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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Books by Charlie Hill
Neurology professor Lauren Furrows witnesses the sudden untimely death of two tourists in a bar while on holiday. Birmingham bookshop owner Richard Anger happens to be in the same bar so together our single holiday makers decide to team up as an investigatory force to be reckoned with. (Well, Lauren teams up for that. Richard's reasons are more physical than intellectual to begin with.) The murders seem to emanate from author Gary Sayles, a legend in his own mind and, apparently, fatal to read. Elsewhere hippy exhibitionists (in an over-18 way) Zeke and Pippa, are planning the art installation to end all art installations and, are determined to make Gary the centrepiece, whether he realises it or not. Full review...
Smoothly From Harrow: A Compendium for the London Commuter by Chris Moss
If you want to get behind what commuting is really like - not in an academic or a political way, but from the perspective of having your hand through a strap and wishing that the man next to you wasn't quite so enamoured of Brut aftershave - then you need a travel journalist. Step forward (but mind the gap), Chris Moss, who writes regularly for the Daily Telegraph and has done the same for the Guardian, Independent and various magazines. Most importantly, he's commuted from Camberwell, Camden, Hackney, Harrow, Herne Hill, Surbiton and Tooting. Personally, I think he deserves a medal. Full review...
The Purchase by Linda Spalding
1798: Daniel Dickinson moves his five children and 15-year-old second wife away from the Pennsylvanian Quaker community he used to call home, towards Virginia. While on an equipment-buying trip he comes across a slave auction and decides to be true to his abolitionist beliefs in an unusual way. He buys Onesimus, a young slave boy, in order to change the lad's life, intending to offer him a home and fairness in place of captivity. However, reality is more difficult and the Dickinsons find that their new servant will actually change their lives instead. Full review...
Mr Wuffles by David Wiesner
Mr Wuffles (a name I cannot help but imagine being said in a Chinese American accent) is a feline. Not a kitty. Definitely not a pussy. Barely even a cat, he’s so fierce. Look at him glaring out at you from the cover. He looks like trouble, not so much in a cheeky, mischievous way but in a dirty, rotten scoundrel one. Mr Wuffles’ owner clearly does not know her pet very well. She offers him a typical, pet store toy but he simply turns up his nose at it and stalks off. Full review...
Is This Love? by Sue Moorcroft
Sue Moorcroft is not a typical ‘chick lit’ writer, despite the pink and purple cover of this novel, and the fact that her publisher is ‘Choc Lit’. Certainly there’s a romantic element to the book, but there’s a great deal more besides. Love, in the title, does not simply refer to romance and adult relationships, but also includes strong family ties. Full review...
The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom
Something extraordinary is going to happen, and will continue to happen, through a long and eventful autumn in the small town of Coldwater. People will pick up phones, and hear a loved one speak to them, with assurances, love, delight – but they will all be the voices of dead loved ones. One woman has her slightly older, late sister contact her, another her deceased mother, who had ended her life disabled and wordless, while the local policeman will regain contact with the son killed in action in Afghanistan. The whole town will be transformed, but it might actually hit someone else hardest – Sully, fresh out of prison and patching his life back together with his six year old son, with both of them puzzled at why the lad's dead mother is among the silent majority. Full review...
Endless Knight by Kresley Cole
Evie has survived in the post Flash apocalyptic world in part because of the help of her Cajun boyfriend, Jack, and the other companions they've picked up along the way. But it's also because of Evie's impressive abilities. Full review...
I Love Lucid by Mark Lingane
Lucid is more than a full-immersion role play game; it's THE full-immersion role play game. Its inventor Seth Pascal has ensured that all that needs to be done is to plug in and the player's brain will take them to the virtual world while during sleep, providing perfect lucidity and an alternative life within an avatar. However it's also becoming the game to die for. Yes, literally die for as players are being murdered while they're connected. Detective Evan Waugh is the investigator given the case to prove that he still has what it takes. However there's an added complication for both he and Seth as the investigation continues. Her name is Ellen, the woman for whom Lucid isn't just a way of life, it is her life. Full review...
