Hi everybody! I've just finished reading the first book of the Twilight saga and started the second one, entitled New Moon. The first one, Twilight, is amazing. I'm a greedy reader so it took me only a week to read the four books. I became acquainted with these books one afternoon while I was surfing some websites: the title intrigued me so I went to my favorite bookshop and I bought it. I was literally captured by the way Stephenie Meyer, the author of these books, writes: you are not satisfied until you read the end. So, let me talk about the plot. Twilight is a love story but there are also thrilling moments and gothic elements (that's why this book became a symbol for the EMO generation). The story begins when Isabella Swan moves from Phoenix, Arizona, to Forks, Washington. In this gloomy town she's going to find the love of her life, Edward; but she doesn't know that he's a vampire. Bella is aware that Edward and his family aren't like the others but she wouldn't ever have imagined that they were vampires. Their main feature is that they don't drink human blood but only animal blood so they are good. Edward has been waiting about a century for her (he was born in 1901 and before dying of Spanish influenza his adoptive father, already a vampire, changed him into a vampire too in 1918) and he is particularly attracted by Bella's blood because she has a special smell (every human being has a smell and vampires are attracted by this one). They fall in love but danger is round the corner: Bella's blood is enticing also for the other vampires, especially James who is a tracker. I don't want to say anything else not to spoil the end. I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it because It's well written and easy to understand. It's a story about love but I think that also boys should read it and learn something from Edward: he is charming and romantic and he treats Bella the way that every woman wishes. Enjoy it! Francesca
Hi everyone, the book I’ve just finished to read it’s a classical one: ”Pride and prejudice ”by J. Austen. I bought it a couple of years ago only because it was part of the set books for the FCE as I’ve already read Austen’s major novels(but in the Italian translation) during the summer at the secondary school. The story is about and the five daughters of Bennet family. The book start with a phrase that summarize the social convention of the age: ”it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”. Through Austen’s words we face with the fact that for a young woman of this period marriage with a wealthy man was the most desiderable position: unmarried ones living in their parents house were considered as second class citizens. For this reason (*)”as a such man moves into a neighbourhood, each of the families that live there, without any inquiry to his own feelings on the subject, immediately consider him the rightful property of one of their daughters” . All the book concerns the clash between personal feelings and social convention that prevented people of the age to act freely in their relationship and in the choice they made and it is a witty satire of this kind of society where people were anxious ,above all, about their own and others’ social position, about money and affairs. From some point of view times have not changed! The main characters are Mr. Bennet: “a strange mixture of cleverness, sharp-humour, silence and unexpected changes of mind, that the experience of 23 years had not been long enough to make his wife understand his character”. Austen is very caustic (*) describing this marriage and especially Mrs.Bennet’s figure saying: ”her mind was less difficult to understand. She was a foolish woman…the business of her life was to get her daughters married: her pleasure was visiting and news.” From this description everyone can easily understand that theirs is a surface marriage, without real feelings between the two partners. Jane, their eldest daughter, falls in love with Mr.Bingley a wealthy, good-looking man and they get married, despite her lower social position that caused fierce opposition by her future sister-in-law Mrs. Bingley. Mr.Bennet’ s property was, unfortunately for his daughters ,to pass by law after his death to his nearest male relative, Mr.Collins. He “was not a sensible man, and neither education nor society had improved him much. He was too conscious of his own importance and too afraid of giving offence, especially by those above him in rank.” What made me upset was the fact that such an unbearable man has had the cheek of asking Elizabeth(the second daughter and my heroine) as a wife. Fortunately she refuse him and he turned his interest to Charlotte Lucas, who said to her best friend Elizabeth: ”I do not expect very much from marriage…I shall be satisfied with having a comfortable home”. Elizabeth “would never have expected Charlotte to give up to her finer feelings to gain no more than comfort. She felt that her friend had shamed herself, and she did not believe it possible for her to be happy in the life she chosen”. Lizzy, as she is called by her parents, is the second daughter of Bennet family: Elizabeth firs met Mr.Darcy,the man that