Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"

Doing it for the first time... you know, Losing It. It.

Sex. They talk about it a lot, teenagers. And eventually, they do it. But when is the right time? Where is the right place? Who is the right person? Is everyone else doing it already? Will they be cheap if they do it too? Or will they be left behind on the peripheries of all that's important in life? And there's so much eagerness in teenagers - not just for sex, but for everything. They sure do hate to wait. But sometimes, it's better to wait. The trick for the poor things, I suppose, is knowing when exactly to stop waiting. And when you've never done it, how on earth can you possibly know that?!

Stepping into the breach come eight of my favourite writers in today's teen market, each with a story about virginity. Full review...

Lulu's Loo by Camilla Reid and Ailie Busby

For Sharing

We've been here before, as Lulu introduced us to her shoes, clothes and Christmas. Here, she's kind enough to show us all that goes on with her loo, nappies and potty. As before, there are plenty of interesting flaps to lift and things to explore. Full review...

Helen by Maria Edgeworth

Literary Fiction

Sweet-tempered Helen Stanley has been left penniless and homeless after her uncle's death. Soon her best friend Cecilia writes to encourage Helen to come and live with her and her new husband, General Clarendon at Clarendon Park. Helen soon finds herself settled in to Clarendon Park and reacquaints herself with Cecilia and more importantly with Cecilia's mother, Lady Davenant, who considers Helen a daughter, and even prefers her to Cecilia. Full review...

Inheritance by Nicholas Shakespeare

Andy Larkham's life and career are going nowhere. He works for a small publishing house, Carpe Diem, that specialises in publishing self-help books, his fiancée is about to dump him and he has no money and mountains of debt. And that's before we begin to talk about his dysfunctional family. His only real role model was the Montaigne-loving teacher, Stuart Furnivall, whose funeral he is late for. But an unexpected inheritance of £17 million has a habit of changing one's outlook on life. But while he trades self-help for help yourself, Andy also realises that he has inherited a mystery. Full review...

A Change For The Better by Pamela Fudge

Women's Fiction

Jo Farrell had spent all her life caring for other people. After she lost her alcoholic husband and her demanding, hypochondriac mother she had time for herself, but when she looked in the mirror she wasn't particularly impressed by what she saw. The middle-aged, slightly plump woman with grey curls reminded her of her mother and the clothes she was wearing did little to help either. It was something odd which helped her to change. The very scruffy man from downstairs (the sort you would cross the road to avoid) came to borrow a newspaper and somehow they got talking about what needed to be done to change her life. Full review...

The Kindest Thing by Cath Staincliffe

Imagine that your partner of twenty or so years discovers that they are dying from a terminal disease. Now imagine that they've asked you to help them to die a little sooner, on their own terms. What would you do? This is the dilemma that faced Deborah and, after she went ahead and helped her husband Neil to die, she found herself charged and standing trial for murder with her own teenage daughter, Sophie, testifying against her. Full review...

Dead Like You by Peter James

Crime

Brighton is faced with a serial rapist who appears to have a fetish for shoes - after the rape, he removes the woman's shoes and takes them with him. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is immediately reminded of a previous unsolved case that he was involved in several years before, during which a young girl disappeared, never to be found. It was precisely at that time that Grace's own wife, Sandy, disappeared and, although he is now having a child with another woman, he has never been able to forget Sandy. If the rapist has reared his ugly head again, why has he chosen to do so after so long? Could it be a copycat rapist? And will Grace's memories of Sandy help him to find some clue as to her disappearance? Full review...

I Kill by Giorgio Faletti

Crime

Monte Carlo: not generally a place associated with moderation and temperance of any kind and therefore probably the perfect setting for a killing spree by a serial killer with a particular fetish for extreme souvenir gathering. Full review...

Jubilee by Eliza Graham

As the village celebrates the Queen's Golden Jubilee two people can't help but think back to the Silver Jubilee. Evie Winter and her niece Rachel have vivid memories of the day when Evie's daughter Jessamy wandered off and the mystery of her disappearance has never been solved. She was eleven years old, bright, athletic and loved by her mother and cousin. There would seem to be no explanation as to why she might have disappeared of her own free will and no evidence that she was abducted. Life has carried on, but it has not been the same. It has not been easy. Full review...

