Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"

Hannah is 15 and pregnant. She can't tell anyone who the father is - but new boy at school Aaron steps up to offer his services as a fake father. Hannah accepts, and the pair start their journey to parenthood. But who really is the dad, and why is Aaron willing to make such a massive commitment to a girl he doesn't even know that well? Full review...

The Darling Girls by Emma Burstall

Women's Fiction

Leo Bruck, a world famous conductor, died suddenly of a heart attack. Amongst many mourners at his funeral are three women for whom Leo was much more than an acquaintance. Victoria was his long term partner and mother of his two children, Ralph and Salome. However, Maddy has also shared much of her life with Leo and he is father to her daughter Pheobe. Then there is Cat, who met Leo about eighteen months ago and they also formed a relationship. All three were aware of the others and, for whatever reasons, had tolerated the parallel lives that Leo was leading. However, they had never met before the funeral and there is instant dislike particularly between Victoria and Maddy. Full review...

The Legend of Frog by Guy Bass

Frog is about to journey to the End of the World to stake a claim for his rightful throne. Armed only with a stick called Basil Rathbone and a pair of catastrophe pants, he expects it to be easy - but hadn't bargained on an army of aliens appearing. What's a Frog to do? Full review...

Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell

Sophie is shipwrecked in the English Channel on her 1st birthday, with her mother presumed dead, but she's lucky enough to be found by scholar Charles. He raises her as his ward and they have a happy, if seriously unconventional, existence until the authorities intervene on her 12th birthday. With the orphanage beckoning, Sophie and Charles run away to France in the hope that her mother may be alive after all. Full review...

The News: A User's Manual by Alain de Botton

Politics and Society

Alain de Botton maintains that 'the news' has assumed the position in our lives which was once occupied by religion, with some consumers viewing it as often as every fifteen minutes (slight blush there - let's say about every hour...). Furthermore, we do it completely unprotected against every political scandal or celebrity story. The sub-title 'A User's Manual' sets out to remedy this. Full review...

The Runaways by Elizabeth Goudge

The year is 1912. With their father overseas, Nan, Robert, Timothy and Betsy are staying with their grandmother. Locked in their rooms after they fail to make themselves presentable for a dinner party, they run away and find a horse and cart which takes them to their uncle's house. There, he gruffly accepts the responsibility of looking after them in exchange for being able to educate them, and they fall in love with their surroundings - while stumbling upon the tragic history of a neighbour. Can they help to put things right? Full review...

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Holly Golightly. Who doesn't know her? Whether in the pages of Breakfast at Tiffany's, the short novel by Truman Capote or capture on film by Audrey Hepburn, she's an American icon. A young country girl becomes a New York socialite, trading on amusement value to make a life paid for by rich men who are titillated by her outrageous opinions and anecdotes. We want to know her. And the narrator wants to know her as much, if not more, than we do. Full review...

The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness

The Crane Wife ticks all my boxes. It's by Patrick Ness who is one of my favourite writers of Young Adult fiction. It has a basis in myth and legend and still better in an ancient story new to me. It doesn't go on and on and Ariston for half a billion pages. Best of all, the author includes a shout-out for the brilliant Decemberists. I agree with Ness: this is a band you should look up. A heavy reading schedule meant I didn't get to it last year when it was first published but now it's out in paperback and here I am. I wasn't disappointed. Full review...

A Man of Sorrows: An Inspector Carlyle Novel by James Craig

Crime

Inspector John Carlyle has a lot on his plate. His attack on a paedophile priest left Father McGowan injured and angry and Carlyle in a vulnerable position. The fact that the Pope is due to visit ups the political pressure and brings Carlyle into conflict with his old nemesis, Christian Holyrod, the Mayor of London. Then there's the armed robbery at a very upmarket Mayfair jeweller when tens of millions of pounds worth of stock goes missing - along with one of the assistants. Normally he'd have had some support from his boss, but she's on secondment in Canada and the man replacing her has great hopes for Carlyle - mainly that he can get him dismissed. Then Carlyle's wife has a serious health scare and his daughter is growing up very fast. Full review...

A Pleasure and a Calling by Phil Hogan

Thrillers

Estate agent William Heming has got it right. He owns a successful estate agency and yet isn't too noticeable. He's helpful, but not in a memorable way. A bit on the beige side perhaps but that’s just the way he likes it, living a life that assists society. Take the time he entered the home of the gentleman who refused to clear up his dog's leavings for instance. It's ok – Heming didn't break in. He already has the key as he once sold the house. How many of his former clients' keys has he actually kept, you wonder? The answer's easy: all of them. Full review...

Will by Christopher Rush

It's March 1616 and William Shakespeare, not having long to live, sends for his lawyer and old friend Francis Collins to draw up his will. While Francis works (at both the will and eating Shakespeare out of house and home) William's mind meanders, regaling Francis with stories and opinions from a life well-lived in a nation in turmoil. After all, Mr S could never resist an audience. Full review...

