Hi !

I just found a book at home which might be there for a long time… It’s a little book called « Short stories » written by Oscar Wilde.

I was curious to discover this book because inside there are the english texts and the translations in french, and I began to read two of the trhee short stories which are in this book : The Canterville Ghost, The Model Millionaire, The Happy Prince.

These short stories are very british and I find it very pleasant, it’s very easy to read, even in English !

If you want to try to began to read in English, I advice you this book !

If you have read some of my previous articles . You probably already know that I really enjoy thrillers and that my favorite thriller writer is Mary Higgins Clark. So today, I’m sharing with you another book she wrote and that I’ve read which is (as you probably can guess from the title of the article) « Just take my heart ».
Honestly, I didn’t feel like reading it at first because I’m the kind of person who decides to pick a book from the shelf firstly by its title and this one sounded at first like a love story kind of book but since it’s Mary Higgins Clark I thought better and decided to give it a shot and I definitely don’t regret it.
As far as the story is concerned this what I can tell you. Emily Wallace, assistant prosecutor gets the biggest case she’s ever had to face. Natalie Raines a young Brodway star is found dead in her apartment, and immediatly her husband which she was divorcing is suspected. But as we all know there are more than meets the eye, moreover Emily starts to get strange feelings troughout the investigation. Could it be because of her recent heart transplant or a is it just a side effect due to exhaustion ? That only reading the book can give you the answer.
I think like I’m repeating myself if I say that I loved the story but  I still really advise you to try to read this book. Now do you feel like reading it ? Or would you suggest me reading any of her other books because recommendations are gladly taken.

Walter Moers is a german writer, comics creator and illustrator. We nearly know nothing about him as he is a very secret man and avoid all kind of mediatization. He especially wrote fantasy children’s books that he illustrate by himself.

I read two of them when I was younger and they remain a part of my favorites books as they are full of humour, fantasy and wrote with an incredible dose of imagination: The City of Dreaming Books and Capt’n Bluebear. 

Even if they are rather thick, they are really easy to read and the illustrations are wonderful.

My favorite one is probably The City of Dreaming Books. It tells the story of Hildegunst Taillemythes, a young dragon, apprentice poet and writer. Just before he die, his master give him a strange manuscript with no known author. When he read it, Hildegunst is so spellbind by the quality of the writing that he decide to go searching for the author of this « perfect » manuscript. His quest will lead him until Bouquinbourg, a city where books are alive, can think but also be dangerous for the one who read them, the city of the dreaming books.

There is so much poetryas much on the writing than in the draws that perfectly fits that what you see as a simple children’s book totaly turn you upside down and transports you.

I’ve always like children’s books as they often could be read on two level. Walter Moers ones are a perfect exemple of this fact as even if the basic story completely fits with a children mind, an adult could find in the complete book a certain kind of beauty without finding it complicate to read. We should not denigrate children’s literature that could be a great one if you get rid of all the preconceptions you got.

The sun is coming back, take one of them and get out to read in a great moment of relaxation!

Emergence: Labeled Autistic is the Temple Grandin’s autobiography released in 1986.

Temple Grandin was diagnosed autistic at 4 years old, she has the Asperger’s syndrome. This story relate his journey, from the first steps where she must be accepted by others who don’t understand her, to her study in university and her first invention, the hug machine.

Temple Grandin is a very interesting character for she had succeed at create a very affecting book, which can help everybody to more understand this illness and fight against prejudice. With this autobiography, we no longer see autist like stupids, because they are often more intelligent than normal people, but they have only a disorder to express herself and understand feelings. Now she is an American teacher an animal sciences, because she, with is illness, can understand animals, and their pain.

This book is very interesting and I recommends to reading it to understand the difficulties to live with autism and the fighting of Temple Grandin to be accepted.

« Alfred and Emily » is a book whose theme are youth and self construction.

This book was written by doris lessing. She was a british novelist, who received the nobel prize of literature in 2007.

In this book, doris lessing wanted to talk about what life would have been if her parents hadn’t known the world war 1. In the first part; her father is always available, and her mother isn’t traumatized. Then in the second part she discribes us her parents as they were during the war. The writer put the reader in their intimacy.
« Alfred and Emily » is a book that really touched me because of the tenderness of Doris Lessing when she described her parents. I also liked the diversity of the words she uses when she evokes her parents and their past life. Throught this book she was able to trace the condition of women, poverty and injustices. Her parents seem to have opened the doors to all the themes. A pleasure to read.

During the last holiday I took the train back to Nevers and bought a small book that look pretty! IF I STAY written by Gayle Forman.

She writes for New York Times Magazine, Elle, and Glamour, and she was born in 1970
His first novel is  » If I stay.  »

I haven’t had time to read it all, but the style is pretty simple but nice, I was especially attracted by the story.
Mia, 17 years old cello prodigy, rock star father’s daughter, drummer’s sister and girlfriend of a rock star, will have a car accident and will become an orphan. She’ll be in a coma and have a choice to make, which depends only on herself. She can stay or die. We will see that the music will have a very important place in history.

The book was made into a film, I’ll probably watch it tonight, at least it’s a nice story!

Jane Eyre is a novel writed by Charlotte Bronte, an english writter. This novel is considered as a biography thank to many elements of Jane’life are similar to life’s author (for example presence of boarding-school fairly strict and cold that’s shows hardness life’s author etc…). Indeed , this novel is at « half-fictive » but Jane Eyre (even if she embody as it were Charlotte Bronte) is an interesting character who the reader can clearly observed the progression according to the reading. She leave her family to live her own life without imprisonment , fall in love and make her own choice.

I would like to speak about The valley of fear, a book writed by Conan Doyle. I had never read a book of this author but I found this really great.

This is the story of Sherlock Holmes who has to resolve a new investigation. One day he receives a coded message saying that a man called Douglas, who lives in Birlstone Manor, is in danger. Few time latter, the inspector Mac Donald says to Sherlock that this man has just been killed. So they decide to go where the crime occurred. Sherlock knows that behind this event there is the profesor Moriarty, his enemi. With the fidel Watson, they begin to search who killed Douglas but they quickly understand that this is not a simple crime…

I advise you to read this book because the plot is really intresting 😉 !

This is an animal novel of « fiction philosophy » writen by Bernard Werber appear in 1991.

Jonathan Wells receives the house of his uncle biologist Edmond Wells, where he settled with his family. Gradually, it will update its studies and revolutionary discoveries on ants by venturing into the cellar, despite his uncle who him to deter it in a letter. He also discovered a riddle, the key to the plot: « How can you build four equilateral triangles with six matches? « . However, one day he will disappear and, gradually, other people trying to help him too. Meanwhile, an ant colony lives his life in a town called Bel ant-o-kan. 327th, a male ant warns the queen that his group has been decimated by a mysterious force. He meets 103 683rd, asexual ant. After a strange dream in which Edmond addresses Jonathan’s wife, she decide to go search her husband.
She disappears in turn …
The mystery deepens when a gentleman called Gougne seeking to enter the house of Jonathan to regain some Encyclopaedia relative and absolute knowledge written by Edmond Wells.
The father and mother were both gone, the police are notified and an investigation is opened. It is conducted by the Commissioner Bilsheim and Galin inspector, two specialists strange business. The Galin inspector decides to explore the cave accompanied by eight firefighters, who obviously are lost in their turn … So, without kin, Nicolas is brought to orphenage. It’s in watching TV it falls on the presentation of Professor Leduc, in which he recognizes Mr. Gougne. Nicolas understands that there was a relationship between this encyclopedia and the vanishing of his parents, and has the intuition that they are still alive; So he ran away from the orphanage to join them. He returns to his house and resolves the riddle about the triangle and the matches. Late, we discover all people who are down into the cellar are alive. They are in this room..jained, which is actually a former Protestant hidden, buried underground. We discover that the device preventing the return was set up by Jonathan, under the direction of Edmond Wells, who also developed a machine to understand and communicate with ants, in the form of a mini robot ant, and with the surname of Dr. Livingstone. A colony of eighteen millions of ants lives above them, the city of Bel-o-kan, with which they communicate used this gadget.

