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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A Winter's Wedding by Sharon Owens
Decluttering: it's a great thing to do, you know. You clear space and you give yourself emotional energy when you get rid of things which you don't need. Take stuff to a charity shop and it's an all-round winner for everyone. That's what Emily did when she began to clear out her flat. Her friend Augusta had given her quite a few gadgets which she knew that she would never use. And it was at the charity shop that she met Dylan. His sister ran a charity which rescued horses and Dylan was helping out between jobs. Now, there's something which you need to know about Dylan. He's perfect. He's thoughtful, considerate, loyal and honest. Yes – he's that perfect. Full review...
Someone Else's Son by Sam Hayes
The book opens with Carrie Kent. Successful television presenter and mother of teenager, Max. Ms Kent immediately comes across as hard-headed, business-like, aloof and rather distant but that's the whole point, of course. Very good at her day job. But as a mother? Her television show is a reality programme, dealing with well, basically the dregs of society: single, young mums, drug addicts etc. Carrie knows that these people keep her in designer shoes and bags but she keeps them at arm's length. She wouldn't want to catch something. Carrie sails through her life with a self-satisfied smile on her face. You can just tell. Full review...
Amazing Women: Inspirational Stories by Charles Margerison
The cover of this book tells the reader that these short bioviews or biographies can be read in 10 mins or so. This is one of a series within The Amazing People Club courtesy of the Amazing People Team. There is a rather fulsome Author's Note followed by a one-page introduction. I was immediately struck by the fact that, given the various feats of these women, I was anxious to read about them - and not about Dr Margerison. Less is more. He goes on to say (by now I'm getting a bit tired of the smiling Margerison) that 'The stories are inspirational and can help you achieve your ambitions in your own journey through life.' All of this and especially that last sentence sits rather uneasily with me, I'm afraid. Full review...
Glitter by Kate Maryon
You'd think, seeing Liberty Parfitt's life from the outside, that she'd be blissfully happy. She has everything money can buy, she loves life at her expensive boarding school and she has a wonderfully close friend. But she is not content. Her academic grades are not good, and her father clearly prefers her hard-working and successful older brother Sebastian, who is at the same school. He wins all manner of prizes, but the only area in which she shows any talent is music, a subject her father will not allow her to study. Her mother died when she was only nine months old, and Liberty imagines her life would be very different if she had a loving mother to balance her father's criticisms. And then utter disaster: the family loses every penny they own, she is whisked away from school without warning and taken to a dreary little flat where she has to cope not only with her own sadness and sense of loss but also with a father sinking deeper and deeper into depression. Full review...
Stories for a Fragile Planet: Traditional Tales About Caring for the Earth by Kenneth Steven and Jane Ray
Stories for a Fragile Planet is a wonderful anthology of stories from long ago and also from the present. The stories come from far and wide – from China to Alaska. They all seem to involve brave characters that care greatly about their environment and who are prepared to do things differently whether it is looking after a blackbird's nest for days until the eggs hatch or caring for a young lion cub who would otherwise die. There are ten stories in total and each one is short but self contained with a very satisfying conclusion. Each one can easily be read in a single sitting and would make ideal bedtime stories for slightly older children. Full review...
The Art of Murder by Michael White
Detective Chief Inspector Jack Pendragon has had a lot of experience of murder but he's never experienced anything like the one he was called to on a wintery January morning in Whitechapel. The man is horribly mutilated but he's held up in a chair and the scene has been set as a nod to the surrealist painter, Magritte. This is art as murder.
Back in Whitechapel in the 1880s the man who was probably the most famous murderer of them all. He's planned the murder of four local prostitutes with the bodies being horribly mutilated. Four, he feels, is a satisfyingly balanced number. This is murder as art. Full review...
