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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How to Make Money: Smart Ways to Make Millions by Christopher Edge
Most kids seem to feel that they could do with more money and short of the parentals coughing up the dosh they have to find some way of earning it for themselves. Christopher Edge has some ideas which might appeal in How to Make Money, with its particularly eye-catching sub-title Smart Ways to make MILLIONS. Now I rather thought (hoped) that the last bit might be hyperbole, fearing that the country might be over-run by a flood of teenage millionaires, but read on... Full review...
A Concise History of Russia by Paul Bushkovitch
Russia's recent history, especially since the end of the Cold War, has been so full of new developments that there is probably little if any limit to the number of fresh histories the market can absorb. This most recent, from a Professor of History at Yale University, take a little over 450 pages to tell the story from the earliest days of Kiev Rus, the territory which was to become the ancestor of the present nation state around the 10th century AD, to Vladimir Putin's assumption of office as President in 2000. Full review...
The Expats by Chris Pavone
Kate and Dexter Moore move to Luxembourg, along with their two young sons; a world away from their native Washington DC. The incentive is Dexter's great new job which will mean an expat lifestyle for a year or two, but good money and the chance to explore Europe. In the process Kate will be turning her back on more than Dexter realises. Up till their move to Luxembourg, Kate has led a secret double life as a CIA operative. As Kate comes to terms with the boredom of being a full-time housewife in an alien culture, they meet Bill and Julie, also expat Americans. They soon become friends, but Kate has her suspicions and discovers that the past is never far away. Full review...
Virals by Kathy Reichs
Tory Brennan is just a normal girl with an extraordinary aunt - the renowned forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan. Desperate to follow in her relative's footsteps, she seems to have little opportunity to do so living in South Carolina - but that quickly changes when she and her friends stumble on a decades old corpse. Desperately trying to find out what happened to the dead person, and cure a sick dog they've liberated from a laboratory on their island home, the quartet's lives have suddenly become rather complicated. And that's before a mysterious virus hits them all and leaves them with some very strange side effects... Full review...
Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion
Even if you have not read Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 classic Treasure Island, or you have read it a long time ago, the chances are that you will be broadly familiar with the story and in particular some of the rich characters he created because they have entered into the culture of our image of pirates. Before Johnny Depp convinced us that pirates looked like Keith Richards, it was the terrifying image of Long John Silver and his parrot, squawking 'pieces of eight', double dealing his way to buried treasure and the innocence of young narrator Jim Hawkins that conjures up what we think of in terms of pirate adventure. But Stevenson left some tantalizing threads to his tale, not least the fact that Silver made off with only the majority of the treasure and left the remaining silver behind together with three marooned pirates to fend for themselves. Setting the story 40 years after these events, Andrew Motion picks up the tale and has the offspring of Hawkins, in the form of his son also called Jim and Long John Silver's daughter Natty returning to collect the remaining bounty. Of course, it's never going to be that simple. Full review...
Bunheads by Sophie Flack
Nineteen-year old Hannah Ward, a dancer with the Manhattan Ballet Company, has devoted her entire life to dance. She works hard, watches her weight like a hawk, and navigates the complicated maze of relationships with the rest of the company who, in many cases, are both friends and rivals. But then she meets musician Jacob, and she realises just what she's missed out on while growing up like this. Will she do the unthinkable and give up her career, or pass up the chance of love in the hope of gaining success in the ballet world. Full review...
The Flappers: Vixen by Jillian Larkin
Gloria Carmody is a society princess in 1920's Chicago. Engaged to Sebastian Grey, both powerful and handsome, she is expected to be little more than an ornament to him. After spending a night at the notorious speakeasy the Green Mill, though, Gloria knows that there's more to life than balls and socialising... Full review...
The Paradise Trap by Catherine Jinks
When Marcus's mum has to economise over their holidays, it means just the two of them, revisiting a campsite she herself knew as a child, in a grotty old second-hand caravan. It's a greasy, shabby, squeaky little closet of a caravan, and no-one can agree on what the awful stink pervading it reminds them of. But when the trip is hyped up as a great time for both, it seems to have a chance of coming true, for a bizarre cellar to the caravan leads everyone to their dream trip - if only, unfortunately, one way... Full review...
