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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Wasted by Nicola Morgan
Jess wants to study music. She's a wonderful singer. And so a chance encounter with Jack, who needs a singer for his band, is exactly the happenstance she'd hoped for. Even better that Jack is so charming and handsome and charismatic. And still better that he feels the same attraction to her. How lucky can a girl get? Jack believes in luck. In fact, he lives his life by it. He doesn't do a thing unless his coin says he can. Newly in love, Jess is slowly drawn into his game of chance. Although it worries her a little, she can't know that a time will come when the toss of a coin is the difference between life and death. Full review...
Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking) by Patrick Ness
Noise - visible thought - dominates the lives of everyone on this settler planet. Noise is used as a tool of oppression and as a weapon. There's a cure, but the Machiavellian President Prentiss reserves it only for the most loyal. The Answer are fighting back against his authoritarian regime, but they've had to make some terrible choices. Between the President's torture and the Answer's terrorist bomb attacks stand Todd and Viola - trying to prevent civil war, trying to hold on long enough for the second wave of settlers to arrive. And then, in the wake of the President's genocide of slaves, the Spackle attack. A scout ship finally arrives, but it may be too late to prevent a catastrophic war... Full review...
The Funniest Football Joke Book Ever by Carl McInerney
Who scored the most goals in the Greek Mythology League? The centaur forward. Badoom boom tshhhh. It's a football joke book, packed to the gills with all sorts of cheesiness and silliness. Funniest ever? Perhaps not, but it's not too bad. Full review...
Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist Afloat by Chris Stewart
Books about sailing fall into two sorts: those written by authors who know what they are talking about, (though sometimes they don't convey it too well) and those who don't have a clue, but like to think they do. Well, Chris Stewart may have started the book with a light and frothy touch as a novice sailor, but he ends up with the credentials of an Ancient Mariner. Full review...
Della Says: OMG! by Keris Stainton
Ever since she was four, Della has had a secret crush on Dan, the good-looking and gentle boy who once shared his brand new crayons with her. And now, more than ten years later, he wants to kiss her. It seems too good to be true, and for a while Della fears the whole thing is a joke, set up by mean girl Gemima. After all, Gemima is Dan's best friend. And then disaster strikes: Della's very private and confidential diary goes missing. The diary with all the excruciatingly embarrassing entries about Dan, her family, her friends... Full review...
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
'This wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened to her…it was just the most ridiculous' laments thirty nine year old mother of three, Alice, who has had the last ten years of her life struck from her memory by a blow to the head in her step aerobics class. Alice now thinks she's twenty nine, newly pregnant with her first child and happily married to Nick and furthermore she hasn't a clue what she's doing at an aerobics class in the first place. Full review...
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathan Coe
Meet Maxwell Sim. Actually, perhaps I should rephrase that so that it doesn't sound like an imperative instruction - for if you do meet him, you might not like the experience. An ex-salesman, he's now in after sales (ie he's stuck on a customer returns counter in a department store); however he is completely awful with regards to other people. His wife has run off with their daughter, all his few friends have forsaken him (and his Facebook wall). We start the book with him trying to patch things up with his father, who's safely in Australia. He finds all those who know of him are already aware he's depressed. Those who don't know him can find him painfully shy, or able to talk away their will to live, gabbling on and on about Watford. But a lot is about to change. He's about to be combined with some people excited about green toothbrushes. Full review...
The Seas by Samantha Hunt
The Seas follows the story of a nameless nineteen-year old girl who is lonely and adrift in a cruel coastal town so far to the north of the USA that the roads only run south. She misses her father, an absent alcoholic sailor, while her silence-loving mother, who grew up on an isolated island with deaf parents, worries deeply about her. Early on in the story we get the distinct impression that our narrator is not deemed 'normal' by her peers, who call her all sorts of unflattering things. With nothing to do in her small town, and no one to do it with, she spends her time pining for a local alcoholic called Jude who is fifteen years her senior, and who refuses her amorous advances on the grounds that it would be wrong. As the story unfolds, Jude and the girl's relationship grows and changes, sometimes in unexpected ways. Full review...
Miss Understanding: My Summer on the Shelf by Lara Fox
Anya Buxton is back. It's the summer holidays and her mum is keen for her to find a summer job rather than waste her days lounging around at home. After the brief, worrying possibility that she might just end up as a newspaper delivery girl she lands a dream position gaining work experience with a London publishing house. She finds herself simultaneously editing a dishy, though slightly disturbed teen author, struggling with a long distance relationship with Al, wondering if 'The Boy' really has turned over a new leaf and being wooed by the boss's son. And, of course, she's blogging it all for her dedicated followers. Full review...
