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. There are also lots of author interviews, and all sorts of top tens - all of which you can find on our Features page.
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Dragon Magic (Red Bananas) by Pippa Goodhart and Lesley Danson
Dragon Magic is a cute tale that transports children to a magical world of castles and dragons. It tells the story of a small girl called Jess and her blacksmith father, Big John, who rely on their dragon's breath to soften the iron that they use to make things. Problems start when Big John is making a new gate for the king but Huff, their dragon, has run out of puff. Soon some dragon eggs are found and before long a new baby called Puff hatches. She soon becomes part of the family and sets to work helping to make the gate. However, the king is worried that the gate won't be finished and he has spied strangers heading towards the city. It is a race against time especially when Puff shows signs of becoming ill. What else could possibly go wrong? Full review...
Missy by Chris Hannan
This begins so well, with just the right sort of first sentence to hook you into a book: I expect you have the consolation of religion, or the guidance of a philosophy, but when me and the girls get frazzled, or blue, or rapturous, or just awfully so-so, we shin out and buy ourselves some hats. So says our heroine of the piece, 19 year old Dol McQueen, who narrates us through her exploits in America's nineteenth century Wild West. She's rough, she's determined, but ultimately she's very damaged: a young, drug addict prostitute who trails hopelessly after her alcoholic mother from country to country. Full review...
Sins by Penny Jordan
Sins is set in the 1950s and follows the turbulent love lives of four girls — Emerald, Rose, Janey and Ella. Scheming Emerald is determined to bag herself a royal husband, outsider Rose just wants to fit in, wild child Janey puts her heart and soul into becoming the next Mary Quant, and sensible Ella concentrates on avoiding the mistakes of her parents. As the years pass, the girls reach for their dreams and come to terms with issues that have haunted them from childhood. Full review...
Swimming by Nicola Keegan
Swimming is an ambitious project, spanning fifteen years or so of an Olympic medallist's career. I was surprised to find from her You Tube video that Nicola Keegan didn't have an international competitive background in swimming herself. To imagine a micro-world in such convincing detail is no mean feat for a first-time author.
It took me a while to latch onto this particular swathe of life. I was irritated by the picture of a young child on the cover which didn't seem to relate to the story of a young woman in her teens and twenties inside. Perhaps the misty goggles and trapped hair have a significance I've missed. Full review...
Dave by Sue Hendra
Dave the cat is a great big ol' greedy guts. He loves his dinners. He loves gorging on food. One unfortunate day, after eating a bit too much, he gets stuck in his cat flap. All the animals hatch a number of plans to help Dave, but none of them work. Then, a bug decides to feed Dave lots and lots and lots of beans... Full review...
Little Bear's Little Boat by Eve Bunting
Little Bear loves his little boat. He loves floating in it, fishing, and just being happy existing. It's a peaceful, soothing, gentle life. As Little Bear gets bigger, he no longer fits in his boat, and he doesn't know what to do. Full review...
Mr Pusskins - Feelings by Sam Lloyd
Feelings is another addition to the Mr Pusskins series of board books, this time introducing the very youngest of book fans to all sorts of emotions, from jealousy to excitement, sadness to surprise. Full review...
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
We're back in Barcelona, but this time it's the turbulent nineteen twenties. David Martin's vicious, junkie father was gunned down before his eyes leaving him to fend for himself at a relatively young age. He longs to write and first makes his living writing penny dreadfuls under a pseudonym for a couple of unscrupulous publishers - but a visit from a reclusive French editor tempts him to take up the offer of writing a book which will influence people and form the basis of a new religion. He works in the tower of an abandoned house and from here he looks out over the city. But it's within the house – in a locked room - that he finds letters and photographs which suggest that there is a mystery attached to the death of the previous owner. Full review...
The Silver Eagle (Forgotten Legion) by Ben Kane
I thought Ben Kane's debut novel The Forgotten Legion was excellent, but that it ended a little abruptly, even with the knowledge there was more to come. Having now read that 'more to come', I feel a lot better about it. The story is so relentless that there was no obvious place to pause between books. Full review...
