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Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|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 [[:Category:Interviews|interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Features]] page.
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<metadesc>Book review site, with books from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and children's books plus author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>
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<h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>
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Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|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, the charity shop 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 [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.
  
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews on the site.
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[[image:League games.jpg|center|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/primesignup/ref=acph_piv?tag=AssociateTrackingID=thebookbag-21]] <br>
  
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]?
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There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews at TheBookbag.
  
==New Reviews==
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Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
'''For new reviews by genre [[:Category:New Reviews|click here]].'''
 
  
'''For new features [[Features|click here]].'''
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==Reviews of the Best New Books==
__NOTOC__
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{{newreview
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'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
|author=Rick Yancey
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|title=The Monstrumologist: The Terror Beneath
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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Mark Lingane
 +
|title=Degrade (Tesla Expansion)
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Teens
|summary=In late 19th century America, young Will Henry has been the apprentice of the stern, forbidding Dr Warthrop since the death of his parents, who were also employed by the doctor. The twelve year old boy has seen many things in his service to the monstrumologist - a specialist in monsters - but nothing can prepare him for the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings the doctor the twin corpses of a young girl and the headless creature with fangs in his chest who had tried to feast on her.
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|summary= ''Degrade'' opens as it means to go on - with inyerface, banging action. Poor Arid, alone in the desert since his parents were killed, has a narrow escape as two mega-rigs fight it out and his is pretty much destroyed. He finds himself rescued by the mysterious-but-fascinating Ella and onboard the ''Moonlight'' under the suspicious eyes of its leader, Queen Bea. Bea's eyes flash with recognition when he tells her his name - Arid Geiger - but before he can find out why that is, there's an assassination attempt and Arid is under suspicion and imprisoned. An escape facilitated by Ella - Queen Bea's daughter - sees Arid and her other daughter, Frey, stranded in the desert...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738546X</amazonuk>
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|isbn= 099461649X
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B07XLM3SM6
|author=Stella Whitelaw
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|title=Murder at the Dolphin Hotel
|title=Midsummer Madness
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|author=Helena Dixon
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=You'll like Sophie Gresham.  She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright and when the side effects became too much for her she worked behind the scenesShe's a very good prompt despite the fact that you need to wrap up very warmly to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job and most of the cast in the theatre companyIt's a bit of a shock though when she realises that the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrison, the man she helped out when he had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleepSophie was a little softer in those days – in the meantime she's had to develop a protective shell.
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|summary=Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the care of her grandmotherA great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and the conclusion was that she was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwiseKitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was illShe was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and Kitty could not understand why.  She's always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in the hotel.  And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things ''and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of security at the hotel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)
|author=Bonnie Greer
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|title=The Honjin Murders
|title=Obama Music
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to grasp.  It's best if I start with the author's intentions as set out in her Prologue.  It is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll.  All of these, she notes, were heard on the President's Inauguration Day.  To them she adds the blues, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planet.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=P J Parrish
 
|title=Dead of Winter
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Loon Lake, Michigan is picture-postcard pretty an idyll that sits serenely and snugly in the midst of a pine-peppered winter wonderlandLouis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come home. Life has not been easy for KincaidA troubled, unhappy child of mixed race, passed around various institutions and foster homes, Louis figures that if he is going to put some integrity back into the world, he will need to wear a badge to do it.
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|summary=To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'.  For those who need more, here is the extra background we're in rural Japan in the 1930sThe oldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, although the whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her family, for one thingEither way, the celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annex before the sun rises on their marriage.  What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this case has a lot of the peculiar about it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1782275002
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Cixin Liu
|author=Russell Celyn Jones
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|title=Death's End
|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion)
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|rating=5
|rating=4.5
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|genre=Science Fiction
|genre=Literary Fiction
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|summary= If I'd been paying more attention when I picked this book up, I would have put it back on the shelf.  Not because I didn't want to read it, but because I'd have figured out that it was the final part of a trilogy. Coming in partway through a saga is never the easiest thing to do and it's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to you (when it's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won't understand.  This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's work – his range is phenomenal.  George R R Martin, who knows a thing or two about world-creation, described it as ''a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory and cosmology''.  All of that and more.
|summary=Pwyll rules a medieval-style fiefdom in a post-climate change Wales. Life is different in many ways - there's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism and horsepower is the main means of transport. But in many ways it's much the same - people still fight one another, towns still have sink estates, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning in their lives.  
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|isbn=1784971650
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1780894511
|author=Owen Sheers
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|title=Die Alone
|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)
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|author=Simon Kernick
|rating=4.5
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|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary=In the old tale, Branwen is the sister of Bendigeidfran - the giant King of Britain. She marries the King of Ireland, who doesn't treat her well. She manages to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling and war and killings ensue.
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|summary=Ray Mason is in prison awaiting trial for murder and he's in the vulnerable prisoner unit: as a cop, he's something of a target, but the unit is not as secure as the inmates would have hoped and Mason is injured in a riotOn his way to hospital he's broken free by armed men and an offer is made to himHe's to assassinate the man who is likely to become the country's next prime minister and he'll then be given a new identity so that he can start afresh abroadHis captors say that they're MI6, but Mason has his doubtsHis choices are limited though and he has personal reasons to believe that it would be better if Alastair Sheridan was dead.
 
