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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Brief Loves That Live Forever by Andrei Makine
Our unnamed narrator is inspired to think back through his life on the girls and women he has been in love with, partly because of a time spent with an associate – a time marked by a seemingly most unremarkable encounter with a further woman – whom he deemed had never been loved. The associate, you see, had spent half his adult life in Soviet camps for political instruction – our narrator himself was an orphan in the 1960s' Soviet Union. This snappy volume takes us through episodes in several lives at different points during and since the second half of communist rule – and finally explains the import of that unremarkable encounter… Full review...
Colorstrology by Michele Bernhardt
First impressions of this book left me slightly worried that I would have little to go on to write any kind of helpful review; it was basically a little book of colour swatches, resembling something of a home décor paint guide. Flicking through, I saw that each page represented a day, allowing the reader to refer to their birthday to gain information relating to their character, rather like a horoscope. So all I had to go on was, effectively, a painting guide to star signs. With this is mind (and with fairly low expectations) I began reading from the beginning, refraining from jumping straight in to analyse my birthday characteristics. Full review...
Grandma by Jessica Shepherd
Oscar loves his Grandma very much so it’s scary and frightening when she starts forgetting things and acting differently. She has to go and live somewhere else and it smells funny and is full of new people. Full review...
The Way To The Zoo by John Burningham
It’s easy to lie in bed and see shadows on the wall and imagine what they could be. I still do it now though I know better than to think something that looks like, say, a door in the wall, might be a portal to another universe. Sylvie, though, wants to double check when SHE sees what looks like a door and it’s just as well she does, because lo and behold it IS a door and it DOES lead somewhere. It goes all the way to the zoo! All the animals look nice and friendly so because it’s getting late and she has school in the morning, Sylvie heads back to bed and invites a little bear to come with her for the night. She has her own real live teddy. What fun. Full review...
The Eagle Trail by Robert Rigby
The Nazis have occupied Antwerp, where Paul lives with his English father and French mother. But Paul doesn't think things are too bad. Life is going on pretty much as normal if you are a teenaged boy, Paul feels. But Paul is wrong.
In the space of an afternoon, Paul's world is turned upside down. His father is shot in front of him, having been discovered as an early resistance organiser. His mother is arrested. And Paul finds himself fleeing for his life, hunted by the Nazis for what his father knew. The journey is a long and dangerous one - through Belgium and France for the Pyrenees and Spain and then, hopefully, for England. Every stage is dangerous but the final one - the Eagle Trail across the mountains - is the most perilous. Full review...
The Private Blog of Joe Cowley by Ben Davis
Meet Joe Cowley. He's the kind of doofus who will pretend to be from New York, when his life really revolves around a horrid existence in a secondary school near Birmingham, a life shared with his mother and a visit to his dad and Russian mail-order bride every Sunday, and two friends – Harry, who speaks as if he is a member of an ancient Gentleman's Club, and Ad, who's – well, just thick as two short planks. He can barely get through the day without being tormented by his enemies at school, saying the wrong thing entirely or just cocking things up, hence this, his blog, for him to vent and escape a while. But at least he knows his worth when it comes to getting a snog off the school's most desirable girl – doesn't he? And at least he can keep the torments of real life at arm's length – can't he? Full review...
A Kiss In The Dark by Cat Clarke
Alex and Kate meet online and there's an instant attraction between them. When they get together in person at a gig, they're just as right for each other as they are online. It seems like this could be a wonderful romance, but there's a secret at the heart of it which could destroy more than just their relationship. Will this seemingly fairytale romance have a happy ending? Full review...
Mrs. Mo's Monster by Paul Beavis
What would you do if you answered the door one day, only to find a mini monster standing there? Most of us wold probably weep a little and find somewhere to hide, but not the brave Mrs Mo. She appears to know this monster and will do anything to keep him entertained. Will he help round the house? Nope? How about baking a cake? That may just get anybody’s attention, but will this book capture your little monster’s imagination? Full review...
A Day At The Airport by Richard Scarry
Father Cat was taking the kids sailing, but it started to rain so they had to call it off. On the way home, though, they bump into Rudolph Von Flugel who suggests a detour to the airport as there’s lots of things to see and do there. Full review...
