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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Charles Dickens: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life these pages must show… Such Dickens wrote – although of course he never wrote that about himself. He did write a lot – letters, short stories, travel journals, and of course a firm dozen classic novels – but never a strict autobiography. This book for the primary school age reader gets round that by cribbing bits from here and there, and by using a good graphic eye, to tell the stories of not only his life, but many of the works too. Full review...
I Was the Cat by Paul Tobin and Benjamin Dewey
Meet Burma. Allison Breaking, blogger and journalist behind the Breaking News website is about to, for she's accepted his giant wage packet to ghost write his memoirs. She's been told to expect the unexpected as regards his looks, but she is shocked to find that Burma is in fact the world's only talking cat, and that he has not one but nine lives to talk about. The past eight were full of a lot of evil, sin and death – but at least he's coming clean now, right? Full review...
The Scatter Here is Too Great by Bilal Tanweer
When the bomb exploded at the Karachi railway station causing intended death and mayhem, an aging reactionary poet, his middle-aged son, a child, a writer and a woman who relates more to stories than reality, are in the midst of it. Each experiences the blast as differently as their experiences of life are from each other but each will be affected. Full review...
The Godless by Ben Peek
These are strange times in Mieera, the land made from the bodies of dead gods. The Leeran army is closing in on a Mieera defended only by a scratch army of citizens and The Dark, a band of mercenary saboteurs led by cynically tough Bueralan. Ayae the cartographer's apprentice has a more personal crisis. She's pulled from a burnt out building alive and totally unscathed. This can only mean one thing: she's one of the cursed. As the effects of this newly endowed immortality hit her she must decide what to do. Zaifyr, the mysterious charmed man, has some ideas but then so do the sinister Keepers which doesn't help much. Meanwhile that army is getting closer… Full review...
In Search of Solace by Emily Mackie
Jacob Little is many things to many people as he goes through life, reinventing his personae and name. Who exactly is he? Perhaps he's unsure but the thing he's certain of is his love for a young woman he lived with for 2 years. It took her leaving and the next decade apart for him to realise he loves her but now he wants to make up for lost time. She said her name was Solace so now he's (all together now) in search of Solace. Full review...
The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs
Fisk and Shoestring are a couple of the mercenaries paid to guard Ruman high born Cornelius and his family of spoilt, back-biting in-fighters on board their steamer, The Cornelian. The exception to the continuous badly-mooded is Cornelius' daughter, the healer, Livia. She seems to have struck up a rapport with Fisk; the reason why they get on so well seems hidden in a dark secret that Shoe hopes to crack if they live that long. The truth is that life is cheap – the Stretchers roam the land, bloodthirsty and dangerous ensuring that Fisk and Shoe earn every penny Cornelius allows them. Full review...
The Vanishing Witch by Karen Maitland
More and higher taxes are being levied on the English by teenage King Richard II and his uncle/advisor John of Gaunt to pay for the wars against France. They may cause annoyance to the rich but they're breaking the poor, people like Lincolnshire river boat man Gunter and his family. Meanwhile some of the better off are facing problems from other quarters. Cloth merchant Robert of Bassingham is losing his stock before it arrives due to theft and unrest among the weavers in Flanders. It's not a good time to be English and eventually something will snap; we're heading towards 1831 and the peasants will be revolting. Full review...
Best Friends by Mara Bergman and Nicola Slater
This story has a touch of Hairy Maclary about it, perhaps because it's written in rhyme and is all about doggies. Here we meet Dexter McFadden McSimmons McClean (try shouting that out in the park when he's run away!) and two other dogs called Daisy and Lily (shamefully short names in comparison to the mighty Dexter!) They are all out and about in the park with their owners, running, strutting and playing ball. None of them are particularly attentive to their owner, however, and so it isn't long before they've all disappeared off to cause lots of trouble! Full review...
