Book Reviews From 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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To Marry A Prince by Sophie Page

Women's Fiction

Bella Greenwood has just been away on a tropical island doing an eco-job for a man she though she rather fancied. She returned home when she realised that she was being taken for a mug and when it came down to it she didn't really fancy the man that much either. Getting back into the swing of things is a little difficult though – he mother and step-father have a full house and can't take her in. Her father is up a mountain somewhere and she's just thankful that her friend Lottie is prepared to take her in at short notice – and to take her to a posh party. Full review...

Green Living Guide by Hugh Bowring

Lifestyle

The 'Green Living Guide' is a Magbook - so the format is like that of a magazine - and although it initially seems a little expensive for something that looks just like a magazine you quickly find, on opening, that it contains an enormous amount of interesting and useful information. Even already determined eco-warriors should find something of interest in this wide-ranging guide. Full review...

In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis by Karen Armstrong

Spirituality and Religion

Armstrong's background (there's a page right at the beginning) is certainly diverse and interesting so I was looking forward to reading what she had to say. And thankfully, I didn't have to rummage around looking for my own copy of the bible (I've now located it) as Armstrong obligingly provides Genesis (in beautiful, old-fashioned typeface) here. So roughly two thirds is given over to her investigative prose and the remaining third is the actual book of Genesis, for handy reference. Full review...

The Travelling Matchmaker: Emily Goes to Exeter by M C Beaton

Historical Fiction

Emily Goes to Exeter is by way of 'Being the First Volume of the Travelling Matchmaker' as the subheading has it on the frontispiece: the beginning of a new series obviously.

If like me you have come to Beaton by way of Hamish Macbeth this might seem like something of a diversion. A little research shows you that in fact Marion Chesney, who writes under a number of pseudonyms (including Beaton) has a prolific work-rate. Having produced upwards of 130 books since starting writing full time in the 1980s, focussing on crime and historical romance, there can be few avenues down which she has yet to wander. Full review...

Forgive and Forget by Margaret Dickinson

Historical Fiction

Straight away I got the sense of this book because of its language and style. Lots of adjectives such as Polly has a ' ... fiery personality' and 'Cold fear ran through the girl's slim body.' This book is very easy to read, to get into as the tone is conversational. There are lines like 'The young girl's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in a horrified gasp. She clutched her throat as she uttered hoarsely, 'no, oh, no!' ' This book will appeal to those readers who like a rather uncomplicated yarn but also with a good dash of romance. True escapism. Personally, the title is too slushy for me but I appreciate that it fits in nicely with the genre and also with Dickinson's style. But, I have to say, there's an awful lot of 'hearts thumping' and 'eyes blazing' - too many for me, I'm afraid. Full review...

Evercrossed (Kissed by an Angel) by Elizabeth Chandler

Teens

Evercrossed picks up where Kissed by an Angel left off. After her boyfriend Tristan was killed in a car accident, Ivy took up with Gregory, who turned out to be a serial murderer and all-round bad guy. She was saved from him by a combination of Tristan in angel form, her psychic best friend Beth and stalwart admirer Will. Now the three of them are working at a holiday inn for the summer, alongside Beth's cousin Kelsey and her friend Dhanya. Will is now Ivy's boyfriend but it's almost a year since Tristan died and Ivy is finding herself thinking about him more and more. Full review...

Cat on the Mat and Friends by Brian Wildsmith

For Sharing

The first story in this book of four, 'Cat on the Mat', is a very simple tale in which each sentence is 'the (animal's name) sat on the mat', the first animal being the cat, with accompanying pictures showing the mat getting more and more crowded. Finally the cat hisses and spits and so we return to just the cat sitting alone on the mat! Full review...

The Life of Irene Nemirovsky by Patrick Lienhardt, Olivier Philipponnat and Euan Cameron

Biography

Irene Nemirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903 to a wealthy Jewish family. Even as a child she was used to travel and regularly spent time in the South of France, but the family was forced to flee Russia when they were threatened by the revolution. They lived for a time in Finland and Stockholm, eventually settling in France. Nemirovsky's father was something of a rough diamond and her mother selfish and unfaithful, vain and difficult – her mother, particularly would form the basis for several characters in Nemirovsky's books. Full review...

