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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The Walkers of Legend by Miles Allen
The Empire controls nine-tenths of the globe, but even this doesn't supply enough victims to keep enough blood flowing from the Yan-producing chambers. And so the new Emperor sets about a plan to invade the last remaining free lands. Advance parties are abducting mages to leave the defenders exposed and vulnerable. This is nothing new - it's an obvious tactic - but among the refugees is Chayne, a young man of startling power and promise. Chayne's potential is soon discovered by the advancing army's chief mage, Lathashal, and the young Mlendrian finds himself a favoured apprentice. Full review...
Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx by James Rollins
James Rollins has hit upon a truly brilliant premise in this series. People and creatures from our world have been transported at various times to a savage, prehistoric place called Calypsos, and in the first volume, Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow Jake and his sister find themselves suddenly whisked to a city where Romans, Mayans, Neanderthals and groups from many other societies, places and eras live more or less peaceably side by side. Their archaeologist parents disappeared three years before, and the two young people's struggles to survive, and to defeat Kalverum Rex, the Skull King, go side by side with their hope of finding a trace there of their mother and father. Full review...
Alice by Judith Hermann
Alice is a collection of five short stories, linked thematically since they all deal with the subject of death, but they are also linked because the central character, Alice, is the same in each story. So rather than feeling like short stories the book has a hint of the novel to it, yet the stories are never completed or fully told so it's a novel where you're not always sure what's going on. Full review...
Isabella by Fiona Mountain
The fate of mutineer, Fletcher Christian in the 18th century remains a mystery even today but Fiona Mountain has pieced together a dramatic and powerful story based on rumours and clues that Fletcher returned to England to be with his long-lost love, Isabella Curwen. Fletcher, the son of a bankrupt family and Isabella, the sole heiress of a huge fortune are prevented from marrying. Their relationship is manipulated by those around them and a young, naïve Isabella is forced to marry her cousin, John. Full review...
Milicent's Book by Charlotte Moore
'My name is Milicent Bella Ludlow and I am an orphan'.
So opens this story told in diary form of a year in the life of a young Victorian girl whose father has just died. Luckily there are some kind and loving relatives willing to help her and Mabel, her older sister, and they are able to stay living in their family home, Yotes, for a while. Full review...
Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater
After his best friend fell in love with a faerie, James realised she would never love him that way. But his attempts to get away from her, and the unrequited love he still nurses, only lead him straight to more faeries than ever before. For at James' new school, Thornking-Ash, the student populace is entirely made of musical prodigies. And there's nothing that attracts faeries more than music. James has even attracted his own muse – the deadly and dangerously attractive Nuala. The music she helps him make is better than he could ever manage on his own, but James knows the deadly consequences of making a deal with faeries, and he knows Nuala won't give him freebies for long. Full review...
Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan: His Life and Character by Andrew Crowther
Gilbert and Sullivan were the Rice and Lloyd Webber of the late Victorian era. Some might regard their work as slightly dated these days, especially the satirical lyrics which were so much a product of their time, but their appeal has never really faded and it surely never will. Full review...
The Siren by Alison Bruce
I recently read and reviewed Bruce's The Calling and thoroughly enjoyed it so I was hoping that this book would be equally good. The location is once again Cambridge. Two young women hastily meet up after hearing a local news item. A male body has been discovered in a gruesome and sorry state and has sent the two women into a right old flap. Although both are now in steady relationships and Kimberly is a mum, they obviously share a shady past together. 'It was a joke between them: Kimberly gets them both into trouble, Rachel gets them out.' Full review...
Don't Put Your Pants on Your Head, Fred by Caryl Hart and Leigh Hodgkinson
This is a gem of a book. Fred just can't get to grips with his underwear; pants and vests alike, it's taking him most of the day to get dressed and it's going to take much more than his sister's endless advice to help. Caryl Hart and Leigh Hodgkinson have made a great job of turning what is just a nice premise into a brilliant book. Though some might suggest that pants have been overdone in the world of picture books, I think I could find a few thousand five year olds who would disagree. Full review...
Jacobs Beach: The Mob, the Garden, and the Golden Age of Boxing by Kevin Mitchell
Despite not being a particular fan of the sport of boxing, Kevin Mitchell's compelling knowledge of the personalities involved in the fight game in the 20th century, coupled with a staccato writing style which got my attention quickly and kept it to the very last page, meant this book actually rose far above my expectations. Full review...
Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
Clara wants what ordinary teenagers want: friends, good school grades, a boyfriend. Only Clara isn't an ordinary teenager – she's part angel. She's fluent in all languages, naturally gifted academically and in sports. All the good stuff comes with a price, but even that's not so bad. Clara has a Purpose, an angelic calling, to save a mysterious boy from a forest fire, revealed to her in a series of visions that can strike any time of day or night. Full review...
Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson
Rather ironically, 'Before I Go To Sleep' is not a book that you will forget in a hurry. Imagine, if you will, waking up every morning with no memory of who you are, where you are, or who the person lying next to you in bed is. You can remember things during the day, but once you go to sleep, your mind is effectively wiped clean. This is the slightly unusual form of amnesia that the narrator, Christine suffers from in Watson's first novel that is a daring and gripping literary thriller. Full review...
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
'It can't be a coincidence that Stepford women are all the way they are' says Bobbie, Joanna Eberhart's only friend in Stepford. Joanna has recently come to live in the idyllic suburban town of Stepford with her husband and two children. She is an independent woman with her own part-time career as a photographer, is intelligent, liberated and has a keen interest in feminism. Full review...
The Lion Storyteller Book of Animal Tales by Bob Hartman and Krisztina Kallai Nagy
If you want to know how the turkey got its spots, or what advice was given by a lion, or even why the tortoise has no hair, then this is the book for you. It holds a collection of thirty six enchanting stories that will answer these questions and many many more. There are well known fables from Ancient Greece such as The Fox and The Crow and The Boastful Toad, and many other traditional tales from countries such as Japan, Indonesia, Peurto Rico, Syria and India to mention just a few. As you would expect, with tales from so many different parts of the world, there is great variety within this collection which also enables children to read about many different cultures, beliefs and ways of life. Full review...
Paraphernalia: The Curious Lives of Magical Things by Steven Connor
...In which our author considers the smaller, less noticeable items in our lives. He finds such objects as sticky tape, combs and keys magical, because "we can do whatever we like to things, but magical things are things that we allow and expect to do things back to us. Magical things all do more, and mean more than they might be supposed to." Principally these are the little flotsam that wash up on our desks, the handy things we keep in our pockets and about our person, and never think about - wave about, flick about, fiddle with, but never think about. Full review...
Wrecker by Summer Wood
I found the book title intriguing and wondered if I'd got caught up in some demolition yard story by mistake. Wood, at some stage in the book does give her readers the explanation. It's a boy's name apparently and the detailed explanation is rather charming - and apt. But it's also just a tad over-the-top (in terms of credibility I'm thinking) and by the time I'd finished the book I was heartily sick of this name which had short-term appeal for me. I was muttering to myself saying silly things like - why can't he be called Billy, for example. But I'm not writing the book. Full review...
The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You by Eli Pariser
In a world where websites are increasingly personalised, and your Facebook profile seems to pop up left, right and centre on sites you're visiting for the first time, there's a rapidly shrinking amount of webpages where your experience is the same as the next person's. Having always ignored Google's targetted adverts, I naively thought the actual search results produced by the site were one of the few places where I'd see the same thing as a random user in, say, Australia did. Eli Pariser shatters this myth immediately in his book as he tells us about the fifty-seven signals Google uses to build on the company's knowledge of us and choose which results to show us. Full review...
No Off Switch: The Autobiography by Andy Kershaw
'The boy Kershaw' as his hero and later friend John Peel sometimes wryly referred to him on air, has had a pretty remarkable life. He's been – taken a deep breath – a concert promoter while studying politics at Leeds University, Billy Bragg's driver across most of Europe, a presenter on BBC TV and successively also on Radios 1, 3 and 4, a news correspondent reporting from Iraq, Haiti, Angola and Rwanda, and also done time as a guest of Her Majesty. Full review...
Signs of Life by Natalie Taylor
Natalie Taylor was just twenty four years old, and five months pregnant, when her husband died in a tragic accident. This memoir takes us from the day she found out he was dead through to her son's first birthday. Natalie's situation is horribly sad. I can't even begin to imagine what I would have done in her place. The record of her grieving process is very raw and honest. Based upon her journals that she kept through this time her pain leaps off the page and makes you feel sick inside for the horror she's facing. I liked that she doesn't seem to be advocating a correct way to grieve. She simply states how she felt, how she reacted at each moment, be that calmly and quietly or with raging, screaming tears. Luckily she had an extremely supportive family and a good group of friends and it is interesting - if rather disturbing - to follow her progress as she deals with her life without her husband. Full review...
