Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"

It was a quiet night in Cinnamon Grove, with all its residents settled in for a peaceful night's sleep. But all is not well with everyone. At number 32, there is a sudden crash and Ramzis’ dad is on the move… looking for a hen in the wardrobe! But that isn’t all. So far, Dad has been chasing frogs across the pantry floor, searching for a leopard in the back garden and sailing to the moon in the bathtub. Dad is sleep-walking again, because he is homesick. The only solution is for the family to take off for an extended visit to his home, a Berber village in the mountains of Algeria. While there, Ramzi encounters Boulelli (a giant spider in the forest), the Wise Man of the mountains and the native Tuareq in the desert in an effort to solve Dad’s problem for good. But will any of it work? Or will it be up to Ramzi and his secret plan to save the day? Full review...

Finders Keepers by Belinda Bauer

Set in Exmoor, plucky little Jess Took is kidnapped from her father's vehicle while he is off managing the local hunt. Before you can say 'who took Took?' another little boy is plucked from his parents' car. In both scenes the only evidence is a post-it note saying 'you don't love her' or him. On the case is DI Reynolds who is initially more concerned with how his new hair transplant is taking until the crimes escalate to a full scale serial abduction case. Full review...

Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale

Rosie's beloved mother Trudie has just died of Huntington's disease and now Rosie has a terrible decision to make: should she get tested and discover whether or not she has inherited the mutated gene that causes this fatal illness? But just as she decides that truth and knowledge is better than fear, Rosie discovers that Trudie wasn't her biological mother. She and a dying baby were swapped at birth. So Rosie sets out to the States to find her real mother, accompanied by Andy, an ex-boyfriend with whom she hopes to rekindle a love that never quite died. They find more than Rosie could ever have expected, and she is faced with an even more agonising choice: live a lie, or tell the truth and destroy lives just as hers has been destroyed... Full review...

Dickens: A Memoir of Middle Age by Peter Ackroyd

Biography

With publishers falling over each other in an effort to outdo each other in celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth, it was perhaps inevitable that we should see a reappearance of what has become the modern standard life, by Peter Ackroyd. The 1200-page original was first published in 1990, while this 600-page abridged edition surfaced in 1994, and now makes another timely appearance. Full review...

Wereworld: Shadow of the Hawk by Curtis Jobling

At the start of Shadow of the Hawk, our heroes are in disarray. Drew, having bitten off his hand to escape Vanmorten and the undead, is in captivity, about to be forced to fight as a gladiator. The Staglord Manfred and the Wereshark Vega, two of the three remaining members of the Wolf's Council, are on the run, spiriting Drew's mother to safety. And Hector, the third of the Council... oh, Hector! Full review...

The Second Coming by John Niven

Humour

God has come back from a holiday and has some catching up to do. What’s been happening on Earth for the last couple of hundred years? The realisation hits him hard... it makes him sick in fact. So what’s the answer? To quote the religious cliché, Jesus is. After a board meeting with the senior saints, God decides that his son must be torn away from jamming with Hendrix to go back to the streets of the world to remind the sinners of the way. Full review...

Heaven by Christoph Marzi

The night that Heaven lost her heart was cold and moonless. But the blade that sliced it out was warm with her dark blood.

David Pettyfer stumbles into this explosive first scene as he takes his usual shortcut over the rooftops of night-time London on his way to deliver a book to one of Miss Trodwood's most valued customers. David hates closed-in spaces and in particular the Tube, but loves the open air and the freedom he feels on the roofs. And so, it turns out, does this beautiful, enigmatic girl who claims that evil men have cut out her heart. David can feel the danger but he is lost right from his first glimpse of Heaven. He couldn't walk away from this girl even if he tried. Full review...

Wonder by R J Palacio

August Pullman was born with a rare genetic defect that has caused extreme facial disfiguration. He has undergone 27 surgeries since he was born and has always been vulnerable to illness. In order to deal with his medical needs and to shield him from the staring and cruelty of the world, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents for his entire life. But Auggie is stronger now and all of that is about to change. Auggie is about to enter school for the first time – and he’s petrified. ‘Wonder’ is the story of Auggie’s first year at Beecher Prep and his first journey alone into the outside world. But can he confront the challenges that wait for him there and convince his classmates, new friends, family and himself that, underneath his unusual appearance, he is just the same as everybody else? Full review...

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

Fantasy

Charley Davidson is a private investigator with a difference - she's the Grim Reaper, ushering souls towards the light. When three lawyers from the same firm are murdered, they ask her to solve the case to allow them to rest in peace. With the help of her uncle, a detective, she sets out to do just that - as long as she can avoid being distracted by the nightly dreams she's having of a sexy entity… Full review...

From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp

Gene Sharp is an American politologist and a veritable (and venerable) guru of non-violent struggle. The story behind the From Dictatorship to Democracy is a fascinating one. The book, or a booklet really as it consists of 160 small pages, was apparently created in response to a request from Burmese dissenters in the early 1990's. Sharp responded to this request by producing a generic text, a manual for the subversive that lies out the theory and practical advice for those engaged in a struggle to bring down a dictatorship. Full review...