The other side, I mean about the ants, we discover how they do to protect their anthill.  Ants finally reached the world of « guardians of the end of the world »(Their living dreaming place) seems to them as exotic. It’s really difficult to sum up beacause, there are many and many adventures as Ants wars, nuptial flights, beetle attack and the main adventure: the secret weapon of the enemy ants armies (that decimated an numerous group of ants in less than 2 seconds)

  I advise you this book.. In fact,this trilogy. 

Stephen King published this novel in 1979 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman wich is a pseudonym that he used frequently.

In this novel we follow the main character called Garraty. He participates to a competition called « The Walk » where the competitors, named « Walkers », must walk as long as possible and they must maintain their speed above four miles per hour, after three warnings a Walker who doesn’t follow the rules is killed.

So we follow the Walkers in an adventure full of actions and suspense where the main characters are surrounded by mysterious Walkers that readers will discover throughout the novel. We also follow the evolutions of the health, physical or mental of Walkers that leads to a lot of drama because lives are at stakes.

This a very good novel very well written, the story never became boring and always keeps the focus of the reader with a writing very effective. According to the American Library Association, it is one of the best book for teenage readers published between 1966 and 2000. I liked it and I recommend you this novel.

Book of Haïkus is a collection of Haïkus poetry by Jack Kerouac.

First, an Haiku is a small poem of senventeen syllabes, in three verses, of Japanese origin, evoking the feelings and the moods.                                                                     From the twentieth century, several western poets tried haiku in their own languages.                                                                                                                                                                               In the United States, haiku is used by the poets belonging to the movements « imagism » and the « beat generation », because it’s , for them, a form to express the modernity, and they also appreciate his suggestive power.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                So, this book was published in 2003 by Regina Weinreich, there is 500 poems selected from a corpus of 1.000 Haiku who where written by Kerouac in a smallbook.

The Da Vinci Code is a science fiction novel written by Dan Brown in 2003.  This is a best seller so the book has sold 86 million copies all over the world. A film adaptation was released in 2006 by Ron Howard.

Looking Backward is an utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy published in 1888. It is translated into french as « 100 ans après ou l’an 2000  »

The novel tells the story of Julian West (a young American)  in Boston in 2000. He says that he was born in 1857. He wakes up in M.Leete’s house (who find it under his house) because he falls into a deep, hypnosis-induced sleep in1887 because of the fire in Julian’s house. So he wakes up one hundred and thirteen years later. But M.Leete learn him that the labor problem disappeared and the nation proposed a socialist solution of a nationalisation of all industry, the use of an « industrial army » to organize production (people have to work from 21 to 45 years).

Money doesn’t exist anymore and the state supplies people : the goods of society are equally distributed to thecitizens. Everyone has the same income even invalid and prisons have become hospitals.

The bulk of the novel is a dialogue between Julian and M.Leete.

This book is more a comparison between actual economic and technological developments.

The Book of Joe is a book wrote by Jonathan Tropper and it was published in 2006. I am going to make you a little summary of this novel :

On the first hand, Joe Goffman has everything he wants : a perfect flat in the best Manhattan districts, a lot of sentimental adventures, a beautiful car and to much dollars. This young author found succes very fast with his first best seller, Bush Falls.

For write this novel he was directly inspired by his teen is a city in the Connecticut and his best seller ridicules the mores of province of his former citizens. In this book, he denounces their hypocrisy, their narrow-mindedness and their depravities. But one day, he must come back to Bush Falls because of his hill father. He is confronted face to his memories… On his own against all the city and his past, Joe will be obliged to find his place…

This work is the Joe’s return story in his teen city after 17 years of absence…

I’ve read this book and I really found it interesting ! If I can give you a tip, you should read it ! And you ? Do you know this writer or this novel ?

Today I would like to tell you what The Long Walk is. It’s a novel by Stephen King published in 1979 which shows a near future where there is a Selective Service each year : one hundred of young men (18 years old or less) must go from the State of Maine to the South. The Long Walk’s winner will receive what he wants from this day to his death. The long walk’s rules are easy : no contact with the others walkers, don’t deflect of the planned road and you can’t stop. The walkers who stop once receive an advertissement. The walkers can receive three advertissements and after, they are killed.

100 walkers, 1 winner and 99 losers… That is the hard law of the Long Walk, a perverse entertainment. In his novel, Stephen King denounce the possible reality TV drifts with a lot of ferocity. What has marked me the most is the fact that the author lets us identify us to the characters : we can see all the complexity of the characters psychology. Then, every character’s reactions about the walk and facing death.

In his novel, there are a lot of suspens, horror and anxiety. Moreover, dialogues are reals and sometimes they are comics.

This novel is, in my opinion, a real masterpiece. And you ? Have you already read this novel ? What do you think about it ?

I recently discovered a book by an American author about terrorism.

About the auhor : John Updike was born in 1932 in Pennsylvania. Author of fifty-four books, he has stopped seeing his works awarded since the publication of his first novel in 1958

 »Terrorist » is one of many novel following the attacks of 11 September 2001.

The story takes place un New Prospect, a poo suburb close to Manhattan. Ahmad Mulloy, a young talented high school, son of an Aymeric-Irish and abandoned by his Egyptian’s father, becomes a fanatic Islamist under the influence of the local imam.
His guidance conselor will try to away from it and to enroll in University. But other characters will try to handle him. What will be the choice of Ahmad ?

John Updike, with his distaste of our time and his misanthropy, give us a portrait of a distraught america faced with fundamentalist Islam.

I haven’t read this book yet but it’s interresting. I recommend it !

Hi everybody!!

I don’t know if some of you know who is Edward Forster? Well, he is a british author who comes from london, and more than everything, he is the author of « A room with a view », which is one of his most famous novel.
The principal subject of the novel is about the critic of the english society.
They are also many romantic things in the story (well, globally, the principal character is a woman, and she must choose between two persons) so if you don’t like it I don’t recommand you to read it haha!

What else? If you don’t like reading, good news for you, this novel has got an adaptation in movie, directed by James Ivory (who is also british) and released in 1985.
Perhaps you’ve already saw the film, or read the book!
What are your impressions?

Today I will talk about my latest reading, « The Ark of the Kerguelen » written by Jean-Pierre Kauffmann in 1993. In this travelogue the author recounts his journey in the Kerguelen Islands with soldiers. His main activities are to visit this very remote archipelago of the France. Through this journey, the author travels to various locations on the islands. He tells the history of these places and gives us interesting anecdotes on these isolated lands and ignored by many people. I recommend this book for those who want to improve their knowledges in geography. This story has for main theme, the loneliness which is very present on the Kerguelen.

Last week I read a new book and I found it great.

