Thank You all for Coming!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that showed up for the first bookclub meeting! Everyone seemed really interested in discussing the story and practicing English! I hope to see you all next time on January 19th. We'll be talking about science fiction stories from A Window on the Universe.

Have a Merry Christmas! And a happy New Year!

hello

I read the book last week but I think I have to review it. Here you have a link to a website for downloading free books:
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

see you

i´ve read the story , and i remember there is a movie version, 1952, made of 4 short stories, i think the title was O´henry´s full house. Farley Granger and Jean Peters where the players, i think.

magi

I,ve just created my Google Account, but i´m not sure if it´s ok.

The Zero Hour, Part One

A Window on the Universe.

Our choice for next month is  A Window on the Universe.

It is a collection of short Stories by Ray Bradbury, Bill Brown, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Jerome Bixby, Isaac Asimov, Brian Aldiss, Roald Dahl, and John Wyndham.

The stories featured in the book are:

ZERO HOUR by Ray Bradbury

THE STAR DUCKS by Bill Brown

HUMAN IS by Philip K. Dick

IT´S A GOOD LIFE by Jerome Bixby

THE MACHINE THAT WON THE WAR by Isaac Asimov

WHO CAN REPLACE A MAN by Brian Aldiss

STICH IN TIME by John Wyndham

THE SOUND MACHINE by Roald Dahl

THE HAMMER OF GOD by Arthur C. Clarke

The book is NOT available for reading online or for free download in PDF but it can be bought second hand from Amazon at a very reasonable price.

Anyway , there’s lot of information on the Internet about the stories and the authors, and in some cases long excerpts, especially of  IT´S A GOOD LIFE by Jerome Bixby and THE MACHINE THAT WON THE WAR by Isaac Asimov.

If you feel like listening to a radio programme based on THE ZERO HOUR , click here:

Zero Hour" by Ray Bradbury. Suspense Radio. Originally aired April 5th 1955.

Bert and Ernie's Gift of the Magi

Last Minute Reminder!

I hope everyone is ready for the first bookclub meeting tomorrow! We'll start at 19.00 in the CFR library. There will be coffee and cake. And no need to bring anything! Just think about your favorite books and stories. We'll be introducing ourselves, and we'll discuss what kind of stories you want to read. What is your favorite genre, books, authors etc. It will be a laid-back evening, and I hope you can make it!

-Bethany

The Gift of the Magi

Juan Farias. In Memoriam.

Juan Farias passed away last Saturday at the age of 76. His family, friends, and readers are left with broken hearts. His writings were as tender and captivating as the writer himself.

I can feel tears pricking my eyes as I remember his Letter to the Magi.

Farewell Juan Farias, farewell.

New Section. Teaching Resources.

As you may have notice there is a new section in the blog, it is called Teaching Resources. We will try to post links to sites where you will find teaching materials related to the books we are reading. Follow the two links I have already posted and  you will find a play based on the story of the Happy Prince and an activity book and an audiobook for The Happy Prince and The Selfish Giant.

Remember that our next meeting is on the 19^th and ……………enjoy your reading!!

The Happy Prince and Other Stories

I think you decided that The Happy Prince and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde will be our next book. Here is a link where you will find it:

http://wilde.artpassions.net/

  Would you like to listen to the story? Here is a link where the story is told, not read, by Sister Unity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UlLklywc3o

You don´t like it? Too weird? Ok , ok  write a comment and let me know.....

Coffee, tiramisu and some good talk.

I´ve heard you had a fantastic time last Thursday.

Jessica told me that you enjoyed very much the talking, the coffee and the dessert. By the way, we must thank Vidal for being such a love (he is the one who cooked tiramisu for you all) . Jessica told me you complained about the difficult words you found in Sapsorrow. I must say it was not my intention to give you a difficult reading, but I am glad you realized that fairy tales can also be used to teach adult learners. They have the structure of a short novel, with plot, setting and characters. And they use “real”, not adapted, language.

Hello fellow readers!!

I just wanted to drop by the blog and say a big "thanks!" to all of you for the last meeting.  I was really nervous to run the book club on by own without Gabriela, but in the end it all went perfectly.  Thanks for all your participation and for "talking my ear off", and I am looking forward to see all of you again next month.  Enjoy The Happy Prince!

Cheers,
Jessica

Fairy Tales. East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

If you feel like reading some more fairy tales here is a link where you will find plenty of them:  

SurLaLune Fairy Tales 

Let us choose a story and we will talk about it in our next meeting. If you have chosen  East of the Sun and West of the Moon  you can watch it on YouTube.

