Book Reviews From The Bookbag
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 Painted Smile by Frances Fyfield
Diana Porteous is young, rich and a widow. She's reached the stage of being over the initial grief after the death of her husband, but her life lacks focus. It's then that her beloved step-grandson, Patrick, comes up with an idea: he suggests an exhibition of portraits entitled A Question of Guilt which encourages people to really look at the pictures and work out what they think the subjects are doing. It began in a rather light-hearted way but it's not long before everyone is caught up in the preparations for the exhibition, to be presented in the large wine cellar under the old schoolhouse. Not everyone is sure that it's suitable though... Full review...
Boyfriend by Christmas by Jenny Stallard
Genie works as a writer for an online women's lifestyle site, the sort that tells you to eat at the cereal café down the street (before everyone starts rioting outside), advises you on where to get the best seasonal homewares, reviews getaways from cottages in the Cotswolds to mansions in Miami, and throws in interviews with important/influential/IT women for good measure. Genie, though, has a rather niche role. She writes on dating and love and being single in the city. But since she's been single a while, her editor is getting fed up with it and sets her a challenge: find a boyfriend by Christmas, and blog about the process. Full review...
Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, His Wife and Her Alligator by Homer Hickam
Elsie and Homer Hickam were West Virginians and knew how to make their tales as tall as the hills that surrounded them on all sides. There is a Hickam family legend that has been told and retold so many times over the years that the lines between myth and reality have become well and truly blurred. Carrying Albert Home is the story of a man and his wife, a sweet pet alligator and a very lucky rooster who decide to take a road trip to Florida in 1935; the year of the Great Depression. What follows next is all completely true, well, except for the parts that are made up... Full review...
Old Bear's Bedtime Stories by Jane Hissey
I'm not sure you ever grow out of Old Bear stories. I just curled up in a blanket to read this latest collection of stories, and when I'd finished my nine year old daughter sneaked over and took the book upstairs to read it by herself! Here we have twenty one stories and poems, all fairly short so useful when you need a quick bedtime! All your old favourites are here - Bramwell Bear and Duck and Little Bear, just waiting for you to snuggle up and read about their latest adventures. Full review...
The English Countryside (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts) by Ruth Binney
I live in the countryside and spend as much time as the weather will allow exploring it, so the chance to read Ruth Binney's The English Countryside was too good to be missed. We've met Ruth before at Bookbag and we know that she writes well and interestingly, but just one thing was worrying me about this book. It's a hardback and beautifully presented but its the size of book that you slip into a pocket or handbag. Would it be rather superficial? Full review...
Busy: How to Thrive in a World of Too Much by Tony Crabbe
Serendipity often brings you to the important books. Recently I heard myself say to a friend: I'm far too busy to do some of the important stuff. It pulled me up short: there was definitely something wrong here - and then I had the opportunity to listen to an audio download of Busy and I knew that it was something I had to do and take notice of if I was to stop going backwards. Because that was what I was doing. Full review...
The World of Poldark by Emma Marriott
Back in the seventies I watched Poldark on television: it was enjoyable, but I'll confess that if I'd missed an episode it wouldn't have worried me too much. When the gentleman rebel reappeared in 2015 I had no intention of watching, but a friend saw the first episode and said how good it was. I caught up on iPlayer, almost for politeness - and was hooked. It wasn't just the story - but perhaps I'm more in tune with it now that I was forty years ago - it was the quality of the production which kept me watching week after week. When Emma Marriott's book landed on my desk the temptation to 'just have a quick look' proved far too much for me. Full review...
As Quiet as a Mouse by Karen Owen and Evgenia Golubeva
There are a whole host of things that Elephants are excellent at; they reportedly never forget and they can hold loads of water in their trunk. One thing they are not known for is being quiet. However, their erstwhile natural enemy, the mouse is – hence someone is as quiet as a mouse. Can these two great animal tribes put aside their differences so that you can teach a nelly to tread carefully? Full review...
Grandpa's Great Escape by David Walliams
Most people don't really get Grandpa. He's old and set in his ways (apart from the fact that recently he's taken to going down to the shops in his brown checked slippers, whatever the weather), and he's definitely getting more and confused by the day. In fact, a lot of the time he thinks he's back in World War Two, flying his Spitfire out across the Channel to defeat the bad guys. Only his grandson Jack understands that the way to get through to him is to play along. Full review...
Queen of Spies by Paddy Hayes
Paddy Hayes has created an extensive account of the life and career of an extraordinary female spy. Daphne Park has faced sexism, brutality and betrayal. She has bravely stood against terror, charmed diplomats and navigated her way through the then alien Soviet Russia. Hers is an incredible life, one that brings the nail-biting and seat teetering that we expect from a spy story. Full review...