Cursed Moon: Prospero's War: Book Two by Jaye Wells
It's now six weeks since Kate Prospero saved her brother Danny's life by cooking the illegal dirty magic antidote to her Uncle Abe's poisonous recipe. Abe is safely in prison but Kate, as an MEA cop trained to track and punish practitioners of dirty magic, now has a secret. There are also other matters clawing at her mind. A series of thefts and murders is disrupting Babylon, causing it to become more dangerous by the day - and that's saying something! Indeed as the Halloween new moon approaches the murder and mayhem will increase. Meanwhile Kate is discovering even older secrets than hers which cause her to question everything she's been brought up to believe. Full review...
Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington
Sabine lives two lives. Literally. Each night, at midnight, she shifts from one self to another. Time resets too; Sabine may be a teenager to her families and friends but in reality, she has thirty-odd years-worth of life experience. It's a stressful existence: the shift itself is frightening and painful, and Sabine must be careful to behave appropriately in each environment. And her lives are very different. In Wellesley, Sabine is wealthy and popular with two brothers and a boyfriend other girls are jealous of. In Roxbury, she has one sister, parents whose business is struggling, and a reputation for rebelliousness. Full review...
Psy-Q: You know your IQ - now test your psychological intelligence by Ben Ambridge
Psy-Q is a fun and interactive slice of 'Pop-Science' which delves into various psychology topics, with the aim of entertaining and enlightening the reader and debunking a few myths along the way. Most of the chapters are only a couple of pages long and include quizzes, personality profiles, experiments, optical illusions and the odd cheesy joke thrown in for good measure. The result is a readable, accessible and un-putdownable book that I managed to devour in an entire afternoon. Full review...
What's My Name? (The Not So Little Princess) by Tony Ross and Wendy Finney
Now, I do hope that what I'm about to tell you won't be too upsetting. The Little Princess is growing up and it's causing a problem in the palace. You see the little princess has always been known as, well, the Little Princess. Whilst the Queen was helping to make cucumber sandwiches the King was striding up and down, wearing the carpet out and making his shoes squeak. He had a problem - a big problem. Now that the little princess was growing up was it really appropriate to continue calling her the Little Princess? There was an open secret in the palace: everyone knew the little princess's real name - but no one was prepared to tell her what it was. Full review...
Ten Little Princesses by Mike Brownlow and Simon Rickerty
Ten little princesses are going to a ball, but not all of them may get there. There are lots of distractions between the castle and the dance floor. Some of them are less than pleasant, like the scary monsters or the poison apple, not to mention the huffing, puffing big bad wolf (can see a familiar theme emerging?) Others are much more enticing, like a frog just begging to be kissed or a charming prince (on a skateboard, no less). Full review...
Wolfman by Michael Rosen and Chris Mould
People are panicking. The police are afraid. The army have run away. Who or what could possibly be so scary? It’s Wolf Man. And he’s on the loose. Full review...
The Widow's House (Dagger and the Coin) by Daniel Abraham
The fourth in Daniel Abraham’s majestic The Dagger and the Coin series has pretty much everything you can want in an epic fantasy adventure – even more so than the first three. There’s action, war, politics, betrayal, great relationships between family and friends. There’s a surprising amount of laughter here, even if it’s all rather bleak, as some of the heroes are using gallows humour to cope with the amount of death and destruction they're forced to see. Even better than any of this, though, is the superb characterisation. Abraham has given us perhaps half a dozen character arcs which are absolutely masterful. From the widowed woman trying to save her country by betraying its leader, while juggling an inappropriate romance with a servant (these two are probably my favourite couple ever), to a villain who manages to be simultaneously evil enough to make your skin crawl yet often pitiable and, sometimes, even likeable, all of the main players here are brilliantly portrayed. I also think the dialogue here is outstanding, hugely quotable. Full review...
A is Amazing!: Poems about Feelings by Wendy Cooling and Piet Grobler
How do you get young children interested in poetry? I guess you hope that you don't have to – you want them to be aware of clapping and skipping songs by nature, and of lyrics to music heard in school and at home. Surely it's a case of making sure a child never learns to hold verse in disfavour, and carries a natural eagerness for poetry through to adulthood. But just in case, there are books such as this wonderfully thought-through compilation, that will catch the eye and entertain those aged six or seven and up, and provide for many a read of many a different style of verse. Full review...
