'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview|author=Thomas Bruce Wheeler|title=The London of Sherlock Holmes - Over 400 Computer Generated Street Level Photos|rating=3|genre=Travel|summary=Should I trust a book that has a typo on the FRONT cover? Would I purchase a book that practically says, as its first words, the e-book version is better than this paper thing? This, despite setting up very much the wrong impression, is a gateway into the world of Sherlock Holmes - but does, as I say, blatantly show itself up as flawed, while the electronic version could count as a very worthwhile app for the Conan Doyle buff.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780922094</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview
|author=Simon Scarrow
|summary=Are you planning an Olympic telefest for a few weeks in July 2012? Are you one of the lucky people who have tickets to their chosen events? Or are you one of those many people who are genuinely confused by the rules, or the scoring and who would like to know a little more so that they can understand what it's all about? If so, you should look no further. We have the book for you. Whether you're heading for London or going no further than the television we have the background to the sports.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684757</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Yeoman and Quentin Blake
|title=Sixes and Sevens
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary='Sixes and Sevens' was originally published in 1971 but the fact it’s still doing the rounds is a testament to the longevity of the rhyming writing style and the simply fabulous illustrations by Quentin Blake. I grew up on a diet of books illustrated by Blake and it was a joy to revisit his style in the pages of this book with the next generation of my family; my 4 year old, Sadie.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393087</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Timothy Snyder
|title=Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=The first chapter is enough. I don't mean the preface, or introduction, that mean you start reading chapter one about an hour in, but chapter one itself, detailing as it does the way Stalin blatantly enforced collectivization on Ukraine's farms, thus killing off millions of local civilians. The seed stock ended up being taken away as part of the grain quota to feed the rest of the Soviet Union, and hardly anybody failed to go without at some point as a result. The first chapter here, then, is more than enough in telling us what we didn't know, explaining perfectly lucidly yet academically how and why what happened happened, and at times of quite gruesome anecdote and contemporary reportage, churning our stomachs and making us have second thoughts about reading on.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099551799</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Guy Adams
|title=Sherlock Holmes: The Breath of God
|rating=4
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=A body is discovered in London. The young gentleman concerned, a Mr Hilary De Montfort, had enjoyed a good life: no money problems for example and as far as anyone can ascertain, no enemies either. The motive is therefore fuzzy at best. The state of his body when it was discovered was bizarre - it looked as if he'd been hurled from a great height, even although he'd been discovered in an open space around Grosvenor Square. And in the words of Dr Watson himself (it is he who narrates in the main) ' ... as varied as our capital might be, it will always be found wanting of mountain ranges.'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857682822</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Isabel Wolff
|title=The Very Picture Of You
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Ella is a portrait painter, living in London, single but ok with it. She’s 35 years old – a fact wedged rather unsubtly into the first page of chapter one – and her younger sister is getting married. It could be the start of something a bit samey, or it could be the start of something a bit special. Lucky for us, it’s the second one, and the story develops in an intriguing and quite unusual direction.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000724584X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Clemency Pearce and Sam McPhillips
|title=The Silent Owl
|rating=3.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=
Owl is silent. Not a hoot. Not a twit or a twoo. Nothing. The other forest animals are worried about him, and try to provoke him into saying something, but Owl remains silent.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849564248</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dubravka Kolanovic and Eilidh Rose
|title=Little Penguin Learns to Swim
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Little Penguin has an important day ahead of him, for today he is going to go swimming for the first time. He's a little bit scared, but as he sets off to the water he meets several friends along the way, all of whom are also trying out something new. As he sees each of them succeed in their endeavours, will he also find the courage to try and swim himself?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184956440X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Bull
|title=The Smile on the Face of the Pig: Confessions of the Last Cub Reporter
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=John Bull was born in the mid thirties – old enough to be able to say that he was bombed in his cradle but young enough not to be directly involved. He was one of the last cub reporters – after that they changed the name – and 'The Smile on the Face of the Pig' is the story of his time as a reporter, a National Serviceman, a husband and father in the nineteen fifties. It's a gentle, nostalgic look back at a decade when life was different. There might have been more hardships – but it's difficult to say that it was ''harder'' and this book is a reminder for those of us who were around at the time of what it was really like.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956559549</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gary Hayden
|title=You Kant Make it Up!: Strange Ideas from History's Greatest Philosophers
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=In You Kant Make it Up, journalist and philosopher Gary Hayden takes his readers through some of the biggest and most important ideas right from the very beginnings of philosophical thought up to the philosophy of the modern day. He gives a brief explanation and discussion of each idea, and shows how through the ages philosophers have argued pretty much everything you could think of, much of which seems bizarre to the modern thinker.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851688455</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robert Leroy Ripley
|title=Ripley's Believe It or Not! 2012
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Here at Bookbag we don't usually cover annuals. In our experience people either know they want them or don't bother with them and once the year is out there's not a lot of interest in them, particularly if they're based on a character which might well have gone out of fashion. Ripley's ''Believe It Or Not!'' is different. The series is about interesting facts – all of which are true - which are going to surprise the readers and will continue to surprise them years down the line. Just to test this out we had a look back at the [[Ripley's Believe It or Not 2010 by Robert Leroy Ripley|2010 edition]] and it's still as shocking, gruesome and downright compulsive as it was when we first saw it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847946704</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ian Mathie
|title=Supper With The President
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=It's such a pleasure to read an Ian Mathie book, so I really looked forward to 'Supper with the President'. No surprises, then, to find this book every bit as delightful, intriguing and informative as his others. Ian Mathie knows exactly how to stitch up a good story; the occasional photographs - proving the stories are not fiction – come almost as a surprise. The books are helpfully illustrated with simple maps placing the stories in geographical context. To me, Ian Mathie is simply the best of the relatively unknown writers I have come across as a reviewer. Interestingly, the two men in my household grab and devour Ian Mathie's books, and I imagine anyone interested in development issues and/or Africa would welcome one or two of his titles for Christmas.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906852103</amazonuk>
}}