Karl's Reading List

Published by Coronet Books/Hodder and Stoughton/Hemisphere Publishers Ltd: Great Britain, 1983 (1982). What a book to end the year with! Schindler's Ark is the book that inspired the movie Schindler's List (and is known by the latter name in some countries). It is also a Booker book, which meant I really had no idea what I was in for. The book (and the movie) tells the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German factory owner living in the Polish city of Crakow during World War 2, relating how he saved the lives of about 1200 Jews by labelling them as 'essential workers'. Stating it that way makes it sound as though Schindler did very little 'heroic', yet throughout the book he continually takes big risks to achieve his goal, both in terms of his own safety, and also in financial terms. The book, being about Jews in WW2, is obviously not a 'light' book, yet Keneally tells it in a way that really 'works'. His style here is an interesting one; he tells...

Audiobook published by Audible, 2014 (20-08-2007). Narrated by Michael Hordern. Originally published 1908. Like Peter Pan before it, this is a classic book that I've heard of on many occasions, but have discovered in the reading that it is far stranger than I realised, yet still charming. The book tells the adventures of Mole, Rat, Toad and Badger, four animals living in rough proximity to 'the River'. These animals - for reasons never explained other than 'its a children's story' - act very much like humans: they wear clothing, eat human food, live in houses (even if those houses are mostly in burrow entrances), and even occasionally have pets of their own! Yet it is not a world fully populated by anthropomorphic animals - humans also inhabit the world and generally interact with the animal protagonists as equals.  Mole is our first primary protagonist, arriving at the River from his own former home after becoming bored with his life. Through his eyes - and hi...

Published by Pickering and Inglis Ltd.: London, 1975 (1969). This book tells the true story of the author's life as a young Jewish woman living in Holland during World War 2, and can be roughly divided into three parts. The first part tells of the numerous close calls Johanna had with being sent to the prison camps. As the story progresses her whole family gets taken away, yet Johanna repeatedly is saved through various unexpected events such as looking after a sick child, or being rejected by a carriage full of elderly people who worry about her health. The fact that so many of these events take place when so many other people are being taken away to their death is fascinating, and ties nicely into the second 'part' of the book.  In the second part, Johanna, now concealed by the Underground resistance in the house of a Christian minister, begins to read a Children's Bible - mostly out of boredom - and discovers to her amazement that Jesus is Jewish! As she learns this,...

Audiobook published by Audible, 2015.  Narrated by Victor Bevine. Book 1 in 'The Earthborn Trilogy'. Lucas is one of the last survivors of a dying Earth, destroyed in battle with aliens who were after the resources of Earth, particularly water. He comes across an alien spaceship and a sympathetic alien, and then - along with the ferocious female human Asha - they seek to escape the planet. The premise is a little cliché but fine. The novel as a whole is fairly B-grade pulpy - lots of limbs getting blown off, heads splattered etc. This gives the book a slightly unpleasant feel, as does the fact that many remaining humans (our protagonists not included) have resorted to cannibalism, something that always sickens me in any medium I encounter it.  There are a few moments where the plot goes in a different direction than anticipated, and there were enough interesting moments that I kept listening, but honestly, there are much better books than this to get into the genre with. Victo...

Published by Multnomah Books/WaterBrook Multnomah: Colorado Springs, CO/New York, 2003. This short book (even shorter than I realised as a section at the back is made up of 'group study questions' rather than being part of the book proper) is all about worship - what it is, why God is worthy of it, and some ways in which a person can engage with worship in their day to day lives. Louie Giglio is a fairly well-known speaker in Christian circles, and although he is not known as a singer he writes as the head of sixsteprecords, a worship-centric music label in the USA. Not that worship is about music per se. The book is intentionally a fairly easy read rather than a dense theological tome, and as such some of the insights Giglio shares are not 'new'... but they are good reminders. "We may say we value this thing or that thing more than any other," Giglio writes, "but the volume of our actions speak louder than our words. In the end, our worship is more about...

