Karl's Reading List

Published by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.: London, 1956 (1947). Some books are quick reads. Some are not. Some only take me a day or two. Some take a lot longer... I can estimate almost to the day how long this book took me to read, because I started it a day or two after I put up my post about finishing my previous 'devotional' book, The One Year Worship the King Devotional , posting on September 25th last year. So, about 214 days (including February 29th). This might imply that I didn't enjoy The Way, but that is definitely not the case. E Stanley Jones is a very interesting writer, but is just not a quick read. He was widely travelled, and spent a large amount of time in India, where he set up Christian 'ashrams.' This is important to note, because at times Jones sees things in a very non-Western way, pulling out gems of truth from scripture I had never considered before, or life-lessons that are very a pplicable while being quite 'foreign.' Two examples f

Published by Penguin Audio, 2017. Audiobook narrated by the author. I knew next to nothing about Martin Luther before beginning this book, only that he was famous for starting the Reformation and did so by nailing his 95 Theses to the door of a church. There is a lot more to him than that! The thing that struck me most, while listening to this book, was how little Martin Luther intended to be controversial; as Metaxas argues, Luther wrote the 95 Theses in Latin (the scholarly language) because he intended to have a scholarly debate, not a revolution. It was only when his theses were translated into German and distributed by others that he was forced to defend them in public, thus going further than he intended. As things escalated, and Luther made more and more controversial statements (controversial to the ears of the established church of the day), there came a point where Luther gained a real peace with what was happening, because it was 'obvious that God was in it.' If that

As I said in my review of Peter Rabbit's Storytime Collection , I am wanting to find a way to acknowledge the books I read to Ezekiel without adding individual picture books to my reading list - I feel that would dilute it a bit much. So in this post, I've decided to look at a group of picture books all together. I've picked five picture books that I like (with a notable and noteworthy exception), and also asked Elise for five picture books she is  enjoying reading to Ezekiel. It's interesting (and helpful for this list) that our lists haven't overlapped at all this time around. So, here are ten picture books (plus one bonus 'book') that Ezekiel has been exposed to in the first 7ish months of his life: Karl's List Bunnies on the Bus - Philip Ardagh and (illustrator) Ben Mantle. Published by Walker Books Ltd: London, 2020 (2019). This is one of my favourites among our current picture books. A group of bunnies hijack a bus and hurtle through the town on th

Published by Egmont UK Limited/Electric Monkey: London, UK: 2012 (2009). First published by HarperTeen: New York, USA, 2008. Book 1 in the 'Gone' series. Followed by 'Hunger.' I borrowed this book from a family member knowing nothing about it except that some of my students like it. I soon learned it was seen as a combination of Stephen King meets Lord of the Flies - neither of which are my usual jam (he says, having literally just finished reading a different book by the author of Lord of the Flies ). Yeah, it is like that. Particularly Stephen King's Under the Dome, which I know from the mini-series of the same name. Plus, it also has similarities to Lost (which I loved) and X-Men (some of which I enjoy). So, anyway... The basic premise of Gone  is that all of a sudden everyone fifteen and older who lives in or near the town of Perdido Beach mysteriously disappears, and the remaining children discover that they are now trapped by a mysterious barrier that has a

Published by Faber and Faber Limited: London, 1981 (1980). I have previously only read one book by William Golding, Lord of the Flies, and that was all the way back in high school, in the year (cough). So, I have vague recollections of the 'feel' of that book. This book 'feels' similar, which I guess makes sense. This book, like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society , is told in an epistolary fashion; in this book, we are reading the journal of Edmund Talbot, also intended as a letter to his godfather, as Talbot travels by ship from England to Australia. This is in the colonist days, and other passengers include the loud artist Mr Brocklebank with his 'daughter' and 'wife', the humanist philosopher Mr Prettiman, and the hapless parson, Mr Colley. Talbot is a fairly arrogant, opinionated, cynical figure with an inbuilt belief in his own class superiority, as well as a distain for established religion, yet the captain of the ship, Captain Ander

Published by Frederick Warne & Co./Penguin Group Ltd: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 2001. Stories originally published between 1902-1918. Ever since our son Ezekiel was born last year, I've been wondering how to acknowledge the books I read with him. As a general rule, things that end up on this list take 'a while' to read; I don't include articles, or comics (sorry Asterix ), or picture books, because they are too short, and would also bulk this list out too much. But, reading to Ezekiel is a privilege, and is something I quite enjoy, and I would love to be able to share some of that enjoyment here. So, as a beginning, I've decided to include some of the 'larger' storybooks I read to Ezekiel. And maybe I might also include groups of picture books as a single entry, especially when they are ones that we really enjoy. ...When I say 'we' I mostly mean myself and Elise for now. At present Ezekiel's level of 'enjoyment' is based arou

Published by Knight Books/Brockhampton Press Ltd: Leicester, England, 1973. First published 1955. Book 3 in the 'Adventure' series. Preceded by ' South Sea Adventure. ' Followed by 'Volcano Adventure.' Picking up straight after the end of South Sea Adventure , and still based in the same region of the world (the Pacific Ocean, particularly around the Marshall Islands), Underwater Adventure sees Hal and Roger Hunt continuing their animal gathering expeditions. This time, however, the focus is a little different, with the brothers (and their friend Omo from the previous book) joining forces with Dr Blake, a scientist with the Oceanographic Institute, to explore (surprise, surprise) the underwater world. Although there is still some animal collecting, the focus is far more on scientific discovery and trialling of various 'cutting edge' underwater technology (such as aqualungs, diving bells, and even snorkels - which I guess were cutting edge in 1955). As is