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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I & I: The Natural Mystics by Colin Grant
Just mention the word reggae, and the name that nearly always springs to mind is that of Bob Marley and the Wailers. The music has always been very much a product of the Jamaican culture, nurtured in years of turbulent history. In this book Colin Grant, born in Britain of Jamaican parents, goes back deep into its roots, and in the process examines the childhood lives of the Wailers’ three main personalities, namely Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Neville Livingston, better known as Bunny Wailer, to provide an account of the group – but much more than that. Full review...
This Is Not Forgiveness by Celia Rees
Jamie falls hook, line and sinker for Caro the moment he runs into her at the Rendez. He knows she's bad news. Everyone knows she's bad news. But he just can't help himself. Caro is strong, vital, secretive and beautiful and Jamie is a moth to her flame. He suspects there's someone else in her life but it doesn't make a difference. No matter what everyone else thinks, what his sister Martha says, Caro is not like any other girl Jamie knows. She's worth any risk, despite the disappearances, despite the odd tattoos and scars from self-harm. And there's also Rob. Back from Afghanistan with a shattered leg, Jamie's older brother is descending into a world of drink and drugs. He just can't fit back into small town life. Jamie wants to help him, but Rob is too unpredictable and unstable to reach. Full review...
The Donut Diaries: Revenge is Sweet: Book Two by Anthony McGowan
Only the other week I was reviewing and enjoying a book styled as a young lad's diary, where the greatest insult was to call someone a doughnut. Here, the hero of a book styled as a young lad's diary, calls himself Donut. He does eat a lot of them, for one, and as a result has a bit of a muffin-top going on. His schoolfriends call him Donut too - those few friends he could gather together into a gang of outcasts and oddments in the first book of this series. In this first sequel, covering a couple of months in his second term, there is a very nasty problem, as Donut is framed for leaving unsavoury messages about the school. Full review...
Artemis by Philip Palmer
With every novel, Philip Palmer is going from strength to strength. I've not always enjoyed his writing style, but his eye for a story is wonderful and his imagination is seemingly endless. Every time I open one of his novels, I wonder when he will find the limits of his inventiveness and it's never that time. Artemis is no exception to that rule. Full review...
The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan
On Rollrock Island, the fishermen find their brides from the sea through the usurial offices of the witch Miskaella. They're selkies; seal women who shed their skins to become human. Their husbands are obsessed by them and the men without a selkie will risk anything to become part of the enchantment, even their human wives and children and half their lifetime earnings. Soon there are no human women left on Rollrock - the adults to the mainland and the female selkie babies to the ocean. There are just dads and mams and little boys. Full review...
To Be A Cat by Matt Haig
Be careful what you wish for - it might actually come true!
If someone had said this to Barney Willow before he wished to be a cat, if someone had made him believe it, then he might have avoided a great deal of trouble. But if you want to find out what he'd also have missed out on, then you'll need to read this lively and tragi-comic body swap story. Full review...
Beat The Band by Don Calame
It's a welcome return for the trio of Matt, Sean and Cooper from the earlier book, but there's a significant difference, as Cooper - something of a zany sidekick in the original - takes centre stage here. Moving on from wanting to see a naked girl last year, this time his goal is to go all the way with a girl. Things are looking bad for him, though, when he's paired up for a health project on safe sex with social pariah Hot Dog Helen. Deciding the only way to overcome the humiliation of association with her is to give the school something else to remember him for, Coop persuades the other two members of the trio to enter the Battle of the Bands competition. Can any of them play an instrument? Oh, come on, what do you think? Full review...
A Horrid Factbook: Horrid Henry's Sports by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
Horrid Henry is back with another book of freaky facts and random trivia. We loved his book about Bodies and this time the lovable lad (well, I'm sure that's what his mother said...) is back with a book about sport. And in the year of the London Olympic Games, what could be more suitable? It's not just a crammer for every sport in the Games or the background to the Games themselves. This is the book which swoops into the World Cow Poo Throwing Contest and delves into the Bog Snorkling Championships. Full review...
Shakespeare's Mistress by Karen Harper
The conceit of Shakespeare's Mistress is that Shakespeare was married to Anne Whateley the day before he was married to Anne Hathaway, and Anne W remained the love of his life, with an affair (if you can have an affair with your 'wife') continued in London where the same Anne was also the famed dark lady of his sonnets. There is some basis for this theory in that the parish records do show a mysterious entry into the register for just such a contract the day before the Hathaway marriage but although the author claims this is 'faction', it's very much at the fiction end of that scale and is really a 'what if?' piece. Full review...