The Book Thief is a novel written by Markus Zusak and published in 2005. The story takes place during World Ward II. It’s about Liesel Meminger who is the main character. She is a little German and she is separated from her mother because she can’t keep her safe. So, she arrived in the house of Hans and Rosa Huberman. Their neighbours are the Steiner and Rudy Steiner became Liesel’s best friend. All this important characters live in a poor street called « Traumen » and this would say « dream », this is important for the story and a little ironical. The last important character is Max Vandenburg and he is Jewish, this is really important. So many adventures happening to Liesel and all these characters and I found it very interesting and touching.The last points I have very appriciated  in this book is that the story takes place in the German camp and that the narrator is the death, and it’s a point of view new to me so this make the story more interesting to me. And of course the story talks about a book thief, but I don’t want to spoil any person who is interesting by this story.

I have already watched the film of The Book Thief. And it’s a good adaptation and this talk about the same subject of course. But I found it less interesting and touching than the book (like every book’s adaptation I’ve seen). And there are scene which have changed and I found it too bad.

So if you are interested by this story I advise you to read the book because it’s really more touching, moving and I found it really well written. So, make your choice, but choose the book.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel by Margaret Atwood published in 1985. This is her first dystopia. It is a science fiction novel that describes a world where religion is higher than politic in a totalitarian coalition. Women are « endegered ». They are divided into three classes. Frist the Wives, the only women who have power, they dominate the House. Then the Marthas who maintain the house and finally the Handmaid’s Tale whose role is reproduction. All the other women (too old, infertile, …) are deported to the colonies where they handle toxic waste. Themain character of the novel Defred is a Handmaid. She can not seduce and her role is reproduction. She gradually tells his story, recalls his time with his family. She only lives for her memories.

There is a french version translated by Sylviane Rué and a film adaptation by Volker Schlöndorff.

This book is the fourth novel of the English writer, William Golding, published in 1959.                                                                                                                                      It’s about a talented painter, named Samuel Mountjoy, who is a prisoner of war in Germany. A Gestapo officer, Dr Halde, asks questions to Samuel to find out about escape organisation, because some prisoners managed to escape from the camp. But Sammy denies, so the officer decided to locked him in a small room.                                                While he is lock in the darkness room, he wonders how he got there and particularly how he lose his freedom.                                                                                                                 I think that this book is really interesting because it show the conditions of war, espcially in camps, and how people tried to survive and still have hope.

After read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, It will be interesting to read this book.        We can know what Mr Darcy really think by discovering his secret about his life in Georgian London, have more details about his relationship with Elizabeth Bennet by describing us how he gradually fells in love with her.                                                         This book is a captivating novel of love, pride, passion and of course prejudice.               The story is, of course, told in the first person narrative where Mr Darcy tells us his thoughts and observations all along the book.                                                                      The most famous romantic hero describes us his own story and their points of view.

Daniel Defoe was born in 1660.  He was adventurer, shopkeeper, politcian and writer. He wrote Robinson Crusoé. When he was young he doesn’t like write and prefer political and literature.
During his life, he meet Guillaume III and Robert Harley. In 1704, he is in prison because of « intelorance toward Anglican Church ». In prison, he has publish Weekly Review. After that, he lives with pseudonym « ’Alexander Goldsmith ». Afterwards he become outraged of political and he works everytime in literature :

In 1715, he has publish The Family Teacher  and in 1719 Robinson Crusoé. Especially, he has write in 1729 Magic System. Of course he published another books ! 

His books are testimony of economy, social, demographic and cultural development during the 18th century in England and Scotland. He died in 1731.

I would like to share a novel with you.
This novel is entitled Lisey’s Story and was written by Stephen King.
This man is an author that everyone has already heard of and who is a reference of the fantastic and mystery literature. He has’nt lived a happy childhood and he was passionate for book since he was very young.

During twenty five years, Lisey have shared the secrets and the anxieties of her husband, who was a successful writer named Scott Landon. He was also a tormented men. When he died, Lisey found a treasure hunt in his stuff and she discovered that he had made it for her.

She also had to face the disease of her sister and was confronted to her history and her husband’s which she had repressed. She also had to face a man who wanted the manuscripts of her husband.
In his novel, King explore ideas such as death. He also mention in a very original way the secret language that a couple in love can use.

This love story is very different  from the ones we are used to. The author brings the reader into the intimacy of a couple and immerses him in an very realistic oneiric’s world, far from the horrors. We, readers, are put in a strange atmosphere with a lot of suspense. Which brings us a psychological terror. The story seems to be self conscious but still, it remains easy to understand. It is a very touching book.

« La Vérité sur l’affaire Harry Quebert » is a novel written by Joël Dicker who is a swiss writer. 

I really wanted to talk about this novel because I think it’s a real masterpiece, I read it during the summer holidays when I was in England and every evening I couldn’t help my self reading some chapters…

The story is a little bit complicated. In fact it’s the story of Marcus Goldman who is a young writter, his firt novel was a real success but then he doesn’t find the inspiration. So he decides to look for inspiration in the New Hampshire where his former university teacher, Harry Quebert, lives. But this one has been just arrested for the murder of Nola Kellergan, a young woman gone since 1975.

In fact, each chapter doesn’t take place in the same period : one is about the 70’s, one is about the studies of Marcus Goldman when he was in the university and one is about the present, after the arrest of Harry. Marcus wants to prove that his former teacher, who is his friend, is innocent, so he investigates alone, without the police help.

I find this book very good, we have the impression to be in a movie because there are flashback all the time. I advice you to read it, there is a lot of suspens.

The Old Man and the Sea is a novel written by Ernest Hemingway in Cuba in 1951. It was published in 1952. This short story tells about Santiago, an aging fisherman, who struggles with a marlin (a giant fish) in the Gulf Stream.

I really like this book because the writing is special, it is surprising at first but we know why the text is writting like that. Then it adds charm of the book. As the action happens in the same place in the ocean you might think that it gets boring but it’s not the case!

Have you already read this Hemingway’s book? do you like it, or would you read it?

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Woody Allen is more famous as film director. Indeed, he directed a lot of films such as Annie Hall, Manhattan and more recently Magic in the Moonlight. He won 4 Oscars.

However, he is also a writer. He is famous for his particular humour which made his renown and his negative vision of the life and our society. I was curious to see how Woody Allen could express himself in a book. Last week, I rode a few short stories extracted from Mere Anarchy, a collection of 18 short stories, written by Woody Allen in 2008. If you permit me this word, I would say that these shorts stories are rather surrealistic. People evolve in a nonsense atmosphere.

He imagines that famous philosophers wrote essays whose aim is to learn to lose weight. Thus, he imagines that Nietzsche has written an essay entitled my slimming secret. After, he describes how the world would be if people speak only with scientific terms in order to explain common acts. This could result in :“I woke up Friday but as the universe is in expansion it took me longer than usual to find my robe.” He also tells the story of a dentist who kills his patient because he tells his life when he is treating them. He describes also a trial during which Mickey testifies. I won’t describe you all these crazy stories. I let you discover them. This book is s a satire of our society, described with the particular humour of Woody Allen.

I advice you to read it because it’s easy and quickly to read. These short stories are gripping and really funny.

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Hi there 🙂

Today, here I am to give you a review about a french book that has been recently released about a famous american actor. It’s named « Vivre Vite » and it has been written by Philippe Besson. I decided to write about this book because it’s related to James Dean’s life, who is one of my favourite actor and who is a real icon in Hollywood’s cinema during the 50’s.

This book is quite different from the biographical type that we all know. Here, the writter decides thanks to the testimonials that he got from James Dean’s relatives to write his book according these people and James Dean point of view : In others words, it tells James Dean’s life through different characters. For example the book opens on Mildread Dean’s point of view, who’s James Dean’s mother. She relates his childhood and her thoughts about her son. This system goes on and on until James Dean’s death.

