Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"

Ian Dury was always one of the most individual, even contrary characters in the musical world. In a branch of showbiz where people often relied on good looks as a short cut to stardom, he was no oil painting. During the pub rock era, he and his group, the Blockheads, ploughed a lonely furrow which owed more to jazz-funk than rock'n'roll, and his songs extolled the virtues of characters from Billericay or Plaistow rather than those from Memphis or California. Alongside the young punk rock upstarts with whom he competed for inches in the rock press, he was comparatively middle-aged. As if that was not enough, in his own words childhood illness had left him a permanent 'raspberry ripple'. Full review...

Book of Souls by Glenn Cooper

General Fiction

Area 51 is not what you think it is. No - all that UFO kerfuffle is a smokescreen for the powers that be to hide even better the most unusual manuscript known to (a handful of) mankind - the most unearthly, singular, and unsettling book, in thousands and thousands of volumes. All except one, which is about to come under the hammer in a London auction house. Our hero Will Piper must go very reluctantly on the trail of it and its secrets, a trail which will force him and others to become entangled with shadowy agents, who in turn know the very day of all their enemy's deaths. Full review...

The Seven Secrets of Happiness by Sharon Owens

It was hard to think that life wasn't perfect for Ruby O'Neill. She and Jonathan had an idyllic marriage and a beautiful home. There was a job in a dress shop which she enjoyed and although she might not be close to her parents she had good friends. It was Christmas Eve and the tree had just been delivered by a lovely man on behalf of the garden centre when her world fell apart.

Jonathan had been killed in a car crash. Full review...

Furnaces of Forge by Alan Skinner

In this sequel, it's almost as you were, except here the mysterious powers of the blue flame are not being used by some outlander arsonist, but have been usurped by two inept young scientists from the Myrmidots, to fuel their industry. We can predict this will prove a bad thing, but the breadth of the journey to capture the flame, and the efforts of all our returning characters to put things right might still be a surprise. Full review...

Alastair Sim: The Star of Scrooge and the Belles of St Trinian's by Mark Simpson

The mere mention of Alastair Sim conjures up visions of pictures made during the 1950s when a more gentle humour was the order of the day. Yet the man hated and did his best to avoid publicity, claiming that the person the public saw on screen revealed all that anybody needed to know about him. How he would have fared twenty years later in the age of a more intrusive press, one cannot but wonder. Full review...

The Carbon Diaries 2017 by Saci Lloyd

It's been a year since we read a diary entry from Laura Brown. We left her with a boyfriend and just about adjusted to a Britain in the full throes of carbon rationing. Her nu-punk band, dirty angels, hadn't quite made it, but things were looking rather promising for its future. Full review...

Sunday Daffodil and Other Happy Endings by P Robert Smith

General Fiction

Sunday Daffodil and Other Happy Endings is the sort of book you finish with the feeling that you've just read something with a million different meanings. Don't be surprised if you feel like you should start the whole thing again but with your brain more fully engaged, and perhaps that's the whole point. Full review...

Once on a Moonless Night by Dai Sijie

Literary Fiction

A French female scholar, studying in China, finds herself caught up in the search for a lost, sacred text that was inscribed on an ancient scroll. The scroll was torn in two by Emperor Puyi years ago, and was lost. After falling in love with a young grocer called Tumchooq the young woman becomes caught up in tales within tales, as she finds that Tumchooq's father found and translated half of the missing scroll and became obsessed with finding the other half, and soon Tumchooq too becomes embroiled in the search. Full review...

A Blueprint for a Safer Planet: How We Can Save the World and Create Prosperity by Nicholas Stern

Politics and Society

The hardback edition of 'A Blueprint for a Safer Planet' was published early in 2009 as an update to the 2006 Stern Review on the economics of climate change. Now here is the paperback edition, published too early to critique Copenhagen, but nonetheless an interesting read. Stern is an expert witness who presents his evidence understandably for the layman; he is unemotional and very convincing. Full review...

