Difference between revisions of "Book Reviews From The Bookbag"

Bea Kemp has reached a crisis point in her life. She is in her forties, childless, enjoying a tedious job and a lacklustre marriage with Frank. She seems to have spent her entire life 'being good' and it really does not seem to have got her anywhere. Her only pleasure seems to come from the time she spends with her niece and nephew, Laura and Adrian, and as her successful sister Katharine has no qualms about using her as an unpaid childminder, that's quite a lot! However, all that looks set to change when Katharine announces that she is moving away with the children so she does not need Bea to look after them. Full review...

Saris and the City by Rekha Waheed

Yasmin Yusuf is a likeable main character with a group of Sex-and-the-City-style friends. The story begins with Yasmin splitting up with the man she was convinced was going to propose, rapidly followed by losing her job. We then follow her as she determines to become successful and make her mark in her new job, whilst holding out for the package in her personal life. I particularly liked the way each chapter is a lesson and lets the reader know what Yasmin will be learning or proving through events played out in that chapter. For example, chapter one is Lesson One: If he's the bad boy and you're the good girl, you will get burnt, hence the resulting ex-boyfriend. Full review...

The Iron Hunt (Hunter Kiss) by Marjorie M Liu

Fantasy

Maxine is the last in the line of the Wardens, who wear demons as tattoos in the day, making them invulnerable. At night, 'the boys' peel away and leave her open to attack – and there are an awful lot of people out to attack her. While she's spent her life, since inheriting the tattoos from her mother, tackling zombies (who are humans possessed by demons in this world, rather than 'traditional' zombies), she quickly finds there are far worse things out there in the prison dimension they call home. The death of an investigator trying to find her leads to strange alliances being formed, questions about her past being raised, and the end of the world approaching… unless she can stop it. Full review...

The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe

Literary Fiction

The novel starts at the end. Therefore we know that one of the two principal characters, namely Goro, appears to have committed suicide. The question is why. And the whole novel is an attempt to provide that elusive answer. Goro was an extremely successful film director of international repute. He was based in his native Japan but travelled extensively with his work. And you have to ask yourself why would a man such as this decide to end his life? Full review...

Signal Red by Robert Ryan

Ryan has certainly researched thoroughly for this novel - and it shows. Straight away the blurb on the back cover tells us there's an 'afterword' by Bruce Reynolds, no less than the ringmaster/leader of the Great Train Robbery gang. Notice how it's always given capital letters. Even all these decades down the line, those readers of a certain age remember it and perhaps shake their head in amazement. And there's also a very useful 'aftermath' section as Ryan painstakingly sets out all the robbers' names and what's happened since that date in the summer of 1963. Perhaps, like others, I also assumed the leader, the top man if you like, was Ronnie Biggs. No so, apparently. I also remember television footage of his release from prison on compassionate grounds only a year or so ago. The crime seems to have achieved almost mythical proportions - some would say it's up there with what were you doing when JFK was assassinated? Full review...

Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper

Grace Parkes is not yet sixteen when she loses her baby. Worse still, it is 1861, and Grace is unmarried. To have a baby out of wedlock is a shameful thing for a girl in Victorian times, even if it is not by her own choice, and Grace has to cope all alone with the shame of her condition and the loss of her child, not to mention a sister who needs constant care and their increasing poverty. But Fallen Grace is not some nineteenth century version of the misery memoir: Grace has resourcefulness and determination as well as beauty, and her story moves at a gripping pace. Full review...

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

Gabry has lived her whole life behind the safety of the Barrier, in the seaside town of Vista. She isn't keen to venture past it, to explore the remains of an old amusement park, but Gabry is drawn by the allure of Catcher, her best friend Cira's brother. Cira and the others are sure they will be safe from the Mudo – the shambling undead that plague the world Gabry lives in. Gabry decides to risk it, and her whole world is turned upside down. Full review...