Of course, because of this system, we move away from the biographical aspect and inevitably it gains a fictionalized look but if you don’t mind about it, the reading is really pleasant. Indeed, the book is really lively because at each chapter, we have a new point of view so the book gains a certain rythm. Moreover, something else has catched my attention : the writting style is made in the way that you have the feeling the character is talking to you about this actor; it’s really a weird when you start to read it but then you can’t stop (I read it in one setting) because it’s captivating. In fact, you see the main character who is evolving through someone else eyes. That’s why this book is really moving and interesting. Everybody knows that James Dean died very young and a real myth was born from this icon.

That’s why I came to the conclusion that to understand someone’s life and personnality, you have to take into account his relatives and his friends statements because it can appears as really useful. For example, I didn’t know but the Hollywood Environment was not that pleasant and people are vicious : some actors felt James Dean’s death as a relief because they were jealous. In a more psychological way I discovered that James Dean was a disturbed person and who has always had a problem with his identity and the way he looks like but I don’t want to spoil you the whole book so I think that I will stop here. 😉

By the way, if you someone interested in Hollywood and James Dean, don’t hesitate, this book is made for you 😉

Yann Martel, a canadian author who has written his novel, realizes that he’s not satisfied. He’s really out of steam and he sends his novel at a wrong adress in a Northern’s country. He stays in India where he’s travelling and in a kind of restaurant he meets a man who says:
-I know a story who makes you a believer.
And the story of Molitor Pi Patel begins like that.
Then, the author met Pi who told him his extraordinary travel which would inspire the film of Angry Lee « Life of pi ».
At the beginning, Pi is a young Indian man.His parents are owners of a zoo and Pi believes to three religions together: the hindouism, the Islam and the Christendom. His family must go in Canada and the boat which leads them there sinks. Pi is the one to survive with the animal and he stays 267 days on the boat withe a tiger.
There’s a suppostion about the animals: they could be human beings that Pi Have turned into animals, the tiger would be Pi himself. He says: What is the importance to know if they are animals or human beings? I prefer the story with the animal

Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976) is a british writter born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller. She wrote many detective stories and created famous characters like Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple.  She wrote too many short stories, poems, autobiographies, and dramas. She had a privilaged education than her sister and her brother. First she wanted to become a lyrical artist with piano and vocals but she was too shy. It was during three months in Caire for her sick mother that she began to write. In 1914 so just at the beginning of the war, she got married with Archibald Christie (wich she kept his name to write) and she gave birth to her only child, Rosalind in 1919. Then in 1926, you have her mysterious disappearance : some newspaper thought that she commmited a suicide because her car was found near a lake and because her mother died and her husband wanted to divorce. After this period , she worked in archeology. She met in 1930 Max Mallowan who became her husband the same year. During the Second World War, she worked for Torquay hospital and sought to join her husband who was engaged. After the war, she created Agatha Christie Limited for his author rights. She had too three dramas played in London at the same time and in 1974, she assisted at the first adaptation of Murder on the orient Express by Sidney Lumet.

I read Ten little Niggers; One, two, Buckle my shoe; the thirteen problems; Paker Pyne invastigates by Agatha Chritie. I liked very much his novels. It’s pleasant to read, and she know really how to create an atmosphere. You find many suspense in her work. I advise really you to read it!

After Sir Arthur Charles Baskerville’s death, in very mysterious circonstances, the famous detective Sherlock Holmes arrives at Dartmoor.

The hound of the Baskervilles is a novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1900. This novel is the Sherlock Holmes resurrection after 6 years, because the writer wants to stop this adventures, in the final problem where he’s dead. This novel is consider out the detective’s chronology.

In that case, the famous detective, accompagned by the doctor John H. Watson, the narrator, must protect the ender descendant of the Baskerville’s familie, Sir Henry. This novel is a brutal atmosphere changes contrary to other Sherlock Holmes novels and novella using the Dartmoor’s fog and lot of night passages.

This novel is also the most popular story of Sherlock Holmes, and she is the most adaptated on the big screen and at television.

I really appreciate this novel because the atmosphere is frightenning and the investigation is very clever.

Last month, we talked about the adventure’s novels in class. This work remembers me another novel which was a success last year in France : The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet is the first novel of Reif Larsen, an american author. It’s the story of a gifted young boy (who’s 12 years old), who has a great interest for the maps and the scientific illustrations. One day, he’s called by a museum in order to receive a price for his work. He decides to cross the United States and meet the museum scientists. This travel, is an occasion for him to discover how the world works around him…

A version (in a big size) with a lot of drawings has been published and it’s an amazing object to discover : it’s composed of great tale, beautiful paper and typography with, on the right side, several funny pictures which illustrate the tale. On the following extract, we can see how is presented the begginning of the novel :

I discovered this novel, (which is more than a simple book, it’s a real work of art) because someone offered it to me. The following year, I learned that it will be adapted on the screen. The film, directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet, a french director, was a success too. I can guess it’s because of the universal dimension of the story that all of the editions and adaptations seduced the audience : it remembers us the western universe, the childhood, the dreams of childhood, and the need to travel we all feel in our life.

Finally, as we worked on Mark Twain, I’ll just add that comment made by Stephen King concerning the novel : « Here is a novel which makes the impossible : to gather Mark Twain, Thomas Pynchon, and Little Miss Sunshine. This book is a treasure. »

If you want to know more about the world of T.S. Spivet  I can advice you to go there, it shows how it’s a seducing universe : http://www.tsspivet.com/

In class we worked about The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and there is an extract I particularly liked. Tom Sawyer is a young boy, he is poor. In this extract his aunt has ordered him to whitewash her fence, and he hates the work. His friend, Ben, arrives and Tom tries to get some of his friend to do it for him. He presents his work has being something pleasent, he makes believing that he is so interesting in his work that he doesn’t notice Ben. First Ben is sur that Tom is going to be jealous because he is going to go swimming. Then he is jealous of Tom and he wants to try painting. Tom is clever because he has understood that people always want what they don’t have. I really enjoyed this extract, this child game makes me laugh.

Today, i would like to introduce a book that we studied in French, last year this book is: The Regrets. This a collection of poetry by the French poet Joachim du Bellay (1522-1560), published in 1558. There are 191 sonnets that make up this book who is written with using alexandrines. These poems express the disappointment Du Bellay experienced during his travel to Italy from 1553 to 1557 with his uncle. At first, Joachim was very enthusiastic to go to Italy because of it’s in Italy that the Renaissance was born but he was disappointed by what he found and he quickly missed France. After have studied some extracts of this book, i bought it and i read it… My opinion is confused because some poems are too hard to understand whereas many of them are beautiful and well written!

Nightmares and Geezenstacks is a book written by Fredric Brown in 1963. In this book, there are many short stories of black humor.

I read this book in 2010 and I enjoyed it. It’s the first book I really loved.

In fact, we studied one of these short stories (which is called « Nightmare in yellow ») at school and I liked it so I decided to buy the book and read all of it.

I advice you to read it if you love black humor and scary stories !

Mary Higgins Clark was born in 1927 in New York. She is an american writer, especially she writes thrillers and detective stories.

You Belong to me is about Susan Chandler who is a psychologist and a broadcaster. When she speaks about Regina Clausen who never came back from a cruise, numerous listeners call to Susan : one of them met a man who gave her the same ring. It is engraved « You Belong to me ». Another has seen a man who bought some of rings at the craftsman who makes them. So Susan launchs an investigation but a foul murders start and women disappear : the murderer listened to the radio show. He lists : among future victims, one of them is Susan. He has already met her apart from the radio show in the same period.

Once again, Mary Higgins Clark takes away readers in endless suspense.