Rockataur (Monster Makers) by Ali Sparkes
If four books so far haven't taught us that having the ability to dream up pictures of monsters, sprinkle them with a magic potion, and get them to come to life - whether in our world or in their own underground universe - is a mixed blessing, here is another lesson for young Jack and Lewis. But here they're a bit more innocent than before. No, here it's someone else who is causing their lovely Aunt Thea a major headache, and our heroes are forced to become a pair of little espionage agents to solve the problem caused by a naive remark or two. Full review...
In Ashes Lie by Marie Brennan
It's September 1666 and although the mortals' Civil War is over the war amongst the fae is still raging in London. There's now a greater threat to the Onyx Court and it could destroy everything when a spark starts a fire which for three days spreads through the city devouring everything in its path. Can the mortals and the fae unite to find a way to defeat a foe which neither can better on their own? Full review...
Spacemite (Monster Makers) by Ali Sparkes
It was a dark and stormy night... when Aunt Thea found her garden swarming with monsters. There was only one thing for her to do - send the dragon among them to fetch her nephews, Jack and Lewis, who had created the beasts in the first place, to help with the clear-up. But it doesn't go according to plan. Full review...
Furnace: Solitary by Alexander Gordon Smith
In this second instalment of Smith's Furnace series Alex Sawyer and his companions continue their bid for freedom, desperate to escape the hell on Earth that is Furnace Penitentiary.
Filled with hope, Alex and his cohorts battle their way through the underbelly of Furnace, convinced that they have found the way out, the path to the daylight they never thought they'd see again. But Furnace isn't done with them yet and their hopes come crashing down as they are recaptured and put into solitary confinement, deep below the ground and at the mercy of the Blacksuits, the Wheezers and the warden. Full review...
Jack Slater and the Whisper of Doom by John Dougherty
Jack Slater is the world's greatest monster investigator. He says he's not scared of anything. He can always be called upon to look under beds and save frightened children from the monsters lurking there. When he discovers that some monsters themselves are scared of something, he realises it's going to put his skills to the ultimate test. Full review...
The Glittering Eye by LJ Adlington
Amy's been sent off to Egypt to join her archaelogist father for Christmas. Her mother and pregnant sister Claire aren't coming - the baby's due any time soon. Spikey Amy isn't too happy about being sent away but she knows it's all because of Owen, and she knows it's all her own fault. Soon, though, she's plunged into the mystery of a newly-discovered tomb, and the cat hieroglyph on a rock that she's found, a cat that seems to be trying to tell her something. Full review...
Close to Holmes: A Look at the Connections Between Historical London, Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Alistair Duncan
Even today, London is a remarkable compromise of the old and the new. As Alistair Duncan shows in this volume, the city of Conan Doyle and Holmes has changed – yet not changed. There have been a handful of books in the past on 'Holmes's London', but this is the first of its kind to place equal emphasis on places associated with the detective and his creator. Full review...
Bobbles & Plum: Four Satirical Playlets by Bertram Fletcher Robinson and PG Wodehouse by Paul R Spiring (Editor)
P.G. Wodehouse needs little if any introduction, but Bertram Fletcher Robinson's life and career were cut short and he is little known outside his connections with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This set of satirical playlets on which they collaborated, published in journals between 1904 and 1907 and virtually forgotten since, are presented in book form for the first time. As such they show how the careers of both men were evolving, particularly while Wodehouse was finding his feet and experimenting with the different facets of journalism before finding his niche in comic fiction. Full review...
Mrs D'Silva's Detective Instincts and the Shaitan of Calcutta by Glen Peters
During a picnic excursion with his mother Joan and other families from Calcutta's Anglo Indian community, ten year old Errol makes a gruesome discovery – the partly decomposed body of a young woman. The victim turns out to be Agnes, brought up by nuns and lately married to a much older man. As witnesses, Joan and Errol are required to attend the inquest at which a verdict of suicide is implied. After the inquest, Anil, a former pupil at the school where Joan teaches, and Philomena, both friends of the dead girl, confide in Joan that they believe that Agnes was murdered and ask for Joan's help in finding out who was responsible. Full review...