 
In this new tale, a young girl has just walked away from her brothers who, in the wake of the devastating foot and mouth outbreak, are despoiling their heritage by rustling and illegally slaughtering sheep. She meets an old man who tells her a story involving the superstitions about the ravens in the Tower of London, propaganda work during World War II, and an equally doomed love affair.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115030</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jennifer Bohnet
 
|title=Follow Your Star
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left Monaco.  She'd been engaged to a Formula 1 racing driver and had lived the life of the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all thatThe accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence because of the alcohol she'd consumedHer slow recovery was hindered by the end of her engagement but she's found some contentment in being a nanny to two young children.  When her friend and employer, Vanessa, remarries and takes an extended honeymoon in the Amazon Nanette is asked to take the children back to Monaco where their father lives.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=J R Stephenson
 
|title=Crooked Justice
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Meet Barry Johns.  You'll see him coming - he's five hundred pounds if he's an ounceJust don't ever lend him money - he won't pay it back.  A businessman with a share of a nightclub on Cyprus, he goes there for a customary break, and finds his sort-of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancerHe manages to tread both on the toes of his local colleague and some Greek rivals.  And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides to pack up and shut up.  It's a big stone that hides him, but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn it and get their revenge.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Akwaeke Emezi
|author=Stephen Baker
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|title=Pet
|title=They've Got Your Number
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
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|genre=Teens
|summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that ''Big Brother'' is always watching or like to believe that you are not a number, but a free man (or woman), then this may not be the book for you, as it will do nothing to dispel any of those worries. If, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of the sexiest things ever, and are chomping at the bit to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to say.
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|summary=The people of the town Lucille believe that all the monsters are gone.  Their children are raised to understand that they were saved by the angels, those who rid the town of evil, and there are no monsters anymore.  But one day, Jam accidentally cuts herself and bleeds a little onto one of her mother's paintings.  The blood awakens a bizarre, terrifying-looking creature named Pet, who somehow comes to life and declares that it is here to hunt the monster. Though Jam tries to convince it that all the monsters are gone, Pet is certain that there is one, still, and that the monster is hiding in the home of her best friend, Redemption.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571355110
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1686751680
|author=Rebecca Tope
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|title=My Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres
|title=Fear in the Cotswolds
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|author=Amelie Julien and Gustyawan
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
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|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Thea Osborne is a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves into their homes and looks after their animals and the property. This time it's winter and she's spending a month in the Cotswold village of Hampnett. It wouldn't be a job for all of us but Thea delights in getting to know the local people and the area.  In the past she's also been involved with the police in solving various cases but it looks as though that might have come to an end as the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbledFor the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish one - when she finds footsteps in the snow which lead to a body in a nearby field.  When the police finally arrive the body has disappeared and the police obviously wonder if she's imagined it all.
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|summary=Which child doesn't think that their mother is, well, ''weird''? It might be that in the morning their mother doesn't like speaking much when every self-respecting child knows that that is when you're at your brightest with lots to say? ''Why'' then does Mummy stick her fingers in her ears?  Then there's doing yoga in front of the television, which could be worrying if it wasn't so funny. We won't go into too much detail about what goes on in the bathroom and the colour changes which have occurred when Mummy emerges and frankly, the less said the better about her reactions to your artistic efforts on the wallI mean, what else would you use paint for?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Justine Avery and Liuba Syrotiuk
 +
|title=What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=For Sharing
 +
|summary=''The day has ended''<br>
 +
''Hasn't it been splendid?'' <br>
 +
''But now, it's time, to be sure'' <br>
 +
''For an entirely different adventure'' <br>
  
{{newreview
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I hope you haven't forgotten how it feels to be much too excited for bed. If you're a parent at least, you'll know how it is to persuade an excited small person that yes, it is in fact time for bed. ''What Wonders DoYou See...'' sets out to cater to these children. Instead of trying to persuade them that night time is a calm time, it takes a slightly different tack. It tells them that sleep is actually an exciting time: a time of dreams in which imagination takes over and has no limit. But the trick in accessing this wonderful and exciting world is to get calm and relaxed first so that you can easily fall asleep and open the door to it.
|author=Tad Tuleja
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|isbn=194812422X   
|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Home and Family
 