The Bard: Robert Burns - a biography by Robert Crawford

If Shakespeare is England's own Bard, the comparatively shortlived Robert Burns – who lived and worked nearly two centuries later – fulfils the equivalent role in Scottish iconography more than adequately. Yet as this very thorough biography demonstrates, there is much more to the man than the wordsmith of 'Auld Lang Syne' and 'Wee, sleekit, cowrin', tim'rous beastie'. Full review...

My Love Lies Bleeding by Alyxandra Harvey

Solange Drake hates being the only born female vampire. Not only does she have to put up with her pheromones making her irresistible to male vampires, who all want to use her to start their own vampire families, she has a prophecy looming over her head, one that states a female Drake vampire will overthrow the current ruler to become Queen of the Vampires. Full review...

The Master of Bruges by Terence Morgan

Historical Fiction

Belgium, the fifteenth century. Hans is apprenticed to a master painter in the city of Brussels, until the old curmudgeon dies, and his studio falls apart. Luckily for Hans, a mistakenly drawn sketch, and a bizarre rescue from the gallows gives him a major boost - patronage, for both portraits and many religious images. With what might seem to be a patchy diary - some years have five pages only, concerning but one month - we see his startling life journey, covering beguiling models, ghostly war scenes, and even the biggest intrigues of English royal court. Full review...

Fighting Ruben Wolfe by Markus Zusak

The Wolfe family are only just getting by. Times are hard for Cameron and his older brother Ruben. Their father has been injured at work and even though he's mostly recovered now, he's finding it hard to get jobs and the ultimate emasculation of the dole is looming ever nearer. Older brother Steve has ambitions and he can't wait to get out of the house. Sister Sarah is drinking too much and getting a tarty reputation at school. Their mother's fighting to hold things together, but it's taking a heavy toll. Cameron and Rube can't even manage to win a bet at the dog track - even when they get a policeman to put it on for them. Full review...

Captain Fantastic (Football Academy) by Tom Palmer

Ryan is a changed boy. Since he got into hot water with manager Steve for bullying several books ago, and his captaincy of the United U12s was threatened, he's been determined to get his socks firmly pulled up. He's worked really hard at redeeming himself too - both on and off the pitch. He's more than halfway towards becoming the best captain the team's ever had. So when Craig's attitude suddenly nosedives and he starts playing dirty during games and being insolent during training, Ryan feels a big responsibility to help sort it out. Full review...

A Single to Rome by Sarah Duncan

Natalie is in love with Michael. They've been together for three years, but Michael wants some space. He hasn’t said he doesn’t love her, so there is still a chance he could come back… Then he goes and finds himself a new girlfriend. Devastated, Natalie consoles herself with the help of her friends, who persuade her to go speed dating. There she meets Guy, a friendly man, who like her is trying to get over someone – his new ex-wife Vanessa. But Guy is one of the nice ones, and before she knows it, he has been invited to her friend’s wedding as Natalie’s date. At least she won’t be going alone and Michael will be there. But her love life isn’t her only worry. Past actions have come to light that have put her career in danger. At a loss, Natalie turns to Guy for help, who offers her the use of his flat in Rome. A place to escape? Or a place to dwell? Full review...

The Quest of the Warrior Sheep by Christopher Russell and Christine Russell

Take five rare breed sheep, put them in a field, and wait for something to fall out the sky on to one of them. You'll find the result is that they gather, confer among themselves, work out their sacred God Aries is in trouble as he's lost the only thing to confer his power over the sacred Demon of sheep, Lambad, and decide to take the fallen object up North to return it. A journey that will take them into London in a market truck, down the Underground, and so much more on their epic journey. Full review...

Maxwell's Retirement by M J Trow

Peter 'Mad Max' Maxwell has always been something of a dinosaur and even he realises just how far adrift he is when some of his sixth form students start receiving threatening messages on their mobiles. He might prefer to make a phone call or send a note when the need arises, but this isn't the way of the younger generation and Maxwell discovers that he's going to have to climb a steep learning curve if he's to help his students through the problem. Full review...

Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr by Linda Porter

Katherine Parr was the last and arguably the most fortunate of King Henry VIII's six wives. Apart from Anne of Cleves, the speedily divorced 'Flanders mare', she was the only one to survive him. And while all six of the queens consort remain rather shadowy figures, this biography gives the impression that she was probably the most intelligent and well-rounded personality of them all. Full review...

Mercy by David Kessler

In some ways, the first line of this novel says it all: 'It's hard to sit still when your client is scheduled to die in fifteen hours.' From this moment on, the action comes thick and fast, leaving the reader with barely the breath to murmer 'is it really probable that all this was left to the last day?' However, if you suspend your disbelief, then the author does deliver blockbuster plot twists and twirls that are very satisfactory. Full review...

Stolen by Lesley Pearse

The story of Stolen is an interesting one. David Mitchell is walking along a beach in Selsey, Sussex in May 2003, when he comes across a young woman – beautiful, half-drowned and barely alive. She is taken to hospital and her photo is featured in the newspapers, as the police hope to discover who she is.

Meanwhile, Dale, a female hairdresser, sees the photo and believes the girl to be Lotte, who she befriended on a cruise they were working on. Along with Dale's colleague Scott – who also knew Lotte – they visit the girl, but she has amnesia and seems to have forgotten almost everything. Full review...

Waiting for Columbus by Thomas Trofimuk

Literary Fiction

I was hooked instantly by the title. Original, thought-provoking, quirky. The book revolves around a youngish man who has been admitted to an insane asylum (these two words alone make me want to shiver) in modern-day Spain. The staff have their work cut out. He doesn't remember his name or anything at all about his past. He's sporadically violent - and he says he is Christopher Columbus! As the Americans would say, go figure. Full review...

The Message by Julie Highmore

The Message is very much a twenty first century tale as it all hinges on a voicemail message made from a mobile phone. It is also based on the fact that it is very easy to send a message to one person when it is actually meant for someone else. This is what happens to Jen when she receives a message from her husband Robert. There is nothing particularly special about this message; that is until Jen realises that she is not the intended recipient and then it has a shattering effect on her marriage. Full review...

The Dragon Diary: Dragonology Chronicles Volume 2 by Dugald Steer

Daniel and Beatrice Cook are studying Dragonology with Dr Ernest Drake, and are awaiting the hatching of their very own dragon egg. But suddenly their parents have gone missing, an illness is killing dragons and it all smells of evil dragonologist, Alexandra Gorynytchka. Before they know it, the brother, sister and new dragon chick have to deliver Liber Draconis, the dragon diary, and St Petroc's chalice to Dr Drake in Hong Wei, which may hold the secret to the cure. As the back cover reads: The future of dragon kind hangs in the balance! Full review...

Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown

General Fiction

Thirteen-year-old Jake is just like any other boy on the cusp of puberty: new music and Saturday jobs are at the top of his agenda, while girls are the strange exotic creatures that must be looked at but not touched (particularly his pretty Classics teacher). But behind closed doors, Jake struggles to cope with his mother's ongoing battle with depression and alcoholism. His father moved out a few weeks ago. So has his older brother, Matthew. That leaves Jake as the man of the house: the one who must remember to get him and little brother, Andy, up in time for school in the morning; the one making toast for dinner; and the one keeping a watchful eye over his mother to make sure she doesn't get herself into any serious trouble. Full review...

Princesses Are Not Perfect by Kate Lum and Sue Hellard

For Sharing

Princesses Allie, Mellie and Libby love baking, gardening and building respectively. The day before the big summer party, they suddenly fancy a change and all swap jobs. With a hundred punnets of blueberries to pick, a hundred cupcakes to make, and a hundred chairs to build, the children are going to be awfully disappointed if the princesses' new-found interests aren't successful. Full review...