Life with Sir Alex: A Fan's Story of Ferguson's 25 Years at Manchester United by Will Tidey

Sport

In his 25 years as manager of Manchester United Football Club, Sir Alex Ferguson has won everything, most of them more than once. He's taken his team to the top of English football with some lavish purchases, some expert man management and a ruthless dedication to his club and his players. Depending which side of the fence you sit on, this has made him either the most popular, or most hated, man in English football. I'm in the latter group. I'm a Liverpool fan. Full review...

Tempest by Julie Cross

Jackson has a secret – he can travel through time. Sadly, it’s not as cool as it seems. He can just pop back a few hours, observe things, and not change anything. His friend Adam, who he’s trusted with this, is trying to get him to record every time he does this so they can find out more about the mysterious ability he developed eight months or so ago, but Jackson looks on it as little more than something fun. And then everything changes… armed men burst into his girlfriend’s room, and attack the pair, leaving her dying. Panicking, he jumps back in time 2 years, far further than he’s ever gone before. This time, he can’t get back to 2009. Somehow, Jackson needs to try and find a way to get back to his own time and save Holly, but it’s quickly apparent that there is an awful lot that he needs to learn about himself before he can get to grips with this. Full review...

Falling for You by Giselle Green

Women's Fiction

Rose is full of worries and insecurities. Her father is frail, her mother died some years previously. Rose is desperately hoping for a letter offering her a place at the university of her dreams... but has no idea how her father will survive without her there to look after him. Full review...

Leave Me Alone by Kes Gray and Lee Wildish

For Sharing

A young boy sits in a field, and to every advance by the animal friends around him he declares 'Leave me alone.' He finally explains that his problems are too big for anyone to help him with because his problem is a giant who bullies and teases him. When the bully appears the animals gather together and tell him to leave the boy alone. Full review...

Claude at the Circus by Alex T Smith

It's no secret that I am a big fan of Alex T Smith. I first discovered him in Claude's first story, Claude in the City and fell in love with the little dog in the red beret and his best friend, Sir Bobblysock. I know, I can already sense some of you rolling your eyes at the thought of a story featuring a dog and a sock, but really you'd be doing yourself a favour to just stop being a grown up for fifteen minutes and let yourself revel in the pleasure of a highly enjoyable story! Full review...

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith

The story takes place over the course of only twenty four hours but so much happens during that small amount of time. It starts when the reader meets Hadley having missed her flight to London by a mere four minutes. As it turns out, those four minutes are some of the most significant of her life, as they result in her booking a later flight and consequently meeting Oliver with whom she is seated throughout the journey across the Atlantic. Full review...

Hawk Quest by Robert Lyndon

Hawk Quest is an epic of a historic novel set in the 11th century. A band of companions led by Vallon, the mysterious Frankish warrior, travel from England to Scandinavia and on to Anatolia in order to capture and deliver four rare pure white falcons as a ransom for Sir Walter, the son of a Norman nobleman held by the Seljuk Turks. Full review...

The Playgroup by Janey Fraser

Women's Fiction

Gemma Merryfield is really looking forward to her first term in charge of Puddleducks Playgroup. The children are delightful, although sometimes challenging, and the parents are generally supportive. There are visits to local farms to organise, a Halloween assembly to plan and the end of term Nativity play to look forward to. She loves writing the monthly newsletters and creating little rhymes to help the children with their learning. These provide delightful interludes at various points in the story. Full review...

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

For as long as she can remember, Belly and her brother Stephen have holidayed in Cousins Beach with her mother, her mother’s friend Susannah, and Susannah’s two sons Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly lives for these summers – even if Conrad and Jeremiah only ever seem to see her as the young tag-along. This summer, though, she knows that’s going to change… Full review...

The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

On the face of it Matt King is very lucky. He's descended from one of Hawaii's largest landowners and is a wealthy man as well as being an attorney. He's married to the flighty, flirtatious Joanie and has two daughters, teenager Alex, a model who might just have a bit of a drug problem and ten year old Scottie. She's feisty, clever and - for me - stole the book. Have you ever noticed that when luck changes it doesn't do it in baby steps? It does it in lumps. Joanie is involved in a powerboat accident and sinks into an irreversible coma as a result of a head injury. But there's more piling up. Matt discovers that Joanie has been having an affair. Does the man who's been - er - enjoying his wife have the right to say his goodbyes too? Full review...

Good Bait by John Harvey

DCI Karen Shields runs the over-stretched Homicide and Serious Crimes Unit and it's an early-morning call which takes her to Hampstead Heath and a seventeen-year-old Moldovan boy who's dead under the ice in the pond. Even working out who he was is difficult and she's got no idea that she's at the edge of a web of organised crime and gang warfare which will take up much of her time. Hundreds of miles away DI Trevor Cordon lives in a sail loft in Newlyn and his day-to-day duties are, well, undemanding but he's shaken out of his rut when an old acquaintance dies in London and he heads off to the capital to find the friend's daughter. It's going to be a lot more complicated than he realises - and it touches on Karen Shield's problems in a way that neither of them could ever have imagined. Full review...