According to Arnold: A Novel of Love and Mushrooms by Giles Milton

Arnold Trevellyan’s ordinary life as a charismatic auctioneer is about to change in ways he could never have imagined. Encouraged by his wife Flora to take a sabbatical, the two head to a remote region of France to indulge Arnold’s passion for mushrooms. Whilst out in the forest hunting for rare mushrooms Arnold stumbles across a secret hidden for centuries. This secret makes him abandon Flora and their life together for the island of Tuva in the South Pacific where he soon finds himself married to Lola, its queen. Full review...

Fragile Memories by Joan M Moules

Maura was surprised when she inherited the manor house at Picton near Salisbury. She hadn't been close to her Uncle Tom for many years and he had a stepson, Jim, whom she thought would have inherited in preference to her. It was five years since she's been back to Picton and when she returned to put the property on the market she was surprised by the extent of her longing to return there. Money was going to be a problem though. She worked as a model and couldn't really to this from the manor – and she didn't have the money for the property's upkeep. Her boyfriend, Nick, had an answer. He already had three successful restaurants and was looking to extend into the countryside – what better place could there be for his new restaurant? Full review...

Have You Started Yet?: You and your period: getting the facts straight by Ruth Thomson and Chloe Thomson

Children's Non-Fiction

Every young girl will face her periods starting but it’s the preparation which goes on beforehand which will determine whether or not this is seen as the body developing naturally or a problem. Both are attitudes which are likely to stay through life and it’s obviously better that it’s the firmer rather than the latter. ‘’Have You Started Yet’’ gives factual information in an informative and reassuring manner and in a form which is easily readable to girls of about nine years old and above. Full review...

Me and You by Anthony Browne

For Sharing

Once upon a time there was a little girl called Goldilocks... You know the rest. Me and You flips the classic fairy tale around, telling it from the three bears' point of view. Nice idea, non? It is, but calling it a retelling merely scratches the surface... Full review...

The Dead (The Dark) by David Gatward

Lazarus Stone is home alone - his father's away on business and his mother died in a car crash when he was just baby. He's lazing around, chatting on the phone with his best mate Craig, when a foul smell begins to suffuse the house. Tracking it to the lounge, he opens the door and discovers a skinless figure drenched in blood. Not a corpse - Red has crossed over from the other side with a message for Lazarus's father...

Hell is full and the Dead are coming. Full review...

Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco

Literary Fiction

When the dead body of Filipino writer Crispin Salvador is found floating in the Hudson River, apparently having committed suicide, his student and fellow Filipino, Miguel is suspicious that darker forces may have been behind his death, particularly when there is no sign of Salvador's latest manuscript that threatens to dish the dirt on the sleaze and corruption of the rich and powerful in his native Philippines. In order to investigate further, Miguel decides to write a biography of his teacher and mentor. That's the premise of this book, but it tells you almost nothing about the experience of reading it. This is no straightforward narrative of a regular crime fiction. It's a kaleidoscope of sometimes apparently disjointed writing that gradually comes together to create a story that only starts to come into focus about half way through, but it's not until the final pages where the true picture is brilliantly revealed. Full review...

Crossing Over by Anna Kendall

Roger can cross over into the Country of the Dead. To be able to do this he must be in pain, something his abusive Uncle, Hartah, takes full advantage of. So they travel, Hartah, Roger and his Aunt Jo, from faire to faire making money from Roger’s talents and exploiting the grieving. Until, Hartah, takes them to the sea. It is there that Roger gets dragged into helping Hartah and others wreck the Frances Ormund, a navy ship carrying precious cargo back to the Queendom. Full review...

Leonardo's Legacy: How Da Vinci Reinvented the World by Stefan Klein

Biography

This excellent combination of science history and biography starts with the most populist and some of the most awkwardly scientific. Basically it throws modern-day science at the Mona Lisa, which you might think is a little unfair – can she cope with being analysed, and the neuroscience we now know used in interpreting her? Of course she can – she’s the world’s best-known masterpiece of Italian art, and she’s survived much worse. Klein’s approach fully works, when we see also the science da Vinci did know and that he worked on himself, which all helps us know partly why the truths of La Gioconda are still unknowable. Full review...

