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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The Giant Carrot by Allan Manham and Penny Dann
Jack is quite the gardener. All his hard work means his vegetable patch is awash with lucious veggies. One day, he decides to pull up some carrots and make soup, but the biggest carrot just wouldn't budge. He's going to have to get some chums to help him. Full review...
All That I Have by Castle Freeman
Castle Freeman may sound like two thirds of a firm of provincial solicitors but thankfully this Castle Freeman is a man very skilled in writing about the law rather than practicing it. In his latest novel Freeman tells an intriguing tale involving local Sheriff Lucian Wing and his practical yet low-key approach to maintaining order in rural Vermont. Not for Wing the gung ho approach to fighting crime. He doesn't wear a uniform, he drives a battered old car rather than the standard issue sheriff's wagon and his gun, so ubiquitous in US law enforcement, is safely tucked away in his bottom drawer. Everyone in the area knows the sheriff and by and large they respect him and his slightly unorthodox way of doing business. Full review...
Little Hands Clapping by Dan Rhodes
The first character to mention in this book is a moth. It's a human moth, drawn to the flame that is a museum of suicide - a supposedly cautionary, life-affirming, memento mori, somewhere in Germany. Its curator is an old hand at lonely, unloved museums, fresh from an art gallery in an airport - it didn't take off - who notices the noise of the latest suicide to happen in the museum, and goes right back to sleep. A spider crawls into his mouth and gets eaten. Full review...
Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt
Desi is not the happiest of teenagers, although when are teenage girls ever actually happy? Anyway, her ex-best friend Celeste is doing everything possible to humiliate and alienate her from their friends, and to top it all off Celeste is also dating the boy Desi has a huge crush on, Hayden. (He is perhaps a dubious prospect for Desi since he can't even get her name right). Still, she has landed herself summer job working for a pet store and although it involves being dressed in a furry groundhog costume at least no-one can tell it's her in there. Well, not until Celeste comes along and unmasks her. In front of Hayden. Desi finds herself feeling more and more like vapour every day, that she doesn't matter or almost doesn't exist. Cue the fairy-godmother style entrance of Meredith, an agent for Facade which is a magical company that offer jobs to teens with magical potential to work as substitute princesses... Full review...
Commotion In The Ocean by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz
There's a commotion in the ocean: the dolphins are squeaking, the jellyfish are jiggling, and the lobsters are clippetty-clapping snippety-snapping. Animal by animal, Giles Andreae (best-known for Giraffes Can't Dance) takes us through the underwater adventures, with short, snappy poems. Full review...
No and Me by Delphine de Vigan
Lou is a clever, clever child with an IQ approaching 160. She's thirteen, but she's been moved up two years at school and she compares her flat chested, nervous self somewhat unfavourably with her fifteen-year-old peer group. Funnily enough, her only real friend at school is Lucas, who's seventeen and such a rebel that he's been moved down two years. Things at home aren't great for Lou. Her baby sister died a few years ago and her mother has been severely depressed ever since. She barely talks, seldom gets dressed. Her father is worn down to the bone with worry and Lou doesn't get a great deal of attention from him either, so distracted is he. Full review...
The Diary of a Dr Who Addict by Paul Magrs
Davey, in his first term at secondary school, is horrified. Not only is his best friend trying to grow up through the use of a home gym, and standing him up on the first morning of term, he also seems to be becoming dismissive of The Show. Still, he is trying to be esoteric - just like his sister, painting her face to look like Bowie album sleeves of all things - and Davey knows better. He knows everyone should be enthralled with the spectacle of Tom Baker falling off a building and becoming Peter Davison. Full review...
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris
Tim Farnsworth seemed to have it all. He loved his wife Jane and daughter Becka and his job as a partner in prestigious law firm was enjoyable, fulfilling and financially rewarding. The fly in the ointment was that sometimes he was overtaken by a compulsion to walk. The time of day, the weather or the occasion did not matter – when the compulsion came he had to walk until he was physically exhausted and fell asleep immediately after calling his wife to come and collect him. There seemed to be no medical explanation for what was happening – and Tim and Jane had tried every source they could find – but Tim was still reluctant to accept that this was a mental rather than a physical illness. Full review...
Matt Monro: The Singer's Singer by Michele Monro
In terms of British chart statistics and record sales, Matt Monro never quite fulfilled his full potential. When measured against the achievements of contemporary ballad singers like Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, he fell some way short. Yet the former Terry Parsons was a regular fixture on the light entertainment circuit, and overseas, particularly in Latin America and the Philippines, he was undoubtedly one of Britain's most successful exports ever, and at one point he was the biggest selling artist in Spain. His idol Frank Sinatra, to whom he was often compared, often said that Matt was the only British singer he ever really listened to. Full review...
