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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Fortunately, the Milk... by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell
A boy and a girl are horrified to find their fridge is milkless, which means their cereal will be too dry for their breakfast. Luckily, even though mum is off working away from home, dad can nip out and fetch some. Or he could if he weren't as a result kidnapped by aliens, threatened by pirates and gods, forced to cooperate with a dinosaur in a hot-air balloon, and a lot more… Fortunately, the milk can save him and breakfast – or can it? Full review...
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Back in 1974 six teenagers met at summer camp and did all those things which you get to do when your parents are not around to stop you. They smoked pot, drank vodka and Tangs - and talked way into the night about anything and everything. Plays were put on, animations were perfected, but most importantly friendships were made that would last for years - for some it would be a lifetime. Back in 1974, as Nixon left the White House under a particularly heavy cloud, 'The Interestings', as one of their number called them, knew that they could achieve anything they set their minds to. For three summers they returned to Spirit-in-the-Woods and then they faced the real world. Full review...
The Second Life of Amy Archer by R S Pateman
Ten years ago, a little girl vanished from a playground near her London home. Her body was never found. A decade on, and her parents are different people, her mother Beth still hung up on what did, or didn’t happen that day, her father Brian trying to move on with his new family, his new daughters. On the anniversary of her disappearance, a strange visitor arrives on Beth’s doorstep saying she knows what happened to Amy Archer. She also knows a great deal about Beth’s life, and Amy’s, from that time. Things no one should know. No one could know. But the only explanation is beyond belief. Either someone is playing a cruel joke on Beth, or it’s time to start believing in miracles. Full review...
Severed Heads, Broken Hearts by Robyn Schneider
Ezra Faulkner thinks that everyone has a tragedy in their life, something which will forever define you. His happens when he loses his girlfriend, his tennis ambitions, and his social life in one night after a car accident shatters his knee. Drawn back towards his old friend Toby - whose own tragedy, years ago, was to catch a decapitated head on a theme park ride, forever dooming him to misfit status - he meets new girl Cassidy. With new friends around him and a potential new love, can Ezra rebuild his life? Full review...
America's Mistress: The Life and Times of Eartha Kitt by John L Williams
Two quotes on the back of the dust jacket testify to the power and public perception of Eartha Kitt during her lifetime. Orson Welles once called her ‘the most exciting woman in the world’, while to the CIA she was ‘a sadistic nymphomaniac’. Full review...
Paradise by Simone Elkeles
Caleb Becker has spent the last year in juvie for hitting Maggie Armstrong in his car whilst drink driving. He thinks getting out of jail is the first step to things going back to normal, but he's about to learn exactly how much can change in a year and the terrible price of a secret within his family. Full review...
The Night Rainbow by Claire King
You know, there’s no reason a book has to be happy in order to be good. The Night Rainbow is proof of this. Set geographically in France and actually in the head of a five year old girl, it follows the adventures of the summer when Pea’s (short for Peony or Pivoine, depending who you ask) pregnant mother was too miserable to care for her; the summer following the still birth of Pea’s sister and the tragic accidental death of her father. Full review...
Dead Rich by Katia Lief
Mac Macleary and his wife Karin are retired homicide detectives. He's set up in the private investigation business, while she is trying hard to be a full-time mother, while still having to actively resist having her name on the office name-plate, and not-quite-but-almost resenting not being able to join him on stake-outs. Full review...
The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell
Life may be tough in the Missouri town where Alma grew up but at least she has a job. She learns and experiences a lot as maid to the wealthy Glencross family, but many of the experiences aren't the sort she'd like to relive. To top it all off, in 1929 the Arbor, a local dance club, explodes into flames killing 42 people including Alma's younger sister Ruby. The cause remains a mystery as factions are blamed or viewed suspiciously. However Alma knows the truth, a truth that remains secret until decades later during a visit from her grandson. Full review...
Samurai by Ian Beck and Daniel Atanasov
The hero of our story is nameless. He is only the Samurai, and not even quite that. He is dishonoured, a masterless Samurai, or Ronin. We do not know his master's fate but we can only assume it is death, and that Ronin has fled the field taking his injured dog to safety. The land is desolate and barren and both the text and the superbly drawn illustrations build a feeling of darkness and despair. The path he travels on is lined with skeletons of defeated warriors lashed to wagon wheels. It gives the reader the impression of the road to hell. The young Samurai takes refuge in a ruined palace, yet another sign of devastation upon the land, seeming to exist for the next few days only to care for Cho, his dog, while awaiting the punishment of the gods for his failure. He rises from despair to help others, first to defeat a demon haunting the palace, and then undertaking a journey to find and defeat another deadly demon. Soon the young warrior comes to a village suffering under the most horrific of curses. His courage will be put to the test as he must risk even his beloved Cho to save an innocent girl and lift the curse. Full review...
