6 posts tagged “books”

Boats and Ropes

Summer's over for most of us, now is  time to get back  to our old routines,  including our monthly chat around a book and a beer.  The next date is listed below, and shortly I will be able to give you the dates for the whole year that will coincide (nearly) with the dates for our brand new film club.  What am I talking about?

The film club was initially Anne's idea ( or was it Jacques...), anyway, the idea is that five or six times during the year, an English language  film ( classic or modern, British, American et cetera...) would be shown here in the Mediathèque in Sanary, followed by a debate (in English) about the film.  

The films would always be shown on a Saturday afternoon and we already have a list of films which we're allowed to show. Further information will be posted here, watch this space!

Our Literature club would always be on a Friday and the following day the film club (a part from one exception), this keeps things nice and simple.

Now down to the nitty gritty, as we're so organized this year, wouldn't it be great to choose our five books for the season 2008/2009?  For our first meeting, I know we're all going to talk about our summer reads and that should be  that should be fun, but lets put our thinking caps with regards to the other books that we might all enjoy.   Maybe everyone could choose a couple of books, email to me and I'll print the titles out and we'll just do a lucky dip and the first five drawn would be the ones we'd read. 

NEXT CHAT:  Friday 26th September 2008

Place:            L'Hotel des Bains, Sanary

Time:             19hrs 

4th July

To finish off our first year on a high note, we have decided to picnic on Portissol beach and discuss everything American while eating good food and enjoying good company. 

Friday 4th July

Portissol Beach

18h30

To read without understanding is like eating without digesting.
~ Edmund Burke ~

The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you'll go.
~ Dr. Seuss ~

This morning I am writing out my long  list of books to buy while in the UK.  I am particularly interested in ESL books for children in primary schools.  I am convinced that by introducing a graded English reading scheme in French schools can only be beneficial. Firstly, research shows that reading improves all aspects of language learning, not only vocabulary and fluency, but also listening, writing and reading skills. In short, pupils who read have a better chance of mastering English than pupils who don’t read. 

Maybe a after school reading class would be fun, I wonder if children would be interested? Their parents certainly would be!

Mont Blanc

Today is the last day of our holiday, I'm still in bed, computer on my lap, updating the blog, amongst other things. 

I had no idea how much time had gone by since our last chat around a book.  January was a busy month for all of us, and February is holiday month (well half of it atleast).

We are having a great, resourcing time in the Chartreuse, skiing and falling over allot.

The above photo is of the somewhat distant Mont Blanc, a mere 80kms away if you could fly.

What are all you guys doing?

Have you finished the Lessing book yet?

Remember next meeting is scheduled for the 29/02/2008 at 19hrs.

No this isn't Nicole, it's Doris Lessing.

I have come up with a  shortlist of books by Doris Lessing, with a short synopsis for each one. Now we just need to decide which one to choose, and who wants to buy a copy;

The Grass Is Singing    208 pages.  1989

Set in Rhodesia, this is the story of Dick, a failed white farmer and his wife, Mary, dependent and disappointed. Both are trapped by poverty, and in the heat of the brick and tin house, hemmed in by the bush, Mary finds herself seeking solace in the arms of the houseboy.   (taken from Amazon uk)

The Golden Notebook   576 pages.  1989 

Beautiful, striking reissue of this classic Lessing novel. Widely regarded as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century Anna Wulf is a young novelist with writer's block. Divorced, with a young child, and disillusioned by unsatisfactory relationships, she feels her life is falling apart. In fear of madness, she records her experiences in four coloured notebooks. The black notebook addresses her problems as a writer; the red her political life; the yellow her relationships and emotions; and the blue becomes a diary of everyday events. But it is the fifth notebook -- the Golden Notebook -- which is the key to her recovery and renaissance. Bold and illuminating, fusing sex, politics, madness and motherhood, The Golden Notebook is at once a wry and perceptive portrait of the intellectual and moral climate of the 1950s -- a society on the brink of feminism -- and a powerful and revealing account of a woman searching for her own personal and political identity.  (taken from Amazon UK)

The Summer Before The Dark  240 pages.  1975  

As the summer begins, Kate Brown -- attractive, intelligent, forty five, happily enough married, with a house in the London suburbs and three grown children -- has no reason to expect anything will change. But when the summer ends, the woman she was -- living behind a protective camouflage of feminine charm and caring -- no longer exists. This novel. Doris Lessing's brilliant excursion into the terrifying stretch of time between youth and old age, is her journey: from London to Turkey to Spain, from husband to lover to madness: on the road to a frightening new independence and a confrontation with self that lets her, finally, come truly of age (taken from Amazon FR).

The Story of General Dann and Mara's daughter, Griot and the Snow-dog  282 pages

Mara and Dann was to my mind the greatest of Lessing’s books, not least because, like its sequel, it can be read with pleasure and profit by any intelligent 12-year-old. In the first book, Lessing transported her human readers thousands of years into the future, near the end of an Ice Age in “Yerrup”that has dried out both the “Middle Sea” between Europe and Africa and the southern part of “Ifrik ”itself. Mara and Dann began that book as children walking from the arid south to the still-green north of Africa, and ended up as young adults acclaimed as lost princes of the Mahondi tribe. 

Taken from The Sunday Times  http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article528318.ece 

The Cleft   2007

Latest book.

In the last years of his life, a contemplative Roman senator embarks on one last epic endeavor: to retell the history of human creation and reveal the little-known story of the Clefts, an ancient community of women living in an Edenic coastal wilderness. The Clefts have neither need nor knowledge of men; childbirth is controlled through the cycles of the moon, and they bear only female children. But with the unheralded birth of a strange new child-a boy-the harmony of their community is suddenly thrown into jeopardy.

In this fascinating and beguiling novel, Lessing confronts the themes that inspired much of her early writing: how men and women manage to live side by side in the world and how the troublesome particulars of gender affect every aspect of our existence.  (taken from the Doris Lessing site below)

You can all take a look here http://www.dorislessing.org/ and maybe find something else.

I would like to read The Summer Before The Dark, or The Cleft, however the book with the most votes, wins.

I will buy a book and pass it on to Marie Christine, Nicole and Benjamin (and Estelle if she comes).

The evening was pleasant, in the company of avid readers who are passionate for the English language.  Unfortunately one of our group was unable to attend due to illness and other interested parties were informed too late, my apologizes.

The discussion was lively and I enjoyed meeting and talking with you all.  

The group members are all to post their reflexions with regards to the Alexander Mccall novels, however I can say we all seemed more or less of the same  opinion.

Reviews to follow shortly, meanwhile here's one of the beers some of us tasted

Kilkenny

tonight.

This is a full bodied, medium dark red ale. Malty and slightly sweet with a touch of hops rounding out its nature. The finish is clean, crisp and clear with no bitterness or aftter taste. just a hint of hops on the tongue and back of the mouth. Very Good indeed!