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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Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham
Humans are cooking apes. According to Richard Wrangham, mastery of fire and cooking of the food that resulted from it was at the root of human evolutionary development and ultimate success. Various factors have been proposed as the crucial stimulus which led to the appearance of the first recognisably human creatures: leaving aside divine intervention (be it from God, extra-terrestrials or future humans travelling in time), the candidates for what made our ancestral apes stand straighter and start growing brains range from socialised hunting to chattering about kinship to eating seafood. Full review...
The Night Following by Morag Joss
Distracted by the discovery that her husband has been having an affair, a middle-aged woman loses concentration while driving along a quiet lane, killing Ruth Mitchell, an elderly cyclist. The woman doesn't wait for the police to arrive; she goes home and parks her car in the garage where she smashes it almost beyond recognition. When her arrogant husband sees the damage he believes it's been done to punish him and he packs his bags. After a few days the woman goes to the home of the dead woman; she doesn't go to the door, but from a hidden spot nearby she can see the widower, an elderly gentleman who is clearly not coping well. Wracked with guilt, the woman makes a decision: the only way she can atone for her actions is to step into the shoes of the dead woman. Full review...
Tooth and Claw by Nigel McCrery
Another serial killer is on the loose, and yet again the police have failed to connect the deaths. Carl Whittley has just tortured a glamorous TV presenter to death - leaving a singularly gruesome tableau - and blown a hapless commuter to smithereens at a railway station. He's planning his next murder already, secreted away in the shed at the bottom of the garden of the house he shares with his invalid father. Carl is embittered and lonely - with his mother living away and pursuing a career as a forensic psychologist, there's only him to take care of his severely disabled father: to change the colostomy bag, to cook, to clean, to, well, just to bear it, really. Full review...
An Education: The Screenplay by Nick Hornby
Adroit marketing? Well, yes. An Education has been published, of course, to coincide with the film's general release in the UK. Hardly surprising since our national appetite for nosiness seems insatiable and cosy background details prop up every telly series and film these days. As well as the screenplay, Nick Hornby has provided an introduction and diary of the film's successful premiere at the Sundance Festival in Utah. Beyond trivia, I think this fascinating little book presents an excellent 'how to' guide for wannabes from one of Britain's most respected screen and novel writers. Full review...
Nightlight: A Parody of Twilight by The Harvard Lampoon
Most people will have heard of the worldwide phenomenon that is Twilight. The books by Stephenie Meyer and the film have made a legend of the romance between vampire Edward Mullen (Robert Pattinson plays the movie role) and teenage schoolgirl Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart). Full review...
Traitors' Gate (Crossroads) by Kate Elliott
Kate Elliott's Crossroads series has so far come in large, slightly off-putting chunks. They've been decent reads, by and large, with a huge cast of wonderfully drawn characters, but the sheer size and slow pace of the action has meant I didn't enjoy them as much as I may otherwise have done. Traitors' Gate, the third in the sequence is different in only one aspect; the character development is still there, the huge page count is still there, but the pacing is a lot better. Full review...
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
There was a time before Stephen King. There was time before The Shining. There was a time when 'horror' was not rooted in blood, guts and gore. I owe a slight apology to Mr King, because along with the gutsier side of the genre, I will own that he is a master at suspense. Full review...
The Penguin Who Wanted To Find Out by Jill Tomlinson and Paul Howard
Otto the penguin lives on his father's feet at the bottom of the world. He's an inquisitive little thing and wants to know why they haven't fallen off the world. His dad explains that they won't Because I say so. Otto and his friend Leo gradually expand their horizons from their fathers' feet - they meet other penguin chicks, get to know their aunts who watch them when their fathers are away, and eventually grow feathers so they're big enough to toboggan on their bellies and swim in the sea. Full review...
