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.
There are currently 16,120 reviews at TheBookbag.
Want to find out more about us?
New Reviews
Read new reviews by genre.
Read new features.
The Chronicles of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg
Meet Harris Burdick - not that many people ever did. He was a fictional entity, produced by Chris Van Allsburg, and in the 1980s his output was a dozen odd but beautiful pictures with, for each, a single caption and the name of the story they were designed to illustrate. Burdick, allegedly, disappeared - but his pictures stuck around to inspire a Stephen King short story. Now we get a lavish, yummy hardback of all the pictures, and now, through the agency of a great editor, they all have their appropriate short story. Full review...
This Flawless Place Between by Bruno Portier
If you fancy reading something a bit different, writer and filmmaker Bruno Portier may have written just the book.
Americans Anne and her partner, Evan, leave Anne's small daughter with the grandparents so that the couple can go on a 3 week motorbike tour of Tibet. Whilst away, things go awry for the two holidaymakers and so The Flawless Place Between traces their respective onward journeys. Full review...
A Question of Proof by Nicholas Blake
Wemyss was that boy - and all schools have them, even now - who is universally hated. Neither masters at Sudeley Hall, nor his fellow pupils could stand him and to make matters worse he was the nephew and ward of the headmaster, the Rev. Percival Vale. When the boy was found strangled on the school sports day there wasn't exactly universal rejoicing but it was more because of the knowledge of the problems which this would cause for the school than because of any sorrow. The prime suspects were Michael Evans, the English teacher and Hero Vale, the young wife of the middle-aged headmaster who had been kissing in the haystack where the boy's body was found. Evans has one hope and that's his friend, Nigel Strangeways, nephew of the Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard and a renowned private investigator. Full review...
The Expo Files: Articles by the Crusading Journalist by Stieg Larsson
Stieg Larsson would not have known Anders Breivik, but if they'd coincided you can be damned sure he knew all there was to know about him. Larsson and his journalist colleagues were working to condemn the far-right activities throughout Europe, and open the truth about the right-wing Swedish parties to his audience, and here is constant proof he knew an awful lot about his awful subject. In just the first two, powerful, short essays here he brings terrorism in the UK, Italy and Oklahoma to his home audience, and discusses Swedish extremism in its light; showing the liberal laws in Sweden that allowed the extremists to be seen as too much on the straight and narrow, too mainstream, and even able to enter parliament. The idea of 'it couldn't happen here' gets blown out the water, and as we've seen that is relevant to us everywhere. Full review...
In Praise of Love by Alain Badiou with Nicholas Truong
'Love encompasses the experience of the possible transition from the pure randomness of chance to a state that has universal value. Starting out from something that is simply an encounter, a trifle, you learn that you can experience the world on the basis of difference and not only in terms of identity.' In other words, when eyes look and worlds collide, the process of alteration that follows, is love. 'It is absolutely true that love can bend our bodies and prompt the sharpest torment. Love, as we can observe day in and day out, is not a long, quiet river.' But it is not designed to be that way - just as a record is a lump of plastic before music has been carved on it, love is just a transaction if all the chance has been ironed out of it - as perhaps by an Internet match site questionnaire. Full review...
Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron
Jean Patrick Nkumba has a sheltered, comparatively privileged upbringing in Rwanda. Although far from opulent, life in the school compound where his father is headmaster is safe and Jean Patrick is loved and encouraged by his family to aim high both at school and in his passion for running. Despite being of the Tutsi tribe, he has also been encouraged to think of himself as Rwandan first, a nationality and ethos encompassing the rival Hutus. However not all feel the same and a series of tragic events lead to world news and personal hell. For this is the land where, in 1994, 800,000 people would be killed during a mere 100 days. Full review...
All in a Don's Day by Mary Beard
Mary Beard's latest collection, 'All in a Don's Day', of her assembled blog pieces from 2009 until the end of 2011, covers similar concerns to her previous selection, It's a Don's Life. Professor Beard is a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge and became Classics Professor at there in 2004. She is also an expert in Roman laughter, an interest which she fully indulges in the pages of her TLS blog. In her latest collection she bemoans the parlous current state of both Education and the Academy, and makes witty observations on matters as various as television chefs, what and how to visit in Rome and the art and worth of completing references in an age when only positive things may be said about postgraduate job-seekers. Full review...
