Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"
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| + | |title=Winter Damage | ||
| + | |author=Natasha Carthew | ||
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| + | |genre=Teens | ||
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| + | ''The moor and all it had got was out there waiting for her in the dark, a cold rock thing, hard as nails.'' | ||
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| + | But Ennor doesn't see another choice. She has to go. The fourteen-year-old girl lives with her ailing father and autistic brother, Trip, in a trailer on the frozen Cornish moor. Ennor's mother has been gone for years - after they lost the farm and Ennor's father turned to drugs, she turned to religion. And left. But now the country is falling to pieces. There are riots. There's no money to be earned. School has closed. Father is getting iller. They're behind on the rent and eviction is looming. The social are threatening to take Trip away. There's nothing else for it. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408835835</amazonuk> | ||
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Revision as of 07:07, 9 July 2013
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.
There are currently 16,117 reviews at TheBookbag.
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Winter Damage by Natasha Carthew
The moor and all it had got was out there waiting for her in the dark, a cold rock thing, hard as nails.
But Ennor doesn't see another choice. She has to go. The fourteen-year-old girl lives with her ailing father and autistic brother, Trip, in a trailer on the frozen Cornish moor. Ennor's mother has been gone for years - after they lost the farm and Ennor's father turned to drugs, she turned to religion. And left. But now the country is falling to pieces. There are riots. There's no money to be earned. School has closed. Father is getting iller. They're behind on the rent and eviction is looming. The social are threatening to take Trip away. There's nothing else for it. Full review...
Wicked Games by Kelly Lawrence
Sometimes you read a book that is supposed to be fiction, and immediately question whether it isn’t a true story loosely fictionalised and with a few character names changed, so the author doesn’t lose face if it’s not well received. Wicked Games is no such book, because you’re told from the outset that it’s a real life erotic memoir. And, while the author still has some discretion regarding how much or how little she shares, you genuinely come away feeling like you’ve just read a startlingly intimate description of a real person’s private life. Full review...
Knight Quest (Time Hunters, Book 2) by Chris Blake
The second instalment of Blake’s 'Time Hunters' series sees our heroes Tom and Isis transported to medieval times in the hope of retrieving a second lost amulet, which is hidden in a golden sword. 'Knight Quest' is an action packed story with plenty of thrills and action, but is crammed with enough historical facts to keep fussy parents happy. Full review...
The Red Road by Denise Mina
Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard that Princess Diana was dead, right? On that August night fourteen-year-old (but she looks sixteen, as she would tell you herself) Rose Wilson snapped. She'd been pimped out by her boyfriend and let down by everyone - but that night she committed two dreadful crimes and it seemed that her life was over. Then a defence lawyer took pity on her and set out to save her from the worst consequences. Well over a decade later DI Alex Morrow is a witness in the case of Michael Brown. Brown is vicious and brutal, damaged beyond hope of salvation but Morrow knows that something is wrong when fingerprint evidence places him at the site of a murder committed the week before - when he was safely in prison. Full review...
The Diaries of Bluebell Gadsby: After Iris by Natasha Farrant
A few years after Iris's death, her twin sister Bluebell is still getting used to life without her. She's also having to cope with her parents' frequent absences, the new au pair, and the cute boy who's just moved in next door. Can she solve all her problems? And are the rest of her family coping with Iris being gone any better than she is? Full review...
Before the Fall by Francis Knight
After destroying Mahala's power source, Rojan really, really wants to keep his head down. The Ministry thinks he's dead - which helps - but with the last scraps of power fast fading, people are starving and the danger of riots and chaos looms. Full review...
Wild by Emily Hughes
Wild is the story of a girl who has grown up in the forest with only the animals to care for her, but this is where she belongs and she is happy. All of the animals love her and she loves them. She learns how to speak from the birds, what to eat from the bears, how to play from the foxes, and the deer and the rabbit keep her company as she sleeps. She has no clothing, nor does she need it, Her long mane of unruly green hair covers the important bits and gives her the appearance of something that has sprung to life from the forest itself. She is creature of pure innocence. Full review...