Left and Leaving by Jo Verity

Women's Fiction

Set in modern day London, this novel explores the lives of two central characters who, on the surface, could not be any different. However, after a catastrophic incident in the city, Gil and Vivian are thrown together through the rather annoying, interfering character of Irene. Spending time with each other in the run up to Christmas, both Gil and Vivian find themselves having to face up to various family issues and responsibilities that, before, they were able to ignore. Full review...

The Tell-Tale Heart by Jill Dawson

Being told that you have six months to live concentrates the mind most wonderfully: fifty is no age to die, even if you have lived life to the full. Patrick's heart was giving up on him and the Professor of American Studies, philanderer and heavy drinker was at the head of the list for a heart transplant. His other problems - entirely of his own making - faded into insignificance. Sixteen-year-old Drew Beamish died in a motorcycle accident in the village where he lived in rural Cambridgeshire and it will be his (still beating) heart which is transplanted into Patrick. The two, who had never met, would be permanently joined. Full review...

Agatha Parrot and the Odd Street Ghost by Kjartan Poskitt

The clock is ticking… and that's not the only noise it makes when it's the one in the belltower of Odd Street School. When everyone in Agatha's gang of girlies is woken in the middle of the night by the clock bell chiming far too many times to make chronological sense, one of them dreams it is a ghost, hastening the passage of time and making them age. That might not be too bad, as nasty Gwendoline lives too far away and wouldn't mature at the same rate, surely? But then… would you really want to hurry up to become one of the geriatric, and very weird, schoolmistresses, or someone like Agatha's dad, whose sole intent seems to be to buy the cheapest, and very weird, breakfast cereal…? Full review...

Sorcerers and Orange Peel by Ian Mathie

Autobiography

I can’t understand why Ian Mathie isn’t a more celebrated writer and commentator on African cultural affairs. I’ve never yet heard him on radio, re-telling episodes from his memorable life. Our loss. Africa is moving forward, but to understand the Africa of today we need to pay attention to its recent past as well as its early colonial history. Ian’s unassuming witness of African tribes as they slowly emerged into the world of the 1970’s is unparalleled for its authenticity and depth of experience. This recent memoir is his best constructed yet; a seriously informative tale for anyone who wants to know about the real Africa beneath the surface of today’s mobile phones and pre-loved designer jeans. Full review...

I Love Mum by Joanna Walsh and Judi Abbot

For Sharing

When I went to get dressed this morning, there, on my only decent post baby bra, was what appeared to be butternut squash. Regurgitated. Veg I.D. was confirmed by the Daddy of the house. Ever helpful, he recalled that he had seen our little boy chewing it. It is because of incidents like this that books like I Love Mum get written, bought and read. Without a bit of positive affirmation for Mummies, the human race could die out. Quickly. Full review...

Wild Boy by Rob Lloyd-Jones

Raised as a monster and sent to a freak show because of the hair that covers his body, Wild Boy is loathed and feared by nearly everyone, but has an incredible power of observation. When he's accused of murder, he's forced to run from the freak show and team up with circus acrobat Clarissa to try and clear his name. Full review...

Miffy at the Zoo by Dick Bruna

For Sharing

Miffy and daddy are off on an exciting day trip. They’re catching a train to the zoo! Aren’t they lucky? They see zebras and monkeys and giraffes. What a lovely day they have. Full review...

City of Fate by Nicola Pierce

Just as war can tear families apart, so it can create them. One family we meet in this book is teenaged Yuri, forced out of kindness and duty to look after an abandoned five year old boy, and the older teenaged Tanya and her mother. Yuri was left alone to fend for himself when his own mother and child-in-arms surrendered, young Peter's mourning his Mama, and Tanya's is just shellshocked and crabby from living in a basement room. It's Hitler's invading soldiers that have done the killing – and, therefore, the forging of unlikely bonds. Elsewhere, four other youngsters, including Vlad and the militarily-minded Anton, are forced to leave their secondary school to sign up and face the consequences alone. It's Stalin's ignorant tactics that have led to that order being sent down. We are in Stalingrad, in one of the prime killing fields of World War Two, and the actions of two fighting superpowers are having their shocking effect on those who can cope the least – the young. Full review...

The Riot by Laura Wilson

Crime

DI Stratton has moved to a new posting and Notting Hill is fresh territory to him, but he’s going to have to get to know it fast when a rent collector is stabbed. There’s a sense of loss from the people who knew the man - he was inclined to help if he could and with landlords wanting to oust rent-controlled tenants so that they could put ‘coloured’ people or prostitutes in their place (higher rents, you see) any help was welcome. Added to this there are increasing numbers of street fights involving teddy boys. It’s 1958 - and there’s a heatwave. Full review...

Dead and Buried (Murder Notebooks) by Anne Cassidy

It's been five years since Rose's and Josh's parents disappeared and Rose is determined finally to start getting on with her life. She hasn't seen Josh for a few weeks and although she misses him, she can't but help feeling a sense of relief. But then policeman Henry turns up at her door with more bad news: the body of a teenage girl has been found buried in the garden of her old home, the one she shared with her mother, Josh, and his father Brendan. With their parents implicated, Rose and Josh have no choice but to try to solve one last murder... Full review...