The Incredible Luck of Alfie Pluck by Jamie Rix

Poor Alfie Pluck. He lives with his two aunts who are grotesquely disgusting, and who call him their Household Drudge. They reminded me of some of Roald Dahl's most appalling creations. Compared to Alfie's aunts, Harry Potter's Dursley relatives are warm and friendly. Alfie is decidedly down on luck. Full review...

Magical Mischief by Anna Dale

Mr Hardbattle runs a dusty old bookshop where magic has moved in. Its smell puts customers off and it regularly causes chaos such as the books rearranging themselves of their own accord. But this bookseller is a nice man who doesn’t want to disturb the magic too much by getting out the vacuum cleaner, and on the whole they get used to each other. Now though, he is facing a huge rent increase. Enter two customers, young Arthur and Miss Quint, who agree to help him find a nice new home for the magic, and to help look after the shop while Mr Hardbattle travels to visit some people who have answered an advert offering the magic a new home. Full review...

Bleed For Me by Michael Robotham

An ex-detective is found dead in a pool of blood in his teenager's bedroom. She runs from the scene of the crime. Is this the easiest cut-and-dried case ever? This novel is told in the first person by the investigating psychologist, Professor Joe O'Loughlin. He's got a lot going on in his life right now. His health is not good so he's to keep popping pills to try and get through another working day. He's also newly separated and his daughters seem to talk a completely different language. He feels old and very ragged round the edges. Into this mix, he discovers that the teenager everyone is talking about, the teenager who's been discussed and described as a cold-blooded killer, is his daughter's best friend. Could his life get any worse, he thinks. Yes. Big-time. Full review...

Million Dollar Mates by Cathy Hopkins

It's nine months since Jess Hall's mother died and she's still finding it difficult to come to terms with what's happened. She and her brother Charlie have been living with Gran but all that's about to change. Jess' Dad has got the job of general manager at Number 1, Porchester Park. These apartments are not just up-market they're where the A-listers live and after some initial reluctance about leaving Gran Jess is excited. There's an Olympic-size pool where she can swim and both she and Charlie will be able to have their own rooms in the house that goes with the job. Everyone at school envies here and it looks as though she's living the dream. Full review...

The News Where You Are by Catherine O'Flynn

The main character in this novel is Frank Allcroft. Husband, father, son and also a bit of a minor celebrity as he's beamed into the region's television screens nightly, presenting the local news. Make that minor with a small 'm'. He comes across as a likeable, middle-aged man, content with his lot and with his home life. But he does have some personal issues to attend to. In particular, his grumpy, sometimes forgetful, elderly mother who is now living in a retirement home. Mother and son give each other lots of grief on a regular basis. Full review...

Stone's Fall by Iain Pears

I read Iain Pears' The Portrait a year or so ago and loved it so I was really looking forward to reading this novel. The front cover is strikingly handsome and hints of good things to come between its covers. The novel is divided up into sizeable chunks of three. Three different decades and three different locations. Pears then dips in and out of the main characters' lives, telling the reader basically what makes them tick. Full review...

The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason

Literary Fiction

Zachary Mason suggests that Homer's Odyssey was merely one particular ordering of the events of Odysseus' return to Ithaca after the Trojan War. 'Echoes of other Odysseys', he suggests exist, including a forty four-episode variation in a 'pre-Ptolomeic papyrus excavated from the desiccated rubbish mounds of Oxyrhnchus' and this is what is 'translated' here. So we are presented with these forty four often very short stories that reconstruct elements of the Odyssey in a kind of alternate reality, asking 'what if it were slightly different', and what emerges is a non-linear, mosaic of stories. If Homer had decided to present his book in DVD format, these would be in the 'extras' of alternative 'takes' on things. The result is like a jazz riff on the original stories. Full review...

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Nick Gautier, scholarship kid teased for his poverty and his mother's job as a stripper, finds life hard enough even before three of his friends try to kill him when he stops them from mugging an elderly couple. But when the man who rescues him turns out to mix in seriously weird circles, things get really bizarre. If anything, really bizarre is a massive understatement. Nick goes on to meet demons, zombies, shape changers, and a host of other mysterious beings, many of whom he already knew in human form as his schoolmates. He ends up on the frontline of a battle against zombies who are running riot in his home of New Orleans. Full review...