Published by Alfred A Knopf Canada: Toronto, Canada, 2011. P. D. James is a mystery and crime writer, and I have never read any of her books until now. Though, having read Death Comes to Pemberley, I find myself wondering if I may need to read another of her books at some point to get a clearer understanding of her style...  ...because this book is written as if it was a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. In a style that, at some moments more than others, purposefully imitates the style of Jane Austen and her era. It is six years since Elizabeth and Mr Darcy have married. Jane and her husband Mr Bingley have moved to be nearer Pemberley, and often visit. Lydia and Wickham, however, are not welcome at Pemberley - understandable when the events of Pride and Prejudice are taken into account. On the evening before the annual Lady Anne's Ball, the Wickhams have planned for Lydia to arrive unannounced and impose herself on the Darcys. However, tragedy strikes on the way to Pemberley.  I...

Published by Scholastic Children's Books: London, 2011 (2010). Book Three in the 'Hunger Games' series: ' The Hunger Games '; ' Catching Fire '; ' Mockingjay '. It should be immediately noted that this is a darker book than the other two in the series. No more actual Hunger Games take place, very little in the way of the glitz and glamour of the Capitol. Right from the beginning, Katniss is a refugee in District 13, most of her home District has been destroyed, and she must decide whether to let the rebels use her as a figurehead for their movement. Death always featured in the Hunger Games series as a whole, but now it is on a much larger scale. This is war, and it isn't pretty. Much of the debate in the book is on the morality of war, with Katniss far more reluctant to engage with it than some of the other characters we know - Gale is busy designing traps to be used against the Capitol, for one. The cost of war is also apparent - there are dead...

Published by Scholastic Children's Books: London, 2011 (2009). Book Two in the 'Hunger Games' series: ' The Hunger Games '; ' Catching Fire '; ' Mockingjay '. It's taken me a long time to return to the world of Panem, however I have taught the first book a few times with my year 11 classes since then, meaning that the story is still relatively fresh in my mind. Although I have also seen the movie version of this entry in the series, it was only once and back when it was in theatres, so the plot was vague enough in my mind to still give some surprises. Katniss and Peeta have both survived the 74th Hunger Games and are now living the luxurious life of victors. However, the manner in which they won has made Katniss in particular a symbol of rebellion, and it becomes quickly apparent that she must toe the line or face likely death for her and those she loves. President Snow, the leader of the Capitol, has a particular hatred for Katniss, and begins t...

Published by Headline Publishing Group: London, 2012. Jack and Mabel are a childless couple now a little beyond childbearing age, living in Alaska in the early 20th century. They have drifted apart, partially due to the grief over the stillbirth that they experienced ten years earlier, and partially due to their own brokenness that keeps Jack silent and Mabel suicidal. They are also struggling to turn their part of the country into a farm, and are low on food and income. On the evening of the first snowfall of winter, they manage to briefly connect with one another, building a child out of snow, and, as the winter continues, begin to believe that this snow child has come alive. Glimpses of a young girl are seen in the woods, usually accompanied by an equally mysterious fox. Yet only Jack and Mabel seem to ever see the girl. This reads like a fairy tale, and is actually inspired by a Russian fairy tale, in which a similarly childless older couple magically bring a snow child to life. Wh...

Published by Collector's Library: London, 2013. Originally published 1930. I picked this up to be 'H' in the Alphabet Soup reading challenge, and, as a fan of the 1941 film version starring Humphrey Bogart , was curious to see how similar the screenplay of that film reflected the original novel.  The answer to that question turns out to be: extremely similar. Like, way more similar than any other book-to-movie adaptation I can think of. Even the dialogue of the book seems to have been replicated word-for-word throughout the film (at least from what I could remember), which makes reading the book a strange experience for someone who has come to it as their second exposure to this story. Because, with the book and movie being so similar, I'm put in an interesting position of actually finding myself preferring the film version to the book version.  That's not a common feeling. To unpack my feelings a bit: Sam Spade is a very closed character, by design. We, as the audi...

