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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Heroic by Phil Earle
Jammy and Sonny McGann are brothers from the notorious Ghost estate. They and their friends are always there for each other - and with the drugs and violence that dominate the place where they live, they need to be. In particular, Sonny needs his older brother to keep an eye out for him and make the plans for their group. Then Jammy and his mate Tommo join the army and go off to Afghanistan, and Sonny's left to hold the fort at home. With his brother no longer there to look after him, can Sonny keep it together? And when Jammy returns, how will things change? Full review...
Hot Air by Sandrine Dumas Roy
This is a story with an environmental message, but at times it seems more like an environmental message with a story. The story itself is terribly limited. It begins with the ice caps melting, the sun growing too hot and drought. There are no humans in this book, so the animals get together to find out what the problem is. They decide that cows are the reason the world is growing warmer and try to find a solution. Full review...
Who's On First? by John Martz, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
I very nearly passed this book by, as my sons have no knowledge of or interest in baseball. But the name of the authors caught my eye. I was a surprised to see Abbott and Costello listed as the authors of a new book. After all, they have been dead for decades. This could give the term ghost writer a whole new meaning, and then the penny dropped. The title, 'Who's On First?' is also the title of one of Abbott and Costello's most famous comedy skits. This book is taken directly from the skit, with only a few minor alterations. Remembering how side splittingly funny the skit was - I knew in instant the children would enjoy this. You do not need to know anything about baseball to enjoy this book, all you need is a sense of humour. Full review...
The Dark Road by Ma Jian
One of my many lovable traits, according to my beloved, is my ability to absolutely insist I haven't read a book before (when he catches me reading it again). This has the huge benefit of my getting to discover it all over again – and the massive downside that I will never get to the end of my reading list, which must exist in some kind of Möbius loop. Full review...
Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly
Lisa Kallisto is almost the typical Mum. She's got a husband and three children and she's permanently tired. Her full-time job at the local animal rescue centre frequently spills over into her home life and she's constantly chasing around trying to catch up with what she ought to have done. Husband Joe is a taxi driver and they can only just manage to afford the rent on their cottage in the picturesque lake district. It's normally pretty crime free but then a young girl - really only a child - is abducted and brutally raped. Then another girl of about the same age goes missing and Lisa was responsible for her safety. What do you say, what do you do in that situation? Lisa is about to find out. Full review...
Curse of the Dream Witch by Allan Stratton
Young readers do like books which make them squeal with disgust from time to time — as long as the gory details are well balanced by lots of comedy and a real swash-buckling quest. And that's exactly what this tale of a princess, a peasant boy and a talking mouse provides. Full review...
The Malice of Fortune by Michael Ennis
Michael Ennis sets his The Malice of Fortune in Italy in the early part of the 1500s. Ennis is a history lecturer so unsurprisingly, his book is full of evidence of detailed research and understanding of the times. And what fascinating times they were. With the Borgia family dominating both the papacy and several political regions, fighting for power and land, a number of family led mercenary armies, and several great figures who would leave a lasting legacy, notably Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli, the latter of whom narrates a very large part of this novel. The real life political wrangling of the times would stretch the imagination of most novelists and Ennis bases his tale on a huge number of real, documented happenings. What he seeks to add to the party is an insight into why and how these events occurred and certainly there are some unexplained gaps in the relationships of the key players. The core story is an attempt to discover the identity of the murderer of the pope's son, Juan Borgia, Duke of Gandia. Candidates range from his brother, Cesare Borgia, Juan's courtesan, Damiata to the heads of various powerful, mercenary families. It's historical fiction meets crime fiction. Full review...
Lifesaving for Beginners by Ciara Geraghty
A fatal car crash links Kat and Milo, two people who otherwise might never have met. After all, they live in different countries, and she’s old enough to be his mother. He likes lifesaving classes and the banana muffins in his mother’s café, while she lives off cigarettes and wine, and writes for a living. And yet now, because of the crash, they are linked. They don’t realise it yet, but as time passes their lives will move closer. As secrets are unearthed, they will become bound to one another in different ways. Full review...
My Humongous Hamster by Lorna Freytag
My hamster doesn’t do much.
He just sleeps and eats and eats and sleeps.
Sometimes he gets so HUMoNGOUSLY HUNGRY....
My Humongous Hamster is the story of what might happen if the hungry hamster ate all of his food in one gulp and got bigger and bigger and bigger. Each page shows the gigantic hamster in a variety of humorous situations, each one funnier than the last. Full review...