Have you ever read it? What do you think about?

Beautiful Creatures is a Southern Gothic novel written by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl who are american writers. It is published in 2009. Currently, this saga is extremely successful.

A teenager called Ethan falls in love with a mysterious girl, Lena Duchannes, the niece of Macon Ravenwood, a marginal who is avoided by everyone. Ethan recognizes Lena in his nightmares. They share visions and communicate by thought. But Lena is a witch : at the sixteenth moon, she will become a wholly witch and she can be devoted to black magic.
Love between Ethan and Lena will ward off bad luck?

There is a movie based on this novel which has the same name.
Moreover, « Sixteen Moons » is a song sung by an american singer under the direction of Beautiful Creatures’s writers.

Have you ever read this book? this saga?
Have you ever seen this movie or listened this song?
What do you think about?

Oscar Wilde was a British writer born in 1854 and died in 1900. He grew up in the middle of the Protestant bourgeoisie and began to write novels in the years 1880-1885, moreover he wrote plays of theater and poems.

(http://www.images-booknode.com/book_cover/602/full/le-portrait-de-dorian-gray-602342.jpg)

Among his works, one of them  destroyed his literary career : « The Picture of Dorian Gray » which he published in 1890. This book sparked protests among the English critics because of the present homosexuality in the novel. Although Oscar Wilde chose to transmit human thoughts through his novel, he ends up going to jail. (« harm to public morality »)

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaager is one of my favorite books. It’s a novel about the history of philosophy. The history of philosophy is watched by a young girl : Sophie Amundsen. One day she finds in her mailbox one piece of paper with written inside « Who are you ? ». But we don’t know who wrote this and the others question asked after this one. After that, the unknown character gives to Sophie lessons about how ancient philosophers thought about different topics before Sophie. But in parallel of philosophy, Sophie tries to know who gives her letter with philosophy lessons.

So it’s a novel about philosophy and a little about the story of Sophie with her feelings, questioning about who is the philosopher. It’s very instructive for philosophy, it helped me at the beginning and it’s very interesting. So if you want to read something about philosophy, read Sophie’s World !

I recently discovered this poem, thanks to my brother, who discovered it thanks to a submarine games trailer (called Silent Hunter 4). The author is John Milton, one of the most famous poet of the 17th century. First, Milton wanted to work in the religious metier, but after he took a « break » in Hammersmith (to deepen his language knowledge, to work on philosophy, history..) he decided to be a poet. Being a poet was for him a vocation, so he decided to keep going in this direction. Until now, Milton is famous for Paradise Lost, a collection of poem, published in 1667.

He wrote « On Time » between 1633 and 1634. As, I think, some words aren’t in « modern english » so it is a little bit hard for me to translate, but I can suppose that It deals with war, especially naval war. In my own opinion, I think this poem is nostalgic, but Milton also shows the frightfulness, the brutality of that kind of war. At the end, he speaks of the death, like if it was the only solution to escape from  »all this earthly grossness ».

Fly envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy Plummets pace;
And glut thy self with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more then what is false and vain,
And meerly mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain.
For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb’d,
And last of all, thy greedy self consum’d,
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss
With an individual kiss;
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,
When every thing that is sincerely good
And perfectly divine,
With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine
About the supreme Throne
Of him, t’ whose happy-making sight alone,
When once our heav’nly-guided soul shall clime,
Then all this Earthy grosnes quit, 
Attir’d with Stars, we shall for ever sit,
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time.

I would like to talk about one of my favourite novel. The Elegance of the Hedgehog (L’Élégance du hérisson) is a novel by French author Muriel Barbery, published in 2006 by Gallimard.

The story is about two different girls, the first one is named Renée, she is 54 years old and she is the caretaker of a building of bourgeois. She is widow, small, ugly and plump. She has onions on the feet and according to some a mammoth breath. But above all, she is so conformed of the image that we make of the caretaker and as a result it occur to anyone that she is more literate than all those rich enough. The second one is named Paloma, she is 12 and she lives in a bourgeois flat, the same that Renée. But since a long time, she knows that her final destination is the fishbowl, emptiness and absurdity of existence adult. She knows that because she is very intelligent, exceptionally intelligent. That’s why she decided to commit suicide the day of her 13 years old at the end of school year.

I have read the book and I really loved it, I recommend it and for me this book is a great success. That’s why this book has won numerous literary awards, including the Prix booksellers in 2007. I have seen also the adaptation of the novel, The Hedgehog (Le Hérisson), a french and italian film by Mona Achache released in 2009. I enjoyed this movie but I prefer the book!
I recommend to read the book and after watch the movie!

Written by Seth Grahame-Smith in 2009 , this is an parody of Jane Austen’s « Pride and Prejudice »written in 1813. The autor has put in this classical book new fictionnal and modern elements : zombies and ninjas. Seth Grahame-Smith has keep 85% of original text but he gives to Bennet girls and to Mr.Darcy a prodigious talent to fight.

Story : England is attacked by a mysterious disease: the zombies come out of the ground and contaminate people in the countryside. The army is present in the most dangerous compaigns. The Bennet sisters when they were little attended a combat training in China to learn to defend themselves. They were strong warlike with their « Pentagram of Death ». But Elisabeth is most stronger and most famous. Mr Bingley arrived in Netherfield and Mrs.Bennet wanted to marry one of her daughters with him.
In Maryton’s ball sisters saw his kindness ans charm but his friend Mr.Darcy , a very rich and with an horrible character man , refuses to dance with Elisabeth. So she decided to KILL him, vexed. But they were attacked by zombies and Elisabeth kill them with her sisters.
Her way of fight and her character impresses Darcy and he begins to fall in love while she still hates him…

This Story is verry funny ! Read it ! It is in the school library !

I am going to present you a book which I read and which I adored. It is a novel by Lois Lowry published in 1993 in America and in 1994 in France.
He presents a futuristic society that is first represented as a utopia that appears more and more as a dystopia. The houses are all same, the ground is flat and without relief, the climate is mastered, people possess the same holding, the language is reduced, many words are eliminated as love, friendship, feeling etc… The pains and conflicts don’t exist and there are no emotions. In addition, the rules are extremely severe: it is forbidden to have more than two children per couple, engendered by designated carrier mothers, it is forbidden to go out at night and it is impossible to choose his future job.
The main character is Jonas, he is elected « the giver », it keeps the memories of time spent with his pains, pleasures like slipping on snow, feel the sun on the skin but also the pain of death and torture. But it is impossible for him to continue to live in a world where sentations not exists, and will do everything for that the world become normal.
It’s a wonderful book with alarming descriptions of a future world. This is a book that reflect on the importance of free will. I loved seeing Jonas open their eyes to the world around him and I was greatly touched by his discovery of love and colors and the emotions that he feels show that it is difficult to live without all this.

Ivanhoe is the first book written by Walter Scott published in 1819 which is talking about the middle age. It is a part of Waverley Novels. This book was tranlated in french by Auguste-Jean-Baptiste Defauconpret in 1820.

The scene takes place in England during the 12th century, the period of the Saxon resistance against the Normans. Ivanhoe must live between love feudal and familial loyalty conflicts. Richard I of England (or  Richard the Lionheart) comes back to england and risks of being dethroned by his brother : Prince John. Ivanhoe has to protect his king, regain his legacy and his place in his family and marry Rowena. He must fight on all fronts

This novel inspires theatricality and the supernatural. This is the most famous novel of Scott. Indeed there have been many television adaptation like Robin Hood or the film Ivanhoé in 1952.