Dogs Never Lie About Love: Why Your Dog Will Always Love You More Than Anyone Else by Jeffrey Masson
Readers come to books for strange reasons but I don't think that I've ever before picked up a book, looked at the title and being intrigued not by what was suggested but by how anyone could think differently. 'Dogs Never Lie About Love' is a statement of the obvious to me. I've lived with and around dogs for most of my life and I know that dogs are incapable of pretence. I've never met a dog I couldn't trust: if it doesn't like me, it will tell me so straight away. It will not attempt to trick me. I only wish that I could say the same about most of the humans I encounter. Full review...
Intrusion by Ken MacLeod
Pregnant Hope doesn't want to take the Fix, a genetic cure-all pill that corrects the DNA of an unborn child and protects it from all sorts of diseases. Hope's husband Hugh doesn't really understand her objections to the Fix - in fact, Hope never really articulates them at all - but supports her right to choose. Full review...
Treblinka: A Survivor's Memory by Chil Rajchman
Here comes yet another book about the Holocaust, and yet another with more than enough damning indictment of those events and their perpetrators, with more than enough horrific reportage to make your blood run cold, and with more than enough distinguishing features to make it a necessary purchase. The latter is partly down to where it came from - while Dachau started out as a camp for political prisoners, and Auschwitz I was a work camp based round barrack blocks that you can squint at and see a bad private school, this is coming from Treblinka, which was constructed purely and simply to kill. It has rightly been called a 'conveyer-belt executioner's block'. Full review...
The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones
On a spring evening in 1912 preparations were being made for a supper party to celebrate the twentieth birthday of Emerald Torrington. It was taking place at Sterne, the much-loved home of the family, although finances were uncertain and no one was quite sure how much longer they would be able to stay in the house. Emerald's mother had hopes that she would be able to marry Emerald off to John Buchanan, a local entrepreneur, but Emerald was far from convinced. Her step-father was in Manchester trying to raise the funds to keep the house going but Emerald and her brother Clovis, Patience Sutton and her brother Ernest along with Buchanan and the household staff prepared for what they hoped would be a delightful evening. Full review...
Suddenly, a Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret
In the opening, titular story, Keret is forced by several people to create, and alter, a short short story. It's a plain metaphor for the history of Israel, but it proves that this modern Scheherazade is not too far removed geographically from the original. And what follows are probably the sort of short, tantalising, open-ended, rough-round-the-edges and surreal results of being compelled to carry on telling tall tales on a nightly basis. Full review...
The Flask by Nicky Singer
Twelve-year-old Jess is dealing with a lot. Her beloved Aunt Edie has just died. Her mother is expecting twins - but these new babies will be Jess's half-brothers and will complete Jess's mother's marriage to her stepfather. But will they complete Jess's family? Will they even survive? Because the twins are conjoined. And in 70% of separations, only one twin lives. And if this weren't enough in the way of trials and tribulations, Jess's best friend Zoe is moving towards a relationship with a boy. Does this mean she will leave Jess behind? Full review...
Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser
Every summer Katie and her sister Julie meet up with Alex and his brother Kyle at a lakeside community in New York. They leave behind their problems - which are legion - and find comfort in each other. But when a dark secret of one of them leaks out, the four are all left reeling by the far-reaching consequences. Full review...
Cows in Action: The Viking Emoo-gency by Steve Cole
The future world's balance between cows and humans is a lot different to our own, as the bovine species has evolved into something a lot more intelligent; so much so that in order to gain the upper hand, both parties are using time travel to snatch advantages in other times and places. In this episode of the series, it's a robotic ter-moo-nator and a fundamentalist scientist who have gone back to Viking times, leaving just three special cows from the current age with the task to go back and sort things out on the side of a happier, human-friendly existence. Can they succeed, or will much of what we know of since the Viking era be re-moo-ved from our history books? Full review...
The Minority Council by Kate Griffin
In Matthew Swift's London, just about anything is possible. As the Midnight Mayor, protector of the city, Matthew has incredible power and resources at his disposal. Not that he really wants them. In fact he'd rather not have all the hassle, if he's quite honest. But a new drug is swamping the streets of London - Fairy Dust. This deadly magical drug eventually turns its users into fairies, who then disintegrate into the dust that they've been taking, ready to be collected and sold again. And this perverse practise is not Matthew's only issue. Some teenage vandals have had their souls sucked out and social worker Nabeela wants the help of the Midnight Mayor to work out exactly how that happened. But the more Matthew digs into both issues, the more he starts to realise that the source of the problem may be closer than he initially thought. Full review...
