Karl's Reading List

Published by Verso: London, UK, 2014. It wasn't as easy finding a book featuring pirates as I thought it was going to be. I've read plenty in the past -  Treasure Island is a classic I thought of revisiting, and more recently enjoyed Tress of the Emerald Sea had a good sci-fi twist to the pirate tale - but in the end I decided to read this non-fiction nautical history that I had on the classroom library shelf. It did take a while to get the hang of what was being written about in this book - the endnotes clarified that originally each chapter was published separately, and that makes a lot of sense! - but overall Rediker seems to be focussing on the lesser told stories of nautical history, often focussing less on the prominent figures (the Columbuses and Cooks of history) and more on the crew and slaves who also featured heavily at these times. Two chapters even focus on individual accounts, and these are fascinating, especially when giving a different perspective on the polit...

Published by Picador: London, UK, 2001. First published 1971. An odd book, containing three different narratives (along with separate prologue and epilogue narratives) all on the theme of feeling displaced in a different culture and environment.  The first main story is told from the perspective of Santosh, an Indian servant who moves to America, only to find himself questioning his life choices. The next story follows a West Indian man who travels to England to support his brother, only to become disillusioned and eventually murder someone.  The third main narrative - which is the longest and also the titular 'In a Free State' - follows follows two English expats - Bobby and Linda - as they road trip south through a progressively more war-torn African nation. On the way we learn a lot about each character - mostly through their conversations - and witness their interactions with each other and those around them. As with many of the  Booker books I have read, there is an ...

Published by Red Fox/Random House Children's Publishers UK: London, England, 2012 (1993). First published 1949 or 1951. Book 1 in the 'Adventure' series. Followed by ' South Sea Adventure. ' This is the first in a series of 14 novels written by adventurer Willard Price. I remember reading them when I was younger, and have slowly built up my collection of the series over time. I actually started reading this book with Elise, but after a few chapters it hadn't gripped us as a 'shared' book, so we put it aside and then I picked it up again more recently. The book stars brothers Hal and Roger Hunt, in their late and mid teens respectively, who, with their father John, are travelling into the Amazon to capture a variety of animals for zoos, circuses and the like. Already this is a mildly uncomfortable topic for modern sensibilities; it gets even more so when the Hunts purchase a shrunken head from a native village for a museum of natural history. "At fir...

Published as an audiobook by Blackstone Audio Inc., 14-08-2015. Narrated by Lewis Grenville. Originally published 2007. This book, subtitled Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down, is fairly accurately titled! We get a history of piracy in the Caribbean, as well as a look at some of the events and individuals that inspired the Caribbean pirates - learning, as an example, of the pirate stronghold of Madagascar. The 'republic' of the title is the town of Nassau on the island of New Providence, where a pirate society of sorts existed for quite some time. The book is full of fascinating information, and doubles as a biography of the most prominent pirates, including Charles Vane, Henry Avery, and Blackbeard (Edward Thatch). Each pirate's individual personality and goals come across well, with Vane easily the most violent of the main pirates. Some moments surprise, such as when one of the most successful pirates is killed b...