Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"

Tinysaurus is fed-up of being little. He's tried all sorts of things to get as big as Mummysaurus, Daddysaurus and Bigsissysaurus, but jumping, stretching and strapping tree trunks to his feet have done nothing to help. He's not allowed to go to places and do things on his own, and he's certainly not allowed to look after Mummysaurus' eggs. Then, one day the ground shakes and a Nastysaurus appears... Full review...

The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight by Jenny Valentine

Runaway Chap walks into a hostel off the street. He's in need of a meal and a bed for the night. As the workers question him, trying to get a history, they notice his resemblance to a poster of a boy who's been missing for two years. Chap isn't Cassiel Roadnight. Chap isn't anyone. But the temptation is there: become Cassiel. Get a family. Live in a home. Become someone. And so he takes the chance and the new identity. Full review...

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

We last saw Nora and Patch at the end of Hush, Hush - lovely title, that! - battered after a Nephilim conflict, but very much together. Patch is no longer fallen, has been given back guardian angel status and the threat to Nora is no more. You'd think everything would go swimmingly after that, wouldn't you? But you know and I know that falling in love with any kind of angel, fallen or otherwise, isn't conducive to a normal life. Full review...

Lost Dogs by Garrett Carr

Some extraordinary children are to be found in the Northern Irish port-town of Hardglass. One, Akeem, has in fact just arrived - a stowaway on a cargo ship. Elsewhere, friends Andrew and Ewan are waiting to see the result of Ewan's father's trial for being a weapons dealer. While their friend May is newly residing at a most unusual school, one whose pupils have talents to match her singular one of sensing and empathising with the thoughts of animals. It's a gang of people brought together in a natural, realistic way, with some fantastic factors to their lives that are only going to get heightened. For said weapons, allegedly going on their way to be decommissioned, will soon be on the same cargo boat Akeem has just left - and they're weapons from the darker side of horror... Full review...

Iggy and Me On Holiday by Jenny Valentine

We've already met Iggy and Flo twice before. They're back again, with their tales of daily life, and this time the short stories cover their summer holidays. We've been massive fans of the Iggy and Me books from day one, and will continue to be so. They're super! Full review...

Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras

General Fiction

Initially I was very excited and interested when The Bookbag was given this novel to review. Set at a time in which I lived in Buenos Aires, I was looking forward to a fictionalised account of these traumatic years - made all the more appealing, as the narrator purported to be the eldest of the family's two sons - 10 year old 'Haroldo' as he comes to be known, having by necessity left his former identity behind. In this respect, I was to be sadly disappointed. The majority of the novel comprises recollections from an adult Haroldo - not quite what the Amazon blurb, nor the précis on the cover, leads the reader to believe! In fairness, the author can't be blamed for this - but I felt mislead by the dust jacket - which may have coloured my enjoyment, and which lead, in part, to the relatively low star rating which I gave the book. Full review...

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

Literary Fiction

Slapping your own child is bad. Slapping someone else's child is worse. This is the event at the heart of Christos Tsiolkas' Man Booker-nominated novel, set in Melbourne, Australia, when at a barbeque for friends and family, the host's cousin slaps the child of the best friend of the host's wife. Full review...

Stranger to History: A Son's Journey Through Islamic Lands by Aatish Taseer

Travel

Aatish Taseer was born of out of a short week of passion between a Sikh Indian mother and a Pakistani Muslim father. The mother was a journalist; the father a politician.

That week of passion was to be all it was, despite subsequent attempts at hushing up the pregnancy, then pretending a marriage until finally a clean break was made when the boy was about 18 months old. Ah, but such breaks never are clean are they? There's always a certain amount of meddling from the side-lines, and then there's a child's longing to know who he is, where he is really from. Full review...

Kissing Alice by Jacqueline Yallop

Literary Fiction

Arthur Claythorne, a decorator by trade finds himself out of work and back home in Plymouth as the First World War begins, along with a stolen copy of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, a book full of powerful imagery. After being injured in the war Arthur returns home to his wife Queenie May and two daughters, Florrie and Alice, a changed man, deeply affected by his experiences in the trenches and desperate to find religion. Despite Florrie's interest in following her father into Catholicism, it is Alice who suddenly finds herself the object of her father's unusual and inappropriate attention. Full review...