Where's Tim's Ted? It's Time for Bed! by Ian Whybrow and Russell Ayto
Tim is visiting Grandad and Granny Red on the farm. It’s bed time, but Tim can’t find Ted. He makes them look for him, but they don’t really bother. Just a perfunctory peek behind the sofa and, when that doesn’t unearth the teddy, Tim is packed off to bed with the promise that they’ll look again in the morning. But it’s hard to sleep without your toy, isn’t it? So, deep in the middle of the night, Tim creeps out of bed to go searching once more. He’s not alone, though. Grandad and Granny Red might be fast asleep but others on the farm are awake, and like the Pied Piper, Tim soon finds himself with quite a following. Full review...
A Private View by Crystalle Valentino
Jemma is a model who thinks nothing of photographers taking an interest in her. In fact, she rather likes it. After all, that’s the sort of thing that leads to more work. But when the renowned Dominic Vane comes after her, the works he has in mind is something a little different. As an erotic romance, you can imagine what he wants her body for. Hint: it’s not just as a clothes horse. And so, thanks to a helpfully understanding boyfriend with whom she’s in an open relationship, Jemma decides to welcome Dominic into her life… and her bed. Except for some reason, he’s playing hard to get. The more he eludes her, the more she wants him, and their initial relationship turns on its head as she becomes the one now pursuing him. Full review...
Momo and Snap are not Friends by Airlie Anderson
La la la!
Tum ti tum!
Eek!
Ack!
Y’know? Full review...
George's Dragon Goes to School by Claire Freedman and Russell Julian
I would have been useless during Take your pet to school week. The goldfish who lived with us for short moments of my life (and the entirety of their short lives) wouldn’t have been very portable and even if they had, they’d have been a bit boring, swimming in circles mouthing 'o-o-o' . I would have been immensely jealous of anyone who brought in a lively puppy or a cute snuffly bunny rabbit. As a bit of a trophy whore even at a young age, I would have been very sad that I wasn’t really in the running for the Best Pet cup. Full review...
Thor and the Master of Magic by Kevin Crossley-Holland and Siku
I grew up with tales of the heroes of Asgard, and this story was always a firm favourite, but today's children are more likely to know Thor from The Avengers. This book is sure to interest any young comic book fans, and the illustrations will certainly help with this, but it is still faithful to the original myth, and in my mind would count as literature, rather than just a fun read - but I wouldn't tell the children that. This is an excellent retelling of Thor's visit to Utgarda - Loki ( the giant king's hall) from Prose Edda a collection of Norse poetry thought to have been compiled by the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century. Full review...
This Belongs to Me: Cool Ways to Personalize Your Stuff by Anna Wray
This Belongs to Me contains 14 design projects that describe how to customise everything from clothing to furniture. The book encourages people to get creative by showing the basic techniques and skills involved for each project, but leaving the actual creative design up to the personal preferences of the reader. Full review...
The 15 Essential Marketing Masterclasses for Your Small Business by Dee Blick
A problem which will be common to most small businesses is finding the time to market yourself. You're small - you spend your time working to earn the money - that is (after all) why you're in business. You don't have the time to add on something which begins to seem like a whole new business in itself and you're probably not making the money which would allow you to employ someone to do it for you. Besides - where do you start? What's going to be worth your time and money? What should you avoid? How can you find out without wading through lots of theory and science and still be left wondering if this is the road you should be taking? Full review...
The Summer of Telling Tales by Laura Summers
Grace and Ellie are at the seaside with their mum. They're not on a holiday, though - they've escaped from their domineering and abusive father. As the two settle into a new school and make new friends, Grace - who only ever speaks to Ellie - meets someone she can be herself around, while Ellie reinvents herself as Elle, a confident and popular girl instead of the shy and scared youngster she used to be. But can they ever be free of the shadow of her father? Full review...
Moo! Said Morris by Jon Lycett-Smith
There was a little mouse called Morris and he was a very unusual mouse. Whilst all the other mice said Squeak, Morris said:
MOO! and
HONK! and
NEIGH! Full review...
