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.
There are currently 16,114 reviews at TheBookbag.
Want to find out more about us?
Reviews of the Best New Books
Read new reviews by category.
Read the latest features.
The Grove of Eagles: A novel of Elizabethan England by Winston Graham
Maugan Killigrew grows up in material comfort as the acknowledged illegitimate son of Sir John, the Governor of Cornwall's Pendennis Castle. Yet, despite the comparative comfort and because of other's austere attitudes, Maugan never feels quite as accepted as his many half-brothers and sisters but there's little time to consider that. Times are changing. Queen Elizabeth I is getting older and the English are still at war with the Spanish, a nation that will have quite an effect on Maugan's life. Romance, conflict and imprisonment, Maugan will experience it all and, hopefully survive it all but we shall see.. Full review...
Three-Martini Lunch by Suzanne Rindell
In 2013 we loved The Other Typist for its gripping plot, terrific characters and effortless recreation of the Jazz Age. Well, Rindell has done it again, though this time her chosen time period is the late 1950s. She brings the bustling, cutthroat New York City publishing world to life through the connections between three main characters whose first-person voices fit together like a dream: Cliff Nelson, a Columbia dropout who plans to be the next Hemingway and also happens to be the son of a premier editor at Bonwright; Eden Katz, who moved from Indiana to be a secretary at a publishing house but has ambitions of becoming an editor; and Miles Tillman, a black man who works as a bicycle messenger for Eden's publisher but has literary hopes of his own. Full review...
My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith
I do love to sit down with a new book by AMS, and the excitement was doubled on this occasion since a new standalone story meant lots of brand new characters to meet, and also the book has a very intriguingly bizarre title! In this story we get to meet Paul, a food writer who, after a rather upsetting break-up with his girlfriend, heads to Tuscany to finish writing his book. So far, so normal, but of course things soon get a little unusual, beginning with Paul’s arrest on his arrival in Italy and moving swiftly on to the point where instead of a hire car he finds himself with a hired bulldozer… Full review...
Bubble Boy by Stewart Foster
Eleven year old Joe was born with a rare condition that means he has no immune system and, therefore, no resistance to the germs that surround us in our daily lives. The result is he's spent his whole life trapped in a bubble – a small room in the hospital where the air is filtered and temperature and air purity is constantly monitored. His only escape is through his dreams of being a superhero and, unless something changes, it looks like he'll never get to see the outside world for himself. Full review...
Changers, Book Two: Oryon by Allison Glock-Cooper and T Cooper
Ethan is a Changer. Changers are an ancient race of humans who change identities four times during adolescence before choosing a permanent persona to inhabit for the rest of their lives. Because of this, Changers gain insight into other people's lives and become better people because of it. They literally walk in another man's shoes, if you will. Full review...
Blind Water Pass and other stories by Anna Metcalfe
Anna Metcalfe's debut collection of short stories is a treasure trove of language, cultures, and beautifully written prose. The stories are bound together with a loose theme of communication, or miscommunication, across characters and cultures, and the narrators of these stories are as different as human beings themselves. Full review...
Nothing on Earth by Conor O'Callaghan
On a sweltering night in what is a blisteringly hot summer a young girl hammers at a man's door and when let into the house tells him that her father has disappeared too. Gradually her story emerges, of a home on one of those estates so common in Ireland after the collapse of the Celtic Tiger with only the occasional house occupied and others only part built. It could be any one of hundreds of Irish towns at that time and its main feature is the lack of hope that it will never be any better. Our narrator tells her story, much, he says, as it was told to him and we hear of a life on the edge of poverty, with strange noises in the night, words written in the dust on the windows mirrored by those written in blue ink on her skin. Full review...
Convertible Submarine by Claire Phillip
They told me life would be easy reviewing books; grab it, read it, review it. What they did not say that I would have to do is also play with it, build it and sit in it! There is a thin line between an interactive book and a toy. When this thin line involves a book that you can convert into a play mat and also a submarine, it is hard to understand what it is at all. Welcome to the world of the Convertible Submarine. Full review...
My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
1988, Charleston, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disatrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act...different. She's moody. She's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she's nearby. Abby's investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat the devil? Full review...
