About reading

Although he is famous all over the world because of his music, he is also a poet. Just do this exercise based on one of his songs and enjoy yourselves. For more information visit his website.

“In this first book of Davies’ trilogy, a snowball aimed at Ramsay by his childhood friend Percy Boyd Staunton hits the pregnant Mrs. Dempster. Mrs. Dempster gives birth to Paul prematurely, and Ramsay finds himself feeling guilty over Paul’s condition and Mrs. Dempster’s subsequent decline. Ramsay develops an obsession with the Dempsters, although he seems unable to help them. Eventually, Paul Dempster runs away. Ramsay also leaves the small Canadian town where he grows up. He fights in the war and returns to teach. He develops an interest in hagiography and travels the world in search of icons of saints. In his travels, he encounters the unusual heiress Liesl and a famous illusionist. Ramsay’s childhood friend Percy Boyd Staunton has become an important and powerful man in Canada, although it is clear that both he and Ramsay still hide secrets and buried pain from the past. As Ramsay uncovers his own history, he also finds the true cruelty and true vulnerability of Staunton.”
A. Antonow, Resident Scholar

If you read the book you can write a post about one of the topics below. Ask your teacher how to do it in order to see your post published on the blog.

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• The story would have developed in a different way if Dunstan had said that it was Percy who threw the snowball.
• Many of the characters in Fifth Business change their names. Dunstable Ramsay becomes Dunstan, Percy Boyd Staunton becomes Boy Staunton, Paul Dempster becomes Faustus Legrand and later Magnus Eisengrim. What happens when each of them is “born again”?
• Read this extract from the book and explain whether Dunstan is the fifth business or not. We have the other key figures:  the soprano and tenor figures in Lisle’s image, are Boy Staughton and Paul Dempster ; the first a figure of power, wealth and control, the latter a dark figure, magician, man seemingly with little heart.

“Who are you? Where do you fit into poetry and myth? Do you know who I think you are, Ramsay? I think you are Fifth Business. “You don’t know what that is? Well, in opera in a permanent company of the kind we keep up in Europe you must have a prima donna — always a soprano, always the heroine, often a fool; and a tenor who always plays the lover to her; and then you must have a contralto, who is a rival to the soprano, or a sorceress or something; and a basso, who is the villain or the rival or whatever threatens the tenor.
“So far, so good. But you cannot make a plot work without another man, and he is usually a baritone, and he is called in the profession Fifth Business, because he is the odd man out, the person who has no opposite of the other sex. And you must have Fifth Business because he is the one who knows the secret of the hero’s birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when she thinks all is lost, or keeps the hermitess in her cell, or may even be the cause of somebody’s death if that is part of the plot. The prima donna and the tenor, the contralto and the basso, get all the best music and do all the spectacular things, but you cannot manage the plot without Fifth Business! It is not spectacular, but it is a good line of work, I can tell you, and those who play it sometimes have a career that outlasts the golden voices. Are you Fifth Business? You had better find out.”

Modern, original fiction for learners of English. Pilot Don Radcliffe returns to Australia hoping to rescue a failed marriage and to spend more time with his daughter, Judy. But a routine cargo flight in an old DC4 airplane turns into tragedy when the plane crashes in the Australian Outback killing the co-pilot. Don and Judy’s chances of survival seem slim as they struggle against sabotage, unscrupulous businessmen and the inhospitable landscape.

If you want to do some reading comprehension exercises click on the book cover above.

Sugar gliders

Murri people

Brumbies

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Sir Michael Gray is dead. He was the victim of a murder and he was very rich. Who murdered him? And why? Katrina Kirby-or ‘K’ as she is called-is a detective and she wants to find the answers to these important questions. Was it Sir Michael’s wife, Lady Elizabeth? Or was it his secretary? Or his housekeeper? Or his brother? Or his friend? One of these five people is the murderer. This is K’s first case. Can you help her find the murderer?

 If you click on the book cover you can do some general reading comprehension exercises.

Click on add comments at the end of the post and you can send your opinion on the book. It might be helpful to other readers.

I have read McEwan’s Amsterdam and On Chesil Beach, his last novel. I agree with those who think he writes in a wonderful style but I must admit he is the sort of writer who just puts me off reading. I find the plots boring, the stories seem to be stuck, the characters take their time to look back and the action never moves forward. They are the kind of books that I call psychological: a lot of thinking, all kind of feelings but very little action.

It might seem weird that I start this section with such negative thoughts but that’s the way I feel about him. Anyway, I think you should read either of these two books or even Atonement which has been praised by the critic (also have the other two) and send some positive comments (or negative, if you share my point of view). I’d be very grateful if you did. I have found THIS REVIEW about On Chesil Beach on the net but it is not very different from mine. Read THIS ONE about Amsterdam too.

If you want to visit the author’s site CLICK HERE.