About reading

Title:     The Grapes of Wrath

Autor:   John Steinbeck

Kind of book:    Novel

The book describes the trip across America of the Joads, a farming family that are forced to move from Oklahoma to California as a result of The Great Depression of the 1930s in The United States.

During that period many small farmers, ruined and starved too, had decided to go to California looking for a better life. They wandered from place to place trying to find work and food for their families. But there were thousands of other families and the Californians were afraid that all those people would take their land, so they treated the Okies badly.

The main character is Tom Joad, the elder son, who has just gone out of prison and joins to his family in this journey. He looks for a job and supports his family with the money he gets.

The story is very interesting because it shows us a part of The United States history. There was a time of oppression suffered by migrants who had to fight for their rights.

I like that, in spite of their situation, the Joads continued trying to help others, even when things in their own life were so horrible.

The book is easy to read, although there are a lot of American expressions used in a colloquial way, but they are explained in a section at the end of the book. There is plenty of dialogues and it´s a good story, so I would recommend this book.

This is a story from ‘Man from the South and other stories’ by Roald Dahl. It’s a mixture of unrelated stories but with something in common - all of them have a moral.

Man from the South is about a strange old man who was spending time by the hotel swimming-pool. There, he met a young sailor and proposed him to make a bet.  If the sailor could light his lighter ten times without any mistakes, he would win the old man’s Cadillac, but if he failed, he would lose one of his fingers. The guy accepted it, but when they were finishing the game, a woman appeared and made them stop. She said she owned the Cadillac and the man had no money because she had won it all from him. Then she showed her hand with only one finger. 

As for the characters, they are very different. The old man is strange, mysterious and he has a problem with bets. The sailor is a typical young man who doesn’t like to lose at anything. We don’t have a lot of details about the narrator.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the story. The moral of the story is related to the sin of avarice. In this case, if you are too greedy you will lose a lot of fingers! All the stories from the book have the same end: a moral. I think that it is interesting to read something you learn from, or at least you think about . What I like the most about this book is that when I finished each story, I stopped for a while and started to think about the story, realising that all the little details have a sense. I also loved ‘The Landlady’ and ‘Beware of the Dog’.

Finally I would recommend this book to everybody, above all ‘The Landlady’ and ‘Beware of the Dog’, because it has different short stories with different and amazing plots, and if you don’t like one of them, I am sure that you will prefer the next.

The book I have chosen is called “Night without end”. This book was written by Alistair Maclean and is a thriller novel published in 1959. Specifically, the edition I have read is a retold for students by Margaret Naudi. This novel is “considered one of MacLean´s very best”.

The main characters are three men: Peter Mason, Jackstraw and Joss. They were working in a weather station in the Arctic when suddenly, they heard a huge noise. They left the weather station to know what had happened. They found out that the noise had been an accident of a plane. When they reached the plane, they fortunately found ten survivors, but they also found several dead men but with one of them dead by a bullet not the crash, so it was clear that there were some murderers among all of them.

The rest of the story runs on trying to guess who is or are the murderers. Peter Mason, Jackstraw and Joss are men who are experienced in working in extreme conditions, but they have never managed a situation as described in the book. The leader of the three is Peter Mason, who, with the help of his two fellow workers, will try to find out what is happening and why a plane appears in the middle of the Arctic. At the end, they get to know that there were two murderers who forced the pilots of the plane to land in the ice-cap because in the plane there was a top secret guided-missile mechanism which is valued about a million pounds.

The rest of characters (the survivors) are secondary characters (Corazzini, Marie Legarde, the boxer…), and the writer does not describe them in detail.

In my opinion, the story is really good and has been fast and easy to read because you want to know what is happening and who the murderers are from start to finish, something typical of the thriller genre, but the writer hides it until the end, so you read and read and this is done very fast.

On the other hand, I think that the writer should be slower with the changes between one setting and another, because in some situations the reader is in the plane but suddenly, in the next line, the story continues in the shelter.

In general terms, I liked the book and would recommend it to other students.

I have only read this book of Alistair MacLean, but I have been searching some information on the internet about him and he was (he is dead) a specialist in the thriller genre, so I would read other books by this author because the thrillers are my favorite books and films, but honestly, I see more movies than I read books.

INTRODUCTION

TITLE: This time it´s Personal

AUTHOR: Alan Battersby

GENRE: Thriller

 

PLOT

Nathan Marley, a private investigator in New York, gets involved in a case of Russian Community illegal immigration.  It all begins when José De La Cruz, the brother of Stella Delgado who is Marley´s personal assistant, is charged with the murder of Alexei Romanov, a Russian community man with a fine reputation.

