Some Notes on No Great Mischief

Dear All,

while you read MacLeod's novel it might be interesting to access some links explaining historical events and geographical references mentioned in the book.

The Canadian Shield is a region rich in minerals; that's where the MacDonalds worked as miners. This family comes originally from Cape Breton, an island in Nova Scotia, one of the Maritime Provinces.

The 1745 confrontation (also known as "the forty-five") between the English and Scottish is evoked as part of the background of this contemporary Canadian family. Read about some of the events (the Battle of Culloden) and historical figures (Bonnie Prince Charlie).

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham (in Quebec) and the historical figure of James Wolfe are also part of the background for the story. We will discuss the parallelisms between “big” history and “small” stories when we meet.

For now, enjoy your reading and have a nice holiday!

And if you still want to read or listen to a story by the same author, (http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/18/reviews/010218.18suthert.html) register for free in the New York Times.

2010 program

Thanks again for coming today!

A brief note about our next meetings, for January 22nd we will be commenting on No Great Mischief by Alister MacLeod.
And for February 26th, Disgrace by Coetzee.

Have a nice reading and Merry Christmas!

Thanks!

Thank you all for coming today to the meeting. We had a great and thought-provoking discussion about "Terrorist".
Hope you join us on December 18th at 17:30, room 15!

BTW yes, you can say a "diehard terrorist"

The Kite Runner

Our next reading for December 2009 is "The Kite Runner" a very popular novel written by Khaled Hosseini (1965), an Afgan living in California. It was published in 2003 and made into a movie in 2007.

This is an intimate story of friendship between two children set in Afganistan. I'm sure you won't forget its engaging narrative.

If you want to listen to an interview with the author at the BBC, click here.

Interview with John Updike

As you may already know, John Updike was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. He died of lung cancer early this year (Jan. 27). He was 76.

I'm posting here one of the last interviews with the author about the most-voted book for November, Terrorist.
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=5479128&m=5480480

You might want to listen to it after reading the book!

November 20th

Hi!

I'd like to announce that our first reader is going to be "Terrorist" by John Updike.

We will be talking about it on Nov. 20th at 17:30 in Embajadores EOI.

Hope a great number of people can attend and enjoy a great discussion about Terrorism and American Society.

Welcome to the Book Club!

This year Cristina Sánchez and Ms Bermejo are going to continue with the Book Club meetings. For those interested, we are first going to meet in November. We are leaving here a list of suggested readers, which ones would you like to read? Do you have any recommendation?

Anybody interested in a good chat about English literature is welcomed, whether you are a student in Embajadores school or not.

SUGGESTED READERS FOR THE BOOK CLUB:

- Terrorist , by John Updike

- The Kite Runner, or A Thousand Splendid Suns (Podcasts) by Khaled Hosseini

- The Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi

- The Curious Incident of the Dog at Midnight by Mark Haddon. Get audio!

- Things fall apart, Chinua Achebe (Podcast, Interwiew with the Nigerian writer)

- Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates (Movie Trailer)

- Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee, 1999 Booker Prize Winner (Literary Review)

- The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz. (Written interview with the author)

- No Great Mischief, Alistair MacLeod. (Canadian author) (Review; About the author)