Karl's Reading List

Published by Arrow Books: London, 2006. First published 1960. This is an incredibly well-known book that I remember reading in high-school - I think it was even our book study. Although the generalisation is that books you have studied at high-school are 'ruined forever' for you, I remember quite enjoying this book, to the point where I offered it as a choice to read to Elise. However, after only a chapter, we weren't feeling it as a co-read, and so put it down.  Recently, I decided to pick it up as a solo book, and have now re-read it for the first time since highschool. A few things strike me about To Kill a Mockingbird after this second read. Firstly: it is a good book. My memory was not faulty on that front. Telling the story of a lawyer in the southern states of America during the 1930s who is defending a black man accused of rape, the book cleverly chooses the perspective of the lawyer's young daughter, 'Scout', as its point-of-view. This means that we get...

Published by The Folio Society: London, 1976. First published 1855. Book 1 in 'The Chronicles of Barsetshire.' Followed by ' Barchester Towers. ' This is the third Anthony Trollope book I have read, and is the second of his Barsetshire Novels I have read, though in fact it is the first in that series. Barchester Towers , being the second book in the set, was the only one of his that I owned when I first read it, and fortunately worked as a stand-alone. It is interesting returning to Book 1, now, though, as I have more insight into the motivations of various characters in that second book! But anyway, for those who haven't read either: The Warden follows the story of Septimus Harding, the titular Warden of Hiram's Hospital, as well as a precentor in Barchester Cathedral. Hiram's Hospital was set up generations earlier based on a bequest from a John Hiram, who asked that twelve elderly men would be looked after in the role of "bedesmen", with the War...

Published by Beckett Publishing: Auckland, NZ, 1985. First published 1965. I found this at the ReStore in Tahunanui yesterday after work. I had the evening free and got a long way through it, then finished the book this afternoon. So, a fairly easy read, and not one I've ever read before. Dinny Virtue is a rubbish collector, not only doing the job of a rubbish collector but also collecting a large percentage of the 'rubbish' on his property, in case it ever comes in handy. He and his friend 'Watcher' enjoy their job, particularly the "perks" (aka, the good quality rubbish, and what they can sell it for), but are otherwise fairly unmotivated in life. Dinny's world is upended when his eighteen-year-old daughter, Leila, turns up. Dinny hasn't seen her in years, and is resistant to her arrival. Crump's humour shines as Dinny tries half-heartedly to make Leila leave, while gradually growing to respect and appreciate her. Of course, Leila is soon a v...

Published by Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia: Sydney, Australia, 1992 (1991). Keith is an optimist. His parents are 'misery guts': always depressed, weighed down by life. Keith wants to cheer them up, but his attempts to do so all backfire - who would have thought that painting their fish and chip shop bright orange to surprise them wouldn't bring them great joy? This odd little book is my first exposure to Morris Gleitzman, an author who has always been on the edge of my radar but never made it to the reading stage. It's fun, and silly, and pretty much the way I assumed Gleitzman's books would be, from the reputation he has. The story is broken into two halves: half one is Keith trying to cheer his parents up while living in England. Half two takes place when the family has moved to Australia, and now Keith is trying to protect his parents from finding out about the Australian dangers that surround them, fearful that if they learn about poisonous spiders, jellyf...

Published by Victor Gollancz Ltd: London, 1974 (1963). First published 1949. I first read this story as a kid, and have fond memories of it. It is also very weird, something that Elise pointed out as well. This is the only book I have read (so far) of Robert A Heinlein, and yet I know by reputation that he was a prominent science-fiction writer in his day. This book, first written in 1949, is certainly of its day. We get a Mars with canals, native plant and animal life, and a sentient Martian species with ruined cities on the surface and still-thriving (if less populated) sections underground.  Our main character, Jim Marlowe Jr, is a teenager living in South Colony. He has befriended a local 'bouncer', a basketball-sized Martian creature that can perfectly mimic what it hears, parrot-like, and also has some level of intelligence. 'Willis', as Jim calls the creature, is a hugely important part of the plot, helping Jim and his friend Frank get out of numerous scrapes, as...