The Witch of Turlingham Academy by Ellie Boswell
Boarding school, midnight feasts, a crowd of best friends and cute boys to gaze at (though mostly from a safe distance): what more could you ask from a story for girls of twelve and under? Well, how about throwing a bit of magic into the mix? Perfect, huh? Full review...
Torn by Stephanie Guerra
Stella Chavez is a fairly ordinary girl until she meets Ruby Caroline. She gets pretty good grades, has friends she's grown up with, and is a soccer star. New girl Ruby, on the other hand, is trouble with a capital T, right from the moment she storms into her first class wearing a band-aid of a skirt and swearing like a trooper. There's something about Ruby, though, that draws Stella to her, and the pair quickly become inseparable. But as Ruby's behaviour gets more and more erratic, and she's drawn into bad habits and an unsuitable relationship, can Stella save her friend - or will she get dragged down with her? Full review...
Canine Perspectives by David Cavill
David Cavill has spent much of his adult life around dogs, with the Finnish Spitz holding a special place in his heart. Amongst other things - he was founder of the Animal Care College, worked as a senior manager at Battersea Dogs' Home, judging and advising on the selection, care and training of pedigree and mongrel dogs - he wrote a regular column for Our Dogs newspaper and Dogs Monthly. It's these and other articles which are reproduced here and as there's a time span of fifteen years they allow the reader to see what has changed and - probably more importantly - what hasn't. Full review...
What Rhymes With Sneeze? by Roger Stevens
Poems often seem to lose their appeal as we get older. They become tricky things that must be interpreted and understood and written about in essays rather than the instantly enjoyable experiences they are when you're a child. This book contains a wide variety of poems, written by the author but also some written by other poets, and the author uses them to show children about the different sorts of poetry, various rhyme schemes and how to go about writing your own poems too. Full review...
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Harold and Maureen Fry were unremarkable: one long marriage, one adult offspring and a long retirement stretching out in front of them like a prison sentence. One morning everything changed. The catalyst was a letter from Queenie, an ex-colleague of Harold's. He knew he needed to respond and thought that posting a letter would suffice. However, a chat with a girl at the local petrol station made him realise that a letter couldn't be enough. He had to provide Queenie with hope... he had to walk. Full review...
Road to London by Barbara Mitchelhill
Elizabethan London, made all the more wonderful by the splendour of the court and the magic of Shakespeare's imagination, is a perfect place to set an adventure. Mysteries, plots and conspiracies abound, and the stark contrast between the lives of the rich and the poor makes for a colourful and thought-provoking story. Add to that the privileged position we find ourselves in as we follow our young hero Thomas and his good friend Alice from the stinking streets full of cutthroats and foot-pads right into the presence of the Good Queen herself, and young readers are in for a treat. Full review...
Capital by John Lanchester
With a gentle nod to the great commentator of London life of the past, John Lanchester sets his wonderfully entertaining state of the nation book around Pepys Road. With a huge cast of characters, he looks as a cross section of London life and while in some ways not quite perfect, it comes pretty darn close. Full review...
Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio
What makes us, us? How is awareness of one's own being created in the human mind? What makes me who got up this morning me that went to bed last night, and the same me that got up on most mornings in the preceding forty-odd years? How is it that we see, remember and understand things, other humans and the world in general? And who is doing the understanding? How is it that we are conscious of our own experiences, and how is it that we are conscious of ourselves being conscious? Full review...
Tom Gates: Everything's Amazing (sort of) by Liz Pichon
Tom Gates, our chronicler of all that happens in Year 5, is back with more stories of all that's happening at school and at home. He and his friend Derek decide to enter Derek's dog, Rooster, in the local dog show, but they might have been just a little over-enthusiastic with the shampooing and Rooster ends up looking rather more fluffy than usual. Tom and his sister Delia are still at daggers drawn over, well, just about everything and she's not impressed by the noise that Tom and his band make when they're practicing. Still, Tom has a birthday coming up and his only worries are that some of Granny Mavis' baking might be just a little too unusual and if his Dad does DJ then the whole thing might turn into a disaster. Full review...
Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks
Some readers may understandably be deterred from reading Russell Banks's Lost Memory of Skin due to its controversial subject matter and there's no doubt that it's a morally complex read. The main character, known only to us at 'the Kid' is a young man who is a convicted sex offender. Set in south Florida, he is forced to reside, with other offenders and his pet Iguana, under a causeway. While living here, he encounters a huge and enigmatic man, known only as 'the Professor' from the local university who is apparently studying homelessness amongst sex offenders and the two form an uneasy friendship. Full review...
When I Dream of 123 by Oakley Graham
'When I dream of 123' is an enchanting book that would make any bedtime very special. It is a counting book that starts at number one and goes all the way to one hundred which is a bit unusual for many picture books. This also makes it an ideal book for slightly older children as well as the very young. It is also a lovely book because each number is accompanied by a gorgeous illustration and some unusual and often comical information about what is seen. It reads like a non-fiction book but all of the pieces of information are mainly imaginary. Full review...
Under the Dragon's Tail: Murdoch Mysteries by Maureen Jennings
Murdoch is a lonely man, still grieving for the fiancée who died over a year before. He busies himself, when he is not working, with training for the police sports' day, learning to dance, and trying to overcome his attraction to the charming lady who lodges in the next-door room. She is a charming young widow with a young son, but since she is not Catholic, he knows, sadly, that he can never find married bliss with her. Full review...
The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler
Aaron's wife, Dorothy, was killed in an accident. An oak tree fell on their home, demolishing the sun porch where Dorothy happened to be at the time. He worried that if he had done things differently (a matter of some biscuits and a television set) Dorothy might not have been where she was and might still be alive and for a while he camped out in the wrecked house until further damage forced him to move in with his sister. It was then that he realised that Dorothy wasn't really dead - well, not dead as we understand it - as she materialised in odd places, wearing the clothes she used to wear and eventually staying with Aaron for longer periods of time. And gradually they began to bicker, just like a long-married couple... Full review...
One Soul by Ray Fawkes
When reading this it soon becomes very clear we're reading not one, but nineteen, stories. With each page divided into a regular 3x3 grid there are eighteen images on each double page spread, and every one shows an episode, or a beat, of a different character's life in turn, from being a babe-in-arms to death. However, the way they join up - everyone's figurative moment comes at once, at times the artist's heavy black ink makes all eighteen images coincide into one image - proves there is a separate, individual tale around and behind the others, one which will end with the most delightful moral - that the ability to be anything one imagines is in our DNA. Full review...
Fu Manchu - The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer
A couple of years after their encounter with the villainous Dr Fu Manchu, Dr Petrie and Nayland Smith are reunited once more to take on the returning evil genius. When the Rev JD Eltham vanishes after conversing with Petrie, the two realise that Fu Manchu has returned and must risk life and limb to save their friend. Full review...
Revenge of the Tide by Elizabeth Haynes
Genevieve worked as a sales executive by day and a pole dancer by night but her dream was to buy and renovate a boat where she could live. That was why she persisted in the pressured, chauvinistic world of software sales and the increasingly sleazy world of the private gentleman's club where she could earn a four figure sum each evening as well as getting a good workout. It was nip-and-tuck as to whether or not she made it but after a few months on the boat at a marina on the Medway she was feeling good enough about her life to hold a boat-warming party. It was planned as a mixture of the people she'd met at the marina and some of her sales colleagues from London. But on the night of the party a body washed up at the side of her boat and Genevieve knew the victim. Full review...
The Little Book of Prison by Frankie Owens
It’s probably pretty safe to assume that the sort of prisons shown on TV, and their portrayals of life inside, bear as much resemblance to real jails as the doctors in Grey’s Anatomy or House do to their NHS counterparts. That’s why Frankie has written this book: to provide a guide to what life inside is really like and how best to survive it with your sanity, and body, intact. Full review...
Lotteries in Public Life by Peter Stone (editor)
Peter Stone's reader is an examination not so much of examples of lotteries in public life, but of the theoretical and conceptual issues which the use of 'sortation' in decision taking raises. There are essays here about the use of the lottery in politics, in allocating scarce resources (such as school places or human organs) and even on the problems of defining the lottery and the methods for assuring fairness. Because lotteries are used in many societies to resolve issues and perhaps because of recent discussion of the use of the lottery to allocate school places, this is a hot issue which raises fundamental questions about democracy and choice. Full review...