Bereft by Chris Womersley

Quinn Walker, a young Australian man fresh from fighting on the European front in World War One, returns to the very town he was drummed out of ten years before, after being accused of raping and killing his own younger sister. Two things have beaten him to the small settlement - one, the global flu pandemic; two a telegram saying he died bravely in action earlier in the war. And the less you know of what he meets and does back in Flint the better, the more to keep this fresh and brilliant book's many intrigues as secret as they were for me. Full review...

Fracture by Megan Miranda

Delaney Maxwell just died. Except, she didn't. After 11 minutes under the ice, she was declared officially dead, only to make a full recovery. As far as the doctors are concerned, it's a medical miracle. As far as Delaney's concerned, it's traumatic - not just for the obvious reasons, but because she came back changed. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to people who are about to die, and unable to make sense of why her life was spared. Can the mysterious Troy, who has the same ability, explain what's going on, or does he have a different reason for wanting to get close to her? Full review...

The Voodoo Wave - Inside a Season of Triumph and Tumult at Maverick's by Mark Kreidler

Sport

Maverick's is one of the biggest, nastiest, jaw droppingly huge waves in the Pacific Ocean and as such has become something of a Mecca for the world's top surfers. Situated off the coast of Northern California its freezing cold conditions make it a far cry from the sun drenched breaks in Hawaii, Mexico and South Africa with the number of surfers adequately qualified (and fearless enough) to take on the cliff like drops probably numbering less than 100. Full review...

The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams

Crime (Historical)

Catherine Sorgeiul is a woman with burdens. Living with her uncle in London’s East End during the reign of Queen Victoria, hers is a life that seems empty – yet in fact is full of things she is trying to push away.

Filling her days has become a problem, so when a series of grisly murders begins, Catherine is drawn to the mystery of the Man of Crows in a way that seems bound to change her life. Full review...

The Whores' Asylum by Katy Darby

The Whores’ Asylum, a debut novel, is a tale of friendship, love, sin and criminality set in late 19th century Cambridge and Oxford. The comparison to one of my favourite historical novelists, Sarah Waters, also caught my attention. Sadly, I was a little bit disappointed. Full review...

The Indies Enterprise by Eric Orsenna

As soon as you pick up a novel about Columbus's discovery of the Americas, certain expectations come to mind. Orsenna however is much more than your average writer and he manages to subvert almost all of these by delivering a quiet, scholarly account of what seems at first a diversion, the art of map making. But this book is not about Columbus himself, but rather his brother Bartholomew, and how he is swept into the excitement and ambition of his older sibling. Full review...

Rise of Empire by Michael J Sullivan

Fantasy

Rise of Empire, the second volume in The Riyria Revelations, starts a year after Theft of Swords finished. The Imperialist forces are encamped across the river from Melengar, biding their time before they rout and capture Alric’s kingdom. However, it’s ok as Princess Arista has a plan. She will send Hadrian Blackwater and Royce Melborn to enlist the help of the nationalists. Oh, and Arista wants to go too... and Hadrian is getting fed up with an adventurer’s life and wants to retire... and Gwen, Royce’s girlfriend, has had a premonition of death surrounding the enterprise... so what could possibly go wrong? Full review...

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

When I got this book I was dubious and it took me a while to work myself up to starting it. Once I did I devoured it. Wow. This book blew me away – original, suspenseful and captivating. It follows Nikki Beckett, who six months ago followed an Immortal called Cole into the Underworld, Everneath, where for a century she was his battery, feeding him life. Most humans after a century of having their lives sucked away are nothing but shells of their former selves, but not Nikki. After waking from the feed she decides to leave the Everneath to go back to the surface, to her family and to Jack, her boyfriend. Full review...

This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman

Richard and Liz are new in town which is always a bummer, except this town is Manhattan so really nothing else could ever compare. They’ve only moved from upstate New York but it seems a world away now. Liz has given up her post at the university to concentrate on kids Coco and Jake and is finding juggling their social lives a full time job in itself but is just about making a space for herself among the other mothers at the school gates. Things are going ok. And then, one day, their nice, comfortable world starts to crumble. Jake receives an explicit email from a classmate and in disbelief, forwards it straight on to a friend. Except rather than coming back to him with advice on what the heck to do next, the friend chooses to send it on to another friend, who does the same. Round and round it goes, round the school, round the city, round the online world. Everyone knows where it came from and soon Jake’s academic future, his father’s career and his whole family’s social standing are hanging in the balance. Full review...

Pedro The Penguin (Get Well Friends) by Kes Gray and Mary McQuillan

For Sharing

It is a beautiful Polar morning. The sun is shining, the icebergs are glistening, and Pedro decides to start the day with an early morning swim! He gets ready to dive in, tucks in his tummy, point his beak to the sky, and dives high, high, high into the air. But oh dear. He forgot to break the ice before diving in! CRUNCH! But don't worry, with a little help from Nurse Nibbles and his Get Well Friends, he'll soon be feeling better. Full review...

