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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A Dark Trade by Mary Hooper
Georgina Friday, known to everyone as Gina, grew up in an orphanage and when she was sixteen went to be a servant is a big house in central London. There were seven members of the family and twelve servants - and Gina was the one at the bottom who had to run about after everyone and who was the butt of practical jokes. She could cope with that, but what she couldn't cope with was the attentions of one of the young men of the family. She'd already heard the stories of what had happened to another young maid who'd caught his eye - thrown out on the streets to fend for herself and her baby - and could see no way of escape from him other than to run away. Full review...
Truthwitch (The Witchlands Series) by Susan Dennard
Highway robbery is one of their talents so Safiya and Iseult don't envisage any problems. That is until they realise one of the soldiers defending the booty is a bloodwitch. It's an even bigger problem because truthwitches like Safiya are in demand…dangerously so! Meanwhile as the kingdom of Nubrevna reaches the end of a 20 year truce, Prince Merik desperately tries for a permanent peace. But there are those who would rather fight, including his own sister. Full review...
The Words In My Hand by Guinevere Glasfurd
17th century life circumstances dictate that Helena Jans has to go into service and is employed by Mr Sergeant, an English bookseller living in Amsterdam. There's much excitement when Mr Sergeant welcomes his new lodger, philosopher and scientist, Rene Descartes. However the thrill becomes somewhat muted when Helena's employer realises what the stay entails. Helena on the other hand, is totally enthralled by their guest: an enthrallment that will totally change her life. Full review...
More of Me by Kathryn Evans
At school, sixteen year old Teva Webb seems normal. But at home Teva's life is about as far from normal as it's possible to get. Locked away in what everyone outside thinks is a haunted house are eleven other Tevas, all different ages. Why? Because every year Teva separates in two with the new Teva going out in the world while the previous Teva is kept inside, trapped as her younger self. Full review...
All Dressed in White by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke
Following the success of The Cinderella Murder case, people are lining up to be featured on Laurie Moran's successful TV show: Under Suspicion. Each episode revives a 'cold case' by returning to the scene of the crime, interviewing the friends and family of the victim and reviewing new evidence. The show has had 100% success record so far, which has resulted in an influx of potential new cases to feature. However, when a desperate mother begs Laurie to investigate the disappearance of her daughter on her wedding day, Laurie knows that her story will make great TV; especially as the scene of the 'crime' is a luxurious hotel in Florida... Full review...
The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science by Andrea Wulf
Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in 1769, the younger brother of Wilhelm von Humboldt who would become a Prussian minister but who is perhaps better remembered as a philosopher and linguist. The family was well-to-do and both brothers benefitted from an excellent education, although they lacked affection from their emotionally-distant widowed mother, but it was a legacy from her which would fund Alexander's first explorations. His first travels would be in Europe where he met and was influenced by people such as Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, who had travelled with Thomas Cook. But it was his travels in Latin America which would lay the foundations for his life's work. Full review...
Little People, Big Dreams: Frida Kahlo by Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Eng Gee Fan
Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico. When she was a young schoolgirl she contracted polio and was left with a leg which was skinny as a rake, but she bore the problem stoically and in some ways delighted in being different. Then one day Frida was in a bus which crashed into a car. She was badly injured and even when she was over the worst she still had to rest in bed and filled the time by drawing pictures, including a self portrait. Eventually she showed her pictures to a famous artist - Diego Rivera - who liked the pictures, and Frida. They married and Rivera encouraged Frida's painting. She exhibited, eventually in New York, to great acclaim. Full review...
Travelers Rest by Keith Lee Morris
I was a little bit sceptical of Travelers Rest at first. A novel set in an old hotel, buried in snow, where strange things start happening? A young boy whose parents start acting strangely, perhaps foreshadowing tragedy? Now that sounds familiar. But I managed to push away those thoughts, and I’m glad I did. The story may be well-known, but the execution is all new. Full review...
