Books Suggestions

Lately I’ve surrendered to the work of two current female writers whose best-selling books are absolutely worth reading. Due to university influences, I was so used to reading classic literature that I’d despise any kind of trendy-fashion-everybody’s reading kind of book. However, such extreme decision has gradually changed.
Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love has sold million copies worldwide and has been translated for more than 36 languages. After hearing Higor and Débora commenting on it (thanks guys!) and searching for it on the Internet, I decided to read it and for my surprise it definitely enchanted me. It’s about the author’s personal memories and search for peace, well-being and God during her trips to Italy, India and Indonesia, after years of a troubled marriage and a devastating divorce. It’s a smooth, funny and involving kind of narrative which makes you keep on reading as much as possible. What I most admire about it is the way it leads you to think your life over through Gilbert’s experiences. You might not have traveled to the places she visited or you might not have been married yet, but you can entirely sympathize with her pain, findings, urges and wishes since they can be found within each human being’s life journey.
Helen Fielding’s Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination is the book I’m reading now and I recommend it. It tells the story of a British journalist whose overactive imagination makes her suspect she’s just met a member of Al-Qaeda disguised as a French playboy. Even though, she’s in love with him, she cannot trust him since her life seems to be at stake. As a matter of fact, she doesn’t even know if he’s a dangerous person or if her imagination is playing with her. It’ll certainly attract anyone who’s interested in adrenaline and laughter all packed up in a comic adventure narrative. Fielding is famous for Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of the Reason, her two best-sellers which confirm her talent and irreverence when creating comic real modern heroines.
Hence, these are my two reading suggestions. Besides all the fuzz around the millions of copies they’ve sold, the fame achieved by their authors and the fact that they deal with the ‘female world’, they are really must read books for everyone, especially for the ones who are willing to have an interesting and fun reading time.

Hope you enjoy them!
Ana Paula Biazon Rocha – CPE 2 – Mornings

Life on Mars – BBC from January 2006 to April 2007.

If you need only one reason to watch the two seasons of Life on Mars, I will quadruple it. It’s great fun, astonishing production, stunning location and breathtaking soundtrack.
It all begins when DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Sam Tyler from the Manchester and Sanford Police is hit by a car and wakes up in 1973, working at the same station but a step lower at the police hierarchy. Sam then finds himself having to work for an extremely violent and degenerate police force which is under the command of Gene Hunt – the Gene Genie, a violent alcoholic sexist but efficient DCI.
For those who like a well weaved detective story, Life on Mars is a must see. If you belong to the geeks-who-love-time-travel-and-sci-fi group, it’s needless to say your Star Trek days won’t be missed. And, beyond the musical reference for rock and roll lovers, there’s also the historical reference of the British police violence and the seventies background.
Featuring flawless performances, Life on Mars fits all needs. It has aroused so much interest of such a different audience that it was awarded with an American version and a sequel – Ashes to Ashes. And ultimately, if none of the above suits your taste, you can merely lay back and enjoy the picturesque sights of the secluded 1970s Manchester framed by its gloomy always grey sky.

Ilá Coimbra - CPE 2 - mornings

Shutter Island

Hi there, it's Mariana from the evening group, how are you?
Yesterday me and my boyfriend went to the movies to see The Shutter Island. In my opinion, it's one of the best movies I've ever seen! I highly recommend everyone to see it!
And today, after spending about 3 days with no reading (sorry Higor :P ), I just continued reading You've Been Warned, by James Patterson, and I'm loving every second of it. It's the first time in my life that I honestly say that would like to have more spare hours to read! It's amazing for me to say that because I've always been the type of girl who would read just the necessary and nothing more, and would rather watch the movie than read the book. I'm starting to think that books in English are contagious!
Hope you enjoyed my tips.
Cheers.

The Husband, by Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz is one of the most successful writers of thrillers in America nowadays, and I have read a few of his books, having thoroughly enjoyed most of them. I highly recommend Odd Thomas, Life Expectancy and Velocity.

When I say I enjoyed most but not all of the books I've read of his, it's because he has a knack for solving his mysteries in a supernatural/spiritual fashion, and I'm both afraid of and uninterested in such stories. Cold Fire, for example, is a fascinating story up to the very end, where he decides it is OK to explain everything by way of extraterrestrial communication and the like.

Due to all that, I now only buy a Dean Koontz if the blurb pretty much guarantees that nothing is going to be explained with E.T.'s, spirits, possession, reincarnation or anything like that. That seems to be the case of The Husband, and I promise that, should he disappoint me again, this will be the last book of his I'll ever read.

It's a most gripping story! A 27-year-old gardener -the husband of the title- is going about his business on one of those boiling Californian summer days when his phone goes off. On the other end of the call is his wife, saying she loves him no matter what and that he should remember that forever. A man then takes over and says he has 60 hours to come up with 2 million dollars if he ever wants to see his wife again. Mitch, the gardener/husband, desperately tries to explain to the stranger that there must be a mistake, since he's merely a gardener and has, at best, 11 thousand dollars to his name in the bank, to which the man answers "I know.".

Before hanging up, the kidnapper asks Mitch to look to the other side of the street at a man who's leisurely walking his dog. The moment Mitch looks, he hears a single shot and sees the man's head exploding from it. The kidnapper finally says, "so that you don't think we're kidding", and hangs up.

I started the book yesterday morning, and read over 100 pages in a day. It's one of those page-turners you just can't put down, and so far I'd say it might be one of Koontz's best. Let's see if it'll stay that way or if he'll manage to squeeze in otherworldly elements in the story.

CPE 1 and 2 Writing of the Week

Dear all,

I know I should've put this up last Friday but I just couldn't. Anyways, here are the suggested writing topics of the week:

1) (mandatory for CPE 1) A radio programme is running a competition to find the 'Personality of the Decade'. Listeners wishing to nominate a personality are asked to write letters to the radio station giving details of the individual they have chosen and why they think this person should win the title. The person should be well-known and should have made a significant contribution in their field during the past ten years.

Write your letter.

2) (mandatory for CPE 2) Your college has been given funding to improve its leisure and sports facilities for students. The college principal has asked people to send in proposals on how the money can be best spent. In your proposal comment on the present facilities, and make recommendations for improving and extending them.

Write your proposal.

The assignments are due Friday, March 12th.