Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"
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| + | |summary=Tim Parks's ''Sex is Forbidden'' is narrated by twenty-something, Beth. She's working as a volunteer server at a Buddhist retreat called the Dasgupta Institute where she has been for the last nine months although the book covers one ten day cycle of retreat. The Dasgupta Institute imposes bans on attendees, although the conditions are slightly less onerous on the servers who, nevertheless are expected to join in the meditations. There's no talking, no writing, no mingling of the sexes and no physical or even eye contact. One day Beth, still a rebel at heart, wanders into the men's side where she discoverers an attendee is keeping a diary where he is contemplating his moment of crisis and she is hooked. The revealing of the past that has driven both Beth and the mysterious diary keeper to such an austere retreat is part of the intrigue of the book, but while there is an inevitable focus on introspection and new age thinking, Beth's tone is delightfully sceptical and feels very authentic. It's almost impossible not to feel for her plight and to admire her approach. | ||
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|summary=The year is 1870 and Adam Carver is at home in his lodgings in London’s Doughty Street when he is interrupted by an unexpected caller. This distraught and enigmatic young woman, Miss Emily Maitland, requests Carver’s help but disappears mysteriously before he can ascertain the details of her predicament. The days and weeks that follow her visit prove to be most eventful, pitching Carver and his assistant Quint into an investigation involving murder, a missing manuscript and a hidden treasure. | |summary=The year is 1870 and Adam Carver is at home in his lodgings in London’s Doughty Street when he is interrupted by an unexpected caller. This distraught and enigmatic young woman, Miss Emily Maitland, requests Carver’s help but disappears mysteriously before he can ascertain the details of her predicament. The days and weeks that follow her visit prove to be most eventful, pitching Carver and his assistant Quint into an investigation involving murder, a missing manuscript and a hidden treasure. | ||
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Revision as of 14:34, 6 June 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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Sex is Forbidden by Tim Parks
Tim Parks's Sex is Forbidden is narrated by twenty-something, Beth. She's working as a volunteer server at a Buddhist retreat called the Dasgupta Institute where she has been for the last nine months although the book covers one ten day cycle of retreat. The Dasgupta Institute imposes bans on attendees, although the conditions are slightly less onerous on the servers who, nevertheless are expected to join in the meditations. There's no talking, no writing, no mingling of the sexes and no physical or even eye contact. One day Beth, still a rebel at heart, wanders into the men's side where she discoverers an attendee is keeping a diary where he is contemplating his moment of crisis and she is hooked. The revealing of the past that has driven both Beth and the mysterious diary keeper to such an austere retreat is part of the intrigue of the book, but while there is an inevitable focus on introspection and new age thinking, Beth's tone is delightfully sceptical and feels very authentic. It's almost impossible not to feel for her plight and to admire her approach. Full review...
Akissi by Marguerite Abouet and Mathieu Sapin
Many parents are becoming upset with the over sexualisation of female characters in children's films and books. I know many are also fed up with the stereotyped princess character. If you are looking for a book for a little girl who doesn't suit the stereotypes, Akissi is absolutely perfect. In addition to breaking stereo types in children's literature, this book gives children a first hand look at life in another country. I have often read that children exposed to stories of other cultures usually grow up more tolerant. Whether it is the stories themselves, or simply the type of parent who chooses that type of story, I don't know. Still I have always gone out of my way to make sure my children have books which depict children from a wide variety of locations and cultures. This book gives the reader a very realistic vision of what life in Africa might be like. Best of all though, this book lets the children just be children. They don't look like adults and they don't act like adults. I think we need more books like this. Full review...
The Toucan Brothers by Tor Freeman
I hate to mention illustrations before mentioning the story with a children's book, but the illustrations are clearly the first thing you will notice with the book. My children, drawn by the illustrations, had this pulled out of the box of books it came in and were sitting down reading it before I could even sort through the rest. As soon as I saw this, I thought of Richard Scarry. The illustrations are highly reminiscent of Scarry's work, but if anything these are bolder, brighter and busier. If you have a child who is a visual learner, or who needs plenty of visual cues when reading, this book is definitely one you want to take a closer look at. The expressions on the characters faces are perfect and each page literally seems to come to life with so many activities going on. Full review...