My Dear Watson by Margaret Park Bridges
My Dear Watson is written by the hand of Holmes, Lucy Holmes, whom the world came to know as Sherlock. Yes, the well-loved detective is a female cross-dresser but with good reason. The young Lucy, having watched her mother die tragically, rushed off to live with her brother, Mycroft, at university. In order to stay, undetected (no pun intended), she had to dress as a man. Being slight and gamine, this wasn’t difficult and, after a while, she preferred the lifestyle. Watson hasn’t seen through the disguise, continuing to live with Holmes between marriages as they combat the odds and solve crimes in (or despite) the police. Full review...
Seven Princes: Books of the Shaper: Volume 1 by John R Fultz
Elhathym gatecrashes a feast at the court of Vod-the-Giant-King demanding the throne, which he asserts was his 3,000 years ago. Vod is a little incredulous and refuses to abdicate. Elhathym then lives up to his job description (evil sorcerer), destroying the entire court... apart from his son, Prince D’zan who manages to escape with his bodyguard, Olthacus the Stone. Prince D’zan wants to fight to regain his kingdom but the only way to counter Elhathym and his armies of the dead is to form alliances with other nations; alliances that create friendships but also bring treachery and betrayal. Behind it all is Iardu the Shaper, a creation god-like figure who plans and plots. Full review...
Casper Candlewacks in the Claws of Crime! by Ivan Brett
This is the second outing for Casper and his friend Lamp, who likes inventing things, but don't worry if you haven't read the first book: this one is fine as a stand-alone. Casper's village is chock-full of idiots, who spend their time doing such ridiculous things you wonder how most of them managed to survive to adulthood. But the idiocy in these books does not encourage the reader, or indeed the author, to sneer: rather, it is a fond and glorious celebration of eccentricity taken to such extremes that it almost seems a different form of sanity. And it seems little lasting damage is done, either. People fall down, over and into things regularly, but never seem to suffer anything worse than a few cuts and bruises. A poor old lady in a wheelchair is thumped over the head, but the next time we see her she's grinning at the crowd and slapping her head to demonstrate what happened. And Casper's mum is such a bad cook she doesn't even take food out of the tin before cooking it, but no one starves. All in all, reading and enjoying the antics of the inhabitants of Corne-on-the-Kobb requires a major suspension of disbelief, which is of course not going to be a problem for the majority of the confident readers these books are written for. Indeed, the only difficulty such readers are going to have is to get through a whole paragraph of the book without dashing off to find someone to read a choice expression or joke to. Full review...
The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman
Nora is an unusual heroine. She is sharp, snarky and funny, and her wry tone and contemporary references will resonate with her readers. But she is also uncompromisingly geeky, and she opts to complete her independent study assignment by joining her three friends at the local university in a research project on the Voynich Manuscript by Edward Kelley (This manuscript actually exists, and has taxed the abilities of some of the greatest code-breakers in the world in the last hundred years.). However Professor Hoffpauer does not consider Nora mature enough to work on the manuscript itself, despite the fact that her linguistic ability is far superior to that of the others, and instead he gives her the lesser task of translating the letters of Kelley's step-daughter Elizabeth Weston. Full review...
Pushka by Stephen Mackey
The circus train is coming to town and little Pushka is asleep in the last wagon. Unfortunately, he topples out and wakes up in fright amongst the enchanted trees of the forest. He is scared by enormous thuds on the ground but then he spies a beautiful dancing girl and instantly falls in love. Little does he know that the lovely girl, Lulu, is a puppet and there is an evil giant controlling her strings and using her to lure Pushka to danger. He finds himself in a lot of trouble when he is enticed into the giant's oven with its fierce burning flames. Luckily, the giant does not reckon on the strength of the love that Lulu feels for her new friend, at it is the power of this that helps her to save him. Full review...
Noah's Child by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Joseph, a young Belgian Jew, is sent away by his parents when they grow nervous about the treatment of Jews during World War Two. He is taken in by a village priest, Father Pons, and given a new identity and a place in Father Pons' school along with an assortment of other children, some of whom are genuine pupils and others who are, like Joseph, seeking sanctuary. Full review...
The Totally Terrifying Three by Hiawyn Oram and David Melling
This story sees the gathering together of three unlikely friends: a dragon, a witch and a giant. They all consider themselves to be TOTALLY TERRIFYING, yet when they meet each other, they're not scared. As they wander around together they come across a toddler. She isn't phased by any of them and the totally terrifying three soon find themselves entertaining her with a shoulder ride, a trip on the broomstick and a sweetly crooned dragon lullaby. It seems the three friends are not so terrifying after all! Full review...
