Book Reviews From The Bookbag
Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of author interviews, and all sorts of top tens - all of which you can find on our features page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the recommendations page.
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The Desert of Souls (The Chronicle of Sword and Sand) by Howard Andrew Jones
Place: Baghdad Time: 8th century Arabian-Nights-Time A dying man gives Dabir, tutor at the Caliph's palace, a precious artefact, making him promise to look after it. Unfortunately it gets stolen before he has the chance to. Jaffar the son of the Caliph's vizier realises that it has magical qualities that make it even more precious than it appears and isn't too well pleased. He gives Dabir a chance to redeem himself, sending him and Asim, Captain of the Caliph's guard, to find it. The men set out on their quest facing danger, death, sorcery and someone whose presence could get them into even deeper trouble. Full review...
The Satanic Diaries by Krister Jones
We travel with Satan through a morose time in his lengthy existence. His wife has divorced him and his Chief of Security (Himmler) seems to be going even madder. To top it off, his therapist is insisting that his anger issues need to be dealt with and is forcing him to keep a diary. Following a disastrous holiday and an even worse attempt to get back into dating, he takes the diary with him as he goes on the lam in disguise and lives for a while paycheck to paycheck as a security guard for a cash and carry. Full review...
Penguins Can't Fly! by Richard Byrne
Gregory the Gull and Hudson the penguin were both born on the same day and have been great friends ever since, doing everything together. In the lovely illustrations, we can see them having a bath, fishing, sledging, skating and giving each other thoughtful and special gifts. However, when Gregory sees some other some gulls having fun flying over the beach, he naturally decides to join in. So does Hudson but of course there is a problem! However hard Hudson flaps his little wings, he just can’t fly. He tries everything but the result is always the same; he never manages to leave the ground. Naturally, he is very sad especially when all the gulls laugh unkindly. Just when he is feeling very low though, something happens to Gregory when he dives deep into the water and gets caught up in a fishing net. Hudson may not be able to fly but he can swim and this means that he is the best bird to help his friend. After this, it never seems to matter that he can't fly. Full review...
I'm Dougal Trump . . . Where's My Tarantula? by Dougal Trump
'I'm Dougal Trump . . . Where's My Tarantula' is the second in a series of books about the misadventures of Dougal Trump. Although this is a sequel, it is not necessary to read I'm Dougal Trump and It's Not My Fault first. This book is fine as a stand alone story, but the odds are once your child has finished reading it, they will be asking for the next book, or in this case the first book, in fact - we've already bought it. Full review...
Lollipop and Grandpa's Dinosaur Hunt by Penelope Harper and Cate James
Lollipop's family settles in for a day at the seaside, but it just so happens, that they are also on the Jurassic Coast. Of course the dinosaurs have died out millions of years ago... or have they? Grandpa says they haven't really disappeared, they are just very good at hiding, so the pair set off on a quest to finding the missing dinosaurs. Full review...
Necessary Evil: The Milkweed Triptych: Book Three by Ian Tregillis
Raybould Marsh has been sent back from the 1960s to the Second World War to avert end of the world while saving the life of baby Agnes. At least that's what he thinks he's doing it for. He's armed with a plan but, even if his friend and warlock Sir William Beauclerk and his own younger self help, there are unforeseen disadvantages in dabbling with time. And then of course there's the seer and ex-Nazi experiment, Gretel. Is she mad, bad or just has a funny way of showing her philanthropic side? We're all about to find out… Full review...
Firewallers by Simon Packham
After Jess's dad gets suspended from work, her mum takes her and her older sister out of school. Fleeing from publicity, they go to a remote Scottish island to join a community of people who shun modern technology. The longer they stay on the island, though, the stranger things seem to be. What's going on, and when will Jess see her dad again? Full review...
Troll Swap by Leigh Hodgkinson
I chose this book because my sons, like most children, have always enjoyed books with naughty children. I had some reservations about the book. I was concerned that it might be yet another book preaching about the importance of good behaviour, as most children's books were at one time, but I noticed the publisher was Nosy Crow, and they seem very keen to publish books with a difference so I took a chance and was very pleasantly surprised. Full review...
