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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Brain Twisters: The Science of Thinking and Feeling by Clive Gifford and Professor Anil Seth
Meet the brain. We all have one. We all use it (and by 'it' I mean a heck of a lot more of it than the 10% of urban myth) every second of the day. We engage with different parts of it for balance, catching a ball, memorising a list of moves in controlling a video game character, or understanding things ranging from written instruction to body language. It's such a vital part of the body, taking up 20% of our glucose fuel intake as well as of oxygen, that understanding of it cannot come at too young an age. But in this varied and complex book, looking at a varied and complex subject, I do wonder if the right approach has been taken at all times. Full review...
The Wonder Garden: Wander through the world's wildest habitats and discover more than 80 amazing animals by Jenny Broom and Kristjana S Williams
Is it any wonder that this book calls the outside world The Wonder Garden? I know things in fiction books, on TV and in games can be fabulous, but can they compete – really – with what nature has presented? You only need a gate through which to go, and a willingness to explore. This book provides those gates – there they are, shining luxuriously on the cover of this jumbo-sized hardback. And in five easy-to-take steps, the rest of the book provides for that exploration, taking us down south in Amazonia, down below the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, and up – to deserts and mountains, via Germany's own Black Forest. And the trip is nothing if not spectacular to look at. Full review...
City Atlas: Discover the world with 30 city maps by Martin Haake and Georgia Cherry
It's not every time I mention the feel of the book I'm reviewing, but this time it's worth a mention. This volume has been lavishly presented in a roughened card cover, as opposed to the gloss of others in this format from this publisher, and so looks and feels like an old stamp catalogue. The title image is indeed a stamp, stuck on the centre of the cover. And just as all stamps the world over are practically the same yet completely different in design, so are the world's cities. The point of this book is to bring the common elements as well as the unique features of all the world's capitals to the fore, to show that while a city may be a city is a city, their constant variety is what makes each and every one worth a visit. With that being on the costly side, this is a decent enough substitute. Full review...
The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and LeUyen Pham
Princess Magnolia has a double life. On one hand she has a perfectly prim, proper and pink castle turret to live in, on the other she has a secret escape tunnel. On her head she has a tiara, on her finger a monster alarm. Her life is also full of threats – on one side a horrid, blue, goat-eating beastie, on the other a prim and proper visitor intent on finding out if the perfect Princess has any secrets. Well we know she has, but will they be discovered – and which is the greater threat? Full review...
The Art of Possible by Kate Tojeiro
As I recently wrote on this website, I started reading management manuals and self-improvement books at a time when my life was not going so great. Since then, it seems that they have continued to drop into my life just as I need them. I'm sure there's something to the science of "serendipity", which basically means we notice stuff more when it's what we need. Full review...
The Astrologer's Daughter by Rebecca Lim
Horary Astrology is an ancient branch of horoscopic astrology in which an astrologer attempts to answer a question asked at an exact time by the construction of a horoscope around it. Clear as mud? Yes, me too. Suffice to say, an horary astrologer would have to be a very gifted individual indeed and Avicenna Crowe's mother, Joanne, is such an astrologer. In fact, her predictive powers have been uncannily exact for her whole life and with such a gift comes an assortment of negative aspects; stalkers and maniacally obsessed clients at the bad end of the scale to, well, worse. Sometimes much worse… Full review...
Demon Road by Derek Landy
Amber Lamont was a relatively ordinary 16-year-old, living a pretty quiet, uneventful life; she went to school, had a part-time job, and a decent relationship with her aloof but loving parents. But over the course of just one day everything goes completely to hell. Amber discovers that she can turn into a demon, a genuine, red-skinned, satanic monster, with horns and talons that can rip a human to shreds. Her demon side is the least of her problems, however. For Amber's parents are also demons, and now that her powers have manifested, they are intent on eating her and absorbing her power for themselves. Amber finds herself on the run, travelling the Demon Road across America in a desperate attempt to escape her parents, accompanied by Milo, an enigmatic guardian, who has dark secrets of his own. Full review...
Dandelion Angel by C B Calico
In her Author's Note, debut novelist C.B. Calico reveals that Dandelion Angel was inspired by a non-fiction work, Understanding the Borderline Mother by Christine Ann Lawson. The four mother/daughter relationships in this Germany-set novel – all marked to some extent by dysfunction, physical and/or verbal abuse, and borderline personality disorder – are based on Lawson's metaphorical classifications: the hermit, the queen, the waif, and the witch. Looping back through her four storylines in three complete cycles, Calico shows how mental illness is rooted in childhood experiences and can go on to affect a whole family. Full review...
