Book Reviews From The Bookbag
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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Huracan by Diana McCaulay
1986 – 30-year-old Leigh McCaulay (White gal!) is returning to Jamaica, the land of her birth. Her mother is dead and there is an estate to be settled. Her estranged father is somewhere on the island. Her brother is in England. This isn't the closest of grieving families. Leigh doesn't even know how her mother died. Indeed, she's a bit surprised to find out she'd gone back to Jamaica. The residual family had left the island not long after the father's desertion. Full review...
Breathe by Sarah Crossan
When the trees were all felled to make crop land to feed an exploding population, oxygen levels on Earth fell. Eventually, the air became unbreathable. A government lottery decided who would live inside the life-saving Pod created by Breathe. Those left on the outside died. Years later, Pod society is divided into Premiums, who have easy lives, plenty of air and positions of power, and Auxiliaries, who labour at endless shifts and pay through the nose for enough oxygen to get by. A resistance group is trying to replant the Earth and reduce dependence on the Pod, but Breathe and the Pod Minister will stop at nothing to crush them. Full review...
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
There are certain books that you know, right from the first pages, are destined to be classics. There is something about the phrasing, about the concept and about the main character which chime so perfectly together that they cannot fail to move you, to open a window in your world and show you another, deeper truth. Such a book is 'Maggot Moon'. Full review...
Fifty Years In The Fiction Factory: The Working Life Of Herbert Allingham by Julia Jones
Herbert Allingham was one of the most prolific authors of his time. Between 1886 and his death in 1936 he was a busy writer of melodramatic serial stories in the mass-market halfpenny papers which flourished at the turn of the century. Yet nothing he wrote was ever published in book form with his name to it, and the magazine proprietors made fortunes while their authors were the unsung heroes of the trade. Full review...
The Man Who Sold The World: David Bowie And The 1970s by Peter Doggett
With hindsight, it’s difficult to argue with the oft-expressed opinion that David Bowie was the single most important rock musician of the 1970s. Having been a perpetual ‘one to watch’ from around 1966 onwards but with only one hit during that decade, ‘Space Oddity’, from 1972 onwards he went through several remarkable self-reinventions in musical style, with an uncanny knack of being able to pre-empt the next big trend. In examining his whole career but focusing largely on his work throughout that particular decade, Peter Doggett looks specifically at every song he recorded, including cover versions. There are also boxed-out features on each album, and articles on related topics such as ‘The Art of Minimalism’ and ‘The Heart of Plastic Soul’. He concludes that by 1979 the man’s extraordinary creativity was more or less spent and his subsequent output, successful though it may have been, was in effect treading water up to his ‘elegant, unannounced retirement’ in 2007. Full review...
The Snow Womble by Elisabeth Beresford
Bloomsbury have been doing a fabulous job bringing the equally fabulous Wombles to a new - and hopefully more environmentally aware - children. And they haven't forgotten either Christmas or the littlest members of the family. Here is a little story with a wintry theme featuring our favourite eco-lovers-not-fighers in picture book format. Full review...
Red Glove (Curse Workers 2) by Holly Black
Cassel lives in a world where magic is frowned upon. Practice is banned and everyone wears gloves to prevent being worked. Cassel himself is a transformation worker - the rarest type. And he is the most powerful transformation worker in living memory. This makes him extremely valuable to the crime families who use curses to support and maintain their empires. It also makes him extremely dangerous as far as the authorities are concerned. And that's why Cassel tries to keep his status to himself, since he discovered it in the first book in this Curse Workers sequence. Full review...
Ashes by Ilsa Bick
Beware: it's impossible to review Shadows without giving spoilers for Ashes, the first book in this dystopian trilogy, which ended on a huge cliffhanger.
The world has been devastated by a catastrophic electromagnetic pulse. Many of the young have become Changed - cannabilistic monsters with a penchant for violence. Alex was hiking in the wilderness when it all happened and although she isn't Changed, her senses have heightened and it seems the progression of her terminal brain tumour may have halted. Full review...