|summary=Take a look at the cover design of this book, and you'd be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken part in our English language since whenever they crossed over from their original homes. But the title is definitely honest, for this is a dictionary book first, for reference, and a browser for the trivia buff second.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Michael Harris
|author=Anne Rice
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|title=Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World
|title=Angel Time
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|rating=5
|rating=2.5
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|genre=Lifestyle
|genre=General Fiction
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|summary= This is not the book I was expecting it to be. For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to step outside the mainstream, but it is not that at all. Instead of telling us how it is more about the ''why''. Harries examines how we're eroding solitude, which used to be a natural part of our human life, and why that matters.   Of course, he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of that, and eventually in the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out, but mostly he wanders down the alleys and by-ways that his thinking about this lost art led him.
|summary=Toby O'Dare is an extremely efficient hit man with a passion for music, history and playing his beloved lute. He's also something of a lost soul having turned his back on God many years ago. One day while on a 'job' he is visited by an Angel who offers him a chance at redemption. Toby agrees to become the Angel's human instrument and help save lives rather than take them. He is sent on an assignment to help a Jewish couple accused of murder in 13th Century England.
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|isbn=1847947662
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Andy Briggs
|author=Ian Mortimer
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|title=Ctrl+S
|title=1415: Henry V's Year of Glory
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=History
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=The medieval, in fact time-honoured, view of King Henry V as one of England's greatest heroes was propagated though not originated by Shakespeare, and again more recently to some extent by Olivier's portrayal in film. At least one historian has called him ''the greatest man that ever ruled England''.
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|summary= Life in the near future's not all bad. We've reversed global warming and fixed the collapsing bee population. We even created SPACE, a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. But almost anything isn't enough for some. Every day, normal people are being taken, their emotions harvested - and lives traded - to create death-defying thrills for the rich and twisted. Now Theo’s mother has disappeared. And as he follows her breadcrumb trail of clues, he'll come up against the most dangerous SPACE has to offer: police, AI Bots and anarchists - as well as a criminal empire that will kill to stop him finding her . . .
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1409184641
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1609809378
|author=Deborah Gregory
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|title=The Rabbits' Rebellion
|title=Dancing With The Dead
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|author=Ariel Dorfman and Chris Riddell
|rating=3
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=I wanted to read ''Dancing with the Dead'', because I'm interested in family history. The blurb on the back of the book also mentioned Gill – our heroine of the piece – was moving from Bristol (my current home) to Lincolnshire (where I was born and brought up). I felt with all these links, the novel could not fail to interest me – but this was not the case.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Miss Read
 
|title=Christmas at Thrush Green
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Set in the rural village of Thrush Green, this book is the latest in a series surrounding familiar characters. There is the feisty Ella Bembridge, who is finally having to admit that old age is creeping up as her eyesight fails. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock are concerned about her, but she refuses to accept any help. Albert Piggott has decided it's time to retire now that his wife, Nelly, is a successful cafe owner and can afford to take care of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging the local nativity play, despite a number of set-backs. Will everything be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her future?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Matt and Dave
 
|title=Yuck's Robotic Bottom
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's concerned me for a while that it's relatively easy to pick up early readers for girls – princesses, magic soft toys, mermaids and pets abound – but there's a much smaller choice for boysIt's important too with early readers that the content is ''interesting'' and reading becomes more than just something which you ''have'' to do at school and moves into being fun.  Matt and Dave have found the answer in Yuck.
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|summary=We're in the realm of the rabbits, only the foxes and wolves have taken over.  King Wolf, His Wolfiness, has declared the rabbits don't exist, but the pesky birds have spread rumours from awing that the bunnies are in fact still around.  Demanding a propaganda spree, King Wolf orders a humble monkey to be his official portrait photographer, but whatever the poor innocent monkey prints out in his darkroom there is a distinct leporine hintCan King Wolf succeed in proving himself victorious, can the rabbits show their continued existence to all who need to know of it – and what can the poor monkey caught in between do?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Innosanto Nagara
|author=John E Smelcer
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|title=M is for Movement
|title=The Great Death
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
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|genre=Emerging Readers
|summary='As Western Europeans settled Alaska, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from a pandemic of measles, smallpox, and influenza. No community was spared. In most cases, half of a village's population died within a week. In some cases, there were no survivors. It was the end of an ancient way of life. Natives still refer to the dreadful period as the Great Death.'
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|summary=Set in Indonesia, in the not too distant past, this is a story about social change. Dealing with some difficult issues, such as political corruption and nepotism, the book is neither boring nor preachy.  It educates gently, with vibrant, challenging illustrations, and it portrays how social movements need people who will try, even when it seems that they will failThe message is a positive one; that in an increasingly uncertain world, we do still have the power to instigate change.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1609809351
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Maxine Barry
 