Shattered (Slated Trilogy) by Teri Terry

Dystopian Fiction

Kyla - or is she Lucy? or Rain? or Riley? - was slated as a teen criminal in Lorder-run Britain. All memory of her past life was erased and she was sent to live with a new foster family, controlled by a wrist bracelet that could kill her if she stepped out of line. But that was some time ago. Since then, some of Kyla's memories have resurfaced and she has discovered that she isn't a run-of-the-mill Slated. Used as a weapon by an anti-Lorder terrorist group, Kyla's brain has been messed with in more than one way. Full review...

The People in the Photo by Helene Gestern

Hélène Hivert works at the Museum of the History of the Postcard. It is a job she loves, as she finds delving into other people's lives 'most exciting'. Luckily, she is 'regularly sent collections to catalogue', and each time the 'moment of discovery' gives her a thrill. It may be 'addictive', but 'There is something very moving about the thought that just two or three sources can be enough to build a picture of an entire life'. But what happens when the sources are a bit too close to home, when Hélène must play Holmes among the artefacts of her own family's past, pondering 'the silence of surfaces'? Well, the professional detachment goes straight out the window, and what had been a genuine pleasure, tinged by wonder, now becomes an uncomfortable obsession. Full review...

The Last Quarter of the Moon by Chi Zijian

An old woman has been left alone in the mountain camp. Not totally alone, her grandson An'tsaur has stayed with her, to do the chores that she no longer has the physical strength to do. Full review...

The God Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen

When a baby falls from the sky into the sea, Thetis, goddess of the sea, takes him into her care and names him Hephaestus. Raised lovingly by Thetis and her sister Eurynome, Hephaestus still grows to question who he is and where he came from. The sisters tell him he was born on Olympus, and so begins the twisting turning tales of the Titans and the Gods - their battles for supremacy, their betrayals, their vengeance. Full review...

Being Oscar: From Mob Lawyer to Mayor of Las Vegas by Oscar Goodman and George Anastasia

Autobiography

I've a confession to make. I've done something which I tell our reviewers they must never do: I took a book to review which I didn't expect to like. The Mafia, the mob - call it what you will - are not people I admire and I thought it would be a small step to extend that to an attorney who defended them. Las Vegas? Well, it's not going to be my destination of choice. I'm not against gambling, but I struggle with the concept of travelling to a city that revels in it. Oscar Goodman says that had he been the benevolent dictator of Las Vegas rather than the mayor he would have legalised prostitution and drugs. Hmm... This book was going to be one of those that I threw against the wall in disgust, wasn't it? Full review...

The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

Sutter Keely, The Sutterman, has life pretty good. Sure, he's got no long-term plan and may spend his life folding shirts, but he's having a ton of fun, he's hugely popular - even his ex-girlfriends still like him - and his relationship with the wonderful Cassidy will get back on track soon enough. Then he meets the sci-fi obsessed, shy, put-upon Aimee, and decides he can make a difference in her life. The plan is to help her gain some confidence, become popular, and find a nice guy - but Sutter doesn't bargain on things going further than he was planning on. Will he change Aimee's life for the better, or for the worse? Full review...

The Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin

On 5th December 1872 the merchant brig Mary Celeste was found devoid of human life (or death), floating aimlessly in the Atlantic. Many, including Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, are intrigued by the mysterious absence of all crew and Captain Benjamin Briggs' family (keeping the Captain company for the trip). Meanwhile investigative journalist Phoebe Grant wants to reveal the charlatans behind the popularity of spiritualist mediums and chooses Violet Petra as her study sample. Does Violet have the powers she claims and why is she getting so upset about Conan Doyle's Mary Celeste story? Phoebe is determined to find out and, in doing so, will be pulled into a maritime conundrum that may never be completely solved. Full review...

Geek Inc: The Impossible Boy by Mark Griffiths

Weird things happen in Blue Hills High School and the surrounding area. Not just the typical behaviour of teachers driven demented by their pupils, or the secret ingredient we all know is stirred into every school cafeteria pudding in the country, but the Doctor-Who-meets-the-Wimpy-Kid type of weird. For starters there's a boy who can do magic tricks, and we don't mean those lame ones which involve bits of elastic up your sleeve, either. This is walking across water and disappearing in broad daylight stuff. Then there's the statue hidden in the bushes at the park, and the elderly gentleman who likes to hide teaspoons in his shoes. And once again, Geek Inc is on the case! Full review...

Vengeance by Megan Miranda

Vengeance is a follow-up to Fracture, in which Delaney almost died, drowned under the ice of a lake. Things never got back to normal after that. Delaney can sense death. She is irresistibly drawn to people who are about to die. And people take a long time to get over the accident. Delaney survived for 11 minutes under the ice - how was this possible? And Carson, the boy who pulled her out, is dead. There are mutterings that Falcon Lake is cursed. It wanted Delaney and, denied her, is now taking others in some kind of freakish revenge. Full review...

The Kept by James Scott