Orphan's Triumph (Jason Wander) by Robert Buettner
One of the major problems with science fiction series is that the titles aren't always terribly imaginative. At first glance, the cover of Orphan's Triumph gives away exactly how the story is going to turn out. It's great credit to Robert Buettner that what I expected wasn't what happened. Full review...
To Heaven by Water by Justin Cartwright
David Cross' wife is dead. It's sad but also a bit of a relief for him. Not for his children though - Ed (married and trying for a baby) and Lucy (recently single and struggling to identify her sense of self) are still attempting to cope with their loss. It might not sound like much of a story, but it is in fact absolutely brilliant. Beyond brilliant. Full review...
The Standing Pool by Adam Thorpe
Academic historians Nick and Sarah Mallinson and their young family take off for a six month sabbatical to a remote French farmhouse and soon unwittingly become emeshed in a dark lingering history of rural France. The small community they move into has long memories and the house they are renting also bears physical and emotional scars of tragic events during the Second World War and afterwards. Full review...
Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters
We left Adam joining the ranks of the zombies after being shot whilst trying to protect Phoebe. So now Phoebe's love triangle has two differently biotic people - Tommy and Adam, and just one beating heart - herself. It's said that love can bring zombies back from the dead more quickly, so Phoebe rejects Tommy in favour of Adam. But it's a tough ask. Adam seems to be taking longer to regain function than many of the other dead kids. Meanwhile, Tommy goes off on a road trip to raise awareness about the zombie plight, and shooter Pete starts community service at the Hunter Centre for Undead Studies. He's sorry that he shot Adam, but his hatred for the living impaired isn't diminished in the least. Full review...
Hannah's Secret (The Beautiful Game) by Narinder Dhami
Hannah has a secret. She knows she has to come clean with her parents sooner rather than later, but the time just never seems quite right. There's the intensive football course to enjoy first, and she's been looking forward to it for so long that she doesn't want to spoil it with a big family row. Annoyingly though, there's a big family row anyway. Hannah's spoiled and obnoxious half-sister, Olivia, has a falling out with her mother and announces she wants to come to live with her father ... and Hannah. Not good. Full review...
Through Violet Eyes (Violet Series) by Stephen Woodworth
To every generation, a few souls are born with violet-coloured eyes. These Violets can channel the dead. Viewed by the government as a commodity, they are taken into the care of the School from an early age and taught to use their abilities. While the School does teach them to control the souls constantly trying to invade their bodies from the black of death, it also trains them to serve the government – calling on the victims of murder and horrific accidents to ascertain exactly how they died or who killed them. Full review...
Secretum by Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti
Back in 2002, Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti shocked Italy with Imprimatur, a historical fiction novel which cast aspersions on the behaviour of past Popes. Despite being a very well researched and well-written mystery, it was boycotted in Italy, although it proved popular in other parts of the world. However, the lack of recognition in their home country meant that the follow up that such a good story deserved has been seven years in the making. Full review...
Hunted (House of Night) by P C Cast and Kirstin Cast
All hell is breaking loose in the Tulsa. Fallen Angel Kalona, along with High Priestess Neferet have taken over the House of Night. Kalona's brain washing powers have turned all the fledglings and teachers into 'pod people', à la Invasion of the Body Snatchers and still no one seems to notice that Neferet has turned her back on the Goddess, Nyx. Full review...