Sea Monsters: The Lore and Legacy of Olaus Magnus's Marine Map by Joseph Nigg
A confession. When reading hardbacks I take the paper cover, if there is one, off, to keep it pristine. Sometimes there's a second benefit, with Longbourn by Jo Baker as an example of having an embossed illustration underneath, or suchlike. But with this book I won't be alone, for the cover folds out into an amazing artwork, such as has only two extant original copies. It's a coloured replica of a large map of the northern seas and Scandinavia, dating from 1539, and is in a category of three major artful scientific papers from where the whole 'here be dragons' cliché about maps comes from. Its creator, Olaus Magnus, followed it up years later with a commentary of all the sea creatures he drew on it, but Magnus has waited centuries for this delicious volume to commentate on both together, in such a lovely fashion. Full review...
Make a Mobile: 12 Cool Designs to Press Out and Hang by Lydia Crook
Make a Mobile is a delightful crafting book crammed full of projects for parents and children to share. The book contains 12 unique designs that fit together beautifully and are surprisingly easy to make. The perforated pages allow the components of each mobile to be simply pushed out from the page without the need for nimble scissor skills. Full review...
The Secret Mirror (Emily Feather) by Holly Webb
It was hard enough for Emily to cope with the news that she was adopted. She had missed all of the signs, but now everything seemed painfully obvious. She didn’t resemble her sisters and brother, with their slender, delicate features. 'They belonged together.' It was clear that Emily was different from the rest of her family, but the real shock was when she realised how different she was. The Feather family were not even human. They were high-ranking fairies and their home served as a gateway between the human and fairy realms. Full review...
Blood and Guts and Rats' Tail Pizza by Vivian French and Chris Fisher
Despite a revolting menu with dishes like slug and snail stew or rats' tail pizzas, Billy Bone's café was usually packed at lunchtime. Perhaps because there was no other place to eat. All of their customers were male, because neither Billy Bones, nor his assistant Hank liked girls at all. A large sign in the window proclaimed Absolutely No Girls! But one day the customers disappeared - and what was worse, Hank soon discovered their customers had all been stolen by girls. The girls were very large, green and hairy but they were girls nonetheless, and their traveling cake shop had enticed all of Billy Bone's customers away. Full review...
The Other Woman (The Roxy Compendium) by Graham Thomas
In the first part of The Roxy Compendium we discovered that one of our heroes had had his heart broken by a lady called Abigail Hardwoode and there were hints that this lady's history was rather unusual. Graham Thomas isn't one to leave us in suspense for too long and he takes us back more than a quarter of a century to the time when Abigail first met her beloved Benjamin Ananas. What she could not know was that events in France involved a British Secret Agent when his family was kidnapped - and then Abigail's parents when they were tricked into undertaking a mission to rescue them which was off the books. When they were captured only one man, agent Hilary Weaver, believed them to be innocent and Abigail, snatched from her peaceful, high society life, headed to France to find them - and broke her lover's heart. Full review...
Big Nate Compilation 3 : Genius Mode by Lincoln Peirce
They say you should live your life like an adventure, and Big Nate certainly does that, even if it is only four panels at a time, meaning the full plot of the story can take a week or more to come out. For Big Nate is a star of an American newspaper comic strip, and this, believe it or not, is his tenth collection. We learn from this all about his friendships at school, his relations with his teachers and father, and just what a soppy thing his most unmasculine dog can be. Here are comics, baseball and laziness, as every American kid knows them. Luckily for us, though, Big Nate travels well. Full review...
Anti-Judaism: A History of a Way of Thinking by David Nirenberg
Initially the choice of title seemed an odd one on account of the more widely used term, anti-Semitism. The distinction is quickly made though, that unlike the latter, anti-Judaism does not need real Jews to flourish, but is fuelled by an idea alone. In fact this is a core tenet of Nirenberg’s thesis. Throughout history the idea of ‘Judaism’ is raised as an existential spectre in societies where there may be no Jewish members at all. This is a chilling reality, and Nirenberg charts the course of how this came to be. Full review...
Antigoddess by Kendare Blake
Athena and her brother Hermes are a lot less godlike than they used to be. In fact, they are dying. Athena is being slowly suffocated by feathers growing inside her and Hermes's body is eating itself. Literally. They are on a road trip to find out exactly what it is killing the gods and to save themselves if they can. No matter the cost to themselves or others. Gods don't count costs. Full review...