Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"

It's always a red letter day to sit down to an unread Anne Tyler. This is her eighteenth published novel. For any readers not already fans of her books, this American writer observes the ordinary in order to excel at 'making the familiar, strange'. Full review...

The Complete Brigadier Gerard Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Historical Fiction

Meet Brigadier Etienne Gerard. An officer in Napoleon's army, he is a boastful womaniser with a significantly higher opinion of his own intelligence than anyone around him – notably Napoleon himself. He's also brave, resourceful, fiercely loyal to his emperor and any woman he finds himself in love with, and above all, utterly, totally heroic. Full review...

The Butterfly Mosque: A Young Woman's Journey to Love and Islam by G Willow Wilson

Autobiography

This memoir is told in the first person so straight away there is a connection with the reader. The story starts - not in Egypt - but in the USA. Willow (lovely name) says she's in the market for a philosophy. And in this search she is extremely thorough. She looks at mainstream religions - Christianity, Buddhism to name but two and puts them under the microscope, so to speak. She dismisses all of them before settling on Islam. It appears to offer what she is after, what she is looking for, that enigmatic thing. But also, there's some little twist which helps make her mind up. But not before she digs deep and seeks answers to complex and awkward questions. She reads and researches Islam and finds out surprising facts, which she shares with the reader. Willow is well-read and well-educated. She seems set for a good career of her choice on American soil. Why not settle for that? But she's set on travel to the Middle East come what may. Full review...

Deadly Communion by Frank Tallis

Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt arrives at the Temple of Theseus in Vienna to investigate the murder of a young woman at the hands of a deviant sexual predator. Discovering the woman died by the unusual means of a hatpin inserted into her brain, Rheinhardt soon turns to his friend the young psychoanalyst Max Liebermann for assistance and the type of psychological insight that only Liebermann, a disciple of Freud, can provide. Meanwhile, Liebermann is already caught up in his own investigations with a patient named Erstweiler, who believes he has seen his doppelganger and that this is a precursor of death. Full review...

Grk Down Under by Joshua Doder

If you'd ever wondered where speed and agility, and a huge appetite for going where he shouldn't and eating what he oughtn't can get a dog, you only have to turn to this book for evidence. I won't let on how a tiny dog manages to get himself to Australia unaided, but he does - leaving his human owners back in England, and young Tim Malt especially desperate for his return. But the dog called Grk is about to find out how dangerous and nasty Australians can be... Full review...

The Time-travelling Cat and the Great Victorian Stink by Julia Jarman

Consider cats. Normally they like to leave you things like poop, and dead animals, generally in the middle of the kitchen floor. Topher's cat leaves himself a stone statue version of himself when he decides to time travel to some past time of history. I know - odd. I can also introduce you to a very different Topher, one just escaped from the workhouse in Victorian London - if only he could escape the stench of the open sewers in London, and the hunger in his stomach just as easily. Well, I could - but actually they are the same person, just with a completely different mind. When our Topher travels through time as well - on the back of a bird - he finds himself in the person of the second, historical lad. Will that homework project about Victorian history be enough to help him out, and perhaps prevent a nasty crime or two? Full review...

The Phantoms of Breslau: An Eberhard Mock Investigation by Marek Krajewski and Danusia Stok

Eberhard Mock (a name you would not easily forget) is a police Criminal Assistant. He's a single man still living at home with his father and leading a rather ordinary, uneventful life. Until, one day, four young men who are apparently sailors, are found dead. And Mock is asked by his superior to be part of the new murder commission. He accepts and from there on his life is one roller-coaster of events and emotions. Full review...

Fade (Wake Trilogy) by Lisa McMann

Janie's story continues. Still unable to control her abilities as a dream catcher, her latest case is proving difficult. Somebody is preying on the students at Fieldridge and the violent and haunting nightmares that Janie has no choice but to watch yield few answers. Being forced to keep her relationship with Cabel secret is putting a serious strain on the pair, and when Janie learns of the terrible consequences of her powers, she wonders if Cabe is just one more of the many sacrifices she'll have to make. Full review...

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

Andi is a young teenager in the UK. She's not very tall, but she is brilliant at basketball. And she has finally been chosen to play for her school team.

Bernardo is an extremely tall teenager in the Philippines. He lives with his aunt and uncle, and keeps on growing. He is surrounded by superstition, since his name is the same as that of a legendary giant who supposedly protected his village during a major earthquake. Oddly enough, there have not been any earthquakes for some years... ever since Bernardo had his first dramatic growth spurt. Full review...

