Karl's Reading List

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 ...

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc: London, 2007. Sometimes for Silent Reading in class, I don't have a book in mind, so pick up something random, just to be able to role-model. Sometimes those books 'grip me' enough that I carry on reading them until they make it on this list. This is one of those books. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac starts, appropriately, with the protagonist Naomi Porter awakening to realise that she has four years worth of amnesia, following a bad fall down some icy steps. She is now 16, and 'feels' 16, but can't recall anything since she was 12... including the fact that her parents are divorced, or the fact that she has learned to drive, or that she has a boyfriend. There is no guarantee that she will ever get her memory back, and so she must begin picking up the pieces and figuring out who she has become, as well as if she still wants to be the person she has become. Naomi is quite easy to relate to, even when she makes decisions that...

Published by Wordsworth Editions Limited: Hertfordshire, 1996 (1994). First published 1858. Book 3 in 'The Chronicles of Barsetshire.' Preceded by ' Barchester Tower. ' Followed by 'Framley Parsonage.' The third Barsetshire book I've read, and the third in the series - meaning I've finally started going in correct chronological order! Doctor Thorne moves the focus of the series from the town of Barchester to nearby Greshambury, home of the Gresham family. Well-off and slightly snooty, the Greshams do however make room in their household for Mary Thorne, the niece of the titular Dr Thorne, and allow her to grow up with their children. Frank Gresham - the son and heir of the family - develops a crush on Mary, and gushes out an over-the-top proposal to her in a beautifully dramatic scene; Trollope is at his most comical in moments like this. However, Mary is from an unknown background, and (more shockingly) is poor(!) and Frank must marry rich in order to s...