would became her husband, at a ball. As there is no writers more careful in her use of words than Austen, the title summarises the point on which the novel turns: it is because of Darcy’s “pride” and Elizabeth “prejudice” that the two characters misunderstand one another. As the story continues, they change and grow toward one another and finally get married. I had much fun in the pages where is described their first met at a ball. Darcy said coldly to Mr.Bingley about Lizzy:” she is fair pretty but not good-looking enough”. Luckily she is describe as having ”a playful nature and a strong sense of humour”…”and told the story with great spirit among her friends”. Mr.Darcy’s behaviour is judged from a convetional-social point of view by Miss Lucas who said: ”his pride does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot be surprised that such a fine young man with family and fortune should think highly of himself” and Lizzy replied: ”I could easily forgive his pride if he had not wounded mine”. What a girl!!! Austen would have been very proud of her! The book was originally written under the title ”Firs impression” and mine about Mr.Darcy was of intense closeness because I recognised a side of my nature when Austen write about him: ” he seemed very angry at being spoken to” or later when he honestly admit:” I have certainly not the ability that some people possess of holding conversation easily with those whom I have never seen before”; his enemy Mr.Wickmann unlikely was ”fortunate enough to have such pleasing manner that he can always be sure of making friends. It is less certain that he is able to keep them” as Darcy said. This immoral and dishonest person at a certain point of the novel run away with Lidya ”uncontrolled, unashamed, wild, noisy, fearless” Elizabeth sister and only Darcy’s intervention forced him to marry the young woman. It would be too long and useless describe all the others characters and the detailed plot as it is a well-known book. My aim is to show the different feelings this book raise me in the different period of my life I met it. When I was younger I thought it was old-fashioned and with a very narrow focus(an old society, families that were living in a small place..)but now I realised that within this its writer explores a universal theme: the adjustments a person must make to family, society and him/herself. Austen’s particular skill is ,for my point of view, the careful and humorous way in which she explore every details of characters’ lives and the strong sense of morality that underline the work: an honest and honourable nature is more important than social rules that are followed only on the surface. The book is skilfully constructed and deeply affecting, it is so rich a read that it far outstrip its form and I can easily consider it as one of the best book I’ve ever come across and eagerly recommend it.
I’ve just finished reading this novel that is set at the beginning of the XVI century in the court of Henry VIII. The main character is Mary, the King’s younger sister, who has to face with her own royal status. Since her childhood, she is resigned to the fact that a Princess of the blood, as she is, can’t expect to have control of her own life: the royal marriages play a key role in political alliances. After all, she is a Tudor! She knows perfectly well her duties and she is proud to carry out them for England! However, Mary also knows her own heart…
Reading this book has not been that easy and the first part of the story is less exciting than the second one; but, anyway, after having completed it and reading the final author’s notes, I can say that it is a good romance. Diane Haeger (the author) explains that great care has been taken in describing the historical events as they occurred. So, if you like to know the royal life in the court of England in the XVI century with its political and sentimental intrigues, well, you will likely be interested in reading this book, by which, for example, you can get a deeper knowledge even of the childhood of the future King Henry VIII or meet a thirteen-year-old Anne Boleyn.
I want to talk about one of my favorite book: "The house of sleep", by Jonathan Coe. I read that book several times in Italian and this summer I bought it in English. I think it's not difficult reading this book, I read it at the beach in one week.
"The house of sleep" is the story of Sarah, Robert and Terry. They are students living together at Ashdown, in a big house on the seashore. Sarah has a problem: she is not able to tell the difference between her dreams and the reality, so she frequently give a bad impression to people, because she speaks about things that never happened. Robert falls head over heels for Sarah, but she considers Robert only as friend, also because she is homosexual and she dates with a girl. At the same time, the book tells the story of Sarah, Robert and Terry ten years later...
I know I'm no good at resuming plot, and that is so complicated, so I suggest you read this book ;) I hope you enjoy it!
4 comments:
Hi everybody!
I've just finished reading the first book of the Twilight saga and started the second one, entitled New Moon.
