March 2008 Newsletter

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March's News from Bookbag Towers

Spring is in the air. It's time to make things anew, isn't it? And to that end, we've had the decorators in! Bookbag Towers has been remade, not only with a fetching skin of blue-washed bookshelves, but with an entirely new way to find your way about. We hope you like it. If you haven't seen it yet, go and look - and shame on you! Where have you been? You can now find your way to more of what you like from a review page - you can see other books by the author, other books in the genre, other books of the same star rating, or even other books written about by a particular reviewer. And we've got a shiny new internal search engine to boot. The excitement of it all has been almost too much, although, of course, we've still had time for reading...

If there's anything you'd like to tell us, or anything you think we've left out, please drop us a line and let us know.

What we've been reading...

In fiction, Zoë fell in love with Thanks For Nothing, Nick Maxwell by Debbie Carbin, a Sophia Kinsella-style piece of sunny, humorous froth about babies and love affairs. Sue loved Benny and Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti, a splendid story of ticking biological clocks set in Sweden. She also recommends Melissa Benn's One of Us - a classy reworking of the Labour Party's reinvention cast as a Greek tragedy.

In non-fiction, Sue has a pair of books to recommend to all dog lovers. The Dog Whisperer by Graeme Sims is an excellent book about training your dog, while Life with Beau by Anna Quindlen is a touching story about the contribution a beloved pet can make to family life. Jill would like to recommend the vivid and intelligent A Great and Terrible King by Marc Morris to all armchair historians.

For children, we recommend a trio of fantasies this month. Zoë enjoyed the girl power in the New York-based Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller. John loved The Summoning by E.E. Richardson, a spooky story in which a group of teenagers invoke a demonic spirit. Iain recommends the varied short stories in Neil Gaiman's M is for Magic.

Reviewers

We're always on the look out for people to join our panel of reviewers at Bookbag. We need people who understand that the reader wants to know what the reviewer thinks about the book and not just what's written on the back cover. If you think that you're one of these special people that we're looking for, we want to hear from you. You can find details of how to apply here on the site. Don't be shy!

Competitions

We have competitions for some great books going this month, and every month, so get entering!

And that's about it for this month.

If you're passing Bookbag Towers do pop in and see us – we're at www.thebookbag.co.uk.

All at Bookbag Towers

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