Karl's Reading List

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 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 Thomas Nelson/HarperCollins Publishers: Nashville, Tennessee, 2017. Looking for a letter 'P' for the Alphabet Soup Challenge , I picked this book up in the library having no idea what it was about at all or who the author was. Learning from the cover that it had something to do with a terrorist attack that happened in France as well as some letters written by a Huguenot during the Reformation, I decided to give it a go. As I was walking to the counter I browsed the front and started seeing quotes that implied this might be a Christian book. It's quite unique. The main character Jessica and one of her two flatmates in Paris, Vonda, decide to attend a concert and are caught up in the mass shootings that took place in the Bataclan theatre in November 2015 . A third flatmate, Patrick, visits Jessica in the hospital when she is recovering from her wounds and tries to convince her to continue on with a planned trip to various antique stores around France rather than ...

Published by Fourth Estate: London, 2013 (2012). Book Two of the Wolf Hall Trilogy: ' Wolf Hall '; ' Bring Up The Bodies '; 'The Mirror and the Light'. The second novel in a series charting the life of Thomas Cromwell, Bring Up The Bodies follows the template set down by Wolf Hall : Cromwell is such a central figure to the book that almost any use of the word 'he' refers to Cromwell himself, yet he is such a closed figure that his true motivations are only revealed occasionally. We see Cromwell maneuvering and manipulating, but whether he is serving his own motivations or those of his liege, Henry VIII, remain mostly concealed. Even the 'side' of various debates can remain murky, with Cromwell happy to befriend even those he means to bring down in order to fully take advantage of the situation. Bring Up The Bodies, like its predecessor, won the Booker prize, and in both cases I feel that this award was earned. The books are both very well written...

Published by Fourth Estate: London, 2010 (2009). Book One of the Wolf Hall Trilogy: ' Wolf Hall '; ' Bring Up The Bodies '; 'The Mirror and the Light'. Set during the reign of King Henry VIII, Wolf Hall follows the rise to power of Thomas Cromwell, who goes from son of a blacksmith to adviser to a cardinal, to advisor to Henry himself. The first chapter of the book is set during Cromwell's childhood, but immediately after this the book jumps to Cromwell as an adult, already adroit at political maneuvering. The 'prologue' therefore can seem a bit out of place, but it does serve as a constant reminder of where Cromwell has come from, and provides hints towards his motivations. Because Cromwell himself is fairly closed on this front. The book is written in a very close third-person narrative, with almost any mention of "he" referring to Cromwell. We get his thoughts, his conversations and actions, but at the same time very little about his mot...