In this situation, and with José in hospital, seriously injured and unable to remember anything, Marley and Stella work side by side searching for the truth, to clear Jose´s name  because they are sure that he is only a harmless boy, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Finally, with NYPD and Romanov´s widow help, they not only find out the real murderer, but they also make a connection between the murder and lots of dead young Russian men, who were found out on the beach. In this way, they also uncover a huge illegal immigration and dirty money operation; and fortunately, José is declared innocent.

 

CHARACTERS

Nathan Marley: he describes himself as “an ordinary-looking guy, bald, overweight and on the wrong side of forty”. He works as a private investigator in New York City, but in the past he used to be a NYPD officer. He is intelligent because he does his job very well and has a lot of contacts in the NYPD.

Stella Delgado: Stella is a young Puerto Rican woman in her late twenties, who works as Marley’s personal assistant. She is a woman who never gives up, because she had a really difficult childhood, but then it took her years of night school study to catch up on her education. During the story, she works hard to prove her brother’s innocence.

José De La Cruz; he is Stella’s brother, a young Puerto Rican harmless boy, who has had a really tough childhood. Nowadays he is looking desperately for a job for the summer season.

Mrs. Romanov:  he is the Alexei Romanov’s widow, and as she has a lot of contacts in the Russian Community, she is a precious help to Nathan and Stella investigation.

 

OTHER INFORMARTION

I really enjoyed the story because it is a thriller book, which is the genre that I usually read in the Spanish language. Besides, the author knows how to keep the intrigue throughout the story.

The best part of the story is for me when that the dangerous criminal Mossolov is found to be a woman.

From this story I have learned how important the Russian Community in the U.S.A. is. Also I have learned important things about illegal immigration.

CONCLUSION

I would read more books by this author because as I said before, he knows how to keep the intrigue, and it is easy to read his story without confusing parts. So I would recommend this book to everyone, because reading books is a funny way to learn English.

Introduction

Title: He knows too much

Author: Alan Maley

Genre: Mystery

Publisher: CAMBRIDGE University Press

Level: Intermediate; Cambridge English Readers Level 6

    Plot

It is a mystery book because you can´t find out what will really happen to the character until the end. Furthermore it keeps you intrigued in each chapter.

The story takes place between England and India during the 80’s and 90’s, a time of abundant capitalism.

 The book is about an English executive, Dick Sterling (the main character of the book), who tries to discover why he was unjustly dismissed from the company where he had been working for 20 years. During his research he discovers that his boss and other workers were committing tax fraud in their company, and also they kept other secrets. In the course of his investigation his marriage breaks up, but finally he manages to find love again and he realizes that revenge is not always good.

    Characters

• Dick Sterling à He is the general manager in Madras, India, of Trakton, a multinational manufacturing company. He is a hard worker and he doesn´t support the injustice. He is the main character.
• Keith Lennox à Dick´s boss at Trakton. He is very ambitious and a big liar.
• Visvanathan (Vish) à He is the office manager at Trakton. He is an unscrupulous person who could do anything to achieve his aims.
• Molly à Vish´s wife. She also works at Trakton. She is a big liar and cajole.
• John Verghese à He is the son of Molly and Keith.
• Sally Sterling à Dick´s wife. She is rich and a very independent person.
• Barbara Lennox à Keith´s wife. She is living a big lie.
• Ramanathan (Ramu) à Dick´s personal assistant at Trakton. He is an honest man who helps to Dick with his investigation.
• Nagarajan and Ned Outram à Nagarajan is in Accounts at Trakton, and Ned is a former employee at Trakton. Both were dismissed in the same way as Dick.
• Lakshmi à Nagarajan´s daughter. She and Dick fall in love, and she is a great support to him.
• Sir Percy Hanock à Former chief executive of Trakton, once head of Delhi office.
• Sir Jeremy Jackson (Jacko) à retired professor of comparative philology at Cambridge. He helps Dick with the investigation about John Verghese.

 

    Personal opinion and Conclusion

It is an entertaining and surprising book, because in each chapter you can discover a new clue that helps you to get hooked on the story little by little.

For me, the best part of the book is the end, because you think that Dick is going to take revenge on his enemies, but finally he doesn´t need to use the information that he has discovered, because everything is discovered by chance.

After reading this book I learned that revenge isn´t the best way to resolve problems, because I think that eventually everyone is put in their rightful place.

 Finally I would recommend reading this book because it is easy to understand and is entertaining; moreover, the book makes you think about how we should act against injustice.

 

 

 

“Night Without End”, written by Alistair MacLean and  retold by Margaret Naudi, is an exciting intrigue book set in Greenland.

The story begins with the suspicious crash-landing of a passenger airliner in the middle of the Greenland ice cap.

The crashed plane is discovered by a group of scientists who rescue the surviving passengers and take them to their station, but soon the scientists discover that among the passengers there are two murderers, so all the passengers are suspicious.