Dirty Work by Gabriel Weston
- There are two women in an operating theatre and when one starts bleeding heavily - fatally - the other freezes, unable, despite all her training and undoubted skills, to do anything at all. Whatever the outcome it cannot pass unnoticed, unreported and surgeon Nancy Mullion is called to appear before a tribunal appointed by the General Medical Council. Over a period of weeks she's forced to confront the effect of being a doctor who has killed as well as cured. You're probably making assumptions now and nodding wisely. Don't - because you are almost certainly going to be wrong. This will not be the story which you are expecting and it was certainly not the story which Nancy's hospital wanted to hear.
The Fall by Claire Merle
In the future, a little way from now, people fall into one of two camps, the Pures and the Crazies, and society has changed almost beyond recognition. The distinction is made through a scientific test, but Ana has discovered something about the test which is alarming. And when the rest of the country finds out what she knows, there will be uproar. Full review...
Jinx, the Wizard's Apprentice by Sage Blackwood
Everybody knows you don't stray off the path when you're deep in the woods. And everybody knows, too, that stepparents usually want you out of the way — permanently. So poor Jinx has no difficulty in understanding, even at the tender age of six, that things are not going well for him. Rescued by a wizard, he spends much of the next few years quietly helping out round the house. It's not a bad life: Simon Magus is gruff to the point of rudeness, but the house is warm and the food is tasty and plentiful. Full review...
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
Set mainly in New York's art district in the late 1970s, Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers tells the story of a young girl, known only to the reader as Reno, after the city she comes from. She's a girl who loves motorbikes and photography, but struggles to find her place in the New York art scene. When she falls for the estranged son, Sandro, of the Italian motorbike manufacturer Valero, himself an artist in New York, Reno finds herself in situations she cannot control. Full review...
The Shambling Guide to New York City (The Shambling Guides) by Mur Lafferty
Zoe is an unemployed book editor who had to leave her last job, and indeed her last city, in rather a hurry. Zoe's personal exodus brings her to New York and the possibility of a job that sounds perfect: editing a travel guide to NYC itself. However, its projected readership isn't one for which Zoe has written before. New York City is full of monsters or coterie to be polite. Vampires, werewolves, demons, sprites, zombies… the list goes on as all alternative life is there, both in and out of the office. So the first question is if she survives her colleagues, will she survive her readership? The second question being, of course, who or what is Granny Good Mae? Full review...
The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones
Hannah Wilde flees into the Welsh mountains with daughter Leah and husband Nate while the life blood slowly seeps out of him. They run to escape the evil that has relentlessly haunted Hannah's family for generations. Some people see it as a Hungarian legend but to the Wildes it's real and insatiable and won't forget them. They know what to do: verify everyone, trust no one and, if in any doubt, RUN! Although one day that may not be enough. Full review...
How Brave Is That? by Anne Fine and Vicki Gausden
All Tom has ever wanted to do is join the army, but the odds seem stacked against him. Schoolwork doesn't come easily for Tom, and without a lot of work, he'll never pass his exams. Tom is determined and with enough determination we can overcome huge obstacles. It's a good thing too - because Tom is going to have major obstacles thrown in his path. Any child with younger siblings will be able to laugh at the disasters that befall Tom as he tries to prepare for the most important day of his life - the exam that will determine his future. If he passes he can join the army. If not - his dreams are over. Full review...
The Crocodile Who Didn't Like Water by Gemma Merino
'The Crocodile Who Didn't Like Water' begins with a Mother crocodile carrying a basket of blue eggs. But one of the eggs isn't quite like the others, and when the little crocs hatch, one crocodile isn't quite like the others. All of the other crocodiles love the water, but the odd one out prefers to climb trees. The other crocodiles were not cruel, but he felt left out as they all played water games. He tried to fit in, but he just wasn't meant to be a water creature. His attempts to be something other than what nature intended are touching, but also terribly funny. Soon the reason for the little crocodile's dislike of water becomes apparent - he isn't a crocodile at all and he wasn't meant to swim - he was meant to fly. Full review...
A State of Fear: Britain After a Dirty Bomb by Joseph Clyde
A dirty bomb has gone off in the centre of London. Julie's first thought is to reach her daughter, waiting to be collected from school within the danger zone, but when this becomes impossible she must take refuge indoors and await rescue. Forcing her way into a beauty salon she finds herself among a disparate group of strangers, some of whom will soon find their lives interwoven with hers. Also sheltering in the salon are the Russian beauty-salon owner/madam, Mrs Marchusak, Anya, a beautician/call girl and her Chechen client, Safia, a devout Muslim (who rather strangely is in very skimpy western clothing) a Frenchman and an American gentleman. They are soon joined by Kingman, a young male of black Caribbean descent. It seems to be a regular United Nations in the salon. As a Doctor, Julie maintains her calm and does her best her to help, and the American remains a gentleman, displaying a touching act of nobility at one point, but tensions flare in the cramped quarters, especially after Kingman begins to show signs of radiation poisoning. After the event, many of these characters will find their paths crossing again. The other main characters are Julie's estranged husband Martin, a journalist, Tony an obscure MI-5 agent and finally a pair of terrorists connected to the first attack, and planning a second dirty bomb, Amer and Jayson. Full review...