Published by Paul Brand Publishing: Seattle, WA, 1976. Granny Brand is a missionary biography with a bit of a difference. This is the life story of Evelyn Brand (nee Harris), who went to India as a missionary, fell in love with and married fellow missionary Jesse Brand, and then carried on working in India following Jesse's death from blackwater fever. What makes Evelyn so different from most of the missionaries you read about in these sort of books is that she is portrayed throughout as a fairly stubborn, strong-willed, slightly argumentative woman, happy to butt heads with anyone who doesn't see eye to eye with her. She reminds us that God is looking for willing hearts, rather than particular personalities. In fact, Evelyn's personality helps her to continue ministering in the 'Mountains of Death' region of India even after she officially retires from missionary service. The mission organisation overseeing that region are occasionally shown to be opposed to her ch...

Published by Penguin Books: North Shore, NZ, 2004. This book tells the story of three Maori brothers, Pita, Rangi and Tu, who one by one join the Maori battalion and end up fighting in Egypt and Italy during World War 2. Tu, our narrator, is the youngest of the three, and the vast majority of the book is presented as his journal entries from the war, with an additional framing device being that he is handing these journal pages on to his niece and nephew in order for them to understand their father, Pita, more. While Tu's journal entries are obviously mostly focussed on his own experiences, other chapters are interspersed with the 'journal entries', telling Pita's story in a third-person narrative. It is a little confusing as to how these may or may not be being presented to Tu's nephew and niece, as if we are to take the narrative at face value all of these chapters should be Tu's journal, but obviously are not. However, putting that aside we get a good idea of...

Published by Inter-Varsity Press: Leicester, England, 1987. I picked this little book up from a pile my mum was giving away, then found it in my reading pile when I couldn't sleep a few nights ago. The authors, Bill and Shirley Lees, tell of their time as missionaries in Borneo, along with their call to the mission, some of their courtship and family stories.  Within the book, Shirley mentions an earlier book that she wrote, Drunk Before Dawn, which apparently tells the history the mission they were involved with more thoroughly. That allows this book some freedom to focus on particular themes and topics rather than needing to be tied to a larger arc. In some cases this would be an issue, but Is It Sacrifice? is very easy to read. The chapters are short and interesting, and the authors end each of them with a few questions to think about, as well as including a recommended reading list of other books on the theme of the chapter (some of which I might hunt out). Some parts of the bo...

Published by Penguin Books: London, England, 2003 (2001). The quote on the cover of this book compares it to Monty Python, Harry Potter, Stephen Hawking and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I get mostly reminded of Terry Pratchett  and Discworld. It is bizarre but humorous, full of wordplay and plot diversions; a world where seemingly anything goes. A world where the protagonist's fugitive time-travelling father will pause time and show up mid-scene in order to query his daughter - literary detective Thursday Next - about whether bananas exist in her version of reality or not. A world where characters from classic fiction are beginning to cross over into 'the real world' and vice versa. A world where vampires and werewolves exist, but its not the main thrust of the plot at all. A world where cloned dodos are now so common as to be a bit of a pest. A world where literature is so popular that the audience is able to perform entire Shakespearean plays from memory at sold-out venues. ...

Published by Puffin Books/Penguin Group: London, England: 1994 (1990). First published in French, 1872. My second Jules Verne book on this blog. I began reading this one, was surprised by the level of humour involved, and decided to keep it to read with Elise once our previous book had been finished. I'm glad I did. Most of us probably have some idea of the plot of Eighty Days , probably through having seen a movie version - the most recent one being the Jackie Chan one - and there are certainly a number of the major beats of those films in the book. But, as is the case with many adaptations of older adventure books, a movie is developed to be more 'cinematic', and therefore bigger in scale than its source material. In terms of Eighty Days, that means that the movie versions cram in more locations and more modes of transport, whereas the book mostly focusses on passenger liner ships and trains. Phileas Fogg also has carefully plotted his course to be the most direct route ...