Quack Quack Moo, We See You! by Mij Kelly and Katharine McEwen
Poppa Bombola has lost his darling daughter! He's hunting high and low, under tables, under chairs and all around the farmyard - but she is nowhere to be found.... Or is she? Maybe Poppa Bombola isn't looking close enough... Full review...
The Big Jungle Mix Up by Gareth Edwards and Kanako Usui
Big Bear is teaching little bear all about the animals in the jungle as they are out walking one day. But Big Bear keeps mixing them up and little bear has to keep putting him straight:
'We might find a monkey, with feathers and beak, pea-green, carrot orange, we'll teach it to speak…
You've got it mixed up! As orange as a carrot? A beak that can speak? Then it must be a… *open flap* PARROT!' Full review...
The Big Animal Mix-Up by Gareth Edwards and Kanako Usui
We're back with Big Bear and little bear again and this time, Big Bear is teaching little bear all about the animals from little bear's big Book About Animals as they are settling down for bed one night. But Big Bear keeps mixing them up and once again little bear has to keep putting him straight:
'This is a fish. It has very soft fur. If you give it a cuddle, you'll hear it go 'purr'…
'Hang on a minute! A fish can't do that. If it's purry and furry, it must be a... *open flap* CAT!' Full review...
Opera by Robert Cannon
Opera, Cannon tells us in the introduction to this book, 'has never ceased to grow and change – often quite radically.' His aim is to describe and show the many different facets of opera in its development over the centuries, and its relevance to the modern world. While he does not intend to write a history as such, he has organised this book chronologically as opera developed in a very conscious way across Europe. Full review...
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown: The Omnipotent Magician 1716-1783 by Jane Brown
Among those who helped their contemporaries living through the Age of Enlightenment to see the world around them in a different light, Brown was unquestionably one of the most influential. Having trained as a gardener, as a young man he acquired an exhaustive knowledge of plants and trees, as well as of drainage and water management. To this was added a rare ability to look at the dullest of gardens and landscapes, decide that they had 'capabilities' for improvement (hence the time-honoured epithet), and persuade the owner that a transformation was both possible and desirable. Full review...
The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams
Back in the Middle Ages, Seraphina nearly died. Her boyfriend Cyrus saved her life - at the cost of someone else's. Using his newly discovered Alchemy potion, he transferred her soul into another body. They've now lived over 600 years, changing bodies every decade or so, but Sera is tired of this unnatural existence and is determined to end it. She runs away from Cyrus, ready to die for real this time. When she finds sixteen-year-old Kailey, who's just been involved in a car accident, her good intentions waver and she takes over the dying girl's body. Could this be her chance for a new start? Full review...
The House on Paradise Street by Sofka Zinovieff
Maud Perifanis wasn't unduly worried when her husband didn't return home one evening as he often stayed in his office when he was working and the news that he had been killed in a car accident, well out of Athens on the Saronic Gulf, was a shock to everyone in the house on Paradise Street where the extended family lived. Nikitas had been brought up by his aunt Alexandra and her husband and she now lived in one apartment, Orestes (his son from his second marriage) in the studio and he, Maud and their daughter Tig lived in a third apartment. There was someone missing though. Antigone was Alexandra's sister - and Nikitas' mother - but she'd left Greece for Russia when he was three and he hadn't seen her since. She was over eighty when she heard the news and she came back for the funeral. Full review...
Hector Finds Time (Hector's Journeys) by Francois Lelord
Meet, if you haven't already, Hector the psychiatrist. He's like a champagne cork, and when something prays on his mind a lot POP he's off on a global trip to set things right. And, like a champagne cork let off in a posh place, he'll likely crash through a chandelier of scintillating, interesting little points, scattering them left, right and centre, and creating a pretty, if random, pattern on the book page. This time it is, er, time. From patients worried they've none left, to those who want to grow up faster, and those putting anti-ageing cream on crows'-feet. What is the best approach to spending, passing and perhaps not worrying about, time? Full review...
A Division of the Light by Christopher Burns
Gregory Pharoah is a professional photographer whose genre is sometimes photojournalism, but more commonly portraiture or nudes. Like his job, his nature is towards the superficial. One day, returning from photographing a bishop (for clarity, this is a portrait assignment and not a nude!) he is the only witness to a street robbery where Alice Fell is the victim. Alice is a fatalist who believes in some kind of divine plan that means there is a reason for everything. She's enigmatic, by nature and by design as this is a quality that she enjoys cultivating. Thus these two different characters become part of the same story and what happens in the following six months is ultimately surprising and even shocking. Full review...
Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea by Donovan Hohn
In January 1992 a container ship was on its way from China to the USA when it was caught in a storm and two containers broke loose from the deck. They held nearly thirty thousand bath toys - yellow ducks, green frogs, red beavers and blue turtles - which were freed when the containers broke up and have circumnavigated the globe for almost twenty years. Donovan Hohn was a teacher and when one of his students wrote an essay describing what had happened to the toys it caught Hohn's imagination. The rest is - as they say - history and a very good book. Full review...
Bramble the Brave by Amber Stewart and Layn Marlow
Bramble and her friend Twig love adventures especially when it comes to digging very deep molehills. Bramble leads and Twig follows whether they are digging, wading through ponds, climbing or rolling down hills. You would think that this brave little mole would be prepared to try anything and she is. That is until it comes to food when she turns into the fussiest little mole imaginable. She won't eat pondweed soup because it is too slimy; four-leaf clover salads are too crunchy and she won't even try Mummy's hazelnut pie because she only likes berries. Her parents try to persuade her to try all of this lovely food but eventually they get fed up of making a fuss and just let Bramble eat berries for a whole week. At first, Bramble is delighted but soon her paws look as if they have been splashed with purple paint and her whiskers feel sticky all the time. Full review...
An Exclusive Love by Johanna Adorjan
This moving memoir tells of the double suicide of both István (a Hungarian-Jewish form of Stephen) and his wife Vera one Sunday morning in October. The story is told by their granddaughter, Joanna Adorján and tells of her close fondness for them both but in particular with Vera, with whom the author shares many characteristics. The story begins with the systematic persecution of such Hungarian Jews in Budapest under the Nazi occupation and describes their perilous flight to Denmark after the Soviet occupation of Hungary in 1956. It ends with the police reports of the duty officer dated 15.10.91 with the discovery of their bodies in their bungalow in the Charlottenlund, a town of the Capital Region of Denmark. Entry is gained by a local locksmith who charged 297.02 kroner. It is the charm and lyricism with which this tale is related which makes this fateful, haunting and profoundly moving story about identity both sad and memorable. Full review...
The Killables by Gemma Malley
In the City, evil has been eradicated. Each of its citizens has undergone the New Baptism - having the evil part of their brain, the amygdala, removed. But even this isn't enough - the City still needs its System, which monitors every citizen and labels accordingly. Any sign of evil results in a lower classification and the lowest classification of all is "K". Ks are sent for reconditioning. After this, they disappear and are never seen again. Full review...
Tom Gates: Excellent Excuses and Other Good Stuff by Liz Pichon
Those who met Tom Gates in the first book in this award-winning series will know that the year five lad needs no introduction, but even if you missed that book there's no need to worry. This second book reads well as a stand-alone and is just as funny and entertaining. Most of the same characters appear - from Tom's Mum and Dad and his sister Delia, his teacher Mr Fullerman and class mates Marcus Meldrew and Amy Porter. It's Mr Fulleman's awards chart which is the focus of attention this time as Tom is determined to get to the top, but Marcus Meldrew is up to no good and Tom has tooth ache. It's so bad that he can't concentrate on drawing in class. Full review...
Fated: An Alex Verus Novel by Benedict Jacka
Alex Verus runs a little shop in Camden, London selling magic tricks and bits and pieces. Some of the bits and pieces are a more magical than the magic tricks, for he is a diviner (someone who sees the future). Indeed, the day that his friend Luna finds a little red artefact, his ability comes in handy. There are some very powerful people looking for that little red 'thing'. Unfortunately they aren't powerful in a nice way and they're a jump or two ahead of Alex and Luna. For the powerful ones actually know what it is. Full review...
The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Mara has just started her whole life over - new city, new school, new start. It's just what the doctor ordered, and her family - though still treating her like she might fall apart at any moment - are tentatively hopeful that it's just what she needs to get back on her feet. Mara just hopes her memories return. She needs to know what happened the night her two best friends and her boyfriend died in an accident she somehow managed to escape unscathed. Full review...