As they don´t have enough food for all of them, they decide to go to a station near the coast but in the middle of the journey the murderers are discovered and they, who have a really expensive and important military object, abandon the rest of the passengers and the scientists and go to the coast where some friends are waiting for them in a boat to escape.

Then, another group of scientist find the abandoned passengers and scientists, and all of them find the murderers before reaching the coast. Then they kill one of them and don´t help the other, who finally dies at the bottom of a crevasse.

Finally, the passengers and the scientists survive.

 

The main characters of this story are the following:

-          Peter Mason: the scientist who tells the story.

-          Jackstraw and Joss: the other two scientists.

-          Hillcrest and his men: the scientists who find the abandoned passengers and scientists

-          Marie LeGarde: a passenger and a famous actress.

-          Zagero and his father: both are passengers, the first is a boxer and the second is his manager.

-          Senator Brewster: he is a passenger.

-          Mrs Dansby Gregg: she is a passenger and a rich woman.

-          Helene: a German girl who serves Mrs. Dansby-Gregg

-          Margaret Ross: the stewardess of the airline.

-          Theodore Mahler: he is a diabetic passenger.

-          The reverend Smallwood and Mr. Corazzini (a businessman): both are passengers and professional killers.

 

This entertaining book shows that, in the end,  good people always beat the bad ones.

 The chapter I enjoyed the most was the tenth chapter where the killers are discovered. It made come to my mind the famous proverb “first falls a liar than a cripple”.

 I recommend this book to all the people who enjoy reading intrigue books because once you start to read, it is difficult to stop because when you finish a chapter, there are a lot of things to resolve and you continue reading to see what happens.

    INTRODUCTION:

    Title: Night without end

    Author: Alistair MacLean (retold by Margaret Naudi)

    Genre: Adventure

PLOT:

A British Airways plane crashed on the Polar ice-cap, and three scientists from the weather station had to save the survivors before they died from starvation or exposure. So they decided to take them into their cabin. When suddenly the radio was smashed, Dr. Mason began to suspect everybody and decided to investigate who their guests were.

Soon he discovered that the plane’s pilot had been cold-bloodedly murdered because he found a bullet in his back, and the plane’s radio operator was killed that night. So he had to investigate the crimes and at the same time he had to travel with the guests through the ice towards the coast, without food and with a killer in the group.

CHARACTERS:

The Scientists:

·         Peter Mason: the main character. He is the person who tells the story. Mason is in charge of the weather station in Greenland. He is a brave, strong and intelligent doctor that must lead a group of people through the Polar ice-cap to keep them saved from starvation and exposure.

·         Jackstraw: he is another scientist. Dr. Mason describes him like this: “If you all live to get home again, it will probably be thanks to Jackstraw. He knows more than any other living man about how to survive on the Greenland ice-cap” It’s a brave and very quiet man with a lot of knowledge of extreme situations.

·         Joss: (Joseph London) he is the radio operator in the scientists’ cabin. Joss is younger than his partners. He stays at the cabin waiting for the expedition group.

The Plane survivors:

·         The Plane’s Radio Operator: this man was seriously injured when the scientists saved him from the wrecked plane. His name was Jimmy Waterman and he was murdered in the cabin the first night.

·         Marie LeGarde: is an old woman that is supposed to be a famous actress. She is very helpful taking care of the injured people on the plane. She is a nice, lovable and cheerful person.

·         Margaret Ross: this is the stewardess. She is a very emotional and sensitive person. Dr. Mason distrusted her because she was supposed to be with the radio operator when he was murdered. She had a pain in her back.

·         Nick Corazzini: he is a business man that goes to Scotland to take over a new tractor company. He helped the scientists to repair the old tractor in order to leave the cabin.

·         The Reverend Smallwood: this is the man who wears a priest’s collar. He is a minister of religion who went to London for an important meeting of the Unitarian and Free Churches. It is a very calm, serious and quiet person.

·         Solly Levin: he introduced himself as Zagero’s manager from New York City. He is a little man that was wearing a large jacket.

·         Johnny Zagero: he is a young boxer that travelled with his manager Solly Levin. He is a strong and dark-haired person.

·         Mrs. Phyllis Dansby-Gregg: she is a young woman wearing fur and rich clothes.  She is quite cold and selfish. She appeared in fashionable society pages from a newspaper as a London society woman. She travelled with her personal maid.

·         Helene Fleming: she is seventeen years old. She is from Germany and is Mrs. Dansby-Gregg’s maid. She was one of the injured people in the crashed plane.

·         Theodore Mahler: he is a very silent person. He is a Jewish. To introduce himself he didn’t say anything except his name.

