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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The Scandalous Duchess by Anne O'Brien
1372: Lady Katherine de Swynford is widowed and in reduced circumstances as a result. She remembers a more sumptuous life before her marriage; a life in the service of Queen Philippa, mother of John, Duke of Lancaster. In the hope of reprising her past lifestyle she goes to the Savoy Palace to beg the Duke for a role in his household. He willingly employs her to help his new wife, Constanza, the Princess of Castille, with her imminent birth but this is a dangerous move. As John and Katherine fall in love and Katherine becomes John's mistress they endanger more than their hearts; their attraction provides ammunition for their enemies, risking fatal results. Full review...
Never Mind the Bullocks: One girl's 10,000 km adventure around India in the worlds cheapest car by Vanessa Able
With a cute little map of India on the front cover and cartoon cars puttering over the page, I thought I’d chosen an entertaining yet mind-broadening travelogue. Well I was wrong. Now I’ve read it through, I don’t even see it on the same shelf as a Lonely Planet. But that’s possibly this book’s novelty and great strength. The travelogue shelf is fair groaning under weighty tomes by Europeans digging into Indian life and culture. So let me unpack the delights of this particular book for you, but don’t be misled: you aren’t going to pick up many recommendations for your own odyssey from this round-India skedaddle. Full review...
Watch Out for the Crocodile by Lisa Moroni and Eva Eriksson
Little Tora is going on a very special trip with her Dad. Trekking, camping and animal spotting are on Tora’s agenda. No more work, coffee drinking or talking on his mobile for Dad. Well, perhaps not much talking on his mobile anyway. First though, there is some boring stuff; buying supplies at the supermarket and making the long car journey to the forest. When will they start to have fun? And where are those wild animals? A little bit of imagination is called for from both father and daughter to make the trip a memorable one. Full review...
Nemo: Roses of Berlin by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
It's all very well having a heroic band of brigands and workers plucked from literature and being able to do the jobs that can't ever even feature in top secret files. Submariners, invisible men, and other individuals of mysterious origin, powers and sometimes intent aren't unique to English, or England. Hence this loose approximation of World War II, when Berlin is turned into a Germania-meets-Judge-Dredd-Megacity, and the Indian daughter of Captain Nemo and her very own special Captain Jack have a much more personal mission. The Fuhrer – and the real people and things behind the throne of the Nazi-type superpower – have something they'll fight to the end to get back – their own offspring. Full review...
Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova
Psychologist Maria Konnikova seems to have rather ambitious aims regarding her new book, Mastermind . She plans to teach her readers how to think like Sherlock Holmes. Anyone who has read the adventures of the world’s most famous detective will have no doubt marvelled at his uncanny powers of analysis and observation. Can a book really unlock the power of the mind and turn average-Joe into a master of deduction? Full review...
We That Are Left by Juliet Greenwood
Hugo and Elin are settling down to life at home in Hiram Hall now Hugo is back from the Boer War. He refuses to speak about his experiences in Africa but carries the psychological effects. However, appearances count for a lot so they both continue to run the house, gardens and staff while Elin tries to ignore the deficiencies in their marriage. She succeeds as well but then two things change her outlook: the arrival of daring adventurer Lady Margaret ('Mouse' to her friends) and the less welcome outbreak of World War I. Both will leave their indelible mark so that, for Hugo, Elin and many others around that time, there'll be no going back. Full review...
Ghost Train to New Orleans: Book 2 of the Shambling Guides by Mur Lafferty
After delivering The Shambling Guide to New York, a travel guide for the coterie of the undead, Zoe the inadvertent citytalker goes to New Orleans to research the next one. She sets off with a feeling of foreboding, but perhaps she's being overly pessimistic? I mean, she's travelling with two gods, (one of whom is a rather strident ex-Valkyrie), a baby dragon, two vampires (one of whom hates her) and Arthur, her boyfriend the Public Works employee. (Yes, Public Works as in the body that polices and, where necessary, clears away the coterie.) Oh and by the way, Arthur may be turning into a zombie soon. The trip will be fine; what could possibly go wrong? Full review...
The Mouseproof Kitchen by Saira Shah
Anna (a chef) and her partner Tobias (a composer) have it all: a great relationship, dreams of moving to France so that Anna can open a well-respected restaurant and, to top it all off, they're expecting a beautiful baby. When Freya is born she is indeed beautiful; she's also profoundly disabled. However, Anna and Tobias decide to follow their dream anyway, not worrying about anything until the moment they have to. Once they've bought their ramshackle home in the Languedoc they realise that the moments they have to worry about come more quickly and frequently than they'd realised and their support system is eccentric to say the least. Full review...
