Hello fellows!
As promised, here we bring you the books you wanted. As the surveys we did were not only for English Language students, most of the books we will post here will be in Spanish. Some of them you can only read on-line and some you can download.
Now enjoy!
#1 La Fiesta del Chivo- http://www.eltutordebangkok.com/music/books/LFDC.pdf
#2 El Médico - http://rapidshare.com/files/49003657/EL_MEDICO_GORDON_NOAH.zip
#3 La Frontera de Cristal - http://elortiba.galeon.com/bagayos2.html
Winner books!!
UQROO Stats
A survey made among students of our Academic Division shows the trends of how much we read for pleasure and what we read for pleasure. Let's find out how our Literature Thermostat is doing!
- Almost two out of three of the students surveyed said they were reading something apart from compulsory school work (Not bad!)
- Among these three majors of our Academic Division, the students as an average have read this semester: Gobierno y Gestión Pública 1.4 books, Relaciones Internacionales 2.3 books and Lengua Inglesa 3.1 books (we're ahead! It's a good thing Humanidades students didn't enter in the survey :)
- The literature gender people claimed to read most is Adventure; the second, Historic novels.
- The book more people recommended was La Fiesta del Chivo, by Vargas Llosa, followed closely by El Médico, by Noah Gordon.
- The book more people want to read is La Frontera de Cristal, by Mexican writer (and honoris causa of this University) Carlos Fuentes.
Thanks to all the students who shared their reading preferences with us.
As a result: La Fiesta del Chivo, El Médico and La Frontera de Cristal are coming soon as ebooks!
Audiobooks!
No need for reading!
Literature has never been so friendly.
Now while peacefully navigating through this cozy blog you will be able to enjoy the powerful, dark poetry of Edgar Allan Poe (The Raven), or to tune in with the witty and humorous Oscar Wilde and his famous play The Canterville Ghost.
A mug of coffee, or, in case it's too hot, a glass of a good lemonade, is highly recommended for a better relaxing effect (but it is not included).
As a plus, the audios are in English, which may help us out with getting our ears trained for those dreaded listening tests.
May the force be with you!
Literature has never been so friendly.
Now while peacefully navigating through this cozy blog you will be able to enjoy the powerful, dark poetry of Edgar Allan Poe (The Raven), or to tune in with the witty and humorous Oscar Wilde and his famous play The Canterville Ghost.
A mug of coffee, or, in case it's too hot, a glass of a good lemonade, is highly recommended for a better relaxing effect (but it is not included).
As a plus, the audios are in English, which may help us out with getting our ears trained for those dreaded listening tests.
May the force be with you!
Book Review
Mila 18
Now here comes a little taste of historical novels, a very popular genre. We expect your comments!
By Mar Moure
The book I chose to make a review of has the particularity of being a brave mixture of History an imagination. This historical novel, by the American writer, Leon Uris, is named Mila 18 after a famous street in Warsaw (Poland) centre which carries the same name.
The context in this novel is, as in every historical book, the essential part of it; the story unfolds itself in the time of the World War II, starting a few days previous the German campaign to occupy the polish corridor, through the months of the German ruling and the gradual isolation of Jew people into what would later become the Warsaw Ghetto. Of course, the story of this particular ghetto is well known for its tragic final, and so it is evident that whatever ending the author would write couldn’t be a “they lived happily ever after”; it is more of the bittersweet variety. The novel has plenty sub-plots that helps keeping the reader’s attention completely focused, like several romances, affairs, drama, action and so on. The structure of the book is very inspiring too; it is divided into four massive chapters: Twilight, dusk, night and dawn. Each of these titles match the mood of the chapter so perfectly that by the time you are about to start ‘Night’ your nerves are all perked up, waiting for the worst. For it is a very crude book, with passages bordering on gruesome, but so it was the war and if your guts can take it you would be, I can assure, too thrilled by the story that putting the book down with almost cause physical pain.
