Lisa Bu: How Books Can Open Your Mind

 

What happens when a dream you've held since childhood … doesn't come true? As Lisa Bu adjusted to a new life in the United States, she turned to books to expand her mind and create a new path for herself. She shares her unique approach to reading in this lovely, personal talk about the magic of books.

Lisa Bu has built a career helping people find great stories to listen to. Now she tells her own story. Full bio

By clicking HERE you can either read the transcript or use the subtittles

A book " Old Filth" by Jane Gardam

Jane Gardam

Born

Yorkshire, England

Genre

Children, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Short Stories

 

Biography

Novelist Jane Gardam was born Jean Mary Pearson in Coatham, North Yorkshire on 11 July 1928. She was educated at Saltburn High School for Girls, and won a scholarship to the University of London where she read English at Bedford College. In 1951 she worked as a Red Cross Travelling Librarian to Hospital Libraries, afterwards taking up editorial posts at Weldon Ladies Journal (sub-editor, 1952) and the literary weekly Time and Tide (Assistant Editor, 1952-4). Her first book for adults, Black Faces, White Faces (1975), a collection of linked short stories about Jamaica, won both the David Higham Prize for Fiction and the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. Subsequent collections of short stories include The Pangs of Love and Other Stories (1983), winner of the Katherine Mansfield Award; Going into a Dark House (1994), which was awarded the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award (1995); and Missing the Midnight: Hauntings & Grotesques (1997).

 Jane Gardam's first novel for adults, God on the Rocks (1978), a coming-of-age novel set in the 1930s, was adapted for television in 1992. It won the Prix Baudelaire (France) in 1989 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Her other novels include The Queen of the Tambourine (1991), a haunting tale about a woman's fascination with a mysterious stranger, which won the Whitbread Novel Award; Faith Fox (1996), a portrait of England in the 1990s; and The Flight of the Maidens (2000), set just after the Second World War, which narrates the story of three Yorkshire schoolgirls on the brink of university and adult life. This book was adapted for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. In 1999 Jane Gardam was awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize in recognition of a distinguished literary career.

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The book "Old Filth"

 

A book to love.

It is beautifully written and strangely moving. It is the story of Old Filth,nickname of Sir Edward Feathers, a successful colonial judge ,retired and living in Dorset at the beginning of the story. The novel moves back and forth in time , between the past and the present. The word 'filth' is an acronym for 'Failed In London, Try Hong Kong'.

He was one of the so-called Orphans of the Empire,children who were sent from the colonies of the British Empire back to England ,so that they could be brought up by strangers .He was born in Malaya before World War II,his mother dies three days later.He lived between the indigenous for four years and was sent to England. You will be surprised by the end of the book. I highly recommend you to read.

Read here

Watch this video.Sorry, it is in Spanish but you will not regret.

Books Disappearing From School?

Books disappearing from schools, says Michael Rosen

Schools are "tearing up" books to teach children about literature using basic worksheets, according to a leading author.

Michael Rosen, the Children's Laureate, insisted many pupils went all the way through their formative years at school without reading a single novel.

He branded the move "absurd and pathetic" and insisted the Government should require children to read books by law.

Speaking at a conference in central London, Mr Rosen told how he was incensed when his own daughter brought home a worksheet from school asking her to read several paragraphs of the Greek myth Perseus and the Gorgon.

She was then asked to answer 20 questions based on short extracts.

"That was the homework, that's what they did on myths that term," he said. "How crazy and absurd and poverty-stricken and pathetic is that? Why are kids doing this stuff? It had nothing to do with the story.

Read more here

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week 2011 is the thirtieth annual celebration of the freedom to read.
They celebrate this week to draw attention  towards the problem of censorship

Since the inception of Banned Books Week in 1982, libraries and bookstores throughout the country have staged local read-outs as part of their activities. This year, for the first time, readers from around the world will be able to participate virtually in Banned Books Week, Sept. 24 – Oct.1. During this year’s celebration of Banned Books Week, readers will be able to proclaim the virtues of their favorite banned books by posting videos of themselves reading excerpts to a dedicated YouTube channel.

Since the beginning in 1982, the campaign against Banned Books has grown .

In the photo below Sally Wendkos Olds stands in front of the window on April 1, 1982 at Brentano's Book Store on Fifth Avenue across from Rockefeller Center in New York City. 

Click here in case you want to know more and to watch a video with Sally Shanon reading from The Kite Runner,which I recommend everydody.This book was challenged (attempt to ban it)
because a rape is described in detail and the language is vulgar.

Download a PDF copy for more information

Listen to a man reading from Alvin Schwartz´s Scary Stories.

 For further information click on this web

Interactive Colouring Book Music Video

I want to show you a new interactive video from "Au Revoir Simone".It is a colouring book that can be made into a beautiful painting.

Press play and  you will see three girls in a haunted house in which there is a ghost, a cat and an owl..

Your task is to paint the whole scene the way you really want and customize your version of "Kinght of Wands" video.

I hope you enjoy it.

Au Revoir Simone - "Knight of Wands" from Eli Stonberg on Vimeo.

To play the interactive version go to: www.theknightofwands.com

"Knight of Wands" Lyrics

Oh joy, I can see you
Oh joy, I can see you
It's all I want
It's all I want

Oh joy, I can see you
Oh joy, I can see you
It's all I want
It's all I want

Oh joy, I can see you
Oh joy, I can see you
It's all I want
It's all I want

When there's no one else to blame
And there's nothing left to say
Seeing changes everything
We can realize anything

Reading Novels For ESO

Welcome to the English for Everybody library!
Reading is the perfect way to improve your vocabulary and understanding of English usage.
So, choose a book, put some soft music on the stereo, and let's get reading!
click on this link and have fun 
         Shelock Holmes investigates  
         The Jungle Book 
         The canterville Ghost
         The Pickwick Papers
         Dracula
        The return Of Sherlock Holmes
        The Million Pound Bank Note