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 Fontana Paperbacks/William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd: Glasgow, 1986. First published by the United States Naval Institute Press, 1984. I've seen the movie version of The Hunt for Red October years ago, and if you haven't, I reckon its a pretty good watch. Seeing Sean Connery play a Russian with his natural Scottish accent is worth the time, even before the story kicks in. However, if you are planning on reading the book and haven't seen the film, I would recommend not watching the film before reading the book. This is because, as much as the cover promises a thrilling action-packed edge-of-your-seat adventure, I didn't find that to be the case in reading Red October. Perhaps its because it is an 'action' book written in the 1980s, and the expectations of audiences have increased. Perhaps it's because I already knew the twists and turns. Perhaps it's because, for a long period of reading this book, I was reading it during silent reading time...

Published by Wordsworth Classics: Hertfordshire, England, 2010 (1996). Translated from Russian by Constance Garnett, 1913. Originally published in Russian 1868-1869. This was a hard slog. You may have noticed lately that my reading output has dropped. Although I can put some of it down to busyness or other external factors, a good chunk of my actual reading time over the last month (at least) has been devoted to getting through this novel. It is a slightly longer novel than some I've read this year (559 pages), but the style has been the hardest factor - I have managed to get through longer novels far quicker.  I'm still a little torn as to why this is, particularly as I really enjoyed The Brothers Karamazov , which is also by Dostoevsky. For a while I thought it might be the translation, but both novels were translated by the same person, so that also seems unlikely. One thing that might explain it came up when I began looking into the book's creation a bit further after f...

Published by Longacre Press: Dunedin, New Zealand, 2008 (1992). This story, based largely on the memories of the author's mother, is a harrowing look at a very tragic part of history. Krystyna is a Polish girl who ends up getting deported to Siberia with her family during World War 2. In the forced labour camp to which they are sent, Krystyna's family members one by one die off, until only Krystyna remains. The intensity of this first section of the book is fairly consistent, and is at times hard to read about what such a large number of people went through, along with wondering how people can treat their fellow humans in such ways. The second part of the story, by comparison, is far more palatable. Krystyna is selected as one of a number of Polish children who are re-homed in New Zealand. In this section Krystyna still faces isolation, loneliness, and culture shock, but it is almost a relief to see that these are the 'only' issues she faces after the war ends - rat...

Published by Barnes and Noble Classics: New York, 2004. Translated by Constance Garnett in 1912. Originally published in Russian 1879-1880. This is one of those books you hear about, but that seems a bit intimidating to read. A translation from the Russian, 700 pages long, a novel full of debates about philosophy, the existence of God, and good versus evil.... Yet, it is well worth the read. Dostoevsky gradually unfolds the story, introducing us to each brother and allowing them to truly understand each of their individual  viewpoints, before eventually 'launching' into the main 'plot' (their father's murder) around half way through the book. The fact that this murder is such a long time in coming shows how unconcerned Dostoevsky is in the plot itself (not that there is a lack of events up until that point); rather, he is far more interested in the discussions that the plot, and the collision of the various characters, can produce. So when the religious brot...