The Vampire Blog by Pete Johnson

The night of his thirteenth birthday, Marcus's parents sit him down for a chat. He fears there'll be some fingernails-on-a-blackboard stuff about the facts of life, he'll fend them off with a wry remark or two, and it'll all be over. After all, how bad could it be? Very bad, is the answer. Very, very, very, very bad. Because this chat isn't about sex at all. It's about fangs and blood cravings, and shape-shifting. Because Marcus is a half-vampire. Full review...

The Wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri

Inspector Salvo Montalbano’s immediate reaction when Caterella rang him at home was that a dead man had been found somewhere. Cat soon puts him right though. It’s a woman. She’s been found, naked but particularly clean and on the edge of the local rubbish tip. Most of her face had been blown away, which was going to make identification particularly difficult. Two things were obvious though – she was particularly beautiful and she had a tattoo of a butterfly on her shoulder blade. Full review...

Moment of Glory: The Year Tiger Lost His Swing and Underdogs Ruled the Majors by John Feinstein

Sport

Despite the picture of Tiger Woods on the dust jacket this book is only incidentally about him. Between 2000 and 2002 Woods had dominated top-class golf, winning six of the twelve majors. But he's always after improvement and he sacked his swing coach and turned to someone new. The swing is the engine of a golfer's game and tinkering with a good swing has major implications. For Woods it meant that he floundered out of the big money in 2003. For everyone else it meant that there were chances to be taken. You might have expected that it would be the established stars who took advantage, but it wasn't to be. Full review...

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris - the werewolves that took her eye and savaged her body during a brutal attack when she was just a young girl. Scarlett managed to save her sister Rosie, but Grandma Oma died horrifically. Scarlett's body is marked by scar after scar and the scars never let her forget. She lives and breathes the hunt, killing Fenris after Fenris and saving teenaged girl after teenaged girl. Full review...

Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk

Meet Katherine Kenton. A movie star of great renown, she's always on TV as someone famous - or the wife of somebody who happens to be famous and male, whether they were actually ever wedded. She herself has had copious real-life marriages, making somebody out of a nobody on many an instance. Her shelves of 'best lifetime' awards are groaning, and their dusting is a job akin to painting the Forth bridge. The person who dusts them is narrator for this book, but she does more than that. She is everything to "Miss Kathie" - general housekeeper, housemate, and string-puller. But what might those strings be being pulled for? When Katherine meets a new toyboy, and our narrator seems to get in the way, to what purpose might this be? Full review...

Young Sherlock Holmes: Death Cloud by Andrew Lane

With his father overseas in the British Army, his mother unwell, and older brother Mycroft busy working for the government, young Sherlock Holmes is forced to spend his school holidays with his unknown uncle and aunt. Looking forward to days of doing whatever he wants, especially after meeting urchin Matty Arnatt, he's initially displeased when Mycroft hires him an American tutor – but the tutor, Amyus Crowe, and his daughter Victoria end up teaming up with Sherlock to solve the mysterious deaths of two local men, and uncover a plot which could have far-reaching consequences… Full review...

Virgin Widow by Anne O'Brien

Historical Fiction

The mighty Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, is famous throughout England as one of King Edward IV’s most trusted advisors. But as Edward is lured towards another influential family when he falls in love with Elizabeth Woodville, Warwick responds by backing the alliance between Margaret of Anjou and King Louis XI of France, aiming to put Margaret’s husband Henry VI back on the English throne. A helpless pawn, Anne is torn away from the man she loves, who will grow up to become Richard III, to be used as political capital by her father and his allies as they try to regain the kingdom of England. Full review...