Little People, Big Dreams: Coco Chanel by Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Ana Albero
Gabrielle Chanel lived in an orphanage in a French town and after the death of her mother she went to a strict convent school. The fact that she was different didn't make her life easy, but there were early indications that she was going to be a seamstress. After she left school she sewed by day and sang by night and it was as she sang that she gained her nickname - Coco - which came from the soldiers in the audience. But her dream was designing clothes and the first step was designing and making hats: this led to her opening a hat shop. One evening, at a party she realised that a lot of the women weren't dancing: their corsets were so tight that they could hardly breathe and it was this that prompted Coco to create a new style. Her clothes were simple, straight and comfortable to wear. Full review...
World War Two: Against the Rising Sun (Campfire Graphic Novels) by Jason Quinn and Naresh Kumar
World War Two – so often a lesson subject for our primary school children, even after all this time. Nazis, Soviets, Pearl Harbor – but wait. That last wasn't just the clarion call to the Americans to join in with the rest of our Allies – it was a mere episode in a fuller story – the half of the war that was never seen by those in Europe, beyond the fact the British Empire was certainly changed forever. The War in the Pacific is something I was certainly never taught much about in school, at any age. And here's a graphic novel version of the tale from a publisher in India that can serve at last as a salutary lesson. Full review...
World War Two: Under the Shadow of the Swastika (Campfire Graphic Novels) by Lewis Helfand and Lalit Kumar Sharma
One of the most common subjects at primary school, getting on for three generations since it happened, is of course World War Two. It has the impact that sixty million dead people deserve – but only if it's taught correctly. One of the ways to present it is this book, which comes from a slightly surprising place – an Indian publisher completely new to me – but succeeds in being remarkably competent, complete and really quite readable. Full review...
Where I'm Reading From: The Changing World of Books by Tim Parks
Books, eh? – who here doesn't just love them? (And if you don't, please exercise greater mouse control as you click away.) Some of us love books about books – and that includes a lot of us here at the Bookbag. And who better to turn to regarding books than Mr Tim Parks, who writes them, writes about them, educates about them, translates them, teaches the translation thereof, blogs professionally about them… He tells us he has a split personality in that different worldly territories know him for different things, whether that be essays, travel writing, seriously serio-comic fiction, or just for being 'that bloke who never exactly set the world on fire but does do a definitely reliable turn every time I've tried him'. This, being the pick of four years' web posts for the New York Review of Books, is his clearest statement in book form about books, and yes, it is yet again a pretty reliable turn. Full review...
Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs by Lina Wolff and Frank Perry (translator)
Upstairs, a flat where mother and daughter struggle from pay cheque to pay cheque; downstairs, the love nest of a dying writer and her last of many conquests. Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs is a multilayered testimonial to the writer, the eccentric Alba Cambó, gathered by Araceli, the teenager upstairs. Through Araceli's bird's-eye view, anecdotes unfold as told by lovers, business acquaintances (often both – for with Alba Cambó you can never know), and the short stories of Cambó herself. Full review...
Changers, Book One: Drew by Allison Glock-Cooper and T Cooper
Some teenagers worry about who they'll wake up next to. Others worry about who they'll wake up as...
Ethan, who is 14, is just hoping to wake up in time to begin his high school career in a brand new town. Imagine his shock when he wakes up AS A GIRL. What the what? How can this happen? It turns out that Ethan, now Drew, is a Changer, one of an ancient race of humankind, and he will undergo not one, but THREE more such changes - one for each year of his time at high school. Drew's parents are overjoyed at their offspring's transformation but Drew is not happy at all. Full review...
River of Ink 1: Genesis by Helen Dennis
Some people believe that when you drown, your whole life flashes before you. The boy in the river saw only bottles, driftwood and the dented licence plate of a foreign car. Not his life. But he knew for certain that he was drowning.
