Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"
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| + | |author=Amanda Prowse | ||
| + | |title=What have I done? | ||
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| + | |genre=General Fiction | ||
| + | |summary=When Kate Gavier married Mark Brooker, she was full of optimism for their marriage and their future. However, from the first day of their marriage, her dreams were shattered as she realised that Mark was nothing more than a cruel bully. He even insisted on calling her Kathryn rather than Kate which is how she prefers to be known. There followed sixteen years of torment and torture as Mark strove to control his wife and punish her for any wrongdoings – of which there were many. To the outside world though, it looked as though Mark and Kathryn had the perfect loving marriage, mainly due to Kathryn’s resolve to spare her children, Dominic and Lydia, from knowing of and witnessing their father’s cruelty. One day though, she snapped and, for the first time in her life, fought back. Hours later, Mark was dead and Kathryn was locked up in a police cell being questioned about what happened. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781853789</amazonuk> | ||
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Revision as of 13:33, 10 February 2013
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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What have I done? by Amanda Prowse
When Kate Gavier married Mark Brooker, she was full of optimism for their marriage and their future. However, from the first day of their marriage, her dreams were shattered as she realised that Mark was nothing more than a cruel bully. He even insisted on calling her Kathryn rather than Kate which is how she prefers to be known. There followed sixteen years of torment and torture as Mark strove to control his wife and punish her for any wrongdoings – of which there were many. To the outside world though, it looked as though Mark and Kathryn had the perfect loving marriage, mainly due to Kathryn’s resolve to spare her children, Dominic and Lydia, from knowing of and witnessing their father’s cruelty. One day though, she snapped and, for the first time in her life, fought back. Hours later, Mark was dead and Kathryn was locked up in a police cell being questioned about what happened. Full review...
Magda by Meike Ziervogel
Meet a woman who, despite praying to remain virginal, had seven children. Meet a woman whose mother thought her hoity-toity, and spoilt, and who thought she should go to work in a factory at school age to know her place better. Meet a woman of whom her oldest daughter would write 'I don't care what Mother says. Mother isn't always right. No, she definitely isn't.' All three women are, of course, one and the same, and they're Magda Goebbels, the woman who epitomised more than anyone the Nazi wife. Full review...
The Romantic Economist: A Story of Love and Market Forces by William Nicolson
William Nicolson was a student - well a student of economics, to be accurate. He had an uncanny knack of losing girlfriends far too quickly, the last one having departed in a personal best time of six weeks. Actually I don't think that was too bad - I've encountered a lot of men who only ever managed about thirty minutes - but it worried Will and he considered applying what he had learned as an economist to his relationships with the fair sex. Girls were something of a mystery to him but he was sure that if he used his ability to reduce a complex world to a set of rational principles then he should be on to a winner. Or two. Full review...
Dead Scared by S J Bolton
A few minutes before midnight on 22nd January, DC Lacey Flint is standing on top of the tallest tower in Cambridge, contemplating flying. It's a beautiful sight out there. Just one step.
Mark Joesbury is entering the chapel and pounding up the stairs… not knowing what he'll do, or what he'll find, when he gets to the top.
We'll have to wait to the end of the book to find out. Full review...
Arcadia Burns by Kai Meyer
If you haven't read the first book in this series, then STEP AWAY FROM THIS PARTICULAR COOKIE AISLE! There will be spoilers. Full review...
Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue 2013: Commonwealth and Empire Stamps 1840 - 1970 by Hugh Jefferies
You might think that as all the stamps in this catalogue have been in existence for at least forty years there can be little more to be said about them but this 115th edition is acknowledged to be the most significant in many years. Most exciting (but probably more so to sellers than buyers) is the fact that in a time of economic downturn there are thousands of price increases and evidence of a very lively market. Demand for good stamps is greater than it has been at any time in the last thirty years according to editor Hugh Jefferies, although he does add that prices are rising faster in some areas than others. It's difficult to see how a serious collector - or seller - can be without an up-to-date copy of the catalogue for this reason alone. Full review...
The Hanged Man Rises by Sarah Naughton
The Wigman is at large, murdering children. You'd think this would be the first concern for Titus Adams, as he's only fifteen, his parents are incorrigible drunks and he has a young sister, Hannah, to look out for. But in London in the late 1800s, there are more pressing concerns than serial killers on the loose. Like how to pay the rent. Like where the next meal is coming from. Like staying out of the workhouse. Like keeping your sister on the right side of the law. Thankfully, Titus has a friend in Inspector Pilsbury. He doesn't arrest Hannah when she's caught with pickpockets. He feeds her and keeps her safe at the station until Titus comes to collect her. Full review...
How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
Many parents, it seems, go through life in a constant state of feud. Not with each other, necessarily, but with their children. Their small, beloved bundles of joy turn into obstreperous toddlers, defiant pre-schoolers, angry schoolchildren or morose teens. Parents find themselves caught up in arguments, advice, failed attempts at consolation... and then may resort to punishment of some kind. Full review...