So Much To Tell by Valerie Grove

Biography

Kaye Webb’s career would be the envy of many a young bookworm. From 1961 to 1978 she ran Puffin Books, the children’s division of Penguin. I still have some paperbacks from that time with “Kaye Webb – Editor” on the first page inside the front cover. Full review...

Playing for Keeps by Sally Wragg

The Vernon family have been involved with Rislington Rovers Football Club – The Rogues - for generations. Presently there are three generations actively involved with the Club, although Eleanor Vernon, the matriarch of the family, wishes that husband Landon would spend a little more time with her. As the Rogues are facing relegation and a police investigation into their finances, stalwart Landon isn’t likely to be doing that any time soon and when the Club needs a new Chief Executive the appointment is one which divides the Vernon family and it seems that there’s not one of them whose personal life isn't in turmoil. Full review...

Obernewtyn (Obernewtyn Chronicles) by Isobelle Carmody

A nuclear catastrophe called the Great White destroyed most of the world, and only those who lived in isolated parts of the countryside were able to survive by refusing all contact with radiation-infected refugees from the urban centres. In time the cities grew again, but the fear of outsiders and of those who were different remained and became a religion, composed in part of half-remembered elements of faiths from the time before the apocalypse. Full review...

In the Falling Snow by Caryl Phillips

We are introduced to the central character Keith right away and discover lots about him. His personal and professional CV is laid bare before us. He's one mixed up, middle-aged, not-quite-middle-class man. He appears to be rather weak-willed and almost seems to fall into situations, rather than choose to be part of them. When in his marital relationship (now on a downward spiral), his wife most definitely wore the trousers. I found Keith a very infuriating person. I wanted to take him by the scruff and give him a good old shake and then shout 'wake up and smell the coffee, before it's too late.' Full review...

The Valley of the Vines by Mark Neilson

The reader discovers that Sophie, the central character is living in rural isolation. She's supposed to be living the dream. She's separated from her husband and her two daughters are at boarding school back in the UK. She's also now a one-woman organization. And she's failing practically and financially for many reasons. Apparently, according to Neilson, there's a very small window in which to carry out the vital work of harvesting the grapes for wine. We are also told at frequent intervals about the enigmatic 'Old Ones'. They are 'The timeless custodians of the vines.' I'm afraid I found their too-frequent references rather annoying. Full review...

Legends: Battles and Quests by Anthony Horowitz

Bringing things that are this old to an audience this young cannot be an easy feat. Anthony Horowitz must be more than able. An old volume of retold legends and fables from his typewriter in the 1980s has become a series of six books, rejigged on his computer, and presented very nicely by Macmillan. The first to hit the shelves (Legends: Beasts and Monsters) was a successful gift to us of five stories of olden beasties and baddies. Here we get a full half-dozen, and the quality is just as compelling. Full review...

Wishful Thinking by Ali Sparkes

We first meet Kevin covered in sick. He doesn't travel well, and his day out with his gran in the car isn't going as well as he might wish for. He doesn't really seriously wish for anything, but a diverting list of things he'd like – a better complexion, a better chance with the school hottie, a Wii, etc – gets dropped into a stream. And lo and behold, the god of that river, someone called Abandinus, comes to life, thinking he's got a worshipper at last, and might just be prepared to grant some wishes. Full review...

City of Strangers by Ian Mackenzie

Paul Metzger – mid thirties, with a failed marriage, a broken relationship with his brother (who converted to Judaism), and a dying father (who is an ex-Nazi). Straight away there are obvious flaws with his family dynamic. As his writing career fails to take off he's left to churn out thousands of words for articles that have no meaning to him, the dregs of the publishing world. His life isn't quite as high flying as he hoped. But then Paul gets offered a lucrative book deal; the one thing he has wanted for years. The only catch is he has to write about his father. Full review...

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell

Lexie Sinclair was sent down from university for the crime of going through a door reserved for men. She could not graduate until she apologised and this she was not going to do. Home was not an option either but when she met the sophisticated Innes Kent she made up her mind to go to London and make her way there. It was the nineteen fifties and Lexie and Innes made a life for themselves in Soho.