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
The country might be at war over the Falklands but life is hardly straight-forward in the Mole household. Adrian's parents are back together after both had disastrous affairs and it's not long before Adrian is shocked to learn that his mother is pregnant. He's equally shocked to see his father helping Doreen (a.k.a. the 'stick insect') along a path which isn't particularly slippy, although he does notice that she seems to have put on quite a bit of weight. Pandora Braithwaite is as fickle, but adorable, as ever and Adrian's hormones are still playing hop-scotch with his brain. So, what's new? Full review...
A Kind Man by Susan Hill
Meet Eve, and her husband, the title character, Tommy. She's at a bit of a sticky wicket in life, for however much they want a baby, her sister and his feckless husband churn out son after son after son, and go no lengths at all to love them. So when Eve and Tommy do at last have a child, it's a tragedy for it to die when only three years old. But in this plot, which you'll thank me for not going into further, there will be a lot more swings and roundabouts, of torment and ecstasy, doldrums and delights, hell and heaven, to come. Full review...
Slobcat by Paul Geraghty
Slobcat is our cat.
He does nothing but lie
about and sleep.
Well that is what the little girl who tells this wonderful story about a most endearing cat thinks. Actually, she is quite wrong, as the reader discovers, as the story progresses. Because she and the rest of the family only see him lazing around and sleeping, they have named him Slobcat. It is a term of affection though as they do really love their cat, even though they have got him quite wrong. She tells the reader that Slobcat is too lazy to eat his dinner; often comes home soaking wet because he can't be bothered to shelter from the rain and he would be totally useless if there were any rats or mice that might need catching. Full review...
Exodus From the Alamo by Phillip Thomas Tucker
Remember the Alamo!
The war-cry of generations of Americans is based upon the idea of the hugely outnumbered defenders of the Texan mission against the marauding Mexicans standing in defence of an ideal until death. Full review...
A Hen in the Wardrobe by Wendy Meddour
It was a quiet night in Cinnamon Grove, with all its residents settled in for a peaceful night's sleep. But all is not well with everyone. At number 32, there is a sudden crash and Ramzis’ dad is on the move… looking for a hen in the wardrobe! But that isn’t all. So far, Dad has been chasing frogs across the pantry floor, searching for a leopard in the back garden and sailing to the moon in the bathtub. Dad is sleep-walking again, because he is homesick. The only solution is for the family to take off for an extended visit to his home, a Berber village in the mountains of Algeria. While there, Ramzi encounters Boulelli (a giant spider in the forest), the Wise Man of the mountains and the native Tuareq in the desert in an effort to solve Dad’s problem for good. But will any of it work? Or will it be up to Ramzi and his secret plan to save the day? Full review...
Finders Keepers by Belinda Bauer
Set in Exmoor, plucky little Jess Took is kidnapped from her father's vehicle while he is off managing the local hunt. Before you can say 'who took Took?' another little boy is plucked from his parents' car. In both scenes the only evidence is a post-it note saying 'you don't love her' or him. On the case is DI Reynolds who is initially more concerned with how his new hair transplant is taking until the crimes escalate to a full scale serial abduction case. Full review...
Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale
Rosie's beloved mother Trudie has just died of Huntington's disease and now Rosie has a terrible decision to make: should she get tested and discover whether or not she has inherited the mutated gene that causes this fatal illness? But just as she decides that truth and knowledge is better than fear, Rosie discovers that Trudie wasn't her biological mother. She and a dying baby were swapped at birth. So Rosie sets out to the States to find her real mother, accompanied by Andy, an ex-boyfriend with whom she hopes to rekindle a love that never quite died. They find more than Rosie could ever have expected, and she is faced with an even more agonising choice: live a lie, or tell the truth and destroy lives just as hers has been destroyed... Full review...
Dickens: A Memoir of Middle Age by Peter Ackroyd
With publishers falling over each other in an effort to outdo each other in celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth, it was perhaps inevitable that we should see a reappearance of what has become the modern standard life, by Peter Ackroyd. The 1200-page original was first published in 1990, while this 600-page abridged edition surfaced in 1994, and now makes another timely appearance. Full review...
Wereworld: Shadow of the Hawk by Curtis Jobling
At the start of Shadow of the Hawk, our heroes are in disarray. Drew, having bitten off his hand to escape Vanmorten and the undead, is in captivity, about to be forced to fight as a gladiator. The Staglord Manfred and the Wereshark Vega, two of the three remaining members of the Wolf's Council, are on the run, spiriting Drew's mother to safety. And Hector, the third of the Council... oh, Hector! Full review...
