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 Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden
Half-sisters Clarissa and Sarah couldn’t lead more different lives. Clarissa is a typical 'Southern Belle'; the apple of her daddy's eye with every whim dutifully indulged. Sarah, the daughter of a slave, lives in a cabin on the plantation with her mother and has been born into a life of servitude. Their father is plantation owner Cornelius Allen, a man prone to violent mood swings: at one moment a benevolent patron, the next, a cruel tyrant. Full review...
Dodger of the Dials by James Benmore
Dodger is back! And oh, how I’ve missed him! Benmore’s excellent debut novel Dodger left me hungry for more Dickensian escapades and it was with greedy anticipation that I began the sequel, Dodger of the Dials, eager to see what our eponymous hero had been up to in the two years since his last adventure. Quite a lot, it would seem, as Dodger has reclaimed the coveted spot of ‘'Top Sawyer' and has a gang of his very own, as well as the heart of the fair Lily, the new lady in his life. Full review...
Really and Truly: A Story About Dementia by Emilie Rivard and Anne-Claire Deslisle
Every child who is lucky enough to have grandparents loves spending time with them. After all, no one can tell a story better than a grandparent. Charlie and Grandpa have a relationship like that, and no matter whether it’s a pirate who lives in the attic, or a gnome who lives in the cellar, Grandpa can keep him entertained for days with his stories. Full review...
Greek Myths: Stories of Sun, Stone and Sea by Sally Pomme Clayton
University Challenge questions frequently have me stumped, but it’s ones on Greek mythology that highlight a gap in my knowledge and make me yearn for the classical education that I never had. Who or what is Erato? Should I be concerned if I meet Kerberos? And why did a delivery company decide to call itself Hermes? Consequently, I had high hopes for Greek Myths: Stories of Sun, Stone and Sea, a collection of ten myths retold for children. Full review...
Chicken Mission: Danger in the Deep Dark Woods by Jennifer Gray
Dudley Manor, Dudley Estate, Dudley is having a problem. The country pile is losing all its chickens to the evil members of the Most Wanted Club, and something has to be done. So they hire a sensei emu that can do headstands, in the remotest corner of Tibet, to train three unlikely but plucky – pun intended – birds to be secret agents. Amy, Boo and Ruth are not what you or I would choose as secret agents, but in training they can even defeat the dread Yeti – however clumsily. But how can they fare against real, murderous villains, in the grown-up world of high crime? Full review...
A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray
The Bradley family are constantly busy as you might expect when there are four children but their most testing time comes on seven-year-old Jacob's birthday. His elder sister, Zippy and elder brother Alma have other things going on in their lives but his little sister isn't feeling well. Four-year-old Issy has retreated to bed and she's rather hoping that her mother will come and make her better, but Claire is trying to cope with Jacob's birthday party and it's quite a while before the family realise that Issy is very ill. She has meningitis and that night she dies in hospital. Full review...
The Princess and the Foal by Stacy Gregg
The Princess and the Foal is a modern-day Arabian fairytale based on the true story of Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein of Jordan. The story focuses on her relationship with an orphaned foal that she receives as a birthday gift shortly after losing her mother in a tragic accident. She successfully hand-rears the foal and as a result, the two form a close bond. Haya grows up to become an accomplished young equestrienne with the goal of becoming the first ever female contestant in the prestigious King's Cup. Full review...
An Atheist's History of Belief by Matthew Kneale
I’ve been an atheist since I was old enough to take a view on the subject. (Many atheists would argue that we’re all atheists at birth, but that’s not a subject for a book review). I did have to take Religious Studies at school but have entirely forgotten almost everything I learned! Full review...
The Listener by Tove Jansson
Until very recently Jansson was probably only known in the English-speaking world for her Moomin stories. Then along came Sort of books and their wonderful translators, foremost among them: Thomas Teal. And we started to understand what it was about the woman… Full review...