Published by Definitions/Random House Children's Publishers: London, 2014 (2013). This is an odd book. It is a little bit fairy-tale - a label that is made more explicit by the inclusion of Jacob Grimm's ghost as the narrator! It is a little bit horror, but only subtly, particularly to begin with. It is a little bit young adult romantic drama, but with one of the pair possibly under an enchantment. It is a little bit coming-of-age and taking responsibility for the difficulties of life, but this is told through the main boy's father's storyline (a very distant B-Plot), as well as through a Mastermind style TV show. It feels old-fashioned, but also is set in a vaguely contemporary world. It is also a book I almost accidentally got through. I picked it up off my classroom shelf and had finished it in two days.  As mentioned, the narrator is the ghost of Jacob Grimm, a spirit who can only be heard by the main protagonist, Jeremy Johnson Johnson (both his parents had the sam...

Published by Candlewick Press: Somerville, Massachusetts, 2012. The main character in this book, Daniel, is obsessed with death. Ever since his older brother, Eli, was killed in the Iraq War, Daniel has been keeping a 'book of the dead', writing down the cause of death of various historical figures. Although Daniel doesn't recognise it, this is his way of coping with the grief surrounding his brother's loss. His parents are coping far worse. Although the 'book of the dead' is an important feature of After Eli, the plot doesn't focus on it too much, mostly including facts from the book as epigraphs to open each chapter (and tie into the theme of the chapter slightly). Instead, After Eli is far more reminiscent of something like Bridge to Terabithia : a slightly melancholic story about a young boy falling in love with a girl who draws him out of his shell, even though foreshadowing makes us predict they will not end up together. In After Eli, the girl is quest...

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc: London, 2000. First published 1998. Ages ago I saw the film that this book was based upon. Except for the physical appearance of the main character (who in the book is quite fat but in the film is portrayed by a young, slim Shia LaBeouf) the film turns out to be quite faithful to the plot. That makes sense, because the plot is one of those intricately constructed ones where there are a number of factors that all come together at the end - think of the way the movie Signs makes sense of every character quirk and random non sequiturs in the final showdown with the alien. Holes includes a lot of back-story, interspersing it with the 'current' events, and each event and quirk from the past (a family curse, the family name, onions, etc) all come together at the end to help resolve the plot. So, its an interesting story. I wouldn't say I was 'gripped' while reading it, but it still gives that sense of "oh, clever!" at the ...

Published by Regal Books/Gospel Light: Ventura, California, 2005. Having previously read and enjoyed Matt Redman's 2004 book on worship, Facedown , I was happy to pick up the 2005 book he and his wife Beth wrote together, also on worship, entitled Blessed Be Your Name.  Anyone who has been in Christian circles for long enough will recognise that the title of this book comes from the song of the same name, that Matt and Beth wrote in 2002. It is a powerful song, in part because it not only focusses on worshipping God during the good times (eg. "When the sun's shining down on me... When the world's all as it should be" ) but also on worshipping God in the hard times (eg. "On the road marked with suffering...Though there's pain in the offering" ). The book itself - which is only five chapters long - has a similar focus; each chapter title comes from a lyric in the song, and focusses on the ways in which we can still worship God during each season of our...

Published by Arcturus Publishing Limited: Bermondsey Street, London, 2019. First published 1905. Apparently E Nesbit is known for two books: Five Children and It, which Elise and I read a few years ago, and this novel, The Railway Children, which we have just finished now! Although The Railway Children is much more realistic than Five Children - in which the titular 'It' was a sand-fairy who granted wishes - both novels have a lot of similarities in style: both books have fairly self-contained and occasionally over-long chapters that follow a group of siblings in a remote location, without much parental oversight, who get into numerous adventures, many involving a level of humour but also a level of pathos... in this book, the latter is provided by the absence of the children's father, who - it emerges over time - has been imprisoned for some unspecified crime. So much for the similarities. In The Railway Children, it may come as no surprise that a railway features heavily!...