·         Senator Hoffman Brewster: this is an old man with white hair and a moustache. He is an American politician. He goes to Europe to collect information for political committees.

·         Captain Hillcrest:  he is another scientist that was in charge of the expedition group.

OTHER INFORMATION:

I really enjoyed the book. It was an exciting and entertaining story.  The best part of it, I think, was the beginning of the book when the scientists found the crashed plane and they had to rescue the survivors from freezing and starvation, carrying them on their sledge.

The story makes you suspect of any of the characters as possible murderers. Peter Mason is the one who tells the story so when he suspects one person, you are suspicious of them, too. That is because you are reading his thoughts and that makes you think about the behavior of all the characters in the book.

CONCLUSION:

I recommend the book because, apart from exciting and entertaining, it is a nice story that I read without many difficulties, except some vocabulary. A good thing is that many of the “new” words I learned in this book are repeated during all the chapters, and this is helpful to remember and recognize them much more easily.

I haven’t read other books from this author, Alistair MacLean, but I wouldn’t mind reading another one.

Deadly Harvest

Carolyn Walker

Cambridge University Press

Genre: Murder Mystery

Main Characters

Detective Chief Inspector Jane Honeywell: the new head of the Criminal Investigation Department. She’s a well-trained policewoman who has decided to break down with her boyfriend in order to be promoted to a better job.

Detective Inspector Pete Fish: He’s a good policeman, but he’s jealous of Jane Honeywell because he wanted to get the job of Detective Chief Inspector. At first he doesn’t seem very kind nor wants to cooperate properly, but finally he’ll do his best to help in the case.

Mervin Peck: a sheep farmer, quite simple and bad-tempered. He’ll become a victim too.

Jack Peck: Mervin’s brother, a scientific director at Hunter Products. He’s an ambitious and unscrupulous person who doesn’t hesitate to commit serious crimes.

Jo keane: the managing director at Hunter Products and Jack’s Peck accomplice.

Susan Peck: Jack’s Peck wife.

Rose Carter: a part-time teacher and statistician found dead at Chittleham farm.

Elisa Scott: a member of Project for Animal Welfare.

Plot

A young policewoman moves to a quiet and small village because she’s been offered a job as a detective chief inspector. She expects a peaceful and boring life there, just interrupted by some car thefts and house break-ins, but soon she has to deal with a strange case of murder.

When Jane Honeywell arrives into Pilton, she thinks that it is the kind of place where nothing exciting can happen. However, she’s going to discover that she’s wrong when a woman is found dead at Chittleham farm. She starts the investigation questioning the people who had found the body and they tell her that they had never seen the victim before.

After making some inquiries, the police discover the victim’s identity. She’s Rose Carter, a teacher and defender of animal rights, who had been having a relationship with Jack Peck, who then becomes the first suspect.

During the investigation, Jane finds out some sick sheep at Mervin’s farm, but she’s discovered by Mervin who, surprisingly, tries to escape after threatening her with a gun.

He’s finally arrested and… you’ll have to read the book to find out what happens at the end.

Personal Opinion

The prologue made me feel interested and I was ready to read a very entertaining mystery novel, but the first part of the book turned out a bit boring with the typical stereotyped characters and situations. I read the first part of the book without finding out any special change in the predictable plot; however, the story becomes more interesting when a new murder is committed.

Despite being a fairly predictable plot, I enjoyed the book. You’ll find that there are some suspicious coincidences, like the part when Jane is watching a television program that gives her, and the reader, an idea about the motive of these murders. Nevertheless, from this point the reading becomes more enjoyable and you want to reach the end just to discover if you were right about your prediction.

Are you the kind of person who needs a bit of love in the story? Well, you’ll have just a little; one more common situation is waiting for us on the last page of the book when Jane and Pete seem to be about to start a relationship.

Paco_INT2ºF

THE CALL OF THE WILD
JACK LONDON

Jack London was an American writer born in San Francisco in 1876. Towards 1897 he traveled to Alaska driven by the gold rush, this trip inspired many of his works, such as “White Fang”, which became a movie , and “The call of the wild” whose plot is about the return of a civilized being to their original state and fighting for survival.

“The Call of the Wild” is a story of a dog called Buck, who´s kidnapped and sold as a sled dog in Alaska. Buck has to learn to survive in the lands of Alaska, which are new and unknown lands to him. During his trip Buck has several masters, but of them all, the one who wins Buck´s love and loyalty is John Thornton. Another character in the book is about a wolf that represents the call of the wild. Buck has to decide whether to continue with Thornton or answer the call of the wild.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it´s a really entertaining read. I really liked the story, although it has scenes of violence and cruel struggle but I think this makes it more realistic, since it´s set in a harsh environment for both dog and man.