The Bookbag
From TheBookbag
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.
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My Animals by Xavier Deneux
When I picked this book up, I wanted to stroke it, with its black velvety cover and soft white dog. There's just a splash of colour in an orange butterfly, but nothing else to distract you from the dog with the largest eyes that you have ever seen. The theme is set for a book which is mainly black and white with just the occasional splash of colour. It's chubby; perfect for small hands and with substantial board pages which will stand a lot of affectionate handling. Full review...
The Refuge and the Fortress: Britain and the Flight From Tyranny by Jeremy Seabrook
Mongrel nation and successful purveyor of multiculturalism or bunch of xenophobic Little Englanders addicted to past glories? In truth, of course, it's something of both. Prejudice against asylum seekers is nothing new to Britons. A genuine and human commitment to refugees is nothing new either. Alongside the heroic Kindertransport in the 1930s, we may compare the anti-Semitic rabble-rousing of some newspapers and Oswald Moseley's blackshirts. Full review...
Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas
Anke's Father is abusive. He attacks her brother, sister and mother, but Anke is ignored. Not worthy of even these worst of attentions, Anke considers herself furniture. Unloved and unseen in a house where violence and abuse are part of day to day life. Then Anke makes the volleyball team at school. It's a sport that requires shouting, and suddenly Anke finds her voice. As she grows more confident on the court, she finds self-worth and self-respect. Full review...
Lee Raven, Boy Thief by Zizou Corder
This is a book with a history. Many moons ago the reviewing gods tried to get a copy to me, but the post office strike gods were more powerful and kept it for themselves. What irony, given the career of the hero. Still, with the help of the library gods, a copy has been read and this review is a result. Now I know that's more background than I should be featuring, but let me assure you, this is a book where the least description about the plot the better. Full review...
Beyond the Shadows (Night Angel Trilogy) by Brent Weeks
Beyond The Shadows is the last volume of The Night Angel trilogy, unusually published at monthly rather than annual (or bigger) intervals. I liked that! I often find that the wait for the next instalment somehow dampens my enthusiasm for even the best sagas, at least initially, while having all three parts appear in the same pre-Christmas season (but not strictly all at once) kept my interest active. Full review...
The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
Serial killers are supposedly a North European or American phenomenon. Or so the Italian public thought. A brutal serial killer in the mould of a Jack the Ripper seemed inconceivable. Mafia murders and crimes of passion maybe, but a fiendish, sexually motivated serial killer stalking the streets of a beautiful city like Florence seemed absurd. This made the murders of seven couples - fourteen people in total, over a period of eleven years from 1974 to 1985 all the more shocking for a society unaccustomed to such deviance and brutality. Full review...
Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon by P D Smith
Having dallied with the odd CND march back in the '70s-80s, and while not normally a huge sci-fi fan (yet inordinately fond of certain creaky films like The Day The Earth Stood Still - which as well as offering underwhelming special effects, grapples with huge ideas about the death of humankind) I found a great deal to enjoy in Doomsday Men and its history of weapons which may now be capable of entirely destroying the planet. Full review...
Raven: Blood Eye by Giles Kristian
Osric has been apprenticed to Ealhstan the carpenter for two years, ever since he was found, abandoned, with a heathen knife around his neck. The other Abbotsend villagers shun him, both for his uncertain origins and his left eye, with its white marked red by a bleed. But when Norsemen arrive in their longships and burn his village, their leader, Sigurd, believes Osric has been sent by Odin and marked with his favour, and at last Osric feels that there is somewhere he could perhaps belong. Full review...
The Shakespeare Handbook by Michael Schmidt and Robert Maslen
William Shakespeare. If you're a fan of the theatre, you may see him as the greatest playwright of all time. If you're currently studying English at school, he may be the worst thing that ever happened to you. Over the years, I've certainly held both opinions, depending on where I was at the time.
Part of this could have been because I, like most school pupils, never had a gentle introduction to Shakespeare. If I'd had a book like this in the early years of my schooling, I suspect I may have come around to my love of Shakespeare a lot sooner than I did. Full review...
Sex, Lies and Vampires by Katie MacAlister
It seems to me there are two types of guys in fiction you women should steer clear of. From the world of chick-lit and literary rom-coms there is the bloke that looks hunky but dangerous, a bad boy you just might want to straighten out. One that seems to be too buff for his own good, and easy to scoff at but just as easy to look at. And from a certain other genre of writing, there is the vampire. So, just combine the two, ad absurdum, and see what comes out. Full review...