Bird in a Cage by Frederic Dard and David Bellos (translator)
A man returns to the flat he grew up in and where his mother died without his knowledge, and finds it too desolate for the time of year it is – Christmas Eve. Bursting for more life, despite being a solitary character, he goes to a restaurant, and finds a connection with a mother with her daughter. They dine, then go to the cinema, and sit together, and things happen from there – in a gentle, no-pressure, no-names-no-packdrill way. If this isn't a reasonable start to a novella, consider the tag it has as a noir classic. And consider the fact the strange woman is the spitting image of the man's dead wife… Full review...
Apothecary Melchior and the Ghost of Rataskaevu Street by Indrek Hargla and Christopher Moseley (translator)
In fifteenth century Tallinn religion and superstition sit side by side. In the midst of this is scientifically-minded apothecary Melchior Wakenstede, known for his curiosity, logical thinking, and ability to solve murders. There are rumours of a ghost a few doors down from Melchior on Rataskaevu Street, though he's not as ready to believe in it as some of his neighbours. When several people die after saying they'd seen the ghost, Melchior can't resist looking for the connection between them and trying to discover the truth behind the tales. Full review...
These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly
Jennifer Donnelly wrote one of my all-time favourite books, A Gathering Light, so I was very excited to read her latest novel and see how it compared. Like A Gathering Light, These Shallow Graves is a historical novel with a murder mystery at its heart and a feisty heroine who challenges the standards of the day. Full review...
He Runs the Moon by Wendy Brandmark
This is the first time I had read any of Wendy Brandmark's fiction, and I was intrigued at the theme of the stories. She sets out writing short stories about different cities in the US, Denver, Bronx, New York, Cambridge and Boston, but also weaves in setting the stories in different eras. So we have a collection of stories ranging from the 1950's to the 1970's. Full review...
The Parable Book by Per Olov Enquist and Deborah Bragan-Turner (translator)
It's not only springtime when a man's fancies turn to thoughts of love – he can also do it in the autumn of his life, as does the man involved here. But being a well-known author, and being beholden to silence, can he really put his thoughts on paper? It happened a long time ago, and he only met the woman concerned a couple of times, but with it being such a powerful event and such a slightly unusual circumstance, what should he do? It takes a notebook of his father's love poems to his mother, that he finds both incomplete and scorched, to give him the green light – the voice from the past that says to him, 'go for it'. And what we read here is a result. Full review...
The OMG Blog by Karen McCombie
In the first weeks of term at a new secondary school four good girls find themselves thrown together in detention. From this inauspicious beginning a firm friendship develops as the girls, encouraged by their teacher to enter a blogging competition, find that they do have one very important thing in common…their embarrassing mums. The Our Mums Grrr blog is born! Full review...
Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz
Bond is back, this time authored by international best-selling author Anthony Horowitz. It all begins with a seemingly simple mission (at least for Bond). After a few days training, James heads to Germany to race in the European championship at Nürburgring where he plans to stop the Russians using dirty tricks to secure victory. However, we're not surprised that Bond soon uncovers a much bigger and more serious plot: a scheme by Korean Sin Jai-Seong (otherwise known as Jason Sin) and SMERSH (a top-secret department of the Russian government) to undermine the American space programme whilst simultaneously murdering millions of New Yorkers and toppling the Empire State Building. As the clock ticks down, only Bond and CIA field-agent, Jeopardy Lane, can stop it. But are they already too late? Full review...
Sir Henry Neville Was Shakespeare: The Evidence by John Casson and William D Rubinstein
Debunking the Bard of Avon on the grounds that he did not write the plays attributed to him is nothing new. This scholarly work, based on several years' research and new evidence, is by no means the first to suggest otherwise, and provides a compelling argument as to who really was the author. Full review...
This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell
Maggie O'Farrell's globe-trotting seventh novel opens in 2010 with Daniel Sullivan, an American linguistics professor. He lives with his wife Claudette, a French actress who retreated from the limelight, and their two children in a remote home in Donegal. It was 10 years ago that he first came here and met Claudette by chance when her van had a flat tire; he struck up a conversation with her son Ari and gave the boy tips for dealing with his stutter. Now, preparing to fly back to Brooklyn for his father's ninetieth birthday party, he's caught short by a long-lost voice he hears on the radio. It belongs to Nicola Janks, a former lover he last saw 24 years ago; when he learns that she died soon after they were together, he determines to figure out whether he played a role, even if he doesn't like what he finds. Full review...