The Parthenon by Mary Beard

History

Despite the proliferation of populist historians in print and on television, Professor Mary Beard continues to be a voice apart. Her conversational style of writing belies the academic research at its heart. This is serious history written as engagingly as a detective story. Full review...

The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want by Garrett Keizer

Politics and Society

What is noise? Do we count birdsong at sunrise as noise? And if so, what different term would we use to describe a jet aircraft taking off? Why do we respond so differently to the two? Even more intriguingly, would our response change if the birdsong woke us from an exhausted sleep but the aircraft was taking off to jet us on a long awaited holiday? Full review...

Six Graves to Munich by Mario Puzo

In the dying days of the Second World War Michael Rogan, an American Intelligence officer was captured and tortured by a group of seven men, most of whom were senior Gestapo officers trying to obtain the secrets which Rogan could give them. His wife was in another room and he could hear her screams. Ten years later, when he had recovered from the appalling injuries he suffered he made up his mind that he would avenge the death of his wife at the hands of the seven men. It's no easy task as he doesn't even know who they are. Full review...

Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai

The book opens on a disturbing dream sequence (or is it a memory?) that sets up the murder which is to be at the centre of this book. Durga, a young girl living in Julundur, is instructed by a mysterious male character to return to the house from which she has just fled, the house in which her whole family lies dead- poisoned, stabbed and partly scorched. There Durga is tied up, having been attacked and raped. Full review...

Where the Shadows Lie (Fire and Ice) by Michael Ridpath

Crime

Magnus Jonson was in some difficulty in Boston. He'd overheard another detective getting himself involved in something illegal and when he reported this he found that even the good guys weren't terribly fond of him – and the others would prefer to see him dead before the case came to trial. The solution was simple but unusual: Jonson was born in Iceland although he'd mostly grown up in Boston and the police in Iceland wanted someone to give them some help in beefing up their murder squad. Jonson disappeared from Boston, telling no one where he was going and resurfaced in Iceland. Simple? No. Full review...

Life Inc: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back by Douglas Rushkoff

Politics and Society

The author of this book was mugged outside his apartment one Christmas Eve. He posted a note online to warn his neighbours to be extra careful, and was promptly berated for doing something so public that could potentially damage property values in his local area. This is a thought-provoking snippet, and if the whole book was like this, I'm sure I would have been gripped. Full review...

England 'Til I Die - A celebration of England's amazing supporters by David Lane

Sport

To start with, an admission. I am an English fan of football, but I am not a fan of England’s football squad. Hardly ever would I prefer to see the Three Lions triumphant. I never got into the habit, partly because I never saw the singularly English habit of supporting the underdog as making any sense. Plus you'll never get me standing up and singing that awful tune before the match. But here are testimonies from twenty or so people who see things completely differently to me. Full review...

Do You Think You're Clever?: The Oxbridge Questions by John Farndon

Popular Science

My history of interviews with Oxbridge colleges forms a very short dialogue. Me, to university admissions representative, You don’t actually do media studies per se, do you? He, No – our graduates run the media. Had I got a lot further, and sat in front of a potential tutor, I would have faced a question designed to baffle, provoke, bewilder – or to inspire a flight of intuitive intelligence. Thus is the media-running wheat separated from the media-consuming chaff. And thus is this book given its basis – sixty of the more remarkable questions, answered as our erudite author might have wished to answer them. Full review...

Mistress of the Storm by Melanie Welsh

Verity Gallant is the oldest child in her family. She's rather plain and awkward, feels a bit like a social outcast at school, and stumbles along at home too where her beautiful, blonde, sweet little sister Poppy is obviously the favourite. One day Verity discovers a mysterious stranger in the library reading a strange book. He runs away when he sees her, taking the book with him, but Verity chases after him, following him down to the shore where he gets into a boat ready to row away. He gives the book to her when she challenges him, along with a mysterious round object. This seemingly innocuous event brings about huge changes in Verity's life. Having been ignorant about her family's history she begins to research about the gentry, with the help of her friends, and discovers skills and strengths that she never knew she had. Just in time too, for as the mysterious stranger tells her, the storm is coming... Full review...