Published by Penguin Group (NZ): North Shore, Auckland, NZ, 2010. In 1867 the influential missionary to the Māori people, Henry Williams, died. Williams had been in New Zealand since 1823 and had been responsible (among many other notable events in his life) for translating the Treaty of Waitangi. In the same year that Williams died, Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand, who had himself been in New Zealand since 1843, returned to England to take up a new post. This book tells the history of New Zealand - with a particular focus on the work of the early missionaries - from the first arrival of Europeans in these islands up until that point in 1867. Choosing to end the book with the death of Williams and departure of Selwyn seems fitting, as these two figures had massive influence on the shape of Christianity in the country, as well as influencing the shape of the country - and interactions between Māori and Pākehā. In the modern post-Christian worldview, the ea...

Published by Robert Hale Limited: London, England, 2011. First published 2010. This is a book I chose solely because it is in the Tasman District Library and the author's last name starts with E. I have never heard of Jack Edwardes before, but it seemed a nice easy way to cross "E" off my Alphabet Soup list (particular after the longer reads for "D" and especially   "C" ). Having now read a Jack Edwardes book... I'm good. That is probably enough. Its not a terrible book. It has action. It has adventure. A little bit of a romance. Its most definitely a western. If you want all those things, you will get them. But...  The pace of the book felt a little 'off' to me. Each scene seems to be dealt with in the quickest way possible, with many of them seemingly existing simply to set up the next 'shocking' moment. Occasionally this style gets a bit confusing as well - a character will start discussing something before we have even had tha...

Published by Penguin English Library: London, England, 2012. First published 1859. This novel is one of the most well-known Dickens titles, and is the one that Dickens himself believed to be his finest work. It is also, ironically, the least "Dickensy" Dickens novel... Most of the Dickens novels have long chapters with grand flowing sentences, humorous descriptions and heavy layers of satire woven throughout. In A Tale of Two Cities, the humour is there but less present, and the chapters are far shorter. It feels as those Dickens was trying something new for this book - a far more 'edited down' style - and it is obvious from his comments that he was happy with the results. The book is well-written (as all Dickens books are), and the more 'minimalistic' style (comparatively) does suit the tale that is being told - involving romance, rescues, redemption, revenge, and revolution, to list some of the Rs. We meet the forgotten and broken prisoner Doctor Manette, hi...

With Margie Thomson. Published by HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Ltd: Auckland, NZ, 2020. Wow. So, Stan Walker is a New Zealand singer/songwriter who came to prominence as an 18-year old when he won the 2009 season of Australian Idol. I knew that about him. I knew he had a faith of some sort. And Elise has been listening to a lot of his more recent music lately, including some beautiful pieces in Te Reo. That's really it. Elise is actually the one who found this book at a second hand shop, and we decided to check it out. I say again, wow. Stan has had an incredible life. Incredible highs, and incredible lows. He talks about his journey candidly, sometimes too bluntly for comfort - including his abusive upbringing, his abuse and repeated rape at the hands of a relative, his diagnosis with cancer and subsequent operation to remove his stomach... and his career, his journey on Idol, and his faith journey - coming to know the love, forgiveness, and transforming power of Jesus. I...

Originally published 1896. Audiobook released by LibriVox 06-02-2014. Narrated by Bob Neufeld. Well, it seems that audiobooks  have  been  easier to get  through lately! This classic science fiction novel is a fairly dark story, telling of Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked survivor who ends up stranded on the titular island where Dr Moreau is experimenting on animals, turning them into humanoid beings through a combination of extreme surgery/vivisection and hypnosis. The creatures are able to talk and reason (to a degree) and consider themselves humans, living by a series of strict laws to try and keep them from reverting to their instinctive animal behaviour. As time goes on, however, it seems that all of the animals will indeed inevitably lose their 'humanity.'  Wells seems to naturally gravitate towards the darker elements of humanity in his work, and this is no exception. Moreau - who is, to be fair, treated with some degree of horror by Prendick - sees himself...