The Sea On Our Skin by Madeleine Tobert
'Amalie Matete woke up alone on the first day of her life as a married woman…her battered body…the bruises on her thighs'. Amalie had scarcely been prepared for this. Only sixteen, she'd spent all of her time in the village and was marrying a stranger, a man who had seen her only once. But she was lucky. With no father to give her away, she was lucky to be being married at all, her mother tried to tell her. On her wedding day Amalie had been frightened by the storm. It was a bad omen she said. Just a storm, her mother said. Full review...
Ninepins by Rosy Thornton
Laura lives deep in the Cambridgeshire Fens with her daughter Beth and at the time that we meet them she's just coming up to her twelfth birthday. Her father has remarried and now has three young sons, but mother and father decided early on that they would have cordial relations for Beth's sake - and the habit has stuck. Money from Beth's father is a little hit and miss, so Laura has been in the habit of letting out the pumphouse - once a drainage station - to students, but this time its occupant is Willow, who is seventeen years old and who has been in care. It takes a while for her history to emerge, but her mother was a hippy with no sense of responsibility and it seems that Willow might have been guilty of arson. Full review...
Tea at the Grand Tazi by Alexandra Singer
Seeking solitude, peace to paint, and solace from a failed relationship, Maia finds a job assisting the Historian, a shadowy academic, in return for life in the centre of Marrakesh. And with her duties light, she sets off to explore her surroundings, attempting to examine the women in this culture. But as a European female she is treated as an item of sexual prey by the men, and ostracised by the women, so she finds herself isolated and alone. Full review...
Fifty Shades Of Grey by EL James
When college student Ana steps in at the last minute to cover an interview of a local tycoon for the uni paper, she never imagines how what is supposed to be a one off meeting will change her life completely over the months to come. She has no plans or expectations to see him again, but Christian Grey knows what he wants and takes great pains to get it, so with Ana now next on his list of target acquisitions, she has very little hope of escaping unscathed. Swiftly realising that he is not your average wealthy bachelor, Ana falls head first into a foreign and confusing new world she has no clue how to navigate. With pressure on to sign on the dotted line or leave and never return, Ana has to decide how far she’s willing to go to follow her heart, and when she should listen to the screaming voices in her head instead. Full review...
A Fine and Private Place (Sandro Cellini) by Christobel Kent
Sandro Cellini isn't too impressed with life as a private investigator and it's a big change from being in the police force. Somehow trailing a schoolgirl on the orders of her father who thinks she's mixing with bad company wasn't quite how he'd seen his life working out. His wife, Luisa, is recovering from cancer, but it seems to have changed her attitude to life and when she announces that she's going to New York on a business trip with her boss Cellini worries that he's going to lose her. Then another case comes up and it's one which stirs some memories. Doctor Loni Meadows has been discovered dead after what seems like a tragic motor accident but her husband isn't convinced and he'd like Cellini to investigate. Full review...
Lizard Loopy by Ali Sparkes
There has been a SWITCH. In the first season of these books, it was Josh and not Danny who preferred to turn into other animals, even though they were mostly creepy-crawlies and bugs. Josh likes that kind of animal, as much as all wildlife, and however many times they nearly got eaten, or ate something revolting themselves, or suffered loss of control of their brain, or did something slimey and disgusting, or even changed sex, Josh was more up for it. Here, however, Danny is more keen - now the science has evolved so they can become reptiles, he can't wait to be a cool-dude alligator Full review...
Partials by Dan Wells
Since the Break, no baby has lived longer than three days. Scientists have studied every baby to try and find a cure, but with no luck. The human race is on the verge of extinction after the Partials (genetically engineered soldiers who were made to fight for humans) turned on their makers and released the deadly virus that has wiped out most of the population. For those lucky to survive, they now spend their time trying to cure the virus that kills every baby. Full review...
Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe by Shelley Coriell
After being crowned Mistletoe Queen, Chloe Camden should be on top of the world, and more popular than ever. A jealous friend can't cope with her success, though, and trashes her reputation, leaving her a sudden social outcast. When her new guidance counselor tells her she needs to change her junior independent social project, Chloe is forced into a school radio station which is on its last legs, run by a bunch of losers who she'd never even have spoken to before. Taking a risk which could either kill or save the station, Chloe is thrust into a position as host of a new chat show. Will the risk pay off? Will Chloe find a new circle of friends? Full review...
