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 Tui/HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Ltd: Auckland, NZ, 1994. Book 3 in 'The Solar Colonies.' Preceded by ' The Ghosts of Triton. ' Elise and I (along with Ezekiel) have just returned from a two-week holiday/church ministry time in Australia, visiting friends in Tasmania and Melbourne. It was a great trip, with lots to unpack, but one without a lot of time for reading. Also, the main book I've been working my way through - Moby Dick - is in a big omnibus, which would have weighed too much to justify taking on the plane.  So, instead, I took two books with me that were a little bit smaller, one of which - Fear and Trembling - I was already part of the way through, and the other - this one - a book that I knew was an easy read to unwind with in the little bit of downtime I would find. Both were finished while in Australia, but this one (the easier read) was the first I completed. Both of the two Solar Colonies books I have read have had a differen...

Published by Golden Press: Auckland, Christchurch, Sydney, 1975. First published 1845. This abridged edition (by Joan Stevens) first published 1955. This book is part of the New Zealand Classics series, which I have several of. It also has the distinction of forming the basis for a recent historical novel, Jerningham, which creates a fictionalised version of the author's life.  As the title suggests, Adventure in New Zealand tells the story of Edward Jerningham Wakefield's adventures in New Zealand. Jerningham was the son of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, and nephew to both William Wakefield and Arthur Wakefield, the former of whom was one of the founders of Wellington, and the latter of whom was notably killed during the Wairau Affray.  All of the Wakefields were involved in the New Zealand Company, an organisation that today is viewed with much suspicion. Jerningham, of course, paints a much rosier picture of the NZ Company's dealings, putting any fault over land-sale controver...

Published by Noisy Crow Ltd: Crosby Row, London, 2021. Having finished Scavenger: Zoid too quickly to use in the Reading Challenge, I needed another book featuring AI or robots, and got this one from the school library, knowing nothing about it except what I saw on the cover. In a lot of ways, Adam-2 is similar to Scavenger: Zoid. It is set in the distant future, in a world where robots have turned on humanity and now pockets of humans try to resist against them. Like in Scavenger: Zoid, a more sophisticated robot is introduced who starts trying to help the humans. That robot develops a friendship with a main human, while other main humans remain suspicious. The difference here is that the robot - the titular Adam-2 - is the main character, whereas the robot in Scavenger: Zoid was a supporting character. Having the story be told primarily from Adam's viewpoint is an interesting touch, particularly as Adam learns about both sides in the conflict and begins to have doubts about the ...

Published by Gollancz/Dragonsteel, LLC: London, 2024 (2020). Book 4 of 'The Stormlight Archive.' Preceded by (spinoff) ' Dawnshard ' and (main series) ' Oathbringer .' Followed by ' Wind and Truth. ' Remember Black Widow, the MCU movie that finally gave Natasha Romanov her solo feature, but (spoilers for the MCU) waited until after her character had died to do it, and then pitched it as a prequel of sorts? As a result, the movie - though entertaining - felt less 'significant' than most of the MCU movies had until that point, even as it tried to keep itself relevant through it's post-credit scene. Rhythm of War has some unfortunate parallels to that movie - although by no means is it as 'irrelevant' to the Stormlight Archive series as a whole. These parallels come through the choice to focus this book's flash-backs (a staple of the main books in the series) on the characters of Venli and Eshonai, the latter of whom died all the way...

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 in Two-Volume Paperback edition by Gollancz/Orion Publishing Group, Ltd: London, 2019. First published 2017. Book 3 in 'The Stormlight Archives' series. Preceded by (spinoff) ' Edgedancer ' and (main series) ' Words of Radiance. ' Followed by (spinoff) ' Dawnshard ' and (main series) 'Rhythm of War.' The third 'proper' entry in Sanderson's planned ten-part epic, Oathbringer picks up after the Knights Radiant have been reformed, effectively introducing superheroes into the world of Roshar.  I made the comment at the end of Words of Radiance that the series could have ended with that entry, and it is true that the series now feels quite different. It does, however, still have the same characters with the same quirks, and I continue to enjoy it. With such a sweeping epic planned, some minor characters become more prominent in this entry, and it seems like further storylines will spin off as the series continues. Of course, thi...