Shadow Dragons (Imaginarium Geographica) by James A Owen
If you want to know where Tolkein, C S Lewis and their ilk got their ideas from, you might consider their jobs. No - not their work in Oxbridge universities. In this book, at least, John, Charles and Jack are guardians of a very important book, the Imaginarium Geographica, within which lives a lot of secret, vital information, and almost the soul of the land. They might not get a surname so we know immediately who is whom. They might be from a different world - there is certainly enough talk of those in these pages. But we'll see them meet a vanishing Cheshire cat, a certain Spanish knight we might have thought fictional, and more, en route to a quest of Arthurian proportions. Full review...
Intervention by Robin Cook
Although Robin Cook has written many books, Intervention is the first one that I have read - I'm a Robin Cook 'virgin.'
This is a big book in many respects. It's a classic, glossy 'coffee table' edition; it's a big, satisfying read and it's a multi-layered book in that it covers many current-day topics which have their roots in history. In fact, this book is so multi-dimensional that, you could argue, there are several books within this book. Full review...
The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could fly? It would be such a wonderful sensation, soaring through the air, looping the loop, swooping down over your house and garden. But have you also stopped to think what other people might think if they saw that you could fly whilst no one else could? Would children still want to be your friend? What would your family think? The little girl in this story, Piper McCloud, can fly. She lives on her parents farm and was always a little, well, unusual, and after her mum found her floating in the air one day when she was a baby she decided to home school Piper, rather than expose her to the gossips in the village. But one day, at the village picnic, Piper flies during the baseball match as she tries to catch the ball, and suddenly her whole life is turned upside down... Full review...
Divine by Mistake (Goddess of Partholon) by P C Cast
Shannon Parker, broke Oklahoma English teacher, likes a good bargain hunt at an auction. But she gets more than her money's worth when she buys a vase with her likeness painted on it. Somehow transported to the magical world of Partholon, Shannon finds herself in the shoes of Rhiannon, her mirror double. Along with Rhiannon's station as Goddess Incarnate, Shannon finds herself landed with her double's less than enviable reputation and a Centaur husband. Full review...
Mortlock by Jon Mayhew
Abyssinia, 1820. Three Englishment search for the Amarant, a mythical flower with the power over life and death, in a strange desert oasis. On finding the flower surrounded by decaying faces, they realize that it is cursed, and take a blood oath never to remove it.
London, 1854. 13 year old knife thrower Josie performs with her guardian the Great Cardamom, an especially gifted magician who we quickly learn is Chrimes, the coward of the original three Englishmen. Their relatively peaceful existence is shattered when three macabre Aunts (note the capital letter, never a good sign…) descend on them, and Cardamom instructs Josie, with his dying breath, to find the twin brother he'd never told her about and destroy the Amarant. Full review...
Struggle or Starve by Carole White and Sian Williams
Struggle or Starve is a collection of autobiographical writings about girls' and women's lives in South Wales between the wars. This is a new edition of a book first published in 1998 by Honno, an independent publisher set up to encourage Welsh women writers. Most of the contributors in this book came from miners' families and grew up in real poverty and economic insecurity. Full review...
Drawing with Light by Julia Green
Emily doesn't remember her biological mother. She ran away with another man when Emily was just two. Now, her older sister Kat, her father, and her stepmother Cassy make up the family unit and Emily thinks it's just fine that way. She doesn't need a mother who didn't want her and has never even tried to get in touch. But then Kat goes off to university, her father buys a rundown house in the middle of nowhere and moves them into a caravan while it's being renovated, and Cassy gets pregnant. Full review...
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Auden has always felt like the odd one out amongst her peers. Her parents - now divorced - are both academics and high achievers, and they, especially her mother, want the same for Auden. Auden's older brother is the rebel and so Auden feels as though she needs to be the one who satisfies her mother's ambition. So she works hard and never lets her diligence or conscientiousness slip for even a moment. But she's socially awkward and lacking in experience. She's never had a boyfriend, hates the colour pink and can't even ride a bike. Full review...
Dancing to the Precipice : Lucie De La Tour Du Pin and the French Revolution by Caroline Moorehead
Two hundred years ago, with the fall of the monarchy and the Napoleonic wars, France underwent one cataclysmic change after another. There were many who witnessed and experienced the volatile age at first hand, but few left a more detailed record than the subject of this biography, Lucie-Henriette Dillon, Marquise Marchioness de La Tour du Pin. Full review...