Zoe the Zebra (Get Well Friends) by Kes Gray and Mary McQuillan

For Sharing

It was a beautiful day in Africa. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and all the zebras were peacefully eating their lunch. All except for Zoe who is so busy looking out for big, scary animals that she isn't looking where she is going and trips up over a teeny-tiny tortoise! However, Nurse Nibbles is on hand and with the Get Well Friends it seems that Zoe will soon be on the mend. Full review...

New Girl by Paige Harbison

There’s a new girl at the exclusive Manderley Academy. Everyone knows, though, that she’s only there because Becca Normandy… isn’t. Becca disappeared mysteriously at the end of the previous school year, and the new girl is taking her place. Both in school, and with Becca’s friends – and perhaps even the boys in Becca’s life. Perhaps she shouldn’t get too comfortable, though… because the rumour keeps going around that Becca’s coming back. Full review...

Lolly Luck by Ellie Daines

Lolly really is called 'Luck'. Her first name is Lollyanna but everyone who knows her calls her Lolly or, just occasionally, Lollipop. And she really is lucky, winning magazine competitions, raffles and scratch card prizes - but all this changes on her eleventh birthday when she goes home from school expecting that the family is going to have a great evening at a local restaurant and hat she'll be given the bike she's been dreaming about. She gets the bike, but her dad has bad news. He's been made redundant. At first it's not too bad but then the reality of long-term unemployment kicks in and the family lose their home. Then Lolly overhears an argument between her parents and discovers something which will change her life. Full review...

Opal Moonbaby by Maudie Smith

Martha has decided that she will never have a friend again. She and Chloe used to be very close, but then Colette came along and suddenly Martha was out in the cold. If she doesn't do friendship than there is no way that she can be hurt again. Life isn't easy at home - it's just her, her mother and her younger brother, Robbie - as money is tight. Her mother has gone back to hairdressing (or head refurbishments as her employer calls it) and would like Martha to spend time with Chloe during the day. Martha has other calls on her time though. She's met an alien. Full review...

Maine by Courtney Sullivan

The Kellehers' beach-front holiday home in Maine was built on a plot of land won in a bar-room bet at the end of World War II. It's not in the same league as the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port but there are a couple of substantial properties on the plot and there's still room to spare. It's a place of indulgence, secrets and the sort of burning cruelty which you only get in families who care for each other - some of the time. Maine is essentially the story of a summer at the property - but the seeds of what happens were, of course, planted long ago. Full review...

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

The Art of Fielding is basically a US-style campus novel featuring baseball. There are similarities in style between this and many of John Irving's works, with baseball substituting for Irving's wrestling focus. This, to the UK-reader, raises the first potential barrier as we are, as a rule, largely ignorant of the US fixation with the intricacies of baseball. Certainly you don't need an in depth knowledge to appreciate this story - it is really a story of friendship, ambition and the sporting dreams of youth - but despite a loose understanding of the sport I felt that I would have benefitted from more knowledge particularly towards the end when there is a climactic baseball match. You kind of get the point, but I certainly felt that I was missing out on a little of the tension, in much the same way I'd expect a US reader to be perplexed if the story had been based on say, cricket. It's a minor flaw though and it would be a shame if potential readers dismissed it for this reason. Full review...

The Golden Thread by Monica Carly

Women's Fiction

It was a sad day when Claudia Hansom retired as headmistress of Kingdown School. The staff respected her, despite the fact that she was always somewhat distant and the children did well under her charge. She was a stickler for discipline and the pupils accepted this – but once again there was no love. No, the sadness was all Claudia's, for what was she to do with the rest of her life as the ex-head teacher living alone with her cat? Her mother had died when she and her sister were teenagers and her father not long before she retired. There hadn't been any contact with her sister was forty years. She might imagine doing some writing, but the reality was that the life ahead of her was empty. Full review...

15 Days Without a Head by Dave Cousins

Laurence is fifteen years old. Ever since the day his father died in a car crash, his mum has sunk into depression and alcoholism. But now she has disappeared, and he has no idea where she is, or even if she is still alive. He has a mischievous six-year-old brother to look after, no money for food, and a home that is barely fit for living. He could just call social services, but there is no guarantee that they'll keep him and his brother together, and he can't let go of the hope that his mother will return. But even if she does return, just how much longer can he keep their dysfunctional family together? Full review...

To a Mountain in Tibet by Colin Thubron

Travel

This must go down as the least apposite indefinite article in a book title yet. Yes, there are many other mountains dotting the plains of Tibet, but calling this one just 'a' mountain, when it is sacred to a fifth of the world's religious people... Hindu and Buddhist faiths alike venerate Mount Kailas, and devotees are supposed to visit and circle round it to cleanse a lifetime's sins. Thubron takes us on his own pilgrimage, from impoverished cliff-side villages in Nepal, through to Chinese-occupied Tibet and to the sacred route around the mountain. Full review...

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The heart of Alaskan native, Eowyn Ivey's debut novel is a re-telling of the Russian fairy tale Snegurochka or The Snow Child. Set here in Alaska in the 1920s, Jack and Mabel have moved from the East coast to start a new life, apart from anything to help Mabel get over the grief of having lost her only child in childbirth. Life in Alaska is tough and Jack struggles to farm his new homestead. Then in the first snowfall of the season, a playful snowball fight leads to the couple building a snowman, or more accurately a snowgirl. The next morning the snowgirl has vanished along with the mittens and scarf that adorned her and Jack sees a ghostly figure, possibly a young girl, running in the woods. Can they have created a snow child? Is this their longed for daughter? Full review...

