decide to walk but how long will it take and what will they find waiting for them when they finally reach their destination? Full review...
Mistress of the Sea by Jenny Barden
Mistress of the Sea is an epic adventure involving pirates, star-crossed lovers and a lust for gold and vengeance. The novel, set in Tudor times, is based on the real-life events in the life of Francis Drake, notably the raid at Nombre de Dios and the rout of the English fleet at San Juan de Ulua. Barden weaves an exciting adventure/romance story against this backdrop, which results in an immersive narrative that excites the mind and senses. Full review...
The Wickedest Witch in the World by Kaye Umansky and Gerald Kelley
Everyone knows the story of Hansel and Gretel. At least we thought we knew. But as the saying goes there are always two sides to every story and this one is told from the perspective of Old Maggit, The Wickedest Witch in the World. You see Maggit really wasn't so wicked after all. It was the children who were wicked. Well, maybe they were not exactly wicked, but they were most certainly obnoxious, and old Maggit's no nonsense manner and just a bit of attention may be exactly what these children need to turn them around. Maggit really has built a house of gingerbread to lure children into as a means of finally winning the Wickedest Witch in the World title. But once she has the children - she has no idea what to do them and ends up teaching them manners. As to the whole cannibalism story - that was all made up of course. The children decide the only way for Maggit to win is to lie - and they come up with a whopper. It was so good people have been repeating it for centuries with the original tale thought to have originated in the 14th century. Full review...
Mary's Hair by Eoin Colfer
Mary hates her hair. It has black bits and brown bits, curly bits and straight bits and Mary feels that it looks very much like a bush. Her Daddy says if you don't like something, you should change it (instead of whining about it to your parents when they want to relax with a cup of tea). Mary's Daddy, like many others, should watch what he says to children. Mary follows his advice with hilarious results. First she cuts her hair, but when that doesn't go to plan she decides to dye it. She has learned something from the whole hair cutting experience though, this time she plans to try the dye out on someone else first. Full review...
Dead Brigade by James Lovegrove
Sergeant Jonah Hammond's career has been at a standstill in the years since he launched a complaint against a reckless commanding officer whose arrogance resulted in the massacre of British soldiers. Now that same officer is offering Hammond another chance. This time Hammond won't have to worry about some idiot getting his men all killed - because they are already dead. Hammond has been given the task of training a crack squad of reanimated soldiers, immune to pain, disease and capable of fighting with massive injuries. These living dead are reanimated by nanobots. They are capable of learning, following instructions, and meant to be incapable of independent thought. However, it soon becomes apparent that things don't always go the way they are meant to. These are not mindless killing machines; a part of them is still human, still the soldier they once were, trapped within a decaying corpse, kept refrigerated until ready for the next mission. They have no life, nor do they have the luxury of death. Full review...
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
'My father still lives back the road past the weir in the cottage I was reared in. I go there every day to see is he dead and every day he lets me down. He hasn't yet missed a day of letting me down.'
This is how we meet Bobby - Bobby Mahon, as we'll learn - and he's brutally honest about his feelings for his father, who has deliberately drunk away the farm he inherited from his father. But Frank Mahon isn't Bobby's only, or even main, problem. He's been earning big money as Pokey Burke's foreman but the financial crash has hit and Pokey has done a runner. An investment in a fake island off Dubai finished him and now he's disappeared. On the estate of forty houses he was building, just two are occupied and the rutted roads are nothing more than a racetrack for the joyriders. Full review...
Twirlymen: The Unlikley History of Cricket's Greatest Spin Bowlers by Amol Rajan
Although they may lack the bang and bluster of the fast bowlers, the three leading wicket takers of all time in Test cricket are all spinners. They may look calmer in their run ups and action, but the effect they put on the ball can be incredible. Rather than blasting a batsman out, they bamboozle them. That's why Amol Rajan thinks them deserving of a book all of their own, and Twirlymen is the result of that belief. Full review...
Beyond Rue Morgue: Further Tales of Edgar Allan Poe's 1st Detective by Paul Kane and Charles Prepolec (Editors)
C. Auguste Dupin is often regarded as the first fictional detective and at the very least Edgar Allan Poe’s character was the blueprint for many sleuths to come, most notably Sherlock Holmes. Dupin is an eccentric genius from Paris whose use of logic and deduction aid the police on their most baffling cases. The characters literary debut was in the short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue in 1841 and between 1842 and 1844 Poe wrote two more short stories about Dupin and his exploits. Beyond Rue Morgue contains nine stories (in addition to the original Poe tale) by various authors and gives many different takes on the same character or influenced by him. From samurai assassins and the apocalypse to an agoraphobic distant relative of Dupin attempting to solve a murder without even leaving her home; the different writers all take the intriguing character to places we wouldn’t expect and the creativity of all keeps the character fresh from story to story. Full review...
The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson
This is the memoir of one of the youngest people on Oskar Schindler's famous list of Jews saved from the Nazis during World War II. It opens between the wars, with Leon's family living in the small Polish town of Narewka. There wasn't much money but everyone was happy. Leon's father moved to Krakow in the hopes of making a better life and when Leon and his siblings eventually join him, you can feel the wonder of a little boy new to the big city. Full review...
The Burning Shadow (Gods and Warriors Book 2) by Michelle Paver
A year after the first book in this series finished, we rejoin Hylas who has been captured, enslaved, and forced to work in the copper mines on Thalakrea, a volcanic island. The Crows still have the dagger of prophecy, so this evil clan is still in control. Hylas is determined to escape and find his missing sister, but the mines are dangerous and run by ruthless slavers. Full review...
