Karl's Reading List

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 ...

Published by Multnomah Publishers: Oregon, 2000. This little book was very popular in Christian circles when it first came out, and I remember hearing about it, but I'm not sure whether I read it or not. It doesn't really matter if I did read it; it was so influential that I got the gist of what it was about anyway! The titular prayer is found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, where 'Jabez' makes his only appearance in the Bible, in the midst of a long genealogy. Wilkinson stresses: "Something about this man Jabez had caused the historian to pause in middrone, clear his throat, and switch tactics. "Ah, wait a minute!" he seems to interjet. "You just gotta know something about this guy named Jabez. He stands head and shoulders above the rest!"" (page 14) After repeating the two verses to us that contain all of Jabez' life, Wilkinson then uses the rest of the book to break the prayer into chunks and talk about why he thinks it is so effective. For ...

Published by Faber & Faber Limited: London, 2021. A few years ago I heard that Taika Waititi was developing this novel to be his next movie. It was filmed, and then delayed, and delayed again, and then nothing was heard about it. Recently, I wondered what had happened to the film, and then became curious about the book, which led to me getting it out from the school library last week. The next day, the trailer for the movie version was released . Perfect timing, right?! The book itself surprised me, in good ways. I didn't know much about it, and resisted the urge to find out, even when the book seemed to be headed in some fairly dark directions! Klara and the Sun is told from the perspective of the titular Klara, an "Artificial Friend" (robot) who is eventually sold to become the friend of Josie, a girl who is sick from some undefined (in the beginning) illness. Klara is innocent, though not naive. She sees much and takes in a lot, but her thoughts and feelings are al...

Published by Word Publishing: Austin, Texas, 1995. I first read this book when I was around 13 years old, and have read it again at least once in the intervening years. It is an interesting genre, which I have not seen represented often: what I would refer to as "Christian Horror." Already that seems bizarre, right?! And it is, but it also works amazingly well. The set up of the story is that Cliff Benson, a nature photographer, is found dead - and seemingly bitten in two! - in the wilderness near Hyde River, with his wife Evelyn stumbling from the wilderness, terror-stricken, covered in blood and unable to recall what has happened. Cliff's brother, Steve, turns up to investigate, and is soon partnered with local sheriff's deputy Tracy Ellis. Blame is originally put on a bear - mostly because no other animal can explain the horrific death - but as the investigation continues, Steve begins to suspect something else is going on. Meanwhile, the town of Hyde River is conc...

Published by Orbit Books: Great Britain, 2013 (1991). First published 1990. Book 1 in 'The Wheel of Time.' Followed by 'The Great Hunt.' This is the first book in a series of 14, a series that I was first introduced to by one of my cousins years ago. I read through every book that had been written to that point, but the series was unfinished, so I put it down and never revisited it. Since then, the series was finished (despite the main author dying before the end!) and it has also been made into three seasons of an Amazon TV show. Anyway, finding a copy in a bookswap library inspired me to give it another go. Let's start with the 'negatives.' It's quite slow paced. It IS an epic story, that would have required a lot of books regardless of pace, but there are times when it FEELS slow. The main characters spend over 100 pages of plot before leaving their home village, there are 300 pages before we get a different POV character for the first time, and the a...