Trapped by Brooke Morgan
Ellie Walters is 36, divorced and keen to start a new life away from her cheating and control-freak ex-husband. Fulfilling a life-long dream, she decides to take her 15-year-old son, Tim, to live with her in the small town of Bourne. As she soon becomes good friends with her next-door neighbour, Louisa Amory, Ellie finally feels she is making a life of her own. She begins to feel a sense of freedom and independence but for how long? When strange events start occurring Ellie is forced to face some painful and guilty memories connected to a tragic accident nineteen years ago; memories which she would rather forget. It is clear that someone has discovered her well-kept secret and is reluctant to let her forget about it. As a campaign of terror against Ellie unfolds she must come to terms with what happened all those years ago and try to discover who her tormentor is. Vulnerable and afraid, she relies on Louisa's friendship to help her through the ordeal. However, when a misunderstanding causes a rift between Ellie and Louisa's son, Joe, the women's friendship is threatened. Alone and afraid, she suddenly finds herself trapped in a nightmare from which she must do all she can to escape. Full review...
The Puppy That Came For Christmas and Stayed Forever by Megan Rix
Megan Rix and husband Ian took on two massive challenges at the same time. Their failure to conceive a child became something of an issue with Megan being, as she herself said 'north of forty'. Time was passing quickly and it looked as though IVF was the only option if they were to have the long-for child. It's time-consuming and traumatic. At the same time the couple became involved with a charity which provides helper dogs for people with disabilities. Puppies come to a family for six months to do their basic training and then move on. And that was how Emma, a soft, sweet-natured, adorable puppy came into their lives. Predictably, they fell in love with her. Full review...
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings
These days, W. Somerset Maugham seems to be something of an anachronism. In his heyday, for much of a career which lasted from the end of the Victorian era to the 1950s, he was one of the most successful and widely read of all British writers, with his novels, short stories and plays spawning more film adaptations than any other author. Yet over the last thirty years or so he seems to have slipped from favour, as if his preoccupation with the Edwardian England in which he grew up and his end-of-empire settings are deeply embedded in an age we would rather forget. Moreover, as this very comprehensive biography demonstrates, he was not the most pleasant of individuals. The unhappy child, orphaned by the time he was ten, afflicted with a lifelong stammer and brought up by an aunt and uncle who showed him no affection, grew up to lead a long and unhappy life. Full review...
Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Bryn has lived almost all her life around Werewolves. Ever since a Rabid killed her family – only narrowly escaping herself – she's been under the care of her saviour, the Stone River Pack alpha, Callum. Marked as Pack, but Human, not Werewolf, Bryn is something of an oddity. She lives by Pack rule, but tries at every opportunity to undermine it – to keep her distance and maintain that piece of her that is her true self. She doesn't want to submit to Callum's alpha dominance and lose her last piece of freedom. Full review...
Elmer and Papa Red by David McKee
Elmer and Papa Red is a lovely picture story book that features some very excitable elephants. It is only two days before the visit of Papa Red and all the young elephants are so excited that they can hardly contain themselves. Elmer takes them for a walk to fetch the big tree whilst the older elephants make the preparations. They have a great time especially as they see snow for the first time and that leads to a great deal of fun and frolicking. Once the tree is brought home it is decorated and surrounded by lots of presents and the young elephants hide so that they might catch a glimpse of Papa Red. He duly arrives out of the sky on a sleigh pulled by six moose. Surprisingly though, rather than the sleigh being laden it is empty until Papa Red loads it up with all the presents under the tree. The elephants have all seen him taking the presents but instead of being upset, they are excited as they know that he is taking them to those who need them most! As they fall asleep exhausted though, Elmer delivers one small gift to each elephant – especially left by Papa Red. Full review...
Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater by Larry Stempel
Stempel is an associate professor of music at an American university so I would imagine that this book is primarily a labour of love. In the Preface Stempel bemoans the loss of important research material over the years, whether it be musical scores, playbills or similar. It happens. It is a fact of life. Simply thrown away or discarded as being considered not important. It's only a musical, after all. A bit light and frothy. Stempel thinks otherwise - and takes his time telling us exactly why. Full review...
Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
World War One looms and Europe's powers are getting ready their armies. In a last ditch attempt at diplomacy, the British air ship Leviathan carries aboard a gift for Sultan Mehmed V, Lord of the Horizons and ruler of the Ottoman Empire. But when things go drastically and dramatically wrong Deryn, a girl posing as a male midshipman aboard the Leviathan and Alek, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, find themselves fighting their own battles. Everyone has their own secrets, but not everyone wants to spark a deadly war... Full review...