Published by Tor/A Tom Doherty Associates Book: New York, NY, 2017. Sections previously published in 2014, 2016. Book 2.5 of 'The Stormlight Archive.' Preceded by ' Words of Radiance. ' Followed by ' Oathbringer .' When I reviewed Words of Radiance I made the comment that a spin-off novel around minor character Lift would be enjoyable. It turns out, Brandon Sanderson heeded my advice, and even went to the trouble of heeding it a few years before I gave it! I realised this book existed after I had purchased a copy of Oathbringer, and, upon opening the book for the first time, was instructed to read this book first. So I paused Oathbringer, hunted this out at the local library, finished reading Night Without End , and then finally read more about Lift. The book opens with a prologue that is simply the previous chapter about Lift repeated from Words of Radiance. Then we jump forward in time a little, to Lift and her spren companion Wyndle journeying to the town of...

Published by Naxos Audiobooks, 2006. Narrated by Juliet Stevenson. First published 1815/1816. Emma is the final work published by Jane Austen during her lifetime, and is very well written. Apparently Austen spoke about creating a protagonist that no one but herself would much like, and in one sense she accomplishes this: Emma Woodhouse is spoiled, has a high opinion of herself, and is quite ready to meddle in other peoples' affairs whether they want her to or not. And yet, in another way, Austen fails, because Emma is somehow immediately likeable, despite her obvious flaws. We groan when she makes an obviously bad decision, and yet we still understand her rationale, and wait for her to start learning the error of her ways. The plot, in true Austen style, is all about relationships, but the foreground relationships in Emma are not even 'real' relationships at all! Rather, Emma is trying to be a matchmaker, and is convinced that her choice of a husband for Harriet Smith (her ...

Published by Huia Publishers: Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, 2022 (2021). Niho Taniwha is a book written for teachers, looking at Māori learning and how teachers can support (particularly) Māori students to greater success academically. The author brings a lot of her own understanding (she is Māori herself, and has had her children go through the schooling system), as well as quoting a number of studies to support her claims - including numerous studies that she herself has taken part in (she has a teaching background and  a doctorate). It is a very interesting book and is also one that my Head of Department at Nayland has used quite a bit, so elements of it are quite familiar to me. There are aspects of the book that might be controversial to some people, because of particular buzz-words or phrases which can, admittedly at times, be used to attack certain cultures or understandings. In particular, phrases like 'white privilege' or 'historical trauma' may cause some ...

Published by Collins: London and Glasgow, 1963. I had the wrong idea about what this book was to begin with. Not drastically wrong, but just wrong enough that there were points I began questioning whether I was reading what I thought I was reading. What I thought I was reading was the book that inspired the movie Bridge on the River Kwai. I've never seen that movie, but I know it was popular when it came out, and it is one I'd like to see eventually. It turns out, though, that Bridge is a fictional story based around the building of an actual bridge on an actual River Kwai by British prisoners-of-war, and that Miracle is the non-fiction account of one of those prisoners. The bridge itself is only mentioned briefly. At points it is quite intense, as many prisoner-of-war stories (and, sadly, especially prisoner-of-war stories set in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps) can be. And this intensity is added to by the way the author describes the spiritual journey of the prisoners in ques...

Published by Penguin Audio, 2017. Audiobook narrated by the author. I knew next to nothing about Martin Luther before beginning this book, only that he was famous for starting the Reformation and did so by nailing his 95 Theses to the door of a church. There is a lot more to him than that! The thing that struck me most, while listening to this book, was how little Martin Luther intended to be controversial; as Metaxas argues, Luther wrote the 95 Theses in Latin (the scholarly language) because he intended to have a scholarly debate, not a revolution. It was only when his theses were translated into German and distributed by others that he was forced to defend them in public, thus going further than he intended. As things escalated, and Luther made more and more controversial statements (controversial to the ears of the established church of the day), there came a point where Luther gained a real peace with what was happening, because it was 'obvious that God was in it.' If that...

Published by Faber and Faber Limited: London, 1981 (1980). I have previously only read one book by William Golding, Lord of the Flies, and that was all the way back in high school, in the year (cough). So, I have vague recollections of the 'feel' of that book. This book 'feels' similar, which I guess makes sense. This book, like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society , is told in an epistolary fashion; in this book, we are reading the journal of Edmund Talbot, also intended as a letter to his godfather, as Talbot travels by ship from England to Australia. This is in the colonist days, and other passengers include the loud artist Mr Brocklebank with his 'daughter' and 'wife', the humanist philosopher Mr Prettiman, and the hapless parson, Mr Colley. Talbot is a fairly arrogant, opinionated, cynical figure with an inbuilt belief in his own class superiority, as well as a distain for established religion, yet the captain of the ship, Captain Ander...