Gregg's Favourite Puddings by Gregg Wallace

Cookery

Anyone who has watched Gregg Wallace on MasterChef will be aware of his passion (and that is not putting it too strongly) for puddings. He's never lost his sweet tooth and, unlike many men, is not afraid to admit it. He takes a child-like delight in the final course and has been known to go against the professional judge if something particularly appeals to him: he's salvaged the pride of many a contestant with his yummy. Full review...

Must-Have: The Hidden Instincts Behind Everything We Buy by Geoffrey Miller

Popular Science

If no one can tell the difference, why shell out $30 000 for a real Rolex when a 'mere' $1200 will get you a virtually identical replica?

Why do luxury manufacturers such as BMW spend money advertising in mass media whose typical readership most likely won't ever be able to afford their products?

And just why is the i in iPod so important? Full review...

The Butterfly Cabinet by Bernie McGill

This novel has been based on fact. McGill moves back and forth with various characters' stories. A child has died in the family home and the mother, Harriet has been tried in a court of law and found guilty. The fact that she is a practical, no-nonsense woman who does not wear her heart on her sleeve does not go down well with the majority of the jury. She has also committed another crime, almost equally as grave, she has sullied the family name of her husband. He is a prominent and respected member of the local community. Nothing will be the same again for either of them. Full review...

Blotto, Twinks and the Dead Dowager Duchess by Simon Brett

Crime (Historical)

There is a long tradition of country house murder novels, and Simon Brett has a glorious time parodying them in the Blotto and Twinks series. All the stock characters are there: the dim but honourable young man, the clever and emancipated young woman, the loyal lower orders and the dastardly (and preferably foreign) villains. Death is treated in the most light-hearted, almost off-hand manner, and danger is as regular an occurrence as kippers for breakfast. In hands as experienced as Simon Brett's this should be a rich mine for comedy, and to some extent it is, but still, it has to be said, something is lacking. Full review...

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate to the USA from Hong Kong they believe that, true to the American Dream, their lives are about to get better. However, although Kimberly's aunt paid their air fares and arranged their green cards she is intent on getting her money back. She arranges their accommodation in a run-down part of Brooklyn in a building where they are the only tenants. Their apartment has broken windows, no heating and is rife with cockroaches and rats. The aunt arranges work for Kim's mum in her husband's Chinatown factory, paying her a pittance for piece work and then taking most of her salary away for repayments on their flights and their accommodation. Huddled around their oven for warmth, wearing layers of clothing made from material they found in the trash, their lives seem incredibly bleak. But Kimberly has brains, and determination, and she is adamant that she will find a way to take care of her mother. Full review...

Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson

Claire was having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Okay, so most of the people probably only turned up for her swimming pool, her hands and ears were itching like crazy and everyone had to leave early because of the werewolf sighting in the forest nearby. But all Claire cared about was Matthew Engle, talking to her and flirting with her and promising to call her later. Then her mother takes her into the woods and reveals a dark and dangerous secret – she and Claire are werewolves. Everything Claire thought she knew about werewolves is wrong, but how can she continue to see Matthew, whose father is leading the hunt for them? Full review...

The Terminal State by Jeff Somers

Science Fiction

In this future, desolate, post-apocalyptic world, the last thing Avery Cates wants to do is choose a side. The police are androids, artificial cases for clones of people who die in the making, and the other source of power is not much better. But it's them that pressgang him into joining their army. What little freedom and power he had as a lone gunman is lost, as he's given nanotech augments to make him a super-soldier. Which is bad news - as is the fact the two most powerful and hated people in Cates's universe are the very people who buy him from the army to do one last job - and they can be very persuasive about him accepting it... Full review...

Elliot Allagash by Simon Rich

Literary Fiction

Meet thirteen year-old Seymor Herson, he's one of life's losers, the least popular boy at Glendale a second rate private school in New York. He has made a virtue of mediocrity and is happy to simply survive his time at Glendale rather than try and excel at anything.

Meet thirteen year-old Elliot Allagash heir to one of the largest fortunes in America. Elliot who makes a habit of being thrown out of exclusive private schools has finally ended up at Glendale whose reliance on his family's funding means that he cannot be expelled despite his various misdemeanours. Expulsion not being an option Elliot embarks on an equally difficult project, to make Seymor into the most popular boy in school and beyond that to turn him into a young prodigy, the talk of the New York elite. Can he achieve this? And at what cost? Full review...

Prediction: How to See and Shape the Future with Game Theory by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

Popular Science

As a rather mediocre recreational poker player I've often been intrigued by game theory. The academic discipline used by politicos during the chilliest days of the Cold War has been utilised by the more mathematically minded players on the professional circuit to improve profitability. Rather than poker, author and politics professor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita uses game theory models to forecast political, economic and international security scenarios and in Prediction he shares some of his secrets. Full review...