Acts of Violence by Ryan David Jahn
Kat Marino is stabbed on her way home from work. All she wanted was a hot bath after a hard day's work. From this point the novel skips nimbly from one neighbour to the next, all of whom are absorbed in their own dilemmas. There is the draftee with a sick mother, the nurse who thinks she has run over a baby, the woman who suspects her husband of cheating and others. We are shown what these characters were doing that evening, and how these events drag through to the morning. We are shown how in the midst of their own interesting, poignant and dangerous concerns a woman is stabbed in the courtyard onto which all their windows look, through which windows they witness the attack, and how these people did nothing. Full review...
Two Tigers on a String by Josh Lacey
Ben's not too keen to be sharing his bedroom with his half-brother, Frank. But you don't have to be the hero of a detective adventure such as this book to know that as Frank's mother has vanished from the face of the Earth, Ben will let it lie - for a while. Nor is it too surprising to see the four Misfitz together, on another case, as they go on the hunt for the missing woman. Full review...
Last Christmas by Julia Williams
With Christmas fast approaching, what better way of getting in the spirit of things than by reading this excellent book that captures the joys and stresses of the festive season so well? The reader follows four different people – Catherine Tinsall and her husband Noel, Marianne Moore and Gabriel North. Each of these characters have their own reasons for not really looking forward to Christmas (mainly because of the experience of last Christmas) and these reasons slowly become apparent to the reader as the story progresses. Full review...
Core of Evil by Nigel McCrery
Violet Chambers becomes Daisy Wilson through an aromatic cup of tea, flavoured with Christmas roses.
'"There are all kinds of horrible things in the Christmas rose," she said, watching to see whether Daisy could still hear her. "Helleborin and hellebrin are both like digitalis, which I've also used before, but there's saporin and protoanemonin as well. It's a very nasty cocktail."'
And now Daisy has met her rather sticky - and graphically effluent - end, and Violet has become Daisy, Daisy sets her sights on a new town, a new identity and, most importantly, a new victim. Daisy has problems with her memory - the identities go back so far that sometimes she can barely remember who is she is now, let alone all the whos she's been before, and most certainly not the who with whom she began. Full review...
Jonathan Wild: Conman and Cutpurse by John Van der Kiste
Born towards the end of the seventeenth century Jonathan Wild was to become the eighteenth century's most famous criminal, plying his trade in a rather curious fashion. He was born in Wolverhampton of parents described as mean but honest. It seems likely that he first travelled to London as the servant of a lawyer where he was eventually to settle, leaving his wife and child to fend for themselves. It was whilst serving a term of imprisonment in Wood Street Compter that he mixed with the cream of London's criminal underclass and learned the rudiments of his trade. Full review...
Paradise Red (Perfect Fire Trilogy) by K M Grant
We are back in the south of France for the third and final time. In one corner, the 'French', with King Louis and his henchmen rampaging through, warring in the name of peace. In another corner, the local people, struggling in the harsh environment and none too pleased to see their corner of the world the location for religious wars, with the Cathar heretics also present. The lines are drawn, in a realistically convoluted way, and this book will see one of our heroes cross one such line, just as other people make their own momentous decisions. It will take all the narrative skills of the land itself to get the story across to us. Full review...
The Mother's Tale by Camilla Noli
It is early evening. I am suckling my infant son… We are picture perfect. Madonna and child.
No doubt about it: a new mother totally smitten with her son. Zach is adorable. Quiet. Undemanding. A happy, generally relaxed, child. Gorgeous.
But Zach isn't her first-born. First there was Cassie. A child who entered the world screaming and has since learned exactly what power she can wring with such lungs. Not yet two years old, Cassie adores her father, but even him she manipulates. Her mother she terrorises. Full review...
More Brilliant Answers by AQA 63336
If you've got a question you can text those nice people at AQA 63336 and they'll do their best to provide you with a prompt and accurate answer. Over the last five years they've answered some twenty million questions and each autumn they publish a book with the best and most interesting of the year's answers. There's some fun to be had in this year's book. Full review...
You Are The First Kid On Mars by Patrick O'Brien
It is a sci-fi future of no danger whatsoever, with no technological breakdown, and no fatal meteor strike, but that of course is only to be expected for this market. I say it more to highlight how well the book has been illustrated. Digital airbrush techniques and more have taken the antiseptic sheen off the whole experience, but have still allowed for a great detail in the machinery, and also a lovely warmth in the face of the lad we're empathising with. Full review...