Dirty Bertie: An English King Made in France by Stephen Clarke
Although he was Anglo-German by birth, so Stephen Clarke suggests, King Edward VII was very much a Parisian by nature. As we would expect from the author of several lighthearted books on our Gallic neighbours, including ‘1000 Years of Annoying the French’, this is not the most weighty or solemn biography of the King you will ever find, but it is certainly an entertaining, racy gallop through the life of its subject. Full review...
Josephine: Desire, Ambition, Napoleon by Kate Williams
Until reading this biography, it had never really occurred to me just how shadowy a figure the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the best-known European rulers of the age, really was. It may be common knowledge that her name was Josephine, but few of us perhaps really know anything of the woman behind the name. Full review...
The Art of Killing Well by Marco Malvaldi and Howard Curtis (translator)
Pellegrino Artusi has travelled the length and breadth of Italy researching his masterpiece The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well and the chance to visit the home - or rather the castle - of the seventh Barone di Roccapendente was a double bonus. He'd have the opportunity to discover the secrets of the Barone's kitchen and the chance of a few days rest and possibly a boar hunt in the Tuscan hills. What could be better? Well, his stay would have been improved had a body not been discovered in the locked cellar of the castle. The cast of aristocratic suspects baffles the local police inspector and Artusi realises that he will have to become involved. Full review...
The White Russian by Vanora Bennett
It's 1937 and Evie leaves her home and controlling mother in the US to look up her estranged grandmother, Constance, in Paris. Constance is a mystery no one talks about so Evie is distraught when she dies soon after Evie's arrival. However, Evie chooses to stay for a while to discover more about her grandmother and carry out her last wish: to track down a mystery man from her past. Not only is it a difficult mission, it'll expose Evie to danger in a city harbouring fierce enmities from the Russian ex-pat community that Constance nurtured. Full review...
Sand by Hugh Howey
World building in science fiction is easier said than done. How can you design a completely foreign place and explain it all to your reader, whilst still writing a compelling narrative? If you are an author such as Hugh Howey, the answer is with consummate ease. Howey has already got the fabulous ‘Wool’ trilogy under his belt and following this up was always going to be the difficult second album syndrome. Well, be prepared to be sucked quickly into ‘Sand’, his new novel. Full review...
Sir Scallywag and the Deadly Dragon Poo by Giles Andreae and Korky Paul
King Colin has spent his fortune on a giant sweet machine, which he guzzles from each and every day. The entire kingdom has grown fat and lazy, except for Sir Scallywag. It's lucky somebody in the castle still has their wits about them, because Baron Greedyguts has heard all about their sweet machine, and he's coming to get it! Full review...
All Our Days by Dinaw Mengestu
Isaac is a refugee from Ethiopia who finds a home in Uganda. At the university he's taken under the wing of a political activist also called Isaac. The 1970s is a dangerous time to be in Uganda as their world is about to explode. Years later Isaac the Ethiopian finds himself in America and lives under the care of social worker Helen. Slowly they form a less than professional relationship and Helen realises that what little she knows of him may not be the truth. Gradually his past is revealed as the guilt he carries comes to the surface. Full review...
DYFED ODYSSEY: Connell O'Keeffe and The Spider's Web by Patricia Watkins
Connell O'Keeffe looked to be settled. His stud was prospering. He was deeply, enduringly happy with his wife who was expecting their second child and despite the loss of his arm some years before which had put an end to his acting career, life was good. Then one morning Morgan, his manservant brought bad news before he was even out of bed. Khayri, one of his brood mares, was missing from her stable and there was a ransom demand. Reluctant to lose the mare - or to be beaten - O'Keeffe and Morgan set off to retrieve Khayri, hoping to be back that night, or - at the worst - the next day. Little did O'Keeffe know that it would be many months before he saw his home again. Full review...
The True and Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters by Michelle Lovric
The seven Swiney sisters are growing up during Ireland's 19th century potato famine so know what it is to go without. Therefore when their eldest sister Darcy works out a way for them to earn money using their talent and long, long hair, the other six follow on. (They'd be daft to cross the dangerous Darcy anyway.) Gradually their hair becomes their future and the 'Swiney Godivas' are created. However, fame doesn't always bring happiness with the adventure; in fact for the sisters it brings notoriety – a different thing altogether. Full review...