In the present day Elina and Ted are struggling to recover from the difficult birth of their first child. Elina is an artist and she’s finding it difficult to come to terms with being a mother. Ted does his best to help but he is having to cope with disturbing visions and memories of his own childhood which don’t seem to agree with what he’s been told by his parents. The further he looks, the stranger are the links which he uncovers. Full review...

The Death of Lomond Friel by Sue Peebles

Rosie was a successful radio presenter when her father, Lomond Friel, had a stroke. Whether or not Rosie was always reckless and impulsive isn't entirely clear, but once she heard about the stroke she took a break from work and began to build her life around making a future for herself and her father. There are two problems here: Rosie isn't really all that capable of looking after herself, never mind her father and Lomond is quietly plotting his own death. He might not be able to speak, to move very much, but he has plans. Full review...

Legends: Beasts and Monsters by Anthony Horowitz

When they say there is nothing new under the sun, they might use this book as evidence - but they'd only be half-right. The legends of the sphinx's riddle, and the capture of the gorgon's head, are as old as the Parthenon hill, but they have never been presented as they have here. They were published in a similar fashion in the 1980s, with a younger Anthony Horowitz offering a large compendium of folk stories, legends and tales of classical derring-do. With the attention span of the current under-twelve, however, to be considered, his publishers have allowed a sprucing up, and a reformatting - one book has been turned into six, with a brace each year from now til conclusion. Full review...

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Humour

'Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.' That quote, on the Statue of Liberty, was probably not designed with the inclusion of vampires in mind. But by some means or another North America is rife with the things – hiding in plain sight, as the older ones can bear sunlight, with the help of darkened glasses. It might just come down to one eager young man to rid his new country of such things, on his way to something he’s a bit more known for. Full review...

Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynn Shepherd

Historical Fiction

Straight away the reader is plunged into the language of Austen's era, so dotted all over are such rather flowery phrases as ' ... conjugal felicity ...' and ' ... her family were not consumptive...' We are also introduced to a host of characters and although Shepherd has thoughtfully provided right at the beginning Names of the Principal Persons, it does bombard and perhaps confuse the reader a little. I must admit to referring to this dratted list time and time again. It does break the flow at the beginning of the novel. But, several chapters in and you're right into the story thereafter. Full review...

Shoedog by George Pelecanos

If you ever find yourself as a character in a work of fiction, it’s probably best to avoid hitchhikers. The chances are it’s going to turn out very badly for either the driver or the hitchhiker - or both. Constantine is a denim-clad, Marlboro-smoking, drifter and loner with a strong sense of right and wrong who has just returned from a period of travelling around the world and is heading south back home in the US when he is picked up by a man named Polk, driving a muscle car. So what could possibly go wrong? Full review...

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

Cookery

I'm sure that there are many good reasons for buying the Guardian of a Saturday but I always enjoy Yotam Ottolenghi's New Vegetarian column. I'm not a vegetarian (nor, indeed, is Ottolenghi) but he has a way with vegetables whether they're to be served on their own or as an accompaniment which is fresh, full of flavour and exciting. The background to the food is in Israel and Palestine with the region's rich supply of vegetables, pulses and grains. Full review...

Night-Scented by David Barrie

Isabelle Arbaud is determined to make her mark in the world of luxury brands. Most perfumes are off-shoots of established fashion houses (or celebrity names, but let's not go down that road), but Isabelle has poached her rival's most talented perfumer and given him free rein to produce an irresistible scent which will take her upstart fashion house straight to the top. But – it would seem that someone is determined that she won't succeed. First on and then a second of her financial backers died, the first in circumstances which might have been a accident, but probably wasn't. About the second there could be no doubt. Two bullet holes are fairly conclusive evidence of a suspicious death. Full review...

Hannah's List by Debbie Macomber