|title=River Deep
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Two young women both have a love of the Thames.  Melisande Ray's beloved hotel, the Ray of Sunshine is on the river bank.  It's here that guests come who want to be pampered and looked after in the way that only the best hotels can do well, but when Wendell James checks in to the hotel it's not pampering he's looking forHe's buying a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine and he's sussing out the competition.  There's something personal in there too – if his new hotel means that the Ray of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonus.  There's just a slight doubt in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eye.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1780724047
|author=Joe Gores
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|title=A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs
|title=Spade and Archer
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|author=Peter J Conradi
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
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|genre=Pets
|summary=Sam Spade decides, bravely, to set up his one-man detective agencyIt's the 1920s in San Francisco so we have the prohibition era and all that that entails.  Many locals, of course, choose to disobey the law, stick two fingers up, so to speak and as a result there's lots of bootleg liquor.
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|summary=I struggle to resist a book about dogs, but I did wonder why this one was so ''thin'': given that I've never encountered a dog who wasn't interesting or important - and probably both, I was expecting a massive tomeBut ''A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs'' is actually ''a rich compendium of the world's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a rich treasure troveWe begin with Peter J Conradi's four collies: Cloudy, Sky. Bradley and MaxThey're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what comes over is Conradi's love for each and every one of themI knew that I was in safe hands.
 
Straight away, it's evident that Sam is a man of few wordsHe has the mannerisms of a cat - stealthy, quick on his feetHe's also a compulsive chain-smoker, but then again, most people wereIn that era, holding a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessory.  How times have changed.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1785769294
|author=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester Clark
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|title=Man at the Window (Detective Cardellini)
|title=The Best of Times
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|author=Robert Jeffreys
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Crime
|summary=Most children enjoy a good traditional tale and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems to have all the right ingredients – a handsome prince and a beautiful princess who fall in love, get married and live happily ever after. Or do they? Sadly, not long after Prince Frederico marries the lovely Princess Serafina, she becomes very sad. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadness, but poor Prince Frederico is desperate to find a cure for his wife's misery. He tries everything in his power and eventually decides to offer his kingdom to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies of a broken heart. Lots of people come to the palace to try and help but in the end the solution is a simple one provided by some very kind travellers.
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|summary=It's when we read that a young boy is creeping reluctantly to a teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrong.  Nowadays you ''might'' hope that something would be done about it fairly quickly but this was 1965 and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of the child.  The boy would be safe that night though - albeit in the most horrific fashion. When he reached Captain Edmund's bedroom he found the man dead on the floor, the top of his skull missing. The school's initial reaction was that this was a dreadful accident: there had been a cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields and it was obviously a stray bullet that had killed the Captain.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1786695227
|author=Shirley Jackson
+
|title=Invisible in a Bright Light
|title=We Have Always Lived In The Castle
+
|author=Sally Gardner
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Mary Katherine Blackwood, also known as Merricat, is eighteen, and lives with her older sister Constance in the family home where 'Blackwoods had always lived'. Merricat quickly draws the reader into her world by a series of matter of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include her sister and death cap mushrooms, and everyone else in her family is dead. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept the house 'steady against the world', shutting out other people, and they live near a village. Merricat believes that 'The people of the village have always hated us', and tells us that she hates them too.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Simon Weston
 
|title=Nelson to the Rescue
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike the Milk's milk float, but he has now retired.  He lives in the stable at the back of the dairy along with a couple of tricky rats, Rhodri and Rhys, a pigeon who has no sense of direction, a frog who thinks he's a secret agent spy and an old racehorse who spends most of his time sleeping.  Rhodri and Rhys find a mysterious message on Mike's fridge and the animals believe that Mike has been invited to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE.  Somehow our hero, Nelson, finds himself travelling down to London, pulling a ceremonial coach for Prince Charles as well as giving a TV interview about his experience.
+
|summary=The beginning of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a little confused: who is the man in the green suit, what is the Reckoning, and why are rows of people in a cave? But stick with it – Ms. Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience the same disorientation as our heroine. We watch in dismay as the strange man, who seems to have no eyes, does his best to persuade her to answer his questions. But for some reason, Celeste, despite her bewilderment, remains wary and gives nothing away.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848510454</amazonuk>
 
}}{{newreview
 
|author=Elizabeth Baines
 
|title=Too Many Magpies
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Becoming a mother brings a whole new world of fear into your life.  Suddenly you see the danger in every situation, and fear and trepidation can be become your constant companions.  In this novella, we meet a young mother who is married to a logical scientist.  They attempt to control their children's futures on a scientific basis, growing their own fruit and vegetables, giving their children nothing sugary, eating no eggs for a whole year until any adverse affects from them were disproved. But after meeting with an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins to struggle as he introduces ideas of freedom into her world.  She begins an affair with him, begins to let things slip at home and with the children, yet finds she is still continuously haunted by the sense of an ever-present danger.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Katherine May
 