The Dresskeeper by Mary Naylus
Things are pretty grim for Picky. She is thirteen years old, being bullied at school, and has to spend her weekends helping her single, working mum to take care of her little brother and her senile grandmother. One evening, at her Gran's house, she goes up into the attic and tries on an old dress that she finds inside an old chest. The dress turns out to be magic, and she suddenly finds herself back in 17th Century London, struggling with a strange man who is calling her 'Amelia' and is trying to kill her. Picky ends up embroiled in Amelia's 17th century life as she tries to find out the truth of who is attempting to murder her, at the same time as trying to avoid arousing suspicion with her strange behaviour whenever she returns to the present day. Full review...
Cromwell Dixon's Sky-Cycle by John Abbott Nez
Meet Cromwell Dixon. He's a real tinkerer, forever in a barn or somewhere building something manically unusual. Luckily - although his long-suffering mother may disagree with that word - he's around at the birth of powered flight. Will his plans for a pedalled air machine work? Full review...
Starting Over by Sue Moorcroft
The story opens when Tess bumps her old reliable car into a breakdown truck. That's rather convenient, since she isn't hurt, and the guy driving it is able to tow her to his garage, and then give her a lift to her new home. Naturally, since this is the 'chick-lit' genre, Tess and the truck-driver, who goes by the unlikely name of Ratty (an abbreviation of his surname) feel mutual antipathy of the sort that's clearly going to lead, sooner or later, to strong attraction. Full review...
It's A Don's Life by Mary Beard
Professor Mary Beard, feisty Cambridge classics don, keeps an eye open for architectural detail wherever she goes. Even on holiday, she notices the changing urban landscape and records interesting parallels with ancient cities in her sparky blog. She is engaged in writing a detailed history of Pompeii and suddenly realises, whilst perambulating the backstreets of the Mexican city of Oaxacan, that this is exactly what Pompeii must have been like. She observes the low rise shops, dirt tracks across dusty streets and the close juxtaposition of rich and poor. Impressive portals of grand residential properties tower above humble workshops, and this prompts her into imaginative reconstruction. In her blog, from which this intriguing book is culled, she tells us about just how Oaxacan encourages her to ponder again the curious cart ruts of Pompeii. She even finds walls splashed with political slogans that are just like Roman dipinti. Indeed, here in Mexico, the local library displays an edifying message in Spanish which originates in Cicero's speech in his Pro Archia, Science and letters are the nourishment of youth and the diversion of old age. Full review...
The Loveday Conspiracy by Kate Tremayne
Trevowan Manor has been the home of the Loveday family for generations. It will still be owned by a Loveday but St John Loveday lost the house on the throw of a dice before killing himself – and now his cousin Tristan has the house. St John's twin, Adam, vows that he will punish the man responsible. Amelia has been forced from Trevowan and is now living in a cottage with the other dispossessed women. As if this wasn't enough of a problem, her son from her first marriage, Richard, has become even more than wayward and Amelia is forced to make a difficult choice. Full review...
Staring at the Sun by Julian Barnes
Jean's first Incident involved Uncle Leslie, hyacinths and golf tees. It's perhaps best forgotten, but Jean doesn't forget. Uncle Leslie figures large in her life - mostly on the golf course - until the War comes and he runs away to America. He's replaced by Tommy Prosser, a grounded pilot who once saw the sun rise twice in one day and excites as many questions in Jean as he ever answers. Tommy is replaced by Michael, a policeman, whom Jean eventually marries. He doesn't know why minks are excessively tenacious of life and he doesn't much care. But Jean does. She cares much less for the Dutch cap that Michael sent her off to obtain before the wedding and much less again for their rather disastrous adventures in the bedroom. Full review...
