Karl's Reading List

Published by Knight Books.  First published 1963. Book 6 in the 'Adventure' series. Preceded by ' Whale Adventure. ' Followed by 'Elephant Adventure.' In this book, Hal and Roger are reunited with their father in Africa, once again with the purpose of collecting live animals for various zoos and circuses. Of course, with the book's main focus being the brothers and not their father, the older Hunt is quickly side-lined. As with the earliest entries in the 'Adventure' series (particularly  Amazon Adventure ), the role that the Hunt family have is the part that feels the most dated; a family of giraffes is destined for a zoo, a mother and child baboon are destined for a circus. And once again, if the reader can cope with that type of job, the storyline is informative (about the habits of animals), mildly exciting, and fairly straightforward.  These books have clear villains and problems to overcome, and the brothers always rise to the challenge. In thi...

Published by The Text Publishing Company: Melbourne, Australia, 2023. Book 1 in 'The Hierarchy.' Followed by 'The Strength of the Few.' Recently, I came across some "Book-Tok" style videos on YouTube, and this book was one that I began seeing reviewed favourably. I kept an eye out for it, wondering if I could borrow it from the local library, but finding it consistently on loan (perhaps others had been watching the same videos).  Then, one Saturday morning, I went to get coffees for Elise and myself, and on the book-swap shelf of that particular cafe, this book was proudly displayed. So, I took it. Hooray! And, now having read it... ...I can see what the fuss is about. This is a well-written high fantasy book set in a Roman-Empire-style society called Caten. The Catenan Empire has conquered the known world, with the help of their 'Will-infused' magic system/social hierarchy. Lower ranked individuals 'cede' half of their available 'will'...

Published by Hyperion/Disney Book Group: New York, 2013 (2012). When I was training to be a teacher, this book was recommended by a particular vlog post we were directed to during one lesson. I hunted out a copy, read it, loved it, and started recommending it to others.  That was before I started my book list, so was at least nine years ago. Having finally picked it back up, I think I spent about the right amount of time between reads, because although I could remember some of the main beats, I was able to discover the specifics afresh and once again enjoy the process of discovery. The premise of Code Name Verity is quite sad: our Scottish (don't call her English!) protagonist (whom we eventually learn is named Julie), has been captured in Nazi-occupied France during World War 2, and is now being tortured and interrogated as a spy. In order to avoid further torture, as well as hopefully delay her execution, Julie has begun revealing secrets from her time with the Allies, starting w...

Published by Allen & Unwin: Crows Nest NSW, Australia, 2015. This Young-Adult book follows a group of teenagers with unusual super-powers. Ethan/Scam has a voice that can be used to reveal secrets and manipulative people but that he cannot filter or control when he is using it, Riley/Flicker is blind but can see through the eyes of nearby people, Chizara/Crash can 'feel' electronic signals in the air around her (that cause her discomfort) and can also 'crash' them, Thibault/Anonymous has the (uncontrollable) power of being forgotten and diverting attention from himself, and Nate/Bellwether (the self-appointed leader of the group) can influence people's behaviour by talking to them. The group also meet a sixth individual, Kelsie/Mob, who can influence the emotions of groups of people. As may already be apparent, most of these powers have a downside to them. Thibault, particularly, finds friendships difficult to maintain, while Ethan's power gets him into trou...

Published by Arrow Books Ltd/Random House UK Ltd: London, UK, 2000 (1999). A while ago, Elise and I borrowed three books from some friends. One of them was The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents , I don't actually remember what the second one was (perhaps it was the Scarlet Pimpernel Omnibus ? Or, was that the book we lent to them in return?), and the third one was this one. The aim was that we would read these books together, but that only happened with the omnibus. The Amazing Maurice was briefly explored by both of us, but I carried it on solo, and this one had something similar: Elise and I read about 100 pages together, but it was a little slow for that combined reading, so in the end, I finished it off myself. Looking back through my blog, I realise just how long we had Timeline sitting around before even beginning it, and then it took another (shorter) period of time for me to decide to carry it on after Elise and I gave up on it... It's definitely about time we gi...

Published by Viking Press/Penguin Random House: London, UK, 2024. Audiobook by Penguin Audio, 2024.  Uploaded to Audible 12-09-2024. Narrated by Nicola Walker. As regular readers of the blog (if there are any!) will know, this year I have discovered and read my way through the Thursday Murder Club series. Having recently finished The Impossible Fortune, which is the final (for now) in that series, I thought I'd give this book a go, as the only non- Thursday Murder Club book Richard Osman has yet written.  The big adjustment for me in listening to We Solve Murders is that, of course, the characters and settings of Thursday Murder Club are missing. It's always hard for a successful author of a successful series to launch another one, and I do think that We Solve Murders is not as 'tight' as Thursday Murder Club was - particularly the first in the series.  This, however, is somewhat unfair. We Solve Murders needs to stand or fall on its own merits. So... The mildly convo...

Published by Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK): London, 2011 (2006). Back in 2018 I read three books by Tom Wright: Simply Jesus, How God Became King and this one,  Simply Christian. Each of them had similar themes, and really interested me. In fact, they interested and impacted me enough that when I made a post called " The 5th Year 5 Top 5s " I included Simply Jesus as one of my top 5 theology books, despite admitting that I didn't remember the specific  focus of that particular book... rather, acknowledging that all three books together had meant something to me. I also acknowledged that "I will eventually reread these books and give a more detailed review." Now, four years after writing those words and seven years after last reading a Tom Wright book, I have finally reread Simply Christian. Whereas last time around I started with Simply Jesus due to it being the first Tom Wright book I had come across, I made the choice to start with Simply Ch...