Hemingway's Boat: Everything he loved in life, and lost, 1934-1961 by Paul Hendrickson

Biography

This substantial volume is not exactly a full biography of Ernest Hemingway. In fact, it might almost have been subtitled ‘The rise and fall’. Its theme is more or less the second half of his life, from 1934, when he returned from an African safari and took delivery of his boat Pilar, to his tragic death 27 years later. Hendrickson intends it to be an account of the writer, bringing together the different elements of his life – fishing, friendship, wives and family - and above all, naturally, his writing. Full review...

Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom

Despite being injured at Dunkirk Harry Brett was still willing to do his bit for his country. The deafness from the bomb which killed the man standing next to him on the beach - and the resulting panic attacks had begun to recede and he was willing, if not keen, to go to Spain to do some work for the sneaky beakies. He wasn't a spy by nature or inclination but he was one of the few people who might be able to make contact with - and report back on - Sandy Forsyth who'd been at his public school. There's another old Rookwoodian who's left some history in Madrid. Bernie Piper went to Spain to fight for the International Brigades in the Civil War and was thought to have been killed at Jarama but his body had never been found. The school is not the only link though. Barbara Clare was Bernie's girlfriend - she was a Red Cross nurse - and now she was living with Sandy Forsyth. Full review...

Archie the Guide Dog Puppy: Hero in Training by Sam Hay

Children's Non-Fiction

I don't often pick up a non-fiction book for the 7+ age group, find it riveting reading and informative about a subject with which I'm already familiar, but that was the case with Archie: Hero in Training. Archie is a puppy destined to be a guide dog for a blind person and he's just one story in a book about the pups-in-training, the working dogs, the adults who have guide dogs, or struggle to learn the techniques - or even what happens to the dogs who don't turn out to be what's needed. There's a full range as well as information about what a guide dog costs - and it's not cheap! Full review...

The Repossession by Sam Hawksmoor

Genie Magee hasn’t seen her boyfriend Rian all summer. In fact, she hasn’t seen anyone all summer – apart from the creepy worshippers of the Church of Free Spirits, whose leader Reverend Schneider has persuaded her mother she’s possessed, due to her strange mystical gift. Rian hasn’t stopped thinking of her, though, and has hatched a daring plan to rescue the love of his life and escape the town of Spurlake – but their escape will lead them into a situation more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. Full review...

Socks Are Not Enough by Mark Lowery

Fourteen-year-old Michael seems to run from one disaster to the next. Not even his mother would call him good-looking, he feels he is a failure at everything he tries, and his desperate attempts to introduce some order and control to his life verge on OCD. He only has one friend, although even there the title is debatable: Michael feels either irritated or frustrated with Paul's behaviour most of the time, with good reason—generally speaking it is Paul who lands him in the worst scrapes. Full review...

Doglands by Tim Willocks

Furgal is the son of Argal, a near-legendary wolfhound who runs free and wild. But our hero and his sisters are not so fortunate: they were born in the dreaded greyhound prison they call Dedbone's Hole, and their mixed heritage is beginning to show. It cannot be long until their brutal keeper notices, and takes them away to kill them. Full review...

The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi

The novel opens at dead of night in a house in Rasht in Gilan province, Iran. It is pouring with rain and the colonel of the title is in the grip of extreme melancholia. Two policemen are knocking on the door. They are bringing news of his youngest daughter. This triggers a night of misery in which the colonel recalls his own past, and the tragic lives of his five children. Full review...

Frost Child by Gillian Philip

Fans of Gillian Philip's Firebrand novels will be thrilled to get their hands on this stunning prequel, set when Seth's mother Lilith met his father, the Sithe captain Griogair, for the first time. Starting with Griogair rescuing the youngster from the Lammyr, who have kept her captive for years, it follows Lilith trying to settle into the way of life of the Sithe as Griogair keeps an uneasy eye on her... and those of us who've read Firebrand and Bloodstone realise that he's right to be worried. When a young Sithe boy starts to bully Lilith, he's clearly taking a massive risk... Full review...

Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World by Nicholas Shaxson

Most people think about the subject of tax havens - if they need to think about them at all - as something which is unlikely ever to concern them and that they're for the super-rich and celebrities. What might surprise them is that more than half of world trade as well as most international lending is routed through them and that many common items in your everyday shopping will come to you via a tax haven. And we really should be thinking about them because tax havens are ensuring that wealth in unprecedented amounts is being transferred from the poor to the rich - greatly exceeding the aid which flows in the opposite direction. Full review...

