Karl's Reading List

Published by Zondervan Publishing House: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1967 (1966). A non-fiction book, Fire on the Mountains tells the story of the spread of Christianity among the Wallamo people of Ethiopia, particularly during, and after World War 2. Western missionaries had been in the Wallamo region leading up to the war (with early parts of the book unpacking this season), but found themselves banned from the country by the occupying Italians, leaving only the small number of partially trained native believers behind, without even a completed bible in their language. The majority of Fire on the Mountains highlights stories of how these native believers spread the gospel, leading to a massive increase in Wallamo people accepting Jesus into their lives. Chapter 12 opens with a native believer telling the returning missionaries: "When you missionaries left, it was difficult to find a Christian in Wallamo country. Now it is difficult to find a man who is not a Christian" (page 10...

Published by Orbit Books: Australia, 2016. First published (self-published), 2014. Book 1 in the 'Licanius Trilogy.' Followed by 'An Echo of Things to Come.' James Islington wrote The Will of the Many and The Strength of the Few , the first two books in what will be a longer series, but that has not yet had the third book published. I discovered that series last year and The Will of the Many even made it onto my first end-of-the-year Top Five Books List .  The Shadow of What Was Lost is James Islington's first novel, and the first in his first series - the Licanius Trilogy - that he wrote before beginning the Hierarchy series that I have previously discovered.  Whereas his later series is set in a Roman-inspired world with complicated magic-based machinery and even a magic-based system of government, The Shadow of What Was Lost is set in a far more 'stereotypical' fantasy world, populated with castles, princesses, chosen ones, and a 'dark lord.' Our...

Published by Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC, American Fork, UT, 2023. In 2023, Brandon Sanderson published four 'secret novels' that no-one knew he had been working on. This is the last of the four I've read, having previously listened to audiobook versions of The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England and The Sunlit Man , and having read Tress and the Emerald Sea with Elise.  Like both Tress and The Sunlit Man, this novel is set in the 'Cosmere' shared-universe that Sanderson has been developing for years, with a few characters (including the narrator, Hoid) crossing over from other entries. However, unlike The Sunlit Man (and more like Tress ) the connective elements in Yumi and the Nightmare Painter are not overpowering, and casual fans of Sanderson - or even newbies - could probably pick up this book and enjoy it without needing to read a whole lot of other Cosmere books first! The story, heavily inspired by anime and manga tropes along wi...

Published as an audiobook by Librivox. Accessed via Fabuly. Narrated by Mark F Smith. Originally published 1922. I recently (the end of last year) got a new audiobook app, which (like Librivox, on which it is based) is made up of mostly public domain audiobooks, making it free to listen to. With a limited range of books to choose from, I've had to be a bit more creative in my choices (this is the app I listened to The Age of Innocence on), and, without knowing much about it, I decided to give this book a go. What a weird book! It is supposedly a biographical account of the author, Ferdynand Ossendowski, who travels from Russia, across Siberia to Mongolia, attempting to avoid the Communist takeover of the area. In his journeys he has many narrow escapes, and encounters a number of prominent (to that area and at that time) historical figures, often becoming quite close to them, regardless of whether they are friend or foe.  I say supposedly because parts of the account seem incredib...

Published by One Tree House Ltd: New Zealand, 2021. A very easy book to read, The Tomo follows Phil Davidson, a New Zealand teenager who is sent to work on a sheep farm over the Christmas holidays when his father - sick with cancer - is undergoing special treatment. Phil doesn't want to go, and so the family allow him to take Blue, his dad's beloved dog, with him as a treat. When Phil arrives at the farm, he firstly meets Chopper, the grumpy farm manager who sets him to work on the most menial jobs, and then later meets Emara, a girl his own age who becomes his potential love interest. Emara is also quite environmentally savvy, and has discussions with both Phil and Chopper about ways to run the farm in a more environmentally-friendly fashion. A Maori farm worker, Toko, brings the Maori perspective to the story as well, making this a book which has clear study-able themes (should a teacher choose to do it with a class of English students).  Drama arises when Blue falls down a t...

Published by Hodder & Stoughton/Hachette: London, Great Britain, 2014. Book 1 of the 'Red Rising' series. Followed by 'Golden Son.' I have heard of this book series for a while, and had been curious to check it out. The cover suggests that it is a Young-Adult series in the vein of The Hunger Games or Ender's Game , while being set on Mars. There seems to be a school of some sort which the hero is going to fight their way through in order to be accepted into a future role - so, The Will of the Many ? Or even Harry Potter ? So far, so Young-Adult cliche. And, yes... to some degree it is. But, what was very unexpected (by me, at least) is how violent this book is! Our main character, Darrow, faces the execution of his wife in the first few chapters, before being executed himself (I didn't see that coming!). Then, after being saved at the last minute, he is enlisted by an underground network of saboteurs to be 'reborn' or 'upgraded' and sneak in...

Published in an omnibus edition: "The Pale Horse"; " The Big Four " and "The Secret Adversary" as part of the "Agatha Christie Crime Collection", first published by the Hamlyn Publishing Group: London, 1970. This edition published by Lansdowne Press: Dee Why West, Australia, 2009. First published individually in book form, 1927. I usually like Poirot novels; there are a lot of twists and turns, with unexpected moments that - in hindsight - are clever solutions that fit the evidence better than the 'obvious' ones. Poirot is always the smartest person in the room, and the cases are ones that only he could solve. The Big Four is a little different, and - to me - a little underwhelming. This is mostly because of its structure: The Big Four originated as a series of short stories, each individually published, that eventually got collected into a book, with a little bit of connective tissue added in. Unfortunately, the short story aspect shows ...