Horrid Henry's Biggest and Best Ever Joke Book - 3-in-1 by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
It is easy to see why Horrid Henry remains such an enduring and well-liked children’s character. The adventures of this cheeky, irreverent schoolboy and a cast of extreme characters including Miss Battle Axe, The Demon Dinner Lady, Rabid Rebecca and arch-nemesis Moody Margaret are incredibly funny and a perfect way to encourage reluctant young readers to cultivate a love of reading. It is no surprise then, that the series has spawned a set of three spin-off joke books, which have now been combined to create a single volume: Horrid Henry’s Biggest and Best Ever Joke Book. Full review...
The Last Days of Detroit: Motor Cars, Motown and the Collapse of an Industrial Giant by Mark Binelli
Moving back to his native Detroit, Mark Binelli tries to see where it all went wrong for a city which was once America's capitalist dream town but has shrunk more significantly than anywhere else in the country over recent years. How did this happen, and what effect has it had on the residents there? Is the decline irreversible, or can those who want to bring about a changed and improved Detroit succeed? Full review...
Here and Now: Letters by J M Coetzee and Paul Auster
Reading letters by writers affords a particular pleasure. They give us access to the functioning of a writer’s mind when it’s somewhere between work and rest. Sometimes they reveal secrets, offer startling revelations about their writers and insights about the times they lived in. Here and Now, an exchange of letters between J M Coetzee and Paul Auster between 2008 and 2011, describes itself as ‘an epistolary dialogue between two great writers who became great friends.’ Full review...
Half Bad by Sally Green
Before I start, I'll declare an uninterest. I'm not really into the paranormal genre, and I'm definitely not into paranormal romances. I like fantasy and I've nothing against the supernatural. It's just the predictability of the paranormal genre that puts me off. I prefer books that surprise me rather than books that comfort me by giving me what I expect. So, you realise, I'm coming at Half Bad from the perspective of an un-fan. And I loved it! Full review...
Cuckoo! by Fiona Roberton
We do love Fiona Roberton's books in our house, a passion that started with Wanted: The Perfect Pet. This new story, about fat little cuckoo, is just as delightful as her others, and one that I've sneakily read without the children, once or twice, just so that I can properly enjoy it by myself! Full review...
Fleatectives: Case of the Stolen Nectar by Jonny Zucker
Someone has been stealing all the nectar. The bees are in a buzz! One hive is blaming another hive and although the Sheriff is investigating, Buzz and Itch decide to take the case on themselves to try and figure out what exactly is going on. How will they manage to figure out the truth of what's happened? And will they manage to do it without being crushed to death by the bees? Full review...
Penny Loaves and Butter Cheap: Britain in 1846 by Stephen Bates
Until I picked up this book, I would never have really thought of 1846 as a pivotal year in British history. Stephen Bates has proved convincingly in these pages that if it was not exactly a watershed one, it nevertheless marked an era of change. Full review...
Charm Offensive by William Thacker
When Joe, a retired politician is named in a tabloid slur he is faced with mending his reputation. Can he regenerate his life? William Thacker has chosen a heady combination for his first novel; politics and PR. A book like this has immediate appeal on the basis of being so contemporary and almost painfully pertinent to our times, so I was really looking forward to reading it. Full review...
Pom and Pim by Lena Landstrom and Olaf Landstrom
When Pom and Pim go out for the day things start off well, but bad luck comes their way. Can they look on the bright side of every situation, even when they feel tripped up time and time again? Full review...
Get Things Done: What Stops Smart People Achieving More and How You Can Change by Robert Kelsey
We're all so busy these days it's easy to veer between headless chicken and cherry picking modes, or at least it is for me. (I really hope my boss isn’t reading this!) In fact procrastination is my super power which was why I grabbed Robert Kelsey's book from the shelf with excited anticipation: in a self-help book with one of the longest titles known to man, he promises to help us become more efficient time managers and to stop putting things off. Full review...
Joe and the Race to Rescue by Victoria Eveleigh
Joe's come a long way from the Brummy boy who didn't want to know anything about horses and ponies whom we first met in Joe and the Hidden Horseshoe. His first pony, Lightning taught him a great deal, but Joe has grown and he's now been loaned Fortune, who's altogether different and Joe begins to realise that there's a lot more to being a great horseman than simply getting in the saddle and having the techniques. He needs to bond with Fortune and Fortune needs to learn to trust him. But Fortune isn't the only equine on Joe's mind. He's discovered a lonely-looking pony in a field and met Sherman and Velvet, two massive shire horses. Full review...
Oi Frog! by Kes Gray and Jim Field
Normally I would shy away from any book rhyming frog with log and cat with hat and hare with chair...normally it would fill me with a sense of dread to be faced with such a 'poem' to read. This time, however, I make an exception, because Oi Frog! is very funny and definitely worth a read, and again, and again! Full review...
The Dragon's Dentist by John McLay
Harry would like to be a knight. It seems like everyone else in his family is a knight. Nobody takes Harry very seriously though because Harry is quite small. He's very determined, however, and so he decides that he will go on a mission to prove his worth as a knight. The mission that he sets himself is to catch a dragon! Full review...