Calories and Corsets: A history of dieting over two thousand years by Louise Foxcroft

We’re in that post-Christmas period when all the socialising and indulging is over and all you’re left with is a pasty, bloated, over-fed but under-nourished complexion, a wardrobe full of clothes just a little too tight and a new year’s resolution to Get Healthy. So it’s the perfect time for a new diet book to hit the shelves. The title of this one might make you think it’s going to be full of useful tips, and the cover does little to dispel this idea, groaning as it is with the weight of plump jellies, lavish cupcakes and even a decadent lobster or two, but take a moment to note the subtitle, if you will: a history of dieting over 2000 years. Full review...

The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty

The Cold Cold Ground is the first of a planned trilogy of police procedural novels featuring Sean Duffy. Set in 1980s Northern Ireland it's a little reminiscent of the TV show Life on Mars, full of reminders of the music and events of the period that evokes nostalgia in those who lived through it. In all good police procedural novels, the hero has to have a 'thing' that sets him apart. With Duffy it is that he is a Catholic in a predominantly Protestant police force. What this means is that no one trusts him on either side of the religious divide. And as this is set during the worst of the 'troubles' with hunger strikes and rioting on the streets, not to mention car bombs and other acts of violence, this is a big issue for him. Full review...

The Clever One by Helena Close

Sixteen year old Maeve is the clever one in her family. So clever that she can't believe how stupid the others can be - especially her slightly older sister Fiona, a 'pramface' now after falling pregnant to her no good boyfriend Big. After the news broke of Fiona's pregnancy, Maeve told her best friend Mark that she wanted nothing to do with the baby. But she didn't count on loving baby Harvey so much that she'd do anything to protect him - so she sets a plan in motion to rid their family of Big and the rest of the scumbags he associates with. Full review...

Queen of the Sun by Taggart Siegel and Jon Betz (editors)

Popular Science

I kept bees for 5 or 6 years and read many books about the subject, all of the 'how to..' or 'the science of… variety. But this book is a revelation as it genuinely tries to celebrate bees, capturing the real 'feel' of beekeeping - I wish I had come across this much sooner. For Siegel and Betz have collected a series of short articles, poems and essays not about the technique and science of the craft, but about the purpose and 'soul' behind it. Full review...

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend

Adrian Mole was just three months away from his fourteenth birthday when he began writing his diary on New Year's Day. He's just on the edge of true adolescence - pimples are appearing as is a little bit of interest in the opposite sex. He's thinking about what he might like to do eventually, but his first major challenge is the breakdown of his parents' marriage. He writes with a wonderful mixture of knowingness and innocence and usually manages to get things just ever-so-slightly wrong. Full review...

The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

This Cinderella does not have to sweep the grate and clean the dishes - she has to mend maglev vehicle tracks. This Cinders does not leave her shoe behind when invited to the ball, she has her entire foot fall off. This Cinder does not live in a realm of fairy queens and pumpkin carriages, but New Beijing, a massive city of just two and a half million, due to the Fourth World War. She's a cyborg - hence the foot, but she's still owned by a crotchety bigot of a step-mother, with two step-sisters. And this is a very different world, where a global plague is going to be brought too close to home... Full review...

Signs of Love: Love Match by Melody James

Gemma Stone’s ambition in life is to be a famous journalist – so when a school webzine is started, she jumps at the chance to take part. She quickly finds out, though, that things aren’t as glamorous in the media as she’d imagined, especially when she’s the youngest person involved and gets stuck with the job of writing horoscopes. Then a fluke prediction or two make her new column a must read, and she realises there’s the potential to set up her firend Treacle with the boy she’s been watching from afar… will the path of true love be lit up by the stars? Full review...

The Rum Diary - A Screenplay by Bruce Robinson

Kemp has lied his way onto a failing newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rica, as the only candidate for the job, and in a semi-comatose state induced by too many miniatures from the hotel minibar, stumbles into a conspiracy of epic proportions, via classic bar room brawls and nightclub mayhem. On the way he (almost) writes horoscopes and bowling championship stories, meets the fantastically erotic girlfriend of the evil businessman, and teams up with a proto-Nazi out of his mind on a cocktail of hootch and LSD, and a photographer side kick. There is no question that this is Hunter S Thompson territory, especially when all the above is combined with a witty, slow-talking hero who in spite of his alcoholic haze sees clearly through the exploitation of a third world country by its massive first world near neighbour. Full review...

May Cause Irritation (The World of Norm) by Jonathan Meres

There's no need, it seems, to point out how unfair the world is to you when you're a twelve year old lad. Norm certainly knows that already - despite the lavatorial accidents in book one, his younger brothers are going to be bought a dog, the ultra-annoying perfect cousins are overloaded with opportunity and spanking new mobile phones, and the girl next door has just posted a photo of him, naked, on Facebook. Such causes for desperation require a very desperate fightback, and that's what Norm is going to give us... Full review...

Married Love by Tessa Hadley

Short Stories

Married Love is Tessa Hadley’s second collection, containing twelve short stories looking at (mostly) modern relationships and family dynamics – many are about parents and their grown up children and in-laws, others are about couples. Flicking through the book to choose some of the best and/or most interesting stories to mention, I have found a difficulty. Almost all of these incisive, witty stories reveal an interesting group of characters I would like to know more about after the end, sometimes from several different viewpoints, and it is hard to pick out just a few. Full review...