Thomas Keneally is an Australian writter of the 20th century mostly famous for his historical novel Shindler’s Ark written in 1982 and which retrace the story of a german manufacturer : Oskar Schindler.

During World War II, Oskar Schindler was a member of the nazi’s party, he has however saved more than a thousand Jews during that time with the help of his assistant by taking them as his employees in his factory. The Ark of the title refers to Noé’s ark because Oskar Schindler have tried to save many Jews as much as possible in his factory as Noé did with the animal species he can save.

The title was replaced in the movie adaptation of Steven Spielberg by Schindler’s List which here refers to the list of Jewish people Schindler wanted in his factory and has given to the german authorities.

All these elements retraced by Keneally in his book show that litterature is a way to transmit a message to influences the world and remind us of the horrible parts of the past.

I always delay the time when I will watch the movie adaptation because it’s a really sad and heartrending story but it’s seems really interesting.

I want to talk about The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. It was published in 1912. This novel inspired Jurassic Park, a TV series and many movies.

This novel tells the story of Edward Malone who is in love with Gladys. He agree to go on an expedition on a rocky plateau in the Amazon to impress Gladys. This expedition will be lead by Professor Challenger, who have discovered dinosaur still alive on Amazon. Indeed, they discover dinosaurs but also a monkey man population. These monkeys men would be the missing link in the evolution of man. But, will they get to reveal this discovery to the world? And must they?

I haven’t read the book but i saw the movies and i recommed it !

We have all of books since long time who aren’t read. For my part, I have Pulphead of John Jeremiah Sullivan published in 2013. And you, have you like me, a book who isn’t read ?

So in my book it’s only little stories on all topics. It begins in a rock’s festival christian, then we travel in south america. We can have of stories of celebrities like Michael Jackson. During fourteen chronicles we enter in the culture pop, scientific, or literary. According criticisms, this book is a portrayal of « the american culture ». This writer did with successful different emotions in all these stories. Moreover John Jeremiah Sullivan uses real facts and veritable informations. Now you too, go read these books you have since long time.

This novel was published in 1982 (because its publishing was refused in the 70’s) and it can be classified as one of the classical ones by Stephen King.

In the manner of Brave New World this is a novel of anticipation and a dystopia, it shows the american society of 2025 that is a dictatorship where the economy is ruined and violence is everywhere in the country.

We follow a hero named Richards who belongs to the poor class and his only way to earn money and pay caring for his highly sick daughter is to participate to a horrible TV show. In this show, the participants are tracked through the country by hunters who kills them if they are found, and all the people are able to report a participant if they recognize one of them. Sheila, the wife of Richards receives money for each hours Richards will survive.

Stephen King in this novel denounces the human behavior. In fact, all the people in this futurist society are addicted to the TV that broadcast extremely violents shows where poor people dies for entertaining rich people instead of reading books, somebody who reads books is considered to somebody weird. And the pollution is really high, some people catch cancer just by breathing the air of the city.

I recommend this novel where we can find action, suspense, and even humor.

The novel of Oscar Wilde inspired many adaptations. When I was younger, I discovered this story with the film of Albert lewin (1945) and then, a few months later, I read the comic’s adaptation of Stanislas Gros :

This story puzzled me and the atmosphere -a nuance between the glaucous and the luxurious (but also attractive) world of Dorian Gray- seduces me. So, this summer, I thought that I would feel like to read the novel.

And I discovered Oscar Wilde as a genius. They’re so many human’s things he explains by using words. It’s a real pleasure to read him, not only because he has a pleasant writing and a great imagination to create a masterpiece, but also because it’s obviously a difficult and sophisticated work he did. It’s an evidence he took the time to observes the human beings and their behaviours. What a knowledge it is to know so good the human beings! And it’s after this kind of thought he can includes in his novel this sort of sentences, full of wisdom:

“Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.”
? Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.”
? Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

And the most noticeable (if we forgot his tendency to sexism), it’s that Oscar Wilde was enough clever and maybe brave to wrote these sentences, in a novel of the 19th century!

The 5th Wave is a science fiction novel written by Rick Yancey and released in 2013. It’s the first part of a trilogy, and the second book was just release in november but I haven’t already read. She is called The Infinite Sea. An adaptation in film will be release in 2016 directed by J. Blakeson.

In this novel, Cassie Sullivan, a sixteen years old girl tries to survive, alone, at an alien invasion. She is alone because the world is devastated by the alien’s waves of destruction and uncommon humans humans who have success to survive lives isolated. Cassie will do everything to save his brother’s life removed by aliens.
I like this novel because the story is very original, for exemple, Cassie had never seen aliens and they destroy the humanity by waves.
First is the electromagnetic pulse which destroy every earth technologie, the second is tsunamis destroy lot of cities, the plague is the third eradicate many survivors with a virus and the fourth wave, called « The Silence », it’s the others arrival, the aliens, on earth, disguise in humans. The novel takes place inter the 4th and 5th wave, what we don’t know the action. In this novel, we have lot of suspense also, and it’s a reason what I like this book.
But, it’s probably the french translation fault, but I think the author isn’t a good writer, I dislike his writing style, the descriptions are simplistic, without good vocabulary, so familiar.

So, I like this novel for the scenario, despite the written style.

I would like to speak about Hight Fidelity a book writen by Nick Hornby in 1995.

In this story the main character is Rob Fleming, a man of thirty years old. He works in “Championship Vinyl”, a record shop in London. He is passionate by rock music of the 70’s and he also likes make music’s compilations. With his friends, he spends his time to snub people who hasn’t the same interests and to rank everything: the 5 best songs for a funeral, the 5 best songs to make love ..

Rob has just been left by his girlfriend. We understand that he is afraid to start a serious story with a woman and that he isn’t really lucky in love. In remembering his last relationships, he begins to make a top five of his depressing ruptures. He also decides to take back some news about this ex-girlfriends in order to meet them again.

Even if Rob appears egocentric, we forgive him because he isn’t an adult but a child who is completely lost and who searches a sens in his own life.

Through the story, the author proposes a variety of songs that make us travel in the musical world of rock. There is also a film from this book directed by Stephen Frears in 2000.

Journey to the Center of the Earth  was written by Jules Verne in 1864.
The book is a mixture of science and adventure.

The main characters are Professor Otto Lidenbrock, axel the nephew of Otto and Hans Bjelke. It’s a first-person narrite and the narrator is Axel, he recounts his adventures he lives with his uncle.

It has been adapted in many many forms, video games, comics, books or even by films.

Personally I looked the both movies and read thé book, I think the movie really reflects the book.

And you, have you ever seen the movies and read the book ?

It’s really difficult to find a subject which hasn’t yet been addressed ! But I would speak about an american writer, Nicholas SPARKS.

I didn’t know him yet, but I watched many films inspired by his books. It’s essentially about love stories but you know… we must admit that all of us like love story !

So Nicholas Sparks was born on 31 December 1965, and his books have had great success. 11 of his 18 books are adapted for the cinema, like THE NOTEBOOK (N’oublie jamais), DEAR JOHN, THE LAST SONG, A WALK TO REMEMBER (le temps d’un automne), SAFE HAVEN ( un havre de paix) etc…

I was very touched by The Notebook, especially his tragic end, and Dear John too.        Go to watch them !

The Host is a thriller published in 2010 and written by Stephanie Meyer.

Humanity is surrounded by alien and there are not many humans left. The main character is a teenager, Melanie Stryder and Wanderer who is a old alien. To dominate the Earth, alien need to take possession of people’s body. Wonderer is like a soul in Melanie’s body. So Wanderer try to dominate Melanie but Melanie’s feelings are very strong and it becomes dificult for Wanderer to control its new body. With Melanie’s memory, Wanderer knows where the last resisting humans are and where Jared is: the man who Melanie loves. To survive Melanie and Wanderer needs to beame allies.