Boy About Town by Tony Fletcher
My stepchildren, who were not even born at the time, would disagree with me fiercely. But for those of us who were growing up during the 1970s, it was a very exciting time to be a popular music fan. Tony Fletcher, who was born almost ten years after me, evidently agrees. In this memoir of his formative years, covering the years 1972 to 1980, he conveys the thrill of how it was to be a schoolkid who grew up loving and eventually becoming part of the scene. It all started with the purchase of a David Cassidy single and ended up with him becoming founder-editor of a fanzine and interviewing household names while taking his O-levels. In fact it didn’t exactly end up that way, for these days he is known best for his highly-respected biographies of The Who drummer Keith Moon and R.E.M. Full review...
Trumpety Trump by Steve Smallman and Adria Meserve
Two subjects guaranteed to have any nursery age child in stitches are bums and farts. This book has plenty of both, along with some other very rude behaviour which will have children begging to hear this again and again. Although the book reads like a non stop riot of rude and raucous behaviour, it does teach children about friendship and manners as well. Adults will appreciate the moral to the story, but children will be so busy laughing, they'll hardly notice that they are learning at the same time. Full review...
My Zoo by Rod Campbell
My children have always been drawn to Rod Campbell's simple but appealing illustrations, so I was delighted to have a chance to review this book, even though my boys are now older than the expected age range. This is a very simple book. There are fifteen large die cut animals on a pastel coloured background. The illustrations have a unique quality to them that I can only describe as Rod Campbell. The animals all have friendly appearance, and a kind of gentleness to them. The front view of each animal has only the animal's name in bold black print. When you turn the page, there is a single sentence about the animal in smaller print. With a very young baby, the parent can read only the animals name, perhaps adding the sound for each animal. As the child grows older, the parents can begin reading the extra line on each animal. The fact the animals are larger than usual in these pictures, and on sturdy pages that are perfect for little hands, means this book would be ideal for babies as young as six months. I feel this would make a lovely first book for young child. As much as we loved Dear Zoo, I feel this book is even better for infants. Full review...
Russian Stories by Francesc Seres
This brilliant and varied collection of short stories is the product of a current academic interest in cross-cultural translation. Francisco Guillen Serés is a Catalan professor of Art History from Aragon. A Russophile, he has travelled widely to collect stories from those writing during the past hundred years of Russian history. These have been translated into Catalan and then into English. These unusual and delightful stories, some twenty one of them written by five writers read fluently and engagingly. They form an informative tapestry of Soviet and post-Soviet life, moving back in time with the older, earlier writers like Bergchenko, who died in the siege of Stalingrad, at the end. Ranging over mythic and symbolic tales to realistic portrayals of personal relationships; love trysts in St Petersburg, ferocious bears in the deep heart of the Taiga to the perils of becoming lost in continuous orbit in space. All aspects are impressively recounted. Full review...
Jon For Short by Malorie Blackman and Vladimir Stankovic
The book begins with a horrible dream of dark footsteps and the flash of knife blade plunging down again and again. Waking up brings no respite to the terror or pain for Jon, because his waking world is even more frightening than the nightmare. He wakes up in a darkened hospital room. There are now windows to the outside, only a small frosted glass window to the hall which lets in a tiny bit of light. The nurses seem cruel and angry. They insist on calling him Joe, No matter how often he tells them his name is Jonathan - Jon for short. The nightmare comes again and again. It starts out exactly the same, but each time it goes on just a little longer and Jon sees a bit more. The dream is not the only cause of his terror. Each time when he wakes up, another part of his body has been removed. Piece by piece he is being dismembered. Soon there will be nothing left of him - and no one will tell him why. Full review...
All The Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry
Four years ago, Judith and another girl disappeared. Two years ago, Judith came back alone, and unable to speak. Shunned by most of the people in her close-knit community, can she find her voice to save those around her, and herself? Full review...