Cleaning Up: How I Gave Up Drinking And Lived by Tania Glyde
I suspect that I'm like a lot of people who enjoy alcohol on a regular basis: there's a nagging guilt and suspicion that you might have a problem. Equally, there's St Augustine's approach to a sin: you're determined to do something about it, but not just yet. So, when Cleaning Up: How I Gave Up Drinking And Lived dropped through the letterbox on Saturday morning I wondered if this was a message from a higher authority. Full review...
A Good War by Patrick Bishop
In 1984 Gerry Cunningham and his wife return yet again for the annual reunion in the small French town of Vercourt. The same speeches, the same memories, the same stories of the glory days. Gerry hates the remembering, but comes anyway. After all, it is expected. And his wife reassures him that it's never as bad as he thinks it is going to be. Full review...
Send Me A Lover by Carol Mason
Angela is a widow in her early thirties living in Vancouver, Canada. Two years after her husband Jonathan died in a car accident, she is back in the dating game, though not necessarily very enthusiastically. Her late husband used to say to her that if he died young, he would send her a lover (hence the book's title!) and part of her wonders if this could indeed be true. Full review...
Wild Oats by Michael Edwards
There are certain things which are guaranteed to put me off a book: an over-intrusive authorial voice, unnecessary digressions, the use of an obvious literary device and a deliberate lack of punctuation dominate the top of the list. Wild Oats (or Husbandry if you're in the States) has all of these and yet I didn't dislike the book. In fact, I was charmed, admiring of the way in which it was done and rather sorry when the book ended. Full review...
Bad Girl Magdalene by Jonathan Gash
In recent years, there has been a lot in the news about the abuse suffered by children in the care of the church, particularly the Catholic Church. After years of such abuse, many parts of the church have since offered apologies and reparation. Something like this isn't necessarily the kind of thing you would expect to see as the basis for a novel, but that is the background against which Jonathan Gash's Bad Girl Magdalene is set. Full review...
Willow by Julia Hoban
Willow is living with her brother and his wife and baby. Money is tight, so her part-time job at the library isn't going on herself; it's going towards the bills. But Willow doesn't mind; it's the least she can do since she's such become such a burden after the death of her parents in a car crash one rainy night seven months ago. And Willow doesn't only see herself as a burden. She sees herself as a killer too, since she was driving the car that killed them. She's convinced that her brother sees her as a murderer. Full review...
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Seventeen is an inconvenient time to be in love. Mia has two loves in her life – her first love music, and boyfriend Adam. Half of Mia wants more than anything to go to Juilliard, a prestigious music school. But Julliard is in New York, and Adam is in Oregon. At least, he's in Oregon sometimes – his band Shooting Star is starting to take off and he's always busy. Between Mia's rehearsals and Adam's gigs they barely have any time to spend together as it is. Would their relationship survive if she went to Juilliard? Full review...
My Favourite Poison by Anna Blundy
First and foremost, I have to say, immediately, before I tell you anything else about this book, that I loved it. LOVED. Every single one of its 256 pages was, for me, an absolute winner. Right, with that off my chest, I can now tell you some more. Full review...
Me and You by Janet A Holmes and Judith Rossell
A rabbit lists all the things he can do, from doing somersaults to blowing up bubbles, before finally revealing that the thing he likes best is being with you (where 'you' are his little mouse friend). Me and You is a beautiful picture book perfect for reading together, all building up to a big cuddle at the end. Full review...
On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition by Charles Darwin and David Quammen (Author and Editor)
There are books I think you have to read, and there are books you have to read. This is one of the latter, and finally in a volume that goes a long way to making it one you have to own – with the approach to this classic making this edition the definitive one for a long time to come. Full review...
A Very Marley Christmas by John Grogan
Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog was an international best-seller which sold almost 3 million copies (over 100 thousand in the UK), and thus, inevitably, generated a bit of a synergy project, with a movie now being made and already one picture book, Bad Dog Marley and a junior version of the original - Marley: A Dog Like No Other. Full review...
Dragonmazia by Rolf Heimann
Dragonmazia is packed to the rafters with detailed, engaging, varied and fascinating mazes. There's a strong dragon theme throughout, without ever getting samey: there are medieval dragons, Oriental dragons, and a few cuddly dragons too. Each page generally has one big maze, with a few smaller mazes or puzzles dotted around it. It doesn't have an overall narrative, but there's plenty of detail to pore over beyond the mazes themselves. Full review...
