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| + | One morning our protagonist awakens to a world in which she appears to be the sole living human inhabitant. A mysterious transparent wall has been erected around a large area in the Austrian mountains where our narrator has been holidaying, a wall that is unbreakable and through which she can see that the world outside has come to a complete standstill. Our narrator is faced with living in total isolation and forced to learn how to survive. | ||
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|summary=In Francesco Pacifico's translated Italian novel 'The Story of My Purity', Piero Rosini is a 30 year old, ultraconservative Catholic working for a radical Catholic publishing house. His marriage is devoid of physical contact, and he yearns for his virginal sister-in-law. Largely to escape these longings, he heads for Paris, never the first choice of one seeking to preserve their purity, where he is further tempted by a slightly unlikely group of girls, and one in particular, which is further complicated for him by the fact that she is Jewish. Almost living a separate life in his head, he cannot escape either the intellectual or physical constraints of his old life in Rome. | |summary=In Francesco Pacifico's translated Italian novel 'The Story of My Purity', Piero Rosini is a 30 year old, ultraconservative Catholic working for a radical Catholic publishing house. His marriage is devoid of physical contact, and he yearns for his virginal sister-in-law. Largely to escape these longings, he heads for Paris, never the first choice of one seeking to preserve their purity, where he is further tempted by a slightly unlikely group of girls, and one in particular, which is further complicated for him by the fact that she is Jewish. Almost living a separate life in his head, he cannot escape either the intellectual or physical constraints of his old life in Rome. | ||
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Revision as of 07:00, 29 May 2013
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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The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
One morning our protagonist awakens to a world in which she appears to be the sole living human inhabitant. A mysterious transparent wall has been erected around a large area in the Austrian mountains where our narrator has been holidaying, a wall that is unbreakable and through which she can see that the world outside has come to a complete standstill. Our narrator is faced with living in total isolation and forced to learn how to survive. Full review...
The Dance Of The Seagull (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries) by Andrea Camilleri
Montalbano was about to go on holiday with his girlfriend Livia and it was quite an event as they hadn't seen each other for three months. As he sat on his verandah Montalbano saw the death throes of a seagull - it was almost a macabre dance - and he couldn't get what happened out of his mind, convinced that it was an ill omen. When he picked Livia up at the airport he told her that he had to go into the office but that he would be home quickly. He meant it too. The first problem began when Fazio's wife rang to say that he hadn't arrived home since going out to meet Montalbano the night before. The second problem was that there had been no arrangement to meet the previous evening. In the context of what would happen that night the fact that Montalbano completely forgot about Livia was no more than a small blip. Full review...
Don't You Dare by Sharky and George
Older readers like myself may recognise a great many of Sharky and George's ideas from our own childhood games, in the days when children's games usually did take place outdoors. Most of us will have played games like torch tag (which is enemy spotlight in this book), cops and robbers, boxes with a pen and paper, made drip sand castles, skimmed a stone or built a dam in childhood. So you might ask - why do need a book to teach us games we already know how to play? The sad fact is, most of these games are rapidly being forgotten. I rarely see children other than my own play any type of tag or hide and seek games. Full review...
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
This powerful narrative bears witness to the experience of economic migrants. Not just black Africans coming from Zimbabwe, like NoViolet Bulawayo, but more generally, those several generations of hardy, resourceful immigrants driven to the USA in search of a better future. Such people leave behind less courageous family members, but not their emotions towards those they have loved or their nation of birth. Full review...
My Life in Black and White by Kim Izzo
My Life in Black and White starts off in a police station in England. The film noir theme that permeates the novel begins immediately. Clara Bishop is dressed in a gold evening gown, and treats the police officer who is interviewing her just as a femme fatale would. This girl has sass. But when she begins to recount her tale, it is clear this is a new development. The old Clara describes her life as something from a screwball comedy, not a film noir. How does a screenwriter-slash-gossip-columnist from LA end up being interviewed about an assault in England? Full review...
Pray for the Dying: A Bob Skinner Mystery by Quintin Jardine
Chief Constable Bob Skinner is in a very difficult situation. His race to prevent a murder didn't quite work out and he's now outside the theatre where what he dreaded has happened. There's carnage outside too: the killers have shot two policemen, one fatally and Skinner himself is responsible for the death of one of the killers. The other was killed by a member of the Security Services, but he'll need to be quietly airbrushed out of the record. Before long Skinner finds himself having to take on a role which he has always said that he would never want. And that's besides investigating whether or not the victim was the intended target and who was behind the operation because it's obvious that this was a professional hit. Full review...
