Book Reviews From The Bookbag

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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Battlemage by Stephen Aryan

Fantasy

Vargus has milked the legend of the Gath, an avenging man of violence for hire, for as long as possible. Being the Gath has had its benefits but time to move on. As it happens a war is brewing in Seveldrom so Vargus is going to fight on the side of right against the evil that is King Taikon. For Balfruss Seveldrom is home so he's honoured to be one of the six Battlemages King Mattias has selected to be the backbone of his defence now that Taikon has Zecorria. As fate unfolds the future, Mattias' daughter Talandra will also play her part as the King's spymaster. Vargus can kill an armed gang singlehanded. Balfruss can summon fire, command storms and unmake stone. Talandra? She just hopes she can help save her country but as yet she doesn't realise quite how much it will cost her. Full review...

Doctor Who: Time Lord Fairy Tales by Justin Richards and David Wardle

Short Stories

One of the ways Doctor Who has esteemed itself through belonging on our screens so long is the way the title character has slowly become an archetypal figure. We know what he's supposed to do – save the day, and we also know that if he's at either extreme of the scale – falling on a case through mishap, or being omniscient and bang on time and perfect, it doesn't work. But there's a lot of middle ground there, and countless tales for him to wander along with his knowledge, his TARDIS and a sonic screwdriver, and put things just so. His fifty years on screen have allowed him to become a stock figure almost – pretty much with a set task, as if he were, perhaps, a character in a routine story, such as a fairy tale. And as if to prove that genre can host him, here is a whole book of short stories in his universe – although that's not to say he's in every one… Full review...

In Fidelity by Jack Wilson

General Fiction

Dick and Christine Blodgett were only 22 when they got married in 1955. As the novel opens in 1974, it's clear their relationship is now precarious. A brief allegorical prologue, echoing Heraclitus, warns that a crisis will change the course of the marriage irrevocably: 'one day there was a storm…and the stream never returned to the [channel] it had known before.' The title of Chapter 1, 'A Premonition of Danger', reinforces that sense of foreboding. Driving on dark, icy roads, Dick and Christine fret about her health: a dental procedure revealed a serious problem with her gums for which she will soon need a biopsy. Full review...

The Temptation Of Elizabeth Tudor by Elizabeth Norton

Biography

Life, or rather survival, in Tudor England was a precarious business. Being close to the crown was anything but a guarantee of safety, as the fate of two of King Henry VIII's Queen's amply demonstrated. His second daughter Elizabeth led a charmed life and went on to reign as Queen for over forty years, but she too had some narrow escapes when her liberty if not her very existence was under threat. Full review...

The Visitors Book by Sophie Hannah

Paranormal

Sophie Hannah's The Visitors Book is a short anthology of modern stories with a supernatural twist. There is not a hammy gothic turret in sight as her characters experience their mundane, day-to-day, 21st century business -- a children's birthday party, a visit to a boyfriend, neck pain, the school run. Now, ghost stories based on ordinary people leading ordinary lives can be very unsettling indeed, making overly imaginative readers look over their shoulder at the bus stop, or giving them goosebumps for no apparent reason. So I was curious to see what Sophie Hannah, a writer I much admire, would make of this particular material. Full review...

Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun

Dystopian Fiction

Do you ever have those nights when you hear every chime of the clock, when you watch the shadows move round the room painfully slowly as the moon crosses the sky? Thankfully I have very few of those. I know that the thing most likely to keep you awake is the worrying about the fact that you're not asleep, and I have distraction mechanisms for when I need them. Full review...

Nina The Pretty Ballerina by Anita Pouroulis and Agata Krawczyk

For Sharing

Jules and dogs Nina and George like to have fun together. But there are some things dogs don’t get to do, like play in the dressing up box, one of Jules’ favourite activities. That’s all about to change though. But is there a reason you rarely see a dog in a tutu? We’re about to find out. Full review...

How to Speak Emoji by Fred Benenson

Trivia

Emojis are fun, and there's so much more to them than the smileys of days gone by ? They can be a language unto themselves, though, and I've found that some members of the, ahem, older generation can find themselves a little troubled by them. This book, then, sounds perfect for anyone who needs a little help with this 'language'. Full review...