Nearly Departed by Rook Hastings
At first sight, you'd think Weirdsville was Anytown - it has a slightly rundown feel; everything's just a little bit shabby. But it's pretty much like any other town. Parents go to work. Kids go to school and clump together in little peer groups of geeks and swots and jocks and bullies. But Weirdsville isn't like any other town. There's a strangely abundant wood right in the middle of it, and at night, everythings turns, well, a little bit weird. The darkness is so dark it almost sucks you in. And there are odd noises too...
... and Emily thinks she's seen a ghost. Full review...
Daemon by Daniel Suarez
As the internet grows and technology advances, it's seems there is nothing you can't do. Recent innovations mean you can operate appliances in your own home from another continent and cars are more automated than ever. Huge online games allow users worldwide to interact and play against each other in huge arenas. Thanks to social networking, the internet can be addictive and, yes, I'm aware of the irony in writing that here. Full review...
The Monday Night Cooking School by Erica Bauermeister
The Monday Night Cooking School is the first novel written by American writer Erica Bauermeister and it really is a delicious read in every sense. The novel tells of eight very diverse people who attend a cooking class once a month at Lillian's restaurant. Each has a different reason for being there and each has his or her own story to tell. However, over the months that the course is run, they start to bond through the learning experience and their love of food. It's not the sort of novel where much happens but if you are interested in people and you love food, I am sure you will enjoy this book. Having said that though, I don't think it is a book that should be read if you are trying to diet because you can virtually smell the food as you turn the pages! Full review...
Lunatics and Luck (Raven Mysteries) by Marcus Sedgwick
It's obvious really. When an earthquake hits Castle Otherhand, Valevine, the head of the household, decides what the place needs is a machine to predict the future, and a new tutor for his two oldest children. And why not? There are only those children, the suicidal baby twins, Valevine's dreadful failed inventions and experiments, Edgar the raven that narrates this series of books, and a monkey. With bells on. Clearly there is not enough weirdness there already to go around. Full review...
The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better For Everyone by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett
If you asked people why it is (or might be) a good idea to reduce inequality in a society, many people would assume that reducing inequality works by making the life of the poorest better: that the poor are the ones who benefit from reduction of inequality. Full review...
The Killing of the Tinkers by Ken Bruen
Jack Taylor returns to his native Ireland with his tail between his legs. He's been lying low 'over the water' in London, licking his wounds. Jack (I'm slightly surprised that Bruen didn't give him a more Irish name) is a middle-aged, washed-up, disgraced ex-cop. As if that wasn't bad enough, he also has a lot of very bad habits. He acknowledges however that 'the new world is designed for non-smokers.' He also admits quite freely and openly that 'An alcoholic has dreams to rival that of any Vietnam vet.' Full review...
Killer by Dave Zeltserman
Here at the Bookbag, we've been very impressed with Dave Zeltserman's work thus far. He uses a wonderful noirish narrative that takes you straight to the heart of the story. His story telling is very straightforward, not weighing down the story with too much style, but sticking to the substance and delivering a hard-hitting work every time. With Killer, he has done the same again. Full review...
Mr Nobody (Mr Men and Little Misses) by Roger Hargreaves
Mr Nobody is... well, he's somebody who sort of is and sort of isn't. Mr Happy comes across him one day, and does his best to cheer him up. Who could possibly help a person who's sort of there and sort of isn't? Ah, the Wizard! Full review...
Jolly Olly Octopus by Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees
Jolly Olly Octopus is giggling underneath the sea. He's soon joined by two tickly turtles, three smiley seahorses, and so on through the numbers. The large cast of underwater animals are having a jolly ol' time, until a shark appears... Full review...
The Lazy Cook's Family Favourites by Mo Smith
These days I get very nervous when I hear about books for 'lazy' cooks, or how to cheat when preparing meals. There's a very simple reason for this: good food, prepared using seasonal ingredients which don't break the budget needs skill and knowledge and neither are the prerogative of the lazy. Mo Smith might like us to think that she's lazy, but take my word for it – she isn't. She might have learned a few tricks for making good food quickly, but she's a woman who knows her onions and all sorts of other food. Full review...