The Commando Entrepreneur by Damian McKinney
It always helps to know the bias of anyone reviewing a book for you, so cards on the table: I am something of a "self-help" / "self-improvement" junkie. I use both expressions because it's often difficult to know where the boundary between management text books and teach-yourself-a-better-way-to-live books lies. Full review...
Dark Benediction by Walter M Miller Jr
Walter M. Miller Jr is rightly placed among the science fiction giants H.G. Wells, Michael Moorcock, and Philip K. Dick in the Masterworks series, a large selection of genre-defining writers and works at the centre of what is now such a popular and diverse range of literatures, films, and television productions. Miller is considered one of the finest science fiction writers of the 1950s, and in Dark Benediction, fourteen of this author's best short stories are brought together in one collection. Full review...
Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur by Joan Aiken and Quentin Blake
If you think about all the many unsuitable items that Mortimer the raven has eaten, from staircases to bowler hats, it's surprising that he's still in as good a shape as he is. This time, Mortimer finds himself left alone with Mrs Jones' sewing machine. I'm still not sure why Mrs Jones ever lets him out of her sight, since he has an unerring capacity for trouble, yet here we find him, gobbling down the pink material that is intended for Arabel's new dress, swiftly followed by the needle! When Mortimer eventually discovers the foot pedal that makes the sewing machine go he and Arabel are turfed out of the house and allowed to go across the road to the park where a crowd has gathered around an interesting find in a large hole… Full review...
Thunderstruck by Elizabeth McCracken
I chose to review this collection of short stories with no prior knowledge of the author's work – often the best way to do it, though I am aware that McCracken's work comes highly commended. After reading these stories, I can see why and I am already looking forward to reading more of her work. Full review...
The Silent History by Eli Horowitz, Matthew Derby and Kevin Moffett
Well, they kept this quiet – for reasons that will become obvious. A couple of years ago people in America were giving birth to problematic kids. They (the children) were soon found to be unnaturally quiet – perhaps crying with hunger or pain, but never even trying to 'ooga-wooga' their way into their parents' hearts. They were later found to be completely unable to speak, they could not read and indeed they could not understand anything said to them, or shown them, as an instruction. They were physically unable to parse anything as language, and were in a silent world of their own. But right about now they and we are combining worlds – schools are being set up, and funds are being made available, and people are coming down on the endless divide as to whether they are just problematic, disabled – or even the blessed. In a couple of years, however, the problems the virus that is causing these people to be born with will be shown to be a major problem – and that is before the kids themselves change. For they will be able to switch their mental abilities much like a blind man can hear more than the average, and will be able to comprehend body and facial language much more coherently than anyone else. Throughout this timeline, however, people will be working hard to try and study the problem, and put it right – if indeed 'right' is the correct word… Full review...
Between Gods by Alison Pick
Alison Pick's paternal grandparents escaped Czechoslovakia just before the Holocaust by bribing the Nazis for visas to Canada; the rest of the family died in Auschwitz. They spent their whole lives trying to pass as Christians, and Pick's father, too, was reluctant to have anything to do with Judaism. Pick only learned he was Jewish through a conversation overheard when she was 11. Full review...
The Spiral Stair by Joan Aiken and Quentin Blake
I'm rather fond of Arabel and Mortimer. I like the outlandish situations that they find themselves in, and the way Joan Aiken wrote the stories without speaking down to her readers in any way, inserting humour for the grown ups reading them too. Here our terrible twosome have been sent to Uncle Urk at the zoo whilst Mr Jones is in hospital. Aunt Effie, however, has little patience for a noisy raven. Will Mortimer land them both in trouble? Or will they somehow manage to save the zoo from a scurrilous animal-stealing plot? Full review...
Katy by Jacqueline Wilson
Eleven year-old Katy Carr is a tomboy who, despite her best intentions, is always getting into trouble. Lively and adventurous, Katy is very much the leader of her five younger brothers and sisters until an accident damages her spine and she finds herself confined to a wheelchair. Suddenly Katy's life is turned upside down and she has to learn the most basic things all over again, to redefine her role in the family, and find a new meaning in life. Full review...
Dino Dinners by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom
Ask most children if dinosaurs are cool and you will get an emphatic – Yes! The thought that giant looming monsters once roamed the Earth, fighting and eating eat one other, sounds exciting. It is important to encourage this enthusiasm and there are loads of books that are full of dinosaur facts, but are there any full of dinosaur fun as well? Full review...