But River Boy doesn't drown. He holds on. And when he washes up on the banks of the Thames, something propels him to St Paul's Cathedral, where Reverend Solomon finds him, drenched, bedraggled, wild-eyed and wordless. After several days in hospital, River Boy remains unable to find his voice. Or his memory. Who is this boy? Why was he in the Thames? Will anyone claim him? What are the strange signs he obsessively draws? Full review...
Maresi (The Red Abbey Chronicles) by Maria Turtschaninoff and Annie Prime (translator)
Despite the name, there is nothing masculine about the island of Menos at all. Apart from a few male farm animals and birds, everything is feminine – the island is a rugged mountain land, home to only one abbey where everyone is female, and worshipping a female holy trinity – one Mother Goddess in three ages of life. The novices there are on the cusp, in several ways – of girls turning to women, of students turning to Sisters, of people learning what the religion means for them starting to practise it with a duty to others. And, of course, they are on the border between the past that took them to the abbey and what could come if they ever leave. Maresi comes from a family that lost one daughter through famine, and the inability to support themselves. New girl Jai, who has latched on to Maresi like her shadow to learn the ropes, has come from a place even darker – but whose future might be more blackened by darkness is for you to discover, in this trilogy-opening fantasy. Full review...
Odd Job Frog by Colleen Jacey and Zed Jacey
I'm bored, said Frog. Bored, bored, BORED.
And you can see he is: chin on elbow, elbow on knee and, dare I say, a slightly sulky expression on his face. He's not happy. Mouse has the right of it, with his hammock slung in the cornfield, but Frog has made up his mind. He's off to the city which is full of exciting things. And it is. Everywhere he looks there are wonderful things to do, but there's only one snag. They all cost money. And as he hasn't got any he's going to have to get a job. Full review...
The Witches: Salem 1692 by Stacy Schiff
Like most people I know the story of Salem through the very particular lens of _The Crucible_. That particular lens was the very current witch-hunt that was going on at the time. Arthur Miller's play is rightly seen as an allegory of the McCarthyism in 1950s America – but having read Schiff's more academic approach to the source tale, it's easy to see that Miller's drama is much more about the hunting down of the 'red menace' than about what might have happened in New England two hundred and fifty years earlier. Full review...
Dinosaurs on Other Planets by Danielle McLaughlin
Seeing as this book is clearly a talented author hitting the ground running, I will dispense with any major preamble. We start with a tale of a daughter affected by the emotions of her parents as they separate – and the influence of a certain school-teacher – from the mother's point of view. An ancient input shows how alien, and the modern day domesticity how regular, the isolation of a woman can feel, as events are peppered by minor acts of destruction. But men can be alienated too – especially one, a reluctant guest at a party for children hosted by someone he once had an affair with – he feels the new form of this influence in the light of another one he has had to try and abandon. 'All About Alice' – that's what the title character wants to say but has nobody to speak it to, but is it her – mid-40s and single, living with her father – that is most removed from her dreams or her old friend and now child factory, Marian? And we complete a lap of the calendar with the wintry tale of a man unable to tell his work superiors of the problems he faces at home – a new home, recently built like so many one sees while driving round Ireland. Full review...
Foul Tides Turning by Stephen Hunt
The people of Weyland always believed the slavers' raids, which destroyed families and homes like a natural disaster, were a misfortune that couldn't be averted. But it wasn't true. Their King, King Marcus, had struck a deal – sacrificing his people in exchange for technology and political power. But now, everyone knows. Jacob and Carter Carnehan escaped the slavers, returning home with the truth, the true King, and a Princess as their hostage. Their purpose was to avoid war – but instead the truth prompts a civil war, and an invasion force gathers to reclaim the princess. Once again, Jacob and Carter will be separated – and this time they'll be fighting for something bigger than both of them… Full review...