The List of my Desires by Gregoire Delacourt
Jocelyne is in her forties, married to Jo, and mother to one stillborn little girl and two twenty-something children who have grown distant from her with time. She owns a haberdashery shop in the small town where she lives, and she's writing an online blog which is growing in popularity. Although there have been bumps in the past, with her violent husband struggling with their little girl's death, the early death of her mother and her father's debilitating stroke her life is now reasonably stable and at the start of the story she seems, on the surface, to be happy although one suspects that beneath the veneer there are unresolved issues for Jocelyne. Full review...
Cold Steel: Spiritwalker: Book Three by Kate Elliott
The Master of the Wild Hunt has stolen away Cat Barahal's husband. She's being blamed for a murder. Fire mage James Drake wants to kill her. And rebellion is burning up the streets back in Europa. Can Cat save her man and crush her enemies, and maybe even change her world? Full review...
The Gallery of Vanished Husbands by Natasha Solomons
On her thirtieth birthday Juliet Montague went out to buy a fridge for the princely sum of twenty-one guineas. She'd saved hard for it - and her parents had given her the final few pounds - but then Juliet did something impulsive. Instead of buying a fridge she commissioned a portrait of herself and so began her involvement in the post-war art scene. Juliet wasn't - by any stretch of the imagination - an artist, but she had a startling ability to spot a good picture. It was simply something which she knew, much as she had known for certain that her husband had left for good on the day he didn't return home as expected. Full review...
Cruel Summer by James Dawson
Twelve months after Janey Bradshaw's suicide, her friends get together in a secluded Spanish villa. After a year apart, there's a lot to talk about - but the elephant in the room is Janey's death. Ryan Hayward isn't convinced she killed herself - and when someone else from their old school turns up, they seem to confirm his suspicions. Except very quickly, there's another dead body, and Ryan and his friends need to get rid of the corpse. Of course, where there's a murder victim, there's also a murderer - who can it be? Will anyone stay alive to find out? Full review...
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
Gregor is in the laundrette, daydreaming about his problems since his father vanished a couple of years ago, and not being too mindful of where his youngest sister is playing. The next thing he knows is that she has found the portal to an incredible underground world, and they are both entering it. The Underland is a home to gigantic, talking animals, and a parlous state of play between them and the human inhabitants – who have a very important prophecy about a certain boy entering their domain and becoming an instant warrior. Is Gregor up to it, so far down as he is? Full review...
Paralysed with Fear by Gareth Williams
Gareth Williams, author of Angel of Death, turns his focus from the history of the plague to that of polio in Paralysed with Fear. From the first report of a case in 1700-Strasbourg, right through to polio in the present day, he traces polio’s progression past age limits, socioeconomic boundaries and geographical borders. Almost more intriguing, though, is the insight we receive to the cut-throat competition between scientists who sought to use polio as a means for making history. Full review...
My Funny Family on Holiday by Chris Higgins and Lee Wildish
Mattie Butterfield and her family are going on holiday to Cornwall and as ever for Mattie there's lots for her to worry about. What if they lost one of them on the train to Cornwall? What if someone fell over the edge of the cliff? What if... As usual Mattie can think of all sorts of things which could go wrong and it looks as though her worst fears are going to be realised when the family manages to leave Jellico the dog on the station platform. It's a long journey to the south - eight hours on the train and then another hour on the bus to get them to the campsite, but after a couple of days they've all settled into a relaxed way of life. Mattie makes friends with a local boy too - although strangely enough no one else can see him. Full review...
Last To Die by Tess Gerritsen
Somewhere in Italy one summer, a group of people are gathered to take down Icarus. They have no qualms about their mission of taking out this immensely wealthy man. His wife and his children are merely by-standers, not to be involved. His habits have been studied. He is a monster, to be dealt with. Full review...
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
On the run from the Darkling, Alina and Mal are together at last. But when he emerges from the Shadow Fold with a horrific new power, the Darkling could prove himself to be more dangerous than ever. Alina will be torn between her growing power, the man she loves, and her patriotism - can she survive the oncoming storm? Full review...
My Funny Family by Chris Higgins and Lee Wildish
Mattie Butterfield is a worrier. Well, it's not surprising with a family like hers - something always seems to be going wrong. Or if it doesn't go wrong then it very easily might. She gets upset that the tomato seeds which she and Lucinda have planted at school won't thrive because they're in the cold, dark cupboard and they're all wet. Lucinda's parents don't seem to like each other very much and it might be that they're going to get divorced. What would happen if Mattie's parents stopped liking each other? Why does grandma seem not to like the Butterfield children very much? You see, when you think about it, there's lots to worry about. And Mattie is particularly worried about why Mum has been to the doctor. Full review...
The Black Count: Glory, revolution, betrayal and the real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
While the novels of Alexandre Dumas, like The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, weren't true, they were based on a real hero - Dumas's own father. Born the son of a slave and a French nobleman, General Alexandre Dumas would go on to rise to fame and fortune during the French Revolution, only to face racism, betrayal, and a rivalry with Napoleon Bonaparte which would eventually lead to the virtual disappearance from history of this incredible figure. Full review...
The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix by Kate Saunders
So I’ve jumped right into the world of Skittle Lane, going straight to the sequel, The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix. One of the great things about this book is that while going straight to number two makes you want to find and read the first one because you know it’ll be a good book, you’re not lost. It stands easily by itself as a fairly awesome magical adventure. Full review...