|title=Burning Out
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Violet has it all a well-paid job, and a luxurious apartment all to herself. Everything is catered for; her meals, her clothes, and her health are all how she would like them to be. But the life she is leading is beginning to take its toll. On the verge of snapping, a drained and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back to her home town. There, she meets someone familiar, a ghost reminding her of how she used to be ten years earlier – a young carefree girl, full of life. Only this isn't a ghost, but a girl living the life Violet once lived – exactly the same. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself and is convinced events will happen again. Events that will in turn haunt the girl.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1912374854
|author=Amanda Downum
+
|title=Violet
|title=The Drowning City
+
|author=S J I Holliday
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Fantasy
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=In a nutshell, you're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City is good, bad or mediocre. You've probably glanced at the rating and guessed the latter. I'm afraid it's not quite that simple. This is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelings.  I started off convinced that I was going to love this book. The cover art is effortlessly cool, the premise intriguing, the characters laden with potential for greatness and the backdrop is certainly evocative.
+
|summary=I've never been but understand that travelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situations. Well, that's exactly what happens when the two main/only characters meet in a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to get a refund on an extra ticket for the Trans-Siberian train and Violet is trying to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the same sold-out journey. As the two team up, travelling through Mongolia, Serbia and into Russia, it could've been the start of a beautiful friendship but this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale of obsession, manipulation, and toxic friendships.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tove Jansson
 
|title=The True Deceiver
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Most people of my age will have come across Jansson's work unwittingly, via the televised renditions of the Moomin tales. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced a few years ago to discover that at last Thomas Teal had set about the translation into English, first of The Summer Book and then of a collection of short stories which were published as 'A Winter Book'.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Daniel Kehlmann
 
|title=Me and Kaminski
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=After reviewing several long books, it's been refreshing to read such a fluent yet pared down story as 'Kaminski and Me'. In it, Sebastian Zollner, the obnoxious main character, shoves himself forward in a desperate attempt to research a best seller which will re-ignite his career as an art critic. Kaminski, the proposed subject, was a fashionable painter long ago, but now, ancient and chronically ill, has virtually slid into oblivion. So the second-rate writer is on a loser unless he can dig up some juicy details to hook the art world and general public.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1912374838
|author=Louis Barfe
+
|title=Nothing Important Happened Today
|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light Entertainment
+
|author=Will Carver
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Entertainment
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Light entertainment is often looked down upon, as if it's a bit naff, tepid and ignorable. What's often forgotten is that it's hugely popular, enjoyable and much of it is of the highest quality. Louis Barfe's Turned Out Nice Again tells the complete story of British light entertainment.
+
|summary=Nothing Important Happened Today is a dark, twisted, difficult read. Stories about cults often are, but this is different; it's written with a sense of style that is quite unlike anything I've read before. I can't remember ever having read a novel with such an odd, distinctive narrative voice. While a slim and relatively small book, the slow-moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn= williamabbey
|author=Jim Helmore and Karen Wall
+
|title=The Pursuit of William Abbey
|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!
+
|author=Claire North
|rating=4
+
|rating=3.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Paranormal
|summary=Marvin is entering the Great Grislygust Grow-Off, but just like him, his tomatoes aren't growing very big. He takes the only sensible course of action: he sings his tomatoes a song. The results are spectacular. Victory is surely within his grasp.
+
|summary=When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of a young boy in 1880's South Africa, he finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of William. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1643785036
|author=Joseph Delaney
+
|title=The Wondrous Apothecary
|title=The Spook's Stories: Witches
+
|author=Mary E Martin
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary='Warning: Not to be read after dark,' are the only words on the back of ''The Spook's Stories'', and on the inside flap, 'The Times' warns us that this book is 'seriously scary'...
+
|summary=Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize-winning ''The Hay Wagon'', and Rinaldo, the renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and cheese, if not sworn enemies.  If you've watched the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, you'd have said that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright was at the socially acceptable end of the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo, it was all too obvious that there was but a fine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance. As time has worn on, he's frequently been brought to the attention of the police. On this latest occasion, we see him charged with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''.
 
 
The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamely, though, with a story about a young Spook (a sort of monster-hunter) who falls in love with a witch and is forced to bear the consequences when the witch's sister comes to stay and exhibits a taste for the neighbor-children.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lisa Unger
 
