Karl's Reading List

Published by Corax Books: USA, 2025. Looking for a book for my reading challenge that was "set in the Arctic or Antarctic", I noticed this book on the LibraryThing giveaway list for July. Nome seems Arctic-y, right?  Well, author Engelhard points on out, on page 259, that: "You may think of Nome as "the North," but its as far south of the pole as Mexico City from Kansas, one hundred miles shy of the Arctic Circle, at the same latitude as Fairbanks (Yet it decidedly looks and feels like the Arctic)." That last bracketed part is my salvation for this challenge. And anyway, the challenge says "set in the Arctic," not "set in the Arctic circle," so I'm calling this close enough. Early on in No Place Like Nome, the author mentions an online review that accuses his books of being "embellished ramblings" (page 40). He embraces this term, insisting that he will not be telling all the well-known stories of the area, but instead foc...

Published by Oxford University Press: Great Britain, 1992 (1987). First published in 1894 (The First Jungle Book) and 1895 (The Second Jungle Book). I probably could have broken this "book" in half, considering that it consists of both "The First Jungle Book" and "The Second Jungle Book", but as both Jungle Books are really just a collection of short stories - many of which (though far from all) are about Mowgli - they work together as one larger collection. Though, considering the whole collection as one book  did mean I messed up my reading challenge slightly (see the previous entry). What surprised me about the Jungle Books as a whole is that there are so many non Mowgli stories. We get a tale about a mongoose, a few from the perspective of humans that can't talk to animals, and even a few set in the Arctic region - which really stretches the idea of "jungle"...! Each of them feels a little like a folk tale or fable, and apparently some of...

Published by JM Dent & Sons Ltd: London, UK, 1973. First published 1939. A slightly old-fashioned book, seemingly written to intentionally resemble fairy tales or 'older' stories (though, being written in 1939 it may also just be old-fashioned), Robin Hood is a collection of stories about the titular outlaw, collected and retold by the author when she was approached and asked to do so. The book begins with Robin Hood already established as an outlaw, and we never get a definitive answer about his origins or family - although we do eventually meet some relatives. We also stay at a distance from his relationship with Marian; she does come into the story eventually but Robin is reluctant to pursue a relationship with her, and the reasons for this are hidden until very near the end of the book. Mostly, then, this is a series of short adventures that are vaguely linked. Different sections of the book may promise that they are about 'Robin and Sir Richard' or 'Robin a...

Published independently, September 12, 2024. eBook edition. My third LibraryThing prize, The Curse of the Smoky Mountain Treasure is the most professional-feeling read I've received so far. The version I read may not have had a cover attached to the pdf file, but - I mean, look at that! That looks pretty profesh too, right?? The story is well written and lightly-comedic; Kevin's mother has just remarried, and he now has a step-dad and step-sister, Anne. However, the celebrant at the wedding stumbles over the fact that Kevin has kept his old last name, and Kevin inadvertently becomes "and uh, um... Kevin." This, sadly, fits with Kevin's persona. He is a little bit glass-half-empty, and isn't quite sure what he thinks about the new family dynamic. He is even less sure about the 'familymoon' vacation the newly formed quartet are going on, considering it is camping and hiking, something that neither Kevin or his mum have any experience with, but that Kevin...

Published by Little, Brown and Company: New York/Boston, 2016. This book was lent to me by a student, which is the first time I've had that happen! Thanks, Savana! I became interested in reading this story when I saw the first trailer for the upcoming movie version . That trailer, almost completely dialogue-free, seems to imply a beautifully animated and heart-warming story about a robot befriending wild animals and creating a home on a forested island, told entirely visually and musically. The book (as well as the second trailer ) have a lot more dialogue in them, and although I can confirm that the story is a good one, I do also kinda want to see that dialogue-free arthouse animated film. However, although I wanted a dialogue-free book, the book I did get was a sweet story, with some great messages in it. Roz is a robot that accidentally washes up on a small island after a shipwreck, and slowly adjusts to life on the island. To begin with, the local animals think Roz is a monster...