The Confabulist by Steven Galloway
Martin Strauss has an unusual affliction that causes him to reinvent his life from false memories, convincing even himself. As a confabulist he's unsure of his past and whether he actually had a happy relationship with the woman he loved. But there is one thing of which he's convinced: he killed the famous Ehrich Weiss twice. You've not heard of Ehrich Weiss? Oh but you have for Ehrich was Harry Houdini, the best escapologist (among other things) that the world has ever known. Full review...
Lord of the Forest by Caroline Pitcher and Jackie Morris
Everything in the forest is exciting and new for little tiger as he explores the world around him. His mother has told him of The Lord of the Forest and so he watches, listens and waits in the hope of discovering who this mysterious animal may be. As time passes he grows puzzled and starts to ask the other animals such as the Rhino, the Elephant and the Peacock who The Lord of the Forest is and each in turn claims that it is he. The tiger does not believe them and continues his search. It is not until the tiger is fully grown with a mate and cubs of his own that he finally discovers the identity of the beast he has been searching for. Full review...
The Sixteenth of June by Maya Lang
On June 16th, 1904, James Joyce had his first date with his future wife, Nora Barnacle – an occasion he commemorated by choosing it as the one-day setting for his magnum opus, Ulysses; main character Leopold Bloom gives his name to the annual Joyce celebration that takes place around the world on June 16th. Full review...
The Dark Meadow by Andrea Maria Schenkel and Anthea Bell (translator)
It was at the end of the war that Afra Zauner returned to her parents' cottage in Finsterau. She'd lost her job as a waitress and it was some time before she realised that she was pregnant. When Albert was born her father turned against her and the boy and there was little sympathy for her in the village - but they didn't expect that Afra would be murdered. The obvious suspect was Johann Zauner. It was no secret that there had been constant arguments between him and his daughter and he had some injuries which he couldn't entirely explain. When a policeman 'obtained' a confession it seemed that this was an open-and-shut case. Full review...
I Heart Holidays by Clara Vulliamy
Martha and her bunny brothers are going on holiday to the seaside and it's charming. They’re in a vintage camper van, and while a traffic jam holds them up a bit, they're soon on the beach and ready to swim. Well, Martha is. But the boys don't want to so instead they have sandcastle building competitions, and a picnic and a paddle and some ice creams. Every time Martha mentions the sea, a new plan emerges. Will anyone ever go in the water with her? Full review...
Me After You by Lucie Brownlee
People die all the time. I’m not trying to be crude, they just do. It’s the circle of life, or some less Disney-fied sentiment. And if everyone whose partner or parent died wrote a book about it, well, to say that would be less than good would be a severe understatement. For a book on such a theme to be worth reading, it has to have a pull, a twist, something to make you look twice. In Lucie’s case it’s the fact that her husband Mark was only 37 years old when he died. And not only that, he died during a bit of nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Talk about going out with a bang. Full review...
Afterparty by Daryl Gregory
People have been taking pills and seeing God for years, but in Afterparty Daryl Gregory is taking the idea of smart drugs one step further. What happens if after a particularly bad trip you have an omnipresent God with you? Is this a sense of wellbeing, or are you now just schizophrenic? In the near future people take drugs not only for their cures, but also their side effects and seeing deities may be the worst side effect of all. Full review...
Elizabeth of York by Alison Weir
Elizabeth of York could have ruled England were she not a woman and were she not born in the fifteenth century. Oldest daughter of Edward IV, she was the heiress of the Yorkist dynasty after the death of Richard III at Bosworth (and her own younger brothers in the Tower of London). Henry VII, the first Tudor king and victor by conquest, had at best a tenuous claim to the English throne. He legitimised it by his marriage to Elizabeth and proclaimed it through the Tudor rose, that joining of the emblems of York and Lancaster. Elizabeth's marriage to Henry produced one of our most famous kings in Henry VIII. Full review...