|title=Die For You
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married to successful video game designer Marcus Raine. Or so she thinks. But when her husband fails to return from work, she realises something is wrong. Going to his office to try to find out what happens to him, she gets attacked and ends up in hospital, while his co-workers are killed. Things get worse for her, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, and the man she married was using a false identity. Infuriated by the betrayal, and the realisation that she's been living a lie for the past five years, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied to her for so long. Ignoring police warnings, she delves deeper and deeper into a nasty underworld, and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything she could have plotted in one of her novels.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Mary H.K. Choi
|author=Lisa McMann
+
|title=Permanent Record
|title=Wake
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Janie is seventeen and studying hard for college. She's also working lots of hours at a local nursing home to earn money for college as it's unlikely her alcoholic mother is going to provide much in the way of resources. College is Janie's only chance at a life better than the one she's lived so far and so you can't blame her for being so single-minded in the pursuit of her goal. Only one thing stands in her way...
+
|summary=Pablo, a college drop-out, is working at a New York bodega. He's massively in debt, he's avoiding his mother, and he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients!  Whilst working one evening, he's surprised to discover that the girl he is chatting with as he serves is a super-famous pop star and, as unlikely as it may seem, they start a relationship.  With one character who is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone and the other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, it's an interesting clash as they come together.  This isn't just a love story though, and actually it's really just Pab's story, about the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smart.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0349003459
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1609809319
|author=Jaclyn Moriarty
+
|title=Long-Haired Cat-Boy Cub
|title=The Spell Book of Listen Taylor
+
|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Listen Taylor's father has just moved in with his girlfriend and they are adopted into the Zing family, with all of its delightful eccentricities and unusual behaviour – the Zings meet every Friday night for dinner and then disappear into the garden shed to work on the 'Zing Family Secret'. Marbie Zing is terrified of doing something wrong and losing Nathaniel and Listen. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with her home life, and her daughter's year two teacher is coming to terms with a break up. The stories of these people come together to create a tale of life, love, and ultimately, what being part of a family means.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=F G Cottam
 
|title=The Magdalena Curse
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Horror
 
|summary=Mark Hunter is the sort of father who would do anything for his son. After losing his wife and daughter in a tragic accident, his surviving son Adam has become his whole world. And Adam is an exceptional child – beautiful, incredibly smart and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he's been channelling the voices of the dead. Plagued by horrific dreams, able to speak Russian in the hours after he wakes, drawing occult symbols when he doodles, Hunter believes Adam to be possessed. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft is sceptical, until she meets Adam, and witnesses the horrors the poor boy endures for herself.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jon Berkeley
 
|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=I shall start with a word of adviceWhen you're being hounded by a circus master, and a magician, for the soul of a tiger that's contained in a tiger's egg that's contained in the brain of your teddy bear, and your best friend - a fallen angel - is trying her best to make sure the other angels do not turn on you in a big way - then you're probably living the third book in a fantasy trilogyStill - never mind, the angel's efforts will involve you entering a dream world of flight and cloud cities, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world to desert oases and back, and friends new and old will be on board to help.
+
|summary=One day a boy is in the zoo with his father when the man gets called away on urgent businessThe boy isn't hustled into a cab and taken home first, though, no – he's given hot dog money, and taxi money, and told to just stick around on his own and enjoy himselfWell, it's no surprise that the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn't make him happy, and so he thinks of a species name for himself, and curls himself up into an empty cage as if he were a new exhibit. And it's then the drama begins…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1785785516
|author=Sue Townsend
+
|title=Fucking Good Manners
|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years
+
|author=Simon Griffin
|rating=5
+
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. It's not quite how life was supposed to turn out. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniform, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believe, and desperately attempting to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needs. And yet, the worst is still to come. Think a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – it's going to be a tough year for the Moles, and there's little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back and watch his life spin out of control around him.
+
|summary=Manners maketh man, they say.  It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set of conventions, some of which are ages old and others which have evolved over time. Manners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or financial status:  they're about getting the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult matters. Of course, we all have more relaxed manners when we're with family and friends, but it's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriately. ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on the way.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lauren Kate
 
|title=Fallen
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=A 17 year old girl at a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boy, who she's immediately drawn to. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to her, until he saves her life, and the two of them end up drawn together. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similarities.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}

Revision as of 11:53, 13 December 2019

The Bookbag

Hello from The Bookbag, a 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, the charity shop 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 16,084 reviews at TheBookbag.

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Reviews of the Best New Books

Read new reviews by category.

Read the latest features.

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Review of

Degrade (Tesla Expansion) by Mark Lingane

4star.jpg Teens

Degrade opens as it means to go on - with inyerface, banging action. Poor Arid, alone in the desert since his parents were killed, has a narrow escape as two mega-rigs fight it out and his is pretty much destroyed. He finds himself rescued by the mysterious-but-fascinating Ella and onboard the Moonlight under the suspicious eyes of its leader, Queen Bea. Bea's eyes flash with recognition when he tells her his name - Arid Geiger - but before he can find out why that is, there's an assassination attempt and Arid is under suspicion and imprisoned. An escape facilitated by Ella - Queen Bea's daughter - sees Arid and her other daughter, Frey, stranded in the desert... Full Review

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Review of

Murder at the Dolphin Hotel by Helena Dixon

4star.jpg Crime (Historical)

Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the care of her grandmother. A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and the conclusion was that she was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was ill. She was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and Kitty could not understand why. She's always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in the hotel. And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things and why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge of security at the hotel. Full Review

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Review of

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)