The Winter of Our Disconnect: How One Family Pulled the Plug and Lived to Tell/text/Tweet the Tale by Susan Maushart

Home and Family

Back in early 2009 Susan Maushart - a single mother of three teenagers - came to the conclusion that the family plugged into their workstations, TVs, DVD players, iPods and gaming consoles at the expense of normal relationships, or what we’ll come to call Real Life. She included herself in this - her relationship with her iPhone was about the strongest she had outside of her children - and she decided that something drastic had to be done. So began the winter of our disconnect - six months without screens of any description, mobile phones or listening devices in the home. You think that’s not enough of a shock to the system? Nor did Susan - she started off with two weeks without any power in the home. Full review...

Nazi Millionaires: The Allied Search for Hidden SS Gold by Kenneth D Alford and Theodore P Savas

History

We are all doubtless aware of the six million or so dead at the hands of the Nazis, both through death camps and death squads. We are all probably conscious that before they were taken to the forests to be shot, or to the train station, never to be seen again, the Jewish and other communities captured in the Holocaust were ransacked for everything they had. It started early, of course, with the denial of rights for Jewish people to own businesses, then houses, paintings, other valuables, cash - and in the end their own gold dental fillings. The story of what happened to everything is as complex as retelling the ends of six million people, but this book opens up several windows on to those stories, through the more notable examples. Full review...

The Viewer by Gary Crew and Shaun Tan

The story concerns a young lad who loves scavenging and exploring. Finding a Hellraiser-styled box of tricks contains a Viewmaster-type machine, he puts it to his eyes and sees something a lot more serious than, say, a Thunderbirds episode in thirty 3D images, which was all I ever saw in mine. Instead, Tristan sees nothing but death and destruction, and a compelling sense of - well, something. Full review...

Escape from Bubbleworld by Keith Skene

Popular Science

Before you stifle the inward groan that comes from the thought of another book assaulting population growth, western greed and reckless exploitation of the environment, take time to read the first chapter of Keith Skene's 'Escape to Bubbleworld'. Because this is as entertaining and amusing book as you are likely to read on the subject, while at the same time taking us into to some deep science and fascinating exploration of what turns out to be less certain certainties. For Skene’s writing has two attributes which I can almost guarantee will keep even the non-scientific reading. Full review...

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Our Times by Sarah Bradford

Biography

As a biographer who has previously written substantial biographies of the Queen (published in 1996), of her father George VI, and her daughter-in-law Diana, Sarah Bradford needs little introduction. At around 260 pages of text, this is barely half the length of her other titles, and probably aimed more at the general reader with an eye on the Diamond Jubilee market. Full review...

V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

Ah, what bliss! To have a lovely fat copy of the latest in the Alphabet murder series sitting on my lap. This latest is reassuringly weighty, although I still managed to read it - or devour it as my husband would have it - in a very short time! I love the experience of reading these stories, finding myself caught up in Kinsey's world, unwilling to put the book down until I, along with Kinsey, have figured out what has been going on. Full review...

My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young

It takes a while for the full power of Louisa Young's remarkable My Dear I Wanted To Tell You to become apparent, but when it does, it can hardly fail to move you. Set just before and during World War One, it's a story of love and human spirit against the odds. The impact of the book is in what happens to the characters, so I don't want to give too much away, but it's worth pointing out that it's not for the overly squeamish reader particularly in some of the descriptions of surgical procedures, which have clearly been meticulously researched by Young. The title itself it taken from the opening words of the standard letters that the wounded were given to send to loved ones back home. The wounded were required to fill in the blanks. Full review...

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

Bishop's Lacey, the closest village to Buckshaw, the de Luce family home, was the traditional sleepy English village, particularly in the nineteen fifties when this story is set. The arrival of a travelling puppet show causes some excitement, although it has to be admitted that the show is there because the van broke down rather than because there was an intention to stage a performance. There's a need to raise money for the repair of the van so Rupert Porson, famed puppeteer from the BBC, agrees to put on two shows in the village hall. There is, of course, a grisly murder. Full review...

Jasper and the Green Marvel by Deirdre Madden

Have you read Snakes' Elbows yet? If not, you really should. And although you can follow this story without having read the first one it's much nicer to know all about everyone really, isn't it? So, let's carry on as if you have read Snakes' Elbows so you know all about the little town of Woodford and a certain millionaire who lives there called Jasper Jellit. He's a rather nasty piece of work, and it was with great relief at the end of the first book that we saw him get locked up in prison. However, he's served his time and he's just been released back into the community, which can only mean more trouble for Woodford... Full review...

West of Here by Jonathan Evison

The town of Port Bonita, located on the Pacific coast of Washington State, is the setting – and almost a character itself, such is its importance – of Jonathan Evison’s newest novel. In a massively ambitious narrative, we start at the Elwha River Dam in 2006, before just two pages later being transported back into the 1880’s, to see the town’s founding. A hundred pages or so later, we’re brought back to the 21st century, then returned to the 19th, and the cuts between scenes get faster and more furious as we seem to flip forwards and backwards in time without giving us much time to catch our breath. By 2006, the Dam is about to be destroyed, and we see the effect its construction has had on the local community and how the descendants of the original characters have turned out. Full review...

