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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Where Love Lies by Julie Cohen
Let's start with the basics. Felicity, a children's book author and illustrator, has been married to the lovely Quinn for just a short time. They live in a sweet cottage, in a wonderful village, with Quinn's family nearby. Quinn is the perfect husband, in every way, and surely Felicity's life can't get any better than this? You might well guess that anyone starting out in a book in this way is heading for trouble. Felicity's trouble comes in rather an unusual form however. She begins to experience intense emotions, seemingly preceded by smelling a scent that she recognises from a long time ago in her life. But are the emotions real, or is her imagination playing tricks on her? And are these episodes worthy of a trip to the doctor, or will he dismiss her olfactory experiences as the random ramblings of a confused woman? Full review...
Rooms by Lauren Oliver
Alice and Sandra are dead. Ghosts trapped in the house they lived and died in, they have bickered and squabbled for years. Distraction for them comes in the form of a real, live family - Caroline, her daughter Minna, son Trenton, and Minna's daughter Amy. Arriving to mourn and sort affairs following the death of Minna and Trenton's father, arguments and old wounds soon open up. Full review...
Rest in Pieces by Bess Lovejoy
All sorts has happened to deceased famous people - stolen, sold, stuffed, etc. Bess Lovejoy has collected the fates of the celebrity deceased and tells them here - in a cracking little book that will be ideal as a stocking filler or small gift for those who enjoy slightly gruesome tales. Full review...
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Elizabeth Knowles (Editor)
I have known people to be just a little snooty about the fact that I have had a copy of the current edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations on my bookshelf for over forty years, suggesting that it was a book for people who hadn't read the original books. I long ago accepted that I would never have the time to read all the books I (might) want - or feel I ought - to read and I've found the dictionary an invaluable work of reference and source of inspiration for half a century. Where else would you find over 20,000 quotations, covering centuries, every subject, with wit, wisdom and food for thought? Yes - I know they're probably all there on the internet - somewhere, but I've got them in one volume on the shelf in front of me. Full review...
An Unkindness of Ravens: A Book of Collective Nouns by Chloe Rhodes
We have all heard of a Pride of Lions, a Herd of Cattle and a Flock of Birds, but what about the less common, long forgotten collective nouns, like: a Bloat of Hippopotami, a Mutation of Thrushes, a Herd of Harlots or a Superfluity of Nuns? If you are interested in the English language and the origin of words, then you will really enjoy browsing this book. Full review...
The Last Escaper by Peter Tunstall
The Last Escaper opens differently to many of the great escape biographies that were released soon after the war as it is told some 70 years later. Peter Tunstall was an RAF pilot who was shot down and spent many years as a Prisoner Of War across occupied Europe, including in Colditz. He lived through the war, but also lived through many decades of peace. Will these years of the relative quiet life lesson the tales of bravery and dare doing of the war? Of course not! Full review...
Standard Deviations by Gary Smith
Over the years I've regularly been infuriated by the way that seemingly intelligent people abuse statistics - or perhaps misuse them deliberately to deceive us. Politicians, journalists, academics all seem to fall into the trap with alarming regularity and I was tempted into reading this book by a quote from Ronald Coase (Nobel Prize-winning Economist) that 'If you torture data long enough, it will confess'. The author, Dr Gary Smith, taught at Yale for seven years and is now a professor at Pomona College in California. His book is aimed at the layman rather than the academic - does it hit the mark? Full review...
The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
Following inadvertent success with the Wife Project, Professor Don Tillman and his new bride Rosie have moved from Australia to New York. Although Don's position on the autistic scale is subjective, he still operates on a daily basis of structured procedures, lists and logic. Rosie can generally handle that but there are choppy waters ahead. With the patter of tiny feet imminent logic goes out the window as she struggles with her PhD while Don struggles to find his place in the baby production process. At least he has his drinking buddies to support him – an aging rock drummer and a friend whose wife has thrown him out for infidelity. What could possibly go wrong? Full review...
Csardas by Diane Pearson
Hungarian Jewish banker Zsigmond Ferenc rules his family with an iron fist. As a proud Hungarian he feels that he needs to maintain standards. His wife, Marta secretly gambles behind his back, his sparkling younger daughter Eva takes the heart of every man she meets (including his own) and his two sons need leadership and guidance. Then there's his eldest child, Amale who fears she will never fall in love which may be a disadvantage as he looks around for a fitting match. Although whatever their preoccupations may be at the moment everything in Hungary (and indeed Europe) is about to change; history's timings can be cruel and the advent of World War I is perhaps one of its cruellest. To say the Austro-Hungarian Empire won't be the same again is an understatement. Full review...