4star.jpg Crime

To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'. For those who need more, here is the extra background – we're in rural Japan in the 1930s. The oldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, although the whole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her family, for one thing. Either way, the celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple to be slashed to death in their private annex before the sun rises on their marriage. What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this case has a lot of the peculiar about it. Full Review

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Review of

Death's End by Cixin Liu

5star.jpg Science Fiction

If I'd been paying more attention when I picked this book up, I would have put it back on the shelf. Not because I didn't want to read it, but because I'd have figured out that it was the final part of a trilogy. Coming in partway through a saga is never the easiest thing to do and it's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to you (when it's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won't understand. This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's work – his range is phenomenal. George R R Martin, who knows a thing or two about world-creation, described it as a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory and cosmology. All of that and more. Full Review

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Review of

Die Alone by Simon Kernick

4star.jpg Thrillers

Ray Mason is in prison awaiting trial for murder and he's in the vulnerable prisoner unit: as a cop, he's something of a target, but the unit is not as secure as the inmates would have hoped and Mason is injured in a riot. On his way to hospital he's broken free by armed men and an offer is made to him. He's to assassinate the man who is likely to become the country's next prime minister and he'll then be given a new identity so that he can start afresh abroad. His captors say that they're MI6, but Mason has his doubts. His choices are limited though and he has personal reasons to believe that it would be better if Alastair Sheridan was dead. Full Review

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Review of

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

4.5star.jpg Teens

The people of the town Lucille believe that all the monsters are gone. Their children are raised to understand that they were saved by the angels, those who rid the town of evil, and there are no monsters anymore. But one day, Jam accidentally cuts herself and bleeds a little onto one of her mother's paintings. The blood awakens a bizarre, terrifying-looking creature named Pet, who somehow comes to life and declares that it is here to hunt the monster. Though Jam tries to convince it that all the monsters are gone, Pet is certain that there is one, still, and that the monster is hiding in the home of her best friend, Redemption. Full Review

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Review of

My Mummy does weird things / Maman fait des choses bizarres by Amelie Julien and Gustyawan

4star.jpg For Sharing

Which child doesn't think that their mother is, well, weird? It might be that in the morning their mother doesn't like speaking much when every self-respecting child knows that that is when you're at your brightest with lots to say? Why then does Mummy stick her fingers in her ears? Then there's doing yoga in front of the television, which could be worrying if it wasn't so funny. We won't go into too much detail about what goes on in the bathroom and the colour changes which have occurred when Mummy emerges and frankly, the less said the better about her reactions to your artistic efforts on the wall. I mean, what else would you use paint for? Full Review

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Review of

What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream? by Justine Avery and Liuba Syrotiuk

4star.jpg For Sharing

The day has ended
Hasn't it been splendid?
But now, it's time, to be sure
For an entirely different adventure

I hope you haven't forgotten how it feels to be much too excited for bed. If you're a parent at least, you'll know how it is to persuade an excited small person that yes, it is in fact time for bed. What Wonders DoYou See... sets out to cater to these children. Instead of trying to persuade them that night time is a calm time, it takes a slightly different tack. It tells them that sleep is actually an exciting time: a time of dreams in which imagination takes over and has no limit. But the trick in accessing this wonderful and exciting world is to get calm and relaxed first so that you can easily fall asleep and open the door to it. Full Review

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Review of

Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World by Michael Harris

5star.jpg Lifestyle

This is not the book I was expecting it to be. For some reason I expected it to be another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to step outside the mainstream, but it is not that at all. Instead of telling us how it is more about the why. Harries examines how we're eroding solitude, which used to be a natural part of our human life, and why that matters. Of course, he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of that, and eventually in the final chapter he talks about his own experience of having deliberately sought it out, but mostly he wanders down the alleys and by-ways that his thinking about this lost art led him. Full Review

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Review of

Ctrl+S by Andy Briggs

5star.jpg Science Fiction

Life in the near future's not all bad. We've reversed global warming and fixed the collapsing bee population. We even created SPACE, a virtual-sensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. But almost anything isn't enough for some. Every day, normal people are being taken, their emotions harvested - and lives traded - to create death-defying thrills for the rich and twisted. Now Theo’s mother has disappeared. And as he follows her breadcrumb trail of clues, he'll come up against the most dangerous SPACE has to offer: police, AI Bots and anarchists - as well as a criminal empire that will kill to stop him finding her . . . Full Review

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Review of

The Rabbits' Rebellion by Ariel Dorfman and Chris Riddell

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

We're in the realm of the rabbits, only the foxes and wolves have taken over. King Wolf, His Wolfiness, has declared the rabbits don't exist, but the pesky birds have spread rumours from awing that the bunnies are in fact still around. Demanding a propaganda spree, King Wolf orders a humble monkey to be his official portrait photographer, but whatever the poor innocent monkey prints out in his darkroom there is a distinct leporine hint. Can King Wolf succeed in proving himself victorious, can the rabbits show their continued existence to all who need to know of it – and what can the poor monkey caught in between do? Full Review

