Karl's Reading List

Published as an audiobook by Dragonsteel, 23-04-2023. Narrated by William DeMeritt. Originally published 2023. This is one of four 'secret project' books that Brandon Sanderson released in 2023, along with Tress of the Emerald Sea , The Frugal Wizard's Guide to Medieval England , and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and is the third I have read. It is also the one of the four that has the strongest connection to Sanderson's 'cosmere' universe, often referencing characters and even events from his Stormlight Archives series, that began with The Way of Kings. If all this sounds like a lot of connective tissue, then brace yourself. The Sunlit Man may take place on a planet that has previously not been visited within the cosmere, but the main character, Nomad, is someone who has in the past been a knight radiant on Roshar (the main setting of the Stormlight Archives ). Not only that, but as the story progresses, it is revealed that he is a specific character from the...

Published by The Crime Club by Collins: St James Place, London, 1959. I wasn't intending on reading another Agatha Christie book for a while, simply because of having read one so recently , but a friend lent me this one, telling me that it was their favourite, so I thought I better check it out. To say a particular Agatha Christie book is your favourite is quite high praise! After all, Christie wrote over 50 books, including such famous examples as Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, And Then There Were None , and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd . I enjoy Christie's books (there is a reason she is called the 'Queen of Crime Fiction'), and particularly like the way that she - within her chosen genre of crime fiction - could play with styles, from dark thrillers (like And Then There Were None ) to slightly lighter comical entries, like Partners in Crime .  Cat Among the Pigeons plays with style again, framing the book as a spy and espionage tale, but with the twi...

Published as an audiobook by Penguin Audio, 25-09-2025. Narrated by Fiona Shaw. Book 5 in the 'Thursday Murder Club' series. Preceded by ' The Last Devil to Die. ' Earlier this year I practically binge-listened to the entire Thursday Murder Club series, beginning my final review by saying that  The Last Devil to Die felt like a suitable finale. However, I also wrote that the series had ended "for now" twice, and...well... I guess I was right! About a month ago, wandering through the Richmond Mall, I noticed that a fifth book was now on sale in Whitcoulls, so I raced home and purchased my audiobook copy that same day (it feels appropriate now to keep this as an audiobook series). So, considering how 'final' the previous series finale was, how does The Impossible Fortune fare? Well, to be honest, there are moments where, for me, it felt slightly 'lesser' than what had come before it. On occasion the characters (particularly, for me, Joyce and Ibr...

Published by Walker Books Ltd: London, UK, 2017. This is a book that has been on the English Department shelves since I started at Nayland, and is often recommended to me as a good book. It is also one that I have used as an option for students to study at Level 1, having gathered themes and resources from other teachers to help support students choosing it. However, it is not a book I have read, until now. It is also a book that has been banned in some states in America, and so - looking for a "banned book" to finish off my reading challenge for the year - it finally seemed time to pick it up and give it a go. It is a very well-written book. It does have a lot of language in it, and it does talk a lot about violence - particularly police brutality - and because of those aspects I can understand why some groups might not enjoy it as much, BUT it is quite insightful and has a lot to say about racism (including subtle racism), standing up for your beliefs, and even the balance ...

Published by Fabbri Publishing Ltd: Barcelona, 1992. First published as a novel in Italian, 1883. What a truly weird book. This is the OG version of Pinocchio, and it feels very dated, and odd. I once read half of the book The Adventures of Roderick Ransom by Tobias Smollett, and it gives me vibes of that, in the way the story unfolds without much overarching structure; rather, it simply feels like a rambly bed time story being continuously extended with plot points that feel like the author is just going: "and then, this happened!"  In some ways this makes sense, as the original stories were published in serial format before being grouped together as a novel, but authors like Charles Dickens shows that these can still be coherent narratives. Pinocchio doesn't really worry about things like that! Sure, there is a through-line in that Pinocchio is a disobedient puppet who continuously makes poor choices - surely, meant to be a morality lesson for the reader - but other bit...

Published by Harpertorch/HarperCollinsPublishers: New York, NY, 2002. Originally published in 1988 as O Alquimista in Portuguese. English translation by Paulo Coelho and Alan R Clarke, 1993. I've had this book recommended to me in the past, and finally got around to reading it. It is not a long book (167 pages) and is an easy read - in fact, I read it in a single sitting. It is also a simple story, told in a style that is allegorical or "parable-ic." The protagonist of the story is a boy introduced on the first page as Santiago, but from then on only referred to as "the boy." He has taken up the life of a shepherd in order to see the world, after having learned reading and writing when his parents desired for him to become a priest. After having a vivid dream, 'the boy' seeks to learn its meaning, firstly from a gypsy fortune-teller, and then by meeting Melchizedek, the king of Salem - a historical figure found in Genesis 14, and often seen as a metaphor...

Published by Page Classics/Page Publications: Location unknown, 1924. First published 1920. This is the first ever detective novel written by Agatha Christie, and also the first to introduce the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, along with his regular associates Hastings (who acts as narrator) and Inspector Japp. It is amazing, knowing how many Poirot books Agatha Christie would write, that the character is already so fully formed in this first entry. It is also interesting to note how well written this entry is, too. The twists and turns are suitably twisty and turny, and still seem to make sense in hindsight, and Poirot is suitably clever enough. As far as set up is concerned: Hastings is visiting with a friend, John Cavendish, at Cavendish's family home, now run by Cavendish's step-mother, who has remarried since Cavendish's father died. A suitable number of suspects is on hand when the step-mother dies, seemingly by poison. Hastings calls Poirot (staying nearby) to inve...