The Pale Assassin (Pimpernelles) by Patricia Elliott
Eugenie de Boncoeur is a young aristocrat living in Paris enjoying the pleasures of life, until that is, the French revolution breaks out. Unsure, and somewhat uninterested in what is going on around her, Eugenie's mind wonders to other things such as the latest fashion in clothes, romance and the handsome Guy Deschamps – a friend of Armand, her older brother who looks out for her. Unbeknown to Eugenie she is being watched. A contract has been signed stating that when she turns sixteen she is to be married to Raoul Goullet, otherwise known as Le Fantome – the pale assassin who is out for revenge. Soon Eugenie with the help of others, including the dull, charmless Julian de Fortin, is on the move to escape. Pursued by the mob, the revolutionary guards, and her future husband. Will she ever manage to get to the safety of England? Full review...
Untamed (House of Night) by P C Cast and Kirstin Cast
Sometimes, being special just isn't all that. Zoey Redbird, the most singularly gifted fledgling in Vampyre history would give up being special just to have her friends back. A week ago, she had a group of friends very dear to her and (sort of accidentally) three boyfriends. Now she has no one. Full review...
Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera) by Jim Butcher
The 'Furies' of the title refer to elemental spirits of earth, air, fire, water and metal which bond with humans and grant them magical abilities. Welcome to Alera, where all the citizens have magical powers. All except fifteen year old farm boy Tavi, a native of the Calderon valley who for some reason has been unable to create any bonds with an elemental. Full review...
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
I used to have months when I would gorge on chick lit before I got married. I lived in London and would wile away the tedium of the tube by escaping into easy, comforting reads of twenty-somethings who worried about shoes and shopping and men. It was reassuring to know that the girl, albeit after a series of highs and lows, would ultimately get the guy. I'm a different kind of person now, a stay at home mum more likely to be found playing in the park than shoe-shopping in London, and so it's been a while since I've felt like picking up a chick lit book. Something about this one intrigued me though. From the back cover blurb it's hard to tell if it's a historical novel, or contemporary chick lit, or perhaps some kind of mystery. I have a feeling that if you come to it with any particular expectations of it fulfilling one of these genres you might be disappointed. But if you see it as a fun, exciting, genre-less read then, hopefully, you won't be able to put it down. Full review...
Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood by Maria Tatar
Like most avid readers, I don't remember the time before there were books. We were brought up with books. There are family tales of my father as a child eating his breakfast with one hand, while trying to tie his shoelaces with the other and still contriving to read at the same time. They were a poor family, and books weren't just expensive, they were valuable. They were dear, in every sense of the word. Likewise my mother remembers her early school-years when every day ended with a chapter from one of the classics. Full review...
A Proper Education for Girls by Elaine di Rollo
A Proper Education for Girls is a knowing satire about Victorian attitudes towards women, focusing on the enduring bond between twin sisters, Alice and Lillian Talbot. The novel opens with a description of their father, a man with a very Victorian belief in Progress and a penchant for scientific experiment. He is obsessively devoted to his indiscriminate collection of 'interesting and useful artefacts' which has gradually subsumed their entire house. Mr. Talbot had expected his daughters to equal his enthusiasm and devote their entire lives to The Collection with only a bunch of old ladies (their aunts) for company, but, it didn't quite work out that way. Full review...
That Summer by Sarah Dessen
Haven's just fifteen and already she is six feet tall. You might think Wow! Supermodel material! but Haven hates her coltish, angular body. Her bones stick out and there's just no way she can fold herself away and out of sight. Her parents have split up - her sports reporter father has left her mother for the weather girl, and his remarriage is imminent. Sister Ashley is also getting married this summer, to the most boring man on Earth. The whole house is full of the preparations - and the tantrums. Full review...
The Wife by Meg Wolitzer
The fact that Joan Castleman is the wife of one of the 20th Century's most lauded and acclaimed authors has not escaped her notice and certainly there are people a-plenty to remind her how amazing her entire existence must surely be. The role of the supportive significant other is a part that Joan has played for almost her entire life, watching her husband Joe's steady rise to the top of his professional tree, whilst suppressing her own career aspirations and talents to be the silent stanchion of her marriage, in every conceivable way. Full review...