The Curse Of The House Of Foskett (The Gower Street Detective Series) by MRC Kasasian
Personal (not private!) detective Sidney Grice is still smarting because he's thought to have sent an innocent man to the gallows. It's also hit him in the pocket as work has dried up as a result. He's therefore pleased and intrigued when he's visited by a potential client who wants him to look into the Last Death Club, a group of people who have each put £2,000 in the kitty, the sum of which will go to the last person surviving. Unfortunately they seem to be dying quicker than planned and rather unnaturally. Sidney is about to accept the case when his client drops dead in Grice's study in front of him and his ward and assistant March Middleton. It may not improve his reputation any, but his attention has been piqued; he'll take the case anyway. Full review...
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
Maud is a little forgetful as the rows of cooling cups of tea will attest. She also has a cupboard full of peaches for some reason but not to worry. She has a family who love her and rally round, a home help and her great friend Elizabeth. Come to think of it, Elizabeth seems to be missing and the notes that Maud writes herself each day keep reminding her of this. The problem is that no one will listen to her, let alone believe her. It also reminds Maud of something else; another disappearance a long, long time ago. Full review...
Rilla of Ingleside by L M Montgomery
Rilla of Ingleside is an interesting novel for many reasons. Being the only fictional book written by a Canadian woman just after the war, about the war, it is an incredibly important work. It tells of what happened to the women who stayed at home, the limited aspects of war work that they were able to do, the endless fear and dread they felt for their loved ones far away, and all of the emotional highs and lows they experienced during such a heightened time. The novel begins as Europe is on the brink of war, and Rilla is only 15 years old and, still, a rather silly young girl. I have to say, I never much cared for Rilla. In Rainbow Valley' the book that precedes this one, she's just a spoilt baby and at the start of this story it seems that nothing much has changed. However, just as the world goes through a dramatic change during this period of time, Rilla herself grows from a child to a woman. Full review...
Max the Brave by Ed Vere
I can truly believe that Curiosity Killed the Cat, if the cat is anything like Max from ‘Max the Brave’ by Ed Vere. Thankfully, as well as being curious, cats are also known for having several lives, Max uses some of them up in this adventure. Being an cat of action Max wishes to go out in the big world and chase some mice, but he is also young so does not know what a mouse is. After asking several animals if they are a mouse (including one with big ears, whiskers and a penchant for cheese), Max is pointed in the direction of something a little larger and greener than your average rodent. Full review...
Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison
It’s no secret that I’m a massive fan of teen fiction and I think it does an awful lot of things really well. Amongst other things, it can transport the reader to faraway times and places. It can also let them empathise with people in situations that they’ll probably – and in many cases hopefully – never be in themselves. I think it’s fair to say, looking at the recent Carnegie longlist as just one example, that books which do either of the above things tend to be the most critically-acclaimed. Full review...
Murder Most Unladylike (Wells & Wong Mystery 1) by Robin Stevens
How do you solve a murder with no body when nobody even realises that a murder has taken place?
Such is the task facing the Wells & Wong Detective Society - Deepdean School's most secret society. Society Secretary Hazel Wong found mistress Miss Bell's dead body in the gym. But by the time she returned with President Daisy Wells, Miss Bell's body had disappeared. It's the first decent case the Society has had - who really cared about Lavinia's Missing Tie? - and Daisy has at it with gusto. Hazel follows along at a slower pace but with, it must be said, a great deal more attention to detail. Of course, school life continues unhindered and Daisy and Hazel must conduct their investigation while avoiding Latin prep and lacrosse practice, and enjoying midnight feasts and buntime biscuits. Full review...
The Apple Tart of Hope by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald
Meg's parents think six months away in New Zealand is a great idea. Meg isn't convinced. A big part of the reason she doesn't want to go is Oscar. Oscar Dunleavey is Meg's best friend, the boy next door who makes perfect apple tarts. Full review...