The fantastic part of the book is, as well, utterly marvelous. Uris is well renowned for filling his novels with very well developed characters with so much personality that it is quite common to miss them once the book is finished like you would miss a dear friend. From the courageous and stern Ari Ben Canaan that went through a thousand and more intrepid adventures in Exodus (and was played in the silver screen by the 60’s heartthrob Paul Newman) to Captain Andrei Androfksi, chivalrous and handsome chief of the Seventh Unit of the Ullanys in Mila 18, all his characters maintain such a fierce compelling attitude that makes the scenes so much more intense. Some of the other main characters are the ever level-headed and solemn Alexander Brandel; the fierce young couple that fought together for their love, Karen and Wolf; the American-Polish girlfriend of Androfski, Gabriela Rak; the Italian- American ladies-man journalist, Christopher Di Monti and his hard-working assistant Ervin Rosembum, these amongst many other characters that go in and out of the story, contributing with whatever amount of angst or comic relief to the plotline. Although all characters have a life of their own, my favourite one is by far Captain Andrei Androfski; he is the kind of man who jumps head first into his problems and goes out of a limb to help others. Besides, he’s got that magnetic appeal of someone so sure of himself but at the same time so innocent. He is, as a matter of fact, one of the most complete and charismatic characters I’ve ever read about.I really enjoyed myself while reading this piece of literature, because you don’t only get to read a novel with a good plot and interesting character, but also get acquainted with how things went on during the Holocaust, and even unconsciously learn important facts- as dates, battles and important people- of History. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone with a particular taste for historical novels. It is a one-of- a-kind piece of work.
Book Review
The Importance of Being Earnest
A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
By Sol Moure
This title does not belong to a book, but to a play. A most distinguished play, as it is, by an equally distinguished writer, Oscar Wilde. He was born in Ireland, but lived most of his life in England. Wilde wrote typically plays and novels that somehow depicted the complex nature of the society he lived in, the so-called Victorian Society, in honour to Queen Victoria.
In The Importance of Being Earnest the main characters have all an almost child-like innocence, while embroiled in the most paradoxical situations; John Worthing, a solemn gentleman with a most comical past, and Algernon Moncrieff, his cheerful cynic friend, have both lived deceitful lives in order to maintain some of their liberty and, more often than not, to avoid responsibilities. This has never bothered them, but lies have the very annoying habit of revealing themselves in a bad moment, which is, in this case, when two charming young ladies came across. The succession of events is such that they soon find that, to win their fair ladies’ hearts, they both ought to be Christianized as Ernest!
In this play the nine roles are developed just brilliantly, so that even the butler, with two or three interventions, has a personality of his own.
Oscar Wilde’s genius can be appreciated in three levels in this his last play:
First: on his indisputable dexterity with dialogs and characterization, and his sharp sense of humour. This in itself makes the comedy a good one, and this first level is evident for any reader.
Second: From the subtitle of the play ‘A Trivial Comedy for Serious People’ we get the first evidence about the deeper significance of this writing: the critique of the Victorian Society. We find that the people in the play exhibit each mannerism, behavior and ideology of that conservative society that believed itself modern. What Wilde actually did was to present the audience a mirror and let them laugh freely at themselves. That was a very Wilde-ish thing to do: to mock your public, and to hear it cheer you in response.
And Three: Though Oscar Wilde fancies himself an immoral man, his play does teach us a lesson, and it is self-evident from the main title to the last sentence of the play: the vital importance of being earnest, or in more common words, the importance of being sincere.
This is the kind of reading recommended for people who wants deep, serious critics on society in a funny, witty and easily read play.
For more information on Victorian Society, click here.
Greeting message
The warmest welcome to these domains!
Come in, look around and make yourself at home!
This enthusiastic but unpretentious blog was recently created as a project for our Educational Technology class in the English major of the UQROO with the purpose of being a space in which habitual readers can comment on their favorite readings, discuss with others, access sinopsis and e-books, as well as a medium to show and share the results of several surveys by which our humble selves will try to asses the literature thermostate among the students of the University of Quintana Roo.
This being said, and quoting popular wisdom: "let the party begin!"
Mar & Sol