Published by Penguin Books/Michael Joseph: Middlesex, England, 1986 (1954). First published 1951. A classic title by a classic sci-fi author, The Day of the Triffids is one of those books that I know the premise of - to a degree - but am not entirely sure whether I have read it before. I thought I had, but there was a lot I didn't remember.  To my knowledge, the premise was 'a world where everyone goes blind and killer plants (triffids) roam around preying on the blind humans.' That is true, but a surprisingly large amount of the runtime doesn't focus on the titular triffids at all - or if it does, they are more in the background. This seems to be largely because Wyndham has resisted the urge to 'over-humanize' the plants; they are not 'plotting' against people, they are simply taking the most of the opportunity presented by the blinding of humanity in order to do what they do best. Although they are shown to 'communicate' to some degree and gath...

Published by Mammoth: London, 2000 (1989). First published in Danish, 1963. Translated by LW Kingsland. This is a book that was recommended by a friend on Facebook after I published one of my end-of-year lists. Seeing it on a library shelf at school gave me the opportunity to finally check it out, and I can see why it was recommended.  The story is a fairly straightforward one, but interesting. David has grown up in a concentration camp, but is helped to escape by one of the guards, for reasons David doesn't understand. He flees the unnamed country where the camp has been, travels by ship to Italy, and then begins making his way north towards Denmark, following the guard's instructions. David is - understandably - very wary of anybody he meets. He is always assuming that 'they' are after him, and anyone who acts suspiciously becomes a 'them' in his eyes. If David considers someone 'evil' he is likely to react strongly and antagonistically towards them. H...

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 Fontana/Collins: Great Britain, 1973. First published 1948. A classic twisty Poirot investigation, with the murder in this one not taking place until almost halfway through the book.  In air-raids during World War 2, a newly married woman (Rosaleen) is widowed (for the second time), and her new family shut out of the inheritance due to a legal technicality. Knowing that their late brother always 'intended' for them to inherit a share of the estate, these relatives begin pressuring Rosaleen and her irritating brother (David) for money. A wrinkle emerges when a stranger arrives in the village, informing Rosaleen that her first husband may still be alive - a fact that, if true, would nullify her claim to the estate of her second husband and return all the money to his relatives. When the stranger turns up dead, suspicion naturally falls on Rosaleen and David. Poirot, however, is brought into the case, and has his doubts.... I enjoy looking for the clues in books like...

Published by Oati: New Zealand, 2017. This is a hard book to categorise. It begins with the author sharing a prophetic dream from his wife, in which there was a giant chicken standing by a tree, and then a voice saying 'Huia, Come Home.' The dreamer - an American by birth - didn't even know what a huia was when she had the dream, and it took some time for the couple to interpret it. The book then moves to a history of Christianity in New Zealand from the perspective of a Maori Christian, including some mini-biographies of not-always-well-known individuals, such as Piripi Taumata-a-Kura and Wiremu Tamihana. The difference between Christianity in this country pre- and post-Treaty is highlighted. Then, the author moves into a challenge for Christians in Aotearoa to decolonialize our faith and briefly exploring some ways in which a Māori worldview sits closer to the Hebrew worldview of the Old Testament than our Western worldview does. This is thought-provoking, challenging (in...

Published as an audiobook by Head of Zeus, 2016. Uploaded to Audible 07-12-2017. Narrated by Scott Brick. First published by Penguin Press: USA, 2004. If you know the musical Hamilton you may also know that creator Lin-Manuel Miranda based it on a biography of Alexander Hamilton he read while on holiday. This is that biography. It is extremely thorough - a few chapters in and Chernow was still filling in details from the opening song. It is also an interesting portrait of a fascinating man, narrated well by Scott Brick in this audiobook version. As a Hamilton fan myself, the element of the book I enjoyed the most was picking out the differences between the stage version and this one, seeing when Miranda had tweaked history a little to fit the themes of the musical or to stream-line things a bit. Aaron Burr, for example, who ends up shooting Hamilton in a duel, is a much more prominent figure in the musical than in the book. We get some mentions of him throughout, but the main interact...

Published by Tui/HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Ltd: Auckland, NZ, 1994. Book 2 in 'The Solar Colonies.' Preceded by 'Doomfire on Venus.' Followed by ' Shadow of Phobos. ' A slightly obscure series from the '90s, the 'Solar Colonies' takes place in the "distant future" of (in this case) 2044, in which Earth has colonized Mars and the asteroids with genetically altered humans, tinted to have green, blue or red skin (depending on their home area). This immediately allows the series to explore issues of racism in a different context, at least in books 2 and 3 (which I have owned since I was young) - I haven't read book 1. In this book, cadet Dexter (from Earth) has encountered some strange apparitions while remote mining on Triton (driving Android-like 'Copies' using a mental link from an orbit near Mars) on Triton. These apparitions resemble historical figures from Earth, although to begin with Dex doesn't recognise th...