The Book of Learning by E R Murray
An orphan with only her beloved grandpa for company, Ebony Smart's world is turned upside down when he dies. Sent to Dublin to live with an Aunt she didn't know existed, Ebony soon discovers that her new home, 23 Mercury Lane, is full of secrets. Discovering that she is part of an ancient order of people who have the power to reincarnate, Ebony is soon under threat from a terrible evil that threatens to destroy their existence. With just her pet rat Winston, and a mysterious book to help her, she must figure out why her people are disappearing and how to save their souls, and her own, before time runs out… Full review...
Jonathan Franzen: The Comedy of Rage by Philip Weinstein
Jonathan Franzen: The Comedy of Rage makes frequent mention of Franzen's attendance at Swathmore College in Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1977 and where the author, Philip Weinstein was, until last year Professor of English. An earlier graduate, the novelist James A. Michner left his entire estate of some 10 million dollars to the college and the proceeds from his works, including the one on which South Pacific was founded. It was at Swarthmore that Franzen met his wife, where she had been a gifted classmate. Weinstein, the author who teaches there, has personally known Franzen for over two decades and the latter has given him a personal interview and been otherwise in contact with him for some considerable time. If this all seems just a little blurred in its boundaries, not to say incestuous, then that might not matter. However, Franzen's work closely concern itself with shame, guilt, incest, rage and humiliation. Full review...
Britannia Obscura: Mapping Britain's Hidden Landscapes by Joanne Parker
What shape do you assume Britain to be? If you merely go by the current map, you're holding yourself ransom by the secessionists wanting devolution, and changes to the boundaries within Britain, but doesn't the place go beyond that outline on the page? Remember, it used to be connected to mainland Europe, and once we'd sort-of-settled into one kingdom on our shores the people in charge were also ruling over parts of France. And of course – the two-dimensional plan of the British Isles is nowhere near the real story, for we have many coastal waters, we have airspace, and we have a large subterranean territory. You can definitely throw away the imagined space of Britain, for the reality is far grander. Full review...
Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs by Lina Wolff and Frank Perry (translator)
Upstairs, a flat where mother and daughter struggle from pay cheque to pay cheque; downstairs, the love nest of a dying writer and her last of many conquests. Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs is a multilayered testimonial to the writer, the eccentric Alba Cambó, gathered by Araceli, the teenager upstairs. Through Araceli's bird's-eye view, anecdotes unfold as told by lovers, business acquaintances (often both – for with Alba Cambó you can never know), and the short stories of Cambó herself. Full review...
Always There by John Van der Kiste
When Dave left Plymouth to go to college in Uxbridge he met Lisa. They sort of palled around together for a little while with no thought of anything more, well, not on Dave's part at least. The he met Jo and for a long time they were really good friends and it would be a couple of years before they were anything more. Lisa didn't see it that way though: she reckoned that if Jo hadn't come along she and Dave would have stuck together and made a go of it. Dave and Jo's couple of years at college were marked, if not marred, by Lisa's regular outbursts. Full review...
The King is Dead by Suzannah Lipscomb
Shortly before his death in January 1547, King Henry VIII's last will and testament was read, stamped and sealed. It has remained one of the most intriguing and contested documents in British history. This book examines it from every angle, and analyses the background against the last days of the King's life and the events which followed. Full review...
When Mr Putin Stole My Painting: Ten Short Stories by Joannah Yacoub
Put yourself, if necessary, in the mind of someone wanting to publish their first collection of short stories. What do you choose as the contents – besides just saying the best available? Do you try and find a theme, or connecting happenstance or style, to pin them together? Are they based on you now, someone else somewhen else, or all the diverse people and places you have once met? Joannah Yacoub seems to have gone for the latter. Full review...
The First Wife by Erica Spindler
I should have guessed from their names (Bailey and Logan) that this story was set in the States, but initially I was too busy identifying with the blurb on the back to notice. 10 year age gap? Check. Magnificent estate? Check. First wife? Check. Even if that doesn't make you feel as if you are reading about your own life, which is of course how it made me feel, there's a lot to drag you in to this one immediately and I was utterly delighted that my initial eagerness to read this one was sustained to the very last page. Full review...
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
Our narrator, a self-confessed expert at giving, er, relief to men, is branching out. Well, carpal tunnel syndrome at such a young age isn't great. Instead of working at the back of a dodgy tarot shop, she's out front, pretending to see auras, and using her natural aptitude to read people (a skill mastered begging for years with her one-eyed mother), when a woman comes in with a serious demand. Piecing the mystery of what it might be together for us, our heroine ends up in a very malevolent building, housing what might be the step-son from hell… Full review...
On Purpose: Delivering a Branded Customer Experience People Love by Shaun Smith and Andy Milligan
This is a book about business things – branding, specifically. How to communicate your purpose to customers through an identifiable marketing strategy. How to ensure your company portrays the image you want and how to get your staff, and customers, to buy into it. Full review...