Killer Year by Lee Child (Editor)
This collection of seventeen short stories in the crime genre is by a group of new, young American writers who have all been mentored by more established writers such as Lee Child, Joe R Lansdale and Ken Bruen. Although it is a little uneven in quality it does represent an effort to promote the work of younger writers in a world where it can be hard to make a break-through into mainstream publishing. The short story is a specialised medium and the crime genre short story has two prejudices to fight - if you don't read short stories you are even less likely to read short stories of a particular genre. But whereas mainstream fiction might have its diehard factions, I feel the crime aficionado may well be less uptight and crime novel lovers might read this collection in the hope of finding the next Harlan Coben or Laura Lippman. Full review...
The Last Supper by Pawel Huelle
A photo-shot preparation for the modern painting of the Last Supper is to take place on the stage of a theatre in Gdansk. The Last Supper tells the stories of four of the participants and the narrator is the fifth one, although we don't learn anything of his personal tale apart form one trip to Jerusalem and one convoluted dream that actually – and startlingly - opens the novel. Full review...
Sleepless Nights by Sarah Bilston
Quinn 'Q' Boothroyd has just become a mother to Samuel, and both she and her husband Tom are enjoying parenthood despite it being harder than either of them realised. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, Jeanie, Q's little sister, is getting cold feet about the seriousness of her relationship with eco-warrior Dave so she decides to up to New York to visit her sister and new nephew. But life isn't going to be plain sailing for either of the sisters - Q has to decide if she really wants to return to her corporate job or settle for less, and Jeanie has to make a decision about Dave, and do a bit of growing up along the way. What will the sisters decide, and will it be the right choice? Full review...
Looks by Madeleine George
Meghan is fat. It's not puppy fat. She's huge. She knows she's huge. Everyone at school knows she's huge. But somehow, because being so fat makes her so unwanted in school society, she's also invisible. Despite being excluded from the usual gossipy chatter, Meghan probably knows more secrets than any other pupil. People talk in front of her because they don't see her. She simply doesn't count. When the secrets aren't enough, Meghan feigns illness to get out of class, or hides away bingeing on chocolate. Full review...
Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and Nathan Hale
Rapunzel's Revenge is a re-telling of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale. It is set in the Wild West and is in the form of a graphic novel.
Rapunzel is a feisty 12-year-old living in a grand villa with Mother Gothel. She wants for nothing in the material sense, but is bored and rather lonely. A large wall surrounds the villa, and Rapunzel is determined to climb it, despite being forbidden to do so. She scales the wall and is amazed at what lies on the other side. On her return, she has a chance encounter with her real mother who is enslaved in the mine camps beyond the villa. To punish her rebellion, Rapunzel is banished and imprisoned in a lofty magical tree, but the magic also helps her hair to grow and eventually gives provides her with the means to escape. Full review...
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
We sit inside anorexic Lia's head as she meticulously records her days, measured in calories, self-censorship, razor cuts, dizziness, guilt, hatred and hunger. Lia is bright, driven and manipulative. She cooks food that splatters the microwave, then dumps it. She dabs her lips with tomato sauce before her family comes home. She bakes for her loving but busy, busy family members - but has always just eaten. She fiddles with the bathroom scales, gorges on water and weighs down her dressing-gown with coins before her weekly weigh-in. Full review...
The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels by Danny Fingeroth
I have an admission to make. There are elements of my life I hold dear that, whatever I do, I cannot make other people converts to. They remain resilient to the charms of OMD, and for the life of me I seem unable to make people see the merit of graphic novels. Full review...
Greed by Elfriede Jelinek
Elfriede Jelinek won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004, but I had never read her work before. One of her previous novels, The Piano Teacher, was apparently made into a film that won several prizes in Cannes in 2001, but I have never seen it. So I had little to prepare me for Greed, her latest work to be translated into English. But I did have some preparation: last year, as a bet, I read James Joyce’s Ulysses. There are many similarities. If you like complex, stream-of-consciousness literature, you’ll love this book. Full review...
Cambridge Blue by Alison Bruce
Lorna Spence was one of those people – and we've all met far too many – who appear very pleasant and likeable but the reality is rather different. She was sure that she was in control of people, sure that she was loved right up until the moment that she realised she was about to die. Full review...
It's Only Temporary by Sally Warner
Twelve year-old Skye's rebellious older brother Scott has almost killed himself in a car crash. Skye can't say that she's surprised and in her most honest moments she's even horribly relieved. The brother who was such a protector when she was younger had disappeared long before the accident, replaced by a sullen, morose, door-slamming stranger. Home seems better off without him to Skye, even though his absence doesn't seem to have done much to bring her parents closer together. Full review...