Travelling Sprinkler by Nicholson Baker
Meet Nicholson Baker. Now, I know I normally introduce a book with such a phrase, and every time before now I've used the name of the main character. But I feel such is the nature of Baker's books that he is the greatest character therein, and the one most important for the potential reader to understand, however close he may or may not be to his fictional creations. Baker is a very stylised author, intricately bound up in providing amusing evidence of the value of all the small things in our world. If anybody can rustle up thousands of words about those baby nubbins that are left when you split a sheet of paper across a ready-made perforation – you know the tiny scads that are left dangling outwards – it's Baker. His early books practically were a day spent in real-time, and by rights you'd think this book should not exist – surely he's covered the world already. But no – here is love, poetry, drone warfare, Debussy, and a view of dance music production as seen from the prospect of a 55-year old American male. Full review...
Jim's Lion by Russell Hoban and Alexis Deacon
You must find your finder for yourself. So says a nurse to Jim, who is lying in hospital, plagued by some unnamed disease and bad dreams. The finder in question will be an animal totem, a frequenter of a nice, safe and loved place in Jim's mind, that will be able to keep him optimistic, hopeful and perhaps even alive throughout the procedures to come. The title gives the name away as to what the lad sees approach him in his fantasies, but there is no clue there as to what we see approach us in the fantastic that follows. Full review...
Someday We'll Tell Each Other Everything by Daniela Krien
Eastern Germany, and the country is in the limbo-land of time that lay between the end of the Communist state of the DDR and reunification. Teenager Maria is also in a limbo-land of a kind herself, living on a farm with the Brendels family, but not one of them. The matriarch still speaks to her in the third person for one, and while she does some of the house- and farm-work, and is in a relationship with the wannabe photographer son of the family, she knows she's not quite settled within those walls. Especially, as she is to learn, when there is a neighbour who can stir passionate emotions inside her… Full review...
The Murder of Harriet Krohn by Karin Fossum
It was early November and Charlo Torp, an obsessive gambler who was so deep in debt to the people he should not owe money to that he feared for his life, set out to solve his problems. An expensive bunch of flowers which needed a signature on delivery would get him into the house of Harriet Krohn - and a spot of burglary would net him enough to pay off his debts. All goes according to plan up to a point - but then it all goes wrong when Harriet Krohn fights back and Torp uses the butt of the revolver he brought to frighten her to bludgeon her about the head and she's found dead the following morning. The only clue for Inspector Konrad Sejer is the abandoned bunch of flowers. Full review...
Smart by Kim Slater
Kieran sees the world in a different way from most 14-year-old boys. He’s an artist, inspired by Lowry, and a boy with a strong sense of right and wrong. So when a homeless man called Colin is killed, and the police don’t seem interested, Kieran decides to investigate himself. Can he solve the mystery? Perhaps even more importantly, can he survive his home life with horrible stepfather Tony and stepbrother Ryan bullying him? Full review...
The Sword of Kuromori by Jason Rohan
Greek legends seems to have been done to death in YA and MG recently, there’s been a fair amount influenced by Norse mythology over the years, and Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles are probably the most popular of several books and series which have brought us stories based on that of Egypt. Japanese culture doesn’t seem to have played as big a part (although we’re huge fans of Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff and Kinslayer at The Bookbag) so it’s refreshing to see an adventure here featuring kappas, nure-onnas, and oni, amongst other fearsome creatures. Full review...
I Predict a Riot by Catherine Bruton
Aspiring film-maker Maggie lives on Coronation Road with her mum, a politician, but without her dad, who's left them. Tokes is another teen living without a father - new to the neighbourhood, he and his mother are trying not to be found by his dad. The pair meet and become friends, but fury is brewing in their town, and a young boy called Little Pea is about to unwittingly set things in motion that will lead to terrible events. Will Maggie and Tokes survive as the streets turn to violence? Full review...