Karl's Reading List

Published by Faber and Faber Limited: London, 1993 (1989). After reading Klara and the Sun and really enjoying it, I finally to try this book, due to it being the same author. I had heard conflicting things about what the plot of this book entailed, and with it being a Booker book , had braced myself to face the worst, but to my (pleasant) surprise, The Remains of the Day is  one of the few Booker books I've read to not leave me with an unpleasant taste in my mouth. As with Klara and the Sun, this book is narrated by a character who doesn't always let us in on their thoughts - Klara was an android who thought in artificial ways, whereas our narrator here is a butler, Mr Stevens, who refuses to express his deepest thoughts and feelings even in his narration. Mr Stevens is obsessed with the idea of 'dignity' and 'professionalism,' and aspires to be a 'great butler' by keeping his emotional life separate from his work. His loyalty is to his master, above a...

Published by Zondervan Kids: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2016 (2005). Ezekiel has reached an age where he is asking for slightly longer stories, or stories from bigger books, and The Beginner's Bible - originally a gift from his Nana and Poppa - is one he has asked for often enough that we have now officially read the whole way through it. Rather than a 'full' bible, this is stories from the bible arranged in order of appearance, told in a simplified version and with colourful and cartoony pictures accompanying each. The text never embellishes the story beyond what the original contains, but the pictures have a little more license to add in humour - with Noah spotted pushing an elephant aboard the ark in one image. Generally, the stories that are selected are kid-friendly, with elements of death and killing minimised as much as possible. The exception, of course, is with Jesus, who does die on the cross - it would be foolish to try and either ignore or minimise that death! Simp...

Published by The Text Publishing Company: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2025. Book 2 in 'The Hierarchy.' Preceded by ' The Will of the Many. ' The sequel to one of my top books from last year , The Strength of the Few picks up immediately from where the previous entry ended, without even bothering to give the sort of recaps and reminders that many sequels do. Motivations, loyalties and betrayals must therefore be recalled from Book 1, which, fortunately, do come back to mind as the book progresses. Book 1 also ended in a very unusual situation, and one which made me curious as to how this second book could work. Mild spoilers for Book 1's ending fill the remaining review... So, our main character, Vis, ended Book 1 by being split into three distinct individuals in three distinct worlds! In two of the worlds - the Egyptian-inspired Luceum and the Celtic-inspired Obiteum - he has lost an arm, while in the original Roman-inspired world he is from - Res - he has been ...

Published as an audiobook by Hodder Children's Books/Hachette Children's Books, 2013. Narrated by Jan Francis. Book 12 in the Famous Five Series. Preceded by ' Five Have a Wonderful Time. ' Followed by 'Five Go to Mystery Moor.' First published 1953. The five go on holiday to Cornwall, where they are booked in to stay on the farm of Mr and Mrs Penruthlan. Mrs Penruthlan is a warm woman with a penchance for over-feeding the children, while Mr Penruthlan is unintelligible to the children due to not wearing his false teeth (though Mrs Penruthlan understands him perfectly). The children are befriended by a small local boy named Yan who follows them around whether they want him to or not. A local theatre troupe - the Barneys - also features, turning up and hosting a few nights' worth of performances in the the Penruthlan's barn. The mystery this time around involves a light being shone from an old tumble-down tower that was originally used by criminals to tri...

Published by Penguin Books Limited: Middlesex, England, 1977. First published 1973. This is a book that took a long time to get through, partially because it is quite dense, and partially because it was the book I was reading while we were in the process of moving from my parents' house in Monaco to our new house in central Stoke. When you're busy packing and unpacking boxes, it can get in the way of turning pages... The topic of Cape to Cairo is quite interesting, though. In various sections - based on sections of railway track - it traces the history of the attempt at building a cross-African railroad from Cape Town all the way to Cairo, originally envisioned to show the spread and power of the British Empire. Each section covers a period of time and shows not only the building of the railway, but everything leading up to that point. This adds to the denseness of the book, and - although the book's focus is clear - also means that it can feel a little disjointed at times,...

Published by Bethany House Publishers: Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1992. Book 3 of 'An Emerald Ballad.' Preceded by ' Heart of the Lonely Exile. ' Followed by 'Sons of an Ancient Glory.' Careful readers of this blog will notice that it has been a long time since Elise and I finished any combined book other than a Famous Five entry . That is for a number of reasons, the most prominent of which is that we have been busy with our drawn out move and hunt for a new house. A secondary reason, though, is that we had two physical books on the go at once, both of which were quite long: this one, and a fantasy novel called Dragon Wing (technically, we also have the final few chapters of Rachel's Tears, but that is a book we haven't picked up in a long time, and might still be some time away from revisiting). Anyway, both reasons are finally shifting. As of this post, we have finished this book and we have moved into our new home (hooray!). In fact, the night we finish...

Published by William Collins Sons & Co Ltd: London, 1982. This is the second Alistair MacLean book I've ever read, and is perhaps a little less thrilling than the first one . Set during WW2, we follow three mysterious Yugoslav nationals, led by Major Peter Petersen, whom are tasked by their German allies with carrying a message into Yugoslavia, as well as escorting some other individuals with them. Being written by a Scottish author, we assume that Petersen and his men probably aren't actually working with the Nazis - simply because that seems unlikely for the protagonists of such a novel - but we don't actually know that this is the case.  In fact, the most effective aspect of the book is the way in which any of the main characters could be working for either side. Are the brother and sister duo who at times try to send secret radio messages working for the Royalists or the resistance? Is the mysterious Italian, Giacomo, supporting the Yugoslavs or simply coming along ...