Creta the Winged Terror (Beast Quest) by Adam Blade
Our hero, Tom, is finding his fishing trip with his father bugged - literally - by a plague of sickening cockroach things. What's more, the whole land of Avantia is suffering some form of horrid heatwave. Can Tom, recognising yet another threat to his country from the evil Malvel, defeat his nemesis yet again - especially as said baddie has as a new weapon of darkness a massive host of the roaches, swarming as one giant monster? Full review...
Family Planning by Karan Mahajan
Mr Rakesh Ahuja is Delhi's Mister of Urban Development and so far, has managed to do well in his career. However, his family life is beginning to take over - he already has thirteen children and a fourteenth is on the way. The eldest, Arjun, now a teenager was born to Mr Ahuja's first wife, but up til now, Arjun is unaware of this fact. Sangita Ahuja, the long-suffering wife, is aware that her relationship with Arjun may never be the same again. Meanwhile, Arjun is only interested in one thing - how to attract the attention of the gorgeous girl on his school bus. What will happen to the family when Mr Ahuja finally tells the truth? Full review...
Collect Autographs: An Illustrated Guide to Collecting and Investing in Autographs by Fraser's Autographs
There must be many of us who have at one time had an autograph book or something of the kind as children and asked friends, relations or even celebrities to 'do something', written to celebrities in the hope of obtaining a personally signed picture, or even waited patiently at a stage door after a play or concert eagerly clutching a theatre programme, record or CD sleeve and pen in hand. Full review...
Number Freak: A Mathematical Compendium from 1 to 200 by Derrick Niederman
This is a book that definitely does what it says on the tin. Our author has the capacity to grab each number between one and two hundred, and wring it for all its worth - all the special status it might have in our culture (more easy with seven than, say, 187), all the special properties it might possess (perfect, triangular, prime), and as many other things mathematicians and so on would find of interest. Luckily there is enough here to make the book well worth a browse for us who would not deem themselves number buffs. Full review...
Soul Mates: True Stories From The World of Online Dating by Sonali Fernando
Internet dating is no longer the new taboo it once was. These days, whatever type of person you are, and whatever type of person you're looking to meet, you can take your pick from any number of sites. Yes, even 'Guardian' readers can log on and look for love specifically with, erm, other 'Guardian' readers. To do so, they just have to click through to 'Guardian Soulmates', which is probably no different from 'Match.com' or 'Datingdirect', though might count a larger proportion of sandal wearing hippies among its members. Full review...
I, Sniper by Stephen Hunter
You don't often find novels or films based on the art of the sniper. Hiding out for hours motionless and then killing someone unseen from hundreds of yards away doesn't make for as interesting a story as a face to face shoot out. But with 'I, Sniper', Stephen Hunter has managed to combine the art of the sniper with the art of the crime thriller in a decent read. Full review...
The Beasts in the Jar (Greek Beasts and Heroes) by Lucy Coats and Anthony Lewis
Atticus the sandalmaker is heading to the great storytelling competition in Troy. On his way, he meets a number of people and, always eager for an opportunity to hone his skills, relates to them tales from Ancient Greek myths and legends. The beasts in the jar of the title? Pandora released them from what we mistakenly call her box. Full review...
American Adulterer by Jed Mercurio
I've often wondered how history would have viewed Jack Kennedy if he'd died a natural death rather than by an assassin's bullet. As an extension of that I've also thought that he might not have lived that much longer had nature been allowed to take its course. He's one of the most-written-about Presidents of all time and finding a new angle – even a fictional one – is not easy, but Jed Mercurio has looked at Kennedy's adult life through the prism of his sexual peccadilloes and his health. Full review...
Besotted by Joe Treasure
It is late August 1982, the day when O level results come out. Michael Cartwright already knows he has failed his exams and is dreading his parents finding out. He, his twin brother Kieran (who has done very well) and their younger sisters are on the family holiday, staying with their mother's parents in Kilross, County Cork. To escape boredom and his parents' anger, he wanders round the village, where he meets Fergal Noonan, training to be a priest, and lively Peggy O'Connor. He has his first kiss and a bit more with Peggy. The family soon goes home to Cheltenham, but their brief visit to Ireland will have far reaching significance. Full review...
Landed by Tim Pears
I have hesitated to write this review because, truthfully, I am not entirely sure that I know what happened at the end. I read it all. I actually read the end several times. And then I skipped back to the middle, just to check something, before trying the end again. I have decided to just believe in what I think happened, and since I don't want to spoil it for other readers then I don't have to make a complete fool of myself writing down what it is I think! And actually, that mysteriousness is part of the charm of the story. So, slight confusion aside, I still gave this book four stars, and this is why... Full review...
