Ana's advanced 2 students

Dear Advanced 2 students,
welcome to our readingclub and I hope you enjoy practising your English!
Before we go on commenting our new short story "Goodbye Mother" by British writer Hanif Kureishi, I am attaching here an interview from the BBC (Open2.net) where the author talks about the writer's task in Contemporary literature, his writing methodology and routine, reading preferences, using real people as fictional characters and lots of other interesting stuff. Feel free to comment whatever and do not worry about your mistakes, practice makes the mastery of a language. Have a very nice weekend!
http://www.open2.net/writing/hanifkureshi.html

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Dear intermediate students,

first things first, I would like to wish a veeeery Happy New Year! Have you made up your mind about New Year's Resolutions? Quit smoking? Put some money aside? Get organized? Tame the bulge? Exercise? Listen to English at least five minutes a day? Stop thinking about stupid New Year's Resolutions?

I also would like to remind you that you must have finished the book by now and that's why I will be posting some questions here so that you can develop your writing skills. To start with, and as we will be dealing with descriptions in short, please have a quick look at your reading, think about your favourite character in the book and say why you find him or her attractive.

Remember that practice makes the mastery of a language: the more you write, the better you are!

For those who chose to read the short stories by Oscar Wilde, choose one and let the rest of us know what you liked best and why you'd recommend it to others.

Happy New Year and have a good comeback!!

For those who are reading or are going to read "Amsterdam" by McEwan, let us consider these ideas:
1st: The title of the book: why is it called so? It is obvious that the city plays an important part in the end of the story but is there a further meaning to this name? Is it the symbol for something else that runs through the story?
2nd: Could the woman who died and who represents the axis of the story be a real person or is it only a fictional character?

Happy New Year and I hope I'll see you Friday 9 January.

Those of you who have read "The Age of Iron" by Coetzee, will you please think of a couple of ideas from the book?
1st: The homeless man that settles down with the starring character plays an important role in the story. Why do you think she lets him stay around?
2nd: Why does she get so involved in the story of her servant's child when he's killed? She even goes to the village where they live and is at risk of getting hurt. Why do you think she does that? Do you consider her a brave woman?

Any comment trying to answer these questions is very welcome. We will talk about more aspects of the book later on.

Welcome back and Happy New Year!!!