Book Reviews From The Bookbag
Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of author interviews, and all sorts of top tens - all of which you can find on our features page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the recommendations page.
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Ghosts and Lightning by Trevor Byrne
Denny comes home to Dublin from Wales after his mum dies suddenly, and hangs around drinking and taking drugs with his sister, her girlfriend and some of their mates, while he wonders what to do with himself. There are some practical matters to sort out too, such as the nasty older brother who owns their house and wants his siblings out. Full review...
The Last Resort by Douglas Rogers
Author Douglas Rogers is a Zimbabwean who moved away from the country many years ago, but has never been able to persuade his parents – two white farmers, Lyn and Roz – to follow him out of their homeland, despite the resettlement policies of Robert Mugabe, the hyper-inflation, and the corruption in the country. Instead, the pair just wanted to stay on the farm welcoming people to Drifters, their backpackers' lodge. Full review...
Hell's Belles by Paul Magrs
The idea behind this series of novels is quite enchanting and amusing. Frankenstein's daughter is living and sleuthing in Whitby, ably aided and abetted by her sidekick, the enigmatic Effie, and a growing menagerie of younger accomplices, namely Michael and Penny. Whilst the original idea showed huge promise, I felt that the author has rather overdone it in terms of output, in his desire to capitalise on his original success. Book two in the series was quite disappointing, relying on sensationalism rather than adequate plot and character development. Book three was an improvement-and I'm delighted to report that this, the fourth book in the series, shows him returning to form with the promise we saw in the first of the series. Full review...
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
The title and central character of this book, Jasper Jones is a no-user, a trouble-maker and has, for some reason in his hour of need, sought help from an unlikely source. Charlie Bucktin. Charlie is a rather bookish, quiet, unassuming teenager. And although both boys live in the town of Corrigan, until now, they haven't spoken a word to each other. They live in different worlds. Until now, that is. Full review...
The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers by Thomas Mullen
The country is in deep recession. The economy has collapsed. The banks are hated and there's 'the next round of politicians, assuring us they were not afflicted by the same lack of vision as their predecessors'. Does this sound at all familiar? But just when you think you have strayed into the non-fiction aisle, it all becomes clear. This is 1930s America - full of gangsters, speakeasies, tommy guns, fedoras, beautiful heiresses, bumbling cops and the newly formed FBI, daring bank robberies and kidnaps. Yes, the gang is all here, but 'The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers' is a lot more than your average gangster book and it's a hugely fun story. Full review...
The Dog Who Came In From The Cold (Corduroy Mansions) by Alexander McCall Smith
Ah, bliss! To sit down once more to an Alexander McCall Smith story and wish only for someone thoughtful to come and serve me tea and biscuits whilst I read! We are back, once again, with the residents of Corduroy Mansions to earwig on their conversations, their private thoughts and, of course, to catch up with what every one's favourite dog, Freddie de la Hay, has been getting up to. Written once again in serial format for The Daily Telegraph each short chapter is a gem, and all the characters we met previously in Corduroy Mansions are back again to entertain us. Full review...
Death at the Opera by Gladys Mitchell
Miss Ferris would not normally have been entertained for a major part in Hillmaston School's production of The Mikado. She was self-effacing, meek and not very talented. But – she had offered to finance the cost of the production and this swung matters in her favour. It did mean that she couldn't afford the holiday she had planned for the summer and had to spend it in her aunt's boarding house, but she'd been pleased to make the gesture as she'd been happy at the school. Full review...
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
Andrei is a perceptive and deeply conscientious doctor, a young rheumatologist and paediatrician working in a Leningrad hospital just after the terrible siege, during the last days of Stalin’s dictatorship. He is as quick to notice symptoms in his colleagues as in his young patients. When he is approached by Russov, a fellow physician, he registers his confrere’s pervading smell of fear. This is all part of the pathology of the times; life as it is lived under a tyrannical dictatorship. A dictatorship determined to pursue a purge – a vendetta directed against doctors, particularly Jewish doctors. The sweating Russov manages to inveigle Andrei Aleksayev into treating a very sick child, Gorya, the son of Volkhov, who is a tyrannical and high ranking secret police officer. Therapeutic failure, in all probability, could result in vengeance, arrest and devastating effects on Andrei’s loving wife Anna and her young adolescent brother, Kolya. Full review...
Time Train to the Blitz by Sophie McKenzie
The summer holidays is a time for relaxing, playing in the sun, and getting bored – precisely what Joe and Scarlett are doing when we encounter them at the beginning of this thrilling book. It is hardly surprising then, that when the two children see a ghostly train racing towards them in the woods, they take a risk and step inside. The train itself is strange, but when they find clothes laid out in the single compartment with their own names marked on them, Joe starts to get really worried. His sister Scarlett, however, is more curious – or more reckless – and she immediately begins to try on the blue dress which has been left for her. And then Joe's phone starts to count down from an hour . . . Full review...