September has grown tired of life in her parents’ boring Nebraska home. She is twelve years old, somewhat grown and somewhat heartless and she is dreaming of adventure. So when a friendly Green Wind and a flying Leopard of Little Breezes blow past one morning, inviting her to Fairyland, of course she accepts. Upon arriving, September finds that Fairyland is under the iron rule of the cruel and relentless Marquess. But September is bright and bold and fearless; and she has certainly read enough books to know what a girl on a quest must do. September must fix things, and put everything back the way it should be. September makes her way across the strange and wonderful (and dangerous) Fairyland-scape with a book-loving Wyvern (a Wyverary) and a Marid boy named Saturday. Making new and very odd friends, many, many mistakes, losing both her shoes and her shadow, September wends her way with courage, adventure, a very special spoon and a key that never loses sight of her… And she finds so much more besides… Full review...
Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier by Neil deGrasse Tyson
A year or so ago there was a big hoopla about being able to see the International Space Station pass overhead where I live, so I dutifully clambered on to the roof. And indeed it was actually very warming to know I was seeing something manmade, from 250 miles away. As for the chance to see it, its speed of 17,000mph means it orbits the planet every 92 and a half minutes. It gets about. But some of the warmth of seeing it, as well as the achievements that led up to it, and the politics of NASA's five decades - and some of the Newtonian physics involved in it - are all in this volume. Full review...
The War On Heresy: Faith and Power in Medieval Europe by R I Moore
At the end of the first millennium, Western Europe was a place which had barely ever encountered heresy. It took just a couple of centuries for it to become a major problem in the eyes of church leaders, leading to the persecution of individuals and groups. Was heresy such a fast-growing problem? In this volume, R I Moore provides a thoughtful analysis of the issues and makes a powerful case that many supposed heretics were merely victims of a paranoid church which created propaganda to justify so many deaths. Full review...
Small Knight and George and the Pirates by Ronda Armitage and Arthur Robins
Small Knight and George (a little red dragon) live together in an old castle, a rather crumbling old castle that's in desperate need of repair. There's no money to fix things up however, so Mum and Dad Knight decide to send Small Knight off with a treasure map to be a pirate, to get them some treasure so they can fix up the castle! Full review...
Fetch by Jane Cabrera
Fetch is a little black dog who one day turns up in the village and proves to be very useful to everyone. He fetches things at home for Rosa, he fetches newspapers at the newsstand and parcels at the post office. He's helpful wherever he goes. But one day, Fetch has disappeared...what could he have gone to 'fetch' this time..? Full review...
In One Person by John Irving
In One Person is a sensitive story of sexual identity, narrated by a bisexual writer who is now in his later years, recalling not only his own coming to terms with his sexuality and attraction to men, women and transgenders while at school in a New England school, but also his later years and the devastating impact of the AIDS virus in 1980s America. At times the content is quite graphic, but John Irving captures the outsider's feelings beautifully in this tale of secrecy in a confusing world of identity. Full review...
The Apothecary's Daughter by Charlotte Betts
Susannah is an intelligent young woman in her twenties who assists her father in his pharmacy. But the date is 1665 so he's actually called an apothecary, creating herbal remedies from scratch; moreoever this is an era when women did not, generally, do work of this kind. However, London is in the grip of the bubonic plague. So apothecaries must work overtime to produce nosegays - supposedly to ward off evil humours - as well as plague preventative medicine, herbs for poultices, and so on. Full review...
Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century by John B Thompson
The publishing industry has been with us since the fifteenth century, but the major changes have manifested themselves in the twenty-first century and John B Thompson, Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge, has taken a detailed look at the state of trade publishing (that's the type of book you're likely to find in your local library or bookshop), the influences which have brought it to that state and the outlook. This might sound rather dry but, trust me, it's not. It wasn't a fast read, but only because there were so many things to think about, prejudices to readjust and information to absorb. I read it over a week - and for a reviewer that's a rare luxury. Full review...
Vengeance: The Tainted Realm: Book 1 by Ian Irvine
Tali is a slave born of slaves, forced to live and work underground by the brutal Cythonians who, in turn, have also been forced into a subterranean lifestyle. The land above them is Hightspall, rightly theirs but taken over generations ago. Hightspall's occupiers are led by a group of noble houses, which brings us to Rix, the heir to his alcoholic father, the Lord Ricinius. They both live under the thumb of his overbearing mother, Lady Ricinius, but then so do many others. Full review...
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
Taran has always sought adventure, but is worried he’ll remain an Assistant Pig Keeper all his life. But when the magical pig Hen Wen disappears, he sets out to save her from the evil Horned King, and ends up on a quest alongside a ragtag bunch of companions. Full review...