Clara's Daughter by Meike Ziervogel
Clara’s Daughter, in the short space of 144 pages, paints the portrait of the relationships threatening to destroy a family unit. The intensity is conveyed with sharp stabs from Ziervogel’s spare sentences. Full review...
ZOM-B Family by Darren Shan
REPEATING STANDARD WARNING! If you haven't read the first book in this series, STOP READING NOW! NOW! Spoilers ahoy! Full review...
Always Last (On the Ball) by Frances Mackay
Ben was always last. Last to the bathroom in the morning, last to breakfast, last into school... You get the picture. These didn't worry him overly much but Ben's a football enthusiast - and he was always last to be picked when the captains were choosing teams. Even the girls were picked before him and there was always a bit of grumbling when someone had to take him onto their side. But then an anonymous friend gave him some advice in a letter and although Ben couldn't see how it could possibly work, he decided to give it a try. Full review...
Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of the Light by Derek Landy
Everything comes down to this. The war between the Sanctuaries was merely a prelude to the real battle, the fight against Darquesse, perhaps the most powerful sorcerer of all time. Prophesied to burn everyone and everything to ashes, her arrival heralds the end of the world as everyone knows it, and the stakes have never been higher, the need never greater, for Skulduggery Pleasant and what remains of his allies to do what they do best: kicking evil very hard in the face. Full review...
Race to Death (DI Ian Peterson 2) by Leigh Russell
A man falls to his death at York races, with the wind whistling past his ears indistinguishable from the roar of the crowd. But is the death suicide or murder? For newly-promoted DI Ian Peterson the pressure is on and his team need to solve the case quickly. Unfortunately the killer is also following events as they unfold. Full review...
The Winter Wolf by Holly Webb
Amelia should be looking forward to spending Christmas with her older cousins, but she can't help feeling overwhelmed. The house that they are staying in is big and foreboding and she is very small for her age. Even worse than that, her cousins have a HUGE dog that seems to seek her out at every opportunity. Can't they understand that she is terrified of dogs and just leave her alone? Full review...
Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short Stories by Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard Thomas
Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right. Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking of them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead to the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrong. Are you prepared to enter the world of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust and question? Full review...
Don't Stand So Close by Luana Lewis
It’s cold outside. Dark. Snow is falling. You're safe inside. Of course you are, you've not left the house in months. You're alone, but you feel safe inside. You do. It’s ok. You can do this. Full review...
The Hive Construct by Alexander Maskill
New Cairo is a city on lockdown. A strange new virus has appeared, seemingly from nowhere, affecting a large percentage of the population and indiscriminately shutting down their bio augs;artificial limbs and organs. Until the virus can be contained, no one is allowed to leave the city, a decision that does not go down well with those as yet unaffected and keen to remain that way. Despite the quarantine, someone is actually trying to break INTO the city; a gifted hacker called Zala Ulora who plans to destroy the virus in the hope that the resulting gratitude of the authorities will clear her criminal record. The city is a dangerous place to be, however, as a rising mass of rebels seek to break free from quarantine and the source of the spreading virus seems untraceable. Full review...
How to be Both by Ali Smith
There's something which you need to know about this book: if you decide to read it, the book you read might not be the same as the one which I've read and am about to review. There are, you see, two stories in each copy and half the books published will have the story of Francescho Del Cossa who worked in and around Ferrara in the fifteenth century, followed by the story of George - really Georgia - a teenager who lives with her father and younger brother in twentieth century Cambridge. The other books will have the stories in reverse order. The stories are the same, but the experiences of the readers will be quite different. Full review...
Effie Gray by Suzanne Fagence Cooper
Effie Gray was born in Perth in 1828, and knew art critic John Ruskin from an early age. When he finally decided to ask her to be his wife, she called off an engagement and happily accepted. Full review...
Something Nasty in the Slushpile by Sammy Looker
I couldn't resist the title - a neat play on Cold Comfort Farm and I'm sure that you'll understand that I was expecting some examples of the horrors to be found amongst the mountain of unsolicited manuscripts which every publisher accumulates. I'll confess I was expecting to giggle, even to groan - unkind, I know - and I'd mentally shelved the book with the trivia, or (hopefully) the humour. There is that element to the book, but there's also something far more useful. If you're thinking about publishing a book this should be required reading before you even go near a publisher. Full review...
