Karl's Reading List

Published by Penguin Books: London, England, 1992. Sacred Hunger has an interesting topic, an interesting theme, and interesting characters.  The majority of the narrative takes place aboard a slave-ship as it leaves England, travels to Africa, and begins 'trading' for slaves. Our main protagonist in this section of the ship is doctor Matthew Paris, the nephew of the ship's owner, who has come on the voyage to atone - or punish himself - for actions in his past that he believes led to the death of his wife and unborn child. Paris dislikes the whole venture, but is still willing to be a part of it... this will impact events as they unfold. This part of the book is powerful, fairly graphic in patches, far too coarse for my liking but with enough interest that I decided to give it a bit more time than I normally would have. Scattered throughout this narrative, we also get chapters focussed on Eramus Kemp, the son of the ship's owner, who has a strong and fairly irrational ...

Published by Verso: London, UK, 2014. It wasn't as easy finding a book featuring pirates as I thought it was going to be. I've read plenty in the past -  Treasure Island is a classic I thought of revisiting, and more recently enjoyed Tress of the Emerald Sea had a good sci-fi twist to the pirate tale - but in the end I decided to read this non-fiction nautical history that I had on the classroom library shelf. It did take a while to get the hang of what was being written about in this book - the endnotes clarified that originally each chapter was published separately, and that makes a lot of sense! - but overall Rediker seems to be focussing on the lesser told stories of nautical history, often focussing less on the prominent figures (the Columbuses and Cooks of history) and more on the crew and slaves who also featured heavily at these times. Two chapters even focus on individual accounts, and these are fascinating, especially when giving a different perspective on the polit...

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 as an audiobook by Blackstone Audio, Inc in 1998. Uploaded to Audible 18-04-2012.  Originally published as 'An Authentic Narrative of Some Remarkable and Interesting Particulars in the Life of John Newton. Communicated in a Series of Letters to the Rev. Mr. Haweis, Rector of Aldwinckle. And by him, at the request of friends, now made public' in 1764. Updated after Newton's death. Narrated by William Sutherland. Inspired by having heard a bit of John Newton's story in The Roots of Endurance , I decided to give this audiobook version of his autobiography a go. As the extended original title states, this is written as a series of letters from Newton to Reverend Haweis, obviously at the request of Haweis to tell some of his story.  Newton, as befits a man overcome by the grace of God in his life, focuses a lot on God's providence and sometimes as a result (and suiting the style of the day) doesn't go into details about his life  as much as a modern reader ...

Published as an audiobook by Blackstone Audio, Inc., 2019. Released 11-06-2019.  Narrated by Bob Souer. John Piper is one of my favourite living theologians. He has an incredible passion for God's Word, and the resources available on his website Desiring God are ones I often find myself referring to when writing sermons. This is the first book of his I have read/listened to, as usually I am reading/listening to sermons or podcasts by him instead. In this book - apparently the third in a series - Piper looks at the lives of John Newton , Charles Simeon and William Wilberforce, all of whom faced great opposition in their lives and yet continued to endure in their faith. Each of the three gets a section of the book devoted to their lives, with Piper taking us through the biographical elements, but also more importantly the theological convictions that made these men tick. It comes as no surprise that Piper attributes their endurance to their devotion to God, but it is fascinating to ...

Published by RWG Publishing: Litchfield, IL, 2021. This book is written by a good friend of mine who also attends ChristFirst Church! This is the first time I've reviewed a book written by someone I know well and its an odd experience (I also know the author of The Earth Cries Out which I rated last year as one of my top 5 New Zealand-authored books , but I haven't done a full review of it yet).  Not Many Fathers  follows Kenaz, and later his son Othniel, as they take part in the wilderness wanderings and eventually the conquest of Canaan. Othniel is mentioned only occasionally in the Bible, but one thing that is known is that he becomes the first Judge (as in 'the book of Judges'). Cottle points out that as a close relative of Caleb, Othniel was one of the few men in that generation of Israelites to have a 'father figure' survive into Canaan, and suggests that this is one of the reasons why Othniel could rise to prominence, since most other men didn't have ...