Let Loose the Dogs: Murdoch Mysteries by Maureen Jennings
The fourth book in the series of mysteries which star Detective William Murdoch is set, like the others, in Toronto. Religion, money and family rule this late-Victorian city just as they do back 'home' in England, and Murdoch's struggles for truth and justice, not to mention his love life, are played out against the sense of guilt and the moral restrictions imposed upon him by his Catholic faith. Full review...
The Party Animal and Don't Look Under the Bed (Deadly Tales) by Roy Apps
Bored with sleeping soundly? Fed up with sweet dreams? Well this is the book for you! Deadly Tales features two nightmare urban legends that you'll pray aren't true. Full review...
172 Hours On The Moon by Johan Harstad
It's 2018 and people at NASA want to go back to the moon. But no one's been there since the 70s, so with funding and public support limited, they need an angle. A draw. Something to get people all over the world buzzing. Their answer is a worldwide lottery to select three teens who can accompany the NASA team on their week long jaunt into space. The chance of a lifetime! An unforgettable, unrepeatable experience! An adventure that truly is out of this world! Full review...
The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman
Thomas Sherbourne returns to Australia after World War I. Internally scarred like many of his generation, he chooses the solitary life of a lighthouse keeper on remote Janus Rock to escape the world and its conflict. However, he soon learns that there is one part of the world he can't live without – the sassy, beautiful Izzy Graysmark, a local from the nearest port and country town of Partaguese. They have a happy marriage in all respects apart from one: they're haunted by their inability to have children. Therefore, one day, when a boat washes up onto Janus bearing a dead man and a crying baby, apparent salvation arrives too. Full review...
The Popes: A History by John Julius Norwich
Historian John Julius Norwich (or Rt Hon/Viscount John Julius Norwich, to give him his full title) doesn't write the sort of history books one associates with school days. He doesn't do dry and dusty. In fact The Popes: A History isn't just a history book but a romp through the ages with some great trivia nuggets scattered throughout the informative gold. Full review...
Heft by Liz Moore
Arthur Opp taught at the University until one day, after some unfortunate circumstances in which he was blameless, he didn't go in any more. Since then he's worked on, well, getting fat. Food is just about all that matter to him and he eats it in vast quantities, particularly if anything upsets his day. He was always plump but now he weighs in at something like five to six hundred pounds. His friend who lived next door is dead and he lives for the memory of a platonic relationship which he had with one of his students. He hasn't heard from her for many years but then one day contact is made. Charlene wants Arthur to help her son. Full review...
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
In a small town in western North Carolina there was a storefront church with newspapers across the windows so that no one could see in. Adelaide Lyle remembered to days when it was a store, as well as the days when she used to attend the church regularly, but after a woman died in a 'healing' ritual which involved a snake and her body was left in her garden she decided that she couldn't attend and nor could she allow the town's children to run the risk. For a while this separation worked reasonably well until a series of incidents, many quite small in themselves, provoked a tragedy. Full review...
The Railway Children by E Nesbit
Few people can be unaware of The Railway Children. It's a story which has stood the test of time not least because of the wonderful images of steam trains which it evokes for today's readers. Roberta (Bobbie), Peter and Phyllis (Phil) have to leave their London home when their father goes away unexpectedly and they move to a cottage in the countryside which is near the local railway station. They make friends with the porter, Albert Perks and the 'Old Gentleman' who is regularly on the 9.15 train. There's fun and they have adventures but they still wonder if their father is ever going to come home. Full review...
The Cambridge Shakespeare Guide by Emma Smith
Does the world need another guide to Shakespeare's plays? There are plenty about and students these days have the added resource of the Internet to get the basics. However, if it does, then this is as good as any you will find. It's nicely written and beautifully clear and above all, succinct. In fact I'm doing a disservice to Emma Smith already by terming it a guide to his plays, because she also includes the poems and sonnets. Full review...
There but for the by Ali Smith
If you are the type of reader who thinks that the mark of a good book is a plot, then step away from this book: you'll hate it. Ali Smith's intricately clever and often funny There but for the is very much at the literary end of the fiction spectrum. Not in terms of the language used though - Smith uses simple language, and a LOT of puns, and if anything, as the title suggests, she's more interested in the little words. It's playful and strangely affecting, while at the same time a little affected and often slightly irritatingly free flowing. Full review...