Baker Cat by Posy Simmonds
Poor cat! All day long he works for the mean baker and his equally unpleasant wife in the bakery, mixing, baking, chopping, slicing and sweeping while the baker grumbles. Then at night the exhausted cat, without any supper, is expected to catch the mice that run riot in the storeroom. Unfortunately he is not a particularly successful mouse catcher. Eventually the poor cat, denied even a name by his miserable owners, becomes thin, sad and weepy and slumps in despair. It is then that the mice take pity on him and concoct a clever plan to help him. Full review...
Printer's Devil Court by Susan Hill
Susan Hill is by far the master of the old fashioned ghost story. If you've ever read or seen The Woman in Black, then you’ll already know that, but her other ghost stories are a little less famous. That doesn’t make them any less good, and I for one am a big fan. I think there’s a lot to be said for a good old fashioned scare, with apparitions, goosebumps and cold chills up the spine. I always feel like I should be reading these books around a campfire, wrapped in a blanket and eating marshmallows because it very much reminds me of sharing ghost stories with my friends when I was a child. What I like to call a ‘proper scare’. Full review...
Black Chalk by Christopher J Yates
I think I have finally understood why it is that over the last few years, authors have increasingly insisted on non-linear structures for their novels. It is a deliberate and possibly conscious ploy to try to make them un-filmable. The Hollywood rights are certainly lucrative, but if my theory doesn't leak like the Jumblies' boat then our complex-structure-loving writers are not just being too clever for their own good, they are trying to be true to the great works of literature that they aspire to emulate. Full review...
Bitterwash Road by Gary Disher
Shots fired on Bitter Wash Road, is the call that comes in, three weeks after he arrived. Hirsch is the only cop in town, so obviously it's up to him to try to figure out exactly where 'the tin hut' might be and discover whether this is just a local looking for rabbit stew or something more sinister. Full review...
A Most Wanted Man by John le Carre
Melik is a Turkish heavy-weight boxing champion. He lives with his widowed mother in Hamburg and they are both doing their very best to keep below the radar. Since his father died they don’t even go to the mosque on a regular basis. But this particular weekend Leyla wants to go. Her daughter, still in Turkey, is getting married, and a special prayer seems to be in order. It is a visit that might well end up costing them the eight years good behaviour needed to finally get beyond their tolerated status to enable full German citizenship. Full review...
The Idea of Him by Holly Peterson
Allie Crawford seemed to have it made. She was married to Wade - the sort of man who made other women drool, had a job in a high-profile Manhattan PR firm and two kids whom she adored. What could be better? What could go wrong? Well, it looked as though something was going wrong when Allie found Wade locked in their laundry room with a decidedly glamorous blonde. There had been a bit of a blip in their marriage whilst Allie was breastfeeding their younger child, but Allie thought that Wade had learned his lesson and would be careful about hurting her in future. Full review...
Hooray for Hat by Brian Won
Helping someone is a great way to make them feel good and what better way to do this than providing a novelty hat? I can think of a few things myself, but for Elephant, Zebra, Turtle and the rest of their pals; hat-giving is the joy de jour. Full review...
Us by David Nicholls
Douglas Petersen is a mild-mannered, middle-aged biochemist. He and Connie have been married for about two decades. Their son, Albie, is your average sullen teenager with a messy room and bohemian affectations. He and Douglas argue about everything, but especially about Albie's chosen career path: he hopes to be a photographer, taking after his artist mother, but Douglas wants him to study something more practical and rigorous at uni. Still, Douglas thinks things are going pretty well for his family – until one night Connie sits up in bed and tells him she thinks she wants to leave him. Full review...
Eren by Simon P Clark
People - Mum, mostly - are keeping secrets from Oli. Why have they had to leave London and come to live in the country with Uncle Rob? Why hasn't Dad come too? Why does everyone keep turning off the TV news every time it comes on? Why does Em's dad dislike Oli when he doesn't even know him? When will Dad come? When will life go back to normal? Full review...
I Used to Know That: English by Patrick Scrivenor
I doubt that there can be anything more unnerving than reviewing a book written by someone who is an expert in written English. I've even worried about that first sentence. But at school I loved English Grammar and a good deal of it has stuck. I'm conscious of being pedantic about mistakes other people make - but increasingly aware that there are gaps in my own knowledge which should be plugged. This book seemed like the ideal opportunity, but I'll confess that the subtitle 'Stuff You Forgot From School' made me nervous I was going to be back to reading a school textbook. Full review...