Sesame Seade Mysteries 3: Scam on the Cam by Clementine Beauvais and Sarah Horne
Something strange is happening on or near the river. Finding a pirates' chest is surely likely to be the weirdest thing that happens to most people in an average week, but not Sesame, Toby and Gemma. As well as the possibility of pirates, there's a chance that nefarious goings-on are responsible for the university rowing team dropping like flies. Can Sesame save the day again? Full review...
A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke
Eva is blissfully content with life. She has a fulfilling career in her job as a midwife and a happy marriage to the man of her dreams who clearly adores her. Her contented existence is thrown into complete turmoil when, early one morning, her beloved husband Jackson is swept out to sea whilst fishing on the Dorset coast. It seems that in one fell swoop, all of her hopes and dreams have been washed away into the cold, white water. Full review...
Sesame Seade Mysteries 2: Gargoyles Gone AWOL by Clementine Beauvais and Sarah Horne
Sesame Seade is in trouble. So much trouble that our intrepid heroine has already started planning her epitaph. Sesame Seade, sensational supersleuth. Sufficiently scolded, seldom scared. Even with danger around every corner, her stunning voice can't be silenced. But what is the danger lurking in the university? Is it to do with the disappearing gargoyles, or is there something even more worrying going on? Full review...
Daughters of Time by Mary Hoffman (editor)
This is an anthology aimed at tweens and younger teens on the subject of some of history's most remarkable women. It's an interesting idea, particularly as the usual suspects are perhaps avoided. No Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Victoria, or Florence Nightingale. Instead we get Boudica, Mary Seacole, Aphra Behn and Julian of Norwich, amongst others. It doesn't altogether work for me but there are enough strong stories to make it well worth a look. Full review...
Bone Jack by Sara Crowe
15-year-old Ash has been waiting for his father to come back from the war. He's following in his dad's footsteps as the stag boy in the traditional Stag Chase, and he knows his dad will be proud of him. Running through the mountains whenever he can to train, he's not bothered by the taunts of the other boys who he beat to become the stag, and who will take their places as hounds - he knows their hostility is traditional. But something is stirring in the countryside, and he sees strange visions, while his old friend Mark is behaving seriously creepily. Is Mark just grieving for his father, or is there something more sinister at work? Full review...
Let's Go, Baby-o! by Janet McLean and Andrew McLean
Hey! Baby has woken up in his cot and wants to play. Luckily his singing, dancing, jiggling and bouncing older cousin is there to spring him free and start the fun. They leap and chant and jump and sing. Meanwhile, in the garden, the rest of the family, the pets and the wildlife are having some drama of their own. Baby and his dancing cousin pause to look out the window. Their observations inspire them to move and sing again. Full review...
The Dark Wild by Piers Torday
Be careful when reading this book: it presents humanity and its tendency to destroy everything in its path so convincingly that you may end up siding with the bad guys! Kester's world is a dystopian mess, and the fact that this time the threat comes from a quite unexpected quarter only makes things harder for him. Full review...
I Will Eat The Moon (Tiny the Giant) by Dom Conlon and Nicola Anderson
We first met Tiny when he was but a young giant and determined to prove that he was big. When all seemed lost he was proved to be right and the day (as well as his pride) was saved. This time he's taken on an even bigger task. He knows that giants need big things to eat and he's got his eyes on the moon. Actually, he's licking his lips, but it doesn't impress the moon... Full review...
The Blood List by Sarah Naughton
In the mid-seventeenth century, the world is filled with tales of witches, murder and changelings. Sixteen-year-old Barnaby is strong and handsome. His father is a wealthy landowner who indulges his desires, and while his mother doesn't love him - believing him to be merely a replacement for her own baby, who the villagers thought was a changeling and who was mysteriously switched - he's popular with everyone else he knows. Until dark happenings start occurring, which will change Barnaby's life - or possibly even end it. Full review...