The Second Coming by John Niven
God has come back from a holiday and has some catching up to do. What’s been happening on Earth for the last couple of hundred years? The realisation hits him hard... it makes him sick in fact. So what’s the answer? To quote the religious cliché, Jesus is. After a board meeting with the senior saints, God decides that his son must be torn away from jamming with Hendrix to go back to the streets of the world to remind the sinners of the way. Full review...
Heaven by Christoph Marzi
The night that Heaven lost her heart was cold and moonless. But the blade that sliced it out was warm with her dark blood.
David Pettyfer stumbles into this explosive first scene as he takes his usual shortcut over the rooftops of night-time London on his way to deliver a book to one of Miss Trodwood's most valued customers. David hates closed-in spaces and in particular the Tube, but loves the open air and the freedom he feels on the roofs. And so, it turns out, does this beautiful, enigmatic girl who claims that evil men have cut out her heart. David can feel the danger but he is lost right from his first glimpse of Heaven. He couldn't walk away from this girl even if he tried. Full review...
Wonder by R J Palacio
August Pullman was born with a rare genetic defect that has caused extreme facial disfiguration. He has undergone 27 surgeries since he was born and has always been vulnerable to illness. In order to deal with his medical needs and to shield him from the staring and cruelty of the world, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents for his entire life. But Auggie is stronger now and all of that is about to change. Auggie is about to enter school for the first time – and he’s petrified. ‘Wonder’ is the story of Auggie’s first year at Beecher Prep and his first journey alone into the outside world. But can he confront the challenges that wait for him there and convince his classmates, new friends, family and himself that, underneath his unusual appearance, he is just the same as everybody else? Full review...
First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones
Charley Davidson is a private investigator with a difference - she's the Grim Reaper, ushering souls towards the light. When three lawyers from the same firm are murdered, they ask her to solve the case to allow them to rest in peace. With the help of her uncle, a detective, she sets out to do just that - as long as she can avoid being distracted by the nightly dreams she's having of a sexy entity… Full review...
From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp
Gene Sharp is an American politologist and a veritable (and venerable) guru of non-violent struggle. The story behind the From Dictatorship to Democracy is a fascinating one. The book, or a booklet really as it consists of 160 small pages, was apparently created in response to a request from Burmese dissenters in the early 1990's. Sharp responded to this request by producing a generic text, a manual for the subversive that lies out the theory and practical advice for those engaged in a struggle to bring down a dictatorship. Full review...
Life with Sir Alex: A Fan's Story of Ferguson's 25 Years at Manchester United by Will Tidey
In his 25 years as manager of Manchester United Football Club, Sir Alex Ferguson has won everything, most of them more than once. He's taken his team to the top of English football with some lavish purchases, some expert man management and a ruthless dedication to his club and his players. Depending which side of the fence you sit on, this has made him either the most popular, or most hated, man in English football. I'm in the latter group. I'm a Liverpool fan. Full review...
Tempest by Julie Cross
Jackson has a secret – he can travel through time. Sadly, it’s not as cool as it seems. He can just pop back a few hours, observe things, and not change anything. His friend Adam, who he’s trusted with this, is trying to get him to record every time he does this so they can find out more about the mysterious ability he developed eight months or so ago, but Jackson looks on it as little more than something fun. And then everything changes… armed men burst into his girlfriend’s room, and attack the pair, leaving her dying. Panicking, he jumps back in time 2 years, far further than he’s ever gone before. This time, he can’t get back to 2009. Somehow, Jackson needs to try and find a way to get back to his own time and save Holly, but it’s quickly apparent that there is an awful lot that he needs to learn about himself before he can get to grips with this. Full review...
Falling for You by Giselle Green
Rose is full of worries and insecurities. Her father is frail, her mother died some years previously. Rose is desperately hoping for a letter offering her a place at the university of her dreams... but has no idea how her father will survive without her there to look after him. Full review...
Leave Me Alone by Kes Gray and Lee Wildish
A young boy sits in a field, and to every advance by the animal friends around him he declares 'Leave me alone.' He finally explains that his problems are too big for anyone to help him with because his problem is a giant who bullies and teases him. When the bully appears the animals gather together and tell him to leave the boy alone. Full review...
Claude at the Circus by Alex T Smith
It's no secret that I am a big fan of Alex T Smith. I first discovered him in Claude's first story, Claude in the City and fell in love with the little dog in the red beret and his best friend, Sir Bobblysock. I know, I can already sense some of you rolling your eyes at the thought of a story featuring a dog and a sock, but really you'd be doing yourself a favour to just stop being a grown up for fifteen minutes and let yourself revel in the pleasure of a highly enjoyable story! Full review...