The White Road by Tania Hershman
A female café owner situated in a very strange place breaks the mundane routine with a very strange act. A female loses sight of her life's goals due to having a husband and children, and finds a strange way of reconnecting with her interests. And females on first dates do strange things – to levers in zero-G, and with pottery. Full review...
You Are So Undead To Me by Stacey Jay
So you're just waiting for the school football hunk to pick you up for a first date, when the doorbell rings. But it's not him – instead it's a zombie seeking closure. You still want said hunk to take you as date to the school prom in a few short weeks, but that's before an even hunkier guy turns up, tasked with protecting your life from ravening hordes of the undead. And there're the routines you need to nail to get you on the cheerleading team – but that's being interrupted by learning spells that can save your life. Full review...
Wishful Thinking by Melissa Hill
This book opens with a prologue: a young woman is hurrying to the commuter train to get to work one morning She just makes it... and even manages to grab a seat. She observes a few of the other travellers... and then suddenly, something unexpected and shocking happens.
Then the book moves back four months, and introduces us, one at a time, to the three women who are the main protagonists of this novel. Full review...
Barefaced Lies and Boogie-Woogie Boasts by Jules Holland
Jools Holland has always come across, particularly on television, as a thoroughly likeable, down-to-earth chap next door, the kind of person you could chat to over the garden fence. This memoir of his life, from childhood in a flat in Pimlico to leader of a band invited to play in front of the leaders of the G8 nations at a summit meeting, comes across in very similar fashion. Full review...
White Christmas (Lucky Wish Mouse) by Clara Vulliamy
Opening this sweet children's book is like opening a present – there are even ties to undo when you open the pages, and it feels quite boxy because – it contains a box! (More of the box's contents later). The front cover artwork is beautiful – in wintry pastel shades which appear throughout the book, it's lush with tactile, sparkly snow which is eminently stroke-able. Inside, we are introduced to Lucky Wish Mouse and her ten Tinies (baby mice) on Christmas Eve. Full review...
Burial by Neil Cross
Nathan cannot welcome the news Bob brings to his door one night in 2008. Not because on the surface it means the loss of some Gloucestershire greenbelt to a housing development, but because what might be ploughed up forces Nathan back to a drug-fuelled, Ouija-board-featuring, celebrity party over a decade previously. Full review...
World Binder (Runelords) by David Farland
Shadoath enters Castle Coorm and finds the tree. It is guarded and has already gained consciousness. The one true tree is rising again. Shadoath wants the tree dead…the guarding wizardress is no match for her…Warlord Hale, one of the few far enough gone in evil to be a match for the tree, offers to chop it down… Full review...
Spa Wars by Chris Manby
I've read quite a few of Chris Manby's novels and they are always lighthearted enjoyable reads. Spa Wars is no exception and it's the sort of book that you can read very easily in just a few days. Full review...
Words and Pictures: Writers, Artists and a Peculiarly British Tradition by Jenny Uglow
From childhood, we start by looking at the pictures in books and these images often remain with us for a long time, particularly as we respond to them in a more sophisticated way than we do to language. However, words can stimulate our imagination in a way that a picture cannot, and when reading we create images in our minds. Words and pictures should work together in books, but illustrations can interrupt as well as stimulate our imagination. Full review...
Chaos Space (Sentients of Orion) by Marianne De Pierres
I have to admit that when I first opened this book I was at a loss. It is Book 2 of the The Sentients of Orion series, so I did encounter some confusion as to what had happened before to lead to the events I was reading about. I stuck with it though, and as I read along, things became much clearer though I would heartily recommend reading the first book in the series before jumping into this one, as the plot has many threads and is quite complicated. Full review...
The Triumph of Ignorance and Bliss: Pathologies of Public America by James Polk
They still live in suburbs (that is, those who don't live in third-world-like squalor of inner city ghettos), diet and workout obsessively (that is, those who don't stand in food bank queues), buy bigger and shinier objects that consume more and more energy, more interested in celebrity bra sizes and nipple flashes than in who rules the country and for whose benefit. Every so often, especially when the crisis looms, they vote for CHANGE (as they have done just now), but essentially, whether in the ranks of Christian Taliban of the red states, or among Starbucks slurping and therapy-addicted in-crowd of the blue states, Americans are living their lives in a state of deluded ignorance and bliss, while their country is literally falling to pieces around them. Full review...