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre
The Spy who Came in from the Cold was John le Carré's 'break-out' novel, the book that brought him international acclaim, and which Graham Greene hailed as the best spy novel he had ever read. But is it a book that has stood the test of time? For this reader the answer is a definite yes (despite some annoying typos in this edition). Full review...
Two Good Thieves by Daniel Finn
Baz lives in the Barrio of an unnamed city in South America. No, let's get this right, she survives. Not knowing her own parents, she was raised by Fay – a skin headed woman who veers between lovable and unsavoury and is the Fagin character in this story. Yes, she'll look after children who need her help, but all of them will end up going out and stealing for her. Full review...
The Blue Notebook by James A Levine
I knew there was not enough of this little pencil to write away my life, but there was enough to start.
James A Levine's debut novel, The Blue Notebook, is one of the most uncomfortable reads I've ever encountered. It opens, diary-style, with its 15-year-old heroine Batuk's delight at obtaining a pencil. She obtains the pencil because her boss, brothel-keeper Mamaki, is distracted, and drops it when one of the other child prostitutes on her section of Mumbai's Street of Cages screams with pain. Batuk treasures her pencil, and uses it to write about her past and present. Full review...
Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Yaw Poku is a hunter so light surprises me. I am used to the dimness of the forest – the way light falls on me like incisions from a knife when I move. When I go to the forest sound is brighter than light, so light surprises me.
Tail of the Blue Bird is a book of surprises and bright sounds. Full review...
Private by Kate Brian
Fifteen year old Reed Brennan wins a scholarship to Easton Academy, a co-ed boarding school, only to realise that everyone there is rich and sophisticated. She also discovers that being one of the brightest students in her old school is simply not enough to get by at Easton, where some of the students are terrifyingly bright. It's better than home though. She's close to her father, but her mother is a pill-popping nightmare who thinks nothing of humiliating her. Throughout her childhood it was easier not to have friends and to keep herself to herself, but that's not going to be the way forward at Easton. How's she going to cope? Full review...
Reheated Cabbage by Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh's choice of title for this collection of short stories may serve to warn some unwary readers of its unpalatable nature. To the uninitiated, its stream of unrestrained swearing, drug taking, sex and casual violence could come as a shock. His fans though, will no doubt lap it up. Full review...
The Real Thing (Football Academy) by Tom Palmer
Tomasz loves playing for United. He also loves England, although he is sometimes a little homesick for his native Poland. He still supports Legia Warsaw, much to the amusement of United's under-twelves captain, Ryan. Ryan is probably the only real thorn in Tomasz's side. He's loud and aggressive and a bit of a bully, and he's not keen on foreigners - unless they're anything to do with Real Madrid. Ryan never misses an opportunity to mock Tomasz and it's beginning to affect his confidence as goalie. Full review...
Zebedee's Zoo by Giles Milton and Katharine McEwen
Zebedee's zoo is very boring during the day: all the animals are asleep, catching Zs. However, when Zebedee heads home for the night, all the animals wake up, and the party can really get started! Full review...
Above the Veil (The Seventh Tower) by Garth Nix
Tal and Milla live in a world that's dark. It's covered by a magical veil that protects it from Aenir. Aenir might well be bathed in sunlight, but it's also full of shadows that could threaten the world below. Sunstones are this dark world's most precious commodity and, as in any world where particular resources are stretched, a strict and hierarchical society has evolved which restricts access to them to the rich and powerful. Full review...
Silenced by Vicky Jaggers
Vicky Jaggers had a dreadful childhood. One sister was in a home following an accident which made her violent and her elder brother, David, was obviously her mother's favourite. He was very intelligent, but disliking any sort of work his abilities were directed towards getting what he wanted without making any effort. The family moved house regularly as Vicky's father looked for work and schooling soon became an option which wasn't always chosen. Sexually mature at the age of nine and looking much older than her years she took to spending much of her time in the pubs her parents ran and it was whilst her parents were serving in the bar that David raped her – on three successive nights – when she was only twelve. Her pregnancy wasn't evident for six months. Full review...
