Karl's Reading List

Published by Fontana Paperbacks/William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd: Glasgow, 1986. First published by the United States Naval Institute Press, 1984. I've seen the movie version of The Hunt for Red October years ago, and if you haven't, I reckon its a pretty good watch. Seeing Sean Connery play a Russian with his natural Scottish accent is worth the time, even before the story kicks in. However, if you are planning on reading the book and haven't seen the film, I would recommend not watching the film before reading the book. This is because, as much as the cover promises a thrilling action-packed edge-of-your-seat adventure, I didn't find that to be the case in reading Red October. Perhaps its because it is an 'action' book written in the 1980s, and the expectations of audiences have increased. Perhaps it's because I already knew the twists and turns. Perhaps it's because, for a long period of reading this book, I was reading it during silent reading time...

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC: New York, NY, 2016. I made it! This is the 26th and final book in my Alphabet Soup reading challenge. I finished the first book in this challenge on the 11th of August last year, having started it a week earlier. So, finishing in May means it took me 9 months to finish this challenge. I suppose I could have done it quicker if I only read Alphabet Soup books, but where would be the fun in that! Anyway, Judenstaat is a strange book. It falls into the 'alternate history' category of fiction, with this world having a slightly different outcome for the Jewish people post-World War 2. Instead of being granted a state of their own in Palestine (aka, the modern nation of Israel), they are instead granted a state of their own within the borders of Germany. This is justified both as a sort of punishment for Germany's acts of atrocity, and also as a statement of resilience from the Jewish people - that the place where they have faced their w...

With Jamie Buckingham. Published by Christian Literature Crusade & Fleming H. Revell Company: Pennsylvania & New Jersey, 1974. More a collection of short anecdotes from her life than a straight-forward narrative, Tramp For The Lord tells of Corrie ten Boom's life and ministry following the events outlined in the book The Hiding Place. The stories don't take place in any chronological or thematic order, but are short bite-sized chunks of faith and challenge from a remarkable evangelist. Corrie came to fame as an unlikely evangelist following her experiences in the concentration camps of World War 2. In Tramp we see her travelling the world by faith, going wherever she feels the Spirit leading and speaking to whomever she feels God prompt her to. In humble and self-deprecating fashion, Corrie often highlights stories in which she has learned 'the hard way' some truth from God, but is also able to gently point to moments where her faith in God has been strong...

Published by Orbit: London, 2000. First published 1985. As a fairly well-known science-fiction book with a film adaptation that I enjoy (not love, but enjoy), I was looking forward to reading Ender's Game, particularly because I know that fans of the book have not always been big supporters of the movie version. Having read the book, I can understand where they are coming from. Its not that the film is now 'disappointing' to me - it is still a fun science-fiction blockbuster - but the book has a number of subplots that are not even touched upon in the film, and the story is so streamlined (as is inevitably the way of movies to some degree) that at times the film seems to be paying only lip-service to the source material, despite hitting the same major beats. One of the biggest examples of this is in the different portrayals of Ender's older brother, Peter. In the book, Peter is a calculating genius, cold and uncaring, threatening to kill Ender and their sister Va...

With John and Elizabeth Sherrill. Published by... I remember reading this book when I was much younger, and being struck by it. Re-reading it with Elise, I realised how much I had forgotten, and how much more God had been doing in the life of Brother Andrew than I remembered. This is firstly a biography of 'Brother Andrew' (real name Andrew van der Bijl), particularly how he came to faith and began to serve as a missionary and smuggler of bibles into Eastern Europe during 'the Cold War.' But more than that it is a journey of faith and trust in God. So many times throughout the book Andrew is forced to rely on God because he has no other choice, and time after time God shows himself sovereign and powerful. One of the most powerful to me was actually something that Brother Andrew experienced before entering the mission field. At his Evangelism Training School Andrew and some colleagues were given one pound and sent out to do a two week evangelist tour. They were n...