A Book Every Week: The New Yorker

The New Yorker is one of my favourite magazines. This is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. I love the fact that they pay a lot of attention to modern fiction by the inclusion of short stories and literary reviews. Many great writers publish their brief texts here. Jonathan Franzen or Zadie Smith, for example, are two of The New Yorker contributors. I suggest you browse the web and find articles and short stories you like, and read them. Here you are a selection of texts to start with (but you'd rather find your own style, of course):

Zadie Smith, "Moonlit Landscape with Bridge"

Jonathan Franzen, "Farther Away"

David Sedaris, "Leviathan"

A Book Every Week: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by Scott Fitzgerald

Hey guys, have you watched the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? It was directed by David Fincher, starring Brad Pitt. This is the story of a man who ages in reverse and it was originally written by the celebrated American author Scott Fitzgerald. This week, I would like to encourage you to read such story and listen to the audio available here. If you choose the "slower listening speed" option, it will take you only one hour to listen to the two parts of the story. Come on, there is no excuse this time!
I hope you enjoy!

A Book Every Week: "The Elephant Vanishes" by Haruki Murakami

The book I would like to recommend this week is entitled The Elephant Vanishes, a short story by the contemporary Japanese author Haruki Murakami. His books can be described as surrealistic, but such experimental touch has not prevented people from enjoying them. On the contrary, Murakami is a best-selling author, and his books have been translated to fifty languages. 

As for the plot of The Elephant Vanishes, it narrates the mysterious disappearance of an elephant and the consequences of this event in the life of the main character. Would you like to know more about this story? Give it a try and read! As you will see when clicking on the link, there is an audio available for you. This way you can listen to someone reading the text in perfect English.

I hope you like it.
Have a good weekend!

r

HALLOWEEN, Reading and Listening: "The New Catacomb" by Conan Doyle

Dear students,
this is the video we watched today in class. You can watch it again at home and read the short story at the same time. Just click the links below:

The New Catacomb (Video)

Transcript of this short story (Text)

Enjoy!

Weekend Movies: "Coffee and Cigarettes", by Jim Jarmush

This weekend, I would like to invite you to watch this independent film. Coffee and Cigarettes is the title by independent director Jim Jarmush. The film consists of 11 short stories which share coffee and cigarettes as a common thread. It might be a bit unusual but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

A Book Every Week: "The Happy Prince"

My dearest students,

I am going to fulfill my promise and recommend a book every week.  I have been thinking about different fascinating short stories that you might like, and a title has come to my mind: The Happy Prince, by Oscar Wilde. I have read this story many times in my life and its beauty has always touched my heart. Even though, in a sense, The Happy Prince is a sad story, I believe there is something blissful and marvellous about it. You might have read this story when you where kids, as I did. Now we have the chance to read it in English and "hear" Oscar Wilde's real voice. In order to do so, you just need to CLICK HERE.

Do you also want to listen to the story? Just play the video below:

Enjoy the reading!