Published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.: Carol Stream, Illinois, 2002 (1994). Book 2 in the 'Mark of the Lion' series: " A Voice in the Wind "; " An Echo in the Darkness "; " As Sure as the Dawn ." The second book in the Mark of the Lion series, Echo is hard to talk about without spoiling certain elements of the previous entry, A Voice in the Wind .  That earlier book has such a good ending that I would encourage people considering the book to go and read it before carrying on reading this! So... spoiler warning... Hadassah has survived being thrown to the lions thanks to the aid of the surgeon Alexander, but has been hideously scarred as a result. Keeping her features hidden from the world, she now works with Alexander as an assistant, her faith in God manifesting itself through compassion for Alexander's patients and prayers for healing. Despite her new live bringing hope to those around her, Hadassah worries what will happen if the Valer...

Audiobook published by Audible, 2015.  Narrated by Victor Bevine. Book 1 in 'The Earthborn Trilogy'. Lucas is one of the last survivors of a dying Earth, destroyed in battle with aliens who were after the resources of Earth, particularly water. He comes across an alien spaceship and a sympathetic alien, and then - along with the ferocious female human Asha - they seek to escape the planet. The premise is a little cliché but fine. The novel as a whole is fairly B-grade pulpy - lots of limbs getting blown off, heads splattered etc. This gives the book a slightly unpleasant feel, as does the fact that many remaining humans (our protagonists not included) have resorted to cannibalism, something that always sickens me in any medium I encounter it.  There are a few moments where the plot goes in a different direction than anticipated, and there were enough interesting moments that I kept listening, but honestly, there are much better books than this to get into the genre with. Victo...

Published as "the Author's Preferred Version" by Doubleday: United States, 1992. First published 1982. Audiobook narrated by Unknown, uploaded to YouTube by Bardic Knowledge in 3 parts on 17-02-2021. This was a very well-written book, and also well narrated, but I am going to try not to listen to an audiobook as long as this again as it takes much longer than actually reading it! Also, although YouTube can have a book uploaded for free, I'm not sure of the legality of it all - particularly when I can't find out who actually put in all the work to record it. The book starts off following Pug, the stereotypical young orphan/kitchen boy living in a castle (Crydee), hoping for glory, and coming across a mysterious mentor in the form of the wizard Kulgan. He is trained to become a wizard/magician, while his childhood friend Tomas dreams of becoming a soldier. So far so normal. In fact, a lot of the early plot of Magician is fairly predictable and cliché, right down to ...

Published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.: Wheaton, Illinois, 1993. Book 1 in the 'Mark of the Lion' series: " A Voice in the Wind "; " An Echo in the Darkness "; " As Sure as the Dawn ." Francine Rivers is a very well-known author in Christian circles, and this is one of her most popular books. I remember reading this when I was younger, but Elise didn't know the story at all. To be fair, I only remembered some of the major beats, but it was interesting having the two perspectives - I asked Elise on occasion where she thought the story was going, and would think about what elements I knew as we went forward, realising for myself when moments of foreshadowing occurred that weren't necessarily too obvious on the first read. The book follows three main characters: Hadassah (a Jewish Christian who is also a slave), Marcus (a Roman aristocrat who gradually falls for Hadassah), and Atretes (a German warrior who is forced to become a gladiator)...

Published by Pan Books/Macmillan: London, 2013 (2012). Followed by Saxon: The Emperor's Elephant. This book is set in an era I have not often read about, during the rise of Carolus, the king of the Franks who would become Charlemagne. The story follows Sigwulf, the son of a conquered Saxon king, who is sent as 'tribute' to Carolus's court, and befriends Carolus's nephew Hroudland. Sigwulf has eyes that are different colours, and for much of the book hides this fact by wearing an eyepatch. He also is visited on occasion by the fetch (ghost) of his dead twin brother. Yet neither of these facts are really that important to the story, only adding a bit of variety to a character who, otherwise, is a fairly passive figure. He goes from event to event, gaining a lover, growing in influence, becoming an archer and a spy, but most of these things happen to him rather than from his own initiative. I realise that the author is trying to show that Sigwulf must do a lot of these...

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher: New York, 2012. Although the title of this work might imply some non-fiction exploration of a forgotten moment in history, instead The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln takes place in an alternate reality where Lincoln has survived the attempt on his life (although other historical figures have died) and is now facing an impeachment hearings over his conduct during the Civil War. Lincoln himself remains on the peripheries of the plot but is certainly caught up in the going-ons. The main character, however, is Abigail Canner, a young black woman with a law degree who has been hired (semi-reluctantly) by the law firm defending Lincoln. This is a well researched and fascinating novel, giving a glimpse into a particular period of American history, while also reinterpreting and reimagining what may have been. It also works well as a novel in its own right, highlighting prejudice and racism existing in the era, but also containing a central consp...