2012: Science or Superstition by Alexandra Bruce
The fuss about 2012 has not started just recently. The first book to feature the story was from a Yale professor, in 1966. We've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuh, the Maya creation myth. But as the crunch date of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice that year - nears, it's becoming a very big story indeed. Even though it sounds absurd - the end of a 5,125-year long cycle of the Maya calendar, which started on August 13th, 3114BCE - or was judged to start then, when they came across this concept a couple of thousand years into that period. Surely they couldn't predict the future from their 'primitive' state with such accuracy? Full review...
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
It is a truth universally acknowledged that school summer holidays are only enjoyable if you want to enjoy summer. Greg here doesn't want to notice it, and would prefer to spend his days curtains drawn, face glued to late night TV or a computer game, hand either clicking away at a controller or shovelling in snacks. The last thing he needs, then, is his mother, on a family togetherness trip, and on a budget, with bad ideas of what Greg should be doing instead. Full review...
The Monstrumologist: The Terror Beneath by Rick Yancey
In late 19th century America, young Will Henry has been the apprentice of the stern, forbidding Dr Warthrop since the death of his parents, who were also employed by the doctor. The twelve year old boy has seen many things in his service to the monstrumologist - a specialist in monsters - but nothing can prepare him for the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings the doctor the twin corpses of a young girl and the headless creature with fangs in his chest who had tried to feast on her. Full review...
Midsummer Madness by Stella Whitelaw
You'll like Sophie Gresham. She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright and when the side effects became too much for her she worked behind the scenes. She's a very good prompt despite the fact that you need to wrap up very warmly to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job and most of the cast in the theatre company. It's a bit of a shock though when she realises that the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrison, the man she helped out when he had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep. Sophie was a little softer in those days – in the meantime she's had to develop a protective shell. Full review...
Obama Music by Bonnie Greer
This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to grasp. It's best if I start with the author's intentions as set out in her Prologue. It is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll. All of these, she notes, were heard on the President's Inauguration Day. To them she adds the blues, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planet. Full review...
Dead of Winter by P J Parrish
Loon Lake, Michigan is picture-postcard pretty – an idyll that sits serenely and snugly in the midst of a pine-peppered winter wonderland. Louis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come home. Life has not been easy for Kincaid. A troubled, unhappy child of mixed race, passed around various institutions and foster homes, Louis figures that if he is going to put some integrity back into the world, he will need to wear a badge to do it. Full review...
The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) by Russell Celyn Jones
Pwyll rules a medieval-style fiefdom in a post-climate change Wales. Life is different in many ways - there's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism and horsepower is the main means of transport. But in many ways it's much the same - people still fight one another, towns still have sink estates, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning in their lives. Full review...
White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion) by Owen Sheers
In the old tale, Branwen is the sister of Bendigeidfran - the giant King of Britain. She marries the King of Ireland, who doesn't treat her well. She manages to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling and war and killings ensue.
In this new tale, a young girl has just walked away from her brothers who, in the wake of the devastating foot and mouth outbreak, are despoiling their heritage by rustling and illegally slaughtering sheep. She meets an old man who tells her a story involving the superstitions about the ravens in the Tower of London, propaganda work during World War II, and an equally doomed love affair. Full review...
Follow Your Star by Jennifer Bohnet
It's three years since Nanette Weston left Monaco. She'd been engaged to a Formula 1 racing driver and had lived the life of the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all that. The accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence because of the alcohol she'd consumed. Her slow recovery was hindered by the end of her engagement but she's found some contentment in being a nanny to two young children. When her friend and employer, Vanessa, remarries and takes an extended honeymoon in the Amazon Nanette is asked to take the children back to Monaco where their father lives. Full review...
Crooked Justice by J R Stephenson
Meet Barry Johns. You'll see him coming - he's five hundred pounds if he's an ounce. Just don't ever lend him money - he won't pay it back. A businessman with a share of a nightclub on Cyprus, he goes there for a customary break, and finds his sort-of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancer. He manages to tread both on the toes of his local colleague and some Greek rivals. And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides to pack up and shut up. It's a big stone that hides him, but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn it and get their revenge. Full review...