The Tudor Wife by Emily Purdy
From the moment she sets eyes on handsome George Boleyn, plain Lady Jane Parker falls madly in love and prays that George will be hers. As Jane and George's families negotiate the marriage Jane meets Anne Boleyn and quickly realises that George only has eyes for Anne, but remains determined that she can make George love her. Full review...
The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan
Choosing a child as the viewpoint character of a novel requires confidence and imagination. To succeed is to convince the reader of events at two levels – the child's world within the adult world surrounding her. The very best novels about childhood, like say Harper Lee's classic, 'To Kill a Mockingbird', also reflect a wider cultural truth. In 'The Earth Hums in B Flat', a claustrophobic Welsh village is both protection and straitjacket as the characters struggle to cope with their family secrets. If that sounds a bit tacky, fear not, because the viewpoint character, Gwenni, is all whippet and sharp corners. Full review...
The Sheen on the Silk by Anne Perry
Anna Zarides arrives in Constantinople, determined to find out why her twin brother Justinian has been convicted of murder. But it is 1273, and a woman cannot move about freely to ask questions. Anna is a skilled doctor, who uses Arab and Jewish medicine in secret as well as more accepted Christian remedies: in her quest for information she disguises herself as a eunuch and successfully treats a wide range of people from the very poorest right up to the emperor himself. Full review...
Truth to Tell by Mavis Cheek
Robert Porter was angry. The politician filling the television screen was lying. He knew it. He railed against it and said politician would have thought himself lucky not to be there in person. Nina only managed to calm her husband by enquiring whether he would like red or white wine with the meal and had that been the end of the matter then that would have been the end of the matter – if you see what I mean. But the telephone rang and it was Robert's boss with details of the team-bonding office trip to Florida. Robert assured him that he was really keen to go (he wasn't) and Nina was looking forward to it too (she wasn't). And then Nina started wondering about the difference between the politician's lies and Robert's, er, evasions. Surely it must be possible to tell the truth? Full review...
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls) by Ally Carter
If ever there were a new series chock full of characters to make Harry, Ron, Hermione et al look like wimps, then this is it. Virginia might not be the most exciting of States, and sleepy Roseville may not be the most thrilling of towns, but for our purposes that's good. Boring and ordinary is good. Flying under the radar is good. To the town's residents, the Gallagher Academy is just your typical all girls private school. They don't know much about it, but then who would want to when it's clearly housing a group of snooty, snobby rich kids? Except...it's not. The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is not the place it makes out it is – this is an elite institution with a difference, for all its boarders are spies in training, with a curriculum in lethal weapons and covert operations as well as exquisite twists on the usual subjects: foreign languages here mean dedicated days where the whole school converses in any one of the FOURTEEN languages the girls have to master. Full review...
Style Guide by The Economist
I've always been fascinated by the use of the English language. I've loved the way that precise use of words can make meaning absolutely clear – or obscure it altogether. Some publications are a joy to read whilst others leave you with a frown. Generally The Economist comes into the first category and this is mainly down to the magazine's style guide – the rule book which guides writers towards clear writing. This is the tenth edition and whilst it might sound rather dry it's the bible for people wishing to communicate with precision and style – and who appreciate the book's gentle humour. Full review...
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man From Hell by Barrie Roberts
Noted West Country philanthropist Lord Backwater is killed – by poachers, according to the police investigating. His son disagrees, and calls in Sherlock Holmes, who quickly establishes that the true solution to the mystery is much stranger – involving a feared criminal brotherhood, crimes from many years past, and the Gates of Hell themselves. Full review...
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes : The Stalwart Companions by H Paul Jeffers
After replying to an article written by the world's first consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, young Teddy Roosevelt, about to study law at Columbia, strikes up a correspondence with him. They're pleased to finally meet when Holmes is acting in America – and naturally, Roosevelt introduces him to another friend, NYPD Detective Will Hargreaves. Of course, foul play is in the air – and the three men are led into an investigation which starts off as 'just' a dead body, but leads them to discover a plot against the President himself, Rutherford Hayes. Full review...
The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall
Golden Richards bursts onto the printed page. He is the central character and let's be honest, without him there would be no wives, no children, no complicated domestic life - make that, domestic lives. Immediately I pictured Golden in my mind's eye, as a Homer Simpson type - but with lots more children. He's a bumbling, blustering, bear of a man. It's as if he's just 'turned up' for the conception of his children, just idly ambled along when they were born. Full review...
Canteen: Great British Food by Cass Titcombe, Patrick Clayton-Malone and Dominic Lake
I love food and I can happily read a recipe book for fun and for inspiration. It's always good to see what cookery books spawned by restaurants offer. Just occasionally you spot a combination of foods which you would never have thought of, but which works brilliantly, but more often I've found myself wondering two things. Who, in their own home, would go to the trouble of creating these dishes and, more importantly, who would want to eat them? At the other end of the scale you find 'Canteen: Great British Food' and you heave a sigh of relief. Full review...
Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani
It definitely wasn't Viola's choice to go to boarding school and she really would have preferred not to have to share a room with three other girls she'd never met before, but her parents – both film makers - were going to be abroad for a year and single rooms were in short supply. And that was how, at the beginning of the school year, Viola came to be at the Prefect Academy in South Bend, Indiana rather than in her native New York. She'd left behind her best friend, Andrew (no – he's not her boyfriend, he's a best friend who happens to be a boy) and is sharing a room with Marisol Carreras, Romy Dixon and Suzanne Santry. Full review...
Johnny Swanson by Eleanor Updale
'Ah, you just have to love that cover, don't you? All dolled up to show a mop-headed hero starring in a newspaper article surrounded by some dodgy-looking classified ads promising the moon on a stick. Such ads have an important part to play in Eleanor Updale's latest novel. Full review...
Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
'Strength in What Remains' is the inspirational account of Deogratias, a man who has fled from the genocide and civil war in Burundi (just south of the equator in East Central Africa, bordering Rwanda). He escapes to New York, out of fear and want of a safer life; only his new found American life isn't quite what it promised. Full review...
The Fool's Girl by Celia Rees
When Illyria is sacked, the fool Feste spirits the Duke's daughter, Violetta, to London, to chase the evil Malvolio and reclaim an ancient relic. There they meet William Shakespeare, who they persuade to help them in an exciting quest which builds to a climax in the Forest of Arden. Full review...
The Stopping Place by Helen Slavin
How often do you pick up a book with no idea at all where it is likely to lead? How often does such a book still have you wondering a hundred pages in? Not bemused, not lost, absolutely sure that it is going to lead somewhere, but still with no clue as to exactly where. How often do you get to the end of a book and think, simply, "Wow!"? Full review...
The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
I do love a story that wraps me up completely within its little world, making me want to ignore my long list of things to do and just curl up reading all day. Jojo Moyes' new novel certainly managed it. I felt transported back to the 1960's, entirely caught up in the characters' lives, riding their highs and lows alongside of them, and I ended up desperately foisting my just-woken-up toddler onto my husband so that I could just read the last four pages without her hanging off my arm! Full review...
The King's Daughter by Penny Ingham
The central female character - 'The King's Daughter' is Elflaede. She's young, feisty and very pretty. She also has this unforgettable reddish hair. At this point in the story I was reminded a little of Queen Elizabeth I, I have to say. In Elflaede's own words she 'had never known a time without war .' The hordes of Pagan Norsemen are to blame. They've come to England with their own set of superstitions. And they've come with one aim. To conquer great swathes of England. Full review...
The Einstein Girl by Philip Sington
The two central characters are (and we've come across it many times before) a psychiatrist (in this case Kirsch) and his patient (known as the Einstein Girl) and hence the novel's title. The case of this girl is intriguing, not least because both doctor and patient had accidentally met prior to her admission to hospital. Kirsch appears immediately smitten - which may be a problem. He's already spoken for. In a nutshell, the Einstein Girl has lost her memory. Kirsch finds more and more of his professional time given over to her recovery, back to mental well-being. It becomes a long and complicated journey, for both of them. Full review...
The Great Silence: 1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War by Juliet Nicolson
As the author says in her introduction, the 'great silence' of the title was that which followed the 'incessant thunder' of the Great War. There are three crucial dates in her narrative, all specific days in three successive Novembers. The first was when the guns fell silent in 1918, the second was that of the first two-minute silence in memory of the fallen one year later, and the third was when the Unknown Soldier was lowered into silence beneath the floor in Westminster Abbey, another year on. These act as a framework around which she tells the story of the silence of grief which affected everyone in various ways during the first two years of peace. Full review...
The Lessons by Naomi Alderman
James has been used to being very clever at school, and it is a shock for him when he goes to Oxford University to find there are lots of people who are more able than he is. He is already struggling when he falls and seriously hurts his knee, and he is also very lonely. Then he meets Jess, who invites him to a party at Mark’s house. Mark soon invites Jess, James and other friends to move in to his run down mansion. Full review...
Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
The interest in the lives of unfortunate children has created the publishing phenomenon nicknamed 'misery memoirs'. Happily for readers of Ngugi wa Thiong'o’s Dreams in a Time of War memories of the author’s often difficult childhood are presented as a tale of triumph and empowerment rather than anger and self-pity. Full review...
A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible by Christy Lefteri
It is 20 July 1974 in the small coastal town of Kyrenia, Cyprus. The radio continues to report that the Turkish forces did not manage to invade, and that they were thrown back into the sea, even as the Greek Cypriot population realises that they have been invaded. The story of this novel is set over just eight days, and is told from the alternating viewpoints of three characters. Full review...