Dear Lucy by Julie Sarkissian
Dear Lucy. Dear, sweet Lucy. Lucy lives on a farm with Mister and Missus, but the only person who is truly kind to her is Samantha, who lives there with them. Lucy finds it difficult, sometimes. She doesn’t always have the words she needs. She tries very hard to be good but sometimes her helping is more of a hindrance. But she knows more that people think. She knows that although Mum Mum sent her to live on the farm, she will come back for her one day. That is why Lucy must never leave the farm, otherwise Mum Mum won’t know where to find her. Full review...
Herald of the Storm by Richard Ford
Nobul is a blacksmith and ex-mercenary who thinks he has next to nothing until even that is taken away from him. Rag is a young waif, surviving on the streets from stealth and a talent for stealing. Waylian spends his days poring over books and dodging verbal abuse as a witch's apprentice. Meanwhile Merrick, drinker, gambler and for hire by anyone who can afford him (i.e. by anyone) receives a commission he can't refuse no matter how much he'd like to. River the assassin and Kaira one of the temple guard Shieldmaidens just continue what they always do, day in, day out. For in Steelhaven daily life is a routine round of existence until one day something happens… and suddenly it's not. Full review...
I Am Not Sleepy And I Will Not Go To Bed by Lauren Child
Like many children, Lola does not particularly like going to bed. She likes staying up colouring, scribbling, sticking and most of all chattering. When she is told that it is time for bed, she always has an answer as to why she should not go: she never gets tired; she can’t clean her teeth because somebody is eating her toothpaste; and the whales are swimming in the bath. The list is endless especially where the highly imaginative Lola is concerned. However, older brother Charlie knows Lola so well; if anyone can persuade her to get into bed, it’s him. Full review...
Teachers Pest: Tales from Lovecraft Middle School by Charles Gilman
Lovecraft Middle School has been found to be full of other things in the past. Book one in this series had the ultra-modern campus plagued by rats, including a two-headed example that somehow became our hero Robert's pet. We have since found the whole thing is also full of portals into a nightmarish underworld, ghosts of a mansion where a mad scientist was dredging up hell. Now the school is full of something else – insects. Flies and other bugs are all over, people are getting bad haircuts due to head lice left, right and centre, and Robert's best friend Glenn might have suffered a most peculiar wasp sting. Would it have anything to do with the particular nature of the hellish beast that has just won presidency of the student council? Full review...
Country Loving by Cathy Woodman
When Stevie Dunsford receives a call to tell her that her father’s farm is in danger of going under, she doesn’t have any idea how bad things really are. Her life is in London with her successful career in accountancy and her good looking boyfriend. She plans to go to the farm in Devon for the weekend to sort things out and that will be that. However, when she discovers the state of things, she has no option other to stay and try to make things better even though she and her father have been estranged for years. What she does not expect though, is how readily and happily she fits back into life on the farm and soon her London life and Nick start to lose their attraction. Of course, this new contentment has got nothing to do with her blossoming relationship with the gorgeous local vet, Leo. It’s time to move forward and commit to the farm and Leo. However, just as things are really looking good, Stevie makes an unexpected discovery that threatens to ruin everything. Full review...
Chilled to the Bone by Quentin Bates
It would have been embarrassing for the shipowner to be found tied to his bed in one of Reykjavik's smartest hotels, abandoned in the middle of an obvious bondage session, but he was past caring. Death was from natural causes. It would have been easy for Sergeant Gunnhildur Gisladottir to write this off as an unfortunate accident, but instinct told her that things were not quite as they seemed. Some discreet questioning around the hotels in the city brought to light several similar incidents, with the victims relieved of their credit cards and cash and grateful to keep everything quiet. It's almost benign crime, but then some disturbing connections came to light. Full review...
Cooking with Bones by Jess Richards
Sisters Amber and Maya run away from home, the city of Paradon, and arrive in a small village. Finding an old cottage, the girls settle in comfortably, hidden from the locals' sight while joining in with their customs as Amber backs honey cakes each night from the ingredients left daily outside the cottage and the instructions of the former occupant's cookery books. Now they've moved away from their old life Amber tries to encourage Maya to stand on her own two feet which isn't easy. For Maya is a formwanderer, engineered to reflect other's wants; a role in which it's difficult to exist normally, let alone while trying to adjust to change… and, indeed, unexpected death. Full review...
A Delicate Truth by John le Carre
It's 2008 and Paul is recruited by, apparently, the government to assist in an undercover operation in Gibraltar. It's perfectly straightforward and its success will impede a cell of Al Qaeda. Paul performs, is thanked and taken home without complications. Fast forward to 2011 and Toby Bell is promoted to the role of private secretary for Paul's recruiter, MP Fergus Quinn. Whilst acquainting himself with Quinn's CV, Toby uncovers the story of the mission, discovering not only Quinn's involvement but hints that it may not have been as straightforward as all that. Quinn also appears to have been connected with an organisation that's not all it seems, unfortunately for a particular pillar of a Cornish community for whom life will never be the same again. Full review...
