Karl's Reading List

Published as an audiobook by Librivox. Accessed via Fabuly. Narrated by Mark F Smith. Originally published 1922. I recently (the end of last year) got a new audiobook app, which (like Librivox, on which it is based) is made up of mostly public domain audiobooks, making it free to listen to. With a limited range of books to choose from, I've had to be a bit more creative in my choices (this is the app I listened to The Age of Innocence on), and, without knowing much about it, I decided to give this book a go. What a weird book! It is supposedly a biographical account of the author, Ferdynand Ossendowski, who travels from Russia, across Siberia to Mongolia, attempting to avoid the Communist takeover of the area. In his journeys he has many narrow escapes, and encounters a number of prominent (to that area and at that time) historical figures, often becoming quite close to them, regardless of whether they are friend or foe.  I say supposedly because parts of the account seem incredib...

Published by Faber and Faber Limited: London, 1993 (1989). After reading Klara and the Sun and really enjoying it, I finally to try this book, due to it being the same author. I had heard conflicting things about what the plot of this book entailed, and with it being a Booker book , had braced myself to face the worst, but to my (pleasant) surprise, The Remains of the Day is  one of the few Booker books I've read to not leave me with an unpleasant taste in my mouth. As with Klara and the Sun, this book is narrated by a character who doesn't always let us in on their thoughts - Klara was an android who thought in artificial ways, whereas our narrator here is a butler, Mr Stevens, who refuses to express his deepest thoughts and feelings even in his narration. Mr Stevens is obsessed with the idea of 'dignity' and 'professionalism,' and aspires to be a 'great butler' by keeping his emotional life separate from his work. His loyalty is to his master, above a...

Published by Penguin Books Limited: Middlesex, England, 1977. First published 1973. This is a book that took a long time to get through, partially because it is quite dense, and partially because it was the book I was reading while we were in the process of moving from my parents' house in Monaco to our new house in central Stoke. When you're busy packing and unpacking boxes, it can get in the way of turning pages... The topic of Cape to Cairo is quite interesting, though. In various sections - based on sections of railway track - it traces the history of the attempt at building a cross-African railroad from Cape Town all the way to Cairo, originally envisioned to show the spread and power of the British Empire. Each section covers a period of time and shows not only the building of the railway, but everything leading up to that point. This adds to the denseness of the book, and - although the book's focus is clear - also means that it can feel a little disjointed at times,...

Published by Zaffre/Bonnier Books UK: London, 2021. Another book from my parents' book-swap library, this one is outside my usual genres of interest, but it still gripped me. I suppose that makes sense, as the genre in question is thriller. The set up is great. In the first chapter, our main POV character, Ellen Devlin, is sitting on the train when a woman with a baby asks to sit in the empty seat next to her. Before too long, the woman has to answer a phone call, and asks Ellen to look after the baby for a few minutes. The woman then gets off at the next station, and Ellen is left with the baby, and a note that says: Please look after Mia. Don't trust the police. Don't trust anyone. I mean, what would you do?! Ellen is a complicated character, something that we learn more about as time goes on. She is recently separated, and her ex-husband is expecting a child with his new partner. Ellen, who is barren, has wanted a child for years, and is drawn to looking after Mia, even ...

Published by Gecko Press: Australia and New Zealand, 2007 (2006). English translation by Gecko Press, 2007. First published in Belgium by Clavis Uitgeverij. I say this a lot for Ezekiel's books, but this is a beautifully illustrated book! And it's a pop-up book too! Who's Driving? is fairly self-explanatory. Each page has three animals dressed in different uniforms, each approaching a vehicle that they could conceivably be driving. When the pop-up tab is pulled, the driver of the vehicle is revealed, and sound effects are added as the vehicle 'drives' away. The illustrations are clever in that there are hints given as to which animal will be revealed. The desert jeep, for example, is being approached by a hippo in khaki. Of course the one in khaki is the driver! The pop-up elements are also cleverly done, with my favourte being a small convertible that is revealed as being driven by a giraffe. I am still impressed by how that giraffe pops up from that little convert...