What Small Rabbit Heard by Sheryl Webster and Tim Warnes
It's cold and windy. Small Rabbit just wants to stay inside, but Big Rabbit insists that it's fresh, not cold, and they're going on a walk. He's a bit of a cheeky scamp is Small Rabbit, so when Big Rabbit says try to keep up, Small Rabbit somehow mishears it as jump in the mud. As the walk goes on, Small Rabbit mishears Big Rabbit time and time again, getting up to all sorts of shenanigans. Full review...
Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking by Michael Booth
Japanese food has a tendency to sound a bit freakish or even controversial. Raw fish? Octopus ice cream? Whale meat? Yet it is slowly infiltrating the UK with sushi conveyor belt restaurants popping up everywhere and noodle bars offering Westernised bowls of steaming noodles. In this book Michael Booth takes his wife and two young children to experience the real thing, travelling across the whole of Japan tasting an enormous range of foods and learning about their history, how the foods have been produced and are cooked and eaten. Full review...
We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Politicians continue to argue that the solution to social issues lies with the family, so it is timely that at the heart of Lionel Shriver's 2005 Orange Prize winning novel is the issue of nature vs nurture - what makes a person like he or she is? Is the eponymous Kevin born evil or is he influenced by his mother's coldness towards him. There are no clear answers and that's what gives this brave book, which tackles the taboos that some mothers don't bond with their children, such power. Full review...
The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand
On the island of Nantucket, four couples have forged strong bonds of friendship. Together they live and love, raise their children, share their dreams. It's an idyllic existence and at the same time a very purposeful one. The couples have worked hard to create the quality of life they now enjoy and nothing can take it away from them. Until now. Greg and Tess are dead, the result of what appears to be a sailing accident. They leave behind two young children, and six devastated friends, all of whom have to come to terms with what has happened. For some there is guilt over final words said or final warnings left unsaid. For others, there is the knowledge that secret relationships will now have to stay that way evermore. 'The Castaways' is the book of that fateful summer, the accident and its aftermath, but it's more than just that. It's a look at the precious role friends and family play in our lives, and how innocent actions or words can change the course of history forever. Full review...
Wintercraft by Jenna Burtenshaw
The wardens raid villages and cities for people competent to fight in the war, a war nobody knows anything about other than if you’re sent to fight you don’t come back. The last time they raided Morvane was ten years ago, taking Kate’s parents with them. Kate is taken in by her uncle, Artemis, and grows up in the book shop with him and her friend, Edgar. But now the wardens are back, and looking for more people to fight. However, they are also looking for the Skilled – a dying breed of people who can see through the veil of life and death. They want to build an army of the dead. Full review...
Infinity (Pocket Money Puffins) by Sarah Dessen
Girl is a teen from small town America. We don't know where exactly, but it's somewhere people drive (which rules out the likes of NYC) and it's somewhere that has a roundabout. Most of America doesn't have these – instead they have much more sensible crossings and lights and T-junctions – so it's a source of intrigue for many of the town's residents. For new driver Girl the roundabout is joint top on her List Of Things To Master, along with sleeping with her boyfriend Anthony. They might seem entirely unrelated to the likes of you and me, but to Girl the links are clear. They're both things she will have to deal with for a first time eventually, but she still can't decide whether to rush ahead in order to get them out of the way quickly, or put them off for just a little longer. Full review...
The Magic Thief: Found by Sarah Prineas
When we last saw Conn, he had blown up his wizard master's house, was exiled from the city of Wellmet, and lost his locus magicalus (it's like a magic wand, just it's a stone). He's been unable to do magic ever since, which is rough because he needs his powers now more than ever. A terrible evil is blazing a trail towards Wellmet, intent on destroying the city, and Conn's only hope to defeat it is to somehow get a new locus magicalus. He sets out on a quest to find one, but the journey is long and dangerous, and time is running out. Full review...
The Eloquence of Desire by Amanda Sington-Williams
The novel starts in the post-war austerity years in England and centres around a middle-class, traditional family unit. Sington-Williams gives the reader a detailed description of that period - the bland food, the monotony of commuting to London (some things don't change) and of course, the rain. George, his wife Dorothy and their teenage daughter Susan don't really talk to each other. They tend to skirt round issues and walk on eggshells. Appearances are everything. So a suitably fabricated story is told to their small, family circle of George's company move. George has no choice in the matter. So he does what he always has done up till now, he puts a brave face on for the world and grins and bears it. It's a huge change in their domestic situation. Uprooted to a strange, foreign, tropical country they've only glimpsed in National Geographic. Full review...
Ellipsis by Nikki Dudley
Both the title and book cover are slick and glossy. Can the contents live up to this positive image? Straight away the reader is drawn into Daniel's life ... but the clock is ticking. He will soon be spoken about in the past tense. He dies and leaves many, many questions that his immediate family struggle to answer. But as the story progresses we discover that secrets have been kept for a long time. Why? Too disturbing to reveal? Full review...
