RUBIO,+NATI

This book is a memoir. It captures the moment when Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe were young, inseparable and perfectly unknown. It concerns the early years of their passionate friendship. The process of becoming artists, one encouraging each other. They grown together from their twenties until Robert´s death in 1989. On the one hand, she becomes a poet and after that she mixtures poetry with music and she becomes a singer as well. On the other hand, Robert after several attempts in different subjects, he finds out the polaroid camera. Since then, he will develops his own world throw the camera until he becomes a great photographer.
 * Just Kids by Patti Smith (Third term reading)** **Edited by Bloomsbury**

Patti Smith conveys the difficulties in the beginning. For instance, obviously both of them were very interested in art. They went to museums able to afford only one ticket, the one who saw the exhibition would describe it to the one who waited outside.

This reading is not an easy one. If the reader is not involved in the artistic moment in which the story takes place (the late sixties and the seventies), it can be a heavy reading. The book is full names of painters, musicians, singers, poets, writers and curators which belonged to the cultural context. You can get lost among this cumulus of names. Also it has quotations and poems written by the author. I have to admit it, It is harder to understand poetry than prose.

Anyway, I recommend this book even if you have no idea about who Patti Samith and Robert Mapplethorpe are. The main reason is because this biography is an act of love. Patti promises to Robert that one day she will write their story once both of them were aware of Robert´s death. I find one more reason, It is a portrait of two artists who had many things to say to the world. Robert did it before he died of AIDS. Patti continues to do so. This book is a clear evidence of it. **How to be good by Nick Hornby (Second Term reading)** The title of this book is very descriptive. How to be good is the question in which the plot revolves around. We can distinguish two points in this novel. On the one hand, a long term marriage has gone stale. On the other hand, the novel conveys the paradoxes of their standard of living. There is any shadow of a doubt that the first one is an alibi to develop the second one.

This novel makes you wonder a lot of things about our world such as, the things we need to purchase in order to be happier and above all the big difference between the bourgeoisie and all these people that can be considered outsiders. Can we be happy if we are aware of all the miscarriage of injustice around us? Do we have some sense of guilty because of welfare society? then, Are we hypocrites?, or do we follow just the mainstream without thinking about the consequences?

Although all these issues are very serious, the author tackle them with a very good sense of humor and a intelligent use of irony. In my opinion, this is the strong point of this novel, the narrator point of view is very sarcastic. There are a lot of hilarious episodes in the novel, in which the reader can laugh bitterly. For instance, one of my favorite moments is when the whole family is having dinner with Brian, Katie´s patient, and Molly wants that Brian moves to live with them. Reading it you can feel the strained atmosphere and the uncomfortable silences.

I would not be simplistic but I like this book for two reasons. It is funny and it makes you think. I don´t find another reason to recommend this novel unless you are thinking about rebuilt yourself because you want to make a contribution to society then reading this book can be the first step.

=SECOND TERM PRESENTATION=

First of all, I am very involved in cinema, maybe it´s better to say that I was involved in it. I took part in a couple of films when i was a student of photography. The two of them were shot in Valencia and I had the opportunity to worked in them. I was an unpaid trainee. The technical term is meritocracy and the truth is that you have to work twelve hours a day for free. Seriously, it was a rewarding experience, I think the only way to learn about making a film is taking part in it, because is a very complex task in which thera are many different groups of people that have to be coordinated. You cannot learn about this in a book. I enjoy a lot going to the movies. I like to distinguish beetwen “popcorn” movies, what i mean is the commercial ones, and the non-commercial films. As I become older, I like more the first ones. I need to escape from routine more often than when I was younger. I used to go the cinema a lot, two or three times a week. I did it when i was a student, going to the cinema was cheaper and the internet didn´t exist. We used to skipped the lessons in the afternoon and we went to the cinema. I perfer to watch films in the cinema because I think that it´s the best atmosphere to do it. In the darkness and with all your attention on what is happening on the screeen. With no interruptions. But nowadays, going to the cinema is really expensive and I have to admit it I usually watch some movies or series on my laptop in the bed. God bless the internet. As for watching movies in original version, I have been doing that for a long time, but i usually do it with Spanish subtitles. Many times i try to do it without subtitles in order to improve my English. I don´t know if you feel the same as me. At beginning I understand almost everything beccause I´m listenning to with my ears and with my whole body, but the more relaxed I feel the less I understand. Anyway, Spain is the only country in the European Union in which movies are dubbed. I´m pretty sure that in the rest of Europe people see films in the cinema in their mothers tongues. Then there is no controversy about this issue because there is no chance. This is not an history lesson but I would like to tell you that this is Franco´s censorship inheritance. He wanted to dubbed films into spanish because it was a way to control. For instance, in //the lady of Sanghai,// Orson Welles says that he had killed a Franco´s spy and he will do it again. In the dubbeb version they changed that part. That is a pity because I think is really usuful to see fims or tv in original version above all if you do it from your childhood it helps you to improve your hearing. I´m very keen on tv series as well. I like them because each chapter is shorter than a a movie. In my opinion this is a strong point because you can see just one chapter after dinner and the go to sleep, for instance. The problem is that I used to download the whole season on the internet. I became very addict and i can watch 3 or 4 chapters in a row, then I end up spending more time watching a serie than watching a movie. I have choosen 2 movies and a sitcom. BEING JOHN MALKOVICH BY SPIKE JONZE UP IN THE AIR BY JASON REITMAN THE IT CROW