Unwholly by Neal Shusterman
At last! It's been five years since Unwind, Neal Shusterman's first book set in a dystopian future where teenage children are unwound - retroactively aborted to provide organs and limbs for transplant surgery. If you're an adult reader, the world of Unwind is very much like Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Unwind had a profound effect on me - as the best books for children do - it was exciting, touching, shocking and, above all, fearless. But there were flashes of humour that made it all bearable. Full review...
Just My Typo: From 'sinning with the choir' to 'the large hardon collider' by Drummond Moir (compiler)
Warning: this book can seriously damage your reputation. Laughing in pubic will be the least of your worries. You will reach the stage where teas run down your face and you snort in politically incorrect fashion at the disfigured man who has always had a car on his face, or the one who could not find the cash to buy a house and had to burrow. You'll snigger at the charmless who become harmless but it will be up to you as to whether or not you agree that love is just a passing fanny. Personally I felt very sorry for the man who studied and became an unclear physicist. Full review...
Raffles And the Golden Opportunity by Victoria Glendinning
Although Raffles has gone down in history as the founder of Singapore his roots were far from grand. He had no advantages apart from his own drive and determination and his professional life began with a lowly clerkship with the East india Company, then as large and ungainly as many a government. When he went abroad on behalf of the Company he quickly learned the merits of doing something and asking permission afterwards, not least because of the time taken to contact London and then receive a reply. Even if all went well this could take the best part of a year - by which time the original question could well be academic. Full review...
Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories by Scarlett Thomas
I really wasn't expecting a book about how to write fiction to change my TV viewing habits. Alter my reading? Possibly. Improve my writing? Hopefully. But watching Grand Designs in a completely different light? Full review...
The Diviners by Libba Bray
1920's New York City. Jazz and gin mix with murder and mystery. For Evie O'Neill - fresh in from Ohio to the city of her dreams after her demonstration of a strange power caused a scandal in society - this is what she's always dreamed of. But dreams can become nightmares, and when Evie, her uncle Will and their friends find themselves trying to stop a serial killer, she'll have to use all of her wits, as well as her power, to stay alive. Full review...
One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern
Kitty Logan's career had looked to be going well until she made a life changing mistake in a story she covered. It changed the life of the person whom she accused of doing something he didn't do and it changed her life too. The network suspended her. As if her life couldn't get any worse she had to face losing a close friend - the woman who taught her all she knew - who was dying of cancer. At her bedside for what was to be the last time (well, actually, it was the first too - it's not just her research Kitty's been neglecting) Constance was asked if she would tell Kitty about the one story she always wanted to write. Full review...
Not Now, Bernard by David McKee
Do you always have time for your little ones? When they ask you a question, do you always stop and listen or are you, like most parents, prone to the 'not just now, sweetheart' or the 'just a minute, darling' response? Poor Bernard has two busy parents, and when he brings them his very serious problem they unfortunately don't take the time to listen, with disastrous consequences! Full review...
1356 by Bernard Cornwell
Sir Thomas Hookton, aka Le Batard (a French word that's very similar in English, if you see what I mean) roams France with his band of mercenaries, acquiring plundered riches and selling their services in the war against the French. However, Thomas' liege, Lord William Bohun, Earl of Northampton, disrupts the combative equilibrium when demands a diversion. Monks are spreading stories about 'La Malice', (the sword with which St Peter defended Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane) and with it the power to bless or curse the owner, depending who you listen to. So Lord 'Billy' wants it and La Batard must find it. Meanwhile Sir Thomas has competition as unsavoury elements in the church create a special order of knights. They mean to find it first, by foul means or even fouler. Full review...
Even Flow by Darragh McManus
Jonathon Bailey, Cathy Morrissey and Patrick Broder of Network 4 News sit in a viewing room unable to believe their eyes as the courier-delivered VT flickers in front of them. Wealthy banker's son and society playboy Cliff Hudson seems to be suspended from the top of a tall building by his ankles. He's tied to a friend identified as 'Steve', both terror stricken and whimpering an apology prompted by three men oddly dressed in tuxedos and balaclavas. As the city will soon come to realise, these men (pseudonyms Wilde, Whitman and Waters) are the 3W Gang, sworn to do society's dirty work for it as they isolate and punish bigots. Crusaders or criminals? Detective Danny Everard of the NYPD doesn't have the luxury of choosing, just the headache of trying to catch them. Full review...