Liar Moon by Ben Pastor

Crime (Historical)

Near Verona, northern Italy, autumn 1943: Captain Martin Bora is a German military policeman, known to have conducted previous murder investigations. He is asked to look into the death of one Vittorio Lisi, a prominent local fascist who was run over in his wheelchair on his own estate by a car. The number one suspect is his widow Claretta. Full review...

A Skull in Shadows Lane by Robert Swindells

The war has ended but life is still pretty dour Josh and Jinty. Rationing is still in place and it's difficult to get enough to eat, let alone anything that's nice to eat. Most of the Yanks have gone home. And they're about to head into one of the coldest winters on record. Kicking around looking for some excitement, the siblings decide to explore the deserted cottage in Shadows Lane. Even though rumours say the house is haunted, they don't really expect to find anything. So the discovery of a human tooth in lane is rather more than they had bargained for. And when a skeletal face appears at the window, they hot foot it just as quickly as they can... Full review...

The Locked Ward by Dennis O'Donnell

Dennis O’Donnell spent 7 years working in a Scottish hospital and this is the account of his time there. It takes a special type of person to work in Mental Health services, and though O'Donnell ultimately leaves the Locked Ward, he clearly is one of those people, made all the more remarkable by the fact that this wasn’t his life long vocation, having previously worked as a school teacher (some might say an equally challenging role). Full review...

Theft of Swords by Michael J Sullivan

Fantasy

The central characters, Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater are the Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid of fantasy. Royce is a dour thief and Hadrian an agile, soft-hearted mercenary, both of whom can be hired if the price is right or if their curiosity is piqued sufficiently. Both books in this volume begin with the same simple intention – to steal a sword from a tower. Different swords and different towers but they both go horribly wrong. Now this is where it gets difficult. I don’t want to give away spoilers so there won’t be much in the way of plot explanation in this review. Let’s just say that they’re framed for a royal murder and become more deeply embroiled in the far reaching consequences as the volume goes on, collecting companions en route. Full review...

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

It's 1996 and Emma has just got a brand new computer and when her friend Josh gives her a free AOL CD he got in the mail, she looks forward to having an internet connection. However, she gets a lot more than she bargained for when the CD inexplicably gives her access to a website that appears to show her snippets of what is going on in her life, and that of her friends and family fifteen years into the future. The website's name? You guessed it: Facebook. Full review...

The Question Book by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler

Lifestyle

Most of us have probably made at least one of those end-of-the-year lists of the best books, albums and parties we have been to in the previous twelve months. But can you, with some effort, locate the one you made in 1987? Have you ever constructed a graph of your ups and downs in a given period, and then decided to expand it by separating emotional, intellectual, sexual and financial aspects and colour coding them? Have you made a list of all your lovers, bosses or friends and then rated them from 1 to 10 on several dimensions each? Do you have one of the books that list 100 things to do before you die or 500 books to read in your life (and ticked off the ones you have done)? Did you ever spend a whole evening and half of a night filling in dubious 'personality' questionnaires on the Internet? Have you ever doodled something, decided that it beautifully expresses the deepest essence of your personality and then proceeded to draw such icons for all your friends? Full review...

Little Bones by Janette Jenkins

While this might sound like the afterlife of a brilliant and unlikely cabaret mimic, it's not. It's a rich, evocative and engaging novel set in the last years of Victoria's reign, in the depths of her darkest London. Fate - and being abandoned by, in turn, her mother and older sister - leaves Jane Stretch living with and working for a doctor and his lumpen, housebound wife. Jane is alternatively called an 'unfortunate' and a 'cripple' for her disabilities and distorted frame, but she has enough bookish intelligence to pass herself off as an assistant to the doctor, who only ever does one operation - abortions, for music hall artistes. The plot is evidently gearing up to reveal how dangerous such a criminal business might be, for the both of them. Full review...

Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson

Tiny Sunbirds Far Away starts in Lagos but soon moves to the rural, oil producing Niger Delta. This allows Christie Watson's young narrator, 12 year old Blessing, to view the traditional ways afresh. It's a clever device and young Blessing is shocked by the rural conditions after a relatively luxurious life in Lagos with a good school and a modern apartment. But when her mother discovers her father on top of another woman, she takes Blessing and her older brother, the asthmatic Ezikiel, back to her family home. Full review...

Snakes' Elbows by Deirdre Madden

Barney Barrington, the millionaire pianist, is returning to live in his home town of Woodford, but the current local millionaire, Jasper Jellit, doesn't like it one little bit. Jasper revels in parading around town as the most extravagant millionaire, throwing ridiculous parties to show off his riches, and he resents the entrance of a competitor to the town. Barney, however, lives a quiet, reclusive life and wants no part in Jasper's shenanigans. But when a rare, beautiful painting comes up for sale they both decide they want it. Jasper, much like a spoilt child, will stop at nothing to get his way, but he may have a fight on his hands since there are a few animals who intend to save the day...! Full review...

You Me and Thing: The Dreaded Noodle-doodles by Karen McCombie