Unbecoming by Jenny Downham
Three women. Three sets of secrets about to be laid bare. Katie lives with her learning-disable brother Chris and her rather controlling mother. They've recently moved to her mother's childhood town after Katie's father got a girlfriend and a new baby. Katie, a hardworking and dutiful girl, is halfway through her AS levels when everything - and I mean everything - goes wrong. First up, Katie kisses her best friend Esme. Esme rejects her and, worse still, tells all the mean girls at school what happened. They miss no opportunity to mock and name call. And then a phone call one night brings Mary into their lives... Full review...
Hider/Seeker by Tom Claver
Harry Bridger is an ex-policeman who now makes his living helping people disappear. His clients aren't always whiter than white, but when a wealthy woman fleeing domestic violence asks him to help, his chivalrous instincts override the doubts that lurk in the back of his mind. A few things about Angela Linehan don't chime right but she's been vouched for by an old friend and Harry's basic decency won't allow him to leave a woman and her child in danger. And there's another advantage to helping Angela. It brings Harry back into the orbit of his ex-wife Bethany. And Harry would do almost anything to redeem himself in her eyes. Full review...
The Red Shoe by Ursula Dubosarsky
They may be quite far apart, but three houses in a row in the rural suburbs of 1950s Sydney contain some incredibly unusual people. In one, a solitary old man of very few words, shuffling to the end of his days, but brandishing a Japanese sword he's purloined after WWII, and with a gun in the corner of his lounge. In the middle, a family of five, with a father figure suffering from PTSD due to the same war, a mother feeling friendless and alone in the isolated time and location, and their three daughters – one of whom has given up on school after an alleged nervous breakdown, the middle one who barely speaks more than the neighbour, and Matilda, our key interest, who likes the idea of spies, and has an imaginary friend who came out of the radio. The third house however might be where the most interesting people live – after all, it had been empty, but now the luxurious building is home to several shady men in suits, who turned up out of the blue in luxury cars, and with at least one gun of their own… Full review...
Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O'Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. With her uncanny ability to read people's secrets, she's a media darling. It seems like everyone's in love with New York City's latest It Girl – their 'Sweetheart Seer'. But while Evie is enjoying the high life, her fellow Diviners Henry DuBois and Ling Chan will fight to keep their powers secret. Full review...
Kauthar by Meike Ziervogel
Meet Lydia. She's a normal British girl, interested in following both her father, and Nadia Comaneci, into the world of gymnastics but not brave enough to pull off the larger set pieces, and with not much more to interrupt her days than wondering why boys always have to talk about their willies. Now meet Kauthar, a white British convert to Islam, devoted follower of the precepts of her religion, ardent wife and stalwartly self-fulfilling, no-nonsense and satisfied. But what is this – why is she talking of being alone in a desert, and why is she directly addressing her god regarding how she can't perform any movement. Because it is torn apart? Has something gone wrong? Full review...
Butterfly Shell by Maureen White
One of the worst kind of nerve-wracking days has arrived: that first day of Secondary School. As we all remember, that's part scary, part exciting for any girl (or boy too, of course, but this is a girls' school). It's an age when you're anxious about making new friends and fitting in anyway, but at her new school twelve-year-old Marie falls victim to a group of bullies. They call themselves The Super Six which they think makes them look important. But Marie privately renames them The Stupid Six. Full review...
Koko the Mighty by Kieran Shea
Many people have dreamed of packing up their old jobs and opening a B&B or hotel with their partner somewhere in a picturesque holiday destination. You may just deserve this new life, but running a hotel is not easy, especially when it is on a pleasure island known for its indiscriminate violence and hedonism. Koko Martsteller had her last hotel/brothel blown up, but after a series of extraordinary events she has a new hostelry and a new partner. It's a shame then that nothing is ever easy for Koko. Full review...
Night Games: A Journey to the Dark Side of Sport by Anna Krien
Mere mortals relax by having a game of footy of a weekend and a couple of drinks, but what does a professional sportsman do to cut loose? What do they do when they go out en masse? Investigative journalist Anna Krien looks at a rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer, just into his twenties and follows the case as it goes to court, interviewing some of those directly or indirectly involved and digressing into related areas. In deference to the fact that the woman had automatic anonymity she's chosen to give the man who was charged the name of 'Justin' in an attempt to level the playing field, so to speak. You could Google the facts and come up with the correct name, but this isn't a book of gossip about particular people. It's an investigation of a culture which has increasingly treated women as sexual commodities. Full review...
Post Mortem by Kate London
I enjoyed this police crime novel by a talented new writer, Kate London. It is a well written and intelligently thought out book. The characters are clearly drawn and you are able to see the drama unfold from different perspectives. The action constantly shifts from the present, back to the events that lead to the crime taking place and then forward to reveal a little more of the plot with each shift. This helps you engage immediately with the story and with the characters. Full review...