Bug and Bear by Ann Bonwill and Layn Marlow

For Sharing

Bug really, really wants to play a game with Bear, but Bear is tired and she wants a nap. Bug follows Bear around everywhere, pestering and pleading until, finally, Bear loses her temper and tells Bug to go away and leave her alone. She finally settles down for her nap but then discovers that she can't sleep... Full review...

Invisibles by Ed Siegle

General Fiction

The closest Brighton usually gets to Brazil is in the pages of a dictionary, but in Invisibles the two are drawn together in the life of Joel Burns, a thirty-five year old dentist who lives in Brighton as does his mother, Jackie, and partner Debbie from whom he is separated. When Joel sees a news clip of a bus hijack in Rio de Janeiro, where Joel and Jackie lived until Joel was ten, he is convinced that one of the bystanders is his Brazilian father. What makes this more unusual is that Jackie has always told Joel that his father is dead, although Joel has never quite bought into this story which is at least part of the cause of his problems with Debbie. The solution? Head off to Rio and see if he can track down this person. Full review...

Annabel by Kathleen Winter

Literary Fiction

The back cover blurb has praise for this debut novel from two of my favourite authors: Joseph O'Connor and A L Kennedy so things were definitely off to a good start. The front cover is rather unsettling (as it's meant to be) - some may say disturbing: it's of an adolescent, but neither male nor female but rather a fusion of the two sexes. And the question is right up there before I've even opened the book - how would such an individual (and family members and society as a whole) deal and interact with such a person. It's not an easy question to answer, if I'm honest. Full review...

The Cuckoo Parchment and the Dyke by Michael Dhillon

General Fiction

Tristan Jarry is the world's most famous artist but he's rather moved on from selling his work for millions and has just kidnapped Angelique Burr, the step-daughter of the President of the United States. She's not an innocent child but an abused and abusing woman, now a journalist and at times well able to hold her own with Jarry. He's got helpers though - and forward planning - and it's not long before Angelique finds herself involved in a trail of destruction and death as Jarry works towards his purpose. He intends to resurrect Dada, the iconic movement founded in 1916 in Zurich with the intention of protesting against the war. He'll tell Angelique so much – but not what he finally intends to do. Full review...

Slightly Jones Mystery: The Case of the Glasgow Ghoul by Joan Lennon

Confident Readers

There are spooks and ghouls aplenty in this story: readers avid for a delicious shiver or two will be pleased to know they appear right from the very first chapter. And in keeping with the wonderfully Victorian flavour of the book, it is body-snatchers, digging up a corpse to sell to a local doctor, who encounter the terrifying spectres. This is not a horror story, however, despite the scary setting of its opening pages: the haunted cemetery is simply one element in the complicated case of the disappearing treasures. Full review...

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Literary Fiction

Ava Bigtree is a teenage alligator wrestler. Her older sister Ossie is in love with a ghost. They have grown up on a Florida island theme park with their parents, their grandfather and their big brother Kiwi. Now though, all they have known is threatened. Their mother Hilola was the star attraction, but she died a few months before, not in the jaws of an alligator but of ovarian cancer. As well as being the glamorous figure on billboards who everyone came to see, she ran the show and did all the jobs that needed to be done, and the family is lost without her. Full review...

I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan

Teens

A year ago, four teenagers committed a shocking crime after a party where they all had too much to drink, and overwhelmed by indecision, fear and desperation they made a pact to keep the incidents of the fateful night a secret. However, someone knows their secret and that someone is determined to make them face up to the consequences of their actions. Their binding pact has held together for a year, partly out of the friendship they shared and mostly out of guilt, but when it becomes apparent that there is someone who is looking for revenge, it suddenly becomes deadly important that they face up to the truth, for their own sakes. Full review...