Confessions of a Duchess by Nicola Cornick

Dowager Duchess Laura Cole has come to the village of Fortune’s Folly to live a quiet life as a widow with her young daughter. But when the village squire decides to invoke the Dames’ Tax, a law requiring every unmarried woman to give up half her wealth to him, the town becomes a hotbed of men searching for heiresses now desperate to marry. Joining the men is Dexter Anstruther, sent to secure a rich wife and carry out a murder inquiry on behalf of Lord Liverpool. The last thing Laura and Dexter expect is to see each other again after their steamy encounter four years ago. But their passion for each other is reawakened and looks set to ruin them both. Full review...

Bitter Leaf by Chioma Okereke

Jericho, (who's female by the way), is a beautiful young woman. She's curious about the outside world so like many before her, she's taken the brave step of sampling life in a big, bustling city. She returns to her home village with some rather pretentious airs ... and a rich suitor in tow. By sheer coincidence Jericho's mother had attended an interview in her past at her daughter's new boyfriend's family home. A veritable mansion with ' ... sweeping rooms that took longer than a river to cross.' What a lovely way of describing luxury in an essentially poor area of Africa. Everyone thinks the next natural step is marriage and babies but is it? Full review...

The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict by Peter Beaumont

Politics and Society

Peter Beaumont is the Foreign Affairs editor at The Observer. He joined the paper in 1989 and has spent much of the intervening time dealing with the kind of 'foreign affairs' that is better described as 'war reporting'. 'The Secret Life of War' is a distillation of his years in the field. It is a book ill-served by both its title and its cover, except maybe insofar as both might serve to sneak it onto the bookshelves of those who really need to read it, but probably wouldn't choose to do so were it more accurately wrapped. Full review...

Feed by Mira Grant

Science Fiction

In 2014 the common cold was cured. So was cancer. But in their wake something terrible came – the two viruses used to cure the ailments combined to form a terrifying plague that turned humans and large animals into the living dead. Now what's left of the human race lives every day with the fear that the virus they hold dormant in their bodies could go into amplification, causing them to turn. People stay indoors, stop meeting in crowds, and conduct most of their lives online. Full review...

The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan

A few weeks after the events of The Demon's Lexicon and Mae is finally ungrounded. Determined to get on with 'normal' life and forget the magic she's lost since brothers Nick and Alan Ryves left, Mae is only interested in hitting the town and meeting up with Seb. Nice, normal Seb. Then Mae learns her brother Jamie has been secretly meeting up with Gerald, the new leader of the Obsidian Circle. Afraid that Jamie is getting involved in dangerous things, Mae does the only thing she can and calls Alan. Full review...

Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century? by Gary Younge

Autobiography

Journalist Gary Younge’s book draws heavily on his articles for the Guardian newspaper, as he mentions in his acknowledgements, but it isn’t just a collection of his journalism. Who Are We? is partly a memoir and partly a thoughtful and incisive exploration of the politics and political impact of identity, including race, gender, language groups, religion, sexuality in various countries around the world. He sets out to explore 'To what extent can our various identities be mobilized to accentuate our universal humanity as opposed to separating us off into various, antagonistic camps?' Full review...

Five Deadly Words by Keith Colquhoun

Five Deadly Words follows the story of charismatic former dictator Lucas, as he charms and 'collects' people during his exile in London. The story is seen mostly from the point of view of Helen Berlin, the bright young Detective Constable who is put in charge of Lucas' safety. Helen finds herself caught up in matters which become increasingly out of her depth as she falls further into the former dictator's world. Full review...

Philippa Fisher and the Stone Fairy's Promise by Liz Kessler

In the third book of this enchanting series Liz Kessler manages to show both the delights and the sorrows of friendship: a topic which is eternally popular with young (and not so young) readers. Philippa has travelled with her father and mother to Ravenleigh to spend New Year with her new friend Robyn. But she has only just arrived when disaster strikes. Daisy, her other best friend and fairy godsister (like a fairy godmother but the same age as you), realises Philippa's mother is in danger, and tries to help. But in order to do so she has to break a lot of rules, and a series of catastrophes means Philippa ends up with Daisy in ATC (Above The Clouds), a sector of the fairy world. And the other fairies don't realise who she is ... Full review...