Clangers: The Brilliant Surprise by Daniel Postgate
There is no such thing as nostalgia anymore as all the classic children's TV shows of the past have been pulled out of retirement, dusted off and made anew. The Clangers are one of the latest IPs to be visited by the resurrectionists and the new show has proved very popular. It has now spawned spin off toys and books, but how do you write a book about a bunch of creatures that we cannot understand? Full review...
Game of Mirrors by Andrea Camilleri
Inspector Montalbano came to the aid of his new neighbour when her car wouldn't start. It wasn't just gallantry which led him to do this: the fact that she was stunningly beautiful didn't harm her chances at all. Montalbano wasn't to know where this simple, courteous act would lead, although he knew something was wrong: it wasn't that the car wouldn't start - it had been deliberately damaged. Her husband, a computer salesman, seemed only to be around occasionally and obviously didn't care what Liliana got up to when he wasn't there. And then Liliana began making advances to Montalbano, whilst she was carrying on a relationship with a young assistant in a local clothes shop. What was going on? Full review...
Dragon's Flight by Dr Kris J Sime
Simon and Alice have spent the school term living with their aunt, a kindly, if somewhat vague, person. Simon's father describes Aunt Maggie as bohemian and hippy. Simon is quite dismissive of the flowing clothes and collections of gemstones and discussions of auras that being bohemian and hippy entails, but both he and Alice can agree that Aunt Maggie is a nice person. Full review...
Hilda and the Troll by Luke Pearson
Hilda, a rather delightful small, blue-haired girl, is never far from an adventure. She is confident and excitable, brave and creative, and her stories are slightly mad, and very, very readable! Full review...
The Jar of Happiness by Ailsa Burrows
What would you do if you knew the recipe for happiness? I'm sure you could make a fortune, selling it by the jar, though it's questionable of course as to whether such profiteering from the sale of emotions would make you happy! Meg, the little girl in this story, makes up her own special blend of happiness in a jar, and she takes it everywhere, using it to cheer up her friends and family. But what will happen when Meg can't find the jar? Full review...
The Soldier's Wife by Pamela Hart
...none of it was real, until the last moment when his hand, the tips of his fingers, left the tips of hers and he was gone.
Turned into just another soldier.
Ruby and Jimmy are newly-weds full of big dreams and plans for the future, but all of that will have to wait. It is 1915 and the world is in the grip Great War, sweeping Jimmy away to fight battles in far-off Gallipoli. Ruby feels like she's in limbo; no longer an innocent child but not quite a fully-fledged married lady. Not wanting to return home, she decides to stay in Sydney, to keep herself occupied as she waits out the war, longing for the return of her beloved husband. She rents a room from a local landlady and finds a job as a bookkeeper at a Timber Merchant. Although she initially takes the job to keep herself occupied and earn a little money, she soon falls into a comfortable routine and starts to enjoy her new-found independence and responsibility. Full review...
Boy 23 by Jim Carrington
Boy 23 isn't in My Place any more. He can't see The Screen, he can't hear The Voice. Boy 23 is alone.
Before being dumped alone in the forest by The Voice, Boy 23 - or Jesper, as we shall call him - has lived in a room entirely by himself. He has never met another human being or been outside. His only experience of the world has been through a few short video clips, shown to him on his Screen by The Voice in My Place. Now, he finds himself alone with only a bag full of survival equipment and some brief words from The Voice: his life is in danger, people have been sent to kill him, he must head north west to the Low Countries, The Voice will meet him there and explain everything. Full review...
Sherlock: The Essential Arthur Conan Doyle Adventures by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
There can be few people who haven't heard of Sherlock Holmes, whether in the guise of the original stories or subsequent film and television adaptations including the most recent series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, who are pictured on the dust cover of Sherlock: The Essential Arthur Conan Doyle Adventures. It's this most recent series which has widened the fan base of the stories and many of them won't have copies of the original stories to hand. My own copy is a 1959 reprint of the 1929 edition which had four stories in one volume, but this current volume has nineteen stories in the one book. Full review...
Old School (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 10) by Jeff Kinney
Aah, for the modern life. Internet, baby wipes, ease, lemonade on tap. The only problem – well, one of them – is that Greg's mother is demanding the town switch off for a weekend, so good old-fashioned standards can be returned to. She's not the only person with ideas of old-fashioned standards – Greg's grandfather has moved in, so there're both his siblings, three adults – and a pig who thinks he's a family member. Mind you, with the usual ineptitude of a Wimpy Kid, probably nothing modern could prepare Greg for what's about to come, when a trip to a character-forming camp seems like the necessary easy way out… Full review...