Further Encounters of Sherlock Holmes by George Mann (Editor)
Hot on the heels of Encounters of Sherlock Holmes comes another collection of brand-new tales written by some of the brightest creative minds from the genres of science fiction and crime. In this anthology, Holmes and Watson are pitched headlong into twelve different mysterious scenarios and invited to unravel secrets and unmask villains as only they know how. During their adventures they come face to face with a mountain monster, take a murderous boat trip, meet Moriarty’s siblings and even indulge in a little space travel. The game is afoot! Full review...
The Black Snow by Paul Lynch
Barnabas Kane returned to his birthplace in Ireland with his family with the goal of setting up his own farm and raising his son in a better setting than New York. With his farm of a decent size and a good herd of cattle all seems well with Kane until out ploughing one day he and his farm hand Matthew Peoples spot smoke in the sky from the direction of his byre. The fire marks the start of a sometimes bleak downward spiral and Kane is forced to rely on the kindness of his neighbours who still see him as an outsider. Full review...
The Madness of July by James Naughtie
A dead body is found in a Houses of Parliament broom cupboard on a hot 1970s summer day. A sinister enough event normally but for Foreign Office Minister Will Flemyng it heralds greater concerns. The fact the deceased has Will's phone number in his pocket triggers a series of events that not only tests his loyalty to work, country and family but will take Will from the everyday political cut and thrust to his old job. The job he hoped he'd walked away from: spying. Full review...
One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore
In June 1945 two school students are shot dead in Moscow. These aren't just any school students; they attended Josef Stalin School 801, the academy that taught Stalin's own children and the current educational establishment of choice for the offspring of many government and army grandees. Why did they die? Did the seemingly innocent Fatal Romantics Club have anything to do with it? For the children the club is a way of living their love of Pushkin's literature but to others it seems a little different. Stalin himself is determined to have it investigated and what Stalin wants, Stalin gets no matter how wide the ultimate spider's web of suspicion is cast and no matter whom it catches. Full review...
The Facts of Life (Rachel Riley) by Joanna Nadin
Never let it be said that we here at The Bookbag do not try and give you the reviews nobody else can. This is a case in point – the review of the sixth and final Rachel Riley book from someone who has never read any of the other five. As such a person I can add to all the superlatives the series has got from elsewhere the bonus information that should your tastes in books be as fickle as those of the reviewing gods, you can start this brilliant series at the end and not really suffer a jot. You would be patently bonkers to choose to do so, but the option's there. Full review...
Rock War by Robert Muchamore
Jay comes from a large family - he's one of eight kids squashed into a flat above the chip shop that his mother runs. Jay isn't really like his brothers, who are tough and always in trouble. Jay is skinny and weedy and consumed with musical ambition. But his band, Brontobyte, just doesn't have what it takes, largely thanks to its spoiled brat, hopeless drummer, Tristan. If he wants a future in music, some major changes are in order. Full review...
The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh
The Lemon Grove is not the book I expected it to be. No better no worse, just not what I expected. Set in Mallorca, it is the tale of a summer in the sunshine, but though they’ve holidayed at this villa for years, this summer is a bit different for Jenn and Greg. There are lots of things in this book that are a bit quirky, and the holiday set up is just one of them: the couple are joined by Greg’s daughter (Jen’s step-daughter) and her boyfriend. It’s not wildly unconventional in the real world, but for one reason or another it’s the sort of chaotic set up many authors wouldn’t bother to create. And yet as you read this book you wonder why, because it adds a dynamic that is definitely different, and in a good way. Full review...
The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes
Jess is a single mum of a rather smart little girl. She’s also single step mum, if there’s such a thing, to a rather troubled teenage boy. This is the story of this unusual but endearing family of three, and a road trip to the other end of the country, showing that even with few resources, mums will go to the ends of the earth for their children. It’s also the story of Ed, a wealthy businessman whose life interacts with theirs in an unconventional way. A single mum meets a single man, but in an unpredictable way. Full review...
How to Disappear Completely: on modern anorexia by Kelsey Osgood
To the awkward 14 year-old Kelsey, a happy family and a comfortable suburban life are dull and numbing. A self-professed bookworm and fan of the literary greats, she craves meaning and purpose in an utterly normal teenage existence. Full review...
Infinity Drake: The Sons of Scarlatti by John McNally
Finn (real name Infinity) Drake is off for a week away in the Pyrenees with his Uncle Al. He's supposed to be at school but Grandma has gone off on a knitting cruise, so she will never know. But before they can be on their way, Al is summoned to a crisis meeting with secret government officials. A lethal bio-weapon - the Scarlatti wasp - has been stolen and released by an uber-villain (who else but an uber-villain) and the world's only chance is to use Al's top secret invention to shrink a combat team to destroy it. Full review...
Family Likeness by Caitlin Davies
On a summer’s day in 1950, a smartly-dressed white woman brings her young mixed-race daughter, Muriel, to the branch children’s home Hoodfield House, where she will leave her and never return. Muriel is physically well cared for, but has persistent questions about her identity and place in the world. Full review...