Danloria: The Secret Forest of Germania by Gloria D Gonsalves
Stan loves to go for walks in the forest of Danloria, located in the seven hills of Germania. He goes with his father almost every day. One particular day, Stan's father is ill in bed and can't take him out. And that's when Fern appears. Stan notices the plant waving to him and can't help but investigate. Fern has an invitation for Stan. He wants to take him to the secret parts of the forest, to a party. Stan has a fabulous time, meeting all the plants and finding out about the various ways in which they benefit humanity. The following spring, Stan is racking his brains to think of the perfect gift for his mother's fortieth birthday party when Fern appears again. More friends of the forest supply presents more wonderful than Stan could ever have dreamed of. A firm friendship ensues. Full review...
All Cut Up by Bruce Crowther
Jimmy and his Mum were at the supermarket when she disappeared. He didn't immediately think that it was a problem - after all she was suffering from dementia and out of roughly the last hundred and fifty visits to GetItAll he'd lost his mother on thirty five of them. But - she wasn't usually gone for this long and then there was the nagging worry that she might have become the latest victim of the Acton Axeman - a serial killer who was targeting blond, slightly-plump women wearing green - a description which fitted Jimmy's Mum to a tee. Full review...
The Dangerous Discoveries of Gully Potchard by Julia Lee
Gully never intended to get into trouble. At the beginning of our story he has a good job as a delivery boy and a safe, secure home with a loving family. But a single action can have a multitude of effects, and being forced by Nathan Boldree and his gang to take part in their latest scam soon has Gully fleeing his home. He takes refuge from the villains with his uncle on the Isle of Wight, but even there danger and menace pursue him. Full review...
Busiest People Ever by Richard Scarry
I suspect lots of us grown ups feel a certain amount of nostalgia when we come across a Richard Scarry book. He has such a distinctive style that you recognise it immediately and find yourself hunting for Huckle the pig and Lowly worm. This book tells us all about Busytown and the different things that are going on there. I actually didn't get to read the story properly until I sat down to write this review because although this has become a firm favourite with my two year old son he has no patience for the story and instead just wants to spend all his time looking at all the many, many different kinds of vehicles there are throughout the book! Full review...
Research by Philip Kerr
John Houston is a multimillionaire with a beautiful wife, a number of mistresses, countless extravagances and an apartment in Monaco, for tax reasons. He made his fortune by creating a formula for a series of best-selling novels designed specifically to appeal to the average man on the street. John has a team of four ghost-writers to do all the writing, meaning that he can produce an average of six bestsellers per year. John calls his group of ghost-writers his atelier', his ‘workshop’, perfectly reflecting his views of them. Full review...
At the Edge of Uncertainty: 11 Discoveries Taking Science by Surprise by Michael Brooks
Eleven Discoveries are introduced and explored in Michael Brooks’ At the Edge of Uncertainty, spanning all from the expansion of epigenetics, the possibility of creating a hypercomputer, and the unveiling of the true nature of the universe. Some of the hypotheses currently being investigated by our contemporary scientific community are baffling enough in themselves: Is our universe a hologram of an extra-dimensional universe? Are the mechanisms governing photosynthesis and human olfaction in fact one and the same? Just how well-established are animal personalities and cultures, if such exist? Is a human ‘will to live’ something which can be attributed to discernible biological responses and systems? Is time an illusion? Full review...
The Girl Who Walked on Air by Emma Carroll
I have been looking forward to reading this book for some time. Emma Carroll’s debut novel, Frost Hollow Hall, was one of my favourite children’s books of last year and I was delighted to discover that this is just as good. This is the exciting story of Louie and her hopes to become a circus star. Ever since she was abandoned as a baby at Chipchase's Travelling Circus, Louie has dreamed of becoming a 'Showstopper’ but Mr Chipchase only ever lets her sell tickets. However Louie has a talent as a tightrope walker and every morning she practises her act in secret watched by her little dog Pip. Can Louie find the courage to overcome the challenges that face her, defy Mr Chipchase and achieve her dream? Full review...