Karl's Reading List

From an original idea by Siobhan Dowd. Published by Walker Books: London, England, 2012 (2011). This is one of those books I've heard people rave about, and now I understand why. Technically a children's book, and definitely written with (older) children in mind, A Monster Calls nevertheless confronts some very heavy topics. Conor faces bullying at school, constant nightmares, and now the nightly visit of a monster, but all of this pales alongside the fact that his mother is dying of cancer. I don't remember the word 'cancer' being actually written in the book, but it is very obvious that this is what she is suffering from. It is also very obvious from the beginning that Conor's mother is dying. The titular monster begins visiting Conor at 12.07 at night, and explains that Conor has 'called' him. The monster says it will now tell him three stories "from when I walked before" (page 45), and then Conor will tell the monster a final story, which w...

Published by William Heinemann Ltd: London, 1977. First published 1945. Translated from the French by Katherine Woods. A cute, quirky, whimsical, oddly melancholic little book. The nameless narrator talks about his early forays into art, then, after his plane breaks down, forcing him to land in the Sahara, he meets the titular Little Prince. The Prince has arrived at Earth from his home on Asteroid B-612, a tiny world with three tiny volcanoes (one extinct) and a vain flower. He befriends the narrator and asks him to draw a sheep. After a few attempts which are criticized by the Prince, the narrator pleases the visitor by drawing a box and tells him the sheep is inside it. The Prince plans to take the sheep home with him, but is struggling to figure out how. This is not a long book, but it does have moments that seem somehow profound, and is very abstract in its ideas. The ending also builds on the feeling of melancholy that has been felt throughout, with the Prince 'finding a way ...

Published by Penguin Books: London, England, 1977 (1951). Translated by Nevill Coghill. First published in Middle English in the 12th Century. Overall, this is not a book I'd recommend. It is interesting in some ways, giving an insight to the different social strata of 12th Century England, as well as discussions about the sorts of things considered socially acceptable(!), but it is also (in some of the stories) very bawdy and in fact rather coarse. I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that old books will have more 'conservative' sensibilities, but although this is somewhat true if you go back to, say, Victorian Literature, going too far back comes out the other side of that era of history and back into the ribald. The structure of The Canterbury Tales is that a group of travellers, making pilgrimage to the grave of St Thomas Beckett in Canterbury, are challenged by their first-night host - who will be travelling with them - to each tell two stories in order to win th...

Published by Penguin Books: Great Britain, 1977. First published 1945. Animal Farm is a very well-known book, but not a very pleasant one. It presents itself as 'A Fairy Story', telling the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their farmer, taking over the farm and running it for themselves. At first things seem to go well, but as the story progresses (and as the fierce boar Napoleon begins to assert more and more authority over the other animals) things gradually grow harder and harder for the idealistic animals. Orwell's story is a clear commentary on various revolutionary ideals of his day, most clearly communism, with the animals referring to each other as 'Comrade' and claiming to work for the common good. Unfortunately this commentary also includes the levels of corruption and power that those in leadership in those systems often exhibit. By the end of the story all of the 'good' characters have been suppressed, or worked themselves to de...

Published in an omnibus edition with the full Chronicles of Narnia series: " The Magician's Nephew "; " The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe "; " The Horse and His Boy "; " Prince Caspian ";  "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" ;  "The Silver Chair" ; "The Last Battle" , by Harper Collins Publishers: Hammersmith, London, 2010. Originally published 1956. The final book in the Narnia series, The Last Battle appropriates covers the events leading up to and surrounding the end of Narnia itself. The last king of Narnia, Tirian, and his close friend, the unicorn Jewel, enlist the help of Eustace and Jill to do battle against a "false Aslan" and an army of Calormenes. The book is different from the remainder of the Narnia series (aside from The Horse and His Boy ) in that it begins in Narnia, following Narnians, with no one from 'our' world arriving until quite a way in to the book. Even when they do ...