Animal Gallery by Brian Wildsmith
Starting off with a crash of rhinoceroses, through a corps of giraffes, a hover of trout, and ending up with a dray of squirrels, Brian Wildsmith treats us to a beautiful look at collections of animals. Full review...
Kraken by China Mieville
Meet Billy Harrow, curator of molluscs and other pickled creatures. Imagine if you will Billy's thoughts on entering the chamber that houses the highlight of his museum's tour - an immense squid, housed in a glass crate - only to find the entire thing - animal and tank - impossibly removed. Imagine, too, the more esoteric kind of policeman and -woman needed to arrive, to tell him that his exhibit was the keystone of a mysterious cult with the end of times on their mind, and that they might just like Billy to infiltrate it and see what was precisely what. Just consider - is Billy, the man who bottled the giant squid, a John the Baptist to this cult, or a Judas? Full review...
The Four Gospels with introductions by A N Wilson, Nick Cave, Richard Holloway and Blake Morrison
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this book. I only skimmed through the description on Amazon, and understood that four modern writers were introducing the four Gospels. What I hadn't really taken in was that the introductions are brief - a few pages each - and that the bulk of the book consists of the Authorised Version (known as the King James Version in the USA) of the Gospels. The whole is published in a fairly trendy looking paperback format, with the idea of appealing to people who are not particularly religious, but who see the Bible as valuable ancient literature. Full review...
Ginger Geezer: The Life of Vivian Stanshall by Chris Welch and Lucian Randall
Redheads, they say, feel more pain than the rest of us. They may even have a layer of skin too few. However literally true this might be, it certainly seems to be the case for Vivian Stanshall. As his second wife says in this excellent book, 'There's nothing between him and all the sensations the world has to give us'. Full review...
The World At Our Feet by Paul Cookson
With the World Cup just around the corner, football is on everyone's lips. Paul Cookson, Poet in Residence at the National Football Museum, has compiled the best football poems for young children. Full review...
A Most Rebellious Debutante by Karen Abbott
Lucy Templeton, daughter of Lord Templeton, fell in love with her dancing master. It wasn't entirely unusual for a seventeen year old girl to feel this way, but it was better that it was unheard of when she was caught in his arms. A substantial sum of money for the dancing master ensured that he would disappear and Lucy was sent to stay with her married sister as punishment. She was not to attend parties or social functions and must spend her time looking after her sister's young children and doing good works, until such time as the Templetons could get her married off. All might have gone according to their plan had she not had a chance encounter with the notorious Lord Rockhaven and a stolen kiss catches her heart. Full review...
Tales of Freedom by Ben Okri
Tales of Freedom is a book of two halves, with a short story entitled Comic Destiny taking up the majority of the book. Comic Destiny is made up of a series of short pieces that follow on from each other and are probably best described as being closer to prose poetry than anything else. Full review...
The Magnetic North: Travels in the Arctic by Sara Wheeler
The title of this book suggests another travel book about adventure in the frozen north, but Sara Wheeler mixes her tales of her own travels with some history of polar exploration and a serious examination of the impact of visitors and of those who wish to exploit the Arctic’s natural resources on the region and its people. Rather than setting off on another expedition to reach the North Pole, she travels around bits of the Arctic divided between different countries and governments, including Chukotka (Russia), Alaska (USA), Canada, Greenland, Svalbard (Norway) and Lapland (Russia and Scandinavia). There is a huge amount of material in the book but Wheeler organises and presents it in a very readable, accessible style. Full review...
Tony and Susan by Austin Wright
Edward Sheffield hadn't exactly been Susan's childhood sweetheart, but after a family tragedy left him homeless he came to live with Susan and her parents for a year so that he could finish school. Susan didn't particularly want him there but accepted that it was the right thing to do. Years later they met at university when Edward was studying law and after a short relationship they married. The marriage wasn't entirely successful; Edward gave up law to become a writer, relying on Susan's teaching income to support them, but whilst he spent a month away in a remote cabin 'to find himself' Susan found Arnold instead. Many years – and three children – later Susan receives a manuscript from Edward. She was, he said, always his best critic and he would like her opinion. Full review...
The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch by Michael Wolff
There can be few people who are unaware of the name of Rupert Murdoch. Over four decades he's built News International into a seventy billion dollar corporation from its original Australian base. His position in the UK media is such that he's courted by politicians and has what many believe to be an excessive amount of power for someone who is not elected and is not even a UK citizen. He's now expanding into Southeast Asia and in his eightieth year it's still difficult to imagine when – or where – he will stop. Full review...