The first one, Twilight, is amazing.
I'm a greedy reader so it took me only a week to read the four books.
I became acquainted with these books one afternoon while I was surfing some websites: the title intrigued me so I went to my favorite bookshop and I bought it.
I was literally captured by the way Stephenie Meyer, the author of these books, writes: you are not satisfied until you read the end.
So, let me talk about the plot.
Twilight is a love story but there are also thrilling moments and gothic elements (that's why this book became a symbol for the EMO generation).
The story begins when Isabella Swan moves from Phoenix, Arizona, to Forks, Washington.
In this gloomy town she's going to find the love of her life, Edward; but she doesn't know that he's a vampire.
Bella is aware that Edward and his family aren't like the others but she wouldn't ever have imagined that they were vampires.
Their main feature is that they don't drink human blood but only animal blood so they are good.
Edward has been waiting about a century for her (he was born in 1901 and before dying of Spanish influenza his adoptive father, already a vampire, changed him into a vampire too in 1918) and he is particularly attracted by Bella's blood because she has a special smell (every human being has a smell and vampires are attracted by this one).
They fall in love but danger is round the corner: Bella's blood is enticing also for the other vampires, especially James who is a tracker.
I don't want to say anything else not to spoil the end.
I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it because It's well written and easy to understand.
It's a story about love but I think that also boys should read it and learn something from Edward: he is charming and romantic and he treats Bella the way that every woman wishes.
Enjoy it!
Francesca
Hi everyone,
the book I’ve just finished to read it’s a classical one: ”Pride and prejudice ”by J. Austen.
I bought it a couple of years ago only because it was part of the set books for the FCE as I’ve already read Austen’s major novels(but in the Italian translation) during the summer at the secondary school.
The story is about and the five daughters of Bennet family.
The book start with a phrase that summarize the social convention of the age: ”it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”.
Through Austen’s words we face with the fact that for a young woman of this period marriage with a wealthy man was the most desiderable position: unmarried ones living in their parents house were considered as second class citizens.
For this reason (*)”as a such man moves into a neighbourhood, each of the families that live there, without any inquiry to his own feelings on the subject, immediately consider him the rightful property of one of their daughters” .
All the book concerns the clash between personal feelings and social convention that prevented people of the age to act freely in their relationship and in the choice they made and it is a witty satire of this kind of society where people were anxious ,above all, about their own and others’ social position, about money and affairs.
From some point of view times have not changed!
The main characters are Mr. Bennet: “a strange mixture of cleverness, sharp-humour, silence and unexpected changes of mind, that the experience of 23 years had not been long enough to make his wife understand his character”.
Austen is very caustic (*) describing this marriage and especially Mrs.Bennet’s figure saying: ”her mind was less difficult to understand. She was a foolish woman…the business of her life was to get her daughters married: her pleasure was visiting and news.”
From this description everyone can easily understand that theirs is a surface marriage, without real feelings between the two partners.
Jane, their eldest daughter, falls in love with Mr.Bingley a wealthy, good-looking man and they get married, despite her lower social position that caused fierce opposition by her future sister-in-law Mrs. Bingley.
Mr.Bennet’ s property was, unfortunately for his daughters ,to pass by law after his death to his nearest male relative, Mr.Collins.
He “was not a sensible man, and neither education nor society had improved him much. He was too conscious of his own importance and too afraid of giving offence, especially by those above him in rank.”
What made me upset was the fact that such an unbearable man has had the cheek of asking Elizabeth(the second daughter and my heroine) as a wife.
Fortunately she refuse him and he turned his interest to Charlotte Lucas, who said to her best friend Elizabeth: ”I do not expect very much from marriage…I shall be satisfied with having a comfortable home”.
Elizabeth “would never have expected Charlotte to give up to her finer feelings to gain no more than comfort. She felt that her friend had shamed herself, and she did not believe it possible for her to be happy in the life she chosen”.
Lizzy, as she is called by her parents, is the second daughter of Bennet family:
Elizabeth firs met Mr.Darcy,the man that would became her husband, at a ball.