Let's Find Mimi In the City by Katherine Lodge
Mimi the Mouse and her family are going on an adventure in the big city, visiting shops, cafes and parks along the way. Mimi wears a bright red bow on top of her head and a pair of pretty pink fairy wings on her back, so you would think she would stand out in a crowd. But does she? Full review...
Monkey Nut by Simon Rickerty
Two curious little spiders find a monkey nut lying on the ground. They don’t know what it is, but they do know that they both want it and that they don’t want to share. But what is this strange, knobbly object? Is it a chair? A musical instrument? Maybe a boat? Whatever it is, the two little spiders are not the only ones interested. A much bigger, hairier spider is lurking in the shadows, waiting for the chance to grab the monkey nut for himself, but will he succeed? Full review...
Nemo: Heart of Ice by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
The Nemo here is merely the daughter of the great Captain Nemo, as defined by Jules Verne, although given that heritage there is more than enough talent in her bloodline for piracy and adventure. Here, fleeing a royal family that has just been looted, Nemo turns to her father's logbooks and journals, and decides there is unfinished business in the southern polar wastes. But while she's off looking for more edifying action, others are off looking for revenge on her… Full review...
Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
The celebration of Alcatraz's thirteenth birthday is quite a muted one – he gets a thirteen-year old parcel of sand in the post, claimed to be his inheritance from his birth parents, and he burns down the kitchen in his foster home – the latest in a long line of disasters that have followed him in his short accident-prone life. Expecting to just be farmed out to more foster parents, instead he is the subject of a battle between an armed man and a strange old fellow claiming to be Alcatraz's grandfather. What's more the guy says Al's abilities in breaking things are a Talent with a capital T, and the sands – that were stolen overnight – are a great threat to the world in the hands of Librarians (with a capital L). Against all his own instincts, our anti-hero goes with the latter man, finding his destiny in freeing the western world from the evil Librarians, and telling us about it later as an adult in a most sardonic fashion. Full review...
The Circus: An Inspector Carlyle Novel by James Craig
Journalist Duncan Brown was found dead in the back of a rubbish truck. It was a prosaic introduction to a major scandal for Inspector John Carlyle and before long his slim resources were stretched even further when a teenager had a bomb attached to his neck and the neighbour who was about to complain about the loud music was shot dead on the doorstep. It might have seemed that it couldn't get much worse, but before long Carlyle found himself up against Trevor Miller, a former police officer who had become security officer to the Prime Minister. He and Carlyle went back a long way and none of the memories were good. Full review...
Burden of the Desert by Justin Huggler
Journalist Zoe Temple can't believe her luck when she's sent to Iraq to cover the birth of an emerging nation, not thinking that such luck can sometimes run out. Mahmoud earns his money driving journalists from story to story, sometimes only just escaping intact. However, the most dangerous thing he will ever do is fall in love. Rick Benes is one of the American soldiers on the news, his only ambition being to get his platoon home safely as Iraq's birth pangs are violent and unrelenting. And then there's Adel, a young Iraqi lad who never dreamt of violence; not until the day that Benes killed his family. Full review...
White Bones by Graham Masterton
Finding a dead body isn't an unusual occurrence for Detective Superintendent Katie Maguire of the Cork Gardai. But finding the bones of eleven bodies in a mass grave, each with marks that suggest the flesh was stripped from them and with evidence that they were used in a voodoo-like ritual is beyond the pale even by her usual standards. There is some respite when it appears that these bones have been dead bodies for more than 80 years, until another fresh set appear in roughly the same spot. Full review...
Back to Blackbrick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald
Cosmo thought he had enough problems, with his absent mother, ridiculous name, and status as 'loser kid' at school. But his Grandfather isn't the man he used to be - the man that Cosmo idolised. Sometimes, he can't remember what day it is, or where certain things go in the kitchen. And then other times, he can't remember who Cosmo is, or that Brian, Cosmo's brother, died. Cosmo does all he can to help him, but post-its on the cupboards and omega-3 oils aren't enough to keep doctors from coming to assess Grandfather and deciding he needs to be taken into full time care. Full review...
Elmer and Aunt Zelda by David McKee
Elmer the patchwork elephant was reminded by his cousin Wilbur that they had promised to visit Aunt Zelda, who is getting old and a little bit deaf. Their visit is peppered with misheard words and misunderstandings but there’s an obvious affection between the two generations. Aunt Zelda is very proud of the two youngsters, and Elmer and Wilbur just love Zelda for what she is. There’s never hint of impatience or frustration, no matter how wrong Zelda hears what the two young elephants have to say. But - just in case Elmer was feeling at all superior - he finds when he gets home that he’s been rather forgetful too. Full review...
The People of Forever are not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu
Yael, Lea and Avishag go through their final years at high school in a little Israeli town on the Lebanese border and then on to the inevitable: the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). Gender is immaterial, all Israeli citizens must serve at least two years and for these girls the moment arrives after graduation. Yael's posting seems futile as she guards a training base against marauding lads, sneaking across the border to pinch perfume from pockets rather than pose any real security threat. Lea's assignment on a border checkpoint searching the daily line of immigrant workers is riddled with routine. Avishag joins up with her own demons, her brother Dan having died after his national service. She knows how it happened but continues to struggle with why; something she must handle alone. Full review...