Little Sister by Lucy Dawson
Kate Palmer’s life has been blighted with tragedy. Her sister Emily died at the age of thirteen in a freak accident. Her parents could not cope with the grief and subsequently divorced leading to her mother living in America and her father suffering a breakdown. Years later, she is married to Rob and struggling to cope with being a new mother to two month old Mathias. Kate’s always been the sensible one whereas her younger sister, Anya, has always had a tendency to run away from her troubles and has never managed to settle down. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to Kate that Anya has taken off once again and has gone diving in Mexico. That would have been OK but Anya is now missing. Full review...
Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead
Georges is named after Seurat, who created his paintings by using thousands and thousands of tiny dots of colour, and in this delightful book his style becomes a leit-motif for Georges' movement from fear to bravery. His mum always tells him not to fret about the little niggles and miseries of life: they're just tiny coloured dots which help to make up the big picture. His dad sees things differently, though. To him, you mustn't turn your back on bad things. They may not seem important when looked at from the future, but they matter right now and shouldn't be ignored. Georges will need a little wisdom from each of his parents to navigate the many challenges he experiences. Full review...
The Elephant Keepers' Children by Peter Hoeg
Danish writer Peter Høeg is best known for his third novel Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow, partly because it was made into one of the more beautiful movie adaptations of modern fiction. While his latest book, The Elephant Keepers' Children is unlikely to change that association, it is a magical, story told through the eyes of the charmingly precocious fourteen year old Peter, full of farcical events, zany chases and brilliantly named characters. If you are looking for a gritty, realistic novel, this won't fit the bill, but for all its madcap events, Høeg continues his arch view of events and has surprising depth in the form of philosophical consideration of religions and faith. Full review...
The Blinding Knife (Lightbringer 2) by Brent Weeks
Gavin Guile thought he had five years left to complete his seven great purposes. But now it seems he has less than one. He might be the Prism - the most powerful light drafter in the Seven Satrapies, capable of drafting huge amounts of light without risk of losing his mind to the colours - but he's lost blue. He can't see it or draft it. Full review...
Capital Crimes: Seven centuries of London life and murder by Max Decharne
True crime has been one of the great growth areas of publishing in the last few years. As more than one author in the field as observed, everyone loves a good murder in a manner of speaking, and anybody who is looking for books on murders in London will find no lack of choice. Full review...
Write. by Phil Daoust (editor)
The Guardian newspaper has for some years now been publishing articles and interviews on how to write. Successful authors, agents and publishers have offered pearls of wisdom in the Guardian Masterclasses for genres as wide-ranging as travel writing, picture books and screenplays. Now their wisdom and their insights have been collected together in this slim volume which will intrigue both the readers and the writers among us. Full review...
Cliches: Avoid Them Like the Plague by Nigel Fountain
Cliché is such an awful word with all its connotations of the trite, the hackneyed and the overused. It's a word you'd hate to have associated with your writing, even if you produce nothing more public than a shopping list but for the benefit of the discerning reader Nigel Fountain has compiled a list in alphabetical order of these dreaded phrases. I began reading, confident that I couldn't be caught out and then blushed when I realised that I'd just pointed out to someone that avoiding clichés wasn't rocket science. They agreed that it isn't brain surgery either. Full review...
The Lives She Left Behind by James Long
Jo has always been an odd child, talking to her imaginary friend Gally from almost as soon as she could talk. Her widowed mother drags her from doctor to therapist until medication becomes the only answer. It provides peace for Jo's mother but pushes the teenage Jo into a shady half-existence. Meanwhile somewhere else, Luke is also a teenager leading a half-life as he co-exists with his mother and her disdainful, temperamental partner. Luke feels more at home in the great outdoors than under a roof and gradually comes to realise why. They may have lived this long unaware of each other, but Luke's and Jo's worlds collide one summer at an archaeological dig and what they discover is beyond their wildest imaginings. Full review...