Published by Frederick Warne & Co./Penguin Group Ltd: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 2001. Stories originally published between 1902-1918. Ever since our son Ezekiel was born last year, I've been wondering how to acknowledge the books I read with him. As a general rule, things that end up on this list take 'a while' to read; I don't include articles, or comics (sorry Asterix ), or picture books, because they are too short, and would also bulk this list out too much. But, reading to Ezekiel is a privilege, and is something I quite enjoy, and I would love to be able to share some of that enjoyment here. So, as a beginning, I've decided to include some of the 'larger' storybooks I read to Ezekiel. And maybe I might also include groups of picture books as a single entry, especially when they are ones that we really enjoy. ...When I say 'we' I mostly mean myself and Elise for now. At present Ezekiel's level of 'enjoyment' is based arou...

Published by Nana Fox Publishing: New Zealand, 2022. This is a really odd book, like many of the fiction books I have read this year!!  Lada is a young girl growing up in the Ukraine. She has odd-coloured eyes and is picked on by the girls in her village. Her grandmother looks after her while her father is away fighting in an unspecified war. This could be the set-up for an emotional drama. But no. Lada quickly meets a magical fox with mind-control powers who, nevertheless, is unable to control Lada. This upsets the fox no end. The fox can also talk, explained by the fact that 'of course foxes can talk. They just don't usually have anything they want to say!' A nearby house has a ghost in it that used to be friends with both of Lada's parents. The ghost writes letters to Lada, that Lada never reads. In fact, throughout the book the ghost never once actually interacts with Lada. There is a seven-legged spider in the cellar that can collect tears and 'spin' the...

Published by Huia Publishers: Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, 2018. This is a new book in the English department, another by an up-and-coming new Maori author, and whoo boy it ramps up quickly! At the end of the first chapter a bus full of highschool students crashes in the New Zealand bush. Most die. A few chapters later one student needs his leg operated on by another student. A few chapters later another student turns murderous. Somewhere in the midst of all this the survivors begin getting nose-bleeds and seeing visions. Eventually a spaceship and a sinister corporation are introduced. It's so much and it all just keeps escalating! The book is a page-turner, helped by the amount of plot and the very short chapters (the shortest chapter is made up of a single line of text), and I can imagine students really enjoying it for its realistic New Zealand teens (well, before they turn murderous), its fast pace, and even its occasional romantic subplots (which do at times get a bit mo...

Published in an omnibus edition "The Essential Crump Collection" containing: "A Good Keen Man"; " Bastards I Have Met "; " Wild Pork and Watercress ", by Hodder Moa Beckett Publishers Limited: Auckland, NZ, 2003. Originally published 1986. Although in his lifetime Barry Crump was probably most well-known for the books A Good Keen Man and Hang on a Minute, Mate, his later book Wild Pork and Watercress  may now be his most successful work, if not recognised as such by many people. This is because it is the inspiration for Taika Waititi's movie Hunt for the Wilderpeople, the movie that helped launch the Kiwi Director's international popularity a few years before he made Thor: Ragnarok.  Wild Pork and Watercress, like Hunt for the Wilderpeople, tells the story of Ricky Baker, an early teen Māori boy who is sent to live with his Aunty Bella and Uncle Hec on their remote farm. In the movie these terms are honorary, given by Bella to help Ricky ...

Published by Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group, Inc.: New York, NY, 2009 (2008). Book Seven of 'The Saga of Seven Suns' series: ' Hidden Empire '; ' A Forest of Stars '; ' Horizon Storms '; ' Scattered Suns '; ' Of Fire and Night '; ' Metal Swarm '; ' The Ashes of Worlds '. Aaaand, this is it! The final book in the Saga of the Seven Suns! Wow...  The majority of this book is devoted to paying off the various character arcs that remain and finishing off the various villains that still live. By the end we have happy endings for pretty much every surviving protagonist, and the galaxy is safe from every single threat that still remained at the beginning of the book. Some of the plot threads wrap up in ways that are a bit unexpected, but overall this is a book that is simply powering towards its ending. Characters do some odd things in order to be where the author needs them to be, either to further the plot or to be killed off (...