SECOND PRESENTATION(7)

unpaid (/^^/, not /u/)(stress on 2nd not 1st syllable) an /e/student (no /e/)(a, not an) Very good vocabulay and explanations censorships (no "s") 3 or 4 chapters in an /our/ (in one /auª/) he fin a job (found)XX low budget (/dz>/, not /j/) consist in fire people (consists in firing) out of blue (the blue) videoconferencing (/i/, not /ai/) favopurite (/ei/, not /a/) he feel more comfortable in airports (feels, /eª/, not /air/) Very interesting presentation, great choice of films but you ought to concentrate on : 1-third person singular and past tense verb forms 2- speech delivery (emphasis and looking at the public)

= Oracle night by Paul Auster =

" Writing is no longer an act of free will for me, it's a matter of survival"
This sentence belongs to Paul Auster. It summarizes the gist of //Oracle night//.

Sidney Orr, the protagonist, who is a writer, needs the writing to be aware of real life. To some extent, the mixture between fiction and reality is really strong so that, sometimes it is difficult to distinguish them. Not to mention the fact that Sidney Orr is Paul Auster's alter ego.

I have read other novels which are written by Paul Auster such as //Moon Palace// or //Leviathan// and all of them have a lot of things in common. What it is more, I think all his works can be considered an unique novel. What I mean is, we can find several details that are characteristic in Paul Auster's literature. For instance, the main story takes place in Brooklyn, the main character is a writer, the importance of random, the proliferation of anecdotes or stories within stories.

Although there are several plot lines, his prose is easy to understand and his writing style is unpretentious. This is the reason why I find him extremely readable and engaging. It's really hard to stop reading once the novel is begun.

He has a wonderful talent for weaving believable stories. It´s easy to translate the reading into images. We have to take into account that the author is involved in cinema, actually he has written some scripts. Besides he has directed a couple of films. I haven't seen any of them but I'm afraid that film critics said that he is better as a writer than as a filmmaker.

To sump up, I can't be unbiased because I'm very keen on Paul Auster's books then I recommend //Oracle night// to everybody who loves literature and needs it to escape from routine for a while.

CORRECTIONS AND ASSESSMENT = Oracle night by Paul Auster =

" Writing is no longer an act of free will for me, it's a matter of survival"
This sentence belongs to Paul Auster. It summarizes the gist of //Oracle night//.

Sidney Orr, the protagonist, who is a writer, needs the writing to be aware of real life. To some extent, the mixture between fiction and reality is really strong so that, sometimes, it is difficult to distinguish them. Not to mention the fact that Sidney Orr is Paul Auster's alter ego.

I have read other novels which are written by Paul Auster such as //Moon Palace// or //Leviathan// and all of them have a lot of things in common. What is more, I think all his works can be considered only one novel. What I mean is, we can find several details that are characteristic in Paul Auster's literature. For instance, the main story takes place in Brooklyn, the main character is a writer, the importance of random, the proliferation of anecdotes or stories within stories.

Although there are several plot lines, his prose is easy to understand and his writing style is unpretentious. That is the reason why I find him extremely readable and engaging. It's really hard to stop reading once the novel is begun.

He has a wonderful talent for weaving believable stories. It´s easy to translate the reading into images. We have to take into account that the author is involved in cinema, actually he has written some scripts. Besides, he has directed a couple of films. I haven't seen any of them but I'm afraid that film critics said that he is better as a writer than as a filmmaker.

To sump up, I can't be unbiased because I'm very keen on Paul Auster's books so I recommend //Oracle night// to everybody who loves literature and needs it to escape from routine for a while.

=** Good **=