Closed Doors by Lisa O'Donnell
Did you listen at doors when you were little? Did you hang from the banisters, trying to hear what was going on in the grown up world when you'd been banished to your room? In this story, eleven year old Michael finds out most of his information by listening. He's adept at creeping around and learning snippets of information, local gossip and tidbits of family dynamics. But one night, when his mum comes home screaming and covered in blood the secrets that Michael becomes privvy too are far more disturbing than what Tricia down the road has been getting up to. Full review...
The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
Rithmatists - those with special talents who defend ordinary people against wild chalklings - must study and train hard at school to create the defenses , lines, and chalklings they'll use when they get to Nebrask, the frontline. Joel, a pupil at one such school, Armedius, studies harder than anyone else. He has a superb grasp of the strategies involved and knows he would be an asset out at the front. But Joel isn't a Rithmatist at all. They're chosen in a special ceremony, and Joel was passed by. Now, as just an ordinary student at Armedius, he sneaks in to join the Rithmatics students whenever possible. That seems like all he can do - until Rithmatics students start disappearing. Could Joel's lack of ability keep him safe, and therefore allow him to help solve the mystery? Full review...
Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry by David Robertson and Bill Breen
There can be few of us whose lives were not untouched at some stage by a phase of building things out of LEGO bricks. They comprised a time-honoured toy for children of all ages which weathered many a storm since Ole Kirk Christiansen, a master carpenter, founded the family-owned company in Billund, Denmark in 1932. However fashions change, and this was never more true than when computer software swept nearly everything before it towards the end of the last century. Brand loyalty and an inability (or refusal) to adapt sufficiently was not enough to protect it from the combined onslaught of video games, MP3 players and other hi-tech delights, or a harsh business climate in a cut-throat market where competition was intense and famous names were rapidly going to the wall. In 2003, three years after two different surveys had called the LEGO brick ‘the toy of the century’, the Group announced the biggest loss in its history and it appeared to be doomed. Full review...
Kurt Gets Truckloads by Erlend Loe
Meet Kurt. He's a dockyard truck-driver, with a wife and three children, and more dreams than money. The family has travelled before, but might not be able to in future, as there is just not the budget. Funnily enough, just the day after talking about what having a huge amount of money would do for and to Kurt, he gets a windfall. And then the problems start… Full review...
Ruta's Closet by Keith Morgan with Ruth Kron Sigal
A Holocaust memoir. There, I've said it, and in one fell swoop I've consigned this book to a niche market, and a small – and very much over-supplied – audience. Such books do find it difficult to get their heads above the parapet and the voice within heard, and it seems they have slowly filled in all the gaps in the available knowledge about the Holocaust. But that's the point that makes those words sound churlish – every life that survived that nightmare has to fill in a gap, and account for those who committed the crimes and those that helped out and rescued a survivor, and serve as monument to those six million gaps it created. Luckily, mostly on account of location, this book certainly does serve to fill in a wider gap in our perception of WWII than most. Full review...
The Shanghai Factor by Charles McCarry
Our narrator is an American sleeper spy in China whose mission is to improve his Mandarin and attempt to blend as best he can into Shanghai society. A chance meeting results in an intelligent and enigmatic Chinese lover who becomes his perfect teacher even though he is pretty sure she is working for Guoanbu (Chinese Intelligence) and that he is constantly under surveillance. In time he infiltrates known affiliates of the Guoanbu and proves himself very valuable to both the US and Chinese intelligence services, becoming a pawn in a high stakes game of chess between two powerful and paranoid nations. Full review...
The Son In Law by Charity Norman
When someone is released from prison, after serving time for manslaughter, you don’t necessarily expect their first task to be tracking down the victim’s family. Perhaps their own family might be a more normal first port of call. But when you’re Joseph Scott, the victim’s family is your family, because the person you killed is your wife, Zoe. Let out after three years, Joseph is desperate to be reunited with his children, Scarlet, Theo and Ben, but his wife’s parents, who have had custody of their grandchildren since he was locked away, are determined not to let that happen. Full review...