Dying In The Wool: (Kate Shackleton Mysteries) by Frances Brody
Kate Shackleton had gained something of a reputation for solving mysteries and there were plenty of those at the end of the Great War. She tracked down men who were then reunited with their families and even those who had no wish to be found and were not reunited. She had her own reasons for doing this - it made her feel more positive about her own situation. Her husband Gerald was posted missing, presumed dead in the last year of the war and it was the one mystery she couldn't solve, no matter how she tried. But her successes in other areas led to her first professional investigation. Full review...
The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
Emeline is a conscientious student, works hard for her family's realty business, and loves her long-term boyfriend Luke. But as college draws near she wonders if there is something she has missed by living year-round at the beach. When other people come to the beach, they get to leave their real selves behind and try on a new persona. Her mom had her young and has always tried to provide Emeline with everything she could need. When a filmmaker’s assistant, Theo, comes into town, Emeline is intrigued by him and his very different New York City lifestyle. Maybe she does want something more than what her old life has offered. Full review...
Everyone Lies by A D Garrett
Detective Chief Inspector Kate Simms has something of a reputation within the force. It's not a good one and probably best summed us as unreliable: as she said herself, she spent four years on the naughty step all because she helped a colleague when she shouldn't have done. There's something of a history between her and Professor Nick Fennimore - a certain sexual tension which definitely shouldn't be there - but despite his history of failures he's the best there is when it comes to forensics. He's been in academia rather than practicing in the mainstream since his wife and daughter disappeared. His wife's body was found, but he's still obsessed about what happened to his ten-year-old daughter - and it's been five years. Full review...
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
There's a list of names on the title page of this extraordinary and moving book. Note it well: these seventy-four women are real. As a group they were known as the Ravenbrück Rabbits, and they were the victims of medical experiments carried out to help improve surgery for German soldiers wounded in the field. Little or no anaesthetic, poor aftercare: these things, while horrible, fit in with what we know of the concentration camps. What many will not know is the truly gut-wrenching fact that sometimes the doctors did not even bother to follow up on the experiments they carried out. All that pain, infection and disability (for those lucky enough to survive the procedures), and all for nothing. They didn't even help the enemy soldiers recover from their injuries. Full review...
Shipwrecked by Siobhan Curham
Grace Delaney and her friends from her dance school are really excited to have the opportunity to perform on a South Pacific cruise ship. But when a storm hits and leaves them stranded on an island, they're left fighting to survive - and fighting with each other, as tensions build when they start to panic about whether they'll be rescued. As if that wasn't bad enough, the island has a dark secret - will they learn it before it's too late? Full review...
Parallel by Lauren Miller
Imagine waking up every day to find yourself in a new reality, an alternate future derived from a small variation in one of those what-if moments that populate every day of your life. Some of these moments are easy to identify: the moment you confirm your university choices, the moment you meet the person who'll become your best friend, the moment you tell someone you love them. Others are more subtle and harder to define, but they can have just as much an influence on your future. This is the reality of Abby Barnes, an eighteen year old whose life is constantly being warped and changed by the actions and decisions of a seventeen-year-old version of her from a parallel world. Full review...
The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
As a child, I read The Grey King, book 4 in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising Sequence. I loved the book so much it topped my Christmas list for years, but sadly Santa never delivered. As an adult I finally bought the entire sequence for myself. This book is intended as a child's book, and it is brilliant as book for children, but it is also well loved by many adults, whether as a cherished memory of their own childhood or as a book discovered as an adult. I'll admit that as child, this can book can completely draw into other worlds in a manner not possible for an adult, but this is still an excellent read, whatever age you may be. Full review...
Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee
A prolific author, Edith Wharton's published output included over twenty novels, one a Pulitzer Prize winner, and 85 short stories, as well as poetry and books on interior design and travel. Born in the United States in 1862, she travelled extensively throughout Europe, and settled permanently in France where she died in 1937. Full review...
