GOODMAN, Elizabeth (2010) Lady Gaga, Extreme Style
by Camilo Cañaveral Alzate, 2 ESO A
I love this book! The presentation suits the image in the page and it includes many facts and dialogues. The last page shows you how to dress like her. The pictures are quite big and the texts are sometimes short and expressive. Lizzy demonstrates her talent when writing about fashion. She uses formal vocabulary.
MAYER, Stephanie, TWILIGHT
by Andrea Sola 2º Bachillerato EFL
Bella is the main character of this story. She moves from Phoenix to her father´s home in the gloomy town of Forks and she begins a new life in a new home, a new school, with new friends ... But her new life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she meets Edward Cullen. After she investigates, Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret: he was a vampire. Then, they fall in love. But their relationship could be dangerous for Bella because Edward's enemies, other vampires, want to kill her. When a vampire is going to kill Bella, Edward rescues her and they continue together no matter the danger.
I love this book. Despite its complicated vocabulary it is very easy to understand and I recommend it to everybody. It's a very romantic book and full of suspense because you never know what is going to happen. The story is hypnotic and you can´t stop reading it. What I liked most was the way of describing things, because when you are reading it you imagine everything in your mind and you create your own story, with your own characters, places...
To sum up it is my favourite book!
STEINBECK, John, The Pearl Macmillan Readers, B1 (1700 headwords)
by Cristina Gutiérrez Aguilera 2º Bachillerato EFL
Kino, a poor Mexican pearl diver, enjoyed a simple life with his wife Juana and their baby, Coyotito. But one day, the baby was bitten by a scorpion and fell ill. The doctors refused to treat him because Kino didn't have money. Things improved when Kino discovered a huge, beautiful pearl. Suddenly everyone in his town was interested in his family and his pearl, even the doctors that didn't want to treat his son. But greed contaminated their once simple way of life and the pearl led Kino to corruption. He even slit a man's throat when he attempted to take the pearl from him. The price of the pearl was much higher than they had imagined...
The main point of this book is to show the colossal power of money, which can corrupt people, even those who have been victims of the excessive wealth of a certain individual. Kino, who from being an honest dignified poor man turned into a greedy sociopath capable of killing people to keep his new way of life.
Theseus and the Minotaur
By Camilo Cañaveral Alzate, 2º ESO A
A mythology book for young readers. It includes three stories: Theseus and the Minotaur, Orpheus and Eurydice, Apollo and Daphne. They are Greek myths. The first one is about the adventures of Theseus in the island of the king Minos defeating the horrible creature, the Minotaur. The second narration is Orpheus and Eurydice´s travel to the underworld. The last one, Apollo and Daphne, is the more fictional story, telling how Apollo fell in love with the nymph Daphne.
It´s a simple introduction to Greek mythology. I recommend it to people who enjoy reading about ancient history. Sometimes the book gets interesting and you finish it without realizing! It´s quite a small book and it just has 47 pages.
COLLLINS, Wilkie, The Woman in White Penguin Readers C1 (3000 headwords)
by Helga Puigdomènech Sanjuán 2º Bachillerato EFL
This story narrates the typical, but also delightful, love story where there is a platonic love between a good positioned young lady (Laura Fairlie) and her middle class art teacher (Walter Hartright). However, she finds herself engaged to a rich man (Sir Percival Glyde), since her father asked her to marry him when he was close to death. The unpleasant behaviour of her future husband will make Laura realise that he just wants the money from her father's heritage..
This is a novel where you can find intrigue, platonic love, detective work and corruption. I would recommend this book to those people who like stories in which you don't know the truth until the end, when everything come to light.
There is an interesting fact in the novel that caught my attention: the narrator changes every few chapters. That makes the novel very entertaining because you can appreciate different points of view, speeches, characters and behaviours, depending on which person is telling the story.
You can read this story quite quickly. It is easy to understand the vocabulary and the grammar is not too complicated. Personally I think this book is suitable for people with an intermediate level of English.
Gerrard, Mike & Donna Dailey (2008) - Paris Top 10 - DK Pub.
Camilo Cañaveral Alzate, 2º ESO A
Bonjour! Welcome to Paris! (well… not really!) This small size book has been designed to be easy to carry, that’s why it is called pocket guide. It contains a pull-out map so you don’t get lost. The book is called Top 10, therefore the guide shows you 10 unmissable museums and galleries, 10 best café-terraces, 10 great walks and itineraries, and much more... It also includes a map of the underground.