Muffin and the Birthday Surprise by Clara Vulliamy

For Sharing

It's Fizz and Flora's birthday, so Muffin the bear gets ready for the party, and decides to take them a big bag of sugar buns as a present. On his walk to the party, Muffin gets a little bit peckish and has a bit of a nibble of one bun, then another, then another. Erk! He puts the empty bag on the pile of presents and enjoys the party game. Will there be a way to turn an empty bag into a much-loved present? Full review...

Where Are My Lambs? by Francesca Simon and Emily Bolam

For Sharing

When you're just coming to terms with this thing called reading there's a big jump to be made. Gone are those nice big picture books with not too many words and in their place is something much smaller (and not nearly so easy to handle – you have to do it yourself) with a lot more words and probably just a few black and white pictures to break the page up and if you're lucky to give you a clue as to what those pesky words mean. There's a stepping stone along the way now and it might just help children who find that big leap a little daunting. Full review...

The Afterparty by Leo Benedictus

General Fiction

I opened the front cover and was confronted with the lines 'This book is different. You've really never read a book like this before.' Confident words, I thought but will the book live up to this lofty expectation I now had? And when I got round to reading the notes at the end of the novel, I was pleasantly surprised and also rather taken aback, I have to say. So, a refreshing take on the modern work of fiction, I thought, as I started on Chapter One. Full review...

The Tickle Ghost by Brett McKee and David McKee

For Sharing

It's Dylan's bedtime, but the Tickle Ghost (very possibly his dad with a sheet) is out to get him. Cue plenty of giggles and not very much going to bed. Dylan's mum shouts upstairs for them to be quieter, but when the noise continues, she heads up to sort them out. ...Will the Tickle Ghost get her too? Full review...

My Cat Just Sleeps by Joanne Partis

For Sharing

The little girl in this story has a pet cat who she loves, but she's noticed that whilst her cat spends his days sleeping all her friends' cats seem to lead much more exciting lives, hunting and playing and climbing and fishing...she attempts to entice him into doing something active, but he sleeps through it all until, finally, she realises that even if he is very sleepy he's also warm and cuddly and affectionate and she loves him very much. But she still wonders what it is that makes him so sleepy... Full review...

Superfrog! by Michael Foreman

For Sharing

Pond City is a peaceful place in the daytime. Little Frank the frog loves simply dangling his toes in the water and watching the world pass by. However, come nighttime, things take a turn for the worse: the Big Boss oversees a crime wave. When the Big Boss' creeps frighten Frank's granny and kidnap some frogspawn she'd been babysitting, enough is enough and Frank turns into Superfrog. Full review...

I Love My Mummy by Giles Andreae and Emma Dodd

For Sharing

Mummies are good for lots of things - wiping noses, singing in the car, helping with wee-wee's! This sweet story tells us the best things about mummies from a baby's point of view. Full review...

The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents by Alex Butterworth

History

In deciding to write about political upheaval across Europe, including Russia, Alex Butterworth has chosen a massive topic for this entertaining book. So massive, in fact, that when I tried reading it without first looking through the pen pictures at the start of the main players I was quickly completely lost. My mistake – the short, sharp, pen pictures, which cover sixteen pages and detail all the major anarchists and secret agents are completely invaluable and helped my reading of the book enormously. Full review...

Fatou, Fetch the Water by Neil Griffiths and Peggy Collins

For Sharing

is waylaid by various friends who have gifts and messages for Fatou to take for her mother. As the gifts pile up in Fatou's arms, and the messages for her mother crowd her head Fatou, somehow, forgets to get any water! Full review...

Hamish Macbeth: Death of a Valentine by M C Beaton

Crime

Remembering Hamish Macbeth from the 1990s TV series, in the person of Robert Carlisle, accompanied by a Westie called Wee Jock, I'm only just beginning to get to know the real Hamish as brought to paper by M C Beaton. More robust in appearance than your man Carlisle, with a shock of red hair, he's accompanied on his rounds by an indeterminate hound called Lugs and a wildcat called Sonsie. That both animals are referred to by the locals as the beasties, and only a special few of said locals are willing to look after them in Hamish's absence, says something about their temperament. Hamish would call it exuberance. Or loyalty. Full review...