Silly Moo by Karen King and Marina Le Ray

When an apple falls on Cow's head, she gets all woozy so decides to go home for a bit of a lie down. She's got mild amnesia, so she goes from place to place on the farmyard, getting to meet all the animals, and causing all sorts of problems as she doesn't realise where she needs to go. Full review...

A Trick of the Dark by B R Collins

What if you found a way to cheat death? What if it left you pain-free forever, both physically and emotionally? But what if it also meant you had to split your soul, and that left you unable to touch anyone ever again? After Zach and Annis are dragged to France for a family reconciliation events are set in motion that cannot be undone. Annis sees Zach killed by a the tumbling wall of an old ruined house, yet moments later he is standing, unharmed, in front of her. As she tries to help Zach, and appease her bitter, broken parents, she is dragged deeper and deeper into the horror of Zach's situation. Full review...

Crump by PJ Vanston

General Fiction

It's Kevin Crump's first day as a lecturer at Thames Metropolitan University - an ex-polytechnic. It's the happiest day of his life, and he can't wait to see all that it holds, and make a difference to all his students. And then it hits him: the relentless pettiness of authority figures, the students who can't string two sentences together, the lowering of standards in search of higher test scores, so more money from foreign students, and political correctness gone (as I believe the saying goes) mad. Full review...

Cub's First Winter by Rebecca Elliott

It's the first day of winter and Cub can't sleep, so Mum decides the best option is a forest walk. Cub is a mass of questions about the new experiences - why are the trees undressed, why can they see their breath, and why are the birds going on holiday? Mum informs and reassures Cub as they enjoy the wonders of nature and each other's company. Full review...

Soulless: The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger

Fantasy

Miss Tarabotti fairly bounces (in a ladylike fashion, of course) onto the page. Her forthright character is refreshingly at odds with the rather snivelling wallflowers of the era. I just knew that Alexia was going to be bags of fun - and she was. She did not disappoint. Full review...

City of Thieves by Ellen Renner

There's nothing better than an adventure story where the thrills and shocks just keep on coming, where you sneak a look at the number of pages left and think nothing more can be piled on the unfortunate heroes, only to see them hit again - and then again! - with shocks and reversals of fortune. At the beginning of this gripping Gothic tale twelve-year-old Charlie has found her long-lost mother, and is about to be crowned Queen Charlotte of Quale; her dear friend and playmate Tobias is still in shock from the revelation that his father is the traitor who plotted to betray their country. The villain, who also killed Charlie's father the King, is about to be hanged for his crimes and the two young people feel once he is dead they will be able to get on with their lives. But mere hours before he is due to die, the devious and complex Windlass escapes from his prison cell . . . Full review...

B Positive by Dai Henley

Autobiography

Dai Henley counts himself lucky to have been born to loving and nurturing parents. When they discovered that his blood group was B positive they gave him his motto in life, and coincidentally, the title of this book. As he explains, it's not a celebrity autobiography (you might be selling yourself a little short there, Dai) and nor is it a misery memoir. It's the story of a man who has made the most of every opportunity he's been given – and a few mistakes along the way – but he's won through despite the difficulties and played a fair amount of sport too. Full review...

Arrrrgh! Slimosaur! by Alan MacDonald

Iggy the Urk wants to spend his days playing boulderball with his friends, and trying to get one over on his nemesis Snark. His dad takes him hunting - Iggy is desperate to bag a woolly mammoth or snaggle-toothed tiger. When they come across huge tracks and an even bigger poo, his dad worries, and Iggy's Grumma warns him about the scary slimosaur that's out there. Life for a caveboy isn't easy. Full review...

The Legacy by Gemma Malley

Longevity isn't working. The drug that prolongs life expectancy indefinitely appears to have reached its own life expectancy. A terrible virus is wreaking havoc across Britain and the sluggish immune systems of the Legals simply can't cope. Consumed by a desperate thirst, they're dying horrible deaths, leaving behind shrivelled and desiccated corpses. It's Richard Pinsent's worst nightmare. Not that Richard cares about people dying, of course. Full review...