Nobody's Horse by Jane Smiley

Abby lives on her family's farm in California. They specialise in taking horses and ponies which are not at their peak and bringing them on so that they can be sold at a profit. Abby's father is determined that she won't get attached to any of the horses, because that only increases the pain when they inevitably go, but two are going to make an impact on her that she could not have expected. The first is a foal whose dam dies when he's a matter of weeks old and he takes Abby's heart. The second has the opposite effect because every time that Abby rides him he's determined to buck her off. She's frightened of him and it's a tribute to Abby that the worst she calls him is Grumpy George. Full review...

Instructions by Neil Gaiman

For Sharing

Go through the mysterious door, mind the imp, trust the wolves and answer the ferryman's question carefully. Neil Gaiman takes us on a tour of a fantasy land with a series of instructions for surviving the adventure. You'll discover wonders beyond your wildest dreams, and return home safely, a little older and a little wiser. Full review...

Margot's Secrets by Don Boyd

Margot is a psychologist who specialises in sexual disorders and obsessions. She lives and works for herself in Barcelona amongst the ex-pat community, and although she only has a dozen or so clients at any one time, spends much of her week living at her office. Her clients, both male and female, are bewildering and fascinating in equal portions, and the description of the therapy sessions make fascinating and revealing reading. Full review...

Damian Drooth, Supersleuth: Football Forgery by Barbara Mitchelhill

Getting to the end of a story, even one which really grips you, can be hard work if you have only just learned to read independently or are at the younger end of the confident readers range. But Damian Drooth, Supersleuth: Football Forgery is a slim book (60 pages), with lots of pictures, and a decent-sized font. And it is a proper book, too, with an engaging main character, lots of action and a fascinating mystery, so satisfaction is guaranteed. Full review...

The Shape of Him by Gill Schierhout

The story is told in the first person by Sara Highbury. She's running a small business in an efficient but rather detached fashion. She's all washed up. She starts to recount her earlier, happier life when it meant something to her. And the reader soon discovers that a diamond digger called Herbert was - and still is - the love of her life. And here Schierhout gives us a taster of the hard and dirty work digging for stones (they're never called diamonds by the workers apparently). The danger and precarious nature of the work is laid bare. But Herbert seemed to be a natural. Why? Full review...

My Experimental Life by A J Jacobs

Humour

A J Jacobs has a reputation for setting himself onerous tasks. His first book was about reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica; his second detailed a year spent according to the Biblical precepts. In My Experimental Life, he recounts nine briefer episodes of living outside his comfort zone. Full review...

Far Above Rubies by Anne-Marie Vukelic

Shy Catherine Hogarth first meets Charles Dickens at her parents' house when he hilariously comes in through the window to dance a jig before the assembled guests, before leaving and then entering again via the front door. Employed by her father George, the editor of the Evening Chronicle, as a reporter and sketch writer, Charles is at the start of his writing career and soon becomes a regular visitor to the Hogarth household. Full review...

Dadcando: Build, Make, Do ... the Best Way to Spend Quality Time with Your Kids by Chris Barnardo

Crafts

The ideas in this book originated as a website that Chris Barnardo set up for divorced and separated fathers to help them spend quality time with their children Now he's written a book that although aimed at single fathers is equally as useful for married dads, and mums too or grandparents or carers to inspire crafty ideas of things to make with kids. Full review...

The Bridesmaid Pact by Julia Williams

Women's Fiction

I recently read Last Christmas by Julia Williams and enjoyed it so much that I was determined to read more by this fabulous author. The opportunity presented itself in the shape of 'The Bridesmaid Pact', a truly wonderful book that not only met but also exceeded all my expectations. In fact it was so good that I read the last 200 pages in just one day, totally ignoring my family whilst doing so. Full review...

Dewey: The True Story of a World-famous Library Cat by Vicki Myron and Brett Witter