Are You Smart Enough To Work At Google? by William Poundstone
I find recruitment fascinating. I started my career on a top 10 graduate scheme whose recruitment process included a 24 hour simulation of life in the role, and now some years later I'm on the other side of the table, taking part in the recruitment of the next generation. Prior to that I worked everywhere from multinational software companies to British high street department stores and over the years I've heard everything from the boring (What are your strengths and weaknesses?) to the predictable (Tell me about a time you worked as part of a team and encountered conflict) to the quite frankly brilliant, in my mind (How many piano tuners are there in Barcelona?) Once I had to come up with a variety of uses for a cocktail shaker after first gaining points for being able to identify the item correctly, despite being a tee-total teen at the time. If interviews are a time to shine, I prefer the latter two tasks to the first two because they let you show what you can do, and how you would approach a task, rather than just making you prattle off a prepared response. Full review...
Tout Soul by Karen Wheeler
Meet Karen. Expat fashion writer. French cottage owner. Devoted mother of Biff. Frustrated girlfriend of a dashing Portuguese hunk. Tout Soul is her 3rd book about a relocated life in rural France and after her previous tales of upping and leaving Blighty (book 1) and falling in love with the aforementioned dashing hunk (book 2) she’s now moved her focus to the pursuit of happiness. Full review...
The Face of God: The Gifford Lectures by Roger Scruton
Atheist culture has recently become more mainstream, thanks in part to the success of Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. However, religion does still have a part to play, with Prince Charles urging the United Kingdom to be more tolerant towards faiths other than the Church of England he was raised as part of and even the Prime Minister talking about faith issues. Since 1888, the Gifford Lectures have been given to 'promote and diffuse...the knowledge of God'. Full review...
Fancy Dress Farmyard by Nick Sharratt
There's a party at the farmyard and it's going to be fancy dress. Let's turn the pages together and find out who has come dressed as what! Full review...
My Big Fat Teen Crisis by Jenny Smith
Sam’s left alone when her best friend moves to the Outer Hebrides. Can she take this opportunity to reinvent herself as a cooler, more sophisticated person? And will she manage to win the heart of the new boy at school, David? Aided by her childhood friend Cat, who’s just returned to the area, she’ll do her best – as long as the nasty Tania doesn’t get in the way. Full review...
Illegal by Miriam Halahmy
Lindy’s life started to fall apart when her baby sister Jemma died. With her parents gambling and drinking, and her younger brother needing her to look after him, she’s desperate to hold the family together. So when her brother Garth, who’s in jail, manages to set her up with a job working for her charming cousin Colin, she thinks it’s a great opportunity. Then she finds out, though, that Colin’s business isn’t what it seems, and she’s quickly caught up in a nightmare cycle of drugs and threats… can she find the strength to stand up for herself, helped by the strange and reclusive mute boy Karl? Full review...
Basher Science: Oceans by Dan Green and Simon Basher
I've often wondered why this planet is called 'earth' when three-quarters of it obviously isn't and it seems that I'm not alone. Dan Green and Simon Basher have decided to take a close look at the oceans and other bodies of water on the planet and to explain them in simple words, accompanied by Simon Brasher's illustrations which are almost - but not quite - manga. It's a style which kids are going to be comfortable with - and they're not going to associate it with something boring which they have to learn. It's fun. Full review...
The Eyes of Lira Kazan by Eva Joly and Judith Perrignon
The novel throws you straight into the action with three apparently unconnected events. Nigerian fraud squad investigator, Nwanko Ganbo, realises it's time to get his family out of the country when he finds a colleague and good friend in his car, very dead. The solution is simple: the British government offer him a new life as a lecturer in return for silence about the corrupt regime he has spent so long investigating. Meanwhile the wife of a rich Faroese banker accidentally drowns in full ball gown whilst in Nice but junior prosecutor Felix and his judicial colleague aren't as easily convinced about the accidental nature as their superiors seem to be. The third piece of the jigsaw originates in Russia as local journalist Lira Kazan shows an interest in the life and transactions of Russian millionaire Louchsky. This isn't the healthiest thing she's ever done as people seem to have died for less. Full review...
Never Say No to a Princess! by Tracey Corderoy and Kate Leake
The little princess is used to having everything she wants immediately. She wears a sparkly dress and a sparkly tiara; she sleeps in a sparkly bed and plays with sparkly toys. And whenever she wants something new, she just shouts at the top of her lungs that if she doesn't get it, she will cry. And do you know what? She gets it! Straight away! But having what she wants, the minute she wants it doesn't make the little princess happy. Because she isn't smiling at all. In fact, she never smiles. Ever. Nothing is ever quite good enough for this little princess. Full review...