The House on Willow Street by Cathy Kelly
You don't get to a certain age without having a bit of a past and a few stories, some of which you'd rather weren't told and others which you'd just plain rather forget about. In the idyllic Irish coastal village of Avalon we meet four women and they've all got big histories. Tess is descended from the local landowners, but now she lives with her teenage son Zach and her nine-year-old daughter Kitty and she owns the local antiques shop. It's a struggle to make ends meet when her marriage falls apart. To cap it all, her first love and the man she's never really forgotten returns to the village but they're no friendlier than they were the last time they met. Full review...
Sophia the Flame Sister (Spell Sisters) by Amber Castle and Mary Hall
Guinevere (generally known as Gwen) is something of a tomboy and she'd much rather be out doing archery practice with the boys than practicing her curtsey and brushing her aunt's hair. Will and some of the other pages are dismissive of her because she's a girl, but Arthur is a little more kindly. One day, out in the woods with her friend Flora, she discovers the island of Avalon which is in a sorry state. The evil Morgana Le Fay has imprisoned her sisters who hold the spells which keep the island as it should be and it's now up to Gwen and Flora to rescue the Spell Sisters and return Avalon to full health. Full review...
The Repossession by Sam Hawksmoor
Genie Magee hasn’t seen her boyfriend Rian all summer. In fact, she hasn’t seen anyone all summer – apart from the creepy worshippers of the Church of Free Spirits, whose leader Reverend Schneider has persuaded her mother she’s possessed, due to her strange mystical gift. Rian hasn’t stopped thinking of her, though, and has hatched a daring plan to rescue the love of his life and escape the town of Spurlake – but their escape will lead them into a situation more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. Full review...
Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda
Heat, colour, smell and noise assail your senses as you join Ash and Lucky in Varanasi. They have travelled from England to visit their uncle and aunt during the holidays, and despite their Asian heritage they find the atmosphere as fascinating, frustrating and thrilling as any young person brought up in west London would do. The castles and markets are intriguing, but the poverty, the constant heat, the poor roads and the dust are beginning to take their toll. The food does not agree with Lucky, and although he loves the archaeology of the region, Ash is beginning to envy his friends back home as they go swimming and indulge in day-long gaming sessions. But right from the start the culture clash carries hints of danger and mystery, until the terrifying moment when the supernatural explodes into Ash's life and changes him utterly. Full review...
Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Having escaped from Portland at the end of book 1, Lena is alone in the Wilds. Having to face the unthinkable - life without Alex – she chooses to join the resistance of the Invalids in an attempt to bring down those who have made love into a disease. Flicking between the early days immediately following her escape, as she settles into the community along with her new allies Raven and Tack, and a time a bit later on when she plays a more active role in the resistance, Pandemonium has more of the thrills and excitement that made the first book an enjoyable read. Full review...
The Bliss Bakery Trilogy 1 - Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood
A town with a name as ominous as Calamity Falls cries out for a shop like the one run by the Bliss family. Even before you move there you just know that if something can go wrong then it certainly will, and that however much it may look like normal small-town America on the outside, nothing short of magic will make it a happy, fulfilled place. No surprise, then, that this is where Rose lives, along with her parents, two brothers and her baby sister. And although the townsfolk don't understand precisely what goes on in the kitchen of the Bliss Bakery, they return day after day for the most delicious pastries, muffins and cakes they have ever known with a vague conviction that life is better as long as they do so. Full review...
Unsinkable by Dan James
This year sees the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and several books, for both children and adults, are being published based on the story of the doomed ship. In this particular book the fact that we already know fate of the majority of the travellers adds a whole new level of tension to a story which is already an exciting thriller. Not only is there the question of whether they will catch the bad guy or not, but also, and more crucially: will the main characters all survive? Full review...
Make Yourself Immune to Heart Attack by Simon Oxford
The older you get, the more likely it is that you will suffer from some form of heart disease or even die from it. Many deaths occur without warning in people who are apparently healthy - so it's not something that you can wait to be diagnosed and plan on doing something about at that stage. Whatever your age there's a real possibility that you can make a significant improvement in your health and improve the quality of your life. I came to read this book because family members of my generation were suffering severe heart problems and it was a wake-up call that was impossible to ignore. Full review...