Kurt Vonnegut: Letters by Kurt Vonnegut and Dan Wakefield
Kurt Vonnegut: Letters is a fascinating tome of personal correspondences between one of the greats in American literature and the several individuals and institutions whose paths he’d crossed. Written from the early forties up until 2007, the year of Vonnegut's untimely death, these letters enable readers to understand the workings of the mind behind classics such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle. Full review...
Crime of Privilege by Walter Walker
In March 1996 George Becket was a guest at a party in the Cape Cod home of Senator Gregory, patriarch of America's most loved and influential family. Outwardly everything looked wholesome and fun as the Senator did an impromptu song and dance act with his sister but in the library George was present when Jamie Gregory and Peter Gregory Martin raped a young woman who was too drunk to either assent or protest. It was only George's intervention which prevented the assault becoming more violent. But for the young woman, Kendrick Powell, the rape was devastating and before long she was dead. She too was the child of an influential and wealthy family. But the Gregory clan sticks together and no action was taken against Jamie or Peter and it was the senator's influence which secured George Becket a post in the Cape Cod DA's office. It might seem that the matter was closed - but the Powell family were determined that George would suffer for not having spoken out against the Gregory family. Full review...
Deer Island by Neil Ansell
Neil Ansell volunteered in the 1980s to work for an organization that provided support for the homeless. These homeless were the people other shelters would reject for various reasons (drink, drugs, etc.) but the group Neil worked for were a little different to most similar charities. Due to this Neil experienced some of the worst case scenarios of being down and out in London, and along the way befriended many interesting but ultimately ill-fated people. To escape and recover from a life full of brief friendships, poverty and untimely death Neil travelled to the Isle of Jura off the West coast of Scotland. Jura came to be a special place for him and of all places in the world it was the one most in his heart. Deer Island is Neil’s account of his life in the 1980s and his discovery of Jura; it is, in effect, his love song to the island that has been his sanctuary. Full review...
Chaplin and Company by Mave Fellowes
In 'Chaplin & Company', Mave Fellowes takes a quirky look at life on London's canal boats. Yet, while her story is full of eccentric characters, not least the main human character of Odeline Milk, who moves to the boat that shares the title of the book after her mother passes away to pursue her dream of becoming a mime artist in the more culturally enlightened big city after a lonely life in provincial Arundel, the book is delightfully free of sentimentality. I say the main human character, because this is also the story of a boat with a remarkable history of owners, and also a story of the strange life on the canal which somehow exists beneath the city through which it flows. Full review...
Twerp by Mark Goldblatt
Julian Twerski did something bad. So bad, that it got him suspended from school. When he returns, his English teacher asks him to write a journal about it, in exchange for getting out of doing a report on Shakespeare. Julian reluctantly accepts - but would rather be writing about sending love letters for a friend, blowing up fireworks, or pretty much anything else except telling Mr Selkirk about what he wants to hear. Full review...
Drummer Girl by Bridget Tyler
Lucy is really pleased when Harper McKenzie decides to start talking to her again and suggests forming a band. From then, life gets increasingly wonderful as they recruit three other girls, enter a talent show, and make it to the finals. Parties, fame, and success await - until everything comes crashing down. What went wrong? Full review...
Black Skies by Arnaldur Indridason
Detective Sigurdur Oli has worked himself into a difficult situation. It would be easy to ask why he did what he did. Easier still to say that he's doing the job he wanted to do, but a school reunion left him over-awed by the success of some of his contemporaries and when one of them asked for his help in sorting out a small matter it was a way of demonstrating his position to be able to say that he would help. A friend of his friend was being blackmailed over some photographs taken at a wife-swapping party and Sigurdur Oli agreed to have a word with the blackmailers and retrieve the photographs. It should have been simple - but when he arrived at their home the woman had just been brutally attacked and Sigurdur Oli only just avoided the same fate. He should have come clean about exactly what he was doing there. He didn't. Full review...
Into The Valley of Death by A L Berridge
Master Harry-sahib saunters up the path of the family bungalow in some unnamed Indian 'British town', puzzled to see the pathway choked with weeds, surprised by the absence of servants and disgusted by the swarming ants. There is worse inside. His father, the colonel, is dead on the floor. 'The money was gone, obviously, but it would take more than that to make a devoted soldier to blow his brains out. What had it done to him, this army he'd given his whole life to?'
What indeed? 'Into the Valley of Death' isn't the novel that will tell us. Full review...
