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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After the Storm by Jane Lythell
Rob and Anna are nearing the Honduras leg of their South American travels. Here they meet Kimberley and Owen, an American couple who charter out their own boat for sailing trips around the local islands. Rob persuades Anna it will be a fun way to end their holiday but Anna isn't so sure. There's something about Owen and Kimberley that makes her hesitant about being shut away on a boat at sea with them. Perhaps it's the way that he never sleeps or the mystery as to why there are no knives in the cutlery drawer. Rob thinks Anna's just overly imaginative, but time will tell. Full review...
We Used to Be Kings by Stewart Foster
Tom and Jack are 18 today. Not that they have much cause for celebration - stuck in a home for troubled children, they are constantly examined and questioned by doctors, when all they want is to be left alone to live life together. Full review...
I Feel Sick! (Little Princess) by Tony Ross
I should think most parents of small children are familiar with fake sicknesses, in an attempt to get out of nursery/school/the dentist or whatever other trauma you are heartlessly inflicting on them. I remember my daughter aged about three trying to convince me that she had a broken leg, pointing to the broken one and then limping on the other! Here we see the Little Princess insisting that she is terribly, dreadfully sick. Especially when she has been asked to do something she doesn't want to do. Then she feels really terrible! Full review...
Siena by Helen Eve
Siena Hamilton rules over Temperley High, along with her clique the Starlets. Nothing can stand in her way – not even the return of ex-Starlet and her former best friend Romy, who spent a term in France after a shocking incident one night led to the headmistress deciding the girl needed to spend some time away from their school. If you've read Stella, you know roughly what happens here, but you don't necessarily know why. If you haven’t read it, I'd definitely suggest going for that one first. (There may be spoilers here, although I've tried to avoid anything too specific.) Full review...
The Deep Dark Wood by Algy Craig Hall and Ali Pye
Children love a fairytale. Forests, monsters, Little Red Riding Hood. They open up a world of possible adventures, wonder and mystery. The Deep Dark Wood taps into that format brilliantly, taking ideas and myths already deeply ingrained into our culture and creating a really fun story for children (and adults) to engage with. Full review...
There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake
Shelby is seventeen. She dreams of going to college but her mother would never allow it. Shaylene is more than over-protective. She homeschools Shelby and rarely lets her daughter out on her own. She is obsessed with the danger that men present. Shelby loves her mother but can't help the odd twinge of resentment at the level of control she exerts and more than the odd twinge of embarrassment when she looks at they overweight, unfit, pyjama jeans-wearing Shaylene.
And then Shelby is knocked down by a car. And everything unravels. Shaylene turns up at the hospital with bags packed. She's running from something, but what is it? And why can't she see the coyote that is watching Shelby, talking to her, warning her of lies and asking her to save a Child from a Crone? Full review...
The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry
When the seven schoolgirls at St Etheldreda's School for Young Ladies in Victorian Ely see their headmistress and her brother drop dead at dinner, they're more concerned about their future than the loss of the two adults. Knowing that if anyone discovers what's happened they'll be sent home to families who don't want them, they launch a daring plan to cover up the sad news, and run the school themselves. When the deaths turn out to be caused by poison, though, they're left not just trying to run a school and convince an alarming number of visitors that nothing's wrong - but also to solve the murders before there's another killing. Full review...
The Prussian Princesses: The Sisters of Kaiser Wilhelm II by John Van der Kiste
Kaiser Wilhelm II is well known and not for the best of reasons and he's certainly over-shadowed his six younger siblings. John Van der Kiste's first biography was of his father, Kaiser Friedrich III and he has also written about Emperor Wilhelm II so he is well placed to write about the three youngest children Kaiser Friedrich and Victoria, Princess Royal. Originally he intended to write about Friedrich's second daughter, but it quickly became obvious that the most satisfying biography - for reader and author - would be a biography of Victoria, Sophie and Margaret, their mother's kleebatt or trio, as they were known. Full review...
Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell
When Sophie and Jay play around with a ouija board app that Jay has downloaded to his phone, things go awfully wrong. Sophie asks to speak to Rebecca, a cousin of hers who died in mysterious circumstances. But what Rebecca has to say is not good. And that very night, Jay drowns in the canal after falling from his bike. A tragic accident. Or was it? Full review...
The Zigzag Effect by Lili Wilkinson
When she's told her family can't afford to pay for the photography course she was planning on attending, Sage is thrilled to get a holiday job at a theatre, working with a magician, his beautiful assistant, and his handsome stagehand. But The Great Armand's magic show is, while initially thrilling, potentially full of danger - and when a wand gets snapped on stage, a sure sign of bad luck, things go from bad to worse. Who can Sage trust when someone vanishes? Is it a magic trick, a ghost, or something even more sinister? Full review...
Song of the Slums by Richard Harland
Song of the Slums fuses politics, music, social injustice and gaslight fantasy. Set in 1846 during the age of steam it tells the story of Astor Vance and her mysterious servant/companion Verrol who are caught up in the machinations of the plutocratic Swale family and must fight for survival in a world of intrigue. Full review...