As there is no writers more careful in her use of words than Austen, the title summarises the point on which the novel turns: it is because of Darcy’s “pride” and Elizabeth “prejudice” that the two characters misunderstand one another. As the story continues, they change and grow toward one another and finally get married.
I had much fun in the pages where is described their first met at a ball.
Darcy said coldly to Mr.Bingley about Lizzy:” she is fair pretty but not good-looking enough”.
Luckily she is describe as having ”a playful nature and a strong sense of humour”…”and told the story with great spirit among her friends”.
Mr.Darcy’s behaviour is judged from a convetional-social point of view by Miss Lucas who said: ”his pride does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot be surprised that such a fine young man with family and fortune should think highly of himself” and Lizzy replied: ”I could easily forgive his pride if he had not wounded mine”.
What a girl!!! Austen would have been very proud of her!
The book was originally written under the title ”Firs impression” and mine about Mr.Darcy was of intense closeness because I recognised a side of my nature when Austen write about him: ” he seemed very angry at being spoken to” or later when he honestly admit:” I have certainly not the ability that some people possess of holding conversation easily with those whom I have never seen before”; his enemy Mr.Wickmann unlikely was ”fortunate enough to have such pleasing manner that he can always be sure of making friends. It is less certain that he is able to keep them” as Darcy said.
This immoral and dishonest person at a certain point of the novel run away with Lidya ”uncontrolled, unashamed, wild, noisy, fearless” Elizabeth sister and only Darcy’s intervention forced him to marry the young woman.
It would be too long and useless describe all the others characters and the detailed plot as it is a well-known book.
My aim is to show the different feelings this book raise me in the different period of my life I met it.
When I was younger I thought it was old-fashioned and with a very narrow focus(an old society, families that were living in a small place..)but now I realised that within this its writer explores a universal theme: the adjustments a person must make to family, society and him/herself.
Austen’s particular skill is ,for my point of view, the careful and humorous way in which she explore every details of characters’ lives and the strong sense of morality that underline the work: an honest and honourable nature is more important than social rules that are followed only on the surface.
The book is skilfully constructed and deeply affecting, it is so rich a read that it far outstrip its form and I can easily consider it as one of the best book I’ve ever come across and eagerly recommend it.
“The secret bride” – by Diane Haeger
I’ve just finished reading this novel that is set at the beginning of the XVI century in the court of Henry VIII. The main character is Mary, the King’s younger sister, who has to face with her own royal status. Since her childhood, she is resigned to the fact that a Princess of the blood, as she is, can’t expect to have control of her own life: the royal marriages play a key role in political alliances. After all, she is a Tudor! She knows perfectly well her duties and she is proud to carry out them for England! However, Mary also knows her own heart…
Reading this book has not been that easy and the first part of the story is less exciting than the second one; but, anyway, after having completed it and reading the final author’s notes, I can say that it is a good romance. Diane Haeger (the author) explains that great care has been taken in describing the historical events as they occurred. So, if you like to know the royal life in the court of England in the XVI century with its political and sentimental intrigues, well, you will likely be interested in reading this book, by which, for example, you can get a deeper knowledge even of the childhood of the future King Henry VIII or meet a thirteen-year-old Anne Boleyn.
I want to talk about one of my favorite book: "The house of sleep", by Jonathan Coe. I read that book several times in Italian and this summer I bought it in English. I think it's not difficult reading this book, I read it at the beach in one week.
"The house of sleep" is the story of Sarah, Robert and Terry. They are students living together at Ashdown, in a big house on the seashore. Sarah has a problem: she is not able to tell the difference between her dreams and the reality, so she frequently give a bad impression to people, because she speaks about things that never happened. Robert falls head over heels for Sarah, but she considers
Robert only as friend, also because she is homosexual and she dates with a girl. At the same time, the book tells the story of Sarah, Robert and Terry ten years later...
I know I'm no good at resuming plot, and that is so complicated, so I suggest you read this book ;)
I hope you enjoy it!
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