Published by Penguin Random House Australia: Australia, 2022. Followed by 'Everyone on This Train is a Suspect.' This odd whodunnit, written by Benjamin Stevenson, stars the character Ernest Cunningham, an author who is writing the whodunnit that we are reading, based on the 'true story' that happened to him at his family reunion - a family that, as the title suggests - is full of killers. Ernest promises that he will not lie to us - the audience - and begins by sharing the 'ten detective commandments' of real-life detective author Ronald Knox, commandments that the character-author Ernest continually refers back to throughout the narrative. Author Cunningham (as opposed to real-life author Stevenson) has mostly written self-help books for people wanting to write fiction - including detective fiction - and as such becomes the family's go-to detective when a stranger is found dead in the snow outside their resort, killed in a way that reminds Sofia (step-sist...

Published as an audiobook by Penguin Audio, 14-09-2023. Narrated by Fiona Shaw. Book 4 in the 'Thursday Murder Club' series. Preceded by ' The Bullet That Missed. ' The final book (for now) in the Thursday Murder Club series, this book also feels a bit more like it could be the last in the series, due to a few storylines having a more 'final' feel to them. The main mystery this time revolves around a shipment of heroin that has been snuck into the country inside an antique box. A friend of our main gang has died while in possession of the heroin, and so tracking down the killer is in order. Returning characters like drug-dealer Connie Johnson, retired KGB agent Viktor, and antique dealer Kuldesh Sharma all have parts to play for better or worse, and new characters - including corrupt antique dealer Samantha Barnes and her imposing husband Garth, all add interest to the proceedings. A secondary crime-plot involves a new acquaintance becoming the victim of a roman...

Published by Fontana Books: London & Glasgow, 1969 (1962). First published 1941. Over the school holidays we spent a weekend at my aunt's bach in Pohara with my parents. It was a lovely location and a great time over all (though Ezekiel slept pretty poorly on the first night, and so Elise and I also slept poorly as a result).  Of course, a trip away is also a chance to browse a bookshelf, and this one jumped out to me mostly because it was relatively short, and I know Agatha Christie books are pretty quick to read. I still had to bring it home to finish it, but since it's my aunt's bach I know I'll be able to get it back to her. N or M? surprised me in a few ways. Firstly, it is not (primarily) about a murder. Death does occur within the story, but the plot is actually about uncovering a German spy living in England (it is written and set during the Second World War). Secondly, N or M? surprised me by being a Tommy and Tuppence book! I've only read one Tommy and...

Published by Red Fox/Random House Children's Books: Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, 1993. First published 1960. Book 5 in the 'Adventure' Series. Preceded by ' Volcano Adventure. ' Followed by 'African Adventure.' A lot of the books in this series have elements that have 'dated' a bit, whether in terms of how people of different ethnicities are treated or portrayed, or the way in which our heroes are mostly tasked with collecting rare animals for zoos, circuses and private animal collections, something that is far more controversial today! However, Whale Adventure takes this 'dated' element to a whole new level, with our protagonists Hal and Roger Hunt signing on to a whaling ship. An old-fashioned (even by the standards of the book) whaling ship. With flogging, and keelhauling, and actually killing whales.  I liked the book Moby Dick , and will probably read it again someday. It had whaling throughout it, and it felt normal to the world of the...

Published in an omnibus edition: " Ordeal by Innocence "; " One, Two, Buckle My Shoe "; " The Adventures of the Christmas Pudding " as part of the "Agatha Christie Crime Collection" by Lansdowne Press: Australia, 1985 (1973). First published in omnibus edition 1970. First published individually 1958. A non-Poirot mystery, unlike the (main stories) of the other two entries in this omnibus, Ordeal by Innocence has an interesting, if slightly complicated, set-up. Rachel Argyle, a woman with five adopted children, has been bludgeoned to death, and her youngest son Jacko was found guilty of the murder. After some time in prison, Jacko has died, still protesting his innocence. Two years have passed, and now Arthur Calgary - a scientist - has arrived back in England after two years in Antarctica. It turns out Arthur would have been able to prove Jacko's alibi, but due to both his absence from the country AND a convenient case of amnesia, Arthur has ...