Careless People Murder Mayhem and the Invention of the Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchwell
In this accomplished literary biography Professor Churchwell expertly weaves together three guest lists- the Fitzgeralds and literary cast of New York, the sensationalist tragic murder victims and suspects of New Brunswick, New Jersey and the careless characters of F. Scott's novel using the Fitzgeralds' archives, newspaper clippings, literary scrapbooks,diary entries and anecdotes to link the stories and chronicle the heedless hedonism of the 1920s. It is not only a meticulously researched tribute tracing the genesis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s plot skeleton, which he roughly sketched in pencil in the back of a book, entitled Man’s Hope, but it also sparkles with sophisticated vocabulary fizzing with the effervescence of a glass of champagne providing new treats for the reader with each inviting chapter. Full review...
MOD: From Bebop to Britpop, Britain's Biggest Youth Movement by Richard Weight
Mod is arguably a rather-overused term. First of all, there is the matter of establishing a precise definition. Modernism, which was soon abbreviated for convenience, began as the working-class movement of a newly affluent nation. Once the age of immediate post-war austerity was gone, the cult of a youth keen to shake off the drab conformity of life in 1950s Britain took hold. It was more than anything else an amalgam of American music and European fashions, beginning as a popular cult and gradually becoming a mainstream culture. Full review...
Where is Pim? by Lena and Olof Landstrom
I had a gankie when I was little. It was a ragged bit of blanket that went everywhere with me. Actually there were a couple of bits because my mum cut it into two so she could wash one whilst the other was in use! After gankie came Teddy, and he really went everywhere with me. I even took him to school where his name was on the register and he had his own reading book. Special 'things' and teddies can be very important to small children, and this story shows us how important these things can be, and how traumatic it is when they go missing! Full review...
The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America by Mike McIntyre and Chris Brinkley (narrator)
In 1994 Mike McIntyre was a thirty-seven-year-old journalist with a secret: he was frightened. There were specific fears, but what it boiled down to was that he was frightened of life - and then there was a memory. He remembered - with some shame - not stopping for a hitchhiker with a gas can in the desert. It was almost on a whim that he decided to cross America, from San Francisco in California to Cape Fear in North Carolina, which might sound like a great adventure, but McIntyre decides to do it without money - to be completely reliant on the kindness of strangers. He was confronting his own fears. Full review...
Vigilante by Shelley Harris
Jenny Pepper is a forty-something wife and mother who is stuck wondering where her life has gone. Privately, Jenny is jealous of her husband, he has a wonderful creative career that people can’t wait to hear more about, while Jenny’s work as a mother and her job at a charity bookshop seems to put a stopper on conversation. Jenny envies her daughter, with her youthful figure and a whole life stretched out in front of her. When tidying up one night, Jenny discovers her husband’s secret and just like that her life changes. Full review...
The War at the Edge of the World: Twilight of Empire: Book One (Rome Reborn) by Ian Ross
Centurion Aurelius Castus has risen through the ranks from the crack legions of the Danube but now finds himself in a Roman army on the very edge of the world – 4th century Britain, near Eboracum. Although his men are kept at battle fitness, his latest mission is one of peace. He must take a cohort to escort an envoy on a visit to the barbarian Picts. The local tribes are in the process of picking a new leader and, as the area's future is resting on it, the Romans want to influence the choice with diplomacy. However not everyone has been honest with Castus; people as well as situations are not all they seem. Castus must depend on his own initiative and ability to survive as he soon realises he can trust no one. Full review...
The Wolf in Winter (Charlie Parker Thriller) by John Connolly
Private investigator Charlie Parker is surprised when Jude, a bum he's befriended and worked with in the past, is found hanged in a basement. It looks like suicide but Jude has been looking for his daughter Annie to rekindle their family relationship and has just raised over $100 to help find her. Odd time for suicide? It becomes an even odder prospect when Annie herself goes missing after heading for the small Maine town of Prosperous. Charlie decides to drop in on the good citizens of the small town and starts poking beneath the respectable veneer. It doesn’t take him long but there is a downside: this investigation may have a body count that includes Charlie. Full review...
Jekyll's Mirror by William Hussey
Sam is doing his best but he feels the Wrath inside him all the time. If your father had beaten your mother to death, wouldn't you? He tries to concentrate on schoolwork and his art and keep that anger locked away deep down inside, but it's not easy. His aunt Cora does her best to support him but his uncle Lionel is distrustful, sure that the (violent) apple in Sam hasn't fallen far from (his father's) tree. Full review...
The Death Season (Detective Inspector Wesley Peterson) by Kate Ellis
When Wesley Peterson was called to investigate the death of a man in a hotel room he thought that it was going to be straightforward, but then there were the credit cards - in different names - and there wasn't a mobile phone. He felt guilty about the little time he'd been able to spend with his family (and about the fact that he was ever so slightly attracted to one of his colleagues...) but the job had to come first and it wasn't long before he realised that there was a complex history to the dead man and that he was almost certainly a murderer. Full review...