Waiting for Santa by Steve Metzger and Alison Edgson

For Sharing

We all know Santa goes to the homes of children who have been good all year, but have you ever wondered about our furry friends? Can he detour to forests, parks and woodland? Do bears and mice get treats too? Full review...

Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis

Literary Fiction

Gods (and brothers) Hermes and Apollo were arguing in a bar about what would happen if animals had human intelligence and eventually a wager was agreed. Human intelligence would be granted to fifteen dogs staying overnight in a veterinary clinic and the wager, suggested by Apollo, was that Hermes would be his servant for a year if the dogs were not more unhappy than they would have been originally. But - if even one of the dogs was happy at the end of its life Hermes would win. Full review...

Charlotte Bronte's Secret Love by Jolien Janzing

Historical Fiction

This is the second novel by Jolien Janzing, a Dutch author who lives in Belgium. Originally published in Dutch as The Master in 2013, it is already being made into a film. The flawlessly translated story zeroes in on two momentous years in Charlotte Brontë's life, 1842–3, when she was a pupil and then a teacher at the Pensionnat Heger in Brussels. I read this in tandem with Claire Harman's new biography of Charlotte Brontë; it was particularly fascinating to see that the two books open with the same climactic episode: lovesick Charlotte making a confession at a Catholic church, even though she was an Anglican parson's daughter. Full review...

The Seal's Fate (Colour Conker) by Eoin Colfer and Victor Ambrus

Dyslexia Friendly

Bobby Parrish was reluctant to admit that the seal was cute, even to himself. That sort of thing was for girls and he was here to club the seal. Seals were affecting his father's livelihood as a fisherman and there was a bounty of a £1 for a seal's flipper: in those days that was good money and even one of the girls had collected the cash. Still, somehow he couldn't quite bring himself to attack the defenceless cub, all big, black, round eyes and obviously unworried by his presence. What would the other lads say though? More to the point, what would his father say? Full review...

Fly Away Home by Marina Warner

Short Stories

How would you subvert a fairy tale? You know enough of them and enough about them to do it, so think on it. Would you give a mermaid a smartphone? Would you pepper them with pop stars, and perhaps let them be witness to the Schadenfreude caused by a cave that's sacred to native Canadians? Would you, in the light of their characters usually being routine, interchangeable tropes, give them a closely-observed personality – as seen here in a teacher's interior thoughts when faced with a piece of East Anglian lore? Would you take the exoticism of the east, and Egypt in particular, and see it in the light of a musical teacher on a zero-hours contract who ends up muttering to himself, directing traffic in the middle of the road, or from the remove of an elderly man with swollen feet in orthopaedic sandals with a message from the past? Certainly these two are not the standard Arabian Nights-styled pieces… Full review...

I Want Spaghetti! by Stephanie Blake

For Sharing

Simon likes spaghetti. In fact, he likes it so much that that's the only thing he wants to eat. Simon is also blessed with having no concerns about stating his demands, very clearly, nor any qualms about criticising any other food that might be placed in front of him. He is, as you can tell, a typical toddler! Full review...

The American Lover by Rose Tremain

Short Stories

Having never read a Rose Tremain book before, I was interested to start this collection of short stories. I wasn't disappointed, and it quickly became clear why she has won so many literary awards for her work. Full review...

Clare and Her Captain (Colour Conker) by Michael Morpurgo and Catherine Rayner

Dyslexia Friendly

Clare didn't enjoy the journey down to Devon. Her parents always argued and it was usually because Mum had lost her way or got caught in a traffic jam and this time she'd done both. It was a little better when they got to Aunt Dora's house, but Aunt Dora wasn't exactly a peacemaker and tended to stick up for Dad against everybody else. The holiday improved when Clare got out for a walk on her own and discovered a stray lamb on the road. She took it to the nearest house and Mr Jones was delighted: Clare had just saved half his flock. Clare got on with the old man - and with his horse, Captain. Full review...