Based on The Railway Series by the Rev. W. Awdry. Published by Egmont UK Limited: London, 2008 (2003). I'm not really sure who wrote this book, as it is based on stories by Reverend W Awdry, and then filtered through the series owned by Guillane (Thomas) LLC and created by Britt Allcroft. The book only tells me who the illustrators are! So, apologies to the unnamed ghostwriter... There are a number of Thomas -brand stories at my parents' place, and Ezekiel likes them all. Wanting to include at least one of them for this list, I chose Skarloey mostly because one of us pointed out to Ezekil that my name is hidden in the title, and now Ezekiel also points that out every time. He'll point at the title word and say "Skarloey" and then point at it again and say "Karl." He's not quite up to actual reading yet, but he is starting to do a good imitation of it. At some point I'll add Tacky the Penguin to one of these lists and talk about the lines he has a...

Published by Happy Cat Books, Bradfield, Essex, 1999 (1997). First published by Little, Brown and Company, USA, 1987. One of two books in this entry that we found on a shelf at a friend's bach and read to Ezekiel repeatedly over the few days we were there (the other being Good Night, Alice ).  This particular entry, written in first person, tells of a small boy taking his first flight without parents. The story outlines the steps involved: going to the airport, watching the planes arrive, boarding, having a meal, using the toilet, etc. This is all told very matter-of-factly, and would be a good book to help prepare a small child for a similar flight. It even ends with the child's grandparent collecting them from the airport after the flight. Meanwhile, the illustrations for the story add in a fun subplot that is not mentioned at all in the text: the boy is seen carrying a teddy bear with him through the airport, and yet as he boards the plane the bear becomes a real bear, who s...

Published by Corgi Books: London, 1988 (1985). First published 1983. Book 1 of the 'Discworld' series. It has finally happened! I have reread the first Discworld novel! Discworld being, of course, the series of 50-plus fantasy/satire books written by the late Terry Pratchett, composing a huge cast of characters that grow and develop throughout the years in their own sub-series-within-a-series. The Colour of Magic introduces the Discworld for the first time: a flat, circular world, balanced on the back of four giant elephants that themselves stand on the back of a giant turtle that swims through space. Pretty much every magical or mythological character you can think of exists on the Discworld somewhere, and as the series progresses, Pratchett uses this fantasy lens to poke fun at various aspects of our reality. Such a huge undertaking as a 50-plus book series satiring reality through a fantasy lens, however, is likely to be one that finds it rhythm over time, and this holds tru...

Published by Penguin Books/Penguin Random House: Australia, 2024 (2023). Book 2 in the 'Ernest Cunningham' series. Preceded by ' Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. ' Followed by 'Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret.' When I wrote my review last year about the first book in this series -  Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone  -  I made the note that I enjoyed the comedic-meta elements of that book, and hoped that the author would focus more on that in later books, rather than the occasional grim/gory aspects that occasionally crept in. Well, it seems as though author Stevenson (as opposed to the main character, Ernest Cunningham, who is also an author) listened to me! This second entry still retains the comedic flavour, but the murder mysteries are a little less grim overall in tone.  Ernest Cunningham, who in the first book survived a snowed-in reunion with his murderous family, is now a published author, thanks to his book Everyone in My Family Has ...

Published as an audiobook by Librivox, read via Fabuly. Narrated by Brenda Dayne. First published 1920. Whoa. This book is intense! And not in the usual way you might think of. The Age of Innocence is the third Pulitzer Prize -winning novel I have read, and is the most unexpected so far. I wasn't expecting a novel written in 1920 and set in the 1870s to be so heavily about the main character considering an affair... but there you go! It is very emotionally charged, with our main character, Newland Archer, growing obsessed with the married-but-separated Madame Ellen Olenska even as he pursues an engagement with the more traditional and (in Newland's eyes) almost ignorantly 'innocence' May Welland. It is apparent from the start that it is not only that Newland finds Ellen 'fascinating', but that he is thrilled and tempted by the very fact that Ellen is unconventional, perhaps a little bit dangerous, and therefore - to him - more 'exciting' than his convent...

Published by Agatha Christie Ltd/Planet Three Publishing: London. No date. First published 1935. Mystery novels are fun, but re-reading them can be less exciting. Well-written ones can still hold interest, but a lot of the fun is trying to figure out, along with the detective, just "whodunnit?" If you know whodunnit, it changes the game a bit. On the other hand, examples like Murder on the Orient Express and (I would suspect) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd might still be interesting on a second read, knowing the outcome, and looking for the clues that point in that direction. Perhaps, however, the way to enjoy re-reading a mystery is to leave long enough between reading and re-reading it. I first read Death in the Clouds in 2017, and in the nine years(!) since then, I seem to have forgotten enough of the plot to get sucked back in. In fact, I even became convinced that I remembered what happened, and ended up wrongly suspecting another character because of my faulty memory. Per...

Published by Gefen Publishing House Ltd: Jerusalem, Israel, 2026. A very interesting book about a little-known community of people, Endless Exodus tells the history of Ethiopian Jews, from the stories about their possible historical origins, to the the modern desire for many of them to undertake ' aliyah ', or emigration to the nation of Israel. The book is presented in coffee-table format, with wide pages and prominent photographs throughout. Indeed, the history - while interesting - is less of the focus than the photographs themselves, providing a context for the photographs rather than the other way around.  I found this book fascinating, in highlighting a faith community that I had very little knowledge of, and providing an insight into how people in other parts of the world live. Recommended for anyone who enjoys history, geography, religious studies, and anthropology. Completed 10 February 2026. Previous Book ~ Next Book (LibraryThing Prize Books) Previous Book ~ Next B...

Published by Nosy Crow Ltd: The Crow's Nest, London, 2023. The fun gimmick with this book is even observable if you look closely at the cover: the track that surrounds the central picture of a train has a moveable train 'token' on it. You actually make it move around the track! Each page has a similarly laid out feature, highlighting a different train and the journey that it may take. We get underground trains, high-speed trains and others, and each one can be taken on a literal journey. It needs no further reasoning to see why this book is a favourite one for Ezekiel whenever we go to visit Grandma and Grandpa. It's even fun for me as his fellow reader. Karl's List Simon's Adventure in Goblinland ;  Slide and Find Trucks ;  Make Tracks Trains ;  Guess How Much I Love You ;  Hug! Elise's List Ezekiel's World of Trucks ;  Snappy Play Set Garage ;  Big Machines ;  Did You Do This Poo? ;  Truck Trouble Previous Book  ~ Next Book (Ezekiel Books) ...

Published by Viking Press/Penguin Random House: London, UK, 2024. Audiobook by Penguin Audio, 2024.  Uploaded to Audible 12-09-2024. Narrated by Nicola Walker. As regular readers of the blog (if there are any!) will know, this year I have discovered and read my way through the Thursday Murder Club series. Having recently finished The Impossible Fortune, which is the final (for now) in that series, I thought I'd give this book a go, as the only non- Thursday Murder Club book Richard Osman has yet written.  The big adjustment for me in listening to We Solve Murders is that, of course, the characters and settings of Thursday Murder Club are missing. It's always hard for a successful author of a successful series to launch another one, and I do think that We Solve Murders is not as 'tight' as Thursday Murder Club was - particularly the first in the series.  This, however, is somewhat unfair. We Solve Murders needs to stand or fall on its own merits. So... The mildly convo...

Published as an audiobook by Hodder Children's Books/Hachette Children's Books, 2013. Narrated by Jan Francis. Book 8 in the 'Famous Five' series. Preceded by ' Five Go Off To Camp. ' Followed by ' Five Fall Into Adventure. ' Originally published 1949. In this entry, set in Spring (my favourite season), the four children and Timmy get permission to go on a cycling trip on their own, when Uncle Quentin has mistakenly double-booked himself elsewhere. They are only given permission because Timmy is 'such a good guard dog', but of course, the 1940s were a different time, when this sort of thing was probably seen as a little safer than now-a-days?? Of course, very quickly the five get caught up in a mystery, this time through association with a strange boy they encounter, named Richard. When I first heard Richard's name, I laughed to myself and wondered whether Enid Blyton had run out of names, seeing as how Dick (one of our main four characters) ...

This is the third entry based around picture books I've read to Ezekiel, and the first one I've done this year (it's far too long since I've acknowledged Ezekiel on this list !). It's interesting to see which books have dropped off the radar from when I did my first picture book list . At that point, Ezekiel was only 7 months old, so the books we read were largely our choice. It's also nice to see how many books are still favourites, now that he is able to decide for himself what we read. I'm trying a different format this time around for this entry, giving separate pages to each picture book even though this will still only take up one 'entry' in my list. Or you can skip this entry entirely fairly easily! Let's see how this goes... Karl's List My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes ; Do Not Lick This Book ; Scarry Word Book: On Holiday ; Perky the Pukeko ; I Can Fly a Plane . Elise's List Seek and Circle: Christmas Stories ; My First Clock Book ;...

Published by Penguin Group: New Zealand, 2007. Originally published 1974. This book is one I really like, and in fact is the first time that Elise has picked a book for her list that was on mine. Knowing how much I enjoy it, she changed her list to another choice. Thanks, Elise! I remember my primary school having this book in a large format, and for some reason it is a story that has stuck with me, probably because of it's repetitive and slightly humorous story. What I didn't realise then, but enjoy now, is that the illustrator of this book is Lynley Dodd of  Hairy Maclary   fame! Fun! Each page of  My Cat  introduces another cat from some international location, usually with an incredible talent -  "The cat from Spain/ Flew an aeroplane/ The cat from France/ Liked to sing and dance"  - only to compare it with the narrator's own cat, with the refrain,  "But MY cat likes to hide in boxes."  These international cats are dressed in traditional costu...

Published by Allen & Urwin: Australia, 2017. The illustrator of  this  book is also responsible for animating the  Dumb Ways To Die   train safety advertising campaign that was used in Australia, and went viral. That cartoony style translates well to this book, about germs. Min is a germ that lives in 'this book.' The reader is instructed to pick Min up, and then take the germ on a journey: to their tooth, to their shirt, to their belly button, and back to the book. In each place, Min gathers friends who join the journey, showing how easily germs can be transferred. There are super-close-up images of books, teeth, fabric and skin to gross you out, and fun little cartoony germs to balance it all. And, interactiveness! Gotta love that. Ezekiel has started to anticipate where Min needs to travel, and will touch the spot on the book, or start looking for his belly button, as that point nears. Fun. Karl's List My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes ;  Do Not Lick This Boo...

Published by The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited: London, New York Sydney, Toronto, 1984. Each time I do one of these picture book lists, I try to include a book which is  not  a favourite of either myself or Elise, but which Ezekiel likes. This is that book this time around. I remember that when I was young we had a few books in our house by Richard Scarry. I think they were more my brother's than mine, but they all shared the same distinctive art style, featuring animals in human settings.  This book is a little different than some Richard Scarry works, in that it is based on previous Richard Scarry works, with the drawings seemingly taken and repurposed to make a book on a theme (this time, holidays) and including word lists. Thus the name. We get images of animals on boats, animals rock-climbing, animals at the beach, and a bear dressed as Father Christmas. It's all pretty weird, but in a quirky fashion that is almost humorous in itself. And Ezekiel seems to enjoy it...

Unknown publication. When we took a family holiday to Australia recently, Elise got this book in order to give it to Ezekiel during our travels. He  loves  it. Firstly, it has spinners in it (the propellers), which Ezekiel loves. Secondly, it is a book with sliding parts (open the hanger doors, slide the people up and down the boarding ramp, etc) that Ezekiel can interact with. And thirdly, for one of the sliding parts in particular (the wheels of the plane going up and down) there is a written "clonk" sound-effect that makes him smile when we voice it. The copy we got, similarly to the Playful Pups book, is very second-hand, and in this instance is missing all the publishing details. I've tried looking the book up online and only was able to find a mention of 'Evans Visual Arts' as the 'illustrator' - so I've added that information. Otherwise, its a pretty obscure publication. There's not a lot more to say about this one, really. Ezekiel has been...