The Half-Slave by Trevor Bloom
At Samarobriva in Roman Gaul, a raiding Saxon tribe meets its match in the form of a division of the Franks, who have suborned the Roman authorities and are establishing their control throughout the region. A mysterious meeting with the Frankish Overlord persuades the leader of the Saxons to sign a treaty that will forever alter the fate of his people. In return for Frankish silver, he hands over to them his youngest son, Ascha the half-slave, as a perpetual hostage to guarantee the peace. But in the frozen north new powers are rising, and Ascha will soon be drawn into a web of lies and ambition as two very different worlds come into conflict. Full review...
Any Human Face by Charles Lambert
1983: Alex enjoys the attention of his latest lover. Bruno is generous with his money and his time; he lends Alex the flash car, dines him extravagantly, treats him well, takes him seriously. "It was not that he was not fond of the older man… or that he didn't appreciate the longer term view of a leg-up into journalism…", it's just that he doesn't realise he is lying to himself. What he feels for Bruno is a bit more than affection, as he is about to discover. Full review...
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W Durrow
Set in 1980s America, The Girl Who Fell From The Sky is a story built around a tragic event in a young girl’s childhood. The opening scene introduces you to Rachel, an elusive young girl, not black, not white but light skinned-ed as she is packed off to live with her grandma after a devastating family event. Immediately, Durrow highlights race and identity as the primary themes, and we follow blue-eyed Rachel as she struggles between two worlds – the white world of her Danish mother, and the other black world of her African-American G.I. father. Full review...
Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga
Between the Assassinations is a collection of short stories set in the fictional South Indian town of Kittur, which is almost certainly Mangalore (where the Adiga grew up). But the plight of the residents can be found in any Indian city - which I imagine is Adiga's point of setting it in a fictional location. The twelve stories are vaguely interlinked (there are some recurring characters) but for the most part the stories stand alone. The time period is set between the assassinations of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, although like the location, the time period and the assassinations of the title have little bearing on the events themselves. Full review...
Before the Storm by Diane Chamberlain
We're first introduced to Laurel's son, Andy. He's a teenager with some sort of mental disorder. He's the pivotal character of the story and he's also the undisputed star. I recently read Henry's Sisters by Cathy Lamb and decided that every family should have a Henry. Now I'll enlarge on that by saying that every family should have a Henry - or an Andy. Both of these teenagers are 99% innocent and adorable - it's that other 1% that is worrying. Andy's descriptions of people, places and situations are truly unique. He has a language all of his own. So immediately, as a reader, I was drawn right into the world of Andy and therefore right into the heart of the story. Full review...
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
'The belly craves food, the tongue craves water, the heart craves love, and the mind craves stories.'
This is the book to satisfy that last craving. It is rich in stories from the graphic opening chapter to the poignant closing lines. Everyone has a tale to tell and even minor characters are fleshed out with histories that amuse, horrify or enthral. Their stories made me think about how sometimes what at the time seems to be an insignificant choice can define the course of a life. Here the characters’ choices unleash a cascade of consequences. Full review...
The Lotus Quest by Mark Griffiths
Mark Griffiths is one of Britain's leading plant experts. I know this because his brief biog in the front of The Lotus Quest tells me so; just as it tells me that he is the editor of The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening 'the largest work on horticulture ever published'. His prior works list includes five other plant book credits, three of them for the RHS. I shall take all of this on trust, since attempts to find out more about the author and his background through the usual internet search mechanisms has failed miserably. He remains as elusive as the sacred flower that is the subject of this latest work: the lotus. Full review...
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
Dorrit inhabits a world where society is split into two camps. Not male or female, or young or old, but those who are Necessary and an asset to their communities versus those who are Dispensable and a drain on civilization. It’s not a birth right, nor a class firmly established from childhood, and everyone gets the chance to make a good go of it. But, if you’re a childless woman of 50, or a childless man of 60, and not working in a ‘needed’ industry your time is up, and you are quietly, and without any fuss, transported to a Second Reserve Bank Unit for Biological Material (‘the Unit’) where you will spend the rest of your days. Here you will participate in any number of psychological and physiological experiments, donate cells for research and give up your body parts one by one as Needed people require them, until the day of your final donation when you ultimately and rather ironically become a valuable member of society by losing your life. Full review...
The Rise and Fall of Communism by Archie Brown
'A source of hope for a radiant future or…the greatest threat on the face of the earth'.
Whichever of these descriptions you would apply to Communism you will find Archie Brown's detailed and largely objective study enlightening and engrossing. On one level, this is a chronological description of how a political force grew to dominate a third of the world's population then virtually disappeared within a period of less than a century. Full review...