Torment by Lauren Kate

Right, first things first. If you haven't read Fallen, go read it - or at least read a review to see whether it sounds like your cup of tea - because this review will inevitably contain significant spoilers for the earlier Lauren Kate novel. Full review...

The Map of Marvels by David Calcutt

Connor is trying to draw a map for a school project but can't find any inspiration until an old book drops on the floor. Opening it to find a map, he gets inspired and starts work on his project. He's drawn to putting a tower in which he feels will complete it, and gets upset with his younger sister Alice when she scribbles it out after claiming she's seen a nasty face in it - so he retaliates by kicking down her tower that she'd made of stuff from her toybox. As he does so, he finds himself transported onto the ship of Sindbad, King of the Pirates, and his daughter. Full review...

Savage Blood by Alex Chance

General Fiction

The book's cover is a very good clue as to its content: weapons dripping in blood and decapitated heads. The novel starts with Professor Edward Quinn on a rather unusual journey. It seems to end abruptly and in plenty of spilled blood, gore and horrendous scenes of carnage. Meanwhile, in Atlanta, USA, Dr Cortez has been cheating on his wife. His one-night stand proves satisfactory and interesting in all sorts of ways. Suddenly, he's involved in an extremely worrying medical situation. It needs to be sorted - and quickly. Cortez is a young, modern professional but he's human also, so not without his hang-ups. The conversations between himself and his even more successful wife, are bang on. They hit the right note. Many will identify with the couple. At times you can almost hear the friction between them. And the man-to-man conversations between Charlie Cortez and his buddy Dan are terrific. Trying hard to be big shots in a social situation when really they are out of their depth. A great introduction to this part of the story, I thought. Full review...

The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall

We concentrate in and around bustling Delhi and straight away Hall gives a great description of his main character. Once seen, never forgotten apparently. And as if that were not enough to be going on with, we're also given the low-down on his 'team.' Their nicknames are very funny and all of this delightful information gives the reader a taster of what's to come later in the book. I can't resist giving one explanation. Puri has several undercover operatives (I'm smiling to myself just recalling it) one of whom is called Flush. Why? Simple. ... he had a flush toilet in his home, a first for anyone in his remote village in ... You just cannot help but smile, you really can't. And this gentle humour runs throughout the book. Full review...

Outsourced by Dave Zeltserman

I loved Dave Zeltserman's man out of jail series, with both Pariah and Killer being among the best crime thrillers I've read in a long time. All good things must come to an end, however, and with Outsourced he has branched out slightly. Full review...

Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler

Fantasy

Since the death of her boyfriend, Jason, Jane True has been something of a social outcast in Rockabill. Hated by most of the general populace, who think she had something to do with Jason's death, Jane has lived her life on pause for eight years. Only Jane's clandestine nightly swim make her feel alive, at peace, normal – which is odd, because swimming in the treacherous and freezing sea waters is about as far from normal as a girl can get. But Jane's always had an affinity for the ocean. Full review...

The Great Rabbit Rescue by Katie Davies

Joe-Down-The-Road has a new love in his life. It's his new pet rabbit, a replacement for the old one that died of fright. As a result he keeps it guarded day and night, water-pistolling anything that might or might not be a threat to its safety. But when he leaves home to live with his dad, what becomes of the rabbit? What if it isn't the right move for Joe - or the rabbit - and they need to be reunited? Only Anna and friends can possibly help. Full review...

Paint It Black by P J Parrish

The central character, PI Louis Kincaid has decamped to Florida. He doesn't really want to be there but he has no job prospects elsewhere, he's still young and he needs to do something, fill his days. Even when a well-paid job as a PI falls in his lap, he still hesitates. Then he thinks, what the hell's he got to lose, a man's got to eat etc. Full review...