Published by Imagine That Publishing Ltd: Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2020. Omnibus edition featuring: 'I Love You SO Much, Grandma' by Susie Linn and (illustrator) Gail Yerrill; 'Can You Count the Stars?' by Susie Linn and (illustrator) Gabi Murphy; 'I Love You Because...' by Susie Linn and (illustrator) Gavin Scott; 'Daddy Loves Me' by Georgina Wren and (illustrator) Gabi Murphy; 'Mummy Loves Me' by Georgina Wren and (illustrator) Gabi Murphy; 'Goodnight, I Love You' by Oakley Graham and (illustrator) Gareth Llewhellin. This is a selection of six short picture books that work well together (although I believe each is available individually), and fit the theme of being short bedtime stories for young listeners.  All of them are very wholesome and loving, and three focus in on specific family members: Daddy, Mummy and Grandma (Poor Grandpa, Uncle, Aunt, Sister, Brother, Cousin etc get neglected). They are sweet, and show good bonds between the f...

Published by Multnomah Publishers/Random House, Inc.: Atlanta, Georgia, 2006. Elise and I, both separately and when we got married, have collected a number of relationship books, often using them as references or reading sections, but not generally getting through the whole book. Recently, we had the privilege of running our first pre-marriage counselling session for a younger couple in our church, and hunted out our books both to resource ourselves and to offer resources to them. Long story short, I then picked up this book and decided I'd have a go at reading it in its entirety. I recommend doing so. For Men Only is the companion book to For Women Only, which was written by Shaunti Feldhahn as a solo author, helping women understand their men a little better. In this book, Shaunti joins with her husband to write the flipped version, helping men understand their women a little better. Both books (I believe, from what Elise has mentioned of the other book) contain numerous polls th...

Published by Voyager/HarperCollinsPublishers: Hammersmith, London, 1996 (1995). Book 1 of 'The Farseer Trilogy.' Followed by 'Royal Assassin.' Hey writers. Have you ever had trouble coming up with a name for your protagonist? It is possible that Robin Hobb did, as the main character in Assassin's Apprentice is a nameless boy, whose father happened to be the heir-in-waiting to the Seven Duchies. As a bastard (a term that gets flung his way often throughout the book) the boy is mistreated by many of the people in his life, with the main result being that it takes a long time for anyone to get around to giving him an actual name, and even longer for him to be given a name that everyone accepts as his name. It's quite an interesting element in a fairly interesting story, one that I got through a lot quicker than the much shorter Jungle Books.  Our protagonist - generally called 'Fitz' (which, if you know your etymology, means bastard) - is adopted into the r...

Published by Dragon Brothers Books, 2020 (2017). Audiobook released 02-10-21. Narrated by the author. Book 1 in 'The Dragon Defenders' series. Followed by 'Book 2.' This is definitely a children's book, with its short chapters, simple plot, the decision of the main characters to purposefully side-line their parents rather than getting their support in dealing with the main issues, and its mild obsession with getting shot in the butt. It is also the first book in 'The Dragon Defenders' series, and one that impresses me by not having any other title than 'Book 1' and the series title! I believe the rest in the series have similar titles... wow. The author, James Russell, is a New Zealander and narrates his own book - it was quite odd to hear a Kiwi accent the whole way through the story, though I suppose Elise is more used to that than I am due to my narrating most of the books we read together. He reads it fairly well. The story revolves around two ...

Published by Viking Press/Penguin Random House: London, UK, 2021. Audiobook by Penguin Audio. Released 16-09-2021.  Narrated by Lesley Manville. Book 2 in the 'Thursday Murder Club' series. Preceded by ' The Thursday Murder Club. ' Followed by ' The Bullet That Missed. ' At the end of my review for The Thursday Murder Club I said "I will definitely be returning to this series." Voila. The Man Who Died Twice picks up soon after the events of Book 1, with our four heroes settling back into 'regular life' in their retirement community. However, the new peace is upended when Elizabeth's ex-husband, Douglas Middlemiss, arrives in the community incognito, hiding from a gangster who wants him dead. Elizabeth and the gang must try to protect Douglas, whilst also solving a few mysteries that arise during the proceedings. Meanwhile, Ibrahim - venturing out to town for an afternoon - is savagely assaulted by a local hoodlum, and the rest of the gang ...