The Room Beyond by Stephanie Elmas
In modern-day London Serena is the new nanny to the Hartreve family at 36 Marguerite Avenue. She's aware that there's something unsettling about the house and the family who live there, but Serena was escaping the ghosts of her traumatic childhood when she took the job and it was easy to fall into the relaxed way of life and the pleasure of her room at the top of the house with a view over the rooftops. Her charge - four-year-old Beth - is a real treasure. But Serena's inquisitive and can't help wondering about the subtle air of menace in the street. Some of the relationships between the members of the household are puzzling and it soon becomes obvious that the family is trying to hide something from her. And where is number 34 Marguerite Avenue? Full review...
Harry: My Autobiography by Harry Redknapp
Everybody with an interest in football knows who Harry is. The cover of his book won't tell you who he is, but if you're not in the know it's Harry Redknapp - football manager and for many of us, something of a national treasure. He's the manager who's seen it all, having started at rock bottom - a 70s Portakabin at Oxford City - and risen to the heights of managing Tottenham Hotspur in the Premiership. At the same time he was the popular choice for the England Manager's job when Capello threw in the towel. It's fair to say that Harry has lived his football life to the full and anyone buying this book will get their money's worth. Full review...
The Assassination of JFK Minute by Minute by Jonathan Mayo
President John F Kennedy had been warned about going to Dallas - he himself referred to it as 'nut country' - but, conscious of the upcoming 1964 presidential elections, he needed to bring some support from the city onside and that was why he and the First Lady found themselves in the motorcade which swept into Dealey Plaza on 22 November 1963. There can be few people who are not aware of what happened next, but Jonathan Mayo has presented a chronology of events over the next four days (four days, three murders, hundreds of stories, as the cover says) demonstrating the pressure under which the officials involved were working and the dreadful impact of what happened.. Full review...
The Time Traveller's Almanac by Anne VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
From H.G Wells to Doctor Who, there is something about a good time-travel story that has the power to ignite the imagination in a way unique to the genre. Perhaps it is due to the fact that when dealing with the subject of time travel, literally anything is possible. Well, almost anything...apart from going back in time and killing your Grandfather, which we know would cause an almighty paradox and probably destroy the universe. Full review...
The Gravity Between Us by Kristen Zimmer
Kendall Bettencourt, at the age of just 19, has become one of Hollywood's hottest properties, but is missing her best friend Payton. Flying the other girl out to keep her company in LA and help teach her music seems like a sensible thing to do. But Payton's realised she thinks of Kendall as more than a friend - does Kendall feel the same way about her, and can their feelings survive the craziness of Hollywood life? Full review...
At Night We Walk In Circles by Daniel Alarcon
Peruvian-born Daniel Alarcón returns to South America in this story of one man's downfall and the twists and turns of fate that not only contributed to this but also which compelled the narrator of this story to seek to understand what happened. The main character, a young man named Nelson whose plans to follow his older brother to the US are halted when his father dies forcing him to care for his mother, has trained to be an actor but his career is going nowhere. Then he lands a part in a notorious three person play that is going to tour the provinces. One of the trio is the play's writer, Henry, a man who was imprisoned under terrorist charges when the play was first produced. With Nelson's ex girlfriend now pregnant with another man's child, the temptation to get away from his life in his home city is too tempting. No one could have forecast what the impact this tour would have on his life though. Full review...
A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond
Being childless, I've never had reason to read books out loud to youngsters. I've never faced the challenge of having to pace the story verbally, find the very easily understood stress of the sentence for the young mind, or more importantly find the voice for each and every main character. There are a host of people who would have read this book and its sequels to their children however, and they never had to find the voice to read it out at all – for my generation, the TV version of Paddington is still firmly fixed in our minds after many a decade. But I can also remember reading a copy of this opening collection of short stories at that age as well – and everything associated with Paddington Bear is only going to bring back the firmest of warm memories. This lovely new volume will only create a host more too. Full review...
The Fourteenth Day: JFK and the Aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis by David G Coleman
The commonly-held view of history would have us believe that the Cuban Missile Crisis began in mid-October 1962 and concluded on 28 October, with the world heaving a collective sigh of relief and moving on to think of other things. The truth is, of course, rather different and the crisis rumbled on for weeks and months to come, occasionally almost bubbling to the boil again as Kennedy and Krushchev fenced with each other. Historian David G Coleman has used the secret White House recordings to take us into the Oval Office and listen to what really went on. Full review...