The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain
The milliners' advertising used to say 'to get ahead, get a hat'. They would very much approve of this book. Daniel Mercier is a Mr Average - or perhaps a Monsieur Mediocre. He's a lowly accountant until one evening he finds himself dining next to French President, François Mitterrand, who leaves the restaurant without his hat. When Daniel decides to keep it, his life starts to change and he feels somehow more confident. In other strands of the story, Fanny Marquant is having an affair with an older man who clearly has no intention of leaving his wife while celebrated perfumer Pierre Aslan has lost his ability to detect smells and to create perfumes. Bernard Lavallière, meanwhile is struggling to live up to the right wing standards of his wife's friends and starts to read the more left wing papers. At some point, all will come into contact with the President's hat and it will have an impact on all of them. Full review...
Nijinsky by Lucy Moore
The name Nijinsky is synonymous with dance from the last days of imperial Russia. I must confess to knowing little about him until I read this, the first biography of him for nearly forty years, and for me it was a surprise to learn that his career was so tragically brief. Full review...
The Spirit of Venice: From Marco Polo to Casanova by Paul Strathern
There are several ways of telling the history of the republic of Venice, which is generally regarded as the first great economic and naval power of the western world. Strathern has chosen to do so largely through the lives of various famous (and also infamous) people from Marco Polo in the late thirteenth century to what he calls its destruction, 'both political and symbolic', at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797. On the whole, the major events such as its wars are covered fairly briefly. An exception, fittingly enough, is made in the case of a chapter on the war which began its decline in the fifteenth century, when it tried to hold Thessalonica against the Ottomans, and sent ships to help defend Constantinople against the Turkish army but found itself heavily defeated in the subsequent lengthy war, as a result of which it lost most of its possessions. Full review...
The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan
Imagine reading a book set in a Scottish children’s care home. It’s about a violent and a deeply disturbed fifteen year old drug addict who, when she was eleven, found her prostitute foster mother murdered in the bathtub. That’s the set-up of Jenni Fagan’s The Panopticon, and that’s what it’s about – but the funny thing is that whatever you’re picturing in your head right now, and what I was imagining before I sat down to read it, bears absolutely no resemblance to the book Fagan has actually written. Full review...
ACID by Emma Pass
The UK is now the IRB - Independent Republic of Britain. It's no longer run by elected politicians, who were completely discredited after a catastrophic financial crash. Instead, the IRB is a police state, led by ACID, a fearsomely authoritarian organisation. Marriage has been abandoned in favour of life partnering - the state tells you who to live with and whether or not you can have a child. Contact with the outside world is forbidden. Society is divided, with a tiny wealthy elite and a huge mass of an underclass living in poverty and shortage. Full review...
The Exiled Blade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Tycho is back to face the dangerous intrigue of the Venetian Court. While he wants nothing more than to spend his nights with beautiful Guilietta Millioni, when the worst winter in living memory hits the city, and Duchess Alexa's treacherous rival builds a stronghold in Montenegro and attacks Guilietta's son, Tycho must really take up the responsibility of his office as Blade. Full review...
Trick of Fate: Connell O'Keeffe and The Pen Caer Legacy by Patricia Watkins
Connell O'Keeffe was a gentleman actor and on 23 February 1797 he was on his way from Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire to catch the ferry home to Ireland. Unable to speak Welsh he was unaware that the French had invaded Pen Caer and rode into a situation which would change his life forever. The man who had set off to make his leisurely way home, taking in some of the local landmarks suffered a life-threatening injury, was unjustly accused of a foul murder and became a fugitive. It was difficult to see that he could survive his current situation - fitter men than he were dying - and if he did, what was the point? What was there that he could do when his chosen profession would no longer be open to him? Full review...
An Enormously English Monsoon Wedding by Christina Jones
Jay loves Erin and Erin loves Jay. They live in a picture perfect village called Nook Green and are planning their dream wedding, which is only a few weeks away. The plans are coming along perfectly and everything is running according to schedule. Life simply couldn’t get any better than this. Full review...
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...