The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell
Conspiracy thrillers are many and varied. They often promise a lot but leave you feeling frustrated and disappointed. The Fifth Gospel is the rare exception. In a genre filled with mediocrity it soars above the competition. The care and quality that Ian Caldwell brings to his writing is exceptional and his storytelling is gifted. Set in the heart of the Vatican, he weaves a tale around the discovery of a missing gospel. The religious and political intrigues, handled with great subtlety, are twisted into a complex narrative full of intimate details. Full review...
These Days of Ours by Juliet Ashton
Not everything that looks like love is love'. Kate and Charlie were childhood sweethearts, so what went wrong? How has he ended up marrying her wayward cousin and Kate marrying her wayward cousin's pretentious ex-boyfriend? How can they still be four friends? Follow Kate through her life where she experiences all kinds of love in all kinds of places and learns that not everything that looks like love is love, but that just sometimes what looks like love might be the real deal. Full review...
Darkmouth: Chaos Descends by Shane Hegarty
Poor Finn just never gets a break. Like it or not he's a trainee Legend Hunter – which sounds quite jolly until you realise he doesn't spend his life in a nice quiet library looking up fairy tales from the distant past. Quite the opposite: Legends are the most vicious, bloodthirsty monsters you can imagine, and his village in Ireland just happens to be the place they use as a portal on their frequent attempts to conquer Earth. Full review...
Sea Journal by Lisa Woollett
Over the course of a year Lisa Woollett invites us to go with her on her visits to various beaches in the British Isles, although 'visits' might make what happens sound a little too formal. Woollett knows her local beaches, and some further afield, in much the same way that a gardener knows their own plot. She's aware of minute changes, how the phase of the moon will affect the tide, what she can expect to find in the strandline and where it's come from. She delights in every variation of the weather and she's a mine of wonderful information from ancient myths to up-to-the-minute science. Full review...
Daughter of the Wolf by Victoria Whitworth
We're in the Dark Ages in an England ruled by rival Kings served by Lords. One of the lords is Radmer of Donmouth, the King's Wolf, guardian of the estuary gateway to Northumbria. When the king sends Radmer on a mission to Rome, Donmouth is left in the safekeeping of his only daughter, Elfrun, whose formidable grandmother wants her to take the veil, while treacherous Tilmon of Illingham covets her for his son. This is the story of daughters in a man's world: Wynn, determined to take over from her father, the smith, Saethryth, wilful daughter of the village steward, whose longing for passion will set off a tragic sequence of events and Auli, whose merchant venturer father plies his trade up and down the coast, spying for the Danes. Above all, it is the story of Elfrun of Donmouth, uncertain of her father's fate and not knowing whom she can trust, or love… Full review...
The Ancient Egyptians by Imogen Greenberg and Isabel Greenberg
There was more to the Ancient Egyptians than keeping the entrails of their dead in a jar, but that is a pretty cool fact anyway. As a civilisation they knocked around for centuries until Cleopatra had a nasty incident with an Asp. Cramming all the information on one of the most complex and intriguing peoples of all time is a big ask; making it assessable to children is even bigger. Imogen Greenberg and Isabel Greenberg have attempted this in The Ancient Egyptians. Full review...
Six Tudor Queens: Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen: Six Tudor Queens 1 by Alison Weir
1501: A ship comes into port on the English coast with an important passenger. The Spanish Infanta Catalina steps ashore to become the wife of King Henry VII's heir, Prince Arthur and produce future heirs for the English crown. That's the plan but that's not how the story actually goes, on any level. For Catalina will be more famous as Katherine of Aragon, wife of Arthur's brother, Henry VIII. As for producing heirs… Full review...
Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Steve and Jocelyn had moved to Black Spring before their boys were born. Now Tyler and Matt are teenagers and none of them could consider living anywhere else. Would this be due to the beautiful surroundings or the closeness of the small town's camaraderie? No, it has more to do with a 17th century witch's curse. The same witch who still moves around the town, spying on the good folk – and the bad - from within their homes. They've come to an understanding with her over the years, but now the young people want to experiment and nothing will be the same again. Full review...