Useful, complex, small, easy to use, tidy and with a lot of maps. Just perfect! I like this book for many reasons and one of them is that it gives you all the information possible (addresses, useful telephone numbers, times, nearb cafes…)
Sparks, Nicholas The Notebook
Laura Parra, 2º Bachillerato EFL
The story begins in an old's people home where an elderly man is telling a love story to a woman with Alzheimer’s disease. The story he tells is their own, of how they met and how they fell in love. He does that to help her to remember all their life together.
One summer Noah and Ellie, the main characters, fell in love and spent an idyllic holiday. But, when September comes, Ellie had to go back to the city; Noah wrote her every week for a year, but he never answered his letters. One day, a few years later, he saw her with her fiance and, hurt, he started to reburbish a house in the town where they had met, a dream that they always had. One day Ellie sees a photo of the house on the newspaper, and she goes to visit him. The memories of their summer together awaken their love again.
I've enjoyed that novel because it is a romance and the main theme is love. I like love stories like this one, not love stories that are fairy tales.
J.B. Priestley An Inspector Calls, by Helga Puigdomènech Sanjuán 2º Bachillerato EFL
This story starts with a special dinner to celebrate a girl’s engagement (in the engaged girl’s house). Her family and her future husband appear in the first scene. They are happily having their meals and talking about prosperity in both families when, suddenly, a mysterious police inspector knocks at the door and asks if they can cooperate with some research he is doing. In a few hours the inspector had changed the course of all the family life by just making several personal questions about a girl who seems to have been part of all their lives.
From the very first page, this novel catches your attention and until the last one it really keeps you with the intrigue of what the story will end up with. You can imagine, you can suppose things, but you will never know the real ending until you read the last paragraph. One of the aspects which I have enjoyed the most is the evolution of the situation, the tense environment, the changes in the family's behaviour, especially in each character. It shows the lack of basic moral values such as ethics, empathy, goodness, cultural and widespread opinion about lower class people.
I would recommend the book to all those who like thrillers and detective novels. It uses interesting vocabulary, and the grammar is not too difficult. I hope that the next reader will enjoy this novel as much as I have.
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Penguin Readers Level B2 (2700 headwords)
by Laura Parra, 2º Bachillerato EFL
This story takes place between two different cities, Paris and London. Dr Manette, one of the main characters, is thought to be dead, but in fact he has been a prisoner in the terrible Bastille for many years. Because of that he has gone mad and Monsieur Defarge, who at one time had been his servant, takes care of him when he is released. Her daughter finds him with Lorry’s help. Lorry is the man who was put on charge of her education when her parents were thought to be dead.
In my opinion this novel shows clearly how the people were treated at the time of the French Revolution. They were accused of being spies or being traitors, if they spoke more than what they were allowed to. I have enjoyed the novel because the story is very entertaining and interesting, that is why I have read it voraciously. I would recommend it to everyone who is learning English because it's easy to read and makes you think about the way of life of that time, and realize how different everything was.
Inés Báez Rivero, 2º Bachillerato EFL
The protagonist of this story is Yuri Zhivago. He is married to Tonya, they are living in the horror of the Russian Revolution. Their house has been requisitioned and they have to travel to Varikino, which is in the country, to pass the war there, but they have some problems and they have to move again to a small hovel (hut). There they meet with Lara, an old friend from Moscow. Yuri falls in love with her and from then on the relation with Lara changes.
I think this is an original story about the problems and difficulties caused by war. You can learn many things about the type of life people used to have during that period. The relation of Yuri with his lover Lara is very interesting. It was very good that they meet each other at different moments in their lives, but at the end... (You must read it to find out!)
Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, Penguin Readers, B1 (1700 headwords)
Andrea Sola 2º Bachillerato EFL
Anne is the protagonist of this story. She and her family are living in Holland during the Second World War. They are hiding on the top floor of a building in Amsterdan, with another family. The Franks are a Jewish family and because of this they are hiding from the Germans, because the Nazis are arresting Jews and sending them away to die in concentration camps. Finally, after two years in the annexe they are discovered and killed, except for Anne´s father, who found and published Anne’s Diary. That is how we know the history of one of the thousands of Jewish people who suffered the horror of the Holocaust.
Dahl, Roald, Matilda, Penguin Readers, A2 (1200 headwords)
Laura Parra 2º Bachillerato EFL
This is the story of a bright sweet little girl who is very anxious to go to school and read books, even though her parents refuse to allow any books in the house. Instead, they want Matilda and her older brother to watch television. As Matilda is ignored at home she escapes into a world of reading and exercising her mind. That is how she develops telekinesis, which leads to funny situations when she goes to school.
I found the level of the book a bit too easy for me. I would recommend it for people who have little English.