 East of the Sun and West of the Moon .

Sapsorrow.

Dear friends,

 I am sure you have already read  and watched Sapsorrow . Why don´t you choose a paragraph to read aloud in our next meeting? We can talk about it and try to explain our choice.

I have chosen the following paragraph:

And while he waited, holding his breath for sight of his darling, down below in the steaming kitchen, as full dishes poured out and empty plates poured in, the Straggletag worked, scrubbing, soaking, cleaning, hurrying, desperate to finish. All around her the servants chatted. "She hasn't come," said one. "He's there, poor love," said another. "He hasn't even gone  inside." The Straggletag doused the dishes anxiously. "Can I have them, please?" she demanded of the servant who lounged at the sink, clutching a tray loaded with dirty plates. "What's the hurry?" quizzed the servant. "Meeting a sweetheart?" "Maybe," whispered the Straggletag. This sent the servant into convulsions of amusement. "That's why the Prince is still waiting!" he explained to the others, "She hasn't finished the dishes!" And they all laughed.

I don´t know why I like it but I will try to find out.

Fairy Tales.Sapsorrow.

In our last meeting we decided that we would read fairy tales. Yes, you read that right…. fairy tales.

Fairy tales are used for language learning in many countries and as they say “teaching and learning languages can be easy and fun trough Fairy Tales, whether you are an experienced linguist or have limited language skills”.

So even if we are “experienced linguists” I am sure we will enjoy reading Sapsorrow.

We will also be able to watch the episode Sapsorrow from The Storyteller on YouTube.

The Storyteller is a TV series. It is an American/British production from 1988 and was created by Jim Henson. I was living in Ireland when I first watched The Storyteller, and although I was no little girl by them I loved it.

I am sure you will like it a lot. But if you don´t please let me know, write a comment on our blog…..

The Kite Runner. It made my heart ache

In our last meeting last Thursday we all agreed that The Kite Runner is a heart-wrenching book. This beautiful story of friendship,  betrayal and redemption moved us deeply.

The characters of Hassan and Amir and their relationship are all carefully and convincingly described.

We may not be right- almost for sure we are not- but we thought that it was Baba´s dark secret that started  the  tragedy.

Baba , who is portrayed as strong, brave and honest, could not muster the strength to claim his own  son , Hassan .

Amir could not understand why his father seemed to be more attached to a servant than to him and so he felt jealous and guilty. He wanted Hassan out of their lives because he thought that  his friend was stealing part of his father´s love and admiration.

And in the end it was Amir the one who would atone for his sins and his father´s sins. So sad and so beautiful.

THE FILM

THE KITE RUNNER  

Directed by Marc Forster (director of  Finding Neverland)

 The best-selling novel is one of the most acclaimed movies of the year. As young boys, Amir and Hassan were inseparable friends, until one fateful act tore them apart. Years later, Amir will embark on a dangerous quest to right the wrongs of the past- and redeem himself in ways he neveer expected- by displaying the ultimate in courage and devotion to his friend.                                  "...a FASCINATING                         
                                                                           and GRIPPING tale"


                                                                             Sunday Mirror
                                            
                                                                               

NEXT MEETING

Our next  meeting will be Wednesday, Febuary 17, 2011.

If you want to watch the film , you can borrow the DVD from the CFR library .There are three copies available.

The film was released in 2007,and is quite faithfull to the book .  James Christopher  , a critic who writes for the Sunday Times, thinks that  “it is an exemplary piece of storytelling ripped quite beautifully from Khaled Hosseini’s famous book”

The Kite Runner (official movie trailer)

Next month we will be reading The Kite Runner. I am not sure if has been a good choice because , although the book is a good one indeed, some parts of it can be really disturbing. If you want to learn about the book and the author here are some links.
The Kite Runner is a novel by Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it is Hosseini's first novel, and was adapted into a film of the same name in 2007.The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who befriends Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime. Wikipedia

Khaled Hosseini.

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His father was a diplomat with the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother taught Farsi and History at a large high school in Kabul. In 1976, the Afghan Foreign Ministry relocated the Hosseini family to Paris. They were ready to return to Kabul in 1980, but by then Afghanistan had already witnessed a bloody communist coup and the invasion of the Soviet army. The Hosseinis sought and were granted political asylum in the United States. In September of 1980, Hosseini's family moved to San Jose, California. Hosseini graduated from high school in 1984 and enrolled at Santa Clara University where he earned a bachelor's degree in Biology in 1988. The following year, he entered the University of California-San Diego's School of Medicine, where he earned a Medical Degree in 1993. He completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Hosseini was a practicing internist