Book Reviews From The Bookbag
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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Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives!: A World without World War I by Richard Ned Lebow
On the first page of this book, we are given a summary of events from August 2014. Queen Elizabeth is hosting a reception for Prince Harry and his bride, a niece of the German Kaiser at Balmoral, while the governor-general of India is involved in preparations for the next Commonwealth Games. This brief glimpse of a fantasy world is followed by a swift resumé of the twentieth century, as everything actually happened, and of changes in the world order wrought by both world wars. Chapter two tells of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie at Sarajevo in June 1914, the final catalyst which precipitated the First World War. Full review...
The Wrong Quarry by Max Allan Collins
To create a true anti-hero is no easy task. I have read plenty of crime fiction that reports to have an unlikable son of a gun at the centre of the story, but rarely are they actually that bad. You might get a detective with a gruff exterior, but a kind heart. Or perhaps a career criminal whose sense of morals are actually better than the cops. Thank goodness then for Max Allan Collin’s Quarry novels. Old school murder mysteries that have a hitman at their heart (usually pointing his gun at it). Full review...
The Railwayman's Wife by Ashley Hay
Mackenzie and Anikka Lachlan have all they could possibly want. They live in Thirroul, a close New South Wales coastal community, are parents to a lovely little girl and now, in 1948, Mac has come through the war years unscathed due to his job at home on the railways. However in a single moment all their luck changes and Anikka becomes a widow, another grieving shadow. Alongside her neighbours (a war poet who can't write now he's home and the local GP who experienced hell while not being able to bring anyone back from its grasp) Anikka must learn the most difficult lesson: how to go on living. Full review...
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
On her 11th birthday Sarah Grimké is given a special present. It walks towards her decorated with a purple ribbon for 'it' is Hetty, Sarah's new personal slave. They grow up together on the Grimkés' Charleston plantation separated by conventions thought to be set in stone. However each in their own way will rebel; Hetty empowered by her seamstress mother's ancient African tales of resistance and Sarah (alongside her sister Angelina) empowered by defiant dreams. Full review...
The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz
I usually review fiction. For that reason alone, I knew that reviewing this particular book would be a challenge. I was attracted to it for many reasons; I thought it would give me a window into many situations of which I know little or nothing. Full review...
Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas
There’s a hideous advert on TV at the moment that tells mums they’re doing great. And wouldn’t they like to buy some formula for their little ones, while they’re at it? It’s such a sweeping statement but the theory must be that mothers try to do their best for the kids, whatever the circumstances and whatever their resources. Full review...
Storm and Stone by Joss Stirling
American student Raven Stone doesn't like it at her exclusive English boarding school. People are going missing, and return seeming very different. The teachers pick on her as a scholarship students, and her classmates hate her - one of them enough to send her death threats. Just as the mystery starts to deepen, two new boys arrive. Joe is friendly and charismatic, but it's Kieran's analytical brain which may be the clue to solving her problems. Although her problems may be bigger than either of them had realised... Full review...
The One Safe Place by Tania Unsworth
Devin lives on a farm with his grandfather, away from the rest of the world. He knows a little about it – how the gap between rich and poor is far wider than the world we live in, and how many children now live on the street, scavenging for scraps to say alive. But, he’s never been that concerned. On the farm the life is a simple one, but they can grow enough food to get by, and they’re happy. When tragedy strikes, Devin is forced to leave his home and venture into the city for the first time. Full review...
The Very Nearly Honourable League of Pirates: Magic Marks the Spot by Caroline Carlson
Take one Victorian finishing school for delicate ladies, full of classes on how to waltz and swoon gracefully (not necessarily at the same time), perform a water ballet and use a bow and arrow without perspiring. If you're feeling very brave, you could even (shudder) stir in a smattering (just a tiny amount, for pity's sake!) of the fine art of embroidering Improving Sayings on a sampler. Add a bunch of unruly, unscrupulous and unwashed pirates (except, of course, for the dashingly handsome and gallant ones: they're generally quite hygienic). Chuck in a substantial dollop of magic and stand well back—the result is an action-packed and wondrously silly adventure on the high seas. Full review...
There's a Shark in the Bath by Sarah McIntyre
What would you do if you found a shark in your bath? Or worse still, if you found a whole family of sharks in there? As luck would have it the person who does discover her bath has been invaded by scary sea creatures is Dulcie and Dulcie is one of life’s copers. She uses her skills and several sneaky games in her efforts to outwit the sharks in this jolly and enjoyable adventure. Full review...
Crash Into You by Katie McGarry
This is the second companion book to McGarry's stunning debut Pushing The Limits, following Dare You To. In the wonderful Pushing The Limits, we were introduced to main characters Noah and Echo and an excellent supporting cast including Noah's best friends and surrogate family Beth and Isaiah. Full review...
Emma by Linda Mitchelmore
Emma Le Goff was determined that she and her childhood sweetheart, Seth Jago, would get married but the vicar seemed strangely reluctant to oblige. Their pasts were against them. Seth’s brother had been hung and his father and brother were in prison. No one could - or would - quite believe that Seth had kept himself above the criminality. Then there were the deaths of Emma’s mother and brother, which might not have been an accident. To top it all Emma had lived with Matthew Caunter - the vicar wasn’t prepared to accept that she was simply his housekeeper. No - there was no question of his marrying them, but Emma came up with a novel solution to the problem. Full review...
Hundred Days by Nick Lloyd
Nick Lloyd is a historian. Well, actually he's a lecturer in Defence Studies at Kings College London - based at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in Shrivenham, Wiltshire. Full review...