The film was released in 2013 and it was directed by Andrew Niccol it’s an adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s book. So it’s the same story without some details present in book.

I’ve read the book and watch the film and to my opinion it’s a good adaptation even if I prefered the book. I found the story interesting and I really liked read the book, so one day if you can reading it and like sci-fi,I advise you to do so.

I want to share this authors with you. The English novelist from the 19thcentury. We present an another vision of the woman, personages and authors struggling with violence and madness. Even the heroine is more that a pasionate militant.

Mary Shelley that we know thanks to « Frankenstein », but she has written  other novel like « Mathilda » which approach the term of the incest and the suicide. She evokes the inside monster. The Mathilda’s mother is dead during his labor, his dad was very sad, he decided to disappear. When he comes back, Mathilda became a pretty woman. The incest is in the Father’s spirit. He admits this impossible passion and he suicided. Mathilda chose to exile..

The characteristic of romanticisme is in the evocation of battering of the nature which is symbolize with the inside chaos. The universe of the novel become the soul’s image. This book is an autobiographical metamorphosis.

George Eliot is a novelist who translated the reality as she watched. But without prejudice, without be concerned of the victorian sociaty. She took a male name for the publication of his work.

Janes Austen is a initiating. This novelist was the first at impose the point of view of the woman. She had shown the birth of woman during the teenage years. But Austen did not admiration for nothing. Neither the monarchy, nor the morals or the church, nor reason. She had a critical look. However she would like to believe in the love, the benefit of the civilization, the ladder and the christian charity. But she shows the falsity of his sociaty. She brought us to think, we can be ourselves.

The Bronte Family had played a important role in the literature’s history. Charlotte, Emily and Anne. They published poems then novelist. At first they used male pseudonym. Their books attract the attention because they are originals and their passion. Their work include the secret of their world. This stories create a lot of imagination among the teenagers.

This authors were important in the literature. They bring of the innovation. Despite that are the women of the 19thcentury.

Rudyard Kipling is an English author (1865-1936). He was famous for his works : Just so stories (a lot of short stories for children) and The Jungle Book. He received the Nobel Price for Literature in 1907.

His Short Stories are « stories like that » for children. These stories were published in 1902 and they were written, at the beggining, for help his « best beloved », his daughter Josephine, to sleep well but in 1899, she died because of a serious disease. Each story is with a poem. The most famous is this :

« I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who. »

– « The Elephant’s Child »

You can find all his stories on this website, I hope you will appreciate like me !

http://www.readbookonline.net/stories/kipling/68/

Did you know this author before ? And another of their works ?

Beyond what seems to be a very dramatic and disturbing title is hiding my favorite book. I can already hear you  » Wait! What ? Your favorite book ? It sounds pretty depressing. » But trust me there is  more than meets the eyes.

This novel tells us about a young Slovenian woman who attempt suicide and wake up in a psychiatric hospital. There, the doctors tell her even though she woke up she only haa a few days left (as her heart was damaged by her attempt) but has she really ? That is a question only reading the book will answer but I can tell you that at first disapointed as she made a choice she thought she wouldn’t have to face. But then she decides to use her time left to explore this unusual environmen,t where, as for the title there is more than meets the eyes.

If you add to a very thoughtful plot the undeniable writing skills of its worldwide famous author Paulo Coehlo you end up with a mindblowing book which let your mind full of questions (a bit like a philosophy class but in a sweeter way).

By the way if some f you want (as I do) to study psychology next year I strongly advise you to read this book. Obviously it’s not an essay and the methods used are far more than unorthodoxe but the main guideline is extremely perceptive.

I also own two other of his books (« The fith Montagne » and « The Alchemist ») that I honestly haven’t read yet but I can’t wait to. What about you ? Have you ever read one of his books?

For example, in the winter garden, edited by Sheila Pickles, there is an Oscar Wilde’s poem, untitled « Impression du Matin »:

The Thames nocturne of blue and gold
Changed to a Harmony in grey:
A barge with ochre-coloured hay
Dropt from the wharf: and chill and cold

The yellow fog came creeping down
The bridges, till the houses’ walls
Seemed changed to shadows and St. Paul’s
Loomed like a bubble o’er the town.

Then suddenly arose the clang
Of waking life; the streets were stirred
With country waggons: and a bird
Flew to the glistening roofs and sang.

But one pale woman all alone,
The daylight kissing her wan hair,
Loitered beneath the gas lamps’ flare,
With lips of flame and heart of stone.

This poem is a good example, it talks about winter; « and chill and cold / The yellow fog came creeping down the bridges »
We can see an evolution in this poem: at the beginning the description shows a quiet environment, and  « Then suddenly arose the clang/ Of waking life »    so, we can deduce we are in the morning and the day begins. But at the end, we can see there is a woman: I think she’s a prostitute because the author says « Loitered beneath the gas lamps’ flare,
With lips of flame and heart of stone. »

I like this poem because we understand clearly what O. Wilde wants to say and this subject is very interesting ! And you, do you like it?

Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at the end of the fifteenth century / beginning of the sixteenth century. The story takes place in the Kingdom of Denmark, and deals with the revenge of Prince Hamlet about his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet.

Two months after his death, King Hamlet’s ghost appeared in front his son, Hamlet, and tell him that he was killed by Claudius (by putting poison in his ear), now king and husband of Gertrude, King Hamlet’s widow.
Hamlet decides to take his revenge, by pretending craziness. He wants to make Claudius admit, during a play, that he killed King Hamlet, but he fails. Later, Claudius, who has doubt about Hamlet, starts mounting a conspiracy against his nephew.

Hamlet is probably one of the most famous play of Shakespeare, and of the entire world. Moreover, everybody know the famous monologue of Hamlet, holding a skull : « To be, or not to be : that is the question »

I saw this play three years ago, and, I liked it, even though I fell asleep at the end of it..

« The Wave » is a novel published by Todd Strasser in 1981 in the United States of America. This novel have been a real success all over the world, it was translated in 15 languages. It has been inspired by a true story called « The Third Wave » which was an experiment of psychology realised at Palo Alto High School in California in 1969 by an history teacher.

The novel repeat the chronology of the experiment made by the history teacher Ron Jones who had published an article in 1976. At the begining it just started with an typical lesson as we all have and then in about 2 weeks the experiment become a radical movement of totalitarian type. It remind us to the German and Russian regimes of the 1940’s because of their slogan « The force by the discipline, the force by the community, the force by the action » and also because of their logo and their salute which look like the one of the nazis. But the experiment turn out badly of course : most of the students become paranoïac, some are threaten by others… Then students created a movement of restistance against the experiment lead by Laurie who is the leader of the high school journal.

There’s also an adaptation of Ron Jones experiment to the screen but I didn’t watched it. However I have read the book and I recommend it it’s really interesting !

When I was a little girl, my grandmother read me The tale of Peter Rabbit, and others, written by Beatrix Potter, with her watercolor paintings. Indeed, B. Potter was, not only a writter famous for her stories for children, but also a naturalist who liked to draw landscapes and of course animals. The stories about the animals she’s written, personify the animals like « human beings ». For exemple, they talk, they clean their home with a broom…

The book I prefer of Beatrix Potter is The Tailor of Gloucester, in which little mouses make a suit to serve the tailor who feed them and who is sick. I remember that the Potter’s universe makes me dream. You should discover this wonderful world!