The Bull Slayer by Bruce Macbain
Years after we left him in Roman Games, Pliny the Younger has become Roman Governor of Bithynia. Not the most hospitable of regions, its Greek residents regard the Romans with hatred; an emotion that, in many cases, is reciprocated by the Romans. No matter how bad this is though, it gets worse when a high ranking official dies mysteriously. Could it have anything to do with the religious sect of Mithras? Possibly but it's not Pliny's only dilemma; at home his beloved young wife Calpurnia is acting somewhat oddly. Full review...
Shrinking Violet is Totally Famous by Lou Kuenzler
In this latest installment of the popular 'Shrinking Violet' series, we find our eponymous heroine all in a flutter because her favourite TV star, Stella Lightfoot, is in town. An excited Violet and her best friend Nisha rush to the local book shop in the hope of meeting Stella, but we know what happens when Violet gets too excited... Full review...
Turning Forty by Mike Gayle
I made the mistake of reading Mike Gayle's Turning Thirty in the weeks before I did so. Despite it being a story of a man whose life fell apart just before his 30th birthday, he still seemed to be doing better than I was, which made it a readable but depressing experience. Fortunately, Turning Forty is being published about 15 months before I reach that milestone and my life is in a different place which, hopefully, will combine to make it a more enjoyable read. Full review...
Remember to Breathe by Simon Pont
We meet Sam Grant on his 27th birthday, but he's not out celebrating. He's got flu and just to add to his problems he's got a boil in his groin - or on his thigh - depending on which side of the doctor's desk you're sitting. Sam's not been looking after himself since his girlfriend dumped him just over three months ago and when you work in adland the opportunities for not looking after yourself are many and varied. The millenium hasn't quite arrived, 'austerity' hasn't even been thought about and living an out-of-control life has never been easier. What we get is Sam's diary, but it's not in chronological order, with some of it going back to before he met Sarah - the girl he didn't really want, but struggles to get over. Full review...
The Professor of Poetry by Grace McCleen
Grace McCleen's The Professor of Poetry is Elizabeth Stone, a 52 year old aged professor at a London University. When the book opens she has just discovered that a cancer scare is now in remission, but forced by her illness to take a sabbatical, she sets about researching her latest book based on some papers of TS Eliot. This takes her back to Oxford, to her alma mater and raises the prospect of seeing her former professor there, a man convinced of the young Miss Stone's potential at an early age, but whose last meeting was somewhat awkward. McCleen looks at the issues raised by generations of poets, namely time, death and love. For Professor Stone, the first has passed, the second come uncomfortably close and the third remains unknown to her. What's more, her academic focus is on the music of love poetry which is somewhat ironic in that she avoids human relationships perhaps due to the death of her mother at an early age and an unhappy foster experience, while also having a peculiar aversion to music. Perhaps though this is what allows her a detached ability to write academic studies. Full review...
The Parrots by Filippo Bologna
When confronted with the topic of parrots, most people would describe them as tamed tropical birds that are taught to repeat simple phrases, having no particular intelligence to engender an originality of their own. Filippo Bologna has not in fact written a book about birds, but about writers - in fact, three writers. Just as the Neo-Pagans have a liking of the Triple Goddesses of The Maiden, The Mother and The Crone, our three writers are similarly split into The Beginner, The Writer, and The Master. All three of these novelists are battling it out for The Prize, a prestigious award that would revitalise the career of The Master, legitimize the efforts of The Beginner and assure The Writer a place in the annals of history. The setting of Rome is utilised to provide both a stunning backdrop and one that is sympathetic to the mood of our characters. The stories of our three protagonists are interwoven in a delightfully clear fashion; Bologna's prose is delicate and descriptive, but not at the sacrifice of pacing. The stage is set; the characters have learned their lines. There is just one problem... out of the three writers, none of them deserves to win The Prize. Full review...
Magnificat by Marilyn Edwards
Ben is most definitely a dog person. He would love his own pet dog, but mum keeps refusing. He has the next best thing, an online cyberdog called Shadow, but what he really wants is a living, breathing, loyal canine companion to call his own. His best friend has a dog. Why can’t he? It seems like it is never the right time to approach mum about it, as she is always tired, teary and depressed since dad left. Full review...