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Peerless Peer by Philip Jose Farmer
It's World War One, and Britain has got wind of some brilliant scientific research, that has created a new bacterial weapon capable of wiping out the world's supply of sauerkraut. But a dastardly German has stolen the formula. Before he can give a variant based on boiled meat, cabbage and potatoes to the kaiser, his most recent nemesis - Sherlock Holmes, no less - must be brought out of beekeeping retirement. Cue an adventure and a half, as he and Watson take to the skies for the first time in their hectic lives, end up in darkest Africa, and encounter a certain yodelling, long-haired nobleman, more than up to the name of King of the Jungle... Full review...
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969 by Kevin O'Neill and Alan Moore
So much for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Of the three main protagonists available for this adventure, one and a half are female! Anyway, Bram Stoker's Mina, Woolf's Orlando and Allan Quatermain are in London at the height of the swinging 60s, amidst rumours that a new attempt at birthing an Antichrist is about to occur. Certainly, the evil they've faced the last several decades will soon get a new face... Full review...
The Medusa Project: Double Cross by Sophie McKenzie
Each of the 'Medusa Project' books is narrated by one of the teens involved in turn, and this time it is Nico who is the first person speaker. Things are not going well for the group: their former mentor Geri has just tried to kill them, and by using all her government and police contacts she has managed to make it look as if they are guilty of murder. The four teens' psychic abilities allow them to escape to France, and now they need to work out how to stop Geri and clear their names. But things just get worse and worse: the strain of their situation and the introduction of new characters start to pull the group apart just at the time when they need to trust each other the most. Full review...
Chronosphere: Malfunction by Alex Woolf
The ideal paradise of life inside the Chronosphere isn't supposed to be like this. If you're like Raffi and his friends you're spending a year inside, which only takes a minute of real life, enjoying a hedonistic, summery lifestyle with time on your hands and little cares. Except it's getting more than summery, it's a hothouse; the food is running out; the exits are locked; and people are rioting and fighting amongst each other as tempers fly and people sicken and feel the end of their happiness. But then, if you're like Raffi and his friends, you are actually unknowingly there for a much more sinister reason, and someone's "project" is about to get much less Utopian. Full review...
Dr Xargle's Book Of Earth Tiggers by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
We have met Dr Xargle before, telling his class all about 'earthlets' and 'earth hounds', so now we see him again bumbling through his lesson with highly amusing misinformation about Earth Tiggers, or cats as we like to call them. As with many books by these authors, Dr Xargle's Book of Earth Tiggers is very witty indeed. The illustrations are funny as ever and work together with the words incredibly well, as without the correct pictures, this style of books can fly over the heads of little readers. Full review...
My Michael by Amos Oz
The Introduction to this book has a lovely sub-heading - 'Forty Years Later' where Oz admits freely that now, today, he wouldn't attempt or ... 'dare write an entire novel in a female voice.' But I found his open telling of why and how he came to write the book in the first place interesting and rather enchanting and whetted my appetite to get on and read the book. For example, Oz wrote most of the book in the cramped confines of a toilet, would you believe. But for me what caught my attention was the fact that he tells his readers that Hannah, the central character, was in his head and determined to he heard. 'Just shut up and write' she tells him. A Translator's Note follows before we get to the story proper. Full review...
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
This book has reached the dizzy heights of an International Bestseller with plaudits all over its covers. And it's a debut novel, albeit by an author who has worked in journalism. So, am I going to be another notch on the book-reading bedpost, so to speak? Full review...
Stanley Gibbons Great Britain Concise Stamp Catalogue 2011 by Hugh Jefferies
Such are the complexity, the sheer variety and number of permutations possible of postage stamp issues in the 21st century, that any catalogue compiler is faced with an almost impossible task. Producing a genuinely concise book is largely a matter of what to include and what to leave out. Full review...
Lessons in Laughing Out Loud by Rowan Coleman
Willow Briars is in her thirties and cannot exactly claim that her life is successful. Acrimoniously divorced, having no contact with her stepdaughter and working too many hours for a tyrannical boss, she cannot help but compare her life with her twin sister Holly's. But Holly has not had to live with the trauma that Willow endured as a child even though she has always been there to support and help her. However, one day she stumbles upon and old and tucked away second hand shop with a wonderful pair of shoes in the window that seem to be calling out to her. The shoes seem to transform Willow; not only her stature and looks but also her confidence and the way she sees herself. Also, the people who know her appear to be looking at her differently too. Transformed, she feels ready to tackle anything life has to throw at her which is probably a good thing when her fifteen year old stepdaughter turns up on her doorstep, pregnant and having run away from home. Full review...