Published in an omnibus edition with the full Chronicles of Narnia series: " The Magician's Nephew "; " The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe "; " The Horse and His Boy "; " Prince Caspian ";  "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" ; "The Silver Chair" ;  "The Last Battle" , by Harper Collins Publishers: Hammersmith, London, 2010. Originally published 1953. This is my favourite of all the Narnia books, for a few reasons. Firstly, Puddleglum. The Marsh-wiggle character, with his dour outlook on life (while considering himself an optimist by Marsh-wiggle standards) is a great comic-relief character while also providing a moral compass for our two main protagonists. Second, the protagonists. Eustace Scrubb, introduced in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, returns, now accompanied by Jill Pole. This is the only 'main story-line' Narnia books to not include a Pevensie sibling, and in doing so Lewis allows Eustace ...

Published in a omnibus edition as "The Circle Trilogy" : " Black "; " Red "; " White ", by Thomas Nelson: Nashville, Tennessee, 2004. In the third novel of this trilogy, Ted Dekker again shifts the allegorical world into a new era of allegory while continuing the 'real world' thriller plot of seeking to undo the effects of the deadly Raison Strain that has been released around the world. Now in the 'other' world Thomas leads a group of 'believers' called The Circle, who are in danger of fracturing into 'denominations' of sorts. The main area of dispute revolves around how to act regarding the Horde (the non-believer equivalents) who seek to destroy the fledgling community. One of Thomas' fellow leaders suggests leaving the Horde to their own devices rather than evangelising them at all, while another suggests 'watering down the gospel' by removing some of the more 'difficult' requirements of...

Published in a omnibus edition as "The Circle Trilogy" : " Black "; " Red "; " White ", by Thomas Nelson: Nashville, Tennessee, 2004. The novel Red opens fifteen years after the events of Black , at least as far as one of the worlds protagonist Thomas Hunter lives in is concerned. In the other world - our world - only half an hour has passed, which is of benefit considering the gun currently pointed at his sleeping head... Red keeps up the action-packed pace of its predecessor, along with continuing its Narnia-like allegorical allusions in the 'other' world. Whereas the first novel dealt in metaphors about creation and the fall, this one takes a little longer to figure out, with a few twists and turns keeping me guessing before things finally clicked into place. When they do click into place, Dekker still manages to offer a few surprises and alterations to the familiar biblical stories which both make the reader ponder upon hi...

Published in a omnibus edition as "The Circle Trilogy" : " Black "; " Red "; " White ", by Thomas Nelson: Nashville, Tennessee, 2004. Black is a number of things: a Christian fantasy/allegory in the vein of Narnia, an action adventure with an Everyman seeking to defeat an evil terrorist organisation, a time travel story... It even contains elements of a superhero origin story! The book tells the story of Thomas Hunter, an aspiring writer who owes money to the mob and is therefore hiding out with his sister. Yet this is not all that is going on for Thomas. Every time he falls asleep in our world he wakes up in another realm that could be the future, or the past, or a distant planet, but that is also an increasingly clear "Eden" of sorts, where white bat/angels and innocent humans revel in the it relationship with Elyon, the story's depiction of a childlike God. When he falls asleep in that world he wakes up back in ours.  ...

Published in an omnibus edition with the full Chronicles of Narnia series: " The Magician's Nephew "; " The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe "; " The Horse and His Boy "; " Prince Caspian "; "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" ; "The Silver Chair" ;  "The Last Battle" , by Harper Collins Publishers: Hammersmith, London, 2010. Originally published 1952. Out of the three books adapted into movies by Walden Media, Voyage of the Dawn Treader as a book is the most different from its film adaptation. It does hit the majority of the same beats, but the movie combines various parts of the adventure, streamlines some elements (as movies must do when adapting a book) and makes a few subtle changes to certain elements (the appearance of Aslan as a lamb is removed, for example). Elise and I enjoyed debating which parts we preferred from the  book or movie. Overall, I think I prefer the book, especially the opening sentence, wh...

Published in an omnibus edition with the full Chronicles of Narnia series: " The Magician's Nephew "; " The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe "; " The Horse and His Boy "; " Prince Caspian "; "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" ; "The Silver Chair" ;  "The Last Battle" , by Harper Collins Publishers: Hammersmith, London, 2010. Originally published 1950. The classic children's book in a lot of ways, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe has been a source of joy for children - and an interesting discussion on the level of allegory for adults - since it was first published in 1950. The Pevensie children (Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy) find themselves journeying through the titular wardrobe into Narnia, a world full of talking animals, mythological creatures and "deities", ruled over by a witch and locked in an eternal winter. While there, they witness the return of Aslan - the Christ-equivalent of Narnia ...