The Trials of Radclyffe Hall by Diana Souhami
It is a coincidence that the year 1928 saw the first appearance of two English novels which were denounced and initially suppressed on the grounds of obscenity and their potential to corrupt innocent readers – D.H. Lawrence’s 'Lady Chatterley’s Lover' and Radclyffe Hall's 'The Well of Loneliness'. Lawrence's many novels, stories and poems are widely read today, but Hall and her works are hardly remembered except by a minority. Diana Souhami has done her a service in this generous yet deeply probing life of a literary trailblazer. Full review...
Greta and Cecil by Diana Souhami
The story of the notoriously reclusive film star from Sweden and the noted British photographer is a curious one. Neither ever married, both were androgynous and bisexual, plucked their eyebrows, and had numerous short-term relationships. They were like chalk and cheese; Beaton was a compulsive writer and diarist, while Garbo was reluctant to pick up a pen even to sign her own name. He adored parties, publicity, dressing up in frocks and photographing himself or posing for others behind the lens (he couldn’t look more feminine in two pictures of him in frocks by Dorothy Wilding from 1925 if he tried), while she was very much an early bed at night person, preferred to wear unfussy men’s clothes, and was reluctant to be photographed at all if she could help it. It is significant that the one picture of them together in the book, taken in London in 1951, shows her deliberately hiding her face behind what looks like a handbag. Full review...
Snapper by Brian Kimberling
There's little doubt that Brian Kimberling's debut novel, Snapper is a slightly unusual book. The publishers describe it as a coming of age story, and it is after a fashion, but it's more in the vein of an adult looking back on his young adult self than the more conventional young person grows up way of looking at things. The narrator, Nathan, shares many of the traits of his creator. Like Kimberling, he is brought up in Indiana and is involved in research of songbirds in that state; effectively a paid bird watcher. The title of the book though comes not from any type of bird, but from the snapping turtle that lives in the state. It's a broadly affectionate and wry look at the people of Indiana, known as 'Hoosiers'. Full review...
Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
I can only describe Lost and Found as a work of art. The story is beautiful in its simplicity, and the illustrations also have a magical quality to them. I have read criticism of some of Jeffers' early works for his style of drawing, especially the thin stick like legs of the The Boy. The critics seem to have fallen silent on this book though and there is nothing but praise for it. The boy is not the most realistic drawing of a child I have seen, but there is something special about it, some unique presence that sets this book apart from other books. It is not a crude drawing, but a very individualised, artistic expression of Jeffers' style, which is rapidly becoming a personal trademark. The rest of his illustrations are simple and uncluttered as well. Many depict only the main characters, a single prop on a white background. Another picture shows only a few house with a darkened sky, a full moon and stars. Full review...
It Wasn't Me (The Hueys) by Oliver Jeffers
The title of this book will be familiar to every small child. I think it may be one of the first sentences many learn. The scenario will also be very familiar. The story is about a family, who usually get along very well. But just once in while - they don't. This just happens to be one of those times when they are not getting along at all, and Gillespie walks into a huge argument. He asks why they are fighting, but as mad as everyone is, no one can quite remember. A few start pointing fingers as to who started the fight, but each character insists he was not the one who started the row. They never do remember what caused the quarrel but eventually wander off for something a bit more exciting. Full review...
Grace and Mary by Melvyn Bragg
Grace and Mary is a tender and moving account spanning three generations of the same family. In the first chapter, we are introduced to ninety-two year old Mary and her doting son, John. Mary is in a nursing home and has dementia, hovering in a limbo-world, precariously balanced between the present and the past. John delights when he catches the occasional glimpse of the real Mary, and they find a meeting place, of sorts in their shared world of memories and songs. Full review...
Rebellion: Tainted Realm: Book 2 by Ian Irvine
The former heir Rixium is now just plain Rix as he flees his ancestral castle in Hightspall hotly pursued by the marauding Cythonians, invading his home along with his homeland. Accompanying Rix are Glynnie, a young maidservant and her little brother Benn. Hampered by his entanglement with the enemy resulting in the brutal loss of his right hand, Rix is also still mourning his best friend Tobry, killed when hurled from a tower. Meanwhile, Rix's other friend, a Pale and therefore ex-slave of the Cythonians, Tali has been kidnapped on the orders of the evil chancellor. He isn't the only one after her, just her current possessor. The other is Lyf, the Cythonian King who needs only one more of the legendary black pearls to secure his omnipotence, i.e. the black pearl embedded in Tali's head. Tali's escape from slavery came at a price, but the future for both her and Rix seems a lot more costly. Full review...