Pongo by Jesse Hodgson
The rainforest is not all it’s cracked up to be. It may be a beautiful and important eco system but one of the residents is not a happy ape. Pongo the orangutan is wet and lonely. He lives in the depths of the forest and yearns for the warmth of the sun. He’s heard it’s bright and orange, just like him, so he sets out to find it. Full review...
Ruby Redfort: Catch Your Death by Lauren Child
It's the life thousands of young girls dream of: kindly but improbably vague parents who rarely (if ever) ask what you're up to, a completely trustworthy best friend who would die rather than betray your secrets, and, of course, a place in the top-secret spy agency which just happens to be situated below your town. Oh, and a few super-cool spy devices to get you out of trouble, of course. What more could a girl ask for? Full review...
Morning Frost by James Henry
In 1982 DS Jack Frost - not yet forty years old - is burying his wife, Mary. There's a good turnout for the funeral from the police force and the local Masons, which might be the reason why the local ne'er-do-wells seem to be rather more active than usual. Superintendent Mullett makes a day (and rather a lot of the night) of it, whilst Jack finds himself back at the police station and taking a call about a foot found in a field. ('We're looking for someone with a very bad limp...') Add in a rape at the local comprehensive school (hot on the heels of one near a pub) and a new computer system which seems designed to confuse and it's obvious that Jack isn't going to get much chance to grieve for his wife - not that she was at the top of his list of priorities before she died. Full review...
The House by Sebastiana Randone
A woman wakes to find herself alone in a dark forest. She sees a man and calls out to him but he ignores her. Eventually, she finds her way to a house and takes shelter. With no idea of how she came to be there - or recall of her own name, even - the woman explores this dilipidated mansion and discovers a portal that transports her back to Regency England. Here, a dreadful thing happens before she is transported back in time again. Full review...
The Blood of Heaven by Kent Wascom
1799 in America and Angel Woolsack is the son of an itinerant preacher, travelling around Louisiana. Life isn't easy as Angel is torn between the puritanical fire and brimstone upbringing of Preacher-Father and his desire to be a normal young man within the confines of a religious community. Eventually Angel's desire to express himself leads to tragedy and, with his only friend Samuel Kemper for company, he is cast out by those he loves. Angel and Samuel decide to search for Samuel's elder brother, Reuben, and thus begins the adventure that will take them to Florida, bring Angel a feisty bride and provide a place in the history books for the Kemper brothers as they grapple for land against the Spanish. Full review...
Red Sledge by Lita Judge
In the middle of a snowy winter, a child leaves his red sledge leaning against the wall of his house overnight. Little does he know that the woodland creatures have their eye on it for some midnight fun. Full review...
Tinder by Sally Gardner
Sally Gardner has followed her wonderful and haunting Maggot Moon with another story about a world at war, but although death and violence abound once again, the atmosphere here is very different. This time we are not in some alternate nineteen fifties Britain where the bad guys have won, but instead in the eerie, mist-filled world of the fairy tale. In this place wonders and magic lead the hero to his destiny, and love, power and greed are the catalysts for both joy and despair. Full review...
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
When I began reading this book I wasn't entirely sure that I liked it. I didn't quite know how to take the Nina from the title. She's a twenty year old Nanny, employed by the editor of the London Review of Books and living near Regent's Park in North London. The book contains her letters to her sister, Victoria living at home in Leicestershire, and tell of the events and happenings in her life as a Nanny and then, going on, in her life as a student at Thames Polytechnic. Initially it felt like she was name dropping - Alan Bennett lives over the road and drops in for dinner most days; the father of Will and Sam, the two boys she is nannying, is Stephen Frears; down the road lives Claire Tomalin and her partner Michael Frayn...and yet, given chance, you begin to see that she isn't awed by the notoriety of these people (indeed, she tells her sister that Alan Bennett was in Coronation Street!) and actually they are just the neighbours and so it is less important that Alan Bennett (AB as he's referred to in the book) comes around for dinner every night since he isn't there for fame value but rather for his own unique place in this rather crazy family life memoir! Full review...
Barbapapa's Voyage by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor
In Barbapapa, we were introduced to a friendly, pink, shape-shifting blob who used his special talents to help the local townsfolk, who hailed him as the new town hero. However, despite having lots of human friends, our pink protagonist is looking decidedly off-colour at the beginning of this sequel. It seems that being the only one of your species is a pretty lonely affair and poor Barbapapa is longing for a Barbamama to share his life with. Full review...