The Confidant by Helene Gremillon and Alison Anderson (translator)
It's 1975 and Camille, having lost her father a while ago, is now coming to terms with the recent death of her mother. After plucking up courage and strength, she goes through the condolence cards but there's one item in the correspondence pile that's out of place. It's addressed to her but from Louis (whom she doesn't know) about Annie (of whom she's never heard). As Louis pours out his story, reminiscing about his youth in wartime France, Camille is convinced it's a mistake; she shouldn't have received it. However the envelope is definitely addressed to her and, what's more, this won't be the last instalment of Louis' sad memoir that comes through the post. Full review...
Alone In The Classroom by Elizabeth Hay
'Other children were out picking that morning, but she passed them by in her light-blue dress and sandals... she had an empty kettle in each hand and was alone, despite having three sisters.'
Coming back to Hay's writing is like a kind of homecoming. She has such a soft way of words: a gentleness that gathers you up like a story-time school teacher asking if you're sitting comfortably. Full review...
Dante's Inferno by Hunt Emerson and Kevin Jackson
It seems incredibly right, on only the third page of this text, that the Divine Comedy should be transferred to the black and white, cartoonish side of the graphic novel format. Our venturing hero encounters the 'leopard of malice and fraud', the 'lion of violence and ambition' and the 'she-wolf of avarice and incontinence', and leaves bemoaning living in a world of symbolism. You could see the beasts illustrated and captioned by name curving alongside their body, just as Hogarth may have displayed them, but no, Emerson goes down the path that is less cartoonish and less newspaper comic strip, and lets the picture and script stay a bit more separate. But later on he is delving into the more blatant, and immediate, by dressing The Furies up as multiple Maggie Thatchers. The good thing about this book is there is reason for everything in it - from the examples of artwork I have described, to the fact both creators claim it to have been 'influenced by childhood reading of MAD magazine', and a reason the publisher of this untouchable classic is known as Knockabout Books. Full review...
The Classic Guide to King Arthur (Classic Guides) by Dr Keith Souter
This is a comprehensive guide to the Arthurian legend, with the first half taking readers through the tale from Merlin helping Uther Pendragon to sleep with Gorlois - thus giving birth to King Arthur - right up to the deaths of all of the principal players in the story. The final section gives details of literary sources used for the legend, Arthurian poetry, folklore, the real people who may have inspired the legend, and depictions of King Arthur in popular culture. In between, there's a fairly short but useful guide to 'Who, What, Where and When In Arthur's Realm'. Full review...
Shopping With The Enemy by Carmen Reid
Annie is a well known fashionista, but she’s more friendly fashion guru than scary fashion diva. She has various things going on, like her makeover show on the telly, and between that and the kids she’s just about ticking along. Full review...
Hockney: The Biography, Volume 1, 1937-1975 by Christopher Simon Sykes
As one of the major names of British twentieth century art, David Hockney has always been a larger than life figure. Published to coincide with his 75th birthday, this is the first volume of a biography which tells his story up to 1975. Full review...
Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox by Lois Banner
With the possible exception of Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe is probably the most written-about deceased woman in twentieth-century history. The thirty-six years of her life and the manner of her death will no doubt continue to provide an opportunity for as many writers as they have since her sudden passing. After a decade of research Lois Banner, a Professor of History and Gender Studies at university in California, has added another weighty tome to the relevant shelves. As a self-styled pioneer of second-wave feminism and the new women’s history, she has some interesting insights to offer into her subject’s life as a gender role model. Full review...
War Against the Taliban: Why it All Went Wrong in Afghanistan by Sandy Gall
It's always struck me that there are several countries where western might is going to be largely ineffective when it comes to an invasion or any other form of warfare. Vietnam proved to be one such place for the Americans back in the seventies and when the latest incursion into Afghanistan was announced my immediate reaction was that there would be no positive outcome, not least because that was what history dictated. This was broadly correct but overly simplistic and this was one of the reasons why Sandy Gall's book appealed to me so much. He's been involved with Afghanistan since before the Soviet invasion of 1979. This isn't a war correspondent dropping in and out of a country, but a man with a deep love for the people and a concern for their welfare. He has the contacts, his knowledge is encyclopaedic and he's an expert communicator. Full review...