The Yearning Heart by Sylvia Broady

Women's Fiction

It is 1941 so when an unmarried Frances Bewholme becomes pregnant she is shunned by her family and sent to an isolated farm to live and work. To add to her shame and disgrace Fran's unborn baby is not just any man's; it is her brother-in-law's. Victor Renton, home on leave from the war takes advantage of Fran one night when she comes home, upset and heartbroken. Full review...

Howl: A Graphic Novel by Allen Ginsberg

Graphic Novels

I first came across Howl as a short film animating one of Ginsberg's own recordings of it. If memory serves, it was a scratchy, jazzy piece, full of spiky, spunky shapes and movements, and low on colour. Now for 2011 and for Penguin Modern Classics' first ever 'graphic novel' comes a very different animation. OK, the real moving animation is only to be seen in the movie Howl, but to call this merely an illustrated companion to the film is to be very unflattering. Full review...

Disputed Land by Tim Pears

Literary Fiction

In this engaging novel, Tim Pears tackles many challenging themes: sibling rivalry, time and change in the countryside, facing terminal illness, reflections on the isolation of academic life and undertaking risky financial investment. This is not a portrayal of a rural idyll although much of the most lyrical writing concerns the colours of the Shropshire countryside and this is strengthened by reference to the layers of the archaic past that underlies this disputed borderland territory. In attempting such a multi-layered narrative in a relatively short novel, it is not surprising that for instance, the traumatic shocks in the epic tale are diminished by random, experimental shifts in the tone of the narrative. Full review...

Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste

Historical Fiction

Ethiopia 1974. Emperor Haile Selassie is an old man barely clinging on to power. Still thought of, even by those rebelling against him, as a demi-god that they daren't disrespect let alone challenge he has held the country in thrall to his aristocratic government supported by the violence and repression of the army and the police. Full review...

Department 19 by Will Hill

Teens

Jamie Carpenter lived a normal, happy, suburban life until the night strange creatures arrived at his house and men in black combats with strange, ultra-violent weapons burst in and executed his father. Since then, Jamie and his mother have lived in a succession of miserable, dour little houses and Jamie has become less and less interested in a succession of miserable, dour little schools. He resents his mother, like all good disaffected teenagers do. Full review...

The Death of Eli Gold by David Baddiel

General Fiction

Eli Gold is recognized as the 'the greatest living writer' - although his claim to this is slipping by by the day as he is on his death bed. He's not a nice character - his attitudes to his five wives and his children are deplorable and he has been bound up in his own 'genius'. He's a bit like the best and the worst of Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and Norman Mailer combined. Now dying in hospital in New York, the book explores this event from the perceptive of four people in his life; his eight year old, precocious daughter by his current wife; his first wife watching on the news from an old people's home in England; the angst-ridden son of his third marriage, himself a pale imitation of the author that his father is; and a mysterious fourth character who appears to have a very different motive for seeing Gold snr and who may be linked to Gold's fourth wife who died in a mutual suicide pact with her then-husband, from which Eli survived. (In fact his identity is revealed in the publisher's blurb on the jacket, but I'll let you decide if you want to know this or to let the story unfold as I did). Full review...

Walking on Dry Land by Denis Kehoe

Literary Fiction

Ana has grown up mostly in Portugal, but now lives in Dublin where she teaches film studies and is writing her PHD. However, she was born in Anglola (then a Portuguese colony), the result of an extra-marital relationship of her father, who then adopted her with his wife. When her adopted mother, Helena, dies, she decides to trace her birth mother in Angola, where her brother now lives, but has nothing much to go on but a photocopy of a photograph of two Angolan girls, one of which may, or may not, be her mother, and a name: Solange Mendes. We follow Ana as she attempts to trace her real mother while in alternating chapters exploring her parents' developing relationship and ultimately how her unusual past evolved. Full review...