Vamoose (Pocket Money Puffins) by Meg Rosoff
There are lots of reasons not to become a teen mum while still at school – there’s your loss of freedom, for a start, plus the fact that babies spend their days crying and pooing, not to mention the fact they’re expensive. But what happens to Jess is something that no one has warned her about: she goes into hospital and gives birth to a bouncing baby moose. Which is, it has to be said, slightly odd. As she and boyfriend Nick struggle through first-time parenthood and learn to deal with the Unique Challenge of having a non-homo-sapien child, there’s a lesson for all of us about biting off more than we can chew and unpredictable consequences. Full review...
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
If you try to read 'The Book of Disquiet' from cover to cover, it is almost oppressively melancholic. Nothing much happens, and what we have is a collection of reveries and thoughts - almost a diary, but not quite - of existential musings about life, loneliness and the human condition. It's so introspective that after a while the monotony of the writer's mundane existence starts to wear on the reader. But I would urge you not to read this book like that. Rather, dip into it at random and you will find a work of undeniable genius. It's quite simply a masterpiece of modernist writing. Full review...
King Death by Toby Litt
Skelton, that's the musician, adores his girlfriend. She's certainly exotic with ' ... her hair ... like black oil flowing over a stone.' However, they are only a heartbeat away from breaking up when it happens. What looks like some internal part of the body, animal or even human is hurled from a London train. The pair just happen to be travelling on that very train and they also just happen to witness this unsavoury action. Full review...
Still on the Road: Songs of Bob Dylan, 1974-2008 by Clinton Heylin
Heylin is also obviously a fan, a very knowledgeable and obsessive one to boot. He has never met or directly interviewed his subject (who is known to guard his privacy quite fiercely most of the time), but his research materials include official recording sessionographies and interviews conducted by others. All this is naturally invaluable information for his analysis and history of all the 600-plus songs the man is known to have written or co-written from 1974 to almost the present day. In terms of his discography, that spans the albums from ‘Blood on the Tracks’, released in 1975 and commonly regarded as probably his best post-1960s set, to ‘Together Through Life’, which appeared in 2009. Full review...
The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday by Neil MacFarquhar
What are the chances of change in the Middle East? is the question central to this book. Since Neil MacFarquhar spent thirteen years wandering the length and breadth of the Islamic stronghold of the Middle East, I feel inclined to believe his in-depth assessment. In descriptive and reasoned terms, he identifies conservative forces which predominate in the region, primarily the religious and political machinery which condemns liberalization and modernization. This discussion of attempts to promote change, for example by individual dissidents or the media, is strengthened in the second half of the book by detailed case studies of six nations with particular reference to their readiness and motivation for change. Full review...
The Horse Dancer by Jojo Moyes
Only two things in life matter to fourteen-year-old Sarah: her horse Boo and her grandfather Henri Lachapelle. Henri sees Sarah's skill at horsemanship as her way out of their inner city London life and wants her to follow in his footsteps and become a member of France's elite equestrian academy Le Cadre Noir. Full review...
Impossible by Nancy Werlin
Life is just as it should be for Lucy Scarborough. She lives with loving foster parents and at seventeen is looking forward to attending prom with her friends and her date, who has definite boyfriend potential. The only fly in the ointment is Miranda Scarborough, Lucy's birth mother who, having given birth to Lucy at eighteen, promptly went mad and vanished from Lucy's life leaving her in the care of Leo and Soledad MarKowitz. Lucy's life has been plagued by unwanted visits from Miranda who seems determined to cause as much embarrassment as possible. Full review...
Falling to Heaven by Jeanne Peterson
Emma and Gerald Kittredge are either very brave or very naive. They've made the long journey from America to Tibet. Hardly on the tourist trail and they're not missionaries, so why are they there? This novel is a serious and sweeping narrative trying to answer that very question - and many more. Full review...
The Boy Who Climbed Into The Moon by David Almond
Paul lives in the basement of a large tower block. He's feeling lonely and out of sorts, so he feigns a headache and stomach ache and has a day off school. Spending his day wisely, he gets to know the eccentric people who inhabit the building, as well as embracing his own eccentric idea that the moon is actually a hole in the sky. Full review...
High Society: Grace Kelly and Hollywood by Donald Spoto
In his defence, we must acknowledge Spoto's subtitle. It underlines that this does not in any way shape or form claim to be a biography of the American actress who become Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco. It is an analysis of her film career: a consideration of the "Hollywood years". Full review...
Not Me! by Nicola Killen
A group of kids are playing, and making an awful mess. One by one they're asked if they're responsible, and one by one they deny any involvement. But have they been caught red handed, and will it really fall upon Jess the pup to do all the tidying up? Full review...
Whizz Bang Orang-Utan by John Foster
Subtitled rhymes for the very young, you know what you're getting with Whizz Bang Orang-Utan. It's a poetry anthology, with sweet poems about kids, what they get up to, and of course whizzing and banging orang-utans. Full review...