The Night Before Christmas by Clement C Moore and Max Marshall

Children's Rhymes and Verse

Everyone knows the classic story of the night before Christmas, but as a child I never had it in a standalone book like this and, it seems, I never knew there was quite as much to the tale. If you don't already own a version, this new release is a must buy for the presentation alone. Full review...

The Undesired by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)

Thrillers

If you're lucky enough to go to Iceland they will tell you, even in this day and age, that the place is heavily populated with trolls. Yrsa Sigurdardottir may or may not agree with that, but she certainly peoples her world with ghosts. Here is Odinn, and to some extent his ghost – certainly there's the ghost of 'what if' around him, and the man he might have been if he hadn't abandoned the young mother of his child. Here is that very wife, who is now dead herself. Here is the spirit of failure as he takes over a job at work from someone else who had a fatal heart attack – that task, to investigate a children's care home in the 1970s to see if anything nefarious went on. And that place certainly should be haunted – already a dead child has been disposed of, and more is to come… Full review...

After You by Jojo Moyes

General Fiction

After writing the massively popular Me Before You, all of Jojo Moyes' readers were clamouring for more. Having been on the edge of our armchairs during the story, we all wanted to know what happened to Lou next. Would she be okay? Would she live her life with passion? Where would she go next? So the arrival of this story is a special treat, as it continues the tale of Lou, although perhaps not in the way we had imagined… Full review...

Bellebrook's Secrets by Helen Stafford

Crime

Trudy Hampstead has a plan that will support her widowed mother and twin brother unwittingly involving their landlord's son. Their landlord is local gentry and philanderer Alistair Burgoyne QC and the one person who can ensure security of tenure. Trudy thinks that Peter the local curate should step in to speak to Trudy, something he's more than happy to do since he has a secret agenda of his own. Meanwhile up at the farm the Lovestocks' marriage is coming apart at the seams, a fact that may partially threaten the peace of the village but not half as much as the anonymous random acts of violence that are about to hit Bellebrook. Full review...

Celeste Three is Missing by Chris Calder

Thrillers

Celeste 3 is the first successful commercial passenger carrying space/aircraft to go beyond the Earth's atmosphere for any length of time. This advance in travel didn't come easily as the two previous prototypes demonstrated and so there's much interest as the date of each of its flights approaches. Two people are paying closer attention than the rest of the world's population due to the presence of a certain passenger as much as the vehicle itself. One of the high rollers will be the ruthless Russian billionaire Karenkov. Gregory Topozian and Jack Smith have seen friends and colleagues die at his whim so they have a bone to pick and an ambitious way to do it… as long as nothing and no one gets in the way. Full review...

Hidden Depths by Ann Cleeves

Crime

Life hadn't been easy for Julie Armstrong, left on her own with two children. Her son Luke 'had his difficulties' too, probably best summarised as a learning disorder, and he absorbed a lot of Julie's time. She felt guilty that she neglected her daughter Laura who was bright, but rather withdrawn: being Luke's sister had never been easy and keeping herself to herself was the best way of dealing with the jibes about what he'd done now. There weren't many opportunities for Julie to get out without the kids and the chance of a night out with her girlfriends had been too good to pass up, but when she came home, perhaps a little drunk and high from meeting up with a man she felt attracted to, she found Luke dead in a flower-strewn bath full of water. He'd been strangled. Full review...

The November Criminals by Sam Munson

Teens

Addison Schacht is a high school senior (that's sixth form if you're British) in Washington DC and a bit of a classics nerd. His favourite book is Virgil's Aeineid - he owns three copies and reads from one of them every single day. He has applied to the University of Chicago, where he wants to study classics. So far, so model pupil, right? The thing is, Addison is also a consistent truant and runs his own business - selling drugs to his peers. Hmm! Full review...

Trust by Mike Bullen

General Fiction

Greg and Amanda are happy. Unmarried, but together thirteen years and with two young daughters, they are very much in love. Dan and Sarah aren't so fortunate. Their marriage is going through the motions, and they're staying together for the sake of their troubled teenage son. Following a business conference away from home, one bad decision sends a happy couple into turmoil, and turns an unhappy couple into love's young dream. As secrets and betrayals threaten to send both relationships out of control, there's only one thing that can keep everything from falling apart: Trust Full review...