The Religion by Tim Willocks
To the Maltese and Sicilians, Mattias Tannhauser is a successfully blooded infantry captain. To Ottoman Turks he's Ibrahim the Red, having been kidnapped from Hungary and raised as a Muslim. Dual nationality comes in handy once he's met the beautiful Contessa Carla de la Penantier and is commissioned to find and return her 12 year old bastard son. As always with these missions there's a catch. The boy (whom Carla hasn't seen since the day of his birth) is rumoured to be on Malta, an island currently being threatened by 30,000 Turks and defended by a tenth of that number, even if you count the Knights Hospitaller. The Turks call themselves the Hounds of Hell, the Knights are known as the Religion, but it's immaterial to Mattias. He just needs to find the lad and get out alive. Full review...
Impulse: Why We Do What We Do Without Knowing Why We Do It by Dr David Lewis
How many times have we asked ourselves the question:
Why did I do that?
Most of the time, the question is a response to a sudden inexplicable impulse or urge on our part. That extra helping of chocolate cake, that flirtation with the guy in the office, or that must-have item in the supermarket trolley may all be causes for regret once our rational brain kicks in. But why is it that we humans are often slaves to our base instinct? Full review...
The Norm Chronicles: Stories and numbers about danger by Michael Blastland and David Spiegelhalter
I'd like you to meet Norm. He's an absolutely average kind of guy, thirty one years old, 5'9”, a touch over thirteen stone and he works a thirty-nine hour week with the occasional treat of a bar of milk chocolate. Oh, and he's ambivalent about Marmite - couldn't care one way or the other - can take it or leave it. In The Norm Chronicles we hear the story of his life and the lives of his friends Prudence (the name tells you what you need to know) and Kelvin, who's a dare-devil, hard-living kind of guy. It's the story of the hazards they face - some real and some imagined - in every aspect of their lives. And along with these stories are the real facts about the reality of the risks they take. Full review...
NOS-4R2 by Joe Hill
Vic McQueen has a talent for finding things. Her little Raleigh bicycle can take her over a seemingly demolished bridge near her home and takes her to places where lost items have come out. Over the years, she has built up stories in her head as to how she found these items, but as she gets older, she becomes more and more unable to find herself. One day, she takes her bridge to a place where she finds Charles Talent Manx III, a man who has a similar talent, but uses it to take children out of the world, rather than bringing lost things back into it. Full review...
Just Peachy by Jean Ure
It's always been said that it's difficult being the middle child in a family and Peaches McBride regularly feels as though she doesn't belong. Her elder brother, Coop and sister, Charlie are clever and outgoing - and after Peachy came the twins, Flora and Fergus who are full of each other and full of just being them. Add to this the fact that her father is a radio presenter, renowned for his abrasive personality and you might come to the conclusion that the best description of the McBride family is LOUD - well, except for Peachy. She's quiet, unassuming - and not entirely certain about who she is or what she wants. She does make a stand though - she really doesn't want to go to Summerfield - the school her father went to and where Coop and Charlie are in the limelight, She wants to go to a school where no one knows who she is. Full review...
The Pre-War House and other short stories by Alison Moore
Alison Moore's Pre-War House is a collection of 24 short stories, only three of which are original to this collection, but most were first published in the last couple of years and, unless you are a an avid reader of The New Writer they will probably all be new to you. Moore's themes tend to concentrate on fairly dark characters, usually with a hidden secret, and more often than not dealing with the past and frequently some kind of personal loss or anguish. If you enjoyed Moore's Booker Prize shortlisted The Lighthouse, you will find plenty to enjoy here as most of the stories have a similar hauntingly sad feel to them. With one possible exception, a very short piece called The Yacht Man which did nothing for me, the stories are beautifully judged and equally satisfying, often saving a final hit or a surprise until the end of the pieces. Full review...
Sketcher by Roland Watson-Grant
Nine-year-old Skid Beaumont lives with his three brothers, father Alrick and mother Valerie in the swamps beyond the New Orleans city limits. Life is hard and home is a rundown shack with no running water but they're only there temporarily; a 'temporarily' that is rather long-term. Alrick moved them from their nice home in New Orleans because the land was cheap and soon the city would build out to envelop them. Years later they're still waiting for that to happen. Life isn’t exactly mundane though; there are rumours that when Skid's brother Frico draws left-handed, strange things seem to happen. Full review...