I would like to talk about a great novel If I Stay.

If I Stay is a novel by American author Gayle Forman, published in 2009 by Dutton Books.

The story is about a girl named Mia who is 17 years old. SHe has a boyfriend who is a rockstar, eccentric parents, precious friends, a cute little brother, so much talent in music and the life in front of her. But at a moment, everything is stopped; her dreams, her projects, her loves. Now, in a ditch by the wayside, a car accident. Her spirit contemplate her broken body. Mia sees everything and listens also everything. She is transported in a hospital and she assists of the arrival of her family and medical diagnostics without being able to do or say something. Between laughs and cries, she reviews her life before the accident. She hesitates to get out the coma, move out or stay? If I stay… that’s why the name of the novel is so called.

I have read the book and I really loved it, I recommend it. I would like to read the second part Where She Went and I’d like to see also the film adaptation directed by R.J. Cutler:

The famous work of Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, has got an adaptation in comic book ! This comic book is edited by Delcourt, and made by Loïc Dauvillier, Olivier Deloye and Jean-Jacques Rouget. The first volume was published in 2007.

The story is the same that the novel, exepted some details. The comic book is according to the original work. I’ve read the volumes 1 and 2, and I was satisfied by the work. It was very interesting and rousing, even enriching.

There are five volumes of this comic book, and the serie is finished.

Here, a link of the cover from the volume 1 http://www.decitre.fr/media/catalog/product/9/7/8/2/7/5/6/0/9782756006710FS.gif 

I want to deal with a famous author who had written numerous books that we know and that were adaptated for the cinema.
The writer is Roal Dahl. What we can say first is that he’s funny, he’s not really funny but he makes us laugh for sure, I want to talk about The Big Good Giant who don’t eat the children and who has enormous ears in shape of vegetable for example, he uses absurd things which make the story funny indeed. Then Roal Dahl is also known thanks to his books including orphans or poor children like Charlie and the chocolate factory, where in the end the child is happy in spite of his bad situation.
Afterwards this kind of nonsense, the imaginary world and the importance of the childhood, this author is special because his works move us. I can’t really explain why, there’s something that is poetic I mean. I think he’s a forgotten writer and we should read him sometimes.

I read « To kill a mockinbird » 2 years ago which a novel written by Harper Lee (a woman) in the sixties. If we know this book, it’s thanks to the impact it had, denouncing racism.
The story takes place in a calm city in the South of the USA. There is a child’s point of view, Scout is the daughter of Atticus Finch the lawyer chosen to represent Tom, a black man accused to have rape a white woman.He didn’t do it and of course nobody wants to believe that the woman has lied.
This novel let us some famous quoting like « I wanted you to know what is the real bravery, it not a man with a gun, the real courage is to know what is the real bravery, it not a man with a gun, the real courage is to know that you have already lost but to continue again and to fight up to the end ».
I’m sorry because the quoting isn’t very very precise but it echoes one of the main idea of the novel which are the individual freedom and responsibility, the fact that we can’t know someone just by his aspect and the importance of the courage and justice.

Harry Potter is a serie of fantasy novels writing by J.K. Rowling unter 1997 and 2007. The serie has seven novels, to the first magical school year, to this ultime battle against Lord Voldemort. This story telle us the evolution of the young witch Harry at 11 to the adult at 18.

Harry has lost this parents, kill by Voldemort, and he lives with this uncle, aunt and his cousin, the Dursley. This family seems doesn’t like it, and all attention is to his cousin.
One day, Hagrid comes to the Dursley’s house to takes Harry Potter and go to the Poudlard wich school.
Quickly, he becomes friend with Ron and Hermione and the story tell us their Poudlard adventure’s.
But the murderer of Harry’s parents want to revenge against Harry and he try to come back to the world from the death.

Now Harry Potter must fight the Lord Voldemort to try to restore peace in magical world and with the moldus, person without magical power.

I really appreciate this serie of novel because we feel the character emotions and the evolution of the characters over time.
Also, we recognize into the main characters because we have feel this life period and the novel describe scene who are very similar to the reality.

Sherlock Holmes is a famous detective create by Arthur CONAN DOYLE in the detective novel A Study in Scarlet release in 1887. The novel is writing with the Watson’s point of view.

This novel is split in two parts,
First at London with the doctor John H Watson who come back from Afghanistan War and he’s now retired from army because he’s wounded at shoulder. He was military doctor.
Now, he hasn’t enough money to lives alone and he search a flatmate to divide the expenses.
He meets the detective Sherlock Holmes and he decides to share a flat with him. They lives at the 221b Baker Street at Miss Hudson’s house.
Sherlock will show to John’s is detective’s talents and he will guess this past at the army.

One day, Sherlock receives a letter from a member of Scotland Yard (London’s police) who ask him to help for an investigation.
Sherlock will take Watson on board and he makes him his assistant.

In the second part, the narrator changes and we follow Lucy.
Lucy is the victim of the murder what Sherlock was call to help.
We discover the Lucy’s past to his death.
At the end, this second story meet the story and with this method, we understand Sherlock’s deduction methods.
This method of deduction, based on scientific facts is new for the age, contrary to now where all detectives movies/series/novel uses this method. At the age, policy deduces who is the guilty with the suspect’s reputation and expressions.

A Study in Scarlet it the novel were we can discover Sherlock Holmes and his works methods.
It’s a fantastic novel because the story is good writing and very interesting and Sherlock is a fascinating character what we want discover in the follows story.

I would like to introduce my prefered author who is of course Stephen King. It is an American writer and  he was born September 21, 1947 in Portland. It is the undisputed master of suspense and terror.

His first book was published in 1974, he did not write only of terror but also of science fiction, fantasy and detective novels. He wrote and published over fifty novels, including seven under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, and about two hundred short stories. He has been much criticized for his familiar style and the gore vocabulary he used. Many of his books have been adapted for the cinema, whether in book or movie, this is always a great success.

Here are some books: -Carrie, april, 1974 / -Christine, april, 1983 / -Black House, september, 2001 / -Cycle of the Werewolf, april, 1985 / IT, september, 1986 and Under the Dome, november, 2009.

Here are some movies: -Carrie, november 3rd, 1976 / Creepshow, november 10th, 1982 / The Green Mile, december 6th, 1999.

Personally I read Carrie, IT, Shining and cujo and I’ve watched Carrie, Christine and the Green Mile. And I intend to read more than that. I also hope that some of you also like Stephen King.

During my holiday I have read « Looking for Alaska ». Before I bought it I just have heard about this book but I didn’t know the story, so I really didn’t know what happend. Written by John Green and published in 2005, this book is destined to teenagers.

The story is focus on Miles Halter who leaves his parents for university campus of Culver Creek, in Alabama. He meets his room-mate Chip and Chip’s friends: Alaska Young and Takumi. Together, they do jokes to annoy rich students in the campus.

Wathever the story of love is already seen, the story talks about important question if we are able to see them. So the story is interessant but is not my favorite book.

It is the first tom of the percy Jackson series written by Rick Riordan. The plot is about a 12 years old boy called percy Jackson, who is fired from a school just one year after his arrival.The holidays begins and he goes to a colony with his friend Grover, while his mother is attacked by a minotaur, in this colony he discovers that he is the son of poseidon god of the seas. His uncle Zeus accuses him of stealing his lightening, That’s when his quest begins but he is not going to find it alone, he will have the help from Grover and his new friend Annabeth who is also Athena’s daughter. They will have to face dangerous creatures and will also meet gods. They have to find the lightening to avoid a war between Zeus,Poseidon and Hades.

J