The Ring of Solomon (Bartimaeus) by Jonathan Stroud
Barty is back!
Well, he isn't actually back. But we do get to revisit him. Which is good.
I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. But just in case you don't, Bartimaeus is a sarcastic, wisecracking djinni and the star of a wonderful and best-selling series by Jonathan Stroud. Whilst tied to various enslaving magicians, Bartimaeus has had a finger in many pies of world history, particularly that of London. In fact, he's saved the day almost as many times as Doctor Who has. But Bartimaeus is no Doctor Who. He's a rude, sarcastic egomaniac and unselfish behaviour isn't his byword. But he cracks an irresistible one liner. And he usually comes through in the end. Full review...
Why Can't Elephants Jump? by Mick O'Hare
Well? Why can't elephants jump? And while you're pondering that, think about why James Bond wanted his martini shaken, not stirred. Why is frozen milk yellow? Does eating bogeys do you any harm? What's the hole for in a ballpoint pen? How long a line could you draw with a single pencil? For answers to all these questions, and so many more, then do yourself a favour and pick up the latest collection from the New Scientist's Last Word column.
Mick O'Hare was kind enough to be interviewed by Bookbag. Full review...
A Diary of The Lady: My First Year as Editor by Rachel Johnson
Along with most of my contemporaries I've never read 'The Lady' except once when looking for an au pair job in my student days, and that, it turns out, is the problem. Before Rachel Johnson was appointed in June 2009 the average age of the readership was 75, the circulation was dropping and the magazine was haemorrhaging money. The Budworth family, proprietors of 'The Lady' since it was founded 125 years ago, chose son and heir Ben Budworth to turn the magazine's fortunes around before it folded. He asked Rachel Johnson to be editor. Full review...
Don't Do That! by Tony Ross
In this story we meet a little girl called Nellie who is fortunate to have a very pretty nose. She wins competitions and gets the best part in the Christmas play because of that nose. However, during a rehearsal, the teacher suddenly shouts out 'Don't do that!' as he notices Nellie and her fellow angels with their fingers sticking up their noses. Unfortunately Nellie's finger becomes stuck fast and she is sent home for her parents to remove it. It is impossible though which sets off a chain of events where all sorts of people attempt to remove the offending finger but all in vain. They all go to extreme lengths such as tying Nellie to the back of a tractor or sending her up into space. Throughout all of this, Nellie's brother Henry keeps declaring that he knows how to get the finger out but he is always ignored. You might think that is probably a good thing when you take a look at the brilliant illustrations and notice some of the hazardous implements he is holding at various times. So can any of the sensible grown ups help Nellie or is she facing a future with a permanent finger up her nose? But then again, Henry is very persistent... Full review...
Can't Stand Up For Sitting Down by Jo Brand
I am a big fan of Jo Brand and I love her inimitable droll style of comedy. I always enjoy her stand up performances as well as her appearances on my favourite panel programme QI. As a consequence I was really interested to read her second autobiographical book – Can't Stand Up for Sitting Down. As she states at the beginning though, this is not really an autobiography but a collection of thoughts and experiences that have resulted due to her life as a stand up comedian. The book covers the period from her first professional gig up to the present day. Her early life and career in psychiatric nursing are covered in her earlier book Look Back in Hunger. Full review...
Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
Olivier de Garmont is a young, French aristocrat who is drugged by the enigmatic Marquis de Tilbot, a close friend of Olivier's monarchist mother, and dispatched to the safety of the emerging United States to avoid the 1830 July Revolution, and the threat of the dreaded guillotine, in his native France. At least nominally his task while there is to prepare a report on the American penal system on behalf of the French government, a task for which he has little interest or indeed talent. Tilbot also dispatches his servant, an older British man, John Larrit, known to everyone as Parrot, to act as Oliver's secretary, servant, translator and to spy on Olivier for both his mother and Tilbot. They are an ill-matched pair, from opposite sides of the social spectrum but in democratic America, this relationship develops in ways that neither of them would expect. The story is told in alternating voices of these two main characters. Full review...
Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo
I blame Bridget Jones.
Jane Austen's six novels have inspired a huge number of novels about the romantic dilemmas facing bright, educated middle class women. Does adding literary references to chicklit somehow make for better novels? I don't think so, but I do find these books fun, escapist reading, and the title of this one was irresistible. Full review...
Santa's Delight by Marisa Laycock
There's only one more night to go before Christmas Eve and Santa knows that his preparations are going well. The reindeer are fed and strong and the elves were just finishing wrapping all the presents. He's done the planning and was grateful for the different time zones. But Mrs Santa knew that there was something worrying her husband and gently she persuaded him to talk about it. He was worried about all the people in our communities who help so much, from the doctors and nurses, rescue services and the armed forces who are on duty over Christmas. Full review...
Egyptian Dawn: Exposing the Real Truth Behind Ancient Egypt by Robert Temple
This is latest book from Robert Temple in which he documents new theories on the Ancient Egyptians. There are some startling claims in the book, not least regarding the Pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid and the proposal that there were in fact two Egyptian civilisations that existed alongside each other in different parts of Egypt. If the author is correct in all of his assertions then it would certainly point to the location of amazing new archaeological discoveries and shine a new perspective on how we view the Ancient Egyptians and the Pyramids. Full review...
A Russian Novel by Emmanuel Carrere
We meet Carrere as part of a small film crew. One minute they're in France, the next they're in the midst of poverty, freezing temperatures and the utter desolation of a Russian town, miles from anywhere. Carrere back-pedals for the sake of his readers, explaining that he has family connections with Russia. But, as an intelligent and educated man, he also wonders what the hell he's doing here. He's relinquished the comforts of his life in France for what - grey sheets and terrible food. He must be mad. Full review...
The Dolls' House Fairy by Jane Ray
Rosy has a beautiful dolls' house that she enjoys playing with every Saturday with her dad. However, one Saturday she wakes up to find her dad is ill and has gone to hospital, so she is left to play alone. When she goes to the dolls' house, however, she discovers that a messy little fairy named Thistle has moved in! Full review...
Pocket's Christmas Wish by Ann Bonwill and Russell Julian
It's Christmas morning and Pocket the rabbit sees a snow angel on the ground. He decides to follow the angel's tracks to discover the true meaning of Christmas. He leaves his brothers and sisters playing in the snow, and off he hops on an adventure, taking in a variety of sights and sounds. Full review...
Ah, sharing! Perhaps one of the hardest lessons to teach a toddler is how to let go of a chosen toy and share it with someone else. My weekly playgroup is always full of loud parental demands of 'share!' followed by wails of distress from small children being forced to part with the one thing they absolutely, positively must have...until they spot something else they want! This promising-looking story deals with just such an issue, and in this case it is an older sister learning to share everything, from favourite blankets to tea-time food with her baby brother. Full review...
Garlands, Conkers and Mother-Die: British and Irish Plant-Lore by Roy Vickery
For many centuries, plants have not only had practical uses as food, remedies, textiles and dyes, but have also symbolic and folkloric meaning in many different cultures. The term plant-lore has been coined to describe the profusion of the customs and beliefs associated with plants, and this book gathers together many of the plant-lore traditions of Britain and Ireland. Full review...
The Right Thing: An Everyday Guide to Ethics in Business by Sally Bibb
Bibb wastes no time in highlighting key areas of the whole ethics debate. What, exactly, does the word mean ... and why should it matter to us anyway? She starts by informing the reader that ethics (which is a branch of philosophy) is usually the poor Cinderella. Overlooked in favour of the more glamorous areas ie: big, fat, profits for the business or businesses concerned. Bibb wants us to think more about the ethical side of things and perhaps less about the balance sheet. She gives an example most of us will be aware of. Two words. Fred Goodwin. Bibb comments that had he applied his moral compass in his leadership role, perhaps, just perhaps, the Royal Bank of Scotland may not have fallen so far from grace. I'm aware that many will now be foaming at the mouth at the mention of FG (myself included). Full review...
