Karl's Reading List

Published by Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press: USA, 2025. Each month on LibraryThing, an 'Early Reviewers' list is posted with books that you can win, in return for reviewing them. I have occasionally won eBooks to review through this format, and although the eBook format is not my favourite, I realise that being in New Zealand means that I'm less likely to win physical books. Indeed, usually physical books that are a part of the 'Early Reviewers' list are simply listed as 'Not Available in Your Country.'  Towards the end of last year, however, I noticed that a physical book was available in my home country! It looked interesting, so I put my name into the draw for it, despite the fact that with only a handful of copies available, over 100 people had registered interest. Lo and behold, I won it! And after waiting about eight weeks (international postage takes time) it finally arrived! And this is that book! Aside from being the first physical book ...

This is the first time I have done a 'yearly' top 5 (although I did a ' Top 5 Top 5s ' previously, after my 5th book list), but it seems to fit with the year ending in a 5. Anyway, this is entirely subjective, and is an indication of where I currently sit in regards to these books. The list might even be different if I was asked on a different day. The following are not reviews of these books per se, but each one has been reviewed, and that review can be found by clicking on the title of the book in question. Also, these are ranked in the order that I read them, rather than specifically 1-5 or 5-1. That would take a while longer to sort out! The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. I will give this one the award for 'Best Audiobook of the Year' and 'Best Whodunnit of the Year'. I listened to this over the Summer holidays last year, and enjoyed it enough that I listened to the rest of the series in the same year. Twisty, humorous, a bit unpredictable (a...

Published by NavPress/Tyndale House Publishers: USA, 2020. 'Generic' Christian encouragement books are kinda hard to write. You want to encourage people, and spur them on, while being witty and hopefully, saying something insightful. But unlike secular self-help books, you want to point to Jesus as the only way that these things can truly be achieved. If you read a lot, then these books can also begin to sound a bit alike. Never Settle is decent, appropriately (mildly) funny, with some good personal anecdotes by writer and preacher Greg Holder, yet it does, for the most part, appear quite familiar. I enjoyed reading it for what it was, but still knew the jist of where he was going. However, the hope in reading these books is that you will find  something new, or at least, something said in a new way. Either that, or something will 'jump out' at you in a fresh way. And, although much of the book was familiar, there were still moments that I appeciated. The last chapter i...

Published by Tyndale Publishers. Accessed via the Bible App at: https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/10819-the-one-year-chronological-bible Five years ago Elise and I spent a year reading a chronologically arranged NLT version of the Bible , occasionally using the NIVUK audiobook version narrated by David Suchet to give my narrating skills a rest. This year, we once again did the chronological plan, but this time around chose to listen to the entire thing rather than use our physical copy (which we have lent to my parents anyway). This is, I think, the first time since beginning this blog that I am re-reviewing a previously reviewed book. I have re-read some books, but so far only ones that I read before I was writing reviews. But, this is a good book to break that trend, both because it is the Bible(!) and because listening to a (mostly) different version in a (for me) different format means that there were some different things that jumped out this time around. I do remember point...

I have officially decided to give up my Bookerworm quest. I still intend to at least try to read the majority of the books, but after truly disliking some of the Booker books, I have also decided not to bother pushing through ones that I begin to get 'funny' feelings about. This is also tied a bit to my faith; I want to grow in my sensitivity to the voice of God, and that does at times meaning walking away from worldly things. I'm sure this will be an ongoing conversation I have with God, but for now, this plot is to acknowledge which books I have begun and subsequently have decided not to finish, along with a (much smaller, as I want to at least give books a chance to surprise me) number I have decided not to bother with in advance. I will also give brief reasons why these books have made this list, rather than my actual 'completed books' list. Ironically, although I felt to give up on the books I'm going to list below, most of them weren't as bad as som...

Published by The Watts Publishing Group: Great Britain, 2018. I picked up this book in a cheap sale at a local book shop, and began reading it in class to see what it was like. Having finished a few other books so far in the holiday period, I now have had the time to finish this one as well. Set in a future where most of the world has had technological implants allowing them to see and interact with augmented reality at all times, Nova is a hacker who uses her skills to skim money and survive. When she manages to hack her way into a fairly 'unhackable' program, she catches the attention of a master hacker named The Moth, who hires Nova to go undercover in Bliss Inc - who manufacture the vast majority of the tech people use - and learn what they are planning.  It is an interesting set-up, and much of the story is an interesting variation on some stock-standard science-fiction tropes, but probably isn't one I'll hang on to going forward. There are a few twists and turns t...

Published by Scholastic New Zealand Limited: Auckland, New Zealand, 2020 (2010). First published in the 'My Story' series as 'A New Song in the Land', 2004. I saw this book in the local library on the same visit that I saw Sunrise on the Reaping, and wondered if it might be a topic and book that could possibly work for a high school text.  The author, Fleur Beale, is someone I have read in the past , and usually find her books decent, if not super gripping. This follows that trend, telling the story of a young Māori girl named Atapō, living around the time of the Treaty of Waitangi being signed. Indeed, the narrative includes Atapō being present at the signing. It's an interesting setting and topic, with Atapō having been a slave in a local village before escaping to a mission station. She receives dreams that she interprets as visions from her grandmother, but is also interested in this new 'atua' that the Pākehā speak of. Over time, she begins to embrace...