The Secret Service - Kingsman by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons
He is Mister London. Jack London. He is the longest-serving, most experienced and downright most suave secret agent the country has. But he now has a problem possibly bigger than even those he's had to face up to before – his nephew. Gary Unwin, Eggsy to his friends, is stuck in a rut called Peckham, living with his kid brother and his single mum, and her latest bullying, abusive partner. His life is the X-Box, cheap four-packs and TWOCing the neighbourhood cars. Reluctantly casting his mind from the problem of someone kidnapping the greats of TV sci-fi history, Jack undergoes his most awkward mission yet – raising his nephew to be a world-saver. Full review...
Paddington's Adventures by Michael Bond
Paddington might be mistaken for a suitable wedding usher, a doctor, and an illegal busker, but he is really just the original bear from Darkest Peru, with the charming ability to get into as many scrapes as one could wish. Paddington might cause confusion at the dentist's, the gymkhana or at the posh restaurant, but he will always land on his feet. Paddington might be able to completely befuddle a host of school teachers, a judge or anyone, but he is still the most loved occupant of the Brown's household, 32 Windsor Gardens, London. And this trilogy shows how he should be pretty much loved in many other households too. Full review...
Big Nate in the Zone by Lincoln Peirce
Life just can't get any worse for Big Nate. A friend ruins his homework for him, he ruins a beanbag in the school library, and the whole place is turning into a healthy-eating zone run by fun hoovers intent on force-feeding the kids wholesomeness, exercise and rabbit food. How could his luck possibly change? Well, with a broken-off action figure foot, that's how. Full review...
Dog Will Have His Day by Fred Vargas
Despite losing his official post, Louis Kehlweiler still has the contacts, the drive, and seemingly nothing else to do, to keep him solving crimes. While using a certain park bench to trail a potentially suspect connection between someone nefarious and a politician's relative, he finds something else to spark his interest. Where, hours before, there had just been dog mess, now there is also a human toe bone. Clearly there is a crime, although nobody is reporting anything like having a half a toe missing. But not even he could predict what the simple legwork of trailing passing dog-owners would lead to… Full review...
The Life of Rebecca Jones by Angharad Price
A newly-married couple make their way home from the chapel, riding on a horse-drawn cart as it winds its way round familiar country lanes towards the beautiful valley of Maesglasau. The horse pauses atop a hill and the valley spreads out before them: 'the vessel of their marriage'. The centuries-old stone farmhouse in the crook of the mountain is to be their homestead; a sturdy, silent witness to the tragedy and joy that is an intrinsic part of the fabric of family life. Full review...
Promises to Keep: A Short Story by Elizabeth Haynes
Jo is haunted by the death of a teenage asylum seeker whilst in police custody and she only hangs on to her fragile sanity by running. Whilst she's out in the woods (where she'd been warned that she really shouldn't go) she discovered a young boy living rough and she knew that she had to do everything in her power to keep him safe. There were complications. Her partner was DS Sam Hollands who had a direct involvement with asylum seekers - and the boy living rough in the woods was the younger brother of the dead teenager. Sam wanted to get her relationship with Jo back onto an even keel, but one night she returned from work to find a stranger in her house. Full review...
I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira
Mary Cassatt was an anomaly among the Impressionists: she was one of very few women, and also the only American-born member. A Philadelphia native, she made Paris home for nearly five decades. Oliveira's novel opens in 1926, with Cassatt (now nearly blind) searching for the letters Edgar Degas wrote her in the 1870s-80s. Degas and Cassatt had been subjects of Parisian gossip; no one knew for sure whether their friendship shaded into romance. Even Mary herself seems confused about what they meant to each other; 'she still didn't understand…whether there was room for love in two lives already consumed by passion of another sort. Full review...
Loxley by Sally Wragg
Harry, the eleventh Duke of Loxley, fell in love with Bronwyn and they married. It wasn't the match that his mother would have chosen - Bronwyn was, after all, nothing more than the daughter of the local doctor and even Harry and Bronwyn wondered whether or not they'd done the right thing as they struggled to come to terms with married life. Katherine, the dowager Duchess, didn't make Bronwyn's life any easier - I mean, the girl wasn't above starting to clear the breakfast dishes when there were servants to do that sort of thing. And - to cap it all - she still wasn't pregnant and an heir for Loxley was of paramount importance. Full review...