Raising My Voice: The Extraordinary Story of the Afghan Woman Who Dares to Speak Out by Malalai Joya

Politics and Society

Forget entertainment – this is a book to read if you have any interest in the war in Afghanistan. My particular view has developed from a British armchair, comprising part emotional reaction, a smidgeon of history and an over-reliance on British media sources. In a war zone where truth has been a casualty throughout, this book gives the general reader an authentic view of conditions in Afghanistan over the past twenty five years of continual warfare. Written by a young and hot-headed, wildly patriotic 'ordinary' woman, this is no more reliable than any other partisan view, but its value is to help put official news sources into their proper context. I found it educative in several senses. Full review...

Shoulder Bags and Shootings by Dorothy Howell

Women's Fiction

Haley Randolph has just returned from a trip to Europe at the invitation of her boyfriend, Ty. Unfortunately, Ty has remained behind for work - as the owner/manager of a chain of department stores, he has a lot on his plate. Haley borrows his grandmother's Mercedes to get from the airport back home, but is horrified to find that there is a dead body in the boot of the car. Even worse, Haley knows the dead girl, so she's suspect number one. With her track record, the police are already deeply suspicious of her. Can she find out who the real killer was without attracting too much attention? And, more importantly, will she ever track down the killer 'Sinful' handbag that she's so desperate to own? Full review...

The Mourning Emporium by Michelle Lovric

Two years ago in 1898, Teodora, the Undrowned Child of prophecy, saved Venice from its resurrected traitor, Bajamonte Tiepolo. Since then, she and her partner-in-prophecy Lorenzo, the Studious Son, have led a fairly uneventful existence. But now, Venice is in peril once more. Ice creeps through its lagoon, vampire eels encased menacingly within it, and black cormorants have returned to spy on the city in their great, black clouds. Teodora knows baddened magic when she sees it, and her heart sinks at the awful realisation - il Traditore is back... Full review...

Just Because by Rebecca Elliott

Toby's best friend is his big sister, Clemmie. She can't walk, talk or move around much. Just because. He loves her dearly, and we discover all the many ways they play together. It's an utterly gorgeous tale of sibling affection. Full review...

Play The Shape Game by Anthony Browne

Children's Non-Fiction

You might have already played the shape game. It involves doing a squiggle on a piece of paper, then either you or someone else has to turn that squiggle into a full picture. Anthony Browne played it lots when he was little, and now he's playing it with 45 celebrities and you. Proceeds from the book and the auction of the artwork are going to The Rainbow Trust Children's Charity, who provide emotional and practical support to families who have a child with a life threatening or terminal illness. A fantastic cause. Full review...

Famous Last Words by Annie Sanders

Women's Fiction

The story centres on Lucy Streeter who is a very ordinary woman leading a very ordinary life. She is quite happy running her designer clothes shop and being mother to her grown up son Nat. However, one evening her life is thrown into turmoil after meeting Micah, a fortune teller, who kindly informs her that she only has a few more days to live. Normally, Lucy would dismiss this as absolute rubbish, but unfortunately too many of his other predictions seem to be coming true so she has to sit up and take notice. As she does, she comes to the sad realisation that she has not made the most of her life and there are many things that she should or could have done. Full review...

The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future by Robert Darnton

History

Reading a book, whether for study or relaxation, in the sitting room, in bed, on public transport, or almost anywhere else, has been one of everybody's favourite activities for many a long year, and not just by visitors and contributors to this site. (Therein lies a paradox, I hear you say). As Darnton points out in his introduction, the good old-fashioned book was not destroyed by newspapers (or magazines, for that matter), any more than television destroyed radio, or the internet made people abandon TV. Full review...

River of Shadows: A Commissario Soneri Mystery by Valerio Varesi

Rain was falling heavily in the River Po catchment area in northern Italy and the old hands knew that it would burst its banks and there would be flooding. But even they are surprised when they see Tonna's barge setting out downstream. He knows the river well, but his course out of the mooring was erratic and when the barge was eventually found Tonna was nowhere to be seen; the barge was deserted. Was it coincidence or something more sinister when Tonna's brother appeared to commit suicide on the day of his brother's disappearance: Commisario Soneri is convinced that there is more to this than meets the eye. Full review...

Blood Crime by John Brindley