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Review of

M is for Movement by Innosanto Nagara

4star.jpg Emerging Readers

Set in Indonesia, in the not too distant past, this is a story about social change. Dealing with some difficult issues, such as political corruption and nepotism, the book is neither boring nor preachy. It educates gently, with vibrant, challenging illustrations, and it portrays how social movements need people who will try, even when it seems that they will fail. The message is a positive one; that in an increasingly uncertain world, we do still have the power to instigate change. Full Review

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Review of

A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs by Peter J Conradi

4star.jpg Pets

I struggle to resist a book about dogs, but I did wonder why this one was so thin: given that I've never encountered a dog who wasn't interesting or important - and probably both, I was expecting a massive tome. But A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs is actually a rich compendium of the world's most significant and beloved dogs and it's certainly a rich treasure trove. We begin with Peter J Conradi's four collies: Cloudy, Sky. Bradley and Max. They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what comes over is Conradi's love for each and every one of them. I knew that I was in safe hands. Full Review

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Review of

Man at the Window (Detective Cardellini) by Robert Jeffreys

4.5star.jpg Crime

It's when we read that a young boy is creeping reluctantly to a teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrong. Nowadays you might hope that something would be done about it fairly quickly but this was 1965 and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of the child. The boy would be safe that night though - albeit in the most horrific fashion. When he reached Captain Edmund's bedroom he found the man dead on the floor, the top of his skull missing. The school's initial reaction was that this was a dreadful accident: there had been a cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields and it was obviously a stray bullet that had killed the Captain. Full Review

1786695227.jpg

Review of

Invisible in a Bright Light by Sally Gardner

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

The beginning of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a little confused: who is the man in the green suit, what is the Reckoning, and why are rows of people in a cave? But stick with it – Ms. Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience the same disorientation as our heroine. We watch in dismay as the strange man, who seems to have no eyes, does his best to persuade her to answer his questions. But for some reason, Celeste, despite her bewilderment, remains wary and gives nothing away. Full Review

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Review of

Violet by S J I Holliday

3.5star.jpg Thrillers

I've never been but understand that travelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often chance situations. Well, that's exactly what happens when the two main/only characters meet in a travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is unsuccessfully trying to get a refund on an extra ticket for the Trans-Siberian train and Violet is trying to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the same sold-out journey. As the two team up, travelling through Mongolia, Serbia and into Russia, it could've been the start of a beautiful friendship but this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale of obsession, manipulation, and toxic friendships. Full Review

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Review of

Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver

4star.jpg General Fiction

Nothing Important Happened Today is a dark, twisted, difficult read. Stories about cults often are, but this is different; it's written with a sense of style that is quite unlike anything I've read before. I can't remember ever having read a novel with such an odd, distinctive narrative voice. While a slim and relatively small book, the slow-moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages. Full Review

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Review of

The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North

3.5star.jpg Paranormal

When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of a young boy in 1880's South Africa, he finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of William. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most… Full Review

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Review of

The Wondrous Apothecary by Mary E Martin

4star.jpg General Fiction

Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize-winning The Hay Wagon, and Rinaldo, the renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and cheese, if not sworn enemies. If you've watched the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, you'd have said that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright was at the socially acceptable end of the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo, it was all too obvious that there was but a fine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance. As time has worn on, he's frequently been brought to the attention of the police. On this latest occasion, we see him charged with arson and theft of The Hay Wagon. Full Review

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Review of

Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi

4star.jpg Teens

Pablo, a college drop-out, is working at a New York bodega. He's massively in debt, he's avoiding his mother, and he finds his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one evening, he's surprised to discover that the girl he is chatting with as he serves is a super-famous pop star and, as unlikely as it may seem, they start a relationship. With one character who is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone and the other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, it's an interesting clash as they come together. This isn't just a love story though, and actually it's really just Pab's story, about the journey he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smart. Full Review

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Review of

Long-Haired Cat-Boy Cub by Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)

5star.jpg Confident Readers

One day a boy is in the zoo with his father when the man gets called away on urgent business. The boy isn't hustled into a cab and taken home first, though, no – he's given hot dog money, and taxi money, and told to just stick around on his own and enjoy himself. Well, it's no surprise that the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the lad feels doesn't make him happy, and so he thinks of a species name for himself, and curls himself up into an empty cage as if he were a new exhibit. And it's then the drama begins… Full Review

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Review of

Fucking Good Manners by Simon Griffin

4star.jpg Lifestyle

Manners maketh man, they say. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by a set of conventions, some of which are ages old and others which have evolved over time. Manners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, they have nothing to do with class or financial status: they're about getting the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult matters. Of course, we all have more relaxed manners when we're with family and friends, but it's best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriately. Fucking Good Manners aims to help us on the way. Full Review