Why Women Mean Business by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland

Business and Finance

Do you want to improve your business? Make more profits? You probably need to look at the sector which makes 80% of purchasing decisions, is the majority of the talent and represents 59% of graduates.

Women. Full review...

The Richard Beckinsale Story by David Clayton

A generation probably knows Richard Beckinsale only from repeats on the UK Gold TV channels, and from occasional mentions in the context of 'how great he would have been if only…' In 1978 The Sunday Times Magazine tipped the 30-year-old sitcom favourite as a rising major star of the 80s who would blossom into one of the great all-round stage actors. One year later, he was dead. Full review...

The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land by Thomas Asbridge

History

The word 'Crusades' has been misappropriated and often used in various other contexts over the passing years. In their original meaning they were a series of holy wars during the medieval era between the Christian and Muslim world, fighting for dominion over the Holy Land between 1095 and 1291 as the defenders of western civilization formed expeditions travelling across the face of the known world from Europe, their sole aim being to conquer and defend an isolated swathe of territory centred on Jerusalem. Full review...

The Disappeared by M R Hall

We first met Jenny Cooper in The Coroner when she had just taken over as Coroner for Severn Valley. It's now some months later and whilst she's settled into the job to some extent her relationship with her officer, Alison, is uneven and she's still shaky mentally and dependant on pills to a greater extent than she would care to admit. She's a feisty woman though and determined that she's going to do the job properly. Full review...

The Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman

Chocolate bonbons with an almond glaze. Peanut butter cookies double dipped in chocolate. Coffee and raisin hermit biscuits. Crisp vanilla fingers with toasted almonds. Thin crunchy crisps flavoured with molasses and ginger.

If you're even the slightest bit peckish after that, I guarantee you'll be starving by the time you finish this wonderful book full of festive flavour. Full review...

Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi and Sara Fanelli

Pinocchio, as you all know, is a little wooden puppet, who wants to be a real boy. He's very badly behaved, and always getting into trouble. Will he listen to the advice of Gepetto, the cricket or the fairy? Will he become real? What's it like if he doesn't break into a Disney song every two minutes? Full review...

The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky and Andrew Joyner

For Sharing

The rabbits are sitting by the lake, munching on cake and carrots. An apple falls in, with a terrible plop, and they scamper off scared. All the other animals join in the stampede and get as far away as they can from the terrible plop. Bear is far too big and grumpy to be scared, so he gets the littlest rabbit to show him just where the scariness lies... Full review...

The Comet's Child by John Ward

Teenage Fin is rescued from his remote forest home by Ragg, the first man he has ever encountered. Having such a sheltered childhood has equipped Fin with the speech and education of a nobleman's son but little idea about the real world. Other than relying on his instincts and resourcefulness, Fin has no way of knowing who to trust, or where he is bound as he leaves home with Ragg. Full review...

Mr Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett

Horror

Marcus Connelly, a quiet, reserved and private man, has recently joined the mass of humanity travelling west in search of work. It's the Midwest in the 1930s and the Great Depression is in full swing. The dustbowl is a desperate place and there's none more desperate than Connelly. But Connelly doesn't need a job and he has a wife and a home. Connelly isn't missing prosperity; he's missing his daughter, and he's in search of the man who killed her. Full review...

Captured by Neil Cross

Kenny is dying - brain cancer is hitting him just as he's barely turning forty. As a result he compiles a short list of rights to wrong, and people to create closure with. One, his ex-wife, might not be easy, two concern a misguided sense of a guilt of old. The fourth turns out to be a missing woman. The journey he takes in that redemptive exercise is not for the squeamish. Full review...

The World of Business: From Valuable Brands and Games Directors Play to Bail-Outs and Bad Boys by The Economist

Business and Finance

For years I've been a great fan of The Economist's Pocket World in Figures series with all the unbiased statistics which the average person could want. I was just a little nervous when I opened The World of Business – just in case it was going to be a disappointment – but I needn't have worried. Full review...

Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell