Karl's Reading List

Published by Bethany House Publishers: Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1992. Book 3 of 'An Emerald Ballad.' Preceded by ' Heart of the Lonely Exile. ' Followed by 'Sons of an Ancient Glory.' Careful readers of this blog will notice that it has been a long time since Elise and I finished any combined book other than a Famous Five entry . That is for a number of reasons, the most prominent of which is that we have been busy with our drawn out move and hunt for a new house. A secondary reason, though, is that we had two physical books on the go at once, both of which were quite long: this one, and a fantasy novel called Dragon Wing (technically, we also have the final few chapters of Rachel's Tears, but that is a book we haven't picked up in a long time, and might still be some time away from revisiting). Anyway, both reasons are finally shifting. As of this post, we have finished this book and we have moved into our new home (hooray!). In fact, the night we finish...

Published by Word Publishing: Austin, Texas, 1995. I first read this book when I was around 13 years old, and have read it again at least once in the intervening years. It is an interesting genre, which I have not seen represented often: what I would refer to as "Christian Horror." Already that seems bizarre, right?! And it is, but it also works amazingly well. The set up of the story is that Cliff Benson, a nature photographer, is found dead - and seemingly bitten in two! - in the wilderness near Hyde River, with his wife Evelyn stumbling from the wilderness, terror-stricken, covered in blood and unable to recall what has happened. Cliff's brother, Steve, turns up to investigate, and is soon partnered with local sheriff's deputy Tracy Ellis. Blame is originally put on a bear - mostly because no other animal can explain the horrific death - but as the investigation continues, Steve begins to suspect something else is going on. Meanwhile, the town of Hyde River is conc...

Published by Michael O'Mara Books Limited: London, 2009 (2008). You find the randomest books when you have a book-swap library outside your house! I probably wouldn't have picked this book up from a library or a cafe, but finding it downstairs on the pile of books mum 'curates' from her book-swap library was easy enough to become appealing (yes, we are still living at my parents' house while we house-hunt). Roger Moore was most famous for playing James Bond in seven films - still the most that any actor has played in the official series (Sean Connery played Bond in seven films as well, but the last one was the unofficial Never Say Never Again ). He tells his life story, starting with growing up in England, being one of the children sent away during the Second World War for safety, and moving gradually into his life as an actor. Usually the biographies I read are of Christians; I am a Christian and enjoy reading the stories of how people came to faith, and what they ...

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers: USA, 2022. I got this book on a whim from the school library when I noticed the words "Agatha Christie" on the cover, and enjoyed it enough that, a day later, I am writing the review. The Agathas stars Alice Ogilvie - a rich, formerly popular girl, who as been a bit of an outcast after she disappeared for five days over the summer - and Iris Adams - a poorer, slightly nerdy girl, who has been assigned to tutor Alice. Both girls have secrets of their own and certainly mistrust one another, but also begin to work together to solve a mystery when one of Alice's ex-friends, Brooke Donovan, goes missing after a late night fight with Steve Anderson, who is Brooke's current- and Alice's ex-boyfriend. The title The Agathas refers to Alice's love of Agatha Christie novels - she has a seemingly perfect memory of plots and quotes from Christie's books, something that I find impressive, if slightly farfetched, considering how many...

Published by Century/Random House: London, 2016. This is the first ever James Patterson book I've read, and I have some mixed thoughts. Firstly, the book is very easy to read. The chapters are short, the sentences are simple, and as a result, I flew through the book at pace. If this is what other Patterson books are like, then I can see why he would be a popular author to read. Secondly, being a co-written book, I am unsure how much of the plot and writing  is Patterson and how much is his collaborator. Apparently, Patterson has written over 200 books, but as many of them are co-written, it is likely that many of his co-writers do the heavy lifting. Thirdly, although the book is easy to read, I'm not sure I would call it 'well-written.' With the chapters being short - and with a lot of plot to get through - the book doesn't dwell very long on any given scene, meaning that the reader doesn't have a lot of time to emotionally invest in anything that is going on. W...

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 Harper & Row Jr Books/Evil Eye Music, Inc: New York, NY, 1974. Elise, Ezekiel and I were recently house-sitting for my parents, and I came across it on one of their bookshelves. It is a book I first read when I was five (this particular copy of the book, as well, which has a written dedication to my family in the front from the person who gave it to us), and I loved it, and learned a lot of it by heart. I can still quote numerous poems from it verbatim. I don't read a lot of poetry. By now, anyone who has read my reviews regularly will have picked that up! This book, however, is a favourite of mine. How come I love this so much, when a lot of poetry leaves me cold? Well, Shel Silverstein is a very funny poet, along with being quite witty, and at times, surprisingly deep. So, we get a silly poem like 'The Battle', which in its entirety, reads: "Would you like to hear Of the terrible night When I bravely fought the -  No? Alright." And we recognise ...

Published by Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press: USA, 2025. Each month on LibraryThing, an 'Early Reviewers' list is posted with books that you can win, in return for reviewing them. I have occasionally won eBooks to review through this format, and although the eBook format is not my favourite, I realise that being in New Zealand means that I'm less likely to win physical books. Indeed, usually physical books that are a part of the 'Early Reviewers' list are simply listed as 'Not Available in Your Country.'  Towards the end of last year, however, I noticed that a physical book was available in my home country! It looked interesting, so I put my name into the draw for it, despite the fact that with only a handful of copies available, over 100 people had registered interest. Lo and behold, I won it! And after waiting about eight weeks (international postage takes time) it finally arrived! And this is that book! Aside from being the first physical book ...

I have officially decided to give up my Bookerworm quest. I still intend to at least try to read the majority of the books, but after truly disliking some of the Booker books, I have also decided not to bother pushing through ones that I begin to get 'funny' feelings about. This is also tied a bit to my faith; I want to grow in my sensitivity to the voice of God, and that does at times meaning walking away from worldly things. I'm sure this will be an ongoing conversation I have with God, but for now, this plot is to acknowledge which books I have begun and subsequently have decided not to finish, along with a (much smaller, as I want to at least give books a chance to surprise me) number I have decided not to bother with in advance. I will also give brief reasons why these books have made this list, rather than my actual 'completed books' list. Ironically, although I felt to give up on the books I'm going to list below, most of them weren't as bad as som...

Published by Scholastic Australia Pty Limited: Gosford, NSW, 2025. Subtitled A Hunger Games Novel, Sunrise on the Reaping is a prequel to the main series - the second Suzanne Collins has written in recent years, actually. I have yet to read The Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds, which tells the story of a young President Snow, but I spotted this one - telling the story of a young Haymitch - at the library, and got it on a whim. Fans of the original Hunger Games series, particularly the first book , will remember that Haymitch was introduced as a perpetually drunk, cynical, checked-out past winner of the Hunger Games, who doesn't see any point in training Katniss or Peeta because they are not going to win anyway! Throughout the book - and the series as a whole - we see him regain his spark of life, and eventually become a true protagonist, working to bring about the downfall of the corrupt Capitol and its evil President. And of course, if you are looking for a subject to write a spin-o...

Published by Arrow Books Ltd/Random House UK Ltd: London, UK, 2000 (1999). A while ago, Elise and I borrowed three books from some friends. One of them was The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents , I don't actually remember what the second one was (perhaps it was the Scarlet Pimpernel Omnibus ? Or, was that the book we lent to them in return?), and the third one was this one. The aim was that we would read these books together, but that only happened with the omnibus. The Amazing Maurice was briefly explored by both of us, but I carried it on solo, and this one had something similar: Elise and I read about 100 pages together, but it was a little slow for that combined reading, so in the end, I finished it off myself. Looking back through my blog, I realise just how long we had Timeline sitting around before even beginning it, and then it took another (shorter) period of time for me to decide to carry it on after Elise and I gave up on it... It's definitely about time we gi...

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 by Walker Books Ltd: London, UK, 2017. This is a book that has been on the English Department shelves since I started at Nayland, and is often recommended to me as a good book. It is also one that I have used as an option for students to study at Level 1, having gathered themes and resources from other teachers to help support students choosing it. However, it is not a book I have read, until now. It is also a book that has been banned in some states in America, and so - looking for a "banned book" to finish off my reading challenge for the year - it finally seemed time to pick it up and give it a go. It is a very well-written book. It does have a lot of language in it, and it does talk a lot about violence - particularly police brutality - and because of those aspects I can understand why some groups might not enjoy it as much, BUT it is quite insightful and has a lot to say about racism (including subtle racism), standing up for your beliefs, and even the balance ...

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 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 Dean and Son Ltd: London, 1963. I needed a book with an animal protagonist, and remembered this book I read a few times as a child. After rereading it, I'm not super convinced that Brer Rabbit is a protagonist in the traditional sense - more of an anti-hero or even an antagonist at times - but the book still fits the brief over all. This is a collection of short fable-like chapters, each starring a somewhat anthropomorphised animal (usually Brer Rabbit) and usually having some sort of conflict where the smarter creature defeats the dumber creature. It is not always clear how anthropomorphised these animals are; they live in houses, they smoke cigars, all of them eat both meat and greens, and the male animals seem to be quite keen on 'Miss Meadows and the girls' (who might be human??) and yet the "carnivores" are often trying to eat the "herbivores", and at times they live in their traditional locations, such as ponds or briar-patches. Each s...

Published in flipback format by Hodder & Stoughton: London, UK, 2011. First published 2003. A book marketed right at me, seemingly, The Adventure of English is a history of the English language, from around 500 AD through til just after the year 2000. The subtitle is The Biography of a Language , and this feels fairly accurate: the focus is always on the language itself, and how the various influences of history has shaped it; events come and go within the pages only as needed for explanation. As a result, we get chapters on figures like Chaucer and Shakespeare, chapters on areas where specific branches of English have developed - such as USA, India and Australia - and even a few chapters devoted to Church History figures like Wycliffe and Tyndale, and their efforts to translate the Bible into English. It's all fascinating - far more than it might at first appear. Although the book eventually dragged on a bit (understandable, as it is covering almost 2000 years of history in a ...

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...

With Dean Merrill. Published by Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2018 (1997). I recently did a sermon on prayer and fasting, and borrowed a number of books from our church library shelf that seemed to have some connection to the topic. I browsed a few for research (and read the entirety of Fasting by Derek Prince) and then took most of the rest back to church when the sermon was done. A handful, however, I kept to read later, and Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire was the first of these that I picked up post-sermon. I'm so happy I did, because this is an inspiring book, with a far more biographical bent than I was expecting.  The author, Jim Cymbala, is the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, quite a large church in New York that - aside from my parents-in-law playing some musical clips - I've had no exposure to. Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire tells the story of the growth of that church from a small handful of people to a congregation numbering in the thousands, but (rightly) is far less focuse...

Published as an audiobook by Audible Studios, released 04-05-2021. Audiobook narrated by Ray Porter. Originally published 2021. This book surprised me, despite being very much what I expected. I know that author Andy Weir wrote The Martian (aka, the book that the 'Matt Damon growing potatoes on Mars' movie was based on) and expected that, like that book, this one was going to be a science-heavy piece of science-fiction. Tick. The plot of Project Hail Mary unfolds gradually, with protagonist Dr Ryland Grace awakening from a medically induced coma in a mysterious location, being tended to by a mysterious medical robot. To begin with, he is suffering from amnesia (Grace tells us that long-term comas are not good for people, and that it must have scrambled his brain), but as he slowly regains his memories he realises he is on a mission to save all of humanity. A "space bacteria" - given the name 'Astrophage' by Grace - is slowly consuming the light from the sun, a...