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith
The story takes place over the course of only twenty four hours but so much happens during that small amount of time. It starts when the reader meets Hadley having missed her flight to London by a mere four minutes. As it turns out, those four minutes are some of the most significant of her life, as they result in her booking a later flight and consequently meeting Oliver with whom she is seated throughout the journey across the Atlantic. Full review...
Hawk Quest by Robert Lyndon
Hawk Quest is an epic of a historic novel set in the 11th century. A band of companions led by Vallon, the mysterious Frankish warrior, travel from England to Scandinavia and on to Anatolia in order to capture and deliver four rare pure white falcons as a ransom for Sir Walter, the son of a Norman nobleman held by the Seljuk Turks. Full review...
The Playgroup by Janey Fraser
Gemma Merryfield is really looking forward to her first term in charge of Puddleducks Playgroup. The children are delightful, although sometimes challenging, and the parents are generally supportive. There are visits to local farms to organise, a Halloween assembly to plan and the end of term Nativity play to look forward to. She loves writing the monthly newsletters and creating little rhymes to help the children with their learning. These provide delightful interludes at various points in the story. Full review...
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
For as long as she can remember, Belly and her brother Stephen have holidayed in Cousins Beach with her mother, her mother’s friend Susannah, and Susannah’s two sons Conrad and Jeremiah. Belly lives for these summers – even if Conrad and Jeremiah only ever seem to see her as the young tag-along. This summer, though, she knows that’s going to change… Full review...
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
On the face of it Matt King is very lucky. He's descended from one of Hawaii's largest landowners and is a wealthy man as well as being an attorney. He's married to the flighty, flirtatious Joanie and has two daughters, teenager Alex, a model who might just have a bit of a drug problem and ten year old Scottie. She's feisty, clever and - for me - stole the book. Have you ever noticed that when luck changes it doesn't do it in baby steps? It does it in lumps. Joanie is involved in a powerboat accident and sinks into an irreversible coma as a result of a head injury. But there's more piling up. Matt discovers that Joanie has been having an affair. Does the man who's been - er - enjoying his wife have the right to say his goodbyes too? Full review...
Good Bait by John Harvey
DCI Karen Shields runs the over-stretched Homicide and Serious Crimes Unit and it's an early-morning call which takes her to Hampstead Heath and a seventeen-year-old Moldovan boy who's dead under the ice in the pond. Even working out who he was is difficult and she's got no idea that she's at the edge of a web of organised crime and gang warfare which will take up much of her time. Hundreds of miles away DI Trevor Cordon lives in a sail loft in Newlyn and his day-to-day duties are, well, undemanding but he's shaken out of his rut when an old acquaintance dies in London and he heads off to the capital to find the friend's daughter. It's going to be a lot more complicated than he realises - and it touches on Karen Shield's problems in a way that neither of them could ever have imagined. Full review...
Bereft by Chris Womersley
Quinn Walker, a young Australian man fresh from fighting on the European front in World War One, returns to the very town he was drummed out of ten years before, after being accused of raping and killing his own younger sister. Two things have beaten him to the small settlement - one, the global flu pandemic; two a telegram saying he died bravely in action earlier in the war. And the less you know of what he meets and does back in Flint the better, the more to keep this fresh and brilliant book's many intrigues as secret as they were for me. Full review...
Fracture by Megan Miranda
Delaney Maxwell just died. Except, she didn't. After 11 minutes under the ice, she was declared officially dead, only to make a full recovery. As far as the doctors are concerned, it's a medical miracle. As far as Delaney's concerned, it's traumatic - not just for the obvious reasons, but because she came back changed. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to people who are about to die, and unable to make sense of why her life was spared. Can the mysterious Troy, who has the same ability, explain what's going on, or does he have a different reason for wanting to get close to her? Full review...
The Voodoo Wave - Inside a Season of Triumph and Tumult at Maverick's by Mark Kreidler
Maverick's is one of the biggest, nastiest, jaw droppingly huge waves in the Pacific Ocean and as such has become something of a Mecca for the world's top surfers. Situated off the coast of Northern California its freezing cold conditions make it a far cry from the sun drenched breaks in Hawaii, Mexico and South Africa with the number of surfers adequately qualified (and fearless enough) to take on the cliff like drops probably numbering less than 100. Full review...
The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams
Catherine Sorgeiul is a woman with burdens. Living with her uncle in London’s East End during the reign of Queen Victoria, hers is a life that seems empty – yet in fact is full of things she is trying to push away.
Filling her days has become a problem, so when a series of grisly murders begins, Catherine is drawn to the mystery of the Man of Crows in a way that seems bound to change her life. Full review...
