Perfume: the Story of a Murderer. This astonishing novel was written by Patrick Sushkind in 1985 in a town near Munich, Germany. This book has been translated into many languages because it was a hit and in 2006 it was made into a film, also very successful.
The story takes place in Paris , in the eighteenth century. It´s about Jean Baptiste Grenoulle, an infant who was born with a sublime gift : an absolute sense of smell and no personal odour. He survives his orphaned childhood in the slums of Paris thanks to his gift and his intelligence until he become the apprentice of a prominent perfume maker who teaches him the ancient artof mixing oils and herbs.
However, he isn´t satisfied and starts capturing the smells of objects . he want to create the "ultimate perfume". One day ,he catches the scent of a beautiful young viergin and instinctively he discovers the way to steal her fragance, killing her!
The book is full of vivid descriptions that make you feel every single smellmentioned by the author . It´s really beautifully written . Besides, you can´t stop reading to see what happens in the end.
I highly recommend it. you will enjoy it a lot if you like ingenious and stilish fantasy.
THE WAY HOME
The Way Home, by Sue Leather, is an excelent book that has eight different stories, wich are about people who are going somewhere and find unexpected situations, but the main issue in all chapters is the difficult relationship between people. Each chapter takes place in a different places, like Mexico or EEUU.
In the first story, Alex who is at the airport to go home remembers an affair, that she had had with an attractive man, and her remorses come back to her mind. In the second Annie, a sensitive writer , coincides on a train with an old friend, when she is going to Bologna. This friend pours out his feelings to her. The third story is about a junior reporter who has to interview a boy sentenced to death by a crime that the boy hasn´t committed. In the fourth a man and a woman are going towards Texas in her truck, but she doesn´t know that he has killed her husband. The fifth is about a taxi driver, a day when he gets home, he meets a man in his sofa, in this situation he leaves his house and so he avoids violence. In the sixth, a teacher of a film school orders to write a story that shows the relationship between two people and one of this stories is the plot of this chapter. The seventh is about a man who spends his free time following a woman who likes him and finally she surprises him. And in the last, the lives of four people intersect at a motel in Austin Texas and all they have an end that they wouldn´t imagine.
As the book has eight different chapters, the characters have not been described in detail. In general the plots are rather conventional. Despite this, there are very entertaining situations although the description is rather poor. In some chapters as the first, second, fifth, there is unfaithfulness, that the reader does not expect, but then the author doesn´t develop in detail.
I recommend The Way Home so you can spend your spare time with this book and you will enjoy a interesting moment, because there is no time when they can suppose the end, but when readers are enjoying ,the author doesn´t complete the story. I think that this is a good reading for the beach or a similar places. Moreover this kind of book, with short stories, you can read atany moment and anywhere.
NI2A/C
- Homework: Exercises on reported speech (see prevoius posts).
- Grammar: Reporting verbs
- Speaking. Photo description and interaction for Certificación.
- Reading: Barbie. St.B.p. 92,93. Reading with true-false statements.
- Listening . Barbie II part. St.b.p. 93.answer the questions and state the sequence of events.
- Speaking: Brand names. St.b.p. 94. Pronunciation and speaking activities.
- Vocabulary: compound nouns. St.B.p. 94 e.g. lie detector, safari park.
- Listening. song "Wonderful tonight" What behind the song? , complete the lyrics.
- These rules about reported speech are very clear.
- Homework: rephrasing on reported speech.
NB1A/B
Homework: Grammar, unit 38 (there is/are). wk. p. 48,49,50
Vocabulary/grammar: the house and there is/there are. Say sentences about the house and write them down.
Listening: St.B.p. 57,58. "Murder in a country house". Larry and Louise rent a house where a man had been murdered.Answer the questions.
Speaking: St.B.p. 58. How many ....? e.g. how many rooms are there in your house? Pair work activity. Write 4 questions and answer them.
Grammar: present continuous. Examples on the board with a projection. Grammar, unit 3 (present continuous)
Homework: Grammar, unit 3 and do the exercises related to unit 5 . It already has the answers