Why You? 101 Interview Questions You'll Never Fear Again by James Reed
No-one likes doing job interviews. This includes most recruiting managers, but for candidates it is one of life's most stressful situations. No matter whether it's the next step in our carefully planned career or just a job, no matter whether it's our first job or our fifteenth, that 45 minutes to an hour of conversation has the potential to fundamentally affect our happiness for the foreseeable future. Full review...
The Man With A Charmed Life and his part in saving the planet from WWIII by Graham Fulbright
Englishman Henry Wright is employed by the Common Market (which would become the European Union in 1993) in Brussels and he's not entirely satisfied with his lot: he should be an interpreter but he seems to be restricted to more administrative duties. He could refuse the offer he gets, but the chance to actually use his expertise in Russian, move across to the USA and make a point to his employers is just too tempting. He's also rather taken by Alexy Geary, the attractive woman from the intelligence-gathering agency who makes the offer, and it's not long before he's on his way. Before he does he's peripherally involved in a shooting - and that's not something which usually happens to someone like him. Full review...
The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler by Gene Kemp
Meet Tyke Tiler. I first did so a very long time ago – I might even have my copy of the original paperback, with its ending-spoiling cover artwork, as one of the few books I carried over from those days. Tyke is a schoolchild in the last year before big school, and is permanently in trouble, partly due to hanging round with Danny Price. It seems wherever Danny unfortunately leads, Tyke follows – whether it's digging sheep bones out the town weir system, or handling stolen goods when Danny nicks a high-value note from one of the teacher's purses. How is the term going to end, when everything Danny does seems to reflect badly on Tyke? Full review...
Stella by Helen Eve
What do you get when you mix up Cecily Von Ziegesar's delightfully trashy Gossip Girl series with Dickens's classic Great Expectations, and throw in a splash of Animal Farm by George Orwell? A really readable YA contemporary story which has surprising depth and has been one I've been thinking about a lot since originally reading it towards the start of the year. I read Stella for the first time after getting it out of the library, and at the time I was extremely impressed by the voices of lead characters Stella and Caitlin, but had issues with it. On rereading, to prepare myself for upcoming prequel Siena, I think it's one of the relatively few books I've read recently which works even better second time around, although those issues haven't vanished completely. Full review...
Imagination According to Humphrey by Betty G Birney
If you haven't already, meet Humphrey – the most squeakily vocal inhabitant of Classroom 26. The charming and inventive hamster is here with yet another of his main novels – as opposed to early readers, quiz and joke books, anthologies, guides to having pets – there are so many around that my edition didn't try to put them all on one inventory page, but chose to leave a few out. Here the series continues with Humphrey and the same children as he's befriended over the last few volumes, and it's storytime. The class is being read a novel about a boy and the dragons doing evil to his village's weather, and everyone is trying to write creatively about flying as a response. But when someone threatens to bring a real-life dragon to class, how could the little class pet be safe, especially when he hasn't the imagination to see what the result could be? Full review...
The Saint Closes the Case by Leslie Charteris and John Telfer (narrator)
On the way back to London with Patricia Holm late one night, Simon Templar saw a strange pulsing light and couldn't resist going to investigate. What he discovered was a demonstration of a weapon which could well bring the world to war a mere twelve years after the end of the Great War. Templar and his confederates concluded that the weapon could not be allowed to come into the public domain - and if necessary the inventor (who could easily recreate the weapon even if he gave assurances to the contrary) would need to be, er, sidelined. Unfortunately Templar and friends are not the only ones in search of the weapon: his old nemesis, Rayt Marius, has his own plans. Full review...
The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson
Fourteen-year-old David has always known that he is a transgender girl. (Note: As David uses male pronouns in his internal dialogue I have continued to do so in my review.) However David has chosen a new girl's name and collects feminine clothes to express that inner self. This is a secret kept from everyone except his best friends Essie and Felix. When Leo Denton, who also has a secret, moves to David's school Eden Park from the rougher Cloverdale, the worlds of the two collide. Full review...
That Night by Chevy Stevens
It’s been 17 years since Toni went to prison for the murder of her sister. 17 years since she last saw her boyfriend Ryan, also convicted for the murder, since she had a meaningful conversation with her parents, since she went to a coffee shop or walked on the beach. Sent down when she was still a teenager, she’s been incarcerated for virtually half of her life and though she’s now coming up for parole, it’s not as easy as simply going back to her old life from before. Full review...
The Vanishing Moment by Margaret Wild
This book appealed to me on various grounds. It is teen fiction (and, joy of joys, devoid of werewolves and dystopia), it is by an Australian author (under-represented on UK shelves), and it involves parallel universes (tantalising philosophical what-ifs). I was intrigued to see if the author could live up to my expectations. Full review...
The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell
I have my usual problem attempting anything close to a plot summary of something I really love - this will probably make the maximum possible impact if you go into it, as I did, knowing barely anything about it. If you trust my recommendations enough to buy on one sentence, stop reading now and pre-order - this is a heart-breakingly gorgeous read which will almost definitely be one of the best books, YA or otherwise, published in 2015. Full review...