Karl's Reading List

Published by Bethany House Publishers: Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1992. Book 3 of 'An Emerald Ballad.' Preceded by ' Heart of the Lonely Exile. ' Followed by 'Sons of an Ancient Glory.' Careful readers of this blog will notice that it has been a long time since Elise and I finished any combined book other than a Famous Five entry . That is for a number of reasons, the most prominent of which is that we have been busy with our drawn out move and hunt for a new house. A secondary reason, though, is that we had two physical books on the go at once, both of which were quite long: this one, and a fantasy novel called Dragon Wing (technically, we also have the final few chapters of Rachel's Tears, but that is a book we haven't picked up in a long time, and might still be some time away from revisiting). Anyway, both reasons are finally shifting. As of this post, we have finished this book and we have moved into our new home (hooray!). In fact, the night we finish...

Published by Bethany House Publishers: Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1991. Book 2 in 'An Emerald Ballad.' Preceded by ' Song of the Silent Harp. ' Followed by 'Land of a Thousand Dreams.' Last year, Elise and I read Song of the Silent Harp , the first book in this series, and we blown away by how sad it was. Heart of the Lonely Exile still has some sad moments, but these are more spread out, and now the characters even get to have some good experiences!! We pick up where we left off: Nora and Daniel Kavanagh are living in New York, where Nora is being wooed by her old friend Michael Burke. Meanwhile, Evan Whittaker - the one-armed and stuttering Englishman - is also harbouring feelings for Nora, and Sara Farmington may have some feelings towards Michael.  A class love-square situation. Yes, the word 'heart' in the title of this book does have some significance, as much of the book is filled with angst, pining, and sweet declarations of love. And, having walked...

Published by Vintage Books: London, 2010. First published 1993. This is a 'coming-of-age' story of sorts, starring ten-year-old Paddy Clarke. He hangs out with his mates, getting into low-level trouble (the sort that ten-year-old 'gangs' would get into) in his home town of Barrytown. The story is told from his perspective, and really leans into it, using short sentences and changing scenes abruptly, as if the ten-year-old narrator has suddenly thought of something else he wants to talk about. As the book progresses, Paddy's voice does mature a bit, but the overall timeframe of the narrative is not enough for him to change his narration style all that much. Sometimes this 'purposefully simplistic' style can be to a book's detriment ( Life and Times of Michael K springs to mind), but Doyle finds the balance - Paddy's story may meander but the innocent feel is enough to keep the reader hooked.  This 'innocent' feel is slowly challenged as Paddy...

Published by Penguin: UK, 2023. Audiobook by Penguin Audio, 2023.  Uploaded to Audible 28-09-2023.  On the surface, Unruly is a history of England, like other histories that I have read in the past - this one outlining events from the early kings through to Elizabeth I. However, author David Mitchell is more well-known as a comedian than as an author, and Unruly leans heavily into that.  So, unlike a regular history of the kings and queens of England, this one includes commentary on Brexit, comparisons of historical figures to Mitchell's daughter, ranting tangents on why history is occasionally so bizarre (eg. if the Bayeux Tapestry is not technically a tapestry and yet is the most famous 'tapestry' in the world, why has the definition of tapestry not broadened to include it?!) and a bit of colourful language here and there. I am not a fan of the last of these, but I do generally enjoy David Mitchell's comedic style - which also doesn't include swearing as much as s...

Published by Profile Books in association with National Trust: London, 2012 (2011). This is a very readable history of England, from the time of the early Saxon kings up until the publication of the book in 2011. Jenkins clarifies early on that his focus is on England itself, rather than Britain as a whole, only bringing in other parts of the world as they interact with England. In practice this does mean that Britain often features (particularly once Wales and Scotland are to some degree 'absorbed' into the larger nation) but on the whole a reader of this book would need another resource to find out about those nations. I've always enjoyed English history, and my interest in it grew after working at Westminster Abbey from 2008-2009 during my OE. Although I knew some of the main facts of the various monarchs, particularly post-William the Conqueror, Jenkins fleshes them out well, somehow making certain elements more memorable than I had previously found.  The feud between H...

Published   by Bethany House Publishers: Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1991. Book 1 in 'An Emerald Ballad.' Followed by ' Heart of the Lonely Exile. ' This is the first in the series of Christian novels that I remember reading when I was younger. After finishing the Mark of the Lion series, Elise and I were looking for a new series in a similar vein, and decided to give this one a try. All I could remember about the book was that it was very sad, and was set during the Irish Potato Famine.  So... This book is set during the Irish Potato Famine, and it is very sad! We follow the quickly dwindling Kavanagh family as they seek to survive the horror of those times, mostly focussing on the middle child Daniel and his frail yet stubborn mother Nora. The main support they have comes in the form of Morgan Fitzgerald, a revolutionary man who has loved Nora since they were both children, and whom Daniel idolizes. Also gradually gaining prominence as the plot progresses is the character...

Published by HarperCollins Children's Books: Hammersmith, London, 2007. When I was younger I used to write blog-novels with a friend , each taking turns at creating a chapter and taking the story in a new direction - I've mentioned them before in my Grimm's Fairy Tales review. This novel reminds me of those novels for a few interesting reasons. Firstly, this novel is very funny, in a very silly way, and I've always enjoyed 'silly-funny.' Secondly, our fourth blog-novel was titled And Starring Erstwhile Rogers As Himself , and followed our protagonist Erstwhile Rogers as he got involved in a strange mystery and had to, detective-like, try to solve it. Of course, Erstwhile Rogers was not as well-written as Skulduggery Pleasant is, but the idea of a strangely-monikered 'detective' getting involved in a somewhat fantastical world sounds oddly familiar to me. And for the record, Erstwhile Rogers was finished two years before Skulduggery Pleasant came out. Ju...

Published by MacLehose Press: London, 2012. First published by McClelland & Stewart: Canada, 2010. This is a very well-written and melancholic book which at times reminded me of The Sea , a Booker-Prize-winning novel by John Banville that I read five years ago! Both are narrated by an older protagonist looking back upon their life as a child, both cover love and loss (with the loss happening in fairly dramatic fashion), both jump around to different time periods, both have a small cast of characters based in a small area, both have the adult in question having returned to the house where the childhood events have taken place, and both have occasional moments that cross the line into uncomfortable reading.  In this book Liz Crane recalls her summers visiting the farm of her uncle and aunt on the northern shores of Lake Erie. She and her cousins are made to play with Teo, the son of one of the Mexican seasonal workers, and over time Liz and Teo begin to form a connection. Meanwh...

Published by Flamingo/Fontana Publications: London, England, 1984. Originally published 1970. The Booker prize given to the 1970 novel Troubles,   by J.G. Farrell, was not given in the year it was published, but was retroactively awarded much later, due to a change in the Booker judging system meaning that one year was neglected. I wonder if the much later award has anything to do with the book chosen, which feels like a more contemporary selection than I had anticipated. Farrell uses language beautifully and is able to express layers of meaning even in straightforward description. An early passage reads: "Although he was quite sure that he had never actually proposed to Angela during the few days of their acquaintance, it was beyond doubt that they were engaged: a certainty fostered by the fact that from the very beginning she had signed her letters 'Your loving fiancée, Angela'. This had surprised him at first. But, with the odour of death drifting into the dug-out in ...