Secrets of the Henna Girl by Sufiya Ahmed
Sixteen-year-old Zeba Khan wasn't particularly looking forward to the family holiday with her parents in Pakistan. It was eight years since she'd been there and she had only vague memories of the heat, the mosquitoes, her Uncle's home and her cousin Asif, who is eight years older than her. She's just finished her GCSE exams and - along with her best friend Susan - was planning which subjects she would take for A level and university as well as looking at future careers. She's always been happy in her Muslim faith and the lack of boyfriends, alcohol and drugs had never worried her, although she was perhaps a little envious of the fact that Susan could go out in the evenings. Full review...
The Summer of Living Dangerously by Julie Cohen
When I read Julie Cohen's book Nina Jones and the Temple of Gloom a couple of years ago my poor toddler had to endure neglect for the day since I couldn't stop reading it. This time Julie had me risking my own health since I started reading her new book in the bath and my husband came to find me there several hours later sitting in stone cold water, unwilling to get out since I didn't want to stop reading! I do love it when you find a book that captures your imagination, but I'd advise perhaps a comfortable armchair located near to a stash of plentiful snacks would be a wise place to begin. Full review...
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection: The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Book 13 by Alexander McCall Smith
Those of you who are frequent visitors to The Bookbag will know that I am a big fan of Alexander McCall Smith's writing. I am supremely happy that he continues to write so regularly and reliably, providing me with much looked forward to reading matter several times through the year. This time it's the turn of Mma Ramotswe to slip back into my mind as we read of her detecting adventures in this, the thirteenth book in the series. Full review...
The Third Day by Chochana Boukhobza
Set in Jerusalem in the late 1980s, an elderly, Jewish, celebrated cellist Elisheva is visiting Israel with her protégé, Rachel, ostensibly to give a concert performance. It quickly becomes apparent that Elisheva survived the Nazi camps by playing her music for the feared camp commander, known as the Butcher of Majdanek, and while on the surface she survived this ordeal well, it is clear that she has a darker intent with her three day visit. Through an underground network of Nazi hunters, she has managed to lure the Butcher from his home in Venezuela to visit Israel. Will they meet and what will happen when they do? Full review...
Itch by Simon Mayo
Itchingham Lofte - cool name, cool guy, but he's Itch to you and me - is an element-hunter. Like many kids, he's a collector-magpie, but football stickers and manga-style cards aren't his thing. Itch is a science geek and he is trying to collect a sample of all 118 elements. Itch lives in Cornwall, where he has recently arrived from London, and his element-hunting doesn't carry much kudos at his school, where he spends most time dodging the bullies. At home, Itch has a tendency to formulate disastrous experiments and the latest explosion not only removed his eyebrows but also got his collection banished to the shed. Full review...
The Company of the Dead by David Kowalski
A man stands on a ship checking that an iceberg has been missed. The year is 1912, the ship is the Titanic and the man is a time-traveller hoping to change history. History is in fact changed as a result of his meddling, but not in a good way. Full review...
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Greg is trying to survive high school, and is doing rather well at it. He's got a wonderful tactic of just avoiding pretty much everyone - never getting close to any group of people, never alienating any group either, just coasting along on nodding terms with everyone. The exception is Earl, who he makes low-budget version of cult classic films with. His life is about to be changed, though, as his mother is determined that he should rekindle an old friendship with Rachel Kushner – who’s dying of leukemia. Full review...
Little Princess: I Want to Win! by Tony Ross
The Little Princess always likes to win so, when at the castle sports day she finds herself trailing in the running race, she insists that they all run in the opposite direction and then she has least far to go. When playing table tennis with the maid, she is always allowed to win. She is so used to winning that it comes as a big shock at school when other children win the prizes for numbers, painting, science and poems. It's especially disappointing as she really tried her hardest in all of those subjects. However, some of her efforts are quite scary, unorthodox, and even a bit dangerous as she almost blows up the science lab. Luckily, there is one more cup and as that's the prize for 'trying the hardest', there is obviously only one worthy winner! Full review...
Babies In Waiting by Rosie Fiore
Three women, three different situations, ages spanning three decades. Gemma, Toni and Louise don’t have masses in common, but come into each other’s lives when they all fall pregnant around the same time. With partners, parents, siblings and other friends not quite getting all that’s going on in their heads...and in their tummies...the women quickly form a tight support network in which all their differences cease to matter. Full review...