Dare You To by Katie McGarry
Seventeen-year-old Beth Risk knows that her mother would face jail if anyone found out the truth about her. She's trying to look after her mother the best she can - until her uncle comes to the rescue. Except Beth doesn't want rescuing, and only goes with her uncle to keep him from exposing her mother. Living with him, she meets town golden boy Ryan Stone, who asks her out on a dare. What starts as an instant dislike on her part, though, turns to attraction, and she finds that Ryan has depths no-one else knows about. Can this mismatched couple help each other to find happiness? Full review...
Flutter by Jennie Wood and Jeff McComsey
When fifteen-year-old Lily moves to yet another new town, she falls for a girl who isn't interested in her. Lily, though, has a trick up her sleeve - she's a shapeshifter. She turns herself into a boy so that she can have a chance with Saffron. As Jesse, she starts to build a new life for herself at school -can this 'boy' get the girl? Additionally, why is Lily so resistant to any sort of harm, and who are the strange people who are trying to find her? Full review...
A History of Cricket in 100 Objects by Gavin Mortimer
A History of Football in 100 Objects was a brave attempt, but was slightly let down by being a little too clinical. Being a game imbued with passion, the book lacked this which took some of the edge off it. Cricket, whilst inspiring passion amongst devotees, has a slightly more laid back following; one that may work better in this format. That said, being a game that has been played for five centuries, narrowing it down to just 100 objects is no less an undertaking than for football. Full review...
The Child's Elephant by Rachel Campbell-Johnston
Bat, a young herdsman living on the African savannah, witnesses the killing of an elephant by poachers and then takes her orphaned baby back to his village and cares for her. Gradually the two become inseparable and Meja, the baby elephant, becomes part of village life, loved by all the villagers but especially by Bat and his best friend, Mukah. As time passes Bat’s grandmother warns the two children that the elephant will have to return to the wild and the herd to which she belongs. Reluctantly the two friends learn to accept this truth but they have no idea that their bond with this animal will be strong enough to survive both distance and terrifying events. Full review...
Flight by Adam Thorpe
The past is catching up with Bob Winrush. His marriage is over as a result of his inconsiderate arrival home early when weather cancelled one of his jobs as a cargo pilot to find his wife in bed with another man but when an investigative journalist starts to dig into some of the content of Bob's previous cargo trips, his life is quickly placed in grave danger. His problems stemmed from having walked away from a particularly morally dubious trip to transport arms to the Taliban some years ago, although it turns out that his moral line in the sand is somewhat blurred. He has knowingly transported guns and military personnel in his time. He's sort of the aeronautical equivalent of white van man. Full review...
If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today by Dougal Dixon
The book starts with a simple question. How would we cope, how would dinosaurs cope if they had not become extinct and were around today? They're put in context, going back to the beginnings of Planet Earth four and a half billion years ago and working forward to show how life evolved and asking if the skills the dinosaurs developed would allow them to survive today. The four groups of dinosaurs - plant-eaters, meat-eaters, ocean-dwellers and flying reptiles - are then looked at in some detail. Full review...
Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace
In his early books, Danny Wallace was the new Tony Hawks, taking on silly challenges and recounting them in amusing ways. With Charlotte Street, his first entirely fictional work, he seems to be moving into territory inhabited by Mike Gayle, that of bloke-lit. It seems a decent fit, as his book Yes Man had elements of bloke-lit, despite being based on actual events. It may have suffered from a twee ending, but it offered enough to suggest that this is a field Danny Wallace could work well in. Full review...
Everything is Fine (and Other Lies I Tell Myself) by Cathy Brett
Fifteen-year-old Esther Armstrong is having problems at home. Her mum and dad keep arguing, her younger brother is driving her crazy, and she's reduced to writing letters to her older brother about the situation as he's not around. When she finds some letters from a soldier to his girlfriend, she starts trying to find out what happened to them - will she work it out, and also get her own life back on track? Full review...
Carver's Quest by Nick Rennison
The year is 1870 and Adam Carver is at home in his lodgings in London’s Doughty Street when he is interrupted by an unexpected caller. This distraught and enigmatic young woman, Miss Emily Maitland, requests Carver’s help but disappears mysteriously before he can ascertain the details of her predicament. The days and weeks that follow her visit prove to be most eventful, pitching Carver and his assistant Quint into an investigation involving murder, a missing manuscript and a hidden treasure. Full review...