Published by Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group, Inc.: New York, NY, 2008 (2007). Book Six of 'The Saga of Seven Suns' series: ' Hidden Empire '; ' A Forest of Stars '; ' Horizon Storms '; ' Scattered Suns '; ' Of Fire and Night '; ' Metal Swarm '; 'The Ashes of Worlds'. In some ways I think The Saga of the Seven Suns might have been better wrapping up in the last entry. Of Fire and Night finished the hydrogue war and had King Peter and Queen Estarra finally escape from under Basil Wenceslas' control to the forest planet of Theroc. But the big twist at the end of the last book was the return of the insect-like Klikiss - the ancient race believed to be extinct - and now they have a massive presence in this book. So, where things were just wrapping up, now we have a new villain to face. At the same time, the insane brother of Jora'h, Rusa'h (who had flown directly into a star in Scattered Suns ) has also returned,...

Published by Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group, Inc.: New York, NY, 2007 (2006). Book Five of 'The Saga of Seven Suns' series: ' Hidden Empire '; ' A Forest of Stars '; ' Horizon Storms '; ' Scattered Suns '; ' Of Fire and Night '; ' Metal Swarm '; ' The Ashes of Worlds '. After the last two installments in this series seemed a little unfocussed, Of Fire and Night course-corrects by bringing pay-off to a number of long-running subplots. Where Horizon Storms and Scattered Suns both technically contained the start of the Klikiss robot uprising, Of Fire and Night brings that war out into the open. Not only does the Hansa league become aware of the robotic treachery, but they begin having to figure out how to do battle against them. The hydrogue war also reaches its peak; with the Ildirian empire forced into a difficult corner, being asked to join the hydrogues or face annihilation themselves, Jora'h sides with the hydrogues...

Published by Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group, Inc.: New York, NY, 2007 (2005). Book Four of 'The Saga of Seven Suns' series: ' Hidden Empire '; ' A Forest of Stars '; ' Horizon Storms '; ' Scattered Suns '; ' Of Fire and Night '; ' Metal Swarm '; 'The Ashes of Worlds'. By now I'm guessing you know there are spoilers for earlier in the series. About halfway through this book I took a break from the story and had a look at a section in the back called 'meet the author'. Within it Kevin J Anderson admits that originally this book and book 3, the previous installment , were intended to be one entry in the series. However, as he was writing the draft the story grew enough that he ended up splitting it in two, which also allowed him to explore a few extra plotlines he would have otherwise trimmed. This extra information helped me to make sense of the pacing of this book, as well as Horizon Storms before it. Basically...

Published by Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group, Inc.: New York, NY, 2007 (2004). Book Three of 'The Saga of Seven Suns' series: ' Hidden Empire '; ' A Forest of Stars '; ' Horizon Storms '; ' Scattered Suns '; ' Of Fire and Night '; ' Metal Swarm '; ' The Ashes of Worlds '. Spoilers for the first two books. Horizon Storms continues the story set up in the previous installments, with this one feeling perhaps a little more action-packed, now that the set-up has finished for many of the subplots. Particularly, the Klikiss robot subplot finally kicks into gear, with the robots beginning to turn against both the human and Ildiran races. Jora'h gets a lot of focus in this installment as he steps into the role of Mage-Imperator, realising how much of his father's scheming he needs to continue (reluctantly) while also seeking to change many of the long-standing Ildiran traditions, almost as a reaction against his father'...

Published by Headline Publishing Group: London, 2012. Jack and Mabel are a childless couple now a little beyond childbearing age, living in Alaska in the early 20th century. They have drifted apart, partially due to the grief over the stillbirth that they experienced ten years earlier, and partially due to their own brokenness that keeps Jack silent and Mabel suicidal. They are also struggling to turn their part of the country into a farm, and are low on food and income. On the evening of the first snowfall of winter, they manage to briefly connect with one another, building a child out of snow, and, as the winter continues, begin to believe that this snow child has come alive. Glimpses of a young girl are seen in the woods, usually accompanied by an equally mysterious fox. Yet only Jack and Mabel seem to ever see the girl. This reads like a fairy tale, and is actually inspired by a Russian fairy tale, in which a similarly childless older couple magically bring a snow child to life. Wh...