The Red Plague Affair by Lilith Saintcrow
Sorceress Prime, Emma Bannon, has done many things in service of Queen and Country, and willingly. Her latest mission to track down a missing doctor puts her in the path of a deadly contagion - the Red plague. Mentath Archibald Clare is perhaps the only person capable of helping her find the doctor in time. But asking Clare, and Valentinelli his assassin servant, to assist in the chase risks exposing them to the Red. And Clare does not have the sorcerous advantages that Emma possesses. Full review...
Nanny Fox by Georgie Adams and Selina Young
Everyone knows that foxes eat chickens. It's a storybook standard. But here, in this story, Arnold the Fox likes chickens to be his friends, not his dinner. He'd rather have a peanut butter sandwich instead! Full review...
Monsters and Legends by Davide Cali and Gabrriella Giandelli
My sons love stories of unsolved mysteries, monsters and mythical creatures. Like many boys, my oldest has a very strong leaning towards the non-fiction side of things. This book is for children who want to know how the legends were born, if any of the creatures could be real, and what the science behind the story is. I do feel this book is better suited to older children seeking a more rational explanation to the old stories, but my youngest did enjoy it as well. It might be useful for a child with a slight fear of monsters to get a more realistic view of them, but I would use caution with a child who is truly terrified of monsters as it might just give them more things to be afraid of. Full review...
Angelfall (Penryn and the End of Days Book 1) by Susan Ee
Angels have ransacked the Earth and humankind is facing the apocalypse. The people who are left are desperate and starving. Penryn is one of the survivors and the protector of her disabled younger sister Paige, and when Paige is kidnapped by an angel for an unknown purpose Penryn has to do everything within her power to find and rescue her. Embarking on a quest containing all manner of horrors both human and supernatural, Penryn is forced to make dangerous decisions and question her own humanity. Full review...
The Resistance Man: A Bruno Courreges Investigation by Martin Walker
When Old Murcoing passed on the priest called on Bruno Courreges, the chief of police in St Denis, as Murcoing had died clutching a bank note from the legendary Neuvic train robbery which happened in 1944. Murcoing had battled to find out what really happened to the money from the robbery - the reserves of the Banque de France - as the Resistance had certainly seen only a small part of it. That's not what's immediately concerning Bruno though. As a member of the Resistance Murcoing would have his funeral paid for by the state and it would be up to Bruno to organise this. He's also concerned with a series of burglaries on his patch - and it seems that one of them has led to a brutal murder. Full review...
One Night, Far From Here by Julia Wauters
I didn't think they made books like this any more. It's very rare to see a book with transparent pages nowadays. I have literally searched for years, snapping up the odd one from used book sellers. These may have gone out of style now in favour of books with batteries, buttons and bells, but these engage a child in a way no battery operated contraption possibly could. Children are fascinated by the pages, not just my own children, but every child I have seen with these. This book is wonderful for story time, but it is also the type of book that children seek out, quietly turning the pages, lost in their own imagination. Experts are beginning to recognise playing with books as a crucial step in emergent literacy. This is a book children will turn to again and again, experiencing a different adventure each time they lose themselves in the pages, and learning that books offer excitement and adventure. Full review...
Chasing the Dark by Sam Hepburn
Sam Hepburn's book begins, intriguingly, by echoing several well-known tales. There is the orphan foisted on an unwilling aunt and uncle, for example, and then the boy who is forced by a frightening, filthy old convict into bringing him food — not to mention a whole slew of stories about young people who find themselves in dangerous situations because they trespass in private property while attempting to retrieve their less-than-obedient pets. But the plot soon gathers a momentum all its own and all the themes hinted at in the opening pages suddenly merge into a new story which is both exciting and scary. Full review...
Babies, Babies, Babies! by Catherine Anholt and Laurence Anholt
This book is one of those lovely books that covers an awful lot in just a few pages. Full of sweet pictures and gentle rhyming text it takes you on a journey through the sort of things that babies' lives revolve around - food, animals, family, clothes and playing. You can read the text as it's written or you may find that your little ones are happy to just look through the book, talking to you about what they can see, what it reminds them of, and what they'd like to do that day. Full review...
The Story of My Purity by Francesco Pacifico
In Francesco Pacifico's translated Italian novel 'The Story of My Purity', Piero Rosini is a 30 year old, ultraconservative Catholic working for a radical Catholic publishing house. His marriage is devoid of physical contact, and he yearns for his virginal sister-in-law. Largely to escape these longings, he heads for Paris, never the first choice of one seeking to preserve their purity, where he is further tempted by a slightly unlikely group of girls, and one in particular, which is further complicated for him by the fact that she is Jewish. Almost living a separate life in his head, he cannot escape either the intellectual or physical constraints of his old life in Rome. Full review...