The Visitors by Rebecca Mascull
Adeliza Golding is comfortably off by Victorian standards. She lives in a not insignificant house, her parents can afford servants, Liza's father owns and runs a hop farm, but... The but is considerable as Liza is different from most: she's deaf/blind and isolated from the world with only 'the visitors' for company and communication in her mind. Almost in desperation when Liza is six, her father calls on Charlotte Crowe for help. Lottie penetrates Liza's lonely world by teaching her finger writing. However, in doing so she unlocks revelations that Lottie would rather be kept secret. For not everything changes; the visitors remain, whoever they are and whatever they want. Full review...
Knowing, Doing, and Being: New Foundations for Consciousness Studies by Chris Clarke
Man suffers from a regrettable lack of a ’hotline to reality’, or to noumenon. In order to give a relatively faithful rendition of reality, however, people use two aspects of consciousness. By researchers, they've been termed the relational and the propositional. A number of thinkers from a number of fields propose that the structure of consciousness may be unveiled using the tool of quantum physics. Full review...
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Joy Luck Club was Jing Mei's mother's idea. After arriving in the US from China in 1949 she invited three other Chinese immigrant ladies to join. The four would meet to play Mah Jong and feast on morsels that none of them could really afford. Once played out, they shared stories of the land they'd left. The evenings evolve over time; the food becomes affordable, men join the discussions but the core remains the same. Four Chinese mothers living a new life while sharing moments enjoyed and regretted, discussing their children and parents and telling stories of wisdom, happiness and, sometimes, intense pain. Full review...
When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket
At first glance, it's difficult to separate All the Wrong Questions from Snicket's first and far more famous series, A Series of Unfortunate Events. However, the further into it I read, the more I realised that I was actually reading a Film Noir. A classic detective story with all the right characters. A little less subtle than some, perhaps, more Bugsy Malone than Sunset Boulevard but that's fine given the intended audience and makes it no less enjoyable. Full review...
Idiopathy by Sam Byers
Katherine no longer seeks or expects to be happy. She's stuck in a place and a job she hates and her relationship with Daniel broke up over a year ago. Since then she's had sexual encounters with a few men but her motivations have been confusing and disturbing - not least to Katherine. She has a vicious wit (actually, calling it wit is perhaps stretching the point a little...) which repels the people she'd like to attract and attracts the people she'd prefer to repel. Daniel is with a new girlfriend (well, there was a slight overlap) but he's not certain that he loves Angelica. He's in a difficult situation: not telling her that he loves her becomes tantamount to telling her that he doesn't love her and as a result he has to tell her that he loves her just to keep on the level. Full review...
Salvage by Keren David
Cass is adopted. She's always been happy in her new family, getting on well with her parents and feeling protective of their natural son Ben. So when her father, a high-ranking MP, is revealed to be having an affair with a woman not much older than her the betrayal hits her hard. Aidan, her brother, manages to get back in touch with her shortly afterwards and seems to be the bright spot in her life. But how much do these siblings really know about each other? Full review...
Wish Upon a Star by Trisha Ashley
Cally is a single mother. The novel begins with the birth of her daughter Stella, and the discovery that her baby has a serious heart condition. Stella’s first few years are taken up with hospitals and medical procedures but eventually the NHS can provide nothing further. Then Cally learns that a doctor in Boston is able to do a new kind of operation, one that could potentially give Stella a totally normal life. The only problem is the enormous cost of surgery in the US, not to mention the need for flights and accommodation. Full review...
Mouse Guard - the Black Axe by David Petersen
Long before there can be peace, there is war. Long before there is something to believe in, there is empty hope. Long before the legend, there is the truth. And so, long before the events of the first two collected Mouse Guard volumes came the story in this third, that of how the heroic, mythical character Celanawe became so notorious. Our tale starts with him just a guard mouse and tutor to those who would follow him, but an unlikely connection to an already fabled weapon is about to be shown to him, in the equally unlikely form of a scholarly old female mouse, Em. When she says the ancient legacy is situated far across unmapped seas, an unusual trio of explorers is pushed to the limit and beyond, in search of the unseekable. Full review...
Then We Take Berlin by John Lawton
Do we really need another Cold War-era thriller? Especially one that also covers the already saturated Second World War years? Well yes, if the thriller in question is John Lawton's new offering, 'Then We Take Berlin'. Despite sounding like a chant from a mob of England football fans rampaging through Germany in the 1980s, Then We Take Berlin tells the story of cockney John 'Joe' Holderness, better known as Wilderness to all of his female acquantances. Full review...
Alfred: Queen Victoria's Second Son by John Van der Kiste
Prince Alfred was the second son of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. At the time of his birth he was second in line to the throne after his brother, the Prince of Wales and was generally known within the family as Affie. In his early teens he joined the Royal Navy - at his own request - and whilst his family and status was undoubtedly no disadvantage to him, he worked hard and had a genuine talent for the navy, eventually receiving his Admiral's baton and visiting all five continents in the course of his service. He was created Duke of Edinburgh (along with various other titles) by the queen. His marriage - to Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia - was not a happy union, with his wife being not well-liked in society and obsessed by her precedence. They had six children (one of whom was stillborn) but only one son - 'young Affie' who committed suicide at the age of twenty four. Full review...
Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop by Jenny Colgan
Rosie Hopkins lives with her boyfriend Stephen in the village of Lipton, and we meet them first on a winter’s evening, with snow gently falling on the picturesque buildings around their cottage. Or, rather, Rosie’s great aunt Lilian’s cottage. For Rosie is a town girl who came to look after Lilian some time previously. Lilian has moved to a lovely care home, and Rosie runs her traditional sweet shop. Full review...