All Yours by Claudia Pineiro
Inés leads an ordinary life with her husband and daughter. So ordinary in fact, the term 'desperate housewife' could have been invented exclusively for her. She is under no illusions about marriage as an institution - but is convinced she knows all about her husband, and all about men and how to handle them – with a little help from her mother, whose observations on losing a man are always at the front of Inés' mind. When Inés follows her husband on an errand one night, she witnesses him having a violent argument with another woman; the woman then suffers a freak accident and dies. Inés takes charge of the ensuing trouble in her usual capable way, with the full confidence of someone who is always in control. But in trying to protect her husband, she comes up against much more than she bargained for. Full review...
The Vault by Ruth Rendell
The unthinkable has happened. Chief Inspector Wexford has retired. He's had a long career as he was already an Inspector when he first appeared in 1964 – perhaps not a good plan if you're looking for longevity in your character – but I doubt that Ruth Rendell could have anticipated quite how popular Reg Wexford would prove to be. And that's what he is now – plain Reg Wexford – with no authority to interview people and no warrant card in his pocket. He and Dora are splitting their time between Kingsmarkham and their daughter's coach house in London, but the novelty of trips here and there soon wears a little thin and Wexford finds himself at something of a loose end. Full review...
Fallen by Karin Slaughter
Faith Mitchell is not having a good day. A three-hour training seminar had stretched into four-and-a-half-hours, which meant that not only was she late picking up her baby daughter from her mothers' she was also starving hungry. This mattered more than it would for most of us, because Faith is diabetic. She needs to eat. Full review...
My First Car Was Red by Peter Schossow
A young boy receives a pedal car from his grandpa, but it's old, rusty and needs work. They tinker with it, do it up, and paint it bright red. Grandpa gives the young boy instructions on how to use it, then the boy and his brother, Cornelius, go off for an adventure in the car. They careen round corners, barrage through wasp nests, duck low branches in the forest, and nearly go flying off a cliff, before crashing into a creek and pushing the car back home, exhausted. Full review...
The Conquerors by David McKee
The General rules the country, with his strong army and large cannon. The army stomps from country to country, conquering other people, until they've conquered all the countries except one. Rather than fighting back, this tiny little country treats the army as friends, welcoming them into their homes, with warmth and kindness. Full review...
Thackeray by D J Taylor
Today, William Makepeace Thackeray is remembered almost exclusively as the writer of 'Vanity Fair', considered as among the greatest novels of its time. Yet he was a prolific writer, also responsible for 'Pendennis' and 'The Newcomes', as well as several sketches, essays and much poetry. However most of his work is largely forgotten today, while as a person he remains little known, and he has been somewhat overshadowed by his better-known contemporary, old friend and rival Charles Dickens, born one year later. This biography does an excellent job in rescuing him from such semi-obscurity. Full review...
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
At a young age Sean Kendrick watches his father die violently in the Scorpio Races – a race held every year on the beaches of the island where riders compete for a huge cash prize by riding the dangerous capaill uisce, the water horses. Years later Sean is a four-time winner of the Scorpio Races with a prized mare – Corr – and plans to win again. Meanwhile, Puck (Kate) Connolly has been orphaned by the capaill uisce and struggles for every meal; their main source of income is her brother Gabe, but when he announces that he is leaving the island Puck realises that she has to fight for the survival of her family. Seeing no other option she enters her island pony into the races. The stakes are high as Sean and Puck compete against each other for the highest prize of them all – freedom. Full review...
Hannibal: Enemy of Rome by Ben Kane
Thanks to his Forgotten Legion trilogy, Ben Kane has recently bought Roman times to life in me far more than history and Latin lessons at school ever did. Having enjoyed this first trilogy, I've been eagerly awaiting his Hannibal trilogy, since he told Bookbag about it when we interviewed him. Finally, the wait is over and Hannibal: Enemy of Rome is here. Full review...
Obedience by Jacqueline Yallop
The story opens with a much younger Sister Bernard - no more than a girl really. The daily lives of the nuns is regulated, with long hours for prayer, meditation and solitude. Everyone is housed, fed and watered adequately and that's as far as it goes. No little luxuries to speak of. Nothing to temper the harshness and the silence. Visits from family members are forbidden also. However, the young Sister Bernard appears to not only be coping very well with all of this but even embracing it. She doesn't grumble or complain about anything. However, even although she may appear saintly she is human, just like the rest of us and temptation does come along in the shape of a young man. Full review...