Anton and the Battle by Ole Konnecke
Anyone who has spent any amount of time with small children will know of the 'well I'm taller than you!' arguments which seem to appear, all of a sudden, and carry on for years! Everything becomes a competition, and it's all about who is stronger or bigger or can eat more beans or can run the fastest or jump the highest or has the noisiest baby brother...This story captures the way these arguments begin, and escalate, as we meet Anton and his friend Luke and see them imagining bigger and bigger ways of being 'better' than each other! Full review...
That's Mine! by Michel Van Zeveren
I've come to look forward to picture books published by Gecko Press. They always seem to come up with something a bit different, and this book is no exception. This is the story of an egg, found by a small green frog who claims it for his own. But then snake says it's his egg, and eagle says it's his egg. Just whose egg is it?! Full review...
Pedigree Mum by Fiona Gibson
When Kerry Tambini moves to Shorling, she has high expectations that she and her family will live there happily forever. Within weeks though, her dreams are shattered after her husband Rob shocks her by an indiscretion that he can hardly remember. This indiscretion turns out to have a devastating consequence leaving Kerry with no option but to ask Rob to move out. This leaves her alone with the children in Shorling and pretty much friendless as she struggles to find anything in common with the snooty mums she meets at the school gate. Full review...
Sorrowline by Niel Bushnell
Jack's mother was killed when he was a young boy and now, just before his thirteenth birthday, he learns that his father is leaving him too — for a spell in prison. And then things get seriously weird, because his long-dead grandfather appears to warn him that his life in in danger. The old man is closely followed by a bunch of murderous creatures called the Dustmen, and in order to escape them Jack is forced to flee back to 1940, using a sorrowline. Full review...
Angel Creek by Sally Rippin
It is Christmas Eve and Jelly's family are gathered together to celebrate. It should have been a perfect night but for Jelly it is not because her family have recently moved to the other side of the city, far from all her friends, just as she is about to start at senior school. She is feeling so alone and miserable that nothing will brighten her mood and to avoid the festivities Jelly and her two cousins slip away in the darkness to the nearby creek. Full review...
Smuggler's Kiss by Marie-Louise Jensen
Fifteen-year-old Isabelle has given up on life. Walking into the sea, she is ready to drown herself - until she changes her mind, too late. But instead of drowning, she's pulled from the waves by smugglers. While the crew aren't all happy that a couple of their men have jeopardized them by rescuing her, she quickly becomes useful to them and starts to get a thrill from helping to evade the Preventives. Can she be happy in her new life, or will her dark secret catch up with her? Full review...
House of Secrets by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini
The Walker family used to have a big house in San Francisco, but after their father lost his job in mysterious circumstances, they were forced to move into the spooky Kristoff House, a strange place once occupied by a disturbed fantasy author. Soon after they move in, they realise that their arrival has set terrible events in motion, and children Cordelia, Brendan and Eleanor are forced to try and rescue their parents from a terrible fate. Full review...
Girl Genius: Agatha H and the Airship City by Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio
Agatha Clay has had a bad day. Waking up late was just the beginning. She got mugged in a dark alley on her way to university and her precious locket was stolen. Things did not get any better when she arrived at the university. When demonstrating her latest mechanical design, it malfunctioned and exploded in front of her instructor. Then, without warning, the faculty had an impromptu inspection by Baron Wulfenbach, the ruthless dictator who controls most of the continent. By the time the day was through, the university had been reduced to a pile of rubble and her beloved mentor killed. And then,of course, she had those blinding headaches to deal with. But if today was bad, tomorrow is set to be even worse... Full review...
About Zooming Time, Opal Moonbaby! by Maudie Smith
Martha feels lonely without her Best and Only Friend, Opal Moonbaby. That's obviously a rather unusual name but it's not the only thing about Opal which is unusual. She's an alien from Carnelia and she originally came to earth as part of a challenge. She had to make a human friend and despite the fact that Martha was determined that she would never have another friend, the relationship somehow worked. When we last saw her she was on her way back to Carnelia and Uncle Bixie. Martha was heartbroken to see her go - and I'll confess to being just a little bit upset myself. But don't worry - she's back! Full review...
The Revenge of Frankenstein by Shaun Hutson
Imprisoned and sentenced to death for the crimes he feels were caused by his creation and not his drive to bend the reach and morals of medical science, Doctor Frankenstein is given a way out of the guillotine's grasp, and gains a loyal adherent in the misshapen form of Carl. They move on to work together at a charitable hospital, which serves merely as a front for the Doctor's usual experiments, transplanting body organs, reviving corpses or bits thereof, and bringing new forms of life to the world. Cue yet another problematic creation, with an unfortunate way of leaving a trail of violence and vehemence, but with another innocent female to tender him, in this respectful and intelligent sequel. Full review...
