'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=Molly Carr
|title=In Search of Dr Watson - A Sherlockian Investigation
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=The old saying that behind every great man there is a great woman has one major exception - Sherlock Holmes. Behind him is the figure of Dr John Watson, his biographer, the man who shares his Baker St lodgings, and the man eternally flummoxed by his deductions. This biography successfully shows how the superior Holmes walked over Watson in investigative skills, and also how Conan Doyle needed Watson, if only to help us admire Holmes more by making him less insufferably smug.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685766</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=Are ebooks the future of books? Is it the right time to get an ebook reader? We thought about it long and hard. Yes we did. We don't often think about things this long or this hard, because it hurts. But sometimes, cogitations are necessary. We wouldn't be here at Bookbag if we didn't love books but we knew that more and more people were enjoying ebooks. It was time to find out what it was really like to have up to 3,500 books in your pocket or your bag. 3,500! Yikes!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B002LVUWFE</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Peter Schossow
|title=More!
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=What happens when the wind blows off your hat, and you chase it along the beach? This sweet, short little book has only one word (and that comes on the very last page), but it still manages to tell an imaginative story!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1877467553</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Julie Highmore
|title=The Birthday
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=4 November 2008: That's the date of the US presidential election, and Fran's 60th birthday. Fran is nervous about her milestone birthday – she doesn't feel that old. She is worried about her husband, Duncan, who has become rather down and forgetful. As it turns out though, her planned party will be less a celebration than the catalyst for the revelation of a lifetime of secrets.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755343042</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=The Prince's Trust
|title=Make it Happen: The Prince's Trust Guide to Starting Your Own Business
|rating=5
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=Who hasn't dreamed of being able to work for themselves, be their own boss, and not have to worry about the drag of a 9 to 5 job? Of course, the reality of starting your own business is that there are rather a lot of things you need to consider before getting started, as my sister found out when she started selling her own handmade greetings cards. Thankfully, this book was on hand to help her get things going and she's found it a really invaluable tool.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857080458</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Laurie Halse Anderson
|title=Forge
|genre=Teens
|rating=4
|summary=We left Curzon and Isabel at the end of Chains, just after they'd escaped slavery in New York at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. We pick up again with Curzon - Isabel has run off to find her sister - stumbling slap bang into the middle of the Battle of Saratoga. Cornered into enlisting into the Patriot army, Curzon isn't blind to the ironies in his situation as a slave fighting for the freedom of white men.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408803801</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Phil Earle
|title=Being Billy
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Billy is a 'lifer' - he's been in care for eight years. He's angry, defensive and folded up inside himself. He's prone to vandalism and violence and barely a week goes by without his careworkers needing to restrain him. He doesn't really go to school and even when he does, Billy is so far behind that there seems little point. The only joy in his life comes from the twins, his little brother and sister. Louie and Lizzie can't keep him out of trouble, but they can provide an anchor and Billy delights in caring for them. He reads them bedtime stories and sits by the door of their room until they fall asleep.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141331356</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tony Judt
|title=The Memory Chalet
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In 2008 the historian Tony Judt was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disorder that eventually results in complete paralysis for the sufferer. Unable to jot down ideas as they came to him, Judt had to rely on his memory to hold them until he had the chance to dictate his words to somebody else. His memory, which was already good, became exceptional. The progress of the disorder left Judt unable to move, but no mental deterioration or lack of sensation occurred, which he describes as a mixed blessing. He had to endure whole nights lying in the same position, unable to roll over or even to scratch an itch, a prisoner in his own body. To preserve his sanity during these tortuous nights he focussed on events from his own past, linking then with other events and ideas it had never occurred to him were connected. It was during these reveries that the essays in The Memory Chalet were not only conceived, but also developed in their entirety.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020966</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rachel Vincent
|title=Soul Screamers: My Soul to Take
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=After Kaylee and her friend Emma sneak into an over
18's club, Kaylee gets unnervingly distressed by the sight of a girl
dancing, feeling as if she needs to scream. As Emma, along with the
mysterious Nash, try to calm her and remove her from the club, she
tells them that she's convinced the girl is going to die. Waking up
the next day to turn on the news, she finds out she was right. And
then it happens again… Kaylee's convinced she's a freak and there's
something deeply wrong with her, but Nash seems surprisingly unfazed
by this, while her aunt and uncle are both acting strangely. What's
wrong with her? And why does she know less about herself than they
do about her?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303551</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Keren David
|title=When I Was Joe
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=We meet 14 year old Tyler and his young mother Nicki at the police
station as he gives a statement about a stabbing he witnessed.
Unfortunately for them, some of the people involved would rather not
allow him to testify against them and he's forced to flee for his
life, moving into the Witness Protection scheme and starting afresh in
a new school. Despite the vicious thugs on his trail, there are
certain compensations to life at his new school. Formerly just a face
in the crowd at St Saviour's, the mysterious newcomer quickly becomes
popular, especially when he gets involved in athletics and is coached
by older teen Ellie. Not everyone's happy with the impact he makes,
though, and he needs to worry about rivals in school nearly as much as
he does about the gangsters who are still trying to silence him. And
then he meets a girl with a dark secret of her own…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847801005</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=K S Turner
|title=Chronicles of Fate and Choice: Tumultus
|rating=3
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=This is the follow up to [[Before the Gods (Chronicles of Fate and Choice) by K S Turner|Before The Gods]], a debut novel lauded for bringing a breath of fresh air to the world of speculative fiction and one of Bookbag's [[Bookbag's Christmas Gift Recommendations 2009|top picks of 2009]]. Tumultus is the second of the planned trilogy and I was looking forward to seeing how the author would really cut loose now that readers were already familiar with the Shaa-kutu and the story of their link to the origin of the human race.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956224210</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alan Snow
|title=Ratbridge Chronicles: Worse Things Happen at Sea
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet the Nautical Laundry. A boat, crewed by piratical rats who weren't wicked enough to bring themselves to actual piracy, it's wedged under a bridge in the town of Ratbridge. They're trying to lead a humble life, doing the town's laundry - but when someone sees the scanties displayed for all around to see, they're whisked to court - and fined a pirate's treasure. Luckily, there might be help at hand - the local miracle medicine man, who's just started curing everyone of everything with the same gloop, called Black Jollop, is willing to pay a king's ransom for a boat to take him for new supplies. Or, is there something else, secret and evil behind these weird happenings?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192719653</amazonuk>
}}