The Collected Short Stories of Lydia Davis by Lydia Davis

Short Stories

As you might expect with short stories, the themes are as varied as 'The Fears of Mrs Orlando' to 'Mothers' and of course, I have my own particular favourites. Most of these short stories cover a couple of pages, but others are merely a sentence or two. And, for me, the less on the page, the more impart the words usually have. In short (no pun intended) there would seem to be something for everyone in these 700+ pages. Full review...

Tilly's Pony Tails: Neptune the Heroic Horse by Pippa Funnell

Tilly has recently been reunited with her brother – they know nothing of their birth mother and were adopted by different families – and she's just been invited to go on holiday to Cornwall with him and his family. It will mean leaving the horses and ponies at the local stables but she's sure that they'll all manage without her for a week. Once in Cornwall she's delighted to find that there's a riding stable nearby and she soon makes friends, particularly with a horse called Neptune. She also meets a girl called Megan who loves swimming, but can't understand why Megan is frightened of horses and doesn't want to learn to ride, despite the encouragement she gets from her parents. Full review...

Withering Tights by Louise Rennison

After killing off Georgia Nicolson in a blaze of hedonism and vampires, it's time for Louise Rennison to start a new series, with a new teenage girl's first-person narrative. This time it's one Tallulah Casey, a lanky girl worried about her knees and underdeveloped cleavage, and off to stay at a posh drama performance workshop centre in the wilds of Yorkshire. Full review...

Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels by Janet Soskice

Biography

Sisters of Sinai tells the story of two extraordinary, Victorian women who unearthed an important early copy of the Gospels from a remote monastery in Egypt. It hardly seems possible that they organised and executed such remarkable feats of unaccompanied travel during an age in which women's freedom was hidebound by their status as the inferior sex. Janet Soskice is well-placed as a feminist philosopher and theologian to explore their lives. Full review...

TimeRiders: Day of the Predator by Alex Scarrow

Liam, Maddy and Sal were each about to die when an old man appeared to them and invited them to choose another fate. And out of the heartbreak of their decisions to bid farewell to their old existence and their loved ones is born a secret team of time riders, dedicated to putting right the chaos caused by those who meddle with time. It is a decision they will sometimes regret. Full review...

Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link

Fantasy

It goes without saying, but the greatest thing about fantasy fiction is that one can go anywhere with it, and do anything. So a young man can easily try and dig his girlfriend up and retrieve some poetry he romantically left with her - only to have a hairy evening as a result. There can be a psychic link between a young lad, called Onion and doomed to die in a terrorist attack, and his cousin while she works as slave in an odd community of wizards. Several worlds can be accessed through an elderly woman's handbag, for better or worse. Full review...

Bank Of The Black Sheep (Robin Llywelyn Trilogy) by Robert Lewis

The alcoholic and self-destructive detective is common to the point of cliché in crime fiction, but most carry on to take another case, and make a living. Robert Lewis' character's lifestyle has effectively ended his professional career – he was destitute and he is now terminally ill. He has woken up in a hospice, and learns from a couple of visiting police detectives that he is a washed up Private Investigator, who is avoiding prosecution only because he perhaps has a couple of months left, as he is dying of lung cancer. Full review...

Oil on Water by Helon Habila

The book opens with two local journalists on a rather dangerous trip. Zaq, old-timer and cynic but still has the skills to seek out a good story and apprentice Rufus. A British oil engineer's wife has gone missing, believed kidnapped and the two journalists are following her trail. Zaq comes across as an interesting character; all-seeing, all-knowing albeit likes a drink or two. He's happy to impart years of knowledge to Rufus and tells him that ' ... the story is not always the final goal.' What's really important, what the readers want to know and what sells newspapers is ' ... the meaning of the story.' Full review...

Doctor Doom: Oli and Skipjack's Tales of Trouble by Ceci Jenkinson

Eleven-year-old Skipjack is in serious trouble: his team lost a cricket match because he fell asleep, and now Slugger Stubbins is after him. Slugger has two things in mind: to bash Skipjack, and to squeeze out of him the ten pounds he lost betting on the match. Skipjack, therefore, spends a large part of this wonderfully silly book hiding from his nemesis using a variety of fancy dress costumes from his friend Doctor Hamish Levity's shop. Oli, on the other hand, has weightier matters to deal with: he has discovered an International Criminal Mastermind. And because he has always dreamed of being a secret agent, this promises to be the perfect opportunity to try out the practical tips on espionage contained in The Good Spy's Handbook, which he has recently been given. Full review...

Black Diamond: A Bruno Courreges Investigation by Martin Walker