Published by Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group: New York, NY, 2007 (2003). Book Two of 'The Saga of Seven Suns' series: ' Hidden Empire '; ' A Forest of Stars '; ' Horizon Storms '; ' Scattered Suns '; ' Of Fire and Night '; ' Metal Swarm '; ' The Ashes of Worlds '. Spoilers for parts of Hidden Empire will follow. The second installment of The Saga of Seven Suns picks up five years after Hidden Empire ended. Both the human race and the Ildirans are under attack from the deadly and mysterious hydrogues, aliens that living in the centre of gas giant planets. The antagonists are able to survive at immense pressures un-survivable to their enemies, and their superior technology is making the ongoing conflict less of a war and more of an extermination. Humanity, broken into three distinct factions, are doing their best to survive the conflict however they can, but the main empire - the Hansatic league, led by Chairman Basil Wence...

Published by Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group: New York, NY, 2007 (2003). Book One of 'The Saga of Seven Suns' series: ' Hidden Empire '; ' A Forest of Stars '; ' Horizon Storms '; ' Scattered Suns '; ' Of Fire and Night '; ' Metal Swarm '; ' The Ashes of Worlds '. Last week I was returning a book to my local library and saw a flyer for something called the 'Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge.' A fairly straight-forward challenge running through until 30 June 2022, that challenges you to read 26 books, each by an author whose surname starts with a different letter of the alphabet. There is no major prize, although after every fifth book you can claim a small prize from the library. It's really just an excuse to read more books. As if I need excuses to read. Anyway, I decided to have a go, and have also decided I'll try and read my books for this in alphabetical order (not a requirement of the competition). So a...

Published by Barry Crump Associates: Auckland, New Zealand, 1993. This year I have been teaching a 1P class for the first time - Year 11 students who are not as good at English as those going for the full Achievement Standards version. This means that part of my role is to inspire students that aren't that good at reading (and often don't want to read) to read a book - two actually, in order to get through their Independent Reading standard. So, it inspires me to help find books that my students will want to at least attempt to read. Which leads me to Barry Crump. Barry Crump was one of the most successful New Zealand authors, writing various 'yarns' about (mostly) rural New Zealand and the back-country lifestyle. One of his stories, Wild Pork and Watercress , became the basis for the film Hunt For the Wilderpeople,  which as of writing is the most successful New Zealand film in New Zealand history. Crump's books are not difficult reads, and are definitely 'yarn...

Published by Scholastic New Zealand Limited: Auckland, NZ, 2006. This book was published by Scholastic as part of the My Story series, books aimed at younger readers that retell various interesting or significant events in the history of New Zealand. In this instance, Castaway tells the story of (fictional) Sam Clark, who becomes part of the (historical) sinking of the Dundonald, a ship that crashed into Disappointment Island in 1907. The 15 survivors are forced to endure a harsh winter on the sub-Antarctic island (part of the Auckland Islands group), building huts out of earth and grass, eating mollymawks and seals, and eventually building small boats out of sticks and canvas in order to reach Auckland Island itself, where they know a depot is kept stocked to aid shipwreck survivors. The story (as it seems most in the My Story series are) is told as a journal, kept by Sam during his travels. This means we get a first hand account of life as it is on the island, but also means the sto...

Published by Canongate Books: Great Britain, 2008 (2002). I knew quite a lot about the general plot of this book before I began reading, thanks to reviews about it when it first came out, as well as having seen at least part of the Oscar-winning film version. Life of Pi tells the story of Piscine Molitor Patel, who starts by growing up as the son of a zookeeper in India and choosing to follow three religions simultaneously, and later on ends up adrift in a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a Bengal tiger. With a plot like that, I knew the book would be somewhat 'quirky', but I wasn't expecting the level of humour, or the level of insight within it. The three religions thing is a bit odd, but then, so is the character of Pi. To him, the three religions of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity all overlap in numerous ways: "Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hin...