Chicken Mission: Chaos in Cluckbridge by Jennifer Gray and Hannah George
Chickens are not supposed to live in cities, but they do because humans have got small coops in so many of their gardens. Foxes are not supposed to live in cities, but they have gone there anyway in search of anything to eat – which can include the chickens. Lethal, gigantic cobra snakes are not supposed to live in cities, but one, called Cleopatra that has been a huge enemy to chicken-kind for years, has escaped from the city zoo and is on the loose. You might think that the Elite Chicken Squad could sort out the fox problem if they went to town – after all, they have done so twice before now – but things would be a lot different if by some chance the wily foxes got into cahoots with the cobra… And things would have a lot more urgency if Cleopatra happened to be ready to lay a large clutch of her eggs – which she is… Full review...
The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941 by Roger Moorhouse
Before WWII started, you didn't really have peace. Tensions had hardly settled down since the Great War, and there had been conflicts several times since, particularly in what would become the Theatre of War in eastern Europe. Nazi Germany and the Soviet regime were already at loggerheads, with the former supporting Japanese aggression in eastern Asia. They were bedfellows in evil, but very much on opposing sides. But with things stirring like never before under Hitler's expansionist activities, and despite numerous instances of this side talking to that potential enemy about the other, Nazi and Communist seemed to be firm foes. Both had publicly been denouncing the other – the Soviets deeming Nazis one side of the same corrupt, capitalist coin as us Brits, the Hitlerites already equating Communism with Jewry. But from under that period when the sides were pouring buckets of shit on each other's heads (sorry for the language, but it’s me quoting Stalin, believe it or not) came an extraordinary Pact – one of a handful in fact, that deemed Germany and Russia non-aggressors and collaborators, - just in time for them to share Poland between themselves. The initial document was short, but had an impact to affect 50 million people then, and many millions now – and yet it's hardly been the subject of a full look before now. Full review...
The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl by Melissa Keil
Alba and her friends have just finished high school. Now they must decide what to do with the rest of their lives. Move to the city? Enrol at university? Get a job and make a life in their rural Australian backwater? Pair off? Stay single? Alba herself must decide whether or not a career in art and comic books is possible. And if it is, is it worth leaving a happy life and a friendship group for? It's a frightening choice. Is she good enough? And in any case, the friendship group might disappear whatever she decides. Because each member of it has the same choice before them. Full review...
A Masterpiece of Corruption (A John Grey Historical Mystery) by L C Tyler
1657: John Grey, law student at Lincolns Inn, receives a meeting invitation that doesn't seem to be meant for him. Unfortunately he still goes to the meeting and ends up accepting a mission to kill Oliver Cromwell. He has two problems with this: first he likes a quiet life and secondly he likes Oliver Cromwell. In fact he already works for Oliver's spymaster, Thurloe. The life expectancy of a double agent isn't that long and that's without reckoning on the intervention of Aminta! Full review...
The Silver Witch (Shadow Chronicles) by Paula Brackston
Ceramic artist Tilda moves to the house she and her husband envisaged their lives together in the wilds of Wales. Unfortunately, due to his tragic death a year ago, Tilda must move in alone and build a different life. In the same location a thousand years earlier Seren serves Prince Hywell as his village's seer and shaman. Life isn't easy for her either. She has enemies, some a lot closer than the traditional threat from the Anglo Saxons. Although centuries apart these two women's lives will come together with connotations for all who love them and a deadly force that could go beyond that. Full review...
Gunner Girls and Fighter Boys by Mary Gibson
Gunner Girls and Fighter Boys is the latest book in Mary Gibson's Bermondsey series. This time, the Lloyd family take centre stage: Mum, Dad, son Jack and daughters May and Peggy. War is raging in Europe and Bermondsey is not immune from daily onslaught of bombs. A tragic event one night changes everything and home-bird May decides to fly the nest in order to participate in the war effort. The war will leave no-one unscathed; the strongest hearts can be paralysed by fear and the unlikeliest of people can emerge as heroes. Full review...